Today we’d like to introduce you to Seth Denson.
Seth, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I began working in the healthcare industry in 2000. After changing my major a number of times in my freshman year of college, my guidance counselor encouraged me to pursue something I was passionate about. No, I wasn’t passionate about healthcare, rather golf. Upon hearing this, my counselor encouraged me to ask persons I knew who got to play a lot of golf during the workweek what they did for a living and to my surprise, many were in the health insurance field. With this information in hand, I began my journey and immediately secured an internship with a local firm in Midland, Texas (where I grew up) that managed financial portfolios and sold insurance.
Over the next decade, I would work for a number of firms as well as national insurance companies climbing the corporate ladder until 2010 when I had what my friends and colleagues call me “Jerry Maguire” moment. Following the debate and passage of the Affordable Care Act, I began to take a deeper look at the healthcare crisis in the United States. In a moment of clarity, I realized that the healthcare problems were (and still are) vast and that I, a health insurance executive, was perpetuating those problems (and being compensated very well for that) rather than solving them.
Growing up, my father was that pastor of a small church in west Texas. He and my mother raised my brothers and me to live a life with purpose and regardless of what career path we chose that in whatever we did, we should always serve others and strive to achieve great things for the greater good. In my first decade in the health insurance business, this sentiment was not at the forefront of my mind, rather my tile, income, and stature served as my key motivators.
In January 2011, I, along with the support and encouragement of my amazing wife, made the decision to leave the comfort of the corporate firm with which I was associated, to start a new organization with a mission to impact the lives of our clients surrounding how they access, finance, and interact with the healthcare system. With little more than the assets within my 401k, founded JDS Benefits, LLC. A little more than a year later, I merged JDS Benefits with Powter Risk Advisors to form GDP Advisors. My business partner, John Powter and I have continued to work on the mission to solve the healthcare crisis not only for our clients but with a greater purpose of bringing to light the issues within the American healthcare system and solving them as well.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There have definitely been challenges along the way, some hurdles more challenging than others. Early on, my biggest challenge was being a business leader. I never really planned to be a leader. As a matter of fact, my original thought process was to find the best coattails to ride and do all I could to fly ‘under the radar’ throughout my career. In my naivety, I thought that if I never tried to be the smartest one in the room, no one would call on me. The problem with that theory is that while I may have gotten through my vocational life, I likely would have ended up feeling inadequate and incomplete as I would have brought no relevance or value to my industry, my career, or my life. Fortunately, leadership came calling. To overcome my deficiencies in this area, I was fortunate to have partnered with a great business leader – my current business partner, John Powter. I have continued, since then to surround myself with those that have continued to help me develop my leadership skills and become who I am today (which is still far from the leader I hope to be in the future).
Organizationally, we have also had challenges. The greatest of these was finding the right personnel within our firm. Our industry, healthcare, is inherently broken. For years, we recruited people that we thought were well trained in our industry (and they were), but they never seemed to fit what we were looking for. The problem was that we wanted to be the voice of change in healthcare, but was looking inside the industry for the team to do that. We stubbed our toes many times and had a few not-so-great hires. That’s when we changed how and who we hire. We stopped looking at the accolades and accomplishments on a resume and instead started really looking at the person, their drive, and their passion. We often talk about the ‘why’ factor being the trait that we look for the most. What I mean by that is what we do can be tactical, but why we do it can be life-changing. There are many people within the industry that know the tactical processes, but don’t have a purpose behind those tactics. We came to the conclusion that since our industry is broken and we’re trying to fix it, maybe we should look outside the industry to get some new perspectives. That was the game-changer for us. Today, our team is a group of people driven to make other people’s lives better – that is our ‘why’ and healthcare is our what. I’ll also say that we have a great group of millennials that have no industry experience, many don’t have college degrees, but they all have a passion to serve others, work hard, and be relevant. That’s the key to our firm’s success.
GDP Advisors – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
GDP Advisors is a strategic consulting firm specializing in Risk Management and Healthcare. Our clients are typically corporations that need help identifying risks and developing solutions around those risks. Our primary focus is on employer-sponsored health care. The cost of providing healthcare is one of the greatest risks to most organizations that do so. Today, in the U.S., healthcare is ever increasing in cost and complexity. We often say that while the focus is on insurance premiums, those are just a derivative of the actual healthcare cost. Health insurance is just healthcare financing. For this reason, rather than simply shopping for ‘lower rates’ for our clients, we instead get involved in analyzing the data behind what’s driving their premiums. We get to know the participants within the plans we manage, how they are accessing the health care system and where the drivers of cost are. Once we have the data and understanding we can better manage, negotiate and navigate the system.
Unlike insurance brokers who are typically paid commissions, we instead charge a consulting fee. This means that we aren’t paid more when premiums and costs go up, so we’re incentivized to what’s best not what’s going to increase our compensation. We often say that what our clients pay to provide health care should be viewed and treated as an asset rather than a transaction. we are asset managers and need to understand how and where their money is going so that it is not abused or wasted.
The greatest part is that approaching the system differently and looking behind the curtain of the healthcare system offers our clients the ability to become better consumers of healthcare. They, in turn, have better results. The amount our clients spend in healthcare for their employees is, on average, 10% to 15% less than the national average and most of our clients are spending less today than they were 3 years ago.
As a result of our success, others are taking notice. We are now being recognized for our ideas and expertise as it relates to healthcare. In the past 3 months, I have done interviews with organizations such as Fox News, ABC, CBS, and NBC. Our voice is being heard and a message about solving the healthcare crisis within the United States is resonating in ways we could only have hoped for.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
How I define success has changed over the years. Early on in my career, it was about the dollar, the title, and the status. Today, it’s about the positive impact I and my firm have on those that we interact with. I grew up the son of a pastor who lived his life in service to his faith and others. I now live with a similar purpose. With my faith as my guide, success to me is one that is lived in service to others. My vocation may be different, but my calling is the same.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2150 S. Central Expressway
Suite 280
McKinney, TX 75070 - Website: www.gdpadvisors.com
- Phone: 214-544-1776
- Email: seth@gdpadvisors.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gdpadvisors/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gdpadvisors/
- Twitter: @gdpadvisors
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