On the Lead. Empower. Grow Podcast, our hosts talk to entrepreneurs about how they lead productive teams, empower their communities and grow successful businesses of their own. This week’s episode features Daniel and Clare Abuga, Regional Marketing Directors who have made such an impression as a power couple that they have earned the nickname DanClare in the field. They talked about how important it is to build generational wealth for immigrant families and their unique sales philosophy known as “the power of one hour.” See below for an excerpt of our conversation — you can listen to the full episode here.
What were you two doing before joining First Financial Security?
Daniel Abuga: We always had a knack for business, but we could not find the right business for ourselves. We have done real estate. I did car sales. My background is in accounting.
There was a tough moment for us some years back — about 10 years ago — when we were really struggling. We lost our two homes. During that time, my wife mostly was a stay-at-home mom and taking care of our children. She does an awesome job, but when our fifth child was born, in 2013, we hit a real wall. We were depending on one income. We never had enough money.
We were struggling. We had our cars repossessed. Sometimes our rent was not being paid and we went through a few challenging evictions. We were trying to figure out what we could do to meet our daily needs.
We always had a knack for business, but we could not find the right business for ourselves.
Clare Abuga: Our journey has been a journey of emotions. We have come a long way. We have been everywhere. There is no place that we have not touched. We have gone over the mountains, under the mountains, under the water, everywhere — but the moment we landed to this business, we reached home.
Daniel, as he said, has always been a business-minded person. I remember him taking me to open an account for our first business as a married couple. We got the idea of the life insurance when Daniel was selling cars: he met with this young gentleman who opened his mind to what life insurance can be. From that moment, we were all about life insurance. That is when we signed up for the business.
Our journey has been a journey of emotions. We have come a long way.
Why did you choose this opportunity in particular? What felt so transformative about life insurance?
Daniel Abuga: I would sell cars to agents, and they always told me, “Daniel, you can do business in life insurance.” But the idea of talking to people about death was not good for me. I did not understand how to do that.
But then, I went and got our first policy. We got our insurance first to protect our children. Five children, two of us — God forbid one of us is gone. How can one of us take care of our five children, when even the two of us struggle to fully take care of them?
Having a business and accounting background, I looked at the benefits of the policy and thought “Are you kidding me?” I walked through and looked at the numbers and said, “Is this real?”
We got our insurance first to protect our children. Five children, two of us — God forbid one of us is gone.
Clare Abuga: We always say we do not sell life insurance. We connect people with information that they might not know, but that they really need to know.
It is not about life insurance. That is part of it, yes — but there is a whole lot more within it. When people come and sit with us for one hour, they discover a lot of things that they had never even heard of before.
Listen to our full conversation with Daniel and Clare Abuga for more valuable insight on the power of life insurance and running your own business.
FFS Agents – share this post with your networks using our resources in the ABO.
