How does one navigate the leap from a traditional IT career to a thriving role in the insurance industry? Join us as we sit down with Eric Salinas from EL-Mag Insurance Corp to explore his extraordinary journey. Discover how Eric transitioned from feeling isolated in IT to finding fulfillment and connection in the senior market of health and life insurance. Learn about the unique challenges and rewards of working in a family-run business, and why face-to-face interactions are more critical than ever in the post-COVID world.
Eric shares invaluable insights into the senior insurance market, explaining why it's more streamlined due to government regulations. He also highlights the significance of comprehensive consultations, often lasting over two hours, which help build trust and understanding with senior clients. Eric’s story is not just about a career shift but also about personal growth and overcoming fears. Tune in to hear the heartwarming origins of the El-Mag Insurance name and gain strategies for streamlining business processes and engaging target audiences. Whether you’re considering a career leap or looking for expert advice on retirement and financial planning, this episode has something for everyone.
How does one navigate the leap from a traditional IT career to a thriving role in the insurance industry? Join us as we sit down with Eric Salinas from EL-Mag Insurance Corp to explore his extraordinary journey. Discover how Eric transitioned from feeling isolated in IT to finding fulfillment and connection in the senior market of health and life insurance. Learn about the unique challenges and rewards of working in a family-run business, and why face-to-face interactions are more critical than ever in the post-COVID world.
Eric shares invaluable insights into the senior insurance market, explaining why it's more streamlined due to government regulations. He also highlights the significance of comprehensive consultations, often lasting over two hours, which help build trust and understanding with senior clients. Eric’s story is not just about a career shift but also about personal growth and overcoming fears. Tune in to hear the heartwarming origins of the El-Mag Insurance name and gain strategies for streamlining business processes and engaging target audiences. Whether you’re considering a career leap or looking for expert advice on retirement and financial planning, this episode has something for everyone.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolfe.
Speaker 2:
Hello, hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, jeremy Wolfe, and today I am joined by a good neighbor. We have Eric Salinas. Eric joins us from ElMAG Insurance Corp, right down the road from us in Hollywood. Eric, welcome to the show, brother. Thank you so much, jeremy. It's a pleasure being here. No, the pleasure is all ours. Thanks so much for joining us and thanks to our listeners for tuning in to learn more about our great community and the businesses that serve us in, to learn more about our great community and the businesses that serve us. So, eric, let's get into this. The topic of conversation today is your business, which is basically health and life insurance, and you cater, I believe you said, to the senior market. So I think a lot of people out there have some strong feelings about the health insurance market in this country. So tell us a little bit. Start off by telling us a little bit about LMAG Insurance, and then we'll go from there.
Speaker 3:
Sure, so we've been in business almost eight years. This year would be our eighth year, and it's a family run business it's me, my mom and my aunt so it's very hectic but it's a lot of fun. Yeah, and we primarily serve the health market and life insurance, mostly to seniors, people that are 55 and over. We help them with their retirement benefits, help usher them into the back end of their financial stability and things of that nature.
Speaker 2:
Very cool. So has this? In the eight years you've been in business, has it always been your focus on the senior market, or is that something that evolved over time? What was the impetus behind catering to specifically that market?
Speaker 3:
Well, at first we didn't cater mostly to the senior market. It was to the under 65 crowd with the marketplace and offline insurance plans. But as we started to get deeper into it it was really hectic to sort of deal with that market and there's a lot of bureaucracy behind it and it was just, you know, it was very hectic and we found the senior market to be more streamlined. It was much easier to deal with and also there's a lot of guardrails in that market that help an agent sort of be like stay on point with the client and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:
I'm curious what is it about the senior market that makes it more streamlined? Why does it differ so much from the under 65 market?
Speaker 3:
Well, there's a lot of guardrails in place by the government to make sure that you follow a certain path with a senior. Of course know, because you're dealing with someone, that that possibly doesn't have other faculties there, or or maybe a little more vulnerable than yeah a little more vulnerable as you get older, yeah right of course more wise, but a little bit more of course, and honestly I understand.
Speaker 3:
I mean, especially nowadays with all the technology and stuff, it's hard to discern. You know a hundred percent. Yeah, you know who, who's being uh uh uh truthful to you, who's lying to you. So I totally understand that. So it's much easier as an agent to deal with that than it is the under 65 crowd. The under 65 crowd, not so much the consumer but but the market, is like the wild west, you know.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it really is. It's a jungle out there. So do you find, being that you're dealing with the elder segment of the population, do you have a lot of your clients that much I'd imagine you would they prefer to come into your office, if they can, and sit down with you and see you face-to-face, or are you dealing with a lot of people remotely as well?
Speaker 3:
Well, yeah, it's funny because you would think after COVID, yeah, it'd be a lot of Zoom calls and things like that. But with the over 65 crowd they do like to be face to face and I understand you know you develop an interpersonal relationship, which is what it's all about as an agent. So typically we go to their homes or we meet them, like at a Starbucks or something like that, and the process with them is much more intense because you have to explain basically the layout of everything they're getting into. So it's like typically like at least two hours with them, if not more.
Speaker 2:
L-Mag Insurance. Where does that name come from?
Speaker 3:
Actually it's a combination of my aunt and my mom's name. My aunt's name is Elsa and my mom's name is Maggie, so LMAG insurance.
Speaker 2:
I love it. I love it. So did you all three of you start the business eight years ago together, or did you get involved later on in the process? What's your background, Eric?
Speaker 3:
So my mom and my aunt started it together and then I came in the year after. My background is, I went to school for IT and I never thought a million years I'd be doing insurance. I thought I'd be locked away in a room like coding and you know fixing.
Speaker 2:
Wait a minute, hold on. You mean that when you were like five or six years old you didn't have aspirations of getting into health insurance? Yeah, you know, I can say that Unbelievable man.
Speaker 3:
I know, yeah. Look, I look back at it now and I think to myself man, if I had told the 18-year-old version of me what I'm doing now, he'd be like are you crazy? No man we're not doing that. We're working on servers and stuff like that. We're not selling insurance or anything. But yeah, here I am.
Speaker 2:
Too funny, too funny. So what is it like working with family? I do a lot of interviews, a lot of husband and wife teams, a couple with the whole family involved. But that's kind of there's an appeal to that right To have a family business. There's a certain level of trust and comfort that clients get dealing with a family operation. What is it like working with your mother and your aunt?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it's like you said. It's a lot of fun, you know, and also there's a lot of trust, obviously because you know they're, they're family, the the. The one thing I would say is that when, when one of you has a bad idea, you know obviously right away you, you don't like, you don't get hostile with them. You say you try to be a little softer and be like hey, you know, I don't think that's a good idea, but then because they're, we're family, right, we push on and we're like no, you have to understand. So there's that whole dynamic between like, hey, we're running a business, but we're also a family you don't want to get too hostile with each other.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it's a fine line right to separate business from family, so it's a double-edged sword. It could work in your favor in many aspects, and in other aspects it could be a little bit much, I'd imagine, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 3:
There's a delicate balance, like you said, but we've always done our best to always remember hey, we're family first and then the business comes second, because if not, yeah, it'd be chaos amongst all of us. So no, we always put family first, and then you know the business.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so many stories about family getting together and working together and then business takes precedence over that and that you ruin your relationship with their family over business disputes and business quarrels. So thankfully that hasn't happened to you guys. No, yeah, goodness. So one of the reasons why we do the show, aside from getting to know local business owners, getting a look under the hood, learning about their story, their journey, another reason would be to kind of clear up information right, to put information out there about the industry, and I know I mentioned at the top of the show people have very strong feelings, myself included, about the health insurance industry. There's a lot of red tape. It's confusing. You go to the doctor and you get thankfully there's insurance to handle all this, but you see the bill. It's like trying to decipher some mysterious ancient code, trying to get through everything. So what are some of the most common myths or misconceptions that you encounter from your clients in your industry, specifically the over 65 senior segment that you're dealing with?
Speaker 3:
For sure. So, just on a broad level, one of the things that we encounter that a lot of people tell us is like, hey, can you put me on the best plan? Because my sister has this plan that is zero, zero, zero, one dollar. And I go, no, that's great, that's awesome, we're happy for her, but maybe that's not the right plan for you. And then you know, sometimes they get a little hostile with us because they think we're hiding like the best plan from them or something, and it's like, no, no, it all comes down to the individual right. Like if, if plan X is the best fit for you because of you know so and so reason, then this is the best plan for you, even though I know it's not the one that your brother or your sister or your father has. But this one is specifically catered to your needs. You know it has the doctors in your network. It is the medications that you take, are, are, I'm sorry, are carried on this plan. You know so forth and so forth, and the fringe benefits that you want, like dental and vision, are included. So this is the right plan for you. That I would say on a broad level. That's one of the things that we run into On a more specific level, it's the hospital.
Speaker 3:
You know, people always, always question us about the hospital. Like how does it work? Why am I getting billed this ginormous bill, that, that? That that looks like something from out of this world. And I always say you're not going to pay that bill, like the hospital. What they do is is is, for example, like the medications. I don't know if you've been to the hospital recently, but when you get that bill and let's say they give you a Tylenol, you'll see like a $100 charge for that Tylenol. You're like my God, are you crazy? What are they giving me here? Like what kind of Tylenol is this?
Speaker 2:
Hopefully Tylenol with codeine at that price, right, right.
Speaker 3:
Is this like an everlasting tylenol? And then you, and then the truth is no, it's the same time that you buy at a walmart or walgreens, or a thousand, a thousand cent, a thousand percent markup right, right, right, that's what they do.
Speaker 3:
They mark it up, you know they they buy it in such ginormous bulk. And then what they do is that they charge the insurance company. They say, hey, actually this time it was 80. But the insurance company will say is, hey, we're not going to pay you 80 for time at all, we'll give you five dollars and they go gotcha, and that's what they do, you know. So the truth is they're not getting paid 80 000 every time you go to the hospital, for, you know, whatever your stomach issue or something, they're really getting paid. You know, maybe $900, $1,000 or something like that. So whenever that bill shows up, I always tell people don't worry about it, that you're not going to pay, that that is just, that is a fake number. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Very, very is a fake number. Yeah yeah, very, very confusing, as I said before. So, having gotten into this business, so eight years ago your aunt and your mother started the business. You got involved a year after that. Prior to getting involved with this business and kind of getting into that entrepreneurial space, what were you doing for work before that?
Speaker 3:
Oh, I was a database administrator for several small businesses and, like I said, I thought that would be my life. I was like, yeah, I'm going to progress and work for a bigger company and the natural progression you have when you graduate college and you get your degree. You're like, okay, yeah, this is what I'm going to do, this is what I'm going to do. But then, I don't know, I started to lose like interest in it and it was kind of like it's a, it's a like a lonely job, you know, and you're sitting there in front of the computer, you're not really talking to anyone except, obviously, your boss, and you're just like, oh man, this is really what I want to do.
Speaker 3:
And then my mom unfortunately at the time, you know, she, like seven years ago, she got fired from her job, which she had been there for like 25 years, and she was like, oh my God, what am I going to do? And then she goes hey, you know what I've always wanted to open an insurance agency. I'm going to do it, eric, you should join me. And then I thought about it. I was like, no, I don't think so, that's not her part. But then, but then I started thinking about it. I go, man, you know, basically what I do like with computers is what I would do with people, but on an interpersonal level. I'm getting these, these complex systems, like like you were saying earlier, which is insurance, and and I'm helping the person simplify the process. You know, I'm making it easier for them and I thought, yeah, you know, it's basically what I, what I do now, except, like I said, I do it on now, I'm doing it on an interpersonal level.
Speaker 2:
Thinking back to when you, when you kind of made that leap of faith, you, you, you got away from what you were traditionally trained to do in the IT space and the computers and you took, I guess, the entrepreneurial leap of faith. You made that decision to kind of jump into the unknown waters. What was one of the biggest challenges that you faced in transitioning from that typical space where you're working for somebody else to kind of get involved with your own business and building your own business, and then, on the other side of that, what's been one of the biggest rewards after having done that?
Speaker 3:
For sure of that. What's been one of them, one of the biggest rewards after having done that for sure? Well, the, the, the two things that that that were initially out of my mind. That that scared me honestly was the, the fear of, like you know, going out on your own, basically, even though I know my parents are with me and stuff, but still we were going out on our own. We were never used to that. So you know the, the fear of failing, because you know there's that statistic, I think it's like 90% or 80% of businesses fail within the first two years. So I was looking at it and I go, oh my God, that's scary. So I was like, well, I hope we're not in that statistic. And then the second thing was, was it was?
Speaker 3:
It was an entirely new venture, you know, it was an entirely new space and and and insurance, I mean, like we were talking earlier, it's. It's like a foreign language in a lot of ways. You're sitting there you're like, wow, man, like what is this? And only like anything in life, like repetition and doing it every day, it doesn't start to sink in and it becomes, you know, second nature in a lot of ways, where, now, like you know if I'm talking about policy, I could rattle off, like you know, the intricacies within a policy, whether the out-of-pocket, the deductible, how the hospital system works, so on and so forth it just comes out natural. When I first started, I was like hold on. I got to open a little booklet or a little cheat sheet and be like, okay, and then I would say the most rewarding thing also is just being able to work with my family and having time for yourself, because when you work at W2, it's difficult to have time for yourself and to sort of cater your life around what you want to do, whereas now, where we have a business it's true, let me just add this Now we have a business.
Speaker 3:
Let me just add this Even though you have a business and technically you work all the time where you're on call all the time, the truth is you also have a lot of time for yourself because you set the schedule, which is something that I love. I love being able to say, let's say, today or tomorrow, hey, you know what, I'm feeling a little gassed, I'm going to take a day off and then I'm gonna recuperate and then tomorrow I'm gonna go at it for 14 hours or something like that, like I love that, you know. So those are the two things or three things, I should say that are that were on my mind, and also that, that that I love it does require a certain level of discipline that most are not familiar with.
Speaker 2:
That haven't gotten into that space of starting their own business because, yeah, like you said, you have special freedoms when you're in charge. You make your own schedule. But it really is a double-edged sword in many ways because you're not beholden to anyone, right? You don't, you don't have to go anywhere. So, going into the typical nine to five, yeah, there's a lot of drawbacks in doing that, but you get there and you have an assignment, you have a job and it's all structured.
Speaker 2:
But as soon as you get into starting your own business and you start to wear many different hats and you're responsible for many different things because most businesses don't start up with a full team, it's usually a very small team and you're doing you find yourself doing everything and, yeah, you could, you could restructure and take some time off. But if you don't get out there and hustle, you know you're going to be. You're going to be in that 80% statistic for businesses that fail. You really have to get your message out there in many different ways and nowadays there's so much noise out there and so many ways to reach your target audience. It could be overwhelming and confusing for businesses to do that. So yeah, interesting stuff.
Speaker 3:
For sure. Yeah, no, that's the main thing that I encounter and that we encounter, obviously, is like how do you reach not just the consumer but your target consumer? You know, because that's the one thing I would tell any business owner, no matter what you do, or even someone who just works for themselves that doesn't even have like other people under them is find your niche, whoever that is, do research, spend time on that like hyper, focus on that. Once you got that down, it becomes it's more of a streamlined path.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely. And trying to not only reach your target audience but also engage them in a way that sparks interest, right, that gets a two-way dialogue going, and that's often a challenge for businesses. So, before we wrap up here, eric, what would be if you had to leave our listeners with one thing? Before we wrap up here, eric, what would be if you had to leave our listeners with one thing? Now, this could be about LMAG Insurance, maybe something about the business, or maybe just I don't know, a piece of wisdom, something you'd like to share with listeners, like, generally speaking, about life in general.
Speaker 3:
What do you got For sure? General like if. If you're in a position where where you're not happy and you're stressed out, but you feel like you have to stay in this job, the thing I would say because I felt that too is make a plan. You know, say to yourself hey, you know what? I'm very unhappy here. Maybe I need to switch to another company or maybe I want to go into business myself. You know, make a plan. Take some time out and make a plan and say to yourself okay, these are the objectives I need to accomplish in order to reach my goal of of, you know, having my own business or working for myself or going to a new company.
Speaker 3:
You know, don't be afraid to take that leap, like I know. I know it's scary at first. You're like, oh my God, you know all those the bad statistics 80, 90% fail and all that stuff. But if you have a plan and you're confident in yourself and also don't be afraid to ask for help either, you know, ask your friends, your family. If you do that, you will succeed. That I can promise you. And just don't be afraid of taking that leap of faith, because it's totally worth it and you don't want to look back like five years from now and say, oh man, I should have taken that step. Man, I'm still stuck at this horrible job or I'm still doing this. No, take that leap of faith, do it. It's totally worth it.
Speaker 2:
Well said, People are. I mean, it's human nature, right, we're terrified of change and so many times people will stay in unfavorable situations because of that fear and they don't take that leap until the pain gets too severe and they're forced into making a change. But I like what you said about kind of mapping that out and putting your thoughts down and creating a plan and creating structure that melts away some of that uncomfortability and gives you a little bit more confidence in making the decision to make that significant change. So good stuff. And where can we learn more? Anybody out there that's listening that would like to connect with you guys? How can they do that? Maybe share your website and your contact information?
Speaker 3:
For sure. Yeah, so you can. Our website is theretirementhelperscom. On there we chart an entire map of your retirement benefits, of which step you need to take benefits, of which step you need to take at what point in your life. And then, if you want to contact us, we have contact sheets on there and we also have a calendar that you can make an appointment with us If you want to discuss your insurance benefits, your retirement advance, financial, whatever stage you're at All right, very good.
Speaker 2:
We will, of course, stick a link in the description to all of your contact information. Eric, thanks so much for joining us. It was a pleasure getting the opportunity to meet you and learn about what you do for a great community. So thanks for coming on the show. No, thank you, jeremy, it was a blast. Yeah, and thanks, as always, to our listeners for tuning in and we will catch everyone next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Everyone, take care, have a great day. Bye.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCoopercitycom, that's gnpcoopercitycom, or call 954-231-3170.