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Scottsdale man takes F.R.E.S.H. approach to finance

BY ALEX GALLAGHER Progress Staff Writer

Dillan Micus will never forget the day he decided to take a fresh approach to life.

Although Micus was extremely successful in his career as the youngest person in Equitable Southwest (formerly AXA Advisors Southwest) to take on the executive vice president role and had grown the business to $3 billion, his personal life was in shambles.

“Around 2012, as we started having some success in the business, my priorities started to change. My priorities were laser-focused on the business, being in the office and growing it,” the Scottsdale man recalled. “I was in my 30s, I was making a pretty good living and we started to build a team, which meant I didn’t need to be there every day and I started to find my priorities. I got divorced and my priorities started to be focused more outside the office.”

As his priorities changed, so did his habits.

“My habits completely changed from where they were before. I enjoyed the outside activities out of the office a little too much to a point where I felt like alcohol was more in control of what was going on and I wasn’t,” Micus said.

“I made a decision that it was no longer a good return on investment for me and it had kind of turned (me) into a person I didn’t like, so I checked in to an outpatient facility in 2016.”

Micus didn’t tell anyone he had entered rehab and said that subconsciously he knew his sobriety wouldn’t stick.

“It didn’t take the first time, which was part of the process, and I was sober for a couple of months but by

Dillan Micus decided to take new approach to life and business with his F.R.E.S.H. concept and 345 Wealth Management. (Special to the Progress)

Dr. April Estes is happy to be practicing for NOAH in community healthcare. seeMICUS page 42

Physician finds NOAH community healthcare role fulfilling

BY ALISON STANTON Progress Contributor

When Dr. April Estes started college at San Diego State University, she had no plans to get into healthcare.

“Honestly, I’m a little unusual in that I was on a totally different career path. Through college I was working in a research lab, and was going to become a molecular biologist,” Estes said.

All that changed when she suddenly “felt a calling” toward medicine.

“I thought about being a veterinarian but then I met up with some others who were in the pre-med program, and it took off from there,” Estes said.

While she knew she wanted to focus on family medicine – what she has focused on for the last 20 years – Estes soon realized that working in private practices was not for her.

“It didn’t seem like I was helping anybody,” she explained. “Most of the people were healthy and routinely followed up with their healthcare.”

Fourteen years ago, Estes switched her focus to community healthcare, which still allowed her to work with patients of all ages but in a way that was “more fulfilling professionally.”

“I felt needed and like I was making a difference in people’s lives because we could take some unconventional approaches.”

In March, 2021, Estes began working as a medical provider for NOAH. The move allowed her to continue working in the field of medicine about which she is most passionate.

“The most rewarding thing about being a NOAH provider is serving the community at large,” she said, adding that she also appreciates the team approach to community healthcare.

When the new NOAH Cholla Health Center opens in November, 2022, Estes will be working at the clinic, providing telehealth/ QuickCare appointments and in-person medical visits.

The 30,000 square foot comprehensive health center, located near Loop 101 and McDowell Road in South Scottsdale, will be a “one-stop shop” for healthcare.

Estes said she is looking forward to the grand opening of the new health center, as well as being able to offer medical care that is closer to where patients live.

SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | OCTOBER 16, 2022 State poised to become gambling world mecca

BY SAM STERN Cronkite News

Arizona is gearing up for a sports year like no other the state could become the sports betting capital of the world – at least for a few weeks. The Valley hosts a national semifinal in the College Football Playoff at the Fiesta Bowl Dec. 31 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. Then Super Bowl LVII comes to the same stadium Feb. 12. Finally, the Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament unfolds at TPC Scottsdale Feb. 10-12 during Super Bowl week.

Through it all, hundreds of thousands of fans – and bettors – will descend on the Valley.

Add to the mix the ones that are already here, and the impact could be staggering. In the state’s first year of legalized gambling, Arizonans wagered nearly $4.8 billion, according to a report released by the Arizona Department of Gaming.

The state was the second fastest in the nation to reach a billion dollars in total wagers, behind New York.

Arizona now has 25 sportsbooks, which includes those at bars and restaurants. Options during the state’s six weeks of high-profile sporting events will be plentiful.

“I think it’s a really exciting sports year ahead,” said Chris Jones, the vice president of communications at FanDuel. “I think, from a sporting perspective, there’s a lot that will be going on inside the state.

“We need to stay humble and stay focused on building the business, ensuring we are growing at a pace and speed that makes sense, and is sustainable.”

While those events will take place in Glendale and Scottsdale, the Super Bowl’s signature fan festivities are planned for Margaret T. Hance Park in downtown Phoenix, a short walk from the Footprint Center.

All three of the major events bring thousands of visitors to downtown hotels and restaurants.

On Sept. 9 of last year, FanDuel, the webbased sports gambling and fantasy operation, announced the opening of a new state-of-the-art brick-and-mortar FanDuel Retail Sportsbook at Footprint Center, home to the Phoenix Suns and Mercury.

A little more than one year after opening, the company is poised for what could be a gigantic leap forward with several major sporting events coming to the area. The 7,400-square foot sportsbook is located on the north side of the Footprint Center and features 40 televisions, 26 betting kiosks, a full-service bar and food options. More than $14.4 million was wagered at the Footprint Center location’s betting kiosks between September and December of 2021, according to wagering reports from the Arizona Department of Gaming (ADG).

In the latest June 2022 revenue report, FanDuel topped $2.3 million in gross receipts. For context, the Caesars retail sportsbook outside of Chase Field grossed $331,583.

Although the retail portion of FanDuel is a pivotal segment of the business, the mobile side utilizing FanDuel’s app makes up an even larger percentage of Arizona’s betting landscape.

The company has successfully executed on both sides of its business.

Calli Varner, the editor and senior correspondent for ArizonaCasinos.com, said several factors came together to explain the company’s early success.

“I think it’s location, strategy and luck,” Varner said. “I think FanDuel was very smart when they marketed and partnered with the Phoenix Suns and built it in the Footprint Center. I mean, they launched right away, and they were able to have that sportsbook be one of the first to open as well.”

The Arizona sports gambling scene continuing to expand, including the grand opening in September of the BetMGM sportsbook outside of State Farm Stadium, which the NFL Cardinals call home.

TPC Scottsdale is expected to open a DraftKings site in 2023.

FanDuel has employed an ever-growing media strategy that focuses on the enter-

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Christmas, I was drinking,” he said. “My thought process was, well I’ve taken a couple of months off, I’ve gotten some education and it’s going to be different this time. This time I’ll drink beer and wine and I’m not going to drink before five o’clock and I’ll be able to manage it.”

“By June, that was it. On the 20th of June 2017, I will never forget the day, I took my last trip and I woke up on the 21st, I had a team meeting and I was not in good shape,” Micus said. “I realized at that moment that I was no longer in control.”

That was when Micus decided that it was time for a change.

“I got into AA, I had therapy, I had a sponsor, books, podcast, you name and I just threw that all at it,” he said.

“Over that course of time, my life started to get better and I kind of removed the handicap I felt that I had around my neck which was alcohol which enabled me to go work on the things that I needed to work on that I probably hadn’t over time.

About a year and a half after getting sober, Micus felt comfortable enough to tell his story.

“My life just had gotten so much better from June of 2017 to February of 2019 and I felt comfortable enough to share the story with our firm here,” he said. “What was happening is these five areas just of all of the therapy, the meetings, the books, the podcasts and all the information that I was taking in kept telling me just five areas are what it was.”

The five areas were finances, relationships, education, spirituality and health and those concepts culminated in the F.R.E.S.H. concept.

“If those five areas are out of alignment, you don’t have the best opportunity to perform at your optimal level,” said Micus, who began sharing his story with coworkers and expressed interest in sharing his concept with his employees.

“We said, ‘Look, I want to pass this information on to you all that if you go focus on these five areas, your life may be able to get better as well,’” he said.

Although Micus expected the concept to inspire some people, he was shocked at how impactful it had been to some.

“It got some traction and within a couple of months, I started getting text messages that people had lost 30 pounds, ran a marathon or I did a triathlon for the first time and that’s when it started to impact me. This is better than any paycheck I’ve ever gotten,” he said.

Micus decided to implement his findings in the workplace.

“Fast forward into 2020. We had hired a life coach to come in and talk to everybody and then we hired a health optimization coach to come in,” he said.

After a year larger success, Micus got into talks with universities and a music company in California to further project his message of five ways to improve one’s life.

With the success of the F.R.E.S.H. concept, Micus decided to chase a lifelong dream of his and started 345 Wealth Management this year. 345 Wealth Management focuses on guidance and comprehensive detailed planning around the three most important phases of wealth management: accumulation, distribution, and transfer. Within 345, Micus is also launching Asset Location Planning (ALP), which seeks out safe, smart strategies to help clients limit tax liability and burden, thereby allowing the allocation of more time and money toward the things they love now and in the future.

“What we did is we took all that education of what worked, what didn’t and what we felt had the most impact over time at our previous firm and we launched 345 Wealth Management,” he said.

“In its most simplistic terms, it’s a comprehensive planning organization wealth management firm that focuses on the accumulation, distribution and transfer of wealth and some other things that we took out of there is that you need to have a plan for all three of those, you need to reduce your risks and increase your tax efficiencies.”

Because of this, he hopes to give prospective clients a fresh perspective on wealth management and life.

SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | OCTOBER 16, 2022

Sky Harbor undergoing major expansion

BY SHANE BRENNAN

Cronkite News

Sky Harbor International Airport is planning upgrades to its runway space with a new taxiway overpass backed by federal funds from the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted last year.

The project is funded in part through the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed in November, which will allocate $194 million to these improvements at Sky Harbor, one of the busiest airports in the country.

The project has an estimated price tag of $260 million. The rest will be paid by Passenger Facilities Charges, which are $4.50 fees from ticket purchases that Sky Harbor collects from every eligible passenger who goes through the airport.

Work is expected to begin next year; a completion timetable has not been released.

The 2,000-foot-long taxiway will pass over roads between terminals and connect the north and south airfields, which are bisected by airport roads and terminals.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said the goal of the overpass is to allow traffic on runways to flow more smoothly so planes don’t get stuck on the tarmac.

She also said the increased tarmac space will help the airport adapt more easily to inclement weather. “Your planes are likely to take off more quickly, and you’ll spend less time on the tarmac both landing and taking off,” she said. “Having a bigger, better tarmac will allow us to adapt and have more ability to keep planes flying.”

Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said the airport’s location just five miles from downtown Phoenix is its biggest plus, but it also makes expansion difficult.

“One of the very best qualities and most significant competitive advantages of Sky Harbor is that it’s right at the very center of our region right next to downtown, but that also means that land is a little bit scarce,” he said at the news conference. “Instead of growing larger, we have to grow smarter.”

U.S. infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu said the project will create about 3,000 temporary jobs, many of which will be union carpenters, and that union workers hit “every mark” that the infrastructure law requires.

“The funding from this law is a new taxiway right next to us, built by union carpenters to support our community and the travelers that come in and out of this airport every day,” said Fabian Sandez of the Carpenters Local 1912.

“This project will bring good paying jobs, wages and benefits to members and their families.” The first portion of federal funding – $5.3 million – has gone to preliminary planning. Construction is expected to begin in 2023. A completion timeline and potential impact on travelers are unknown.

Sky Harbor was the ninth busiest airport for travelers in the U.S. in 2021, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

It was also the eighth in the world in combined takeoffs and landings in the same year, according to the Airports Council International. Sky Harbor’s website says it has experienced a 20% increase in total passengers from August 2021 to August 2022.

Potential future Sky Harbor projects include expanding one of the three terminals and expanding the PHX SkyTrain to the rental car center more than a mile away. “With traffic quickly rebounding to prepandemic levels, and nearly $6 billion of unmet infrastructure needs at Sky Harbor alone,” Gallego said, “many more improvements are necessary to keep up with our passenger growth and demand.”

GAMBLE ���� page 41

tainment value of sports wagering.

“FanDuel really wants this to be a form of entertainment,” Jones said. “We understand that this is the area that enhances someone’s enjoyment of the game. It certainly enhances engagement and viewership of games.”

The last time Arizona hosted the Super Bowl back in 2015, it was the most profitable game in Super Bowl history.

The game created a $700 million economic impact in the Valley, according to research conducted by Arizona State’s W.P. Carey School of business, and blew away numbers from the previous two times Arizona played host to the Super Bowl.

NOAH ���� page 40

“What excites me the most about the new Cholla Health Center is that NOAH patients who used to have to travel for appointments will now have a NOAH clinic in their community.” Estes said she has seen some significant positive changes during her 14 years as a community healthcare physician.

“This includes treating the patient as a whole person by addressing social health determinants in addition to their medical needs, as well as providing multiple service lines including dental services, behavioral health, nutrition and community resources,” she said, adding that patient advocacy is also now a key element of community healthcare.

An avid pet lover, Estes said “I would take all animals home if I could” but manages to limit herself to her 85-pound German Shepard, Odie, which she and her husband adopted in April of this year.

Estes and her husband have been together since 1997 and were married in 2005, a year after she graduated from family medicine residency.

Keep in mind that, in 2015, the Waste Management Open was played during the same week. Add the Fiesta Bowl’s national semifinal on the last day of 2022 to the already jam-packed Open and Super Bowl, and Arizona is locked in for what could be the most significant economic few weeks in the state’s history.

Estes said she is definitely pleased with her decision to leave molecular biology behind in favor of a fulfilling career in community medicine.

And while Estes enjoys many aspects of her work, having a patient thank her is always an extra special moment as well as a reminder that she is making a difference.

“At least once a week after a video visit is concluding a patient will say ‘thank you, you’ve been very helpful.’”

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