Star City Six – Brian Northup
Compensation Programs, Inc. (ComPro; www.comproins.com) is a health insurance brokerage firm that specializes in offering products to employer groups and individuals to best cover their health insurance needs. Brian Northup is an agent at ComPro.
Tell us a little about your business.
Our focus at ComPro is on employee benefits, including health insurance, disability insurance, life, dental, and vision for employers with six to 100 employees. We have dedicated agents to serve individuals looking for Medicare supplement or advantage plans, marketplace coverage, dental, vision, and travel insurance.
How did you get started in the business?
I got started in the business because of my wife, who has been working in the industry for 20 years. Her dad started this business and would drag her to work in the summers to help him. As an outside observer, I was always curious about the health insurance industry and knew that the people in the office would make it a fun place to work.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced professionally?
Some people might think that it would be challenging to work in a small family business with so many family members, but that is not true at all! The biggest challenge is during 4Q when we renew almost 2,700 individual clients’ policies and over 200 group policies. It’s during this time that the business can easily take over your life, and it’s a struggle to find balance.
Tell us a little about your family.
My family consists of my beautiful and amazing wife of 15 years, Kayla, who also works at ComPro with me. We have a 10-year-old son who loves baseball and is more responsible than most people twice his age, and a six-year-old daughter who loves to push the boundaries and give her older brother a hard time.
What do you see as one of the biggest turning points in your life?
Having kids really taught me to grow up as they became the focus of my life.
What is your favorite thing to do on a day off?
As a family, our favorite thing to do is travel. I never thought I would enjoy Disney World or youth baseball, but wow…have things changed! When we are not traveling, our free time is consumed with youth sports and church activities.
If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Being super speedy like The Flash! My son and I have watched all four seasons of The Flash, and now my daughter and I are watching them together.
Which talent would you most like to have?
I would really like to improve on putting names with faces. It’s easy to recognize people I’ve met before, but I frequently find it hard to recall names immediately.
If you could choose any other profession to be successful in, what would it be?
This is a hard question for me, because there are so many professions that seem fun! I would love to be an arborist, astronaut, financial advisor, scientist, engineer…the list is very long. However, what I enjoy the most is doing research in order to figure out the best deals. Thankfully, my job at ComPro allows me to do that every day to help our clients find the best kind of benefits and coverage available to them!
If our readers would like to contact you, how should they do so?
Our office can be reached by calling (402) 488-5100 and I can be contacted directly via email at bnorthup@comproins.com. Definitely visit our website at www.comproins.com if you’re interested in learning more. Additionally, our Facebook page (@comproinc) has lots of informative videos over different topics in the world of insurance!