Speaker 1: 0:01

What does it take for a family business to thrive for 75 years and still be one of the most innovative players in insurance today? We'll find out in this episode of Shift Shapers.

Speaker 2: 0:13

This is the Shift Shapers podcast, Connecting benefits advisors with thought leaders and entrepreneurs who are shaping the shifts in the industry. And now here's your host, David Saltzman.

Speaker 1: 0:27

And to help us answer that question we have Ben Conner, who is CEO of Conner Insurance and one of those really rare unicorn-type agencies that has been around for a long, long time, and we're going to investigate some of the reasons why and the philosophy behind it. Hey Ben, how are you doing? I'm doing well, how are you? Thanks for having me. Oh, it's our pleasure. We're glad you were able to make some time for us. So let's kind of right get into it. If you kind of reflect back on the 75-year legacy that began with your grandfather, henry Clay Connor Jr, what are the core values from those early days back in 1949 that still guide the practice today?

Speaker 3: 1:06

That's a fascinating question because my grandfather has a very unique story. He was in World War II and he was actually missing in action in World War II for over 30 months and for those 30 months he was surviving in the jungles of the Philippines, and you can imagine an experience like that changes your life forever and it certainly did for him. So really, when I think about our business but I think about our family in general it's really shaped by what that made him as a person and it allowed him—he was a person that was extremely serious. Everything was life and death and in that experience he lived in a life and death scenario every day for three years basically. So that's one. Also, he's a very relational person.

Speaker 3: 1:57

The reason why he was able to survive well, number one is God's providence, certainly to protect someone in that kind of a setting. But two is he had a lot of relationships, not only with a couple American soldiers, one specific confidant named Frank Gauvet. He built relationships with local tribes that helped him survive as well, and so he understood the idea of partnership and relationship. So, and I think, ultimately, when you're in a survival adventure setting like that, it creates in you an entrepreneurial spirit that lives for adventure. So a really long-winded answer to a simple question. But those core traits are really the connective tissue in our DNA as a family, but also as a company, of how we operate, and then you attach that to our core values from a position of faith as owners and leaders from our family. That's really exactly who we are in business as well as personally.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Well, it's interesting because we were talking, before we started recording, a little bit about how wacky this business is and how much change there always is. But those values are timeless and I think that's probably why they've been able to keep guiding you guys for all this time, because some things don't change amidst all the sea of crazy that we deal with on a day-to-day basis. So let's move on a little bit in time frame. How did the second generation, the four Conner brothers, shape the company's growth, and what can you tell us about the decision that they made to refocus operations in Indianapolis?

Speaker 3: 3:29

Yeah. So they bought the business in the 70s and my older uncles were in the—there were four boys, so my dad and his three brothers the older individuals were in the work world. Only one of the brothers was in the business at the time. My dad was still in college and my youngest uncle was still in high school when he sold the business. And my grandfather had this idea of I'm going to shepherd you in learning to run and lead this business, which was maybe a little. I mean again, he was a very life and death type person really committed to. This is like strong beliefs and his belief was I'm going to shepherd you into business and he had a vision for them doing things together. In fact, he always had a vision for them doing things together because he wanted those boys to stay close when it came to the third generation. That's what our family knew.

Speaker 3: 4:25

So when I came in in 2006, I had a couple family members come in before me, a couple after, but they really tasked us with opportunity and leadership early to see if we had the chops and just like any most young people, we didn't at first, but we learned and we made mistakes and they helped correct us of why are you doing things that way?

Speaker 3: 4:49

Or you know, just just some of those things around doing life with people and in business. And to the point where we bought the business in 2015,. Again, we were super young. You know 2015, I was, you know, basically just turned 30 years old and you know my my other family members were in that sphere of age. So it was this idea of we were going to walk alongside you in this journey, and now, now several of my uncles are retired my dad doesn't work very much, but it's, it was a a coaching aspect of how do you do this thing right and how do you continue the legacy of caring for people well, and those main things that were important to my grandfather at the time that he did this, which was this is a serious business and we need to do it well. We need to build relationships and care for people, and then we need to approach it from a value standpoint.

Speaker 1: 5:43

It's interesting. Your Uncle Clay said something that I thought was really, really remarkable and probably captures a lot of the essence of what you guys do. He said the business was part of it, but it wasn't the heart of it. What did he mean when he was talking about that?

Speaker 3: 5:56

Well, the heart's people. And it's about shepherding an experience of we're not selling policies. I mean, we are, I guess, but that's not the mission of it. That is the delivery mechanism for doing relationship with people. So when we think about, like, our mission at Connor is to provide sound counsel and care during life's most significant moments, and what really occurred to me, it was actually it was in church several years ago and I've always been thinking like, hey, we make money by selling insurance policies because we do personal insurance, commercial insurance and employee benefits. So we sell policies, we consult employers on benefit plans. That's how we make money. But what's our impact? And it was a moment in church I'll never forget because I was always wrestling with that. It's like man, everyone else, they make a widget and that widget empowers something. Or they're a nurse and they care for people. That's easy mission connection. But insurance, what is it?

Speaker 3: 6:58

But when I was in church, there was an opportunity for people to go up and talk about how God showed up in their life. There was an opportunity for people to go up and talk about how God showed up in their life and I don't think we've even had service like that before or since. So people went up and talked about their testimony of God's goodness. Five people went up and what I heard was I had this medical condition and this is how God supported and provided for me, through people or directly. I was in a car wreck and it changed my life forever, because I was injured and these kind of things. Or I was diagnosed with this condition, or we had a house fire. That was one, and it changed our life forever. We lost everything and I sat back there and I was blown away with the idea of, oh my goodness, in our field we actually have the honor and opportunity to walk alongside those very individuals at that very moment. And what an incredible mission to be connected to that.

Speaker 3: 8:07

We get to show up when someone's life has totally changed and it can be positive too, like people having babies or people getting married, and you know there's positive sides to it too. But we have the ability to walk alongside people and provide that counsel. We can show them that we did the appropriate pre-work, that there's a policy that we'll respond at this time, and then we get to go to the next level of how can we care for this person at this point in time? Do we door dash some food to them. What do we do to help them? What is that next level opportunity that we can care for this individual? That just shows them that they matter and that we really do care about them?

Speaker 1: 8:50

Well, but it goes beyond caring for your clients.

Speaker 3: 8:52

You also care for people who were clients and maybe aren't clients at the moment, and I remember you told me a really interesting story. Would you share that with us? They were growing business, our global business, and they're like maybe Conor Insurance is too small. They since have come back and said, actually no, you guys actually provided the best counsel, we had the best results with you guys and you cared for us well, and that caring for us well is even when they weren't clients.

Speaker 3: 9:26

One of the individuals is diagnosed with cancer and she called us and said I've been diagnosed with cancer, I don't know what to do. Can you help me? And really what she was asking for is what do I do next? Or how do I know I'm getting the best treatment? And we have a lot of really wonderful partners it's not just our team but the business partners that we have that we do business with reached out to one of those individuals and quickly helped that individual get on the right track and, you know, make sure they're seeing a quality oncologist and that sort of thing and just help navigate that situation.

Speaker 3: 10:02

And that was a really special moment. It was special that she was willing to share that. Obviously, that wasn't my story to share, that was hers and she was willing to do that, but that she would trust us to. You know, cause that's what you know. It's one thing it's fun when people hey, I want to come in the office and joke with you and that kind of thing, and I like to have fun. But what I care about more is that someone would trust us enough, or trust me enough, or whoever, that they would want to come to us when life is hard and get you know. That's if we can help people in those moments. Those are, those are the moments that matter.

Speaker 1: 10:38

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Speaker 3: 12:12

What are some of the innovations or tactics that you guys employ that drives those kinds of results? You know it really depends on the client circumstance, which is probably one of the key indicators. As we look, we go to problems. We don't go to like theoretically here's what we should be doing. It's like no, like let's solve like actual, realistic problems, but ultimately it's we pull apart and manage the supply chain of healthcare and we've been talking about that for now seven to eight years. It's a legit thing. It produces legit results.

Speaker 3: 12:38

I think the most, the best opportunity that exists in the supply chain of healthcare is in the pharmacy realm.

Speaker 3: 12:45

We are experts at that and it's really amazing.

Speaker 3: 12:48

As we've grown our team, we'll go through you know our quarterly reports of our entire book of business and you know our quarterly reports of our entire book of business. And no, even when and this was this blew me away we're going through like the top 25 drugs spent for the quarter and our team knew every individual that was accessing that medication. They knew their family information, they knew their personal information. They knew, if we were able to, why we wouldn't have been able to source that differently or why you know what our plan was for that member and again, because if we help this member source this medication in a supply chain way, the member gets the medication for free. So it's important for everyone that's involved the employer and the member. And our team knew every person on that list and I was just blown away. I was like we are doing something really special here when we know names of people that are going through significant health moments and us trying to impact them positively, like let's go, like that's, there's nothing more important that we can be doing.

Speaker 1: 14:05

And that leads into my next question. Beautifully, in 2024, your agency earned a suite of awards, from Best Places to Work in Insurance to Agency of the Year. How has building a strong internal culture contributed to those accolades?

Speaker 3: 14:19

You know, I think, um, we are looking for folks that are, as Pat Lencioni talked about, the ideal team player, that are humble, hungry and smart, and we have attracted those folks to our organization. And when people work like that in this field, the natural byproduct is they deeply care about members of our employer groups. They deeply care about results for the employers, not because we're trying to air quotes, save money. What we really know is the economics of the engine drive what employees are spending out of their paycheck. It drives the deductibles that they're spending at the point of care or co-pays or whatever it may be. That's all a byproduct of the economics of healthcare, which is ultimately driven through the health insurance delivery mechanism, and if it's not managed well, then everyone loses and there's just a focus to everything else besides. That is total and utter nonsense. We focus on the thing and we solve the problems within the thing and therefore we can deliver better results than we could have otherwise.

Speaker 3: 15:38

I think we started in general with pharmacy and there's a lot of things that have changed over the course of time and we just need to adapt, just like my grandfather's story. He had to adapt. Every day he was in the jungles, surviving every day, and every day was different. It produced a different opportunity and a different challenge. Actually, the same applies with healthcare. Right now, every employer is dealing with a GLP-1 and the rising cost of diabetes medications, which are super important and people need. But there is a way where we can create a program that is world-class, that is better than what anyone is doing, because we're thinking about and solving the problem differently.

Speaker 1: 16:14

Speaking of change and new things, you co-produced a documentary called it's Not Personal, it's Just Healthcare, and it spotlights a whole bunch of system-wide challenges. What motivated you to step into filmmaking and what impact were you looking to achieve?

Speaker 3: 16:28

I think this problem that we're trying to solve is confusing for a lot of people and it's complicated, and what I saw in this documentary that was important for us. You know, in a sense it was done so well that it followed our brand promise of excellence. I mean it's an excellent documentary. I mean it also tells a complicated story in a simple way that's understandable for anyone. It's intended for CEOs and CFOs and HR as they really wrap their mind around the strategy of a deliverable for their workforce. But any American can watch this documentary and start to understand the systemic problems that exist within the system and how. You know and our friend David Contorno says it so well that it's not broken. It's actually built exactly how it's intended and that's for the benefit of those that created it. So how do we unwind that or how do we understand the problem? This documentary does a great job of simply and in an entertaining way it tells the story.

Speaker 1: 17:34

How can people find that documentary Ben?

Speaker 3: 17:37

So they actually can find it on our website, wwwconnerinscom, and they can watch the full length film there. And I would encourage everyone to do it, regardless of the position you are within a company or if you're even in buying decisions for employer health care.

Speaker 1: 17:56

And we'll make sure to put a link in the show notes on the Shift Shapers website as well, so people can access it there as well. Now, one of the things that I know is, besides your grandfather's philosophy and what he learned in his lessons and all the empathy that you guys pump out, one of the things that you guys live by is turning traditional strategies upside down. Can you expand on that philosophy a little bit?

Speaker 3: 18:19

Yeah, I think a real easy one for me to harp on. That comes to mind is the dogma of high deductible health plans and how that was going to create consumerism and bend the cost curve and that sort of thing, which is a total lie. To be a consumer for something, you have to know the price. It's not that you're responsible to pay, right, so it doesn't create a consumer. If someone mows my grass and then I get a $10,000 bill and I have the responsibility to pay for that, that's not consumerism, that's not consumer practices, that's nonsense. It's just passing an unaffordable bill to a victim, if you will. So that's a traditional strategy that's actually still perpetuated. And don't get me wrong, high net worth individuals can find benefit in a high deductible health plan. Yeah, yeah, triple tax benefit, this, that and the other, sure, but for the average American it's disastrous.

Speaker 3: 19:25

We actually have a rule of thumb. If you have a health plan where folks can't fill a medication or they can't take their sick child to work or take their sick child to the doctor, you have a problem. You have a fundamental problem of a benefit that you're likely paying millions for. That's a total waste of money that no one is really getting a benefit from. So that's one of those of like, let's flip it on its head.

Speaker 3: 19:49

There's a lot of different ways in which we flip things on their head. When it comes to. You know, how do we evaluate stop loss for a and this is getting super nerdy, clearly but how do you evaluate stop loss differently for folks that have a more consistent workforce versus a workforce with high turnover? You actually should look at that differently. A high turnover environment is so different than maybe, an environment that has tenure like a university or something like that. So you need to adapt your strategy and most people don't. And what's interesting is, when we come and talk about some of these things, it's like you are telling me things that seem very different and it just takes some time to get used to the idea of the can thing for everyone isn't necessarily the right thing for you, and let's have a conversation and let's really try to solve some business problems. That ultimately, the goal of those business problems, the reason it is a business problem is you're trying to care for your workforce and it's not going as intended.

Speaker 1: 20:50

And so let's just solve that problem. So we've got a couple of minutes left and I'm interested to hear what you think the biggest opportunities and the biggest challenges ahead are for your agency and also for the business which we've talked a little bit about, both in terms of client service and internal culture.

Speaker 3: 21:01

Yeah, I think, from a challenge and opportunity. It's the same, and there's a lot of PE money in the insurance agency space. A decade ago, I would tell you, in Indianapolis there was a lot of really strong independent insurance agencies that have now all been bought PE or money making machines. We're not playing that game. So we're going to pick up a lot of talent along the way and we're going to be able to make really impactful growth for our clients. I mean, I think you know, obviously we grow as a business and that's great, but we get to impact another business in a positive way and rebuild a healthcare delivery model through an insurance program, right. So there's a lot of opportunity there.

Speaker 3: 21:43

The challenge is there's tons of money in the market, right. So you know if people are throwing a bunch of money around, that can be a I call it a distraction. You know you can throw money around towards the wrong things and in the long term it proves to not work. In the short term it's a distraction. So that's ultimately what it is. From a business perspective, that's a challenge, but that's something that is visible for sure. Also, government health care that's a thing.

Speaker 3: 22:14

I think. Just the continuation of the status quo is a challenge, but all those things are also opportunities that we're really excited about. Another opportunity that we're leaning into is just advanced technology and the 2.0 of what AI is. You know, the internet changed things dramatically, then the smartphone changes things dramatically. I think AI is going to be something that is more, more, creates more change than anything else, and we're excited for it. We're going to embrace it. We think it can do a lot of good, and then we're going to try to kind of stifle out the things that are bad, you know, and just move along and adapt in that way.

Speaker 1: 22:55

And that's a great place to end our chat for today. Ben Conner, CEO of Conner Insurance. Ben, thanks so much for sharing your story with us. Yeah, thanks for having me, David.

Speaker 2: 23:04

The Shift Shapers podcast is a production. Yeah, thanks for having me, David.