Dec 4 2025 John Raabe interview.txt English (US) 00:00:09.480 — 00:00:17.760 I'm John Robbie. That's r a b e and I'm the vice chairman of the board currently. 00:00:19.080 — 00:01:18.530 Very good. The, uh, you are part of the Floresville branch. Is that correct? That's correct. I'm actually also the president of the Floresville branch and also the director for region one, which includes, uh, Floresville and uh, cities on down to the south. How long have you been affiliated with Cattle Fly? Well, actually, I, uh, I mean, I've been going to socials since I was in third grade. I grew up my family with Catholic Life members, and, uh, we lived in both, which is about, uh, six miles south of Floresville, where I currently live. and every year we would look forward to going to the social. It was a big activity in both. Did your parents have any affiliation with. No, they were just members as members. Yes, my parents were members and had policies, and we were good friends with the agents and their families. 00:01:20.330 — 00:01:30.089 Tell me about what kind of things the branch does in Floresville. What kind of community activities you guys did? Well, one of our biggest things is we 00:01:31.410 — 00:02:01.540 that we do with the Floresville branch is we pair up with our confirmation students, they will gather food, and then we will help distribute it to either Saint Vincent de Paul or the local food bank that has established in Floresville. We also give scholarships to kids in the seniors of in Floresville that are members of our branch. It's one of the things that really means something to me, 00:02:03.020 — 00:02:11.900 and to have our kids be able to go on and do more. And then maybe they'll come back to the community and see what we've done. 00:02:13.620 — 00:03:47.320 Tell tell me about Floresville. Is it it's growing right. It's close enough to San Antonio that you're getting a population boost. Yeah. So in the past few years we've Floresville has really grown. Um, I've lived there since 1985, and I could drive to San Antonio in 30 minutes. And now it takes a good hour. Almost because of the increase in population, we were considered a bedroom city of San Antonio, where most everybody worked in San Antonio. But now we've we've grown. We have um, um, industries and such, uh, coming into Floresville. And so there are young people moving to Floresville? Yes. Most definitely. We have young people. A lot of kids are elementary school was actually going to have to be expanded because of the growth of young families. And how do you approach young families about Catholic life? I mean, you're not an insurance salesman, but correct. One of the things that I do is just try to impress upon them the policies that we have, like for little kids, for children, uh, that gives them the opportunity to become part of the Catholic life family. And then when those kids get of age to where they are going off to college and stuff, they can get their own policies. So it's more geared toward the parents to bring their kids into the Catholic life. Family. 00:03:48.960 — 00:04:03.730 What kind of challenges your vice chair? What kind of challenges is the board looking at right now? There's so much change in most business models. AI is a word that's whispered. What challenges do you guys face? 00:04:05.810 — 00:04:50.290 So those are the challenges that I've seen. The board face is just a membership growth in one area. It's hard to get more and more people, the younger generation, to value life insurance and annuities. A lot of them look, you know, to the right now, here and now. But, you know, we were taught long ago that, you know, you need to look out for your older years when you're going to retire and stuff and have something there for that. So to me, that's one of the biggest challenges, is the growth of the company to make sure that it continues to grow, to be viable. 00:04:51.410 — 00:05:20.860 Is that kind of a cultural thing, though, or I mean, how is it young people? The idea that that it's tough to save money, it's tough to spend on, uh, life insurance policy that you likely will never see or something like that. How do you how do you go about changing young people's views about how they should handle money? It's that's a really tough the for young people now I think. Yeah. 00:05:23.780 — 00:06:13.630 Yeah. So I think that just being out there in the uh, going and visiting with them and expressing upon them, showing them our experiences. Yeah. I grew up with, um, five older brothers in my family. You know, we didn't have a lot to save, but, uh, my parents made sure all of us went to college, got a degree, and we're on our own now, and we're able to To provide for our families and show our children more. And I think it's more of that is show our experiences with the younger generation and say, hey, you know, it's not about that $50,000 car. You know, uh, you need to make sure that you have something in the long term. 00:06:14.910 — 00:06:15.630 So you see. 00:06:19.350 — 00:06:23.910 Yeah, we are a tag team. Okay. Yeah, yeah. 00:06:25.390 — 00:06:26.070 And. 00:06:29.990 — 00:06:36.830 I had, I had one. So you bring up a really good point about the financial literacy of our young people. Um. 00:06:39.510 — 00:06:43.030 This is a very selfish question. Has probably had nothing to do with the video, 00:06:44.430 — 00:07:13.250 but one of the things that I'm wanting to do is to to start offering webinars and things like that for, like, financial literacy for Kids because I from what I understand, they're not teaching that in school, right. Right. Mhm. Um, because, you know, money just comes out of attention. It happens. Um, anyway, I want to talk to you about that something. Um, so when you think of, um, Catholic life insurance, um, if there was something that you could scream from the rooftop or if you could tell everyone that's not a member, 00:07:14.530 — 00:08:09.300 why Catholic life is different than New York Life or MassMutual or, you know, any of the other for profit. What would it be that you would tell them? What? What is it? The one nugget. You know, you had a couple of minutes with them or, you know, a few seconds. What would you want them to know that differentiates us? I think the what differentiates, uh, Catholic life from others is it's more of a personal touch. Uh, you're able to call in and get somebody and talk to them. Um, you're able to get an explanation from an agent that will come to your house if necessary, and not just something over the phone you talk to or, or you're in an AI menu that runs you through all kinds of options. Um, uh, those are the things I think that still resonate with the people is the personal touch. Uh, 00:08:10.540 — 00:08:23.500 and the more we get that out there, I think the more, uh, the younger people will understand. And and teaching them how to do their finances. That's a big, big issue. 00:08:25.220 — 00:08:29.740 Um, if you could explain with one word, um, 00:08:30.900 — 00:08:45.420 about Catholic life and sure said that that is not I want you to kind of go deep, and I want you to think about something that maybe would surprise somebody if you said it. Um, it's a one word that you would use it to kind of describes the people or being part of this kind of community. 00:08:48.870 — 00:08:52.590 Okay. It's okay to probably go ahead. 00:08:54.070 — 00:09:22.950 The word I would use, and I'm trying to think of exactly what would be a good word, but it's it's like dependable. It's like, you know, they're there. We've been here for 125 years. We're not going anywhere. And we have good products, but we also are changing our products as needed. Uh, as we see the, uh, evolution of the industry. So it's 00:09:24.110 — 00:10:15.800 I know there's a better word than dependable. There's got something that would resonate better. Uh, that you said was perfect. What about, um, in regards to, um, when people say Catholic life insurance, does the archdiocese own that or do you have to be Catholic? How do you respond to that? One of the things I do with when I attend the socials is I make that point every time I say, you don't have to be Catholic. You need to go out and tell all your family, your friends that we have products that fit everyone. And we are. Yes, it's called Catholic Life, but that's how it started. And we've evolved into the life insurance and annuity side of the business. 00:10:17.560 — 00:10:22.640 If people don't know this, yeah, it drives me nuts. As a marketing person, it drives me nuts. Um. 00:10:26.120 — 00:10:37.400 What would you what what is one of the benefits, um, of of Catholic life insurance as being a paternal, um, what is the benefits? 00:10:39.040 — 00:11:26.850 I mean, to the world, I why why not just be for profit? Well, I think it's giving back and it's it's about service. It's one of the reasons why I, uh, decided to be an officer in the local branch is because they were doing projects that were giving back. And even at the corporate level, now that I'm on the board, I see those, uh, you know, sponsorships and, uh, helping out different organizations, not only just the, like, the seminary or something, but in the recent events of the floods in Kerrville, the corporate matched all the branch donations. That was tremendous, in my opinion. 00:11:29.890 — 00:11:43.210 I think I'm good. You did great. Excuse me. Can I ask you a question? Sure. Would you respond to CC? Yeah. Look at me. Sorry. What's going through your head when you walk into a boardroom? When you come to the doors of this. What are you thinking? Are you proud to be here? 00:11:44.350 — 00:11:46.710 I am very proud to be here. I. 00:11:48.150 — 00:12:35.150 Since I was a, uh. Well, the way I got started was, um, in Floresville because we were members of the Pope branch. So my daughter was a senior and the president of the Floresville branch came to me and said, hey, if you're not a member of our branch, you can't get the scholarship. I said, well, she's going to get it in both. And I went to the Pope guy. He said, well, you don't go to school in post, so you you can't get it here. So we transferred to Floresville and by getting to know the branch officers, uh, it turned out that he was also in line to be a director. So that branch president helped me along, kind of mentored me in that. And, uh, 00:12:36.350 — 00:13:03.200 it it opened up Catholic life to me because I really I was just a member, just a life insurance policy holder. And then it opened my eyes to see everything that Catholic life does. And so, yes, I'm very proud of everything. We participated in the Breast Cancer Awareness the Flag Day. Those are things that I really didn't know about before. Uh, I became a branch officer and now a director. 00:13:05.440 — 00:13:37.760 Are you so close to your brothers? I've been very close to my brothers. Uh, this past Thanksgiving at my house, we had, uh, 48 people there. Only one brother was missing. He was in Dallas with his stepson. That couldn't make it. So, yes, we get together on Saturdays, uh, out at my mom's. We checked the cows and, uh, take care of her, and, uh. Yeah, we we're still, uh. They're all right. Yes. They're all members. 00:13:39.240 — 00:13:42.480 Okay, so we'll watch your hands. Yeah. Watch your hand.