IAM813- Entrepreneur Helps Sell Insurance Policies to People
Podcast Interview with Chris Castanes
Chris Castanes is an award-winning insurance agent, speaker and author of “You're Going To Be Great At This!”. As president of Surf Financial Brokers since 2011, he helps his clients with life and disability and long-term insurance. He is originally from Fayetteville, NC and began his career in sales and marketing after graduating from North Carolina State University in 1985. He resides in North Myrtle Beach, SC with his wife and daughter.
- CEO Hack: Get into a rhythm and schedule everything. I also love Coffee.
- CEO Nugget: Believe in yourself, and learn how to sell yourself. Be nice and polite to people
- CEO Defined: Help others and my team to grow and earn a living too
Website: http://www.surffinancialbrokers.com/
Twitter: @CCastanes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-castanes-4861a92/
Instagram: @chriscastanes
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Transcript
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00:02 – 00:27
Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.
00:30 – 00:39
Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Chris Costanis of Sir Financial Brokers. Chris, it's awesome to have you on the show.
00:39 – 00:40
Chris Castanes
Thanks for having me.
00:41 – 01:12
Gresham Harkless
No problem, super excited to have you on and wanted to introduce you to people who haven't heard about all the awesome things that you're doing. Chris is an award-winning insurance agent, speaker, and author of You're Going to Be Great at This. As president of Sir Financial Broker since 2011, he helps his clients with life and disability and long-term insurance. He's originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina and began his career in sales and marketing after graduating from North Carolina State University in 1985. He resides in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with his wife and his daughter. Chris, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
[restrict paid=”true”]
01:13 – 01:14
Chris Castanes
Yes, I am.
01:15 – 01:24
Gresham Harkless
Awesome, let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more on how you guys started. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story and we'll let you get started with all the awesome that you're doing?
01:25 – 03:08
Chris Castanes
Right. So originally I got started selling insurance right after I got out of college in 1985. And I was working door-to-door insurance sales, working out in the very rural areas of North Carolina. And I hated every bit of it because it wasn't what we thought we were getting into. You know, when they hire you, they tell you 1 thing, and it's not what it is. So I got out of insurance sales, I went into retail and sold office supplies and a few other things. And about 2000, I got back into insurance sales again. And I just kind of bopped around, went from 1 company to another, just learning how they were all doing things and worked for some big-name companies. And then about 2009, a couple of guys and I started what eventually became Sir Financial Brokers and I just took it over in 2011.
They dropped out of the business. And so I've had it ever since and that's what I've been doing and then a few years ago I had a bucket list item I wanted to write a book and I wrote my book and a friend of mine said, you know, you've been going to Toastmasters for 3 or 4 years, why don't you do some speaking based on the book? And I thought, Well, that kind of made sense. I didn't think of that. So sometimes people have to point things out for you that are obvious. So yeah, that's where I am right now I promote my book a little bit. I did it well before the pandemic, I was speaking a little bit and promoting the book and promoting my insurance practice. And that's where I am right now.
03:09 – 03:34
Gresham Harkless
Nice. Absolutely love that. It's so important to have really great friends in the circle around you because sometimes we all miss things that are right in front of us. And especially if there are gifts and you're doing so well at speaking, why not marry those 2 things? So definitely great to have that circle around you. So I know you touched a little bit on, you know, what you're doing with Sir Financial Brokers. Can you tell us a little bit more about how exactly you serve the clients you work with and also what we can hear about and read about in your book?
03:35 – 06:18
Chris Castanes
Yeah. So the book is about sales. It's more or less designed to be the book that I wish I had had given to me when I got into sales. And so it's not your typical motivational book. It's it's a it's a little PG 13 and some parts because I tell some true stories. And I cleaned up most of the language and I had actually had 1 lady read it and I guess she got about 2, I don't know, maybe about a third of the way through it and texted me to let me know that it was. So I thought that was quite funny. But everybody else that's read it goes, wow, this is exactly the way you talk and it sounds like I'm just talking to you. So I was a little impressed with that with the way people were receiving it. As I said, the book is about sales and sales techniques and just the landmines that we have in front of us when we're first getting into the business.
So I try to make it as generic as possible as far as industry specifics, but there's a lot of stories in there, actual things that happen to me. On the other side of the coin here is my insurance practice. And we do life insurance, disability, long-term care, those kinds of products. And what I've done is we've put a link on our website where people can actually set up their own appointments. We're using the Calendly app and they can just book their own appointments and that makes it a lot easier. We're really about not doing any kind of high-pressure sales. If someone says, hey, I just want to, you know, they know what they want, they can let us know, we'll fix them up. And just, I'm really not into high pressure at all. I do what we call good pressure, which is, you know if I think that you might need just a little bit more insurance than what you think you need.
We'll discuss it. And just let them know why I think that you know, hey, you know what, you're married, you got a wife and 2 kids. I don't think 100,000 is going to cover everything. Let's bump it up a little bit. You know, that's good pressure instead of high pressure. So that's where we come from on that. And I have a couple of agents that I work with and they they helped me out. And, and some of them are licensed in other states. That's always 1 of the battles we fight When you have internet leads coming through and somebody's in Texas, we may not be licensed in Texas. So we have to set that, figure out how to work around that sometimes. So other than that, that's where I am with my business and my book.
06:18 – 06:51
Gresham Harkless
Nice, I definitely appreciate that. Yeah, it is so important to kind of be able, like we kind of talked about before, to have those people around you. And like you mentioned, especially in the insurance world, to make sure if you aren't the person that is necessarily kind of licensed in that state, you at least have those partners or people you can lean on and have worked with that you can refer people to. So creating that network is of great importance. And I love the PG-13 label, just in case anybody's listened to this, to make sure that they get all the, I think probably the real world of what we're experiencing, what we see when you go out and do sales and be able to turn that into being successful.
06:51 – 06:53
Chris Castanes
Right, it's not always, you know.
06:53 – 06:54
Gresham Harkless
Sunshine and rainbows.
06:55 – 06:57
Chris Castanes
Exactly. And the corn and bunny rabbits.
06:57 – 07:09
Gresham Harkless
There you go. Absolutely, So I wanted to ask you for what I call now your secret sauce. This could be for you personally or your business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?
07:10 – 08:53
Chris Castanes
I really hope that it's my sense of humour. 1 of the things we do to really promote the book and the businesses. I've learned how to make my own memes. I don't know if it's necessarily a good thing or not, but if you follow me on Instagram or my Facebook pages, we have 1 that's 1 page for the Sir Financial Brokers 1 for the book and 1 the book actually has a lot of the memes we make and they're just making fun of the whole sales process and clients who stand you up for appointments and you know, just all the frustrations just bringing a sense of humour to it all. And so that's what I hope is, you know, people think of, they'll say, you know, I had a teacher when I was at NC State who was an English teacher and we had to write a paper each week in class.
And she told me 1 time, she said, the things that I really remember and I appreciate are a good funny story and a little humour injected into a paper. And so I would try to do that. And it's something that always kind of stuck with me. People appreciate that a little bit, especially when you're selling life insurance. It's such a serious subject and you're sitting there talking about dying and your family being destitute and all this. If you can throw a little humour in there, it always helps. I might show somebody a $10,000 policy and a $15,000 policy. And I'll say, well, this 1 is for your funeral. And this other 1 for $15,000 will cover an open bar. You know, just anything to kind of lighten the mood a little bit.
08:53 – 09:04
Gresham Harkless
Absolutely, love that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So This could be like an Apple Book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
09:05 – 09:08
Chris Castanes
Coffee. No. Coffee.
09:09 – 09:10
Gresham Harkless
That's the secret weapon.
09:11 – 09:32
Chris Castanes
That's the big part. No, it's just getting into a rhythm, and trying to schedule everything. I try to schedule everything down onto a Google Calendar if I can, down to the minute. If I know that I have to spend an hour dialling the phone, let's put that in the schedule. Let's put it in there and commit to that.
09:33 – 09:48
Gresham Harkless
Let me ask you this. Do you feel, I was gonna ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, and that's kind of like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, something you might even tell your younger business self? Do you feel like understanding the synergies between sales and marketing has to do with what you would call your CEO nugget?
09:49 – 12:48
Chris Castanes
Yeah, I mean, you know, the number 1 thing when it comes to sales is you have to realize that you're selling yourself. You're not just selling a product. People don't buy from companies, you know. I used to work for a really big life insurance company. I don't know if I'm supposed to say their name or anything. But they were, you know, it was always when we would have meetings, it was a big session and we were the best and we were supposed to, you know, it was always drilled into our little heads that we were the best of the best. And that was great. But then you'd go to somebody's house and they would have an insurance policy already with a smaller company that might not be as financially strong.
And I'd ask them, what made you buy? Why did you decide to buy with that company? And it was never the name of the company or the strength of the company. It was always, well, the lady came in and she spent some time with me and she took her time and she didn't rush me and she was very nice. And that's when I realized that people buy from people, they don't buy from companies. And so, you know, The biggest nugget I can tell people is you've got to learn how to sell yourself and just make yourself available. Be nice. Don't be mean and rude. If you're having a bad day, that's something that you need to leave in the car. When you go into someone's home or if you're talking to them on the phone, you know, just be nice to people and they'll want to do business with you.
They're not going to want to do it because, trust me, there's plenty of other people out there that are just horrible and they don't want to deal with them. And it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to, you know, fight your way to the top sometimes and just be polite and say thank you and yes and yes ma'am and send somebody a thank you card every now and then or wish them a happy birthday. And, you know, it's just a matter of being a good, decent person and saying, look, I'm not trying to screw you over here. Let's just see what we can do to help you. And when you do that, you're selling yourself. And it doesn't matter if you're selling vacuum cleaners or insurance or podcasts or whatever you're doing.
It's just a matter of selling yourself first, then people will buy the product that you have. And that's what I tell people all the time when I'm giving my little talks and whatever I'm doing is just something that's probably the most important thing out there. And it carries over into everything else in your life too. 1 of the ultimate ways of selling is dating. Or if you're trying to get a job, you're selling yourself. So it's all about selling yourself and trying to convince other people to, you know, like you and buy from you because people buy from people that they like and trust. If they don't like you and they don't trust you, they're not going to buy from you. And that's what the bottom line always is.
12:49 – 12:58
Gresham Harkless
Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Chris, what does being a CEO mean to you?
12:58 – 13:37
Chris Castanes
Well, for me, it's just a matter of, you know, I'm kind of the CEO of myself. And I have, like I said, I have a handful of agents under me, but they're all self-employed as well. And I don't really have minimum sales requirements or anything with these people. So my goal is just to help them, help them make their own money because they sell something, I get a little override, but it's not anything huge. It's just a matter of helping them. And it gives me something to do in the sense that I get to do something a little different sometimes.
13:37 – 13:51
Gresham Harkless
Truly appreciate that perspective and that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional You can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get a view get a copy of the book and find out about all awesome things you're working on.
13:51 – 15:17
Chris Castanes
Well, the books on Amazon and It's called You're going to be great at this and you can just look it up under my name if you can figure out how to spell my name. And, like I said there, and I have a blog. We actually have chriskostanas.com as well. And there's, what do you call it, a signup sheet on there if somebody wants to book me to speak or whatever, I do that. Hopefully, once the pandemic is gone we can get all that back to normal. And then you know I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, at C. Costanis. I'm just trying to think of all of them. There's just too many little social media places. But yeah, I mean, I'm just trying to make myself available.
I'm always like, I love the network. I'm actually trying to figure out if I want to write the next book on networking or just make that part of the book. I'm not sure. So we're still trying to, if anybody has, any suggestions, I'm open. We were kind of, a friend of mine is always telling me, he says, networking is not working. Every time he sees me post a picture at a networking group, I'm eating food. So that's not working. And I was thinking that would be a good title for me With a picture of me with a muffin in my mouth or something. There you go.
15:18 – 15:44
Gresham Harkless
That'll definitely be awesome. To make it easier for everybody, we'll have the links and information to show notes so they can find you on all the different social media sites. But yeah, I love, you know, the lighthearted spirit because I think, you know, especially during times like this, there's a lot of frustration and stress and so many things and to have that lighthearted approach helps out obviously, as you mentioned, in life insurance, but in so many different other aspects. So I appreciate you for doing that and reminding us of that.
15:44 – 16:17
Chris Castanes
And I was And I did want to mention that I did, you know, before the pandemic, I was actually considering doing a lot of stuff online and doing phones, you know, trying to get more stuff over the phone. And it was kind of funny that it happened that way. And now everybody is, you know, we are doing phone appointments. It just sped it up for us a little bit. But yeah, go to SirFinancialBrokers.com and you can see the little tab on there that says book your own appointment and the calendar's there. You can see what's available and we will be happy to talk with you.
16:17 – 16:30
Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. So yeah, we'll have that have that in show notes as well, too. But thank you so much, Chris. And I hope you have a great rest of the day.
16:30 – 16:58
Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
00:02 - 00:27
Intro
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.
00:30 - 00:39
Gresham Harkless
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Chris Costanis of Sir Financial Brokers. Chris, it's awesome to have you on the show.
00:39 - 00:40
Chris Castanes
Thanks for having me.
00:41 - 01:12
Gresham Harkless
No problem, super excited to have you on and wanted to introduce you to people who haven't heard about all the awesome things that you're doing. Chris is an award-winning insurance agent, speaker, and author of You're Going to Be Great at This. As president of Sir Financial Broker since 2011, he helps his clients with life and disability and long-term insurance. He's originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina and began his career in sales and marketing after graduating from North Carolina State University in 1985. He resides in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with his wife and his daughter. Chris, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
01:13 - 01:14
Chris Castanes
Yes, I am.
01:15 - 01:24
Gresham Harkless
Awesome, let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more on how you guys started. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story and we'll let you get started with all the awesome that you're doing?
01:25 - 03:08
Chris Castanes
Right. So originally I got started selling insurance right after I got out of college in 1985. And I was working door-to-door insurance sales, working out in the very rural areas of North Carolina. And I hated every bit of it because it wasn't what we thought we were getting into. You know, when they hire you, they tell you 1 thing, and it's not what it is. So I got out of insurance sales, I went into retail and sold office supplies and a few other things. And about 2000, I got back into insurance sales again. And I just kind of bopped around, went from 1 company to another, just learning how they were all doing things and worked for some big-name companies. And then about 2009, a couple of guys and I started what eventually became Sir Financial Brokers and I just took it over in 2011.
They dropped out of the business. And so I've had it ever since and that's what I've been doing and then a few years ago I had a bucket list item I wanted to write a book and I wrote my book and a friend of mine said, you know, you've been going to Toastmasters for 3 or 4 years, why don't you do some speaking based on the book? And I thought, Well, that kind of made sense. I didn't think of that. So sometimes people have to point things out for you that are obvious. So yeah, that's where I am right now I promote my book a little bit. I did it well before the pandemic, I was speaking a little bit and promoting the book and promoting my insurance practice. And that's where I am right now.
03:09 - 03:34
Gresham Harkless
Nice. Absolutely love that. It's so important to have really great friends in the circle around you because sometimes we all miss things that are right in front of us. And especially if there are gifts and you're doing so well at speaking, why not marry those 2 things? So definitely great to have that circle around you. So I know you touched a little bit on, you know, what you're doing with Sir Financial Brokers. Can you tell us a little bit more about how exactly you serve the clients you work with and also what we can hear about and read about in your book?
03:35 - 06:18
Chris Castanes
Yeah. So the book is about sales. It's more or less designed to be the book that I wish I had had given to me when I got into sales. And so it's not your typical motivational book. It's it's a it's a little PG 13 and some parts because I tell some true stories. And I cleaned up most of the language and I had actually had 1 lady read it and I guess she got about 2, I don't know, maybe about a third of the way through it and texted me to let me know that it was. So I thought that was quite funny. But everybody else that's read it goes, wow, this is exactly the way you talk and it sounds like I'm just talking to you. So I was a little impressed with that with the way people were receiving it. As I said, the book is about sales and sales techniques and just the landmines that we have in front of us when we're first getting into the business.
So I try to make it as generic as possible as far as industry specifics, but there's a lot of stories in there, actual things that happen to me. On the other side of the coin here is my insurance practice. And we do life insurance, disability, long-term care, those kinds of products. And what I've done is we've put a link on our website where people can actually set up their own appointments. We're using the Calendly app and they can just book their own appointments and that makes it a lot easier. We're really about not doing any kind of high-pressure sales. If someone says, hey, I just want to, you know, they know what they want, they can let us know, we'll fix them up. And just, I'm really not into high pressure at all. I do what we call good pressure, which is, you know if I think that you might need just a little bit more insurance than what you think you need.
We'll discuss it. And just let them know why I think that you know, hey, you know what, you're married, you got a wife and 2 kids. I don't think 100,000 is going to cover everything. Let's bump it up a little bit. You know, that's good pressure instead of high pressure. So that's where we come from on that. And I have a couple of agents that I work with and they they helped me out. And, and some of them are licensed in other states. That's always 1 of the battles we fight When you have internet leads coming through and somebody's in Texas, we may not be licensed in Texas. So we have to set that, figure out how to work around that sometimes. So other than that, that's where I am with my business and my book.
06:18 - 06:51
Gresham Harkless
Nice, I definitely appreciate that. Yeah, it is so important to kind of be able, like we kind of talked about before, to have those people around you. And like you mentioned, especially in the insurance world, to make sure if you aren't the person that is necessarily kind of licensed in that state, you at least have those partners or people you can lean on and have worked with that you can refer people to. So creating that network is of great importance. And I love the PG-13 label, just in case anybody's listened to this, to make sure that they get all the, I think probably the real world of what we're experiencing, what we see when you go out and do sales and be able to turn that into being successful.
06:51 - 06:53
Chris Castanes
Right, it's not always, you know.
06:53 - 06:54
Gresham Harkless
Sunshine and rainbows.
06:55 - 06:57
Chris Castanes
Exactly. And the corn and bunny rabbits.
06:57 - 07:09
Gresham Harkless
There you go. Absolutely, So I wanted to ask you for what I call now your secret sauce. This could be for you personally or your business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?
07:10 - 08:53
Chris Castanes
I really hope that it's my sense of humour. 1 of the things we do to really promote the book and the businesses. I've learned how to make my own memes. I don't know if it's necessarily a good thing or not, but if you follow me on Instagram or my Facebook pages, we have 1 that's 1 page for the Sir Financial Brokers 1 for the book and 1 the book actually has a lot of the memes we make and they're just making fun of the whole sales process and clients who stand you up for appointments and you know, just all the frustrations just bringing a sense of humour to it all. And so that's what I hope is, you know, people think of, they'll say, you know, I had a teacher when I was at NC State who was an English teacher and we had to write a paper each week in class.
And she told me 1 time, she said, the things that I really remember and I appreciate are a good funny story and a little humour injected into a paper. And so I would try to do that. And it's something that always kind of stuck with me. People appreciate that a little bit, especially when you're selling life insurance. It's such a serious subject and you're sitting there talking about dying and your family being destitute and all this. If you can throw a little humour in there, it always helps. I might show somebody a $10,000 policy and a $15,000 policy. And I'll say, well, this 1 is for your funeral. And this other 1 for $15,000 will cover an open bar. You know, just anything to kind of lighten the mood a little bit.
08:53 - 09:04
Gresham Harkless
Absolutely, love that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So This could be like an Apple Book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
09:05 - 09:08
Chris Castanes
Coffee. No. Coffee.
09:09 - 09:10
Gresham Harkless
That's the secret weapon.
09:11 - 09:32
Chris Castanes
That's the big part. No, it's just getting into a rhythm, and trying to schedule everything. I try to schedule everything down onto a Google Calendar if I can, down to the minute. If I know that I have to spend an hour dialling the phone, let's put that in the schedule. Let's put it in there and commit to that.
09:33 - 09:48
Gresham Harkless
Let me ask you this. Do you feel, I was gonna ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, and that's kind of like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, something you might even tell your younger business self? Do you feel like understanding the synergies between sales and marketing has to do with what you would call your CEO nugget?
09:49 - 12:48
Chris Castanes
Yeah, I mean, you know, the number 1 thing when it comes to sales is you have to realize that you're selling yourself. You're not just selling a product. People don't buy from companies, you know. I used to work for a really big life insurance company. I don't know if I'm supposed to say their name or anything. But they were, you know, it was always when we would have meetings, it was a big session and we were the best and we were supposed to, you know, it was always drilled into our little heads that we were the best of the best. And that was great. But then you'd go to somebody's house and they would have an insurance policy already with a smaller company that might not be as financially strong.
And I'd ask them, what made you buy? Why did you decide to buy with that company? And it was never the name of the company or the strength of the company. It was always, well, the lady came in and she spent some time with me and she took her time and she didn't rush me and she was very nice. And that's when I realized that people buy from people, they don't buy from companies. And so, you know, The biggest nugget I can tell people is you've got to learn how to sell yourself and just make yourself available. Be nice. Don't be mean and rude. If you're having a bad day, that's something that you need to leave in the car. When you go into someone's home or if you're talking to them on the phone, you know, just be nice to people and they'll want to do business with you.
They're not going to want to do it because, trust me, there's plenty of other people out there that are just horrible and they don't want to deal with them. And it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to, you know, fight your way to the top sometimes and just be polite and say thank you and yes and yes ma'am and send somebody a thank you card every now and then or wish them a happy birthday. And, you know, it's just a matter of being a good, decent person and saying, look, I'm not trying to screw you over here. Let's just see what we can do to help you. And when you do that, you're selling yourself. And it doesn't matter if you're selling vacuum cleaners or insurance or podcasts or whatever you're doing.
It's just a matter of selling yourself first, then people will buy the product that you have. And that's what I tell people all the time when I'm giving my little talks and whatever I'm doing is just something that's probably the most important thing out there. And it carries over into everything else in your life too. 1 of the ultimate ways of selling is dating. Or if you're trying to get a job, you're selling yourself. So it's all about selling yourself and trying to convince other people to, you know, like you and buy from you because people buy from people that they like and trust. If they don't like you and they don't trust you, they're not going to buy from you. And that's what the bottom line always is.
12:49 - 12:58
Gresham Harkless
Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Chris, what does being a CEO mean to you?
12:58 - 13:37
Chris Castanes
Well, for me, it's just a matter of, you know, I'm kind of the CEO of myself. And I have, like I said, I have a handful of agents under me, but they're all self-employed as well. And I don't really have minimum sales requirements or anything with these people. So my goal is just to help them, help them make their own money because they sell something, I get a little override, but it's not anything huge. It's just a matter of helping them. And it gives me something to do in the sense that I get to do something a little different sometimes.
13:37 - 13:51
Gresham Harkless
Truly appreciate that perspective and that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional You can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best they can get a view get a copy of the book and find out about all awesome things you're working on.
13:51 - 15:17
Chris Castanes
Well, the books on Amazon and It's called You're going to be great at this and you can just look it up under my name if you can figure out how to spell my name. And, like I said there, and I have a blog. We actually have chriskostanas.com as well. And there's, what do you call it, a signup sheet on there if somebody wants to book me to speak or whatever, I do that. Hopefully, once the pandemic is gone we can get all that back to normal. And then you know I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, at C. Costanis. I'm just trying to think of all of them. There's just too many little social media places. But yeah, I mean, I'm just trying to make myself available.
I'm always like, I love the network. I'm actually trying to figure out if I want to write the next book on networking or just make that part of the book. I'm not sure. So we're still trying to, if anybody has, any suggestions, I'm open. We were kind of, a friend of mine is always telling me, he says, networking is not working. Every time he sees me post a picture at a networking group, I'm eating food. So that's not working. And I was thinking that would be a good title for me With a picture of me with a muffin in my mouth or something. There you go.
15:18 - 15:44
Gresham Harkless
That'll definitely be awesome. To make it easier for everybody, we'll have the links and information to show notes so they can find you on all the different social media sites. But yeah, I love, you know, the lighthearted spirit because I think, you know, especially during times like this, there's a lot of frustration and stress and so many things and to have that lighthearted approach helps out obviously, as you mentioned, in life insurance, but in so many different other aspects. So I appreciate you for doing that and reminding us of that.
15:44 - 16:17
Chris Castanes
And I was And I did want to mention that I did, you know, before the pandemic, I was actually considering doing a lot of stuff online and doing phones, you know, trying to get more stuff over the phone. And it was kind of funny that it happened that way. And now everybody is, you know, we are doing phone appointments. It just sped it up for us a little bit. But yeah, go to SirFinancialBrokers.com and you can see the little tab on there that says book your own appointment and the calendar's there. You can see what's available and we will be happy to talk with you.
16:17 - 16:30
Gresham Harkless
Awesome. Awesome. So yeah, we'll have that have that in show notes as well, too. But thank you so much, Chris. And I hope you have a great rest of the day.
16:30 - 16:58
Outro
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
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