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Transcript

Casey Combest: Hey everybody, and welcome to the Insurance Leadership Podcast. I'm your host for today's episode, Casey Compass, and I'm here with my two other co-hosts, Ryan Eaton and Ben Markland. Welcome, guys.

Casey Combest: Welcome. Y'all doing okay today? Great, man. Good, good. As we wrap up this year, what major shifts have you guys seen in the insurance landscape? Especially in how brokers and carriers are adapting to this market.

Ben Markland: As always in the industry, costs continue to rise. And you know, the agent's role really is kind of adapting to that and helping the customers figure out solutions. And I think really to combat the rising costs, brokers are starting to embrace non-insurance products—wellness, telemedicine, mental health, financial wellness.

We see people even jumping into cybersecurity. You know, some of these big companies—I'm sure you guys have seen in the news—get hit with a cyberattack, and that could turn your world upside down pretty quickly. So, you know, these are things that insurance agents might not have been thinking about years ago, and now it's becoming another arrow in their quiver that they're having to talk to businesses about.

So, you know, that's one thing I think a lot of agents are really—in the last few years probably were kicking and screaming a little bit more. But now if you're not adopting digital tools, you're going to be left behind pretty quickly.

So we're seeing some situations where they're partnering with tech companies. “Insurtech” is a term they're using now to kind of define these digital platforms—enrollment tools, quoting platforms. So we're seeing a lot of agents' kind of start to embrace that. And I think just the bar has been raised quite a bit with employers as far as what their employees need.

And the role of an HR person, you know, they want technology, they want things to be easy. You know, we're living in a world where most of these people grew up buying things on Amazon, and we're trying to kind of compare that experience. So to me, that's something agents are really having to adapt to in a world where a lot of them, especially kind of the older generation, did things on handshakes and pen and paper, and, you know, some of these things we're helping them here at Morgan White kind of move into that more technology-forward environment.

So that's one of the things we're seeing that they're really having to do to kind of adapt to what they need.

Ryan Eaton: And to add to that, I heard yesterday—I had a guy who's the compliance officer with a company and he was moving their self-funded plan to another administrator, and I said, did that administrator mess up? Did they do anything wrong?

Was their PBM not correct? He said no. He said they did everything great on that front, he said. But the tools that I'm using with them to be able to pull claims data and analyze claims data are not efficient in today's environment. He was moving to another one that, he said, may not do quite as good a job on some things, but their technology—I can get all the information I need like that.

And he said, I'm not having to run reports and pull up cells and set up pivot tables and everything else to try to get the data he needs. I think, Ben, to your point, it is something that people are trying—it's as easy as you can make it for the consumer from a technology standpoint. It's huge in today's market.

Casey Combest: Yeah. And no matter what you're buying, it's super competitive out there. And thankfully we have choices. And that's where you see which one is the best and easiest for you.

Ryan Eaton: That's right. Yeah.

Ben Markland: And our industry has been pretty resistant to that.I mean.

Casey Combest: yeah, that's true. That's true for you. If

Ben Markland: you look at, you know, insurance carriers in general, I mean these are monstrous ecosystems of data and information.

Yet a lot of it's so old. Yeah. I mean, and it's almost impossible to go into a situation like that and make a big change. I mean, there's going to be a ripple effect that kind of comes down, but they're really being pushed now by the employees

Ryan Eaton: And I would say that too —a lot of people don't realize with changing technology what all it takes because there are so many things that go into it. And we saw it last week in something even with our own technology—a group was not paying by draft or ACH, they wanted to still pay by check. And so they were sending their check on the 15th of each month. Well, coverage starts on the first of the month. The file feeds are going across on the first of the month, so they're a month late on getting the correct file feeds, which messes up the bill, which messes up the other information. And if you don't have all those things synced and automated, even if your employer or your individual is still wanting to do something the old-school way, all the new technology—it may mess up the functions and systems and timing of everything.

And so it's really one of those things just as a society, too—we've got to realize that to be able for things to work like we want them to work, we have to adapt to new technology. Right?

Casey Combest: And guys, we are on the cusp of Q4—we're in Q4 even—and I know for you guys, I feel like y'all walk about 20% faster when I see you in Q4. You guys are busy. Two more cups of coffee. You get to work on the coffee. I know this is just such an intense time for you guys.

As you're looking at this year compared to last year, what changes are you guys seeing, maybe with who you're working with or what you guys are doing internally? Especially how it relates to supplemental and gap products?

Ryan Eaton: Well, I would say there—I was talking to a Blue Cross Blue Shield rep the other day, and I think a lot of carriers are seeing heavy rate increases across the country right now. You get Blue Cross, United—the big boys out there—we're seeing a lot of rate increases. And I asked him, I said, from your side, why do you think these rate increases are happening? He said, well, obviously, price inflation. Right—medical inflation has kicked in. You get some of that.

Everything's gone up 30 and 40% since COVID, new negotiated contracts with providers, all that type stuff, which you would think. But he said also the difference—he said, think about it. Twenty years ago, how often did you go to the doctor? Now think about it—people go to the doctor for everything. So it's a lot of utilization out there, even the small things. And not to say anything bad about the medical providers, but a lot of them, to cover themselves, “Oh, well, we might need to get a CT scan or MRI or something like this.” And what does that do? It just drives up the cost of care because it's continuing to hit that medical plan. And so those type things will continue to raise rates. And because of that, it does open the door for us in the supplemental space.

A lot of people still to this day ask, “Well, how can you do it cheaper than the major medical plan?” It's not that we're doing it cheaper, but we don't have those million-dollar claims because our benefit structure stops at usually roughly about $10,000. So we don't have that end-stage renal disease or the kidney failure or the heart attacks and strokes.

It only pays us for a certain amount. For those guys—major medical carriers—it continues to go. And so that's kind of one of the things I'm hearing and seeing in the market. I've also seen, as I got on here, carriers and TPAs exiting the market. And so what we've seen on that front is in our gap and supplemental space, I've seen three to four carriers right now either pull out of the market completely or non-renewing all their products before year-end.

Casey Combest: So what—why is that?

Ryan Eaton: Different ones, different things. To me, I think personally a lot of people jumped into the space because they saw it as being an option. They came in—they're a little too low. Maybe their actuarial numbers were off. Maybe they just tried to buy some business. But the problem with that is you come in too low, a lot of times you don't have all the claims.

The first year you needed a little bit of runoff, so they gave them a rate hold when they really needed a rate increase because they didn't have all the data at that point, because they're able to make decisions, you know, maybe 120 to 90 days out before renewal.

And then what you see is they end up taking a bigger hit on the second year because they didn't give that rate increase. So a lot of these carriers are two, three years in, and they just pull out. And so what that does is it causes change. It's a good thing for us. It's a negative thing when they come in and they're offering the lower rate that is really probably priced too low. But at the same time, for us it's opened up a lot of doors, and we've seen our highest year ever by probably 30% right now. So it's been a good thing from us on that standpoint. That's some of the stuff I'm seeing.

Ryan Eaton: Ben, what about you?

Ben Markland: Yeah. Well, I think the unintended side effect of that is it can cause some hesitation with agents in providing new solutions to a group. Could even be the group—“Hey, look, I'm going to tell you about this gap plan option.” A year later the company is gone and it's, “Okay, what do I do now?”

Right? You end up with a little egg on your face in that situation. And I think we've also seen the importance of administrative services. So a lot of the carriers outsource that. And they use TPAs—a third-party administrator—Morgan White being one of them. That is your kind of bridge to your customer.

And you could be doing everything correct as an insurance carrier, but if you lose a TPA, you're still sunk. You know, so you're losing the piece of the pie there. And then kind of all the dominoes start falling for you, and it puts you in a little bit of a bind.

As far as partnerships—I know you asked specifically about gap products—but one of the things that I've seen a little bit more on the individual side is creating more partnerships with ICHRA administrators.

So companies that are providing individual coverage HRA—and they're taking, you know, in some situations, maybe a group plan that either was too cost-prohibitive to continue, or maybe even offering insurance for the first time for a small business.

They're using —I don't want to say new laws anymore—but arrangements that have been put in place for about five years now to provide dollars to their employees, where they go choose their own insurance and kind of really flipping the whole thought process that we've had in group insurance upside down. And, hey, you know, rather than an HR person choosing insurance for your entire company, we're going to give you money. And, you know, the needs for insurance for a healthy 24-year-old—putting myself like, I'm 24, I'm not even close.

But—or you know, maybe a married 45-year-old with multiple kids—their insurance needs could be different, and the dollars that they want to spend on that could be different.

And to Ryan's credit—you know what they're going to the doctor for—maybe a 24-year-old is looking more for catastrophic coverage, but they may want something for mental wellness. You know, maybe they want to talk to someone. So I mean, if you've got dollars to spend, you can kind of—you know, almost like any other way we shop. In most situations, we go shop for things, we research it, and we find out what we want.

Whereas employment has become synonymous with insurance because it's part of a benefit for working somewhere. And I know we have some other questions on that, which I want to get into, but you know, as far as us being a provider of individually billed products, we've found that there's more and more agents starting to talk about these extra arrangements.

And because of that, we're finding more partnerships that really wasn't something we were talking about a few years ago.

Casey Combest: So that's great. So going back to these significant players exiting or changing their strategy—as we look into 2026—what are some things that we can learn from their changes?

Ryan Eaton: Man, watch out for private equity. I hate to say that. Over-leveraged. Yeah, that's a big one. We saw a great—TPA name will be unsaid—but great TPA, great leaders, had a very rough year when they sold to private equity a few years ago. Just in short, they weren't hitting the numbers that private equity wanted.

Well, they end up filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy—complete liquidation. And what that did was it put all the carriers that they were administering for in a bind, because Chapter 7—your doors are shut, systems are locked.

So all of a sudden that data can't get out there. They don't have it. All the members, all the groups, everything else—all the agents getting paid commission— everything's locked. And sometimes those go rather quickly—30 to 45 days before it gets to a spot—but that doesn't happen overnight.

And for 45 days to be in limbo—you're trying to go in to have a surgery and the provider's trying to verify you have insurance coverage—well, the phone is not working or no one's answering it.

That's a problem. And so we saw some of that this year. And I think you just got to be careful with companies that are owned by private equity, because there's always a chance of that type of stuff happening. I also saw tenure in the market being a big thing.

You look at people who've been in a space for 10, 20, 30 years— they've got staying power. They've been there, they know it. They know how to weather the storms. A lot of these companies that come in—fly-by-night—and they may be a big company, but to them, as a buddy of mine says, it's the red-headed stepchild. It's the little thing. So it's easy to say, “Let's just cut that off.

Let's not do that anymore.” When you've got, you know, $100 billion in your company and this thing's only generating you $30 million in premium and maybe losing money, it's easy to stop it. Well, that just creates problems and issues along the way. So that is something that's still fresh on our mind because we're still kind of handling some of the ripple effects that come from it.

But, I would say even for us, looking at contracts—we have two or three different deals going right now that we're working on trying to get across the finish line. It's made us—from a compliance, legal, audit standpoint—have to look way more closely at those, to be able to make sure, hey, are we covered? Do we have a letter of credit there to protect us if something happened? If we're sending all the risk to these guys, and they go poof or they disappear or whatever the case may be?

So I do think that's a lesson to learn to be able to look at. And then Ben mentioned this at the very beginning, but the hacking of insurance companies right now—there are programmers out there right now specifically trying to hack insurance companies in the United States, and they're trying to get that data because they can sell that data.

We had one of our partners recently have a data breach, and we found out about it past the time that they were supposed to let us know—we found out from another partner. And so there's a lot of compliance in this type stuff as well, that you have to follow and check the boxes and do things like you're supposed to.

But I would say protecting data—A lot of times people send stuff in emails right now that they're sending unsecurely instead of encrypted, and no one likes to have to go in there and enter a password and remember the password and all that type stuff. I get that 100%. But I would say that is—I mean, if you're an agency or you're a small company and you have one of these data-type breaches—it can cost millions, and it can wipe your company out.

So I would say on that—that's something as well that I've learned this year, and unfortunately I've seen. Fortunately it's been someone else's ditches, but unfortunately we still have to deal with it. So those are some of the biggest ones I've learned this year.

Casey Combest: Yeah. Well, if you guys had to sum up this year in one word or a few words, how would you sum up the insurance industry?

Ben Markland: I'd say “adaptive.” You know, things continue to shift, and we have to shift with it. One of the things that I'm starting to hear a lot more about is artificial intelligence. And that's something actually on the property-casualty side has been in use for much longer than what we're doing. And I'm starting to see—you know, once again, we keep talking about these massive amounts of data. And what can artificial intelligence do for us with that?

It can become 10,000 people ingesting that data and making something out of it—whether it be, you know, for an agent using that information to help get their customer the best deal, whether it be a TPA potentially using AI to handle the simpler customer service issues, whether it be a carrier using it to take a look at claims information and decide what rates may be.

So, you know, I think it's funny—with my car insurance, if I get in a wreck, I can take a picture of the damage and they will, you know, give me a quote, and I know it's going to be the lowest possible amount to get me to take the money, instead of actually going to a body shop and figuring out what it should be.

But that's all artificial intelligence. Now, the great thing though is I still think what we do is a high-touch industry, so I don't think AI will ever replace an agent. What I think it can do is make them better. It can take the remedial, repetitive stuff off their plate and allow them to do more of the tasks that really they got in this industry to do.

They became an expert advisor on those things. So, you know, I know that's long-winded, but I guess my word is “adaptive” for the industry. And I think we will continue to do that.

Ryan Eaton: Yeah—I'd give it two words: “busy” and “change,” and kind of “adaptability.” A lot of stuff's been said—it's changing; it's ever-changing. Whether it's —whether you're dealing with self-funded type plans, PBMs, and trying to figure out the laws that change, that go along with it, that you have to be able to adapt to—or whether it's in our industry what we've seen this year: players getting out of the market, players having issues that ended up bringing business and being able to handle and adapt to that.

Or in the individual space—there's been a ton of changes on that front. And I mean, even on that side of it as well, there have been a lot of big players that had some issues this year, and that business starts moving. And so it's something that—it's been a challenging year.

And I think it will continue. I'm with you—I think AI is going to make us stronger, make us better, make us sharper. I told someone the other day—and this is a great hack for everyone listening in—I did not know that in AI or in Chat you can take a PDF and tell it to summarize it for you. So I had a meeting in Charleston, and I got a 350-page document sent to me on Friday afternoon—“Hey, here's for our meeting on Monday.”

I was like, “Come on, man, really?” And so that Monday morning I was in a meeting before we left and I said, you know, you can drop that in ChatGPT and ask it to give you a three-page summary. I dropped that thing in there so quick, and I got it back—it gave me a three-page summary, and I felt like I knew it just as good as anybody who had looked at it.

And so there are a lot of things like that that it can do just to help your individual insurance agents that may not be dealing with the TPAs and the carrier systems and all that type stuff, but there's a lot of things that will make it easier to understand stuff and be able to give us the information we need quicker.

Casey Combest: It seems like any new technology like that, there's this pendulum swing, right?

Ryan Eaton: Oh yeah.

Casey Combest: It's like we use it too much or not enough. And then it, over time, finds that sweet spot—where does AI integrate into what they're already doing and make them better? That's right. Talking about young talent—how are you guys seeing developing young talent and just the importance of that?

Ryan Eaton: I think it's critical. I think—you know, I hate to say it, but I came into the industry when I was 22. Now I'm 42, and it feels like it was two or three years ago. And I know over the past 20 years, I have not spent the time that I needed to developing the next generation.

And you know, it's one of those things—it should last, right? But it doesn't take priority because it's not an immediate problem. But the problem is, if you don't invest in those people today, tomorrow, when you need them, they won't have what they need to be able to do what you need them to do. And so we've got some young talent on our team and they're doing a phenomenal job. And we have tried to do a better job this year of taking them and getting them out in the field and meeting with different people. If I had to give an example of someone who I think is doing it great, it would be Crum & Forster.

This is a plug for them. They do a phenomenal job of hiring some younger guys. They bring them to the conferences, they let them sit in all the meetings, and they go to the different stuff, and they get them to help with a lot of the things that a lot of us might consider menial tasks. But that's how you learn it.

It's all that type stuff. It's the stuff you don't want to do that makes you learn it better. Everyone wants the nice steak dinner and, you know, to get the commissions that come in. But there's a million other little things that kind of go into those type deals. So that is one thing for next year&we're going to put more of a focus there, because in our department we've got so many people who have been doing it for 20 years now.

And we're all getting a little bit older. And if we don't start, there will be a lull. We will have a problem to some degree. So

Ben Markland: I think you hit the nail on the head too, Ryan, about getting out. You know, I think there are certain skill sets that have very much increased with the younger generation, whereas some that we might have expected are maybe not so much there.

And I'll use, you know, the tech-savviness—you don't even have to question that. I mean, nobody's walking in the door and doesn't know how to use Excel or email, whereas 20 or 30 years ago, you've got an old-timer sitting around, they may not do email. They might not do—well, I won't say names, but I know a few people—I know who you're talking about.

Ryan Eaton: Sorry, I did jump in there. So not saying names, but I just said, “Hey, can you hop in this meeting?” “Yeah, send me the Zoom thing.” They printed the Zoom thing, got someone to scan it in to us and then someone else sent by email the Zoom thing. It's like, “Am I supposed to enter that long address? I don't know how to do that.” It's—it's all right.

Ben Markland: Go to eat through the Amazon rainforest with printouts—to print out the whole internet. But the difference is those people can get out and sit at a table across from somebody and look them in the eye and have a conversation.

And I think with the younger generation—since COVID, many went to school online. I mean, a lot of them do the vast majority of things online. They may have 20,000 friends on their social media, but how many people do they really talk to? So I think, really, with the younger generation, we can almost put the tech-savviness to the side.

You don't have to invest as much there because they come in knowing it. But the other things—like doing a presentation in front of someone or making a cold call—people are very… I mean, I know, if I could name how many emails or phone calls I get a day where someone wants to sell leads—the good old-fashioned cold call still exists.

And that's something I think you can use technology to help you—“Hey, look at all these people. Maybe I can have some AI to figure out all these people in a certain area that don't have what I'm selling.” In any industry, you still got to go talk to them at some point.

Casey Combest: Yeah. Or be better equipped for that call. Yeah. Right. So AI can get you to the front door, but you've got to open it up and touch.

Ryan Eaton: Right.

Ben Markland: So I think that's just—with the younger generation—that's something we'll have to continue to focus on, because people are just getting less and less…people-ly.

That's a good, better word—100%. Much better. Good to say.

Casey Combest: Well, guys, as we're kind of getting close to our end here, I had a few more questions for you.

The individual and group markets are changing fast, but they require very different leadership styles. What lessons translate between the two?

Ryan Eaton: I would say, talking about different leadership styles and the different—you know, and I'll say this and I'm not building one up or tearing one down—but I do think they're different agents typically.

They're different approaches. Typically with a business, if you're going to meet with a group business, you typically are wanting to be more professional. You're wanting to have everything laid out; you're looking at more cost analysis. You're looking at a lot of different things. In the individual space, a lot of times it's someone who's called you and you're trying to help them with something.

Not all the time—there are a lot of people still out there grinding for it—but a lot of the time it's, “Hey, I need a dental plan,” or “Hey, I need…” and “How can you help me with this?” And you're giving them a solution. They're taking whatever you're giving them most of the time. Well, employers—they're trying to figure out how to save dollars.

They're trying to make sure that this plan will take care of everything that their 50 employees will need. Because if they don't, they're going to be getting 50 employees coming to them with questions. So when it goes into leadership styles there—this is kind of off the cuff—but leadership-wise, I think you're trying to develop a team from the group side that is more professional.

You're trying to get someone who understands the cost analysis, who's thinking like an employer would think. We all think like consumers because we are consumers—yes—but when you go to a group, you've got to be able to know, “Hey, I'm thinking about a business owner here who's not only just taking care of their employees, but also looking at their own financial books.”

So it's a little bit different thought process. And I think you've got to have leaders on those sales teams who understand that going in and are teaching it. And I think—there's a buddy of mine who owns a great shop in Alabama. He hires a lot of young people, and he's got a lot of older people, and he pairs them up—the older guys and the younger guys together. That way the younger guys can help the older guys with some of the stuff they may not be as good about, but the older guys can help the young guys think from a business standpoint that they, two years out of college, aren't thinking about.

So it's a good pair to be able to help go out. And I think realizing that from a leader standpoint is very intelligent—making sure you're pairing them up and they go in pairs together and they're both learning and training together. Off the cuff, that's what I would say to that one.

Casey Combest: Yeah. Kind of goes back to that mentorship.

Ryan Eaton: It does. It's important—very important.

Casey Combest: Well guys, as we're moving into 2026 quickly approaching, what are your big predictions for the industry this year?

Ryan Eaton: There—you know, it's hard. There are so many different segments of the insurance industry, right? Whether it's the carrier side, the administrative side, the brokerage side, the agency side, property-casualty, life and health—they're all different.

But I see it still being another record year. I think premiums will go up. I think you're going to see some premium dollars go up for everybody. I think you're going to see claims dollars go up for everybody, too. I mean, like I mentioned, the cyber insurance—we were reviewing our cyber insurance policy a few weeks ago where it was getting a 15–20% bump, but they're probably getting more than 15–20% claims increase overall—not with us, but with their whole block of business because of all the hacking that's going on.

I think people on the health-insurance side are continuing to use their medical more. And like we went over earlier—so I see premium numbers going up.

If I look at us as a company—2025 will be our best year we've ever had. We've had three record years in a row, which is phenomenal. And I'm looking down the pipeline and I don't see it stopping. I mean, it's really exciting. It's really good. I think people are getting more creative. I think you're having people try to get more into the insurance space and partner with people. A lot of partnerships going on right now, and I'll give you an example of that, because it might not make sense off the cuff. There's—I'll use this one—the Ritz-Carlton in Grand Cayman—wonderful hotel, by the way. But they take some of their own risk on their building. But then they wanted to get reinsurance. Well, they went locally to be able to get reinsurance. They've got to have an A-rated carrier to be able to do that. So we had someone approach us about being the fronting carrier for the reinsurance. So we get a fee for being the front-end carrier—it allows this guy who may not be as big to be able to take the reinsurance on that—but that got them into the market, and they weren't in the market previously. And we've seen probably 700 deals like that this year.

And so I say that—people are getting more creative on how to be able to take the risks they want. I saw a big steel company the other day; I was talking with a guy and he was saying, “Hey, we've been taking risks on ourselves through our captive. We're looking to try to do some stuff for some other people in the same industry that we feel like we can price correctly and help mitigate some costs and risks there.

Could we work with you guys potentially on you fronting? We'll handle all the stuff.” So I think people are trying to figure it out because costs are continuing to go up—“How can I take some of this and do it myself?” And so that's some of the different things I think we're looking forward to in the coming years.

Ben Markland: Yeah, the creativity thing—that was one of my thoughts too. And not even necessarily just on the carrier or TPA or provider side, but really the agents. I talked to a broker a couple of weeks ago, and this guy was doing ICHRA, reference-based pricing, self-funding for small groups, individual group—

I'm just like, wow. I mean, this guy's a killer out there. And I think that's a big shift from years ago when it was just, “Hey, we're going to do fully insured group insurance—and that's how it works.” So in order to combat the continuing rising costs—you talked about it on one side of the fence—the other side of the fence is you've got agents out there just trying to find solutions.

And I think the ones that are going to be creative are going to be the ones that win. And the guy that sits there just hanging on to, “I got my commission and this is all good, and we're going to play golf once a year”—unfortunately those guys are just going to lose ultimately.

Ryan Eaton: Yeah.

Ben Markland: Yeah, maybe once—if you're playing golf once a week, you've got a big enough block. But no, I think that—and obviously I know we keep going back to it—but I think AI is going to come into play not just for the carriers and not just for the service providers, but the brokers as well. I mean, you know, something as simple as a chatbot—those things are as cheap as a Netflix subscription now—to get a virtual agent to work for your company and answer simple questions. So I think it's going to continue to go on the tech side. There's a lot of venture-capital money going into Insurtech and a lot of these startups from out West.

And what they're trying to do is build a big company with big revenue and sell it. And, you know, we've seen some of these big multibillion-dollar acquisitions on the ben-admin side and some of these big tech companies. So, you know, if somebody catches lightning in a bottle, somebody is going to buy it from them eventually.

Right. And it's going to be for the good of everybody. But everybody's just looking for that little niche—“What can I do with technology?” And given that people are willing to fund my venture to figure that out, I think it's just going to keep making the industry adapt and get better.

Casey Markland: Well, as we wrap up, we haven't talked a ton about leadership. We talked about mentorship, changes, adapting. But I'd love to end on a note of who inspired you guys this year. Ben Markland: Mine's probably a more recent one. But you know what comes to my mind initially is Charlie Kirk—you know, obviously unfortunate kind of how that all went down—but I think it opened up the nation's eyes to the fact that there are people out there trying to communicate and trying to cross the aisle, willing to open up their heart and their mind to people that don't necessarily agree with them.

And I thought it was great that this guy went out there, and he really tried to empower the youth, who are not as interested in politics or—I mean, even faith, for that matter. I think he never hid his faith, which was something that I thought was extremely admirable. And that's just one.

I mean, I look at how my family reacted to that and, whereas it was sad, I was very proud—seeing the amount of interest and care that he got and what he was doing.

Ryan Eaton: So I thought I was going to be your guy.Yeah, yeah, well, that's why I joined six. Okay, I'll take the extra. Yeah. The guy who inspired me was my dad. As y'all know, he passed away earlier this year and I did not realize how much he was doing. I always knew he was busy. I knew he was taking care of things. But I see—I handle all his emails now.

The emails are still coming in, so I'm still getting all those and all the projects—tried to jump in there and take that. And there are several of us taking on a lot of that type stuff. And we're all, you know, now at 120% capacity, just taking on what he had, the stuff he's doing for my mom.

And just what a phenomenal man he was. He led all these Bible studies. He was reading five books on each book of the Bible before he did his lesson. You just saw so many different things—it's like, where did he find the time to do this? And he was writing books as well.

So relaxed. Yeah. And never got upset—it was… They lived a modern life and it was—But he inspired me. And it's funny sometimes—you know, I always told him how much I appreciated him, but I wish I would have told him more when he was here, because I see now more of what he was doing.

But that inspires you. It pulls you to another level as well, you know? I had a guy tell me—my pastor actually told me— He said Rick was like an oak tree. And I said, what do you mean? He said, “Rick was like an oak tree—no one knew how much shade he was providing for other people.”

And he said, you don't realize it until the oak tree is gone. And I was like, man. He said, “But when the oak tree's gone, it does give other trees more chance to grow so they can provide the shade.” And so that's what you've got to remember. So that was a big one for me.

A beautiful metaphor.Yeah. It was a blessing. And blessings to—

Casey Combest: Guys, thank you so much for today and this year of episodes. We hope that it's added a ton of value for you guys as well. And we're excited about 2026. Thank you so much for watching today.