Bridging Business and Community with Marvin Manns

Join us in our latest podcast episode where we share an enlightening and inspiring conversation with Marvin Manns, the proud owner of Marvin Manns State Farm Agency, based in Glenpool, Oklahoma. Upon listening, you will discover his remarkable journey from being a frustrated employee at Walmart to running a successful insurance agency now.

In this episode, Marvin shares a life-defining incident that changed his perspective on life and career. He underlines the importance of community contributions and the rewarding experiences it brings to the table. Listen and gain insights through Manns' compelling journey in the insurance industry, filled with unexpected turns and how he navigated his way to success.

"Leading with Heart" invites you to explore the essence of a community and the significance of nurturing relationships both personally and professionally. It emphasizes the role of faith and the enriching experience of giving back to society, affording listeners important life lessons. This episode will leave you inspired and reaffirmed about the importance of principles, community, and heart in business.

Immerse yourself in an honest conversation about the modern business challenges, the balance of price and quality, and the irreplaceable role of customer service and education. Marvin's insights on running a business underscore the crucial role of teamwork and why it is quintessential to treat your team as a support system and a family. Tune in and learn why the importance of quality customer service and customer education should never be overlooked.

This episode ends with an impactful message - Believe in expertise, show heartfelt efforts, and maintain your faith. The returns, both personally and professionally, are bound to be generous. Make sure to listen through - you wouldn't want to miss the insights Marvin has to offer.

Tulsa Talks Business is powered by Quality Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electric.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
On today's episode, we have Marvin
Manns, owner of Marvin Mans State Farm Agency in Glenpool, Oklahoma.
I feel like we have a unique relationship with you because how long has your
insurance agency been in business?
Yeah, so we complete, we hit our 10-year anniversary June 1st. Nice.

(00:21):
Last year? This year, coming up. Okay, so literally, I think,
well, now I know, we've been in business the exact same amount of time.
So our 10 years will be May 14th.
Yeah, the funny thing is I was thinking about that this morning.
For whatever reason, I thought we started about the same time.
Yeah. So with us, with Quality, we actually started.

(00:42):
He had had it a few years before, but we went full-time with it,
like came out in Glenpole as a full business in that May of 2014.
As I was thinking back, it seemed like it was around the same time.
Now Marvin does have a bigger sign. Well, at one point he had a bigger sign
than us. I don't know if he doesn't now.
I think your sign is bigger than still your monument on 141st Street.

(01:04):
Construction's coming pretty soon, so that could always be upgraded.
Are you building a new building?
Yeah, right next door. Cool. Cool. So what got you into insurance?
Wow. So that's a story in itself. My short answer really is faith.
Faith and just kind of at the point in life when you're ready to work for yourself, right?
But I'll give you the story because I feel like it's pretty fascinating.

(01:26):
It all began prior to the insurance.
I was with Walmart. I was in leadership with them. I went down to Dallas and
opened up some stores, was doing extremely well.
And just, man, a whole sequence of events started happening.
I opened a brand new store in downtown Dallas.
My reward of doing well was like, you're really good, so we're going to give
you a very very inexperienced staff. Nobody had experience, zero.

(01:48):
So I was in a rough neighborhood that had its own page, like we hate Walmart
page, the whole bit, right?
With the zero experience management team. And yeah, so it was pretty rough.
Well, it all started like this.
In January, we go to your beginning meeting in Orlando and we just opened a
store. And I was like, hey, I don't really want to go to this meeting.
Most of the time, you don't get a lot from it. I want to stay here in my store

(02:11):
and I want to be here with my team.
And I was told, no, you got to go. So I go down there. Well,
I get down there. I'm probably a little irritated. Some things got said,
and I got a little pushy back.
My boss was like, hey, you need to calm down, yada, yada.
But I was real frustrated because I felt like I should have been there at the
store with everything that was going on. We just opened in November, October.
Well, fast forward. I'm at the meeting. Our 5,000 managers.

(02:33):
I bump into a really close friend of mine that I hadn't talked to in years.
He'd been with Walmart for 20 plus years. And he's like, hey, man.
He's like, guess what? I'm leaving. I'm leaving Walmart. I'm like,
man, you're a lifer. What are you leaving Walmart for?
He said I'm going to do state farm insurance I was
like you know what I'm like hey talk to me about that like let's go have dinner
so we go to dinner he tells me about it and I never thought about insurance

(02:53):
I'll tell you even funnier story if we have time but I never really thought
about insurance as a profession but I got thinking I'm like okay well people
have to have it this residual income like you own your own business like I'm
kind of liking the idea of this,
Go back to my store. We do extremely well. I get a visit from our CFO,
our president of marketing, all these different people.

(03:13):
After the visit, I get a phone call. I was like, hey, we have this opening for
a position, a corporate senior vice president position.
And we want to know if you'd be interested in applying for it.
I was like, yeah, I'd love to.
Okay. So they said, well, we want you to apply. So I apply. Well,
my boss gets a little offended by that.
Well, I'm taking off for vacation. My daughter, as you guys know,
my daughter lives in Massachusetts. Massachusetts. So I was going to see her

(03:34):
for a spring break is, is in April.
And I'm leaving out Saturday morning and my boss, like, Hey,
I got in a little bit of trouble. I need your help Friday. I was like,
great. I help you Friday.
I was like, but I got to leave Saturday. Cause I'm going to visit my daughter.
He's like, yeah, no big deal.
So I fly to Boston Sunday night. We go to the Red Sox game, freezing cold. I'll never forget that.
Monday morning is the Boston marathon. And I had a friend from Texas running.

(03:55):
So we're going to go, well, we decide not to go. And that's when the bombing
happens the boston bombing.
Wow. Well right after the boston bombing happens I get a phone call like maybe
an hour and a half after it happens So, you know everybody knows at this point.
I mean a major city just got attacked I get there and yeah, and i'm there and
my boss knows this right with my daughter He knows i'm supposed to be at the

(04:16):
race because I told him i'm going to watch a friend run That was the whole plan,
And he calls me and he's like hey I'm in your store and he starts just nitpicking
me about little b things and i'm like look man man, I'm on vacation with my daughter.
I'm like, plus, I'm okay. Thanks for asking, kind of sarcastically.
And he just picks and picks and picks. I said, look, dude, I'm on vacation.
I'm done. We're done talking. And at that point, I just said to myself,

(04:38):
I'm done. I'm done with Walmart.
Well, I get back, and as soon as I get back, I start interviewing with State
Farm kind of behind the scenes.
And Monday, I get a phone call, Monday, like May, oh gosh, it had been in May.
But anyway, I get a phone call at 9 a.m. It was Walmart. And they're like, hey, congratulations.
We selected you for the vice president position. Would you be interested?

(04:59):
And I was like, well, yeah, of course. I'd love to do that, right?
That's a big promotion. You go to corporate, you get out of the stores.
And about three o'clock, I get a phone call from State Farm.
They're like, hey, we selected you to be an agent. Would you like to be an agent?
I'm like, holy moly, all on the same day, within hours. hours.
And I'm like, golly, I'm like, you know, let me pray on this. Let me think about it.
I think about it for two days and I just remember my frustrations had built

(05:19):
up. I started thinking about like all the work I put in and,
you know, I'm not benefiting from it. Right.
So the Thursday that was on a Monday, Thursday was my 11 year anniversary.
And I turned in my two weeks and so I'm going to take this leap of faith.
I'm going to start, I'm going to start my own business and go be in insurance.
So that's amazing. That's amazing story of like literally God's.

(05:41):
God's plan for you, for sure, especially knowing that you had two offers in the same day.
I didn't know that you had been at the Boston Marathon during that or in the area.
So I have a background in retail, so it makes me immediately think,
how do you think your background, because I talk about working previously for
Best Buy and all the leadership experience that I got from Best Buy, the good and the bad.

(06:06):
How do you think your time at Walmart has helped in your, now your time at State
Farm and building your agent? Is it, is an agency?
Is that what we call it? Sorry, respectfully. No, it's okay. Yeah, absolutely.
I would tell you has played a significant role. And I can tell you a lot of,
a lot of things, but I'll tell you probably the biggest things.

(06:27):
Number one is, is back, back when Walmart, when I felt like Walmart was,
you know, We're from Oklahoma, right? Walmart was everything before Amazon and all those things.
They were real big on store of the community. They wanted to be a focal point in the community.
I built my agency off that. I'd learned that for 11 years. I believe in that.
I want to be a part of my community.
I want to be involved. I want to not only be involved. I want to be considered

(06:49):
a significant piece of that. And I know you guys do as well.
I get a lot of motivation from what y'all do, right? But it came from that of just, hey, Mr.
Sam had told him, be a part of your community because your community will support you.
So that was my biggest thing. The next thing is just the skills you learn from it.
And I talk to agents. It's funny

(07:10):
because I talk to agents significantly weekly, daily, all over the U.S.
About the success we're having, different things that we do.
And one of the biggest things is the fact that people...
They went in as team members where they sold really well and got a lot of sales,
but they never learned how to manage a business.
So one of the concepts that I learned from Walmart that I try to teach these

(07:31):
agents is, you know, when you've got to manage a 200,000 square foot store and
you've got 500 employees,
I can get a lot more done if I can get 500 people to do one job than me to try to do 500 jobs. Yep.
So that is something that's always stuck with me. And if you go to my office
now, a lot of people's like, hey, Marvin, you're never in office.
Well, one, I'm not in office because I fill up every seat with employees.

(07:54):
When you call my office, I want somebody answering the phone and taking care
of you. So I gave up my seat. I don't even have my own desk.
Number two, I don't have to be because I've got people that are trained and
empowered and they care and they're passionate, and I let them take care of business, right?
And it gives me the ability to work on my business, not necessarily inside my
business at all times. So those are things that I took from Walmart.

(08:16):
There's a lot of skills that went into it, but those were the two probably primary
attributes, I would say, that I took from my time with Walmart.
I remember your early years, our early years, especially now,
thinking about that we had started our businesses at the exact same time.
I remember we were really always, I don't know that we were intentionally,

(08:39):
but we kind of always played off of each other.
We joined forces on certain things.
And I remember too, because you're from Mulgee, and
I'm from Glenpool and I knew how
much you were doing down in Okmulgee and I kept saying we want to do
that much here in Glenpool too but but like you had a specific mission for your
people of Okmulgee because you were from there and you wanted to help build

(09:01):
up that city and and not just your business was in Glenpool but you were focused
on that and so we kind of made that play too but for Glenpool and in the surrounding
but when you give back to your your hometown,
it's a different type of rewarding feeling.
Like, how do you feel? How can you talk about that for Oat Mulgy?
Like what you've done for Oat Mulgy and doing your givebacks there?

(09:25):
What is that done for your business, but for you personally,
relationship wise? So...
One of the things I took, you know, and this goes back to faith,
right, is that I try to serve first.
And I truly believe, and I kind of got this from Craig Grishel,
I'm going to say his name wrong. That's right, yeah. But you know, live church.
He made this, you know, presentation, the sermon, and it was really about,

(09:47):
you know, just giving with faith, right?
Give over abundantly. Give as much as you can, trusting that,
you know, you'll be taken care of.
And that was just me. Like, when I got into this, that was my big plan.
I wanted to get to Okmagi. doggy, I want to be able to help my community because
it's struggling. I mean, to this day, and it has for years and years.
So I've always taken the stance, I don't want to serve and I want to give.

(10:08):
And doing that, yes, you get rewarded.
I've got customers that straight up call me and is like, hey,
I want to do business with you. I don't care the price.
I see what you do for the community and I want to do business with you.
And I am that way like with you guys. I don't call you and ask you the price.
I want to do business with you because you guys are doing it the right way. Right.
So it also, we also have on our wall serve people. And that's one of me and

(10:31):
Cassie's core values too, which I know it is yours too, Marvin.
And we, you know, we've always believed that, you know, whether we have a lot
or we have a little that, you know, one of these days, the thing that,
that people are going to remember you for is what, not necessarily what you
had, but what you've done in life, you know?
And so I think it's, it's very important as a business owner,
you know, giving back to those places because, you know, talking about,

(10:53):
oh, I know I'm from like the, I went to school in Glenpole.
I, my family lived in Mounds. I have family in Oatmulgee. I have family in Henrietta.
And Oatmulgee always had that, a bad reputation. It started getting that bad reputation, right?
And even in our business now, there are a lot of companies that don't service
Oatmulgee or past like that are like ours.

(11:15):
And so when we started doing business in Oatmulgee, we were getting feedback
of, thank you for bringing a company like yours down here because no one else would come down here.
And we had to deal with this person or that person or someone, and they didn't show up.
And we can't cancel out a whole city because of things that we heard.
But if we just focus on leading with our hearts, and that's where it's funny

(11:40):
because we have a friendship with you in a different place.
We have a business relationship and we have a personal relationship with you.
But how similar that we are, I guess our principles have just always been the same.
Our mission, the foundation of our business.
There's been times for us specifically through our 10 years of,

(12:01):
and are we even going to make it?
You know, like, is there any money? That's the truth.
You know, is there any of this? And we've just had to rely on God and we'll just trust God.
And every time when I've been real frustrated or real like, is this even going to work out?
Oscar's always reminded me like, God has not brought us this far to just drop us off here.

(12:25):
And so we just keep doing what we're doing and keep pouring back with our hearts
and watching the community, like you said, give back to us.
Yeah, I love that. Because then again, that's why I think for me,
I always wanted to partner with you guys in a variety of ways,
personal, business, et cetera, because your heart's in the right spot,
right? And that's where it begins.

(12:47):
You think about Jesus, right?
Nobody talks about how wealthy he was. What they talk about thousands of years later is what he did.
And if we're going to be the hands and feet of him, if we're going to go out
there and live the way we're supposed to live, we're going to be remembered
off our actions and what we do, not how much money we made.
So for me, that's, you know, when I look at my town, Mokmogi,

(13:08):
which that's my heart first and foremost, because that's what made me, right?
I went through, I grew up very poor. I mean, you know, three t-shirts to get
me through the week type poor.
When you grow up that way and I start to have success, I want to show other
people you can do that because that's one of the things, Okmagi is its worst
enemy because it believes it can't succeed.
But yet so many successful people have come from it.

(13:31):
Unfortunately, we all leave and we don't come back. And that's what's really hurt.
So I have the opportunity to be blessed enough that I'm within driving distance.
I'm in a way that I can still be a part of the community.
So that, yeah, that's always been a priority for me for that purpose is let
them know, you know, you can be successful. successful you can achieve,
even in Okmulgee, you just got to be willing to do it. Well,

(13:52):
I feel like that sometimes with Glenpool, too.
Glenpool can be its own worst enemy in times, you know? And especially because Glenpool grew so fast.
I was just telling Oscar the other day, I was like, listen, we were talking
about the day Dollar General was built.
It's so funny. I was walking home from school to a friend's house when Dollar
General was built, and he was like, what?

(14:12):
Dollar General was before or after Walmart. And I was like, Dollar General was
way before Like when I was in high school, we didn't have Walmart.
We didn't have any of those things over there. We didn't have,
we had Dollar General, which came when I was in high school or middle school.
We had a grocery store and we had a few restaurants.
And then Glenpole just went boom and grew.
And then so much changed in that, that we lost, like, we love our school.

(14:38):
We love everything that's in the school. But there was so much that had changed
throughout those years that sometimes we have been our own worst enemy through the growth.
And then, you know, watching, man, people that are like, I can't wait to get out of this town.
And then they come back. And that's rewarding to watch happen,
too, because I've tried to just stay so loyal to Glenpool, even when it wasn't

(15:02):
always loyal to me through my youth and things like that, right, or whatever.
But now on this side of it, it's like Glenpool has definitely been paid us back
as far as, like, the relationship goes, you know. Yeah.
I get a little chatty on Facebook. Did anyone know that? No,
not you. Did anyone know that?

(15:22):
I get passionate for our team. You get passionate for your team.
We can relate on that. Yeah, absolutely.
You know, there's, our team is, you know, there's this thing on TikTok now that
they all, everyone's saying, like, don't call your team your family because
that's toxic and whatever.
And it probably is true to some degree because, like, families can be toxic.
I get that perception of it. it. But like those 55 people that work for us are our people.

(15:46):
And I will, they're just that they're our team. You know? I mean,
like I remember years ago, like four or five years ago, one of the kids asked
me, how many, how many employees do you have now that, you know,
at that point they were all in school.
And I was like, well, I don't really have any employees. They're all team members
because it, without the team, I can't do what we do, you know?
And I've always looked at it as that, you know, we say employees sometimes,

(16:10):
but, but they're truly really our team, you know, and that's what we're going to, he's better.
Oscar's eight years older than me. So he's better at holding his,
allegedly he tries to say high five to Oscar over there.
He's eight years older than, so he, I always say he is wiser than me because
he's just had he's going to be asking for the soundbite of that.

(16:34):
He is wiser than me where he can keep a calmer our head a little bit better.
But man, do not come at my team.
Because if you do, that's when you get me for sure.
And I know you the same way someone was coming at his team crooked the other day.
And he's just like, listen, you know, these people, especially,
you know, when you think about what your team puts into taking care of these

(16:58):
people, you've told stories of, you know, someone's house burning down and you
guys showing up and you doing these things.
And there's so so many stories that we can relate to in that.
But then when someone comes at your team and you're just like,
but you didn't see them do this. And it's like.
You know, the funny thing about that story is, is my team member was actually helping the person.
That's what bothered me. Well, what bothered me more than anything is the person,

(17:21):
that's what I hate about this generation, right?
And here we are, we're on podcasts, right? So I'm kind of being hypocritical here.
I hate about is the fact that the person went on Facebook, went on social media
and was like, hey, I can never get ahold of Marvin. Where's he at?
And I'm like, well, you know, number one, you use Facebook, so you know you can DM me, right?
Like you could have just done that. Let's start there, right?

(17:41):
But number two, you could have just told my office, like, hey,
I need to schedule an appointment with Marvin.
Or three, like, hey, have Marvin call me. Like, there's so many options of how
to get in touch with me just because I wasn't in the office at that moment that
you wanted to talk, number one, right?
So that's what kind of got me going. It's like you can use social media to complain,
but you can't use social media to reach out.
So were you really wanting to talk to me or were you really just wanting to be mad?

(18:03):
But then what made it worse is that my team member actually told you the correct
information and you just didn't like it. Right.
You know what I mean? Because what is, so insurance from standpoint,
I'm going to bring it, not to get into how sausage is made, but I do want to
point this out while we've got an opportunity here.
A lot of people don't understand how important your credit plays a role in insurance, right?

(18:24):
That is one of the main things that gets checked, not just your claims history,
it's your claims and it's credit.
You have an insurance score that both of those things amongst other,
but those are your two big impacts to your score that determines your rate.
So the lady's coming in and says like, I want to quote on this house.
I want to quote on this house. I want to quote on this house.
That's why every time you do, we've got to pull your credit reports.
So I'm a tumor. It's like, hey, just a heads up. It's a soft pull,

(18:45):
but this could potentially impact you or your loan, and we just want you to
make sure you're aware of it. Well, she got mad about that. But that's not true.
Like, why would we lie to you about that? Why? We are the professionals.
How do you know more than we do? Like, I'm not going to just lie to you about
it. She's like, well, y'all just didn't want to do the quote.
We get paid by doing sales. Why would we not do the quote? Right.

(19:07):
So my mind, I just get, you know, I'm like you. I get bothered by it.
I'm like, sometimes we think we're smarter than we really are, right?
Just trust the experts. Trust the process.
That happens in our industry so often because of handymen or my brother's uncle's
cousin's friend does HVAC electric or plumbing or insert whatever.

(19:29):
And it's like our price is our price because of our experience, but also our liability.
Like if we flood your house, we have insurance.
Thank God. Right. If we something happens and our guy falls through your ceiling
because that happens because they're in addicts, you know, we have insurance,
we have the liability there.

(19:50):
But a lot of these people don't.
And then and then people, you know, it's like, I can't believe the price was
that or I can't believe this or I can't believe they said this.
And my uncle said that it didn't it wasn't that.
And it's like, trust the expert, you know, like you called us to do that.
And then what you're asking us to do is pretty...
Could be pretty detrimental if we don't do it right. You know,

(20:13):
like if you don't, and I'm sure you've seen that.
Oh, imagine flooding and upstairs and it leaks down through the walls and the damage.
We've never done that before. I've never thought anything like that could happen. I could never.
So here's a funny thing on that topic is yesterday I'm talking to a customer
who switched to us because their insurance company went bankrupt.
Why? Well, you guys are $500 more than they were.

(20:35):
Well, yeah, they're bankrupt. They weren't charging enough money.
Ding, ding. Yeah. Here's your sign. Is that how that goes right now?
You figured out the ticket. You know, it's like people, nobody's trying to rob
you. It's just the reality of it. You know what I mean? Things cost money.
Things cost. And costs have gone up. They've accelerated.
We've never in our lifespan, because I'm 45.

(20:55):
You guys are pretty close to my age, right? He is, yeah.
Well, you know, we never faced inflation at such a rapid pace that I can remember.
Maybe in the 80s or late 70s, but I was so young, I didn't know.
But in our adult, we never faced that. So everybody's learning this right now
of like, did prices really go up? You guys are just making all this money, this, this.

(21:18):
Yet, I know three insurance companies that went bankrupt.
Not everybody's trying to get rich off one sale. It's the same thing with us.
People have this. Okay, so talking in HVAC terms specifically,
we had a quote for a guy, and it was going to be like $16,000.
And it's new equipment. and it was a high, you can definitely get your HVAC
system replaced for cheaper than that.

(21:40):
But it was a nicer piece of equipment, a higher efficiency, those types of things. And he's like.
22 years ago, I had this same unit, well, no, you didn't, because this technology
didn't exist then, delivered and put right here for $3,500.
And I'm like, okay, how much was gasoline?
I was going to say, what, 86 cents or something like that 27 years ago?

(22:02):
Gallon of milk? How much was bread?
Oh, wait, our minimum wage hasn't changed, but no one can live off of that.
So what, you know, our, we don't have people, I used to say,
I used to have to be really careful with this because one time I said this story,
I said, no one in our company makes less than at that point, $15 an hour.
And one of our kids who was like a part-time, he raised his hand and he was like, I make $8 an hour.

(22:27):
We're like, except for him, you know, because we made him, all of our kids,
if they started to work for us, we made them start at minimum wage and then
work. It didn't matter what the pay scale was.
You had to start with the pound pay rate first, you know, and get it figured out.
And, but now, you know, no one in our company makes less than $18 an hour, like any position.
And so, but all of that comes with a cost, you know, and, and it's just a wild

(22:53):
to me, the perception of costs, you know. So, Ed.
It is. It's like my team. Nobody – I'd have to go look at my W-2s,
so put an asterisk by this, but I'm very confident nobody made less than $60,000 last year.
Well, okay, I've got to pay for that. That comes out of my – State Farm don't
pay for that. That comes out of Marvin Mann's payroll, right?
That's my money that I'm paying $400,000 in payroll, right?

(23:16):
And, you know, people are like, well, why my rates? Why is this? Why that?
Well, no one, I don't control your rates, but based off your rates,
it gives me a certain amount of income that I can pay my people.
And I want to pay them well, because when you call and they're giving you advice,
I want them to give you good advice.
I don't want to get somebody for a second. And I got to pay for them to go to
trainings and I got to do host that.
And then when they're at the training, I got to pay for them to be at the training.
And then, you know, all of those things. And I got to pay for them to sit on

(23:38):
the phone to figure out why you hadn't paid your bills for two months and you're
backed up and your bill's higher because you didn't pay the previous two months.
Right. And I've got to pay them to do all that when really you didn't pay your
bill for two months. That's the problem, right?
I think one thing that I love about you and your social media presence too is
continually talking about the education piece of it, like educating your customer.

(23:59):
That's what I've always used my platform for through my social media is to try
to just educate about your home. But you have to educate.
So 10 years ago, I was not a great customer for you or probably anybody. anybody.
And I actually remember specifically getting into a fight with Marvin Manns
on the phone and I was in Target.
And I think that was probably like eight years ago.

(24:22):
Do you even remember what I'm talking about? Oh, yeah. It was a leak upstairs
in the bathroom. Yeah. And I was like, well, what do you mean?
And I was like, so frustrated.
Right. But I didn't get it. I didn't understand.
And so I'm in Target and I'm just like everything that I thought I knew about
but insurance was wrong.
You were our provider, or insurance, whatever.

(24:44):
But I didn't understand. Now, this many years later, I've seen a few things
and I've learned a few things, right? But I didn't know.
I had never... That was like our first... My first time owning a home. You know, Oscar had...
More experience. He was still working in the field then. So I was managing everything
and I was just like, what do you mean this isn't covered?
What do you mean this is that? I thought this was my deductible.

(25:06):
I thought this, and you had to go through the process and explain it to me.
And you still have our insurance.
There's times that I used to, and I've actually talked about this on my other
podcast, but I've talked about this specific thing that you said to me that
you You might not even remember that you said, but you said, at the end of the day,

(25:27):
this is how all insurance works, okay?
And you might find someone cheaper, but just calculate how much you could potentially
be selling out on me for. It's along those lines, basically, right?
And so I was like, sell out on you. But that's what happens.
People sell out on us for a $200 savings, and then that $200 savings will cost

(25:51):
you a lot of money in the end.
So that's one of the things that just drives me bananas about people.
I'm switching my insurance. I'm saving $300. I'm like, great.
You got an ACV roof with your new company.
So what that means is that your $15,000 roof is now worth $7,500.
Plus you got your deductible of $3,000, whatever. So your $7,500,
you're going to get $4,500. You're going to have to pay out of pocket the difference.

(26:14):
Let's say, let's say 10, 10,000, right? Okay. So you save $300 a year.
Well, how many years of saving $300 does it take to equal $10,000?
And how many people have $10,000 in their bank to be able to,
or the $4,500 difference to be able to jump in there and say,
okay, I'll just pay the difference myself.
That's exactly it. Most people don't. They don't. They don't.

(26:34):
And that's the thing is like, you guys, I understand because we live so,
our budgets are so tight.
That's how how Americans, you know, that's how we live, right?
The average American doesn't even have $1,000 in their bank saved.
That's the truth. Not even $1,000. That's true. The average American, yeah. Sadly.
So we live so thin that every increase is impactful, right? And I get that.
And I'm empathetic. Again, I grew up dirt poor.

(26:55):
We can do a whole podcast on that at some point, right?
But at the end of the day, saving $200 to cost yourself potentially thousands
later isn't a smart business decision.
And my job, I feel like, my responsibility to you is to educate you on that, is let you know.
And I take a lot of pride in that of, hey, this is a bad ideal.
And I'm going to tell you why it's a bad ideal.

(27:16):
Now, most people are still going to make the switch because,
like, well, I can save $300.
But the funny thing is, is how many people that leave and come back.
Oh, yeah. You know? So, you know, with our personal, I can give a top,
like for our, you insure everything personally for us, right?
And then business-wise, although you could insure for us, we are with a different

(27:38):
company for that. But you insure everything personally for us.
And I've always stayed, I'm pretty sure we've never personally moved.
I'm like, someone check me, but I'm pretty sure we've not. But business-wise,
and I can give that story of the reason why we work with this other company
business-wise is they're specific to our trade and a lot of experience.
Well, in one time, someone came in and caught me off guard and was like,

(28:02):
hey, I'm going to save you in that company.
And it was going to be like $6,000 for the year.
And I thought, $6,000 is a lot of money, you know?
And we flipped and went to that other company and were there for one year and
went back because there was a reason why we paid that higher premium for that
other company because of the coverages,

(28:24):
when something happened, the resources that we got.
And so with your business, for us personally, you know, anytime that something
has happened with our kids, you know, we have six kids and four of them drive.
They're all on their own policies now. Praise Jesus.

(28:45):
Praise the Lord. But anytime anything happened with our kids,
I didn't have to call the 1-800 number. I called Marvin, or I called Sandy,
or I called Jennifer, or I called Christy, or I knew who I could get a hold
of and who was going to help me.
You know, we actually have, we're refinancing our house right now,
and the closing got delayed.
And I don't even know if you know this story yet, but the closing got delayed. And...

(29:09):
They had changed it to where our insurance would be paid at the closing,
but I had been paying on it because it was new construction,
right? So I'd been paying the monthly.
Well, they changed it for us, but the closing got delayed.
Well, then all of a sudden, I get a text message from Jennifer,
and she's like, hey, your premiums due and nothing's happened yet.

(29:30):
And I'm like, wait, what?
Well, then you know everything that's happened with our houses that's been built. I immediately panic.
I'm like, do we even have insurance right now? Because I'm telling you right
now, you better get us some insurance because we've had so much happen with
this house. We need insurance.
And I text message Sandy, and she's like, hey, girl, I'm in Mexico.
And I'm like, dude, but she didn't have to respond. But you know how many people that I could have?

(29:51):
I think about that customer service that I got from Sandy in Mexico.
If I was with anybody else, that message probably would have just been read later.
Yeah, it would have been next week. Yeah, really. Right. And she's like,
I'm in Mexico, but I'm getting someone on this right now. I'm forwarding it
to Marvin, you know, whatever.
And within 24 hours, it was handled and fixed.

(30:14):
And I'm like, guys, I'll just pay it. I need insurance.
And you're like, they're like, we got to call under writing now because it had
been transferred. Was it called mortgage pay or whatever?
Yeah, your escrow account. Escrow. That's the word I couldn't come up with.
But I was like, guys, I was paying it, you know.
But I know that I would not have gotten that level of customer service with
someone that wasn't local or if I was just calling 1-800-

(30:39):
Blueinsurancecompany.com or whatever. Yeah. You know, it's funny because a lot
of people, even other agents in my company, right, that they're like,
why do you give your cell phone out? I'm like, because you know why?
I really, the only thing I give you, an older agent taught me this.
He said, you know, when a customer comes in the office, try to hand them something on the way out.
He said, because all we do is sell promises.

(31:01):
And when you, you know, when somebody gives you a lot of money and they walk
out with nothing in their hand, they feel like they didn't get anything, right?
Because we're just selling promises. I can't have something,
right? A little trinket, a little something.
So they feel like they got something. I'm like, okay, that makes sense.
Well, I get my cell phone to everybody.
I mean, and that's one of the things I got frustrated with this customer too.
I'm like, dude, my cell phone is all over Facebook. It's on the Jeep. It's on the Jeep, yeah.

(31:22):
Like it's everywhere, right? There's no way you cannot get ahold of me.
But I do that because when you text me or you call me Friday night,
Saturday night, Sunday, because claims don't happen Monday through Friday, eight to five.
They happen most of the time, it's evenings most time it's weekends
most car wrecks are you know after dark and so
forth so like when that happens i want you to be able to reach

(31:43):
me and and sandy and my entire team's this
way you send her a text she's literally in mexico on her
vacation for her birthday her and her friends it's a girl's trip
or her one of her close friends her mom etc they're down
in mexico and i'm so proud of her because she responded it's like we're gonna
take care of and next thing i know me and jennifer is gonna text look at
this what's going on i called jennifer she's like i've always

(32:03):
is hot cassie we're good yeah and i'm like it was like bam that's
what we pay for you know what i mean because you're right call
somebody else and see on a saturday text them and they're in mexico and
see if they respond to you that is the ticket to success in business like if
you're looking for a silver bullet people are always like i need the silver
bullet what what is the silver bullet to business the truth is there's not there's

(32:25):
no silver bullet but customer service wins every Every time. Yep.
Yep. Customer service wins every time.
Stop. And I tell our team is because I always say we grew faster than our brains
did in our business because we grew so fast that we didn't always have processes

(32:46):
in place or procedures to do this or that or whatever.
But what we'd still knew how to do was provide customer service.
And so if you I always say that no matter what, if you don't know what to do.
Give them good customer service. Tell them we'll be on the, you know,
hang on. Let me get into contact with so-and-so. Let's do this or that or whatever.

(33:07):
And we're going to get back to you. But if we can just stick back to the customer
service, that's coming back.
Customer service is coming back. People for a long time were like,
yeah, do we still need to worry about Amazon? Amazon's not going anywhere.
These places are not going anywhere. But customer service is still expected.
Expected, and especially on these big purchases, these big commitments.

(33:30):
And it's not all going to be done through, you know, the hype right now with a lot of things is AI,
you know, and AI is cool, and I see a really cool spot for it in life,
but there's still always going to be a need, no matter what business you have,
to still have those relationships with people.
Because, you know, it's like you saw in the commercial or whatever,

(33:50):
where the lady's like, how do I know you're not a robot?
And she said, how do I know I'm not a robot? but the truth is,
is that it's, it's, it's no matter how much AI and all this stuff like that
comes along and it will, and people will use it.
There are still times that people want to talk to a real person,
you know, and they want to know that you under, and, and AI can be empathetic, but not like us.

(34:11):
They can't. So, you know, AI is going to get smarter and smarter and smarter.
But it's not going to be, it's not going to be replicated.
We're not going to be replicated. You talk about the silver bullet.
I would tell you that is, I mean, at the end of the day, what did we talk about in the very beginning?
I do it. It's on your wall. Serve people, right? That's what we build our business
on. If you do that, everything else will take place, right?
That customer service is so vital. You asked me about Walmart, what did I take from it?

(34:34):
That was one. I don't know if you guys remember this, but I'm sure you do,
right? Back in the day, that was always thing.
Like you could go buy something. You could have a TV for a year and it go out, take it back.
Walmart would take it back. Then when you ask some questions, just refund it, right?
But that's what- You did that a long time ago with tennis shoes and stuff like
that. Back in the day when I was a kid, you know.
You'd have people coming in with like half a bag of diapers.

(34:54):
Hey, these diapers didn't work. Let's return it, right? You're like, okay, refund it.
And, you know, from a business standpoint, you look at that and go,
look how much money we're losing in refunds.
But what you're overlooking in doing that is they keep coming back to me because
I take care of them. Because they don't have to hassle. They don't have to fight.
So I think that's a big thing is that customer service will never be outdated.

(35:15):
And and i honestly think technology will push it to a bigger priority because
it's going to be fun and cool dealing with ai and all this stuff and little
cartoons and you know all these things,
but at some point you're gonna get tired of it and you're like you know what
i just i mean god bless you call it 1-800 number and i just like i just want
to talk to somebody yeah i don't want to go through all this right that's our
first version of ai and from a standpoint of you go through all this you know.

(35:40):
You want to talk to this? Press 1. You press 1. You want to talk to this?
Press 2. I'm like, I just want to talk to somebody.
So I think it's going to force us back to that, right? Customer service will never get old.
Well, and I think about like the Disney experience. Like Disney,
I talk a lot about Disney.
There's a lot of leadership you can learn from Disney. And we went to an event
once where we listened to the keynote speaker was from Disney.

(36:01):
And it was so cool just learning how much focus is put into making sure you enjoy your time there.
And then now that we've been to Disney World, seeing what people do to make
sure you enjoy your time there.
And, you know, we always say like with our industry, no one's calling us to
like have a beer, right? No one's calling like, hey, quality.

(36:23):
I was thinking about having y'all come over and let's have lunch.
We did have one customer that was like that. She was a mutual customer of yours
from South, and she did love for us to come over, and you would have coffee with her.
That's awesome. Most are not doing that, right?
No one's calling you and like, hey, Marvin, Sandy, Jennifer, whoever, Christy.

(36:45):
I'm going to make sure I plug them all. Stephanie. Okay.
Hey, girls. They pay for that. If they have us involved, there's normally an issue.
Or they're preparing for an issue. Or they're preparing for an issue.
If it's with Marvin, they're preparing for an issue. So we can't predict a Disney
World experience of what happens

(37:07):
when we get there, but no one's actually coming to just have fun, right?
But we can still provide that type of service if we're intentional about it.
If we're like truly intentional of when tragedy strikes and you need us, we helped you.
And what it looks like when we show up is what you're going to be remembered, what you remember.

(37:30):
That's just such a huge thing for our businesses. So I had another question
for you. I know one thing and I,
I need to be better at this. We have life insurance, for the record.
My kids, I'm like, we have life insurance. Okay, I always tell my kids,
like, we have life insurance, but just so we're clear.
So what if I told you you don't? What if I told you you had death insurance?

(37:53):
Yeah, we probably do. This is where you're going to go. But real quick.
Yeah, don't get me started on this. My kids are always like,
so, your life insurance or whatever. I'm like, what are you plotting?
FYI, so we're clear. You are so locked up. our trust like our kids would never
see anything if something were to happen to us until at least 35 because we're
like we need you to get through at least your first divorce.

(38:18):
And listen you're right though i love your crazy years and all of that figure
out what you're doing you need to be able to go on that let me tell you real
quick so a comedian oh what's the white guy's name he's comedians real he's
funny as can be i can't think his name ah anyway he was talking about they're
like well what because he just went through a divorce right and they're They're
like, well, what advice would you give?
Blah, blah, blah. He's like, I tell my daughter, don't get married until the

(38:39):
men are at least 30. Let us get through all the wild stuff.
So anyway, not to get sidetracked. I totally, well, real quick,
I agree with that because I can tell you without fail, the reason when Oscar
and I met, he was 34 and I was 26.
And our relationship has always been amazing. And we are great.
Our relationship's great. We don't fight.

(39:01):
The kids say, well, she just wins. But he's wiser.
He's wiser he knows what he's not gonna like he's
like whatever lady i compromise yeah he compromises well
but it's because he was over 30
i'm telling you he had already figured out a whole bunch of things and he had
and i was still in my 20s but i was just always older than i felt you know or

(39:24):
that i felt older than i was but anyways it's i i believe in that over i'll
tell you this this has gone completely sideways and I love it.
I'm just telling you, I absolutely love it.
I'll be honest. I played baseball through college, right? So I was real good.
All this accolades, all these things. We're not going to talk about that.
But it brings you a lot of awareness, right? So I had really beautiful girlfriends,

(39:46):
and sometimes I had more than one than I shouldn't have had or whatever, right?
I've been married, been divorced, and here I am now I'm 45, and my ex-wife is
still a very close friend of mine.
And it's from maturation. You look back and go, you know what?
It wasn't anything that she did or I did per se. It's just I was young and immature and dumb, right?

(40:08):
And I still fully support her and everything that she does and wish her the
best, right? And a lot of people look at that and they don't understand,
how can you have that relationship?
Well, I can have it because I've matured, right? You don't always have to be
mad and hate each other. Sometimes you're just young and dumb and you make bad
decisions, right? Right.
And then you grow from that and, you know, again, growing closer to God and different things.

(40:28):
You know, you look back at that and you go, man, I was just stupid. I was young.
You know, that's all it was. But I appreciate the fact that we can still be very close, right?
Because you get older. Yeah, it's different. You get the, like I said,
you get the wiseness. You get, and that's something too, that's a whole nother topic.
Catch us never being friends with his ex-wife. Yeah.
I will say the mother of my child is a whole different story.

(40:50):
You can get, you can wisen up and then you can get even wiser.
No, there is, there is definitely a limit there, right? You can't, you can't cross, but.
I think that no matter how intelligent people are, you see these kids that are
14 that are, you know, they're on the genius scale and all these things.
And that's cool. They're super smart.

(41:11):
They can remember a lot of things, but they still haven't had experience.
Right. And until you have experience, you can't become wise is kind of my thought
and my belief in that, right? Right. You just don't know what you don't know.
Right. Until you go through it and you go, oh, man. Right. Because I know I've
been real headstrong on some opinions on some topics, like you were talking
about earlier with you, right?
And you didn't know nothing about it when you thought you did.

(41:33):
I'm 100% right. It's the same way in our businesses, right? We all start a business
and we think we know what we're doing.
And then you quickly realize, I don't know what I'm doing. And you can look
back and say, at all the hard knocks and all the trials and tribulations and
everything you went through in your business, and you can say to yourself,
you know, I'm still learning.
I'm still trying to be better. We all the time are like, 10 years in,

(41:55):
who gave us the keys to this building?
You know like and then there's some days we
leave and we're like man we really know what we're doing yeah and
the next day it'll throw you for a loop and then you'll get humbled real quick
right we were talking about that before we came on on air and doing this uh
of february right february's been tough we both said kind of tough for both
of us but the funny thing is it's 10 years into you kind of know what's going

(42:15):
to be and yet every time you go through you're like oh my gosh this is horrible
right so it just takes going through it and those different seasons and learning
and and adjusting and going, oh, yeah, you know what?
It's coming. I got a plan for it. It's coming.
And sometimes I still don't do that. Sometimes I'm like, oh,
things are great. And then you have that bad month. You're like,
what happened? Like, well, I knew that. Golly, eight years, it's been the same thing, you know?

(42:37):
Yeah, next month, if it's a good month, we'll forget. We'll be like, oh, yeah, it's gone.
Oh, wow. We're back to, we're amazing. We're rocking it, guys.
The next time you have a bad, slow month or something, you're just going, oh, what's happened?
We failed. We suck. Yeah, we're just like so terrible.
Okay, so what got you?
Not all agents are as passionate about life insurance as you are.

(42:58):
My answer to that is this. I wasn't educated about life insurance.
And again, I grew up very, very poor. And I come from a very poor community.
And I feel like so many kids, so many of us could have done so many great things
if somebody would have taught us.
But the problem is our parents didn't know to be able to teach us,
right? So as I've gotten into this industry and I've gone through all the trainings

(43:21):
and the classes and the certifications and all the different things I have to do.
You just learn things and you go, wait a minute. Nobody taught me.
It's like life insurance.
You know, you can build up a whole lot of cash on life insurance that you can
access at any point in time and not have to pay taxes on it.
Right? Like, so I think about, you know, we can't talk about a lot of things

(43:41):
because of rules and all that.
But I just, it made me start thinking about things different,
how I used to invest for my retirement.
Right? And I'm like, oh, man, I'm going to push all my taxes until the end to
when taxes, I feel like, are going to be higher because we're $30-something trillion in debt.
On top of politics in this country is just getting worse and worse and worse, right?
We keep giving free things that really aren't free. They're going to be paid for.

(44:05):
And by the way, I'm retired. So at that point, I'm taking a less income theoretically,
but I'm going to push my taxes off to them. What sense does that make to me? Right?
So I started looking at, you just start looking at other things,
other strategies of what can I do?
How can I grow this? How can I protect my family with a death benefit, right?
While also protecting and providing for myself with cash value.

(44:26):
So as I learned these things and I learned how to utilize them,
I got passionate about it because I said, dude, I can help people because nobody
even knows about this. Not where I come from, right?
Not in Glenpool, not even most in Tulsa.
You start to see what the rich, the very elite rich do.
And you just want to teach that to the people that aren't. So hopefully if,

(44:47):
you know, I'll tell 10 people about it, one will listen to me,
but nine won't. I can't control that.
But if I can change that one person where they can go into
this and look at differently and they can prepare themselves for future
and change their entire life and their family's life
i'm like to me that that was my that was my moment that's what i that's why
god put me in this spot right yeah so most often generational wealth came from

(45:09):
one person who made one oh you're getting into my realm now girl one gamble
or one or sacrifice one sacrifice exactly of like.
So what if? Let me tell you about me. All right. I go to college 12 hours away. I play baseball.
But while I play baseball, I'm also a straight-A student, which I wasn't even in high school.

(45:31):
But I finally got serious about my grades because I knew I was like,
okay, baseball's not going to last forever, right?
So I get my grades. I'm a straight-A student. I'm a student ambassador for the university.
And I'm working at Walmart part-time, right? Because I'm trying to build my
career for after baseball. well.
So my schedule started at 5.30, waits, seven classes.
You get done at one, two o'clock, you grab lunch real quick.

(45:53):
You head to the ballpark, the ballpark, you go three to, you know,
two to five ish, depending after that, you may do weights again in the evening.
If not, I've got student ambassador, I've got homework and I also still got to get to work.
Right. So when people's like, you know, you're privileged, you're this,
you're that, dude, I worked my butt off.
When then I got, when I, when I got from done with school and college,

(46:15):
which I got promoted. I had to go to Oklahoma.
I had to go to Massachusetts. I had to go to Kansas, Louisiana.
I went all these different places. I missed my uncle dying. I missed my grandfather dying.
I missed all these family events. I watched my brother grow up because we were eight years apart.
I leave to go to school and he's a young kid. I come back, he's a grown man
making bad decisions, right?

(46:36):
I had to sacrifice all that to get to here.
So that way I can now provide for my child and she doesn't have to go through
it, right? And And I can start to change that poverty cycle.
I know this has nothing to do with insurance, right? It's still the story. It is.
That's the whole goal here is we're talking about insurance,
but we're talking about you. We're talking about growth.
We're talking about life. We're talking about the story. And that's what I love

(46:59):
because that's what it should be, right?
Again, it's all about educating people and understanding that,
yeah, I didn't luck into anything. I worked my tail off for this.
And I had to make a lot of sacrifices. You guys had to make a lot of sacrifices.
You had to take a lot of risks. What did we say earlier about there's a lot
of times when I didn't know if the bills were we're going to get paid.
My very first, depending on performance, all this stuff, you get these bonuses, right?

(47:20):
My very first bonus, if that would have came one check later, I'd have been bankrupt.
That's the honest guy truth. I didn't have money to pay payroll.
I was like, literally, March 15 gets here.
This is going to help me pay payroll and pay a little bit of debt because if
this was April 1st, I'd have been in trouble.
It would have been me sitting at a desk and nobody else because I didn't have any more money.

(47:41):
And nobody sees that part of it. You know what I mean? There's so many like,
oh, I wish we could do that. Oh, you guys are so lucky.
Oh, look what this. And it's like, oh, my gosh, you have no clue.
The nights that we have stayed up praying, the nights that we know,
like our house has been on the line. Our everything is leveraged. Right.

(48:01):
And or was right. And so like everything, we have everything to lose.
Right. And so it wasn't just like this.
Oh, we just got.
Rich quick, I wish that was what was happening.
I wish that all the time. I'm like, what does rich even mean?
You know, or what? It just blows my mind, the perception of what people think

(48:24):
they know of what we do, because they see that something has grown.
And it's weird to me, too, how Walmart is allowed to grow and open more stores.
Target is allowed to grow. Chick-fil-A is allowed to grow.
And these are the prices. But when it's someone that you know in your backyard
who's now producing business, are we producing Walmart business?

(48:49):
No, right? Are we producing multi-million dollar businesses?
Yeah. And we don't get credit from our peers locally because we're just someone you know,
and maybe you just can't imagine that
we would know know how to do this you know is it it's
kind of defeating sometimes of like oh you get

(49:11):
off on a tangent on it i tell people sometimes too what they'll get me because
again i don't work in my office at all times i tell people if i'm in office
i'm losing money because how do i get new customers right i gotta go out and
meet people and talk to people and be a part of how can i be a part of the community
if i'm not in the community right right so and i'll get customers that you know,

(49:32):
my insurance guy is always gone he's always golfing i'm like i haven't picked
up a golf club in two years as much as I love to golf. I don't have time.
So I said, but do you complain when Mr. McMillan isn't your cashier at Walmart?
Because he's the CEO of Walmart and I've yet to see him cashier.
Now he started out in Tulsa, Oklahoma, ironically, as like he was pushing cars.
That's where he started.
But I'm like, why don't you get upset because he's not cashiering for you,

(49:54):
but you get upset because I'm not sitting at a desk, right?
When me sitting at a desk doesn't help you. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, it doesn't.
We're constantly, right before we came here today, we were in a meeting with
a distributor who we buy our equipment from negotiating better rates,
you know, to be able to buy our equipment and.

(50:15):
At a lower rate to be able to pass that on, there's always something happening
behind the scenes to make the ship keep moving.
But that's why we've been able to grow. So we can't be everywhere all the time.
If you absolutely need, in our business, absolutely need to speak to Oscar and
I, it's going to take a little bit of effort normally because we have 11 managers

(50:40):
that work for us, they're going to talk to you first, right?
Listen, if I pay somebody $60,000 and I have to take a payment or I have to
write a quote, why am I paying that person $60,000, right?
If it gets to me at that point. Now, sometimes it's like, yes,
because we are still local.
We absolutely, we advertise that. Absolutely.
If you need to speak just for the reassurance, okay, fine.

(51:04):
But I want my managers to try to talk to you first. We want,
because that's what they get paid to do.
That's what they're doing. And it's funny because one time I heard someone say,
one of our managers say, they asked to talk to Cassie or Oscar.
And I said, it doesn't really work that way. And I was like,
well, if they really, and she's like, no, if she wants to really talk to you, she can talk to you.

(51:24):
But I want to be able to try to fix this first because that's how passionate I am about what we do.
And it's like, let those people do that. that. Yeah. It's funny.
Cause I, I, I really teeter on that because my girls will handle everything.
My ladies will ask girls, my ladies, they'll handle everything.
And sometimes I will, I mean, I don't, some of that I do want to,
a customer's upset. I want to talk to him too. Cause I want to know that I am there for him. Right.

(51:47):
But they're so, you know, to them, that's their customers and they want to take
on that role. And I want them to be empowered to do that as well.
Now, if it needs to escalate, they'll come to me. Or if it's a bigger,
you know, like life insurance, and it's a bigger case or whatever the case.
I mean, you're going to have a complicated life structure or bigger death benefits,
things that you have needs.

(52:07):
Like, I want to be involved in that. If it's a money conversation,
I'm involved in that part of it.
But yeah, my team, they handle everything, and I pay them for that.
Yeah, and that's letting them grow.
Yeah. It makes me think, too, like random thoughts of thinking about really
good customer service. We buy all of our heavy equipment for plumbing from Stuart

(52:30):
Martin Kubota, from Mark Deckard. Oh, yeah. I love Mark.
But love Mark Deckard. We'll only buy from Mark. Same.
Okay? Only buy from Mark. But there's an owner of Stuart Martin Kubota.
Crazy enough, right? Yeah. And he's a great guy. We actually did some heat and
air work for him recently.
But if he were at one point to have walked into the building,
we wouldn't have known who he was. But every time we bought something from them.

(52:53):
Calls you. He calls, and if we don't talk to him, there's a voicemail that's like, hey, Oscar, I'm,
Man, I forget his name. Joey. From Stuart Martin Kubota. And I'm like,
ah, sorry. Hey, love you.
Anyways, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your business.
And it's like a personal touch. It's not AI.

(53:16):
It's just a personal touch of, hey, I appreciate you.
I know Mark took care of you. I trust that Mark took care of you.
I know you're going to keep working with Mark.
But I'm here if you need me. And that's the same type of things that we're trying
to do, but I trust Mark. And that's just that added touch.
That's what I love about successful business owners like you guys,

(53:37):
and I'm trying to be the same, right, is that we learn from other people, right?
I gave a whole presentation one time over there with Walmart.
They're like, why should we choose you in this interview?
I'm like, because I steal. And everybody's got quiet.
And I'm like, I steal great ideas. If you've got a great idea,
I'm going to take it, and I'm going to use it, and I'm going to implement it.
I don't need to rethink the will. you know what i mean mark you

(53:58):
brought up mark and i love mark and joey because i listen
i said if you guys don't know this story i've set multiple skid
steers on fire multiple i knew one
yeah no it wasn't the only one oh yeah it wasn't the only one how are you insurable
yeah so imagine making that phone call and and you know i'm freaked out i'm
like okay i got this piece of equipment that's a lot of it's more than my car

(54:21):
what's gonna happen mark's like don't worry about it you know how calming that is.
When I call, Mark's like, hey, we'll come out tomorrow. We'll pick it up. Don't worry about it.
Like, what do you mean, don't worry about it? But you know, how he took care
of me, I don't care what he charges me.
And I get the phone call from Joey. He's like, hey, Marvin, thanks for burning
up another one. And we brought you, and you bought a new one,

(54:41):
and we appreciate that, right? No, he doesn't say that.
But he should, though. He really should. But he's like, hey,
thanks for buying another one. That's the owner of the company calling.
And it's funny you brought that up because, oh gosh, it's probably been a couple weeks.
So I I thought about that. I'm like, you know, how do I replicate that in mine?
There's other things I do.
And sometimes I'm like, oh, what's Kubota calling for? And then it's him.

(55:01):
I'm like, oh, man, you know what? Thanks.
I just appreciate you guys taking care of me. And then it just changes my whole mood and tone.
I'm like, man, who takes the time to call you when you're the owner of the company?
But Joey does. Yeah. And we implemented something similar a few years ago.
Just every install that we do, we do to the homeowner, we call them back with like a happy call.
You know if it's not me or Cassie but we have a lady that does and she calls

(55:24):
and is just like how's everything working thank you for using us you know did
you have any concerns did because we're we're going into a house that's.
Everything should be great, but we're still dealing with the house.
You know, we're going to cut the sheetrock for a little spot and then it might
end up bigger. We got to repair this.
And did it all get translated back? But just having that communication is like,

(55:45):
oh, and then hearing, oh, they left it cleaner than they found it.
And those are the things that it's like, it is working.
You know, like the things are vibing the way it's supposed to.
And again, it all ties back to customer service. That's all that is.
You know, it's funny. Honey, you said that and what popped in my brain is the
little things that add up, right?
So Quick Trip, you know, we're local, we're Tulsa. It's a Tulsa company,

(56:07):
so everybody loves Quick Trip. But do you know why I love Quick Trip?
Because I used to drive from McMulgee to Tulsa and that was the only spot to
use a bathroom and it was always clean.
I was like, I love this place. Cleanest bathrooms ever. It's the only gas station.
I would drive out of my way to find a Quick Trip because I knew if I had to
use a restroom, it was clean.
I mean, it's just those little things that add up.
Yeah. Yeah, and I know that for sure because I drive to Oklahoma City once a

(56:28):
month, and they have a quick trip now. They just opened their first one.
But always trying to find somewhere to stop in Oklahoma City is rough.
I heard a secret, though, is they say to stop at hotels.
Oh, really? Because there's a restroom in the lobby, and they're always clean. I'm like, oh.
Well, anyways, we have been really— Listen, that's a life hack right there.
That is a life hack. Don't just go past that. That's a life hack. Think about it.

(56:50):
Like a hotel, there's a restroom in the lobby. Did you use the bathroom at Holiday Inn?
Makes you smarter too right there's a
restroom in the lobby it's clean and and especially
you know most time you know the hotel change you would stay at so
you know it's going to be good they don't know you're staying there or not they're
not going to remember they don't care either they're not checking in wristbands

(57:11):
at the door right just but anyways we have had a really good conversation with
you we really appreciate doing business with you we appreciate your your friendship.
And I think we could talk for the rest of the day, but I know I can say for
both of us, we're super proud of all the things you have done in your 10 years

(57:32):
of business. We need to have a big 10 year celebration.
Let's plan it together. It's on my mind.
Let's do it. Kaylee, I'm getting Kaylee's back there in the corner.
She's our marketing project, 10 year quality, blowout quality and Marvin Mann's blowout.
But in the park, I'm just like, okay, anyways,
we're going gonna have to start pondering but anyways thank you so much for

(57:53):
being on the show with us and let's see what the next 10 years does for us appreciate
it marvin thank you i appreciate you guys and all that you do thank you tulsa
talks business podcast is sponsored by quality heating cooling plumbing and electric.