Told Not to Pray Too Long Over a Job Offer, Andrew Monk Quit and Started His Own Business Instead

Anthony Codispoti (00:01)

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 Coduspodi, and today's guest tried insurance once for six months, then walked away from it for five years before coming back. He spent several years as a full-time youth minister, then moved through a pool company.

A customer service job, a door-to-door vacuum sales, and four years climbing from delivery driver to sales manager at a furniture company. When he eventually returned to the industry in September of 2019, he started his own brokerage instead of returning to someone else's agency. His name is Andrew Monk. He's the founder and owner of Monk Life and Health Insurance Advising in Amarillo, Texas. He runs it as a one-person, independent operation with no captive carrier.

Serving individuals, families, business owners, and full-time RVers. His firm has built a 100% recommendation rate, and he produces a health insurance 101 video series for clients. But before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency. And you'll want to hear this because it's hurting almost every business owner you know. See, health insurance costs go up every single year, and businesses are furious about it.

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Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Andrew Monk (02:26)

Yeah, thanks for having me today.

Anthony Codispoti (02:29)

So Andrew, after five years as a full time youth minister at Eastwood Church of Christ in El Paso, what led you to step away from that role in twenty fourteen?

Andrew Monk (02:41)

that was a a really difficult decision at the time. really as as a minister, one of the things a lot of people don't understand is ministers tend to be held up on this pedestal and their own personal faith is usually left to the wayside. so I I had spent five years with very little resources for my own journey in Christ. and by the end of that five years, I was so burnt out.

we had gone through a major tumult with our youth group. We went from about 30 students down to two students. and I had built it back up to about 20 students, and there was just less and less and less for my own spiritual formation. And so we had to make the decision to step away from that full-time ministry in order to really focus on our own well-being.

Anthony Codispoti (03:39)

Okay. And did stepping away allow you to focus more on your faith and rebuild that?

Andrew Monk (03:46)

It it very much did. I've never fully stepped away from youth ministry. I'm still very involved in youth ministry to this day, but I reformed my views of what ministry is and really grew a lot in in how I take care of my own faith. but also kind of with that, giving more support for the ministers that that I work around and helping them.

where

I didn't have that and giving them opportunities to to grow in their own faith.

Anthony Codispoti (04:21)

Hm. So I think it was that same year that you left. You took your first job in insurance at Liberty National Life Insurance Company. This only lasted six months though. What it just wasn't for you, the glove didn't fit?

Andrew Monk (04:37)

Well it on on paper it lasted six months. It was probably closer to three months. it it was it was interesting. So I started out, it was it was come interview and it was a room full of people type of interview. and they basically handed you the job, followed up by get your license and

Then once I got my license, I followed an upline agent for two weeks. And he turned around and said, Okay, it's yours, have fun. And basically left me out in in in the wind. I had no clue how to run a business at that point. And I very quickly realized this was not going to work out in in that moment. I had no clue how to run a business. I had no clue really after two weeks, no clue how to sell insurance.

it was not a great situation. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (05:31)

You just didn't have enough training. Yeah. You didn't have a good framework put in place.

You weren't set up for success there. Okay, so

Andrew Monk (05:38)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (05:38)

you leave, because this you don't know what you're doing. You're just sort of floundering. you end up taking a number of different jobs. You ran a pool company, customer service, we mentioned vacuums door to door. Four years working your way up from delivery driver to sales manager at at Haverty's Furniture. Walk me through this time period. you know.

What was going on for you? Were you happy to be out and trying your hand at a bunch of different things, or were you frustrated that y you just hadn't found your thing yet?

Andrew Monk (06:10)

I I don't know. It was really frustration. In the moment it was more I've got a f I've got a family to feed. at that point I had a wife and my son that I was taking care of. My wife was a teacher in Las Cruces, New Mexico, while I was a youth minister in El Paso. And three months after I left my full time position as youth minister, my wife got cut from her teaching position just due to budget cuts. And so we were we were out of

two full-time salary positions overnight. So a lot of it was just trying to make ends meet at at at that moment. the the pool was actually kind of throughout my youth ministry. we were involved with a community pool and I basically took over the pool towards the end of my youth ministry. so when I left my youth ministry that kind of fell out. I went through

I

I don't even think I have listed on my resume. I did greenhouse work for about two months, fell into customer service and actually fell in love with customer service. that was really the first the first job that I was like, I I could do this long term, I could really make a career of

Anthony Codispoti (07:28)

What did you love about it?

Andrew Monk (07:29)

this.

solving problems. I've always been a a problem solver and I love digging into really complicated problems and trying to find a solution to them. And so it gave me that opportunity. I mean, you had people calling from e everything from hey, my cell phone bill is wrong to hey, nothing is working and having to go through that with the with the customer and find a solution for them was really enjoyable for me.

Anthony Codispoti (08:02)

I imagine that would feel really rewarding. You've got somebody who's probably a little bit upset, a little irate coming in, something's broken. Not only do you help fix it for them, but you know, just calmly, coolly help to calm them down, make their day better in the process. So, and then in September 2019, so you had a a a decent sales manager role at at Haverty's, but you decide to leave and to start your own.

health and life insurance business. So walk me through what's going on there. Cause you you were left on an island when you first started insurance, didn't last but few a few months. And now several years later, not only are you gonna come back to it, but you're gonna go out on your own.

Andrew Monk (08:45)

Yeah. so really that that was kind of a a really long journey for for me and really for my whole family. so when my wife lost her job teaching, she was looking for a position and wound up getting a a teaching job in Dumas, Texas, where she grew up. And so be we basically moved the whole family overnight. And I wound up

I'm just delivering furniture for Haverty's furniture. Once again, trying to pay the bills. Never thought I would go anywhere with it, but I really enjoyed it. Once again, the customer interaction was was a very enjoyable part. Three months into that, my delivery manager calls me and says, hey, I'm moving back to Florida. I'm recommending you for the delivery manager position.

so I got that job and I was over seven different stores with the company, seven delivery teams, service teams, about fifty employees in all. overnight. never expected to kind of be in that position. Loved that, traveled a lot with that position and and it was a really enjoyable position. The company really took care of me in that. They let my family travel with me during the summer. so it was it was a wonderful situation.

About

a week after my daughter was born, I had to go down to Midland, Texas for two weeks for staffing issues. and that kind of put the nail in the coffin on that side of things, because it was really hard for me to walk away from my newborn daughter for two weeks. Definitely a challenge there. So I asked my manager, hey, can I switch over to sales just so that I can I I really enjoyed working with the company.

I wanted to stay with the company. And I said, Hey, can I switch over to sales? So I moved over to sales in a sales manager position. and through that process, the vice president of the company took notice of me and said, Hey, I I wanna get you trained up. I eventually want you to take over your own store. And so he moved us to Dallas Fort Worth area.

where I was moved around to three different stores in the span of about six months. just as a sales manager, hopping around, helping the different stores boost numbers, whatever. and I was for it. I was, hey, let's let's go. I I'm willing to do what you need me to do. And so six months in, I s I called for a meeting with the general manager of the Dallas market and I said, Hey,

I've been here six months, been showing you what I've been doing. What is the time frame on me getting my own store? And he looked me dead in the eye and said, Andrew, to my knowledge, you were never promised a store. And what had happened was there was no communication between him and the vice president of the company. And so

It just kind of fell through the cracks. He just thought I was this guy that moved to Dallas and was willing to work anywhere and everywhere and was a really good worker. And so he had no knowledge that I was even looking to take over my own storm.

Anthony Codispoti (12:11)

Ooh, that's a gut punch. So what's going through your head

Andrew Monk (12:13)

Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (12:14)

at that time? You're like, that's it, I'm out of here, like right away or

Andrew Monk (12:18)

not not exactly. I I I really was like, okay, why what have I been doing here? really questioning God in that moment of of why why did you send us here? and really wrestled with that. But I I took the approach of, okay, if you didn't know that, what do I need to show you in order to take over Mound Store? And had a really good conversation with the GM.

At

the time I was working as a as a sales manager in Louisville. and I was working nights and weekends. obviously my faith is is a huge part of who I am and connection with other Christians is is huge for me. And I was working every Sunday, every Wednesday, and I didn't have those opportunities for that connection. So I was kind of back in the same boat I was in when I was a full-time youth minister of.

my own personal faith was starting to to really struggle. so at that point, this was about two weeks after that conversation with the GM, I I went to my store manager and said, Hey, I've got to have at least Sunday off or Wednesday night off something. I am I am drowning over here. and he flat out told me it's not possible.

And so at that point I knew okay, this is this is probably not where I need to stay. So I started looking for other things. wasn't sure what I was looking for and just started putting

Anthony Codispoti (13:56)

And so how did you settle on

I'm gonna get back into the insurance business and not only am I gonna get back into it, but I'm gonna do it on my own this time?

Andrew Monk (14:06)

so I had an interview with a company called US Health Group. really it was it was gonna be another captive situation, but the interview with

Anthony Codispoti (14:17)

Captive meaning you were just

going to represent their products and nobody else's. Yeah.

Andrew Monk (14:21)

Yes,

yeah. and so I had an interview with them and the manager was very faith oriented. and really I felt I felt a nudge that okay, this is this is something I could work with. she seemed like it would it would be a different situation training wise, even though I had a terrible experience before with insurance, this maybe was gonna be a little bit different.

And I I kind of I kind of put it to God. I said, okay, you you do what you want want me to do. I'm willing to go. And she offered me the position with them. And that same day I got a call from the vice president of Havertes saying, Andrew, we're re we're ready to give you your own store. and he he said, Here's the store, here's what we're looking at. And I said to him, I need to pray about this.

And his response was all that I needed. He said, Don't pray too long. We're looking for somebody to make a quick decision on this.

And that right there told me everything I needed to know. If if somebody is telling me don't pray too long, I'm sorry. I'm going to pray as long as I need to pray. and if that's the attitude of what you're looking for, I'm not in. so that was really the the final step.

Anthony Codispoti (15:49)

Yeah, there was just multiple strikes against the

multiple strikes against the culture of the company. You know, if they

Andrew Monk (15:55)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (15:56)

there was no communication that you were promised a store, you've moved to a different city, you know, for that opportunity. There was no flexibility in the scheduling to give you, you know, Sundays or Wednesday nights off. And then when they finally come back to you after you've left and you're like, okay, you know, I need to pray on this. I need a little bit of time. It's like, nah, come on. We're not going to wait for that.

All right, so walk us through what happens next.

Andrew Monk (16:22)

So I put in my two weeks notice. I go ahead and get with US Health Group as a captive agent. I and I'm thinking I'm crazy for doing this. I was I yeah, yeah. put in my

Anthony Codispoti (16:30)

so you had you you hadn't left Havertes yet. You were still with them. Okay. Got it. But you put put in your two weeks notice at that point. Okay.

Andrew Monk (16:38)

two weeks notice, started doing training with with US Health Group, kind of kind of a transition period. really enjoyed working with with the leadership there at US Health Group.

They brought me in and they they taught me first how to run a business, which was huge. and and I'm so grateful for them for that. I still have a great connection with with that group, with that leadership, with a lot of their agents, because of that. They first they didn't they didn't come in and say, here's how you sell an insurance policy. They said, here's what you need to know, how to run a business.

and that was huge for me. They gave me a lot of freedom. there there were, of course, expectations on how much I needed to sell and everything, but my leadership was very understanding. I'm not gonna do things the way that everybody else does them. I'm not gonna call the all the call lists. I I'm not gonna make 300 phone calls a day. I'm not gonna do that. And she was fine with that.

Anthony Codispoti (17:48)

What were you gonna do instead

then?

Andrew Monk (17:51)

So I actually got involved with a networking group called Business Networking International. and that was really the linchpin to my to my business. just referrals only. and of course, whatever clients I got, I would get referrals from them. And that's how I've grown my business over the last seven years. is just off referrals.

Anthony Codispoti (18:14)

And you think and you've

been as successful doing that as you think other people were doing sort of the traditional

Andrew Monk (18:20)

Yeah, okay.

Anthony Codispoti (18:21)

just hit that call list, make hundreds of calls a day?

Andrew Monk (18:27)

Starting off, I would say no. starting off was was difficult. It was challenging because I I wasn't making those point connections as much, but the quality of the connections I was making was much more valuable. my my turnover rate within my first two years was like three to five percent. I retained a majority of my clients those first couple of years.

Whereas other agents, they were doing these four or five hundred calls a day and they were maybe retaining fifty percent of their clients because it was all about blogging. I focused more on the connection and that really made a huge difference.

Anthony Codispoti (19:13)

So let's stop and talk about B and I for just a second because I think this idea of networking, this comes up a lot in conversations that I have. And for many folks, it has an icky feeling, like just that word. You know, like maybe they've been to a a mixer before and it's just, you know, people are, I don't know, they feel disingenuous. It's just like, hey, I'm gonna pretend to be interested in you so that I can, you know, then sell you something.

And that's really my ulterior motive the entire time. Tell me what the dynamic was like here, because I think the the value of building a network in the right way is just incredibly powerful. So I want to hear how you've done it.

Andrew Monk (19:54)

Yeah.

So there's definitely those networking groups out there that it's it's all chamber chamber groups tend to be like that all the time. It's it's fifty people trying to sell the same thing and they're all trying to get their name out there. B and I was was unique in the fact that there is only one of each industry in your B and I group. And so I was the only health insurance agent in my B and I group.

And so anybody within that group that was having a conversation with somebody and somebody said, Hey, do you know somebody that sells health insurance? I was the one that they would get. the other aspect of at least my B and I group, I know not all the B and I groups are this way, but it was very much a relational sort of thing. It we had it was it was more than just

me trying to sell my thing and them trying to sell their thing. We made connections. We went out for coffee with each other. We had relationships with each other. And that really is what drove it was was the connection between us to know, hey, I can trust these people when I say to my friends and my family and my clients, this is the person you need to go to for a roof.

this is the person you need to go to for car insurance. They're going to treat you right. And so that was the biggest thing with B and I was it was a sincere connection and it was with people that I could trust to send clients to.

Anthony Codispoti (21:37)

I'm sorry, Andrew, I forget the name of the group that you was it a USA or United group that was giving you the training.

Andrew Monk (21:44)

US

Yeah, US Health Group.

Anthony Codispoti (21:48)

US Health Group. Okay. So these guys teach you how to run a business. They're super helpful, very supportive. All the things that you were missing the first time around. How long were you with them before you then decided to go out on your

Andrew Monk (22:02)

So I started with them September twenty nineteen. It was goodness, I'm trying to remember because we COVID hit, we moved back to Amarillo. I think within six months of us moving back to Amarillo. So it was probably a b only about a year that I was with them, maybe a year and a half.

Anthony Codispoti (22:23)

And you felt like you had learned enough in that time that you're like, Hey, I can do this on my own, right?

Andrew Monk (22:30)

Yeah, absolutely. And and part of it was also being a captive agent. You have one product. and so that was always something I really struggled with when I was working with clients, because I'm a problem solver. And so a lot of times that product wouldn't fit a lot of my clients. And so I had to turn them away and send them elsewhere. And I didn't have

the resources of who to send them to. So that it was basically letting them back out into the wild on on Google to try and find health insurance again, which was never a good situation.

Anthony Codispoti (23:09)

You wanted to be able to do and offer the best for your clients. And when you've just got a single product to offer, that's not typically going to be the case. So you you you go off, you start monk life and health insurance advising. And so tell us what the company is today. The the the breadth of the the services that you offer and who you do it for.

Andrew Monk (23:30)

Yeah, so I branched off and went independent, very quickly got into the Affordable Care Act plans, which a lot of people don't like them. they have their place, but it gave me an opportunity to offer that because there are people that need those, and then at the same time still offer the US Health Group stuff through my contacts with them. since then I have grown I

offer life insurance, health insurance, disability, short term insurance, long term care insurance, pretty much anything but home and auto is what I tell most of most of the people I talk with. I do anything but home and auto.

Anthony Codispoti (24:20)

So you do individual policies as well as group? Yes?

Andrew Monk (24:25)

Yes. I and and I don't do a whole lot of group policies. just cause group insurance is is a numbers game. The the more people you have in a group, the the more affordable it is for the company and for the employees. And so I tend to focus a lot on smaller groups, really under 20 employees, trying to help find solutions where the company can still offer something, but not be

breaking the bank, as it were, to try and provide insurance for their employees.

Anthony Codispoti (25:00)

Gotcha. you mentioned that the ACA plans, not everybody loves them. Why is there some controversy?

Andrew Monk (25:08)

So a lot of controversy behind the ACA is due to the affordability of it. And the best way I can explain it is understanding insurance at its base level. It's a risk business. When the Affordable Care Act was written into law, it did two things. It said you have to insure, regardless of risk, and you

are discounting the cost of the plans for mid to low-come, low-income individuals. Well, that's great if you have a major pre-existing condition, say if you have stage four cancer before the Affordable Care Act, you would not be able to get insurance or you would be paying five thousand dollars a month for an insurance policy because no insurer would want to carry that risk.

And then if you're meant to low income, you get the the government subsidies and it it reduces the costs of the insurance plans. What it does on the back end though, a lot of people don't understand, is it increases the amount of risk that the insurance companies are taking on. Because if you tell an insurance company, number one, you have to insure everybody, regardless of how risky their health is.

That's increasing the risk to the insurance company having to pay out more. The other side is you're not able to do medical underwriting anymore. And so what medical underwriting is, is basically they look at your medical history. And if you're a higher risk, you would pay more. They can't do that now. And so insurance companies automatically overnight had to assume that everybody coming into their policies was high risk.

The other side of it is the people paying into the system the the least are actually the highest risk individuals. Low-income individuals are proven to have the highest medical need in the country. And so you have people paying the least amount into the system but having the most claims.

That's increasing the amount of outflow from the insurance companies. And so what we've seen over the last 15 years of the Affordable Care Act is insurance companies have had to raise premiums for those who don't get subsidies. They have had to raise out-of-pocket expenses. So that's your co-pays, your deductibles, your out-of-pocket maximum each year. And you can see that year over year, we've seen a 13 to 15% increase in premiums year over year.

We've seen an increase in deductibles, in copays, in out-of-pocket maximums every single year of the Affordable Care Act. Now that being said.

Anthony Codispoti (28:07)

It seems like the

side effect is that it's actually become less affordable.

Andrew Monk (28:12)

Yeah. Yeah. And it it definitely has. And if you fall outside of the range for those subsidies, it's it's virtually impossible. I have a family of four. We were on the Affordable Care Act up until last year. actually the beginning of this year. The beginning of this year it was gonna cost my family of four twenty six hundred dollars to be on the Affordable Care Act plans. which is not doable.

I don't care how much money you're you're making, you're not gonna spend twenty six hundred dollars a month on health insurance.

Anthony Codispoti (28:48)

So what do you do instead?

Andrew Monk (28:51)

we personally we do what's called a health share program. it's it's a great alternative if you know what you're getting into. I don't recommend it for everybody.

Anthony Codispoti (29:03)

Can you explain what it is, who it works for, and who it's not?

Andrew Monk (29:09)

Yeah, so a health share program essentially is a group of people that get together and help share costs of of medical needs. so you put all the money in a pool and all claims are paid out of that pool. Now there's probably 300 different health share companies out there, and a majority of them rely solely on the membership dues.

The problem with that is if you don't take in enough membership dues throughout the year and you have a high amount of claims that year, there's not enough money to pay claims out of the out of the pool of money. there's only three that I've found that have a good track record of paying high claims. so that's one of the risks when you go with a Health Share program is you're risking your claims not being paid, and then you're having to pay that money.

Now, the three companies that I do stand behind, they have a good track record of paying those high claims. They are open about their financials. You can get a financial report from them just like you can any any major corporation. and they take care of their money well. They reinvest the the membership dues to grow the money. They hold escrow accounts to help pay for claims. If they don't have enough money for that year, they have that escrow account to fall back on.

Anthony Codispoti (30:38)

And so for a health share plan, is it primarily designed for those larger claims or is it also, hey, I got sick and you know, I needed to go in and get some blood work done? Just kinda like more routine stuff as well.

Andrew Monk (30:52)

So

mostly health share is is built for catastrophic needs. it's it most health share programs have a what's called an unshareable amount. So anything on the one we're on, anything under twelve hundred and fifty dollars is our expense. So the day-to-day, the sick visits, the doctor visits, that's our expense. Now if my kid breaks his arm and

has to have surgery on it and it's twenty six thousand dollars, we pay twelve hundred and fifty of it and the health share pays the rest.

Anthony Codispoti (31:25)

No. Okay, so take me back to the early days of starting your own insurance agency. How long did it take? Because I get it was a little slower out of the gate for you, right? You're going to do the networking group instead of the cold calling. That was your approach. It ended up working better in the long term, but short term it was tougher because you don't have as many touch points early on. So give us an idea how long it took to build the business to the point where.

And I don't know what the right threshold here is. Maybe maybe it's enough to pay your bills or you know, you're turning a little bit of a profit.

Andrew Monk (32:03)

it was always enough to pay my bills. I mean it it was it was a livable wage even starting out. because I I

Anthony Codispoti (32:11)

Right out of the gate.

Andrew Monk (32:12)

I didn't just rest on my laurels. yeah, even out of the gate. I mean I was making probably thirty to forty thousand my first couple of years. and I I had very low expenses in the business, a as far as I mean my networking group was I think six hundred dollars a year.

and my website, I mean website fees to maintain the domain and that's about all the expenses I really had starting out. so it it was doable.

Anthony Codispoti (32:49)

When did you first see it start to take

Andrew Monk (32:50)

But the these people that

Anthony Codispoti (32:51)

off?

Andrew Monk (32:53)

it probably about two and a half to three years in, it really took hold where I could where I could breathe a little. cause cause up to that point you're you're almost like, okay, if I if I don't get this, I I may have to tighten my belt a little bit. probably about two and a half, three years into it.

Anthony Codispoti (33:16)

And what happened

at that two and a half to that three year mark? What changed?

Andrew Monk (33:22)

I think just a lot of the work that I had put in those first couple of years really started to take hold. my relationship with my clients, where they would start feeling comfortable referring me to their friends and family. I got a a a large increase from that. so that would that was probably the big biggest change, but really it was just

all the work I've put in for the last two years finally kinda taking hold.

Anthony Codispoti (33:54)

Hmm. I think you've got a saying, friends don't let friends Google health insurance. Why

is

Andrew Monk (34:02)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (34:02)

that? What what happens when people do that?

Andrew Monk (34:06)

So so this is a little insider bit to the insurance agents the insurance industry that a lot of people don't know. So when you go on to Google and say you're searching for a roofing company, you type in Roofers in Amarillo, Texas, and it pulls up 50 different websites, most of them are sponsored as

Most people skip past those and click on the first one that says like Amarillo Roofers or something like that. Most likely what you're going to click on is going to be a data broker. Essentially, it's a lead vendor. What it is is you click on that link and you put in your information, and that company that collects that information then sells that information to roofing companies. Same thing happens with insurance.

Now, in the insurance industry, you have two different types of leads that that as an agent I could buy. And one is called an exclusive lead. And what that means is the company selling that information is only selling it to you. Now, if you think about that, exclusive leads, most leads are sold to insurance agencies. And the average insurance agency probably has about 50 insurance agents.

And so best case scenario, you fell out of form online to get quotes for insurance, you are going to get called fifty times.

Anthony Codispoti (35:41)

W one agency buys that lead and they're gonna have every single agent call them. That's

Andrew Monk (35:47)

Yep,

they disseminate that and and that was basically the lead lists that that I was handed when I first started off. That's all it was. They would buy a a

Anthony Codispoti (35:55)

So you were competing with all

the other agents inside the same brokerage.

Andrew Monk (35:58)

Exactly. And so you can see why I really didn't want to go that route, partly because I didn't want to have to fight that hard against all the other agents. but the other side of it is I knew that these people would be getting at least 50 phone calls about health insurance. And after five or six

Anthony Codispoti (36:17)

And when somebody buys

Andrew Monk (36:19)

of them, you're

Anthony Codispoti (36:21)

When somebody buys an an exclusive lead, how how much are they paying?

Andrew Monk (36:27)

exclusive leads range in the twenty dollar per lead, depending on

Anthony Codispoti (36:32)

Okay.

Andrew Monk (36:33)

bulk and everything.

Anthony Codispoti (36:35)

Okay. and so where do most of your clients come from today? Is it still referrals? Is it still the B and I network?

Andrew Monk (36:42)

Straight straight referrals.

I do not I have not purchased a lead since my first six months in the industry.

It's it is all

Anthony Codispoti (36:52)

And

Andrew Monk (36:52)

referrals. It is my clients telling me that. Well, I I say it's probably ninety-five percent referrals. One of the other things that I I did early on was I learned SEO and and I've I've been in website development since I was in high school. so building a website was no problem, but I I learned SEO and in Amarillo, if you search for health insurance in Amarillo, I'm not ranked

first page necessarily, but I am the first actual local person. And I actually have two websites in Amarillo that catch and they're they're local resources. So basically scroll down past all the sponsored stuff and all the paid advertising and you'll get to me. And so I have two

Anthony Codispoti (37:45)

Do you show up in the maps?

Andrew Monk (37:46)

separate yes.

In fact I'm I'm within the top three on the maps.

Anthony Codispoti (37:53)

Okay. So you get a small percentage of your business from people who do exactly what you tell them not to do and and

they Google health insurance. Yep. Yeah.

Andrew Monk (37:59)

Yeah, they Google but they Google and find me. And that's that's

the other side is I've made sure that when people Google they're gonna try at least most of the time they'll find me.

Anthony Codispoti (38:11)

So you've also built a specialty in working with full-time RVers. How did you end up servicing this niche? And I'm curious how it it's different from ensuring an R V versus a car or a

Andrew Monk (38:29)

So actually it came from my time with Haverty's. back when I was traveling so much as the delivery manager with Havertes, my family was actually really looking into becoming full time RVers, where we basically just live in an RV and we travel the country and go from from this store to that store as I'm working as as a delivery manager.

so we really got into it. So I got involved with a lot of the Facebook groups that full-time RBers are on. And one of the biggest questions that always came up is what do you do for health insurance? What do you do for health insurance? So when I got into health insurance, I'm like, I'm already connected with this group. This is a need in this group. And so I just started marketing to them.

Anthony Codispoti (39:23)

And so, in terms of what the actual policy is like, is it very similar to insuring a car?

Andrew Monk (39:32)

so a lot of what full-time RVing has to deal with is where is your what we call a domicile? So basically, where are you based out of? where's your home address? Because you still have to have a home address for things like a driver's license, a voter registration, and all of that. So that's where we look at first. Where is where is your domicile? From there, we can look at options.

Some clients I have on the Affordable Care Act. Even though they're HMOs, they travel back to their home state enough that the that the HMO works for them. and it and they can come home for yearly checkups and they use telehealth for sick visits while they're on the road. And then in if an emergency comes up, of course, that's covered under under the Affordable Care Act, anyways.

Anthony Codispoti (40:30)

But in terms of what the actual policy of a of an R V agreement looks like versus a car, are there any special considerations there because people actually be sleeping in it?

Andrew Monk (40:42)

So I don't know about like the R V insurance itself. I just deal with the the health insurance side of things.

Anthony Codispoti (40:48)

so you're not actually writing the

the insurance for the R V B. Okay. You're writing

the health insurance. That's where my misunderstanding was. Okay. Got it.

Andrew Monk (40:54)

No, I'm I'm helping them find health because the reality is they're they're traveling across

the country. And so nine times out of ten, the HMOs won't work for them. Cause if you're in California and you need a sick visit, you need a PPO. And so that's where my connection with US Health Group comes in because they are a PPO plan.

Anthony Codispoti (41:16)

Got it. Okay. That that helps clear that up. you know,

Andrew Monk (41:19)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (41:20)

and I think i another thing that you've done is you run a video series on YouTube called Health Insurance 101. Tell me about why you started that.

Andrew Monk (41:28)

Yep. And I just recently came

out with Medicare one one as well. So

Anthony Codispoti (41:33)

Okay. Tell tell us about why you started this, what people can find in this content, what can they hope to learn from?

Andrew Monk (41:42)

So really the health insurance 101 started out just helping people understand what what health insurance is and how it works. I deal with issues like what I talked about with the risk and why the Affordable Care Act is is so expensive. talking about the basics of insurance and how insurance works. And once you understand that, you can really understand a lot. I talk about things like deductibles.

out of pocket maximum, copies, what do all these words mean? Because I found that a lot of a lot of my clients coming into me have never really done insurance, don't understand the terminology. And so it was really as a resource to my clients and and to people who just really don't know what health insurance is and how it works.

Anthony Codispoti (42:37)

Hmm. You know, we mentioned in the intro, and you you touched on this, that you've kept a one hundred percent recommendation rate across your client reviews. What does that mean? Does that mean a hundred percent of the people who have reviewed you would recommend you, or a hundred percent of the people who've worked with you have actually sent you a referral?

Andrew Monk (43:00)

a hundred and fifty percent of people who have reviewed you me would recommend me. it is basically what that means. A vast majority of my clients don't review me, just because people don't don't write reviews very often.

Anthony Codispoti (43:12)

Time consuming, yeah.

Andrew Monk (43:14)

well and and people are more prone to write reviews when something doesn't go well. so I I I feel a a sense of pride in that because

Evidently something hasn't gone so bad that they needed to write a negative review. but I I'm so hands-on with my clients. I would say a vast majority of my clients have sent a referral to me though. At least one.

Anthony Codispoti (43:43)

Mm. How how do you think your background

in religion and ministry shows up in the way that you advise your clients?

Andrew Monk (43:52)

Well, I I said it earlier, but I I view this as a ministry in and of itself. not not only am I helping people navigate something that is very difficult and becoming increasingly more difficult, with the situation of healthcare in the US, I help I can help be a guide in that. And so I view that as a ministry in and of itself.

But I also have the opportunity. I have people in my office every day that are going through health issues or just struggling with, hey, my my kid is going to college, how do I get insurance? And I have the opportunity to pray with them and to counsel them through that process. And I've had that opportunity for the last seven years and had have had some really great experiences with clients and have lifetime friends.

out of some of my clients, because I have that relationship with them.

Anthony Codispoti (44:53)

Does it ever do you ever get pushback on that approach? Like are there some folks that maybe don't share your faith? Or has this always been a point of connection rather than dissension? Probably not the right word, but you know what I mean.

Andrew Monk (45:09)

so it's it's a simple thing, but something that that I I try to do just when it whenever the Lord nudges me that way, I say, can I pray with you? and I think over my seven years I've been rejected once. of no, I don't want you to pray with me. That's not in your face. and a vast majority of people.

Really appreciate that. And even if they're not a Christian, you're like, yeah, absolutely. Why not? I mean, what's it gonna hurt?

Anthony Codispoti (45:50)

Right. There you're not asking to spit on them. You're asking to do a nice thing with them. Yeah.

Andrew Monk (45:54)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (45:56)

okay, let's shift gears. are you using AI in your work at all, Andrew? And if so, how

Andrew Monk (46:02)

very minimally. I will use it at times when I don't have the time to build out a like a Facebook post on Canva. I really enjoy using Canva because just my background in in website design and graphic design and whatnot, I I enjoy Canva. It's a great tool to have. But if I don't have the time to

create something on Canva, I'll use AI to to build something out real quick. if I'm needing to make a quick post or something. Mostly what I use AI for is is proofreading. I will put in like if I'm I'm posting a new article or something, I need somebody to look at it and AI can look at it in two seconds and tell me, hey, you misspelled this word, check this grammar, that sort of stuff.

I'm

not a huge fan of of going all in on AI. I th I think it breaks the stream of creativity that that we as as people have. I think I like to create. So

Anthony Codispoti (47:13)

Do you have any concerns that down the road AI could start to replace insurance agents in the work that they do?

Andrew Monk (47:20)

Not at all. my connection with my clients is is what makes my business. and that's not gonna change. People crave connection. there will always be some people that prefer to go online and type in something and get a quote and get a policy. but that's that's the rarity. People usually want somebody who can help them understand and they want that face to face.

connection with people. And I I don't

Anthony Codispoti (47:50)

Yeah.

Andrew Monk (47:50)

think AI can ever really replace that.

Anthony Codispoti (47:54)

Yeah, you make an interesting point because as you said, health insurance is complex and it's not getting less complex, it's getting more complex. And being able to talk to a human being and bounce these questions off and, you know, get some level of comfort, that's a lot different from even a really smart AI chatbot, right?

Andrew Monk (48:17)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (48:20)

That's kind of what you're banking on, right? That's why you're not all in on AI. You know, you you think it's it's the the relationship, it's the connection, it's the can I sit and pray with you? You're not gonna get that from an an AI chatbot, right?

Andrew Monk (48:35)

Exactly, exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (48:37)

So let's go a little bit of a different direction here. Andrew, what's the hardest thing you've had to overcome and what did going through that teach you?

Andrew Monk (48:51)

I I'm gonna I'm gonna kinda kinda go back the the same direction we've been talking, actually, as a result of that question. really the hardest thing I've been through is coming to the understanding that I am not the provider of my family. one of the biggest struggles I I think really one of the biggest problems in the insurance industry is the

Urge to I've gotta make the sale or I'm not gonna eat. and I really had to come to terms with the fact that I am not in control of providing for my family, I just have to be obedient to God and trust that He's the provider of my family, and it's it's gonna come. and that once I came to that point,

That's really when my business changed because I was no longer stressed about, well, what if I don't make this sell? What if I what if I don't sell X number of policies this month? And it it became more about the people then. It became more about the client and more about the relationship with the client then.

Anthony Codispoti (50:12)

So as you were working through this, what helps you kind of come to this new realization?

mentors, other people who had been through it,

books you were reading, podcasts, or was just just your own spiritual, mental process and path that you had to walk through before you came out on the other side with the realization.

Andrew Monk (50:32)

It was

it was partly my own spiritual path and and and whatnot. at the time I I had gotten with a group of Christian entrepreneurs that really were focused on how do I walk alongside God in my business. and that really helped me change my perspective that it's not about making money.

that it's not about providing for my family, that it's more about a partnership with God. How do I serve people? How do I help people? And that that really was where it hit home for me.

Anthony Codispoti (51:18)

Hmm. As you think about the work that you're doing now, Andrew, what is it that you most want to be remembered for?

Andrew Monk (51:30)

Honestly, I don't care if I'm remembered.

be beyond this life, I I I'm gonna be with my father in heaven. And if I'm remembered or not, it I don't care. what I want people to remember is is that there was somebody that cared enough, whether they remember my name or not, that there was somebody that cared enough to to pray with them or to walk them through a difficult moment in their life.

Anthony Codispoti (52:05)

I like that. Just one more question for you, Andrew. But before I ask it, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, if you want to get in touch with Andrew Monk, go to his website. Very easy to remember, monkadvising.net. Monkadvising.net. Once you get to the website, you'll see a button there where you can click to schedule a free consultation with him. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you're listening.

See, it also sends a signal that helps others discover our podcast. So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now. And as a reminder to all business advisors out there, your clients are bleeding money on health insurance. Do them a favor so big they'll tell their friends about it. Show them how to give their employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription medications that counterintuitively increase the company's net profits, real gains that can change.

How a business is valued. Show them this product from Bain Capital Insurance today, adbackbenefits.com. So, last question for you, Andrew. A year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?

Andrew Monk (53:22)

I would love to have a bilingual agent on staff. there there is such a need and I c I know Spanish a a little bit. Of course, being a youth minister in El Paso, for the time I was there, I was a lot more fluent then than I am now. But I've never been able to communicate insurance with

in Spanish. And so I really hope to be celebrating a successful agent added to added to my business that can help communicate and help reach those that speak Spanish.

Anthony Codispoti (54:02)

That's a good one. I like that. I'll have to check back in with you in the year to see how that's coming along. But Andrew Monk from Monk Life and Health Insurance Advising, I wanna be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. Thanks for being here.

Andrew Monk (54:16)

Yes, thank you for having me on and thank you for letting me share.

Anthony Codispoti (54:20)

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 Andrew Monk:

Website: monkadvising.net