Scaling Business and Trust: Dalton Miller's Medicare Breakthrough - RetireFlo

🎙️ Welcome to another insightful episode of the Timeless Vitality podcast with co-hosts Amber Stitt and Kate Beck.

🛠️ In this episode, we sit down with Dalton Miller, a key figure in the Medicare field. Join us as we dive into the complexities and nuances of the Medicare industry, the importance of intergenerational communication, and Dalton's innovative Medicare solution, RetireFlo, that is redefining the future of Medicare processing.

💡 Join us as Dalton shares his journey from political assistant and speech writer, to assisting his family's Medicare agency, and highlighting his creation of the RetireFlo platform which helps solve many challenges in Medicare processing.

🌳 We'll dive deep into the importance of building 'trees of trust' in our communities, the role of technology in scaling operations, and the complexities surrounding Medicare processes.

💼 Plus, hear firsthand insights on the impact of the Medicare industry, the critical need for knowledgeable agents, and how the innovative platform, RetireFlo, is designed to streamline clients' transitions into Medicare.

💪 Whether you're an industry professional or someone exploring Medicare options, this episode is packed with valuable wisdom and practical advice to empower you on your journey.

📻 Tune in and stay inspired!

📽️ To watch the video podcast: https://youtu.be/BjVdsrkh34w

🔗 Connect with Dalton Miller:

📲 RetireFlo Website: https://app.retireflo.com

📲 Seniority Benefit Group: https://www.senioritybenefitgroup.com

📲 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalton-miller-12a28699

📲 Facebook: RetireFlo

🔗 Connect with Amber Stitt & Kate Beck:

📲 Timeless Vitality Website: https://timeless-vitality.com

#Medicare #SeniorCare #RetireFlo #TimelessVitalityPodcast #KateBeck #AmberStitt #DaltonMiller #SeniorityBenefitGroup #PathwaysWithAmberStitt #StittStrategies #PDXInsurance

TVep8

Transcript

Kate Beck [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Timeless Vitality podcast, where co-hosts Kate Beck and Amber Stitt explore the unique journeys, inspiring stories, and timeless wisdom of those who embody vitality and resilience.

Amber Stitt [00:00:17]:
Together, we discover what it means to thrive well beyond 100, sharing insights that empower you to live with purpose and create a lasting legacy.

Kate Beck [00:00:27]:
Let's get started with today's episode. Hello and welcome to Timeless Vitality. My name is Kate Beck. I'm your host. And Amber Stitt, my co-host.

Amber Stitt [00:00:36]:
Welcome.

Kate Beck [00:00:37]:
Today we have Dalton Miller on the show who has a wealth of knowledge. Dalton, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Dalton Miller [00:00:43]:
Hi, Kate. Hi, Amber. I'm so excited to be on Timeless Vitality. We've had this on the calendar for a little while, so it's cool to be out here with y'all today. My name's Dalton. I'm from Columbus, Ohio. I went to The Ohio State University. For those listeners...don't hold that against me.

Dalton Miller [00:00:58]:
But Kate and I met on the road talking about Medicare and assisting seniors through that process. And I've got a sort of an interesting background on how I built this product that we're going to talk about today. But I'm just, first of all, so thankful to have you guys on. And I think what you guys are doing is so cool. Telling me about the message earlier, I'm so excited to be with you all today.

Kate Beck [00:01:20]:
Thank you, Dalton. Well, first of all, I was firsthand at a conference called BlocBuilder for AgencyBloc, a software that I use. And then I went to another conference with JSA. Twice, I got to have firsthand delivery about Dalton Miller's new project called RetireFlo. But before we crack the code on RetireFlo and why it's changing the nation and how producers are doing their flow for helping their community enroll in Medicare, I'd love to hear a little bit about before you created RetireFlo and some of the mentors that paved that path for you.

Dalton Miller [00:01:56]:
Yeah, I can absolutely speak to that. My background's a little interesting. It's not the average Medicare agent background. I graduated from Ohio State and growing up with my dad, you're going to hear a lot about my dad on this podcast, a humongous mentor to me. He always had a passion for politics. Our industry, the insurance industry, is highly regulated, as you guys are very familiar.

Dalton Miller [00:02:18]:
So I grew up watching the news from sunup to sundown, even when it wasn't particularly relevant to our industry. That's just what we did at our house. And so I picked up a little passion for politics and wanted to get involved on campaigns and do stuff in my community. And I had been volunteering on some local campaigns for city councilmen, for congressmen, and had a big affinity for the governor of Ohio. This was Governor John Kasich. I thought he was the coolest guy on the planet. He created a bunch of jobs for the state of Ohio. And I had some times where I got to interact with them.

Dalton Miller [00:02:50]:
And I was young. I was 18, 17 years-old, volunteered on these campaigns, and there was this guy who stood behind him, young guy. His name was Randy Kreider and he was governor Kasich's personal aide, body man, assistant. If anybody's seen the show, Veep, they would probably know him as Gary. I have opinions about Gary. I don't think he's an actual portrayal of this job.

Dalton Miller [00:03:15]:
I said to myself, I want to be like Randy. He's got the coolest job on the planet. I want to do that for our next governor. And I started to look at the polls and who was running next. And I heard about this guy, governor, or attorney general at the time, Mike DeWine. And I'd met him along the road a couple times and I said, I want to work for him. I want to do whatever it takes to be his assistant and travel the state with him and learn from him. So I called up his team and I said, "Look, Attorney General DeWine needs a driver, okay? And that's a tough job."

Dalton Miller [00:03:45]:
I don't know if anybody out there has been a professional driver. That's a hard job. And I said, "I will do it for free while I'm in college, as long as I humanly possibly can. I hope that someday you pay me, but I'm going to do this for now." And so they accepted that offer and I served Governor DeWine. He later became governor while I was his personal assistant and then later I became his speech writer. And what an incredible job that was. I traveled the state with the incoming governor for about three years from ages 19 to 22.

Dalton Miller [00:04:14]:
While I was at Ohio State I was an exceptionally poor student because I was learning from Governor DeWine, What a cool thing. And from him, I just experienced this incredible work ethic. I'm 19, 20 years-old. Governor DeWine at the time was late 60's, early 70's. And the guy was kicking my butt in terms of energy. He was ready to go before I was ready. I wanted to go home, and he was still shaking hands and meeting people.

Dalton Miller [00:04:37]:
And so I work every day with this little Mike DeWine on my shoulder saying, "What would he do? Would he write that extra email?" We take the time to spend with people. That was an incredible opportunity. And after that, I didn't want to work in politics anymore. It's a hard job and serving in the public sector, it's not the greatest financial opportunity on the planet.

Amber Stitt [00:05:00]:
Or the hours. The hours are not great. You don't know what's going to happen. I've heard that.

Dalton Miller [00:05:03]:
I wanted my life back. My dad had been trying to convince me to come work with him at his Medicare agency, and I finally took him up on it. Now I had the opportunity not only to work with my dad at our home Medicare agency in Columbus, Ohio, but my younger brother to Miles, who has just joined our organization. So, and this is a business that my grandfather started. So talk about timeless, we're on generation 3 of our organization that it's been an incredible opportunity. Just a quick background on our agency, we're a small Medicare agency, got 7 or 8 writing agents, but we serve 23,000 seniors with a Medicare advantage, or supplement policy.

Dalton Miller [00:05:41]:
And that's a lot of people. And just watching that level of volume of seniors helping make this transition, I've learned so much, and it's really to thank because of my dad and his hard work.

Amber Stitt [00:05:53]:
Awesome.

Kate Beck [00:05:54]:
Just warms my heart. I love it.

Dalton Miller [00:05:58]:
It might warm your heart, but at the same time, we bicker sometimes, but that's part of a good business, you know? I mean, I've got ideas about where I want our business to go. He's got ideas where he wants our business to go. My younger brother Miles, who's 23, he's got ideas of his own. So it creates an awesome dynamic where we're sharing best practices and kicking ideas off of each other. I mean, if you look at my phone log, it's me working with our clients, and then it's me calling my dad back and forth all day long. But Kate, I don't want to get out ahead of it, but can I tell the story about how we met and how the project I'm working on...

Kate Beck [00:06:34]:
Yes, please.

Dalton Miller [00:06:35]:
So I mentioned to you that we serve a lot of people. We don't have a very big team, and I think the general theme of that is scalability. Everybody wants to build a business that's scalable. I want to be able to not only serve my 10 clients, my 100 clients, my 1,000 clients, my 10,000 clients, but we had gotten this point where the demand for our services to help people, to make that transition to Medicare was through the roof. We couldn't serve all these people, not to mention everybody who wants to shop their Medicare plan year after year after year because of our friends at those Joe Namath TV commercials, who I'm sure your listeners have, whether you're on Medicare or not, you've seen those bad boys.

Amber Stitt [00:07:16]:
I don't think Tom Selleck's doing that. He was doing something for a minute, but not Medicare.

Dalton Miller [00:07:21]:
Oh, and some of my heroes on there, the guy from, Jay Peterman from Seinfeld is on there and I'm like, "Oh, how dare they?"

Amber Stitt [00:07:27]:
You know you made it when you get to the Medicare and the life insurance settlement or...

Dalton Miller [00:07:33]:
If I ever see you guys on one of those TV commercials, we are no longer friends.

Amber Stitt [00:07:39]:
Hey, maybe that's part of my strategic partners, or extra money later.

Dalton Miller [00:07:46]:
Yeah, put Amber on there. Listen, these TV commercials are the worst, okay? They are misleading, they're incredibly misleading towards seniors and they talk about shiny benefits in these Medicare plans to drum up call volume. And this is not, I mean, it happens in every industry. But these folks are taking advantage of a vulnerable population, people who are 65, 75, 85, who say, "I might want these shiny benefits," but realize that all of a sudden if they call Joe Namath that their doctor of 20 years is now out of network, and thats a major problem. Or maybe the prescription that used to cost you $20, now cost you $200. So all of a sudden you've got a free gym membership, but what good is that if the prescription that you take is more expensive? So we had this problem where all of our clients were calling us and we could barely survive.

Dalton Miller [00:08:38]:
We were either going to have to hire a call center, or additional payroll to manage that, and that's not scalable, right? So we developed this software platform called RetireFlo And what RetireFlo is, is it's an online survey that Medicare agents can send to their clients and prospects in advance of a meeting to kind of boil down what's important in making that transition into Medicare. So in Kate's instance, I'll pick on Kate. She can send out that survey. And when her client, who I often call "Susie Senior", completes that survey, Kate gets three things on Susie, a list of her prescriptions, doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, plan preferences. She's achieved permission to contact because it's been approved by CMS. And she gets that pesky Scope of Appointment document, which is incredibly valuable in our industry.

Dalton Miller [00:09:29]:
And so, to say to Kate that while she serves lots and lots of seniors across the country, that she can go out and collect these things just by sending out a couple of emails is a night and day, and I'm speaking on behalf of Kate here. It's a night and day better universe than sending out stamps with mailers and return envelopes. Look, it's 2024, we had to figure out a better way to collect this data. And I think what we've done is pretty special in that I worked with a team of very young developers, people who are no older than the age of 24, who know not a whole lot about Medicare. I combined it with our Medicare knowledge, and we built a platform that's easy for seniors.

Amber Stitt [00:10:11]:
Cool.

Dalton Miller [00:10:11]:
And so I just wanted to use this platform with you guys on Timeless to share that the game is shifting in the senior industry. If you're working with folks in terms of retirement plans, or in terms of in the Medicare universe, or whatever it may be, if you're just interacting with somebody at a restaurant or, wherever in your day-to-day life in your community, seniors are more tech savvy than you give them credit, but you also have to be patient with people. And we felt like with RetireFlo, we kind of struck that balance. And so we've created a universe where thousands of agents across the country are sending out our surveys to get prepared for this AEP and transparently provide advice to their senior beneficiaries. So we're really excited about it.

Kate Beck [00:10:54]:
And one thing I want to piggyback on, what you have to say there is that the role of a health insurance producer, specifically in the Medicare space is essential. And we just had Jessica Brooks-Woods on our show, and she was also at every single conference that are in between. The role of an insurance producer is essential. And we have to make sure that our government continues to support and accredit that. We are essential to assisting people in our community with their health plans. And because of inappropriate commercials, or misinformation, there are bad actors, or there are people who are not following compliance. So we have the good actors and then we have the bad actors. Every industry has them.

Kate Beck [00:11:37]:
Our goal in the world of insurance is to build trust and to help the person find the right plan for them. And that might be one thing, one year, another thing another year, but whether it's a Medicare supplement, or a Medicare advantage, that they're in the right plan at the right time for them. But you're right, it takes time and effort to ask and document and check all of this information. Your prescription, what's the dosage? How frequent do you fill it? Do you go to a pharmacy? Do you get mail order? How big is that order? That in itself is a lot of information to manage. Now we're asking, okay, where is your doctor, what location do you see him at? What hospital system do you want? We need to know that because certain plans have certain networks of providers and it's essential to know that in the beginning because then if you have established care with one provider, but then you choose a plan outside of their network, then all of a sudden you don't have the same access of care. So the role of RetireFlo, for me, so far I'm starting out on a very slow, I've been using my link while I'm still on my initial call with someone and going through the questions and eventually it'll be on AutoFlo. But I want to spend the time one on one with people to get used to this and say this is a tool that we're using this initially. Now because one of the things the government put on Medicare agents is that we have to have a Scope of Appointment annually.

Kate Beck [00:12:56]:
And it used to be you have permission to talk to someone, they're your client, then you're good. But now it's, we need a new permission to speak and answer your questions on file with a CMS approved document every single year. That's a lot of compliance to follow. And this little link is really helpful because you can choose 10 or 13 questions and you get that information and you don't have to log in. So my team is extremely thrilled to have this, of course, offline we still have a few questions, but we're just thrilled about it.

Dalton Miller [00:13:26]:
Kate, I'm bringing you, that was the best description of our service. You're coming with me to my next meeting.

Amber Stitt [00:13:33]:
I have questions eventually, you guys, of the non-Medicare professional. So I might be able to...

Dalton Miller [00:13:39]:
Actually, I want to speak on that for a second because Kate, you mentioned a really good point is where the role of that health insurance advisor is in this process. And I would challenge somebody who has a parent who is Medicare age, or making that transition to Medicare to see if you can figure it out, see if you can figure it out for them. And my guess is, no way. Okay. There's part A, part B, C, D. The plans are organized also alphabetically, which are difficult in of itself. And so if we can, at RetireFlo, boil down to what's important in this process. We can get a universe where seniors are educated about what's important and then the people that, who are important to them in their lives know that, "Okay, you know, my mother's prescriptions are being thought about in this process," then we're going to pass along some confidence to their loved ones that, hey, we're doing the right thing. But, Amber, I mean, you were saying? I mean, it's a confusing thing for a lot of people, you know?

Amber Stitt [00:14:40]:
Well, that's kind of where the case study in my brain was exploding. So I have parents. My mom just recently was asking me, last year, about this. I'm like, "I don't know. I have friends that do this." So you guys work nationally, correct, Dalton? Okay, so that's where this information today, it's not like we're just saying we're going to sell some Medicare to our listeners. But seriously, the exhaustion of not knowing and not feeling empowered can change because of the software that you've developed.

Amber Stitt [00:15:07]:
That's huge if we can package it. And this sounds like almost like a checklist, too. So then let's talk about those hard conversations, right, Kate? Like, this is not fun, but guess what we get to do Medicare interview, "Yay." But guess what's happening. People are talking about what is at hand. That's also an actual audit of life.

Amber Stitt [00:15:25]:
And where's the doctor? So you could bring in the other younger person to couple with maybe parenthood while working with your system. I think that's important to get back. Kind of like a financial plan. Let's go back and look. I mean, young people still work at employers. They don't understand their group benefits. If you don't even understand that at a younger age, how in the world are you going to understand Medicare? So the point is having that trusted advisor, again.

Amber Stitt [00:15:49]:
Kate, we've talked about there's a stigma with the insurance agent that we're trying to turn around. And it's not to be confusing like the commercials. Dalton, it's probably because of some of those things we equate this actor, and we're like, "Okay." And then we get into it. We can't figure it out. You're helping putting people in the driver's seat, or maybe with a family member assisting, but this gives them more confidence to just help themselves.

Amber Stitt [00:16:12]:
I think it's wonderful.

Dalton Miller [00:16:13]:
Yeah. And we designed our system intentionally that way. So one of the key features of our system is that there's no username or password required. We find that when presenting a senior or anyone, any customer of any age with a username and a password, there is a 60% chance. Six, Zero, that they're likely to abandon.

Amber Stitt [00:16:34]:
Yep.

Dalton Miller [00:16:34]:
And seniors, I think everybody who's listening to this is going to know is higher amongst them. So, we wanted to create a scenario where our system is pretty, it's easy to use, the font is big and I don't want to sound disparaging towards seniors but we have to know who our end user is. And that's why I get excited about it is on RetireFlo today at this moment we process 3 submissions a minute. And I bet that as we get closer to the Annual Enrollment Period that we're processing closer to 60 submissions a minute, and we're ready for that. That just makes me happy for agents across America, because every submission means a client earned, or a client retained.

Dalton Miller [00:17:14]:
But for every submission also, is a senior who is connected with their local agent and who is going to find themselves in a spot that they're going to be happy with. They're going to take the confusion out of it. And so I watch the clock sometimes, I have a little ticker on my computer that says how many submissions. Sometimes I just refresh it, see how many I got in a minute. And it's growing really fast. So we're really proud of that.

Kate Beck [00:17:37]:
It's about creating the empowerment to the community to take something that's uncomfortable and be more comfortable. And here on Timeless Vitality, we're all about demystifying the difficult conversations in our life. Like many times we're talking about the conversations for later in life, like having had the conversation about who's going to wipe your "you-know-what" if you can't do it for yourself. And even though we think we're all going to be healthy and vibrant the rest of our lives, we need to have these conversations before the scary part happens, or anticipating that it'll happen. Hopefully it never does. But then if it does, it's not like we're starting in the middle of fear. We're coming from a love based, empowered, and eager point of view. It just feels so good.

Kate Beck [00:18:20]:
I'm so happy that we can take this piece because when I think about the most laborious piece of what I do on a day when I think, "Oh my gosh, I love serving my community." And what part sometimes is like the heavy lifting? And for me, it's literally collecting that data.

Dalton Miller [00:18:39]:
It's listening to your clients try to spell levothyroxine over the phone and you're like, "Ah, there's got to be a better way."

Kate Beck [00:18:48]:
Yeah, I know. I'm like, yeah, sometimes I'll be there. Like, "Okay,...okay...yes."

Kate Beck [00:18:54]:
I have tried to prepare those things in advance so that when we're meeting we're making the most of everyone's time because no one wants to talk about any one boring insurance subject for more than 30 to 45 minutes. I cap the meetings at 60 just because if we haven't figured out what we need to figure out, we need to take a break and do it another day.

Dalton Miller [00:19:11]:
Right, and seniors don't want to be that burden on you. You know, what people don't take into account is this is a frustrating thing for them. In some sort of transactional environment you definitely don't want this to be frustrating. But when they are like, "I left my list of prescriptions at home." That senior feels bad. They wish they hadn't.

Dalton Miller [00:19:31]:
They forgot that that was an important part of this process. And we have to take into account that while these folks, in many cases...now do we have the grumpy people out there every once in a while? Yeah, we got some of those. Yeah. But in most cases, these seniors want to do right by the people that they're working with. Maybe they're a little frustrated that they retired five years ago, they're not as comfortable with even the dramatic changes in technology that have happened in the past five years. They're not used to things. They're scared that they're going to get taken advantage of because there are very sensitive data points involved in this process and there are bad actors.

Dalton Miller [00:20:05]:
You know, I talk about the Joe Namath, I think those folks are misleading intentionally, but there are even worse actors out there who are trying to capture Social Security numbers and Medicare numbers. And while seniors are inherently skeptical of folks, I think the only people that I can encourage them to continue to trust is to rely on people you know, people you love, people in your community. Talk to your son, your nephew, your cousin, your daughter, whoever, somebody who's gone through the Medicare process before, somebody who knows somebody, your neighbor. And talk with them, "Who did you trust?" You may not want to ask them what plan they're on because Medicare is different for everybody. And Kate knows this better than anybody.

Kate Beck [00:20:49]:
I was like, "Uh oh, what road are you going down?"

Dalton Miller [00:20:52]:
Yeah. Listen, it's different based on the factors, what prescriptions you take. But talk to the people in your community and say, "Who's a trusted resource for this?" And I guarantee you they're going to have an answer.

Kate Beck [00:21:05]:
And that's a big, huge theme we've been having on here. How can we cultivate confidence by planting seeds and trees of trust.

Amber Stitt [00:21:14]:
Hey, that's a new one. We're going to have a Kate-ism book. It's going to be on Amazon.

Dalton Miller [00:21:21]:
Trees of trust. Trees of trust. I like that.

Kate Beck [00:21:23]:
We do! Well, we are lending these branches out, these peace offerings, your olive branch. And here's the thing, many people are feeling distrustful and it's the way we hold ourselves. It's the words we use and it's also the actions and accountability. And if I sit here on this show and say I want to empower you to make the most of the benefits that you have in the area that you're in, then I have to be mindful of how can I build that trust and how can I be accountable. So I ask you, Dalton, from your three generations of history and working in this industry, what do you think contributes to building trust locally and nationally?

Dalton Miller [00:22:04]:
It's a great question. How do you talk to people who live on the other side of the country to trust you, people who are in your community to trust you with this important part of your Medicare transition? Yeah, I think that's part of it. I know Medicare, right. But I think there's just a greater question to be asked about trust in a business and why should somebody work with you over working with somebody else, especially in the service industry? And I think first of all, the power is in knowledge. If you know your stuff, if you have done your research and you do right by someone because you have put the time in, you watched your trainings, you listen to the thought leaders in your industry, people will refer you to their friends and that's a great way to grow your business. I think it's being knowledgeable, but the other part of that is knowing where that knowledge stops. I talked to my brother about this. I talk with people all the time is if you do not know the answer to something, don't make it up.

Dalton Miller [00:23:01]:
Don't make it up, but think of it, take some time, let somebody know, "Hey, I will be honest with you. You asked me a question about Medicare, that one I don't know the answer to. I'm going to promptly go do the research and get you an answer quick." So I think that part of it is knowledge. The other thing is just being detail oriented, listening to people, finding out what's important to them and making sure that the things that are important to them are taken into account. I have a specific knowledge of this because of what we do at RetireFlo. We can ensure that certain factors are taken into account in this process.

Dalton Miller [00:23:35]:
But this goes across all industries. And if you're a young person working with a senior in any industry, listen to them. Have patience. Hear what's important to them. Hear them out. And then if you are a senior citizen who's working with somebody young, because it goes both ways, is let them know what's important to you in a thoughtful way. I think I've talked about this before with my dad regularly. You know when you go to a fast food restaurant, or somewhere, and somebody's operating on a computer screen, and they say, "Well, that button doesn't exist, so I can't do it." I don't think that's a good enough answer for folks.

Dalton Miller [00:24:10]:
I think we need to be cognizant of the people who are in front of us. Listen to them thoughtfully, but just be hyper-focused on the details, because that's how you can set yourself apart in business. If you pick something up about somebody, you hear a story about their grandchild, or a story about where they went to school, or something they do on the weekends, or whatever it is, you might have the opportunity to put yourself ahead in the game. Because it's all about relationships. Trees of trust. I guess that's what we're calling it today. It's about relationships.

Amber Stitt [00:24:38]:
I have a question about the family tree.

Dalton Miller [00:24:41]:
Yes, Amber, hit me.

Amber Stitt [00:24:42]:
Did your father trust your ideas at the beginning?

Dalton Miller [00:24:45]:
No. Oh, my goodness, no. I needed to prove to him.

Amber Stitt [00:24:50]:
I grew up in the industry and did not get into the business until 30. So that was 15 years ago because of my dad. I said, "I'll never do that." And I'm watching him at the whiteboard buckets for estate planning and numbers, and I'll never do it.

Kate Beck [00:25:04]:
With a bucket. The same drawing we're still using today.

Dalton Miller [00:25:08]:
I don't know about the buckets, but I can envision...

Amber Stitt [00:25:10]:
And then he flips it over. I would get grounded and he would write out boxes and be like, "This consequence led to this," like, the ROI.

Dalton Miller [00:25:19]:
There's a flow chart of the punishment that you've received.

Amber Stitt [00:25:22]:
Yes, I think I ran away shortly after. So my father is amazing, and he's still practicing in Nebraska, but he's like, "You gotta come back to Nebraska and work for me." And I was like, "Dad, that'll never work because I'm a virtual practice." And so, anyway, I know there's wisdom, and then sometimes you'll get through, like, a 5 year period, and you're like, "Oh, yeah, they kind of knew what they were talking about." So there's like, this give and take of, like, if you don't get it, it doesn't mean it's not accurate, but again, it takes some time. So anyway, back to you. I just wanted you to know.

Dalton Miller [00:25:52]:
The proofs of the pudding. You know, it's like in my situation it was a little bit different. It was, "All right, dad, I want to put our clients through this survey this fall and here's why I need to do it." And so we pressure testing it. We did it with a small group.

Amber Stitt [00:26:06]:
You pressured him.

Dalton Miller [00:26:07]:
Yeah, well I pressured...oh, believe me, I am relentless with him. He's family, all right, so you can't escape me. I sometimes forget that some folks I work with maybe should be exempted from that relentlessness.

Kate Beck [00:26:25]:
Nah, it's a total balance.

Amber Stitt [00:26:27]:
Someone has to do it.

Dalton Miller [00:26:28]:
Yeah, but it's, "Does it work?" "All right, dad, here's my idea." "All right, Dalton, show me." And it started with my grandmother. "Send it to her first. Can she do it?" And my grandmother's pretty slick. And now did I call her and tell her here's what's coming and kind of give her the answers to the test before that? Yeah, but the ultimately...

Kate Beck [00:26:51]:
You would have done that with any client. You wouldn't just blindly send that, send a link and expect them to respond. You would be like, "Hey, this is coming, here's why. This is why it's happening." So you did what would naturally occur.

Dalton Miller [00:27:03]:
Of course. And so when we sent out our survey. We tested this two AEP's ago. We serve 23,000 seniors, but we only send it to 10,000 of them. And we sent an email out nine times in advance of the Annual Enrollment Period and we received 6,000 submissions. And so, that's the Kate's benefit to talk about RetireFlo is that we're not going to get everybody. There are seniors out there who don't have access to the Internet who just sometimes, they just won't do it and that's fine. I can't fix that.

Dalton Miller [00:27:33]:
But 6,000 people that we didn't have to listen to try to spell lisinopril over the phone. That's a better universe than before.

Amber Stitt [00:27:41]:
You're helping more people so it's not like you don't care. It's called scaling and building efficiencies and taking some of this, not red tape, but there's just a lot of junk out there. Junk in the trunk. Federally. Our friend Sue and I, we've talked about that, Kate, on our podcast. Removing some of this extra layer that's just been around and it's antiquated. Lean into the innovation. And then again, some people don't have to.

Amber Stitt [00:28:01]:
There's still other ways that we descibe them, but...

Dalton Miller [00:28:04]:
It comes from a place of, "We want to help." That's what we're here to do. We know we've done this before. Kate's done this before. Amber's done this before so it's like...

Amber Stitt [00:28:12]:
Amber's about to do it soon. No...

Kate Beck [00:28:16]:
You've still got a couple decades, girly, maybe it'll be your parents.

Dalton Miller [00:28:21]:
Yeah, but to the seniors who listen to this, if you hear from something, from your people in your community you trust, who ask you to do something, maybe take a second, it might not be as bad as it once was. On the other side of the coin is to the young people who are in this industry. First of all, a call to action. To any young person who's listening to this podcast, the Medicare industry is a great business to be in. Kate can attest to that. There are 11,000 people every day who are turning 65. And oftentimes we get to give them good news as they make that transition from their I group health plan at their company to Medicare. And it's a wonderful thing to help somebody incur a savings, make sure that their doctors are in network, save their money on their prescriptions, because I'm sure you've got stories, but our clients love us because we've helped them with that.

Dalton Miller [00:29:11]:
We may got them a plan that made sure that when they were in a pinch, their health regimen was taken care of.

Amber Stitt [00:29:17]:
That's key because if there's 11,000 a day turning 65, and you're the still meeting with some people, if you're overspending, there's less money in your pocket, less financial freedom. If you're not getting the care you need, there's less longevity. There's just so many ways that this can reap benefits by just taking that pressure out.

Dalton Miller [00:29:38]:
Yeah, and I get excited about it. I mean, the opportunity that's out there and I pose it as an opportunity, but the reality is it's almost kind of a gloomy situation in that seniors are so confused about this process, their kids are confused because they've never had to do it. They're getting confusing information from people in their mailbox, on TV. And while it's a sad state of the universe that this process is so complicated, where an agent can shine in their community is being that knowledgeable resource for folks and for agents who are listening to this, whatever industry. Know the most about the products that you sell and the community that you live in. Know how what worked for this "Susie Senior" is not going to work for this "Susie Senior", or how their health regimen is going to impact these types of things. And so we're going to continue to work on different products at RetireFlo to make that even better. But it starts with finding somebody in your community who's empowered, who knows their stuff.

Kate Beck [00:30:39]:
Thank you, Dalton.

Dalton Miller [00:30:41]:
Yeah, of course.

Kate Beck [00:30:42]:
So in your opinion, what would make someone timeless?

Dalton Miller [00:30:46]:
I thought about this a lot in the past couple of days, and it's just, oh, man, we're going to go back to the trust tree here. It's planting seeds that you'll never see grow. It's putting other people first.

Kate Beck [00:30:59]:
Seeds you'll never see grow. Yes.

Dalton Miller [00:31:01]:
Yes.

Kate Beck [00:31:02]:
Having the faith that they're growing even if you're not looking.

Dalton Miller [00:31:05]:
Yes. And helping that person in your community who, a great example, and this is kind of a technical example, but it's a great example, in the state of Ohio, if you are a state retiree, or if you are a retired teacher, you got a pretty darn competitive Medicare plan. We in our home agency can't help you. If we've sold you on a different plan, you're not going to have as good a benefits as you could through your retirement plan. But you know what we do? We sit down with those people regardless, and we explain to them, "Well, there is no dollars transaction to us. There's no commission earned. Thats fine."

Dalton Miller [00:31:39]:
We want to make that person feel confident in the decision that theyre making. And the seed that we never see grow is that that person goes back and said, "Oh, I met with this person from Seniority Benefit Group and they didnt make a dollar off our meeting. They sat with me for an hour," and maybe that person might go out in the community and tell their friend who's not a retired teacher, who's not a state retiree. And so its putting others first. And you don't know what kind of day someone's having. You don't know how confused they are about what plan that they're about to make that transition to, or whatever it is in whatever business you do. You don't know what's going on in the background of that person's life. And it's taking the time and the patience to be thoughtful and to listen to them.

Dalton Miller [00:32:21]:
You don't know what change that will make. And that's how you build a legacy. That's how you grow a business and people do run businesses for a reason. They want to make money and being thoughtful to people and being considerate and patient will do that for you. And I think, beyond growing your business, I think it makes you, in your community somebody who people look up to, people want to work with, and ultimately "timeless" to bring it all back together.

Kate Beck [00:32:48]:
Yeah, I love this.

Amber Stitt [00:32:49]:
Beautiful. So, Dalton, where can people find you? And maybe the family? How can they work with you?

Dalton Miller [00:32:55]:
Yes. Great question. So if you're a Medicare agent, first of all, you need RetireFlo. Okay, that's a no brainer. So if you wonder where, it's "Retire F-L-O". No "W". www.RetireFlo.com. There's a big set up, a demo button at the top. Click on that, and we can get you trained up on how to use our system. Every Medicare agent needs it.

Dalton Miller [00:33:15]:
Captive, not captive, whatever. If you're a senior who's listening to this podcast and unfamiliar about what Medicare plan they want to enroll with, call Seniority Benefit Group in Dublin, Ohio. We'll meet with you at no cost to help you make that transition. But I would tell you that I don't have a big social media platform, but add me on Facebook. Add me on LinkedIn. My name's Dalton Miller. These are the things that I'm passionate about. You've heard it. Don't hesitate to reach out if there's something that I said that might be of interest to you.

Amber Stitt [00:33:40]:
Awesome. Thank you for being here. This was great.

Dalton Miller [00:33:43]:
Oh, my goodness, guys. Thanks for having me. This was so fun.

Kate Beck [00:33:46]:
If you're retired and you're listening to this podcast because maybe you're my client, or you're the client of someone else's, I want you to get used to the word RetireFlo because you're going to see it in your inbox. You're going to see it annually. And you know, Dalton threw out that number 9 before AEP. Oh, my gosh. It's 725. That's what I want to have a sidebar with Dalton about eventually is like, okay, I need the story brand workshopping of how do you introduce and facilitate for the first time to your current book of business? Which we can do offline.

Dalton Miller [00:34:15]:
We can help with that, Kate. I promise.

Amber Stitt [00:34:18]:
Okay, more to come.

Kate Beck [00:34:21]:
Thanks, everyone. Be timeless.

Dalton Miller [00:34:24]:
Thanks, everybody.

Kate Beck [00:34:25]:
Thank you for joining us on the Timeless Vitality podcast. We hope today's episode has inspired you to embrace the journey of thriving well beyond 100.

Amber Stitt [00:34:34]:
Remember, your story is still unfolding, and every step you take adds to the timeless legacy you are creating. Until next time, stay vibrant, stay empowered, and continue living with purpose.

Kate Beck [00:34:46]:
We'll see you on the next episode!