Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hi, welcome to the confessions from the home Office podcast. I'm Wendy Hill and I've been running and growing my marketing business out of my home office in Greenville, South Carolina for almost 20 years. So today I have a really special guest. I've known him well over a decade and he has made my life so much easier. By the end of this episode, you're going to know who to call if you need to get insurance, if you're self employed, or if you need a temporary policy, or if your company needs an insurance expert.
At least once a week someone asks me what I do about insurance being self employed and I always refer him to guy. So guy, welcome to the podcast.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Well, thank you and thank you for inviting me. This is great. It's exciting to see what you've built here.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: So I want you to tell everybody a little bit about yourself, how you got into the industry, how long you've been here, just kind of a quick overview.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Great.
How did I get into the industry? Well, that's a very quick story.
And when I graduated college, I had really no idea what I wanted to do.
I was going to go to law school. The very first application for I was a history and political science double major. The very first application, the first question said, explain in detail why you want to practice law. I struggled answering the question, so I figured, well, maybe, maybe go to plan b. So I went to graduate school, and in graduate school I worked since I was eleven years old. But my dad finally kind of cornered me as I'm getting a little closer to my graduate school degree and he said, you know, he wanted to have the talk and what do you want to do with your life? I said, well, you know, I had no clue. So I said, you know, I think I want to be in sales.
And my dad said, well that's great. Both of your grandparents on both sides were salespeople and you get to help people with something really important.
What do you want to sell?
My answer, anything but insurance.
If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
I started in 1997 in the insurance world and it's been phenomenal, it's been a blessing because I get to help people with something really important, something that most people don't understand. And it really feels good to help people on something that is very, very important. You need insurance.
Most folks don't understand how it works. They have no clue. I get the opportunity to help people. So that's a wonderful thing.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: That's fantastic. What has been the greatest thing about owning your own business and then also tell us maybe something that hasn't been so great. Just, I try to keep it real for everybody.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Gotcha. Well, I think I'll give you another little quick tidbit. I think I told my dad in 2005, I told my dad, I said, I think I'm going to start my own business.
He said, I've got two things to tell you. Number one, are you crazy?
And number two, you're not crazy. Although sometimes you're really going to wonder, just take care of people. If you do that, they'll take care of you and the rest will work out. And I've tried to live that out, and it's been the greatest advice I've received.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: I really feel that's important. The relationships, you know, as much as we want to kind of be heads down and just get it done and meet the goals, you really have to take the time and build the relationships and stay in touch.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: It's about helping people. And if you do that, if you help enough people get what they need, at the end of the day, you're going to be okay.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: So who can come to you to buy insurance?
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Okay. So I help lots of folks. I help businesses attract and retain employees through insurance and other employee benefits. We do businesses as small as two on up to 500 in terms of the size. The needs change as the size changes.
We also help businesses that are trying to get creative on ways to approach this puzzle of employee benefits. How do you attract and retain employees? There's things like QSErA, there's things like level funded health insurance. There's ICRA, individual coverage, HRA. So those are a lot of products that fit in that segment. We also help small business owners and people that don't, you know, that are just starting out on their own, forging their new path, find the product that fits them the best and navigate the government system. With the Affordable Care act, we also help folks navigate another government system. That's the Medicare system for folks that either are disabled or are over age 65.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Okay. So, you know, I've seen a lot of people talk about getting laid off recently, just the way that the economy has been, and they're worried about cobra being so expensive. Can you help those people?
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Absolutely.
The people that are, that are just living out their dream of starting a new business, what, what fits one is not gonna fit somebody else. So we get the opportunity to find out more particular situations about their unique situation and then find the plan that fits best for them. And we're a broker, so what that means is we've got all the major carriers that they could want. So because for one person, an insurance company might be perfect, but for another person, that same company with the same product might be the worst thing that they could have.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Well, I think the one thing that I've really liked about working with you each year is you'll say, okay, are you gonna. Do you think you need a lower copay for the ER? Well, when the kids were younger, yes, absolutely. You know, we're constantly going stitches and broken bones and things like that. Or you'll say, if you get the same plan, this changes this year, or your specialist copay goes up this year. And that. That really helped me because I would have just glazed over that and nothing really thought about it. And then when we had to do something, I would have been just frustrated how much it was. So you've always kept it real for me. Like, this is going to cost more. This is now covered at 100%. And just, you seem to know what's important to people by asking questions.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: Thank you. I mean, asking the questions, it's kind of similar to, like, take something people are really familiar with.
There's cars out there, and all of them get you from point a to point b, but they're very different strengths and weaknesses of each car model. And insurance is much the same.
There's products that, as you mentioned, might be really good for prescriptions or might be really good for specialist visits, but not so good on some other realm. So what we try and do is find out what's most important to each person that we're talking to, and then once we find that out, then we can find out what product makes the most sense.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Well, and so what I've also noticed is if I have a question about something, like one time, something wasn't coded correctly, and we had this huge lab bill for my daughters for blood draw. And I just sent an email in and somebody on your staff called me, called Blue Cross, got it taken care of. And I feel like that makes that really set you apart. I feel like I don't really get that with other types of insurance.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Well, thank you.
We have the opportunity to help people, and we take that very seriously because we believe that we provide better service than the average. We hope we provide much better, but that's service is the opportunity to prove that. And I've had my own claims get messed up. So if it happens to me, I know it happens to my customers. And because of the team that I've surrounded myself with, the one thing I've been extremely successful with is picking the right people to be on the team. And because I've got so many amazing people that work for me, and with me, we've won best insurance agency in the upstate multiple times. And it's not me, it's the people I've surrounded myself with. Because in an industry where people often are a little frustrated or disappointed, we try and give the wow factor of service, give them something that's unexpected.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: Right. Like, I've always thought if Christina worked for the federal government, that things would be much better for everybody. Like, she could solve any problem, you know?
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Well, she's amazing. She's put up with me now for 17 years. So really, I'm not always the easiest person to deal with.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: She's got you figured out.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: She does.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: So. So tell us about open enrollment, when it starts. What's different this year? What does everybody need to know for the 2025 insurance year?
[00:10:01] Speaker B: Perfect. So open enrollment in the under 65 realm starts November 1 and ends through January 15.
New factors. We're most likely going to have a new carrier in South Carolina. United Healthcare is coming to South Carolina.
[00:10:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: There are always changes in terms of network, in terms of which plan is priced, how.
There's a lot of complexity. Anytime you have the government involved, there's lots of complexity. Anytime you have large bureaucratic insurance, insurance companies involved. There's, there's some complexities there. So we're going to be able to break that down for people.
So the, the market might be a situation, to your point earlier, that a product that was the perfect fit for you in 2024 might no longer be that in 2025. So we reach out to every customer and we make sure, hey, what's changed in your world? Do we have any changes? You know, because over time, people get remarried, people get divorced, there's children that are aging off of policy. All of these have sometimes dramatic impacts on the health insurance program. So that's the under 65. The Medicare realm begins October 15 and ends December 7.
Medicare realm has some major, major changes due to the inflation Reduction act, in particularly the prescription side.
So Medicare is going through a fundamental transformation due to that legislation. And so that's going to affect people in the Medicare realm considerably.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Okay, so if someone wants to get in touch with you or make an appointment and figure out if you've got a product that might work for them, what do they need to do and when do they need to start doing that?
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Awesome. Our website is insure. That's insure.
The letter u.com and our office number is real easy to remember. It's 864. And then the word insurer, and then the letter u. So the corresponding numbers are 8864-467-8738 and when they call, they're gonna get a live person as long as we have, I think, about seven phone lines. As long as not all the phone lines are full at that specific time, they'll get a live person, and that person can direct them to who they might need to talk to. And there are a bunch of us that do ACA and a couple of us that do Medicare, and we're setting up appointments right now for both Medicare and ACA. And so depending on the product, we will do a half hour appointment or an hour appointment, because some situations are a little more complex and it takes a little more time to go through.
We do those appointments virtually on the phone or in person in our office here in downtown rear, right off of Wade Hampton.
So we're excited.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: That's great.
I didn't realize you were already doing appointments. I always think to do it, you know, November, right, when things start to open. But what else does, what else do you want everybody to know? Is there something else we didn't talk about? Is there something else you want to bring up?
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Well, insurance is about one of the most personal products and most important products you can buy.
It protects your family, your business, and really your future.
So what we do, if I had to boil it down, in a nutshell, our whole goal, our mission statement, is simple and straightforward. It's through using us, we make the health insurance process easier.
We want it to be something that you don't have to worry, you can de stress. You know, we got this. We got you.
And if that's something that people are looking for, we'd love to see if there's a fit and see if we can help them with what they need.
Right now, the times do fill up very fast.
We're very much like an accountant. The only difference is the accountant can file extensions, right? We're not allowed to file any extensions. So you got Medicare going October 15 to December 7. You've got large group renewals at the same time, small group renewals, and you also have the individual under 65 all at the same time. That's November 1 through January 15. So it's our job to make something that a lot of times, you know, people with insurance, they almost want to pull their hair out because it's.
They don't understand it.
We try and simplify the whole process and make it easier for them.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: That's great. I know you've definitely made my life easier and just says, I think. I think I did my first policy, maybe early 2013 or something like that. So we've been going on definitely over a decade, and it's been good. It's been really good. I haven't worried about it at all.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: And we appreciate you. We thank you for giving us the opportunity to help you.
Thank you very much. It means the world, and it allows us to have these great people that work with me, and that's the best part of my team.
When I was asking my dad how to how do you hire somebody? I'd hired people before, but always using somebody else's money. How do you hire somebody with your own money? My dad said, hire somebody who's better than you in some way. Give them an environment to thrive and grow, give them all the tools that they need, and then get out of their way.
And that's been a wonderful advice.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: That is great advice. You do have a good team. You really do. So that's. It's. It's been a blessing, for sure.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: Well, thank you. And thank you for, this is exciting that you have this. This podcast. I mean, I'm not really an expert in podcasts, you know, but it's really kind of cool that you're doing this, you know, the wonders of technology. Right?
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Well, you know, I get so many questions, especially when people find out how long I've been doing what I'm doing, and I thought instead of just always coming up with the same answers over and over, maybe we can help people outside of the circle. And so I've been getting some good feedback on it, so, you know, it doesn't hurt to try.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: That's awesome.
And congratulations in this, on the podcast and also in the growth in your business.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's been good. I've been really fortunate, so. Well, that's good. Well, thank you so much for being on Anddez. This concludes this episode of confessions from the Home Office. I'll be back next week with another episode.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Thank you for having me. Thanks.
