Latest / Glovisor Podcast / Ep 14: From Cleaning Donated Cars to CEO at 30 The Inside Hire Nobody Saw Coming

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Ep 14: From Cleaning Donated Cars to CEO at 30 The Inside Hire Nobody Saw Coming · Glovisor Podcast

• JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: We talk a lot about scaling businesses, but what does it look like to scale a mission? Most organizations search far and wide for their next leader, but today's guest proves that sometimes the best CEO is already in the room, growing, learning, and preparing for the moment to lead the mission and one day become an entrepreneur. Glovisor welcomes Colin Weatherwax. Colin Weatherwax: Thanks for having me, Joe. Appreciate it. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Absolutely. Once I heard your story, I couldn't wait to find out a bit more your journey. Because I mean, you have a really interesting journey. Colin Weatherwax: Yeah, I like to think so, man. You know, it's all life, right? JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Absolutely. All right, so take us way back and what was your role? When did you first join the organization and how did it all begin? Colin Weatherwax: Yeah, so way back, mean, growing up, my mom and I, she raised me as basically a single mom for the first eight years of my life. And what that looked like for her was she was a respiratory therapist. So she would go to work, you know, nights, usually 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. ⁓ And I would be, you know, sleeping during that time. But, you know, everything that she kind of instilled in me was this this work ethic. and this want to help people, right? So whenever I turned 14, she came to me and she's like, hey, you you want to do this, you want to go out and have fun with your friends, you want to buy a new bike, you want to buy video games, whatever the case may be, you got to go and get a job. And so I actually started working seasonally at a water park whenever I turned 14 and not like you're, you know, You hear it all the time. ⁓ I was a lifeguard, blah, blah. No. So I actually worked in the kitchen at the at the water park and, you know, just being the cashier, making sure the hot dogs were ready, making sure the frying pans were nice and greased. You know, you know what that looks like. And absolutely loved it. Like I found out during that summer that I was in love with working so I started, that's where my ⁓ working started was just out of water park seasonally for a couple of years ⁓ before was like, wait a second, I don't have to just work during the summer. I can work the rest of the months too. Like I can always have a paycheck coming in, right? Even though I was going to school, right? I was in high school. ⁓ And I found, I found ⁓ a hospital. ⁓ Again, not like your typical. ⁓ work where you're helping the veterinarians and stuff like that or the receptionist. I was actually working in the kennel. So if you, Joe, if you and your family go out of town, you want to leave your dog, bring it to me. We'll watch them, make sure they're fed, take them outside, you know, make sure they're having a good time. I've always been a dog lover. so it was pretty, pretty easy for me to go into that route. so I started ⁓ worked there all the way up until I graduated high school. And again, what that started to look like was it came, it became more than just a job for me. I was running the kennel, the veterinarian, it was a family owned business. So they came to me and they were like, Hey, do you want to kind of run the doggy daycare? This is something that we're thinking about doing. We're expanding, we're going to build, you know, a bigger yard so that way we can have this to offer to our customers. Can you run it? And I was like, Yeah, I mean, I already get to play with dogs every day and I get a paycheck for it. Like, why not? More dogs, more fun. Yeah, why not? ⁓ So yeah, so that was that was my journey up until, you know, I started at at Cars for Kids. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Well, that's excellent. All right. So it seems like you were already headed towards management, right, by running their own kennel place. So that's... Colin Weatherwax: Yep, yep. ⁓ You know, with the water park and with the kennel, right? mean, management just kind of, it wasn't something that I was looking for, right? But the more that you show up and the continuously that you show up every day with just that mentality of, okay, it's not just another day at the office, right? It's, I have a job to do, but whenever I'm not doing that job, what am I doing to better myself and eventually better the organization? Right? So that was just instilled in me, guess, probably from my mom, but it all just kind of came together ⁓ just as it did. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: So now, you're ⁓ doing this work, now you've already spiraled, you came to ⁓ your there where you're like, I need to work a little bit more and I can get paid for having fun with the dogs. So that's awesome. But you're learning all these skills, right? You're learning the skill of hard work, you're learning the skills of doing the actual part of the business. Some people get these really cool jobs in the summer, but they don't really get to ⁓ learn of those skills that... ⁓ they can actually translate into a career later on. But not you. You ended up with the actual real skills that you could actually translate them to. So now you go to Cars for Kids organization. And what was your first role there? Colin Weatherwax: Mm-hmm. I'm 18 at the time, right? And so how this job came about was through my work at the animal hospital, my girlfriend at the time, she saw this car auction and she's like, you should go check it out, like on a Saturday, right? And, you know, growing up, I played sports, so I always had that competitive nature. And I went to this auction and have you ever been to an auction, Joe? Okay. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Yes. Colin Weatherwax: So you get like the adrenaline rush of like either being the one to raise your hand or just seeing kind of like, okay, this is the item. This person's going to pay this amount of money for it, blah, blah. Right. So I got to see that firsthand for the first time and I was immediately hooked. I mean, for having all of that competition in me and being able to now see it translated into my adulthood, I was like, okay, like I'm in, I started there that Saturday, it was my working interview. ⁓ basically what I did was, ⁓ a quick overview of Cars for Kids is it's a donation company taking in donated vehicles and then selling them in auction. And then at the end of the fiscal year, all of the proceeds that were built and raised throughout the year are then donated to our beneficiaries, right? So there's a whole working mechanism. for this nonprofit, basically working as a for-profit, right? You're getting a product in, you're selling that product, and then at the end of the year, you're giving it to your beneficiaries. So that Saturday that I started there, I was working with the cashier and, you know, checking people in, so giving them their bidder numbers so that way they can raise their hand, right? And then whenever they do win a bid, they come in, we do all the title paperwork, you know, transfer of title. give them the keys, them their temporary license plates, and then they're off to the races, right? And so that entire day I was just soaking it in. And by the end of the day, was doing my own cash outs. Like the person that had trained me was just watching over my shoulder. And at the end of the day, she went to the chief operating officer at the time and she was like, you can't let him leave. Like he's got to work for us. And so... I started there that next or I guess two weeks later and I started cleaning out the cars that were donated to cars for kids. So you name it. I've probably seen it, right? ⁓ Joe, don't know if you've donated a car, but I know you probably had like an old car that's either been sitting in your driveway or sitting, you know, back in a field somewhere, but think of those cars and how long they've been sitting, you know, maybe you left a water burger bag in there and That was 20 years ago, right? So we're getting these cars in and my job is to clean them so that way they're make ready for the auction, right? So, ⁓ you know, Ford Pinto with no motor comes in, there's a possum in the trunk, there's a tree growing out the side of it, like you name it, I've probably seen it. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Ha ha ha ha ha. that's ⁓ far from the role of a CEO though. So, how long of a transition was it that you worked cleaning cars to the day where they actually said, you know, we need Colin to come up here and help us get into this role. How long was that process? Colin Weatherwax: I started there when I was 18 and I became CEO whenever I was 30. And so that journey was ⁓ very much alike ⁓ my previous careers, right? At the water park and at the kennel ⁓ I would come in, I would do my work. But then at some point I was like, okay, like this is a full on operation where we have people answering the phone. We have compliance staff that are making sure that we have all the right paperwork in order to sell these vehicles. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Wow. Colin Weatherwax: We have mechanics that are looking at the vehicles. We have a forklift that's moving the vehicles. We have marketing. We have HR. We have accounting. All of these things make this this vehicle run. Right. And so for me, I was a sponge. I was like, what else can I learn? How else can I help this organization become better and help out more people? Because at the end of the day, the only reason why we went to work every day was to help our beneficiary. right? great ⁓ kind of example of that that I have ⁓ is this one student ⁓ came to us and his mom got sick whenever he was in high school. And so he dropped out of high school to help take care of her and get her on the mend. So that way, you know, she was, she could still be his mom, right? So three years later, he's now 18. He dropped out whenever he was a freshman or a sophomore and he goes to one of the schools that we help support. And again, he's not a bad kid, right? He dropped out of school to help out his mom. and everyone gets labeled like, you dropped out. Like you're a failure, you know, this or that and the other. And, you know, for me growing up, I wasn't in like a mansion, right? I had food on the table, I had a roof over my head. You know, I rode my bike to school all the way from fourth grade until senior year. ⁓ So I didn't necessarily have like a hard upbringing, but looking at this kid and seeing, okay, His mom got sick, he stayed at home to take care of her, and now he's going to better on his career, right? So that was one of the things that I got to learn during my kind of growth from cleaning out the cars up to CEO is, okay, who am I actually showing up to help every day? And that's what that looked like. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: But in the beginning, did you ever even imagine that you would be in that role? Colin Weatherwax: Absolutely not. mean, I honestly, if I would have done like a futures bet, I don't know if you're a gambler, right? And I'm sure the odds would have been like a million to one of me becoming CEO, let alone becoming CEO at 30. Right. So again, that that growth mindset and just the way that I went about work. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Ha ha ha ha. Colin Weatherwax: kind of led me to become the CEO, my work and work ethic put me in the position to where I could actually make a real difference by becoming CEO. So ⁓ during journey, again, I worked in every department so I could relate to all of the people that I eventually became their boss. ⁓ And grew up like physically ⁓ and, you mentally, emotionally, all of the things I grew up in this this company, right? I mean, I was an 18 year old kid. And by the time I was 30, I was CEO. I was CEO and boss over some of the people that were my managers before that. So again, whenever I look at it, and this is kind of like a 30,000 foot view, Me being able to be in their shoes, the shoes of every single person that I worked with, helped me in my role as CEO because I could relate to the person that was answering the phone. I could relate to the person that was out there moving the car. I could relate to the person that was cleaning the cars, right? Because I had been there. The only thing that I couldn't relate to was the mechanic Joe you you could not pay me enough money to fix your car man like there's there's no way that I would be able to fix a car right so that in that sense I said okay I'm gonna leave this to professionals JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Yeah. Well, one of my next questions were going to be what were some of the biggest challenges you face while moving up to the role? Colin Weatherwax: me, ⁓ the journey became ⁓ real whenever I CEO and the way that I became CEO ⁓ is ⁓ one of the stories ever. So same chief operating officer that hired me whenever I was an 18 old ⁓ he had become CEO. ⁓ you know, from this chief operating officer days. So he was basically my mentor for the 10 years before I became CEO. And out of nowhere, he passed away. He passed away on a Monday. And at the time I was holding the role of chief operating officer. And by that Friday, I was named interim CEO. And so the challenges that I faced during that transition from you know, the, person that was making sure the operation was running smoothly to now becoming this visionary for the organization and, and making sure that everyone below me were, were kind of on the right, on the bus, right? Cause we're, moving forward, right? And it was extremely challenging. ⁓ you know, I inherited a, a ⁓ $10 million organization, and Within the first month of me becoming CEO, I was in a deposition for a lawsuit that he was already taking care of. And he was the main key person, key employee that was going to be on the stand for this lawsuit. ⁓ And then I started to have to interact with the board, which is something that he had done basically exclusively. And he just let me work in the business as the chief operating officer. The other thing that he did was he was basically the only person in charge of the finances. So I had to have a crash course in legal, board politics and finance within my first month at the helm. It was definitely a team effort whenever it became, how are we gonna solve all these issues that we're kind of fielding at the same time, right? And so, for me, the crash course in legal, we had a really good legal team and this was complete, basically Spanish to me at the time. And I had to have long nights and long days with the team to understand the... understand the suit and understand the problems that we were facing and, be that person that was going to be on the stand to represent the organization. So that's, that's the first, that's the first step, right? The second step was the finances. So we had a fractional CFO at the time that only interacted with the former CEO. And so I was never really a part of that. And I called him in and I was like, okay, ⁓ show me we're at. Show me what I need to know. and you and I are going to be working together a lot more than maybe you and the former CEO were working together just because I need this education so that way I can know where we're at so I can make the right decisions for the company. Right. And so all of these things kind of led me to some long nights, but also again, it goes back to me growing up in this company. Right. I wasn't going to let it fail. There was no bone in my body that was like, okay, I'm not prepared for this, so I'm not gonna do it. It was, okay, I'm not prepared for this, so I gotta figure out how to prepare for this. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Did you ever bring in external coaches, consultants to help you out through the process? Because very often we called in to help ⁓ even just for presentation to the public. Did you have do that at any point? Colin Weatherwax: Yes, I hired not one, not two, but three business coaches. ⁓ Again, this was, this was on my own accord, right? So the board and I were working together and I could understand now, you know, looking back on it, ⁓ they're probably hesitation whenever they named me interim CEO. I'm a 30 year old guy running a $10 million organization. Right. And so my JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Hahaha! Colin Weatherwax: internal goal with this challenge was, okay, I need them to believe, the whole team that works for me already believed that I was the right person for the job and so did I, right? But I needed to convince them that this was not just a fly by night. I'm not just holding the seat, right? You don't have to go looking just like you let off the show with, right? And so one of the things that I did was I hired a coach to help me on the finances. So he would be there with my CFO and I. And after we had that meeting, I would be interfacing with him. He would show me, I would ask questions, you all of those things that go along with coaching. I hired a board kind of politic coach, right? Because again, the former CEO was basically gatekeeping the board interactions between just him and the board and not involving any of the other staff. And so I had no idea who these people were. didn't know how to. you know how to appease them. didn't know what information they needed. I didn't know what questions they had. So that was my second coach that I hired. And then for my third coach, I joined a ⁓ peer business coaching group where it was about 10 to 12 of us that were all CEOs or C level executives. And we would just meet once a month The first thing that I bring up three people are like, ⁓ I just dealt with that last month. Like this is how I did it. Right. And so, ⁓ you know, for me, I, I always, ⁓ I always wanted to challenge myself. I was never complacent with, you know what? I know it all. Like I can do this. ⁓ it always like, okay, how can I be better? And in turn, how can I make this organization thrive under my leadership now that I'm the one calling the shots? JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Now, if you can, in hindsight, if you can give yourself a piece of advice, what would it have been? Colin Weatherwax: it's interesting because, ⁓ you know, we'll get to this later on in the show, but ⁓ my line of business is now an insurance. Right. ⁓ And one of the things that is my passion is life insurance. ⁓ And only just life insurance for for you, the individual Joe, but for you, the solopreneur or entrepreneur or C level executive inside an organization. And what that looks like is something called key man insurance, something that I had no idea existed. And had I had known we could have potentially had this in place for when this, former CEO passed away. And so what key man insurance does is let's say you and I go into business, Joe, and you know, I'm your chief operating officer. You're the CEO. and we sit down one day and you're like, okay, this is what's going to happen. This is our plan. We're going to, you know, we're going to build this thing up. We're going to make $10 million, whatever. And then the next day you pass away. If you have something called key man insurance, we put a life insurance policy on you to where if you pass away, the business is actually the beneficiary. So you have all these great ideas. have, you know, a brick and mortar. You have all these expenses, blah, blah. Well, if you pass away, now the business gets that payout of the death benefit. So the business can keep going in your absence. And that vision that you and I created can still last on, right? Instead of how many times have you heard, you know, a solopreneur or a business opens up and then the owner passes away and then you never hear from the business again, right? JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Along the way was the entrepreneur growing within you? Colin Weatherwax: Absolutely, right? So I was chief operating officer for three or four years. So working in the business, on the business, not looking as the visionary, right? And whenever I've gotten that seat, I was like, okay, I know that we're this national company. I know that we take money in from all these different states. And my biggest vision for the company was, ⁓ How can we partner with these states and within these states that we're making all of this money from, from donations, how can we partner with them and give back to specific organizations that are in those states so that way we're helping out more people? And that first year, I'll never forget, my chief marketing officer and I, we worked together, we basically cut the marketing budget by half. So we were spending about $5 million on marketing. And after a meeting with our CFO, he was like, we got to cut expenses and this is the place to do it. So we cut it down to 2.3 million in our marketing expenses and we did not see a dip in the amount of vehicles that we got. Not only that, but we were able to pinpoint and understand our customer profile a lot better than we had in past where we would get, you know, 10, 15, sometimes 20 cars from, ⁓ from Minnesota for instance. Right. And in the past we're like, okay, cool. Like we just got these cars in, but now me and the chief marketing officer are working together and we're like, okay, but why, why are we getting these cars from Minnesota? What are we doing in Minnesota that we're not doing? And you know, name of state, Tennessee, Illinois, whatever. And so working with the chief marketing officer and our vendors and our partners in that marketing space, we were able to build on what we kind of our name brand, right? I mean, we've been in business for 40 years, but ⁓ you know, we had never really had a mechanism in place where these these targeted campaigns were being done. It was more like throw stuff on a wall and see what sticks. And then if it doesn't stick, then we'll try something else. Right. ⁓ And so that that entrepreneur spirit and just kind of the always questioning. Like, okay, why are we doing this, right? And I mean, I'll never forget so many times during those meetings, the answer was, well, we've always done it that way. And ⁓ my gosh, I've never really run out of an office during a meeting, but I've had that feeling of, wanna run away from this conversation now because you just said that as the answer, right? It's one of the biggest pain point for me is if you can't explain why we're doing something, and your default is because we've always done it that way, then I don't have to investigate further. That's where the problem is. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: we bring that up very often. If you hear that keyword, you know, okay, that's it. Thank you. You found the reason for me. So, okay, so you here you are, your CEO, entrepreneurs growing within you. ⁓ Are you looking around that? What's my next thing? Where I going? I'm going to go on my own. Am I going to work for somebody else? Well, ⁓ what was your mindset at that moment? Colin Weatherwax: you My mindset really never changed. I honestly thought that I was going to live and retire in that position and at that company. ⁓ I never thought that I would leave. And so during my two years, two and a half years at the at the CEO level, ⁓ I had taken it from 10 million a year to 15 million a year for both years. So, you know, 33 percent growth ⁓ showing in each year. And all of that came to, you know, re-looking at our marketing, making sure we were doing the right things. ⁓ Definitely came with their challenges. I actually just posted one on LinkedIn the other day where we were forced during one of our, ⁓ I think this was probably my first year as CEO, a bill that was passed at the state level inadvertently affected us and took away 70 % of our buyer base like that overnight. And so that led to us, you know, going down to the state capital, writing a bill, partnering with the Department of Transportation, working with the DMV, and we did everything that we could for three months and we could not get that bill passed at the Senate level. And so for an entire year, we had to be creative. We had to figure out, how are we gonna make this work after we just lost 70 % of our buyers? And even still, we were able to beat our projections and- of beat our status quo, right? And so with those challenges and kind of with the development of my vision and working with the board, there became a moment where the vision that I had and the vision that the board had went like this. And it's unfortunate because again, I thought I was going to live and die there, honestly. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: now you're looking around and you're looking for an opportunity. ⁓ And how did you get to insurance? Colin Weatherwax: Mm-hmm. crazy story. ⁓ I was kind of, you know, looking for my next opportunity on LinkedIn and I get a DM one day from someone at New York life saying, Hey, have you ever thought about doing insurance? And immediately I was like, no, why would I want to absolutely not? No, I don't want to do that. And so ⁓ naturally I went to the office, right? And I was like, yeah, I'll hear him out. Right. And I'll never forget. He, JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: You Colin Weatherwax: you know, we're sitting there in the meeting room and you know, I, I tell him a little bit about my story and he asks me, he's like, what do you want to do? Like in, in your life, what do you want to do? And I think that that period of time for me searching for my next opportunity, I had a lot of reflection time, right? And so I got to look inwards and actually ask myself that question. Right. And so luckily, or strategically, probably strategically, ⁓ I had an answer. And my answer to that specific question was I was put on this earth to help people. I've been doing it since I was 18. I didn't know whenever I was cleaning out that car that it was helping someone. But as I worked up and began to realize, like again, that reflection time, I realized that everything that I do, I do to help others. And so whenever I told him that his answer was Okay, great. That's what we do here. I was like, dude, you're selling insurance. What are you talking about? And so a month later, I had already completed all my training, everything that I needed to do in order to kind of start start my career with New York life. And then I was going to get all of my licenses, like get all those tests out of the way. So that way, once once the little one came, then you know, I'd be off in the races. And so ⁓ JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Yeah. Colin Weatherwax: Naturally life has other stories after you make a plan and our little one came a month early so I got to spend the summer with her kind of you know being that the first time first time dad to a newborn we're a blended family so you know I get I get two sides of it right I got the young one and I got the older one so it's it's a blessing JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Now we all have to deal with insurance agents at some point in our lives, right? But what, from your perspective, what makes one insurance agent better than another? Colin Weatherwax: That's a great question. I think for me, the insurance game is just what you mentioned, right? There's always like, ⁓ you sell insurance, whatever, right? For me, it comes down to the education piece. ⁓ And something that I didn't know ⁓ that was this big. ⁓ The of what good insurance is, right? ⁓ Because a lot of people are like, okay, like I have to have it, right? Especially on the home and auto side. I like to say that for me, life insurance is probably the most important of the three. But the problem is, that you don't have to have it in order to get a house, right? And then you also don't get a citation if you don't have it. So that's why these, the property and casualty, the home and auto side, it's easy, it's an easier sell because people in their mind think, okay, well I have. so the education piece for me is something that we at the brokerage love to do. Everyone is not our client. The people that are our clients are the people that realize that the protection is what matters, not the price. And so if you think about ⁓ of like the, the minimum limits in Texas, right? So on, on the motorist side, ⁓ have to have 30,000. and 60,000 in order to get your car on the road. But those limits are in place just to get you on the road. Okay? What happens if you actually do get in an accident? How far will that 30,000 and 60,000 actually go? your insurance doesn't even cover the cost of your car. So you see these, you know, nice cars on the road and you're like, okay, you know, what would happen if, you know, JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Mm-hmm. Colin Weatherwax: if something were to happen. And so that's the education piece that we like to look at it from, right? And that lens, right? So whenever we get a client, you know, sometimes they have a nicer vehicle. Well, we, we put them in the situation that a lot of us don't like to go to in our head, right? Okay. Let's say Joe, get into an accident today. This is the current current insurance that you have in place. Do you see that this is probably an issue, right? And so having those breakthrough moments with these clients ⁓ goes back to my purpose in life, right? It's helping people. And for me, one of the most kind of rewarding aspects to this is uncovering a pain point that people did not realize that they had and having them sit in that moment and be like, ⁓ crap, you know? A lot of times we don't even think about the insurance. We know we have it, we know we're good until we have to use it. It's a when we have to use it, not an if, it's a when. And when that moment happens, my goal and the goal of us at the brokerage is to make sure that our clients are like, okay, this happened, but I know I'm protected. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: now how is this role different from the CEO role or are they very much alike? Colin Weatherwax: Completely different. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Hahaha Colin Weatherwax: I think the entrepreneur spirit has followed me from, you know, the time I was 14 until now, right? Going out, making connections, ⁓ you know, just being a genuine human and people being able to resonate with me and know that, okay, I'm working with Colin, but Colin's not looking for a paycheck. Colin's looking out for my best interests. Right. And so my days now aren't, you know, with board meetings and looking at PNLs and balance sheets and worrying about, you know, where, where our marketing is and stuff like that. think it all, I think all of that experience helps me in my current position more than a lot of people think it might. ⁓ And I say this all the time, you know, especially with people on LinkedIn that don't really know me. They look at my job history and they think in their mind, they're like, But wait, this guy reached the pinnacle of success, right? There's this imagination or this figure that we all create in our mind of what success looks like. And a lot of the time, that's either, becoming a business owner or becoming CEO, right? And so now people think of my trajectory like this and then this huge fall off, right? For me, it's just the steady growth, right? ⁓ you know, the position that I held doesn't define who I am. And realizing that and being able to have these genuine conversations with people and tell them that, everything that I did leading up to this point has made me better for my current position and for, you know, being able to help out more people. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: ⁓ absolutely. And I totally agree. I think everyone does have a different point of reference for what success is. And that's what they're thinking it is. But, you know, look at what right now the experience that you've gone through and who else can explain a key man insurance better than you can. Right. It's not theory. It's it actually happened. And you could have benefited from it because of Colin Weatherwax: Mm-hmm. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: So now you you really have a good storyline to that and that was a good story, but then it's a it's a real story You know, you've actually lived through it ⁓ And is that your goal clientele? business owners and in educating those owners to to take advantage of this Because most owners I'm sure don't even understand that this is available Colin Weatherwax: Absolutely, Joe. You know, it's funny. Just this last week, I had three virtual coffees with people where it's just like this, you and I interacting and I go through that key man insurance where I tell them that story and all three of them did this in their chair. I mean, they were like, they work with solo entrepreneurs, they work with entrepreneurs, they have these people as clients and they're like, I had no idea this exists. I had no idea. Right. And, you know, my wife and I, joke all the time that most of the time in business and in life, the one thing that that kind of holds us back is that we don't actually listen when people try to teach us. Most of the time, we have to figure it out for ourselves. Right. And, you know, I've I've been guilty of that. Right. Someone tries to tell me, hey, you probably shouldn't. you know, do this, you should probably shouldn't do business with this person. And I'm like, no, they're a good guy. And then, you know, one thing leads to another. And it turns out they're right. ⁓ And so what I try and do is again, I try and put people in that place in their mind where they don't want to go. Right. It's scary. It's not something they want to think about. It's not rainbows and butterflies. Like, why would I, why would I go there in my mind? Well, why don't you just come to me in that place in my mind? where you were living that exact same situation that I was in, right? Being thrust into CEO, living auction to auction, and trying to figure out how we were gonna make it and how we were gonna scale this business. So for something, for me, it's an extreme passion of mine to educate people on the key man insurance side, especially for solopreneurs and then even on the partnership side. we can start talking about buy sell agreements and getting, getting things in place to where Joe, I'll use the same example. You and I go into business together and this time I'll pass away. already picked on you and said you're going to pass. Yeah, this time I'll pass away. ⁓ so if we're in a partnership, then if I pass away, you immediately go into business with my wife, unless there is a buy sell agreement in place where it says, okay, if Colin passes away, JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Thank you. Colin Weatherwax: Joe, this is the amount of money that his wife needs in order to be whole, or this is the agreement in place saying that you don't have to go into business with my wife. If we're in a partnership and that buy sell agreement does not exist, then it's an immediate flip of the switch. You're now in business with my wife. So again, it's the education piece that I just, I love to do. ⁓ And being able to help people with these pain points that they don't realize are out there. ⁓ is something that I strive to do every single day. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Yeah, so bringing back the buy sell agreements. So if someone calls you tomorrow and ask you a little bit more about this, do you help them write the buy sell agreements or do you suggest or recommend to go to the attorney? How does that work? Colin Weatherwax: So most of the time in that instance, they either don't have something in place or they do have something in place, right? And so that's my first question. It's like, okay, do you have something in place or not? And then from there through our brokerage, you know, have access to about 50 different carriers on the life insurance side, which is technically the bucket that the buy-sell agreement and the key man insurance fall into. And so we have, or I have access to advisors that do this on a day-to-day basis. to where we get on a call, we get to understand the business a little bit better, understand the goals of each partner, make sure that they're aligned and ask them the question, okay, are you comfortable going into business with their spouse, right? ⁓ And then from there, we make the plan, the Buy Sell agreement, the Buy Sell agreements in place, and then we start the applications for the life insurance, right? Because at end of the day, the Sell agreement ⁓ is the structure. of which the life insurance will then be used for. So it all comes down to it being a life insurance policy, but ⁓ you know, it's very, it's a very intimate conversation. We're understanding the workings of the business and understanding, okay, how can we put something in place and what does that dollar figure look like in order for both partners to feel at ease? JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Sure, and if you have a situation where you have two partners and do you meet with each partner independently so that way they're not sharing their personal information, how does that actually flesh out? Colin Weatherwax: Yeah, that's a great question. ⁓ For the most part, it's the first meeting is with everyone, right? ⁓ Because again, at this juncture, we like to come in at the beginning, right? So they're just getting started. This is something they know they have to check the box and get done. And so it's basically just a free flowing conversation, right? ⁓ I think there are instances where you can have those one on one meetings whenever you actually understand the business better. after the first conversation, ⁓ especially if they're like, okay, well, I need this in place. I don't really wanna go in business with Joe's wife, right? Something like that. ⁓ But everything that I do, it's always like, okay, we're all here. We're in business together. Like, obviously, that's the first hurdle, right? You're already married. Now let's figure out, okay, what's this marriage look like? ⁓ So in my experience, it hasn't really been like, okay, I'm gonna do a talk to Joe and then, you know, become that mediator, right? That just makes it too, it just doesn't taste right, right? ⁓ We want it to be like, hey, insurance is a place for if and when something were to happen. And if it's not in place, I'll be the one to tell you what that looks like, right? So our job is to make sure that you don't get to that place where it's not in place. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Can you list for us all of the different insurances that you provide and then who should be contacting you? Colin Weatherwax: Yeah, thank you for that, Joe. So again, for me, I'm based in Texas, so most of my business comes from Texas. I'm also licensed for the life insurance piece in California. The good thing in life insurance is that since I'm licensed in Texas, most of the time I can get licensed or sworn in in any state. I just need to have, you know, a pretty good solid agreement between someone before I go and get licensed in that state. And so for the state of Texas, I do personal home. and personal auto in addition to the life insurance pieces. And then our agency owner, he does all of the commercial lines. So general liability, workers comp, E & O cyber insurance, all of those things we like to say we're the real BBB. So we protect the business, the building and boss. ⁓ So that's a good way to think of it. And ⁓ and yes, so any anything insurance related? JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: I like it. Colin Weatherwax: I would love to be a point of contact for anyone that has a question on it, right? Especially that pain points of, okay, what happens if I pass away? Will my business survive? ⁓ I just got my renewal paperwork in and I saw a spike of 40%. What do I do? I like to say I read the policies so you don't have to. and ⁓ yeah, so then on the commercial side, anything that has to do with commercial real estate or you know, buying buildings, ensuring the building, ensuring the business. Those are the people that we love to help. But again, my the core of me as a person is the education piece. So even though I'm quote unquote landlocked to Texas, ⁓ if you're in any state and you have a question, if I don't know the answer, I'm not going to be as my way through an answer. Right. I'll say, hey, I don't know that, but I know someone who does. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: So you'll be, you you're willing to help anyone anywhere in the country and put them in right direction. That's excellent. And Colin, where should they contact you? Colin Weatherwax: Absolutely. LinkedIn is the best place to contact me. So just search my name, Colin Weatherwax. It comes up pretty easily. And you know, I started building my LinkedIn presence after I was CEO, right? After I left that job, a lot of people told me, hey, you should have been doing this whenever you had the pinnacle of success position. I was like, yeah, well, I was working in the business, so didn't really work out that way. But I'm proud to say that I built it up. organically over the past year and half. And I have a pretty good following on there and I always post informational content in the form of newsletters, in the form of my posts and talk about my experience. So that way people can potentially relate to it. Again, I'm a girl dad first. So any tips that you want on that or if you have tips, I'm ready to take those in. ⁓ Again, I love to connect people as well. It's one of the... biggest joys that I have is being able to have a conversation with someone like you, Joe, and you're like, hey, you know what? I need someone in this space. And I'll be like, ⁓ I know a guy. Let me make a connection for you. So again, I have a servant's heart. I'm always here to help. And yeah, if you want to connect with me, would be LinkedIn. It's probably the best place. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: That's great. We're definitely going to just add your LinkedIn information in the video description for everyone to click on. ⁓ And when you reach out to Kyle, make sure you first you let them know that Glovisor sent you. Number two, give them a girl advice for sure, because he needs it. I ⁓ really appreciate it. You've taken the time to share. Colin Weatherwax: you JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: your story with us, the journey, because this is important. think that we're different in different stages in our lives. And like you mentioned, everyone has a different level of point of reference of what success is. And you can be successful at any level in different roles. Right. So, I mean, you can go back to probably going back to the dog kennel and be extremely successful because you just enjoy it. Right. That's what you enjoy. Colin Weatherwax: You JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: So it doesn't really matter, but what's interesting about your story is that you had a long, great journey that you just build upon it. And here you are. So you've managed to be that worker, that employee, you managed to be leadership as a CEO, and now you're an entrepreneur. So I'm really excited to find out what you're gonna do next. Colin Weatherwax: Well, Joe, thanks so much for the time, man. You know, again, if this if this resonates with anyone that's listening today, my my my biggest takeaway and the takeaway that I hope the audience gets is that life is going to throw you curveballs. Right. ⁓ Again, I would have take I wouldn't have even taken the million one odds that I would become the CEO of a nonprofit. Right. ⁓ But. I think that if you are being challenged in your role. I think if you love what you're doing and you are continuously learning, then you're in the right place. If you ever feel like you're stuck or you're not moving or you're not enjoying what you're doing, then that's a, that's a time where you need to pause for reflection. Again, I look back on my journey and I look back on those eight months that I was in the job market and I spent a lot of that time reflecting on what I had done and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. And because of that, I can say that now I'm in a position where I'm probably the happiest that I've ever been. And it's because I had that time and that way that I was able to peel back and look back and look inside and realize, okay, if I'm here to help people, how can I do that the best? JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: Sounds to me like you're at the pinnacle now. Love it. Excellent. Thank you so much, Colin. Till the next one. Colin Weatherwax: Absolutely. Thank you, Joe. JOE ABREU - GLOVISOR: second.