Broker Expo BEN talks: Making a difference

Three years ago, BenefitsPRO launched its first BEN talks, a panel of brokers sharing personal stories connected by a central theme to close out our annual BenefitsPRO Broker Expo. Following the success and popularity of that first session, we’ve tackled a different theme every year.

Related: The ‘BEN’ talks: The personal side of the industry

This year’s theme was “Making a difference.” For many in the benefits industry, this seems like a no-brainer; helping employers and employees navigate the complicated health care system and get the care they need is the reason they get up in the morning. But after listening to this year’s lineup of speakers, even the most motivated, ambitious brokers were left wondering what more they could be doing.

Trey Taylor: The Rubicon Choice

What does Julias Caesar have to do with running a business? Trey Taylor, CEO of Taylor Insurance, kicked things off with a history lesson, recounting the story of Caesar, returning from one of his great victories in Gaul, reached the Rubicon River only to be met by a messenger from the Roman Senate. Fearing that his power and popularity among the masses would allow him to elevate his status to that of king, they ordered him to disband his army before crossing the river.

Caesar was faced with a decision, Taylor explained: to submit to the demand of the Senate and return to Rome a humble general, thus becoming a “historical footnote,” or to take his army across the river and “into immortality,” as Taylor put it. “The rest of the story of the Roman empire can be traced back to that decision. He arrived in a city that was absolutely deserted by his enemies. For the next five years, Caesar was the supreme ruler.”

For benefits brokers, the takeaway was clear: When your history is written, which side of the river will you be on? “What choices are you making–are we making–not only to be good salespeople, to be product experts, to take care of clients, but what choices are we taking to make a difference by being good business owners?”

Taylor addressed the three pillars of any successful company: people, culture and numbers. “That is the challenge that needs to sit on all of our hearts as we go into the future. Focus on being better business owners, focusing on culture, the people around us, the number and metrics.”

Dennis Hartin: With great power comes great responsibility

“To understand what I do, you must understand my core beliefs: To whom much is given, much is expected,” Dennis Hartin, president of Hartin Dynamics, told attendees. “I believe this community has great power and great responsibility. I have been given much, and I work every day to give back. ”

Hartin implored his audience to focus their collective power and responsibility on one issue in particular: mental health. “Loneliness is the next health crisis,” he explained. “We are the most disconnected connected population in history. Then walks in COVID-19, and most aspects of life were turned on their head.”

Social media and lack of true connections are already taking their toll on our social wellness, and Hartin posited that the current pandemic and isolation could lead to irreparable damage among young children. “I contend that quarantine will have a much larger mental effect than COVID-19 did physically,” Hartin said. Given the current pandemic, action must be taken now to curb inevitable increases in rates of substance abuse and suicide.

Hartin offered up several ideas:

• Preventative medicine: “It’s not something you hear about with mental health,” he said, noting things like meditation, prayer, and breaks from social media can all be effective.
• Overpromote an effective EAP program: “Also expose EAP programs that are not helping,” Hartin added. “A bad EAP program is worse than having nothing at all.”
• Find better solutions: “Consider how this will impact claims costs down the road,” Hartin said, noting the impact of comorbid mental and physical health conditions can have on overall costs.
• Consider the cost of doing nothing: Beyond the specific dollar value of health care, Hartin noted the irreplaceable loss of talented workers, friends and family members.
• Cut everyone some slack: “You never know what’s going on in someone’s mind,” Hartin said. “Be kind.”

Amy Evans: Networking with intention

Having the mindset to make a difference is one thing, but actually reaching businesses to drive change is another story altogether. Thankfully, Amy Evans, president of Colibri Insurance Services, was on hand to help the audience rethink their networking strategies to make the most of their time, energy and resources.

“I believe that traditional networking is no longer working,” she said. “This was true before the pandemic, but is more true to me now.”

What’s wrong with that model? Evans outlined several key points:

• Networking groups are intended to drive referrals, not revenue.
• You gravitate to people you know, instead of those who would be good resources to meet clients.
• The people in groups are not curated for your particular business.
• Members of the group may not share the same level of ambition, drive, or even interest in being there.

The final nail in the coffin? “I was told there was a know/like/trust factor that I had to work diligently to build and I wouldn’t expect to see results for one to two years after joining one of these organizations,” Evans said. “It seemed crazy to me.”

Evans’ intention wasn’t simply to point out the flaws of traditional networking, but to offer a better alternative. She shared the rationale behind the design of her own Align Women group. “Networking with intention has two parts,” she explained, “The who and the how.”

The who: “I wanted to build a dream team of people, the exact people I wanted to do business with. I wanted people who were in industries that were complimentary to mine. I wanted people who had similar clients to mine. I wanted people providing similar services–professional services that were aligned with employee benefits. And then I wanted people who either knew or were referred to me so I could vet them so that we could establish a level of know/like/ trust from the beginning.”

The how: “I built a networking mastermind. It’s a 12-month commitment and it has a membership fee attached so that I know the people I’m networking with are really committed. We have one person in each profession, and we have a max of 12 members.  We actually engage in a specific activity: an email presentation, a talk, a Facebook video. It’s designed to promote each other’s businesses so that we’re getting in front of each other’s clients.”

The approach has paid off, and over a 12 month period, four members of Evans’ original group of 10 were all working with the same client. “I challenge you to ask yourself, are you comfortable leveraging relationships with key people, and have you built your dream team of networking partners?” Evans ended. “If you focus on those things, you will spend less time networking and enjoy better results. Stop collecting business cards and start cultivating relationships.”

Lester Morales: Go tell your story

Think back to your elementary school career days and the professionals who inspired you: Doctors, lawyers, business owners… were there any benefits brokers among them? Closing speaker Lester Morales, CEO of Next Impact, posited this question to the audience, adding, “My goal today is to get you so fired up that you want to go out and tell your story, so that kids years from now are going to say, ‘I want to be an employee benefits professional.’”

Bucking a common trend in the benefits industry, Morales actually went to school to become a benefits broker, studying risk management in college. He was inspired by the experience of his father, who was diagnosed with cancer when Morales was 15 years old.

After earning his degree, Morales went to work in the insurance industry, content with the level of service he was offering for more than a decade… until his mother was also diagnosed with cancer. “Testing medical spending, all of those things start to make me realize that for the last 10 years I’ve been developing plans for families that did the same thing to my family growing up,” he said. So he quit his job and started his own business.

Morales shared three points that guide him in this new stage of his professional life, challenging others to ask the same.

1. Take pride in what you do “At the end of the day, are you proud of being in this business?” he asked, offering up his own sources of pride: helping employers recruit and retain the talent that makes their businesses tick; protecting families; and protecting individuals themselves.

“The reality of it is that insurance makes the world go round,” Morales said. “The big picture of what it is that we do every single day, please take that to heart. It is something that needs to be bragged about.”

2. Do a better job of recruiting talent Specifically, Morales said the benefits industry “does an f-stinking-minus terrible job of recruiting new talent,” and relies too much on “Miracle talent needing a job.”

Much like his challenge to benefits brokers to be intentional about sharing the value of the work being done, he also challenged them to be more intentional in recruiting new talent–specifically younger professionals representing a more diverse range of experiences. “With fresh blood, with fresh perspectives, with a diverse angle, we start to change the business even more.”

3. Stop the insanity Morales admitted that there are parts of the employee benefits narrative that aren’t something to be proud of right now: Negotiating a 20% renewal increase down to 12%, and “saving” the employer 8%.

Rather than fooling themselves into thinking these are wins, benefits professionals need to realign their incentives. ”It starts with the acknowledgment that it’s not aligned right,” Morales said. “People can’t afford what it is they’re having to do today. We have to focus on the employee, and if we focus on the employee, the employer is happy. Price is only an issue in the absence of value, and value comes with helping the member become a better health care consumer. That is the way we fix it.”

Check out more of our Expo coverage:

• Focusing on wellness, prevention and return to work issues
• What will it take to be successful in the changing benefits world?
• Building professional and personal resilience in times of uncertainty