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Transcript

Alan: Alright folks well welcome back to the show again. Lucky guy here, I got Jason back in the studio with me again today. How are you doing?

Jason: Do great Alan. Thanks for having me again. 

Alan: So how was the quick little trip to Omaha?

Jason: It was good. It was a fun deployment. It was a short, fast, easy damage—in and out. It was a good one.

Alan: Yeah, yeah. I know a couple others that headed up that direction—well they spread them out a little bit across the area up there; but that’s kind of been the consensus. Is that it was kind of a fun, little, easy-going little gig. The guy was able to put a little money in his pocket and get back out. 

Maybe if you were lucky enough to get an area with somebody you know, he might be able to socialize a little bit and get a little warm up before hurricane season set in.

Jason: Absolutely. I’d kinda been sitting at home running daily stuff at the house and a nice little deployment like that’s fun to kind of kick it off with—a little money in the bank, not retirement money; but it’s better than what I was doing at the house. 

Alan: Sure, I understand that. I stuck around and still ran a few here and there; but I’ve just kind of enjoyed the slow time at home and prepping for hurricane season. We’re right on that verge and, getting towards that time, we’re all gonna be—hopefully—we’re all gonna be out and getting a good lick before fall in and we get into the winter season. 

So we’ll keep everybody posted as we can on the weather that we’re aware of; and if you’re a follower Mike’s Weather Page, which I am, keep paying attention to that. Mike’s a pretty good guy that’s keeping us updated and does a really good job with his forecasting skills. 

So keep tuned into that. He hasn’t disappointed me. I enjoy listening to him.

Jason: Keep doing your hurricane dances.

Alan: Yeah so hey, we were just discussing this—for those are listening—we were discussing this; and we thought it would be a good thing to bring forward. But I want to talk about some things—we’re starting with five, I’m sure there’s more that we could really dig into. 

But things that we have seen and noticed over the years that we wanna express to you that are listening of just things that you may want to avoid when you get that first deployment opportunity. Some of you were probably going to get the first deployment opportunity this fall. 

And as always, we want to help you to be successful; so we want to pinpoint some things now that we want you to pay attention to because we feel they’re very important. 

Hopefully, they’ll help make you a successful adjuster on that first deployment so that it doesn’t become your first and last deployment.

Jason: Absolutely! You know, I think between Alan and I we have both either made the mistake of doing some of these things that are on the top five list or we’ve witnessed other people doing things on the top five list. And seeing how that negatively affected the job and what you’re there to do. 

So I think there’s gonna be some good information in here and hopefully people take this in and—maybe if it helps one person then its good. 

Alan: Well I’m gonna go with that I never had these problems that I just witnessed them. But I think we all know that that’s false. I’m sure there have been areas in my career that I kind of did a few things and probably should’ve done differently.

And that’s part of the reason that we do this. We’ve made mistakes too. We’ve approached this in different ways that didn’t work. So, again, that’s experience that we can bring forward, say “hey we did this and it didn’t work.” 

Now that we’ve been out—both of us have been in the management phase or level of of adjusting, so we’ve been able to not only experience it ourselves but we’ve been able to oversee others that may have been doing things that didn’t work out so well for  them.

So let’s dig into it. And one of the first thing that came to my mind was I did all the right things: I got licensed, I prepared myself, and I got on all these rosters, and a phone call came in, and I said yes. 

I have preach that and preach that—just say yes. And once you’re ready, you’ve got to tell them yes; and so the adjuster’s at that point—they’ve said yes.

Jason: And they’re sitting there with their stuff packed; they got a computer with Xactimate on it; you’ve already got your shingle gauges, your pitch gauges, your toolbelt—everything is in your quote CAT Kit. 

You are ready to walk out the door. Not ready to order a shingle gauge online—you’re ready to walk out that door because you’ve already done all that.

Alan: That’s right. That’s right. In fact, you know, we can elaborate on that a little bit now. If you’re that adjuster that is—well today is Friday, well, you know, well we’re into August—we’ll just want to leave it at that—we’re into August. It’s prime time for hurricanes, right. If you don’t already have those tools you need to get them now. 

I would not delay any further. If you can drive to go get them to put that CAT Kit together, drive today to go get it. If not, get on Amazon, get them ordered, have that stuff packed and ready to go. 

You should already have that done. 

Jason: You should have your printer, a couple ink cartridges, reams of paper, pencils, pens, whatever you need. And I always had a rolling Rubbermaid tote that had all that stuff in it. I was just open the lid, make sure “Yep coming into hurricane season,” open the lid “Yep everything still good. Ope, I need a couple of ink cartridges or whatever,” and get all that ordered. 

Have that ready to go to where, when you get the call, you grab a couple pairs of underwear, put them in that box, and run out the door.

Alan: That’s right. You know, when I heard you mention printer—and I think some of the folks who are going to listen to this and be like “ahh printer? We need printers and papers?”

And I am just here to say, don’t cross that off your list yet. I know that we live in a digital world; and that it’s very highly likely that if you deploy with a carrier that’s going to ask you to settle on site, you’re likely to send them an email; but I have been on the deployments where that was a requirement—you had to carry a printer, and you had to print them off a copy and hand it to them by paper. 

I’m going to tell you that it’s probably not 100% necessary to carry a printer, but if you have the means to take one with you—just go spend 30 bucks at Walmart, throw it in the truck or in the car, and take it with you. It’s a very, very small investment that may save you time when you get there; because, now you aren’t minus a tool that you need that you weren’t 100% sure whether you needed or not—you had it. 

Jason: And I got to keep reminding myself that I guess I’m still a little more old-school. I still print out my loss notices and write on the back of them. So I know a lot of the newer guys are going to be iPads and phones and digital—and that’s great. 

But I think the moral of this whole story is just: you are prepared to get that phone call. 

Alan: That’s right. OK so let’s just say they have them. They have their tools out, they’re ready to go, they’ve said yes. I say first thing avoid delaying any further. You got your gear ready; they’re gonna be sending you claims; get in your car; get in your truck; and leave. 

It’s time to go. Avoid delaying any longer. I have personally asked people to take deployments, and they say “well…umm…I’ll leave on Monday.” 

No! This is your first deployment. “Yes, I’ll go.” You don’t have to wait for them to ask you when you’re going to leave. You tell them, “OK I can be in the car in an hour or two hours. I’ll leave today.” Fantastic!

Jason: You know when an adjuster’s starting off on the first appointment, you have invested a great deal of time and money and everything else to get to the point to get this phone call. When you get this phone call, it should almost be the most important thing. 

I mean, I have left with anniversaries and birthdays and everything right there; and you just have to say yes. “I’m leaving now.” And unfortunately, that’s something you have to set up with your house before you get that call—is that this may happen. 

If it does, I’m sorry and the reason why—which I’m going get to this in another topic—is for y’all. I’m here to support my family; and that needs to be—that’s the whole reason why you spent all the money and time and sat through and got licensed and all that. Go to work! 

Alan: That’s right. You know, we were talking earlier, and I said why I don’t wait for my claims to come in and make my contacts. I have been around adjusters—and there’s probably been periods in my career that I would immediately receive claims. I would sit down and make those contacts, get all that stuff logged in, and then leave. 

If that is the situation that you have—that as soon as you get off the phone they’re sending you the claims—absolutely, take an hour; take two hours. Make your contacts, set your schedule, get in the car, and leave. 

If it’s going to be six hours or it’s 10 o’clock in the morning and they tell you “by the end of the day we’ll be sending you your claims.” Get in the car and leave. I don’t want to tell you that it’s not important to get those claims contacted. 

Jason: That’s a number one priority when there’s an event the first thing they’re monitoring is contact time. 

Alan: That’s right.

Jason: And, Alan, I’m sure you’ve been in the same situation—I’ll takeoff, I don’t have my claims, they said go to Illinois. Well, it’s not “where am I going in Illinois? And I got to get a hotel.” 

It’s “OK” and I’ve pulled up I-35 to start heading to Illinois. I’ll figure out where I’m going when the claims come in. And then I’m driving down the road and looks at my phone and all of a sudden I have claims. 

Well, OK I’m hitting the next exit, going to the truckstop. I may sit there for four hours making my phone calls, but I wanna be that guy who has the shortest amount—the shortest contact time. I want to be that shining star and I want my contact times to be perfect. 

Get them called. Get all your notes put in. Keep driving. That is the most important thing. The whole “I got my claims,” don’t wait for 24 hours for the manager to call you and say “hey, have you called any of these yet?”—it’s while I’m driving.

Alan: Yeah, they don’t care.

Jason: The phone works in the car. 

Alan: That’s right.

Jason: I mean I’ve literally sat on an on-ramp with a 40 foot trailer behind me with the flashers on for 2 1/2 hours making phone calls, because that’s what needs to happen. So once you’ve left, if you get those claims in that time—stop., make the phone calls. It’s the most important part, at the time, of that claim. 

Alan: I agree. The only place I was going with that—and I am 100% in agreement with you because that is and we could probably spend the entire episode just preaching about the importance of making those contacts; but if they tell you on the phone “you’ll receive claims within the next 3-4 hours,” you could be 3-4 hours down the road headed towards that location. 

Again, like you said, stop then and make your contacts. Don’t waste time sitting at home twiddling your thumbs because you haven’t received claims yet. If they’ve called you and deployed you, they have claims for you. 

Don’t hesitate and don’t delay—avoid delays of getting to the site.

Jason: And I mean, I totally agree with that. And I think there’s also some information out there that I’ve seen on some of the social media platforms—a lot of the older school guys quote on quote say “I don’t leave the house until I have claims in hand.”

That’s not the industry anymore. That used to be the case back in the day—you get 100 claims and I wouldn’t leave the house until I had 100; but that’s not how it is anymore. And a lot of times, you may not even have claims until you’re on site—especially if this is your first deployment and it’s a real deployment—a hurricane or a major event. 

They’re probably not even gonna give you claims until once you’ve gotten there and gone through their JIT—just in time training—or for their orientation or whatever they’re going to have. 

So the fact that you don’t have claims, doesn’t affect when you pull out of the driveway. 

Alan: Exactly. That’s right. Not anymore, I’m 100% in agreement with that. And I would say 9 out of 10 hurricane deployments you’re not gonna have claims because your staging. Your there—a lotta carriers are gonna want you there or somewhere near as the storm’s affecting the area and then they’ll scale many more people they need after the effects are over with. 

But yeah don’t do it if they say “hey I’ve got a small windstorm in Nebraska that I want you to go work.” As a seasoned adjuster, I might be able to say “I’m gonna hold off and see how many claims I get before I leave.” But that’s not a new—

Jason: But typically, in that kind of circumstance—especially like in my recent situation—it wasn’t a mass deployment. It was only a couple of guys. That phone call came with “hey I got 30 in Nebraska you want them?” 

Alan: That’s right.

Jason: That’s typically how that call’s gonna happen. It’s not the manager—it’s not the deployment person who’s making the phone calls when there deploying 1500 people. It’s a manager directly calling me saying “hey, you wanna go up here? I got 30 claims.”

Alan: You’re right. 

Jason: You know, “Yeah, sure, I’ll take the 30.” And I took off. “Yeah here they come.” 

Alan: So again it just boils down to, first of all, you had to be prepared. It’s not time to start preparing. It’s time to be prepared. And then once you get that call and say yes, don’t delay—get on the move and go. 

Jason: I’ve always, always, always said you wanna be the first adjuster turning in a claim. Because there’s a certain number of claims that that carrier has told that firm that nobody can have one x-amount of claims. 

Everybody’s hitting that storm site at about the same time, so why not be the guy that’s there just before them—one day—and turning in—even if it’s one or two claims—now guess what. The managers are sitting there with claims in the queue with their finger on the trigger going “please somebody turn one in. There’s one turned in, here.” 

Now you got two more claims that the next guy, who left the next morning or didn’t run claims that day or waited and didn’t turn them in late at night, you got two more claims that that guy didn’t get. 

And number of claims equates to dollars in your wallet. So its easy to do that math.

Alan: Sticks with the same: avoid delay. If there’s no reason to delay it, do it. Move on it. Get in the car and leave. You got a claim to turn in, turn it in. Just got to be ready and got to be on the ball and got to be be moving. 

OK so here’s another one: what are we there for? Avoid making these deployments a social gathering—a party. We’re there to serve a purpose. We’re there to do a job. We’re there to provide for our family. 

I mean I can go on and on of the reasons we’re there. We’re not there to go sit at the bar and smoke cigars and drink beer while were there; although, it’s fun sometimes. 

On some hurricane deployments, you might get there to stage and get an opportunity to go sit down and have dinner with somebody and socialize—if you’re waiting on claims. But once the claims start coming in and you’re there, you’re there to work. 

Jason: Absolutely. I mean I’ve always kind of been picky on who I’d even roommate with on events. Because I’m there to make money and the whole purpose that I’m 1000 miles away from my house is to make money. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve gone and I’ll meet with a colleague or a buddy that may be in town, and we’ll have dinner and I’ll go back and keep hounding on the keyboard; but I also won’t do that when I know I’m buried in claim work. I turn my claims the day that I inspect them. 

And it’s not the time—this isn’t a vacation. There’s one reason why you’re there and that is to make money. You can go sightsee—I mean I’ve been in some really cool places and never gotten to see anything except for maybe out the windshield as I drive by.

You know when my wife was on the road with me, we did go do some sightseeing. But it seemed like everything that we got to do was on a rain day. So you go see Mount Rushmore while it’s pouring down rain because I had to cancel my claims. 

Alan: That’s OK. I mean, Becky and I, you know, we quite often would take time to go see things while we were there; but it was at the end of the deployment. It was all done. There wasn’t any claims to run. 

We had decided “OK it’s too slow now. We’re gonna cut ourselves off. We want to leave.” We would stay a few extra days and go see the things because I wasn’t gonna take the time out of my work schedule when there was claims to run. 

Because what was I there for—first and foremost, I was there to work and provide an income for my family. 

Jason: And every claim you turn in—especially at the onset of an event—you’re going to get another and that’s one more that that next guy isn’t going to get. And you know, there’s no reason to be sitting out every night—out to dinner every night—sitting in a bar, every night going and meeting with these people or “I’m gonna go to the coast.” “I’m gonna go do this.” 

That’s not why you are there. You’re there to make money and if you want to go to the beach, you make enough money where you can take a family to the beach.

Alan: That’s right. Get done with the job, take a vacation, and go to the beach. Not while you’re working.

Jason: Two different things and just I see so many guys try to make it a party; and it’s just not that.

Alan: So this is a good segue though into the to the next topic I wanted to talk about or that we discussed: was your there for a reason right. OK so part of that reason—well all of it—is you’re there to work and provide. 

Now, it may be just you and your wife. You may have a wife and I have—I have a wife and five kids. OK so I’m there to provide for that; but another thing I want you guys to avoid is forgetting about what’s at home. 

There’s still things that have to be taken care of at home even if it’s just you and your wife at home. When you’re home, there’s still things that have to be addressed. And I know for me, I owed it to my kids and my wife to stop and make a phone call every evening before my kids went to bed. 

That took time out of my day, but that was something I needed to do for my family.

Jason: That’s the reason you are there in the first place.

Alan: That’s exactly right. I don’t want every adjuster to avoid communication and contact and taking care of things at home; because every manager and every firm knows that you do have home and responsibilities that you need to address while you’re at work as well. 

So that’s an important thing—not only just taking the time but making that a priority because this is a tough job. If your wife and your kids—mine went with me and your wife traveled with you for a lot of years—but it can make home life difficult if you’re not making what you still have at home priority to address while you’re at work at the same time. 

Jason: Absolutely. And I also think that a lot of that can be chalked up to making your house right before you leave. Just like you prepare your CAT kit, prepare your house. Don’t let an issue of how’s the grass going to get cut be an issue—that’s such a minor thing, but it can be a big issue when you’re on the road. 

Have issue already lined out. “We’ve got company X.” Call them. They’re gonna start or my buddies gonna cut the grass or whatever. Have your home life set up. Already have the conversations with your wife and kids—and they need to understand that they’re going to get a small amount of your time while you’re there. 

And then set those up those expectations upfront—that you’re not there partying, you’re there working. When the credit card receipt start rolling in, and you’re at the steakhouse and the bar and all the stuff every night, they’re going to have some problems. But when they see you showed up, you got an Airbnb, you got a kitchen and you’re buying frozen pizzas, and you’re working. 

That’s what you are there for. So yes, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to just—I got to stop and pick up the phone and call my wife. Or I know I’ve got an hour drive between two claims—make a phone call. You know, maybe it’s not a good time for her; but she knows that I called and that was what was on my mind at the time. 

And don’t forget why you’re there.

Alan: Well and just to add one more tidbit to that, if you’re taking that time—whether you’re a female adjuster making that phone call home to your husband or your a male adjuster making that phone call home to your wife—you want to avoid the troubles that it’s going to bring to you if you’re not taking that little bit of time. 

Again you’re already pretty limiting your time to them and that’s just part of the way the job works; but I can tell you right now, I would’ve had a lot of stress and disarray in trying to do my job if I had not just taken that time and given it back to my wife and kids. 

You think you don’t have that time, but what you don’t have time for is all of the troubles you’re going to have or could have in your marriage if you’re not addressing your marriage and your family properly and giving them the time that they are due.

Jason: Absolutely, absolutely. You’ve got to have a strong home life. Your house has to be right for this job to work and not cause problems. So set this up, make sure your house is right before you go on the road, but then take the time while you’re there to remind them why you’re there and reach out to them. 

Alan: That’s right. 

Jason: You know I kind of touched on a little bit coming into topic that I believe in—lets call it number four here. Avoid wasting money; and what I mean by that is, again, you’re there to work. You’re there to make money. It’s not a vacation. 

I’ve stayed in some really run down motels because I don’t need $100 a night hotel. I’ve had roommates, the camper thing, so yada yada yada. You know I’m not eating out every night. I’m not eating—and even if I was because I had to because I had a hotel that didn’t have a kitchen in it or whatever— this isn’t steakhouse. 

We’re not here to party. This is grab it, try to be as healthy as you can, and get back to work. You know nowadays, with the Airbnb, that makes it so much easier. You know the Airbnb I just had him in Omaha—it was $61 a night. It was a private apartment, one bedroom, one bath, with kitchen, living room, Internet, everything; and it was$61 a night. 

It was clean. It was secure. I didn’t feel scared parking my truck outside. It was perfect for what I needed. Could I had a really cool house with a pool and all this other stuff? Well, two things, it would have cost me a whole lot more and “b” now we’re getting back to topic number two that we talked about—forgetting why were there in the first place.

Alan: That’s right, that’s right. I mean don’t get me wrong, there’s days that you get stressed out as an adjuster. And you’re like “OK I just want to go to the pool and sit out and enjoy the rest the evening.” Well sorry, that’s not the way it works as an adjuster.

When the deployment’s over, go hang out at the pool; but tonight, no, we got claims to do and close. That’s what we are here for.

Jason: Sitting there pounding on the keyboard on a folding plastic table—which is another pro tip if I can give you one, find you a little folding plastic table and always take it with you. 

Alan: I do it on every trip. Well you know what, I couldn’t agree more on the money thing, because in a way it’s being efficient is tough anyway—I mean, it cost a lot of money to be out on the road. But again, I’m with you, I don’t require the Ritz Carlton. 

In fact, the more efficient and the more I pay attention to how well I’m managing my money on site, determines how much I get to take home when the storms over. And again, we’re there to make money and provide. 

So if I’m eating steak every night and going out to expensive restaurants—well that’s going to eat up a pretty sizable amount of income.

Jason: And I think adjusters also look at what they made per storm; and they’re looking at gross. Go after you’ve run your receipts; and you figured out how much you put through the gas tank; and run your net—that’s how much you make per storm. 

You know, find a place “OK this hotel is $10 a night more expensive, but it’s got a kitchenette in it.” Well go to Walmart and buy a bunch of groceries and get you a frozen pizza or salad or whatever you can cook there. 

There’s so many ways that you are going to just burn money away every day. And if you’re burning away a couple hundred bucks a day, that’s another claim that you need to do to make up for it.

Alan: That’s right, that’s right. And in the future, we’re gonna have a little session on things that we’ve done to make our deployments more efficient and economical for us. 

Jason: You’ve got to make it profitable. 

Alan: That’s right. You know, I want to be able to profit the most I can—because again I’m not out there for a vacation. I want to make money and go home and take my family on vacation. 

Because that’s more fun to me to be able to be off work and on vacation then to be trying to do vacation and work all at the same time. In this trade, it’s feasible to do that, and there’s been several years my family enjoyed different locations we were working in as vacations. 

But if I could do it all my way, I’m gonna keep my cost to an absolute minimum while I’m traveling and then go home and take time off to go and be on vacation.

Jason: If you have claims open in you’re on a deployment, there’s no reason why you’re going and checking out the city sites and then going to the beach and checking out all this stuff. 

I don’t care if your families there or not. Let them go do it. You have a job to do. You have open claims. Claims don’t get paid until you turn them in. So if you’re sitting on claims that are inspected but not returned, you have no business doing anything but pounding on a keyboard.

Alan: That’s exactly right. And I’ll throw a little pro tip out there, if you are going to take time in the middle of your deployment to go see some sites and enjoy life while you’re there, don’t share it on Facebook.

Jason: Thank you!

Alan: Keep your private life to yourself. If you wanna share those down the road after deployments are over, feel free. But the last thing you need is to be behind or a manager wondering why you didn’t close claims last night when you clearly inspected claims. 

And then they look on Facebook, and they see that last night you were out on the town enjoying a steak dinner. That’s not going to make you look very good. 

Jason: Right. Exactly. And I mean, I’ll admit I’m on Facebook and I’ll post stuff once in a while when I’m not on deployment; but I really try to keep it to a minimum as far as what I’m putting out there. 

I don’t care how secure you think that is, it is not secure. Anyways, we could do a whole social media thing.

Alan: And we’re kinda sliding. This really wasn’t on our list of avoidable things, but you know avoiding social media while you’re at work can be a huge benefit to your success as an adjuster.

Jason: Absolutely, absolutely. 

Alan: So hey, let’s—this is something you and I both—this next thing that we’re gonna mention here—something you and I both kind of pride ourselves on because we have luckily been pretty good at being able to conquer this. And it’s made us successful in how we were able to grow in our our journey as adjusters. 

But wasting time—avoiding wasting time and understanding good time management. All of these can compile into this topic. 

Jason: Exactly. I think we’ve kind of mentioned all of these building up. This has been a piece of all of the above four. But it just keeps boiling down to that other one, and I thought this might be the most important; but I think I may even move “don’t forget while you’re there again probably the most important because I think the wasting time ties into that were there to work and to make money schedule your days efficiently why you’re there.”

I think that one is probably the most important because I think the wasting time ties into that. We’re there to work and to make money. Schedule your days efficiently. Make the phone calls—don’t put it off. 

You get new claims, make some phone calls. If you’re out there driving and you’ve got—“I got a claim that I scoped at 8 o’clock in the morning, my next ones not till 10, I’m there 45 minutes early, I’m going to pull around the corner an I’m open up the laptop; I’m gonna make the phone calls I may need to; I’m gonna go ahead and start sketching or labeling photos or whatever. 

That’s not the time to get a nap or “I’m gonna run through the McDonald’s drive-through” or “I’m gonna play on Facebook for a while.” It’s work time. There’s so much time wasted during the day in the car. Try to minimize that as much as possible. 

Me personally, I don’t eat when I’m working during the day. 

Alan: I don’t either.

Jason: I finally had to start bringing some high-protein snacks and stuff so I can keep going; but that’s in the truck. I don’t stop and “hey I need to schedule my lunch.” 

No, no, no, no, no. I wolf down a thing of nuts in between claims and keep going. I’m not stopping at McDonald’s or sitting down for lunch or going to Starbucks. It’s work. That’s the whole reason why I’m there. 

Map your claim—whether that be an Xactanalysis or on Google maps or whatever. Maximize your efficiency. Your time is the most valuable thing you have—whether that’s another claim closed which literally translates into dollars or how long you’re actually on that deployment which again translates to dollars because every day you’re racking up expenses.

Know that your time is your most valuable thing that you have and do your best to not waste it. 

Alan: Well and you’re going to—these guys are going to learn it in the early years in the early stages of their career, time for sleep is low. You’re struggling to get it. And I don’t know about you, but for me, I don’t require a lot of sleep; but I know my limit. 

I know what and how many hours I’ve got to have in order to be able to do the job. And for me, that’s about 5 1/2 hours. For some of you, you may not be able to function on 5 1/2 hours. OK 5 1/2 hours is always been good for me. I’ve been that way my whole life. 

That works well because I can get a lot done in a day. You may be that adjuster starting out that still needs 8 hours. And if you do, that’s fine. Take the rest of that time and maximize what time you have—that you don’t need to be sleeping—and fill it with opportunities to grow and be more successful in this industry. That’s what you’re out there to do.

Jason: I see so many guys that go out there, they run their claims, they stopped at Burger King, gotten their lunch, they come back and their air conditioning’s nice, “I’m going to take a shower. I’m a little tired , I’m going to lay down and try to sleep for a minute.” 

All you’re doing is delaying; and you’re wasting that time. You have these claims to turn it. You could have had one or two of them turned in in the field before you even hit to the house that afternoon or hotel.

So then now instead of 3,4,5 left to write, I’ve got a couple left to write, get them done. You’re done? Hey all my paperwork is done, all my phone calls are made. OK now I’m gonna go out and have me a nice dinner tonight because I’m caught up and I’m all done with everything.

It’s that whole thing you don’t get to play until your homework’s done.

Alan: That’s right, that’s 100% right. And I wouldn’t plan—I’m not a big planner of going out and sitting down in the evening and eating dinner out while I’m by myself anyway. But if it turns out that way, if you get done earlier than you expected and you want to take advantage of that, do it.

Jason: Absolutely. And that’s something that I did and even on this last deployment, I got wrapped up, all my stuff is done, I literally have no work on my plate to do—let’s go get a taco.

Alan: And then you know, as you grow, you’ll meet people; you’ll meet managers—those are the opportunities to mingle and put faces to names and get some pleasure out of it at the same time. But you focused on what had to be done first before you play.

Jason: Especially, for the new guys, you know, you may be showing up to a place that has a help room, and you may be spending quite a bit of time in that helped room. Try to stay near the help room if they’re gonna have it. 

If you’re new and they’re going to have a help room, try to stay near that help room—even if your claims are 30 minutes away from the help room, put your apartment or hotel or whatever you do, near that help room because you are going ot be spending a lot of time in there. 

And when you’re in that help room, this is the most important time to not be wasting time. Because I’ve been in help rooms where people are joking and laughing and carrying on—and that’s great, let’s all have a good time—but the whole reason those managers are all the way from home just like you is to do a job and provide for their families. 

Get it done and get home. And the last thing they want to see is somebody that’s wasting their time. So just maximize your efficiency; look at what you’re doing. Can this be done later? Is this really important? Is this why I’m here? 

Alan: That’s right, that’s right. OK before we go, I just want to speak real quickly. You know, we’re coming up on hurricane season. There’s going to be—should we get a couple good hurricanes, hopefully we do—as adjusters we’re all hoping for that.

Jason: Can you hear me crossing my fingers?

Alan: You know, we don’t wish anything detrimental upon the people of this great nation, but—

Jason: I just wanna buy everybody a roof.

Alan: That’s right. You know, we all have a way to make a living and this happens to be ours. But the new adjusters and maybe adjusters who’ve been in for a couple years and are just primarily fall hurricane adjusters, they need support.

One of the things that we’re doing at theadjusterguy.com is we have The Adjuster Guy Private Facebook Community. It’s a very small fee to be involved in that; but it’s a community for new, inexperience adjusters or maybe adjusters that have been going for a little while but need a support group, per se, to reach out to, to ask questions. To 

We want you to come be part of that. Myself, even Jason, few other people are there to help monitor, answer questions—and it’s an old saying guys, but there’s no stupid question that can be asked. If you legitimately need help, or it could be as much as “hey, I’m going to shoot a photo up here on the Facebook page, can you tell me what type of roofing product this is?”

Jason: And unlike some of the other social media sites and groups, there’s no judgment. We’re not gonna beat you up for asking a question. Once in a while, we may lead you down the road to answer your own question, but—

Alan: It may razee you a little bit, have a little fun with it.

Jason: But the whole purpose in having this is for sharing knowledge and helping each other.

Alan: That’s right, that’s right. So go to the website it’s theadjusterguy.com, click on the Private Community, check us out. We can have you going in a matter of hours and viewing the page and out there. 

And again, as hurricane season approaches and it gets busier, you may not get an immediate answer; but there’s enough of us monitoring it daily that within a few hours we can probably get to you and get you as close an answers as were able to get you.

You know, we can’t get specific on everything. It may be carriers specific, but we’ll let you know at that time “hey, this is something that we can give you our opinion on but you need to speak with your storm manager.” 

Jason: Absolutely, and you know that’s saying “we all get by with a little help from our friends.” I mean, it wasn’t but a couple weeks ago when I was in Omaha and I picked up the phone and called Alan and said “hey take a look at this. What would you do in this situation?” 

Bounce ideas off of each other, you know, because we do see things that are different or maybe a product we hadn’t seen or whatever; and we all have our own wealth of knowledge and we need to maximize on that. And be able to put it out there in a non-judgemental way. 

And understand that everybody started somewhere—and whether you’ve got years under your belt, well maybe you’d be a great asset to answer that question for that person. 

Or, like myself, almost 20 years in it, I might come across a situation where I knew how to write the estimate; but I kind a had little questions about “how would you handle this particular circumstance?” And it’s a great platform to be able to bounce ideas off each other.

Alan: OK good deal man. Well, hey, check us out—theadjusterguy.com. Look at the private Facebook page. Check out anything else we can offer at The Adjuster Guy. You’re going to—if you monitor the website—you’re going to see our new page coming up with with all the new information for the podcast. 

We do have a new email for the podcast. It is pod mail—podmail@usa.com. Pod mail at usa.com. So email us, ask us any questions—if it’s something specific to me or Jason, feel free to title it who do you want to ask the question to. Or will go over them together and as we start to see more mail coming in, we may even just dedicate an episode to just answering mailbox questions. 

Jason: I like it. I like it. 

Alan: So, folks, enjoy. It’s always a pleasure to be here for you. Jason it’s time to go to the lake, I think.

Jason: Yes, yes. Let’s shut this down, and I’ve got to go.

Alan: OK sounds good. Hey guys, thanks again for listening in. We’ll see you again in two weeks.