David Vorhees played basketball at the University of Kansas before moving into insurance. He's building a health insurance captive from scratch, a shift from his earlier HR work. The conversation covers his path from Leavenworth, Kansas through college and into the insurance industry.
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Walk into any open enrollment meeting. And I did this all the time. I said, can you explain to me what a deductible is the simple, most basic concept in health insurance and 75% of the room can't define it. That's a problem.
Welcome to the accelerate your insurance sales podcast. This is the podcast where you'll learn effective marketing and sales strategies from some of the most recognizable names in the insurance industry. We're going to teach you how to turn brand awareness into business growth by becoming the thought leader your prospects seek out. Now, we, we actually just officially met. Correct. Not all that long ago. And I, I just hearing your story, I'm like, okay, this story's got to be on, on the, on the podcast. So I'm excited to have you. Thanks for coming down.
Yeah.
If you, if you can't tell where we are, we're in Spencer Smith's studio in Frisco, Texas. So, Spencer, thank you for giving us the opportunity to use this. Yes, I want to talk today. I want to have you on because you've got kind of a fascinating background to me. A lot of, a lot of aspects we can go, we're going to go down a lot of paths. We're going to talk about what makes David tick, but also talk about your. From a human resource profession professional to starting a health insurance captive, which is not the normal jump. But for the folks who are tuning in, let's just start. Where are you from? And let's talk about a little about the up upper because you're. You're also a sports junkie, too.
I am. I am. So Leavenworth, Kansas, not the prison. I always have to tell people that. But I grew up in Leavenworth, Kansas. Great, great upbringing. Most of the kids I went to school with couldn't wait to get out of there. But, you know, I enjoy Leavenworth, but spent time in a lot of sports. I played baseball, basketball. I might have played football. I don't think I would have been very good at it, if we're being honest. But I remember in middle school, I was the center. It was funny, we were talking earlier about being center. I think it was because I was the only kid that could snap really well. I wasn't a big guy, but I gained 40 pounds from my 8th grade year to my 9th grade year, thinking I'm going to go be the center in high school. And then I heard that hadn't won a game in four years. And so I said, I'm not, I'm not big enough to Go get my brains beat in for this. And quickly realized that, you know, our school was a basketball school very much like ku, although our football team is up and coming. Lance Leopold. Doing a great job, but I played basketball and was very thankful for it, and my brain probably works a little bit better.
Well, you're on a damn good team. First of all, pause Lance Leopold. I'm a Wisconsin guy. His story from Division 3 Wisconsin Whitewater to running a Big 12 program is also pretty fascinating, what he's done in a short amount of time at Kansas. We were talking offline about your basketball team. I mean, you had some star power on that high school team.
We did. We had a lot of guys go to college. I did not go to college to play basketball. I had a couple smaller offers, but decided to go to KU and major in enjoying beverages of the adult variety. I was very, very good at that. Excelled at that. In fact. It's really funny. So if you know ku, there's a place called Wesco Beach. It's outside of Wescoe. Hal. And my very first class I was in with two of the prize recruits from KU that year. And so I'm sitting next to. Well, they'll remain nameless, but we were there for 15 minutes, and they looked at each other and like, hey, you want to go? And he goes, you want to go with us? I was like, sure. And we walked out. So that was my first experience. If I had autonomy, I could do whatever I wanted to do, and it wasn't the right choice because I wasn't spending time on school, which was my job. But it was one of those profound moments that I always remember when I see those guys at some of the reunions. I'll say, you remember when we were in Sociology 101, and it was like, 15 minutes, and y' all bounced and it was time to go. Thank you. You had tutors. I did not. So I had to catch back up. Yeah. But went to school with Wayne Simeon in high school, a dear friend of mine. He's just a tremendous human being, I think. Very thankful to have him in my life as somebody who's a mentor and somebody who, even though he's younger than me, has taught me a lot of different things and came on my podcast and shared a story that he'd never shared with anybody about some of overcoming his ego and how great of a basketball player he was and some mistakes that he had made in a game that probably cost him the biggest award that any college basketball player could get. So, yeah, I played with a lot of good guys. I think I was a good scrimmage.
Did he end up playing in the NBA?
First round draft pick, Miami Heat. Played a few years.
Okay, I'm drawing a bow. Drawing a blank. Simeon hit the shot for Kansas in the national title game for Memphis.
He. He did not. He did not. That was my thinking along person. So you're thinking of Rio. Rio hit the shot to go into overt. So you're thinking about the Memphis game where we played Derrick Rose. That was a heck of a game.
Game back.
But that was not Wayne. Wayne had graduated by the that was Mario Chalmers, who also played on, who.
Also played with the Heat. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Great point guard. It was interesting. You know, a guy that big shots for ku, but he wasn't your prototypical.
