The 2 Things That Affect How Successful You'll Be as an IA (Don't worry you can do something about it)

This episode reveals the fundamental factors that determine the income potential and workload for Independent Adjusters, focusing on the significance of market conditions and effective marketing strategies. 

The discussion includes insights on market expansion, realistic income expectations, and the importance of persistence in outreach efforts, ultimately empowering listeners to take control of their careers. 

• Market conditions significantly influence income potential 
• Expanding geographical areas can lead to more opportunities 
• Effective marketing builds reputation and generates connections 
• Realistic earning expectations vary widely 
• Past experiences, like sales, enhance marketing abilities 
• Persistence is crucial for engaging potential clients 
• Independent Adjusters should operate as business owners 
• Strategic actions can unlock greater success in the industry

Chapters

• 0:00 Maximizing IA Income Through Market Expansion
• 7:59 Building Success as an IA

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

Hey, pathfinders, welcome back to the Independent Adjuster Podcast. This is your host, chris Stanley. Thanks for joining me today. I wanna talk to you about how to know if there's work in your area, or how to know how busy you're gonna be, or how to know if you can even make a living in this industry, because I get this question every day from people asking me how do I know how much I can make as a daily claims auto IA or as an IA in general, working auto claims? And this is a really hard question to answer, and so I just put a lot of time thinking in it and a lot of different ways of explaining it, and I found a way to paint the picture of what's possible in a way that makes sense for you in your area. There are only two things, and this is really the title of this episode there are only two things that affect your volume and your income. Only really two things it's your market and your marketing. Say it again Only two things that affect your income and your volume of work your market and your marketing. So once we know that, once we know that where you live or where you can work, your market affects your income potential, and we know that your marketing your income potential and we know that you're marketing your ability to go and get more work, to present yourself as an option, to be able to make people a fan of yours, then we can start to deconstruct that and go how can I make more money, how can I get more work? And so let's break this down a little bit further, since all that there is market and marketing then the first thing you got to think about is, if you are in a market let's say Dallas we've had a lot of people be successful in Dallas or Georgia and places that are very competitive let's think about how they did it. So let's deconstruct how some successful people have done it. They've expanded their market, whether it's I'll drive, like James Mathis.

Speaker 1: 2:22

Four or five years ago he said I'll go to Odessa. Right, I live in Dallas, but I'm willing to go to Odessa. What did he do? His market was terrible, so he expanded his market. He was too competitive where he was at, so he expanded his market. Then last year we had Travis, part of our community, recent Pathfinder graduate, and he was out of Dallas and he expanded his market by marketing more Really. He used marketing to hit over 100 IA firms and follow up with them consistently. And then he expanded his market by going into hail claims, and so he didn't just sit with daily collision claims, he also incorporated hail. He expanded his market pool of claims he could handle and he marketed the crap out of every IA firm. And so he uses both the market expansion possibility and the marketing expansion possibility to get busy.

Speaker 1: 3:16

Okay, so those are some things that you can do is you can expand your market, whether it's a new geographical area, a new claim type like hail, flood, heavy equipment, semi-truck, trailer, rv. You can expand your market by getting new licenses. So now I can work in New York or Pennsylvania and Indiana or whatever for catastrophes, even if that's not where you live. You can do that. You can also expand your market by or I'm sorry your income, by your marketing. You can reach out to more companies. You can become more desirable, get new certifications, have a better LinkedIn presence, have a better resume, show up to more conferences, do better work, ta-da, because good work gets good reviews, gets good reputation, which makes people want to use you more.

Speaker 1: 4:04

That is marketing in a nutshell. It's outreach, but it's also the in-reach of people like me. They're a fan of my work and I hope that helps because now to answer those original questions I teased you with. So if you ask me, if you call me up on the phone and I talk to people every day answering these questions, you ask me how much can I make Realistically, chris don't blow smoke at me, by the way, I don't blow smoke, I'm straightforward as it can go. But if you ask me, hey, what will I make as an IA, whether daily claims or a little bit of catastrophe or whatever, what can I reasonably expect to make my first year? This is what I tell everybody In an average market with average marketing, you'll make probably around $40,000. That's roughly what I've seen. I've seen people who shrunk their territory, so shrunk their market and only worked a few days a week, so shrunk their market again and made 25 grand and were happy as could be with that because that's all they wanted. Then I saw other people expand, like James Mathis, and he reports publicly doing over six figures his first year. So you can go either way with this, but an average person with average skill set of marketing in an average market does about 40. And that's if you're doing it consistently, full-time, and I get it. That's not enough for a lot of people. How you improve that is you have to improve your market or your marketing. So how do you expand that market? How do you expand your marketing to do better? That's how you increase this. Some of the secret powers that people have who come in this industry, who do really good, and this is like something you can learn. This isn't doesn't have to be something you did, but it just shows that these skills that people have acquired have really helped them.

Speaker 1: 5:48

Travis out of Dallas. He was a salesman, an insurance salesman. He was not afraid to pick up the phone and hear no Fact. He just kept calling back even though he said no, and a lot of those that said no were the ones who gave him work. Same with James Mathis. He was a high-level salesman, I think, for some kind of medical supply company or something. So he was used to rejection. He was used to not hearing yes the first time. Because if you think that the first thing you hear is all you're ever going to be, if you just hear someone say, no, we don't need you right now and that's the end of the story, and you don't keep trying, you don't keep pursuing them, you're going to miss out.

Speaker 1: 6:22

So here's a business lesson. You probably heard it, rolled your eyes at it, but it's so true and I see it in IAPATH all the time is that a customer typically does not do business with you until they have touched you in some way, shape or form, seven times. Why do I do a podcast at I-Path? One, I want to give information out for free, but, two, I want to connect with you, to touch you in some way, shape or form, at least seven times, so you can decide is I-Path something you want to do? Is auto-claim something you want to do? And so every episode is a potential way to connect with you, and so every email I do, it's a potential way to connect with you.

Speaker 1: 7:02

We have to adapt that same mindset as IA's to expand our market and our marketing. We cannot just sit there and wait for work to come to us. You are a business owner, so as a business owner, you must reach out and not be afraid to at least touch seven plus times each IA firm that you wanna potentially work for. And so there's 40 IA firms. That's a lot of outreach over the next few months. But don't be afraid to hear. No Other superpower is if you've ever run a business before, you have a huge advantage.

Speaker 1: 7:33

If you haven't, you can still learn. We'll teach you. But when you're an IA, you have to take full responsibility for the outcome. And if you've run your business before and you've been a 1099 contractor at all whether it's an Uber driver, doordash or whatever you realize that you are not an employee, realize that you are not an employee. You are your own business and you treat it as such. And so you start to think differently, you start to build your business differently and you take that ownership on, and that improves your marketing.

Speaker 1: 8:00

And so a lot of people who are business owners and or salespeople in the past have a unique advantage when they get started in this industry, because they're used to a lot of these things. They're used to the rejection. They're used to the rejection, they're used to hearing no, they're used to not making money day one and that being okay. And just keep that in your head as you're moving forward. Maybe you're not a businessman or a woman, maybe you haven't done sales in the past. You can still learn these things, but learn the lessons from those who've gone before you.

Speaker 1: 8:32

It takes lots of touches for people to onboard you, for people to give you work when it's slow. It takes time, talent and effort to make this career a possibility, so don't get frustrated if it doesn't just magically happen when you raise your hand. You've got to be willing to do the work. You've got to be willing to either expand your market or your marketing, to earn more and to do better in this industry. Hope that helps. Got questions? Would love to hear them. Chris, at IAPathcom. This is a part of the expansion playbook, a book I plan to write this coming year, but this is one of the core principles of it is your market and your marketing determine how far you can go as an IA. So focus on those two things. Figure out how you can expand them and you'll do way better as an IA. Get out there, keep walking your path and claiming your life.