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A History of Blood – Vol. 1, Chapter 1

 Insurance.

Insurance is just replacing financial uncertainty with certainty

Good Afternoon, my name is Daquan Tyrell Pean, a Muslim man from New York City and a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, who is currently studying to become a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU).

Starting from today, I am going to be your instructor.

What is the primary purpose of this blog? Encouraging you to consider a career as an Insurance Agent, preparing you to pass your state exam, and encouraging you to review your policy options with a licensed agent in your area.

The hardest part about being an Insurance Agent is getting started. The test can be very difficult. I will be teaching by using stories (some real, some not), and making sure that everyone understands the core concepts of what I am trying to teach.

I once knew an Insurance Agent who only got into the business for the social benefits; he liked dressing up and attending events, wearing a suit, talking to beautiful women in gowns and cocktail dresses, networking with important looking people- he didn’t really care too much about recruiting anyone into the business or even writing policies, he already had established other streams of income that more than paid his bills. It wasn’t until he got a call from a distant friend that completely changed his life and made it impossible to do what he was doing before. All that was said on the call was this: “She’s gone”, and after he heard the words, he stood there in shock, silence, and disbelief because he didn’t need to ask who, he didn’t need to ask how, he didn’t need to ask anything. Something in his life had permanently changed…

These articles are written with the assumption that the reader knows absolutely nothing. Questions that we publish were real questions asked at one point in time. If you have a question that’s not listed or you would like a more personalized answer, please do not hesitate to reach out; feel free to email me, call me, text me, or engage with me on social media.

Obtaining my insurance license completely changed my life. Outside of my reversion to Islam, it was the singular most important thing I’ve ever done. There are many people who feel the same way about their own licenses, and I’ll try to share their stories when I have capacity.

Most new life insurance policies are purchased by individuals through life insurance agents.

I got my Insurance License on January 11, 2025, a little over a year and a half ago. I originally got into the Insurance Industry back in 2018 but I didn’t really see the point in getting my license due to how much money I was making without having one. Looking back at it now, I really wasn’t making that much, but it felt like a lot, in comparison to how much I was making at the beginning of my career.

So far, my top 5 earning years have been as follows:

1. 2017: $33,441 ($2,786 per month) – $643 per week (2 employers)
2. 2024: $30,003 ($2,500 per month) – $576 per week (2 employers)
3. 2025: $29,656 ($2,471 per month) – $570 per week (3 employers)
4. 2016: $28,669 ($2,389 per month) – $551 per week (1 employer)
5. 2022: $25,822 ($2,151 per month) – $496 per week (2 employers)

According to all of my peers I’ve been doing horrible. The average annual salary for the agents who work with my current FMO is about $76,000~. That being said my goal is six figures, with the idea of most of that money coming by way of residuals. I should be able to do it by the time I’m 40.

The year I got my Insurance License, I only worked 8 months (from January to August) using my Insurance License, but I still had one of my best years financially, and I probably would have made a lot more if I had better managed my schedule, my emotions, and my relationships. I had two other jobs that year that were not related to the insurance business, but I didn’t work them long nor did I make much money with them. I probably made about $200 or so from my side hustles / temp work while making the other $29K using the license I worked so hard to obtain.

The problem, was that as a captive agent I didn’t own my business. To make matters worse, I did a terrible job at documenting all the work I was doing, outside from at the very end once I realized someone was stealing from me (more on that later). I typically made 60 calls a day and had 1-2 appointments, but the fact I didn’t keep my own independent documentation of my activity and results is one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made.

So, with that in mind, a function of this blog will be publishing my records. For the most part, I’ll keep all the numbers the same, but I will change most of the names and avoid using faces (without prior consent) for the sake of the privacy of my clients and my agents.

As of March 24, 2026, I am officially a licensed (resident) insurance agent for the state of Florida.

I recently signed with a new FMO (one of the reasons I started the blog over), and this time I brought a new agent with me, although she isn’t licensed yet. She’s currently studying for her exam as I am writing this. While she’s studying, I am submitting all my required on-boarding documentation while also working on reviewing the training materials as I prepare for the busy season in the Medicare space and my first real year as an Independent Agent, and the first real year building my own Insurance Agency.