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Transcript

Ryan Eaton: Welcome to another episode of the Insurance Leadership Podcast, I'm Ryan Eaton your host and here today to wrap up our 2024. We've had a great year, we've had speakers that have been with the secret service talking on leadership, we've been talking about AI and technology. We've had general agents in to be able to talk about what they do and the value they bring to the table, as well as carrier roles in the market.

It has been a great year and I can't wait for you to be able to sit back and be able to watch some of the highlights from 2024 and on behalf of Insurance Leadership Podcast, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you very much.

Obviously the Monday meetings are big for us to hit a lot of different topics and try to keep it concise for everybody but we had one literally last week that was something big that popped up for our organization.

Rick: And outside of the Monday meeting.

Ryan Eaton: The outside of the Monday meeting, it was a Wednesday, a Thursday, and it was one of those things it was like, all right, we all need to talk about this. Three or four of us were at the office at the time, another one was coming back to the office after a meeting and another one was outside for the day and so we called them on the phone and said, look, we need 15 minutes for us to all talk about it. And we got there and talked about it and some people thought one way, some people thought another way and other people thought completely different. And but that's where I think if, as long as you realize that everyone has the best intentions everyone might have a different opinion and not that it's right, not that it's wrong but listen to all the input so you can gather all the data and be able to make the best decision but I think collaboration like that on big things, when they come up, Hey, you do need to get different perspectives

What my mentor has always said. He said, if you want to be successful, speak to people in the manner in which they want to be spoken to. And that's exactly what you guys are doing, and obviously shows why you're a success. Did your leadership team, what do y'all do pushing this out to say, Hey, this is where we're going, this is what we're headed after, do y'all do team meetings? Is there a video that goes out to your whole teams? What do you do to make sure you keep that in front of everyone so that everyone's knows where you're going, you got that kind of priority and that focus straight ahead of you.

Kyle Dietz: Yeah and listen, we have tried a number of different things right over, over the years in terms of what the best method is for goal setting, for alignment, for accountability, and what we've found is we use an OKR process so objectives and key results. And as you mentioned, Robin and I, come up with what our objectives are for 2024. And we'll bring those out to the organization and we'll let the department leaders put forth some of the key results that are going to hold them accountable to hit those objectives.

Marc Flood: I started my career, I honestly couldn't spell insurance. I took a job as an administrative marketing assistant for a local TPA. So we were doing self funded groups and MiWAs and that kind of programs, and we transitioned quickly into ancillary lines of business so voluntary benefit worksite type programs, and we ultimately built out a technology platform, which was state of the art, it was one of its kind, it was the first ever quote by print quoting and enrollment tool in the insurance market for individual health insurance plans. So it was really exciting to be like the pioneers and bring in technology into the insurance world, a big lift.

Chad Hogan: And so I actually look at AI and saying, it's going to force us as humans to transcend, up our game, and become better at what we do and how we interact, right? And we'll get comfortable with interacting with a machine on the monotonous.

Ryan Eaton: That's right.

Chad Hogan: But, I think there's always going to be a place, even, people are trying to AI the crap out of insurance shopping right now. There is no replacement for an agent. I think Zenefits, learned that lesson the hard way. Said there. There's no replacement for an agent. Yeah, I think AI will actually force us as humans to up our game.

Ryan Eaton: Here's get a personal question for you.

Chad Hogan: Sure.

Ryan Eaton: How have you used AI personally in your own life to maybe simplify something or knock something out for you?

Chad Hogan: I think there's the novelty of it.

Ryan Eaton: Yeah.

Chad Hogan: Write me a ten paragraph essay comparing Star Wars with the Bible. Or something like that, right? Okay, once the novelty wears off, so we took a family vacation over the holidays here. And it was a cruise, we went to some islands and places I've never been.

Ryan Eaton: Very cool.

Chad Hogan: Give me a itinerary for a family for five hours on the island of Aruba. Or whatever it is.

Ryan Eaton: That's smart.

Chad Hogan: And it goes, okay, here's the top things to see. Boom boom. We recommend doing it in this order, so you can traverse this way. Come on that was hours, as a dad, that was hours of research.

Ryan Eaton: Yes.

Chad Hogan: To make sure I had an itinerary ready for our family.

Ryan Eaton: And submitting ten lead forms on these different travel platforms.

Chad Hogan: Yes. Exactly. That's how I've personally used it.

Tom Dimmer: It was an exciting time. A lot of people looked at me and they thought, you're nuts. Individual and I go, I got a gut feeling that this is, this thing's going to turn.

Ryan Eaton: And David White always said that too. People were like, what are you selling one dental plan at a time? It's $2 commission. And he was like, yeah, but you're going to sell a thousand. And that was all his mindset.

Tom Dimmer: I love David's analogy on that. He is spot on. It took me years to figure that out, but he was right.

Ryan Eaton: That's right.

Brendan McLoughlin: When a family goes out into the open market to buy life insurance, health insurance. It's mission critical for them. This is their lives and their health, and the health of their life and their family. And our clients make that happen. Our clients are the trusted advisor that those families depend on, to be well. That is an incredible responsibility. And E123, every single person that works for the company feels that to the bone. If we do our job well, if our technology works, people are getting what they need to keep their families safe and healthy. And that's something that we actually take really seriously.

Ryan Eaton: That's good.

Brendan McLoughlin: So if the phones ring at nine o'clock at night, I don't ask anybody to work if they're not on call, if it's not their job, but everybody in the company would. Take anybody in the company would.

Ryan Eaton: That's good.

Brendan McLoughlin: Right? If a client needs help at nine o'clock at night, out folks step up and they answer that call and we celebrate. So from a leadership standpoint, something like AI to me is no different than something like a customer service mindset. You got to understand why we matter, why do we get out of bed in the morning? Cause when you went to three, when we do our job it actually helps people's lives. And if we don't, and they get set up with the wrong product or something that's not gonna take care of their family in a time of need. It's a real detriment.

Richard Lett: Because sometimes people make decisions and they're thinking about the individual decisions. I said, just back up a little bit here. What's the worst can happen? What's the outcome? What are we trying to achieve here? Who are the stakeholders or whatever? And just try and put some perspective in it and say, you know what? You've got time. And so you can actually slow time down for somebody. By just coming in without, I've seen it the other way where someone's hovering and they're pushing and they're pushing and actually then people, they shrink and their ability to think and make decisions actually goes the other way. But so you've got to come in and you've got to go, you know what Ryan, we're doing okay. Actually right now everybody's safe or the situation's under control and what's the worst that could happen. And at that point tell me what you need, and if it's just for me to back off and give you time, do you need more resources, do I need me to stop doing that, put these people onto you, do you need an idea, just tell me so at this point, all I'm trying to do is how do I get to the outcome, not put pressure, and a lot of, again, younger leaders put pressure on thinking that you can squeeze and squeeze. No, people don't think well that way.

Ryan Eaton: So your rule would be, relieve the pressure from your team to get to the outcome, allow them to think to get to the outcome that you're trying to get to. Is that correct?

Richard Lett: And know that there's not going to be any blame. I have trusted you to do it and I've trusted you with that outcome, whether it's an RFP or it's a response to a thing, whatever the outcome is, I still own the outcome.

Suril Kantartia: Security is definitely the right thing to focus on. And it's something we're uniquely focused on because we've we have experience building technology for insurance and we know how critical it is to get data security. I think just, I want to touch on your broader question about, fears of using AI. AI is a fundamental change in the way we use technology. I think it's like the internet, like the personal computer, like the smartphone. And when these tools came out, people had many of the same concerns. People weren't sure if their information was safe or if the tools could be trusted.

Mikel Cook: When I got started with fax machines and melanin group apps and checks and all of that get processed. And it's moving so fast so you have to stay up with it and with tools and technology, it helps you be more efficient. And as a general agent, it's also we're relying on our carrier partners. So our carriers have great tools, great systems, and it's having those relationships with the carriers, knowing who to go to, to get problems issues solved and quickly. So I think it's a combination of leveraging tools technology, and our carrier partners that helps us to scale and grow.

Mark Lampen: One of our best brokers has been writing with us for about 12, 13 years gap business. Bob Blankenship he's about an hour south and Bob knows his product inside out. But I treat my brokers as a team, even though he's sold, I don't know how many groups over the years. He still wants me to go on the presentations with them. We work as a team and it gives when you bring in a new idea, to it to an employer, to think outside the box, when you bring someone with the expertise that I do a company rep and they're meeting with you face to face. Gives a lot of that validity, to the product. It gives them a little bit of comfort.

Ryan Eaton: That wraps up 2024. We can't tell you how much we appreciate you listening in, remember a good plan today is better than a great plan months from now. Thank you very much.