Using AI To Scale Your Insurance Agency, with Rodney Mattos, Sr.

They say in the next five to 10 years, half of this industry is going to be retiring. So you better be able to be more efficient and work with a platform that is enabled or future proof to help your people eliminate those mundane tasks so they can be work more efficiently.

Welcome to the accelerate your insurance sales podcast. This is the podcast where you'll learn effective marketing and sales strategies from some of the most recognizable names in the insurance industry. We're going to teach you how to turn brand awareness into business growth by becoming the thought leader your product prospects seek out. You and I are down in the studio. Spencer Smith Studios in Frisco, Texas. Spencer, if you're tuning in, thank you for the opportunity. Nathaniel, thank you for the opportunity to let us use your studio. I'm excited for this episode because I think what you're doing as far as artificial intelligence is concerned is pretty cutting edge, especially when it comes to the insurance industry. So we're going to talk about a product you've built called the periodics that I think a lot of advisors listening in are going to want to know more about. But before we get there, I love to really kick off the conversation with. All right, we all somehow found our way into the insurance industry. As I like to say, the industry found us. Yeah, you've been in the industry for about 30 plus years.

Yeah, I started, started, I think, transitioning the insurance industry. About 28 years old. Yeah. Okay, just what led you?

Yeah, what led you to jump in?

Well, I just had my, what, 58th birthday, November 8th here. Just a little bit.

Happy birthday. I just had mine yesterday or two days ago, actually.

Yeah, Happy birthday, Andy. No, I just want to comment. I mean, this studio is like state of the art, so absolutely beautiful. Something to aspire to, to ourselves. We actually just built a recording studio, our office in Loomis, California. And it's a small space, but soundproofed it and did a lot of neat things to get it ready. And we're starting to put out content with your help and coaching us, so. But it's a great opportunity to be here. But yeah, getting back to what got me into insurance, I think, yeah, most people don't grow up thinking I'm going to be an insurance agent. Right. Or go into the insurance industry. And.

It really just stemmed from wanting to fulfill, you know, lifelong dreams and achieve success for myself and my family. And I started having a family at a pretty young age. So my wife and I got together. I think we started dating at 21 and we ended up getting married at 23 and she got pregnant right around the same time I proposed to her. So. And we had our first son within. Within a year. But.

Yeah, so I was working for a family business and in the trades, so finished carpenter by trade, so had done that family business. So my stepfather had this great pre hung door shop that I got to work at and really learned how to be a craftsman at a very young age. So my obsession with detail now and.

Insurance, I was just gonna say I think I knew that story, but now it explains the attention to detail.

Yeah, it stems from just meticulous detail. And a lot of the things that I worked on over the years, they used to have in the real estate industry, construction. They had what was called an annual street of dreams. And so builders would just go crazy building some of the best houses that they could. And we, as a supplier of custom entries and doors and molding and fireplace mantles and just really ornate details, I got pretty good at it. So a lot of the things that we supplied ended up getting awards for those annual street of dreams.

One of the contractors that was a client of ours was building some new houses and they were having trouble selling them. You know, they built spec houses. And the cyclical nature of the construction industry was something that was always on my mind is like if I'm going to stay in construction or stay in the trades or, you know, either become an architect or build or something like that was really kind of the direction I was going in. And I got, you know, this realization that, well, there's a lot of, you know, cycles to the economics of the construction industry. Loved working with my hands. But, you know, I was thinking, maybe there's something else. And I wasn't really sure what it was, so ended up buying our first house. I think it was trying to remember what year that was. It was really early on, like a few years after we got married and wife is pregnant with our second child. And so we were making decisions. She was a legal secretary, paralegal. And you know, does it make sense for her to continue to work or, you know, pay for daycare, have her stay home? It's like I got to make more money, you know, so buy this house. Interesting way that I purchased the house. I actually traded and did installation for the builder that was building out homes in the same community. And I installed doors and molding and fireplace mantles and things like that nights and weekends, which covered my down payment for this house. So you don't see that too often these days. You can't barter for a House. But it was pretty unique and a great opportunity. And then we buy this house, and.

It was really interesting. The two doors down was a gentleman that my wife had gone to high school with up in Amador county. And he was working in the insurance industry. And we became friends and he started inviting me to golf tournaments. You know, he's playing, you know, these golf tournaments because he's sponsoring events and did a lot of work in the Taft Hartley, you know, space for large group insurance. There's a local carrier that had started in Rancho Cordova in Northern California, and they became a really big powerhouse. It was called Foundation Health at the time, and they grew to be a Fortune 500 company. And he was working there. I'm like, man, I think I kind of want to get into the insurance business. He's making really good money, driving a great car. He's playing golf all the time.

He's playing golf three days a week.

Yeah, and I'm, you know, dusting off sawdust, you know, and, you know, at the end of the day and, you know, lifting heavy doors, you know, all day long and things like that, loading and unloading trucks. Like, yeah, I'm going to get worn out if I keep doing this, you know, the rest of my life. So insurance seems like a pretty good way to go. So we did some coaching, did a little role playing, which was totally new to me, and never done anything like that, you know, being in the trades and. And yeah, I made the decision to go get my insurance license. I figured, you know, this guy is doing really well and like, he's no different than me. He was fairly bright. I felt I was a little bit brighter. I could probably. If he could do well, I'm going probably do pretty good in the insurance industry too, and ended up getting my license. And a couple about a month later, started went to work for this association that provided leads, and they had training on the weekends. You learned how to cold call and set up appointments. And it was through nace, national association of Self Insured. I don't even know if that's still in existence anymore. But.

I got what was called, I think the B leads at the time. I had no idea that the training leads, which I know better now, so everybody starts with training leads. Had no idea that that's what I was starting with, just pounding phones and setting appointments, and really did struggle with telemarketing early on. And I had a good. Somebody I met who was out from Philadelphia, and he was one of the managers that did training. I'm still really good friends with today, by the way. So it was almost 30 years later and great guy, but he was fun to work with and really taught me how to have fun. You know, telemarketing, you know, don't think of it as a challenge. Think of it as like we're trying to figure out ways to help people. They just don't know that they need our help yet. Right. So just having a different mindset and learning that early on, but did fairly well. But what I really, I think what I really figured out how to succeed in insurance was when I made the connection that all of the contractors that were our suppliers at the, at the business, in the trades, they were all potential clients, they were all self employed. So I started reaching out to them, setting appointments and you know, if I can, you know, provide you better coverage or save you some money, can I help? You know, help you look and evaluate your individual insurance for you and your family? And they all wanted to meet with me and I helped almost all of them. So yeah, so I was enough to put on a resume and then, you know, after about three years of doing that, I never transitioned 100% to, you know, commission only sales because, you know, having a family, it was a little bit of a concern like am I going to be able to make that mortgage payment, put food, you know, on the kids table and the wife and everything at home. So yeah. So an opportunity came up to apply for a position. My neighbor said, hey, there's an opening, I think you'd be a good fit for it. You had enough on your resume and applied for that position and ended up, up, end up getting that job. And that was in the Medicare risk space. So helping seniors with their, you know, Medicare supplements and Medicare HMOs.

What I love about that story though is I think a lot of people get in our industry, especially when it's a drastic change. Like you, right. You were in the trades and now you're in insurance.

Yeah.

And they're told, they're, you know, we're kind of taught that don't talk about your past career because, because we don't want them to know you don't have that much experience. But what really at the end of the day, it's part of your story, it's part of your journey. You can't hide from that. But what I loved about what you've done with it because we, you know, we work with you now and it's obvious you are very attention to, detail driven now it makes sense that, well, that's what made you so successful as a tradesman?

Passover detail, which.

Which is a core strength of yours. And I think that's what people often forget, especially the ones who do make a career change. How do I use my previous career to impact what I'm doing in insurance today? Yeah, we all got lured by money and, and golfing and. And cars and houses. Great. But it's using your skill from the previous career to help you advance in the insurance industry. And I think that's something that's probably helped you. You've been in the industry now, what, 30?

Yeah, like I said, I transitioned from the days in the trades. About 28 years old. Yeah. 28 years old. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, three years after.

After working at Foundation Health, they got acquired by another big national firm. I think it was Health Net at the time that was back in.

Yeah, was that 90s, late mid-90s? I think it was 96, 97. And.

The health Net team decided they didn't need the Foundation Health employees, so was looking for another opportunity. And regionally, there was a new startup insurance carrier that some of the leadership had gone to from Foundation Health. They were helping a dentist start an insurance company in Sacramento. And my buddy, who was my neighbor, said, hey, I think you should go talk to Carl, who was leading the team and developing this new insurance company. And he says, you know, I think there's an opportunity for you. And then a month later, he's like, oh, crap. I think I just gave my job away because he got let go. So he came over, too, and the two of us built this organization.

Careful of the advice you give.

Right. So he came over, and we ended up building this. This insurance carrier together and be part of the founding team that got to have an opportunity to build something from scratch, which was a really unique opportunity in the early part of my career that, you know, just kind of serendipitously happened and got to become an opportunity for us to be very creative. A lot of, you know, implementation of new technology that we got to. Got to really just experiment with.

And I think that's, you know, that. That becomes the crux of this conversation today because you've had quite a journey in the insurance industry from starting a carrier with, I believe, a successful exit. Oh, yeah, you've. You've. You now have an agency, Triforda. You've seen, you've been on the commercial side, you've been on the benefit side. Today you have. You know, you do both at Triforda, but you just mentioned technology and Again, again, a guy who's a detail oriented individual. I'm sure you are. Somebody that's always been on the leading edge.

Envision you being the guy in line to get the new Apple phone, right?

Usually, yeah. Usually not immediately. I won't wait in lines. I'm not big on going to Disneyland, waiting in lines and crowds. But yeah, usually when it's.

You're gonna be one of the first to have the new technology. Right. But let's talk about this because one of the things I think that's so cool about the journey that, that you've shared with me since I've known you is very rarely in our industry does somebody go on to create a solution to solve a problem they had. You know, we're here to talk about a technology you've built called Periodics. And what led you. So you've been at, you know, you went through the journey, exit bought agencies have run agencies. What led you to ultimately coming to the point where you are today with a Periodics, which is a technology that helps agents run an agency with more efficiency. What led you to the fact that I've got to build my own solution?

Yeah, that's a great question, Andy. You know. Yeah. Like you said, fast forward to, you know, exiting and acquiring your first agency. I knew I wasn't ready to retire, obviously, so I still had a lot of fight left in me in my 50s and I felt I had a lot to still give to the industry. So acquiring that first PNC firm, that was. When was that? That was about the end of 2018 when I acquired my first PNC firm. And.

I didn't know anything about property casualty, just knew I knew what an auto insurance policy was in, a homeowner's policy and an umbrella because I had those myself.

And you know, when I was in the trades, we obviously dabbled in, you know, shopping our insurance for general liability and workers comp. So knew that a little bit, but not how to really present it. And you know, all the salute, all the, you know, all the ins and outs of that for a client, but acquiring that first PNC agency, man, was that an eye opening experience, you know, working with some of the best brokers in the country on the care side. I really knew employee benefits and I knew what value adds to bring into our agency to provide resources to really help employers and knew what I was going to do to grow the employee benefits side of the business. So buying that PNC agency, it was.

It didn't have any employee benefits in it. So I thought that was a great opportunity and also an opportunity to learn another side of insurance. So really had some key people that stayed on with the agency incentivized them and learned a lot about you know change management in exiting that that previous company that applied to our insurance agency and so retaining people and keeping them motivated and incentivized. But.

Getting into the system and seeing what the majority of agents were using to manage their business the lack of having structured data just really electronic file cabinets. The CRM functionality that I was used to that we had built in a very tech forward insurance carrier was non existent. Being able to just run general reports if I want to do a mailing list and a mail merge to do email campaign to our existing customers or leads or prospects that was impossible to do at the time time. So I knew I had to do something. I was like this isn't going to work for me. I can't run an agency on this.