Networking and Building Business Relationships

Speaker 1 0:31

But I guess it's been. But different B&Is are different yeah.

Speaker 2 0:35

I used to do the. Do you do a lot of the marketing with like networking? Probably because you need to Just really actually just B&I.

Speaker 1 0:42

Okay, like I did chamber, I did the speed dating breakfast stuff, what did you think?

Speaker 2 0:47

about all that stuff it a lot of it we're recording that right now just the way I am, are you?

Speaker 1 0:54

There's a lot of stuff that's it's very valuable, but what you learn as a small business owner, as you learn what is going to be the best audience for you, and it hurts how, because I I did the lead chair and I and I did the chamber events. There were a lot of solo panors, which was amazing to get your name out there, but it I didn't meet as many small business owners through certain chamber events, but then with lead chair it was also a little loosey-goosey compared to B&I, which actually it's an official term, loosey-goosey.

Speaker 1 1:31

Yeah, so I, I, I shied away from from doing B&I because you know you have to be there every week and there's a lot of structure and rules. And then a business owner who I had approached on a Friday afternoon outside his business and said you know, would you be, can I get 15 minutes of your time to talk about? You know, the benefits that I bring to companies and how I work with them.

Speaker 2 1:54

This is serious hustle right now.

Speaker 1 1:56

So, yeah, I used to, and and I still sometimes go canvassing, especially if I'm training younger or newer associates on my team. But I like door knocking, but it is, but to businesses, and I've trolled parking lots at 6 30 in the morning trying to, you know, meet, talk to business owners or set up an appointment. I don't do that as much these days because of so many referrals.

Speaker 1 2:22

Yeah, but the structure and B&I, he said oh, I will meet with you if you come visit my B&I chapter and they know how to win, and so I was like, I'll pay $20 for breakfast to you know, get a meeting, and I, I got the client and I joined the group.

Speaker 2 2:39

Wow, I used to be president of mine for about six months and then I was in. I was in it for about a year and a half two years, but it's a definite like commitment of time and one on one and I don't know we're.

Speaker 1 2:55

We're a very tight knit group, yeah.

Speaker 2 2:57

Which one are you in, in case anybody wants to visit a B&I?

Speaker 1 3:00

group yes, loud and Power Breakfast. So we meet at 18 57 on Tuesday mornings at 8 AM, so we did not too early. We're out of there by 9 30. And we really like each other and so the one to ones are easy yeah.

Speaker 2 3:19

Saying it out loud yeah.

Approachability and Impact in Insurance Work

Speaker 1 3:21

And what I found is a small business owner, the structure that it gives me Of course you know there are certain times and and like, who knew, visitor host was so much work. I thought that was the easy one. I was just going to be a greeter, but and it's really not that much work, but it's and I do like making sure people feel welcome because we are such a tight knit group.

Speaker 2 3:45

You've got a good presence too, like when I first met you upstairs. You were very like friendly.

Speaker 1 3:50

Yeah, yeah, so that's well after college. I was actually working in a law firm before I went to law school and I was the front desk girl at, or lady whatever, back in the nineties we would call girl at Gold's Gym and Fairfax, and on a Monday night I so I'd leave my job, which was right down the street, then change into the little you know T-shirt and shorts and greet people probably 500 people every Monday night. I had to turn it on and just they used to joke and call me Katie Couric.

Speaker 2 4:22

Oh, okay, I can see that.

Speaker 1 4:26

And so it was with that I learned how to just approach people and be friendly. Yeah, you know when you're throwing up at the front and and it's just been one of those things that being approachable is important in what I do, and so I want people to feel comfortable. I want people to feel like they can reach out to me and ask me any question.

Speaker 2 4:51

We were talking about how you actually give your clients your phone number and they can call you at any. For the most part, they can call you. You might not necessarily answer at 3 am, but yeah, is that part of that approachability, or yeah?

Speaker 1 5:04

I think so. I think people feel like it's a very different approach, the way that I take things with my clients and have them reach out.

Speaker 2 5:15

First of all, what do you do? We haven't even talked about that yet.

Speaker 1 5:19

So I don't know about five years ago or so, I started KRC Benefits. It's a voluntary benefits insurance agency and we work with clients as small as three people, small businesses all the way up to. We have a national client with over 2,000 employees and we help them with disability and accident plans and cancer insurance and critical illness. Somebody has a heart attack, a stroke. It's a game changer to be to help people file claims and receive tens of thousands of dollars to help pay their bills or do whatever they need with that money while they're going to this event.

Speaker 2 6:02

So it's not health insurance.

Speaker 1 6:03

It's not health insurance.

Speaker 2 6:05

Voluntary supplemental other.

Speaker 1 6:07

Correct, and so we even have legal plans, pet insurances on the rise. People are super interested in pet insurance now. It's expensive, it is, and so we have lots of different options there. I also do group plans like group disability plans, group life insurance for clients where that's appropriate. And then we offer the voluntary plans like the cancer plan.

Speaker 1 6:30

Cancer plan these days is so important for families because when you're going through something like that the out of pocket bills and the plans that we offer a lot of them give a lump sum, now upfront, and then they pay based on the different treatments.

Speaker 1 6:48

But people have used that money to pay up their mortgage for the next three or four months, so that they don't have to worry about well, how do I pay my bills. And because disability only goes so far, when there are all these other out of pocket bills and stuff, and when there's a major diagnosis, everything stops but the bills. And so and that's why I like to be there so people can call me, and because I've been through it I've been late in a hospital bed and didn't know where I was going to pay my bills or how I was going to pay my bills, where the money was going to come from, so I'm kind of passionate about that. My husband is my business partner. He always says that I'm the heart of the business and he's a process improvement specialist, so I lean on him for the process and he's fantastic at Power Boy, so he does all our presentations.

Speaker 2 7:43

You guys are good team, then huh.

Speaker 1 7:44

Yes, so we do have a nice balance and we are growing. This year, my big thing is all about leadership and growing a team, because it's gone well in the last couple of years. It's gone really well, and so I would like to teach other people how they can create this business for themselves while working side by side with us and working on our projects as well.

Speaker 2 8:11

How did you get started in it?

Speaker 1 8:13

So it was actually my best friend from law school. I'm a retired lawyer. I tell people I'm retired and they just look at me like a side eye. What does that mean? But I reconnected with her in 2017. And she and her husband had built an agency down in Pennsylvania and they did so well. They bought 14 acres in St Augustine and took it to Florida.

Speaker 2 8:40

Who said I want that?

Speaker 1 8:41

And I was like, actually, it was my boyfriend a most fiance at the time who said you could do this too. You should do this. This is exactly, and I didn't even know it was my calling. I wish I had known about the career earlier, worked for startups and small companies my whole career, so I was primed to be a business owner. And now my husband my boyfriend at the time had left AOL at the end of 2016 and he embarked on starting his own business. So we turned into a bunch of risk takers and supported each other, and now we have two thriving businesses in the house, and so we're hoping to teach the kids it's good to take risks.

Speaker 2 9:30

Yeah, you sound like you've got a lot of hustle to you, though, in terms of doing whatever it takes to make it happen.

Speaker 1 9:40

Yes, as far as, not as much as some of the colleagues that I know where, as far as they go out, like every week at five o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 2 9:51

You know what, though? The hardest workers don't actually think they work hard. So when people give me those responses. I'm like mm-hmm okay.

Speaker 1 9:58

Well, it's been part of it because in my 30s and when I was practicing law and doing stuff I was up at four o'clock in the morning and stuff like that. I paid those dues. I did that. But I've enrolled someone in benefits at 11.45 at night so that they wouldn't miss the or finish wrapped up their enrollment. And now they were in Wisconsin so it was a little earlier for them, but just because of scheduling and her demanding schedule. But I knew she needed to start the benefits on a certain effective date and it would get pushed like six weeks and so I said I'm still available, let's get this done, Everything the file transfers over at midnight and we got it done, I believe, at like 11.55.

Speaker 2 10:47

Thank God for good internet.

Speaker 1 10:49

Exactly, exactly, and I will say that the blessing that came if there is one that came out of the COVID era, is we have technology now where I can work with anybody around the world really, but especially anybody in the US, and walk them through their benefits process and get them signed up. I'm licensed in over half the country and probably within the next year it'll be almost the entire country.

Speaker 2 11:22

To literally help anybody anywhere.

Speaker 1 11:24

Yes, and one of the things that's super helpful about that in this area or in our DMV is that there's a lot of clients that are consultants and government contractors and work in different locations around the country. But being able to reach me, even for enrollment purposes, on the weekend and the evening is super helpful, because some of them aren't secured sites and they can't go to the office. I can't go talk to people, but they know they can reach me and I can get them signed up in an efficient way. For the owners of the company and that's also holds true for even folks in the trades we can do the presentation or we can do some of the signups on site, but the others can be done. When the guys get off at the end of the day or in the late afternoon, they can call me and we can take care of the follow-ups over the phone. Or they can get their wife on the phone and we can have a phone call in the evening after the kids go to bed.

Speaker 2 12:28

Yeah, very flexible.

Speaker 1 12:29

Yeah, so I mean, being an empty nester has its privileges as far as being able to do that. We miss going to the basketball games and the soccer games, but you don't look old enough to have an empty nester. Well, the youngest is 21 and halfway through junior year at Virginia Tech, which is a mild, mild, modern stomach.

Speaker 2 12:55

I got that good gene.

Speaker 1 12:58

Well, one of my grandmothers is 100. 101? No, she's a hundred and two. I think she just turned 102. That's amazing, yeah. Now, all of a sudden, I can't remember because it's oh, that does not go well, no, but. And my other grandmother lived to 97. So, having a purpose like this, I don't think I'll retire.

Speaker 2 13:24

I mean I'll slow down and you'll be able to keep going with what you do and how you deliver it.

Speaker 1 13:32

Right, and I can do it from Florida, I can do it from here and yeah, so it's helping people. And you know, having the privilege of calling someone when they're going through a difficult time and saying you know what? Aflac is a big company that I work with. Aflac is going to deposit $30,000 in your checking account tomorrow. That's a privilege. You're like I'm a hero today. Well, it just it's.

Speaker 1 13:59

You know, shepherding and asking questions and part of what I do. I'm not the enderider, I'm not the claims person, but I can help you understand what documentation you need, help walk you through. Some people need more help than others. You know I've won recent claim People don't have. Some of my clients don't have computers. Some of them don't have, you know, certain things, especially that don't live in the DMV, and so to be able to for them to be able to email me so that I can fax over to their doctor the authorizations that needed to release the paperwork and stuff like that to keep this process moving so that they can get paid as fast as possible, yeah, and so that to me is kind of a privilege to be able to help and make sure that the plans work the way I say they're going to.

Speaker 2 14:50

So you're not the hero, you're the hero's guide.

Speaker 1 14:53

Yes, exactly, exactly. And you know, also, on the front end of that, I think I was telling you before I don't see myself as a salesperson. I don't have a sales background. It's something that I need to work on. I mean, everybody, we all need to improve. But I see it more of as an advisory role and it to ask the right questions so that we can help families, you know, manage risk and look at the things that are more likely than not going to happen. To think sometimes happen and people are signed up for a different plan than the actual event.

Speaker 2 15:33

That's the difference between a salesperson and an advisor, though, is the advisor is looking out for your best interests, which sometimes salespeople that aren't quite aligned properly are looking out for their own best interests, so I think that path of being an advisor for your clients is hands down. The best path ever to take is because both parties will win when you're looking out for your people.

Speaker 1 16:02

Oh, absolutely Absolutely.

Speaker 1 16:04

By looking out for not only the business owners that I work with, by advising them on how do we design and a lot of business owners in the DMV actually pay a portion of this or they take on or they pay for a group plan so that people's dollars are freed up to get a family cancer plan, because that's one thing, that nobody's prepared for the financial impact of a critical illness or cancer or something like that Everybody's the priorities competing for our dollars are so high that you do feel like a little bit of a hero because I'm able to bring in plans that are like $29 a paycheck.

Speaker 1 16:56

So when you couch that against our other big ticket insurance items like health insurance, car insurance, homeowners insurance, it's like for this and it comes out pre-tax and you typically get the money tax free. It is a feel good story. But because I do that and everybody's tempted to just kind of sell to hit your goals or to do these things, but by staying on the path of always doing the right thing or being led by what's best for the client, because that's just all of my training law, financial services, all of that is you always do what's best for the client and my business has thrived and we've gone on great trips and we were hitting those markers that we need to hit.

Speaker 1 17:54

I'm sure referrals come in much easier and referrals come in and stuff, because my clients know that I'm there to take care of them and their employees.

Speaker 2 18:04

Yeah, and that's how you're going to be referred. And, like a lot of business owners watch our podcasts. That's who we specified this for. I love when I hear they're like you know what do you get most of your clients and referrals. The marketer advertising side of me is like, ah, but you need more than just referrals. But I love like that is, the best way of growing your business is by referrals, because that means you're doing something right. It's when those referrals dry up, right yeah.

Speaker 2 18:31

As a business owner, you need to look back and be like, okay, it's not that there's not enough people out there, it's that there's something in my systems, processes, the way I'm doing business, that it's not conducive for referrals to be created. Right, they're afraid you might sell to their people rather than serve the person that they're referring.

Speaker 1 18:52

Correct and so and one of the other things that we've done is established several broker partnerships with health insurance agencies and like that, because we really focus on the voluntary side and, like I said, a lot of business owners in this area actually will give an employer contribution and pay a certain amount to help reduce the costs of short-term disability.

Speaker 1 19:18

Or maybe the company pays for the long term and then they give the voluntary piece just to cover that.

Speaker 1 19:24

First 13 weeks, that window on and have, and I bring in a carrier like Affleck or one of these other companies that I work with to help fill in that gap, because companies only have so many, with health care costs rising every year, they only have so many dollars and so if they do a five dollars type into paycheck or a ten dollar, it, it offsets that and and Employees are encouraged and they feel like they can pick up maybe more than one plan. Yeah, because their family needs coverage, like an accident plan is amazing for kids who play sports. I know that was such a thing every, yes, 24-hour day coverage for everybody in the family almost everywhere in the world and it's typically like feels like 20 for a family. You know between 25 and $29 paycheck but that comes out pre-tax. But kids sports alone, every trip to the urgent care with an x-ray is a hundred and fifty dollars back in your pocket. Oh, and there's money for fractures. I've seen moms get ten thousand dollars from that plan tax-free.

Speaker 2 20:30

Yeah, of course you don't want it to happen, but when it does happen, right, no?

Speaker 1 20:34

and that's for a broken femur, you know, for a college kid, and if they're hurt and organized sports, you get up to a Thousand dollars a year extra. Yeah so we'll talk about it. Actually they're very helpful, but I mean, I've seen people fall out of bed in the middle of the night and get paid, yeah just for falling out of bed in the middle of the night.

Speaker 2 20:52

Not that we want you to fall out of bed in the middle of the night to break your femur, but if it does happen, but if it does happen.

Speaker 1 20:58

It's you know people like you know it's. I explained to people. It's good for the little things but it's a really big deal if there's a bad car accident and there's fifty thousand dollars of accidental death life insurance included for the insurer, their spouse and 15 for each child and you got the sub-memorize yeah so the accident plan, it really I could like sit here and go through the entire list and it some of the features.

Speaker 1 21:24

I mean it's it's just a no-brainer, I mean just driving and and. You know I have a home office and that works really well obviously for the all the phone stuff. But I'm in the car a lot because I'm out visiting clients. You know I don't have an office because people don't need to come there because I go to you. Yeah, and and but. With technology a lot of business owners find it really convenient to hop on a zoom or a team's call. And and but. Or we meet at coffee shops, we meet for lunch. My husband and I go to dinner with a lot of business owners, run the business with their, with their spouse, yeah, so we build this little network of we go on dinner dates.

Speaker 2 22:10

I'm gonna say you hang out with people that you like and yeah, it's a build your business with the business owners like a recruiting piece. Yeah, and it's, so it's really nice. What are three things? Misconceptions that you wish more business owners knew about your industry.

Speaker 1 22:30

That we're all not there to just sell a bunch of stuff and abandon you.

Speaker 1 22:35

So it's, and that I Guess the other thing is that I'm just a phone call away. So in the very beginning, when we're getting stuff set up and and we're working hard on rolling out the program, making sure the Education piece, everybody really understands what these benefits are. There's a lot of misunderstanding or how they really help people, and so we spend a lot of time in that capacity and I'll and I do touches and but I'll be as involved or On your doorstep as much as you want me to be, but I really am just a phone call away. Yeah, if anything happens and the employees, you know, as I said, I make it known that that For them to put my number in their phone, so that was when something happens they don't have to go searching for it. But I Want employers to know that I am there for their employees. So if they, if they don't have it set up that way and the they go to the employer to get my number, that I'm going to get back to their people, you know, right away.

Speaker 1 23:44

Yeah then the same day, within you know 12 to 15 hours. You know, typically if I can't pick up, I pick up my phone in the middle of the day all the time, and and at night and that type of the thing sometimes that's a six amp and all the times I don't expect it.

Importance of Disability Insurance for Health

Speaker 1 23:59

Yeah, so and then I guess, lastly, is that these benefits really do make a difference? You know everybody, it's always focused on health insurance. Now I do a lot more dental vision for folks, but Disability is a game changer. I mean, I didn't have disability. I was out of work for three months. I must died. I had fantastic health insurance. That's not enough anymore. Yeah, and that was 12 years ago. Yeah, actually, like tomorrow it was. Yeah, this is about my 12 year anniversary of what happened was I had a ruptured appendix and it ruptured on a Friday and they didn't operate till Tuesday.

Speaker 1 24:42

I had gone to a couple of urgent cares and they didn't figure out yeah what was going on, and so on Monday I had gone back. I was like maybe I should go back to the same, like my third time, to the urgent care, maybe I should go back to the second one I want to. And and he touched my abdomen. He's like you better go to the emergency room. But even at the emergency room they did not know that it was a ruptured appendix, because it'd been ruptured for so long that happens.

Speaker 1 25:09

So much, though there's so many of those stories, specifically with the appendix yeah and so if you have and and people are like why didn't you go to the emergency room? Like I just thought I had like a bad flu, ibs, whatever, like I it's, I have no idea why I didn't go, because you've never had a ruptured appendix before, to know that this is like right and it was horrifically badeful.

Speaker 1 25:33

I mean, I give you that. But I just um For whatever reason though, they joke like I was like the walking dead when I was in there. But they did exploratory surgery and that's when they found that it had completely ruptured, it was gone and my body was full of poison, and so I was very grateful, I'm very grateful to be alive. But when, after they did the surgery and after, there were a little bit of complications, but I started thinking how, like when, am I going to be able to go back to work?

Speaker 1 26:07

I mean, I had nurses come into my house, I had a second surgery from a secondary infection and they took the IV out. I was on the IV for a month at home and they took it out, and two days later I had to go back to work on my feet all day, and so disability would have given me the option to like be out of work for about another couple weeks to fully recover, and I can also help people with partial disability. So if the doctor says you can go back to work part-time, you're not faced with the choice of losing your job or taking care of your health. So to me that's the most important thing, if I can educate people that everybody needs disability. Yeah, like I was 39 years old at six months before this I had been bragging. I'd never been to the hospital.

Speaker 2 27:06

And the universe said here, hold my cup.

Speaker 1 27:09

Yeah, exactly, and it was to a mentor and I really shouldn't have said that, because he was going in for like a millionth back surgery and he was in his 60s and I was like they're just about to turn 40 and like, oh, I've never. Oh, you know, I'm praying for you, but I've never been to the hospital. Okay well, you know, I had my experience with that and so I'm really grateful for good doctors and good nurses, particularly really good nurses. They were a game changer.

Speaker 2 27:37

But such a blessing to have people that care about what they do so they can actually focus in on the stuff. Like that happens, because I know how dangerous that can be when your appendix erupts and your body is full of poison.

Speaker 1 27:50

Essentially, and it was a. It was not an easy recovery. I think I gained like 70 pounds of water weight and they were really worried because the everything was so compromised. They wouldn't give me any medications to take it off. So they said, it'll come off when you go home. So I was losing like 10 pounds a day. It was a crazy run. And then I got the set and I was like they said there's a 40% chance you'll get a secondary infection.

Speaker 1 28:22

I was like, oh, I'm getting like I'm getting something and I ended up some some friends came and visited me and one was a retired nurse and she's like you, look a little bit off today. And lo and behold, that night I was back in the emergency room with a fever of 103. And so I was like, well, I kind of at least we're on the lookout for it, yeah. But all that said, that that's why I think I have some extra compassion for when people are going through something because of that long journey, yeah, and, and it was about a three month journey and and then you know, the recovery took longer, but as far as being able to get back to work and at least normalizing some but I never made it back to practicing law, so I mean it, having a major health event like that changes our lives in ways that perspective too, I'm sure we don't foresee.

Speaker 1 29:22

Yeah, oh yeah, the gratitude that stayed. I mean, now I'm just like everybody else where you know I'm 12 years post the event and my life has changed so much. But the struggle, just the financial struggle over the years, and I was blessed with a supportive family. But at 39, 40 years old, you know you don't really want to ask your parents for help. Yeah, I mean it was blessed that I was able to get some help, but it's. I wish that I had had a disability policy with the small company I'd worked for back in the mid 2000s, because now I advise people you can take that with you. You own this plan.

Speaker 1 30:12

Oh, that's cool and I went to work for a big company but I wasn't qualified yet for their disability. Had I kind of kept my own plan, I would have had some coverage. So that's why educating and letting business owners know they can offer this at no cost to the business- yeah.

Speaker 1 30:31

And very discounted rates and very reasonable rates for the employees and for some reason, a lot of people just don't know that, you know, but I think the word's getting out more because it's becoming more necessary. Like people want good benefits, I mean it's really important. But the beautiful part is that small business and I've worked for startups and small business my whole life and but small businesses can offer this and it can be a huge benefit for attraction, retention, for letting employees know that they care, yeah, so all things.

Speaker 2 31:13

So really quickly though, before we wrap up who are you as a person Like today, after everything you went through, after how I mean obviously professionally, you serve small businesses, the employees, the team members. But who are you as a person now, today?

Give Back and Make a Difference

Speaker 1 31:33

I feel like I'm a very blessed person and grateful and that's because, and partly because of you know, I didn't get married till later in life and I really have an amazing partnership with my husband Not that we don't have intense business discussions at midnight sometimes, but it's so rewarding and you know, we're all human and we all get tired or something like that, but helping people really fills my bucket. Yeah, it's it. And so and I'm just so grateful and I'm blessed and I feel like giving back is super important. And so you know just whether it's my favorite charities this year maybe actually doing a little more volunteer work and not just through donations, but you know, just giving my time not only to my clients but to the little bit more to the community, yeah, is kind of a goal for this year.

Speaker 2 32:44

And so my last question is if you give one piece of advice to the world, what would that advice be?

Speaker 1 32:51

It dovetails into what I was just talking about. Being blessed is that the more blessings that you have, whether it's financial or, you know, with family and people who surround you, who love you, is that giving that back, sharing that with the world, like and it goes back to something that my parents used to say a lot when I was growing up to who much is given, much is expected, and I sometimes I feel like we've lost that a little bit and that it's such a wonderful feeling. I can't imagine why people and hopefully people do and I know that there's a lot of good in the world and there's a lot of people, especially in Northern Virginia and Loudoun County, who give back a lot. But if everybody does it, we could solve so many problems, I agree. And so that's probably where, with where I am right now in my life, I just want people to to know and maybe embrace that a little bit more.

Speaker 2 33:57

I love that. Thank you so much for being on the show and sharing pieces and not all of it, but pieces of the story. Where can people find you?

Speaker 1 34:08

Well, I'm gonna working on launching a website in 2024. So you're saying 2024.

Speaker 2 34:15

I'm still saying 2023. So, yes, 2024.

Speaker 1 34:17

I had to write it on my action tracker like yesterday, so I've been starting to get ingrained on my task tracker. So we'll be doing that. But they can find me on LinkedIn, catherine at KRC benefits, and where they can email me at Catherine at KRC benefits.

Speaker 2 34:38

And how do you spell that K what?

Speaker 1 34:39

It's K A T H R Y N and then it's at KRZ benefitscom Awesome.

Speaker 2 34:46

We'll link it up on your page as well. Okay, awesome, thank you for being here. Well, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.