Ethan Lehner

My working career started out doing labor/blue-collar work. I was homeschooled, so I was able to work on farms around the small town I grew up in Montana. At 17, I was managing workers on one of the farms I had worked on for the previous five years. This led me to the realization that if you wanted to get paid very well, you just had to work harder and do the jobs that no one else was willing to do. I went from working on a farm into roofing and construction, where I worked as a team lead until I was 21. That’s when I started commercial fishing in the Bering Sea for three seasons. (Yes, like Deadliest Catch. Same area, different fish.)

Commercial fishing paid very well, but the hours were brutal. We worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week, and every 10th day we had to work a 27-hour shift before getting 18 hours of sleep. I knew that if I continued putting my body through that, it was only a matter of time before I got seriously injured. After I got home from my last completed contract, I ended up having carpal tunnel surgery on both hands at the age of 23. I knew I needed to make a change. While I was home recovering from those surgeries, I met my wife, so I definitely didn’t want to go back out to sea and be away from her. I found a position at a coal mine an hour from my house, but again, between the 14-hour shifts, ever-changing shift work, and continued injuries to my body, I knew in the back of my mind that there had to be a better way to make money.

My wife got into the nursing program in Casper, Wyoming, so for a period of time I was working in Montana while living in Wyoming and paying rent on two houses. I decided to consolidate and took an oilfield position in Wyoming. This position was a commission-based labor job, meaning the faster and harder you worked, the more you got paid. For me, this was a complete mindset shift. It was the first time I had ever made commissions, and it seemed like a cheat code. I could make $500 a day while the guy next to me who wasn’t doing any work might only make $200 or even $100. By the end of my first year, I was number one in the entire company. I came in with the attitude that I would outwork anyone, and I proved that I could.

My wife was now pregnant with our first child, and throughout the pregnancy, if she ever needed something from me, I was always out in the field and couldn’t be there for her. I was also missing every holiday that came up. I knew again that this was not going to be a lifelong career. So I opened up Craigslist and saw a position as a life insurance agent with a salary listed as $0 to $1,000,000. With the chip on my shoulder from being number one in my entire oilfield company my first year, I knew I wasn’t going to be on the lower end of that spectrum, so I dove headfirst into it. I was right. I ended up landing somewhere in the middle, with my best year being about $416,000 in annual premium.

However, I quickly noticed that anytime I took time off work for a vacation, a weekend, or even a holiday, I would come back to consistent chargebacks. At that point, I couldn’t step away from the driver’s seat. I had to be in the chair dialing the phone in order to make money. That did not sit well with me. I wanted to be able to spend time with my friends and family without coming back to a mountain of debt or a hole I had to dig myself out of.

I started hearing about people moving into health insurance and being able to work half the hours I was working in life insurance while making even more money. I called a friend and mentor at the time, and he told me that one of his biggest regrets was never getting into health insurance, even after being in the life insurance industry for 18 years. I knew I needed to make the switch, so I did.

It was the best decision I had ever made. During my first full Open Enrollment, I increased my monthly income by $7,000. For me, that meant much more than just a dollar sign. It meant holidays with my family, or simply taking a random Wednesday off to spend time with them without having to worry about where my next check was coming from.

Fast forward a few years, and I have now built a multiple-six-figure renewal income in just a few short years. I can truly say that I wake up every day grateful for the opportunity I’ve found. Now that I have proven this incredible system, my goal is to help others reach the same level of financial freedom, as well as the freedom of time that I have been able to achieve.

Production and income figures described above are Ethan’s own historical results. They are not typical, not a projection and not a guarantee of what any other agent will earn. Individual results vary based on licensing, effort, activity and market conditions. AO Financial is a Division of USA Benefits Group and contracts independent agents.