Alumnus gives back to families

He was the pledge class president for his fraternity, Phi Kappa Sigma. He was the executive director for alumni relations for the IU Student Association and he was a top fundraising committee member for IU Dance Marathon in 2009.

This past fall, he made his debut in Big Man on Campus as Mario in a live re-enactment of the video game Super Mario Brothers.

Logan Good graduated this winter from the Kelley School of Business, and he’s now working at the Fortune 500 Company Western & Southern Financial Group  selling life insurance to clients.

Now that he’s graduated, Good said he is striving to make a difference in the greater Bloomington area, and he’s using education and life experiences as a vehicle to get him there.

“Specifically what I’m looking to do is to protect other families and make sure they’re sound financially,” Good said. “The first way is looking forward and assuming that everything goes right. Then there’s the other side, the protection side, which I guess I have a stronger connection to.”

For Good, this job isn’t just about selling life insurance. He’s selling security — the same security that he was given as a sophomore in college. 

“Essentially, it’s like I’m paying it forward almost, giving other families the same opportunities that I was afforded,” Good said.

If it hadn’t been for life insurance, Good said he wouldn’t have been able to complete his college education.

Good’s family lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago. His mother, Jami Good, is a photographer, and his father, Steven Good, was the CEO for the major realty group Sheldon Good and Company.

In the midst of the housing crisis in 2009, Good’s father committed suicide. Good was a sophomore in college at the time and was home for winter break.

When his father passed away, Good’s family was left with seemingly little future financial security.

“We couldn’t even pay for a headstone at first,” Good said. “When you can’t even pay for your father’s headstone, it’s kind of a shock to the system.”

The funeral was four days before Good returned to IU.

“I have two brothers, so we were at the funeral,” Good said, “and we were all huddled in a circle, and my two brothers were really upset, and we were basically like, ‘We’re fucked. What are we going to do?’”

“I said, ‘You know what? We’re going to go out, we’re going to work our asses off and we’re going to kick ass. We’ll be fine.’”

Immediately following his father’s death, Good’s family didn’t know how they were going to afford tuition. Then they found their answer: life insurance.

“My dad was thoughtful enough to be responsible and take out a life insurance policy,” Good said. “After my dad passed away, the policy took force, and it really made me that much more thankful. It was tough grieving and everything, but on top of grieving, imagine being kicked out of your home and not being able to go to school.”

After his father’s death, Good’s drive for philanthropy deepened, and he came back to school determined to succeed.

“I’d study at the library until three, four in the morning, and most kids walking out would be like, ‘Oh, this is horrible, why am I here, I wish I was out,’” Good said. “But for me, walking out, I’d look up and have this grin on my face and be like, ‘I am so thankful I have this opportunity to study my ass off until three in the morning and be miserable with the books.’”

Upon graduation, Good knew he wanted to make a difference with his career as well. For a while, he considered moving to a city and working for a big-name company.

“Being a Kelley student, too, there’s always the notion of doing something sexy when you get out of school,” Good said. “Like going and working in a big city, and going and living in some tall tower. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but sometimes, people lose focus of what is really important.”

Good interviewed many places but said his current job just began to make sense.

“Essentially what I’m doing is I am advocating for families,” Good said. “It’s amazing because I can do it right away, and I believe in what I’m doing. What I’m helping people with profoundly changed my life and changed the outcome of it.”

Jesse Carnicom, the district sales manager for Western & Southern who hired Good, said he and Good had an immediate connection to one another.

“We had an interview scheduled at the business school there, and we immediately connected because of his story,” Carnicom said. “The first thing I identify is whether someone wants to enter this industry because of money or because of passion.”

Carnicom came from a similar background as Good, with his father dying when he was a teen. His mother left him and his sister some time later, when he was just 16 years old. Unlike Good, his family did not have any life insurance, and they struggled.

He placed Good into an accelerated program and said Good should be a manager for him within the next few years.

“His ability to be sincere and to communicate his story when he’s talking to a prospective client or family ... it’s impossible for him not to make it,” Carnicom said.

Good said that as awful as some events in his past were, they’ve shaped him into who he is today and made him more thankful. He poured himself into his education, and now he’s pouring himself into his career. He said he refuses to let any event hold him back.

“A lot of people, I feel like, when something happens to them, it would be easy and tempting to run from it and try to avoid people, but for me it’s quite the opposite,” Good said. “At the time it feels like your world is falling down, but as bad as things might be at the time, just accept them and move forward and have faith in yourself.”