Insurance in the Deep End: How UPA Keeps You Afloat

A runaway hose, a rooftop spa, and a driveway that cost $90,000 to fix—small choices can turn a routine stop into a six-figure claim. We dive into the three risks that quietly drain profits for pool professionals: water damage, chemical spills, and water chemistry mistakes. Along the way, we share hard-earned stories and the simple, repeatable habits that keep clients happy, claims rare, and premiums steady.

We break down why adding water seems helpful but often backfires, especially on elevated pools where gravity turns overflows into mudslides and property losses. You’ll learn when to say no, how to reset expectations with homeowners, and why a straightforward “no fill” policy protects both your route and your reputation. For draining, we walk through practical risk controls—drain waivers, documented owner instructions, city code checks, and a named person assigned to shut pumps off—so you’re never guessing eight stories up.

Sign up for UPA Insurance here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRQjHJGFLIOqZVzHm4_PNUz8Tokl_InR0wjyp5ahO93h3Z0Q/viewform?usp=send_form

If you want fewer claims and better retention, this is your playbook for risk management that actually fits a busy route: tighter habits, smarter paperwork, and a culture that screens for pros who care. Subscribe for more practical insights, share this with a fellow pool tech who needs it, and leave a quick review to help others find the show.

• water damage as the top loss driver
• overflow stories from elevated pools and rooftop spas
• drain waivers and shifting responsibility to owners
• city code differences and discharge pitfalls
• chemical spill risks on stained and stamped concrete
• the $90k driveway claim and truck policies
• slowing down on pristine properties and using containment
• water chemistry management and LSI discipline
• documentation for warranties and claim defense
• how screening and education keep rates flat
• ways to join chapters or enroll virtually for coverage

Support the Pool Guy Podcast Show Sponsors! 

HASA 
https://bit.ly/HASA

The Bottom Feeder. Save $100 with Code: DVB100
https://store.thebottomfeeder.com/

Try Skimmer FREE for 30 days:
https://getskimmer.com/poolguy 

Get UPA Liability Insurance $64 a month! https://forms.gle/F9YoTWNQ8WnvT4QBA

Pool Guy Coaching: https://bit.ly/40wFE6y

Chapters

• 3:12 Setting The Three Big Risks
• 3:33 Water Damage Dominates Claim Costs
• 4:29 Overflow Horror: The Tennis Court Mudslide
• 6:13 Rooftop Spa Scare And Near Miss
• 7:35 Eighth-Floor Drain Job Goes Sideways
• 9:15 Risk Management And Drain Waivers
• 11:44 Shifting Away From Filling Customers’ Pools
• 14:00 Why “Just Add Water” Sets Precedent
• 15:38 Removing Water: Permits, Codes, And Waivers
• 17:53 Chemical Spills And Concrete Nightmares
• 19:29 The $90,000 Driveway Lesson
• 21:16 Deck Splatter And Moving Too Fast
• 22:23 Read The Property: Slow Down On Pristine Decks
• 23:25 Water Chemistry Claims And Documentation
• 25:21 Replaster Costs And Equipment Damage
• 27:27 Warranties Lost And Recordkeeping Wins
• 29:31 Rates, Screening, And Better Members
• 31:26 Joining Chapters Or Going Virtual
• 32:59 Why Coverage Matters For Your Route
• 35:06 Final Resources And How To Enroll

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 2:24

But uh because I'm now fifty, I I I do want to share my memory only holds about three topics. And uh the the major themes, David, um, that we see on the claim side are water damage, concrete stains, and really water chemistry issues. And so I'll I'll I'll start with the water damage if that's okay. Um so yeah, water damage for us, and this has gone back for, I mean, since I've been working with the United Pool Association, we go through our claims every quarter with uh the board, and it without fail, about 80% of the dollars paid on the claims are due to water damage. And what historically that had been was adding water to pools. And everybody who's listening, or not everybody, but probably a lot of the listeners are going, well, hey, I I always, you know, I had water, but I my my keys are on the hose bear. I know, and and without fail, you know, there's there's uh you know, they've got a spare set of keys under their uh, you know, visor, they're you get distracted, there's cell phone calls, whatever. Um, but we had had a large amount of folks that and understandably, you know, I think uh a lot of people that get in this business are there, they they want to run a business, obviously, but you want to help, you know, and and you know, so you see the water low, you don't want the equipment getting damaged, so you start adding the water. And so they drop a hose in, and and uh of course then you forget about it, and just the uh water finds its uh lowest path, which inevitably is in the living room. And so uh we had uh we had a situation not too long ago where it was a good-sized property um down in Southern California. The pool was at elevated level. The uh uh uh pool tech noticed it was low, he added the hose in, uh I forgot about it, left. Now the homeowners were out of town. They didn't come back till five days later. And so what basically had happened was the pool overflowed, the flow of water had actually backed into uh, they had one of those kind of four-foot retaining walls that kind of snap into retaining walls, um, push that out, all of the basic mudslide down into the homeowner's tennis court. And so we ended up with this uh just god-awful looked in tennis court at the end. Uh the claim could have been a lot worse. You you know, your your uh imagination could go, what if it was a house down there? What if, you know, what whatever whatever could have happened? It ended up being a$50,000 claim, a lot of a lot of cleanup. But you know, one of the things to highlight in these situations is you can, and I remember you had an episode on uh uh customer retention, I think, or you know, uh uh and and I'll tell you, 90% of the time, you know, you have a claim, even if it's not your fault, you know, the the customer is likely going to blame you. And it's uh and it ends up in that account, whether the pool technician just fires them because they don't want to deal with them anymore, or more often the technician or the uh the homeowner says, Hey, look, I you know, no thank you. I don't want to deal with this anymore, and they hire somebody new. So there's always that downside, too, of having a claim. Uh another another water damage one, if I if I could share with you, um, and this happened, we've had quite a few of these where you have elevated situations where you have uh uh a rooftop spa. So we had this uh uh really nice house down in Newport Beach. Uh it's just you know, fancy developer who was sitting on his$20 million house. Our our uh tech went out. Notice the the spa was low, opened the fill valve, left it open, and uh ended up uh the water had got in. The homeowner's uh uh maid or somebody had caught it and uh you know had had uh had you know was able to basically shut stuff off, but the water had already drained. And this is an insurance broker's nightmare, by the way, when you have a huge, you know, expensive house or God knows what kind of art. You can only imagine the worst, right? And um, it ended up being the nicest uh uh homeowner who you know, probably he's been through a lot of insurance matters. Um I can only imagine. And he ended up only costing us about$5,000. But this is a very unusual because it's uh usually the opposite effect. It's usually people try to really get what they can out of this. Um, but uh it it these uh these rooftop situations, though, are really um uh scary. And you can only imagine the higher up the actual water source is, the more catastrophic the damage can get. Um, which brings me to a third one. We had a uh an uh uh apartment complex down in Long Beach that was on the eighth floor. Uh and this one, we uh, and I really just call it dumb luck, but our our technician was basically hired in to drain the pool. And uh so he was brought in, got uh, you know, got escorted up to the top of the pool. He uh um couldn't find a uh a uh uh a drain to run the water. So he had to actually get the on-site manager up there to actually point out where to uh direct this. Um so in our in our fortune, uh the you know, the property had actually directed our technician of what to do. And uh so our guy had uh basically put the uh um put the ranch pump through the uh drain uh trap that they had up on the the eighth floor, and it had gone down, and there must have been compromise on the way down because it ended up in five different units. And uh so it it uh it turned out being a pretty significant claim. Um, but because of the sort of uh, and not to bore everybody, but the the laws in California as far as uh uh responsibility goes, we were able to get off pretty inexpensively only because our guy was directed on what to do. Had that not happened, and our guy had done what a lot of folks do and just say found something, we would have ate that whole, I mean, it it was it was up above$500,000 of damage. So it was a very significant. And what what I really like to point out in these situations, and you know better than I do, uh, you know, but it's uh uh risk management, right? It's you know, it's going into these situations going, gosh, I'm getting paid 500 bucks, a thousand bucks to do this. Is this worth the risk? And you know, when you're when you're up eight stories high, that question should be flying through your head. Like what could happen here? And you know and it doesn't take a creative person to figure out all the scenarios that could go wrong there. Um uh but uh you know we try to we try to get our our guys, we have uh drain waivers, we try to really push our guys to to use, you know, and it's it's really about education, right? For the homeowner. If you you know, in a lot of situations, you're you're draining these pools. Uh you you don't know what their plumbing looks like. You don't know, uh uh half the time probably don't even know where their trap, their sewer uh uh clean out is, um, you know, even throw it out there. And you know, many of these cities, uh, municipalities have different codes on what you can do. So sometimes you can't even use the sewer clean out. So enough you have to deactivate the actual water and run it down the street. You know, all these unknowns are are um what it makes this so challenging of a job. And as much of that burden you can put on the the actual homeowner, which rightfully is where it belongs, um uh, you know, is is is very helpful. Um but I I mean these water damage ones I I think are really important to highlight because they're the ones that are the biggest dollar amount. And what I what I would also um uh what I also kind of point out, what we've been doing with the United Pool Association is really trying to shift that paradigm, you know, you know, to where it it, you know, and I I I could think back five years ago the pushback that our pool techs would say, hey, look, we have to add the water. I mean, it's you know, they're not gonna add the water. And so, you know, it got going, well, you know, we had a we have a one of the uh gentlemen in in the UPA, you know, he said, Well, look, what do you think the you think the landscapers taking in the uh you know garbage? You think, you know, what you know, what what's what's all, you know, why this feeling of you have to do all this stuff? And just because it's tangently related, you know, you're only at that pool for 15, 20 minutes a week. Uh, you know, it's how much ownership of the water do you really want to take? And and over the years we've been able to shift that. We actually even gave guys flyers, you know, and basically saying, look, if you don't want to have a conversation with your homeowner, show them this. And we give them amount and just say, look, because of insurance reasons, we can't add the water. And it's so funny because you know, you know, 10 years ago, people looked at you side-eyed and go, what do you mean, insurance reasons? Nowadays, everybody's so used to insurance companies being terrible that they go, of course, of course, David, I understand those insurance companies. But getting away from the responsibility of adding the water, because once you set that precedent, it's on you, you know. Hey, David, you've been adding the water for the past five months, and you know, so yeah, why didn't you do it now? Why are you stopping now? That kind of thing. So we've I feel like successfully moved it. And I re I respect the fact it's difficult in different areas. I mean, obviously you get uh evaporation in potter areas. So, you know, if you look up in Bakersfield during the summer, it's you know, you can lose a lot of water very quickly, you know, uh to Texas, you know, various areas where you have that challenge. But but I think the uh the uh the point still remains. It's it's it's a liability that just from a business risk standpoint, insurance aside, just business risk, not not a good use of time, not a good use of you know liability. Um so uh yeah, the water damage ones, again, there's I think to break it down, two situations. One is adding water in the pool. Just if you can get out of it, don't do it. It's just it never ends well. I mean, maybe you get a high five, hey, thanks, David, for filling that pool, you know, occasionally, but nobody's uh, you know, you're not getting a huge benefit out of that, but you are, there's a significant downside. Now that the second piece of that is removing the water, and that can be a little more complicated. And that's where I think trying to get the belts and suspenders, so using a waiver, a drain waiver of some kind, you know, that educates the homeowner. Hey, what I don't know what your plumbing looks like. I don't know where you're, you know, am I am I able to drain to your your uh your sewer uh um I I you know they should be informing you of that. Now, look, I I know a lot of your guys are very educated, savvy in their loc locations, but we have a lot of guys that cross cities. So it's you know, you're you're keeping track of so much. Uh so it's just uh again an education. Nothing's foolproof. And I speak in California only because I'm here, but this is a you know, it it constantly falls into the top three most litigious hell holes. So it's uh we've got more lawyers than we have anybody else. Um, but it's uh um so you can always get sued for something going wrong. But as much as you can button that up, the better. So the drain waiver and just being aware, educating the homeowner, hey, there's a pump here. This is how you shut it off. I'm not gonna hang out of your pool for a day on this drains. So you gotta have somebody here, you know. And and part of what at least the waiver that our UPA folks, a lot of them use, has a whole harmless uh portion of that to where, hey, we're we're not responsible. Again, is it foolproof? No, but it does help significantly. Yeah. That was kind of the water damage theme.

SPEAKER_00: 13:52

I is that yeah, I think the water damage is key. Um, it's hard to tell again, guys, not to do this, and the key trick does have fail points like you mentioned. Um, I I think one thing that I found with a football that was a blue, water, both of the four. What if a four or the book?

SPEAKER_01: 15:07

Hundred percent, one hundred percent, yeah, whatever the one.

SPEAKER_00: 15:11

Yeah, so let's talk about the chemical spills, which I've unfortunately had the privilege of doing myself.

SPEAKER_01: 15:19

It's it's it you know, it it's uh purely I mean, obviously it's never intentional, it's purely just oversight, uh, but it just can be so catastrophic nowadays. And you know, and the and the reason I say that is just the amount of fancy stained concrete, uh, you know, just stamped concrete, uh, you know, you look at pavers that are out of circulation, so you can't get the same paver colors anymore. These claims never end well. And and and so and it's uh something as simple. I know not all of your listeners use the carts, you know, but you know, in Southern California, pretty much everybody has a cart in the back of their truck. They wheel that cart back into the uh pool area, and if it's not closed down right, that miriatic, you know, you get some little splotches, and all of a sudden their brand new fancy-looking deck has got these uh, you know, splotches on there, and there's no fix. I mean, it's you know, you could try to do whatever you can, but it never ends up the way it was before you did that little oopsies. And uh, and and of course, the uh um the the repairs in these situations are are can be you know awfully expensive. And I I'll share a story with the group. Uh we had one not too long ago, uh Southern California. They had a very impressive 50 to 75 foot driveway that was uh stained concrete. And our um our our tech had uh uh somebody covering his pool for him, and uh so he didn't really know the property that well, but he had uh taken his truck, drove it up the uh drove it up the driveway. Uh so he got up there and he opened the bed of his truck. And you can only imagine, and so that once the truck the bed truck opened, a uh a jug of of acid fell. And it just did what it did on a slope and it rolled all the way down that that uh nice driveway. So this uh this turned into a really tricky uh claim because insurance companies, and this is probably worth highlighting, you know, we're talking about a general liability policy for everybody that's listening. And so these policies are really geared to protect you for bodily injury and property damage you negatively cause to others. So it's uh, you know, so the the the agreement is really between you, the pool tech, and your insurance company. The claimant who you damage is going after you and hence going after your insurance company. So it's adversarial in nature. So they're they're going after your insurance policy. So it automatically, the posture is one of defense. It's one of, hey, the insurance company's looking at this. Were you really responsible for this? And if you were, how do we get out of this, you know, in the most reasonable way that is not, you know, gonna be the most expensive way? And that's usually the rub. Because people generally want their stuff to be exactly the way it was before you, you know, caused the problem. And it generally never happens that way. And that's because, as everybody knows, concrete, you can't, you know, there's no time machine. You can't go back and and and make it the way it was unless you completely redo it. And so what uh what ultimately happened on this driveway was$90,000, which I I I was blown away. I, you know, I I remember uh when the claim adjuster was calling me freaking out saying, I thought this was a driveway. And I said, it was, it was just a very nice driveway. And and so we ended up we ended up having to uh to pay this, but it it highlighted some really good practices. And actually it was it was really um, I felt bad for our our tech because he said, Look, it's a my guys know, like they do not drive on the driveway. It's and and this is, I mean, just and he made it for obvious reasons. Look, it's you know, we're obviously concerned about acid or you know, chemical spills, but I just I don't want oil. I don't want, I don't want anything, I don't want any sort of problem where our guy bumps their dry, you know, their garage door. And so it was just one of these things that, yeah, had had the guy, and I get it, it's a 50, 75-foot hike. Nobody wants to do that either, uphill. But uh, but you know, when you go up and you make you take this uh risk on, that's that's what can happen. So so that one, I I highlight that one just because it was a big one. And it and it and it was contentious. You know, the homeowner wasn't happy because you know the initial uh offers were not you know satisfactory. And this is also worth highlighting, David. The insurance companies, they don't go out and fix this stuff, right? So so what happens at the end of these claims is if you're found liable and the damages are established, the insurance company writes a check. They send a check to the homeowner. And, you know, and for a lot of us, you know, it's you know, hey, great, I got a you know,$90,000 check. What do I do with, you know, who am I calling to get my drop? You know, you know, so it creates this other administrative headache for the claimant, you know. So, and this is it probably adds to that what I mentioned earlier and what you were highlighting in your earlier episode, that these tend to often end up in the tech getting fired. And it's just because of the headaches, and it's nothing to do with the tech beyond just causing the incident, but it's uh um, you know, the the insurance process is not a fun process. And uh, you know, my job, I try to help usher our our tech through that process, because I I know you highlighted it too, but communication is so so important, you know, trying to keep that communication line open. Um, you know, and so we try to do our best in that. Um so the concrete, the other ones are a little less, you know, I think uh alarming, but there are more common, and those are the ones that are by the deck. And you're you know, and I I know you've talked about this in the past, but these are these are the ones where you're opening the jug, and you know, you're not over the water, you you know, you get a little splatter on the deck, and we end up with probably one or two of those, you know, every year. It's um we try to get our guys to not move as quick, but everybody's everybody's moving quickly. And so it's uh it's a challenge. And you know, and I think it goes back to what we were talking about earlier on the risk management side, right? If you go in and the guy's deck looks absolutely horrendous, you're probably just gonna go, hey, I'm not gonna be overly concerned. I'll I'll move at my quick rate, you know. But if you go in there and you can eat off that deck and it's you know brand new, that's where your kind of spiny senses should be going up and going, all right, let's let's be extra cautious here.

SPEAKER_00: 21:52

I had uh uh one of my pool guys in my group, he um he took over this new pool, brand new pool built beautiful stone concrete. And the co-owner left those little blue booties uh the entrance of the of the pool and was like, Can you wear these every time you towards the pool? Well, that for him was like, Okay, I'm moving everything in my truck. I'm gonna like pull things piecemeal over, nothing's gonna go on this deck. So that was a good giveaway that yes, you don't want to spill nothing on this customer's deck.

SPEAKER_01: 22:25

No, no, absolutely, absolutely. And I so I mean that that's on the on the concrete side. You mentioned the uh uh I I think you mentioned the the water chemistry is is as well. That was the third issue we see very commonly. And this one is tougher, as as your listeners know better than I do, honestly. Um it's you know, and I I'll pull the start I'll put the startups aside, but you know, really just the servicing of the pools, you know, when when you're in there, it's um I mean, plaster, I'll speak of plaster, you know, it I mean it's it it you know, for lack of a better way of putting it, it's uh effectively alive, you know. So you have this sort of constantly changing uh uh surface that is constantly exposed to a changing environment. And, you know, and obviously the job of the pool tech is to make sure that environment is as stable as possible. Uh and and most R guys, I can say, do this very well. I mean, we do a very big amount of education. I say this the United Pool Association, you know, does a very large amount of education to its members as far as, hey, how to manage the LSI, how to how to kind of make sure things are uh um the way they should be, in a way that's not gonna cripple your business spending three hours at a pool every you know, stop. So it's it's how to do it correctly but efficiently. And you know, where we tend to go wrong is you know, is is that uh uh some of these older pools, they get etched, they get scaled. And a lot of times it is. It's just fault of uh, you know, the you know, the pool tech just overlooked, didn't, you know, maybe got sloppy, uh, maybe was just too much tabs, not enough uh, you know, uh uh actually paying attention to where the chemistry actually was. Um, but there's a lot of situations where our guys are going, look, I I test it every week, you know, and and so the next question is always, well, hey, what do those records look like? Do you have anything you can show me that you've actually been doing this? It's like, no, Sean, I don't. But I I mean, I look, I can tell you, I remember it being, you know, the pH was at, you know, 6'4. It was, you know, I have calcium heart, all this stuff, you know, but you don't remember, you know, it's all in his memory. He doesn't really remember, and of course, can you imagine you're handling 75 pools? How you how are you really remembering this? Um, so just the logs. And so we try to emphasize to these guys, you know, hey, like keep the records. I know you mentioned skimmer, it's a great product, you know. Just if there's, you know, and and and what a great way to show, you know, your value that you're doing to these homeowners, you know, when you have an app like that to, you know, push notifications, uh, but at a minimum, just keep the logs of what you're doing. And so we end up in these situations. We had one not too long ago where it was exactly this. It was uh uh adamant that the uh um you know that he was managing the water chemistry appropriately. And the crazy thing is the cost of now actually having to re-plaster a pool. And you know, and that's the way these tend to go is you know, when you overly etch the pool, it's it's no longer uh uh you know, sand it down, you know, we can try an acid wash, we can try and do whatever we can to remedy this little portion. It's it's now turned into situations where we you you're basically re-plastering the pool. And this used to be an$8,000 claim. Nowadays, you know,$25,000 gallon pool, I mean, it's it's it's$25,000, you know, to to get this done. I mean, it's uh it's astronomical. That's probably why we see a lot more uh of techs trying to get into the building side of things, just because of the just the crazy inflation on on getting a pool built. But uh these claims have become very expensive. And again, these claims ultimately end up in the firing of the pool tech because it's now you're talking about you know the pool getting redone. And you know, God forbid the timing is gonna overlap into summer, you know, the the homeowners out of their pool for you know the all the time they're gonna want to be using their pool, they get it redone. Uh, but we have yeah, so just recently this one was about 25 grand. Um, and of course it did end that way where he uh he ended up getting getting let go. But also I would add to this that the the the the equipment, right? The water chemistry obviously impacts the equipment as well. And so we oftentimes will see with the heaters, you know, the heat exchanger failures, and it's the same conversation, you know, where hey, where are you where are you managing this right? And I and most of the time it's a smoking gun. You know, you got holes in that exchanger, it's uh leaking, and you know, it's uh it's hard to hard to argue. And it and it and and what tends to happen, the the flow is if if it's a relatively new exchanger, you know, they typically have a warranty, right? So they're they you know they get a uh so whoever it is, you know, Pentair gets a warranty rep out there, and one of the first things that warranty guy's doing, wild guess.

SPEAKER_00: 27:12

Check the chemistry.

SPEAKER_01: 27:15

So so what if you were uh you were there, you know, last uh, you know, uh, you know, last Thursday. It's been six days since you were at that pool and he goes out and tests that. Whoops, you know, you can only imagine what that water chemistry is going to look like, you know. So there goes that warranty. Um it so it it's it it ends up landing on the pool tech, you know, the majority of the time. Uh, but it's a tough job. I mean, again, I think this is one of the hardest uh of the trades, you know, having to manage all this. And the water chemistry is definitely one of those things that uh it's it's difficult to uh do it consistently, but it's the job, you know. So it's uh it you know needs to be done.

SPEAKER_00: 27:54

So I was again I'm gonna say this like in a perfect world, and this is like a lot of circular logic, no cool text would fill the customer's pool, no one would fill out on the deck, or no one would have a balance pool. Well, of course that doesn't happen because we call it as well, or called too. But rates are called the claim. If more people have claims, when you pay insurance, the rates are gonna go up. Is that a correct kind of way things work in the insurance business?

SPEAKER_01: 28:44

It's a correct statement, and we've seen this with uh some of our you know counterparts out there. You know, one of the things I will say the United Pool Association has historically done a very good job of is really being selective who they let in. And part of the uh, you know, and I I've, you know, you've met Steve Homer. Uh, you know, his uh uh you know getting a relationship going with you is such a good synergy because you know that it's it's the 80-20 rule. You know, there's there's a lot of bad pool techs out there, but there's a lot there's there's a lot of good ones. And we've just done a good job of finding the ones that are the good ones. And you know, so we we do screen, I think, you know, you the folks that listen to you, it's they take their they take their business seriously. I, you know, and that's that's what we're looking for. And it provides the consistency, and that's the big thing, is you know, being able to predict what your costs are gonna be. And that that is probably one of the biggest challenges in the insurance industry is what things are gonna look like next year. And so what we've done is try to minimize that risk as much as possible by getting the right people in the program that are gonna look at it to as something to preserve. You know, we we have had our rates flat for five years. I mean, that's that's not even, I mean, I mean, my coffee is like, you know, twice the price as it used to be five years ago. So it's uh it's uh uh you know, it it it's it's it's not and trust me, I'd love to pat myself on the back, but it's not that. It's it's the guys we have, you know, that take their their jobs very seriously. They take what they do seriously, they want to help their customers the best they can, and they, you know, and they have the highest retention, I'm sure, as far as their pools. Um so your statement's correct. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 30:28

So there's two different ways you can get the insurance view people. You can join a chapter on meeting uh on the ground coverage and coverage of benefit there. But we also open it up to our listeners by having just the an online kind of service where they have to, but they're not part of a local you know, boots on the ground chapter. Is that a correct uh way of explaining?

SPEAKER_01: 30:56

It's a correct, yeah, absolutely correct. Um, you know, and I you know, we caught you know, you know, uh keeping time in consideration, you know, what I would share is that you know, there's two tracks it's the chapter track. And it's you know what we call a virtual chapter where your folks are. But I would go out there that if any of your listeners, you know, are in an area and hey, they've got you know, five guys that hey, we're you know, we're all we all meet at the supply houses all the time already, you know, definitely reach out. I mean, it you know can definitely start a chapter. You know this as well as your listeners. I mean, this is an aging demographic. We, you know, the average age of the pull tech, I mean, is somewhere in the mid-40s, you know, and and and it's it's you know, trying to get these younger guys in there, you know, the you know, 20s and 30s, you know, it's it's um uh it's such a benefit to get them around the guys who've been doing this for 25 years. And I I will tell you, David, I never have I seen people more generous with their time than I have with these folks at the UPA. So it's uh, you know, the the young guys have just gained so much experience. And like you said earlier, it's best to uh learn from other people's mistakes. And uh and that's what these guys do is they try to pass that stuff on. But yeah, two tracks. It's uh chapter format or uh joining virtually, which um, you know, which uh I know there's a link, I think, on your your uh your podcast to get that process started.

SPEAKER_00: 32:19

And I always tell people, you know, not having insurance for your pool rider is like driving around with no car insurance, basically. And yeah, I was in an incident where I was backing out in a parking lot, and this guy was a scammer because he was backing out, he saw me backing out, so he backed his car into mine. It was late at night, and I knew exactly what happened because I where I stopped was not far enough back to hit him because it was parked, so he pulled back in. Um, so my insurance company uh farmers insurance my own super experienced was like this happens all the time. You can be out of red light, look at back into record all the time where people took advantage of you. Don't worry, we'll fight this. You know, rest assured that this guy's not gonna get this claim any money from you at all. And sure enough, three or four months later, it was settled as a no-fall accident. Um, the guy didn't get anything, I didn't have to do anything, and so it worked out perfectly. But without that insurance, well, your pool route, if you were to spill asset on a driveway and it's$90,000, you're pretty much out of luck at that point.

SPEAKER_01: 33:27

You you are you are out of luck, you're likely closing up shop. And I what what I would say is, you know, if you think about all your expenses, you know, this is you know, 64 bucks a month. Uh this is, you know, I mean, people spend more now, I hate to say it, a jack in a box. You know, it's it's I mean it it's it's a level of protection that if you take your business seriously, and again, I part of UPA, you know, I I I UPA is great, but even if it's not UPA, just do your business, do yourself, do your family a favor. Get the protection you need. Because, you know, it's I mean, your livelihoods depend on your business. And it's uh, and yeah, you end up, I mean, again, the acid things are one thing, but I mean, God forbid, you leave the gate open. You, you know, you can't. I mean, again, not to you know turn this morbid, but you know, sadly, there are there are fatality claims. There are claims that are not fatalities, but you know, people who leave being uh permanently disabled, you know, because of the risks having to do with the you know body of water. And so it's it's serious consequences to uh you know to accidents. And insurance is almost like uh you just have to do it. If you ever run out of contact, look, insurance tends to put people to sleep, but I'm happy to come back on every need it.

SPEAKER_00: 34:49

Yeah, sounds great. Thanks, Sean. And if you're looking to sign up for insurance, again, you go to my website, swingingforlearning.com. Um in the web page itself on the homepage, just scroll down, click on the UPA banner there, and that'll take you to the spreadsheet to sign up for the insurance. Um, you'll be notified within a few days to a week if you have it accepted. You can also find other podcasts on my website. Just click on the podcast icon. You can actually find part one to this where John talks about some horror stories and insurance claims that he's repeated. Or if you're looking for the podcast, of course, over 1800 podcasts are free to listen to. If you're following the coaching program, If you can learn more at blue guycoaching.com, please listen to this podcast for week. God bless.