From Stuffing 401k Statements at Age 9 to Founding Beavers Advisors, Brandon Beavers' Life in Insurance

Introduction to Beavers Advisors and AI Integration

Anthony Codispoti (00:02)

Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories Podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome adversity. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Codispoti, and today's guest grew up in a house surrounded by the insurance business. He was president of CP Actuaries in January of 2003 before he even finished his college degree.

He held that title for the next 12 years, running the company's development, retention, and daily operations at the same time. From CPA actuaries, he moved through leadership rules at Blade Benefit Consulting, Payday Benefits, Risk Strategies, and a partnership at Blue Ridge Insurance Services, building expertise across employee benefits and property and casualty insurance along the way. Then in July of 2026, he opened his own brokerage in Virginia Beach.

Licensed to operate in 32 states. Brandon Beavers is the founder of Beavers Advisors, an independent insurance brokerage advising businesses, HR leaders, individuals, and families on employee benefits, business insurance, and individual coverage. He also founded WBB Pension Administrators in 2020 and co-founded the Beavers Family Foundation, which supports the arts, education, collegiate athletics, and survivors of domestic abuse.

But before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company, AddBack Benefits Agency. And this solves a problem that's been plaguing your health insurance clients for years. You already know the story. Health premiums go up and your client panics. Maybe they shop around or start cutting benefits. Either way, you're the one explaining a price hike you didn't create and your relationship takes the hit. But there's a program backed by Bain Capital Insurance that you can bring into that same meeting.

That flips the script and frees up cash. It doesn't replace their group health plan, it fills in the first dollar gaps, and it can even cover part-timers who don't qualify for major medical. Employees get unlimited access to doctors, therapists, and prescriptions with no co-pays or deductibles to meet. And here's the part that really changes the conversation. This program actually increases your client's net profits. See, we recently helped a client.

Add $900 per employee per year to their bottom line. Results vary, but gains that don't just help their bottom line, they free up budget your clients can reinvest into the coverages you're already discussing with them. Learn more at AddBackBenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the founder of Beaver Advisors. Brandon Beavers, thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Brandon Beavers’ Journey in the Insurance Industry

Brandon Beavers (02:46)

Yeah, great. Thanks Anthony. Thanks for having me.

Anthony Codispoti (02:48)

So, Brandon, as we mentioned in the intro, insurance seems to run in your blood. Who and your family was it in the business? And tell me about some of your earliest memories around it.

Brandon Beavers (02:57)

Yeah, that's a great question. So my father started our business in nineteen seventy-six at the onset of Orissa. and he he grew the agency at one point we had thirty-five employees, we had an entire building full of staff. And these are pre computer days, but we were one of the first agencies to have a voice response unit where employees could actually call in in the early nineties and get their four one K balance over the telephone, which was pretty unique in the industry back then, to even have a computer with a with a a sound card

was was impeccable. and so he he ran the agency until two thousand and eight and I proverbially kick kicked him out and and fattened the pig up and sold it to a payroll company w just a synergy between payroll and benefits is just unparalleled, right? I mean they have all the data that I need and then I'm doing some of the the back office stuff as far as ACA compliance that they need. So it was a great synergy.

but all good things must come to an end. And in two thousand twenty-four, I moved on and wanted to give give a try at the national brokerage field. Went risk strategies out of Boston was one of five thousand and then very shortly after my arrival they packaged up and sold to Brown and Brown, and all of a sudden I'm one of fifteen thousand. And that just wasn't the field that my clients as a boutique agency were looking for. So

moved operations up to Harrisonburg, Virginia, and met some great people up here. And now we have two office locations, one in Virginia Beach, one is one in Harrisonburg, looking to to expand our footprint across Virginia and then the Mid Atlantic as a whole. So that's

Anthony Codispoti (04:28)

So let's back up. I'm

gonna step through some of these different stops along the way. as we also mentioned in the intro, in January of two thousand three, you launched CP Actuaries. You're still in school at the time. What were you doing? This was before you joined forces with your dad?

Brandon Beavers (04:41)

Yep.

So this is I joined that agency. He was operating as VPC group, Virginia Pension Center since seventy-six. And in two thousand three, I said, Well, we're partnering a lot with CPA firms. Why don't we change the name to CPA actuaries? So his business began as a pension actuarial business. So we were doing retirement plans. We had large retirement plans, no load funds. and he realized quickly that that was just one piece of the employee benefits puzzle. So we morphed then into a benefits agency and and then

rebrand took place under my control in M3.

Anthony Codispoti (05:14)

So were you doing this in high school? Were you doing this in college? at what point did you start to get your fingernails dirty in the insurance biz?

Brandon Beavers (05:20)

Great question. I actually started stuffing 401k statements at nine years old. Um

Anthony Codispoti (05:25)

Ha ha ha.

Brandon Beavers (05:25)

then at sixteen I was the delivery boy. So I would take all those statements that I would stuff and I would recruit my buddies for pizza to come in and help me stuff statements. And we would then drive around after school, you know, and drop those statements off at all of our large clients around town. So I mean I've literally been in the business for life.

Anthony Codispoti (05:44)

So at what point did you start to understand the insurance industry? it's one thing to be nine years old and you're stuffing envelopes and it's great to be around that and you pick up words being thrown around, but at what time did you start really understanding what it was that your dad was selling?

Brandon Beavers (05:58)

2006, 2008, when he was out gallivanting towards the end of his career, spending more on the balance sheet than he was bringing in, is is when I realized it's time to take this to the next level, right? and and I started to realize the importance of of customer service, old school customer service. I mean, I'm of a certain age where I'm straddling the new age and the old age. I still have my Rolodex on my on my desk at home, right? Which most people don't even know what a Rolodex is, right? But then

And

I also walk around like everyone else with an iPhone all day long, right? So I'm literally straddling the old world where it's just old school, pick up the phone, answer the client's questions, be available, customer service, which AI can handle some of that, but it's also a relationship business. People want to know who they're working with, right? So I'm trying to meld those two old school and new school worlds into an insurance broker.

Anthony Codispoti (06:51)

And we're gonna get into a little bit more about the Brandon Beavers 3.0 in a bit here and the way that you're using AI. But I wanna hear first about how you fattened the cow, so to speak. You came into your family's insurance agency. It was time for dad to move on. And what was it that you were doing to grow the business then?

Brandon Beavers (07:12)

It's a great question. trying to use repeatable processes and scale those really is what I found, you know, and you'll hear this with AI and the FAQs and the different data sets that build an AI model. If you're saying the same thing over and over again, that's something AI can handle. And I found early on, this is probably eight, nine, you know, the early ops is

I'm saying the same question over and over again. I'm sending the same email over and over again. Why not we scale and build a database of templates that not just me can use, but other in other staff members in the office can use to make their job less labor labor, you know, labor intensive. So we started to just deploy

really strong SOPs really was the biggest key I'll tell you is is we had SOPs for absolutely everything. I took a three inch three ring binder and and any admin that came in, they had to really learn that binder. And the SOP drove the ship. So all the while keeping that boutique white glove service that our clients have come to expect. I'll be candid with you, we still have one of our longest standing clients, literally our longest standing clients since 1976 is still with us to this day.

Anthony Codispoti (08:25)

Tell me.

Brandon Beavers (08:25)

Which speaks volumes 'cause that was before I was born.

Anthony Codispoti (08:27)

Yeah. Tell me about the SOPs. Like, how did you even know that that was a thing? Because you're still a pretty young guy when you step into this role. Were you part of a mastermind? Was there some training that you took? Was there a mentor that's like, hey, this is an idea, a concept that you need to put into place?

Brandon Beavers (08:44)

That's an interesting question. It became it was operations management in college. So I was at Old Dominion and I took an operations management class, and that was the whole name of that class was an SOP. Here's a procedure, you do the same thing, you stick the procedure, you have less leakage and less uncontrollables, right? So and I again it it it was the repetitive nature of what we do. Every month we do pretty much the same thing, it's just the variables change, right? Different client, different carrier, but we still request a census back.

Then now we don't have to do that with technology. We have the census, right? And employee navigator. But back then we had to request a census. Then we had to send out the RFPs, then we had to get the RFPs back. We have to send the the proposal to the client. We have to prepare that proposal first, obviously, right? And then once we're done, we have to implement any changes that might take place. It's it's rinse and repeat with a different client, a different carrier set. So I was like, what can we automate, if you will, through the SOP and standardize, maybe not automate back then? That's where we're at now.

But it's a great question. It was it was that operations management class at at Old Dominion. That's what did it.

Anthony Codispoti (09:44)

How about that?

College classes that actually come in useful. I love it.

Brandon Beavers (09:47)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (09:48)

So, okay, you're building these SOPs and this is what, early two thousands ish, mid two

Brandon Beavers (09:53)

Yep, the early aughts

two thousand five, two thousand six, and that's when I realized there's more juice in here to squeeze. Right? and and that's when I gave dad a buyout and and he kinda slowly backed away.

Anthony Codispoti (10:06)

And how were you where were you building the SOPs? in a Google Doc or a Word document or

Brandon Beavers (10:10)

Great question. Yes, it was literally a Word document and we used the old school multicolored tabs and a three-inch three-ring binder. And so we we just replicated that binder. I had four copies of it. So as we brought on staff members, each one got a copy and that was their baby, right? And then we'd use it for the next staff member and it just kept rolling. So but it was everything from how to answer the phone, how to log in to carrier websites to pull ID cards, because that was a thing back then, at least with the big boys, United and Anthem.

And all the way through the RFP process, who to send the quotes to, what's the RFP look like, etc.

Anthony Codispoti (10:44)

So in my experience, going back twenty plus years when we were building SOPs, one of the things I noticed is that the SOPs constantly change. And there's and I actually coached my staff that they should change. They should be sort of these living, breathing documents, because if somebody sits down to read an SOP and they have a question, great, come and ask it. But that's also a sign that the SOP is incomplete, right? There it needs

to be some tweaking to it. So I love

Brandon Beavers (11:09)

I agree.

Anthony Codispoti (11:11)

that you were doing these.

old school hard copies. But when you had a change that needed to be made, so then I I guess you're ripping out the old page and you're printing out a new one and putting it in.

Building Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Success

Brandon Beavers (11:20)

You got it.

In and in some cases it was on the fly, take a pencil, scratch it out, and write it up across the top. And then at our next rendition and next print, we would integrate that into the Word document. it was a pretty in-depth, file structure. We would have each SOP had its own file within the SOP folder. And so those were living breathing Word documents, right? Before the OneNote world where you could, collaborate side by side. This was, someone else is in it. You have to open it read-only and go talk to me. Maybe will you close it, so I can save it. So it was a living and breathing document.

And really, I'll be candid, we I relied on the staff to update those things. Right. I knew how I did it when I started faxing in enrollment forms and having to track them down with physical paper enrollment forms early on and that merged then into the next process and the next process and so on. But so once I stopped doing those day-to-day tasks, it wasn't on me. They were tasked with updating that, making it better for the next person behind them.

Anthony Codispoti (12:13)

I love that. Cause as the leader, as the visionary, a lot of times you can end up being the bottleneck on things. And so

Brandon Beavers (12:19)

Correct.

Anthony Codispoti (12:19)

when you can recruit your staff to buy into it to not only use these resources for their own training, but also to be the ones who update them takes a lot off your shoulders.

Brandon Beavers (12:30)

Well, and and not to bash the big boys, that's the biggest hurdle that I had with the larger brokerage house is you could not make changes that were so rudimentary because everybody did this, nobody did this, let me own this and fix the problem. That was one of the my b main reasons I departed is I couldn't deal with that. If something isn't working, we need to change it. And being nimble, I think in our business, it's not zeros and ones. It's round peg and a square hole, right?

Sales and Marketing Strategies: Building Client Relationships

Anthony Codispoti (12:58)

So the SOPs are a big part of how you grew from an operational perspective. Talk to us about how you did it from a sales and marketing perspective. How are you attracting more clients?

Brandon Beavers (13:09)

Great question. early on it was mostly referrals and mostly, places I patroned. early, early, I'm in my early twenties. The my my local watering hole, they were my client. And then as a result, all of their vendors became my clients because I was doing a good job for them. I leaned on my clients quite often. And and and I think something for your listeners is is to point out is anytime I was feeling down, you know what I would do? I would go see my best clients.

Because they would always prop me up. And then during that prop up, when they didn't even know that that's what they were doing, I would say, Hey, if you were gonna go play golf today with somebody, who who would you invite? And and do you think they would be interested in meeting me? And and putting that I want to help Brandon out in my friends and my clients kind of wheelhouse opened up a lot of opportunities. You never know until you ask, right? So

Anthony Codispoti (14:00)

I love

it. And and talk to me about the particular phrasing of that question that you used. Who if you were going to go play golf today, who how did you come up with this?

Brandon Beavers (14:09)

I just as a golfer, I'm a fanatic, right? I I l I enjoy the people I play golf with. Nine times out of ten I want to be there and those are guys that enjoy being with me, so they'll listen to me. If I say, Hey, you should check out this new widget or whatever, they're usually going to check it out and vice versa. So that's where it was born out of is these people we we have a a r unique relationship after spending eighteen holes in a golf course. So I just figured, hey, if you're out playing golf, these are your buddies. They'll listen to you. So if you're playing with somebody today

who are who are you talking to and would they be interested in talking to me? And that's the phrase.

Anthony Codispoti (14:43)

I I and then if they mention a name, then you try to put a a threesome or a foursome together and you guys go out and

Brandon Beavers (14:48)

Correct.

Anthony Codispoti (14:49)

play golf together.

Brandon Beavers (14:50)

Yep, or I'll and nowadays I'll just ask, hey, do a group text. Hook me up. And I'll send them my meeting link or whatever and then we hook up from there. So

Anthony Codispoti (14:58)

Okay,

so okay, so tell me now how the process has changed. Instead of that golf line, now what do you say?

Brandon Beavers (15:03)

It's the same golf line. It's just, hey, why don't you do a group text

Anthony Codispoti (15:06)

Yeah.

Brandon Beavers (15:07)

with Fred and I'll send him my meeting link and I'll take him out for lunch or coffee. Or we'll meet up here and then play nine holes or whatever. So the conversation is the same. It's just it's morphed with technology.

Anthony Codispoti (15:17)

and I like this and and I and I hope that listeners are really drawing into this because so many people th this is low hanging fruit when it comes to growing your business, right? And people feel awkward about asking for those referrals. You don't want to put somebody out. you're happy to be working with somebody, you appreciate the business, you like that working relationship, but man, it does it feel

Desperate? Does it feel needy to ask for it? Y y you're shak you're n shaking your head no. How what's your thought process?

Brandon Beavers (15:45)

No, because look, I I

I would not be in any relationship in my life if I didn't ask a question. And if you think about that, it's a quite the profound statement, right? Those of us that have been married or are married, you wouldn't be married if you didn't ask a question, right? You have to take that first leap.

and and and those that respect you and you're doing a good job for them as a vendor in business, they're happy to share the success story. Obviously, you're not gonna make the ask of someone who's not having a very good experience. So I usually make this ask, especially of my HR directors, after a really successful open enrollment. They're already happy. We did the heavy lifting, it was easy for them. So I'm not just soliciting the CEOs and the CFOs that I'm on the golf course with, those that are in the trenches with us at renewal time, I'm asking for letters of recommendation.

Recommendation. Hey, who are you interacting with? Are you part of Sherm? Do you have a special relationship? Who do you know that would like to interact with us?

Anthony Codispoti (16:39)

I love that. Brandon, talk to me about a mentor that was really influential for you along the way. Maybe it was your dad, maybe it was somebody else that you experienced that really helped to kind of shape and mold the way that you thought about insurance, the way you thought about client relationships.

Brandon Beavers (16:53)

Mm.

Well, I the biggest phrase that comes to mind is one from my father is that you are who you associate with. I've been blessed to be a part of a a country club, which if for those of us in sales and business, that that's the number one thing that I can suggest because the folks typically at a country club are are doing well for themselves in their various fields, right? And it's nice to be around other folks that have similar mindset. So from a mentorship standpoint, I've been around some great people. The the longest standing client that I was mentioning, Lewis Snyder, he has been a mentor.

Of mine is like a second father to me. we go to lunch once a month, we talk about everything from our tennis games to our challenges in business to what are we dealing with our kids today, you know. So being around people that have like mind-minded nature goes a long way. Obviously, my father shaped a lot of what I do. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for him. but he has his certain mistakes that he's made along the way, which is why he's not here with us, right? And I've taken it to the 2.0 and now

three point level.

But there's some great teachers that have influenced me along the way. A short story, real quick, it's off topic. But my eighth grade science teacher and I recently reconnected after 20-something years. And she really helped me. These people we don't realize, these teachers that we had throughout our you know, 18, 19 years of schooling in the in the primary grades, they've they've shaped who we are without us knowing it. And it's been really cool to reconnect with her. She's now retired and she's she's tutoring my my daughter now.

math and doing it pro bono because she just misses being in the teaching role and it's been really cool to hook up and I would say she was a mentor to me in ways that that I can't even express nor can she. So

Anthony Codispoti (18:31)

I love the I love these little side stories. Do you have a little side story about your dad, maybe on the insurance side of things or the business side of things? I know that you came in and did things differently, but clearly there was

Brandon Beavers (18:39)

What sure.

Anthony Codispoti (18:42)

a foundation that he helped to put in place.

Brandon Beavers (18:44)

It no question. And you know what it was? It was shadowing him. early on when I started putting on a suit and tie, which we don't really do anymore, right? I had a I had three suits that I would wear with him and I would shadow him. And and and and every once in a while my nature is I couldn't stop help myself to to chime in and he would I remember him kicking me under the table like the it's already sold. You don't need to oversell it, right? So just less is more. but I learned on the job with him. we had an office in Tampa for a while and it's a different

beast from a clientele perspective where you are in the country, someone in New Jersey or New York is gonna have a different mannerism and different way of doing business than somebody in Georgia, for example. And it was really interesting as we had clients all over the place and still do in 32 states today.

Our client in Louisiana reacts totally different to a conversation with a joke, for example, than someone in Boston, right? So you have to know your clientele, but I it was his charismatic way of communicating with people and breaking down the complicated to the employees, right? It's one thing to talk to a C suite who understands at a high level what we're talking about, but to a lower level employee that's you know working in in the trenches all day, if you will, they don't understand insurance. And how do you connect with them and explain what it?

deductible and max out of pocket is without blowing their mind with those two terms alone. Right. You have to show it to them and give them real world examples. And I think it was him, my father, that that helped me understand how to communicate at a rudimentary level without without making someone feel inferior, right? We're all in this together. We all go to the doctor. We all go to the emergency room at some point in our lives. How do you relay those experiences and educate along the way?

Anthony Codispoti (20:22)

I really love what you're saying there. And as you're talking, it made me remember a time where I I was not good at that, where I'm I'm accustomed to talking to the business owners, C suite, the HR folks. And I got brought into an employee training session, which was not something that I typically did. And a question came up and I answered it in the same way that I would answer it for an HR executive who knows this stuff, that you know, is really

Brandon Beavers (20:44)

Correct.

Anthony Codispoti (20:45)

experienced. And boy, it did not land well.

They had no idea what I was talking about. They were getting more frustrated. So that's a that's a skill to be able to switch between those different audiences and know who it is that you're talking to.

Brandon Beavers (20:57)

Well, now as a father, I've got an eleven year old at home. When I do my enrollment meetings, I I think about how 'cause she asked me, kids naturally, what do you do, Daddy? And you have to explain what we do, which is an interesting business within itself, to someone who doesn't even understand how to sell sell spell business at at the point when she asked at seven years old, right? That was a new word for her, right? So how do you explain what we do? And so now when I'm in enrollment meetings, I'm trying to explain an accident plan or or the ad back program, for example, to somebody that

Doesn't doesn't live and breathe insurance like we do.

Anthony Codispoti (21:31)

It's it's funny. I've had my now ten-year-old, but when he was eight or nine, dad, what is it that you do? And he knows about the podcast. That's a little bit easier for him to wrap his head around. I said, Well, I sell insurance. Well, what's insurance? Well, you pay a little bit of money, and then something comes up, you get something back. Well, what why are you paying money it just like it just completely foreign and and then I sort of kind

Brandon Beavers (21:51)

Correct.

Anthony Codispoti (21:52)

laugh at myself like, but yeah, it it does seem kind of absurd when you try to explain it to an eight-year-old.

Leveraging Technology: AI in Employee Benefits

Brandon Beavers (21:57)

Correct, correct. Well now you've got employees who they are the ones from your enrollment meeting that have to purvey this information to their kids, their college kids, their spouses at home, and whomever. You've got to explain it in such a way, that they understand. But that's where the birth of recording enrollment meetings. We've got hundreds and hundreds of enrollment meetings that have been recorded over the years. And that, to to transition into the AI where where we are today, that is our data set. We're we're teaching our proprietary HR platform what

What we do and all of these answers and clues from these enrollment videos that we've recorded.

Anthony Codispoti (22:31)

Okay, we've been hinting at Beavers three point Let's hear about it now. What is what are you guys doing with AI? Let's let's pull back the curtain a little bit.

Brandon Beavers (22:38)

So in this

rendition, I mean if you're not talking AI, you're already behind the

Behind the eight ball, right? I think a lot of people are using ChatGPT and Claude to like a Google, but it's so much more powerful than that. So what we're doing now is we're literally we have private YouTube links that have been out there literally going on 20 years. And every single enrollment video is becoming our data set for answering questions and decision support during open enrollment. right now, one of the things that I've been doing for a very, very long time is making myself available to the average employee so that HR doesn't have to deal

With the the questions around insurance that there may not be apt with. So we have a meeting link where employees can do at a one-on-one benefit counseling session. So we're trying to take that kind of specialized service model.

But teach the AI to handle it through a series of questions, but make it natural. I'm going back to the old school voice response server that dad had in the early 90s. What if you could call in and say, just I want to have a conversation with someone about my benefits? The AI can handle that and make it a human experience without bogging down the humans behind the scenes. And then if they need help beyond what the AI can do, obviously they hit zero and they get a live body, right? So you're giving that boutique experience, but using the new technology that's available.

Anthony Codispoti (23:53)

So the AI infrastructure that you're building, this is designed to be f outward facing to the employees of your clients.

Brandon Beavers (24:01)

Correct. Yep, definitely. And and and then we take that same architecture and flow it through the renewal SOP, the new client SOP. All these SOPs that we've created over the years, they are being built out on a proprietary system similar to a Salesforce, right? Where you have your pipe in your different stages of a sales cycle, but we do the same thing on the renewal cycle. So it's like a sales cycle, but we do that every single year. And how can the AI connect from A to B?

without us having to connect the A to B directly, right? it can make the correlation that this company's quoting this carrier and we need these different things for this carrier's RFP. And then if it sells, we need this carrier's different items to install the case. So we're just trying to close the loop and get off of whiteboards. We love our whiteboards at the agency, but we've got to get away from that.

Anthony Codispoti (24:51)

So it sounds like at least part of what's going on here is you're taking these SOPs that you've been building up over the years, you're taking the transcripts from all these private YouTube training videos that you've created over the last twenty years, you're feeding this into some kind of an AI engine. What what can you tell us about the technical part of what this

Brandon Beavers (25:11)

Sure.

Anthony Codispoti (25:11)

looks like behind the scenes?

Brandon Beavers (25:13)

We are going back to when I built my servers back in the day. I'm a tech nerd, I'm an insurance nerd, these are just things that interest me. So we actually have Cloud Pro running on our own server so that we can handle PHI without leaking it out to the the world at at mass. And so we're teaching our Cloud Pro exactly how to do this and we're building proprietary programs to interface with our CRM, to interface with our renewal in and agency management software. So we we're kind of

Building our own server, which no one does anymore. Everybody's cloud based with their servers, but with PHI, just from a compliance standpoint, I can't have that out in the in the ether. So we're doing it back on site, you know, with r data backups, roaming backups across the across the world. So

Anthony Codispoti (25:57)

So PHI personal health information, right? We've got HIPAA laws, gotta keep this stuff private and locked down. and so where are you guys at with this AI tool? How soon before it's ready for prime time?

Brandon Beavers (26:10)

We're we're

Targeting Q2 of next year to be live. We're already beta testing some of the internal infrastructure and it's working, which is so surprising because we're able with this with this new technology, we're able to say, no, it can't do this, it needs to do this. And it just does it, right? Where I used to have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a coder go in and and and program these things, and then we had a three to six week backlog of of different tweaks that needed to take place. Now it's happening almost in real time. so I think

We will be ready for the chat bot and the one-on-one counseling bot that we're putting together and all these different tools to be forward facing to the market very soon. And and Q2 is my target. It may happen sooner.

Anthony Codispoti (26:54)

So we're recording this in the fall of twenty twenty six. So hopefully by the first part of twenty twenty seven, some of these things are available. And then I'm gonna guess that your clients they're gonna interact with this through a web interface, some sort of a login through your website.

Brandon Beavers (27:06)

Correct. Yep. That's the

idea. We're we're building out a client facing portal where with single sign-on they can sign on to employee navigator. From there they may be able to sign on to their payroll vendors. We're working through those logistics. with API now and single sign on, you don't have to have these companies all separated by Furcator.

Anthony Codispoti (27:28)

And are you did I hear you right that you're mostly not using developers for this? Are you using clawed code to build a lot of this on your own?

Brandon Beavers (27:34)

Correct.

Most of it is a hundred percent that. You're exactly right.

Anthony Codispoti (27:38)

And you're the one who's actually feeding in the prompts and doing the troubleshooting and

Brandon Beavers (27:41)

My partner Justin

and I, we work a lot together on on putting this together. This is what we're spending hours and hours doing. Yeah, that's exactly right.

Current Services and Target Clients of Beavers Advisors

Anthony Codispoti (27:50)

So Brandon, give me a look at present day. What does Beaver advisors do, the whole breadth of services, and who's a good target client for you?

Brandon Beavers (27:58)

So we offer the full suite of employee benefits from medical, dental, vision, life disability, work site, accident cancer critical hospital. We also handle HRAs, HSAs, flex spending accounts, dependent care, transit parking, you name it. If it's an employee benefit, we offer it. we are heavy into the retirement plan space, especially for startups. What we're finding is there's a need in the sub fifty employee market for startup retirement plans. Not a lot of the larger houses want to do it.

after assets over five million.

And a startup 401k plan, candidly, you're not gonna make any money for three to five years, right? So it's a long play, but what we find is it rounds out a benefits package, especially after Secure 2.0, where we have auto enrollment requirements. In Virginia, you have to offer, for example, a retirement plan or the state-based retirement plan called RetirePath. So we have a partnership with Ubiquity powered by principal, where we can have a contribution ready plan put together in less than two weeks, which is kind of abnormal in the space to have a startup ready right now.

that.

Typically it's a 90-day process. So retirement is a big focus for us right now. social security as we know will be insolvent at some point in the next 10 10 years, maybe 15. So people taking responsibility for their financial future, right, is is paramount. And the point of offering a benefits package is to help these folks and retact and tra attract and retain the quality staff. So at Beavers Advisors we do it all. If it's a benefits package, we're handy it.

Anthony Codispoti (29:25)

and I like what you're talking about there with the retirement offering and how, that's been a big push for you guys, in in a big part because there's a big need, but also because nobody wants to do it for these smaller companies because there's no money in it. But for you, and I know you and we've we've known each other before this conversation, you're very much a relationship guy, right? And that relationship

Brandon Beavers (29:45)

See?

Anthony Codispoti (29:46)

doesn't get forged unless you're doing the right thing by the client. And so

By taking care of them on the retirement side of things, even though there's no money in it for you, you're able to help take part in the other types of offerings that they need as well.

Brandon Beavers (30:01)

That's exactly right. And I can't tell you how many times it's happened, especially in the Hampton Roads area where I'm born and born and raised. We have a lot of government contractors and we got a lot of GovCon companies that start off at two people and now they're at two hundred, not three years later. So that happens a lot. And I feel like a lot of my industry, our industry, they they they overlook these little groups and they don't want to take By way of example, risk strategies outright said you're not to par you know, market to companies over unless they're over a hundred employees.

Well there is a large swath of small business across the country that drives this country forward day in and day out that are sub one hundred. And they need more help than ever because typically you've got an office manager or or one person doing the the hats of a seven person HR team. Those are the folks that need our help the most.

Anthony Codispoti (30:50)

So I want you to look back over the twenty ish years that you've been doing this. What's one of the biggest changes that you've seen happen in the industry?

Industry Changes: Consolidation and the Role of AI

Brandon Beavers (31:02)

I would say consolidation is the number one word, right? there's so many agencies that started off when my dad was getting started that are no longer around. They've been gobbled up. And then what happens is the principals of those agencies have a five year run out or whatever, and then they're gone. And then that boutique approach that they had for their clients forever and ever and ever is gone. What we're trying to do is keep that boutique approach but bring technology of the big boys, the USIs and the Marshalls of the world. We all do the same thing. And there's and and they're probably not gonna

Be happy to hear this, but literally we do the same thing. It's just a smaller agency typically doesn't have the resources and scalability that they have because they're the behemoth, right? We're the we're the David, not the Goliath. So with AI though, we're leveling the playing field. And and for anybody out there that's listening to this, you're not using AI, you're missing the boat. I've said it once, I'll say it again, because that's what levels the playing field. It puts me on the same platform now, Marsh, with a fraction of the budget.

Anthony Codispoti (32:00)

Yeah. You know, I shared one of my challenging client situations where you know I came into that employee training session ill prepared to discuss this on an employee level and ended up with egg on my face. I learned from that, and I'd be curious to hear a challenging client experience that you learned from.

Brandon Beavers (32:19)

Sure. Well, early on, the first thing that comes to my mind is I used to give my cell phone out to every single employee. Early on I thought we need to be available and employees have challenges, take the call. And I remember it was seven o'clock in the morning on a Sunday and somebody didn't have their drug card and was at the pharmacy and couldn't get their prescription. And it first thing in the morning on a Sunday they're screaming and yelling at me. We no longer gave out my cell phone number anymore.

That was the end of that, right? So and and to be candid, I didn't handle I was early in my in my career, I didn't handle that call very well, and we lost the client, right? And so it kinda comes back to life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react is a great quote by who is that? it would come to me. Anyway, it's a great quote and and and I didn't handle that well, and that was the biggest learning experience for me year everyone.

Anthony Codispoti (33:06)

Can you share more with us about how you handled it and how you would have done it differently now?

Brandon Beavers (33:10)

Chuck Swindle, that's who quoted that, by the way. Chuck Swindle. Anyway, I I I kind of told the employee, How dare you call me and yell and scream at me, I can't get you a card first thing in the morning. The carriers are closed. I'd love to help you, but I can't do anything. And that was the receptionist. Well, she had a very good relationship with the CFO and told the CFO that I was not nice to her. And a week later I got a broker breaker letter.

And so I'm I'm actually embarrassed of that experience now looking back twenty five years later or whatever, but I'm also very thankful for that experience. Because just because they're not C suite doesn't mean they're not important. And they don't no one deserves to be talked to like that. So I'll tell you in my personal life and in business life, you know, walking away versus reacting is the biggest thing that I learned from that experience.

Anthony Codispoti (33:58)

I love that. I

Brandon Beavers (33:59)

Just don't take

the call, right? Worst case scenario, just don't answer your phone, let them leave a voicemail.

Call

Anthony Codispoti (34:03)

Yeah.

Brandon Beavers (34:04)

them back during business hours,

Anthony Codispoti (34:05)

Yeah. I I love that you have that ability to look back and evaluate yourself. 'Cause that's hard to do, right? It's easy to get defensive and point the finger and say, Well, it was her fault that I acted that way 'cause she called me and she said this and that's not your approach. know,

Brandon Beavers (34:22)

at the end of the day, I could have been a sweetheart to her and calmed her down and we have a vastly different experience and I may still have that client today. Right? So I've reacted poorly. but there's some operational knowledge there as well.

This is where the chatbot comes in. We shouldn't have employees calling directly to an office interfacing with our staff. We should have tools for those employees to reach out to us and then create a support ticket. And that's part of this 3.0 model is getting to like an IT support ticket system. We used to have it years ago, but allow employees that are non-urgent challenges that they're having, they can just create a support ticket and within forty eight hours get a response via a ticket system that tracked and the AI tracks it back to the CRM. So we anybody

that picks that ticket up to see what happens. So, you got to have avenues for employees because they're not calling to say hi. They're calling because they have a challenge.

Anthony Codispoti (35:14)

Brandon, we talked about big changes that you've seen in the past. What are some big changes coming up as we're recording this towards the tail end of 2026? What are some big changes coming to the industry and how are you prepping for it?

Brandon Beavers (35:26)

Well, I think the biggest one is, there's talk about universal health care, which they've been talking about for decades. They've been talking about Medicare for all. you know, health care is a challenge because it's a multifaceted issue. It's not just who pays for my doctor visit, my prescription, you know, it's a it's a societal issue that is the have and have nots come into that conversation, right? concierge medicine, who's getting access to doctors and who's not getting access. We have a challenge with a supply.

So insurance brings up a lot of topics and I see consolidation in the medical field. you know, where by way of example, our large provider in in Hampton Roads is Sentera. They own an insurance arm, Centera Health Plans, and they own the medical delivery centera medical group. I we're seeing that model being replicated across the country. And when you have one person in charge of both sides of the house, where's the competition?

There's a lot of things I think that are taking place, but at the end of the day, employers need employees. Employees will leave for a 25% delta in in compensation. So how do you attract and retain the quality people? And that's the birth of the benefits package, right? So I see a need for folks like ourselves, more and more so, to educate employees and and not leave it on an HR journalist to do that that type of education. will it change from a commission-based model?

model to a fee based model, maybe. I see a lot more AI interface. I see a lot more chat bots hitting the hitting the world and then can a chat bot take information like maybe a social and a date of birth and not leak it out to the ether. That's one of our our challenges, which is why we're going back to a physical server model.

So I think there's a lot of change on the horizon. now we're talking about Tesla's cyber bot or whatever, that's humanoid coming out. Will we have humanoids walking around, doing enrollment meetings? I don't know.

Crazy to think. I mean, what was that movie I Robot with Will Smith? I mean it's happening right now.

Anthony Codispoti (37:20)

Yeah. Yeah. It's

yeah, the future is here. So in the two decades plus that you've been doing this, tell me some common threads. What's a common expensive mistake that you see a lot of folks make in their benefits?

Brandon Beavers (37:38)

Well, I feel like everybody comes to me and they say, I want the best. What is that? What is the best? Is it the best for your wallet? It's the best when you need to go to the primary care twice a year? Is it the best with with having an HSA plan? I mean

I see a lot of people uneducated when it comes to benefits, and that's the approach that I think makes us unique in the industry is I'm an education guy, right? I don't go into an enrollment meeting trying to sell a health plan. I think a lot of the old school brokers that that's what they do. They're trying to get folks to drive to sign up. Like that I hate to say it, there's a duck out there that really pushes hard on enrollment. and they just try and pressure sale, right? Pressure the sale. I don't do that. I feel like if an employee understands what a benefit is, then they're going to buy it. I don't have to talk

them into it. So I take an educational approach, which I think is very different, vastly different in the industry. and and if you educate you have a more informed consumer that can pay more money because they see the value of what they're paying for.

So that's what I see people doing is they just throw to the lowest deductible, best copay style plan, and they never use it. I see that over and over and over again. And the analogy I've been using for a long time is would you go buy a brand new Samsung TV and never open the box? Why'd you buy it?

Right. And that's the question I leave with a lot of employees is well, you have this Cadillac plan or or Tesla of a of a medical plan, right? But you never drive it. That doesn't make any sense. So I'd rather see you pay and take the consumer driven appro approach and put those premium dollars into a pre tax HSA bank account, save for inevitable medical expense of the future. It's like a retirement plan for medical. if those of us in the industry, we know HSA is the future. Your Cadillac style copay plan at some point in the near future, I think.

will price itself out. So the largest mistake I see employees doing today is is taking the quote better plan and they're just giving premium dollars away instead of paying themselves. So

Common Mistakes in Benefits Selection

Anthony Codispoti (39:41)

And how do you advise folks to use those HSA dollars? because I know some people say, hey, invest those dollars and then still pay for the medical expenses out of pocket and reimburse yourself at some point down the road. How do you think about it?

Brandon Beavers (39:55)

Well

It's a great there's three ways I think you can think about. I've got some higher net wealth individuals that have their HSA, they max it out every year. one of our preferred vendors is health equity. Once you have two grand in your health equity HSA, any difference above 2000, you can invest in the market, just like a retirement plan. you know, I I think I got fifteen percent return on my HSA dollars in the market last year, right? Where else can you get that? Right? And it's pre-tax money, it's growing tax-free, it's the only triple tax benefit around society.

So there's a there's a world where you just let that grow for future inevitable medical expenses, but I think there becomes a tipping point where if at sixty five you've got a quarter million dollars in there, you'll never be able to spend all of that money between now and and in our good

Departure, if you will, right? So, at what point is the tipping point level out to say, okay, you should stop putting money into your HSA? So there's that play. I've got some folks that they get a bill for 30 bucks, they put $30 contribution in their HSA, they pay them $30, but they never accumulate. That doesn't make a lot of sense either. but I'll I'll tangent into saying those of us that are credit card points nerds.

What I do is I pay my expense with my Delta Amex, get my points, take a picture of the receipt that I paid, submit that to health equity, and three days later I get a reimbursement and I pay my American Express bill off. So I'm using my pre-tax dollars, but I'm getting my Amex benefit all the same. so there's more than one way to skin the cat. I've got some people that wait and reimburse at one time in in November, December timeframe, they submit all of their medical and dental vision bills for the year and they get their Christmas shopping money.

Anthony Codispoti (41:31)

So you're doing a hybrid approach. you're taking that above two thousand dollars and you're investing it. And then if you get a thirty dollar copay, you're paying it with your credit card and then that under two thousand dollar balance that you're keeping in the HSA is then paying you back for that credit card charge.

Brandon Beavers (41:48)

Correct.

So I'm I'm I'm literally like triple dipping. I'm getting the pre-tax benefit going into the account, pre-tax coming out of the account, and I'm getting the points on the other end as well. Right? Because 'cause I like to fly for free,

Anthony Codispoti (42:00)

I love it, it's a smart strategy.

Brandon Beavers (42:02)

But it's an

extra step for a lot of people that they may or may not want to do, but the concept is there.

Anthony Codispoti (42:06)

Yeah. Um

let's shift gears. I want to talk about the hardest thing that you've had to overcome, Bran, and what going through that taught you. 'Cause I think there's a lot of gold, a lot of lessons to be learned in talking about these really challenging experiences.

Overcoming Challenges and Starting Over

Brandon Beavers (42:19)

Yeah, I I totally agree. I think

I had some challenges when I was with the payroll firm and leaving that I when I sold my birthright to them, I was under the impression that I was gonna stay there my entire career. And then the way things worked out, I regretted selling my business. But now that it's been a few years and I've been able to sleep on it and reflect on it, I think it was the best thing that ever happened. But during that, when I was going through that time, it was very challenging. you know, because I was fine on my own. We were doing great.

when it was laid benefits and I owned it, right? the thinking process of merging with a payroll vendor, I thought it made a lot of sense. But the way things shook out and and you know, I was just another cog in in the in the matrix, if you will. I I didn't like that, right? And then I was really regretful at the time for selling my business.

Anthony Codispoti (43:10)

So I wanna hear a little bit more about whether it's that particular instance that you're talking about or maybe leaving risk strategies or Blue Ridge or some of these others. how much of a when you leave is it a starting over from scratch kind of a scenario?

Brandon Beavers (43:25)

It's great question. the way the big boys now they do it, they get you on a non-solicit. non-competes are dead, the Supreme Court's been very clear, right? Yeah, you can't keep somebody that this is what they do from competing in the industry, but the way they tie you up is with the non-solicits, right? You can't accept or receive any clients that you worked while you were at that agency. So the hurdle there when you start over, air quote.

Is you can't touch that book for two years or three years or whatever your agreement says, right? So you've got to get back out there and do what you did, in my case, what I did starting out in 2006. Call my best clients, who would you go play golf with, and should they should they benefit from talking to me? Right? And there's a lot of that kind of building from scratch, which the only thing I can advise your listeners is is to you cannot make money in this business sitting behind a computer.

lot of folks think in and I've in personal relationships had challenges, well you're back on the golf course. What the heck do you ever work? That is work. If I'm not out in front of people and my mouth isn't moving, we're not making money. Right? Really that's how what it boils down to. So I've seen folks in this business fail when they just sit behind their LinkedIn all day. They're sending emails. I had a guy, he's he's still a good friend to this day. and he sent thousands and thousands of emails. We got one client out of it after a year and a half.

Right. If you're not out talking to people and into the ether or or in out of the ether, I guess, into the real world, it's not gonna work.

Anthony Codispoti (44:50)

And so for you, your strategy has been you've got these relationships, these clients, even when you have to start over and you can't yet work directly with that client again, you can still go to them and ask for a referral. Ask for a ask for a golf meeting. And so for you, each time you've had to start

Brandon Beavers (45:03)

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

Anthony Codispoti (45:06)

over, that's that's been your approach. That's how you do it.

Brandon Beavers (45:09)

No question. And now again, internet marketing, using the tools that are at hand, right? if you have any sort of marketing budget, I've just been blessed to be fiscally responsible over my career of over twenty years and we've had the cash to start over, right? Some people don't have that. I just knew after being a W two for the better part of seven, six, seven years, that wasn't for me. My clients expected a certain level of service and I didn't feel like I could get that at any larger shop that's out there. They're not nimble enough.

I think that's what makes us unique is we are numbered.

Anthony Codispoti (45:41)

Are you doing internet marketing as well then?

Brandon Beavers (45:44)

We are. it that's a facet of what we're doing. and using the data within our HRIS system to responsibly market our our data set, right? I mean, like we know, for example, when an employee gets married, they add a s a spouse onto their health plan. We know when a child gets born, they're adding a child to their health plan through our our our employee navigator platform. So why not send some targeting marketing? Hey, we saw you had a baby, have you thought about life insurance? Hey, we saw you just got married, have you thought about life insurance?

Example, or we saw you just moved, you want to quote your homeowner, so we have an address change. we have all of these life events that flow through our data set, and I feel like a lot of folks don't realize the the the level of of resources you have within your data set through employee benefits. We know a lot about employees, but how do you responsibly market the folks without becoming you know over too much?

Anthony Codispoti (46:38)

So what you were describing there is reaching out to folks that you're already providing some level of service to. You see a life event and there's maybe an opportunity for you to help them with an additional type of insurance. Are you also using internet marketing to market coal, like try to find brand new

Brandon Beavers (46:55)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (46:55)

clients?

Brandon Beavers (46:55)

That's a great

question. So when I say internet marketing that it is dual fold, right? So we are using LinkedIn, we are using Google Ads, we're we're toying with the idea of Instagram and doing a podcast informational session like what you're doing here. how do you teach all these tricks about healthcare and how to be a good consumer of healthcare? I think that has legs, right? So we're talking about doing short reels and different things and meet the consumer where they are. I I forget the stat, but the average American is watching reels now.

for however many hours per week. You have to meet the consumer where they are, right? So internet marketing is is is not a single lane. I think it's very dynamic.

Anthony Codispoti (47:34)

Are you finding any success with the internet marketing that you're doing?

Brandon Beavers (47:38)

This is part of the 3.0 model we just started. So these things are in their infancy. So we should do this again in a year, see where

Anthony Codispoti (47:45)

Okay.

Brandon Beavers (47:46)

we are.

Anthony Codispoti (47:47)

So if you were to give advice to somebody who doesn't have clients, because you're talking about get out from behind the computer, get out and talk to people in the real world. And for you, you have the advantage of lots and lots of relationships that you can go and you can ask that, hey, who should I play golf with? kind of a question. For folks that are maybe just getting started, don't have those relationships. Any recommendations that you would give those folks on how to get out into the real world, connect with people, start having some

Real conversations.

Brandon Beavers (48:16)

That's a great question. And and I think back to the college days, those that stayed in their dorm room didn't really have much of a social life, obviously, inherently. Get involved, right? So in the college days, it was get involved in the club team or get involved in the the newspaper or the the radio on campus, right? Get involved in different things. So I'll say the same thing professionally. That transmutes over to you know, getting involved in SHERM, your local society human resource managers chapter. That's where HRP

People, your clients are there for your potential clients, right? getting involved in Nahu, the National Association of Health Underwriters. I mean, I think it's a good organization for a budding agent or broker out there to get plugged into what's going on in our industry. As you progress in your career, I don't know if the National Trade Organization is something that's gonna help you get business, but at least it's gonna keep you on the forefront. I recommend to to my junior producers to get out there and go to as many conferences as you can.

Stay on top of what's new in the industry. So conferences are a big one. But locally, I mean, you've got your BI type groups, you can have some success there to get in front of people who are out to you know six further their career and be successful, right? success begets success. So but I I think that the over under overarching theme is you have to be out there, and it doesn't cost much to join a BI group, it doesn't cost much a hundred bucks a year for serum or whatever. Go to the

national Sherm Conference. So that's where your HR managers are. They're there, right? and and just talk to people, create relationships. You can't be an introvert in our business. It'd be very difficult I guess if you were.

Anthony Codispoti (49:51)

Well, and for some folks they hear the idea of going to like a B and I or even like a big trade show where they don't know anybody and it just like makes them sick to their stomach. They're like, W you know, what am I supposed to just like walk around and hand out my business card? Like how do you approach those kind of situations?

Brandon Beavers (50:07)

That's a Anthony, that's a wonderful question. I walk up and say, hey, I'm Brandon from Virginia. What's your name? And that's it. And it seems so rudimentary, but people are scared. And I'll be honest, I went early in my career, I felt that way. How do I plug in up here? I want to meet everybody here. How do I plug in? There's a reason they give everybody a name badger conference.

So that you can walk up and be s not strangers, even though you're strangers, right? And most everybody, especially at a cocktail hour, will have a beer in their hand. And you can strike up, you like Miller Light. Whatever. You just gotta find a commonality. there's a commonality among every American and every person on the planet, in my opinion. You just have to find what that is, right? And connect with them. Whether it's about kids, you went to the same school together, you have to find that commonality. so it's it's is it's easier than you think.

Anthony Codispoti (50:56)

I love that. Hi, I'm Anthony. What's your name? It's pretty it's pretty basic. It's like it's like

Brandon Beavers (51:00)

I mean it very much.

Anthony Codispoti (51:02)

back to the playground. Like, you know, how do how do you introduce yourself? It's the same kind of thing. And

Brandon Beavers (51:07)

Correct. And

they're just as scared as you are, right? And guess who guess who everyone's favorite topic is? Themselves.

Anthony Codispoti (51:14)

Yeah.

Brandon Beavers (51:15)

Right? So just ask questions. They will tell you how to sell them. Just like a prospect or just a friendship. It's a it's a relationship. It's a s and it's a sales opportunity.

In a way.

Philanthropy and Community Impact

Anthony Codispoti (51:25)

So

beyond the business, Brandon, you and your family started the Beavers Family Foundation, which supports the arts, education, collegiate athletics, and survivors of domestic I I'm curious, how did the idea for the foundation come about? How did you pick this specific mix of causes?

Brandon Beavers (51:43)

Yep. so we have been supporters of various

Philanthrop philanthropic organizations for many, many, many years, right? And sometimes it would be the Beavers family, sometimes it would be Brandon Beavers, sometimes it would be, my agency at the time would sponsor it. We never had one uniform avenue to say this is our philanthropic arm. And one of the largest endeavors we have undertaken is the Old Dominion tennis program. So I went to Old Dominion and tennis is a very big part of my my life, right? my

Up playing tennis since I was three. And collegiate athletics with especially the NIL that just came out, and these if these players now can receive cash. I saw Old Dominion losing players to some larger schools just because their coffers were deeper. And we've been supporting them. They came to me and they said, Brandon, we want to do an outdoor scoreboard on the outdoor tennis tennis courts. Would you be interested? And and we talked about it, it was a six-month underwriting, and and ultimately we decided.

To go forward with that, and so we expanded our relationship. And I thought on that scoreboard, Beavers Advisors on the scoreboard doesn't have the same ring to it as the Beavers Family Foundation, right? And I said, Well, we're already doing all these philanthropic things. Let's have the Beavers Foundation really begin from that point. So now we're involved in an arts program called the Hurrah Players in Norfolk, Virginia. That's a children's acting troupe, they have a recording studio.

Similar than what I'm in today, they teach kids how to get into production, which is cool. and so we support that. I mean we support arts programs for seniors. There's another organization called Arts Connect that we're we're heavily involved in. We're going to nursing homes and senior communities and do arts programs. And some folks never leave their room until we come in and do a a program in their

facility, which is it's it warms the heart, right? so that was kind of the the impetus really the the the catalyst was was the scoreboard and what name do we put on it and then with everything else I said well let's just get this going so we're we're most of the way done with our 501c3 there's no additional tax benefit to me as an individual it's just it gives a common act common name if you will to put all of our eggs behind one name so as we we get out in the community it's the same congruent

Anthony Codispoti (53:59)

And talk to me about choosing to support survivors of domestic abs abuse. How did this come about?

Brandon Beavers (54:05)

So my ex-wife, her her brother was killed through a domestic violence situation. and so when when she and I sh we started it together and she stepped away, but that was something that was near and dear to her heart. And so she's kind of picking that arm up and running with that a little more on on her own. But that's where it was born out of because we saw that happen and nobody knew what was going on behind closed doors. And that was the challenge, right? This was a man who was well liked in the

community was the happy go-lucky, always smiling guy, and the next thing you know he's gone. And it was a domestic violence situation. So, just be well an awareness. And I and I talked to a lot of people, we talked about country club life, it's great marketing, but these become my friends, right? They all want to do different things in the community. They see what we're doing from a philanthropic perspective. They say they want to help, but then they never do anything. So the idea behind this is to say, hey, if I can get a hundred guys to give me a hundred bucks, now we've got some cheddar, we can some make some make some real

changes in the community, whether it be a youth tennis program in the underserved community, that's something that we're working on, right?

helping the the old Dominion kids get new shoes or something, right? Whatever that may be is is try and further this along. And then the the main idea behind the foundation is to cross pollinate between all of these organizations that we're involved in and have one piggyback off the other and help each other out. the old Dominion women's tennis team, they do catering at my Arts Connect gala every year. So I've got the tennis team passing outdoor d'oeuvres at the gala and then they're getting exposed to what is philanthropy.

Anthony Codispoti (55:38)

I love that. Brandon, as you think about the work that you're doing now, what is it that you most want to be remembered for?

Brandon Beavers (55:47)

That's great question. Can't take any of it with you. So I want to be remembered as the guy that was always helping, right? And that's what I try and instill on my staff is we're there to help people. We're talking about their lives, right? Like how do they get their kids' adenous taken out? And they can't get the prior authorization. They're looking to us for help.

They don't want us to pay for it. They just want to get their prior authorization, which sometimes can take weeks as we know. Right? So I want to be known as the guy that would get the shirt off his back and also is able to make a living by doing that.

Anthony Codispoti (56:23)

Before I ask my last question for you, Brandon, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, anybody that wants to get in touch with Brandon Beavers, go to their website. Very easy to remember, BeaversAdvisors.com. Two words, easy to spell. It'll be in the show notes, but you can remember this. BeaversAdvisors.com. Also, if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're listening.

It also sends a signal that helps others discover our podcast. So thanks for taking a quick moment to do that. And a reminder for insurance brokers: you can walk into your next client meeting with something better than a rate increase, a program that gives more of their employees access to doctors, therapists, and prescriptions, part-timers included. And it adds thousands of dollars to the company's bottom line every month. It's backed by Bain Capital Insurance, so it's built to last. Bring your clients that kind of win.

And they'll refer their friends. Addbackbenefits.com. Okay, Brandon, last question for you. A year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?

Brandon Beavers (57:29)

I want to celebrate the deployment of our AI tool.

I think having an AI bot that can actually answer questions and be beneficial to a family, not just the employee, because it there's a there's a family involved typically behind the scenes. It's not just the employee that I'm working with, it's their spouse, it's their kids. And letting them have a a a true human interaction without the physical human behind the scenes, but it's been trained to be a human, right? that's my goal and and and we're steadfast.

the same that we're

Anthony Codispoti (58:01)

Well, we'll have to check back in and see how that's coming along. I can't wait to check it out. Brandon Beavers from Beaver's Advisors. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate you being here.

Brandon Beavers (58:14)

Anthony, thanks so much. Enjoyed it.

Anthony Codispoti (58:15)

Hey folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.

Connect with Brandon Beavers:

Website: BeaversAdvisors.com