The opportunities are endless: A Q&A with Erin Issac

Paul Wilson: How did you get your start in the benefits industry?

I got into insurance when my sister opened up a State Farm agency. I came to help her, but I hated it. Personal lines was not my forte; I thought I would only be there for a bit, but she decided that career wasn’t for her anymore and left the agency. So I took over servicing her book of business combined with those of a few other agencies and did that for a while as I tried to figure out what was next.

I had my P&C and life and health licenses, so I started looking for areas where I could put my skills to good use. I was attracted to benefits because of the idea of helping an organization, rather than selling an individual policy.

I came into benefits working at a P&C agency, where I spent the bulk of my career. We had a benefits department inside an agency that made their bread and butter through P&C.

It was a great place to learn, but about five years in, I started to notice that year after year, we were saying, “Here’s your renewal. There’s only one other option; it’s not as good. Here’s what you’ve got.”

It became demoralizing and I started thinking, “This isn’t fulfilling; I don’t feel like I’m helping people or can do good here.” I started looking outside our industry and thinking it might be time to make a shift. A recruiter reached out to me about an opportunity at a similar P&C agency, so I said I’d interview, but I really thought I was exiting benefits. I was presented with an opportunity to build a benefits department at the company; to have full rein and be able to build it up from the foundation. So that created new excitement to have an opportunity to do something different and see what else was out there.

I started reaching out to industry peers, developing mentors in the industry, and learning what they were doing. They were a great resource as we built up a very successful department in a couple of years. But one of the things I noticed while working with mentors is that a lot of them were independent benefits brokers. They were solely there for their clients. It was the one thing they did, and they did it very well, so I started to lean toward that idea. My big year of disruption came in 2021, when I was pregnant with my third child. To use a sports analogy, the owner of our company decided to bring in a new head coach and when I had conversations about the transition, I was told, “He can bring in new players or fire old ones if he wants.”

I stuck it out for a few months, but that transition changed their direction. They headed more toward a legacy type of brokerage that is looking for whales and big payouts. And that wasn’t how we had built the department. That was my catalyst to realize that it wasn’t the right place for me anymore. I thought, “I’ve built this for someone else, but why not build it for myself?” PW: How did you move into your current role?

The idea had been bubbling in March of 2020, about three weeks before COVID hit. So I decided to squash the idea for a while! But as the shift in my life started to happen, it felt like the right time. I had seen a few different sides of the business and knew it was time to do it myself using everything I had learned over the past 10 years, from being frustrated with the industry, to trying to create change and collaborate with other mentors, to realizing, “I think this is the best step forward and I have big ideas about how I want to work with clients and employees.”

PW: How has the process gone so far?

I’m one year in and still a solopreneur. My goal for this year is to get to a place where I can bring in my first hire. Our tagline is, “Insurance sucks, choose Joy.” That was a big focus for me; people hate talking about open enrollment, benefits renewals, their insurance. You can see them deflate, so it’s about bringing energy, holding their hand and helping them realize it doesn’t have to be that difficult; they’re not alone.

A big motivation for the agency was to engage, equip and empower. I wanted to do that both on the employer level and also directly with the employees. I think our industry has done a huge disservice by telling people, “this is too complicated; you won’t understand.” We’ve said that for so long that people now believe it and shut down when it comes to the education side of things. So that’s where you really have to engage, be creative, be joyful and have fun with insurance!

PW: What have been the high points of the past year?

One highlight that will always stand out was a two-person group, a medical office with a physician and an assistant. She was considering no longer offering health insurance and I came in and was able to save them $14,000 annually by looking at a few outside of the box strategies.

A few months later, she let me know she had just hired a new person on their staff. That’s what I’m here for; that win with a two-person group that would be easy to ignore or discount as too small. Every single person matters, whether it’s a group of two, 200 or 2,000. To ignore a certain segment because we think they’re too small or don’t produce enough commission or revenue is no longer tolerable. We need to reach everyone. So that was one of my greatest wins so far.

Another highlight is the collaboration I’ve seen. Sometimes when you’re working for agencies, there are egos: “We’re the best; no one does it better than us.” That can make it hard to get to know what other people are doing and exchange ideas. I’ve had incredible advisors in my neighborhood — Tanya Boyd, Bret Brummitt, Dan LaBroad — reach out to me. The month before I opened my agency, every single one of them sat down with me in person and said, “What can we do to help?”

That’s one of the things I love the most about our industry; it’s so rare to take down walls and barriers and let go of our ego. I love to tell people that I work with the best. If I don’t know the answer, I have peers and mentors in the industry who I can go to and collaborate with.

PW: And what have been the biggest challenges?

I would say resistance to change. I didn’t have a non-compete when I opened up, so there were a few people where I thought, “I’ve done great business with them in the past; we can work together.” I called them and they said, “Call me next year at renewal.” So that was a reminder that people are comfortable with what they know, even if it’s not the best fit for them.

There’s also a comfort in what they consider a larger company — some people assume that it automatically means they know what they’re doing. So I’ve had to face that, build up my expertise and show this is who I am, this is what I’m doing, and this is why I have a solid foundation to show they’d be safe in my care.

I got an email from a prospect this week telling me that they were facing a 27% increase. This is a church and they’re going to have to take this increase or put in a lower plan and push the cost to the employees to buy up to the better plan. She said, “I just don’t have any capacity or bandwidth left to look at anything else right now.” And I think that’s where we are as a society.

With technology, social media, side hustles and second jobs, we’ve become a world that pushes ourselves to our absolute limits. We work until we collapse at the end of the day. So when we are talking to the CFO or HR about benefits, they often don’t have the capacity to think about change and are willing to take increases to not disrupt or do something they see as hard.

PW: How do you filter out noise and find the right partners and solutions?

When I first launched, I took every meeting, because I could. It was a beautiful place to start and I would say “yes” to most invitations to hear about new products. I’m so grateful I did that, because there were times I would go in a little bit dubious or skeptical, but by the time the call was over, I could see their vision. As I’ve grown, I’ve leaned more into asking mentors and peers what works for them. I have a couple of collaboration groups where I can talk to people across the country and seek guidance and advice. That has taken precedence in my decision making.

PW: How are discussions about change going?

That meter of receptivity has everything to do with the team’s bandwidth. It’s not necessarily the size of the company that matters; it’s about where that company has decided to invest their resources and personnel. When I come across a group that doesn’t have a lot of backend or HR support, there’s often a lot more resistance. When people have a little more bandwidth to do research and educate themselves, they’re more aware that opportunities are out there and more willing and able to explore them.

To convince most people to undergo a big shift and face disruption, they have to be in a place where they say, “I’m sick and tired of paying these rates or of having this service.” Sometimes, people don’t know how badly they’re getting screwed over. They’ve come to accept it as the norm, so you have to educate them. That can pique their interest in looking at something different.

PW: How can the industry bring in younger and more diverse candidates?

The industry has been an amazing career for me and I feel blessed. There’s such a huge opportunity to differentiate by doing it right. We’re all trying to right a ship that has gone horribly wrong and there are a lot of opportunities to come in and help. But historically, we’ve brought in people who look a lot like us. There are a lot of family relationships in our industry and we look to college campuses or other familiar places, but we need to share opportunities in places where we haven’t previously looked.

There’s a program called STARs, which stands for “skilled through alternative routes.” It works with people who have received education and training outside of college and uses the DEI movement and HR resources to reach out to people with lower incomes who are living in inner cities, and have incredible work ethics but lack opportunities to know this industry would welcome them.

PW: What would you say to someone thinking of joining the industry?

One group I think about are low-income single parents. This industry provides stable income with incredible growth opportunities and it’s pretty recession-proof. The opportunities are endless. So that’s what I’d lead with, along with the fact you get to help effect change for people when they need it most.

I don’t have a bachelor’s degree and I’ve found success in this industry. I know another incredibly successful advisor who only has her high school diploma. We receive so much on the job training, certifications, and many opportunities to learn. We need to open up to those who aren’t in that collegiate space.

PW: What are your favorite things about your job?

I love the way we get to collaborate with people on an individual level. It’s all about sharing moments in people’s lives. We get the opportunity to look behind the curtain; to walk with people as they experience things that bring them joy or break their hearts. It doesn’t happen every day, but when we can put the right plan in place and gain their trust, that gets me excited.

PW: Do you believe the industry is truly changing?

Our industry has historically been pale, male and stale. But I have so much hope coming out of the BenefitsPRO Expo. Looking around, it became obvious that the face of our industry is changing.

I had a conversation about diversity with Jessica Woods in the hallway. My husband’s family is from India and I have biracial children. Although my employer wouldn’t see that when I was going to interview, it matters a lot to me. Jessica told me she tells employers, “You don’t know who your employees love.” When we’re looking at the people to whom we’re offering benefits, we must realize that they have families and people they love. We don’t know what matters to them unless we’re asking the questions. That’s why diversity and inclusion is now more important than ever.

Related: 9 in 10 employers plan to change health and wellbeing vendors in 2023 or 2024

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

Educating and empowering anyone outside of our industry.