Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Sharpening Focus
374 Plays3 years ago
The journey from working for someone else to working for yourself can take many twists and turns. For this week’s guest, Dominic Bottenfield with AHG Insurance, that journey included getting a degree no one was hiring for, taking the business end of a nail gun to the head, getting fired as a gift, and finally deciding to take the entrepreneurial leap only to find out the fellas that were going to leap with him had to back out.
Yet family, oftentimes the factor that in prudence drives us to seek the stability of the steady paycheck, can also be our source of greatest encouragement and ultimately our leaping partners. Join us as we learn more about Dominic’s journey, the services he offers the world, and where he wants to go next.
You can find more from Dominic at: https://ahg-benefits.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to The Uncommon Life Project
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit. Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life.
00:00:27
Speaker
a life worth celebrating and savoring. Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey.
Financial Advisors' Passion for Uncommon Lives
00:00:35
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the uncommon life project where I'm your host, Philip Ramsey. And I'm Aaron Kramer. Thank you for tuning in to the most amazing show. The one that you love every week. You get a jump on this thing, hear our voice and you got Aaron Kramer. We have an awesome guest. This is the show. I can't wait to get them on, but so we're financial advisors. This is the first time you've ever heard of us. Uh, that's fine. I'm not bitter at all. Uh, but the reason why you probably haven't heard us is we're not the biggest town or biggest shop in the town.
00:01:04
Speaker
but we actually care immensely. We love our clients. We love when our clients do something uncommon and uncommon. We mean like pursue their passion, get paid to what they do. I can't tell you how many times we've had people cry in front of us, like happy tears that we've actually listened to them. And we then infuse their dreams with their own money, not our money, their money. Uh, and we just show them a path to get to that place where they love their life every day. We have,
00:01:32
Speaker
somebody on the show that does that. His name's Dominic Bottenfield. And he's been in the insurance industry for 17 years. He's been married for 10, has three children, loves his
Dominic's Early Career and Rugby Stories
00:01:43
Speaker
life. I can't wait to get into his story, his uncommon journey. Welcome to the show, Dominic. Thanks, Dominic. Thank you. That's great to be here. Appreciate you guys giving me an opportunity. Yeah, man. First podcast for me.
00:01:56
Speaker
Well, it doesn't seem like it's your first. And at the end of this, everybody's going to love you. And we just found out that we went to UNI at the same time. We were a Panther at the same time, Dominic. That is cool. It is. And shocking, we didn't run into each other because he used to play rugby. And I have had one experience with rugby. It was at UNI.
00:02:17
Speaker
It was probably my freshman year, I think I went, and there's some beer on the sideline, some cans of beer, which is different for me. I'm competitive, never saw that. Also, big boys are out there, and I heard that the UNI rugby team was pretty good. And so I'm watching, observing.
00:02:36
Speaker
And I see them kick off for the first like play. Is it a kickoff? Is that what we're doing? Yeah. Okay. Basically. It's like, it's kind of like football rules without pads. Oh, and no pads friends. Typically not blocking. I mean, you're not really following your blockers. I was running back in high school, but it's not following. I mean, you're, you know, right. This has nothing to do with the show, but I think it's hilarious.
00:02:58
Speaker
So I see this does a little bit. It kind of does. Yeah. I see this guy because Dominic was on this team, I think like he's he's part of the reason they were like second nationally or something second in the nation to we lost in the championship game to Stanford. Was it a close game?
00:03:13
Speaker
Yeah, only lost by a try, which is like a touchdown. Oh, man. OK, so I see this gentleman. I've never seen somebody so big. And I'm a freshman, so you probably have to understand that. He goes down, runs as hard as he can, and blows this individual up. I mean, like, no pads. This guy's off his rocker. Like, I mean, I think they just had to, like, cart him off. Like, it was that bad. And I thought, well, it was a fun sport. And maybe I'll watch it. But never will I ever
00:03:40
Speaker
step on the field. And Dominic's here, right? Yeah. Well, I'm not a big guy. So don't, I hope your audience is, I'm not like Aaron. We had big boys like Aaron on our team, but I'm the fast little guy that was trying to avoid, uh, you know, but I'd have to tackle, but I was side tackling. Get the, get your head to one side of the other. No spearing, right? Right. Okay.
00:03:59
Speaker
So this is the show. We just talk. Uh, it's, it's basically Joe Rogan. Uh, no, it isn't, but, uh, we're just not there yet, but this is what I want to say. So you stepped off the field at, uh, the Pantherville from UNI. You get your, did you walk across the stage first, uh, to get your diploma?
Philosophy Graduate's Construction Career
00:04:19
Speaker
I think I did. Okay. I can't remember. I know I did for my MBA masters. Yeah, but not, um,
00:04:27
Speaker
I think I did. I remember my parents kind of coming down and having dinner afterwards. So I must have went, but it's not like a- You get your diploma, do you know what you're doing then? In life? No. Okay. You're like the rest of us? I sent my resumes out to, you know, Principal and Wells Fargo and all the big ones and didn't even get a call. What was your degree?
00:04:53
Speaker
philosophy. Yeah, that's probably why I didn't. Oh, that's so good. You get to diploma and then who hires you out of college?
00:05:04
Speaker
Well, at first, I was, I love building things, right? So in high school, I was doing construction. In college, part of the ways that I got beer money, because it wasn't paying for college. I mean, that was loans. Yeah. But how we got beer money and stuff is we do remodels or pour, you know, concrete or do a roof for somebody. As my roommate, Nate Olam and I, he had a lot of,
00:05:31
Speaker
of the wisdom, and I learned some from him, and we just did stuff like that, and I loved it. I put stuff together. So I worked for Christensen Construction in Cedar Falls for
00:05:43
Speaker
maybe about five, six months, just hanging around Cedar Falls still. But of course you're a senior. Yeah. Doesn't feel right. Yeah. Well, I was, I guess I was graduated. So all your buddies are leaving too. And it just became less fun to be honest. I still, I still liked the work, but it was, it was like all my good friends, they moved on. Yeah.
00:06:03
Speaker
You know, they got the principle in the Wells Fargo jobs because they did something smart like business administration or they did, you know, they were taking, you know, math or science, something, you know, useful. Right. So I ended up working for one of my
00:06:21
Speaker
I guess Brothers High School Friends. He had started his own company up in Minneapolis where he did commercial siting. And he worked for McDonald Homes and Wensman Homes, so he had regular work.
00:06:35
Speaker
Okay. So I started off as a 1099, putting siding on in Minneapolis, Minneapolis, hardy plank siding. So shout out to concrete board. Shout out. Yeah. And like, so you were in the industry of the construction world, philosopher, philosopher on the side of your house.
00:06:53
Speaker
And so you go up to Minneapolis six months and then what, I just want to stop for a quick seconds. Like what do you do now? You own your own business, helping people figure out like switch gears. Yeah. Yeah. I just want to go like end in mind. Where are you at now? Because I do think this is important to talk through like the journey that people get to. Uh, so what do you do now? Just quick story about what you do now in your business.
00:07:17
Speaker
Well, it's not real quick. I mean, it's a culmination of a lot of things, but we're going to come back to that. But I want to know, like, what is your business now? My business now is it's a full service insurance agency, but we only focus on employee benefits. So we don't do any financial products. We don't do.
00:07:36
Speaker
property or casualty or anything. It is fully focused, kind of like a boutique shop based on mostly health insurance, dental vision, those types of things. Nice. Mostly focused on groups. Right. Right. Okay. I love it. Okay. Great. Now we're going back to the roof. We're going back to the siding. So now we're in Minneapolis and you're doing the deal. Okay. Yeah. Obviously totally different than what you're doing now. And so how was that trajectory and when did you start feeling like, listen, this might not be
00:08:05
Speaker
what Dominic Bottenfield is going to be doing for the rest of his life. Right, right. I love the people I was with. Love what I was doing being outside every day, except for Minnesota, those winners. The devil. With the windshield. We were still working when it's minus 20 windshield. Bless your heart. Up on a walk plank that's only 12 inches wide, no tie-offs or anything like that. I think it's amazing that we think it's cold here.
00:08:29
Speaker
Yeah, no. Yeah. You go four hours north and it's like, oh. Canada. Yeah. And way more snow. Yeah. Way more snow. And no mountains, by the way. Like, what are we doing? You know, it's just freezing. Right. Right. So I'm sitting there putting up boards of siding, popping the nail gun and going along. And that's just kind of
00:08:50
Speaker
I enjoyed putting things together and the details that go into it. And then at the end product, you look at this half a million dollar house, which is a lot back then. Right. And it looked beautiful. Right. But it took so many details and steps along the way. Good. And it's physical, which I like. So I just love that.
00:09:13
Speaker
I'm a 1099 and you're 23. Oh my gosh, I couldn't have done that when I was 23. I wish I would have known you guys back then. Who's a financial advisor then or a tax advisor or anything. I'm not pulling out taxes. Right. That's what I was going to say. I'm not buying health insurance. So let's talk through it for the listeners who are an employee.
Challenges and Humor in Construction
00:09:34
Speaker
1099 means like
00:09:35
Speaker
Well, let's just go to this. Like as an employee, you say you get paid, let's say $60,000. I'm going to do this for round numbers, right? You would think that you get paid $5,000 a month.
00:09:46
Speaker
But when you're an employee, you don't get that. You get like $3,222, whatever it is. And the rest of it goes to taxes and benefits and whatever, whatever, whatever. Well, let me tell you what a 1099 is. They say you get paid $60,000, you get $5,000 a month. Sounds great. Sounds amazing. But what people don't understand
00:10:08
Speaker
Especially when you're young and everybody does it so no not point fingers. Oh, yeah is oh shoot I have to now save that $1,700 a month or whatever it is For my taxes and so a lot of people getting to a lot of hot water Come the first year of taxes after they've been 1099 for the last 12 months
00:10:31
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. I mean, technically you're working for yourself. You own your own business. Technically. Yes. Even though I didn't file LLC or any of that other stuff. Right. You know, I'm just going along and I'm like, well, I get this 5,000 bucks and it's the full 5,000. So clothes, lots of beers. Yep. Party. And I'll just not, not thinking through, um, like a long-term plan. What am I going to retire on? What if I got hurt?
00:10:57
Speaker
year 10 foot tall and bulletproof at 23. So you're not getting there. Yeah, I put a few nails through my fingers, through my hand once. I had a framing nailer hammer, a framing, framing nailer.
00:11:12
Speaker
fall off the top of the ladder and clunk me straight in the head. No helmet. Didn't knock, no helmet. Didn't knock me out. It's just had a big old well and a cut on there. Oh man. Hey, you got a hard noggin. Yeah. In 1099, there's nobody that was around. I'm on the work side by myself. Yeah.
00:11:31
Speaker
So there's no HR to go talk to. It's not you, man. It was my own fault anyway. I'm the one that left the framing nailer up there, went down the ladder to grab some nails, and then come back up. So it was my fault, but nobody around. Anyway. So raising kids anyway. People need experiences like that. I think you learn by failing. It's almost a great thing to fail a few times. It helps you learn.
00:11:57
Speaker
And I worked with some great guys and they're still doing it, but they were in their forties and fifties. And I worked with my brother and my oldest brother, and he had had an accident where he fell off a roof. You know, when they put these big poles up, somebody has to be up on the roof and put like a pole keeper on the top and nail it into the trusses of the roof so that the pole stays steady. And that's how you raise your walk plank up.
00:12:27
Speaker
He was putting one of those on in the winter. Oh my goodness. Slipping fell, busted his hip and his whole femur and his whole side. Oh my. Nobody's expecting him to really even walk again, which he's tough and he's still doing it today. Holy cow. Were you working with him at the time? Yeah. Okay. Wow. Did that wake you up at all? Like, oh boy.
00:12:52
Speaker
I didn't see it happen. It happened before I came up there. So I saw a little bit of his recovery, but, uh, he was kind of even almost getting back at it part time when he could, um, when I was working there. Right. There was some other guys and they're in their forties and fifties and here they're 10 99s. And I think what clicked to me was, um, I wanted to have some sort of vision for the future because, uh,
00:13:21
Speaker
It's, it's a tough way to, uh, save up for retirement. It's a tough way to go through. I had buddies that didn't have insurance, right? No health insurance and something would pop up and they'd be in extreme debt, toast, extreme. Hold on though. Cause there's no, or something like, you know, you're confused. You don't know how to do this, but you went back to it.
00:13:43
Speaker
Not that you went back to the self-employment. Oh, the benefit side of things. Yeah, the benefit side of things. So, when did you start transitioning over to site or to where we're going? So, I just started throwing out more resumes, right? Yeah. Again, Wells Fargo and Principal and whoever.
00:14:04
Speaker
And I got an answer from Principal that said, sure, we'll have an interview. So they hired me, and I started doing the claims and customer service for Principal Health Insurance when they had a health insurance plan. And we also did the dental plan that they did.
00:14:26
Speaker
Looking at claims every day, how does the provider file this claim? Did they file it with the right location code? Did they put the right procedure codes in? So the principle's like the foundation of you learning. That's the insurance. And I kind of fell into it, Aaron. Wow. Interesting. Because if it would have been Wells Fargo, maybe I would have fell into banking.
00:14:49
Speaker
or whoever. That's where God took you. So you went from principle. What was your next step after principle? I did principle for two years. And then the next step was to
00:15:03
Speaker
I kept getting told by friends and even coworkers, like, you've got a personality that's more for sales or something like that. I go, okay, whatever that means. Is that a compliment? She's in the insurance world, you're like, do I want to have that personality? And going back to, I've always liked to be active. Principal was really on the phone a lot and just being in front of the desk all the time.
00:15:34
Speaker
You know, you always hear the story about the sales folks can go golfing and you're out and about and you're doing meetings and things like that. And so that, okay, well that part sounds okay. I don't know if it's really like that. So I can't remember if it was Monster or something back then, monster.com or indeed or whatever. I just started throwing my resume out there and nobody really bit, but what I, the girl I was dating at the time,
00:16:04
Speaker
was having some drinks with a gal that was the wife of a guy, right? My cousin's sister's brother's best friend. Yeah, whatever, however you have to. And this guy's starting his own agency from scratch. So they'd talk to you. I'd go, OK, that'd be great. So we went and just kind of had dinner. And then he's like,
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah, let's, uh, let's give this a shot. You can be our sales guy. They didn't even guys have the, their names stenciled on their door at their office. They had an office. So these, the two guys that started this, uh, agency were pretty well established in their careers and they didn't start their, their own venture. They always worked for somebody else until they were like, I think in their early fifties. Okay. Wow.
00:16:56
Speaker
And then I was like, we were putting up, um, talk about building things. We were putting up, you know, I put up the cubicles, you know, they bought some, that's how new it was. Wow. So it was really cool. I mean, just, and I got to watch it all.
00:17:12
Speaker
Yeah. So you were dating that girl, got you the job. She's a great gal. I love her, but we didn't work out. Yeah. Yeah. So how old were you in like, or maybe how many years after you graduated was this? Just so we can all put it in context. So I think it was two years working construction, two years at principle. So I'd have been about 27. Okay. Yeah. 26. How long were you there with those guys then?
00:17:38
Speaker
So it's about a year and a little over a year and a half, almost two years. Were these the guys, I know we've talked when we met, because we have a relationship, but like, were these the guys that kind of pulled the rug out underneath you?
00:17:55
Speaker
Before you, you're doing what you're doing now? Well, I wouldn't say that. I mean, I, well, not, I mean, yeah, like he, so it's like having a dad that was looking out for me and I still love this guy today. We
Transitioning to Insurance Industry
00:18:07
Speaker
don't talk a ton. We're kind of competitors now, but I, you know, I love this guy. He's just, right. Um, you helped him start something. Yeah. Along the way. So they started me out on a salary, right? And, uh, 401k and health insurance and all that, but they wanted to move me to,
00:18:25
Speaker
100% commission only. Which kind of sky is the limit on that too. You sell more, you want to raise, you can sell more. And I had had some success, even if it's a brand new agency, we had had some success bringing on some groups and so I could kind of see it.
00:18:42
Speaker
life intervened in a way That changed me forever and if and if you guys have ever, you know had a kid. Do you guys have kids? Yeah, we have three kids. I have three kids That's one, you know, you know when somebody tells you huh? We're having a baby That it's like oh crap. You grow up pretty quick start doing some thinking and I'm a philosophy major So I don't need a lot of help doing thinking
00:19:06
Speaker
So my boss and I there at the time, I mean, we were talking about those things because we were also pretty good friends. And he just was, you know, he's like in his 50s. So he was a pretty good mentor, not only just teaching me about insurance and the business and things like that, but life. But, you know, we were talking to all those things and he kind of had similar experiences and all this and that. But, you know, I was like,
00:19:30
Speaker
I think if I can, I'd like to stay on the salary and just the stability right now. I'm going to have my first baby. I'm scared to death as becoming a new dad. And it's something that I took very seriously.
00:19:48
Speaker
And so it's just at the time. I thought I had to be a W-2. I had to keep that stability. Absolutely. Every two weeks you need that paycheck to pay for stuff. It also hurt that I had a bunch of student loans.
00:20:05
Speaker
And you got things that you have to pay for so if we wanted to talk deeper about Should everybody go to college? I don't really think they should totally agree. It keeps you from totally doing what you want Yeah, kind of become a slave to right having to repay things, right? Oh
00:20:21
Speaker
It starts you down this rat race of debt and responsibility. And if you're not resolute on what you need to do, going to college to go into that much debt to try to find yourself, deal off. There's got to be better ways. So totally agree with that on that.
00:20:38
Speaker
Yeah, not to say that doctors should be good. Could be great. Yeah, it could be great to be an engineer. Yeah, if you know what you want to do and the college is going to help you get that path and acquire the knowledge, it's a good investment. But if you're just going like, this is my next step, I don't know. It's like, well, let's figure that out first. Don't get a philosophy degree. Don't wait. You can read books. Sociology is the same. Like you can read, you know, you can do that on your own. But anyway,
00:21:04
Speaker
So you weren't married at the time. So I wasn't married at the time. Okay. So things sobered up real quick. Yeah. So the cool thing was is he, he, um, he fired me. That's what I was telling you before. Okay. But it wasn't really putting one over on me or, uh, or, or doing anything, uh, mean it was the kindness. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah. I was referring to the, so we'll get, I guess we'll get to this.
00:21:30
Speaker
Like the guys that like started it and then sold it while you were working for him. Oh, we'll get to that. That comes later. Much, much later. Oh, gosh. Okay. So anyway, he fires me, but so what happens is like on February 6th or something, he tells me I've got two weeks left and then he's going to give me another week after that a severance.
00:21:53
Speaker
And then in the same meeting on February 6th, he goes, go and talk to my friends at Coventry Healthcare and go talk to Matt Leonard. I hired him when I was working at Coventry. And yeah, so I went and talked to Matt, who was the sales manager there, and he hired me at Coventry. So I went.
00:22:14
Speaker
from working for the guy that fired me on Friday, February 12th, to working for Coventry February 15th. I didn't miss one day of work and I got an extra week pay of severance. He really took care of me. So he did this because he knew, for whatever reason, this other Coventry job would have been better for
Career Decision: Joining Coventry Healthcare
00:22:34
Speaker
you?
00:22:34
Speaker
It was, like I said, a W-2. It was a higher salary. Plus, I could make some commissions on top. It was just maybe a better setup for you. A better setup for me. He took care of me. I don't think things were different. I don't think he wasn't...
00:22:52
Speaker
on a performance, he was really looking out for me. So later on when I got married, he came to my wedding and all that. So that's great, great guy. So Coventry, you're at Coventry, things are going well. You now have a baby. Yup. Okay. Yup. That's awesome. Boy, girl, where are we at? Girl, should be 15 here and come on. Okay. Coventry, it's going well. And then at what point were you like, no, listen, I think I can do this myself.
00:23:20
Speaker
Well, I kind of always felt like that. I kind of always felt like I could do this myself, but when you have a family and all that stuff, I think I just sort of...
00:23:35
Speaker
didn't want to take the risk. You buy a house, those payments start becoming a part of your budget, the school loans, the diapers, the formula, right? Student loan payments, yeah, all that. And I never was in a position to have enough saved up to be like, okay, we can float for,
00:23:55
Speaker
six months, a year, most new businesses, right? Give them a year or two. Yeah, right. I didn't have a year or two of just float money to cover. The ups and downs of starting something new. Right. So that bet, you know, that bet on yourself, it's not that you didn't want to take it, you're just trying to be rational. Right. Yeah. Make sure that I would have done it for sure if I didn't have anybody depending on me. Yeah.
00:24:20
Speaker
Right? But having somebody depend on me was one of the greatest things that's ever happened to me, because it really did sharpen my focus a ton. So it was not a curse at all. It was a blessing, but it just took a little more time then to be able to say,
00:24:39
Speaker
All right, now I'm ready. Yeah, so let's get to that, because I know, unfortunately, we don't have hours to talk about this. I don't want to get into the meats and potatoes in here. I want to, you're at a place, and I know they kind of sold it, so you kind of got left sitting there thinking, what do I do? But you decided to go out on your own.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah. I actually decided to go out on my own a couple of years before it happened. Okay. So my wife and I talked, you know, I get married, we have a couple more kids. We were buying some houses. I had some rental houses and things like that. You know, just go along. And, um, but I, I always have enjoyed kind of building something. Yeah. I think I can fill a need because we have a different, um, structure than what's, what's happening anymore in Iowa. There's a lot of acquisition. There's not very many independence, you know? So, I mean, there's,
00:25:29
Speaker
There's some things I thought I could do. I started talking to my wife about it. And at the same time, you know, Coventry had been acquired by Aetna, had been acquired by CVS Healthcare. It went from a company of like maybe 5,000 employees to a company of 80,000 employees. Wow. We became less local. I say we, I mean, they became less local. They became more focused on the on the coast. Yeah.
00:25:53
Speaker
So the market at the same time for me, the market that I was trying to sell in was less and less competitive because that's not where their focus was. So I could see the writing on the wall and then what happened is you start trying to line up, get your ducks in a row.
00:26:14
Speaker
And so we had, I had a conversation with some good friends of mine that were like, yeah, well, and I always wanted to have ownership. I didn't want to go and be, if I'm going to do this, let's do it. Yeah. Totally agree. Let's do this. I want to own something and build something and not work for somebody else and help them build. Yeah. Cause that's what I've been doing my whole life. Yeah. Right. Right. So.
00:26:35
Speaker
We had some I had I still they're still good friends and still Still helpful sometimes if there's something odd or weird and I just run things past them We kind of work off each other even though we're technically competitors, but I was gonna go work with them
00:26:52
Speaker
But they've had so much success that they, we had talked, you know, maybe a year beforehand before I knew when I was going to finally go. And they're like, yeah, let's do this. You know, here's, here's, we can help you get everything kind of started up. And we have a back office staff to help too, you know, as you bring on clients and things like that. And we just, all the other like little knickknacks you need,
00:27:18
Speaker
Yeah, when I got like, you know, we'll figure it out. We'll help you. You know, here's your spreadsheets. Here's your just, you know, you don't have to build all that yourself and make it nice and cute. Yeah. And then all here's your marketing material. They had all that. Wow. So so, you know, about six months goes by.
00:27:38
Speaker
Aetna gives me a call and they say, hey, we're going to eliminate the position that you're doing, but we'll offer you this position, a new territory, more travel. And maybe prolong your career there for two to five more years because it's still, it's in the Midwest. There's no focus there.
00:27:59
Speaker
And that's just not where the company was going. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So the focus anymore. They were very kind, great group of people that I worked with, um, a great team, but I go to my wife. I go, well, the call finally came in that we've been expecting. Let's do it. But they offered me another job to stay. Right. Right. I go, I'm 40. I'm jumping. I'm 41 at that time. Okay. Two now. So I was 41.
00:28:28
Speaker
I'm like, if I, do I start when I'm 44 or six or, you know, or do I just go now? Right. Yeah. Best stated planetary was yesterday. The other one's today. Let's go. So she's like, I, you know, I think you should do it. And my mom was alive at the time was like, I think you'd be great at it. You know, so I had family support. Everybody kind of was on board and I'm like,
00:28:51
Speaker
All right, well, I'm going to turn down your offer. I appreciate it. And they go, you kind of know what this means, don't you? My boss is very nice, and I love this guy still. But he's like, you know what this means, right? And I'm like, I do, man. I do. I appreciate it. But we'll just let the cards fall where they may, right?
00:29:11
Speaker
And it didn't take long. It was like three months after that conversation. I get the call, but I, by doing that, by playing it that way, I didn't have to quit and have no severance. I put in 11 good years, provided a lot of value. So I got a severance package, which even helps the runway. Start the business for sure. So when after that phone call happened though, I called my buddies again and I go, Hey,
00:29:35
Speaker
It's time. I know it's coming here in the next whatever. It could be tomorrow. I don't know. Then they're like, oh, I'm sorry, man. Things have changed. We're out. We're out. Oh, baby. Oh, man. Yeah, that's. Yeah. And I think it's I don't think it'll upset them now because everything's finalized, but they had built a nice little business themselves over the years and they were able to get some bidders that they didn't expect when we first started. Right. Right. Things change. Yeah. So no hard feelings. And I'm happy for them. But they're like, if we
00:30:06
Speaker
bring you in now, we can't guarantee that you'll be an owner and that somebody who's buying us isn't going to view the situation a little different and maybe make you a W-2 or make you sign a non-compete. Right, right. Things that you weren't ready to do when you finally got over the hurdle of like, I'm doing this by myself. Yeah. Right. Well, and so actually they encourage me that we'll just do it on yourself, man. We'll still help.
00:30:30
Speaker
And we could still help you with this, some of the stuff. And then there's a, I have a partner that is my back office, you know, they don't have any ownership stake with me, but I can, I can give them, you know, a little piece of whatever revenue comes in to help me with
00:30:46
Speaker
getting all the little things going. And the checks and balances, all that stuff. Yeah. So then now you're taking the leap and you're starting your own business. Now that it's really cool, I did learn this at our breakfast club. So tell us the name of your business, but then how you came up with your logo and the name of it. It's always been a family affair.
00:31:10
Speaker
All right, so without the support of my family, I probably wouldn't have made the decision. And it's the same thing, it goes back to how having that first daughter makes you really sharpen up and focus, but having the family support makes you sharpen up and focus as well. So my wife came up, she's a marketing person, she came up with our logo. A-H-G Benefits is Addie, Henry, and Grant, my three kids.
00:31:37
Speaker
Right. And we went through, I don't know when you guys, you know, if you use, when you started your deal, like how many names you might've thought about or came up with, we went through like maybe a hundred of them. Oh yeah. It's a process for sure. I just kept coming back to like, well, H G just sounds, you know, that just works. It just hit something clicked. Right. So we went with that.
Launching AHG Benefits: New Beginnings
00:32:00
Speaker
And then, uh,
00:32:02
Speaker
Abby is my wife, she starts going on, she does marketing as a professional, so she went on to some site and started dinking around with logos and stuff like that. And go back two years, we had taken the kids down to Mexico.
00:32:22
Speaker
And we're all walking along and my two little boys are walking down a sidewalk and then there's this huge iguana, like huge. And they're everywhere down there, right? But she's like right sitting on the step that everybody's walking past and the boys don't even notice it, I don't think. But my daughter is walking right in front of me. She's 12. And she sees us singing.
00:32:48
Speaker
Kind of freaks out because it's like, oh my goodness, that's a huge lizard. When you realize it's not alive. The mouth on that thing, I could take a chunk out of you. So it just startles her and her feet cross and she starts falling right in front of me. And I'm just like, I'm trying to reach out, but it happens so quick. I'm like, oh, and she just biffs it hard. And
00:33:10
Speaker
We all just go silent. And it's hilarious to watch, you know? But you don't want to laugh unless you know she's OK. But she gets up. She's not crying. She's like, I'm OK. We all just start laughing. And we even, like, after the trip and everything, we still gave her crap about it. Like, we gave her a stuffed iguana for Christmas. Nice. That's awesome. For her birthday, we gave her, like, a picture frame that says, best friends. And it's an iguana in the middle. Yes.
00:33:39
Speaker
Abby gets a, there's just a stock picture of a lizard and I don't think it's an iguana, but she's like, well, how about this and that? And so I'm like, yeah, yeah, let's do that. So that's our logo. Wow. So now that it's been up and going, uh, obviously it's been successful, right? You, our analogy is like, you got the plane off the runway. It's now up in the air. Uh, so obviously it helped to have that severance to get it up in runway. How many people are working for you currently?
00:34:07
Speaker
Well, zero, I have no W-2s or 1099s that I employ, so. Okay, so it's just you. It's just me. And your back office, which is huge. How many employers do you help with their benefits?
00:34:24
Speaker
Let's see, we've got five groups right now, ranging from two to 200. Right, which is huge. And then when you first started the AHG, did you know how many clients you actually needed to like, hey, this is how many we need? Yeah, I did the math, right? You got to do the math and the averages of... Totally.
00:34:43
Speaker
Right. So tell me the future of your business, future for your family. And I do want to go back because I think it's so important that you can give your your wife kudos because without
Vision for AHG Benefits and Family Support
00:34:54
Speaker
her. And we see this all the time. We've done over 100 shows. The spouses encouragement and support is like everything is truly like if you don't have it, like just don't start that route. You know, don't even go down the path. So what's the future? And then we'll go back to your spot.
00:35:10
Speaker
Well, as the future is, let's, uh, let's keep going. Continue to grow. Uh, I do want to hire a staff, you know, have, uh, have some more and not that they don't do a great job, but the back office is their own business. I want to, as we grow, just continue to bring more focus internally. So we're more independent and we don't have to rely on so many others and your own culture and your own. Yeah. It's just way easier for sure.
00:35:37
Speaker
Right, yeah. Good. Okay, let's talk about the spouse, because I feel like it's great. Abby, it's her name, right? Yeah, yeah. Abby. So without Abby, tell us where you'd be now. Oh, jeez. I don't know, Mexico? No, I think Juan is. I still have the kids, so yeah, I'd be, or I'd have one kid, so I'd still be around, but who knows? I mean, maybe I'd have taken that job with that, probably.
00:35:59
Speaker
And just stayed there, so nothing wrong with that at all. But, you know, just... Well, I mean, Abby helped you be true to yourself and push you towards that point. Right. Yeah. Yeah. She's definitely your ying to your yang. She keeps you... I'm married up. So, you know, if you guys looked at me, or if your audience could see this video, I'm married way up. So, must be my personality. Yeah, see? So cool.
00:36:29
Speaker
Now that you've got the plane off the runway, you're up in the air, looking back in your life, can you see, and I see it very clearly, how each one of your jobs were setting you up for your own business, right? And it's fun, even back to the siting thing, just that your hard work ethic has been a catalyst to where you're at now. The only difference is that you are making a lot of money for other people.
00:36:57
Speaker
And all you need to do, and I think a lot of people, all they have to do is just carve out 10% of what they're actually making their bigger company and they could be able to live better than they were now. And the tax code is set up for business owners. It just is.
00:37:11
Speaker
It is, you're right. I really think that we should be teaching this to high school kids. I mean, we should be teaching tax codes and investments and how money works in our system. Because they should be able to have that wisdom and knowledge to be able to base on what career they want to go to.
00:37:29
Speaker
Well, like I said, Philip, I wish you guys were around when I started that job being a 1099 there. I didn't save anything for taxes or even think about the future, nor did I have really any education in high school or college about it. And I don't think I'm part of the minority. I think there's probably everybody. I learned everything.
00:37:51
Speaker
on my own by just maybe, how's that guy afford that boat on Lake Ocoboji or whatever? Turns out he's got 300 rental properties.
00:38:01
Speaker
And they're not. How'd you get to that class? Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you saw they, it's terrible. It really is. That's a fault of our system kind of. Well, well, I'm super encouraged about your path, where you're going. And I'm grateful that let's say you're 42. It's still the time to do it. Jump off the proverbial bridge. Your parachute will open and the support that you'll find around you.
00:38:26
Speaker
I love your story about one, your family and your mom encouraged you, like you can do this. And then you also thought that your friends were going to help you in the way and like things change. But it didn't deter you from like, I'm going to try it, you know? Right. And what I would say is your story is a successful one. But even if it wasn't successful, I think that you would learn something, you'd be happy that you did it.
00:38:47
Speaker
Yes. No regrets. Right. No regrets. And what I think is interesting is everybody that goes down this path, everybody that takes the jump, it might not go according to plan, but nobody would say, I want to be back up on that bridge because there's always bridges you can, you can parachute down on if you needed it. So kudos to you for one, creating a successful business, bleeding in yourself.
00:39:11
Speaker
Here's what I learned. Here's the recap. You want to recap? I got one side. I just want to recap, Dominic. Yeah. So the business though. Okay. So this is to me like if you are in a 1099 position, the importance of having some kind of corporate structure. So if you're listening, you don't have that talk to an accountant, a tax person, just, just hear what that is to that hard work and work, work ethic are huge no matter what. Um,
00:39:39
Speaker
I love that you in your story didn't want to take the risk without having some kind of capital. Like you wanted to have a runway. And I think that is huge for any business owner to have, we call it a capital outlay or, you know, Dave Ramsey calls the emergency fund. We call it the capital fund. Same thing. Uh, and then the importance, um, of just surrounding yourself with people that you, you know, that are going to encourage you along the way. Those are my key, my key takeaways. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. You were right on all that. So.
00:40:09
Speaker
If I didn't have student loans, I might have started earlier. Right. But do note that for future people, if you do want to be a business owner, student loans actually get really fun if you're a business owner. There's other ways around that.
00:40:27
Speaker
for another episode. That's right. But you've got some advice on that, don't you? But anyways, I love you having me on the show. I'm sitting here trying to jog my memory. I don't know how we got connected. I just remember our first conversation at Starbucks.
00:40:44
Speaker
No, Sherm. We went to a Sherm event. Yes. Okay, so Sherm. That's where it was last fall. Yeah, I spoke there. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You did a great job. I just said, I came up to him and it's like, yeah, you did a great job. I know. And we started shooting, you know, talking and stuff. And I was like, oh, this guy's cool. So then I'm like, yeah, so then we grabbed, it was cool. Cause I just like, very few guys, do you find that like, can you sit down? So it'd have been our second time, but like the first time doesn't really count in the sense of like, it was just right afterwards. It was more of an introduction point. But like you, like we both.
00:41:14
Speaker
I always know you find yourself a good business owner when they're willing to get vulnerable too. We had conversations, we talked about, we had our connections through like, you played rugby, I said, I mean I tried rugby. I watched rugby. He was a great prop. I mean, you've been a monster on the inside. Yeah, well then I also saw people break the collarbone and shout out to their kneecap and then get punched from behind. I was like, I'm just not this mean.
00:41:41
Speaker
So, but anyways. You break your kneecap and they'd give you a beer and then about 17 more and you just forget about your kneecap. Yeah, just give me a weight room. I'm good. It's a lot more painful. It was, you know, it was all camaraderie afterwards. Yeah. No, that's great. Your rugby is a blast, but it's like, but I mean, like you're just generally like a really good guy. Like it was one of those things like you didn't ask for anything. And then I know a few people are like clients I've sent you like it's no pressure. And I was like, man, like,
00:42:10
Speaker
This isn't, I mean, this is uncommon. It's uncommon to find an insurance guy that actually cares and it's like, you're not chasing a dollar, you're truly just trying to help people and I appreciate the heck out of that. Well, hey, I feel the same way about you too. This is a bromance for me. Yeah, right in front of my eyes. You know, I feel like this
00:42:32
Speaker
The way that I'm going to do this on my own, I'm going to do it the right way. It's by telling the truth, you know, and just give all the information. And it's, you know, it's up to those folks to, you know, make their own choices, but just make an informed choice and then make sure it's from somebody giving you advice.
00:42:50
Speaker
not trying to gain by pushing you one way or another and switch. Yeah, just get you signed up and you're actually trying to educate and help and I think that's awesome. So Dominic, how do our listeners hear more about you and your company? Well, our website is ahg-benefits.com. We have a LinkedIn profile, which you just search for AHG benefits.
00:43:19
Speaker
We have a Facebook, which I'm not personally on. Facebook, not the book. I kind of have a thing about social media. I don't know if it's the old man get off my lawn thing, but I think, you know, I might tend to lose your focus if you're spending too much time on that stuff. But my wife has a...
00:43:37
Speaker
She's my social marketing media manager. And she told me we need to take a picture of us redoing this so that if it's okay with you guys, it's okay that we'll post it on our stuff.
00:43:52
Speaker
Facebook and look up AHG benefits or if you want to look up Dominic Bottenfield on LinkedIn You can kind of see my profile my experience and so cool. Well, thank you for your time Thanks, man. And thanks for listening. You've been tuning in to the uncommon life project I've been your host Philip Ramsey and I'm Aaron Kramer till next time go be in common
00:44:11
Speaker
That's all for this episode of The Uncommon Life Project, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.