How to Become Your Prospect's First Call | with Jeramie Holt

Hey, hey, welcome back to the Accelerate Your Insurance Sales podcast. Andy Neary, CEO and founder of Complete Game Consulting, where we help you sell more insurance with confidence and conviction. I am excited today. I am joined by the one, the only Jeremy Holt, Senior Vice President, Director of Sales for Employee Benefits for FNIC. Is that just the Colorado division, Jeremy, or all of FNIC?

Yeah, I mean, so technically my responsibilities are just over Colorado, but I don't like to leave anything alone. So I help out in our Nebraska locations when needed. Illinois, Iowa, you name it. So, but yeah, technically they keep me wrangled over here in Colorado.

Well, welcome aboard, man. It's— I'm excited to have you. You and I have known each other for probably a decade now when I was out in Colorado and I've been very impressed with the work you've done, like how involved you stay in the community. And I'm sure that has helped with your business, which we're going to talk about. And now that you oversee sales with FNIC, we'll talk about what it's like, you know, training, producing recruiters these days. Excuse me, recruiting, training producers these days. And then we'll talk about the state of the employee benefits industry. But here's where I want to start, man, because most of us didn't get in this industry by design. How did you get yourself in the health insurance industry?

It's a story I've told a couple of times and it morphs every time I tell it. But I moved from Colorado, originally from New Jersey, moved to Colorado, fell in love with the automotive motorsports industry. But then fell even more in love with what's now my wife. And she just happens to be a New Jersey girl. I joke around with everyone here in Colorado that I had to go back to the East Coast to find a real woman, but then got depressed when I was out there and brought her back to the right place, which is Colorado. So, in the move from Colorado back to Jersey—

Oh, so you did go back once.

I did. Yeah, I went back in 2007 for almost 11 months. I was younger, 25, 26 years old. I was like, I got nothing to lose. All my friends and family are back there. This is going to be great. Now, keep in mind, and Andy, you know this well, living in Colorado back then, I was paying maybe $400 or $500 a month in rent for my fortune.

Not that way these days.

Well, and even when I moved to Jersey, it was a culture shock in 2007. $1,600 a month for a one-bedroom apartment with no washer and dryer, no dishwasher. I'm like, you know, so I ended up when I was back there just scrambling to figure out what I wanted to do next. I went through the entire process with a company called ADP. So ADP, Automatic Data Processing Payroll, that is their corporate hub, is New Jersey. So it was, it was the most rigorous interview process I've ever gone through in my life. It was 9 different interviews with 9 people. Roleplay, selling pens, selling the chair, doing the whole nine yards, um, which is good. I mean, it— all these things I bring up because it helped develop who I am. Ended up getting on the ADP in their small business division, uh, and when I was ready to move back to Colorado, they were gracious enough to say, yeah, let me make the phone call to the Colorado, um, branch of, of, uh, of ADP, and they just happen to have Northern Colorado available, right? So I, I jumped back in small business side, ended up moving to major accounts. So, working on groups that were from 1 to 50 was the SBS, the small business sector, and then 50 to 1,000 was major accounts. Dabbled a little bit in their PEO division. So, I knew the benefits world, I knew the HR world. But at the time, I had a boss that was not the biggest fan of, in theory, in all of your training and direction, you would also not agree, but he believed that it was important to do 8 calls before 8 o'clock, right? The old-school mentality. But everybody needed to be in the office to do those 8 calls. Well, I lived in Northern Colorado and the office was at 225 and Iliff in Aurora, 70 miles away. And my territory was I-70 all the way north through the state of Wyoming. So, like, twice a week he would make us drive all the way down to make 8 calls before 8 o'clock and then get back in the car and drive all the way.

So, you had to be down at 225 and Iliff before 8 o'clock?

We had to make 8 calls before 8:00. So, I had to be in my desk at like 7:15. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It made no sense in the world. So, I ended up working with a phenomenal company, a gentleman by the name of Kevin Welch. I don't know if you know the name Kevin Welch, but he started a smaller company back then called TLC Payroll. TLC Payroll turned— is now Journey Payroll. Kevin and his team have absolutely crushed it. So, I worked with them. And I was in a role of business development. I think there was probably 5 of us at the time. And I was young, hungry, and just wanted to grow. And we were crushing it. We were selling 300, 400 new clients a year, which is unheard of. But me, the eager, fast-moving sales guy, wanted to take the thing to the moon. And I didn't have my business ownership hat on, which Kevin did. And he's like, "Hold on a little bit. We can't just go to the moon." So, in the process, I said, "Well, I'm going this way and you're doing this thing the right way," which he's done phenomenal with it. But I'm like, "What's next for me?" And I was even back then taking the approach of kind of give before you shall receive. So, I was working COIs and I was working with insurance brokers and I was asking the question of every possible client like, "Who's your banker? Who's your CPA? Who does your 401?" So, I can find that sticky point. To get, you know what I mean, to get the referrals to me but then also give them back. Well, at the time, two of the insurance agencies that I was referring business to both came to me at the same time and said, "Why don't you sell insurance?" And I said, "Insurance? I don't want that reputation," right? Like, no way. Insurance and lawyers, two people you don't want to be. And they said, "Well, there's residual income." And I said, "What does that mean?" And they said, "You don't have to start all over every year." And I said, "I want to work that business." And that was 2010, 2011. Yep.

So yeah, I, uh, payroll to that world. Small, small world. Yeah. When I had the business in Colorado, I used Journey Payroll.

Yeah.

And I actually didn't realize TLC became Journey because I remember TLC. Yep. Um, and you, and you know, it's funny you say what you said because when I talk to a lot of advisors who started on payroll maybe or ancillary benefits and, you You ask them, I always ask them, why'd you make the jump? And for most of them, if they're being honest, it's because they worked with brokers who were so lazy. They said, if they can do it, I can do it. And that's why they ultimately made the jump. Yeah. Well, you brought up something I want to dive into right away because I think you have done such an excellent job of this. Community involvement, networking, centers of influence. You know, when I met you in Colorado, I would have thought you just grew up, were born and raised there because of your network. It was— it's pretty amazing what to see what you've done. How intentional have you been about community involvement? Hell, you were just telling me before we hit record, you're on a board, you're on the town of Timnath Council, not board council. Now it's like, what are you not involved with? But when did you really decide, I'm going to make an intentional approach to my community involvement? And how it has impacted your business.

Yeah. So, I'll go all the way back. I'll make it brief, but my mom, single mom, lived in New Jersey, worked 2 jobs. I found out at a very young age what it's like to work really hard and kind of be able to survive, right? So, I used to, at the age of 10, grocery shop. Because my mom worked. So, I would take a blank check and go and do the grocery shopping and learn to cook and all that. Well, one of the things that my mom did every year, despite her being workaholic, her company participated in March of Dimes, right? So, Walk America March of Dimes. And we thought it was fun as kids. Like, I learned at a very young age to knock on doors. And my mom goes, "Hey, kids, if you go see if we can't raise some money, whatever, whoever raises the most money," I think it was a trip or a couple of days off. My mom got. So me and my older brother would throw our rollerblades on and we would cruise around our apartment complex knocking on doors saying, hey, do you want to donate to March of Dimes? And then I saw the impact that made at a really young age, and I saw the impact it had on my mom because we would win every year, right? Um, and then we would go out, there was a 5K, and I thought I was the coolest kid in the world because everybody was running and I did it in my rollerblades, and I finished in like, you know, 12 minutes because I was on wheels. And I'm like, I'm the fastest. And then these people actually working would come running through the line. So, when I came to Colorado, it didn't happen right away. I would say I was approached when I was in the payroll world by a gentleman who sat on the board for the Matthews House. And the Matthews House at the time, I had become their payroll rep. And he said, Jeremy, just had a great conversation. He seems, you know, I told him my story about my single mom. My brother was kind of went down a path of needing some help and guidance when he was in his teenages. And he said, I want you to come to this event. So, I came to a Matthew's House event. After the event, he puts his arm around my shoulders and he goes, could you see yourself being on this board? And I never thought about that before. It's the first time anyone approached me. And I was like, it was more of like I was honored, like I have to do this, right? Like you saw something in me, you think that I can give back. I'm like, I'm going to do this whether I have the time or not. And it just became super fruitful, right? I mean, it was— I ended up— was there for 4 years, was the vice president of that board. And in the meantime, I was approached by some of the guys in a group called NoCo Unify. So this was 2009. The group had been established maybe 2 years, 2007. And they said, you know, we've got interviews coming up, you should join this group. So NoCo Unify is a group of all male business professionals in their 20s and 30s, used to be called ACT of 2030. Uh, there's, I don't know, something like 2,000 chapters throughout the entire world. Well, Northern Colorado is a hotbed of business professionals that just really like to give back, and there's a ton of organizations. Well, all the guys got together and said, we're all friends, we're all doing this for just one, you know, you know, one entity. Why don't we make a bigger impact, create a whole group, raise a bunch of money, and give all of it out to you know, plethora of charities. So that was enticing to me. I went through the interview process, which was, outside of ADP, the hardest interview I've ever been in my life. It was 5 of my peers, and they were grilling me about a job that I would never make money on, a job that I actually had to pay in order to be in. And it's the greatest thing that I've probably ever done, is becoming part of that organization. And it's not because there was 40 guys that were active, and, um, it was because I got to participate in 3 big events each year and raise hundreds of thousands of for kids. And I— it taught me a lot, not only in my sales career, but it taught me to be able to ask somebody for something, um, and, and not have it benefit me at all, which is a huge piece, right? I mean, it's very easy to say, hey, I need that because I want something. But to be able to go to Andy and say, hey, hey Andy, I know you got deep, deep pockets and your company's got a marketing budget. How about $10 grand sponsorship? It's for the kids. Um, and that got me involved in that world, and I think that just catapulted my wants and desires, and to see the more the impact that I had doing that, and the more the impact I had in younger, um, guys coming up in the ranks when I was 35, 37, close to aging out at 40. And I saw a 26-year-old kid who's like, I should be part of that, and just mentoring them through the process and going out on ask and, and seeing the impact and playing kickball with the Boys and Girls Club and, and being part of respite care year in and year out and seeing where that money goes, to me it was just, I mean, if I got a free minute, I'll give them an hour type mentality because I knew the impact. And to me, I think that had a bigger impact than any work I was ever doing in the community. So I would say that that is kind of the ramp-up stage. And then from there, I think it's just spiderwebbed into multiple opportunities.

Yeah, you've done a fantastic job. Heck, even these this yesterday and today as we record this, you're part of the— you have a town hall going on with the town of Timnath, which you sit on the board of, which is consuming your time, but you're there for the impact. And the thing I want people to hear, as you just described all that, the thing I didn't hear you say, and it's going to help me write business.

Oh, it was never thought of. Never even— didn't even cross my mind ever.

So what do you think? Where, in your opinion, because I think a lot of producers struggle with networking. In finding those organizations to be involved in? Truthfully, man, I did myself. Where do you think they go wrong when it comes to— because a lot of agencies preach it, right? Hey, go sit on a board, go get involved in an organization. But where do you think they look at it from the wrong perspective or just get it wrong?

I think it's a two-pronged approach, and I might come across as offensive, but people can't get out of their own way. I think people can't, can't take themselves out of the mix. So, when people start realizing, I have nothing to benefit from this, I'm not going to get business, it's not going to pay me, it's too much time, and they don't see the actual monetary value of what impact you're actually making in the community that you surround yourself with, you'll never be successful and that organization won't ever benefit from being. With you. Now, if you have people that want to do it and want to get in that world, I think there's a lot of people that are afraid to make the first step because they've never done it, right? And I honestly don't know that if I wasn't approached by somebody that saw something in me, I don't know, I'm sure I would have at some point jumped in and found a way, but I don't know that it would have been at 25, 26 years old, right? I mean, it might have been after I had kids, and it might have been for an organization. Me, my wife and I, uh, we have two amazing boys, but, you know, lost five kids in between the two. So we've given to Three Hopeful Hearts, right? So like key things I could see people— but when it comes to business, you hit it so perfect, Andy, in the fact that if you're going into it to find the one charity or the one community partner that's going to give you the most you're already behind because you got to figure out what am I passionate about where I can do this 10 hours a week without even blinking an eye and knowing I'm not going to get paid because I know the outcome is going to be tremendous. Um, and where can I make the biggest impact, right? So for me, there is 400 nonprofits in Northern Colorado, right? 350 of them, I'd just be a body in a seat. The other 50 of them that I've got passion, I know, I have connections, I can make asks. The people that I know are willing to give, right? So, it's also strategic on what impact can you make inside that organization and what can your network do too because Jeremy's just one person, Andy's just one person, but Jeremy's army could be a couple hundred grand a year, right? So, that would be, I think, the biggest piece is find your passion, figure out what you are willing to give up your time, that's your work time, your family time, and then make sure that you put that organization way before any business goals.

Yeah, I think that's the punchline is, you know, we're going to talk about it here briefly. I have to believe over the years of your involvement, it has led to business. But the whole punchline is you go into these— this engagement with the community, not having that goal at all. That's what makes it successful. It's, I am here to give. There is no take. I am just here to give because I am passionate about this and I want to support this cause. Yep. Now I would love to know your thoughts because you've done this enough now that I've got to believe it has led to business opportunities. Yes, I'd be curious to know how has that, that involvement with everything— by the way, I did want to ask with, uh, Unify, what was the event you guys did every year, the suitcase thing?

So we have the Derby Party, which we found was founded in '10, but the original—

you spoke to the Derby Party?

Yeah, we still do Derby. Derby just happened on May 2nd, and then, uh, the 3rd Friday in August every year we do the Suitcase which has morphed into the most amazing event. We had 1,300 people there last year.

Wow.

You know, raise on average of $250,000 that one night. It's super neat because there's private planes sitting right there on the tarmac. And we've got multiple ways for people to win, but your name gets picked, you win, you get onto that private plane, and you get flown to an all-expenses-paid vacation for the weekend.

Right there and then?

Right there and then.

So you come to this event knowing like, yo, if you win, you better, you better have your calendar free.

Yeah, yeah. And if not, you better have your bags packed or be willing to buy a whole new wardrobe when you get there.

Is that why they call it the Suitcase Event?

Yep.

Ah, okay, okay.

Yep.

That's awesome.

So you guys must do that at the FOCO Airport at the, um, yes we do. Yep. So, uh, Martin Lind, who you're probably very familiar with, has a beautiful hangar, you know, Woodward Nutrients, Hensel Phelps. They all have their private planes in there. It's 20-plus thousand square feet with outdoor tarmac too. Perfect view of the mountains. Planes sit right, pull right up in the tarmac, go right out. We watch the plane take off and fly them. Last year they went to Palm Springs, California. They've been to Nashville. This year's theme, so Blue Federal Credit Union is the sponsor this year, so they're doing a blue owl. So it's a luau theme and it's the first time we're not actually taking a private plane, but a helicopter will fly them directly to DIA. They'll have first class tickets on United and they'll fly the next morning to Maui in Hawaii.

That's awesome.

Pretty insane.

That's cool. Well, okay. With all that involvement you've had, how has it helped you build trust with HR leaders, business executives that you're doing business with?

Yeah, it's a good question and it doesn't come overnight. I mean, I've been doing this now for 16 years in the benefits world. There are— I still sit number 2, right, which is an amazing place to be on people that I am extremely tight with that I go to dinner with. You know, but there's— this is a relationship-driven industry. But Andy, I see that changing drastically and we'll talk about that here in a little bit. But when it comes to trust when it comes to people seeing you out in the community, when it comes to, you know, the— your, your sleeves are rolled up, you're in the trenches, and it's got nothing to do with work. They know that you're a good person. And when they see that you're a good person in the community, and then they see how good of a person you are in your work life, it kind of goes hand in hand. But I would say that where it's made the biggest impact for me is in the network that I've built. And the trust circle has gone from 4 or 5 people to 4 or 500 people. So, to your point, that network. So, when I need a referral or when I say, "Hey, I'm meeting with this HVAC company and I'll just throw out, just so you know, these other organizations, feel free to give them a call." And the call is always like, "Jeremy's our guy." Right? I mean, he's done it for us. Got our best interest. He spends our money like it's his own money, that type of approach. But you don't get that much visibility by sitting on the couch or attending the local bar for happy hour. You do it by showing up in the community for reasons that aren't business-related.

Enough said. I hope every producer who's tuning in heard that because that's important. Let's spin this now because you do lead producers. Yeah. And you train them, recruit them. In your opinion, in 2026, what separates producers who succeed in this industry versus the ones who struggle?

Creativity, willingness, and education. I would say the days of quote and pray, it's my favorite term. You know, send me your census. We'll put it in a spreadsheet. I'll give you numbers back. You tell me which one you can swallow the best and we'll go from there. But it's still so abundant in the old-school mentality, right? The 20-plus-year broker that golfs more than Rory McIlroy on a regular basis, right? It's tough to break prospects and clients of the belief that because I know this guy, he's just been my guy, that it's actually the right place to be. I'll give you an example. We're working with a group right now that has had the same broker for over 10 years. They've been with a trust here in Colorado. We'll leave it at that. The trust is good in the fact that it's a predictable 4% to 10% increase depending on the year, but there's no reporting. There's no surplus share. It's just, yeah, it's predictable. Well, compound that times 10 years. We go in, we tell the story, start asking about data. Why is data important? And you uncover that they haven't even been marketed in 6 years. So, they said, well, would you mind looking at this off-cycle for us? I said, yeah. I sent it to 7 carriers. All 7. Never, never in my career, 16 years, have I had 7 competitive quotes for one organization. The worst option that I'm presenting to them is 9% below current. The best option is 23% below current, and that's before they even get the renewal, right? So that's sitting currently. So that should just go to tell you the stagnant mindset that people have, but it still works. It works because clients are purely going off of relationship.

Yep.

But now, what I said earlier, they're starting to realize that there actually is something better and that they can actually control some of it. And that's where the biggest piece is, is, uh, the brokers that are making it and the brokers that are going to be here 10 years from now are the ones that are actually taking the time to educate themselves on ways to cost-contain on ways to put the right parameters in place. And it's not buzzwords, right? I mean, captives are great.

Love them.

Sell them all the time. I know you're a big proponent of them. Self-funded. It's great. Those are buzzwords. Buzzwords mean nothing if you do not have a strategy and a team in order to support it.

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Yeah, it's so true. Yeah, so true.

And to your point, if you're an advisor, if you're a producer today and you want to win, you've got to come in. You can't continue to perpetuate the way it's always been done. You've got to come in with something different.

It, uh, so again, another shared— I mean, we have a lot of connections in this world, and thankfully we surround ourselves with people that are better than us. Um, and my good friend Seth Denson is one of them. Um, he is a legend of this world. Uh, I don't know that I've ever heard a better speaker. Um, Seth has that trained, you know, Baptist approach to him.

He's got the preacher's voice.

Oh, So good. But Seth said something to me, and I think he's even got it in his TED Talk from years ago. It's, you wouldn't give your employee a never-ending MasterCard with no budget and no parameters, but yet we give them an insurance card that has the exact same, and we don't educate them on how to use it. And then we question as to why our increases are what they are at the end of every year. And 50% of the problem is the broker that put it in place that isn't willing to actually do the work to go in and teach these people. How to do it. So, like I said, you can buzzword the heck out of people, but if you don't have a strategy, a plan, and you're not willing to educate the people, you know, collect the check while you can. But there's guys like us coming behind you ready to take the business and put it in the right position for a long-term success for these clients.

Being a guy that, that does bring in the different ideas, self-funding captives, um, where do you think employers are shifting from how they're challenging benefit advisors right now or questions they may be asking that they weren't asking 5 to 10 years ago? Do you see employers starting to push back a little saying, "Hey, you want my business, you need to come on in with a different idea"?

Yeah, I do. I 100% do. Here's the thing though, like luckily enough for us, I get that out of the way. I think it's more that we're able to control it because I'm asking them like, "What are you doing about this?" Like, what are you doing around cost containment? You know, when's the last time you sat down and understood the data, you know, the information, what's actually happening? Where, where is your money going? Like, what are the controllables? You know, what is your top 10 pharmacy spend? How do you know, have you been able to access, you know, rebates or programs to get your employees, you know, low to no cost options at the actual purchase point, right? So when you start asking them and they understand, you're like, okay, this guy knows what he's talking about. I think it's the opposite side for us because we're already there and we're already having this conversation. It's getting the opposite side of it. It's getting the employer to actually be willing to listen to like something might actually be better out there. So I think that would be more of a challenge for us is someone that has been a business owner for 100 years and it's the third generation. And, well, the third generation went through Vistage with another broker. So, it's just the good old boy network. And because of that, they just believe that whatever they say is gold. And they're now in this new thing called Level Funded. And I'm like, "Okay. So, tell me more." "Well, we have the opportunity to get money back." And I'm like, Tell me more. Well, they said that if we run well, and I'm like, you know, and I keep going down the pipeline. I'm like, well, what have you seen? Well, it's been 3 years and they say it normally takes 3 to 5 years to see a return. I'm like, okay, right? So, you know, it's just one of those and you get them to believe like, guys, we can make an impact in the first 90 days and here's what you should be seeing and here's the reports. Like, have you gone over it? Well, no. But then it's like the scared, like, whoa, wait a minute. This is too much. And which, to your point, Andy, it's pretty alarming on how much we hear complaints of what healthcare costs and all this, but the unwillingness, to your point, of the buyer to educate themselves on what it actually means and how they can actually impact it. They want to complain of what it costs, but very few are willing to do what it takes and educate and actually walk alongside a broker and a good strategy in order to make it work long term.

You brought back memories, man. I had been selling health insurance for 13 years in Wisconsin before we moved out there. And I remember one of my first two— first two early observations selling health insurance in Colorado was 2014. All these employers kept telling me they're self-funded and I'm like, oh no, no, no. Yeah, you kind of are, but you're level funded with Cigna.

Right.

They've convinced you this is the best thing to have, but this is like dipping the toe in the water of self-funding. And then the second thing is the, the number of brokers who allowed, to your point, allowed the decision makers to be lazy and ignorant because we do everything for you.

Yep.

And it frustrated me at first because I'm like, you guys aren't even taking the time to understand what you're buying because you're letting your broker control the entire equation. And I saw it to your point. I saw that early out there because, and they weren't even open to any other ideas because they had been sold, this is the best thing for you. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, how many people go into the Ford dealership and just look at the window sticker plus the markups of the lift and the tires and the wheels and just say, yeah, that's great. I'll pay that. Because you told me I should pay that. Not one of them. Not one person. You literally sit there for hours and you go back and forth, ask your manager if you can get to here, I'll get to there. Nope, I need my payment at $500, not $800, right? No, I don't want to put down $3,000. I want to put the negotiation that we do day in and day out for things that are this big compared to what our insurance spend is and the unwillingness that of the time that we're willing to put in to actually— and, you know, I mean, we're talking million, 2, 3 million. The group that we just discussed earlier has a $2.6 million spend every year, and they haven't even asked in 6 years to see competitive data.

Well, let's, let's dive into that, man. I'm gonna let you put your thought leader cap on.

Sure.

You guys are in Northern Colorado. FNIC is actually headquartered out of Omaha, right?

Omaha, yeah.

But you, you guys are still independent. And I'll be honest, very few independents left in northern Colorado.

Yep.

What do you think sets you guys apart?

So we're unique in a couple of facets. We're not the only one by any means, but we are unique in we have the bank attachment, which is great. So we have a family-owned entity in FNBO Bank that's been around for 167 years in Omaha. I mean, anyone that's been in Omaha, Nebraska, knows of the Lorenzen family, knows of FNBO, knows of the reputation in the community. They've been in Colorado on the banking side for many years as well. Well, a lot of people in Colorado never knew that FNBO and their owners have an entity called FNIC. I didn't even either in the process. Well, FNIC as a whole has been around for now 110— it's our 110th year as an agency at some capacity. And yes, we're independently held, we're bank owned, but that bank's owned by one family. Right. So, it's pretty neat. So, we have a unique approach to where we have a midsize regional approach in a national feel. I mean, we'll soon be a $100 million agency. We just had a couple acquisitions. So, we get the connectivity of the community. So, we have that. So, we have the trust as much as banks are trusted, right, with things like 2008, 2018.. But we're visible. And then when people actually meet us and they sit down and they say, okay, well, we like where you're at. We've either probably been with or currently with a carrier that's been purchased 3 times in the last 5 years, or maybe some of them in the last year and a half. And we know that at the end of the day, you know, from what we've heard in the community, your approach is a 5- to 10-year approach. It's not a, "Hey, we're going to find you the cheapest option and move on." So, there is no smoking gun that I have. I mean, I don't have a captive that nobody else has. I don't have a widget in my back pocket. I don't have a number 2 on the totem pole at United, Cigna, Aetna that's just going to give me better rates than somebody else. I have education, I have willingness, and I put myself in the employer's seat as if I was the actual employee that I'm building a benefits package for.. So, if it's me and my wife Bridget and my son Connor, my son Liam, what do I need? What do I need and how do I need to be educated in order to use it? Because my wife is the most uneducated when it comes to health insurance. If you want marketing, she's better than anybody else, but she's like, "Hon, what do we do?" And now she is an insurance genius and she knows how to go direct to primary care versus going to the emergency room, right? We put ourselves in a partnership approach, not a broker approach, and we actually educate, deliver, and fulfill the strategic plan. And it's not a 1-year, it's a 10-year plus. And that changes on a yearly basis on what the actual mechanism is potentially, or the tool inside. It's not a set-it-and-forget-it mentality. We're constantly evolving, we're constantly looking at it, and we're using actual data for outcome.

Well, and here's what I'd love to hear from you because you said it earlier, buzzwords, right? Self-funding, RBP, captives, name it. And there's a lot of producers out there who are grabbing a hold of the buzzwords and they're saying it to win business, not knowing how the hell to actually implement it.

Yeah.

So what happens is now employers get bombarded with all these buzzwords, they get overwhelmed, therefore they end up doing nothing.

Correct.

How do you help employers cut through that noise? Because they are now getting hit with these cost containment strategies. But yeah, now it's coming from so many angles. They're just like, oh, hell, what? Stay with Cigna. I don't even know what these are. How do you help them cut through that noise?

Yeah, it's, it's a lot of work. And going back to your statement earlier, why do, why do most brokers stay stagnant or why do most new ones? I think the success rate is under 5% right now. Like, I mean, brokers that come into this industry that actually make it and last, because it's not for the faint of heart. It takes consistent education. It takes going to conferences. It takes, you know, sorting through your email because there's 20 every day on, you know, this widget, that widget, whatever it may be. And it's identifying the right partners. I don't— I couldn't stress it more. There are a plethora of captives. Not all are equal, right? There's probably 3 to 4 that I would say it makes total sense to put on a spreadsheet and actually go side by side. What we do too, though, is we actually bring in the carrier. I will never put a client with a product carrier, whatever, that that client hasn't met, hasn't interviewed, hasn't seen their underwriting process, so on and so forth. So I think that's big. But, you know, when you sort through what works And when you find the partners inside of those companies and the people, so it's not just the product, it's the people and the thought process behind it. The best thing in the world for people to do right now is build an AI-based or insurance-based something and get it gangbusters and sell it, right? That is terrible for us because the second it's sold to a VC, it's like, well, that half of what was just there is gone and now they're just going to extract it. So, you want to make sure that the tools you put in place, the strategic outcome has the right people behind them at the captives, at the direct primary cares, at the TPAs, whatever it may be. So, it's not only the product, but it's the people. And it takes time, education, which is what I geek out about. You got to be a geek in this world. You got to be willing to learn.

Well, and a few weeks back, you guys had your FNIC summit, right?

Yep.

And I think you guys had some employers in the room.

We had 65 in the room. Yeah.

What were some of the concerns? Now, granted, I understand these are employers in Colorado and northern Colorado, but what were some of the concerns that you heard repeatedly from employers as it relates to benefits?

How do we access our information? How do we understand our information? How do we educate our employees on how to use it? Right? I think it's a big one. So, Colorado is a big construction, agricultural, oil and gas, which means when it comes to educating employees, it's hard because they're never in the same place twice and you're not going to get everybody in the same room. Andy, I get criticized and criticize me all you want, but I still go out and do my own open enrollment meetings. Every year. I've got a large group, um, auto dealership here. They're phenomenal client of mine for a very long time. I did 29 in-person meetings in one week for this organization. The organization has about 700 employees. Just by going out there, um, we got 54 additional employees to enroll. And it wasn't like, you know, we're trying to force everybody on the plan. It's just they happen to be new, new hires that came on throughout the year And this organization just didn't have a process as new hires came on. They just gave them the paperwork and said, you know, enroll if you want to enroll. When they actually get educated, when they understand, when they have the ability to ask questions, people sign up and then they know how to use it. And when they know how to use it, the claims stay down, right? And the surplus is up and the plan works better. So I would say that it's an approach right there. So that's probably the biggest piece that we're hearing about is How do we know what's happening inside of our plan? How do we tell our employees how to best use it? And then how do we know which one of these— to your question earlier, how do we know which one of these buzzwords to put in place?

Well, I did the math while you were speaking. If we use the standard $25 PEPM, you said you enrolled 50— spent a week doing these that enrolled 54 additional employees.

Yes.

That's $16,200 for the year. So my question to advisors listening in, you heard Jeremy go do 29 meetings, but it led to an additional $16,200 in revenue. I'd say that week was worth your time, Jeremy.

Yeah. And you're just, you're just scratching the surface, right? I mean, I can now go and because of that, because of the education, I now have statistics with, yeah, like NICE Healthcare, for example, which is a phenomenal product. I now, when I go out and educate, I can go back to the client on a quarterly basis as they Hey, now your employees know how to use this. Here's how many times they called and used Direct Primary Care instead of going to the emergency room. And in the first quarter of the year, so we rolled this in November for January, first quarter of the year, that group had 252 visits for $96,000 in savings on a product that cost their employees $0 in order to use. That means $96,000 kept in the claims bucket, right? You got 4 quarters in the year. You can do the math. That's $400,000 and a culture through the roof because now the employees aren't spending money. They're getting care today, right? So it's like the efficiency and the group just saved $400 grand. Oh, and yeah, we got $16 grand more a year.

Yeah, that's awesome, man. Well, I think a theme throughout this episode has been sometimes you got to do the unscalable because it's the right thing, whether that is the level of community involvement you have that truly takes you away from business. Yeah. Or running 29 meetings for a client in one week because it's the right thing to do. Right. That's an important lesson I want everybody to hear. Well, Jeremy, we're going to wrap because I know you got to get back to your town hall. But we are going to— before we wrap, I am going to ask you a few questions to get to know Jeremy a little bit, if you're okay with it.

You got it.

I did not prepare you for these, man. I am a man of habit, rituals, discipline. So I love to get to know others. In fact, most people don't know, how many years ago was it you participated in a bodybuilding competition?

I think it was either '22 or '23.

When I saw the pictures, dude, I was blown away.

Pretty crazy.

So let's start out, let's talk about morning routine. What does Jeremy's morning routine look like?

Lately it's 5:45, 6 o'clock get up. Sometimes it's because the bulldog needs to go out. Sometimes it's because the 5-year-old jumped into bed with mom and dad with his Maui fish hook from Moana. Sometimes it's because the alarm went off, but I go to the gym. I go to Pursuit. Shout out to my buddy Samson. It's the best gym in Northern Colorado.

And my business partner. So, another common connection there.

Talk about culture. You walk into that gym, you want to get big. Occasionally hit their recovery. They've got a recovery center in there. They've got saunas, cold plunge, the whole nine yards. Get home and I'm normally in the office or on calls by 8:00, 8:30. I do a ton of on the go, right? So, our 22, 25-minute drive to the office, get in the office and, you know, get work going as quick as possible. I like to be visible. My team works hard. So, I want to make sure that they know that I'm there. And if I'm not there, I'm calling them, checking in. What do you need from me? What do I need from you? All by before 9 o'clock.

That's awesome, man. All right, you got 60 minutes to work out, man. You talked about working out at Pursuit. What is your— what's your go-to workout of choice?

So I would say 2 days chest, 2 days back, 1 day legs, 1 day arms. Probably going to start ramping back up. Some, uh, some cardio. Uh, I just convinced myself, um, we'll see if I can convince my wife to let me do another show. So I did my first one when I was 40, so I guess, yeah, it was 2022. Uh, and I want to do my last one when I'm 45, so I'll be a true Masters. Um, and for those of you that don't know, so Men's Physique, uh, you get up there in a pair of board shorts, you put some motor oil all over your body and see how good of a shape you can get in. For whatever reason, I'm convinced to do that. The first time I did it was amazing. The before and afters to me, like the science behind it was ridiculous.

Awesome.

Yeah, I've got a much better starting point now. So, you know, would be all right to go up there and get a, get a plastic trophy for all my hard work.

You have an afternoon to yourself. No boys, no wife, all you, no bulldog, all to yourself. What are you doing?

Going to Harmony. Harmony Golf Course, playing 9 to 18 holes. Yeah, I love golf. I love golf with my kids, but if it's even me, I think there's— I love to just get in a golf cart, put on like reggae music, Common Kings, Revolution, something along those lines in my speaker in the golf cart and see how fast I can play 9 holes.

So are you a member at Harmony now? Because it was Tarmigan before, right?

We were Tarmigan before. Yeah, we moved over. To Harmony. It'll be 2 years, um, this September.

Cool. Well, yeah, good question then to wrap. You, you said you'd use your afternoon to play golf. Your son Liam is, is, uh, for folks who don't know, the kid's not even done with his freshman year yet and he's a scratch golfer.

Yes.

Um, he played in, what was it, a PGA qualifier?

So this Tuesday, yeah, uh, it was supposed to be last Tuesday, got snowed out. This Tuesday he Got his handicap. So you have to have a 0.4 or better handicap.

Okay.

There was 3 of them at the age of 15, but a U.S. Open qualifier here at Collindale, which is a pretty tough golf course from back past the tips. And he did amazing. So despite my better judgment, I let him convince me to caddy for him. And he's an amazing kid. But Dad is at fault for everything that he does. Um, so, uh, he was good. He kept it mentally in check most of the time, but he shot a 74 from the tips at, uh, at, uh, Collindale and placed, uh, 25th out of 65 golfers at the age of 15. And everyone he was playing against was either pro or had been Division I golfer, uh, and, you know, really good amateurs. So he's got a bright future if he stays with it.

That's cool, man. Good for you. Well, man, it's been an honor to have you. You're doing a lot of cool things out there and it's fun. I watched from afar today, but it's fun to watch what you're doing. If somebody listened to this, man, and got inspired, maybe it's a producer who wants to come work for you. What's the best way to reach out to you?

Yeah, so LinkedIn is always good. Find me, you know, on the FNIC website. I tend to stay on LinkedIn pretty well. I'll give a shout out to Andy. He didn't pay me to do this, but my social media presence specific to the LinkedIn got enhanced. I think we're probably going back 5 years ago.

You went through one of my first cohorts.

Yep. I'm not as big as Nancy is and winning Broker of the Year, but I was in there with Nancy back in the day and I watched your pod with Chris and Chris. I remember those boys from back in the day as well, too. Yes, I would say social media would be LinkedIn the most and would love to chat with anybody. I think I'll throw this offer out there too. I get it asked all the time, but if you're a broker, if you're an industry person wanting to know how to do it, I don't mind sharing the goods. Call me.

Get ahold of me.

You're one of the best, man. If we can make a bigger impact in the community together, I'm happy to do so.

Awesome, man. Jeremy Holt, everybody.