Pitching To Pivoting Professions

Slade Smith, Employee Benefits Specialist at Cobbs Allen shares stories about the early days of his career as a professional baseball player, drafted by the Detroit Tigers, and how he pivoted to working in the insurance industry after an injury.

The 33-year-old also shares his thoughts on what major trends the employee benefits space could see in the near future.

Read the Transcript

Zach
Welcome to the Leader’s Edge podcast. I’m Zach Ewell, content producer here at Leader’s Edge. In this episode of falling into it, we chat with Slade Smith, an employee benefits specialist at Cobbs Allen. Smith attended both Auburn University and the University of Alabama, where he received a degree in leadership studies. The 33 year old shares stories of the early days in his career playing as a professional baseball player and how he pivoted professions after an injury. Smith also shares his thoughts on what major trends the employee benefits space could see in the near future. Give it a listen. Slade, thank you for joining me. 

Slade Smith
Yeah, thanks for having me on. 

Zach
Absolutely. So we’re just going to jump right into it. As I understand it, you had an interesting first job outside of college in 2012. You were drafted by the Detroit Tigers and were a pitcher for five seasons for several affiliate teams in the minor league baseball. What was the that, what was that period like for you? Are there any takeaways or experiences you had that changed the way you thought about the world and your pursuits? 

Slade Smith
Professional baseball for it being my first job is, it was an amazing experience. My entire life I played baseball. I just had this giant passion for it and this love for it that early on, I had a goal of playing professional baseball. I wanted to make the major leagues, and. And I just love the sport. And so after my time at Auburn playing there, and I had the opportunity to play professionally, I just jumped at it. And I was so eager and excited. And it was a really cool experience to say that I played baseball for a living, and I got paid to do it. Now, it wasn’t a lot to get paid, but it was just an incredible experience. And I was also fortunate that I was, I got married early on in my pro career. 
We had children, and I, my wife and daughters were able to travel with me to all the different baseball locations and all my games and everything. That was just an incredible experience that my wife and I talk a lot about. Just so thankful that we had that. 

Zach
Sure. And what were the, was it primarily minor league teams? What were the, like, minor league teams that you played for? 

Slade
Yeah. So I got drafted by the Detroit Tigers. The Detroit Tigers are the major league affiliate. And then as I started my minor league career, I started with the Connecticut Tigers and then moved up to Low A, which was the West Michigan Whitecaps in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Right after that was high a, which was the Lakeland Flying Tigers down in Florida. It was just a really cool experience because my great uncle was an actual flying tiger in World War Two. He’s a fighter pilot, so that was really cool. And then after high A is Double A, which was in Erie, Pennsylvania. And then I was never fortunate to make it to Triple A. I hurt my shoulder when I was in Double A, and that’s when I had to make a transition and made a choice to kind of get a real job and start providing for my family, so. 

Zach
Wow, that’s you. You really played hot scotch around the entire US, or at least the midwest, south, and the east coast. 

Slade Smith
Yeah, my wife, we live in Birmingham, which is 9 hours away from Lakeland. We pack up our car. She’s pregnant with our second child. We have a three year old at the time. We drive 9 hours to Lakeland. We’re there for a month. We drive 18 hours to Erie, Pennsylvania. I’m there for a month. I get demoted. We pack up the car. My wife’s pregnant with a three year old. Drive 18 hours back down to Lakeland. I’m there for a month. I get promoted. I have to fly to the next to the game. She packs up the car, pregnant with a three year old, drives 18 hours back up to Erie. The day she gets there, we get demoted again, and we turn right back around 18 hours back down to Lakeland, there for a month. I get promoted. 
I fly. She packs up the car, drives 18 hours again. We’re there for a month, 9 hours back to Birmingham for the end of the season. So it is a grind. 

Zach
Yeah. It sounds like she was a professional athlete, too. 

Slade Smith
Really knew that she loved me when she put up for the travel and all of the back and forth with minor league baseball. 

Zach
Sure. Yeah. That’s. Wow. So you and your wife played hopscotch America. So I guess I want to dive a little bit more into your background. You said you went to school in Auburn. However did you make the jump from. To performing as a professional athlete from Auburn? Like, when. When you. When you were at Auburn, and then, as I understand it, you got your degree at Alabama, which is a whole other mess, but is that right? 

Slade Smith
So, after my junior year at Auburn, I was fortunate to get drafted by the Tigers. 

Zach
Okay.  

Slade Smith
Which is very common after your junior year, you have the option to. Or if you’re able, you can get drafted. And so I, for what, my senior season and got out of college, played professionally, but I never finished my degree. And so after five years with the Tigers, I still wanted my degree. I was trying to get a job, and I got a job in medical sales with Stryker, and part of it was I told them, hey, I need this job. But at the same time, I’m still trying to finish my degree, and the University of Alabama has a really good online program that Auburn did not have at the time. And so I swallowed my pride and signed up for Alabama, and I’m very fortunate for that program. 

Zach
Sure, sure. I know, I know. I’m just a mess. I know how crazy college football and sports are. 

Slade Smith
I’m a giant Auburn fan and my kids give me a hard time because they know my degree came from Alabama. But I tell them, they were like, you went to Alabama? And I was like, no, no. I stayed at home on my computer. I didn’t go there. I just got my degree online. 

Zach
There you go. That’s really funny. I guess. So why you said medical devices, that was your first post professional baseball occupation. Why medical sales? 

Slade Smith
I had some good friends that were in it, that had done it, and they told me after I was literally driving back from Lakeland after getting released by the tigers, and I’m like, oh, my gosh, what am I going to do now? And I had to have some people tell me, you really need to look into medical cells. It’s very competitive, it’s fun, it’s high, intense intensity. So I started networking and had a couple job offers and was able to kind of pick which company I wanted to work for. And, yeah, it was a blast. I mean, it’s a great industry, a lot of fun. And I was in medical cells for six years. So three years with Stryker and then three with a company called nuvasive, and I sold spinal implants to neurosurgeons and orthopedic spine surgeons. Wow. 

Zach
Okay. Yeah, that’s a jump. 

Slade Smith
It was, for sure. They like ex athletes. And so I was like, hey, I’ll do that. That sounds fun. 

Zach
So, since you’re not on the field anymore, and on the field, I mean, literally on the baseball field, do you now look back with the knowledge you hold now as a benefit in the benefits space and think about what benefits or perks could have impacted or improved you and your fellow teammates performances back then? I’m sure the benefits for athletes have changed since then. However, you said you got. You got. You were injured in the shoulder. Is that. Is that right? 

Slade Smith
I hurt my shoulder. And that’s a great question because it’s been a topic for minor league baseball for a while because we actually just finished up a class action lawsuit with Major league Baseball because at the time, minor league players were paid under wage. And we didn’t get paid during spring training or any additional training that we, that was mandatory, but we didn’t get paid for. So, which, looking back now learning what I know in benefits world, compensation is a true benefit. And, you know, a lot of people think that’s something that you just deserve because you’re working. And I do think that everybody needs to be compensated for their time and efforts and knowledge and expertise. 
And so I’ve realized that is a true benefit, that we didn’t really get a whole lot in of minor league baseball. But really, my first job out of college is professional baseball, and all I’m thinking about is baseball. I not thinking about my health insurance. I’m not thinking about other benefits. And even if I was thinking about it, I really didn’t know a whole lot about it. And so, So the. If I could go back, I would, I wish I would have taken the time to fully understand what the Tigers were providing me and the resources that I had through them, but I just didn’t take the time to take that in consideration then. 

Zach
Sure. I mean, you just left college to pursue something totally different.

All right, so switching gears here, as I understand it, you are enrolled in the insurance professional school, which is run by the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers. How has that structured learning environment been? 

Slade Smith
It’s been really good. It is. I’ve made a lot of really good connections with passionate industry experts. And coming in, I didn’t have any insurance experience, and as a lot of the students in the class come into it as well. And so there’s a giant learning curve in this industry. And I’m talking to peers and colleagues and mentors at my company, and they’ve been doing it 10, 15, 20 years, and they constantly talk about how they’re still learning. And so there is a large learning curve that this class has been so good at shortening that learning curve for me. And I say the biggest benefit is that it provides me confidence just to be able to speak. 

I am a producer, and so when I meet with potential clients or prospects, what I’m sharing and trying to win their trust in their business and the ability to work with them. Having confidence in a topic where I’m just a year and a half in having this class has given me more confidence to speak on it and to confidently walk into a meeting and kind of feel like I know what I’m talking about. 

Zach
Absolutely. No, that’s very interesting. It’s always interesting to hear how those classes and those cohorts are. So you mentioned you’re relatively new to the industry. You’ve joined the insurance industry at an interesting time. We’re on the tail end at the end, I should say, of the pandemic. You said you used to be a medical salesman. I assume that you would have to go to meetings were very important. Face to face connections were very important. That handshake, that physical handshake was very important. Now that we’re on the tail end of, again, the coronavirus pandemic, and that it subsided, how has that impacted your job, your relationship with your clients, and how is that we have this whole hybrid work environments. Has that impacted the way that you meet with clients? 

Slade Smith
Going back to professional baseball, I was on the field all day, every day. If I wasn’t playing, I was training, so I was in the gym. It’s all I knew going into medical cells. I was in the or all the time. So I was in surgery, helping the neurosurgeons and orthopedic spine surgeons walk through surgery. And if I wasn’t in or I was in their doctor’s offices. And so those were really my only two perspectives of the working world. And so coming out of that, I’m learning so much about every industry that’s out there, all the jobs that are entailed in each industry, so many that are labor intensive, so many that are just straight up on the computer all the time. 

And so if there’s one good thing I think came out of COVID is just the need for flexibility and options, allowing different workforces to find a working setting that fits them. Some people working remotely is the best, given their family circumstances or not having to travel to the office and things like that. But at the same time, I do see a. A potentially negative side of that, and that is just not going into the office might lower production a little bit. And because, especially I’m a new producer. And I choose to come into the office every day, a big part of that is I have four kids at home. And so I don’t know how productive I would be with all my four of my kids running around. 

But coming into the office, I have an opportunity to rely on my mentors and colleagues that have been around longer. So I’m able to join them in their meetings. I’m able to learn from them, ask them questions, interact with them. And I think that’s very important. But I think having options through Covid has been vital and it differs between industry. It’s been a big learning opportunity for me as I’ve come out of baseball and the or learning that there’s different needs and wants from different industries and companies. 

Zach
In your opinion, what are some important trends that we can see in the employee benefits space in the future? 

Slade
One of the biggest topics that I’m constantly learning about right now is pharmacy and how it applies to medical premiums and how well those partner together. And the education aspect of do employers realize how much pharmacy goes into their medical premiums every month and vice versa? But I really think that what we’re seeing now on pharmacy is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s such a big topic already and I think it’s going to just continue to grow and grow and learning about self funded groups versus fully insured. Self funded. 

Probably a little bit more aware of the correlation between pharmacy and medical, but I would bet that a lot of fully insured groups don’t realize that just because it’s already encapsulated in their coverage and so they don’t take in consideration, hey, these drugs that I need or that I’m receiving, how that correlates into my next renewal and how I’m getting a premium increase and all of these drugs that I’m taking or my employees are taking is affecting that, especially throwing in the new weight loss drugs. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. And I think we’re going to continue to see hopefully more knowledge in that area and more employee education around how they correlate together. 

Zach
It’s not a secret that the insurance industry has a talent problem, and I’d like to learn from you. What advice would you have for people that, like fellow young people that are looking to make the move into a different industry and why maybe is insurance a good fit for them? 

Slade Smith
Being fresh off the industry change, I’ve asked myself that a lot. And I, this has been a decision that has extremely blessed my family with a better work life balance for myself. But at the same time, like, I want to make a difference. And I think that’s the biggest thing is that if somebody’s wanting to come into any job, but insurance in particular, like, what’s going to differentiate yourself? What are you going to do to truly make a difference? Because if you’re just wanting to come in and copy the next guy or do exactly what everybody else is doing, then there’s not going to be any differences being made. And I think coming into a foundational industry that will never go away. 

If the people aren’t evolving with the industry and trying to make a difference, then I don’t know how beneficial that will be for somebody. And so, you know, I try, and my drive, I try to be passionate, and I try to provide good service. And I think if I’m passionate, truly passionate about who I’m interacting with, who I’m talking with, the help and service that I can provide, then I feel like I can make a difference. And I would tell anybody trying to come into it, like, what difference do you want to make, and how are you going to try and make that difference? 

Zach
It’s about the people you serve. 

Slade Smith
It truly is about the people that you serve, and that’s a big deal to me. 

Zach
So we’re wrapping up now. We’re going to go all the way back full circle. With your busy schedule, do you still find time to go out on the field? If not, what other hobbies are you interested in? I bet you have a lot, spend a lot of time with your kids. 

Slade Smith
I do. And honestly, that’s my favorite hobby. I’ve got four kids, two girls and two boys, that are just beautiful, and they’re the reason why I wake up and go to work. And so anything that they want to do, I try and do. I try to meet them where they’re at, especially the girls. I’m one of six boys, and so having two girls right off the bat, no pun intended, there, I quickly had to learn all the Disney princesses and just try and meet them where they’re at. But now I have a six year old son who is getting into baseball, and he loves it. And with the choice to change industries into the insurance world, it’s provided me some flexibility. And so I’ve been able to coach his team, and I have wonderful. I’ve loved that. 

One of the reasons I was able to play for so long was how my parents, and particularly my dad, handled me with my training and practice, and he never forced that upon me. And I think that’s one of the biggest reasons why I was able to play so long, because I wasn’t burned out. And I’m, my goal is to just make it fun for my son and the kids on his team. And if they want to come back the next day and they’re excited to, then I’ve done my job as a coach. So it’s been blast. But other than that, I love to golf, fish all that. All that fun stuff. 

Zach
So definitely. I guess I gotta ask. Well, you said your six year old son, so not. You’re probably not pitching at that point. Still probably the parents or t ball. 

Slade Smith
I’m doing some coach pitching, which there’s an art to that, for sure. But I’m already going through some mechanic stuff with my son. Make sure he’s fully aware of what he’s doing. But he’s so naturally talented already. There’s not much I’m gonna have to do, so. 

Zach
Sure. Okay. I guess I got to dive just a little bit more in. What’s the difference between a coach pitch and a. Yeah, that’s a good question. 

Slade Smith
So. All right, so everybody starts out with t ball. You know, the coach puts the ball on the tee. Everybody hits it after that, before the kids start to pitch to the. To the other team, the dads or the coaches will pitch to the kids. So they’re learning, you know, hand eye coordination. They’re learning how to time the. The pitch and swing the bat and all that, which, you know, coming from professional baseball, you’d think, oh, this has got to be easy. But dealing with a lot of six year old boys, it’s not so easy. So I try and, you know, I get them to take a big practice swing, and I try and aim right where they practice swing and try to make it a little bit easier for them, but it’s. 

It’s so much fun, and to see them excited to do it makes it all worthwhile. 

Zach
I grew up playing baseball like little league, so it was always a fun time. Then when I was a teenager, I was actually umpiring, which was definitely a different experience. Especially be nice to umpires. 

Slade Smith
That is one of the most thankless jobs. You get all the blame and zero credit. 

Zach
Yeah. Yeah. Some dads versus others, they have a different way of just the way they see things on the field. So, Slade, this has been a fantastic conversation. Thank you for joining me today. 

Slade Smith
Zach, it’s truly been great getting to know you and talk with you. I’m very appreciative of everything you and the council are doing for our industry and everything. 

Zach Smith
Awesome. Thank you.

That was Slade Smith, employee benefit specialist at Cobbs Allen. Thank you for listening to this episode of falling into it. You can hear more episodes and podcasts just like this on leadersedge.com, Soundcloud, Apple podcasts, and Spotify. Until next time, I’m Zach Ewell. Have a good one.