Rising Stars: Meet Joanne French

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joanne French.

Joanne, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin? 
I moved to Florida in 1988 with my mom and my sister. My brother was an insurance agent in NY and had a wild hare idea to start a telemarketing company in South Florida. It was all the rage then, telemarketing for leads in every business. So, R and B Limited was born. It stood for Ron and Bruce, the two partners/brainchild of this idea. My sister’s husband at the time owned a storage lot, and there was a hollowed-out bus on the lot that became our first office because we couldn’t afford a real office. We brought in portable air conditioners, tables, and chairs and went to work. I called from A-Z out of the yellow pages, my sister from Z-A. We were prospecting for clients. NO, I did not have my insurance license at the time, but YES, I was cold calling for insurance prospects. 

“If I can show you a way to lower your costs and keep your benefits the same OR keep your costs the same and enhance your benefits, is it worth having a conversation?” That was my tagline, and it worked. 

I had more insurance agents buying leads from me that I was able to PRE-sell on the phone than I knew what to do with. So, we hired telemarketers to work for us. I had Mutual of Omaha brokers, NASE brokers, and all kinds of individual health agents buying leads from us. 

Our business card had a tree on it with the logo saying, “We grow your business.” We went from just marketing insurance products to marketing for other companies as well. Culligan Water (Hey Culligan man), Chiropractors, pre-need plots, encyclopedias, vacuum cleaners, etc., and were able to move to Lantana Avenue and rent a real office space. Four actually, we had the need for several because of the amount of people we had to hire to keep up! We were a telemarketing company now! 

My specialty was the insurance side, and after a year, I figured that if I could sell these plans on the phone to the agents buying them from me at $30 apiece, I most certainly would be able to sell them for myself! So, I got my license. I called 100 (at a minimum) people a day, with 100 pennies on one side of the phone. I moved one over each time I had a conversation with someone, successful or not. 

I got 1.5 appointments per hour for our various insurance clients, almost all of which turned out to be sales. My marketing classes at college paid off, I guess! 

My handle was ‘Telejo’ for my AOL name. (Really dating myself now). We were pretty busy making the doughnuts for a great ride with a lot of great insurance agents and making a name for ourselves. 

NY Life agents called us! We felt very special about that. Now keep in mind Fort Lauderdale was known as the “Maggot Mile” of telemarketing; there were a lot of folks scamming a lot of people on the phone. We were not in that category, but unfortunately, telemarketing was getting saturated and not with the most ethical of people. Ron and Bruce were pretty much silent, absent partners (They resided in NY), and we were doing all of the day-to-day work locally in Fl. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Fast forward…

Being a company run by women and having mostly men as our clients, we got a little out over our skis and got pretty taken advantage of. We didn’t have the business acumen to run the business, but we did have the brawn to produce, so it wasn’t the best business model. The agents would return leads if they didn’t sell them (which was NEVER a guarantee) but they got spoiled, and eventually, we were spending more time replacing leads than selling them and just couldn’t afford to keep the lights on. So that was the end of R and B. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
After that, I had my license and decided to put it to work. I started at McKinley Financial Services and was assigned to the Municipality market and to help them run their newly developed telemarketing department. In my travels with municipalities, I found my first large group case, and then I was hooked. It was a whale. It was no way going to happen, but it did. The carriers laughed at me when I brought in the census. “Too many pre-ex conditions. Too many folks over 50. Too many claims.” Well, I didn’t much like the word NO, so I went carrier to carrier until I found my YES, and you can bet I found it. 

They were a minority-run company, and so I was their token Jewish girl LOL. It worked, though; we got a lot of municipalities on the books that year! Then I decided to work for myself. I had taken a self-help program called LIFESPRING and decided I wanted to take myself out for a ride. I was a single mom, wanted to NEVER again depend on anyone but myself, and be a role model for my daughter. 

I joined a local agency in Coral Springs and became an individual producer for American Medical Security, a Wisconsin-based insurance product for under 65. I used my telemarketing skills to create appointments for myself and rose to become the top female producer in the country for a few years running. The agency I worked with had me assigning commissions to them, so that didn’t end well, but while it lasted, it was awesome. I made more money than I could count those few years – those were the days of advance commissions! I won a top producer trip every single quarter. Got to travel to a dozen places I had never been, including the Cayman Islands, all over the US, and I have to say it was a lot of fun! I would walk into the room with my then-husband Rich, and everyone would assume he was the producer. He would say “No, I am Mr. Joanne,” which produced confusion across the board because, again this was a man’s business right? 

Being in a captive shop, it took me a few years, but I finally caught on that I wasn’t being paid all of my commissions. Nor did I have a right to any residuals. So, bye… I left that agency and all of my renewals. 

That is when I was approached by Milt Lewis from BenefitMall in Ft Laud. He asked me to come to an interview for the role of running the newly developed Individual department. I accepted, took the job, and loved it until ACA came in and eliminated that role. So, they transitioned me to in-house for bit; then the Medicare department was born. 

I was the Medicare recruiter for them for years, handling Florida and working with all of their group brokers, and training them how to add Medicare products to their portfolio. It was new then, and took time to catch on. But my mentor, the woman who trained me, was so inspiring to me, and I kept going with sheer determination to make it work. She was me but better. She was fierce. She was the best cheerleader I ever had – poured miracle grow on me daily, and I thrived. When she told me she was leaving, it was not a good day. 

It’s 2013, and my mom passed away on January 7th after being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer 8 weeks earlier. She was on Medicare. NOT the right plan for her though – she had an undetected and undiagnosed mass in her body for who knows how long. And just like that, my “WHY” is born. Had she been on a plan appropriate for HER, she would have had more coordinated care, and I 1000% believe that she would be alive today having been diagnosed properly. 

Luckily, my mentor found me an opportunity to move alongside her, so sayonara to BenefitMall, hello MCC. For 2 years until they let me go because they didn’t want to spend the money they were spending on my salary. That was a blow. I was just getting ready to move to NJ from FL, and MCC told me they were looking for me to grow their presence in the Northeast – until they changed their mind. 

Just at the same time, Advocate Health reached out to me (Jeff Crumbaugh) and asked me to interview for a position as a regional manager. That was just perfect timing, and got hired in July of 2015. Coincidence? Nah, I don’t believe in coincidences! 

The rest is history. 

I have found my niche. I love developing the relationships with brokers, agencies, just people. I don’t sell, I don’t want to sell, I just bring folks the opportunity to help seniors and make a great living. 

My compadres are all way more experienced than I am in the Medicare space, coming from carriers and personal sales, but I bring a different kind of energy to the team. My jam is sharing the passion and joy of helping advisors make a difference in senior’s lives by 

“Lowering their costs and enhancing their benefits,” which actually can (and does) enhance their lives and in many cases, change and save lives. 

My tagline came around full circle! 

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
Every favorite childhood memory involves my mom. Trying on her pearls and walking hand in hand through our garden every spring is probably what stands out. She had a way of making me feel more loved and understood, and heard than anyone else on the planet. She was a generous listener, the warmest and kindest soul I ever encountered, and always got more bees with honey. She is the voice in my head; the feeling I get every time I need a hug comes from one of those childhood memories with her. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.advocatehealthadvisors.com/about-us/team/Joanne_French
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdvocateHealthAdvisors
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/advocate-health-llc/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRxNbT_jPFEqgQRFfJFwiDQ?view_as=subscriber
• Other: https://www.advocatehealthadvisors.com/

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Advocate Health Advisors