Shawn Meaike, Founder, President, and CEO of Family First Life Insurance, shares how his early career in social work primed him for his future in insurance, the story of the day that changed his perspective on everything, the wealth of products now available to protect families, what makes the relationship between FFL and Southwestern Legacy special, and what kind of legacy he wants to leave for generations to come.

Welcome to Let's Talk legacy of and I'm really

excited about today's show as I actually get to spend time with

Shawn Meaike, the president, founder and CEO of Family First

Life and he started the company in 2013, building a company that

truly puts both the families of our clients and the families of

our agents as a priority to him. So welcome to the show, Shawn, I

really appreciate you being on.

Thanks for having me. Gary. Appreciate you, bud.

So you started off your professional career in the

social work area, in the Department of Children and

Families, before you got into the insurance field. So where,

where did that come from? And how did you get that piece of

your heart that wanted you to be a servant and help others?

Well you know, Gary, I think it was how I was

raised. My mother raised me and my brother. My mother struggled

financially, and she somehow thinks that that made her less

of a parent, which is weird to me, because it made her more of

a parent in my eyes, with what she did as a single mom. And I

think I got to see a lot of dysfunction on both sides of my

family, and I think I was blessed by that, you know,

substance abuse was a big problem, you know, some

violence. It was just, you know. So I think I went to college to

play baseball, and I was a business major, and I was

sitting in my economics class. Never forget, the professor went

out to be a president of one of the universities in Connecticut.

And I pulled her aside after my class, and I said, you know, can

I ask you a question? She said, Yeah. I said, None of the

professors here are actually businessmen or businesswoman.

You're just teachers. I don't mean just teacher like it's not

at all, but like you're teaching me on things you haven't done.

And what I loved about her answer was she was transparent.

And she said, if that's important to you, Sean, then you

need to find a major where the folks that are teaching, they're

living it. And I said, Can you recommend one for me? She said,

social work. And so, you know, I didn't switch majors right away.

I took a couple Social Work classes. And I'm like, God, I

love this, like it was what I want to do, but God is great.

And a buddy of mine called me and said, Hey, come to the

Department of Children, Families and Work with abused, neglected

children. And I was like, All right, I went interviewed, and I

spent 14 years there. Man, it was probably the most gratifying

job I've ever had in my life. It was definitely tough, but it was

gratifying. So that's what led me there, and I think I had I

didn't want to see women be in violent relationships. I didn't

want to see kids abused. I don't want to see any kids or women

hurt, for that matter, but I'd lived a lot of that, so I think

I could relate to some of the kids I did a lot of the stupid

things the 1516, year old boys I was working with were doing.

They were angry and violent. I really loved my job. That's how

I got there, though.

It seems like that carries into your day. Not

wanting to see your agents and see people out in the world

hurt. It's still in you today?

Well, selling life insurance is social work. That

was the thing for me when when a guy named Jim Godwin introduced

me to the business, I said, What do we do? And he said, we call

people up and we protect them and their families. And I'm

like, Well, I do that over here. And he said, Yeah, but you don't

make enough money to live the life you want to live for you

and your kids. And he was right. It struck me. I was like, okay,

cool. But I really want to do things where making a

difference, the money will come. I want to make a difference. And

I'll never forget I was selling life insurance part time for

about two and a half months, and I went to a home in waregan,

Connecticut. Lady's name was Lisa, never forget it, and she

answered the door and she said, you won't be able to help me.

And I said, why not? And she said, Because I have stage three

or four pancreatic cancer, like I'm dying. And she said, Can you

help me? And I said, No, I didn't have any graded products

that time. I like, had you, I couldn't get her insurance. Now

I'm not gonna lie to anybody about anything. I was like,

ma'am, I won't be she was in her early 30s, and her husband came

around the corner, big old dude, started yelling at me, cussing

me out. And I sat down both them for about a half an hour, and I

got him a $250,000 policy, and he was healthy as a horse. I

mean, big guy, great. I mean big guy. I mean 642, 30, great

shape, not a partier, not on any medication. And 48 hours after I

wrote him a policy, died in a motorcycle accident, and then

she died shortly after that, and the only money the kids had was

the quarter million dollars I got from him. I think Gary.

After that happened. My whole perspective on insurance

changed. The whole thing changed. Everybody's life is

fragile. I realized you never know when it's your time. And I

realized that middle class and lower middle class and lower

class people weren't taught what wealthy people are talking

about, life insurance. Nobody taught my life insurance when I

was growing up. I'm a smart person. My mom's not dumb, she's

smart, but we never talked about it. And I realized that when

wealthy folks died, it was like, it was like an event, right?

Like nobody wanted to happen, but like they had everything,

like people got paid, like they actually planned for these

things and put money in place and developed legacies. The

first time I heard the word legacy that meant anything to me

outside of sports was in life insurance, and I'll never forget

a guy said to me, Shawn, when you meet with people, they're

already going to leave a legacy. All we're trying to do is tell

the. Be a positive one, but if they do not have life insurance,

and they leave their wife and children, you know, encumbered

with bills gotta pay for their their funerals, they leave a

negative legacy. So I really wanted to not only help them

leave a positive one, but prevent them from putting their

families in a terrible position. Because, okay, what's going to

happen if you die, or he dies, or you both die? So, yeah, it

became my passion. What I trained agents Gary. I knew that

a lot of times we had one shot. You call somebody, you go meet

with them. They opened up to you and they gave you an

opportunity. And if you screw it up, when I say screw it up, I

mean, you left them and they're not going to meet with anybody

else ever again. Did you give it everything that you had? If you

did, that's all you can do. But if you didn't, that's a problem.

When you were creating this company, how much

of that went through your mind, and how much does that still go

through your mind today, this isn't just revenue for the

company, it's so many people were changing their lives.

Well, I think that it goes it's what I live by,

Gary, I mean, I've never changed that thought process for me,

every client is an opportunity to do good or, unfortunately, to

fail. And failing is not them saying no, failing is you not

doing everything you need to do professionally, respectfully, to

put them in a better position the P I've had clients I went

and met with Gary that had died after that and didn't get life

insurance. But there is not one time that I ever look back and

go, I wish I would have said this, because I did everything I

could with every single client I met with. Because I wake and

sleep at night, right? I only put my head on the pillow go,

you know, what did you do everything you could? I did, and

I feel the same way with agents, because I think the thing about

life insurance is this is that everybody's gonna die, so

everybody's gotta have it, right? And the vast majority of

people don't have it, or don't have enough, they admit to that,

and then they get vulnerable and fill out a lead and send it back

to somebody selling the life insurance is all about getting

in front of as many people as you can, as often as you can

get, as uncomfortable as you can challenge them, as much as you

can, because their legacy has to be as important to you as yours

is. I want other people to win as much I want myself to win.

You. That's a lie. No, it's not a lie. If you go, do I care more

about your kids than my kids? No, I can't care more about your

kids than my kids, and I don't care equally. They're my

children, just like, it'd be weird. If you're like, I care as

much about you can't that would be awkward. But your success, I

care as much about your success as I do my own. And I think for

me, we have such an amazing opportunity, because I give you

100 stories of people I met with. They thought they had

insurance. This guy didn't do the they didn't really put it.

They didn't challenge them. If I left the house or I got off a

phone call or I got off a zoom, as long as I did every darn

thing I could do. When you do it that way, you put them first. I

was never afraid to say anything, because you as a

client were more important. Your family's protection, your

legacy, your safety, financially, was more important

than my feelings. And when you do that for people, they become

very comfortable because they know you genuinely care about

them.

Yeah, it's interesting in the time that

I've been here, so much of it was about the final expense, and

that is such a policy that I think so important for people to

have. Maybe you could share with people a little bit your

philosophy on how so many more products have come available.

Maybe they've been around for years. But what is mortgage

protection? What is a cash back offer type policy? What is the

IUL, the index, Universal Life of setting up your retirement

and having life insurance serve as not only a protection in case

you do pass what you're going to but also potentially have a

certain amount of money being every month that you sent in

your retirement, when you retired, could you share for the

person that maybe isn't as educated about giving people

lots of choices and why they need those choices?

Yeah, I think the beautiful thing about what we do

is we have an opportunity, an option for everybody. When you

find somebody who's, you know, 60, 70, 80, plus years of age,

you know, he or she can get themselves a whole life policy.

You call it five I spent. You call it whole life. You get a

policy where you pay X amount of dollars a month. Here's a death

benefit. You got that till you know, whatever it's like, till

the day you die, right? I was raised in this business with

term return of premium. So, oh, wait, what I was attracted to

was, here's a policy they pay in every month, and at the end of

their term, they outlived it, and it paid me back. So that's

an amazing product. To your point about the index universal

life, if you've never read the book tax free retirement, I

think y'all should read it. I don't care what other books you

read in your life by Patrick Kelly. It's an unbelievable

book. I was introduced that book early in my life insurance

career. I had never I didn't know what an index universal

life was. It explained I had gotten into my 401 k when I was

in my 20s at the state and I didn't realize what was

happening. I had to wait till age 59, and a half out of

people, cash them out and take a huge penalty. It just It taught

me a lot about index universal life. I bought myself a policy

in the next universal. Of and set that up when I think about

whatever age I decide to start pulling the money out. So that's

an amazing product. And the index Universal Life has changed

our business. Matter of fact, half of our business by the end

of this year will be IUL. Now, why is that so amazing? It has

so many different benefits. You talked about the retirement, you

talked about it being tax free, you talked about the opportunity

to be able to utilize your money earlier when you're in

insurance, I think you need to be very honest about the

products. You know, they're not magical. I see people say things

about products that is not true. I don't like that. I give you

the good. I give you what might be the I give you the strengths

and weaknesses of everything. Here's how this works, here's

how they're gonna take your money. Here's the cost of

insurance. Here's what goes in an investment. Here's how it's

performed over this many years. Here's a guarantee, here's a non

guarantee. And I think that's part of why I've had a very

successful insurance career, is, you know, I always told my kids

when they were young, a salesperson has has a successful

career if he or she can walk around in the communities that

they sell in and help people in and be excited to see people. I

never wanted to bump into somebody at the grocery store

and have them be like, walk the other way. I wanted to be like,

That's my insurance guy. I'd be out my kids all over the place,

and people would not remember my name, and they'd be like, you

were at my house. You're my insurance guy. I'm like, Yeah,

I'm your insurance guy, but that was my job as was, to protect

you and protect your legacy. So there's a lot of diversity in

products. That's also why I think if you get in the

insurance business. You should be independent, like, you should

get multiple carriers. I People call me all the time. We sell

this one product. What do you think I should do? I'm like, I'd

quit if failing first life was like, you can sell one product,

one product only. Y'all should quit. And then also, what

happens when you do that is you start selling people that one

product, like, they probably could have gotten something

else, but you're out there going, I don't make any money if

they don't buy this one product from me, all I got is this one

product. So one of the things I'm proudest of, you know, the

annuity be able to protect people's retire. That was 2009 I

hadn't sold an annuity. The guy sat me down and said, You need

to ask people what they're doing with their safe money. Ask them

if they're a saver and investor. I knocked on a door, knock this

lady's trailer. I opened the door and I got COPD right away,

because she must smoke like 14 cards and cigarettes a day off.

Then her husband came with her, both smoking. She's got cancer,

but she had had treatments, or she's in good health, but I'm

like, she's not going to get these products because she's

smoking. She doesn't have a history of cancer, she has other

stuff going on. Yes, you've been cancer free for a little bit of

time, but not long enough for me to really take care of you. And

I'm just talking. I've just asked the question the guy, I

said, What do y'all do with your safe money? She said, What does

that mean? I said, money you have that you don't want to

lose. She goes, I have money in the market. I lose all the time.

My 401, K is killing me. So I'm like, how about you on your 1k

I'm assuming Gary, she's going to say eight grand, 12 grand, 20

grand, 30 grand. She said, just over a million dollars. And I'm

like, what? She's like, I worked at JCPenney since I was 18, and

they matched me for and I was like, how much have you lost the

last quarter? She told me was obnoxious. I wrote her annuity

for a million bucks. Her husband won for 300 grand. I'd never

written one before, and every year they would call me like

they didn't lose any money. They didn't lose again anything we've

gone through economically when covid hit. I wasn't worried

about my clients that had an IUL or nobody losing any money.

Matter of fact, the thing I used to say to them was, I'm not

licensed to lose you any money. I have an insurance license. I'm

not a securities guy. I don't even have the ability to get you

in a product where you can lose money on it. So it's good to

have access to all being able to help people.

Three and a half years ago, you met with a few of

our leaders in our company. Where do you align with

Southwestern? Where do you think our two companies align? And

what do you think's important for someone to be successful?

I think the thing I like the most about it was the

work ethic. Yes, because that was impressive. It looked like

it was. It was a really great relationship. And I think Gary

with full transparency, working with you and some other folks

now is really solidified that you are a guy in the field. You

are a guy that knows what it takes. You are a guy that should

be on this podcast, and with full transparency, that was

always what I believed in it, you know, I mean, like, I'm a

sales guy. I got my life insurance license. I went and

sold, we launched fan first life I was in the field full time. I

owned the company on the president of the company, the

insurance carriers would call me and be like, Hey, we're trying

to get a hold of I'm like, I'm selling. They're like, you sell

life insurance. I'm like, Yes, I'm in life insurance. So, like,

you're the president of the company. I'm like, is there a

rule that says I can't sell? Like, no, there's no rule. I'm

okay. I enjoy helping people. Why would I not want to do that?

So you guys, for a long time about the community helping

people. I want to build people too, Gary. And I think a lot of

the folks I was building people didn't necessarily believe in

them. They weren't raised in this situation. Was like, hey

man, all you gotta do is show up and grandpa, let me run the

company. They're trying to find their way. And a lot of times

this entrepreneurial journey is their first entrepreneurial

journey. And also, folks pull against them, not because

they're bad people, they just don't know they're not

entrepreneurs. So it's easy to be scared of what you don't

know. So I have to appreciate them. They're on colorful list.

So I look at guys like you and and me, my job was to walk and

put my hand on the guy's back and be like, Hey, man. And I

know a lot of people are telling you can't do it. I know a lot of

people are saying things like, if it's too good to be true, it

is, and yada yada. You know what? It's a great industry. I

looked at you guys, and you had a lot of guys and girls with a

blue collar mentality to go out there and serve people. And

you're fearless.

One last question that like, that's such a big

question we always ask on every one of our podcasts. Shawn is,

what does legacy mean to you?

For me, personally, we live our lives

however long, those lives last 100 years, 20 years, 80 years,

we do leave a legacy, good, bad or indifferent. I think that for

Shawn Meaike, I want to make a difference in the world. I'm not

delusional. I don't think that everybody across the earth knows

who I can make a difference in everybody's lives individually,

I would do the best I can in my portion of the world. I'm gonna

do the best I can with the people that I impact. I want to

leave behind belief level for other people. I want to help

people create wealth for their families. I do want to put a

hedge of protection and financially different people.

And I think I'm driven by the underdog. You know, it's not

that I haven't written life insurance and all kinds of

people, but the folks that are really in a tough position,

like, I'll never forget what I've done to be able to put them

in a better position. You know, there's a way. If you when you

have kids and you're when you're a dad and you have sons, I read

this long time ago, you go through three phases. Every Dad

and son goes to three phases. First phase is your son will

idolize you. The second phase, he'll demonize you, then he'll

humanize you. And I remember asking this, this psychologist

that was saying it one day ago, he goes, and the hardest thing

will be, if you've been a really good dad, he'll idolize you

longer than he was supposed to. I was like, really? It's like,

yeah, that'll actually last longer, like he shouldn't be

idolizing you when he's 1819, 20. And for me, I don't know how

long people are going to talk about us when we're gone, but I

want to do enough good in the world, in causes, giving money

back, making a difference. And if some grandkid one day says, I

don't know, man, my dad, he went on my my grandpa, first he went

and build a business and life insurance, then my dad got in.

That's how we've been able and here's we've been able to do,

and we give back over here. But if we hadn't found that, and

some guy ran it out, his name might have been Shawn, I don't

know, fam first, like, if that's the way it works, I want people

to and I want to be honest with me that that I was hard

charging, that I was a pain in the butt at times, that I

probably could have said things a different way, that I maybe

was a little bit too passionate, but damn, my motives were good,

and that I inspired people that didn't believe in themselves to

believe in themselves. And then I want to help other people

realize they're leaving a legacy too, whether it's positive

negative, you're leaving something. And I want to help

people develop that and leave that because it will last for

generations, especially if it's the first time somebody's doing

it in their family, to be somebody that breaks the mold.

Our family was heading this way, and I took us a different

direction, showed us a lot more to this world. So I'm very, very

focused on legacy.

Well Shawn, thank you for being on with us today.

I always ask people if they have more questions, if someone wants

to get in touch with you, how would they reach you?

They go to my Instagram. It's just my first

name, Shawn, s h, a w n, last names, m, e, a, i, k, e, they

can find me on Instagram there, um, you send me a DM. I'll get

back. If you're looking for some help with something. By all

means you can do that. You go to the website, ShawnMeaike.com, so

again, S, H, A, W, n, m, e, a, i, k, e, you can find me there

get information if somebody will reach out to you. Because I

remember what it was like when I started, and I remember how hard

it was to find information and find credible people that could

give me information. I want to, I want to help eliminate that

gap for a lot of people.

Well you've been listening to, let's talk legacy

with Shawn Meaike, thank you so much for being on the show

today. That's awesome.

Thanks guys. Appreciate y'all.