The Ty Brady Way

The System Is Rigged: What Your Insurance Broker Isn't Telling You with Dan Dearden

On this episode of The Ty Brady Way, Ty sits down with Dan Dearden, a 25-year veteran of the group health insurance industry who has spent his career helping small and mid-sized businesses navigate one of their biggest frustrations: the relentless, compounding cost of group health coverage. Dan lays out the landscape employers are dealing with right now. Hyperinflation in healthcare is running in the double digits with no slowdown projected for at least three to five years. Employers are capping employee hours to stay under the 50-employee mandate threshold, offering plans with $6,000 to $8,000 deductibles while still paying enormous premiums, and in some cases simply paying the government penalty because it costs less than the insurance itself. Trent Staggs, traveling the country talking to business owners, heard the same answer almost unanimously: the cost of health insurance is the number one problem in business today. Dan explains why so many employers stay stuck, and why the traditional brokerage model is part of the problem rather than the solution. Then he walks through the alternative his firm Spica Employee Benefits is most committed to: Pareto Health, the largest employer captive in the country with nearly 4,500 member companies. The model pools smaller employers together to create the same buying power as a Fortune 500 company, driving down the cost of medical procedures, surgeries, and prescription drugs while actually improving the quality of care. Dan shares that a top-ranked orthopedic surgeon in Bountiful, Utah performing robotic knee surgery can cost half of what a lesser surgeon down the street charges, and that steering employees toward the best providers in every category means better outcomes and lower total cost. His firm’s goal is to get employers from 100% of their current fully insured cost down to around 80%, and often better, with one local Utah company saving $109,000 in their first year on 65 employees. Dan closes with the wellness piece, sharing his own story of dropping his A1C from 5.9 to 4.1 through coaching, dietary changes, and targeted supplements, going from nearly being put on diabetes medication to his doctor calling him in disbelief. His message is that a culture of proactive health is just as important as the financial structure of the plan, and that a lot of expensive medical interventions are avoidable with the right support. For any employer with 50 or more employees who thinks they are already getting the best deal possible, Dan’s ask is simple: give his team 30 minutes. His parting wisdom for anyone building a career mirrors that same straightforward approach: work hard, become the subject matter expert in your field, and never stop investing in the people around you.   🎙️ @thetybradyway with @dan_dearden   As always, we would like to hear from you! 📧 Email us at thetybradyway@gmail.com [thetybradyway@gmail.com] 📱 DM us on Instagram @thetybradyway

The Golden Handcuffs: Why Leaving Your Day Job Is Harder Than It Looks with Brett Blackham

On this episode of The Ty Brady Way, Ty sits down with Brett Blackham, a Medicare and life insurance agent who built his business the slow, steady way while juggling his family’s retail pharmacy on the side. Brett came into the industry through his brother Bryce and spent years growing his book of business nights and weekends before finally going all in. If you’ve ever wondered what it really looks like to build something part-time before making the leap, this episode is your roadmap. Brett opens up about what those first few years looked like: slow growth, leaning on a personal network built through years of pharmacy relationships, and using The Parable of the Pipeline as his guiding philosophy for building renewable income. The book’s core idea is simple but powerful. One person hauls buckets every day to make money while another spends time building a pipeline. The bucket hauler earns faster at first, but once the pipeline is built, there is no competition. Brett’s Medicare renewals were his pipeline, and he trusted the process even when the early returns were modest. The conversation gets practical fast. Brett breaks down how he approached lead generation, starting with word of mouth and referrals, then buying leads strategically, and even working discarded leads other agents had written off. His philosophy is simple: a lead isn’t dead until they’re buying or dying. He shares the story of closing a life insurance policy on a lead card belonging to a grandmother who had passed away eight months earlier, proof that the right conversation at the right time beats a shiny new lead every time. Ty and Brett also tackle the biggest misconceptions in the Medicare space, including the widespread belief that working with an agent costs money. It doesn’t. Brett explains how the same products available online or over the phone are available through an agent at no extra cost to the consumer, with the agent paid by the carrier. He also addresses something that hits close to home for both of them: clients who don’t think to call their agent when problems come up. Brett walks through a powerful real-life example involving a $3,500 ambulance bill that nearly got paid unnecessarily, resolved in minutes because a client finally picked up the phone. Near the end of the episode, Brett reflects on what he would tell his younger self: you could have gotten here faster. Not because he was lazy, but because he didn’t yet believe how quickly it could happen. That insight leads to a broader conversation about the emotional weight of leaving guaranteed income behind and why the rule of thumb to wait until you’re earning double before cutting the cord exists for a reason, even if the math eventually makes the decision for you. Brett’s definition of success is one of the most grounded you’ll hear: balance. Enough financial resource, enough time, and enough freedom to follow what actually brings you joy. He doesn’t need a scoreboard. He needs to be at the game.   As always, we would like to hear from you! 📧 Email us at thetybradyway@gmail.com [thetybradyway@gmail.com] 📱 DM us on Instagram @thetybradyway

1500 Days of Running: The “Get Out the Door” Rule That Works With Chris Avery

On this episode of The Ty Brady Way, Ty sits down with Chris Avery for a long awaited return appearance, and the reason is simple: the people demanded it. After Chris’s first appearance where he shared how he ran a marathon with zero training, listeners flooded the comments with amazement and curiosity. So Ty brings him back to answer the question everyone was asking: what happened after that first marathon, and how did it lead to 1,500 straight days of running? Chris breaks down why the streak is far harder and far more meaningful than the single marathon that started it all, and why showing up every day, even sick, even broken, even at 11 PM, is what actually builds the person you want to become. Chris opens up about the moment the streak was born. He made the decision on January 8th, 2022, and was running by January 9th. No lag time, no overthinking, no room for doubt to creep in. He explains that most people kill their biggest dreams in the space between deciding and doing, and that acting fast is what turns a good idea into a real identity. Right now he is running 18 miles a day, burning through a pair of shoes every month, and waking up sore nearly every morning. But as he puts it, the soreness is worse lying in bed than once he gets moving, and the hardest part of every single day is simply getting out the door. Chris also pulls back the curtain on his ultimate goal: starting January 1st, 2027, he will run the perimeter of America, covering 50K (31.1 miles) every single day for 365 straight days, finishing December 31st, 2027. One man, one family, one RV. If completed, he will become the first person ever to run an ultra marathon distance consecutively around the country, surpassing the current record of roughly 200 days. He talks about the role his wife, his brotherhood, and his faith have played in keeping him going through shin splints, hernias, blown shoulders, and one brutal night with the flu where finishing felt impossible but quitting felt worse. He shares how a single question from a brother in his community, asking what it would take just to get started, was enough to reset his mind and get him out the door at 11 PM, finishing as the sun came up the next morning. His message is direct and personal: everybody has something calling them. Stop suppressing it. Stop delaying it. Breathe life into it and go do it, because as Les Brown says, the richest place in the world is the graveyard, full of symphonies never composed, books never written, and ideas that never got the chance to change the world. Chris refuses to add to that count, and after this episode, you just might too. As always, we would like to hear from you! Email us at thetybradyway@gmail.com Or DM us on Instagram @thetybradyway

From Detective to Full-Time Artist: How He Rebuilt His Dream at 40 with Tim Packer

On this episode of The Ty Brady Way, Ty sits down with Tim Packer, a celebrated Canadian artist, former police detective, and creative business mentor whose story is as unlikely as it is inspiring. From the time Tim was 12 years old, he knew he wanted to be an artist. He took commercial art in high school, studied graphic design in college, and was so eager to get started that he was sitting in a college classroom at 17. But after two years of entry-level jobs in the industry that left him feeling like he just didn’t have what it took, Tim did something that would define the next two decades of his life. He joined the Toronto Police Force, where he spent 18 years, eventually working as a fraud detective in the commercial crime unit investigating cases over two million dollars. Ty and Tim dig deep into the moment that changed everything, a single article Tim read featuring Canadian artist Harley Brown, who made a bold claim that talent isn’t something you’re born with, it’s something you build. Tim didn’t fully believe it at first, but he made a deal with himself to act as though he did for one year. He committed to painting three times a week, stopped avoiding the things he wasn’t good at, and started attacking his weaknesses like a detective working a case. By the end of that year, the results were undeniable. Within three years, the conversation with his wife had shifted from if he would leave the police force to paint full-time, to when. In 2000, he cashed in his pension and never looked back. But the first five years were anything but a highlight reel. Tim opens up about the struggle of figuring out not just the art, but the business of art, and how every few months he was convinced the conversation about putting the suit back on was right around the corner. It wasn’t until year five that he found his voice and things truly took off, culminating in a gallery opening in Toronto in 2015 that looked like something out of a movie, with people lined up at the door, red dots going up on every painting, and Tim realizing he was on track to make over a quarter million dollars that year from his art alone. And in that moment of success, what hit him wasn’t pride. It was responsibility. That responsibility led Tim to start his YouTube channel, sharing everything he’d learned with artists who were struggling the way he once had. Then in 2020, after a pair of near-death experiences with a thyroid condition left him lying on a gurney with his wife by his side, Tim came away with one nagging regret. He’d been playing it safe with his teaching. He launched the Tim Packer Art Academy, which has since helped over 10,000 artists, and recently released his book, You Can Sell Your Art, with one clear mission: helping artists make a living doing what they love. Ty and Tim also get into the power of the word yet, the danger of comparing your chapter one to someone else’s chapter thirty, the myth that doing what you love means you’ll never work a day in your life, and why being an artist and being an entrepreneur are exactly the same thing. Tim’s message is clear and it hits hard: talent is not a gift you either have or you don’t. It is the sum total of your skills, knowledge, experience, and creativity, and every single one of those things can be developed, earned, and grown without a ceiling. If you’ve ever talked yourself out of a dream because you didn’t think you were good enough, this episode is exactly what you need to hear. As always, we would like to hear from you! Email us at thetybradyway@gmail.com Or DM us on Instagram @thetybradyway

How to Start a Business Without Quitting Your Job with Greg Mohr

On this episode of The Ty Brady Way, Ty sits down with Greg Mohr, franchise consultant, Founder of Franchise Maven, and two-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Greg has spent 12 years guiding over 260 entrepreneurs through the franchise evaluation process, helping them open more than 500 successful territories, and he does it all working just 10 to 15 hours a week. Ty and Greg bust one of the biggest myths in franchising right out of the gate: that it’s only for people with deep pockets looking to open a McDonald’s or Chick-fil-A. Greg breaks down how franchising stretches across nearly every industry imaginable, from electrical services and senior care to crime scene cleanup, with many opportunities requiring as little as $20,000 down and manageable part-time hours. He also shares his signature 10-Operator Rule, a simple framework that takes 10 hours, costs nothing, and eliminates 60% of bad franchise opportunities before you risk a dime. Greg’s core message is one Ty connects with deeply: build for alignment, not just income potential. The right franchise that plays to your natural strengths will outperform a bigger investment that doesn’t fit you every single time. If you’ve ever wondered whether owning a business is actually within reach, this episode is for you. Pick up Greg’s book, Real Freedom: Why Franchises Are Worth Considering and How They Can Be Used for Building Wealth, and connect with him at franchisemaven.com or greg@franchisemaven.com [greg@franchisemaven.com].   As always, we would like to hear from you! Email us at thetybradyway@gmail.com Or DM us on Instagram @thetybradyway