Episode #244 – Optimizing Your Insurance Claims with Andy Gurczak, Part 2

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0:39 Hey, guys, welcome back, you're listening to the second part of last week's episode? Let's jump back in. I tend to ask people about hiring. And I want to ask you about hiring. Because you've mentioned forensic accounting. You've mentioned engineers, right? Not to mention the work that you do and just insurance in general, right, we are talking about a highly analytical field. So when you are trying to hire for positions at all city adjusting? Do you have a process for Are you like filtering for a certain way of seeing the world? Is it all about their past experience? How do you think about the hiring process? We'll just keep it as broad as possible. I

1:25 like that question. For me, I always look at it, I always look at a person I was judging by what have they done previously? Their type of attitude? I'm not looking at education in terms of did they go to Harvard? Did they study for 10 years? I could care less about all that. Really? What I'm looking at is for that drive? Are they going to do they have the same drive that we have here that I have personally, that you're going to come in early? If you have to stay longer? You're gonna stay longer? Like you're gonna come in and get your crap doc, like, you're gonna get stuff done?

Yeah. Like, do you have that, that that motivation to work, because if you're just if I could feel, and again, we've gone through people where we hired people they came in, and it's kind of like, they're here just to do their job, and they leave, like, they don't want to do anything extra. I keep those when you're a small business, you can't afford those people, because you're trying to grow. So you really need people that are there on the same like pushing in the same direction as you. So our process is not that technical that we have. But we do go through, I have another person office that interviews and then I'll do a second interview. And then we'll kind of talk together about what we like what we don't like about that person.

2:28 Is there something you're so looking for Dr. Makes a lot of sense to me. You said growth is kind of you mentioned a bunch of times it's kind of inherent to your view of the company, what you're trying to do, right? And so it's not just we want to be get a paycheck and be comfortable. And you're really trying to do something on a big scale. So it makes sense. You need people who are driven to do that. Is there something that you're listening for in the interview to get a sense of that?
Because I'll just like be honest, the reason I always ask is historically, I think hiring has been something I've struggled with both hiring and firing, right? Terrible. Both. Yeah. So one of my questions is like, people will often say things in interviews that worked down good, and then it doesn't work out. I'm like, Well, what are that? Remember when you said, good? And you're like, Yeah, I was just saying that I was like, so like, what do you listen to? Like, how do you how do you listen for that? Or is it like, you listen as best you can, but then it's really about that first three months. That's where you're looking like, how do you figure

3:25 that's exactly right. So you can only feel so much of a person during interview because they're gonna tell you everything you want to hear. Are you good with computers? Great, but you can have a Microsoft board to make it awesome. person, right free resume I've ever done. I've always been like, Yeah, amazing in Microsoft Word.

3:43 I know. So then we hire someone and I get on a MacBook. And they're like standing in front of the computer. They're like, I'm like, and they can't find the internet. So I'm like, Okay, now I remember that interview when you said you were so great at computer things. So now, honestly, it's the first three months. And I think one of my my faults, like you're saying is firing people, right? Once you get hire someone, you get close to them. It's hard to let someone go. And sometimes you create a friendship and you don't want to you like that person. So you don't want to let them go because you liked them. So then it turns to you kind of you want to do it earlier, um, learn, realizing and learning that the earlier you let someone go, the better. The longer you keep going and it's more you get attached. And those flaws that they have in that drive, it's not going to change. Like I look back at the people we hired that we let go and I'm sitting there I'm like, you know, those people after first week we we already like, yeah, that person's not going to work out and we kept them for extra weeks and months. You could tell

4:37 I think that's such a good point that you so often have that sense very early in the process, but it's like, I don't know about you with me. What happens is, I'm like, Well, I can fix them. Or I'm like I just need coach you know, like, because I feel like like you said I'm pretty driven. I like to learn I'm All about growth. So it's like, I'm like, I could expand in this role. So surely they can, if I just like water the plant enough, you know what I mean? Like it's gonna work out. But I think you're right. A lot of times your gut feeling early ends up being very correct.

5:16 Your gut is almost almost almost always right. I feel like, and for us, we're small businesses. So we can't just hire people and just let them come in here, do a couple of things and go home, your small business, you're growing something, you want them to have the same drive. And that's why I'd like for me, in our company, always look, I always tell you know, anyone that works here is you work your butt off, you work here, you work as like, I look at that, and I'm okay, I'll make sure to take care of you.

Like, I will take care of anyone that that's going to do extra that's going to do more that wants to work. Because I always feel like there was times where I probably wouldn't have started a business if people actually looked at me and how hard I worked and actually took like, took notice and said, man, yeah, let me take care of that guy. Because that guy's boasting that, but no one ever said, they just blew me up. Sounds like I don't care, I'll just go do my own thing. So now I'm always thinking back man, like, hey, if someone does work, like I'm gonna take care of that person, because I know how hard it is to find someone good. And I know how to find someone good actually cares. As much as you do.

6:10 Yeah. And people want to feel appreciated, right? I mean, it's 100%. So okay, so let's talk about a little bit. You're in 31 states, during this growing team, what is the goal for you? Now? I think a lot of people would be like, Well, I did it, I win the business. You know what I mean? Like it's, but like you said, being driven, being ambitious kind of core to who you are. I'm imagining that if there was no challenge left, you will get bored pretty quickly. So what is next for you? And for all city, like when you look out there? And you're like, what is the next big thing that you want to achieve? Or change or accomplish?

6:50 No, we have huge goals. I mean, I feel like we're just starting out, like I tell everyone here, like we're just scratching the surface, we're just literally, I mean, we're still in the infancy stage, like we're just starting. And we're way ahead of the curve on everything. Our goal in the company goal is not only to grow with claims, but get so many leads where we can give out leads right help other pas in the industry and help other restoration companies educational platform, we're working on our own CRM system for for us and then to provide to other pieces, so many different avenues and being in this industry for so long, and seeing a change, trying to be an all in one shop and provide all the services and create a revenue stream not just from adjusting well from different things, right, because most pas are, a lot of them are small mom and pop, there's only so many large companies.

So we want to be able to be to be able to assist smaller claims, larger claims. And if we can't give out and hope to other pas or other people because it's hard coming into this industry. Yeah, there's no like no one that no Angie's List or other services that gives you leads that people call you when they have a fight or like no one knows about you. So you know, it's hard to get your name out there, we put a lot of money into advertising and marketing and building a brand.

And we keep putting a lot of money that a lot of people are scared to invest and risky. And we've done it and it's and it's paid off. So that's why we're you know, this podcast thing that we're sitting on discussing right now, right? This is a big investment for us. And it's something that I consider like a being on this many podcasts and it's an investment, is it going to be tough? And I looked at as a it's a big risk. But if you viewer, one of your listeners calls me and has a claim, well that my investment pays off. And now I've been featured like it the risk reward look, it's worth it. Why not? Right? If I don't try it, then how would I know that works or not? That's kind of well,

8:38 I'll say to having done this for so long. And also go and go on a ton of pockets kind of going on podcasts, like the only marketing I do at this point. That's not sure. I mean, we also advertise but that I do personally Yeah, in I think in your industry is the same as my industry, very few people are the face of the thing. It's kind of anonymous, and it's it, there just aren't a lot of people who are putting themselves out there and talking about what they do. You don't have to do anything too crazy. It's just talk about what you do and make it approachable. And like for someone like me, right, like I kind of know what an adjuster is. I didn't really know what a public adjuster was right?

So you're filling me in and in the process filling everyone in that stuff has massive downstream implications that aren't always obvious in the short term. Right. So I think that I think you know, you're great in terms of, you're charismatic you gotta talk about what you do. You're fun to talk to, like so many people I talked to where I'm like, Yeah, this is good a great conversation and they just they're like a wet vishram You know what I'm like having a personality is the big force multiplier you know, so I think I think that's gonna be awesome let's find motivated seller leads online but don't know where to start. Download our FREE motivated seller keyword report today. AdWords nerds have spent over $5 million this year researching the most profitable keywords for finding motivated seller leads. And you can grab these exact keywords when you download our report at www dot AdWords nerds.com/keywords.

10:18 I want to talk about the website real quick. And then I want to ask about the future of your industry. But let's talk about this real quick. So on all city adjusting.com, because you talked about, hey, somebody reaches out to me, you know, you know that you can help them out, you guys have a free claim review. It's actually the biggest button on the website. If you go to all city adjusting.com, you will see this big button that says free claim review. We were talking about this before we hit record, can you walk people through this tool? And what it does? Because I think it's really awesome. Yeah.

10:46 So in that tool, when you click it, you can you input your information, and it kind of takes you through a questionnaire and asks you about your claim the size of the claim, what happened? When did they happen? You who the adjusters asked you claims, so then all that documents, and then you could upload the documents of the claim, then that whole claim file gets sent to our internal office, our internal area, and then we're able one of the PAs we've used to claim, then context the person that that filed everything, and then we can kind of work through and say, okay, yeah, you have a claim here, hey, we can how or maybe we don't have to intervene. Maybe you can finish this part of this claim yourself, right? But it streamlines no one has to call and wait in line, even though when people call us when we always answer that's one thing we like, it's rare that we won't answer a phone that the phones line is busy. But that claim review just kind of streamlines everything we're doing. We're not saying hey, send us this send us this. It just we can look over everything and advise that person, if there's something we can help or there's any, you know, anyone else that we could recommend to help them. So

11:43 if someone's got something that they're they're thinking about, you know, they've got a claim already, or they're thinking about doing, just go to all city adjusting.com. Like I said, it's the the tool is awesome. Then like you said, if you're with somebody like me, you're like, oh, I don't love being on the phone or whatever, I just kind of want to do it online real quick, walks you through all the steps. Super, super cool. Or like you said, just call the office. And I would recommend like you will let me ask you this question was a good

12:07 way to that's and then that's for someone that's obviously had a claim already, like they filed a claim. And they've been kind of now they're starting to get issues, right? Again, as we said before, you want to call as soon as possible, you didn't want to get to this tool, you want to get ahead of this and then have to have us or have another pa right from the beginning. But again, if that doesn't happen, that's kind of where people start. That's a good, that's a good way when you're already Middleton.

12:29 Yeah, and you guys do a ton of real estate, I know that you've done some real estate investing as well. So if people are listening to this, and you're looking at things, like one of those things, just like you said, it's like if you think you might need it, just go ahead and send the email, you know, there's no no harm, no foul, but it's something that you want. You know, it's like my, my ad, someone recently told me, they're like, Hey, you should get like a home equity loan or a line of Home Equity Line, loan line of credit or something like that. And I was like, I don't really need it. And he was like, that's the whole point. You get it when you don't need it when you need it. You can't get it. I was like, oh, okay, we've had

13:01 ours for three years. It didn't touch it. And we haven't like it. So we should we do something with it? Should we buy something with it? But like we have it like we ignore it. Sometimes I forget that we have it. But again, we were we were told like you are my good buddy, who's who's give us on loans like hey, get this the home equity, like why we don't need a like, that's just exactly you apply? Well, you know, that's the perfect reason you don't need it. And now it's sitting there. And it's kind of like, hey, if we did find an investment, the money's there, right extra money to do something else.

13:26 Nice to know you have it right. Nice to know you have. So let me ask you as we kind of wrap this up, and then we're coming up on time don't want to keep this super long. But I want to ask about your industry, the insurance industry generally at where you think it's headed. I think there is a lot of disruption across industries right now. I was joking about AI. Before we got started, I think a lot of people were kind of worried about the intersection between AI and what they do. I also know that insurance generally Middle East, my perception of the insurance industry in the states is that public perception of the insurance industry is fairly negative. There's like a lot of changes happening in the industry. You as an insider, what is your take on what the next five to 10 years look like? Is there going to be a lot of disruption in insurance? Am I overblowing things? This I'm sure there's a million things I don't even know to to think about? What's your take on kind of where insurance is going generally?

14:20 Yeah, I think I think AI is gonna destroy everything, every industry. I don't see how it does not if it doesn't, it's going to disturb the insurance industry already. Is it whether it's selling new policies I see with when you as a homeowner, or as an insured, you can go buy your own policy without an agent without knowing anything about insurance. You can go buy a policy, you don't even know what you're buying. There's no agent there. That's kind of scary, but it's happening. That's all AI same thing with with claims. It's only a matter of luck. We're already measuring homes with cameras, right we're putting a camera inside the house and we get the entire measurement we used to measure by tape. Then we had lasers.

Now we have one machine that takes 10 minutes to measure an entire house like that. Man, so soon you're going to measure and the AI is going to write an estimate really quick based on what it sees to it. I mean, it's only a matter of time. Yeah. So I think what and then again, that just makes it better for us. And I think if you're a good PA and you're growing your firm, that's good. Because it's going to make again, they're just trying to offer a quick settlement. If you accept a great only 3% of people actually fight their claim. They don't care about so it's a very small amount. So a if maybe they start doing and have an AI write estimates, well, let's say 50% Accept settlement. And now they're 50. Down the 50. That did they took the lower settlement. They're done.

15:35 Yeah. Do you think so few people fight their settlements, because they're really happy with it, or just because they don't even know that they can or how they they don't know any better. And majority of claims are with homeowners. And you have to think about it when you have kids, you have kids, if you're if your house flooded from third floor all the way down, y'all and I tell you, Hey, you, you're way underpaid. And you'd like at this point, the guy said he could do it, I don't give him crap, I want to be back in my house. My kids are the school like, It's my son's last year. And that's why our focus has been majority our investors, our landlords, our management companies, because for them, whether that insurance is there or not, or they're sorry, the renter's, they're not the tenant, they're gonna get loss of loss of income. So we can take that claim and now really work it and fairly negotiate and fairly settle it, and they're still going to get compensated for that loss of rent, and then they still have time to rebuild. And usually that loss of rent, we get the stretch out so they usually way ahead anyways,

16:30 I mean, it's so fascinating, because I mean, your industry is this weird mix of voluntary and involuntary and like others like it is fine if there's a lot of secrets I have the old pas and all don't say this it's very like dialogue. And it's it's it's weird. It's becoming more and more known about industry, I think and there's that big all you don't need a most adjusters or pas priorities aren't storm chasers. Well, yeah, there's a lot of storm chasers. I can't speak for every pa there's bad days out there. And then there's good ones. There's good investors and bad investors, good attorneys, bad attorneys. We've I've came every field I've been into that I've tried to hire I found bad and good. Yeah, it's a it all depends on who you choose. And if you are listening to this, and you're a real estate investor, all city adjusting is the websites are all city adjusting.com. We've been talking to Andy, Gert, check. Andy, thank you so much for being here. Man, this was a blast. You're awesome. And I really appreciate your time.

17:31 Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I could go on, I could probably go on for like another two hours with you. So yeah, I just appreciate you sharing your wisdom and your knowledge with everybody. Oh, before we bounce, if people want to follow up with you online, we've talked about the website anywhere else that you want people to catch up with you for your listeners, I'm going to leave them right now. Again, I'm still able to take calls and messages from investors. I'll leave them my number. If someone wants to reach out call or tax Hey, we have a claim or even if they want to review a policy more, can you look at our policy? Do we have the right insurance? Reach out to me? It's 708-655-4186 They can call me directly and I'll be able to help with any way I can.

18:13 Wow. Okay, so that is first of all that is truly amazing. As long as I can eventually it's going to happen or that number. Right now that number works. We're gonna we're gonna post this on the internet. You're gonna get every weird robo call. I might. Yeah, well, we'll figure out a way to kind of obscure that a little bit. If I get any prank calls. I know it's in the girl check from all city adjusting.com Thanks so much, man. We appreciate it. Thanks. Appreciate it.

18:41 That is it. That's it for our interview this week. I hope you enjoyed that interview with Andy. I know I certainly did go check him out over at all city adjusting.com. And look if you could leave us a review. If you listen to this podcast, we would really appreciate it. It's available anywhere you get your podcasts and we read every single one. So thank you so much for being here every week. It means the world to me, and I will be talking to you very soon. Cheers.

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