[SGC-29] How The Health Insurance Whisperer Uses Instagram To Reach Her Ideal Clients with Hayla Folden

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there. Hello, and welcome back, all you content creators.

We're back for another episode of The She's Got Content Podcast.

And for all you solopreneurs and business owners who are confused about

health insurance, health insurance for yourself, your family,

maybe your employees, or your team, I want you to meet the health

insurance whisperer Hayla Folden. Before

selling insurance, Hayla worked as a risk communicator for public

health, where she educated the public about diseases in

a way so people were able to take action. Hayla believes

the more you understand something, the easier it is to move

beyond fear. She uses the same approach to help

you fully understand your health insurance policy. Hayla

uses Instagram to educate her audience all year long

about something that people typically think about only

once a year when it's time to renew their insurance policy.

So I wanted to bring her on the show and talk with her about how

she uses the Instagram platform as her content

playground. Welcome, Hayla. Hey. Thank you for

having me. Oh, it's my pleasure. I

think this is a fascinating topic, and I want to just

take our listeners back. Can you tell us a little more detail about how you

ended up doing what you do? Yes.

Many years ago, when I was in my twenties, I had excruciating

pain in my pelvis. I could not figure out what it was.

The doctors could not figure out what it was, and it

took several years to get a diagnosis. I had two pinched

nerves. They were pinched in two places in my pelvis.

And during that whole process of

getting the diagnosis and then having the surgery to fix

the problem, I had so many medical bills,

I didn't understand my health insurance. And then through my job, I

changed my insurance. And one year, I was just lazy

and waited until the very last day. And I remember

saying to the right I remember saying to the HR person, what

should I get? Just tell me something, and I'll just pick something. And that was

probably the biggest mistake I ever made because what I chose

did not match what I was experiencing,

my lifestyle.It didn't match anything. And I ended

up owing thousands of dollars out of pocket that year

because I wasn't paying attention. I didn't know it. I didn't take

the time to learn it. That experience and that

overwhelming medical debt that I ended up with is what propelled

me forward to learn the health insurance policies, understand

how they work, and to follow health insurance laws.

And I'm so grateful that I did because it became

so easy for me, and I could explain it to my coworkers, and I could

help them find something that worked for them. Now, even

buying health insurance privately is so

simple, and I know exactly what I need for my lifestyle,

and that's how I help my clients. We find what they

need specifically for their lifestyle and the issues that they're having at the moment.

It sounds like you take something that's, for most of us,

very complex, and you break it down and customize it

for what the person needs. Is that yes, that's exactly

how it works because we have the conversation, a very private

conversation of what they need, what they're experiencing,

what they've had in the past that they hated because everybody has an "I hate

insurance" story. And then we move forward. What would you like

to have? What is your ultimate want? If you

had a wish list of what you could have in your health insurance, what would

it include? And then from there, I'm able to,

yes, customize something for them so that they

have a plan that meets their needs and

maintains their doctors or includes doctors

that they want to see. So simple for me, honestly, I tell people

it takes me 15 minutes to do it. It takes me longer

to explain it. But it's important to me that

every one of my clients understand how it works to avoid

those costs, those surprise bills, as people call them. Sometimes

they are surprised, but sometimes it's just because you don't understand the

policy. Hayla, do you sell insurance just in one specific

area of the country, or do you work with people throughout the

US? I'm licensed in seven or eight states right

now, and so I'm not everywhere, but even in states that I'm

not licensed in, I know people and can connect people with someone in those

areas to help them. And I'm continually adding new

states. Just recently added California. Okay. This is

a really important topic, I think, for solopreneurs business

owners, because often I hear people say, I don't have health

insurance, because they think that you can only get health

insurance through an employer. And when you're the

employer, you employ yourself. You just don't know how to

access it, or you just don't think it's an option. That's right. And one

of the most common questions I get is, where do I find it? How do

I find health insurance? And I know if you go on

Google and search, there's 7 million results that come

back for where to buy health insurance. And then if

you find something you like, it almost

always makes you input your personal information,

like your age, do you smoke, your address?

And I did this one time just to see what happens when you do this.

I had no fewer than 15 different

insurance agents reach out to me in the first five minutes. Yes, it

was unbelievable. My phone was ringing. I was getting text

messages, and they were very pushy. I can help

you, and you need to call me right now. And I don't like that approach.

That's not me. I don't want people calling me. I want to find

the information that I need, try to

read through it and understand it for myself, and then reach out

to someone. So I always tell people that, reach out to me.

This is what I can do for you, but we need to have a conversation

first. And if you're not ready for that, let me know what it is

you want, and I'll supply you with some stuff

because I understand not everybody likes that approach. Yeah. I can

imagine how you fear that every

Tom, Dick and Harry is going to be beating down your door if you start

putting in that information and you just don't know where it's

going. So having you as a

resource in the back pocket to help the

consumer, the business owners, understand really what it

is they need, because it's just such a big topic. Don't want to even think

about it, like, until the last day, the very last

day. And most people do. They put it off because of the

fear. It's usually the fear of the unknown, or they're afraid they're going to make

a bad decision and it's going to impact everyone else that's on that

policy. And so they just start it and then put it

off. And I understand that. I completely understand that because I do

that with other things. The laundry, I'm going to put it off until the very

last minute. I'm not going to do it, so I get it. Income

taxes put it off until the last minute. But

I try to help people understand that within a

conversation. And then a few minutes of my time, I'm going to

send them things that are going to work for them so that any choice they

make is going to be a good choice. There are no bad choices, so I'm

not going to send you an option that's not going to work. And

then when it's narrowed down to two or three options, it's so much

easier when you know everyone's going to work, all of these options are going to

benefit you, and then we talk through those. Is there one that works

better? Let's talk about the differences. And I really

enjoy that process with my clients because there's always an

AHA moment. Sometimes there's tears where they say, I had no idea.

I did not understand it could be this easy. You

have made this, like, the relief of

having it where it's a simple answer. And

I so enjoy that. I really love

especially helping business owners that are leaving a corporate

environment. The solopreneurs that are starting their businesses.

I love being able to do that for them to say, look, you don't have

to wait any longer. You can leave your job

because it's not going to be that difficult. The health insurance is the piece

that most people stay for and when you can show them

this is what you can get, this is how much it's going to cost,

there's such a sense of relief and I love to see that.

It sounds to me like you're translating all of

that medical insurance, I want to call it gobbledy

goop, into understandable language that

the person who's leaving corporate, the person who's leaving an

employed job, who wants to be an

entrepreneur, how they can understand that. And maybe

they're at a point where they've got employees they want to cover,

they may have a team, so you can help them walk through

that. You are the health insurance whisperer.

You actually make it easy, understandable.

And you just did a couple of analogies right now where you

talked about procrastination and putting off the laundry

and how that relates to how most of us think about this

health insurance policy that we know we need, but we put it

off until the last moment or sometimes miss deadlines.

Kind of segue into that with making the health insurance

relatable and how you actually pull that in with your content

on instagram and you get your engagement or your interaction.

Tell us about that. Most people have that "I hate health

insurance" story and I think it's always important to

bring some of that to light, especially in a format

where people can engage with it. I love to do instagram reels

to talk about I've had this bad experience before

and have you ever experienced this?

And to get the stories and the people talking because once

you understand that everybody's had a bad experience, it's

so much easier to bond. And then from there

I can go into these are some positive

experiences. These are some instances where

you could save money if you understood your policy. And

I always tell people if you were clear

on what requires prior authorization before

you had a procedure or a medication prescribed,

you wouldn't feel so much hatred towards the insurance

for denying something because you would understand the process and then

explain what the process is. This is how many steps you have to take to

get there. But I love the stories and

the engagement when people share and almost

always there's bad stories, but there are some

positive ones. I recently mentioned

a bad experience I had with the doctor because there's

the difference between a bad experience and a bad doctor. I

had a bad doctor. This neurosurgeon told me I had

nice underwear and that was the difference between men and women patients. Yeah. Were

their underwear. And that stuck with me. That was

probably 15 years ago, right?

How creepy. Yes. Very! And he came highly recommended,

Melissa. People loved him. He was top of

his game, but it was so creepy. I never wanted to see him ever

again. And that was the experience that propelled me to find

new doctors on my own and get myself to a point where I could get

help. I mentioned that on Instagram in

a reel. The stories that flooded in from people in

the comments were unbelievable. So many people have

had horrible experiences like that. And I

like to take that time and that opportunity to tell them the

difference between a bad experience and a bad doctor. Because sometimes we're

all just a little off for the day. It'd be just a bad experience. But

yeah, there were some bad doctor stories that came through on

that one. Now that you're saying that, I tend to lurk a lot on

TikTok and reels on Instagram and

watch and consume the content, I have seen

so many instances, especially it's women. I don't think I've ever

seen a man post about a bad experience with a

doctor. And having been in the medical field for many

years, I was just floored

that those experiences happen.

It's scary how frequently it happens.

Yes, so scary. I will

never forget that doctor. I had another one tell me

that I was having pain because my pants were too tight, but there

was an underlying cause for the pain. It wasn't because my pants

were too tight. So stuff like that propelled

me to learn the insurance, to

figure out a better way. And I created the Better Doctor

Playbook based on that because of the steps

that I then took for years to find different

doctors in different fields that I needed. And

when I tell you, if I follow those steps, I almost

always have a doctor- provider relationship

that I love. I would recommend my current

primary care physician to anyone because of the first interaction

I had with him and the way he understood and asked

questions and listened. I would recommend him to

anyone. But I've taught my children how to do that. So

that as young adults, the youngest one just turned 20. So as young

adults, they can find their own doctors.

They're doing great, they're thriving. Sounds

like this is a playbook that actually physicians should have on

their shelf. What you've been saying here is that

you posted something that your audience on

Instagram can relate to, and you've asked

certain questions about how that experience that you may have

had, how they can relate. Okay. So that's like a

theme that you have when you're playing in your content playground

over there on Instagram. That's right. One of my themes,

absolutely, is to post something that

is relatable. Some story that I have that someone else may be able to

relate to and then to get the engagement from

them. One of the others is just pure education

where I just break down--this is a

part of a health insurance policy and this is how this particular section

works, like the prior authorization, how it works and why it's

important. The understanding the out of pocket

costs that are outside of the premium and outside of the

deductible so that people are not

getting surprised by those medical bills. Okay, so relatable

unforgettable educational.

Educational. Okay. I try to go education first with

everything just because that's the way I like to

learn. I want to be taught a little bit on something that

I can relate to. So having a relatable story that also

has an educational piece that may come the next day or the day after.

Okay. How about case studies? I know. We're dealing with

HIPAA laws. The Health Information Privacy

Act. Is that something that you're able to weave

into your content? I can if it's very generic.

If I'm just very generically saying, this is something that

has happened, and here is how you may see

it play out for you, or how this person saw it play out. Yes. So

I do have several clients that have gone into

running their own business, some that did not have any health insurance

that then once they got it, they were able to take the

steps to get preventive care that they've not been getting. So I do try

to include that while also maintaining their

privacy. Yeah, that's important. Just talking in generic

terms about specific clients that you may

have. How often are you posting?

And you mentioned reels. Do you do stories? Do you do just

static posts as well? I do stories, but most of my stories

are just going to be the dog, the family, what I'm doing outside

of health insurance. I do mostly

reels. I do some static posts. Really? I was

listening to Jade Francesca, the interview that

you did, and when she said the aligned marketing

where if you have a passion for the content, then

you don't have to do it as frequently. Right. Because your passion comes

through. And I didn't realize that's what I was doing. That's

exactly what I do, because when I set myself on a

schedule, I really struggle to maintain it unless I have things happening

that are relatable that I can post. So I've taken a short break

on Instagram. I haven't posted in a week or two, but I try

to do at least one to two reels a week. And sometimes

I make it, sometimes I don't. But I do

make sure that the content that I post is educational.

And it's usually stuff that's evergreen. So it doesn't matter what time of year you

see it, you can look back through it and learn something. I'm

curious, do you find that people will reach out to you through instagram

on the direct message? Tell us a little about that. It

almost always happens when someone's looking for insurance or

they have a billing question or something that they don't understand on their

policy. People will reach out to me in a direct message.

I have had people just go straight to my booking page and book time

to talk to me about issues if they think it's going to take longer.

And I love that. I love that they're comfortable enough to reach out to

someone they may not know personally, but they're getting to know me and

my style through the way I post and the information that I

post. Sometimes people will ask questions in the

comments just very plainly, and ask questions that

are more direct that don't take as long to answer. Yeah, I've noticed that

those that have longer questions, they do. They go straight to the booking page

and book time. Interesting. Okay, and that

booking page then, is part of your "Information in the

Bio" section up there on your Instagram profile? Yes, it

is. Okay, that's good to hear that people are relating

to you. You're building that relationship. You don't know how long somebody might have been

looking at your post. I call it lurking. Looking

and lurking. And then something happens and then they reach out

because I hear from a lot of people that they don't think that their

social media strategy is working. Nobody and

that's an exaggerated term, nobody ever

engages. And I just got an email from another marketer

who was talking about how someone had actually been in her world for

five years, never commented on any social media post,

never had engaged on social media, never had responded to

an email, and all of a sudden decided, I want to sign up as a

one on one client. I believe it. You just don't

know. You don't! And especially when it comes to something like this, where

they may not need to do anything with it until

a specific time of year or until there's a life

transition that they're having to make. Maybe they're getting divorced or they're getting

married or they're having kids. That's when people reach out.

They don't feel the need, and I'm okay with

that. As long as they're getting the education and they

stay. People follow and they stay. The views are

there, the engagement is there, but they don't necessarily, they're not

reaching out until they need it. Very interesting. So just do the

activity, let go of the outcome. Keep doing it,

tweak it here, tweak it there if you want, but don't just

give up on a strategy. If you've got a content playground where, as you mentioned

before, the aligned marketing that Jade Francesca talked about in

episode 23, that you do

it because you've got a passion for it and just keep doing

it because people do appreciate it. Like you said, they're

lurking and they're looking and they may be taking action in their own

lives. If they have a health insurance policy through their workplace, they may be

learning something that they're able to use and then save money. And I love

that for them. If that's the case. I realize

that not everyone will come to me, but I don't want

everyone because I'm mostly working with

those solopreneurs and business owners, so

I can appreciate the lurkers I want them to

learn. Sounds like a great mission. You mentioned a while

back about hating health insurance being universal.

You're trying to actually change that, it sounds

like. I think there's always going to be some hate. I'm not going

to lie, because the costs are outrageous and they don't cover

enough sometimes. So there will always be some hate. I

really do believe that people can, if they

learn how healthcare works and the whole system, which includes

insurance, there will be less hate and more

empowered users. A lot of people don't even use

their health insurance because they don't know how it works. So they're paying for something

they're not using. Yeah, I want them to use it. I want them to

appreciate it, and I want them to feel empowered

to reach out if they have questions to their insurance company, to know

the process. Yeah. An informed

consumer is a happier consumer.

Yes. Every time. Yeah. All right,

we've just gone in all different directions here. And I just love how

you're using Instagram to really make people

hate health insurance less, to educate them.

You mentioned a while ago about the Better Doctor Playbook. How can

our listeners get their hands on that? From my website,

listeners can. Which is HaylaFolden.com. From there.

Listeners can grab that Better Doctor Playbook. And

like I said, those are the same steps that I have been taking for

15 years, to find doctors that are within my network and my

insurance, the questions to ask,

the things to consider, and just basically

what to look for. And there are spaces to write down notes -- where you're

going and which doctor you're looking for, and it gives you a place

to compare several at the same time. And

that it seems so simple. Honestly, the

Better Doctor Playbook seems so simple, but that's

because it is. It's just a few steps that you need to take and

a few questions you need to ask. But it will make a big

difference when it comes to your providers and

appreciating your providers and then your insurance

covering it. I think everybody's going to

want a copy of that. So I'll make sure that link is in the show

notes for all of our listeners. Hayla, tell us again the name

of your website and where people can find you on Instagram.

My website is haylafolden.com. That's Haylafolden.com.

And

on Instagram. I'm

Hayla hyphen Folden. So it's at

Hayla-Folden. And I would love to have people over there

asking me questions and engaging and telling me their bad stories,

too. I love to hear their 'I hate insurance' stories so that we can talk

about why and how to improve it. And you'll

also take some I love insurance stories too, I'll bet. Absolutely.

If anybody has an I love insurance story. I would love to hear yeah,

I. Would love to hear the stories about how something was covered that they didn't

think was going to be covered. Those surprises are like,

okay, I have a few clients that have had that happen

already this year, so those stories are always

appreciated. But like I said, I have to be careful about sharing those, but

I try to encourage clients to share those. Yeah.

Beautiful. Thank you. Once again, it's been a pleasure to have you

here. Thank you, listeners, for tuning in another week. Remember, you've

got content and you've got people out there who want to hear your

content, so get your content out there. See you next

week. Hey. Hey. My Content Creator of this

week is Mindose. M-I-N-D-O-S-E.

Mindose left me a review on Apple

podcast, and I want to read this to you. Thank you so much,

Mindose, for your review. The title is

Actionable and Inspiring. Mindose writes, "I

love Melissa's blend of personal insight, expertise

episodes, as well as outside interviews to demystify

the content chaos we business owners too often create

for ourselves. She really makes the whole process seem

manageable and streamlined, and I find myself tuning in

just to hear her calming voice when I'm getting overwhelmed with or distracted

by shiny objects on my own content creation pathway.

Thank you, Melissa." Wow.

Thank you so much, Mindose. I really do appreciate that. And

I want to remind everyone listening please leave a

thoughtful review on Apple podcast and

you might be my Content Creator of the week when I read

out your review. Thank you so much, Mindose. And thank you so