Daily Habits That Give Elite Performers An Edge (Over You?) with Colton Storla

I started taking my health and fitness very seriously because I realized, like, I'm selling a product called health insurance. And if I'm going to go out to these clients of mine and tell them that their rates are going up 15%, and I'm going to tell them the reason they're going up 15% is because their employees are unhealthy, and I don't look like a beacon of health. Yeah, why would that CEO trust or believe me?

There's all these misaligned interests that have come to the health insurance and health care world. And so our whole mission is just to try and keep as many dollars within the four walls of the business as possible, keep that money in employees' paychecks, get people access to high-quality care. And so if we can remove all those misaligned interests, the community can flourish.

Hey, hey, welcome back to the Accelerate Your Insurance Sales podcast. Andy Neary here, CEO and founder of Complete Game Consulting. I am excited. I am joined by the one, the only Colton Storla with North Risk Advisors. Colton, welcome aboard, man.

Hey, thank you. Thanks for having me.

This is, uh, episode 1 of the, of the new format. Now Colton's getting to see firsthand, this is still very brand new. So it probably will not end up looking like it does a few weeks or months from now. But Colton, you and I actually, I had you on, was it 2 years ago?

Yeah, probably.

We were in Rochester, right?

Yep.

So let, I don't want to use this episode as much about let's get to know Colton, because you can go back and watch that. People can go back and listen to that episode. But I do want to dive in, you know, one of the things we've been really focused on with Complete Game Consulting is helping producers become a one of one, which means how do you stand out? And I think for the best producers, best advisors— I don't want to use the word producers— best advisors we work with, they stand out in all ways. We talked about this at dinner last night, right? It's not just what you do in between the lines selling insurance, but it's how you live your life. So where I really want to go with today's episode is number one, building a high-performance routine. 'cause I think that's something you have absolutely dialed in. Nutrition, energy management, we're gonna talk about that. And then we're gonna talk about health insurance and what you're doing with Community Connected Health. But where I'd like to actually kick this off is, you know, last night when you and I were grabbing dinner, we were having a conversation about habits and routines. And for you as a guy who has that dialed in, What does a typical day of— let's start with nutrition. What does a typical day of nutrition look like for you?

Yeah, it's kind of changed a lot over the years. Um, and actually, my fiancée and I, um, when we first met, it was kind of a crazy thing, but somehow it came across her radar that she's like, I really want to do 75 Hard. And I'm like, I've heard about it, I don't really know anything about it, but, uh, yeah, sure, we can try it. And so actually, we did 75 Hard together and it's like, that's good.

Is that how you came upon First Form?

Yeah. Yep. Yep. But I did have my routines before that, but 75 Hard was really about, you know, the details and diving in and time management was the hardest piece of it. And so now I just prepare every single day, really the day before. So going into the next day, I'm already ready. So from a nutrition standpoint, that was the one thing that I learned the most was, you know, that standard American diet or a sad diet. It's true. I was an athlete and I ate whatever I wanted when I wanted. I knew the importance of protein and protein shakes and blah, blah, blah. But when you actually take the time to weigh things out and visualize it on your plate, and that's what I did during 75 Hard, was I did a macro-based diet. And so I weighed everything out to make sure portions were correct and I was getting enough protein. I'm like, I feel like I'm eating protein all day long. But it was, it was flip-flopped. I was very high in carbs, high in fats, and Neither of those are bad, but they are bad and not in the right proportions. So I had to up the protein. You know, I put a nice, you know, limit on the carb side of things based off my activity level, whether I was lifting or running. And then I kept fats a little bit lower just because I prefer to eat more carbs than fats. So yeah, every day I kind of have everything dialed in and, you know, it starts on Sunday really. And we smoke a bunch of chicken. I was going to say, do you guys prepare food for the week? Yep. We smoke a bunch of chicken. And so that's usually lunch. Um, I hard boil eggs just to make things easy. Cause I wake up, I go straight to the gym. Um, and then I go to the office and instead of making, you know, a full course meal in the office, I just have everything ready. Um, and so yeah, you know, eggs and avocado toast and protein shakes and protein bars. I got into even make my own protein bars just cause I, like to have the proteins and, you know, some with some of the protein bars, it's just like they have way too much sugar or they're high calorie and I can control what I put, put in them. And I like protein bars with a little bit more fiber because I also prioritize protein and fiber.

You still make your own now? Yep. All right, man, you got to share the secret sauce. What goes into a Colton Storland-made protein bar?

I do. It's got protein powder. So whatever protein powder of your liking, whether it's vanilla, chocolate, or so on and so forth. Um, oats, PB2, ACOSS Pro yogurt, uh, which also has protein, got some dairy in there, dates, which is, you know, good for carbs and, um, just flavor, um, and fiber. Um, and is that it? Yeah.

And then just bake them?

Yeah.

You bake them into bars, balls? Like, how do you bake them?

I put them in actually like, uh, uh, like if you're going to make banana bread, like those smaller rectangular pans, and then you just throw it in the freezer for a little bit, and then I cut cut it up and throw them in little individual baggies.

Awesome. Yeah, I love that.

Yeah, I, uh, if I'm traveling though, I'll just do like Quest bars because they don't travel well.

Yeah, the only— you know, it's funny, I've been with my stomach issues I've had, like trying to test out what bars do well, what don't. The one I've landed on that seems to be really good— have you ever had Aloha? Their, their bars? It's the one bar I've been able to have that doesn't do any— doesn't cause the gassiness or anything like that in my stomach. But You brought up dates. When Amy and I go to Palm Springs, that's a ton of date farms around there. So you go to the farmer's market on Thursday nights and there'll be literally date farmers lined up selling their dates. We literally stock up on them because, did you know this, you can freeze dates and they never freeze? We didn't know that. The woman who sold it is like, you can freeze these.

Interesting.

So we, we bought, like I said, months worth of dates.

Yeah, why not?

I still eat them. I usually eat a couple dates before a heavy, like a strong workout, like if I'm gonna go swim or something.

They're like a sweet treat. Date Dates with peanut butter, peanut butter, chocolate, honey. Yeah, I love dates.

Oh yeah, I didn't know that. I didn't know you made your own bars. You're also meticulous about how you track your macros every day, and as am I. Yeah, and I think that's important. You know, talk to us— people are probably tuning in already going, wait, I thought this was like an insurance sales. But what I'm trying to get across is like, high performers, this is what they do on and off the field. Why do you track your macros?

Yeah, it just comes back to what is that saying? You can't measure what you're— you know, what is that saying?

If you're not measuring it, you can't— you can't measure what you— you can't improve what you don't measure.

Yeah, something like that.

There you go.

And so, yeah, I mean, just based off whatever goal I'm trying to achieve at that time, whether it's maintenance or I'm training for a race or I want to do a HIROX or whatever, there's always, you know, something. And I don't do it like vigorously, like I need to, to the calorie, to the macro, whatever. But I've done it for long enough that it's— it doesn't take a lot of time. And I just want to make sure that I'm prioritizing protein each and every day. And if I want to throw in a dessert from time to time, that's fine too. It's just you just make it work and you may just remove a couple of things and add a couple of things and But I'm pretty, pretty diligent Monday through Friday. Like, we're eating the same things.

Talk to me. That's what actually was going to be my next question is I see a lot of high performers have very boring diets. Boring by the means of it's pretty much the same thing every day.

Yeah.

You follow that same pattern?

Yeah, to an extent. My breakfast is always the same, you know, protein shake after I work out, 2 hard-boiled eggs. Avocado toast. I use Ezekiel bread just because I really like that type of bread and it freezes well and stays good for a long time. And then usually mid-morning I will do like a fruit or a protein bar. And then leading into lunch, I'll do smoked chicken. And then for dinner I'll do beef. So I'm really getting a variety of proteins. And then from week to week, depending upon even like the season or going to the farmer's market, then I'll just Okay, well, I want to eat this vegetable this week. I want to eat this fruit. So I'm doing a lot of pineapple right now. I really like pineapple. Plus, I also came across that article on the Dirty Dozen, which basically tells you like some of the, the fruits and vegetables that get sprayed the most as far as chemicals.

I assume pineapple not on that list.

No, they're on the lower end. A lot of berries are kind of on that list because I was doing like a lot of you know, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, which those are good too. And you can buy organic, but they get pretty expensive. So then I'm usually getting, you know, 2, 3, 4, 5 servings of fruits and vegetables throughout the day too with lunch and dinner. Sourdough too. Love sourdough jam. That's kind of like a dessert to me.

Well, I was going to say, you said that you like a dessert once in a while. You guys have even created your own protein ice cream.

Yep, yep. Alyssa, she's definitely on the Ninja Creamy kick right now, and so she's always making creamies. So use like Fairlife or almond milk and then do your favorite protein. And yeah, you blend it up and it tastes just like protein or like a Wendy's Frosty.

Oh, that's so good. How you do one thing is how you do everything, right? And we won't dive into like your workout routine throughout the week, but you and I were talking last night at dinner with whether it be nutrition, workout, things like that. It's getting to a place where when people say, dude, how do you work out every day? Or how do you eat like that every day? And you just, your only response to them is like, I don't know, it's just what I do. Where it's almost, it's such a non-negotiable that you don't have to talk yourself into doing it anymore. And I think you and I both agree like, why we do this. I don't know what your journey— obviously you have a sports background. If you want to go listen to the episode I had Colton on a couple years ago, we talked about your football career. You were actually in athletic training before you got into insurance conditioning, which was— you thought was going to be your career. So you've got that background. But at the same time, I know I started taking my health and fitness very seriously. Because I realized, like, I'm selling a product called health insurance. And if I'm going to go out to these clients of mine and tell me that— tell them that the rates are going up 15%, and I'm going to tell them the reason they're going up 15% is because their employees are unhealthy, and I don't look like a beacon of health.

Yeah.

Why would that CEO trust or believe me?

Right?

What's kind of your why? Behind continuing to operate at the level of health you do. And how is that— let me ask— and how has that impacted your performance on the field with selling insurance?

Yeah, I talk to my clients about that all the time. It's like, we have all these solutions, um, that I can throw at them. I can throw everything at them and we can lower the unit cost of, you know, health insurance or healthcare, um, you know, get that medication for less or that surgery for less. But there's going to be this point where now we just need to improve population health., where we can avoid all those claims that we're trying to reduce the either frequency or severity of claims on. But, you know, kind of my why, it was just kind of instilled in me. Um, and it's, it's changed over the years. It was just instilled in me by my parents. They were always, um, I was telling you this morning, you know, my mom, ever since she had me, I was the last child that she's been kind of working out. And my parents have always been on kind of that fitness journey. I saw that and that's what kind of piqued my interest to get in the gym and take care of myself and eat the right foods. But yeah, you get to college and you get, you know, your meal plan and you get to eat whatever you want and then you get in the working world and then you still, you know, kind of get to decide on, you know, what you're eating. And yeah, during 75 Hard, that just kind of really put me into perspective of, you know, what I was eating, what I was putting in my body, you know, even alcohol too. That's always been a big one. And it's just like, I know what it feels like to feel good. And so you don't want to go back to not feeling good. And people also say like, I'm investing in tomorrow. It's like, well, why aren't you drinking today? Or why aren't you doing this? And it's like, well, I'm investing in tomorrow. Or I go to bed, you know, 8:30 at night. It's like, why do you go to bed so early? It's like, because I get up early. And Skip tells me this all the time too, and, um, the, the stress that this job brings. Yep. There are obviously some people that just, you know, show up 8 to 5 and they do what they need to do and that's it. And it's like, I want more for myself, I want more for my clients, I want more for, you know, Northwest Partners and, you know, the people around me and who I'm working with. I want to be at my best. And if you're not managing your stress, um, in the right way, that's going to reflect, um, with how you interact with your clients, how you interact with your team and everything. And so yeah, Skip says that, he's like, "That's why we take care of ourselves. That's why we work out." Yep. "That's why we do this." And you have to.

Yeah.

Otherwise you can get burnt out or whatever.

Well, and I think just the, when you start doing the math around it, I've gotta believe a guy like you probably doesn't miss too many days due to illness.

No.

And that compounds, right? I think about it myself. Like, if you have the ability to show up every day, Monday through Friday, without having to take days off because, because you feel good every day.

Yeah.

The amount of hours you're gaining on the competition over now compound that over weeks and months and years.

Yeah.

And energetically, your ability to show up at your best, that is going to come through in your interactions with clients and your sales.

Yep. I was just even having that conversation with a group of friends the other day. It's like the fact that I work out in the morning, like my peak hours of getting things done is like 8 to noon. Like I'm, you know, really checking things off. And yeah, I used to work out in the afternoon and you could be so burnt out from the day. You're just like, I might not work out today, or maybe I'll just go for a walk. And it's like your intensity isn't as high. And so just kind of looking at that in your day and it's like if you start your day with just some exercise, like your energy is higher and your focus is better and everything.

Yeah, I agree. Talk to us a little bit. Let's, let's move on talking about athletic pursuits. You just did the Zion Ultra 60K. Yeah. April.

April. Yep.

Middle of April. Just for those listening who may not even know what that is, describe the race. And then what I would love to know, let's start with the training. As somebody who's very busy in the insurance industry, talk to us about the race itself. What is it? And then how were you able to incorporate training being that you are a very busy insurance professional?

Yeah. So an ultramarathon is anything longer than a marathon, essentially, which is 26.2 miles. Yep. And so there's a lot of people that don't know that, and I probably didn't know that at some point, but because I've never even actually ran a marathon, I've only half marathons, um, and never really been a runner. Um, and one of my buddies, he asked me, I just got off doing a half marathon with Alyssa and, um, he's like, hey, we're doing this trail race. They have a 15K, a 30K, and a 45K. And it was a lap around this big lake by us. And I'm like, well, they were going to do the 45K. I'm like, I'm not going to jump from a half marathon to a 45K, you know, that could just spark injuries. And so I'm like, okay, I'll go conservative and do a 30K. It was about, I think, 17 miles. And that was hard. We're running on grass, ups, downs, whatever. It's not just this, you know, thoughtless paved road. And so it was hard. And my buddy that talked me into doing it, he actually did not finish because he was cramping up so bad. And so he was pretty hard on himself on that. He's like, Andy, you sign up for another one. I want to complete, you know, something like this. So he signed up for the Zion 60K. I'm like, well, you just failed the 45K, now you're going to go 60K. So let's go longer. Makes sense. So that was, you know, September, October timeframe. I'm like, okay, maybe I'd consider it. Just because I look for hard things to do, push myself out of my comfort zone. And I knew it was going to be pretty tough. And so I like to stick to, you know, some sort of training plan and not just wing it. And so I, downloaded that Runna app and they didn't even have a 60K in the app. So I was working off the 50K, but then they didn't have any like vertical and I knew Zion was going to have some inclines and some declines. And so I was using that plus ChatGPT to say, hey, I'm running this 60K, I'm using Runna, I need to add in some, you know, incline, decline. So then I was— I kind of cross-referenced the training plan between the two platforms to create kind of my own training plan to make sure I was doing all the runs. So whether it's intervals on Monday, you know, maybe a lighter run on a Wednesday with inclines, um, like interval inclines, maybe running at 3, 4% for 2 minutes, which I kind of felt like a psychopath going into the gym and putting the incline up on the treadmill to go run. It's like, yeah, people do that all the time to walk, but I'm like, you know, I'm just gonna run on an incline.

Uh, well, I was about to say, And it's gotta be hard to find incline living in Iowa, but—

Yep.

Dude, I've done a triathlon outside of Cedar Rapids.

Yeah.

Eastern Iowa has more hills than you realize.

So the funny thing about that is too, is our old landfill, they've turned it into a park.

Okay.

And they've got trails going up and down it, walking trails and then biking trails. And so I was actually doing like rucks up and down that on like Sunday as like a, you know, a low-intensity day. So that was part of my incline and decline training.

Well, walk us through the race itself. So it's out in Utah.

Yep.

60K is how many miles?

It ended up being a little over 40 miles.

40 miles. I think you finished in about 9 and some change, 9 hours and some change.

Yep, 9 hours.

So what was that race like for you mentally? I think, was there a moment where you're like, mentally, I'm done? But what, I guess, what did that race teach you from a mental perspective? Because when I used to do Ironman, people would always think of the physical swim, bike, run, but I'm like, there's a fourth sport no one talks about, and that's what you're saying to yourself throughout the race.

Yeah, even part of the mental part was, you know, training, you know, even pre-race and just doing some of those long runs on Saturday. The amount of times that we had stuff on the weekend that you had to get up a little extra early, and it was cold because That was one thing I probably won't do again is do a spring run because I had to train throughout Iowa in the winter. So that was another thing that I learned. Like, I'm not running outside anywhere below 20 degrees because it was cold, increased opportunity for injuries, which I dealt with a foot injury. But yeah, just that mental part because even in the Runna app, like It was like, all right, here's your training program. You're going to run 880 miles leading up to your race. I'm like, okay, that's a little off because I'm going to run 880 miles just for a 40-mile race. Like, why am I doing this? But yeah, just, you know, those days that you didn't want to run or you're feeling lethargic or you're sore or, and you just had to push through because you needed to, you just needed to do it. You need to prepare because I knew. Once race day showed up, like, I didn't want to be prepared and not finish. It's like I'm paying money to not only enter it, travel for it, all these things. And so I wanted to really just finish because I've never done anything like that to get a baseline. But yeah, during the race, I had some other friends with me, which that's helpful because we're out there doing it together and, you know, trying to hype each other up and help each other out. And so Really 1 through 10, pretty easy. Um, just like a normal run. We were all together. Um, but then people started, you know, taking their time at aid stations or they had to stop and go to the bathroom and we just kind of kept going. We weren't waiting around for anybody. Um, so then we kind of got out on our own, um, leading into like 15 through 20. And then really right around 20 is when that mental stuff started to hit, like, okay, you're only halfway done. Am I actually going to be able to finish this? Like, I'm pretty exhausted, so on and so forth. But I got to 20, I got to 26. Some people were following me on the tracking and I got a bunch of texts like, hey, you just had a marathon, congrats. So that gives you a little extra spark.

Yeah.

But then getting to 30, once I got to 30, I was like, okay, there's no way I can't finish this now.

Yeah, it's a good feeling when you hit that.

Yep. But then 30 to 35, That was a rough patch for sure. Because I was by myself. There's other people out there obviously running and it's a vacation race was the race people that put it on. And so there's these like white dots on the ground and these pink flags and you could tell like some of the dots were from previous races. Okay. So you, they told us the day before when they were doing like the brief, like, hey, this is, you know, you got to pay attention. And it was always that like, am I going the right way?

Is this even a path?

Um, and once I finally got to like 34, I did take a wrong turn with another gal that was with me. So that really pissed me off because I'm like, okay, now I'm, you know, a quarter of a mile, half a mile off the path, had to run back, get on track. Um, in the back of my mind, I'm also have a buddy that's right on my heels that I know I passed at the last aid station that him and I are really in, you know, loosely competition because we talk a lot of crap to each other. So I'm like, all right. I'm going to beat this guy. But, um, I got back on, on path. I got back to the aid station, he's there and he's taken off. I'm like, damn it.

Um, now you got a rabbit to chase.

Yep. And they had, you know, fruit and quesadillas and stuff at the aid stations just to get enough fuel. And I had my own fueling plan. And so 35 to 40, um, well, 41, because I was just gonna say you actually did like 41K. Yeah. I just could not get down any more calories. Like the gels were making my stomach hurt. The chews weren't working. Um, and I was on this long dirt road and I knew we were getting to the end, but it just kept going and going and going. And so I would just run a little bit and then I, my legs were pretty shot and then I'd walk a little bit, run a little bit, walk a little bit. I'm like, Where's everybody at? And I kept looking at my phone like, all right, am I getting closer? Am I going the right way? Because that just happened. So I kind of had some PTSD from that. And there was actually a moment that I was going up this pretty big hill towards the end. I'm like, there's no way I can run this. My legs are shot. And some people were actually surprised, but they're like, would you listen to— And it's like, I actually didn't end up turning my headphones on the whole time. I was just kind of running with myself. Or people around me, but I got a bunch of like voice messages from my family. And so I was listening to some of those. That's cool. And so that was very encouraging. And then got to that last little bit and I was like, I'm going to sprint through the rest of this or whatever you want to call it.

It's amazing. You probably got to whatever that is, 39.4, like that last. And all of a sudden, I don't know if you had that feeling where the legs all of a sudden feel good again.

Yep.

Because you— it's almost like that mental, either I see the finish line or I know it's, it's within such a close range.

Yep.

It's as if your body, yeah, just eliminates any stress, any pain you had, and all of a sudden you can go.

Because I really wanted to finish through the finish line running. Yeah, walking, because there I did walk some of it. Um, so even like some of the mental stuff afterwards, because a lot of people were asking me like, are you gonna do another one? I'm like, Yeah, I don't know. And it's like, as I was like thinking back to that last 5 miles, I was kind of hard on myself because I was like, could you have dug a little bit deeper and really, you know, pushed the limits and not walked that some of those, you know, last couple of miles. And so that was kind of that voice in the back of my head, like, hey, Colton, like, you should do another one and really empty the tank and do something a little bit harder. So been kind of toying with maybe doing a 50-miler.

It's only, what, 9K— 9 miles more than you went, right?

Yeah.

You know, you brought up the training part and it brought back memories because I did Ironman Wisconsin 3 times. And the thing about that race that's a little bit unique is back in the day everything was 2 loops. So you'd swim 2 loops in the lake and then you'd go do 2 loops of the bike and then you do 2 loops of the run. And so the last time I did it where I really was trying to go for a time, actually my goal was to qualify for Kona. Mm-hmm. And all of my long training on the weekends, I did 2 of it. So if I had a 12-mile run, I'd do 2 6-mile loops. If I had a 50-mile bike, I'd do— and dude, that was a— like that mental game of knowing I've got to do this loop all over again. Yeah, that the mental part of that training was sometimes as tough as race day itself.

Yeah. And even when I was kind of cross-referencing training programs between what I had in Runna and ChatGPT, ChatGPT even made the recommendation on some of my long runs, like, don't listen to anything. Like, just get used to listening to that self-talk to push through, to finish, to kind of train that. No different than someone, you know, they tell you to train your nutrition too while you're doing those long runs to make sure that your stomach can handle the gels and the that carb because I was trying to get 80 to 100 carbs an hour. And obviously that's not something I do on a regular basis. And so you got to make sure you're training your gut for it as well, because some runners say it's as much of a running contest as an eating contest. And so that was definitely true.

I know people who have stomachs that are like metal containers that I knew guys in Ironman, they would eat a burrito. During the bike. I'm like, how can you possibly put that in your body right now when you're burning and moving as fast as you are? So I'm curious, because it might be too, too soon to tell, being that you just did the race in April. Has that experience doing that— that is something very hard— has that changed the way at all you approach business challenges? Like, have you noticed a difference at all with, with how that's impacted you? At work?

Yeah, it definitely teaches you patience, and you definitely have to be patient in this business because the reality of getting quick wins all the time, like some of our sales cycles are so long, you know, it's taken 3, 4 years just to, you know, land a group that you've been, you know, trying to educate or you've met with or you've had lunch with or you've networked with. And you just want to get that win right away. But I mean, you just got to trust the process and keep moving forward.

What would you say to somebody listening in right now who's sitting there going, all right, Colton, I get it, man, but you were a former college athlete, former— you know, you had a— you had the goal of going into athletic training as part of your career. No, yeah, this is just ingrained with you, ingrained in you. You were born with this, which I think is bullshit. We, we all have to learn how to do this. Yeah, but somebody kind of sitting on the sidelines knowing they need to take care of— better care of themselves because they know that it would probably impact their performance in business. Where do they get started? Because they might look at a guy like you and say, dude, you're so far down the line, like, I don't even know where to start to start to do what you're doing.

Just start. And I get questions all the time because I do have friends that don't do some of the things that I do. They're just like, well, how do you do that? Or I could never do that. And it's like, never say never, because I was the type of guy that would just run a mile at a time. I jump on the treadmill and just run a mile and say, okay, I ran a mile, I'm good. But then, you know, you start dating someone that ran marathons and half marathons. It's like, okay, maybe I can increase the mileage from time to time. And she always talks about, you know, brick by brick. And it's like you can't compare my day whatever to your day one. And so maybe just starting is just setting a goal that you want to get 10,000 steps in a day. Well, once you've consistently done that 10,000 steps in a day, now say, okay, well, I'm going to run, you know, a mile a day. I want to run a 5K a day, or I want to, you know, maybe just get 10,000 steps in a day and I want to get 200 grams of protein in a day and just start building and stacking these wins over and over as you've started to, you know, master some of those things.

Talk to us a little bit about how important it is though to have spousal support. Yeah. Because now she's your fiancée, you're getting married, what, in October?

Yep.

So, you soon-to-be spouse, but you and Alyssa, Alyssa is a big part of this.

Yeah.

Talk about how important it is to have that spousal support because I feel the same way.

Yeah, it's— there's something about just, you know, having those, you know, mutual goals together. And she may have different goals than I am, but we can, you know, some of those goals just overlap. And, you know, part of that is, you know, eating the right foods, you know, moving our bodies, how— whatever that means, whether that's going to the gym or going for a walk. So we try and do that actually together. We go to the gym together in the morning, but she's doing her workouts. I'm doing mine. But then at the end of the day, when we eat dinner, we usually go for a walk together. And so, yeah, I can't imagine, you know, wanting to go for a walk and just by myself. It gets pretty boring. You know, I do do that sometimes, but, you know, throw on a podcast. But yeah, it's just so much more fun to do things like that. And we've since, you know, even gotten like a rooftop tent for my truck and just going out and exploring the world and hiking and just moving our bodies in any way we can.

Yeah, there's, there's a rare moment where I need that walk by myself, especially after like a long day of coaching. But I agree with you, I look at like where Amy has played a role in what I do, um, and I get it, we have, we have a lot of flexibility because we don't have kids, but her support is, is immense. I mean, to your point, when I look at what we, you know, we, we kind of do our own things Monday through Friday from exercise standpoint, but our routine has become Saturday mornings we swim together and then on Sundays we go to the gym together and it's kind of been our thing. And then we walk after dinner together. Those little moments like that are, I think, are so impactful. Yeah. To not only have, you know, just to have that partner in your life that makes it easier to do what you want to do already, whether that's eat well, exercise, when you've got a partner who's supportive. Hey, I've dated women. Who would be ticked that I was going to the gym.

Yeah.

And it has an impact on you, man. People who say it doesn't, it does. And so to have that support from the— your better half, your, your partners, is so, so important.

Well, and there's something about, you know, whether it's, you know, so your significant other or your friends. Um, I can't remember who sent me the article, but it was something about like a masagi or something. Masogi, and you choose one hard thing a year. No different than, you know, going back to sports and, you know, grinding out together as a, you know, whatever sports team that you're a part of. And there's something about, you know, being on toe in the same line as the same, you know, people next to you. And, you know, you just build that bond indirectly through doing hard things together. Um, and I think that's hard to come by nowadays. Um, once you do get out of sports and you're growing up and, you know, finding other couples that like to do things that you do or friend groups. Um, and so we try and be intentional, um, with even some of our friends, like, hey, let's get out and go for a bike ride, or let's go for a run, or let's go paddleboard, or whatever.

Yeah, I think that's a good point. Not only that, that support extends beyond your partner to your community, to your friends. Um, we talked about that at dinner last night too, is when you make that decision to go all in on certain habits and rituals, just know that you're going to have friends who may not want to come along for that ride. And at some point, you make a decision. Are those friends we continue to hang out with or they may fall by the wayside themselves because they just don't like what you're doing to elevate yourself? You kind of gave the image this morning in the gym of you go here and somebody's here. Well, eventually, that gap gets so big that either they don't want to be a part of your journey anymore or, you know what I mean? It's just, it's important. I think it's hard for people. You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. And I think that's as true in business as it is in personal life. And you got to be careful who those 5 are. Yeah.

And I never want to intimidate or push people out of my life. It's more of like influence. I'm seeing that where some people, yes, they do slowly fall and drift away, but I'm also seeing other people gravitating towards, you know, even like my, my sister's fiancé, he's gotten into running and he's, he's a big dude. He was a wrestler, he's a football player, he's a professional arm wrestler, like big dude. And he just got into running and he was just trying to improve his mile time for the longest time. Then he's like, well, I want to start doing a little bit of distance now. I did a 5K and he just did his first half marathon. And so that's just one story of, you know, several of people that are starting to get out of their comfort zone and doing things.

And you, you leading the life you lead, you're impacting and influencing people I guarantee you don't even know.

Mm-hmm.

Those, right? And that, that, that's I think that's what this is all about is, you know, whether it be your brother-in-law or again, somebody in your community that you're not even connected to that sees what you're doing, which elevates them to become better. Yeah. We tell you, no, if you're not— I just don't— the goal should be to always try to get better.

Yeah.

No matter what it is. Well, let's talk a little business, man. You've got Community Connected Health. Talk to us a little bit about what your— what your mission is there, because I think I really like what you're doing, you know, really trying to influence the communities, not only in Iowa, but outside with bringing access to good healthcare to these communities that often don't have that opportunity? What's your mission behind it?

Yeah, you know, Community Connected Health is exactly what it sounds like, and it's, we're just trying to restore healthcare in the communities that we, you know, have offices in, we work in, we, you know, shop in. Just all across Iowa, and it's now grown to other states too. Because in any given community, there are people, there are businesses, there's healthcare, whether that's a hospital or independent providers, pharmacies, so on and so forth. And it's like, there's all these misaligned interests that have come to the health insurance and healthcare world. And we're trying to shed light on those. Items because a lot of the money that is, you know, coming into the community is leaving the community and going to, as my partner Skip would say, these big shiny buildings downtown wherever. I'm sure you guys can imagine those logos and such. And so our whole mission is just to try and keep as many dollars within the four walls of the business as possible. More money or keep that money in employees' paychecks get people access to high-quality care because at the end of the day, in that given community with those three parties, they all need each other. And so if we can remove all those misaligned interests and create kind of these direct pay arrangements that we, we talk about a lot, the community can flourish. People are going to get the healthcare that they need. The businesses are going to keep their hard-earned dollars and not have to dip in their own bank accounts. To offset that 15% increase. They're not constantly having to go back to their employees each and every year, "Hey, we got to take more money out of your paycheck," or, "Hey, we're raising your deductibles from $5,000 to $6,000." That's just not a sustainable model. And we've seen that model happen over the last, ever since really the passage of the Affordable Care Act and maybe even years before that. I've just only been in the business for 9 or so years. So I only know what I know and what I've seen. But yeah, it's just that constant scaling back of benefits, it's not sustainable.

Why do you think so many employers are still trapped in the status quo?

They don't have the belief that they can change their benefits. Or what I also say is you're only as good as who you're getting advice from. No different than, you know, Every attorney is different. Some, you know, specialize in certain things. Some are just generalists. Some are the top tier. Some of them are the bottom of the tier. Same thing with accountants, CPAs, so on and so forth. And we fall into that bucket. We all do things so differently. And kind of the writing was on the wall for me, you know, 2, 3 years into my career. I'm just like, is my position even going to be here as like an advisor or consultant or insurance agent, whatever your bucket you want to throw me in? Because it's like, why do clients pay me year after year a commission to come deliver them bad news saying, hey, your deductibles are going up, you're paying more, getting less, whatever the story is? And it's like, why would you pay anybody to do that? It's like, I think the clients of today are like, we need to see results and we'll pay you for those results. And so, In some cases, we're willing to put our money where our mouth is. Yeah.

Every episode I do, I try to find like one through-line theme, and I think you just nailed it, and that's belief. It's funny, I do a Monday motivational video now for our clients, and I just recorded one this morning, and that was the topic, was belief. Thinking about whether you, your journey, your health journey, doing the Zion 60K. Employers believing they can fix their healthcare. It all starts with belief, right? You have to believe you can accomplish something and then become it, start acting as if before it actually happens. And I think coming back to the health insurance piece, that's— I tell so many of our clients, the number one thing you have to do if you're going to get these employers to make a decision to make a change is you have to get them to believe this is possible. They have been hammered for years with double-digit increases, to your point, being told by their advisor, nothing you can do about it. Yeah, you've got to get them to believe that this is possible.

Yeah. And part of that belief is, you know, even goal setting, you know, setting goals for, you know, mutually with your clients, like, what do you want out of your benefit plan? You know, one client that comes to mind, Once they finally, we got them over the hump to actually believe that they've got control over their expenses. And yes, there are, you know, some things that are out of their control, but the data that they're getting access to and, you know, some of the programs that we've introduced to their members to get, you know, lower cost surgeries, imaging, you know, meds, so on and so forth. They're working with Direct Primary Care. They had some new leadership coming in at the same time and he's like, okay, I think I'm getting this now. Let's set a 5-year goal that we want to make healthcare free for our people. And they saw significant savings the first year and then this trajectory of what they would have saw, you know, year 2 and what they were able to maintain for year 2. So they're starting to believe that and even set goals, which is good because if we have that goal out there, well, we can always just point back to that goal as we're making decisions and doing education. And part of that is also getting the employees to believe it's possible because employees have the belief that, "Well, my insurance pays for it." It's like, "Well, who pays your insurance?" This money doesn't just float out of thin air. Your employer pays a portion, you pay a portion, They're just the third party that sits in the middle that helps disseminate payments to all the different parties. And you hope that they're working in your best interest. And I think, you know, most employers are finding that most of their insurance carriers aren't working in their best interest. So we also have to get the employees to believe that, hey, how you use healthcare matters. And I think we've always talked about that because we've always said like consumer-driven healthcare, move everyone to high deductible health plans, they'll be better consumers. And it's like, No, now they're just avoiding care until they can't avoid care any longer and they end up in the emergency room or, you know, hospital, or they're rationing medications, which that's not good for your population either. Yeah. So we need to get the employees to believe that they— and as one of our partners alludes to, he likes to say, you know, allowing the employees to vote with their own dollars. And so building that culture internally and not from the top down, like, hey, how you use healthcare matters. Because it's going to ultimately help the performance of your plan. It's going to reflect in your paycheck, so on and so forth.

How are the providers responding to this?

Good. We have a lot of providers as clients now, direct primary care doctors' offices, radiology clinics, orthopedics, hospital clients. That's been interesting because If you talk to the provider community, they hate insurance companies like most people do. There obviously isn't an element of insurance that needs to be there to cover the catastrophic, but how can we again set those direct pay relationships as much as possible? Because we've seen the consolidation of health plans and just lack of competition on the health insurance side. Well, that's happening in their side of the business too, where You got these large health systems that are trying to buy up all their competition. Yeah. To reduce some competition. And so that's part of our mission too, is like, how can we keep our independence still independent and try and drive volume, create those, you know, direct pay relationships, pay them quicker, fair and reasonable rates that we're not coming back to them and saying, hey, you guys need to do more and we're going to pay you less. Kind of what some of the networks do to them and their negotiations. Negotiations. And so I think they like that they have a say in things.

That's good. Well, let's finish here and then we're going to get into a little lightning round to get to know you a little better, even though I feel like everybody knows a lot about you now based on today's conversation. What's one belief you hold today, whether it be about performance, health, or what you do for a living, that maybe you didn't believe 5 years ago?

I like what you said, how you do one thing, is how you do everything. That's kind of stuck with me because there's another gentleman that I listen to him. He does a lot of motivational and professional or personal development stuff, even just, you know, picking up trash and making your bed and just being nice to people. And, you know, all those things matter. And it may seem very small and minute, but they start to add up. To big things.

Well, let's wrap here. I like to finish with some questions so the audience can learn a little bit more about you. We've been talking habits and rituals, so I'm going to walk you through a few questions just to dive into those rituals and habits a little more. So, let's start with morning routine. We worked out today at 5:30. What does your typical morning routine look like to set yourself up for success?

Yeah, usually the alarm goes off about 5 o'clock. At the gym by 5:30, 5:45. I foam roll every single morning, stretch, do a warm-up, and then it's, you know, most of the time resistance training. Usually do a split of upper body or lower body depending upon the day. After that, I usually do some walking or running, some sort of cardio just to keep getting some, some movement in. And then yeah, wrap it there. I pack all my bags and my breakfast and lunch with me. So I shower at the gym, go straight to the office, eat my breakfast there, and then start diving into the workday.

You got 60 minutes to work out. What is your— what would be the perfect workout for you?

Perfect workout.

You could have one workout for 60 minutes.

So like one movement?

Just one. What is the go-to workout? Whether it's upper body, lower body, high I know you're doing a combination of a lot of stuff these days.

Yeah.

60 minutes, you got 60 minutes a day to work out. What are you doing?

Yeah, I like to—

Notice, by the way, folks, he's so ritualized. He's trying to dive into exactly what am I trying to get done? Is it upper body? Is it leg day?

Yeah, I do like a good leg day. Despite popular belief, I've switched away from doing any sort of like back squats or I just do front squats or like lunges, step-ups. So I like to do a bigger movement like a, like a front squat, do, you know, 5 or 6 sets of that. And then I like to finish with more like supersets.

Okay.

Hammering the quads, hamstrings, calves, things like that.

Love that. You got an afternoon to yourself. Alyssa's off doing her thing. You're by yourself. You don't have any kids in the picture yet. What are you doing?

Probably hitting up a friend to maybe jump on the bikes. I've got a dirt trail right behind my house that I like to take my mountain bike on. Otherwise, we've got great trail systems throughout Iowa. So, I might just jump on the trail and do a quick bike ride.

Something that involves movement. I'm not surprised.

Yeah.

Books, podcasts, any books you're reading right now or listening to or podcasts you're listening to that you want to mention?

I just started a book, an audiobook yesterday. And it was, it was Ken— someone just recommended it to me. Ken Block.

Okay.

No, was it— can't remember his last name, but it was Everything Great Is on the Other Side of Hard, I think is the title. He just recommended it to me this past weekend. This gentleman that dealt with a kind of a tough upbringing, was an addict, and then just on a whim ran a marathon and did very well and then got into these like endurance races. So, I always like to do like the personal development or like the, you know, just hearing people's stories.

Yeah, I agree. And I mean, it's a very universal statement. Everything great is on the other side of hard. And that is true. And I see that especially with the insurance industry because, you know, we reward mediocrity. Yeah. You can be mediocre and make a lot of money. In this, in this business and be complacent. And everything great is on the other side of hard. So if you're listening in right now and you're not where you need to be or you know you could be better, start doing some hard things. As we love to say, we do hard shit. So, well, Colt, man, it's been an honor to have you. I know you got to run because you're going to a conference. If somebody was inspired, wanted to reach out to you, what's the easiest way to get a hold of you?

Very active on LinkedIn. So I get messages all the time. Happy to schedule a call and have a chat.

Awesome. Colton Storl, everybody.

Thank you.

Thanks, man. This was awesome. Be good, everybody.