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The Independent Adjuster Podcast (IA Path)
Ready to stop gambling with your career and start winning?
The Independent Adjuster Podcast is where Pathfinders like you find clarity, take action, and escape the traditional grind of the adjuster industry.
Host Chris Stanley redefines success with the EXP Free Path, teaching you how to think differently, act boldly, and claim your future without waiting for luck or experience. It’s time to build a career that works for you, one episode at a time.
The Independent Adjuster Podcast (IA Path)
How to Break Down the Door to the IA Industry (Even if You Are in a Competitive Market)
Imagine going from handling just 18 claims in your first month to a whopping 140 claims by the third. That's not just luck; it's the result of targeted training, relentless follow-up, and leveraging every opportunity to build credibility. Travis opens up about the practical steps post-IA PATH certification, the misconceptions about the adjuster lifestyle, and the sheer determination required to break in and thrive in this tough industry. His experiences underscore the powerful blend of persistence, industry knowledge, and quality work that turns a newcomer into a seasoned professional.
Ever wondered how to maintain sanity amid a hectic schedule and avoid burnout? Travis discusses the importance of knowing your limits, maintaining transparency, and the critical role confidence plays in the claims industry. From juggling extensive travel to focusing on profitable tasks, his insights offer a roadmap for anyone looking to make it big in the insurance world. Whether you're fresh out of school or a veteran in the field, Travis's journey is packed with invaluable lessons on balancing work, leveraging opportunities, and achieving sustained success.
There we go, we can have it as an interview. So basically this is going to air, depending on how well it goes. No pressure Travis as a podcast and content for future IAs to basically get some ideas about networking and the backstory behind Travis. I'll let him give us a real backstory, but the Travis that I see in passing as he goes through IA path is there's a guy in Dallas and and I basically go oh no, there's somebody in dallas. They're not going to get any work. Uh, we're going to have to bust our butt trying to help this guy figure out how to get work.
Speaker 1:Because if you guys don't know when we talk to people on the phone and many of you guys we've talked with on the phone our team has instructed myself, my sister Teresa whoever you talk with, make sure everybody knows. In Texas, florida and anywhere in between, including Georgia, it is competitive in markets, more so than if you're in South Dakota, and so we want to make sure people have that right expectation that work can be hard to get in these states. But so I watched Travis go through the program. Brad's like man, he's doing great, he graduated and then 30 days later he posts an update and the update was super impressive, not because he made $6,000 or anything. Like a James Mathis or somebody like that you know would come back like, hey, I just made all this money, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:He came back and he posted a very thorough analysis of the work he had done to get his first amount of claims and so, based on that, I was like I've got to interview travis, find out what he did, why he did it, get some more of his backstory for people so people can hear that sometimes it's just beating the streets. So, travis, welcome man. Thanks for coming on tonight. You're an inspiration to me. I feel like I need to be doing more sales calls now at IAPath because of how much contact you do with the IAP firms. But thanks for coming on tonight, man.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me Always a pleasure to do anything that I can to help out. Now go ahead. You want me to go with the backstory, or you want to ask questions, or what?
Speaker 1:uh, well, I'm gonna. I got a few loose questions just to kind of direct the conversation a little bit, um, but I really want to focus in on. You've been at this basically 90 days, from my understanding, um, and you started doing pretty good and we'll kind of get to a little bit of that, whatever you're comfortable sharing. But like, yeah, what is your backstory before you became an IA? What was it that you were doing? What, where? Where was your career headed?
Speaker 2:Um, my, I was an insurance agent for a decent chunk of time. My wife and I both were out and out in out of West Texas and then we had some family changes, some medical stuff within the family changed, so it became very clear to us that we needed to kind of migrate back toward the DFW area. So we sold, we sold the agency, got out of there and, uh, came back to Dallas and then, you know, took a little bit of time, just like getting our bearings and started being like, okay, what do we, what do we want to do? And at the time the uh, the agency world had been very good to us. But we got a little, a little tired of the like. We liked insurance because it's like, okay, you get to help people right and you do, you know, if you deliver, like a life insurance check, like that's a big thing, that helps people, that's a great thing. But also like it felt like in order for us to help people, we were just trying to make sales man and so it's like okay, like is this?
Speaker 2:am I really helping you or am I helping myself? And do I really care which one it is? And that that conundrum kept being like a question. And then, whenever the whenever we had a conference with our, with our captive company, where they told us you need to stop worrying about your renewal rate, that's not important. We were like oh, wait hold on.
Speaker 2:That means we need to look for a different business. So we got out of there and then we tried to look for what was next and took us a couple of months figuring out what we wanted to do. And then we decided property adjusting. My wife had a couple of friends that were property adjusters and they told us, you know, like everyone knows right, they were like, yeah, you don't want to do auto, you can't make any money in auto. And I was like, maybe, but also like, as of right now, I'd like to get my foot in the door, knowing the process, when it's not like me having to like deal with someone's like $700,000 home.
Speaker 2:Um, so went to the adjuster TV through that, found things with you and Matt Allen found you. Uh, to adjuster tv through that, found things with you and matt allen found you. Uh, I emailed you. You responded in like 17 minutes, which was crazy, uh, especially because, like now, now it makes sense because, like, I was up at like 3 am, I sent an email and then, of course, you were like waking up right at that time you sent an email back and I was like, wait, this guy responded at like 3, 54 am. Okay, okay, this is interesting. So, yeah, I took the plunge pretty soon after that, you know. So I started.
Speaker 1:So you guys were pretty successful on the agent side with your agency. It was just really exhausting as far as it's a constant make a sale, make a sale and you're not getting to kind of see the we're taking care of our customers Like I can imagine. Don't worry about renewal rates. Like for us, one of our key measurements is does our graduates renew on their second year? Yeah, if our graduates are not renewing on our second year to stay in our community, we feel like we have not delivered enough value to to, you know, to keep them. We're like man, I wonder what we didn't do good enough, you know. I wonder do they not get enough work? Or did they just not need this anymore? What is it? And it's like, but it's a measurement because it shows that like, hey, it's like getting more claims from the same IA firm, hey, I must be doing a good job. So, yeah, I can see how that would definitely kind of bog you down. So you wanted to be an IA, basically because you had friends and that was yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm like we, we bought it. I mean like, literally, I've watched every podcast, every YouTube clip I can find on this and there's like a deal with you on the adjuster or adjuster talk podcast. It was like what did you think this was going to be? And everyone's answer is the same, Like I'm going to work for six months and then take six months off and travel. And like literally, hey, this guy thought that same thing. Um, not how it really is, but like that sounded great. Right, Like the dream sounds great, for sure.
Speaker 2:Um, but, we took that Um and then we we decided to go the auto route just because, like I was like hey, listen, you know he makes a good point. Cars run into each other, so you've got a baseline there of like getting to where you want to go.
Speaker 1:So took that plunge at the end of last year and then got got, uh, got going All right. So we've gotten to where you joined IAPATH. You were an insurance agent, cool. You want to do something different. Somehow you bypass property, you end up with us. But and you and you go through the program. By my standards, looking at everything, you did really well, you went through pretty good clip. Some people struggle, you know, at first to really kind of figure out the whole technology. You obviously have had to run your own business before, so a lot of this wasn't novel or new to you. So it was. It was probably more familiar to you. But tell me really what I'm interested in for everybody else here is you graduate. I path has this big, fat promise that we're going to help you get work. And then you're in dallas and it's just like okay, we introduce you to everybody, here's Travis. And then what happened at that point? Well, we introduced everybody to you.
Speaker 2:So I finished at the end of January. Y'all were doing NACA so I didn't get my certificate until February the 5th. So I got it February the 5th and I had already reached out. I think the SCA is in the course. It says reach out before you graduate and tell them they had said no thanks, like we're good.
Speaker 2:So I got my thing on the 5th and I called a couple of people and basically the advice I got was if you were anywhere else, stick with two to three firms, but where you're at, talk to everybody. Anyone you can find who looks like they might have a need for an adjuster and appraiser. Talk to them. So I just made an email template right and put all my stuff in there, put my relevant work experience you know, and then put the like hey, listen, I'm new, but like I learned fast and I'm ready to go wherever you need me. And I put that out to everybody on the 40. Well, I mean not everybody, because there's some people on that 43 thing that are 43 firm listed like don't operate in Texas, but like everyone who was in my area or nationwide, I reached out to got one right away. Like literally the next day was like, yeah, we want to put you on Fun fact they have never, ever, sent me anything.
Speaker 2:They got me on right away, but I've never gotten anything from them. But over the next week I got a ton of denial, a ton of like we have 12 people in your area, we have 18 people in your area, we have 18 people in your area, we have 30 people in your area. And so it was like, okay, what do I do here? So I just kept at it and eventually somebody responded with a phone number. Like somebody had their phone number on their email tag and that is a mistake to do to me, because I will call you and I will call you repeatedly and I think that's why a lot of people don't put it in there. But like I called and once I get you on the phone, I've got hundreds of thousands of cold call, sales calls in my life. So, like, once you're there, I can pretty much steamroll you for as long as necessary, uh, to keep you on the phone and be like hey, listen, like what, what's the worst that could happen if you put me onto the list? Like you don't have to use me, but like I could just be there, you know. And like Eric has talked to me about that, like hey, use this. And I was like hey, agreed, if I can get on the phone with someone, I'm good.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I did that and I then went from the 43 firm list to the 121. Is that what it is? 123. It's one, two, three, uh, the 123 firm list, and I contacted all the way down that list for anything that looked like it would be relevant. Like there's one on there that's like boat something, I think, and I was like I don't know, I'm going to skip the boat one, um. But I got a lot of them that were like we don't do auto, uh, okay, cool, but hey, I'm gonna get into property someday. I'll keep your information like awesome, um. But like I just went down and I contacted a ton so give me some stats yeah, give me some stats.
Speaker 1:How many firms did you contact in your first 30 days?
Speaker 2:I. I forget the number. I think'd know it was like 90. It was like 90. I want to say 91, something like that. I got a response from like roughly 50. And then I got onboarded. I believe it was 11 or 12.
Speaker 2:And then like two or three firms sent me a claim. I think it might've been just two, might've been three, I haven't looked at it in a while, but that was a big deal. That was really a big deal. Just reaching out but effectively them telling me no is like that's fine, but I can keep contacting you. Because I got some advice that was like hey, don't overdo it, don't contact them too often because they'll get annoyed with you. And so I reached out again to a couple more firms and one of them just straight up said like please don't contact us, we'll let you know if we have anything. And I was like, all right, well, I'm just going to keep going, like I'm going to knock the door down. So I kept emailing every Monday, just firing off emails. Firing off emails, I got another person that the original person who responded to me was not the person who responded to my second email and they had their phone number in the email signature.
Speaker 2:And so I was like well, all right let's call Um and got on with them, um, and then, like I got on with several firms uh, contingently, um. A lot of them said, listen, we'll use you for cat. That also that that is a pointer. If they tell you they'll use you for cat, two of the firms that send me the most work now put me on strictly for cat and we're like we don't need you for daily work. In that area we have plenty of people doing dailies within like 48 hours and I turned it around pretty quick and pretty good and like now they send me dailies very regularly. So like that's, that helped me a lot. That was a great networking thing, that thing in Missouri was a great networking thing.
Speaker 1:Do you remember how many claims you've got your first 30 days Cause it all sounds like, oh my gosh, that's so much work, but maybe it was worth it. Maybe you saw a huge return. But what? What was the first 30 days for you?
Speaker 2:I was actually wrong. Um my first 30 days, I said it was 15. I recounted last night when I was just grabbing some numbers for this it was not 15. It was 18. Um, so it was 18, 18, uh, 18 claims in my first 30 days 18 claims, and so not everyone would see that as a smashing success.
Speaker 1:After all that work, what you came back to the community and posted which is what got my attention was like oh my gosh, I'm profitable my first month and I'm like nobody. Or very few recent graduates come back and they're like I made a profit, even if it's only 200 bucks, I'm thrilled in their first month, and so I was like this guy's looking at this different and so moving forward. After that first 30 days, I assume you kept having continued success.
Speaker 2:Yes, I kept emailing. I've kind of frozen the emails now because I'm at about I would say I'm probably at about 80 to 85% capacity of what I can actually handle and so I don't want to keep adding because now I'm at the point where, like it really could, especially with the weather we've had the last few days If I add another firm and they're just like hey, here's this.
Speaker 2:I could be like, oh, I got a problem here, but month two, so 18 claims in month one. Month two, I believe, was 92 claims and then this most recent month, we did 140.
Speaker 1:Now, that's starting a business, but you had a lot of business experience coming into this about what it takes to hold calling as you call it. No fun. By the way, if anybody who hasn't done it, that that's insane. It is not fun. A lot of rejection, a lot of heartache. I do some for iPad. It's not fun. I don't like it. I'd much rather talk to somebody who's reached out to me. Hey, like travis. Hey, let's talk you know, it's so much easier.
Speaker 1:Um, so that's crazy. Uh, now, with what you've went through, and I asked this openly and I and I really want, I really want the raw, honest opinion. Um, for those who are hearing this going, oh my, he like cranked to get that. Do you feel like what we did at I-Path helped you in that process, or do you feel like, regardless of us, you were going to get that result?
Speaker 2:The actual like. Well, first of all, I wouldn't have had the contacts, right, no-transcript digging and all that, yeah, sure, but like, like, if you're telling me I was able to come out and be like, hey, I've had some training, now just give me a list, let me go Would I have been able to knock the door down? Yes, but like, having the training that you guys offer and also the contacts that you guys offer with a, it's like a warm lead, right, you tell them we're going to turn these people over. Expect their call. What you do with it after that is really your call, because you're your own business as a firm and also it's up to them to ingratiate themselves to you through the way they contact you, through the way they follow up and through how they do their work. And so that's, that's.
Speaker 2:My whole thing is, I knew it's like, because the reason I was okay with this is everyone told me your problem is going to be getting enough people to give you the volume, and I was like, if that's my problem and I'm going to keep this as PG as possible, that's my problem and I'm going to keep this as PG as possible, that's my problem. I do not have a problem because I'm very I'm very confident in my ability to run into the wall over and over and over and over and over again. It's like, oh hey, we broke the wall down, all right, we're good Now. Do I have you know? Would I have had those contacts? No, and so I would have been emailing people who might not have been able to make decisions. Those contacts, no, and so I would have been emailing people who might not have been able to make decisions. They would have just been like hey, some random guy got on here and emailed us, do we want to do anything about it? No, all right, cool. So that helped a lot.
Speaker 2:But the big part that IA Path helped with is like, once I got the opportunity because of the warm lead with the firms, I knew how to not royally mess up the opportunity, like as someone who's done a couple of desk writes. Obviously you get some of these are like five photos. None of them are even able to like be made out what's happening. I didn't do that Right. I turned in like things where it's like hey, listen, here's my best effort. It's like at least 70% good. So here's this. So that helped immensely Awesome.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So here's this. So that helped immensely, awesome, awesome. So do you have any tips? I mean, most of us are not born cold calling phenoms. Let's just call you that. If someone here is like wow, I've never been a salesperson, I've never had to make calls to people who haven't done that. You've been through sales training we talked about that, I think in Missouri. You were like you've gone out to an insurance carrier's sales training and stuff like that. So what are some kind of things that you've learned about sales? If you're going to call somebody that someone who hasn't been through that training can take and apply in their own outreach efforts to these warm leads or to cold leads, if they use our cold lead list.
Speaker 2:It's a little different because I'm not trying to sell them anything. They already have a need and I know they have a need. They may not think they need an extra person, but at the end of the day, we all know how this industry works and that there's a ton of turnover and people can leave. You may have 15 people in my area and often may get shelled, and if that happens, you now have two people in my area and you have the same amount of claim load as you did yesterday and you don't have anybody else, and so it's good to have backups if you don't even need them. So I know they have that need, but also it's kind of flipped on its head, whereas like and you know again, this I did not come up with, eric brought this up to me and Eric's been a huge help. But he was like, listen, like you have the easier job now because you don't have to overcome objections. Like you give them the objections to overcome, and I was like, oh, that's, that's smart.
Speaker 2:So I've just turned it that way and, like most people, if they haven't had enough training, don't have any idea how to overcome an objection. So you just ask them, like what's the harm in adding one more to your list. Like you, I'm not on salary, I'm not hitting your bottom line unless I complete work for you. So like what, what's the harm in doing it? And like, if their answer is like I don't want to hit, send on this email, that already has the packets pre-filled in there and you just fill out the data. Like I mean, that's pretty easy. So you just ask that, ask for that, and someone will say no. But also in this industry another thing that's helpful is like if one person at a firm says no, they may not be there that long and so they may be in a different firm pretty soon and then you have another person you can go to and that that has helped me with with a couple firms also.
Speaker 1:But that's not giving up like, just keep keep sending stuff out, constantly sending stuff out, constantly sending stuff out don't take no for an answer because you know one thing like in whether it's me with iapath, you know we get new people at our email list and our call list every day. Or or at an insurance agency where you're buying lists of people, there's a lot of people you can contact. Our industry is only 100 ish firms maybe. Yeah, that you really are relevant to daily auto claims. So I mean you have to make a handful of those turn into your customers. You have to like that's the game. And once you understand that, like this is the game, yeah, I know what I'm doing, but now the game is getting that work from three to five of these people. It kind of takes away to me the overwhelming one sense, but then it can build the overwhelm for people in another sense who are like, don't consider themselves salespeople or, you know, networkers, um, but I think that's why it's so big in the ia path that we're like you know, know, step one is getting your license and then step seven is onboarding with firms, because if you don't get enough firms to say yes, you're not going to be successful. Um, so, yeah, totally Um.
Speaker 1:So I I see Olin ask a question here Don't take no for an answer. What are top five responses that are your go-tos? Well, I, we heard what's the harm. What's the harm? I'm not adding your bottom line. What's the next one?
Speaker 2:Okay. So basically, if you want me to shoot through a top five I've never gotten to five, if I'm being honest with you but like, hey, listen, I understand. I mean, depending on your market, they may have one or two people. If they have one or two people, like I, if they're giving you an objection, I don't understand why, like, you need more than two people. Um, like one person could break their arm and be like, oh, I can't do that, um, but in my market I was getting a lot of. We have 12, we have 15. Um, and so I always go with.
Speaker 2:What's the harm in having one more? I'm not on salary, I don't cost you a dime unless you send me work and you like what I do. Two is, I understand that you have that many people right here, um, but also are how many people do you have that are willing to go and then reinforce your map that you sent them? I sent him a map that went from almost Austin to Oklahoma city and from, uh, the Louisiana Arklatex border, all the way out to like all Midland-Odessa. So I'm like I will cover all of this. Like, if you send me 10 claims anywhere in here, I got you, like, I'm good and I don't think people believe that. First of all, like when you tell them that they're like, yeah, you say you will, but will you actually do it? And it's like okay, well, give me a shot.
Speaker 2:Number three is just be like okay, hey, I understand, but I'm going to follow up with you next week and see if you change your mind. I will say that in my email. That is a big thing. If you tell them that you're going to be persistent with them, my mentor would call it professionally annoying. I will continually reference what Eric has told me because he's been a huge help, but I also tried to seek out everyone who had more knowledge than me. Another thing that really helped is I was like hey, I completely understand that I'll touch base with you on Monday when I just reach out to every firm that I contact, and basically that came from Chad Burnett in Missouri. He was like every Monday, send out an email, make you very personalized, put in there like like, have a great Monday, make sure that they know that you wrote it yourself and you personalize it to them, and that will ingratiate yourself to the claim person there and it does, it works.
Speaker 2:Number five would just be like I completely understand that you don't need me right now, but I understand also that this industry is always changing and I will handle whatever claims you need. If you get into a pitch and then just leave it like that and let them know you're going to follow up, which kind of is a hybrid of number one and three, but I would tell them that and then, beyond that, like so that's basically four. I don't really have a fifth because, honestly, like at that level, like if they're just going to keep telling you know it's like okay, well, I'll just check back with you, I'll just check back with you, I'll just check back with you and like so far there's like there are very large firms that I'm not on with, because I've got one of them, I've got 21 emails to, and like they've just stopped responding and like that's fine, I understand, but like I'll just keep trying. Eventually somebody will, somebody will reach out, because people will get annoyed by me just continually bug them, but just don't take no for an answer.
Speaker 2:The number one thing is what's the harm? The number two thing is that's fine, I'll follow up with you next week. Number three is like will they go where I will go, because a lot of people will not go certain places. I get a lot of claims in my area that people have turned down because they don't want to go to certain areas, like I don't care, man, I'll go wherever. So doing that and then following up and saying doing what you say you're going to do, that's the thing. You can't tell them. You're going to email them next week and then not email them next week.
Speaker 1:Because that puts their nail in the coffin that you are not reliable. So make sure you follow up. Make sure you follow up.
Speaker 2:And so a lot of emails is huge.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes. And so one last one it's just a spin of what you just said is if you're really hitting roadblocks, like you know, I was talking to Mr Stevenson the other day. You're hitting roadblocks and I was like, well, are you willing to do this or this or this? And, like you know, it gave me a few things he's willing to do and I was like, well, shoot, you need to tell the firms that, like, if you're willing to travel for cat, or like you were saying willing to go where I'm willing to go, a spin of that is you keep hitting a roadblock is just to say, well, do you need help anywhere else? I'm willing to drive and do buckets of claims for you or bulk claims for you anywhere you have need, within a reasonable air. You know distance. I'll go get a hotel on my own dime, all that fun stuff. And to me, if I was getting back in this industry, I passed folds. Tomorrow, what I'm going to is that model of where do you need me? I'll go for the next two weeks and I'm going to go do my own little mini storms like that. Like that's what I would do because I feel that such a need, and it changes all the time. So there's always a reason to follow up with every firm. So that's just a fifth one that we could have is hey, can I go to another state for you or a cat or whatever? All right, so cool.
Speaker 1:We got a few questions here. I think we got a lot of good stuff there, super helpful. A lot of it piggybacks. But yours is like to the hilt better just implemented so recently and so good as what we walk people through in the networking adjusters playbook, as what we walk people through in the networking adjusters playbook, which is what we found that my coauthor did is he just emailed all the time.
Speaker 1:Every two weeks he emailed. He had a template. He followed up with personal emails. He would hook them, he'd bait them and he would just lure them into a conversation. And then he just like you, I got your number, it's over, and that was kind of his model is just really get a conversation. And then he just like you, I got your number, it's over, you know, and that was kind of his model. Um is just really get a conversation going, and if you can get a conversation going with someone, you become a person, not a number, um, right, so I think that's a big, big part of this. All right, so I harina's got her hand up, so feel free to go ahead and unmute yourself. Ask your question.
Speaker 7:Hey, travis, I wanted to know, on the 140 claims that you did in the 30 days, are you splitting that with your wife, like, are you guys doing a team, a duo, or you're doing 140 yourself?
Speaker 2:I ran them all myself.
Speaker 7:Wow, okay, and so are you doing that like over five days, seven days, are you just like whenever?
Speaker 2:No, I've worked. I pretty much work 24-7.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when you first start, especially if you're in hail season in a hail prone area, you're going to just bust it while it's there because you've got to make that impact there. And, by the way, james or Big Jim as he says tell Travis Big Jim says there's baseball-size hail in Dallas area right now. Sirens going off in Hearst.
Speaker 2:There absolutely is. I've been caught in two hail storms while inspecting the hail claims last week, so yeah, Crazy.
Speaker 1:So I don't think it's about to calm down anymore for you. Do you have anything else you want to pass on to anybody, kind of about what you've been going through?
Speaker 2:before we wrap up the interview portion of this yeah, like just as far as like success for me a big part of it is like how do I say this? Like, listen, like can I just kind of riff on this a little bit for a second?
Speaker 1:Please, please, do. It's where the gold comes from.
Speaker 2:So, like, essentially right, like, like ipath is a great resource, right? Um, they're. They're going to give you a ton of information that's going to basically put you above the average in your world, right? So, like, I write a better than average estimate, I write a. I do a better than average scope. I write better than average scope notes. I write a better than average appraisal report. Do I do any of those to the highest level? Probably not.
Speaker 2:I've been doing this for 94 days. So, like, you got to know your limitations. I personally and I know that when I talk with Chris about this he's like you don't have to tell them all that. But I'll be very honest with firms. I'll be like hey, listen, here's what I can guarantee you. My communication with you and the insureds or I call them insureds because I come from the agency world the vehicle owners will be very, very good. I will have a great rapport. I will have a great interaction with your vehicle owners. I will keep you up to date on everything that's happening. My photos will be great. My appraisal report will be great.
Speaker 2:My estimatics will be that of a 94 day person in this industry. They're getting better. They're way better than when I was day one. You know my first claim. I forgot to tell anyone what they should do with the bumper to like get it done. I just put refinish and that was it. I didn't say anything else about it. But you got to stick with it.
Speaker 2:And like, my big thing is when you get in this industry, like just work, like just just keep working, just keep pushing, just keep going, like I've I'm a little crazy Like I've done a few. Just like go out scope 10. Cause you got 16 claims that day and you didn't want to get behind. So I'll go scope 10 that are all full estimates. And then I'll get home, I'll spend time with my wife and our dogs and I'm like, oh, I got 10 estimates to write. It's 10 o'clock at night. It takes me 45 minutes to write an estimate. I've got a full schedule starting at 9 in the morning. I guess we're not sleeping tonight. Let's just figure it it out and go like just work, like just just keep working, keep going. You can like my whole thing is I'm going to go for six months and then I'll. Then I'll reevaluate. If I reevaluate the six-month mark where we need to go just work.
Speaker 2:But like they give, iapap will give you the tools to get into the, into the places you need to go, but then you've got to earn the rest of it on your own. And I think that's a big thing. Is like when I was telling like my family members and people about this, they're like oh so they just give you claims, like I mean, they, they introduce you to firms, they give you a warm handoff, but, like you have to, they basically earn you the ability to get a tryout and then you got to earn it on your own after that. And to me, like that's all I wanted and that's what I wanted in the training. The training is the biggest part, but the warm handoff is a big deal. But yeah, like your first six months, at least in my opinion, is just like go run as hard, run as fast as you can, make mistakes, break things, fix them on the fly and then keep learning. So that's that's my spiel on that.
Speaker 1:I was talking to somebody on the phone the other day and they were asking me about something they had really new at. They'd gotten from like an opportunity in a type of claim that they had never handled before and they're asking my advice about it. And I was like, look, you know enough. The only reason you're lacking confidence is you haven't shot the ball enough to eventually make some. You have to shoot the ball, close the close the claim. Close the claim and eventually you'll get your own confidence, not from the process, whether it's ipath or whether it's a carrier guidelines or whatever that says. This is what you need to do soon. That checklist won't be where your confidence come from. It'll be from.
Speaker 1:I made it three times. I closed three files and no one yelled at me. Hey, I have my own confidence based on my own track record. I was like but until then, you just gotta shoot that ball till you get some wins in um and so that. I love that, because I think that's so huge. People get paralyzed because I've never made a shot. Well, you better start shooting then. That's all I can say. You gotta go um. That that's cool. All right, krishandra, you got a question.
Speaker 7:Yes, I do, hello. So, travis, quick question. So I know you were saying you did emails and phone calls for contacts. Did you use LinkedIn at all for any of the connections or to get work?
Speaker 2:um, so for me, I didn't. I've never been a big linkedin person, mainly because I come from a place where, like your, social media is heavily monitored. Uh like, if you put anything up there, the corporate does not like it was a big no-no. So I didn't use it as much as I probably should have to be. To be as as good as I could have been starting out, I didn't start using social media to connect with people and kind of gauge interest about possibly onboarding or possible opportunities until about a month ago, and as of yet it's led to a little bit. Linkedin has helped me out quite a bit in the last month, but before that I did not use it at all. I was just like I changed my occupation to adjuster, that's about as much as I did.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep, I think LinkedIn can be useful. Um, even though I've been on it for seven years and it was literally the only social media I passed, ever really done is on LinkedIn. It is, um, it is hard to get certain people to engage with you. It's not, it's not easy, but it can be useful and, just like anything, it's a constant follow-up, follow-up, follow-up, and what I like to advise new people to do is, if you just are posting your journey on there if you're, you just got your adjuster license, post you got your adjuster.
Speaker 1:If you get your first claim, hey, bleed my first claim. This is me doing the happy dance. Whatever right, like, show people you are in the industry or talking about industry, even if it's sharing other people's stuff. Uh, you know, I saw an article on gotadjusterorg. I saw matthew allen's video. You should check it out. Whatever, but just let people know you're in the industry because eventually those circles get smaller and tighter and you're able to start connecting with people. Um, chanel wants to know if you inspect hail claims in the rain yes and no.
Speaker 2:Um, I the thing is like here at least. I mean maybe other states are like this. I've never lived outside of texas, but like here at least. I mean maybe other states are like this. I've never lived outside of Texas, but like here. Like you can inspect it and it'll say on the weather app like zero chance of rain, nothing, nothing, nothing. The other day I pulled up it was bright and sunny, 88 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. I got in, talked to the vehicle owner and they just started throwing massive tennis balls out of the sky, like five minutes later with pouring rain.
Speaker 2:Um, but, yeah, I'll inspect the rain up to a point, I've done a, I've done a few in the rain, um, but like, if it's just a drizzle, not a big deal, you can squeegee it down, move it around, get the photos. Um, if it's like a downpour, like you got no shot. Um, it's just, it's just gonna look like you're pouring, like a water bottle on the hood every time you try to take a photo and it just is like that's cool, you took a photo of a pond, that's awesome. So, no, I won't do it in heavy rain. If it's just light rain, I'll keep my appointments and see how it goes. If it's heavy rain, I will reschedule.
Speaker 1:I've had to reschedule two full days of hail claims that I have had out there just for later times, because it was just pouring Awesome. Jeff, did you have a question? I thought I saw your hand go up momentarily. Okay, no, all right. Does anybody have any other questions for Travis before I let him get out of here and skedaddle to go write those claims? He's got to write Because I know he's got them stacked up next to him. It's like paper money, you know, just like all these scope sheets.
Speaker 2:I'm good man, Whatever, whatever you need.
Speaker 1:All right, Raphael, what you got, man.
Speaker 8:So not so much a question more. Uh, maybe giving thanks to Travis, because I saw the uh IAPATH post that he did, you know what, where you reached out to 300 emails, whatever it was. I can't remember the exact number, but I think I'm about two months behind you for the graduate and right when I graduated you had posted that and I was just getting ready to start reaching out to the firms and I thought, you know, this guy got it down right, he's got the system, and so I created my little Excel sheet with all the firms I'm going to reach out to and the days and emails and whatnot. So I reached out to 45 firms. You know I'm in Phoenix. I don't know how competitive it is here, I don't. I haven't researched or or I haven't met anybody that told me. You know how busy it is here, um, so I got a few denials, a few onboarded me right away, you know, and just like travis, um, the, the very first, the immediate onboards, I haven't gotten a single claim from.
Speaker 8:But the ones that said no thanks, those are the ones that get that are giving me the constant work. You know, the ones that said we don't need you, but then, from Travis's advice from we. We messaged a little bit where he said just you know, just let him know, you know just what's, what's the harm in being a backup? You know that there's no problem with just let me be on boarded. What if you know there's an emergency and your, your top guy, has to go out of state? You know I'm here. You know I'll wait for my chance to show you what I can do. So, um, the firm that gave me the most pushback is the one that's giving me daily claims and I'm doing heavy equipment for them now. So, um, it does work. You know, just keep reaching out and and going off of that. So, personally, I just want to thank Travis for that pointer, and you know it's working out. So I just closed out month one and I've got 47 claims closed, so that's not bad right.
Speaker 2:Fantastic man that is freaking amazing Dude.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. I'm so stoked. That's awesome. I see Dave Titus is in the room and for you new people, you may not be familiar with the legend. That is Dave Titus, but similar to Travis, he was in that same area that is known as DFW and he kind of did some crazy stuff to break into the industry as well, following in the shadow as it was of James Mathis at the time. He kind of went out on a limb and did some really insane coverage areas out to Odessa, travis and all of that, and that was how he got his big break too was. And so, dave, if you got a moment kind of fast forward, can you give us a few sentence summary of how things are all these years later? I don't even know how many years it's been. You're an OG in my mind.
Speaker 4:Good evening everyone. Yeah, so I have been an active IA. Now I'm in my fifth year. I started in, let's see, I started in Midland odessa in november of 2019 and, before I went through the iapath program, I spoke with chris on the phone and chris was like dude, you know, you're in dallas, right. And we talked about it and I said I know that and I know that it's a competitive market, but I'd like to give it a shot. And so, yeah, I started out in Midland Odessa and, talking about jumping in the deep end, I had a lot of heavy equipment claims which I was totally unprepared for, but it was a good learning experience for me. And so, now that I'm working daily claims back in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, when I get a heavy equipment claim here, it's relatively easy for me because of what I went through in Midland Odessa, because that's out in the oil patch and they've got a lot of heavy equipment out there that gets banged up.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I'm in my fifth year still grinding. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1:Man, dave, it's good to see you and good to hear that you're still going and you know you make me feel a little old that you are now in your fifth year of being an IA. That's crazy. It's crazy that we've been doing it long enough to have five year people. It's insane. So very cool. Uh, any questions before we uh for Travis and then, if it's not for Travis and it's generic or anything else about our, our program or your homework or anything like that, feel free to call it out Depot. I know I saw you started getting work, which is awesome, so I feel like this is like a celebratory call almost of all these people who have been getting work for the first time.
Speaker 3:Mine's just photos only, but I'm still looking forward to doing the main claims now. But it's just photos only for now, so I'm hoping that I'll get my feet wet and then get into the claims very soon.
Speaker 1:Oh man, we're proud of you. We're proud of you getting out there.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Olin, you got a question. Go for it, sir.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I always got a question. That's my thing. So just real quick, since you guys are flying, I came and set up all this stuff in my house, like all these extra screens, but I'm thinking now I should be doing a laptop and doing them on the road. Is that what y'all are doing when you're doing like six claims a day and everything? Are y'all doing them on the road or how y'all? How y'all accomplished and all that work on the on the computer, end of it.
Speaker 2:Uh, no, I don't I. I, I I had a bright idea, did a whole lot of research on like, what kind of lab desk or what kind of desk I wanted for the truck and, like you know, I was like, yeah, it'll be great, I'll just like sit in the back of my truck and I'll do it. Um, but again, my mentor is, uh, is Eric Greiner, and he called me, was like, yeah, don't do that so.
Speaker 2:I'm like why he's like it's gonna go really badly. And I was like, yeah, okay, I tried it for one day. Um, it didn't go well. It was like I don't have room. I'm not the smallest guy, as you can probably see. I didn't have room to like make everything work. I had this small little laptop. It wasn't, it was not gonna go well.
Speaker 2:And they're like I, I get like where that comes from. I think it mainly comes from like property guys, but like, essentially, if you're doing that, you're able to like cut the check and the claim is done. At that point, like for us, like we're just, we're just doing this, and it's like now I still got to go back and go to the shop and deal with this all. So, like, at the end of the day, I, I run as much as I can, um, route it as good as I can, run as much as I can get home, write all of it as much as I can, and then you know, just get up the next day or stay up the next day and go do it again.
Speaker 1:But I write everything at the house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've done both, olin. So I I started just like most people start you running gun. It's like scope, scope, scope, scope, scope, figured out at the house, right. Uh, at some point a year, three or four, I started having a lot of let's just call it mental breakdowns. I was to my max. I was scoping 15 to 20 a day, months on end, not sleeping, like Travis said, hardly at all Like, oh, I got all these claims, I got to key in, I got a full day tomorrow, and so at some point I had to go. Oh, I got all these claims, I got a key in, I got a full day tomorrow, and so at some point I had to go. Whoa, my, my stress was too high. And so for me, that was the point where I shifted and I started trying to key them in before I left the house. Or I had my wife as a driver a lot of the times too. Just huge help. So a lot of times I would key them in while we were driving to the next claim. And so if I came back to it, I would do that model.
Speaker 1:I would not run and gun anymore, simply because I could never sleep peacefully, and so that stress of. I have unopened things and 17 supplements in my inbox I have to do tomorrow morning, along with writing the 17 claims I inspected and going and doing a 17 more, it was like overwhelming I was. I was, you know, I was having hundreds of claims in my box all the time and so at some point you're, if you get to like, too stressed, that's what you do. You say I am only going to work while I'm out and when I get home I'm done. Um, because there is a at least for me there was. And when I get home I'm done because there is a at least for me there was.
Speaker 1:I'm a sensitive flower, there is a breaking point to the mind and so for me I hit it and I hit it hard and so it was pretty bad and I had to really try to readjust how I approach things. But I'm with Travis most of the time. You know most of our mentors they're not keying that thing on the road because, especially hail, you're like scope, scope, scope, go, key in. So just kind of depends on where you're at. If you're only doing a handful I I push you to try it because you'll be shocked how good it feels if you get three claims. And you're done.
Speaker 1:When you go home and you like drop your computer down and walk away, you're like hud, you know, kind of feeling, versus if you still have to write it. When you get home and the family's there and you want to watch TV with them or go do whatever, it's kind of hard. There's a there's always that mental tension or cognitive weight on you that can can weigh you down. So just each his own. But just know that some people at least I did hit that wall. So, uh, jeff, go for it.
Speaker 3:Uh, travis, since you're in the hot seat today, I'll direct this towards you. Um, so, as you're talking like I'm from Texas too, so you're you're telling me this coverage area and I can picture it in my head, you know, and that's like my whole state. Okay, and that's like my whole state. So talk to me about you're leveraging, driving all those miles, spending the hours at home to write the estimates, hoping you don't get a supplement on a third of them, and then looking at how much you're getting per claim.
Speaker 3:Like I know, at the beginning you're going to have a loss. You made a couple hundred dollars, I think you said your first month, which is great. You know, I expect to be at a loss for several months, but, but for some people they can only afford a loss for this much amount of time. Some people can afford a loss for this much amount of time. So how did you go about leveraging when you were going to be like all right, I got to change things, or all right, I'm, or I'm like I'm going to keep grinding because I've got an extra savings account that I can pull from. But talk to me about how you kind of leverage that and thought that through.
Speaker 2:Um, essentially, the answer would be like I just decided I'm gonna make this work. Well, like my wife my wife and I talked about it Um, we're like okay, so what are we going to do? Um, we're going to do this, okay, great. And then she and I work pretty well as a team. I'm like the go, go, go, go, go, go go. I'll just, I'll just keep getting it done. And she's the one who's like hey, why don't you like take a step back, kind of breathe, figure out where we're at, and then we'll reassess.
Speaker 2:And it's very weird, because it was completely the opposite. When we were agents, I was the one telling her like hey, listen, we're doing pretty good. Don't compare us to these people who've done this for 30 years. They've got a long track record of like being able to build on Um. But basically I just was like hey, we're going to make it work, I'm going to find a way. I'll go wherever, I'll do whatever. I'll do whatever is necessary to find a way in this industry. And then we're we're going to make it work, right. And like was there like a burndown of where? Like we can't go past this point? Or else like money's going to get real, real tight? Yeah for sure. Um, but you know, I essentially man, man, like, I just made the choice, like we're gonna make it work and I'm gonna give everything I have to it, and if it doesn't work, well, we're gonna have some hard choices to make. Um, but not everyone should do that, not everyone is that's not. I wouldn't necessarily suggest doing it the way that I did.
Speaker 2:My I did it uh, that my, my wife and I chose to, you know, to run into this um, but essentially I just wanted to give myself the best chance at the most amount of business possible. So I gave myself the largest map possible that I felt comfortable with, right, like I'm not. Like you know, some people like, well, do you go to houston? It's like no, that's like six and a half hours one way in a place that's also got a lot of ias, um, but I wanted the most amount of area possible and so I've slapped out this massive map out there and I'll go ahead and tell you, uh, that map did not get me a lot of stuff because, like until like literally two weeks ago, I was the king of the 49 mile round trip claim. Like they sent me. Everything was like 44 to 49 miles, like I I got.
Speaker 2:I got jealous because a lot of people were posting like what they were doing in a day and they'd make more off 18 claims than I would. Or in a week and they'd make more off 18 claims than I would. Or in a week and they'd make more off 18 claims than I would off 30. And I'm like how is this possible, man? I don't understand. I got a little jealous. I was like this is ridiculous. But yeah, like where I'm at, a lot of the claims in my area are going to not pay my mileage because I live like straight up in Dallas, dallas, texas. All the auto auction houses are within 10 to 12 miles of me. So those are the places I get sent a lot and those are not mileage. But Hale does pay mileage because it sends me out to the boonies. That helps.
Speaker 2:But like, basically my whole thing is I'm not going to, I'm going to leverage it as much as I can. I have a burndown of like I need to make X amount of money by month six, and that was my goal and we got there a little ahead of schedule. So just go as hard as you can, though. Like that's the thing is like if you want to get there, I would say don't take days off Now, you may have to for mental stability. But my whole thing is like if you want to get there, I would say don't take days off now, you may have to for mental stability. But my whole thing is like I need volume in order to get better at this, in order to make my skills better, and that's what I want. So, however I need, I can find that volume, I'm gonna do it and I'm just gonna run it and run it, and run it I'd also add um, kind of our official way we say it is like you have to say yes to survive.
Speaker 1:When you're first starting you're just saying yes, like what can I do for you? Like he was saying where, when, how, what if your guy gets hurt, right, so you're willing to drive to Odessa, and if he suddenly had a bunch of claims in Odessa, he's now found a spot where he has work and he can start to trim that map. So at first you open yourself way wide open, you say yes to everything and then as you start to find the pockets of work, you narrow that down. But at first you don't know, I don't know. I talked to the firms, I talked to the recruiters, the dispatchers. I have somebody in this part of Georgia Can you give me information?
Speaker 1:Shut down, almost none. I can't get the claim details. That's like you know gold information for them. So just know, like we don't know where the work's exactly at in your area. So you got to go find it, find your opportunity, and then start to trim it down when it becomes too much. So say yes to survive and then no to thrive as you get more than you can handle, gene, and then know to thrive as you get more than you can handle, gene, go ahead with your question, and then we probably have time for one more. If somebody else has a question?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I'll make it real quick, travis. Thanks much, man, and my main takeaway from you is leverage your opportunities by just making yourself so valuable that you're going to get the business. I definitely feel your sales side I've sold and it's like go for no, go for the close. So I got much respect for you, man and appreciate you, man. Just if you're in Collin County, beep man, I'm right here, I'll see you.
Speaker 2:I was there today, man, I was there today.
Speaker 1:This crazy world. Crazy world. All right, any questions before we wrap up. Last question anybody? All right, britney, go for it. You got the closing one.
Speaker 7:Make it good um, it's actually not really a question. Hold on, I hit something um about that. I just I need to. I'm sorry, I need to set up a call with you or something. I've got my first claim and I have questions.
Speaker 1:Awesome, yeah, absolutely so. Message me through the community, so that way I don't forget. And also, if there's any questions that you think somebody along with me can learn from your experience, post the questions in the community so I can answer them there, and then I'll still give you a call, but I just like to make sure that if you have the question, probably 20 other people have it too. So that's kind of how I'd like to do. It is, reach out to me there's a private message to the community but also post some of the question at least inside the community, so others can learn from the same experience, and then I'll give you a call, though, and we'll walk through it.
Speaker 7:Okay, thank you.
Speaker 1:All right, no problem, all right everybody. Thanks so much for being here tonight. Travis man, thanks, thank you so much. I think there's some good material in here and I think we'll have a lot of good information that we can pass on to future people to where, as when they come up to graduation. They're not like thanks, it's a list, what do I do? I think we could start to give them some better handles on what they can expect and how they can attack it. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:I'm glad I could give back. Good job, babe, my friend, good job.
Speaker 1:Get out of my yard, get out of my yard.
Speaker 2:This guy's going to be like you don't drive far. You don't even know how to get far, All right.
Speaker 1:All right guys, have a good night. Keep walking your path and claiming your life.
Speaker 2:Take it easy.