#RockstarsRocking

This episode of the #RockstarsRocking podcast features the rockstar leader of the band, Tim Arnold, President of Colonial Life and Executive VP of Voluntary Benefits at Unum, out of South Carolina.

Our conversation today dives deep into the inner workings of Colonial Life and Unum, sister companies that have increasingly begun to partner together to cover all the benefits needs of employers and their employees. We begin with Tim talking about how he came into the dual roles he has with the two companies, and how he’s worked hard to get them in sync, as well as partnering with other organizations who can help build a better claims and user experience.

We also discuss where Colonial and Unum are going in the future, from making changes when brokers and field agents brought up systems and processes that weren’t working, to the growing recognition of employer funded benefits in the face of the Great Resignation and inflation. We round out the interview with a discussion of how employees still want help deciding which benefits they want and need, and how changing technology means we should enhance the ability for enrollment education, rather than take it away.

So, are you ready for more? Go ahead and grab your favorite ice-cold beverage and tap that play button, to tune in to this week’s edition of the #RockstarsRocking podcast.

Episode Highlights:

–       The creative thing Colonial did to reduce processing time for Disability claims

–       Creating the best customer experience

–       Building out Colonial’s Dental product

–       The growing recognition of the value of employer funded benefits

–       Becoming Executive VP of Sales with little to no sales experience

–       Perception equals reality

–       People still want help deciding which benefits to enroll in

–       The future of the changing workforce

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This episode of the #RockstarsRocking podcast features a first for the show – rockstar, John David Mann is back again, only this time, alongside his better half, Ana Gabriel Mann – Co-Authors of The Go-Giver Marriage, out of the Tampa, Florida area.

Our guests today, talk about their new book focused on the 5 secrets to creating a lasting marriage. Written within the “Go Giver” series, it fuses parables featuring recognizable characters from previous books, with Ana’s in-depth explanations of the lessons and theories from her background as a psychotherapist. We go in depth of how they got the idea to write the book, the lessons that they expound upon within the book, as well as what’s coming up next for them both.

So, are you ready for more? Go ahead and grab your favorite ice-cold beverage and tap that play button, to tune in to this week’s edition of the #RockstarsRocking podcast.

Episode Highlights:

–       Deciding to write a book about marriage together under the “Go-Giver” name

–       Telling the lessons of strengthening a marriage through parable

–       Learning to throw out the scorecard, without becoming a doormat

–       Marriage is not fair

–       Appreciating differences with your partner

–       Making sure your mature enough to enter into a relationship

–       Ana’s refusal to write a book about marriage without talking about the dark parts of marriage

–       The deep need for appreciation and recognition

–       What’s the next step?

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This episode of the #RockstarsRocking podcast features my rockstar friend, Kevin Curran, Founding Partner at Salt Margin, out of the Baltimore/DC area in Maryland.

Kevin joins us to talk about one of the biggest oversights he sees in the benefits industry, which is status quo approaches to non-medical benefits which cause employees to be under insured and employers to overpay. He discusses the “responsibility creep” happening, where brokers feel the need to be comprehensive experts in so many areas that they don’t actually have an expertise in any. Throughout the interview, he discusses how best to solve these problems by refocusing on the benefits that matter most and finding the value in the margins.

So, are you ready for more? Grab your favorite beverage of choice and tap that play button, to tune in to this week’s edition of the #RockstarsRocking podcast.

Episode Highlights:

–       His path to get out of the status quo carrier rep career path

–       Changing from a “brand killer” to Salt Margin

–       If you take the commission, you owe the client to bring them value

–       We need to challenge people on how they prioritize benefits

–       Negligence in the ancillary industry is widespread

–       Responsibility creep in broker “expertise”

–       The best things are always in the margins

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This episode of the #RockstarsRocking podcast features one of my long-time benefits rockstar friend, Adam Michaels, Founder and CEO of Enrollify, out of Southern California.

Our guest today digs into the rapidly changing world of benefits technology. From bad technology which ‘helps people make bad decisions, quicker’ and uses outdated data, to the good technology which can save clients and brokers money, and give better advice to employees, and can reduce friction points for enrollers.

So, are you ready for more? Go ahead and grab your favorite ice-cold beverage and tap that play button, to tune in to this week’s edition of the #RockstarsRocking podcast.

Episode Highlights:

–       His path from carrier rep to founding Enrollify

–       The “hack” to quickly establishing credibility

–       Keeping clients from making bad decisions faster with AI technology

–       The rapid adoption of new technology

–       Are enrollment firms dead?

–       Overcoming confirmation bias

–       Virtual Enrollers – stop paying enrollers to sit and do nothing

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This episode of the #RockstarsRocking podcast features my rockstar friend, Allison De Paoli, Founder of Altiqe, out of the San Antonio, Texas area.

Allison opens our interview with a hilarious story of being shocked about winning “Most Innovative Healthcare Consultant” at the YOU Powered Symposium, which she won despite only returning to the major medical side of the insurance industry a few years ago. She also talks about how she grew up in a family of insurance consultants, striking her own path, and eventually returning to her roots and founding Altiqe – modernizing her approach by focusing on teaching clients to be better consumers healthcare.

We continue the conversation of modernizing processes with the changes she’s made to enrollment and servicing strategies, the importance of electronic enrollment, and getting clients to recognize that they need to be involved with their money. She also touches on moving away from clients who can’t or won’t buy into her processes.

We round out our interview with the idea that when you are making big changes, the best way to get everyone on board is to create a “shared common enemy”, rather than having the management and workers locked against each other.

So, are you ready for more? Go ahead and grab your favorite warm beverage and tap that play button, to tune in to this week’s edition of the #RockstarsRocking podcast.

Episode Highlights:

– Winning “Most Innovative Healthcare Consultant” at the YOU Powered Symposium

– Growing up in the healthcare and employee benefits industry

– Having a year-round strategy to teach clients to be better healthcare consumers

– Modernizing enrollment strategies

– Creating a shared common enemy

– Social media marketing

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This episode of the #RockstarsRocking podcast features a rockstar killing the game with her marketing strategies, Nancy Giacolone, President and Owner of Olympic Crest Insurance out of the Pacific Northwest area.

We dive right into our interview with Nancy, getting into her marketing strategies and how she created her “2 Minute Tuesday” videos. With the Covid shutdown giving her the time to take courses, build a strategy, and implement the change, Nancy, along with her son, did all their production in house to find their style, create a library of content, and control production costs. She also stressed the need to understand that marketing is about playing the long game, fostering relationships so that they bring opportunities organically.

The second half of our interview focuses on building an authentic and mutually beneficial relationship with client groups. From making sure each side understands how their business and compensation works, to making sure your service and culture needs match up. From walking away from “sure” sales, to naming the questions that she thinks employers should be asking their brokers.

So, are you ready for more? Go ahead and grab your favorite beverage of choice and tap that play button, to tune in to this week’s edition of the #RockstarsRocking podcast.

Episode Highlights:

–       “2-Minute Tuesday” video marketing

–       Be consistent, be brief, and get personal

–       Playing the long game and ignoring stats

–       Create a library of content for future use and repurposing

–       Being transparent with clients about business processes

–       Walking away from a sale

Finding the true pain points and why companies offer benefits

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This episode of the #RockstarsRocking podcast features my good friend and closet Oriole’s fan, Lester Morales, Founder and CEO, Next Impact, out of the Puerto Rico.

We dive directly into the deep end, as Lester opens our podcast with a discussion of how he knew he actually WANTED to go into insurance from a fairly young age, which stemmed from heartbreaking health issues within his family during his teenage years. He gets into the stark statistic of how 67% of all bankruptcies are due to medical and health issues and how that touched his own family. This led him to working to change the health industry and bring transparency to the industry, to save people money and lower that alarming bankruptcy statistic.

Lester then digs into how and why he founded Next Impact from the idea of increasing transparency and education of employees, employers, and healthcare consumers in general. We talk about how he’s grown his business using frequent and regular webinars to further industry education and then we get into his Michael Jordan Theory, which is that while Jordan is the GOAT, it wasn’t necessarily for just being the best singular player, but by making those around him great.

We round out our interview with a discussion of the importance of sales leadership and business mentoring. Lester espouses the importance of ‘jumping in the pool and seeing if there’s water’ and taking a chance on going for what you want. He closes us out with a synopsis of his podcast, which is aimed at those who are working to change the healthcare industry.

So, are you ready for more? Go ahead and grab your favorite ice-cold beverage and tap that play button, to tune in to this week’s edition of the #RockstarsRocking podcast.

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This episode of the #RockstarsRocking podcast features my rockstar friend, Gary Becker, CEO of ScriptSourcing out of Baltimore, MD and Naples, Florida.

Gary opens our podcast with a discussion about how he got a firsthand view of how cost mitigation strategies in the healthcare field, which didn’t save costs by shorting customers, was sorely needed. He founded his own brokerage, Becker Benefits, but ultimately spends more of his time with ScriptSourcing, a company he created that allows customers to source their prescriptions directly for a $0 co-pay while saving money for their employer’s insurance costs.

We dig into the reasons why folks might push back on using ScriptSourcing, from carriers and partners with misaligned priorities, to TPAs with hidden revenue streams, to brokers with ‘big box’ carriers who want to create shareholder value. We also discuss how a service like ScriptSourcing makes money, which is mainly accomplished through performance-based compensation based on how much savings they deliver, which he admits meant little to no client revenue for ScriptSourcing in the beginning.

The back half of our interview brought up a discussion on technology changes, and how PBMs went from not wanting to share any data about what they were paying, to realizing that they have to share data or risk being fired. He’s also invested in salesforce data to be up to date as soon as a medication becomes available.

We finish up with a debate about being a business owner vs. a business operator, and how he’s taking steps to become more of an owner, by hiring key people to operate the business for him.

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This episode of the #RockstarsRocking podcast features one of my favorite human beings – my rockstar friend and everyone’s favorite benefits compliance expert, Jennifer Berman, out of the Greater Baltimore area.

Jen opens our podcast with the rockstar dream of wanting to be a Supreme Court Justice and talking about how she ended up in the legal compliance side of employee benefits right before the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) completely changed the industry.

After founding her own practice, she went back to school to get her MBA to learn to be a better leader for her firm. This helped her to learn the difference between management and leadership, which she gets into during our show.

We then get into how she stays ahead of the game in an ever-changing industry that can change literally by the day. Getting more in depth, she talked about her diagnosis with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, how it has caused her to change both her physical and mental approach to business, and how it has been helpful to get her to recognize the need for a healthy balance to work and her personal life.

We round out the interview talking about how Jennifer figured out her own business style to be more authentically herself. Once she got that down, she was able to use her personality to make compliance fun (yes, I said “fun”) and accessible to her clients.

So, are you ready for more? Then grab your favorite ice-cold beverage and tap that play button, to tune in to this week’s edition of the #RockstarsRocking podcast.

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