Aligned for Impact with Matthew Naylor

Matthew Naylor: Welcome to Align for Impact. I’m your host, Matthew Naylor. I started this podcast because healthcare and leadership both come down to the same thing. Alignment. When people, purpose and performance connect, real impact happens. On this show, we’ll talk with entrepreneurs, brokers and change makers who are challenging what is broken in healthcare and in business and find new ways to make a difference for companies, communities and the people they serve. I’m the host of the Matt Naylor podcast. We’re interviewing today one of my many great guests that’s filled with passion, purpose, happiness and joy and living a life of impact both personally and professionally. Today I’m really excited. Eric has been someone that has really, really been shaking up the employee benefits, health insurance space for a very long time. Eric O’Brien, you’re the founder of Mosaic. You started it, I think, back in 2010. I love icebreakers, Eric. It’s a great way to start a conversation. But before I even ask you about how you started your business, how did you get into employee benefits?

Eric O’Brien: It’s a good question. My family has a financial planning background and I was playing college across at Ohio State at the time. I took the lacrosse route versus the school route. I had a human ecology degree and I always wanted to be a professional lacrosse player and I had that opportunity right out of college and then was quickly woken up, you know, cut after a week from the San Francisco Dragons and I realized that lacrosse isn’t going to be sustainable and that I needed to build a business for my family and something that is long term. And so that began with my career. I did a professional development rotation at Huntington bank and I started off as a CRM a Boca and then I did their investment piece and studied the investment side. The annuities just wasn’t for me that that corporate structure and this all had the ultimate goal of me joining my dad and Bec a financial planner within my father’s firm from Huntington. It took a year at New York Life. I had to learn the life insurance piece. You know, my dad wanted me to kind of be out there on my own before I joined his his firm and you know, we did a year at New York Life. Then I was at Lincoln Financial with my father for a couple years and luckily I didn’t get along with his business partner very well and it was just time for me to go after two years with my father’s firm and my brother in law is a very successful person, sold his company 3x reinveste and I’ve always looked up to him as a mentor. He’s about 10 years older than me. His name’s Andrew Graff. And we sat down for lunch at, I remember the place, Aladdin’s, because I’m not an Indian. Indian food eater. And he told me, he’s like, you’re trying to do a little bit of pnc. You’re trying to do some financial planning on your own. Everything’s on your own. And you’re dabbling with employee benefits. What has the most disruption coming into the industry in the, in the near future? And that made me think, and I was like, well, that’s 2010. The ACA is coming, the Affordable Care Act. People are going to need education. As a former athlete and coach, very passionate about teaching people and educating people and, you know, so that’s when I chose to start Mosaic Employee benefits. It just seemed very easy for me.

Matthew Naylor: So you just decided one day you’re going to get up and be an entrepreneur and start your own company?

Eric O’Brien: Yeah, from day one. And so luckily I got back into the lacrosse gig and it allowed me to organically grow this company. I owned 100 of Mosaic. We built a team. But because I had a lacrosse income at the time, I played professional lacrosse for nine years in Atlanta, Columbus, Ohio and Annapolis, which was my favorite place to play.

Matthew Naylor: But, you know, your story’s so awesome. I, I love interviewing entrepreneurs, you know, because when I talk about passion, purpose, happiness, joy, impact, you know, I’m sure there were things for you, Eric, that you learned as an athlete on the lacrosse field at college or professionally, that when you decided to become an entrepreneur, you’ve had to use those skills to help inform how you think about growing and running a business. Can you just share with us a little bit about your experience and your journey as an athlete and how that’s translated into your business and success there?

Eric O’Brien: Certainly, I mean, there’s a lot of resiliency and waking up and knowing that you might not be the guy someday, but you need to change that, you know? You know, there’s a lot of drive in me. Again, passion too. Immediately cut after being drafted was, you know, a downer for me. And I learned how to get back up and get back and, and turn it into a successful nine year career. And that’s kind of translates into benefits. We, we serve roughly 300 companies across the nation right now. And some of them are easy and some of them are hard. And, you know, when you have that client facing a 42% renewal, you know that you’re not going to be your favorite, their favorite person in the world. And you just have to get over those humps and keep pushing and educating and helping them understand, you know, why you’re the guy. And that’s what I had to do with my teams. I was a face off guy when I played professional lacrosse, so I didn’t have my two midfield teammates to pass to and bail me out. I was on an island every time I stepped on that field and sometimes I knew that the coach was trying to replace me at the time. So if I lose this face off, this could be the end of my career. And I was truly on an island. And, you know, that’s why I kind of believe I like this, owning a business, being an entrepreneur, because I’m on an island. You know, it’s up to me and I get to control what I do. And I go out there and I wake up and I’m positive and confident in myself and I push every day and I bring that into the office and, and try to pass that on to my employees and make sure that, you know, that’s what our clients feel too.

Matthew Naylor: You know, healthcare is a really, really complicated thing. What, what you do as a retail consultant broker in a, in an environment that’s constantly changing and iterating and evolving with lots of innovation and consolidation. You know, this healthcare inflation is a, is a real thing for your, your, your customers. It’s really causing real problems. What are some of the things that you and your firm are doing to drive cost down and create a better outcome with a better experience for your customers, but also their members, their employees certainly.

Eric O’Brien: Yeah, that’s a great question. And that’s one of the hardest parts about being an employee benefits agency is segregating yourself from the competition. And when I was playing on various teams, we, you know, it was a locker room. We felt like a family. And so I try to make my clients, each individual client who has a unique process, feel like a family also. So we’re not just employer facing, we’re employee facing also. We have various clients, you know, average age demographic, mostly male, 50 plus or we have the 26 year olds coming off their parents plan and getting into the insurance world for the first time ever. And it doesn’t matter if you’re 26 or 50, there’s still a lot of education wrapped around health insurance. Because in America right now we’re so used on presenting our card and just having it work and we have that network and there’s no cost transparency and we pay our bill. And so education is a huge factor in what we do with our Clients and educating the employees. You know, hey, you show up, your card doesn’t work, don’t freak out, you call us, come to us for answers. But educating on utilization and going out and actually saying, okay, hey, you were playing soccer, you tore your ACL, you know, it could be $5,000 at Ohio State, it could be $10,000 at Riverside. Let’s be cautious, conscious about that and you know, help reduce their claims. So we’re working with the employees just being comfortable on utilization, being using their health insurance and wanting to go out there and use it. Whereas I saw a stat I think it was employee benefit news recently hit the email last week. Nine out of 10 people are avoiding just their basic, well, well, checkup. That shouldn’t be the case. You know, we have all just specifically within Crumdale. You have the Recuro Health, the, the virtual app there. And that’s something that has been even a gap in my life too. My wife hounded me to go get my blood, my annual blood checkup. You know, I used to walk into the locker room for spring training camp. Doctors hit me up real quick, everything’s good. Blood test results immediate and you know, no bills, no insurance or anything. And that has been a foreign world just to me, even as far as utilization. And I went and called my primary care virtual physician. I go to Quest diagnostics and everything. I think we were all in. 23 bucks for lab work and a wellness visit. And a lot of that’s just education, you know, like you don’t, you’re not going to get a high bill just because you go to doctor. You just need to understand how to use it. And if you come talk to the consultants at Mosaic or our service staff, we’ll help you understand the cost before you go to an appointment. And I think that’s really helped a lot of our clients grow and become comfortable with what we do.

Matthew Naylor: That’s great. You know, being the owner, being the founder of a retail employee benefits consulting business, it’s not for the faint of heart. You know, you, you have to recruit and retain team members. You have to think about your, your customers, your clients, you know, protecting your business, preserving your business. And obviously as an owner, you want to grow your business. You know, we, we see in and around the employee benefits self insured supply chain, there’s a massive amount of point solutions. There’s a, just a ton of things taking place around innovation, data analytics, artificial intelligence, all these wonderful new things that are trying to lower cost, produce a better outcome, maybe even create a better experience. How are you, as the founder of the FIR firm, managing that and leading that part of the process for you and for your organization, for your clients?

Eric O’Brien: That’s a great question. There’s a lot of research and development and a lot of the product that we’re getting pitched, I would say is absolute fluff too. You got to find the right people. You got to find your family. You got to find the people who care and who are in it for the right reasons. Big reason. Just a couple years ago, before I met some friends at Crumbdale, I was thinking about getting out of the business, you know, maybe selling or maybe going to something more innovative. And what I knew what was innovative and just disruptor out there at the time was were some friends at Sauna Benefits down in Austin, Texas. And you know, then I learned about reference based pricing and that it’s not my favorite model. And you know, the, the Kromdel family has kept me in this business and we’re doing it for the right reasons and it has made me feel like I can make a more impact on my community or around the country even and really provide a product and a service that is aligned with the right reasons.

Matthew Naylor: You know, in closing, I think being a leader and building a culture is a really difficult thing to do. What do you think makes Mosaic truly unique?

Eric O’Brien: Good question. And that’s something that I’ve rebranded in my brain over and over and over for the, you know, the past couple years now that I have staff. You know, when I started this company in 2010, I was a sole proprietor doing this on my own. I was doing the. Pushing the paperwork, you know, doing the quotes, vetting the, the companies. Yeah, everything. Yeah, I know all ends of the business. And really what it comes down to is, is caring about those people. It’s your. It’s your second line, your biggest second line. P and L cost your. Your health insurance. People need help that people freak out when they see these big renewals and budgets are being affected relative within these companies because of poorly managed health insurance and employee benefit programs. And I have a passion to fix that. And I know that with what I’ve done in the past, just with lacrosse, that I can do this in the benefits industry and be a big name across the country. And, and it’s just going to take a bunch of grit and hustle and hard work and trust and I’m going to continue to get in front of the people that trust me and build my book from there.

Matthew Naylor: That’s awesome. You’ve spoken about it a lot But I’d love for you to share in your own words. You know, as a founder, as an athlete, you know, you went from no customers, I think you said earlier, like, 300 customers today. What advice would you provide to a young person that’s looking for passion and purpose, like happiness and joy in their life where they can make an impact? What would you say to someone young?

Eric O’Brien: Yeah, that’s good. And I’ve crossed that path recently at age 40, just thinking in my own terms, but one, you got to be mentally sharp and trust in yourself and know that when you’re waking up, you’re going out there and doing things for the right reason. And you got to have some passion and care within that, too. And then you got to express that on the people that you’re going to be talking to. That should be the foundation of whatever product you’re selling is. Is caring and just being a real person and doing it for the right reasons. You know, go out there and lead. You’re going to run into the haters, you’re going to run into people who are going to try to knock you down, get back up and just know that you’re doing the right thing every day and that’ll eventually take you to a better path.

Matthew Naylor: Thanks. Thanks a lot. It’s a real pleasure. I appreciate it, spending time with you today. You’ve got an amazing story. You. Your past has been phenomenal. Your present situation is great, but your future is really, really bright.

Eric O’Brien: I appreciate it. I appreciate the opportunity and the talk today. This has been wonderful. Yeah.

Matthew Naylor: This is Matthew Naylor. You’ve been listening to Aligned For Impact