Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hey, everybody, and welcome back to Confessions from the Home Office. I'm Wendy Hill, and each week I have a guest or we talk about marketing. I've had my marketing business for 20 years. Just celebrated my 20th anniversary from working from home. And today I have someone that can help you with all the changes that are going on with Medicare and retirement. I have Wes Wright here with me. Hey, Wes, thanks for having.
Yeah. So Wes is local. We know each other from the Greenville, South Carolina area, and he is with your Benefit Solutions. So, Wes, if you want to give us just kind of a. The. The walkthrough, you've had quite the career change over the past couple of years. And I want everybody to hear this because it's a cool story.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So I was a chef for about 16, 17 years, and kind of in the middle of that, I decided to open my own food truck. Not in the middle of it, sorry. Towards the latter end, and it was off of a dare with my wife. She was reading a newspaper article and she said, hey, come look at this food truck. And. And I. I looked at it and I said, well, I can do that. And she said, well, why not? And I said, let's do it. And so I went into Wells Fargo and came out with a loan. And next thing I knew, a couple weeks later, a food truck was delivered to my house that was a trailer, and we modified it. And I.
Yeah, I went out and I was not instantly successful.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Had to figure out the best places to go and, you know, what's a good day of sales? What's a waste of time to do? I actually wrote an ebook about that called how to Food Truck. Uh, but. But anyway, yeah, so I.
I had quite the journey.
So after I sold the food truck businesses, I went to work for Clemson's football team and their catering facility. I did that for. For a while. And I had some people approach me about opening a restaurant in Clemson. They wanted to partner with me and have like a steakhouse or, you know, something great for, you know, to make meet their friends with when they're in town. And so I almost opened up a barbecue steakhouse in Clemson where the alumni restaurant used to be. And we were meeting to sign documents that week when Two Weeks to Flatten the Curve happened. And.
Yeah. Yeah, so we were completely spared from opening a restaurant in one of the most tumultuous times to do that. And that, that hotel actually, from, from what I've been told, went out of business and became a Covid quarantine zone for the students. So I would have had a 10 year lease attached to a Covid quarantine zone. So I was completely spared and you know, super happy about that.
I've got some notes over here if I keep.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: No, you're fine, you're fine.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: So after that, during COVID I was working for a buddy of mine at a sales position and I injured my back and I actually, you know, ballooned up to 300 pounds and had all these health issues. And during the middle of COVID when, and got Covid several times and that was very scary. But throughout that sales position, I called a buddy of mine who had a Medicare agency in my hometown in Decatur, Alabama and he said, hey, I see you're having fun with a sales job and you're very successful. Have you ever thought about Medicare? And I had never thought about being in insurance. And he kind of told me what all he does and being in a restaurant is a young man's game. And with the back injury and how restaurants were shutting down, it was just the best thing for me to transition into a role like that. And I was.
Anyway, insurance is very difficult in the first year or two, but after that it's extremely rewarding. You get tons of referrals and it's, it's, it's, it's a very fulfilling job and a very successful job. I thoroughly enjoy what I do.
And I, I also went into it because my, what I saw my mom go through. So my mom was put into a plan where, you know, if you, if, if you're in certain types of plans that there's prior authorizations and the, the insurance company can choose not to pay for a surgery.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: And then that led my mom to being in long term care. And then she was in long term care for two and a half years. During COVID I couldn't see her. And she spent over $300,000 on long term care insurance, long term care expenses for, for two and a half years. And so I want to do everything I can to put people in the right plan and set them up for a successful, safe, comfortable retirement.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: So I'm going to jump back and kind of go off track here. I heard two things that were kind of a pattern. So you didn't think long and hard food truck business. It was a, it was a dare. And then you did a phone call with a friend and they mentioned Medicare. Like is it a gut feeling? You think it's divine intervention? Like a lot of people have to sit and think about it, think and overthink. I Can do that. But you, you kind of just went with, I mean, do you feel like your gut tells you what to do or.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: I do, and I'm not risk averse. Obviously. I opened up a food truck with a loan. I didn't, you know, pay cash for that thing. I, I kind of put my family in jeop a little bit. I.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Not jumping into something I'd never done before.
I, I have a note over here not to overshare, but I do, I do want to share a little overshare one little moment. I was so scared when I first opened up my food truck that I, I was, I would catch myself beginning to leave to go to an event or when I first started and I couldn't control it. I had, I had to throw up several times. First I was nervous and so scared. Jumping into things. I don't have any anxiety.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: It's the execution. You're like the follow up.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly. But, but no, I mean, the opening the food trucks was easily, easily the coolest thing I have ever done. I have so many memories. I met so many great people and had a ton of fun, but it was challenging. It was extremely challenging and a lot of really hard work. But I absolutely jumped in head first into going into insurance and starting a food truck business. You're right.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: Because I was thinking, you know, like my husband, I'll joke around and say we should start a business like that, but we know we're never going to do it. You know what I mean? Or if we did do it, we'd talk about it for six or nine months and you're like, hey, by tomorrow I've got this taken care of. I think that's cool. I think some of the really good things in life happen when you don't overthink, you know?
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Yes, I agree. I agree.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: So before moving into this role, so what lessons do you feel like you've learned that have helped you advise people how to get the right plans and how to get ready for retirement?
[00:07:07] Speaker B: I'm so sorry, I asked that one more time.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: So what kind of, what kind of experiences being an entrepreneur? Like, what lessons have you learned from being an entrepreneur that have helped guide you to help people figure out what they need?
[00:07:25] Speaker B: So I think sort of along the same lines as opening the food truck was risky.
And that feeling of putting my family at risk and being terrified and having so much anxiety.
People into retirement. Going into retirement, you don't want any anxiety. You don't want, you want everything buttoned up, pristine, safe, locked away. Everything's good to go.
When you're younger, you have time to recover from, from that. When you hit 65 and you're on Medicare, you really need to have some decisions made and plans buttoned up and ready to go.
I have learned.
I. So I sold my food truck businesses and I got quite a bit of money for that. I was given a large lump sum and when that happened as a young person, I paid off debt and I put a down payment on a house for when we moved to Seneca, South Carolina.
But I didn't put anything into an account that would work for me.
I didn't put my money to work. And I should have put, at least in retrospect, I should have put a little portion into something to start a retirement or to have some kind of savings that would grow on autopilot in the background.
So putting myself at risk really helped me realize probably what some retirees feel like when they hit 65 or, you know, they fear running out of money. They fear, you know, is this going to last? Is something going to happen around the corner with my health? And that, that those life lessons helped me see. Not that I've retired yet by any means, but it's helped me see risk and safety and yeah, I feel like it's taught me a lot in that, in that regard.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: So with being a chef and things, you kind of have to break things down, you know, like if you're going to plan a meal or plan something for a large group of people, you've got to have all that planned out step by step. Do you feel like that's helped you explain kind of step by step with people that you're trying to help now, of all the steps they need to go through so they'll have hopefully a smooth sailing retirement.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So with every client that I have, I, I treat them like they're my parents.
When I was training cooks, you want to, you want them to understand the steps, but there's a difference between knowledge and understanding. So. And then when I sit down with someone to explain Medicare, I want them to have a full understanding of, of each step and how, what those consequences are.
I'll give you an example. There was a chef that I worked with and he made this amazing mushroom bisque. It was at the Stable Cafe at Biltmore Estate.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: And I tasted, it was wonderful. It was the best I'd ever had. And I asked him how he did it, what if, you know, I asked him, could I have your recipe? And he said, I don't use recipes. And this is when I was like, really early on in my culinary career. He said, I don't use recipes. I said, what, how did you, how did you make this so great? Then he said, if you understand how to make one bisque, you understand how to make all discs.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: If you understand how to make one vinaigrette, great, you know how to make all vinaigrettes. So, so that's how I kind of tie the two together. You, you really have to break things down to where people can understand it on a base level. I have a job because Medicare is so complicated, right? And even now there's little tiny laws that I learn every now and then that help. And it's, I mean, I, I know guys that have been in Medicare for 10 or 15 years and they'll, they'll learn something new every now and then, every month. It's, it's that complicated.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: So do you start working with people before they retire or do you work with them as they're going into Medicare and then check out and see what's going on with their retirement and see if anything needs to be adjusted?
[00:11:10] Speaker B: That's a great question. So when someone is turning 65, their information is given to the federal government and then they turn that over to Medicare companies to contact. So when that happens, you, you have to jump on it because if they don't sign up in time, there are late fees.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: And my ideal client is around 59, because there are a lot of things that you can do for retirement at 59 and a half, but each sort of step along the way. 62, when you can start drawing your Social Security, there's, you really need to start working with someone honestly in their mid-50s to help them plan for a great retirement.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Oh, no, faster than I real.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Well, I say that because I won't say, I won't say who it is, obviously, but I'm working with a client right now. He's 55. Him and his wife, they both have some health issues and they said we can't qualify for long term care, we can't qualify for this or that. I told them the plans, the retirement accounts that I have, you don't have to medically qualify. I can put your money into. I have to be careful because we're talking about financial products, right? I can say you people need to have their money in an account that is growing at least at 10% per year. And some of these average a lot more. But the retirement accounts that I have, it's not just growing your money a Lot of them. You can turn on an income and if someone goes into long term care, it'll double that income for five years and it'll give them an enhanced death benefit so that the lump sum that they put in originally is going to be there in the end to give to a beneficiary. It's incredibly powerful. The stuff that you can do.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah, a lot of stuff I didn't know there, you know, I mean, always my, my parents are 79 and 80 and I know they have a Medicare supplement with their insurance, but you feel like that's just something they filled out some paperwork for and didn't have to think about. I didn't realize there were that many options with things, you know.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Oh yeah. When I sit down with someone and I'm contracted with six Medicare Advantage companies.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: When I sit down with someone, I go over all aspects of government. Medicare, the A and B, C and D, all those parts affect you. But then I lay down, you know, a sheet of paper that goes over the difference between Medicare supplement and Medicare Advantage and it's clearly every single time the best. I always recommend Medicare supplement.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Because it's just for a lot of reasons.
And again, one of those things, I have to be careful because of Medicare Advantage laws. I can't really say too much about those, but, but it is clearly almost 99% of the time people are going to pick a Medicare supplement.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And I get paid three times as much to put someone on a Medicare Advantage plan.
[00:13:58] Speaker A: But you seem like the type of person who wouldn't sleep at night if you were ripping people off. You know what I mean? Like, especially if you say that you treat everybody like your parents and after what your mother went through, I mean, unbelievable. So do you go to people's homes or do you do everything over phone and video call? How do you work?
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Great question. For health insurance. And I, and I do all forms of health insurance, all forms of life insurance. But for Medicare it really takes sitting down with someone pulling out a sheet of paper and having them take notes and then seeing the document that I have that breaks down the differences in Medicare.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: That, that to me is non negotiable. I have to meet with someone either at a public library, a coffee, coffee shop, almost every single time I meet in people's homes.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: But to just draw everything out because it's, it's complicated and people still come back later on and ask questions.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: You know, we did this, why did we do that? And I'm more than happy of course, whenever someone calls to answer those questions, but it's just that ridiculously complicated, people still call back and ask questions.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: Isn't that crazy? Welcome to the federal government. Yeah, exactly. So how do people find you?
[00:15:06] Speaker B: So for. I'm on Facebook and I have a Facebook page. It's just my name and it says insurance broker and financial professional.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: They can also call me at 864-710-6611.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: And then my email address is wesleyopkinsfinancial.info okay. They can also find me at hopkinsfinancial.com that sounds great.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Well, I learned a lot, and now I guess I need to start researching all kinds of things. So you're added something to my to do list. But I think that's good, though. That's good.
So that's it. And thank you so much for being on today. I really didn't know all the details about the food truck business and everything, so I.
I think that's exciting that you kind of go with your gut and you've been successful over and over again and definitely a serial entrepreneur, so.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Yes. Oh, yeah. I haven't even talked about all the other stuff I got in the works.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Okay, well, we'll have you back and you can tell it when you've got more to share and we'll do a part two.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: All right, that sounds great.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Well, that's it for this week on Confessions from that Home Home Office. So be sure to subscribe, like follow, comment, share. That helps the podcast grow, and it is growing, and I appreciate all of you, and I will see you back next week. Thank.
