The Habit Architect
Hosted by Michael Cupps, The Habit Architect is designed to help you intentionally build the habits that lead to success and break free from those that hold you back.
Each episode, Michael guides you through practical strategies for designing focused, productive days that align with your goals and vision. Whether you’re striving for personal growth or professional success, this show will help you create the daily routines and mindset shifts needed to unlock your full potential.
Tune in for expert insights, actionable steps, and real-life examples to transform your habits and build the life you desire—one intentional habit at a time.
The Habit Architect
THA S2 EP#3 - Rethinking Employee Benefits: Kristan’s Strategy for Success
Employee benefits can feel confusing, expensive, and full of fine print, especially in the U.S. healthcare system.
In this episode of The Habit Architect, host Michael Cupps speaks with Kristan Carlton, a Tulsa-based expert in group health benefits and employee coverage strategies. As VP of Operations at Inspire Benefit Consultants, Kristan shares what employees and HR leaders need to know to navigate medical plans, dental and vision options, mental health support, and voluntary benefits like accident insurance.
What you’ll learn:
- How to pick a health insurance plan that fits your actual needs
- Why accident insurance is gaining popularity in U.S. companies
- Common mistakes employees make during open enrollment
- What HR teams can do to offer better benefit education
- Real talk on EAPs, remote worker support, and rising healthcare costs
Whether you’re a small business owner in Oklahoma, an HR leader managing multiple states, or just trying to make sense of your medical benefits, this episode offers simple, practical advice.
🎧 Listen now and learn how to make smarter benefit decisions for yourself or your team.
This Show is sponsored by TimeBandit.io
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Hello and welcome to the Habit Architect. My name's Michael Cupps. It's good to see everyone again. I'm excited to talk about our topic today which is employee benefits. And I'll introduce our guests in just a moment, but just a few things to keep in mind. Do like us and subscribe on whatever podcast channel you are is your favorite because that helps us drive more content into those channels. And we wanna bring. Interesting conversations to you. And don't forget to go check out the Time Bandit at timebandit.io and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a little bit. But let me get started on our guest. Kristen Carlton's gonna join me and she is Vice President of Operations at Aspire Benefits and , Kristen, welcome to the show.
Kristan Carlton:Thank you so much, Michael.
Michael Cupps:There we go. Hello there. I can see you now. Hello. Very good. You just appeared. Yes. It's so good to see you. All disclosure, you actually provided benefits or your firm provided benefits to a company I worked with, and I enjoyed getting to know you there. And yes. Since then, you've been able to talk a few times and work together. And so welcome to the show. Why don't you tell us a little bit about you.
Kristan Carlton:My story's pretty short and sweet, like he said. My name's Kristen. I'm the VP of operations for Inspire Benefit Consultants. And I hand with, they handle like the day-to-day operations for Inspire. I also handle the large group side of Inspire benefit consultants and that, that's pretty much it. I help make sure that the processes and procedures that we're working through are standardized and just meet the same expecta, like the group gets the same expectation no matter what size across the board from every account manager.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. Yeah. Let's start there just because people may not know that because their employer and who they work for. What is a large group versus a small group? What does that mean? Sure.
Kristan Carlton:So every brokerage is gonna have a little bit of a different picture for large group versus small group. For us, it's going to be large group is considered anybody that has 50 employees or over. And the reason why is, 'cause once you start crossing that 50 life mark, you have a lot of additional compliance pieces that kick in. You're gonna be looking at FMLA. A CA filing possibly, and so on. So once you hit 50, a hundred, two 50, that type of thing there, the rules kind of change. And so that to us is how we classify large group. And then small group would just be anything under 50.
Michael Cupps:Okay. Okay. And we'll get into kind of the benefit program in a minute, but what led you to this business? How did you become VP of operation?
Kristan Carlton:Yeah, it was by accident, but I can't say that it wasn't. Lined out exactly put me exactly where I needed to be. So I was working for a pediatric therapy clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma area, and I was the office manager there. So we had two locations and I was helping run both. And I had Megan, my boss, just reach out to me randomly. She grew up with my aunts like 20 ish years ago, and for some reason she was looking to hire another account manager on the business was growing. She needed some additional help and for some reason she kept like thinking about me, which is weird 'cause we hadn't seen each other in 20 years. And so she just happened to message me on Facebook one day and was like, Hey. I have a job opportunity. I would love to talk with you about are you interested? And I loved what I did at the time. And, but something in me was like, yeah, I think I wanna hear what you have to say. So we met and it was, it's just been ideal for me since then. It was an easy transition 'cause like I knew how to deal with the carriers for, as a provider, right? And so I already understood the medical benefits under that scope. And just transferring that over to all the other benefits that it now. Encompasses and being able to help my employers that way has been, was an easy transition. So yeah, I'm right where I need to be.
Michael Cupps:That's fantastic. The lesson in there is take the meeting, at least listen, right? Yeah. Because you never know where it's gonna lead to.
Kristan Carlton:Exactly. Yeah.
Michael Cupps:It's interesting. We do have a lot of viewers from, from the UK and elsewhere. And what's really interesting is they don't understand the complexity of our healthcare system. And it sounds like you were on the provider side and the carrier side, and now you're trying to help people get the right benefit to suit their family situation. Yes. And it is very complex. Very complex. I'm guessing, just inspired just in general. You have the full functioning brokerage where you can provide healthcare, workers' comp other types of benefits that go along with that. So you run the gamut or,
Kristan Carlton:We tend to stay in our own lane.'cause like we don't do workman's comp and we don't do 401k. Like we, we do specialize in like the medical, the dental, the vision. If you think about disability products, anything that would be also be considered like. A lot of people, if you say Aflac, they understand what you're talking about. But those type of ancillaries, so accident insurance, cancer, or policies, critical illness, anything that encompasses. That type, I guess picture it more like health benefits overall is where we tend to stay. And the reason why is 'cause you can branch out and do all those other things, right? But we do this really well. And so that's what we just stick with. And then we partner with those other people. Like we have good referral sources for 401k for payroll, for the workman's comp that we can like help bring in if needed. But for us in general, we do stick with. What we do best. So
Michael Cupps:yeah. Do you mind if I go to benefit one-on-one with you and just say, sure. Because even in what you just said there if I think about a young a younger adult moving into the workplace, maybe they just got outta college and they, and then they're meeting a HR person and they're saying, here's all the benefits. Can you walk through how they should start thinking about their situation and to align the best benefit? Or maybe how do they get help doing it?
Kristan Carlton:Yeah. I think that a lot of people, the first place that I always recommend, obviously medical insurance trumps everything, right? Because that's gonna be the biggest expense that anybody can face if something catastrophic happens. So if somebody is new to the benefits I say let's look at what do you have day in and day out expense-wise that you are anticipating when it comes to your medical care. So if somebody is currently on. A medication that they have to fill regularly or they see a specialist regular regularly for whatever reason, whether it's a dermatologist or they have to get lab work done or whatever. Tell me your story without having to give me all the details. Just tell me what kind of expenses are you looking at? Because if we. Need a plan that's gonna plug in those copays right away, right? First dollar coverage. You know you're only gonna pay $25. If you go see your primary care, you're gonna pay 50. If you see a specialist and you need that security, then I'm gonna recommend a very different plan. Over if you're like a healthy individual who never uses your benefits and it's more of like a catastrophic thing. So first I recommend you look at that and see if, do I need those set copays from the start? Or can I look at something different where maybe I have to meet my deductible first, but I'm not using it anyways, and so I would be able to contribute to a health savings account outside of this. Yeah. And then secondly, I would look at your out-of-pocket max deductibles and everything like that obviously are important. But one of the things that I recommend people look at secondly, is going to be in a worst case scenario, catastrophic event, what can I afford? And that out-of-pocket Max is gonna tell you on that plan is gonna tell you if something major happens. It doesn't matter. What it is, like if it's you're diagnosed with cancer or you're involved in a, major car accident or something like that, the out-of-pocket max is your worst case scenario for a year. And what can you afford? Where can, and where can we put you comfortably? And then it's gonna be from there. It's okay, let's see how much this is gonna cost you and do we need to make some adjustments there?
Michael Cupps:Yeah. Yeah. And that's, it is interesting. I like the way you break it down because it really is thinking, taking your personal situation. Yeah. Because it, it does feel a bit overwhelming. Even as you move through another career. You change jobs and there's different cho choices and different, maybe you're accustomed to one carrier and then not all of a sudden that's not a choice for you on the next one. It's interesting because you. The other thing that happens with I think our younger adults is they all feel invincible because we did too when we were that age. And we're, I'm not gonna get sick and if I get sick, I'll just drink water or something like that. Or they just don't think about the catastrophic event that you mentioned. And it's interesting 'cause I was diagnosed with cancer at 46 and. I had no idea if I had the right insurance or not, to be perfectly honest. I, it, fortunately for me, it worked out. It was something that I, that, that worked into the way I needed to handle it, but I didn't plan for it, yeah. So it's an interesting thing because that's when people when I read stories about healthcare costs, it's people that were caught by surprise.
Kristan Carlton:More than always.
Michael Cupps:Yeah.
Kristan Carlton:Yeah.
Michael Cupps:And. So where do they go for answers? Just if as an employee, a young adult now in a new company, a new job, is it their benefits administrator they should start with? Or how, where do they go first?
Kristan Carlton:Yeah. I see, so each of my groups is very different, right? That's the beauty of. Our setup is it's not a one, it's not, none of this is a one size fits all. So I have some groups who the HR wants to be that go-to, they wanna be that liaison for the employee, they want the employee to come to them first problem solve what they can. If they have issues beyond the scope that the HR is able to handle. Then they wrote me in. And then I have others where I'm literally an extension of the HR and they don't have time to. Learn and navigate the benefits world. And so it's it, they literally give, my cell phone number over to the employees and I'm there to help answer questions. I will say that for the most part, the most common answer is going to be go to hr. And the reason why is because whenever you do have people come onto a company they get familiar with that hr, they get familiar with that team, and it's easier for them to go to them with questions and concerns versus reaching out to a third party that they've maybe seen once at open enrollment, right? They don't know me. The same way that the HR team does. So HR does tend to be that go-to for everybody. And I say that's a great place to start.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. And I think the key moment there is don't be afraid to ask. Because don't be afraid to ask. It's okay not to know all the answers.
Kristan Carlton:There is, yeah. There is no. Stupid questions in this industry whatsoever. If there is always something changing, whether it's because, the IRS is passing new legislation that's impacting what the carriers can do or how we're able to present benefits or what the employers are responsible for. Yeah. And we, the reason, that's the reason why we're here and we do what we do is because people can't keep up with it. That's why it's our job. Yeah. So absolutely ask all the questions.
Michael Cupps:All right. And then I want to get into other benefits in a minute but let's first talk about you. You mentioned dental and vision. Sure. And those are usually afterthoughts for whatever reason, but having gone through multiple surgeries and then when I go to the dentist, I realize they, they have to get a release even up to a year, and I have to take antibiotics the day of even a cleaning. Yeah. So I asked my doctor about that and I had no idea the critical link between your health and, yeah. And your teeth and gums and things like that. And it's, yeah, just that routine thing, just staying on top of it, getting routine cleanings makes a huge difference to your body. Not necessarily your smile.
Kristan Carlton:Exactly. Yeah. And unfortunately, vision is the same way.'cause they're able to catch some early on onset, like diabetes and stuff. If you do go in for your regular vision. Preventative care is everything. It doesn't matter if it does fall under the medical insurance or if you are just going in to get those cleanings or if you are going to in to get your eyes checked. It just taking those steps to be proactive and, get the preventative care and covered up front. Yeah, it does help you avoid so much in the long run. And they all end up. Going together or impacting each other, however you wanna say it. So yeah.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. We're all linked, we're It's all linked together. Linked
Kristan Carlton:Uhhuh.
Michael Cupps:Yeah, exactly. One cohesive
Kristan Carlton:body, that's all. Yeah. Impacted. Yes.
Michael Cupps:But the selection of those are usually a little more linear, right? They're easier than the health plan because it's either you elect in or you elect out. But maybe there's other options. But that seems to be the typical. Sense, right?
Kristan Carlton:Yeah. The dental insurance it's, you're gonna see a wide variety of options available, especially under different employers and group sizes and things like that. And a lot of people, whenever they are, they go to make the decision on the dental plan. It does come down to how much am I expecting to spend in a year because I have some people who are used. To having a lot of dental problems come up. And so they're gonna pick, like if a plan is available that offer offers$2,000 or $3,000 to spend towards dental care, they're gonna go with that option. And then I have other guys who just use it for preventative care, and so they're gonna go with the cheapest plan possible, and it may only cover like $750 of dental work a year. So again there's definitely some variety there, but it's not. It's not quite as looked at in depth as the medical piece for sure. Yeah. And then vision is gonna follow, it's gonna be the same. If you wear glasses, you're gonna look at it differently than somebody who doesn't, yeah.
Michael Cupps:But I think the lesson there is that you said they can detect detect diabetes, other things Yeah. Just by doing routine stuff, so that's great. Yeah. Alright, so let's move into the more I don't, I wouldn't call 'em complex, but maybe unknown benefits. And one thing. That we hear a lot about these days is mental health, especially after COVID, people working from home, not working from home, moving back to the office, what all the, all that uncertainty. But mental health became a a focus on HR leaders and most programs have So some form of EAP, if I'm saying that right? Is that could you tell us a little bit about that?
Kristan Carlton:Yeah, you're right. A lot of employers are either looking to purchase a standalone EAP or they're packaging it with a lot of my groups are looking at purchasing life insurance policies because the EAP comes bundled with that. So not only are you offering the EAP as a. Like a value added service at no cost to your employees, but you're also giving them this additional low low impact to the employer's budget benefit that yeah, you would never think you would need life insurance. But unfortunately I have run into more situations than I would like to count where an employer had thankfully had that on the backend. But yes, the EAP, it's basically just, it gives the employee access to a counselor or a psychologist or whoever they need to talk to, whether it's about. A situation between work or, and home? Both. Yeah. If they're having legal issues, they need to talk to somebody about it's discreet. Nobody has to know that it takes place. It's just between the employee and the counselor. So it's, that's definitely a great tool and a lot of people have definitely turned towards adding that into the benefit. I will say that overall, the medical plans obviously offer behavioral health component. The downside to that is. It usually comes with a copay cost, right? So you you have to pay your specialist copay or maybe you're still meeting your deductible or something like that. And then you have to worry about is this person in network, are they not? That type of thing. So that's the reason why they're looking and branching out towards other behavioral health options that could be available.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a critical piece, I think. These days for the help, the benefit plan. The overall benefit plan is how to seek help. I do some volunteering with some addiction recovery places, and that, that's, that, that's a stigmatism that's hard for people to. Because I talked to 'em that it's hard for them to think about going to their employer with that problem because they think it'll affect their employment status, right?
Kristan Carlton:Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Michael Cupps:So it has to be discreet and all that. Okay so that's all complexity, but what else is out there? What's fun in the oh man world that I see, I think we're gonna interview him on this show the CEO of Fringe, which is a fun company. Oh
Kristan Carlton:yeah.
Michael Cupps:I've seen OI think it was called Overalls, and I just looked at their website and they seemed interesting about running tasks for people. Yeah. Doing it like that. But what are you seeing? And out the.
Kristan Carlton:In my world it's gonna be a little bit more boring, right? It's not as fun as, but I do find I see trends where certain benefits take off a little bit more than others. And so right now I feel like the EAP had its moment that now it looks like accident insurance is starting to play a heavy role. It's helping employers funnel some claims off of workman's comp. So helping workman's comp claims stay down, renewals stay down again, we're. We're trying to save money anywhere that we can. And then the accident piece is nice because it's a really low cost solution that covers you. And even, you wouldn't even think about like spider bites if you get poison ivy. Oh, wow. Yeah, I know. They're accidents, right? You didn't intend for them to happen. And so if you have to go in for and make a visit for that situation, then you have the opportunity to have cash sent back to you to help with offset any expenses that you have that come up with. The ER visit or the urgent care visit, anything like that. I'm a huge fan of accident insurance. Again, it's one of those easy plugins that, and it gives you something especially 'cause I have lots of blue collar workers who like to, be a little bit crazy sometimes. Yep. Hard whether it's at th Yeah. Yeah. Whether it's at Thanksgiving and they're trying to catch a football and they break their hand or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. It's things like that. It's, and again, that's not, that is not at the capacity of cancer. Cancer is devastating and financially all the way around, but still, if you break your hand, you're not necessarily expecting to have to pay $4,000 to meet your deductible, plus all the other visits. To follow. So accident insurance, it helps offset that. So that's the one that I see growing the most right now. But yeah.
Michael Cupps:But I did I, yeah, you're right. I didn't think about that and what you said there, you're trying to offset costs in other areas, right? Yeah. So workers' comp, and are there also things that are offsetting healthcare plan costs?
Kristan Carlton:Yep. Yeah. And ac the accident insurance is one. Okay. And that's because it gives people a little bit more comfortability to go with a higher deductible plan. At a lower premium per month, knowing that, oh in the event that something happens, I'm not necessarily responsible for that $4,000 or that $5,000 deductible, right? I have something that's coming at me that's gonna help offset that expense.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. So everybody should ask if they have that.
Kristan Carlton:Yeah.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. What about plans that are specifically designed for?'cause I won't share what health plan I'm with, but they send me stuff all the time. And to be honest with you, I'm not sure I read it all. There's weight loss programs, there's like an wellness program. There's stuff like that and there's so much of it that I don't really pay attention to it.
Kristan Carlton:Yeah. I. There, it's hard to funnel through the noise. And again, that's where they I appreciate that a lot of the carriers have like the wellness programs in place where they're gonna give you cash back if you shop your benefits or shop for an MRI at a good location or whatever. Or they're gonna reward you for making, taking so many steps in a day or, there's reasons behind it. Cost containment solutions and strategies behind it. But again, you're right. It's overwhelming to everybody. The amount of information that you can have access to that can be sent your way. Yeah. It's, again, it's just one of those things where. Unfortunately, I do feel like a lot of people don't necessarily pay attention to those emails until it's time for them to need to use the benefit or they need to more information and then it's like, where do I go to get the most clarity in that answer? Yeah. So I, yeah. Yeah. But. You're right. A lot of carriers offer some really great programs. We do try to highlight, do some employee engagement or, just highlight specific pieces of the plan that for each group that we feel like is important. Yeah. Those are usually, they usually funneled, the information is funneled through hr, then directly to the employees. But we do feel like there's value in what's offered in a lot of this. Pro in a lot of the programs. It's just, yeah, unfortunately it does feel like noise sometimes, but Yeah. Yeah.
Michael Cupps:I, when you said that about getting, steps and blood work and things like that I, Catherine my partner she does it every year. Yeah. She makes sure she hits all those marks and she gets stuff back. Yeah, I unfortunately have not done that, it's great. It's there if people look, I think is the Yes. There. And so let me workshop something with you a little bit.'cause I have built a, I wrote a book and then I've built an app called Time Bandit and I've, it's out there on that marketplaces and people can buy it. But recently what I've been doing is packaging it. In a way that HR organizations can offer it to their employees. For and by the way, the book is based on helping you build better habits based on your values and then priority management. So the reason I think it's important to employers is because their people are stressed. And sometimes they fill outta control, and if they fill outta control, they're not gonna be very productive. And if you can help them get in just some basic defense on building better habits at work or building, understanding how to prioritize all those requests. I but what I'm really not sure about, I'm not sure if that falls into learning and development HR group or the benefits group. Does that make sense?
Kristan Carlton:Yeah. Honestly, it could be both. Yeah. Because if you can tie in the benefits. Pieces and the packaging and the programs and all that into the time bandit, then it would cover the best of both worlds, right? Like it would be, it would house all of that, that the employee could ever need. So that sounds like it would be amazing for both pieces.
Michael Cupps:Good. I'm even more encouraged than I'm gonna Yeah. I've talked to a couple companies about it, and they're, it's, it is encouraging. So I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes. Not just be B2C, but B2B, but do you see other programs like that where companies are coming to their employees and saying, here's a program that's voluntary, I'm guessing and that, and what's the uptake on that is if they sponsor it into the organization?
Kristan Carlton:Yeah. I will say it's. Okay. So I have had companies that are bringing in products where it is, it's housing all of that in one place, right? Whether it's the trainings, whether it's benefit information and it's sending out, maybe it's through an app that's sending out notifications of Hey, don't forget to go here and schedule your preventative visit and earn, $20 back or something like that. Some kind of incentive. But yeah, so the whole point is or the whole, not point, but like where I see the most value play out is when the employees are receptive to it. Yeah. So initially there's always like a hiccup or a hurdle that you have to cross, right? The employees are like, oh my gosh, you're asking me to do something additional too. Yeah. But then when they see the value and they actually take the steps to go through with things like that, and they see the pay, the payoff and the groups do too, like the employer side of it sees the benefit to that, then all, it just ends up running so smoothly. People tend to be more. Excited about it. Then they start talking to their other, like employer friends about it. And yeah, so I do see it make a change, make a shift in a lot of different ways and impact employers positively and employees positively. It's, I do just see that initial like. Hurdle that you have to cross yeah.
Michael Cupps:And it's an interesting thing because keeping talent re re retaining talent and attracting talent is necessary in certain cer certain sectors, of course, it's, it's more competitive. You were in one nursing and things like that. It's highly competitive to, to try. The good news for nurses is they can find a job at any hospital just about Yeah. But it's that to the employer, they need to think about programs that are gonna have them wanna be. The hospital, they them up,
Kristan Carlton:right? Yeah. Yeah. And that one is where, to me and I might have a little bit of a skewed vision of this because of the company that I did work for, but I do feel like you're right, it's very competitive, right? So the benefits play a huge part into that, whether it's, how much are you contributing to a 401k or it, maybe it is the medical plans that you offer. But also I think that the employees, when they feel heard and valued. Yeah. That's where they build that retention.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. For, yeah. Yeah. Now, why did you say you were jaded A bit?
Kristan Carlton:I just, I feel like the therapy world might be a little bit different than like a nursing world. I don't know. I see. I just, I feel like, I don't know. Yeah. Again my experience is limited to speech therapist, physical therapist, occupational therapists and therapy overworld versus like Absolutely. Yeah.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. I got, I gotcha. Yeah, it's interesting to me. I think tech companies more than any, that's why you saw in Silicon Valley or. If you Silicon Hills down in Austin, they, the they were bringing in ping paw tables and bringing lunch in. But I think I actually think employees now are beyond that a little bit. That's Okay. Yeah. And it's cute, but what they really want is something that's really gonna help them either achieve something personally or professionally. I think yeah,
Kristan Carlton:absolutely. No I can completely agree with that.'cause it's not having a, like a pizza party doesn't fulfill the people the same way that it used to yeah.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We, our producer asked a question, so we'll do that. What about benefits for remote workers?
Kristan Carlton:Yeah. What do you think about that? That's again, where I feel like, I think that's another reason why I make the statement employees have to feel heard and. Because if you're not in office and you don't have that day-to-day interaction with your boss to where you're building a relationship that's, it's gonna be different whenever you work separate from each other. There's not that same kind of connection. Whenever the employees feel like they can go to somebody, whether it's HR directly to the president of the company and when they are expressing concerns or issues that they're having and they feel heard and they feel like they see initiative being taken from, yeah. They what they're expressing, that's where they feel valued. And then that's where people are like, I think I'm gonna stay here'cause you, I can't go somewhere else and get that kind of response. Yeah. So that's how I see it play out. So remote is just, you have to be more engaged with your employees? Yeah. One, one of the areas
Michael Cupps:I, one of the areas on that I think is important that, I'm not sure there's a fixed solution for it. Companies are creative in it is how do they how do they mentor. Younger employees coming into organizations and I work in a building. I don't go in very often, but when I do, I go to this, it's a food court cafeteria, I don't know what you call it, salads and stuff like that. And I just overheard a couple of young guys talking about and it was a revelation. This was a couple, about a year ago, they said. Wow. I learned so much more when I come into the office. And that was just a statement. And then they started talking about, Howard or Betty or whoever they were sitting next to teaching 'em things. And that's the one thing that I don't think we've got right yet is how do we help the younger employees learn what we've maybe learned over 10 years, or
Kristan Carlton:20 years. Yeah.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. So it's an interesting thing that I think that's an opportunity for remote workers. And and what about that? What is remote work? Now becoming a perk? Or is it just are people choosing I'm gonna work at that company because I can work from home, or because I can go?
Kristan Carlton:Yeah, I do feel like that. I feel like we saw a shift whenever COVID hit to where everybody was working remotely. And then it felt like a lot of companies realized we can do this. Like we don't have to necessarily have an office. We can keep everybody remote. And there's pros and cons to that one. I do feel like. When it comes to the mental health component, not everybody's made to stay at home and just be alone and try to, power through. Okay. So there's now a balance of where you're seeing employers calling people back into the office and some employers choosing to keep everything remote. And in inside of that balance is another set where employees are either hating having to go back in office or loving, not having to be confined at home. But I do feel like those who are honestly looking for. Remote work. It's a perk, right? You're not having to drive into your office every day. And I do think that they view that as a perk. Yes.
Michael Cupps:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And maybe the answer is just flexibility so people can do what's right for them, like we talked about with the insurance choices and stuff like that. Yeah. We're real almost out of time, so I'm curious, what is one thing I didn't ask about benefits that people need to know?
Kristan Carlton:Oh man. And they're important. They are important. I, unfortunately, it's one of the most expensive things in the United States right now. Nobody is gonna be shocked by that statement. Healthcare is on the rise and we're all fighting to try to get it down to where it's not impacting everybody so heavily. But unfortunately, at the end of the day, it is one of those things where I'm never going to encourage you not to have it. Yeah. It's just gonna be like, how can we strategize to make it something that's not you're not paying the cost of the same price for as your mortgage every month. Right? Yeah.
Michael Cupps:Yeah. That's great. And that's good. And what is so we ask everybody on the get the show what's one habit that you don't compromise on and in your personal life?
Kristan Carlton:This one's gonna be stupid. It sounds stupid, but it's gonna, it, it has to be keeping up with my water intake. I do not. Perfect. There's gonna be times whenever I can't, I feel like I try to stay consistent, whether it's like working out or my routines are the same. I start my morning the exact same way every day. Right? There's always gonna be exceptions to that rule, because if you've got. Like an open enrollment meeting that you've gotta get to at seven o'clock. Then the way I start my morning is gonna look a little bit different than it does typically. But one of the things I never compromise on is like making sure I've got my water.
Michael Cupps:That is perfect. That, that, that is not a, that's not a stupid one. That's a great one. Everybody needs to water's essential. So that's great. Thank you for sharing that. I wanted to give you opportunity to tell people about Inspire benefits, but first I wanna say if you're on LinkedIn, go find Inspire benefits and follow them. Follow up. Kristen as well, if you can, because you guys put out some great little clips about when you're thinking about this and then you do a video or role play or something like that. And yeah, I think it's great to learn about different aspects of the benefits programs. But yeah, give, tell us a little bit about Inspire.
Kristan Carlton:I think the only thing that you need to know about us is we are small by design. We, the, what sets us apart from the big box, like large brokerage firms that you're gonna see is we're not sales-based, we're service-based. So a lot of the larger brokerage firms, they have a large sales team, and then it goes down to a smaller service team. Ours is built up quite the opposite. And what's nice about that is like you're going to, whoever you meet with initially, it's. We're there from start to finish. We're not passing you along from person to person. And then also I feel like we try to bring layers of strategy to our groups depending on what their need is. Some of them like simplicity, they just want you to, help 'em build a basic benefits package and it is what it is. Whereas others are like, tell me about direct Primary care. How can we combine an accident with this piece and make it all. Make sense and bring in the best value for the lowest cost and manage claims overall. So we're we can plug in anywhere you need us to. We're very flexible. Yeah. And we're a good team like us all.
Michael Cupps:I can vouch for that. I enjoy getting to know all of your team when I, you're no longer at my, where the company I'm with now is not using Inspire. I enjoyed the experience and it's still carried on. That's why we're on this podcast together because Absolutely. Yeah.
Kristan Carlton:Thank you. Absolute.
Michael Cupps:And maybe I can I can come to you and get some help on time Bandit for employee benefits. I did put a landing page out there, so if anybody's interested in how I'm starting position, it's time bandit.io and that's what funds this podcast. So I'll make that pitch that go out there and check it out. Kristen, thank you so much for joining us. It's very useful information. I, there's so many. Topics we could have dug deep into because it's complex. Yeah. I think the biggest lesson I'd learned is two lessons is ask don't be shy about it. Don't be shy. There's no stupid question in No when it comes to your benefits, I think. And then secondly, I'm gonna go check out if I have accident insurance.'cause I didn't know if I felt I fell off of it a.
Kristan Carlton:Yeah, I like it. Especially because a lot of the times, just to close it out, a lot of the time, those accident plans have a nice little perk to where if you're going in to get your preventative care done, they're gonna pay you like $50 or $90 a year, depending on just to get your preventative visits that's covered already a hundred percent by your medical plan. And they do that one because again, preventative care is everything, but two, to help offset the cost because you haven't used the plan yet. Yeah.
Michael Cupps:See there. This podcast is potentially putting money in everybody's pocket.
Kristan Carlton:There you go. I hope so. And
Michael Cupps:If you get that money, go to Apple store and download time Bennett. There we go. Exactly. Yes. Very good. Kristen, thank you so much for joining us. I enjoyed the conversation. Thank you for me. You certainly know your stuff and I'm excited and I hope people reach out to you as and I appreciate it.
Kristan Carlton:Thank you so much.
Michael Cupps:Thank you everybody and stay tuned next week we'll have another exciting guest and be sure to go to your podcast channel and or follow whatever they ask you to do. Thank you so much. See you next week.
