Billboards, Beer and Benefits with Derek Hayden, Episode #46

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Derek Hayden, CIC, Benefits and Risk Consultant at Dansig Insurance Risk Advisors. Derek talks about working in the partially self-insured arena and their marketing strategies on social media platforms.

Episode Highlights:

• David introduces Derek Hayden. (1:30)
• Derek shares that he started in the insurance industry as a door to door salesman, and he’s been working at the same agency for about 8 years. (05:21)
• Derek mentions that being in a small town creates a lot of hurdles, which is why he approaches marketing and social media the way he does. (6:12)
• Derek mentions that they’re currently working on their natural transition from benefits to workers’ compensation. (11:38)
• Derek shares that they created a safety and wellness program for some of their groups. (13:34)
• Derek mentions that he’s foreseeing a lot of issues that are going to be prevalent, due to the pandemic. (20:02)
• Derek mentions that groups are terrified with self-funded or partially self-funded, and that became their biggest concern. (20:56)
• Derek shares that his agency principles have supported them in building content and marketing themselves to get customers, and they have a vast demographic of owners of different ages, and they’re all on board with him and other producers that want to go after it. (33:34)
• Derek feels that every agency falls short in getting excited with the new shiny object, and they forget to use their tools, as time goes. (36:23)
• Derek mentions that when it comes to marketing, his goal is to be the trusted advisor and the educator of his market. (47:26)
• Derek shares that they used their videos as an educational opportunity for them and their prospects. (47:54)
• Derek mentions that they developed a regular show in their town called the DNG Show. (48:40)
• Derek mentions that they’re also trying to obtain carriers to sponsor some of their social media platforms. (52:45)

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I’ve learned to qualify prospects a little better than I used to but it was a struggle. When you first start, especially in a small town, it’s a small pond to fish from and so anyway, that’s why I kind of fell into approaching marketing the way I do now.” – Derek Hayden
• “Good thing about being in a small town is I know a lot of people. The bad thing about being in a small town is I know a lot of people. So there’s a good chance, if I know him, one of my competitors knows him as well. So that was a huge hurdle for me to get into the business, was relationships.” – Derek Hayden
• “There are so many protections in place now, for these small to middle-market groups to go self-funded. It’s more of a gamble to be fully insured than it is self-insured in today’s world. I mean, COVID has just magnified a lot of those issues.” – Derek Hayden
• “I can pick up a tool and play around with it, and I can use it pretty quickly and be successful with it. A lot of agencies and I talk to agents all the time, they get these tools, but they don’t know how to use them, and I always use a phrase, you can give a ditch digger a backhoe, but if you don’t know how to turn it on, he’s gonna pick up the shovel again.” – Derek Hayden

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Kyle Houck LinkedIn
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes
• Derek Hayden
• Dansig Insurance Risk Advisors