The Independent Adjuster Podcast (IA Path)

On this episode we have a triple agent in our midst. Luis Camacho shares with us how an insurance agent turns staff adjuster, and then can transition to independent adjusting.

Luis is in his first month of being an independent adjuster, but has many years as a staff auto adjuster under his belt. If you have ever wondered if you could transition from staff to independent adjusting then this episode is for you.

Name – Luis Camacho

Company – Cam Claims Services

Location – Amarillo, Texas

Superpower – Attitude

Contact – Luis' LinkedIn Profile

[email protected]

Get 101+ Adjusting Rosters by visiting IAAdvantage.co

Podcast Sponsor

ACD –If you are an IA looking for more work, if you are wanting to diversify where your claims are coming from, and expand what type of claims you are working then you should check out ACD.

Today we are talking about customer service and how you can have the strategic advantage in your IA business by providing customer service.

My guest today is Patrick Kelahan, former staff adjuster, turned consultant and always an advocate for customer service.

Pat reveals how much customer service is dying in most industries, but is so important for our success as independent adjusters.

Now it's time to call and to talk with the King of Customer Service, Patrick Kelahan.

Name – Patrick Kelahan

Company – Customer service advocate

Location – Buffalo, New York

Superpower – Customer Service

Contact – Pat's LinkedIn Profile

Pat's Article on INSNerds.com

716-870-1221 - cell phone

Get 101+ Adjusting Rosters by visiting IAAdvantage.co

Podcast Sponsor

ACD –If you are an IA looking for more work, if you are wanting to diversify where your claims are coming from, and expand what type of claims you are working then you should check out ACD.

Find out a horrific IA story and how to avoid it in your business in this episode of the Independent Adjuster Podcast.

Today on the podcast I have a gentleman whose entire life is consumed with vehicle owners safety. This IA travels around ensuring customers vehicle are repaired properly. I call him, Mr. Safety.

His company Collision Safety Consultants, handles diminished value claims and post repair inspections. Nothing makes this guy madder than a claimant being pushed around by an insurance company. They have expanded with representatives across the country and are growing each and every month.

You’ll hear Mr. Safety talk about the important of not compromising, being full of integrity and also give us practical tips of how to avoid being liable for improper repairs.

In this industry we pushed hard by insurance companies to do things their way, well our guest helps us understand how to handle those situations properly without sacrificing our relationships with the carriers or IA Firms.

Now it’s time to call and to talk with the founder and CEO of Safety Consultants Mr. Safety, Billy Walkowiak

Name – Billy Walkowiak

Company – Collision Safety Consultants

Location – Belmont, NC

Superpower – Lens of Safety

Contact –Billy's LinkedIn Profile

[email protected]

CollisionSafetyConsultants.com

Locator Website - CollisionSafetyConsultants.us

Get 101+ Adjusting Rosters by visiting IAAdvantage.co

Podcast Sponsor

ACD –If you are an IA looking for more work, if you are wanting to diversify where your claims are coming from, and expand what type of claims you are working then you should check out ACD.

OK I read an interesting interaction with two people that made me think of us as independent adjusters. So let me set the stage below.

(It is a Sunday afternoon, and the restaurant that the worker works at is right next to a fast food place which is well-known for being closed on Sundays. She is working the drive-thru station when another woman pulls up and starts ordering multiple high-priced items.)

Worker: “What else can I get for you today?”

Woman: “An order of chicken bites.”

(the worker turns and shoot her manager a look, as she also has a headset on and is hearing the entire conversation.)

Worker: “I’m sorry, but we don’t carry chicken bites.”

Woman: “I want an order of your eight-piece chicken bites.”

Worker: “Ma’am, we don’t have chicken bites. We have only have chicken strips. We do have jalapeño bites, though, that come in an eight-count.”

Woman: “I want chicken bites.”

(At this point, the manager uses her headset to join the conversation. She repeats what the worker already told the woman and lists off a couple other menu items that the woman may be trying to order.)

Woman: “I was just here last week, and I got the chicken bites.”

Manager: “Ma’am, we have never carried chicken bites. We serve chicken tenders and chicken sandwiches, but not chicken bites or nuggets.”

Woman: “Cancel my order; I thought this was Chick Fil A!”

(They voided out her entire order, and she drove past the window to get to the parking lot for the other restaurant. From where the worker was, The manager and worker could see her pull up to the front of the restaurant and realize that it was closed. She then came back through the drive-thru of the restaurant and ordered the same things she had just had the first restaurant void off.)

As a catastrophic independent adjuster we know what we want. We want to work catastrophe claims. We may even be pursuing one single type of deployed like property, auto, liability, total loss, hail, flood, etc. We know what we want, but is it currently available?

Like the customer in the story you may want something very specific, but it may not be possible for you to get that at this time. You need to be looking for and ready to accept work other than our "ideal work." The more you work, the more experience you can claim, the more confidence you gain, and the more people you meet.

Working people tend to get more work. It is weird, but true. There is a momentum that you build up that helps get you over the hump into the next storm. Who is going to make an IA Firm more money, the guy who has been working daily claims and is in a groove? or an IA that has been sitting on his license for two years not working in the field.

It is an obvious choice as a recruiter so again we want numbers on our side, we want to be the clear pick as a better money maker for the IA Firm. So the fifth tip
for getting catastrophic work is...

#5 Start Working Claims (Any Kind)

We can't be picky when starting out. Most of us have our sites set out the prize and that is good, but we need to look at the stepping blocks to reaching our goals. Many times starting to do daily claims is an easier task than pursuing catastrophic work only.

Catastrophic work depends on the weather and that means we could be waiting YEARS for our opportunity. Daily work happens.... well.... daily. So we don't have to wait too long to get started.

Many companies need help, but it takes pursuing and reaching out to someone for them to know that you can help them in your area. Google, LinkedIn, Indeed, IARecruiter.co and other websites are great for

The flood waters were so high it stacked up cars on top of cars, my wife drove in a circle around downtown New York following the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy while I was inspecting vehicles.

The traffic, chaos, pedestrians, and bicycles all were begging her to be in an accident, the madness was enough to make you give up driving..... in fact she didn't drive after that for six months... it was so crazy.

During hurricane Sandy I worked 2 months and earned $12,000 on my first hurricane deployment, it wasn't easy, and it almost didn't happen.

When hurricane Sandy was approaching the United States all the independent catastrophic adjusters crossed our fingers in hopes of getting a late hurricane storm that would fill up our bank accounts before the long cold winter. I was sitting on my sail boat with my wife and two kids prepared to ride out the storm on our boat.

We were safe, but we had no idea what would actually happen. It ended up not going close to us (but we did get some effects), but watching the news predict a possible flooding in New York seemed like pure hype.

Even two days after the storm blew into the majestic city there wasn't any activity on our phones or emails about getting work. We lost hope and assumed no one was going to deploy us.

So we left on our sail boat content to live a semi-broke, but pleasant winter on our sailboat on the east coast of Florida working remotely. Half a day into the journey I placed a call to one of my only "real" friends in the industry. The only one that was outside my immediate family at that time. He was being deployed by Pilot Catastrophe.

I asked the obvious question, "Should I call Pilot? Are they still deploying people?" He was insistent that YES I should call Pilot and that they would probably deploy me. The rest of my community of adjusters were saying, "No, they said not to call, they'll call if they need you." but this one close friend gave me hope and determination.

I hung up and called Pilot who thanked me for calling. I was deployed and ended up working two months! This only happend because I called.

I then in turn told my entire family of adjusters to call Pilot and they also got deployed!

I met so many amazing people during that two months and expanded my network 10x what it was previously and many are still close friends to this day. I ended up getting the awesome opportunity to work auto total loss for over a month inside of a cubicle and learned so much.

What would have happened if I didn't have that 1 friend? Would my entire family and I have been deployed?

I didn't have a lot of licenses, I had never been deployed with Pilot, I was a hail and collision adjuster, but never flood.

I imagine I would have been broke for 6 months waiting for hail season to roll around or I would have had to bust my butt to work daily claims in my hometown just to make ends meet and let the sailing dream die.

That 1 friend had a huge impact on my year, career, and life. It only takes one contact and person to make a big difference in your life.

So my #4 Tip for getting more catastrophic work is....

#4 Network

You may need to get to know more people. Not just casual friends on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn, you need to get to know people that care about your success.

This is one of the big reasons why I created my online adjuster membership, the "League of IA's". I had an unofficial group around me and it helped me find work and support whenever I needed it and I wanted YOU to be able to have what I have. I want to help you build your network.

If I have a question about how to do something I know who to ask. If I need work I ask EVERYONE until I find work.

The people around me have been

Hey I know I told you I’d have the other 5 tips last week, but I couldn’t talk the rest of last week thanks to a cold I caught on a public bus…. Yup I know hand sanitizer (feel free to use some now as you listen to this)

Being an IA is similar to this its important to know that who you are surrounding yourself with and who is affecting you is not INFECTING YOU…. So on that note here is quick word from our sponsor that I recommend you surround yourself with if you like making money performing daily auto claims.

Podcast Sponsor - ACD

I was reflecting on a past FAILED career of mine and I thought about you and your pursuit of a career in adjusting. I believe you may find the lessons I learned useful for where you are at.

A few years back I created a COOL company. I had a great logo, killer website, sweet commercials, and man I was checking off the list of things I thought, I was “supposed to do.”

You may be asking, “What kind of business was it?” Basically, it was an app-based business for small local companies to offer additional customers through advertising. My team and I created the app and this “amazing concept” of how to bring the community together.

I had lots of great meetings with members of local communities, organizations, and even got to present at decent size conference.

I had a lot of interest in what we were doing, but I could never “close the deal.” After a year of “oh we need a new feature!” or “almost there”, and the always hopeful “just one more meeting” I had burned through $20,000 that I had invested personally into the business and all my relationships associated with that business.

But you know what? Everyone had thought what I was doing was GREAT, but no one wanted to PAY me for my time, effort or energy. I didn’t understand. We had a product that could…. Well that was cool! It would help someone, I was sure of it!

“How would it help me?” When a local business owner straight up asked this question…. It stumped me. Basically, “why should I pay you money?” is the question that business owners would ask that still haunt me to this day about our GREAT business solution.

I knew it would help them, I was sure of it, but I couldn’t explain why. To be honest I didn’t know why and you know what, I end up looking like a fool and broke as a bad joke.

Let’s imagine that I had learned “how it would help them” and “why they should pay money for my product/service.”

I’d sit down in meeting with local businesses (who were happy to have these meetings) and I’d share with them how we could get 20 new customers each month by advertising at another local business for only $20 a month.

“Mrs. Smith would 20 new customers be worth $20 a month to you?”

No business would turn down 20 NEW customers a month at a $1 a customer, but I was too busy talking about the features, partnerships, logos, and beautiful app I had created.

I wasn’t talking about THEM I was talking about ME.

As I reflected on this failure (as I have often in the two years since) I once again come back to that question. “Why did it fail?”

It failed because I didn’t know how I was going to help them, but I sure knew how they could help me. The bare bones about it is I did everything to make money for myself, but I didn’t do anything to make money for them.

And so it is within your chosen career field of independent adjusting, you know every reason someone should hire you, you’ve got all the features, State Farm Certification, you’ve got a Texas License, you’ve filled out an application, you are on Pilots roster, you’ve been to a lot of meeetings but too often you forget or you don’t even know how you can help them!

How are you going to help make a company MORE MONEY? Why are you any differ

17,732 adjusters did this one thing...

This is part 2 of a of a special series of 5 podcasts called, “The Top 5 Ways to Get More Catastrophe Work as an Independent Adjuster” and is sponsored by ACD,

It is a BIG number. They all did this one thing... did you? And if you did where does that leave you?

According to the Texas Department of Insurance in 2017 17,732 adjusters received their Texas All Lines license..... (feel free to read that again if you'd like)

Now it is a shocking statistic and I hope you are feeling the weight of those numbers. Did you receive your license in 2017? Maybe you got it in 2016 and you are in front of those 17k other adjusters in terms of seniority, but 2016 was only a little better for you, 13,575 got their license in that year. It's safe to say over 10k adjusters receive a Texas all lines license a year (over 7500 in the first 4 months of 2018!)

Now all of those aren't independent adjusters, but the reality is, everybody and their mother and their school teacher has an adjuster license. It is a tough and painful 40 hours of studying and then a brutal and boring test and you should be proud for getting your adjuster license, but in the catastrophe adjusting world it's par for the course and just the beginning of getting work.

OK now that we know.... you are one of MANY licensed adjusters (in Texas, Florida or Indiana don't get caught up on specifics) we need to have the conversation about how do we stand out from those other 17,000 adjusters who got licensed in Texas last year.

In yesterdays email I promised I would address the question, "How do we prove that we are better money makers?" Remember IA Firms are bringing us in to make money off of us and thus we need to cost less and make them more money so they'll deploy us more so we can make more $$. (It's all about the money it seems)

Insurance companies are the ones dictating how many people may be used for a given catastrophe event and what state they will be working out of. To legally allow you to work for those companies in most states you must have an adjuster license in the state to even be considered for most of the available positions.

Texas is great for hail storms and Houston can have flooding events, but there are many other types of storms around the country that once again we can use to increase our chances of deployment. If you are sitting on JUST A TEXAS/FLORIDA LICENSE you may be sitting at home because there is no reason to consider you for any storm outside of those states.

Yes companies can apply for you to get an emergency license in other states, but that is only if a state of emergency has been declared and that costa the IA Firms time to apply for you and the fee for application, which costs them MORE money.

Remember our goal is to cost LESS. Also, the more IA's they have available in specific states where the catastrophes occur the more spots they may be able to fill.... making them more money.

You are probably tracking with me and where I'm about to go, but for clarity's sake I hope you are seeing this picture and business as a numbers game, because frankly it is. It's all about the numbers and if you want the numbers on your side you need to do the things that'll give you an advantage.

So my #2 Tip for getting more catastrophe work is....

#2 Get More Licenses

I'm sure you are sick of hearing this, but it is a good piece of advice. Now which licenses should you get? Where should you start? Are there states that are more valuable than others?

OF COURSE! We'll talk about which states to get tomorrow and I'll have a third tip for you.

First though I want to challenge you to get 2 new adjuster licenses each month until you get work. Just 1 a month if that is all you can do, i

This is part 1 of a of a special series of 5 podcasts called, “The Top 5 Ways to Get More Catastrophe Work as an Independent Adjuster” and is sponsored by ACD,

If you aren't aware of it yet, your career choice of being an independent adjuster can be a tough and lonely road at times. Waiting for calls, waiting for orientations, waiting for deployments.... then when mother nature isn't dishing out its normal dose of chaos it becomes even tougher to financially survive by having only limited possibilities of work.

Over the next 5 days I'm going to give you my "Top 5 Ways to Get More Catastrophe Work."

The problem we are faced with is REAL, but the question is simple, "How do you find more work as an independent adjuster?"

To determine how we find more work, we need to determine why someone would want to give us work. Then we can come up with a few ways that will give us the edge and give the companies and recruiters reason to pause and choose us.

The Reasons Why

The reason why IA Firms are wanting to deploy you is to make money. They have requests from an insurance company for assistance with a project. It could be a request for 10 or 100 people, but either way the IA Firm makes money when you make money. Insurance companies pay the IA Firm for the services you perform and on average/typically the IA Firm keeps 40% of the money and gives you 60%.

With that 40% the IA Firm still has to pay for expenses (just like you). It costs the IA Firm money to find you, support you, train you etc.

We get the point, they are spending money to make money. So can we then assume that if you cost less money to deploy/support and earn them more money then you'll have an advantage on being chosen for a deployment?

I say "YES!"

So how do we show that advantage on paper, that is in a stack of other papers or on a digital computer screen?

How do we prove that we are a better money making machine for the IA Firm than the the next guy?

It feels like this is a never ending pursuit of questions.... right? It does feel this way, but it is these questions that will take you from being another number on a roster to being a superhero A-list adjuster who is called over and over again.

Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the "How do we prove that we are better money makers" question, but right now I want to give you something applicable and 1 of the top 5 ways to getting more catastrophe work.

I mentioned earlier in the email that it gets tough when there are limited possibilities of work. Any IA with a license can get deployed when a major storm like Harvey, Katrina, or Sandi hits, it's the rest of the time that I'm talking about. When it isn't an adjuster gold rush how do we position ourselves for success?

As an IA you are a business, and as a business you are playing a numbers game. If Catastrophe Company A has 50 spots for adjusters in the upcoming month, how do you become one of those 50? In essence that is what people are saying when they email asking,

"Pilot has me on their roster, but how do I get deployed NOW!?"

Truth is I don't know if you can become one of the top 50 for Pilot... right now any ways. What we need to do it work with better #'s so we can make more $$$. Instead of being consumed with being the top person at Pilot (which is a great goal) let's look at increasing the odds of success.

If every major CAT company has 50 spots to fill in a month and there are 5 major companies, lets get on all their rosters. That'll give us 250 spots that we could be a candidate for instead of 50. A 5x greater chance of being deployed. Now we are talking!

What if you didn't stop at the top 5? What is you got on the top 20 Cat comp

Today on the podcast my guest is X-Ray, not only is his superhero alias X-Ray but he is offering you the opportunity to be granted X-Ray powers yourself.

John Renstrom is the Co-Owner of Mobile Tech RX, A mobile app & software that allows adjusters and PDR technicians to write hail estimates faster and easier than ever before.

Mobile Tech RX is the easiest way to write a hail estimate, that I have ever seen. John and his crew have taken something that is clunky and annoying in standard estimating systems and streamlined the process the way you always wished it could be.

Now this doesn’t replace your standard estimating platform if you are an independent adjuster, but it could help you make more money by being faster than ever before. Tune in as I talk with John and he explains to us not only how to write claims faster and easier with his application, but also about how you can convert it into a CCC One estimate saving you hours a day. I won’t give away how Mobile Tech RX grants you X-Ray vision, but seriously….. IT DOES.

Name – John Renstrom

Company – Mobile Tech RX

Location – Rapid City, SD

Superpower – X-Ray Vision

Contact – John's LinkedIn Profile

MobileTechRX.com 888-626-6750 ext 702

[email protected]

Checkout our IA Community the League of IA's, get our free 7 day trial HERE

Podcast Sponsor

ACD –If you are an IA looking for more work, if you are wanting to diversify where your claims are coming from, and expand what type of claims you are working then you should check out ACD.