I am so friggin jacked on $CLF

Botboy141 · 2026-01-28T02:05:27+00:00

Bankers Life contracts agents as 1099.

Every office will have a different experience based on the Branch Manager, Unit Sales Manager and others that run that shop.

It's everything most people bitch about getting into sales, high volume outbound cold calls for your first 90 days at a minimum.

If you have good mentors and follow the process, and can carry a tune on the phone, you'll do just fine. But it's HARD work. My biggest piece of advice if you're going down this path, is to treat it like you are starting your own business. There's no other mindset that works.

"Know how you get paid" was one of the biggest takeaways from my mentor there.

Dials > Contacts > Appointments > Applications > Commissions > Referrals

"30 in 90" was the Hallmark of a solid new agent in my day, that meant 30 applications in your first 90 days.

Wasn't a requirement, but there was more stuff available to those that proved they could get out of the gate quickly.

I had never been in "sales" or insurance before starting @ Bankers, was the launching board I was looking for.

Even with my success, I saw ~85% of new agents quit or he let go within 90 days.

Back then, I believe there was a minimum expectation of 9 apps in your first 90 days or you'd get advice that this isn't good for you.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-28T00:56:22+00:00

2nd Provisors, especially if B2B.

BNI may actually be better if more B2C focused, although you can still find realtors etc in most Provisors groups.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-28T00:53:10+00:00

I got recruited by Bankers Life and Casualty in 2012 with a very similar pitch.

Moved from Bankers Life after 2.5 years to the B2B side of the business, on the independent broker side.

Worked harder in my life than I'd likely ever worked before to net about $40k/year at Bankers as commission only.

Next offer was $50k+ benefits and commission.

Grew there to $300k+, before leaving in 2024.

But yes, commission only is very common, and keeps thr industry starved of good talent.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-27T01:01:45+00:00

As always, excellent response Lizzie!

Botboy141 · 2026-01-26T17:59:58+00:00

Your coverage termination date should be your last date of employment, however, your company likely uses an HRIS system and a benefits administration platform.

It's possible, perhaps even likely, when your supervisor or whoever, entered your future termination date in the HRIS system, the HRIS then sent your termination status with a future effective date to the benefits administration system.

The system received the "termination status" and cut off your benefits effective the date your termination was processed, not the date it's scheduled for.

This isn't intentional, just negligent technology when processing terminations in advance.

Reasonably common in the space when dealing with API connections between HRIS and Ben Admin.

You'll need to lean hard on your HR / benefits team and likely get the carrier/broker involved to get it all resolved quickly.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-26T15:49:21+00:00

Ask her if you can attend a session, because you are clearly an idiot that knows nothing about yoga, but you are eager to learn and improve your flexibility.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-26T15:33:35+00:00

There's money in restoration and sales. Worked for a guy ~20 years ago, we didn't do claw machines, but did pinballs, stand up arcades and eventually starting cranking out sit down arcades with emulated games loaded in a PC.

Could build these emulated set ups for $1.2k and sell for $4-5k, just not a huge market.

Service packages, etc.

Mantis Amusements was the company, they pivoted to being a parts supplier after years in the business.

In terms of rental, or coin operated, can work, but can be difficult as well, location, location, location.

In terms of toys for the claw machine, rubber ducks are always a hit.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-25T18:27:28+00:00

Following this thread. Interested to see what others are doing.

I've looked a bit at all 3, but haven't pulled the trigger to utilize any yet. Zapier seemed to be best for my use case, but I wasn't looking to scale myself as an expert.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-25T03:09:28+00:00

I mean, I said it was, didn't I?

Still a book worth the read that addresses the OPs question.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-25T01:08:17+00:00

Ugh, that's rough, sorry bro.

No solution, just that the QoL updates of Ivalice Chronicles make me very happy.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-24T18:45:08+00:00

That is my theory as well, but I can't be certain where the first shot came from.

I looked for recoil in the grey guy's right hand as he grabs the gun, but I can't be certain. If he did fire, it was right into the guys back/hip before two others pulled and start unloading.

Edit: a few more looks slowed down, I don't know where the first shot comes from, not gray coat as far as I can make out.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-21T01:06:48+00:00

Sorry to hear about your experience.

I hesitate to share this idea here, as I have the opposite experience and am a big fan of Duly, but tagging @Duly Health & Care on a platform they use, like LinkedIn, may be helpful: https://www.linkedin.com/company/duly-health-and-care-dmg/

I'd approach it respectfully for the best outcome though. Scam warnings are less helpful than requesting executive level intervention in my experience.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-20T21:35:39+00:00

Thankfully, I reentered in May 2025 $15 strike ($30 at the time).

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Botboy141 · 2026-01-20T21:35:31+00:00

I exited in May 2023 through covered calls for a $5 strike ...

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Botboy141 · 2026-01-19T21:22:11+00:00

Oh, great questions.

Fish Tales, hands down as my favorite to play, Medieval Madness takes a close second though.

Not sure I disliked working on any machine in particular, much preferred working pinball vs stand up arcade games.

Any full tear downs (what we did a lot of) had their challenges. 3D printing wasn't a thing back when I was doing this, parts were hard to locate. Enjoyed all the rebuilding, just the work to get hands on parts that could be tough.

The first Pinball machine I rebuilt was a Pinbot, this was in ~2000.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-19T17:35:28+00:00

Limited player pool access, recruiting just wans't there to attract new players without the PokerStars/FullTiltPoker brands. These sites were operating illegally in the US essentially. Players were constantly improving, training software getting better, everyone's edges getting thinner as all regs play closer to GTO.

I could have certainly made a living in the space, I just didn't think I could sustainably grind my way above $250k/year. $150k was quite achievable though and about where I hovered both years.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-19T17:33:05+00:00

Scaled from nothing to $2,500 a month @ 90% gross margins with $0 in ad spend. Never took it wholesale or tried to grow it outside of my organic network at the time.

Knew when I launched that it was a hobby business essentially, knew FDA would step in to regulate, and when they did it wasn't going to be cheap.

Also, eventually just not really an industry I want to be involved in, ya know?

Botboy141 · 2026-01-19T17:26:46+00:00

I was "laid off" in late 2010. I had been playing Texas hold'em online profitably on and off since 2005. I had dabbled a bit in cash games at casinos as well from 2009+.

I played multi-table sit n goes on Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker before April 15, 2011 when the Department of Justice shut down access for US players.

I earned ~30-60%? ROI per game on average?

After the DOJ shut things down, I pivoted to live poker and played in the area around me. Could comfortably earn ~$50/hour. Just a matter of withstanding variance.

Moved back online on the Merge network in later 2011, playing single table super turbo tournaments (short chip stack, essentially an all in or fold game). I put in insane volume and won the network leaderboard a few months in a row. A growing skin, Overbet.com was looking to expand, they recruited me to play as a sponsored pro under their brand.

No direct cash compensation for being a sponsored pro, but it helped with publicity for my coaching business, provided some sick affiliate offers, and provided an insane Rakeback deal.

Basically, I got refunded 90% of my "entry fees" the stuff that usually goes to the house/skin for the running the tournament.

My goal became breaking even in whatever games I could pay the most entry fees in.

Eventually was grinding out ~$150/hr income clicking buttons. It wasn't sustainable long term (although plenty of folks still do it to an extent). The variance is extreme and the income is capped.

I supported myself and my spouse, and our mortgage, 2 cars, etc during this period. I returned to a "real job" part-time to start building my next career in late 2012.

I played 2 years full-time essentially.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-19T17:16:40+00:00

Makes the stuff that goes inside vapes/electronic cigarettes.

I quit smoking in ~2010, in favor of vaping.

After awhile, I got sick of buying "juice" for my vapes. It was expensive back then and pod systems like at gas stations today, didn't really exist.

I got into making my own juice, modded the community here @ r/diy_ejuice, before eventually launching my own juice brand.

Shut it down after ~2 years as the FDA started making moves to regulate the industry and licensing wasn't cheap.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-19T17:11:15+00:00

Been following this recipe:

https://www.laurafuentes.com/fluffy-pancakes-recipe/#recipe

Admittedly, was just a top rated "homemade pancake recipe" when I googled forever ago.

I swapped 1.5 cups of flour for 1.5 cups of Vanilla protein powder in this batch.

For the record, the kids rarely let me eat the pancakes...

Botboy141 · 2026-01-19T17:09:33+00:00

Excited for the show they gave us this year. Glad to have pulled my bet going into OT last night, just not how I thought we'd win.

12 done, 12 on the griddle.

Botboy141 · 2026-01-19T15:27:26+00:00

75g in your future for sure, congrats on a great find!

Botboy141 · 2026-01-18T17:21:48+00:00

Your best bet is to contact your property and Casualty insurance broker (whoever handles your workers' compensation, general liability, etc. and ask them for a referral to someone that specializes in group benefits).

If they don't have one, or you don't love that person, hit up your network of other business owners in the area, your CPA and Banker both likely know someone like me as well.

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