We started out selling leads. That's how we learned they don't work.

AOA began about seven years ago as Annuities On Autopilot, running advertising campaigns and call centers for the annuity industry.

We generated the leads, called the prospects, qualified them, and set appointments directly on advisors' calendars.

And because we were operating inside the process every day, we saw exactly where the traditional lead-generation model broke down.

People didn't always tell the truth on forms.

Leads were resold.

Appointments didn't show.

And even when prospects did show up, they were often sitting across from an advisor they had never met, didn't know, and didn't yet trust.

The lead vendor still got paid.

But what happened after the lead was generated became the advisor's problem.

We realized that good advisors weren't necessarily struggling because they couldn't sell.

They were struggling to consistently fill their calendars with prospects who already knew who they were, understood how they thought, and trusted them enough to have a meaningful conversation.

The answer wasn't another form.

It wasn't another call center.

And it wasn't finding a slightly better version of the same lead.

The answer was changing what happened before the appointment.

When in-person seminars came to a halt during COVID, we watched advisors begin moving their educational process online through live webinars.

Something important happened.

Prospects weren't simply filling out a form and receiving a phone call anymore.

They were watching the advisor teach.

They were learning how the advisor thought.

They were hearing their perspective on retirement.

They were becoming familiar with the person they might eventually trust with one of the most important financial decisions of their lives.

So when those prospects booked an appointment, they weren't walking into a meeting with a complete stranger.

The relationship had already started.

That insight changed the direction of the company.

We stopped trying to build a better lead-selling business and started building a better client acquisition system.

The advertising.

The webinars.

The follow-up.

The automation.

The CRM.

The coaching.

The technology.

All working together.

And most importantly, the advisor owns the relationship, the audience, the data, and the system being built around their practice.

That system became Annuity Lead Hackers

But there is also a deeper reason behind where we're taking it.

About ten years ago, AOA co-founder Kyle Pursley was couch-surfing in Minnesota when his grandparents took him in.

Living with them gave him a firsthand view of what retirement can look like when a family reaches that stage of life without the planning, preparation, and financial guidance they need.

Years later, that experience helped shape how he thought about his role in the industry.

He didn't necessarily have to be the financial professional sitting across the kitchen table from the family to make a difference.

He could build the marketing, technology, education, and infrastructure that helped more great advisors get to that table.

That's what connects the technology to the mission.

We want advisors to build stronger businesses.

We want them to control their client acquisition instead of constantly depending on the next lead vendor.

We want prospects to receive education before they're asked to make major financial decisions.

And ultimately, we want more families to have access to financial professionals who can help them navigate retirement well.

That's why our long-term mission is to help:

1,000,000 Families Have a Great Retirement Planning Experience.

As Kyle puts it:

“When I say our goal is to help a million families have a great retirement planning experience, that's not just a number on a slide. I have family behind it.”

AOA exists to build the system that helps make that possible.

One campaign. One webinar. One advisor. One family at a time.