“Finch: Self-Care Pet - Apps on Google Play.” Google, www.play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.finch.finch. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

“Finch: Self-Care Pet App.” App Store, 7 Dec. 2024, www.apps.apple.com/us/app/finch-self-care-pet/id1528595748.

“Your New Self-Care Best Friend.” Finch, www.finchcare.com/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.  

“Celebrate the season: Starbucks Holiday Menu Returns Nov. 6 with Festive Drinks, Cups and Treats.” About Starbucks, www.about.starbucks.com/stories/2025/celebrate-the-season-starbucks-holiday-menu-returns-nov-6-with-festive-drinks-cups-and-treats/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

“Dunkin’® Unwraps the Holidays with New Cookie Butter Cloud Latte, Berry Sangria Refresher and Bacon Jam Creations.” Dunkin’, 5 Nov. 2025, www.news.dunkindonuts.com/news/holiday-menu-2025.

“Dutch Bros® Cranks up the Cheer with 2025 Holiday Menu.” Dutch Bros® Cranks Up the Cheer with 2025 Holiday Menu | Dutch Bros, www.dutchbros.com/news-events/holiday-2025-drink-menu/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

“Starbucks Holiday Menu Returns Nov. 6.” About Starbucks, www.about.starbucks.com/stories/2025/starbucks-holiday-menu-returns-nov-6/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

“Starbucks Unveils Joyful Holiday Beverages: Starbucks Stories Asia.” About Starbucks, www.stories.starbucks.com/asia/stories/2025/starbucks-unveils-joyful-holiday-beverages/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

Evans, Courtney. “Ex-Meta Founders Launch Smart Ring for Music & Notes.” CEO Today, 5 Nov. 2025, www.ceotodaymagazine.com/2025/11/ex-meta-smart-ring-music-voice-notes/.

Werth, Timothy Beck. “Former Meta Employees Launch Sandbar, a New Smart Ring Brand.” Mashable, Mashable, 5 Nov. 2025, www.mashable.com/article/meta-employees-launch-smart-ring-sandbar.

Mehta, Ivan. “Former Meta Employees Launch Stream, a Smart Ring That Takes Voice Notes and Controls Music.” TechCrunch, 5 Nov. 2025, www.techcrunch.com/2025/11/05/former-meta-employees-launch-stream-a-smart-ring-that-takes-voice-notes-and-controls-music/.

“Stream Ring: A Voice-First Ring for Capturing Thoughts and Building Ideas.” Sandbar, www.sandbar.com/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

Chokkattu, Julian. “Whisper into This AI-Powered Smart Ring to Organize Your Thoughts.” Wired, Conde Nast, 5 Nov. 2025, www.wired.com/story/sandbar-stream-smart-ring/.

Mehta, Ivan. “Google Maps Bakes in Gemini to Improve Navigation and Hands-Free Use.” TechCrunch, 5 Nov. 2025, www.techcrunch.com/2025/11/05/google-maps-bakes-in-gemini-to-improve-navigation-and-hands-free-use/.

Moore, Amanda Leicht. “Google Maps Navigation Gets a Powerful Boost with Gemini.” Google, Google, 5 Nov. 2025, www.blog.google/products/maps/gemini-navigation-features-landmark-lens/.

“Google Maps Is Getting More Hands-Free for When You’re Driving.” CNET, www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-maps-is-getting-more-hands-free-for-when-youre-driving/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

Solendar, Andrew, and Kate Santaliz. “A Group of House Democrats and Republicans Is Floating a Plan to End the Shutdown.” AXIOS, www.axios.com/2025/11/03/shutdown-aca-tax-credits-democrats-republicans. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

“Bacon, Suozzi, Hurd, Gottheimer Release Bipartisan Principles to Temporarily Extend and Reform Affordable Care Act Enhanced Premium Tax Credits.” U.S. Congressman Don Bacon, 3 Nov. 2025, www.bacon.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2805.

Gringlas, Sam. “How an Enduring Debate over Healthcare Sparked a Now Record-Long Shutdown.” NPR, 5 Nov. 2025, www.npr.org/2025/11/05/nx-s1-5596472/government-shutdown-record-health-care-subsidies.

Beavins, Emma, et al. “How the Shutdown Impacts Healthcare: Legislators Float Bipartisan Plan to Extend, Reform Aca Tax Credits.” Fierce Healthcare, www.fiercehealthcare.com/regulatory/shutdown-tracker-cms-issues-billing-guidance-hhs-furloughs-32000-employees. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

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Stress Relief Tips to Get You Through AEP

Ritter on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/RitterIM Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/ritter.insurance.marketing/ LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/company/ritter-insurance-marketing TikTok, https://www.tiktok.com/@ritterim X, https://x.com/RitterIM and YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/user/RitterInsurance    

Sarah on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjrueppel/ Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/thesarahjrueppel/ and Threads, https://www.threads.net/@thesarahjrueppel 

Tina on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-lamoreux-6384b7199/

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Medicare or any government agency.

Welcome to the Agent Survival Guide Podcast Friday Five, which is either our weekly recap of what happened this week that agents should know about. Or in the case of this week, 5 items focusing on a particular theme.

I’m your host, Sarah Rueppel, and this week, we are talking about dealing with burnout, getting off the struggle bus, or to put it more eloquently, 5 ways to survive AEP 2026 even when everything feels like a dumpster on fire floating down the river with a smile on our face to mask the reality.

It’s been a rough enrollment season so far with all the changes and disruption going on. I know that it can feel like a lot, I certainly don’t want to sugarcoat that. What I do want to do, is talk about some solutions to help you take a break from the burnout, refresh, and make sure you’re taking care of yourself amidst all the commotion.

So let’s start with that last one, making sure you take care of yourself, and in true ASG Podcast fashion, we’re going to turn to an app, because we love technology. But we also love gamifying tasks because it adds a layer of fun and rewards you for doing things that you know you should be doing anyway, but sometimes we don’t do them because we’re too busy.

That’s where the Finch Self-Care Pet app can help.

The app is designed to gamify self-care and getting stuff done, across a range of categories, like self-kindness, calm, gratitude, productivity, and more.

Every user gets a little animal called a birb to take care of. It looks like a little bird. As you cross things off your to-do lists and keep checking back in, your birb grows and learns. It hatches micropets of its own. And you earn in-game currency called rainbow stones to purchase clothing for your birb, furniture for your birb’s room, and tickets to travel to new locations.

You decide what you want to achieve in a day, and you can place items in categories, or keep them uncategorized. As more time goes on, you’ll be able to gain insight from your habits, identifying which ones you’re really good at accomplishing, and which others need more work, and might need to be prioritized a little bit more.

And one thing in particular I love, is that you can add friends on the app.

Almost immediately after downloading Finch and trying it out, I thought it could be a great way to help my daughter establish daily routines and reward her for completing tasks.

We’ve been using it together for almost a month, and so far, we still both really like it. She has other friends from school that use it, and I’ve mentioned it to the team here, with some coworkers also downloading it and giving it a try.

We’ll be linking to the learn more about Finch page in the episode notes, so if you’re looking for a way to accomplish your to-dos while also taking care of yourself, or you’re trying to teach your child how to do that, I can’t recommend this app enough. 

Number Four.

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be able to function without caffeine, and sometimes, stopping for a treat from either Starbucks or Dunkin’ is necessary.

Or maybe you just need to switch up your order with a new seasonal, limited-edition flavor. You are in luck because pumpkin spice has officially taken a backseat to peppermint mocha and its holiday friends!

Wednesday marked the beginning of the holiday menu’s return to Dunkin, and Starbucks hauled out the holly yesterday.

While I definitely identify as a Starbucks fan, I have to say that the Dunkin’ holiday cups feature super cute graphics that are very much channeling schoolhouse rock.

Peppermint Mocha everything and the Toasted White Chocolate Signature Latte are back for the season. New offerings include the Berry Sangria refresher the Cookie Butter Cloud Latte.

Dunkin Refreshers can be mixed with either green tea, black tea, lemonade, or sparkling water, the latter of which is always my go-to. And then the Cookie Butter Cloud Latte pairs the creamy sweetness of a latte topped with Cookie Butter cold foam and cookie crumbles. I think I’d enjoy the cold foam and crumbles on a cold brew or iced coffee, but if made according to the menu, I think it’ll be too sweet for me.

Over at Starbucks, Peppermint Mocha returns along with Toffee Nut Crunch and Gingerbread Latte. I’m a huge fan of the Gingerbread flavored ground coffee, so I’m very excited for all things Gingerbread.

New this year is the hazelnut praline mille-feuille oatmilk latte, and I’m going to be honest, I’m glad I order on the app most of the time, because I wouldn’t want to have to say the name of that drink out loud in line. It sounds so precocious.

Also, I’m more of a cold brew fan, so if that’s you as well, there are a few seasonal cold foams joining the menu. Gingerbread Cream, Peppermint Chocolate, Sugar Cookie Cream, and Caramel Brûlée Cream.

And if you’re lucky enough to have a Dutch Bros near you, they’ve had their holiday menu up and running since November 1st. Returning there, the candy cane mocha, which is their version of a peppermint mocha topped with crushed candy canes. They brought back the Hazelnut Truffle Mocha. And new this year, the Holiday Cookie Freeze which blends vanilla, sweet cream, and sprinkles, and then the mistletoe rebel which is the Dutch Bros energy drink blend mixed with raspberry and pomegranate.

Fun fact before we move on to our next topic, this week, we polled our marketing team on the official start date of the Holiday season. November first was the clear front-runner, which might be a hot take to some, or just an indicator that we have a lot of holiday spirit here at Ritter.

Number Three.

Sometimes, what your brain needs is a good old-fashioned distraction. For me, this usually means scrolling through the news, which led me to a very cool AI device that I will likely be adding to my Christmas wishlist - the Stream Ring from Sandbar.

The ring houses a small microphone for users to speak into throughout the day, essentially creating your own voice log. It also features a button that the company calls a mouse for voice, holding it to speak, and then tapping it to pause, return to music playback, and even control volume.

What you dictate into the ring is sent to the Stream app and converted into text, so you can capture thoughts on the fly, and then go back to read them on the Stream app.

I’ve always liked the idea of dictating notes, but not the idea of going back and listening to them or transcribing them. This combination of wearable and app takes a lot of friction out of that process, making a compelling and useful new tool.

The price point is set at two hundred forty-nine dollars for the silver ring and two hundred ninety-nine dollars for the gold version.

The Stream app has a free tier with unlimited notes but limited chats, The Pro version allows for unlimited interactions and early features for ten dollars a month. Each ring gets a three-month free subscription to the pro version to try it out.

Might seem like a super simple AI wearable, but I think this practical approach might see success where other AI wearables have failed. It would be nice if health monitoring benefits were included, but you have to start somewhere. I’m very curious to see how this wearable performs when it does become available, I’m not sure I’d jump on the preorder, but I’m also not sure that I won’t. Stay tuned.

Moving on to Number Two.

If you are a Google Maps user, good news! There are a few updates coming to the app, one that actually took me back to a fun exercise from the Technical Writing class I took in college.

Gemini AI has been more deeply integrated into the app, so navigation can now be truly hands-free. Users can ask questions and add conversational follow-up questions and get answers, all without touching your device.

You’ll also be able to report issues like roadwork or an accident by voice, rather than tapping a display screen. That’s super helpful, and the more people that are able to report those disruptions, the better the experience for all commuters.

Users will also be notified about upcoming issues even if you’re not actively navigating. This is a feature that Waze recently implemented, glad to see it coming to Google Maps as well. I enjoy having the map up on my screen, but if I’m listening to something, I don’t want turn-by-turn instructions interrupting my drive unless there’s something to be concerned about.

Google Maps has also added Lens capability to identify nearby landmarks and answer questions about them.

Landmarks will also now play a role in the directions you’ll hear while driving.

So back in my Technical Writing class, one of our in-class exercises was to write down directions on how to get to a destination. It was an exercise designed to highlight the proper order of directions, while also adding specific information, rather than obtuse observations.

So, instead of telling someone to turn left at the tree that looks like a dinosaur, you’d tell them they’ll see Riley’s Restaurant, and make a right just after the restaurant.

Google Maps will now do the same thing, you’ll see landmarks highlighted on your map and hear the voice direction telling you to turn right after Riley’s Restaurant. So, it follows the same pattern of order, but gives users both a visual and voice instruction.

This is something I find super-helpful when I’m navigating a new area, because as much as I appreciate a countdown in the number of feet before a turn, 300 feet feels different depending on the speed you’re traveling at.

And now, coming in at Number One this week:

Make sure you’re following along with our show to stay as updated as possible on what’s going on in the industry. We’re usually tracking quite a few different stories, one of the biggest right now, the current thirty-eight day government shutdown, which is now the longest shutdown in the history of the United States.

We are monitoring this so closely, not because we love the politics around any of this, actively do not love that, but there are issues that affect agents and your clients.

Democrats have so far held their ground on reopening the government, calling for an extension to be made on the enhanced premium tax credits set to expire at the end of 2025.

Some republicans are voicing concerns from their own constituents on the subject of subsidies. And then there are things like SNAP benefits and other government resources that are affected by the shutdown because of furloughs and a lack of funding.

What I choose to focus on here, is that there are people on both sides of Congress who really are trying to have conversations and find ways to compromise, even if it seems like no one wants to report on that.

Earlier this week, FierceHealthcare and Axios both reported on a bipartisan proposal that seeks a two-year extension as well as other considerations. I won’t call out the exact details of that proposal here, because they’ll likely change between now and any sort of implementation.

But I do want to quote the statement put out by the representatives who put together that proposal, quote, “Congress is gridlocked, and too many Americans have lost faith that we can work together. But here’s the truth: Democrats and Republicans can sit down, listen to one another and find common ground, especially when it comes to lowering healthcare costs. We may not agree on every ideal outcome, but we’ve identified a fair, reasonable path forward on the future of the Affordable Care Act’s Enhanced Premium Tax Credits. Compromise isn’t rocket science and it shouldn’t be treated like a weakness,” end quote.

And I’m going to read that one more time because of how much I like it, quote, “compromise isn’t rocket science and it shouldn’t be treated like a weakness,” end quote.

The statement and proposal came from Don Bacon, Tom Suozzi, Jeff Hurd, and Josh Gottheimer, and I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I hope other members of Congress are listening and willing to start those conversations.

We’ll continue to track this story and report back with developments.

Again, make sure you’re following along with us for help staying upbeat and motivated during this time, help taking a break and stepping back from things for a minute to take care of yourself, and of course, important industry updates, like whether or not the subsidies will be extended for coverage year 2026.

That being said, I hope you have a great weekend, stay healthy and stay safe out there, and don’t forget to take some time for yourself this weekend. You deserve it! We’ll see you next week.