Meet John Wetmore | Self-made Insurance Agency Owner, Mentor, and Sales Expert

We had the good fortune of connecting with John Wetmore and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi John, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind my success is my family. It may sound cheesy, but they have always been my motivation to succeed and to overcome every challenge that’s come my way, building my business. To be able to provide my family with financial security I had to find the best strategies for me and my business to succeed day-to-day. Being an excel nerd, I tracked every single thing I did for my business – not only was this incredibly helpful as an accountability tool, but I was able to track the activities that generated the most sales and invest more time and energy into those specific areas. I even managed to schedule those activities around my family time, ensuring I didn’t miss out on moments with them. Long story short, this is the same approach I taught to my team. It was foundational to our success and took the business to heights I wouldn’t have thought possible.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I am currently a managing partner with Integrity Marketing Group, but prior to Integrity I built up a brokerage called Family First Life Agent Force which was acquired by Integrity. I still run that company today producing over $150 million in 2022 and over $200 million in 2023. I travel the country mentoring agents, implementing all of the training and advice I’ve picked up from my own mentors and throughout my career to help them succeed and provide for their families in a way they never thought possible.

I am most proud of how I was able to provide my family with the life I always wanted for them because it wasn’t an easy road. Once upon a time I was a father of two working the third shift at a warehouse and it is incredible knowing that my family of, now, seven will never need to worry about being financially secure.

One of the greatest challenges of my career was building up my own team of agents. I had thought that since I was able to make myself so successful it would be easy to teach the winning formula and we’d be smashing sales targets every month. It was a difficult and frustrating period of time before I learned how to become a strong leader, understand my team, and develop a successful sales system.

What helped make us so successful as a team was using data analysis to discover that the biggest thing setting top-performers and under-performers apart was how much activity they were doing. It was shocking to learn, but showed us that at the heart of success is pure hard work. The entire team started tracking their daily activity using a tracking template I’d built and the effect on sales generation was incredible. Now I am giving away that very tracker to anyone in the industry who wants it. You can go to my website to download it.

The most important thing to know about my brand is I believe that grit beats pure talent every time. If you want to succeed, you need to put your nose to the grindstone and strap in for the long haul – easier said than done for a lot of people.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If I had a week to take my friends all around Atlanta I’m not sure it’d be enough time. We would start the trip touring around the city and heading to a Braves game at The Battery, hitting up the neighborhood for some awesome food and drink before and after. We would add some culture to the trip with a show at Fox Theater – who wouldn’t love Hamilton – and then we’d be right back in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Soccer or football, it doesn’t matter as long as we’d get to be inside the AMG Lounge or Truist Club for the best views and best service.
To round out the trip we’d head out to hike Kennesaw Mountain. The views are beautiful and definitely an all-day attraction for my history buff friends.
The last stop on the trip would be all about relaxation with a full spa day at the Four Seasons, including hitting up the restaurant and bar.
Some honorable mentions for my favorite restaurants are The Garden Room inside the St. Regis, 101 Steak, Canoe, and Silom Thai & Sushi.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d love to give a big shoutout to one one of my mentors, Mike Killimett. Finding mentors to learn from while trying to grow personally and professionally is invaluable and I wouldn’t be who I am today without their support. Their passion helped inspire my own. My mentors quite literally stopped me from quitting and I got to learn lessons from others’ mistakes while getting the support I needed to navigate through my own. Now a huge part of my business and my passion is mentoring others to help them achieve success in the same way.

Website: https://johnwetmore.com/

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