Below is a quick look at the leadership team that makes up the Redbird Advisors Network. If you believe you would be a valuable asset to our team, we would love to hear from you!
Drew Gurley – Digital Transformation & Business Development
Drew Gurley is a co-founder of Redbird Advisors, serial entrepreneur, and avid writer in the insurance and financial services sector. Drew brings over a decade of experience as a personal producer and agency builder as well as thousands of hours of dedication to digital transformation and it’s effect on sustainable scalability.
Drew’s unique ability to think outside the box and problem solve has fueled Redbird’s ability to dive narrow and deep into the insurance industry. Drew has consulted with hundreds of agencies throughout the U.S. in the areas of digital strategy and transformation, customer experience and unique target marketing such as high net worth foreign nationals, national association distribution, institutional life insurance implementation, Medicare, and agency business development growth strategies.
Prior to financial services, Drew was an operations manager for a private equity firm in Vail, Colorado focused on high-end resort development projects. Drew also spent seven years as a firefighter for one of the largest fire departments in the state of Missouri.
Drew helped lead Senior Market Advisors to an acquisition with Amerilife in 2020 and now deploys his skills in the role of EVP of Digital & Acquisition Marketing for Senior Market Advisors, an Amerilife Company. He’s also on his 10th year as student mentor for the Trulaske School of Business at the University of Missouri-Columbia where he earned his bachelors degree in Agricultural Economics. Aside from spending time with his beautiful wife and 3 children, Drew is a member of the Forbes Finance Council and YEC, an invitation-only organization comprised of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Todd Gurley – Strategic Planning and Branding
Todd Gurley is a co-founder of Redbird Advisors and serial entrepreneur in multiple industries. Todd has crafted Redbird’s unique positioning as a resource to help medium to large insurance agencies looking to grow outside their traditional footprint through acquisition or service offering diversification.
Prior to Redbird, Todd was a management consultant to Fortune 50 clients for more than 20 years in the areas of customer strategy and experience, brand strategy and positioning, marketing, market research and new product and service development. His clients included Lowe’s, Toyota, IBM, and General Electric. Todd spent more than 15 years in corporate America for IBM and AT&T.
Todd has a degree in journalism from Arkansas State University.
Scott Karstens – Technology transformation and Exit Planning
Scott Karstens is a co-owner of NFG Brokerage, and two insurtech platforms, Broker Back Office, and Quote-Bot which provides agentless, instant decision life insurance.
Scott is NFG Brokerages Insurance Expert and leads the Life Insurance, Long Term Care, and Disability Divisions. He is a wealth of knowledge his experience building and exiting two property casualty agencies, millions of personal life insurance production, and personally managing more than $300M in assets makes him a uniquely qualified leader in the Redbird Network.
Some of the unique target markets Scott is involved in include; Digital Transformation, Product Development, Business Planning, Talent Acquisition & Retention Strategies, and Advanced Planning Strategies. His core consulting focus with the Redbird Network is around technology strategy formulation to effectively integrate and convert legacy agency operations into lean and scalable organizations.
Scott enjoys spending time with his wife and three children. Scott is also a member of the Forbes Finance Council with Drew Gurley.
Jim Mall- Final Expense Industry
Jim is a subject matter expert when it comes to all things about the final expense industry from the carriers, to product development & roll out, to scaling distribution and sales teams.
Jim Mall is a pioneer for the final expense industry, and for 30 of his 35 years selling final expense, he’s written over $200,000 ever single year working no more than 2 days in the field! Jim has personally written over $6.5M of final expense and built an amazing organization through leading by example.
His success began in May of 1988 when he decided he wanted to live the kind of lifestyle that allowed him to spend the majority of his week with his family, while earning an income that was more than adequate for Sue to stop working outside the home.
Jim has reached a point in his life where he can say with all honesty that he has succeeded both personally and professionally. He has met and exceeded all sales goals set, and he has been able to give his family the lifestyle about which many only dream. Most importantly, he has been able to give himself to his family.
Jim is now the founder of 1&done Training, a dedicated final expense sales training platform that teaches agents every single tactic Jim used to achieve such a high level of success over his 35 years in the business. Jim is a highly sought after teacher, speaker, and industry trainer.
Nate Broughton – Digital Marketing Strategy, Management and Investments
Nate is an internet pioneer, having spent 20+ years being involved in many highly-successful businesses, primarily in the financial services sector. Today, Nate is a partner in the venture capital firm Plus2 Capital.
Nate is a three-time Inc. 500 winner with four successful exits. He was the chief marketing officer for VeteransUnited.com, the leading VA lender in the U.S. Nate was a partner in SuretyBonds.com, a firm which developed technology to qualify, quote and bind thousands of surety bonds. Nate also founded eligibility.com and is now involved in multiple venture capital backed startups in the bio-tech and insure tech fields.
Nate lives in Mission Hills, California with his wife Kristi and two sons.
Rafael Cordero – International Health Markets
Rafael Cordero is the eyes and ears for international health insurance opportunities both foreign and domestic. He started his own firm, Alliance International Advisors in 2007 and oversees the firms’ international markets strategy and management and supports hundreds of dedicated producers inside and outside of the U.S. selling health insurance and high net worth life insurance planning.
He currently runs his agency out of Miami, FL (known as the Capital of Latin America and the Caribbean) and actively in touch with the best international health and life insurance companies.
Rafael has extensive experience in cross selling with investment banks, family offices and finance professionals, as well as years of coaching agents and insurance entrepreneurs in Latin America. He brings a very targeted set of skills to the Redbird network and had been influential in growing Redbird’s ability to work in the international consulting markets.
Rafael, a native of Venezuela himself, studied economics and holds a Master Degree in Finance. He is married to his beautiful wife, Diana and currently living in sunny Miami, FL.
Bret Colson – Chief Editor & Copywriter
Bret Colson is a public relations professional and journalist with more than 30 years of diverse experience in copywriting.
Prior to joining the Redbird team, he was the public information manager for the City of Anaheim for more than a decade. During that time, he worked with staff, elected officials, high-profile CEOs, and businesses in the community to deliver critical messages and information to several audiences.
Bret also served as the managing editor of Anaheim Magazine, and engaged in crisis communications including duties as a liaison with police and fire agencies during public safety emergencies.
As part of his efforts, he also interacted daily with local, regional, and international media during the $5 billion makeovers of the Anaheim Resort and the Disneyland Resort.
Since transitioning to a consulting practice, Bret has served numerous private sector, government, non-profit, PR agency, and social media clients, often translating complex ideas into more accessible subject matter for appreciative clients and end-users.
Bret has worked with the team for nearly 7 years on a variety of projects focused around agency development, consumer lead generation, client education, and agent recruiting. Bret leads the PR & copywriting team that supports Redbird’s content marketing services.