"Insurance is a business that's designed to help others, and yet we somehow forgot to check in on one another."

This week, The Salty Adjuster sits down with Brenden Corr of Project 55 to talk about authenticity, burnout, sobriety, mental health, and why insurance professionals spend so much time taking care of everyone else while often neglecting themselves.

Along the way, Brenden explains why his LinkedIn feed is just as likely to feature a poll about Panda Express for airport breakfast as it is a conversation about mental health. For him, it's all part of the same mission: replacing polished corporate personas with authentic human connection.

Together, they explore the emotional weight carried by adjusters, claims professionals, underwriters, brokers, and everyone else working on the front lines of helping people through difficult moments.

In the second half of the episode, Producer Brett joins The Salty Adjuster to reflect on the emotions and memories the conversation surfaced. What follows is a candid discussion about grief, workplace culture, pregnancy loss, catastrophe claims, the importance of checking on friends, and why vulnerability shouldn't be treated like a weakness.

There are laughs. There are uncomfortable truths. There are a few stories that still stick with us years later.

Most importantly, there's a reminder that behind every claim file, every KPI, and every LinkedIn profile is a human being carrying something you may never see.

Grab a salty snack, mute your notifications, and join us for a conversation that matters.

Resources

• Project 55: https://project55.org
• Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or Text 988
• Email the show: [email protected]

If this episode resonates with you, share it with a friend. Sometimes the most important claim we handle is checking on the people around us.Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of mental health, burnout, grief, pregnancy loss, and self-harm. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, anytime in the United States.

The Salty Adjuster sits down with insurance industry unicorn Tony Cañas. Recruiter, magician, podcaster, designation collector, community builder, and former claims adjuster who escaped before the salt fully consumed him.

Tony talks about burnout in claims, why so many adjusters feel trapped, how the industry accidentally creates feral field adjusters, and what happens when smart people realize insurance careers don’t have to follow a straight line. The conversation dives into recruiting, mental health, customer surveys that ruin lives over rental cars, and why claims might not be for everyone… but insurance probably is.

They also cover Hamilton karaoke, velociraptors, rap videos, top hats, and the very real possibility that insurance conferences are one bad blockchain presentation away from becoming survival scenarios.

If you’ve ever worked a CAT event, questioned your career choices while staring at 147 open files, or wondered how anybody survives this industry with their personality intact, this episode’s for you.

In this episode of The Salty Adjuster, our host sits down with Jason Smith of Right Restoration. A restoration veteran with decades of experience helping homeowners navigate fires, floods, smoke damage, and the absolute chaos that comes with property losses.

The two talk about how they first met years ago through the textile cleaning side of the business, how their careers evolved alongside each other, and why trust and communication matter more than ever between contractors, adjusters, and homeowners.

They also get into:
• Mitigation myths and shady contractor red flags
• What homeowners should actually do during a water loss
• Smoke damage, pack-outs, and sentimental items
• Why communication can make or break a claim
• The certifications that actually matter
• Why plumbers would absolutely survive a zombie apocalypse
• Dinosaurs. Obviously.

It’s equal parts industry insight, war stories, and salty nonsense from two guys who’ve spent years walking into other people’s worst days and trying to make them a little better

So grab a snack, send an appreciation text to your plumber, and let’s get salty.

Check out Right Restoration's website: https://rightrestoration.net/

Today on the show, Producer Brett flips the mic back on the Salty Adjuster for an episode that starts with catastrophe claims and somehow spirals into punk music, deployment loneliness, dinosaur debates, and whether a giant salt shaker should become the official mascot of the show.

Together they unpack the weird emotional reality of claims work:
- living out of hotels,
- delivering devastating news,
- surviving CAT deployments,
- working through burnout,
- and trying to stay human in an industry built around catastrophe.

Also discussed:

• why you should never argue coverage on a roof
• the soundtrack behind long estimate-writing sessions
• the emotional support value of hockey games during deployments
• why every adjuster becomes at least slightly feral by Friday afternoon
• and why Jaws might actually be easier to survive than Godzilla

It’s part roadside diner conversation, part punk-rock therapy session, part claims industry group chat after midnight.

Send your questions to [email protected], or pitch yourself as a guest on an upcoming episode!

"How can you can’t lead claims if you’ve never done the work?"

In this episode, The Salty Adjuster sits down with Laurel Jordan for a passionate conversation about leadership, mentorship, burnout, and what it really takes to build a lasting career in claims. A longtime advocate for women in insurance, Laurel shares her perspective on earning credibility from the ground up, creating opportunities for others, and why the best leaders understand the emotional and operational realities of the work because they’ve lived it themselves.

From frontline claims handling to executive leadership to Laurel's brand new role at expertise-driven Datos Insights, the conversation explores confidence, community, resilience, and the importance of helping the next generation of women find their voice in an industry that doesn’t always make space for it automatically.

Laurel is seeking mentees and you can email [email protected] if you're interested in being introduced to her.

What happens when the adjuster becomes the policyholder?

In this episode, The Salty Adjuster sits down with Michael Balarezo, a former claims adjuster who later survived his own devastating wildfire loss as a husband, father, and insurance professional. Michael shares what it feels like to stand on the other side of the claim, when your training, experience, and composure collide with the reality of watching your own life burn.

Together they talk about the emotional weight of contents claims, the gaps in the recovery process, and why Michael ultimately founded Adjusto to make claims more human for the people living through them.

It’s an honest conversation about loss, resilience, claims culture, and the difference between processing a claim and actually helping someone recover.

In the debut episode of The Salty Adjuster, you'll meet our host, a career-long claims professional with a specialty in property, a love of punk rock, and a desire to connect claims professionals to one another. No jargon or industry spin. In Ep1, The Salty Adjuster and his producer Brett have an honest conversation about the show and the human reality of property claims. From catastrophe deployments and burnout to empathy, dark humor, and the emotional weight adjusters carry every day, this episode explores the full human ecosystem of claims.

Email [email protected] to appear on the show or to have your question answered on air.