Compassion and Connection: A Q&A with Kalli Ortega

How did you get your start in the benefits industry?

I was working at my family’s manufacturing company doing HR and a lot of other things on the operational and oversight side. One of my key responsibilities was buying our health insurance and building out that program for our employees, along with workers’ comp and general liability. So I saw the client perspective on both the employee benefits and the P&C side.

The broker I worked with owned an agency, so when I decided not to stay with the family business and to explore some other options, I went over to the broker side. I started at Corkill Insurance, where there were about 20 employees at the time, most of whom worked on P&C and personal lines. There were only two people in the benefits department. They were looking to start hiring some benefits producers and I ended up learning the whole agency.

How has your journey since then shaped you?

When I started, they were manually entering everyone’s names into Excel spreadsheets for each carrier that they were going to get quotes from. Not even copy and paste. It was such a laborious process and to do a 40-life group quote would take someone an entire day. I put my spreadsheet geek hat on and built a macro of sorts. We went to getting these quotes done in an hour, tops. I’ve always had a strong intolerance for inefficiencies. Working to see how to get from A to B in a more efficient way has always drawn me in.

My advisor at the time would always tell me what a tough buyer I was; if I didn’t understand, I would keep asking more questions. I started using that lens and building out our service model for the benefits division.

A few people started saying, “You should really get into sales. You’d be good at it.” But the word “sales” was repulsive to me. I’d always associated it with manipulation and greed and other negative things. Really, an unfair painting of an entire sector, but that’s where I was at the time. I equated sales as something very different from what I was and what I wanted to be, not realizing that my conversations during consultations were ultimately part of the sales process.

The sales leaders at the time didn’t think I’d be a good fit because I wasn’t a “killer.” But if there’s anything that will motivate me, it’s people telling me I can’t do something. In the first month, I closed more business than anyone at the agent ever had on either side. I know how to “speak manufacturing” so I targeted that. There was a lot of team selling, and because of my background, I could speak to a holistic model that includes workers’ compensation, liability and everything employee benefits. I also created an HR consultant division at our agency. That was before most agencies were doing this, but with my background in HR, I knew it all correlated. I would go out with the P&C people on prospecting meetings or meetings with existing clients, and we would close a ton of business together. That was when some of them started suggesting I get into sales.

I eventually took over a small handful of fire protection districts and I got to know that sector really well. Between the benefits and the P&C side, our agency developed a great program for first responding agencies, which expanded into mobile dispatch centers, smaller municipalities and groups like that. That is still a huge passion of mine — the combination of my roots in manufacturing and family businesses with a love for first responders.

I get really frustrated when I see someone’s pathway to care varying based on how they were injured or became ill and first responders are just the most obvious example I was seeing on a regular basis. Whether you’re hurt on the job or you’re hurt playing ball with your kid, you’re the same human vessel. And for your pathway to care to be determined by who’s paying for that claim really makes me upset. So how do we collectively work to fix that? To change that to where it’s not even a discussion point? The fastest path to recovery and prevention of recurrences is what we should focus on, no matter who’s paying. That’s a discussion I continue to have and it often revolves around direct primary care and mental health.

Any other ways your history in HR influences your role as an advisor?

One of the things that drew me to HR was that I studied psychology in school. I have always been an empath who wants to find win/win situations. Both personally and professionally, I find that looking at things through that lens is where the magic happens and where the best solutions are created.

That was how I looked at HR, because you’re that intermediary between labor and management. Most of the time, you’re either perceived as being on the management side, and therefore you can’t be trusted from the labor point of view, or you’re too emotional and don’t belong at the C-suite table. Both perspectives irritate the heck out of me; if they’re doing the job correctly, HR belongs in leadership seats at both tables. It’s a tough role and a lot of work.

Do you find yourself advocating for HR in your conversations with other advisors?

I often suggest that you look at the human beings who are in that role, because to just say that HR belongs in certain discussions might not be an appropriate statement. Making a blanket statement about them like I used to do about sales isn’t the way to go. If you’ve reached a point where a meeting or conversation might come up, you have to consider the individual in that role. A properly skilled and placed HR professional can make or break your relationships and future with any given organization.

You worked for the same organization for years, but recently made a change. Can you talk a little bit about how and why that came about?

At Corkill, we never had any intention of selling the agency. In 2018, we had something like 160 total employees in a few different offices. It was a very strong organization and a great agency. But over time, we started having some conversations and saw that partnering with Assured Partners in 2020 was a good move. We continued doing business as Corkill and there were a lot of great opportunities. It was very exciting.

After a while, though, I decided that wasn’t going to be the best fit for me in the long-term. My passion for creating solutions that don’t yet exist is far too great. And I had been consistently working 60+ hour weeks; I wanted to be home and present with my son and truly take a time out, because I was going through some significant personal things at the time. It was a combination of needing to step back for my own emotional wellbeing and a feeling in my core that I have a higher calling. So I chose to walk away and pursue being a strong individual and mother, being of service to others, volunteering at a domestic violence group.

Although I didn’t plan to jump back into the corporate world yet, different opportunities kept presenting themselves, and I recently started MelEos Group. The name is a combination of a Latin word, Melius, meaning “to improve or make better” and Eos, the Greek goddess of the dawn.

The mission behind the company is to inspire people to harness their power and put their visions into action to improve the wellbeing of our communities and our planet. The company doesn’t necessarily fit into any pre-existing lanes, because I’m not taking the approach of a traditional insurance agency or benefits advisory firm.

I’m still going to be advising and working with employers, chambers of commerce, community leaders and schools, but I won’t be leading conversations with “let me look at your benefits package.” As an industry, we have curated an excellent network of highly innovative individuals and solution providers and I want to start connecting them. Take mental health, for example. If you’re talking with a school board or a teachers’ union, there’s a consistent theme that they need more mental health resources.

So as I hear about these dire needs and gaping holes in the current structure, I can then think of vendors who I trust to fill those gaps immediately. And in other situations where the solution may not already exist, let’s partner and put our minds together to create some solutions that aren’t already in the works and will truly fit what we need.

That’s the lane where we’ll exist, whether it’s creating specific solutions for organizations or helping independent benefits agencies. It’s very difficult to be a single shingle, small benefits advisor these days. They don’t have the same resources, bench, or funding as the big houses. So how can I use my experience to help those who are well-intentioned, really bright and fiercely independent? How do we help one another and collectively grow?

Another piece of MelEos is helping to collaborate so that the same economies of scale principles will apply for smaller, independent practices. I have been talking with several advisor friends who say they’ve lost accounts to bigger organizations. More importantly, they often have a huge opportunity to be able to write business, but when the time comes to sign a contract or get a deal, HR or others at the table voice concerns because they may not have the resources of a larger advisor. Let’s face it, if you’re an owner and you’re trusting someone to handle the benefits for all these families in your organization, an advisory firm made up of two or three people can be perceived as negligent. What happens if that single strategist is no longer there to consult with you? What’s the contingency plan?

We can find a way where you remain autonomous, independent and strategic, but we can collectively build a bench of shared resources and economies of scale so each individual and firm can do what they’re best at.

How do you envision the breakdown between your benefits advising role and these other responsibilities?

In the near term, it will probably be a lot more about advising in order to build these collaborative networks. So I’m having one set of conversations with small and mid-sized business owners, because no matter where they are in the country, they have a very similar set of frustrations in the benefits space. How do we aggregate the small businesses so that they, too, can build out solutions? I’m doing a lot of that right now. It’s a lot of advising, benefits education, and continuing to open employers’ eyes to what can be. In the near-term, I’m looking forward to having a team of passionate individuals who are leading that charge and who are empowered to put their visions into action and help people. That stuff becomes contagious.

It will be fascinating to hear from employers about their perspectives, their “aha” moments and how their journeys are progressing. In particular, I think it will be interesting to hear about trends in the mental health space. For example, in the fire department and first responder culture, there has historically been a “suck it up, buttercup” mentality, but they’re now seeing that focusing on emotional wellbeing should be mandatory. There has been a huge pivot. The more of us who are aware of the problem, the easier it will be to normalize these discussions and do a huge collective lift together.

How do you stay motivated and positive and not become discouraged?

I have no tolerance for abuses of power. I’m a live and let live kind of person, but I will do everything in my power to help those who are being victimized. That’s an inextinguishable fire within me. I haven’t always properly buffered myself, though. Learning about setting boundaries and that “no is a complete sentence” are very new concepts to me!

Because I can get so focused on helping others, righting wrongs and trying to fix the system, I need to sometimes step back and balance that out with “OK, rather than immediately charging in or automatically falling in with others on social media, for example, where someone might be on a soap box and bashing away, I need to go into stealth mode. I usually want to observe and have more one-on-one conversations to strategize and take a different type of approach. I won’t stop trying to level the playing field, but I’ve learned that I also need to balance that intention and then respond rather than react. It really comes down to having healthy boundaries so I’m strong enough to fight each day.

Finish this sentence: The key to success in this industry going forward is…

Compassion and connection. It all starts with the deep understanding that we’re connected and that we’re all in this together.