Founder, Chairman and CEO - GODSPEED Holdings and its family of companies
André brought his extensive background in business and Marketing and created something completely fresh and new in the insurance industry. Traditionally a stale business, insurance was in dire need of a company who did things differently and André and his team have delivered. From the way they brand to the way they manage relationships and their business as a whole, the GDSPD family of companies have gotten off to an incredibly strong start because of their commitment to doing things their way and not the way its always been done.
André has been an entrepreneur his entire career and has specialized in Marketing, Branding and Business Development. Having marketed with and for some of the largest brands on the planet GDSPD has created a brand, thus a company, that the entire industry has their eyes on.
He lives in Celina, TX with his wife, Crystal, three kids, Sadie, Judah and Marlie and their Great Dane, Esco. In his free time, André enjoys traveling with his family, mentoring, cooking, exercising and reading.
Executive Vice President - GDSPD Holdings
Crystal graduated with a degree in Marketing from Lamar University and a Practical Theology degree from Christ for the Nations. Upon graduating, she immediately dove into the world of Marketing and has most recently served as a Director of Marketing for a division of the $2.1B GPO, Vizient. She has many professional strengths and at the top of that list may be her ability to simply get things done.
Thankfully for us, when dealing with national carriers and hundreds to thousands of agents, the ability to get things across the finish line is what’s most important. She began by overseeing our contracting efforts and processes and has since taken a role overseeing the operations of the business in its entirety. Her heart to serve people along with her long list of talents have proven to be invaluable to the organization.
In her spare time, Crystal enjoys reading, exercising, being crafty, serving at church and traveling.
Chief People Office – GODSPEED Financial
Kim has a degree in Human Resources and has been in the employee benefits/ financial industry for over 20 years. She has specialized in both individual and group benefits. She represents the best carriers in the industry and is driven by her love and desire to help people. Kim has held many leadership positions over the years building successful teams and helping people with lifetime careers.
She has never lost touch with what she is most passionate about and where she feels she can make the most impact and that is helping people. Her expertise is listening and consulting with potential agents and clients and assisting them on their chosen path.
President - GODSPEED War Division
Mark “Rhyno” Morgan aka came into the Insurance world in 2000. He has started multiple million dollar organizations from scratch to include a full service brokerage in Houston. He has won many national awards as well as received national recognition for his recruiting and organization building. He has been a national speaker on Recruiting and Team building as well.
Prior to Insurance, Rhyno is a Jag Army veteran back in the Desert Storm and flexed his entrepreneurial muscle starting gyms and personal training companies. His hobbies include power lifting, nature, concerts and spending time with his beautiful wife and 8 children and two amazing grand kids.
His faith in God drives him and his passion is creating opportunities for others to achieve their dreams.
Vice President, Latino Markets - GODSPEED Financial
Oswin Quezada “Oz” is a licensed financial services veteran serving the community for 14 years. He has an impressive amount of experience guiding his community with sound solutions that create legacies one family at a time. Through partnership with fellow agents he has helped many establish a long term career in financial services.
Oz believes in serving not selling as serving together as one, we can all win.
GODSPEED Financial is in the business of assisting Middle America Seniors with their Final Expense, Mortgage Protection, Medicare and Retirement Planning Needs.
This is where it all started. In this business, we recruit, hire and train agents who purchase leads of people who have requested information on our products. We then call them and help them. Our high comp coupled with an unrivaled culture, elite training and support, access to quality tech and leads and a brand that stands alone in our industry all have contributed to our ability to scale GF quickly and effectively.
GDSPD is a business focused on Leads and Technology, supporting GODSPEED Financial as well as additional organizations outside of our own.
Birthed from a need for GF to control our lead flow, GDSPD is a rapidly growing service provider in our industry. We leverage customized tech and digital lead generation strategies to produce offerings that are in demand, effective and profitable.
We know that in order for our agents to THRIVE, income matters. So, we pay them like we really care about them and their families because we do.
Two models to capitalize on.
Whether an agent wants to earn more per transaction, build a team with overrides and potentially sell their business in the future, or they are more interested in taking full advantage of our stock offerings, we allow agents to have options.
Vibrant culture with an unwavering commitment to our agents and clients alike.
We take culture seriously because all other things being equal, we know people want to do business where they are valued.
Lead flow is the lifeblood of our agents’ businesses. We learned early on that we could not depend on others for leads, or technology. So, we brought it in house. Agents have access to a fully customized CRM, quoting tool and high intent, exclusive leads, at will and at cost.
This is a headcount business meaning that we grow as our agent count grows. Our agents who wish to recruit and build a team have the opportunity to plug into a one-ofa-kind recruiting system that is capable of recruiting a nearly uncapped number of agents at a time via a process that is nearly completely automated.
Whether they build their agency to sell to us, or they leverage the power of our stock via our LOA model, we offer our agents paths to true wealth.
A lot of shops claim they have a CRM for their agents that can help their business scale, but we learned that isn’t the case. They may have a CRM, but having technology that doesn’t work is of no value. So, figuring out how to build a service for our agents and the industry that would be of massive value was simple; build a system that actually does everything an agent needs. SMS and Email Marketing, ringless voicemails, power dialer and more. Our technology simply works.
Every business needs consumers and ours is no different. Experience after experience with the industry’s “top” lead vendors taught us that there was room for a company to step in and deliver an exceptional product and service that agents could count on. So, our clients, most importantly, our agents, can purchase high intent leads at will and at cost.
Our agents and clients don’t have to worry about hidden fees and costs. Our subscription model makes transparency natural and maximizes the profitability of the ones who choose us.
Insurance isn’t the same as it was long ago although you can’t necessarily tell by the Marketing that exists in our space. Humbly, Marketing and Branding is one of our core competencies and ours has created a loud buzz. We’ve seen competitors using our images, using our brand as a case study of how their agents should market and more.
It’s not simply a cool logo. It’s a brand that came to life after hours upon hours of thought and development. Then, we released it into the market and have fiercely protected and honored it and now, it lives, breathes and speaks even when we don’t.
To attract our ideal agent, we must present ourselves and communicate in ways that cause them to want to be a brand they want to join. Easier said than done, indeed. However, we have proven to be effective at this.
André took our brand through the same painstaking process he took his past clients, up to Fortune 50 in size, through when assisting them with theirs. Here are some unknown facts about what we’ve created:
The lion has a name and very, very few people know it. We don’t know that we will ever share it publicly as it can generate a great deal of mystery. We will share that the name translates to “wisdom.”
André has long had a thing for lions. Jesus is called the “Lion of Judah” in the Bible (which is where his son, Judah’s, name comes from) and that has a lot to do with it. We also love the fact that a lion doesn’t have to be loud-it’s just known that they are the king. They are equally majestic and mysterious. Frightening and beautiful. They HUNT and lions win, Always.
This sense of mystery is also why the lion has the face he does. We considered having a roaring lion as our logo, but landed on ours because while he looks wise and kind, he is unquestionably the ruler.
The “v” at the top of his head is representative of André’s last name. He loves and lives by the quote, “I hustle for my last name, not my first name.” It’s this commitment to others, particularly his family, that is part of our moral compass and company DNA.
We chose the color green because green evokes a feeling of abundance and is associated with refreshment and peace, rest and security. There is a dichotomy between the being a ferocious predator and rest that we found fascinating and relatable.
We post in black and white because we believe that in business, there is no gray area. Either you get it done, or you don’t. It represents the “all or nothing” attitude of our company, but it has certainly become noticeable and aesthetically appealing in our space.
When we use “The Pride of Lions”, there is a duality to it-“pride” as in being proud of who we are and what we do and “pride” as in a group.
In 2020, 54% of Americans were covered by life insurance.
50% of people overestimate the cost of term life insurance. Millennials, in particular, overestimate the cost by 213%.
The average premium for a male rises 258% between age 25 and age 50.
21% of baby boomers and 36% of generation X believe their partner should get more life insurance coverage
The average life expectancy in the U.S. in 2020 was 77.8, down a full year from 2019
Revenue-wise, the life insurance industry generated $922 billion in 2019, a 2% increase from 2018’s $904 billion
Our plan is simple…we are building an organization that fulfills the promises of the market that aren’t currently being fulfilled.
There are companies who provide high comp and attract agents by claiming they “own” their business. They convince them that they can grow an organization and sell it to an interested buyer. The truth is that while these agents may own their books, they don’t own their agencies and the prospect of selling their business to a buyer isn’t realistic for more than a fraction of a percent of agency owners.
There are also companies who start their agents at embarrassingly low comp, but provide them with “equity” (stock) in the company. There are no agreements in place for said equity ownership and after several years in business, there is no public transaction in sight for the agents.
We are in the market to TRULY offer agents the best of both worlds:
High comp coupled with the ability to own their book AND a stock play in a company with a REAL public strategy.
OR
A partnership division that provides higher comp than anyone else with a “similar” strategy of providing stock ownership to their agents.
We seek to build meaningful and long-lasting relationships with distribution partners, working together to find a better way to meet the needs of their clients.
We deliver innovative life and retirement plans and services to our distribution partners while operating in an environment built on the traditional values of honesty, integrity, respect, and accountability. We work harder and smarter and believe our dedication and efforts will benefit all with whom we interact. Together we aspire to improve the investing experience.
Streamline efficiency for agents to provide multiple programs for each client.