Camille Diaz’s leadership story is rooted in reinvention. A science teacher turned ballroom dance studio co-founder, she built a thriving business—until a partner change derailed everything. Faced with debt, a lawsuit, and burnout, Camille hit rock bottom. But when friends began asking her for business advice, she discovered a new path: optimization coaching.

Camille now leads Serenity Financial, helping businesses and individuals create sustainable wealth through financial education and strategic benefits planning. Her leadership style is direct, process-driven, and focused on giving people tools to regain control of their lives. In this episode, she shares how clear exit plans, humility after failure, and unshakable curiosity shaped her journey. She also unpacks how employers can offer zero-net-cost health benefits through smart tax strategies, breaking the cycle of annual cost hikes.

Whether she’s mentoring clients or challenging the status quo in healthcare, Camille leads by empowering others to think differently and act with intention.

Want to learn more about Camille Diaz's work? Check out her website at https://camillediaz.com.

Connect with Camille Diaz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillediaz/

Key Points with Time Stamps

• 00:01:08 – Camille Diaz's background: from science teaching to ballroom dance to financial services.

• 00:04:44 – How Camille fell into teaching despite trying to avoid it.

• 00:05:44 – Business failure: a bad partnership, lawsuits, and starting over.

• 00:08:28 – The dark aftermath: sweatpants, chips, and rediscovery through helping others.

• 00:09:23 – Launching a new business as an optimization coach.

• 00:10:01 – “You can’t read the label from inside the jar”: why entrepreneurs need outside perspective.

• 00:11:25 – Surgery analogy: even experts need help from others.

• 00:14:25 – How she got into financial services by accident—and why it clicked.

• 00:17:10 – “I share benefits with benefits”: Camille's work in health and life insurance.

• 00:18:08 – How businesses can provide health benefits at zero net cost.

• 00:20:09 – What is direct primary care and why it’s disrupting traditional healthcare.

• 00:24:50 – How direct primary care avoids unnecessary visits and improves care.

• 00:25:34 – Why Camille isn't locked into renewal cycles—she can help year-round.

• 00:27:16 – Reducing claims today means better rates at your next renewal.

• 00:28:26 – Camille’s freebie: “6 Millionaire Habits Anyone Can Copy” – camillediaz.com/habits

Transcript

00;00;05;20 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;06
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show.

00;00;51;09 - 00;01;08;02
Craig Andrews
Today, I want to welcome Camille Diaz. She is the founder of Serenity Financial and she is a optimization coach, a passionate educator who is based in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. For those that don't know, that's sort of like the Tulsa region.

00;01;08;05 - 00;01;28;28
Craig Andrews
Camille helps individuals build wealth through financial education, strategic coaching, and empowering them to do amazing things. One of the things I just learned is she went from teaching science to teaching ballroom dancing, and now she does financial services.

00;01;29;01 - 00;01;30;01
Craig Andrews
Welcome.

00;01;30;04 - 00;01;33;22
Camille Diaz
Thank you Craig. I'm so excited to be on the show. This is awesome.

00;01;33;24 - 00;01;38;22
Craig Andrews
I'm excited. Well, and let's let's fill folks in on how we met. Yeah.

00;01;38;24 - 00;01;58;14
Craig Andrews
We, you know, we're both in something called success champions networking. You're a chapter president. I'm a chapter president. And obviously we were at the president's dinner together. Yeah, but where I felt like I really got to know you was at the end of the summit at that closing dinner.

00;01;58;21 - 00;02;01;19
Craig Andrews
Kind of a private dinner at the distillery.

00;02;01;22 - 00;02;18;08
Camille Diaz
Exactly. Yes. I think we just happened to be standing next to each other in the room and, you know, casual group circulating type of thing, and you were like, hey, I'm Craig, hey, I'm Camille, you know, one of those kind of things. And we just started talking and you're like, wait, you haven't heard anything? And I was like, no, haven't heard about you at all.

00;02;18;09 - 00;02;26;10
Camille Diaz
You hadn't heard about me at all. And so we had a blast. Like it was instantaneous fun to talk to you. So I think that's how we ended up getting connected.

00;02;26;12 - 00;02;27;12
Craig Andrews
Well, I,

00;02;27;12 - 00;02;30;13
Craig Andrews
I asked you to introduce me to your drug dealer.

00;02;30;15 - 00;02;34;27
Camille Diaz
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. That's right, that's right. Yeah.

00;02;35;02 - 00;02;36;21
Craig Andrews
We should probably get some contacts there.

00;02;36;28 - 00;02;40;19
Camille Diaz
Okey dokey. Contacts. So this is someone who is on my,

00;02;40;19 - 00;02;49;04
Camille Diaz
money Heart podcast years ago, and we had talked about how the money was just too good. So he ended up dealing drugs in his neighborhood.

00;02;49;07 - 00;02;55;29
Camille Diaz
And he knew someday he would get caught. But the money was so good. He just kept doing it and says, well, I guess I'll get caught at some point.

00;02;56;01 - 00;03;02;24
Camille Diaz
And then he did, and he went to prison. And after that he got out and he said, you know what? I really hated that. So maybe I'll not do that again.

00;03;02;28 - 00;03;06;11
Camille Diaz
And so he turned his life around, and now he runs a nonprofit,

00;03;06;13 - 00;03;10;24
Camille Diaz
that supports single dads. And it is just really cool. And he's just an amazing guy.

00;03;11;01 - 00;03;14;23
Camille Diaz
So I was kind of telling you about that story. I don't know how we got onto that topic.

00;03;14;26 - 00;03;21;19
Camille Diaz
And then you said, well, introduce me to your drug dealer. I want to know this guy. So I did, and I heard he got to hang out with you. Is that right?

00;03;21;21 - 00;03;22;10
Craig Andrews
Yeah. We've,

00;03;22;10 - 00;03;39;20
Craig Andrews
we've recorded an episode. It was really good. And, you know, the thing that really interests me, I think. I'm sure I said this to you. I think so many problems in our country, we look to Washington to solve a lot of problems. And if anything, they've proven that they're not good at solving problems.

00;03;39;20 - 00;03;42;01
Camille Diaz
Probably not the best problem solving group.

00;03;42;03 - 00;04;03;20
Craig Andrews
And and what he's doing is he's really trying to get dads involved in their kids lives, get dads in the home and involved in their kids lives. Yes. And I truly believe that if we could do more of that, so many problems in our nation would be would just kind of magically disappear. Yeah.

00;04;03;22 - 00;04;17;07
Camille Diaz
Yeah. If people just had that love and support and people caring for them at home, then we wouldn't be carrying all this trauma and drama out into the rest of the world, which causes a lot of those problems. So yeah, I think it'd be great.

00;04;17;09 - 00;04;22;05
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, and the stats are just horrifying. You know, if a kid grows up without their dad,

00;04;22;08 - 00;04;30;15
Craig Andrews
probability of going to jail, you know, being unemployed, I mean, of all the things you don't want, that those stats go up.

00;04;30;18 - 00;04;32;00
Camille Diaz
Yes, they do.

00;04;32;03 - 00;04;36;10
Craig Andrews
And so anyway, I really admire what he's doing. But anyway,

00;04;36;15 - 00;04;41;04
Craig Andrews
I didn't know that you taught science. I didn't know that you taught ballroom dance.

00;04;41;06 - 00;04;44;13
Camille Diaz
I did, I did, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I,

00;04;44;13 - 00;04;54;02
Camille Diaz
I tried really hard not to be a teacher because there are so many teachers in my family. I was like, no, I'm a rebel. I'll do something else. Complete nonsense. Fell face first into teaching. Absolutely loved it.

00;04;54;05 - 00;04;58;25
Camille Diaz
Started out, you know, working in nonprofit zoos in their education department, running summer camps.

00;04;58;25 - 00;05;06;28
Camille Diaz
I started as a camp counselor. Then I started running the camps, and then I, you know, was writing curriculum. Things like that did the same for an afterschool program,

00;05;07;01 - 00;05;11;15
Camille Diaz
writing curriculum, running the office, training all 70 or 80 of our staff.

00;05;11;15 - 00;05;19;21
Camille Diaz
We had about a thousand kids in that program. And after I moved from California, where I grew up, to the Tulsa area where I'm at at the moment,

00;05;19;21 - 00;05;27;15
Camille Diaz
I stayed home with the kids for a while, and then really, I think my entrepreneur brain kicked in and I needed to do something.

00;05;27;15 - 00;05;44;09
Camille Diaz
So I was in ballroom and someone I knew was starting a studio. And so we ended up starting a ballroom studio together just kind of shifted from teaching sciency things. I got a degree in to teaching ballroom, which was my hobby that I left. Thought I would be doing that forever. Yeah, it's just so great.

00;05;44;12 - 00;05;52;24
Camille Diaz
Until one partner left and a new partner came in and the chemistry was terrible and everything melted down.

00;05;52;26 - 00;06;05;17
Camille Diaz
We had, I mean, like, teachers were frustrated and clients were disappearing, and everybody was mad at everybody all the time. So we struggled on for like, another year. And then we ended up closing.

00;06;05;20 - 00;06;12;15
Camille Diaz
We broke our lease, we got sued, we went to court, we had a judgment against us. We had credit card debt. That was in my name.

00;06;12;15 - 00;06;20;19
Camille Diaz
We had construction costs that weren't paid off yet. All the things like zero Stars would not recommend any of these things.

00;06;20;21 - 00;06;42;18
Craig Andrews
Well, you know, there's something you said there that, you know, the partner changed and, you know, I've I've never taken on a partner. And it's partially because, you know, it's largely because some parting advice my dad gave me before he died was he said, if you ever go in partnership with somebody, never give away more than 50% of your business.

00;06;42;18 - 00;06;45;27
Craig Andrews
Always, always keep a majority share, maintain control.

00;06;45;27 - 00;06;46;21
Camille Diaz
Yes.

00;06;46;23 - 00;06;47;21
Craig Andrews
And,

00;06;47;24 - 00;07;01;27
Craig Andrews
and I know it's held me back by not having a partner. I know I could go further if I had a partner, but I just haven't been able to kind of shed myself of that because just what you said, I think,

00;07;02;00 - 00;07;12;01
Craig Andrews
who you bring into your business, you know, as a, you know, a significant, you know, with a significant share in the business, it can make or break a business.

00;07;12;01 - 00;07;17;01
Craig Andrews
It can be the most wonderful thing ever. Or like in your case, it destroyed the business.

00;07;17;03 - 00;07;34;29
Camille Diaz
Yeah. And it started out as the most wonderful thing ever. We had a 100 people for a party on Saturday nights regularly. And that's in the world of ballroom in a relatively small city, you know, compared to some of the other places where you would find a lot of partner dancing activities.

00;07;35;02 - 00;07;40;02
Camille Diaz
And that that partnership changed the whole chemistry of everything and made a huge, huge difference.

00;07;40;04 - 00;08;05;06
Camille Diaz
So it does go great when it's great, but one of the best pieces of advice I got when we were starting up, we took our agreement to an attorney and the attorney said, I see a lot here about how you're going to start and how you're going to run it, but I don't see very much in here about what you're going to do if it ends or someone wants to leave, or one of you gets really sick or injured and has to leave, you don't have any language of how to get out.

00;08;05;08 - 00;08;10;21
Camille Diaz
So we added language on how to get out. And thank goodness we did because we really needed it.

00;08;10;23 - 00;08;20;23
Craig Andrews
Wow, wow. So, what did you do next? Yeah, yeah, we have a ton of debt and a credit score.

00;08;20;26 - 00;08;25;08
Camille Diaz
Right? Yeah, I had a ton of debt. My credit score wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great.

00;08;25;11 - 00;08;27;28
Camille Diaz
And it was it did suffer for quite a while.

00;08;28;01 - 00;08;30;12
Camille Diaz
I, I put on some sweatpants.

00;08;30;12 - 00;08;40;01
Camille Diaz
I watched a lot of TV. I hung out in my bedroom in the dark. I ate chips out of my hoodie type situation. That was my whole new plan from the beginning.

00;08;40;03 - 00;09;01;10
Camille Diaz
It was pretty bad. Fortunately, people started calling me and they would say, hey, so sorry that happened, but would you help me with my dance studio, my vet clinic, my real estate business, whatever it was, because they saw how my brain worked. They saw how I streamlined activities.

00;09;01;13 - 00;09;07;11
Camille Diaz
They really enjoyed their experience at the studio. And they said, come do a little bit of that over here for me.

00;09;07;13 - 00;09;08;21
Camille Diaz
So I said,

00;09;08;21 - 00;09;23;25
Camille Diaz
you know, like 4 or 5 people later, I realized it was a thing I should probably charge. And that's how I started an optimization coaching and consulting business of going into businesses and helping them to streamline their activities and do things a little cleaner and faster.

00;09;23;27 - 00;09;24;29
Craig Andrews
Wow.

00;09;25;01 - 00;09;26;00
Camille Diaz
Yeah.

00;09;26;02 - 00;09;40;22
Craig Andrews
And what? I mean, so a lot of entrepreneurs have really good ideas, but they can be a little disorganized. They do some kind of silly things. Why do you think that is?

00;09;40;24 - 00;10;01;08
Camille Diaz
We're really good at the one thing that we do. Almost every entrepreneur has some gift talent, specialty that they are excellent at doing that thing. But when you're on the inside, it's really hard to see the big picture. I had somebody explain it to me as it's almost impossible to read the label from the inside of this jar.

00;10;01;10 - 00;10;01;27
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00;10;01;29 - 00;10;26;05
Camille Diaz
And I was like, that's a really good analogy, because you can't see the outside of the label from the inside of the jar. So when we're working on doing our thing that we're fantastic at getting the outside perspective and being able to set up the systems, the processes, the effective things, the part where we take time off and do vacations and, you know, know that our whole business won't implode if we don't work it for 45 seconds.

00;10;26;05 - 00;10;39;19
Camille Diaz
Like that part is really hard for us on the inside. So I don't think it's that necessarily entrepreneurs are bad at it. It's just hard to have the outside perspective when you're deep in the inside middle.

00;10;39;21 - 00;10;48;23
Craig Andrews
You know, I tell my clients, I tell everybody I said, don't copy my marketing. My marketing sucks. And I'm, you know, I'm a fractional CMO.

00;10;48;25 - 00;10;50;02
Camille Diaz
Right?

00;10;50;04 - 00;10;51;06
Craig Andrews
And,

00;10;51;09 - 00;10;57;15
Craig Andrews
some of it's because I'm neglecting to do things I know I should do that tell my clients things I wouldn't let my clients get away with.

00;10;57;18 - 00;10;59;04
Camille Diaz
Okay. Yeah.

00;10;59;06 - 00;11;08;15
Craig Andrews
Like focusing in on a single persona. You know, somebody that you can call their name out in the crowd. Still not doing that. And I know I should,

00;11;08;18 - 00;11;25;16
Craig Andrews
but then there's some other things that are just hard. And the way I describe it is, I say it's hard to perform surgery on yourself. Yes, you can be the world's best surgeon, but when you need that surgery, you're not the one to do it.

00;11;25;19 - 00;11;38;06
Camille Diaz
That's right. Because either you got to knock yourself out, and then it's really hard to hold the scalpel while you're asleep, or you've got to do it while you're awake. And that's incredibly painful. So you've got to get somebody else.

00;11;38;08 - 00;11;50;14
Craig Andrews
And you just yeah, you're you're missing the perspective. You're you're in there. You're so passionately held to something and, you know, just having that outside perspective,

00;11;50;17 - 00;12;01;07
Craig Andrews
you know, and I find for me, some of the best people, they don't tell me what to do. They just have really good questions. And sometimes when they ask a question,

00;12;01;10 - 00;12;03;05
Craig Andrews
you know, there was,

00;12;03;08 - 00;12;04;26
Craig Andrews
I'm going to mispronounce his last name.

00;12;04;26 - 00;12;08;03
Craig Andrews
Do you know Don Olmert in sin alert?

00;12;08;03 - 00;12;09;01
Camille Diaz
Yes.

00;12;09;04 - 00;12;32;00
Craig Andrews
Yes, yes. Yeah. So I was I booked some time on his calendar recently. Yeah. And then his calendar. He said, what are what are ten words to describe what you do. And that was like one of those questions of, yeah, I, I'm really good at boiling it down for my clients, but not good at boiling it down for myself.

00;12;32;03 - 00;12;39;18
Craig Andrews
But it was, it was the perfect question. It was a perfect question. Even though he was asking me that other than it was in his calendar invite.

00;12;39;20 - 00;12;55;29
Camille Diaz
Yeah. And that's one of the hardest things to do is to boil down the essence of what we do, that the shorter the statement, the harder it is to come up with. You get 30 minutes to ramble. Easy peasy. You get 30s to say something much harder.

00;12;56;01 - 00;13;00;18
Craig Andrews
There's I read a book going copywriting, years ago and I'm drawing a blank.

00;13;00;20 - 00;13;06;02
Craig Andrews
I remember his name later, but it's one of the best books I read. It was a little flimsy paperback.

00;13;06;04 - 00;13;14;26
Craig Andrews
But he said, but it's just really, really good stuff. And he said, your your opening sentence, you know, basically the job of your headlines.

00;13;14;26 - 00;13;22;24
Craig Andrews
Get people to read the opening sentence job of the opening sentences, get people to read the first paragraph job the first paragraphs, get people, you know, real simple. Yeah.

00;13;23;02 - 00;13;23;09
Craig Andrews
Is that.

00;13;23;09 - 00;13;25;02
Camille Diaz
Book smart brevity?

00;13;25;04 - 00;13;25;29
Craig Andrews
No.

00;13;26;02 - 00;13;27;22
Craig Andrews
It's copywriters handbook.

00;13;27;24 - 00;13;28;17
Camille Diaz
Okay. Gotcha.

00;13;28;18 - 00;13;29;11
Craig Andrews
By Joe.

00;13;29;11 - 00;13;59;04
Craig Andrews
Sugar. Sugar sugar. More sugar. Land sugar. Sugarman. Joe Sugarman. Okay, there we go. And really, really good book. Super simple. When you're buying it, you're going to think, yeah, this isn't some, you know, doesn't look like any amazing book done. It's a really amazing book. I said, but he said that your opening sentence should be ten sentence or ten words or less, and it should really set the hook.

00;13;59;04 - 00;14;02;23
Craig Andrews
And I found that that's just, like, incredibly powerful.

00;14;02;26 - 00;14;13;12
Craig Andrews
Yeah, just incredibly powerful. It focuses your mind. It helps you figure out, okay, if I have ten words, what are the most you know, what's the most important thing for me to communicate?

00;14;13;15 - 00;14;15;08
Camille Diaz
Right.

00;14;15;11 - 00;14;22;10
Craig Andrews
So. So anyway, so you, you, you launch your new business and and how did.

00;14;22;13 - 00;14;25;01
Camille Diaz
And how did I get over here? Yeah. So it went good.

00;14;25;04 - 00;14;38;28
Camille Diaz
I was doing better, which was great. And I was networking and somebody said, come to my class about money. And the first time they invited me, I said no, because I was still deep under and I had to look up to see bottom kind of situation.

00;14;38;28 - 00;15;02;09
Camille Diaz
I was like, yeah, I got that. I'm just ignoring that, not realizing that if a person is in a money struggle, it might make sense to go to the class and like, learn what the wealthy people know. And then maybe it would help. I didn't even have that piece of my brain activated at that time. But that's okay, because fortunately they invited me again about a year later and this time things are turned around.

00;15;02;12 - 00;15;25;05
Camille Diaz
So I was I paid off debt. I was trying to save up. I was talking to an advisor and I was I was ready to listen. So I said, okay, I guess I'll, I'll check it out. And the advisor I was talking to was a referral friend of a friend, you know, somebody that I felt I could trust, but I would ask questions about things that made me nervous, like, oh, what happens if this happens?

00;15;25;05 - 00;15;38;15
Camille Diaz
What happens if that happens? How's it go? And I was nervous and they weren't really giving me answers. They were just kind of giving me the pat on the head. You'll be fine. Don't worry about it. Trust me to handle it. Type of thing.

00;15;38;18 - 00;16;01;10
Camille Diaz
That doesn't really work for me. They say it'll be all right. My brain goes, will it? Like, I just I needed more questions and more solid information than that. So when I went to the class, you know, I was worried about, oh, well, what happens if the market drops? Will I lose all my money? And then the class, they said, well, here's options of what you can do, that you won't lose money if the market drops.

00;16;01;10 - 00;16;24;02
Camille Diaz
And I was like, oh, I knew that was a thing. They just didn't tell me it was a thing. So, you know, being open to to knowing of other ideas and being open to seeing that there are other possibilities. And if I thought of it, it probably exists. I just need to find out where it is. So I go to class and I love it, and I get all set up with all my stuff, saving for myself, my kids, all that kind of stuff.

00;16;24;05 - 00;16;42;26
Camille Diaz
And afterwards they said, hey, would you like to come to work with us? Because you seem kind of excited about this. And I was like, no, I don't know anything. So they said, that's okay, it's okay. We have a mentoring program. We can train you on the technical stuff. We're looking for people who know how to teach and coach and mentor and network.

00;16;42;26 - 00;16;49;05
Camille Diaz
And I was like, oh, I've been doing that for like 15 years. So I guess I'll try it. So I tried it.

00;16;49;09 - 00;16;56;24
Camille Diaz
At this point, it's been over eight years since I tried it and air quotes and absolutely love it. Super glad I got into this industry.

00;16;56;27 - 00;17;02;03
Camille Diaz
Probably never would have picked it if you'd made me pick something, but it's turned out to be a fantastic fit.

00;17;02;05 - 00;17;05;03
Camille Diaz
I find most of my time is just spent teaching

00;17;05;06 - 00;17;07;08
Camille Diaz
and sharing ideas with people.

00;17;07;11 - 00;17;10;20
Craig Andrews
So let's clarify what the industry is. What do you do for folks?

00;17;10;20 - 00;17;18;05
Camille Diaz
What do I do for folks? Yeah. So my my my very concise tagline is I share benefits with benefits.

00;17;18;08 - 00;17;37;05
Camille Diaz
And I teach millionaire habits. Anyone can copy. But what that means is my licensing is in the life and health insurance arena, and I do all sorts of creative things with those products. So I help people with alternative health insurance strategies when they get their renewal back and they're like, that's terrible.

00;17;37;05 - 00;17;41;21
Camille Diaz
I don't want that too expensive. We look at other strategies, I help people,

00;17;41;21 - 00;17;45;04
Camille Diaz
businesses do like zero net cost options.

00;17;45;07 - 00;17;54;26
Camille Diaz
So where they're not spending any extra money out of pocket, but they're able to offer some sort of a benefits plan to employees without extra out-of-pocket cost to the business or the employees.

00;17;54;28 - 00;17;56;28
Craig Andrews
And when you say benefits, you're talking health benefits.

00;17;56;28 - 00;17;58;25
Camille Diaz
Health benefits on that piece. Yeah.

00;17;58;27 - 00;18;08;15
Craig Andrews
Because that's that's insane. Because the numbers I've heard are that health benefits are either the number two or number three line item in a budget.

00;18;08;18 - 00;18;09;06
Camille Diaz
Yep.

00;18;09;08 - 00;18;14;29
Craig Andrews
And you're saying you can make that, put that all the way the bottom of the list below the lowest I can.

00;18;14;29 - 00;18;15;24
Camille Diaz
Yeah.

00;18;15;26 - 00;18;20;01
Craig Andrews
Yeah. That's a little hard to believe I know I'm not trying to be confrontational. No no.

00;18;20;01 - 00;18;27;26
Camille Diaz
You're good. You're good I get that all the time. I get that sounds too good to be true all the time. So it's done with a tax strategy.

00;18;27;29 - 00;18;37;05
Camille Diaz
And it's it really is a thing. There's actually a couple of different plans that I do it with. So one's built on an accident plan, one's built on a minimum essential coverage plan.

00;18;37;08 - 00;18;41;00
Camille Diaz
I know that's a lot of techie tech words that I just said, and it's not important,

00;18;41;03 - 00;18;57;26
Camille Diaz
in the grand scheme of things, which way it's done, but it really is just done with the tax saving strategy. So rather than sending taxes off to whomever taxes go to, the taxes are getting used to pay for the plan. And it's approved in various states and legal and above board and it's actually a legit thing.

00;18;57;26 - 00;19;01;10
Camille Diaz
It really is a legit thing, even though it sounds too good to be true.

00;19;01;12 - 00;19;31;19
Craig Andrews
Well, in the thing is, if if it's going to pay people's health benefits, I think it's something that we can be excited about because we it's the government has a huge problem. I mean, Medicare is going insolvent in 2032, Social Security, I think in 2024. And all the talk recently has been about how the ACA is, the costs have gotten out of control and people can't afford it anymore.

00;19;31;20 - 00;19;44;22
Craig Andrews
You know, they we had the subsidies that were in there that were put in temporarily during the Covid years. And without those subsidies, people are like, oh my goodness, I can't afford this. You can't give me a big enough subsidy to afford this.

00;19;44;24 - 00;19;53;18
Camille Diaz
Right? Yep, yep. So I'm always on the lookout for alternative strategies. So things that companies can do like the zero net cost option,

00;19;53;21 - 00;19;56;26
Camille Diaz
health shares, which companies and individuals can do

00;19;56;29 - 00;20;09;29
Camille Diaz
direct primary care, which is kind of like a gym membership, but to the doctor in your local area so that you can actually have a doctor that in mind, when I the one that I have, I have an app, I can text them, I can message them, they'll answer me back.

00;20;09;29 - 00;20;15;07
Camille Diaz
We can do video. It's really great. It's almost like having that small town doctor that comes to your house again.

00;20;15;10 - 00;20;26;24
Camille Diaz
So, you know, and it's and they're popping up in cities all over the place. So it's not like it's something that's super uncommon. They're becoming much more common. And easier to access. So it's it's really just figuring out what's right for the person.

00;20;27;02 - 00;20;35;03
Camille Diaz
Some people have preexisting stuff. Some people have unique situations. You know, this stuff might not work for everybody. And I have to say that so I can be compliant here.

00;20;35;03 - 00;20;47;04
Camille Diaz
But it's it's worth looking at alternative options. It's worth exploring what's out there. And maybe not getting immediately trapped in that. This is the only way that I can do things.

00;20;47;06 - 00;21;06;17
Craig Andrews
You know, one of the applications I've heard for direct primary care, I saw somebody who is in Medicare, and I don't understand Medicare, but apparently, like a lot of your regular doctor's visits aren't covered. And so they just sign up for direct primary care. They didn't get the part B or part C or whatever part it is.

00;21;06;19 - 00;21;20;27
Craig Andrews
Of Medicare they just get direct primary care. They pay less. And they have a doctor that's excited to see him as opposed to a doctor who's taking Medicare patients because they sort of have to but they're losing money right.

00;21;21;00 - 00;21;36;23
Camille Diaz
Yeah. Yeah that's exactly the mindset of figure out what a solution is that actually works for you, get you what you want. The and that's the important part is are we getting the health care we need and are we staying healthy. So that's really the part that's needed.

00;21;36;26 - 00;21;43;14
Camille Diaz
So I love that. That's a perfect story of, hey, if I do this way, this way and this, it usually is putting more than one thing together.

00;21;43;17 - 00;21;56;27
Camille Diaz
And, you know, I a lot of times people are like, I just want a one and done solution. I want this one thing and that's it. And I don't want to have to think about it again. And that's where we kind of tend to tend to be. But sometimes now we're getting to the point where it's like, okay, I'm going to piece it together.

00;21;56;27 - 00;22;11;09
Camille Diaz
I'll take a little bit from here, a little bit from here, put these two together. Now I get a solution that I can afford that actually does what I need it to do, and then I'm happy to go use it. I'm getting the care that I need. So that's kind of that's that's just kind of the new ways piece of together.

00;22;11;11 - 00;22;16;24
Craig Andrews
And I think there's still a lot of confusion out there about what direct primary care is. What what is that.

00;22;16;26 - 00;22;34;05
Camille Diaz
Yeah. So it's essentially where you buy you pay like a membership directly to a group of doctors, a doctor or a group of doctors. And think about it like if you were to join the gym, I think most people understand what it's like to join the gym. Hey, you pay for the gym, you can go to the gym.

00;22;34;12 - 00;22;50;01
Camille Diaz
That's how that works. You pay for the doctors, you can go to the doctors. So that's not insurance. They're not, you know, charge it. But all of those basic visits, you get to go that's included in your membership. And they specify what the rules are for their particular practice.

00;22;50;04 - 00;22;55;23
Camille Diaz
Typically they'll have relationships with labs or pharmacies or other doctors that are specialists.

00;22;56;00 - 00;23;03;16
Camille Diaz
So if you need that other type of service, they can refer you out to the place that needs to for you to get whatever it is you need there.

00;23;03;19 - 00;23;14;13
Camille Diaz
They usually have a relationship with a lab so that the lab cost is reasonable, and then you just pay out of pocket for those things, or you might have another plan that covers that stuff.

00;23;14;15 - 00;23;15;12
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00;23;15;14 - 00;23;16;25
Camille Diaz
That kind of make sense.

00;23;16;27 - 00;23;24;18
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And I think and what I've heard is that that membership so and let's give some numbers, I've heard numbers anywhere from like

00;23;24;21 - 00;23;30;18
Craig Andrews
80 and $90 a month all the way up to like 100 or 120, maybe 130.

00;23;30;21 - 00;23;32;09
Camille Diaz
That sounds about right.

00;23;32;11 - 00;23;42;16
Craig Andrews
And that includes your annual physical. Sure. And I think I know at least a couple I've seen. They also include your bloodwork for your annual physical. Yeah.

00;23;42;19 - 00;23;58;02
Camille Diaz
Yeah, it just depends on the place. They all have their own like because it's an individual group of doctors, they get to decide what they're going to offer and what their stuff is going to be. So that's that's what they that's what they what whatever they work out is what you get.

00;23;58;05 - 00;24;01;07
Camille Diaz
But yeah, you could only include your blood work and stuff like that for them.

00;24;01;07 - 00;24;10;01
Camille Diaz
It's, it's advantageous because if they're getting you to come in regularly now we're focusing on keeping you healthy and not just managing when you get sick.

00;24;10;03 - 00;24;24;19
Craig Andrews
Right, right. And and it like you said, a lot of them, they'll they'll have a place, you know, you can call in the middle of the night. You know the thing I hate, you know, here's part of the racket with health care. If,

00;24;24;22 - 00;24;30;06
Craig Andrews
if I'm if I've got weird green stuff coming out of my head and I know I need an antibiotic.

00;24;30;08 - 00;24;30;26
Camille Diaz
Yeah.

00;24;30;29 - 00;24;40;18
Craig Andrews
The only way the doctor can get paid for prescribing an antibiotic is for me to come do a visit for which they're going to charge me 100 bucks for,

00;24;40;21 - 00;24;50;29
Craig Andrews
And then they can code it and then they can prescribe it. But with the direct primary care, you can call them up and say, hey, here's what's coming out of my head.

00;24;50;29 - 00;24;59;19
Craig Andrews
They're like, why don't we just put you on an antibiotic thing called into the pharmacy? You don't have to go in their office and expose them. And anybody else in the office.

00;24;59;22 - 00;25;00;17
Camille Diaz
Right?

00;25;00;20 - 00;25;01;23
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Which is.

00;25;01;23 - 00;25;02;05
Camille Diaz
It's nice.

00;25;02;05 - 00;25;03;12
Craig Andrews
Have a bonus for everybody.

00;25;03;14 - 00;25;10;14
Camille Diaz
It is. And you don't have to go sit in a waiting room with a bunch of other people that have different green stuff coming out, and then potentially catch a new thing.

00;25;10;16 - 00;25;12;18
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Wow.

00;25;12;20 - 00;25;14;26
Camille Diaz
Yeah. So that's pretty cool.

00;25;14;28 - 00;25;18;06
Craig Andrews
So,

00;25;18;08 - 00;25;34;27
Craig Andrews
This episode is going to come out probably after our annual renewal. And so all these businesses are going through, they're doing their annual renewal and health benefits. Yeah. And are you locked in to like the annual renewal cycle?

00;25;34;29 - 00;25;38;22
Camille Diaz
Thankfully I am not. So I have I do more than one thing.

00;25;38;22 - 00;25;42;19
Camille Diaz
Life insurance is probably a bigger part of my business than even the health part is.

00;25;42;22 - 00;25;54;18
Camille Diaz
But as far as the zero net cost stuff goes, that is. And we start people at the beginning of every month. And since there's no additional cost, it doesn't matter when your annual renewal is, you can layer it on at any time.

00;25;54;18 - 00;26;05;02
Camille Diaz
It's not going to cost you anything extra to do it. So yeah, I'm not locked into the annual renewal cycle. It does tend to be busy at that time because that's when people are thinking about it.

00;26;05;05 - 00;26;08;24
Camille Diaz
But we're not trapped, so it's kind of awesome.

00;26;08;26 - 00;26;32;00
Craig Andrews
So if I let's say I have a company health plan and I just signed up for annual renewal and, you know, and I did it with like a big lump in my throat because I just got hit with another 20 or 25% year on year price increase. Yeah. Can I call you in February and say, hey, can you get me out of this?

00;26;32;02 - 00;26;33;17
Camille Diaz
You can always call me.

00;26;33;20 - 00;26;53;06
Camille Diaz
It depends on your contract. If you can cancel before the end of the year or not. However, if you wanted to layer on a zero net cost and maybe shift some of your claims over there and get your employees used to using it, you could do that at any time.

00;26;53;09 - 00;26;54;08
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00;26;54;10 - 00;27;14;00
Camille Diaz
Yeah. So it just I mean, I like, for example, the major medical that I used to have with my company. So we used to offer it before we started shifting. So some of these other options we were able to cancel at any time. But I don't know for every other company, if you have that deal where you can cancel at any time or not.

00;27;14;03 - 00;27;16;06
Camille Diaz
So it's kind of just individual.

00;27;16;08 - 00;27;28;02
Craig Andrews
Well, if nothing else, you know, if you're shifting some of the claims over to your zero net cost model, that means the claims against your existing plan are going down.

00;27;28;05 - 00;27;29;13
Camille Diaz
That's right.

00;27;29;15 - 00;27;42;05
Craig Andrews
Yes. Which means when you're coming up for renewal, you could actually, if you decide you're coming up for renewal and you want to keep writing the horse, you've been writing, you're coming in at a lower price because your claims are going down.

00;27;42;07 - 00;27;51;27
Camille Diaz
Right. And if you're at the point of doing a self-funded or a level funded plan now, you might be getting money back because you can use it all.

00;27;51;29 - 00;28;01;25
Craig Andrews
Oh well. Oh wow. Okay. I think some I think folks need to call you. So how did people reach you? And,

00;28;01;28 - 00;28;02;26
Craig Andrews
other people reach you?

00;28;03;03 - 00;28;12;29
Camille Diaz
Yeah. So LinkedIn is probably where I spend the most of my time. If you're looking for me on social media, I'm literally just LinkedIn slash in slash Camille, lda. So just have my name on there.

00;28;13;02 - 00;28;18;03
Camille Diaz
At Camp Unfiltered is where I'm at on other social, so Instagram, Facebook, things like that.

00;28;18;06 - 00;28;18;26
Camille Diaz
And then,

00;28;18;26 - 00;28;23;15
Camille Diaz
I've got a website, you know, Camille diaz.com really easy puts up in the contact.

00;28;23;17 - 00;28;26;15
Camille Diaz
So yeah, super, super easy to find me.

00;28;26;17 - 00;28;29;11
Craig Andrews
Well, excellent. Well, thanks for sharing. The island leaders and legacies.

00;28;29;13 - 00;28;31;14
Camille Diaz
Thank you very much for having me on the show.

00;28;31;22 - 00;28;46;28
Camille Diaz
Is it okay to share a little freebie if somebody wants absolutely. Okay. Awesome. So one of the things I love to teach is millionaire habits. Anyone can copy things like we talked about today, having alternative strategies for things going out and looking for solutions that really match what you want.

00;28;47;00 - 00;28;50;28
Camille Diaz
So I've got a little free PDF six Millionaire Habits anyone Can copy.

00;28;51;05 - 00;28;54;09
Camille Diaz
Camille diaz.com/habits.

00;28;54;11 - 00;28;59;17
Craig Andrews
Excellent. And we'll we'll include that in the show notes as well. Thank you so much.

00;28;59;19 - 00;29;08;11
Camille Diaz
Thank you so much Craig. This is amazing.

00;29;08;13 - 00;29;30;03
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Ally's for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;29;30;03 - 00;29;31;28
Craig Andrews
episode on social media.

00;29;32;00 - 00;29;55;10
Craig Andrews
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00;29;55;12 - 00;30;03;17
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe. Your thumbs up. Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me.

00;30;03;17 - 00;30;13;26
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Ally's for me.com. Or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.