To begin his career, Robert became the fastest agent in the history of the John Hancock Companies to complete The American College’s four-year Certified Life Underwriter (CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) designation programs. Both were successfully completed in only 13-months.
The reason for the urgency was for a 25-year-old to gain immediate access to an advance planning market that was dominated by gray-haired senior financial advisors. This commitment to education and a healthy commitment to prospecting and gaining referrals provided Smith with the opportunity to gain Ford, General Motors and Chrysler as clients.
Robert completed his Accredited Asset Management Specialist (AAMS) designation with the College for Financial Planning while with New York Life. As a perennial Million Dollar Round Table MDRT qualifier, Robert was part of the New York Life team which led the MDRT for the fiftieth consecutive year. Robert’s name is enshrined in a plaque on the wall of the New York Life Building located on Madison Avenue.
Robert taught the Certified Financial Planner CFP curriculum to financial advisors, bankers, accountants, attorneys and others at Oglethorpe University. Robert also served as a Princeton Review Instructor.
After becoming the #1 producing branch manager nationwide for BankAtlantic/BB&T, Smith became the #1 producing agent for Mutual of New York (MONY)/AXA worldwide.
Over his five-decades-long financial services career, Robert has consistently ranked in the top 1% worldwide in insurance and financial services production. He shares his proven storytelling methods, persuasive writing techniques and sales closing style with professionals through public speaking and private consulting to assure their success.
Ranked in the Top 1% of Financial Advisors Worldwide by Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT).
Ranked in the Top 1% in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), an Amazon Company.
Ranked in the Top 1% of Public Relations and Communications Professionals by LinkedIn.
FMM: Share your background and what led you to finance.
I actually began in my adopted hometown of Sarasota, Florida as a Coca-Cola home market merchandiser, which is another name for grocery store delivery driver. I had built the Number One route in my region. After an on-the-job injury, my surgeon recommended a new line of work. A friend recruited me into Mutual of Omaha, from there, I became a stockbroker and that led to a career as a full-service financial advisor with IDS American Express back in my original hometown of Livonia, Michigan in metro Detroit. From there I was recruited by a General Agent for John Hancock.
Since I was 25 and looked even younger, I had a tough time competing with experienced agents in the advanced markets there. Since I wanted to compete for executive clients who worked for “The Big Three,” I asked my General Agent for advice. His advice was invaluable. He told me that the way to compete with the “Big Boys” was to outsmart them, to gain industry certifications and professional designations. That way, I could compress years of experience into a short period of time and at least be seen as an equal to them by prospective clients.
I decided to complete The American College of Financial Services certification and designation programs as quickly as I could. While the college allows 84-months to complete their Certified Life Underwriter (CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) programs in only 13 months. I had just become a father and could not waste any time in breaking through to higher earnings.
To my surprise, I received a letter from David D’Alessandro, CEO of John Hancock, congratulating me for shattering the company’s record as the fastest agent in the history of that great company to earn those financial program certificates and professional designations. Funny thing is that while the college was founded in 1927, and I set that record back in 1992, that record still holds today and is not likely to ever be broken. I didn’t set a blistering pace to receive recognition, I set that pace because I had a new mouth to feed.
FMM: You have consistently ranked in the top 1% worldwide in insurance and financial services production. What does it take to be the best in the business?
In my experience, I’ve found that it takes some of the same things to rank in the Top 1% in any industry. I’ve used the exact same principles that I used to reach and stay in the Top 1% in financial services to reach the Top 1% in film and television as ranked by the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The same principles not only helped me to rank on the front page of Google, they also brought me all of the way to #1 out of 409,000,000+ listings.
It’s fun when you outrank a rockstar by the same name, especially when one of your daughter’s is a fan of his band. It’s also fun to outrank an NFL football player of the same name when he also played for your college team’s biggest rival!
The best part of all of that is that through my companies, I am able to help all of my clients reach similar results!
I’m also writing a book titled, #1 to teach anyone who reads it how to accomplish similar results. Since I never want anyone to take my word for it, I’ve interview people from all walks of life who have reached #1 in their chosen professions. #1 includes proven strategies from champion athletes and legendary coaches as well as rockstars who have had numerous #1 hits, titans of business who have dominated their industries, the world’s #1 television pitchwoman, and even the Girl Scout Cookie sales record holder!
FMM: You sustained severe spinal cord injuries. Take us back to that time. How did you persevere?
I did and needless to say, that was a major setback. At the time those injuries were at their worst, I had just become the #1 ranked financial services producer worldwide for Mutual of New York (MONY)/AXA Financial out of close to 10,000 agents and brokers.
I lost the ability to walk without the use of two canes and I was briefly unable to walk at all. I am happy to say that after fourteen surgeries coupled with fifteen years of physical rehabilitation and hours of daily exercise, I’m still making progress. While I’m not yet where I want to be physically, I did prove two-dozen neurosurgeons wrong as they told me I’d live my life out in a wheelchair.
I’m still working my way back to the travel and daily work schedule that I used to maintain. Thankfully, today’s technology has allowed me to meet with clients and strategic partners around North America and the world without having to fly in and out of town every week like used to.
No matter our approach, we have to persevere. There is no other choice, we simply keep moving forward.
Sharon, Robert, and Sabrina
FMM: What has been the greatest lesson you have learned?
One of life’s greatest lessons was provided to us by the late, great, Eddie Money who sang, You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down. My mother has taught me that you can’t keep a good woman down either. She has persevered through medical illness and injuries and as well. My mother is as strong as any woman I’ve ever met.
One of the lessons that I’ve taught my three wonderful children is “Life is tough. We just have to be tougher.”
It helps to have great role models. It’s also funny how life comes around to us. I actually had the opportunity to meet Eddie several times, do some work, have some fun and discuss life with him in an interview. He was very kind and had a way of bringing out the best in people. I’ll never forget him saying, “I want to thank you for the publicity you are bringing to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation and to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. From what I understand, you have a pretty prominent career in this business, and you have a lot of respect. I appreciate the fact that we had the opportunity to visit and do this interview.”
FMM: Tell us about SALES GENIUS #1© which was the #1 Amazon Best-Seller. Can you share a few tips?
SALES GENIUS #1© is the brainchild of Andrew Priestly, who invited several other business leaders and myself to contribute chapters to his sales anthology which ranked #1 both in the UK and here in the USA. Having a financial services background, I probably got a bigger kick out of seeing The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort rank right behind us at #2 on both sides of the pond.
FMM: Your book, THE ADVENTURES OF INSURANCEMAN© provided you with the single largest commission to-date where you earned $110,000.00 with The Equitable on an estate planning case that was closed due to this story. How proud are you of this story? (Give us a brief glimpse about the book).
I couldn’t be happier with INSURANCEMAN! That story proved to me that you don’t need to prove how smart you are to people. You just have to prove to them that you care about them, and you care about them understanding the solutions that you provide to them. While I had stiff competition on that case from very capable advisors with the world’s biggest and best companies, who all had teams of accountants and lawyers who produced long and complex proposals, I focused on a universal truth that they all forgot. A confused mind always says “no.”
I knew that the client trusted me for the simple reason that it was more important for me to make sure that both he and his wife understood the solutions that were presented to them than it was for any of my competition.
When I went through my INSURANCEMAN story, they both understood immediately! When I took it a step further and had him illustrate the reasons that they never had to fear a lack of liquidity with my plan and asked him to sign his artwork, we immediately had a deal! That was the conclusion of six-months of work that would have been wasted had it not been for the art of storytelling. It’s how we as a species have learned since the beginning of time.
Like SALES GENIUS #1©, THE ADVENTURES OF INSURANCEMAN© may be found on Amazon along with my comic, SHORT ATTENTION SPAN DAN©.
THE ADVENTURES OF INSURANCEMAN© may be licensed by other financial advisors who would like to close giant cases. I’m also working with MARVEL and DC COMICS illustrators on comic book style sales and marketing pieces for the investment, mortgage, real estate, medical and other industries.
The best thing about INSURANCEMAN is that I’ve used it to teach writing and public speaking to hundreds of elementary school students. Students who refused to write prior to being exposed to the story suddenly learned how to excel at writing book reports, essays and even speeches! You should see their faces light up when I share with them that they exact same techniques that I teach them are the same techniques I used to be named Valedictorian in my Creative Writing master’s degree program.
FMM: Tell us about Robert J. Smith Productions and how you are helping businesses to hammer out profits.
We use all of the profit producing techniques I learned through decades of experience with the companies previously discussed, plus New York Life where I was fortunate to be part of their 50-Years of Consecutive Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT®) Leadership. It was quite an honor to have my name included on a plaque in the lobby of their headquarters on Madison Avenue.
I also learned a lot by smashing nearly every production record available at BankAtlantic/BB&T. and from reading hundreds of books written by and about America’s greatest business leaders, sales professionals, advertisers, and other creatives.
Of course, the hammer comes from our Village Smithy logo which is obviously derived from my last name. We not only help clients with their branding and their logos, we also develop mascots and jingles for them so that they can compete with the world’s best and largest companies. We let them know that they don’t have a Fortune 500 Company budget to benefit from our decades of successful experience with Fortune 500 Companies.
FMM: What will people notice when working with you?
They will achieve positive results like they’ve never seen before. We consistently achieve #1 rankings, and we provide our clients with everything that they need to do the same! They’ll notice an immediate impact from working with us! We just had a client explode her financial services income through one of our professional story releases that was picked up by every major television network. We’ve also seen clients gain market share after we’ve been able to feature them in Forbes or Entrepreneur. We’ve also taken clients out of three-year droughts from live television interviews to getting them back on TV in their very first month with us.
We figure out what our clients need to succeed, and we make sure they obtain what they need. It really is as simple as that. It doesn’t matter if they need the front page of Google, if they need a book published, if they need TV or magazine coverage, whatever it is that they need to establish credibility and authority we see that they get it. When they need persuasive sales and marketing materials, we create those materials for them.
FMM: When you reflect on your career, how have you evolved?
Injuries have forced me to evolve from an individual producer who staffed four offices in three states to a consultant who guides businesses of all sizes to do the same. While I’ve always had clients across America, I now have clients around the world. That’s very rewarding. Seeing them succeed is even more rewarding!
We’re working on the #1 book that I mentioned along with a score of new sales and marketing comic books. Our production company is completing a package of three health and fitness documentaries on how to overcome injuries and life-altering setbacks. I’m also working to bring my SHORT ATTENTION SPAN DAN© series to television for children of all ages to enjoy!
We’re always looking for new challenges, new opportunities, and new projects! I’m looking forward to exploring new projects with you and your readers.