The Cold Calling and Payroll Tax Strategies That Built a $10M Business with Matthew & Jacob Abbott

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service

Episode Title: The Cold Calling and Payroll Tax Strategies That Built a $10M Business with Matthew & Jacob Abbott
Hosts: Tersh Blissett & Josh Crouch
Guests: Matt Abbott & Jake Abbott (Abbott Family Insurance)
Date: September 10, 2025

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Overview

This episode dives into the entrepreneurial journey of brothers Matt and Jake Abbott, co-founders of Abbott Family Insurance, who have built a thriving $10 million business in just over two years. The conversation focuses on the perseverance required for cold calling, actionable outbound strategies, the mindset needed for sales success, as well as a deep dive into innovative payroll tax strategies that deliver tax savings and employee benefits for service industry companies. The Abbotts also share the pivotal role automation and AI have played in scaling their business and freeing up time for high-value activities.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Starting from the Ground Up with Relentless Cold Calling

• Jake Abbott's Entry: Jake joined after a grueling season of HVAC installs, moving into appointment setting.
• Volume and Persistence: Jake and Matt made up to 1,400 cold calls in a single day, demonstrating incredible persistence.
  • Memorable Story: On their 1,400th call, late at night, they closed a $3,000 deal, proving the value of “just one more call.”
  • Quote (Matt, 06:02): “On the 1400th dial, we put like a $3,000 deal in...But it’s that mentality we have. It could just always be the next call.”

2. Mindset and Lessons for Outbound Sales

• Overcoming Rejection: Sales success is about not taking rejection personally and understanding timing.
• Methodologies Recommended:
  • Jordan Belfort’s Straight Line Method: “You have three seconds to capture that person’s attention. And it’s all in your tonality. It’s 100% how you’re saying it, not what you’re saying.” (Matt, 07:44)
  • Jeremy Miner’s NEPQ: Focuses on asking questions to draw out the customer’s needs.
• Active Listening: The most effective calls involve listening more than talking, letting the customer tell their story.

3. Outbound Strategy Tips for Trades & Service Businesses

• Be the First or the Last: Either reach prospects before competitors or follow up after others have given up.
  • Jake (14:57): “You want to be...the first guy or you’re going to be the last guy. That’s how it goes.”
• Value in Helping: Even when told “no,” offer something useful—like advice on do-not-call registries—to build trust and stand out.

4. Cold Calling is a Transferable Skill

• The hosts and Abbotts discuss how homeowners are universal prospects, and cold calling/appointment setting tactics from insurance can be borrowed by contractors and vice versa.

5. Game-Changing Payroll Tax Strategy

• New Program: Abbott Family Insurance has developed a benefits package leveraging IRS cafeteria 125 deductions and voluntary benefit plans (like Aflac), offering major payroll tax savings.
  • Matt (18:13): “We have a program where we’re getting a fully funded package of voluntary benefits for the employee...while lowering your payroll taxes.”
• Impact:
  • Reduces taxable wages by up to $14,000 per employee.
  • Case Study: Saved a client $2.1 million in payroll taxes, putting $70,000–$80,000 back to the bottom line.
  • Employees benefit from more take-home pay and enhanced benefits.
  • Jake (19:44): “They get a little pay raise from that too...because they’re paying less in [taxes].”
• Success: This program and their process have led to rapid growth—$10 million in premium and hiring 14 new agents.

6. Power of Automation & AI in Scaling Operations

• Embracing Tech: The Abbotts attribute much of their scale and efficiency to learning about automation—especially through coaching from Tersh and Josh’s AI and automation school.
  • Matt (22:24): “I can’t tell you how many hours I used to spend doing review responses or...social media posting...Now we’ve done the automations and using Zapier...you just start.”
• Automated Workflows:
  • Email campaigns, proposal follow-ups, and customer retention are now streamlined.
  • Focus shifts to “IPAs” (Income Producing Actions) while monotonous tasks run in the background.
  • Jake (25:12): “Now you can really focus on those things because everything else in the back end is just working by itself.”

7. Execution and Implementation

• Implementation Matters: The hosts stress the importance of not just learning business strategies, but implementing them.
  • Tersh (25:50): “That’s like—I could teach...people till we’re blue in our face, but they don’t do it. If it’s not implemented, it’s a complete waste of their time, our time and everything else.”
• Results: Abbott Family Insurance is now the top local result for health insurance search, attributed to implementation of SEO, automation, and digital strategies learned from the SBM community.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jake Abbott (04:13): “It has been quite a journey. There’s no doubt about that. But we both grown a lot from being business partners and our relationship has really thrived through this.”
• Matt Abbott (06:02): “It’s that mentality we have. It could just always be the next call.”
• Matt Abbott (07:44): “You have three seconds to capture that person’s attention. And it’s all in your tonality...”
• Jake Abbott (14:57): “You want to be...the first guy or...the last guy. That’s how it goes.”
• Matt Abbott (18:13): “We have a program where we’re getting a fully funded package of voluntary benefits for the employee...while lowering your payroll taxes.”
• Jake Abbott (19:44): “They get a little pay raise from that too...because they’re paying less in [taxes].”
• Matt Abbott (22:24): “If you can’t keep your customer, then who cares, right? Retention is king...all the CRMs have APIs. You just learn how to use the API keys, you learn how to use Zapier and you just start.”
• Tersh Blissett (25:50): “If it’s not implemented, it’s a complete waste of their time, our time and everything else.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [04:00]–[06:46]: Relentless cold calling—journey, mindset, and perseverance.
• [07:22]–[08:12]: Book recommendations and outbound strategies (Jordan Belfort, Jeremy Miner).
• [14:57]: “Be the first or last” strategy and timing in outbound.
• [17:32]–[21:44]: Payroll tax strategy using cafeteria 125 deductions; how it works, employer and employee benefits, case study.
• [22:24]–[24:50]: Automation—time saved, customer retention, and implementation lessons.
• [25:50]–[26:29]: The crucial role of implementation in business success.
• [26:30]–[26:56]: How to connect with Matt and Jake Abbott and find their resources.

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Conclusion and Takeaways

• Success in service businesses is built on persistent outbound sales, customer-centric communication, and a willingness to adopt new strategies from outside your own industry.
• Innovative use of payroll tax codes and benefit packages can create financial wins for both businesses and employees—without disrupting existing relationships.
• Automation and AI are critical for scaling and sustaining high-growth service businesses.
• Implementation is everything—learning is only valuable when put into action.

Connect with Abbott Family Insurance:
Find the Abbotts on Google (“Abbott Family Insurance”), visit their website and blog for detailed breakdowns of their payroll tax and benefits strategies, and reach out for a personalized consult.

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This summary provides a comprehensive yet actionable overview for any service business leader eager to master sales, build resilience, save on taxes, and leverage automation for operational edge.

Transcript

[Matt Abbott]

If you can't keep your customer then who cares? Retention is king. All the CRMs have APIs. You just learn how to use the API keys, you learn how to use Zapier and you just start your processes, break them down, automate what you can. And because of your guys mentorship and coaching and the school, I mean what a value for my smart.

[Podcast Narrator]

Are you looking for valuable business advice to reach that seven figure revenue mark? Do you want actionable tips to properly navigate through every business challenge you encounter along the way? Let Tersh Blissett and Josh Crouch be your guide in getting you to the top here at Service Business Mastery. Tune in as they sit down with world renowned authors in business leadership and personal growth who share valuable insights about management, marketing, pricing, human resources and so much more. Let their nuggets of wisdom gold guide you in owning a thriving, profitable and ever growing business. Here are your hosts, Tersh and Josh.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

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[Sponsor Announcer]

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[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

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[Sponsor Announcer]

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[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

Get a tech upgrade for your business at Get Sarah Tech Service Business Mastery so we're at HR 2025 in Orlando and we have Matthew and Jacob Abbott Insurance and we're doing a little lunch and learn. So we're in the press room and while we're going to grab a quick bite to eat, we're going to talk a little bit about Matthew's been a podcast. I interviewed him at BDR Spark like 2024.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah, yeah, 1-4-24. Yep.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

Yeah. In Savannah and we talked a little bit about things that were going on then. So I'd like to hear how things have changed and what's up now and actually let Josh ask some questions too.

[Josh Crouch]

Yeah, well let's introduce Jake too because he hasn't been on this.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah, a little bit of a. Bit of a welcoming party. You know, I get the other half of the hosting this time. I didn't have you on the first one and. And my other half.

[Josh Crouch]

That's why that episode sucks.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah, I know. It definitely. It definitely didn't do well. Shout out to climate experts. Though. I did get some business out of that podcast. It was very informative. And we added a client from that.

[Jake Abbott]

So that was the only download we got, so.

[Matt Abbott]

No, that makes sense. Insurance is not sexy, right? But yeah. Super excited to talk with you today, Josh. And it's good that Jake's on his first podcast.

[Jake Abbott]

Yeah, it's my first podcast. Jake Abbott, I'm Matt's business partner and co founder. We started this about two and a half years ago. I kind of came on more as I was installing H vac systems, actually. And it was the end of summer and he knew that I was beat up from a summer in Florida being in Hot Addict.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

He was like, that is the time to get anything.

[Matt Abbott]

I knew what I was doing. I knew what I was doing.

[Jake Abbott]

And so he reached out to me and he's like, hey, man, I got this really good thing going. I want you to be a part of it. If you come on board, I'll make you a business partner and we'll take this thing to the ends of time. What better thing to do than to start a business with your brother? Right.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

So it can be good or bad.

[Jake Abbott]

True.

[Josh Crouch]

That was super smooth the whole ride.

[Jake Abbott]

Oh, man, it has been quite a journey. There's no doubt about that. But we both grown a lot from. From being business partners and have our relationship has really thrived through this. But yeah, I joined back in 2022 and just kind of started off as an appointment setter. I wasn't actually a fully licensed health. Health insurance agent, but I was making 500 calls a day, cold calling people. Sometimes a thousand, sometimes a thousand, depending on the day. I was beating that door down and I was just running all those appointments to Matt and we were just. We were killing it on an individual market, which is just a little bit different than what we do today.

[Matt Abbott]

So that's our getting started.

[Jake Abbott]

That's our getting started, right? Yeah, that's where our journey started.

[Matt Abbott]

I mean, you guys probably could agree in the test of this, you know, when you start a business, it's pounding phone, it's getting clients, it's putting yourself out there.

[Josh Crouch]

You know what the problem is? Most people, they go to a Facebook group and ask, I'm Slow. What can I do? And everyone literally gives the same advice that you guys are giving right now.

[Matt Abbott]

Just get on the phone and then.

[Josh Crouch]

They don't do it.

[Matt Abbott]

Right. Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

I need Google to work. I need Facebook to work. I need something, you know, like, how come? How come?

[Jake Abbott]

How.

[Josh Crouch]

I have a phone number for my business and it's not ringing. I don't understand why, like, I got.

[Matt Abbott]

A phone number for.

[Josh Crouch]

Why is it not ringing?

[Jake Abbott]

Right.

[Matt Abbott]

Yes. Yes.

[Josh Crouch]

Well, that's awesome. That's. That's really cool.

[Matt Abbott]

That.

[Josh Crouch]

Because that. That hustle and grind, it also built like you get to enjoy the success later when you don't have to do.

[Matt Abbott]

Now our phone rings now. Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

When it starts ringing, you. You make it ring, and then it starts ringing on its own, and now it's much more rewarding.

[Jake Abbott]

Yeah, dude, those thousand calls were worth it that day when it took me a thousand one calls to get a client on the phone and actually make a. And sale. Sale.

[Matt Abbott]

Right. We actually have a great story on that. So there was one day we were. It's a. So in the insurance world at the time and what we were doing, the book of business closed on Friday or on Thursday. So if you put business in Thursday night, it'll issue for Friday morning. You can still get paid on it. Correct. Okay. So there was a week where we hadn't put in a single piece of business. And this is private insurance. So, like, you have to make a hard sell. Like, this person has to actually want what you're offering. Right. And it has to be the right fit. So getting these deals was. Was hard to come by. We were literally on 1399th phone call of the night. It was 10pm we had just the two of us sat there and dialed our butts off that whole day. And on the 1400th dial, we put like a $3,000 deal in just on that call. Like 11 o' clock at night, jet issue. It was amazing. And. But it's that mentality we have. It could just always be the next call. It really could. And then, you know, it was a 1400. 1400, yeah. Yeah, that's.

[Jake Abbott]

It was.

[Josh Crouch]

That's perseverance and persistence right there, man. That's awesome.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah. That's what it takes if you want to stand out, you know, if you want to build a life for your.

[Josh Crouch]

Family before you guys get into something, because I know you guys have some new stuff that we want to talk about too, but with, you know, with doing it, is there some lessons you guys learned? Because I talk to clients all the time about outbounding, we do it via text mess and we do a lot of the campaign for them. But yeah, outside of that, I'm like, you still probably should pick a phone and call them, especially your members and people that know you. Is there any lessons you guys have learned in like approaches that work? Because it's the same type of customer. It's a homeowner. It's someone that has things that they want to protect. What kind of lessons or things can you guys share from that?

[Matt Abbott]

This is probably not that controversial, but Jordan Belford's straight line method, if you're new to to doing outbound calling, read that book because it will. What was the name of the book I just read? I think it's the straight line method. Isn't that called the Straight Line? Yeah. By Jordan Belfort? I mean we've all seen the Wolf of Wall street. You know, it's bone sales. Yeah.

[Jake Abbott]

It's scripted.

[Matt Abbott]

You have three seconds to capture that person's attention. And it's all in your tonality. It's 100% how you're saying it, not what you're saying. And like as you level up with your outbounding, you know, you add things like Jeremy Miners NEPQ training where you know, now it's questions led.

[Jake Abbott]

Really good questions.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah.

[Jake Abbott]

Now the customer to talk to you and tell you their story. Like that's really where you start to win is when that client starts to talk and you're doing less talking, you're figuring out what their wants and needs.

[Matt Abbott]

Actually and then you just solve that.

[Jake Abbott]

And when you're able to bridge that gap and solve the problem that they're telling you, you're able to deliver them the product that they actually want or meet.

[Matt Abbott]

It's active listening. Right. It's these soft skills that you just kind of by doing you gain.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

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[Sponsor Announcer]

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[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

Help you grow your business. Learn more@upfrogio I want to give a huge shout out to Market Storm for sponsoring today's episode.

[Sponsor Announcer]

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[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

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[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

And often to chat with a team about how they can help you grow your business. Visit Marketstorm AI Yo Joshua, really fast. I want to talk about online scheduling for the trades and how they should be affordable, effective and easy to manage. A really quick second here to share a little bit about the latest group of experts that we've teamed up with Autobot AI. Our team of industry experts has develop best in class scheduling of app that seamlessly integrates with your CRM. Now every book job goes directly into your software and becomes one of our advanced marketing analytics which is really cool. We can automatically select the marketing campaign of your choice based on how the customer came to your site.

[Josh Crouch]

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[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

So honestly, with no contracts, affordable monthly rates and you really don't have anything to lose. And so it's, it's a great program to try out and if you use SBM when you go to sign up for it, you'll actually save fifteen hundred dollars on the setup fees. Honestly, give it a shot. Tell us what you think. Man, this has been years ago now but I had this telemarketer and that the same company would call me, I mean every day and every day I'd be Like, this one time, man, I just went off on the guy. And this particular guy had never called me before.

[Jake Abbott]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

But I just straight went off on him. And then at the very. After I completely went off on him, he was like, all right, so call you back tomorrow.

[Josh Crouch]

That's.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

I laughed so hard. I was like, dude, I appreciate that. He was like, sounds like you're having a bad day. I was like, so I take it personal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. He didn't take it personal at all.

[Josh Crouch]

So, like, the mentality to know, like, let's say I. I have a list of a thousand calls. Like, I. I wouldn't call it cold calling because it was our customer list back like 20. The first winter I was in H Vac. The coldest winner in 30 years in Wisconsin. I didn't have to do any of that. We just called. Big customer list. Company had been around a while. Next year, it was not. It was very mild first year I ever had to, like, drum up some business. And my owner's like, well, you got a call.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

And I'm like, what do you mean, a call?

[Josh Crouch]

Like, call and say what? Like, I. I had no experience with that. So, like, it was really daunting to me. And then, of course, you'd be sitting on the desk behind me. I'm like, idiots.

[Jake Abbott]

Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

Like, I don't know what to say. I listen to him a little bit, and I'm like, okay, I'll just say what he said.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

But I had, like, no idea what I was doing in some of the social media groups and content that's out there today, like, to kind of like, hey, I need to learn the skill.

[Matt Abbott]

Help me.

[Josh Crouch]

Yeah, but what, like, the mentality to be like, all right, I'm gonna make a thousand calls today. Well, what is.

[Matt Abbott]

One foot in front of the other, man. That's all that one is. Because, like, you know, and I think Tertia, you know, obviously you can relate, and you're the only outsider here, not being a veteran, but, like, we did hard guys. You are. Yeah. I didn't know that in Air Force. You are. You're in now currently. Like, Julie. Oh, nice. Chair force. A bunch of chair forces, all you guys. You know, that's kind of explains a lot then. So you do know it's the citizens military. Yeah. Like, there's a lot of other names.

[Josh Crouch]

That the branches call us, but they.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

Can go me though.

[Jake Abbott]

The mindset is. Is. Is honestly, you have to. You have to show up every morning, put your baggage in your trunk, and show up and know that you just have to do what you need to do to get through that day. You're going to have good calls and you're going to have bad calls and most of them are going to be bad calls. You're going to. Most people are going to be the tersh who yells at you and screams at you because you're calling them for the 40th time. But it's the guy who doesn't take that personally, which was very hard in the beginning, was not taking those. Those.

[Josh Crouch]

Because it feels, it feels like they're rejecting you.

[Jake Abbott]

Exactly. And over time, as you continue to do it, which I'm sure you got to this point as well, when you were doing the cold calling, is that personally? And you start to just realize that maybe one, you're not asking the right questions, that is going to kind of help bridge that gap. But two, maybe they're just not ready right now and they do need a little bit of time to breathe. We call that so be back bus. Yeah, we do call that the be back bus. But you reach out in three days when all everybody else has stopped calling because most people give up. Right. So you wait that three days and then in that three day time span, they're actually ready to talk to somebody because you know, you didn't beat them up for those three days while everybody else was. And they remember the guy who, who's coming back around a little bit later. So I would say that that's a big piece of it is knowing the timing, which is similar to what you were. They were talking about on the podcast earlier. Right.

[Josh Crouch]

What's you say that the time I was calling was like a week before.

[Jake Abbott]

Christmas and that those are the words. So been there too.

[Josh Crouch]

Yes. And now, now I've been in history long enough. I'm like, okay, I know exactly when people don't want to spend money, they don't want to hear from the heat and air guys. So now it's like when clients want us to do even text message camping, it's like, okay, well two weeks before Christmas, let's wait until January.

[Jake Abbott]

Correct.

[Josh Crouch]

Let's give them some time here. Let's let them do their vacation in their time and then absolutely start hitting up again.

[Matt Abbott]

Yep.

[Jake Abbott]

So timing is also a big piece of that. But really it's persistence. You know, you want to be. You're either going to be the first guy or you're going to be the last guy. That's how it goes. So you're going to be the first person who talks to somebody, and you're going to be able to build. You have, like he says, you have three seconds to make that impression. That impression comes from getting to the point and figuring out what those wants and needs are early or being the last guy and providing them with service, being helpful and providing them with a service that somebody else didn't provide. Oh, you know, Mr. Client, I can close out your file for you. And so these phone calls will actually stop. You want these phone calls to stop, don't you? Oh, yeah, I would love for these phone calls to stop. Well, I have this thing, it's called the do not call.gov registry. If you put your phone number on there, those phone calls have stopped. But you know what? Did you ever get help? Did anybody actually help you with the problem that you were looking for? No, I just wanted the phone calls to stop. They wouldn't. Nobody would stop calling me. You know, if you are available tomorrow, I have time at 4:00, and I'd be more than happy to help you out with your health benefits. And then those phone calls, they're going to stop in about three to five business days.

[Matt Abbott]

So, guys, this is the reason why I was number one in the region from, like, my first year doing this. And I knew to bring him in right? Like, that just killed. I got so many freaking appointments. People are like, he was the number one appointment setter for like seven months straight. He was setting so many closed deals because he'd prime them and he'd just hook them just like that. He's helpful. Oh, let me get you on the Do Not Call registry. Let's get those calls slowed down, you know, and you could translate that. However, if you're hot, you're cold, you know. Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

Problems, you know, you guys insurance to a totally different issue. And I think that's the thing. Sometimes we're so focused on our specific industry and then the specific solutions that people came up with that industry, but we don't look outside and be like, what are other people doing? Like, somebody. We just said. We just had a podcast episode with Noah Carter. We're talking about outbounding and. And following up, having an inside sales department. And the problem is, a lot of times we'll go and we'll hire a CSR to do that. Yeah, well, that's a very friendly person who's probably not going to want to take rejection. Like, you got to hire a different personality type that has the mentality of like, I'm not going to let it affect me. I'm just Going to go do my job. I'm just going to go because I know the next one could be a sale.

[Jake Abbott]

Correct.

[Josh Crouch]

That's awesome. I mean, well, honestly, if you're. If you're looking and you're listening to this, maybe you need to go to find someone in the insurance agency or insurance world and be like, okay. If you're doing cold calling for that.

[Jake Abbott]

Right.

[Josh Crouch]

Because we all know everyone loves the calls from the insurance company.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah.

[Josh Crouch]

The car warranty or your Google business profile.

[Matt Abbott]

Those ones. Those are great. I get last night. Every day. Every day. Yeah. But every day.

[Josh Crouch]

Anyway, so what's new in yes. Which I got going on.

[Matt Abbott]

Oh, man. It's been gangbusters, guys. There is some new program put all my secrets out there. But I started writing about it. My blog is starting to get a little traction on it. I am. Jake and I are one of the only brokers that you can do business with today. And you'll make money by getting benefits with us. Like actually put.

[Josh Crouch]

Can you talk about how that works?

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah. So we use a series of tax codes. It's built into the treasury code, so it's all 100% legal. Everyone knows what a cafeteria 125 deduction is. Okay.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

I don't know what that is.

[Jake Abbott]

Your account is going to your.

[Matt Abbott]

Your accountant will be happy to hear that.

[Jake Abbott]

Yeah.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah. I don't need to know that they're on board.

[Jake Abbott]

Yeah, exactly.

[Matt Abbott]

Yes. And because we're able to use those in a creative way, we have a program where we're getting a fully funded package of voluntary benefits for the employee.

[Jake Abbott]

Your aflap.

[Matt Abbott]

Your. Yeah, the ducks.

[Jake Abbott]

Think about something like the aflac.

[Matt Abbott]

So in addition to your medical insurance. It's not. That's not.

[Jake Abbott]

We're not going to touch your major medical in this. You can keep the same guy you're using currently and not. You have a great relationship with them. You go golfing with them every weekend. That's your insurance guy most of the time. Right. We don't have to change that guy.

[Sponsor Announcer]

Just.

[Jake Abbott]

We will have that relationship. Sure. But come.

[Matt Abbott]

Don't have to come join us after this.

[Jake Abbott]

And. And this is just kind of going to be a bolt on to what you're already doing while lowering your payroll taxes.

[Matt Abbott]

Right. So which is where this.

[Jake Abbott]

Straight to your bottom line.

[Matt Abbott]

Bottom line, revenues right back to you. Because now we're reducing your. Your taxable wages per employee by 14 grand a year. That's a pretty significant amount of payroll tax savings. There's a company in Arizona that we use as a As a basis we reduce their payroll per year by $2.1 million in tax. In calculated taxes it turned into like 70 or $80,000 and in back to the bottom line revenue for implementing these benefits. So it's a win for the business, it's a win for the employee and they don't have to change what they're already doing. So like it's been, we wrote 10 million in premium, why is it a.

[Jake Abbott]

Win for the employee?

[Matt Abbott]

Well now they've got the duck, they've got you know, all the accident benefits, the prevented the telemedicine stuff, the stuff they care about. Right.

[Jake Abbott]

That they get a pay raise and.

[Matt Abbott]

They get a little pay raise.

[Jake Abbott]

You're going to get a little pay raise from that too.

[Matt Abbott]

How? Explain how that works. Yeah, that's the tax savings part. And that's kind of where the magic happens is because we know how to use these tax codes creatively still. Again, all 100% legal. It's through cafeteria 125. Not anything nobody else can do. Just do you know how to do it? Correct? Yeah. And that's where you get a couple of nerds like us because we're lowering taxable wages. The taxes are calculated on less dollars for the employee and a portion of that money goes back into their paycheck in a form of a pay raise because they're paying less in.

[Josh Crouch]

Correct.

[Matt Abbott]

So the business is paying less in taxes. Yes, the take home is more. So the business pays less in taxes, the employee pays less in taxes and they get the extra benefits. We've added 14 new sales agents in the last three months because of how good we're doing. I mean I was talking to you, you know, because for everyone who doesn't know, we're all good buddies. Like I'm in the AI and automation school with them. We meet every first Friday and what an awesome program because even though I'm not in the trades, you know, I got on this class with y' all and I'm doing the automations in my business and we wrote $10 million in premium last year.

[Jake Abbott]

Huge number. You probably have no scale but for, for a small Shop Guys, for two guys to do 10 million, it's a very big number. There's 15 to 20 agencies out there who are doing, you know, they're happy with $2 million of premium. Sure. So to do 10 million is very, very significant.

[Matt Abbott]

So we can't even do all the business that's coming in because of how good this works. And you know it's that snowball Effect is, you know, this business owner, like, like climate experts, you know, they're, they're actually doing this program now. We're, we're implementing 3:1 March 1st. Right. So like this is all just hot and fast right off the iron. It's working really well. The businesses are liking it and we need more people to help us sell.

[Jake Abbott]

It and more automation.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah.

[Jake Abbott]

Which is honestly where, where we were really able to bridge that gap and not having a lot of agents was with the automation that you guys, that.

[Matt Abbott]

We learned from you guys and you.

[Jake Abbott]

Guys to be able to implement that. Yeah, seriously help our business drastically.

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[Josh Crouch]

I know you've been in the community. You're starting to get in the community vault. Like, what has it helped you learn as far as like, just understanding? Because obviously the automations we do are gonna be different than what you guys do, Right. The programs that you use aren't the ones that we yours. How has it helped, like, open your mind to those sorts of possibilities?

[Matt Abbott]

I can't tell you how many hours I used to spend doing review responses or, you know, email junk stuff and like, and like social media posting, you know, like in content creation. All these things that consume so many of my hours as a solopreneur, you know, generalist, like we are. That's a lot of time that goes into these, like, menial things. So like, as we're right in a lot of premium, you know, if you can't keep your customer, then who cares, right? Like, retention is, retention is king. So now we've done like the automations and using Zapier and it's all, it's all the same fundamentals, right? They all have, all the CRMs have APIs. You just learn how to use the API keys, you learn how to use Zapier and you just start. Like you guys said, I think in the podcast yesterday, it's, you know, find your SOPs, find your processes, break them down, automate what you can. And because of your guys's, you know, mentorship. Mentorship and coaching and, and the school, I mean, what a value for my sound.

[Josh Crouch]

Way smarter than we were.

[Matt Abbott]

Hey man, fit that part out.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

Make a commercial of that.

[Jake Abbott]

Yeah, so like in a more specific Situation right now with like automating the Smurf proposals, right? We have email campaigns. When that customer says yes, those triggers that we have a sales process that triggers then sends out the next email that's necessary so he doesn't have to go and type out that whole entire email all over again. And then when that got that proposal comes in from the insurance company that we need to sell it to, then now automation kicks in that triggers and then it goes and sells, sells them.

[Josh Crouch]

It's a durable thing.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

When it works.

[Jake Abbott]

It works, brother. It's amazing.

[Matt Abbott]

It's good stuff.

[Josh Crouch]

Yeah, that's. That's the stuff that I love because we like and I've, I've shared this. You guys have probably heard me say this or church say this. We, we ask people what they want to automate and they're like, they're like, oh, you would tell me you want to automate or what? You want me to automate, right?

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

So the value's not there in my opinion. If I'm telling you, okay, you need.

[Jake Abbott]

To automate a problem or you don't.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

Yeah, you need to automate that solution. What I've found is like, we have the conversation with people like, so what are you struggling with? Like, what's something that you're doing multiple times a day or multiple times a week? And then all of a sudden you're like, I have to go do this again. Whenever you. A task comes up and you're like, I have to do this again.

[Matt Abbott]

Right? That's why you shit on it.

[Josh Crouch]

I think the problem is we get so used to as humans are like, no, it's just part of the job. Yeah, we get busy being busy and we think that's part of the job.

[Jake Abbott]

Right.

[Josh Crouch]

Instead making cold calls, doing a revenue producing action.

[Matt Abbott]

IPAS is what we call them. Income producing action.

[Josh Crouch]

Okay, I like that. Yeah, I like that.

[Jake Abbott]

IPAs RPAs.

[Josh Crouch]

And I think sometimes people, like, would rather do the monotonous things because then they have an excuse to not do the thing that maybe they don't want to do.

[Matt Abbott]

Makes them uncomfortable. It takes them out of their comfort zone.

[Jake Abbott]

Meeting and have that phone call with the owner, you know, those are the things that get lost in all of that, where now you can really focus on those things because everything else in the back end is just working by itself.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

So we are out of time now. But where can people go to connect?

[Josh Crouch]

Find out a lot more about that. Warm leads.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah.

[Jake Abbott]

Phone call.

[Matt Abbott]

Yeah. Poor J, man. You can obviously find us on Google. Abbott family Insurance. Thanks to Josh's amazing webinars, we're now the number one search result for health insurance in our local area. Thank you, Josh. Appreciate that. We're killing it on the SEO.

[Josh Crouch]

You guys take that stuff and implement, man.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

Yeah, the implementation, is it like. That's like I could teach Josh and I can teach people to the we're blue in our face, but they don't do it if it's not implemented. It's a complete waste of their time, our time and everything else. I got rather, I'd rather not be paid and just like teach somebody that's going to implement versus very rewarding. Yes, exactly. I mean like you said, it's a giver's gain type scenario too. But rather than being paid and you could pay me a thousand dollars an hour and then you don't implement it and I'm like.

[Matt Abbott]

No. Our website obviously has great contact contact forms.

[Josh Crouch]

That's your blog that you mentioned.

[Matt Abbott]

And our blog is also on our website where you can learn a little bit more of the granular details if you wanted to before you talk to us. But yeah, it's very easy to book a call from our website or just call us right from our Google page and we'll pick up the phone. That's the, that's our whole thing. Craft crafted solutions with personal care is our promise statement. Another implementation thing we picked up from Service World. Oh, dude.

[Podcast Host Tersh Blissett]

We appreciate you hanging out.

[Jake Abbott]

Thank you guys so much.

[Matt Abbott]

Do this again soon.

[Jake Abbott]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Matt Abbott]

Awesome.

[Podcast Narrator]

Thank you for listening to this episode of Service Business Mastery. Now that you are equipped with essential business advice from this impactful conversation, you are one step closer to becoming the successful owner of your dreams. If this episode has been helpful to your business journey, don't forget to subscribe to the show, leave a rating and share it with other owners as well. Visit servicebusinessmastery.com to learn more.