Spilling the Insurance Tea: Wild Claims, Credit Scores, & Protecting Your Future with Lauren Hill

Are you truly prepared for the unexpected? This week on Think Biz Solutions, Lauren Hill, an expert insurance agent, spills the tea on the insurance world. Learn how to avoid common pitfalls when it comes to your car insurance and homeowner's policy, understand why self-insuring can be a massive risk, and hear jaw-dropping stories of unexpected claims. Lauren explains how having a dedicated agent can save you stress and thousands of dollars, acting as your advocate when you need it most. Plus, gain entrepreneurial wisdom as Lauren shares her journey of building a successful career, emphasizing customer service, community connection, and finding purpose. Don't miss these vital tips for securing your financial peace of mind!

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Podcast is produced by Hammonds Media. For assistance with you digital marketing needs, visit https://www.hammondsmedia.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:01

Don't

SPEAKER_01: 0:11

worry about these technical problems anymore What technical problems, Nolan? Well, the technical problems that we have on a semi-regular basis that we need to be honest to our listeners about. I don't know what you're talking about. Despite being consummate professionals, our lovely podcast listeners, we too have bad days. I've never had a bad day in my life. That's why you should go with Hammond's Media for all of your media and marketing needs. Don't mention my company's name in this context. But good day, everyone. It is time for another podcast with my lovely, wonderful, completely consummate and never having scruples with his tech. Garrett Hammons, how are we? What's up? We are good. I am tired today. I'm just going to be honest. We're dragging a little keister at this point. But I'm here for it, you know, because we have a fantastic guest on today's podcast. Wonderful. The great, hearty, heavenly Lauren Hill.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08

Hey guys, I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13

Thank you for being here. Tell us, why did you accept our invitation to come on the pod? No, I'm just

SPEAKER_00: 1:21

kidding. It was an invitation? It was optional?

SPEAKER_01: 1:23

That's right. We've all been told, Lauren. Tell us who you are and... What you do. We want

SPEAKER_00: 1:34

to know more about you. listeners in our community about what they need to be doing.

SPEAKER_01: 2:02

There's tea in the insurance world?

SPEAKER_00: 2:04

There's always tea and it's piping hot.

SPEAKER_01: 2:07

Spill the tea. Spill the tea. Spill the tea. So what got you into insurance? You've been doing it for five years. You must like it, I assume.

SPEAKER_00: 2:20

Yeah. So my background.

SPEAKER_01: 2:22

Don't tell. Don't

SPEAKER_00: 2:23

say. Oh, it is the best thing in the whole wide world. But all jokes aside, I really do enjoy doing insurance because it is a form of customer service. service it's a form of providing something that people are going to utilize even if they tell you i've never had a claim i don't know why it's this expensive that's usually the pretense to they're going to have a claim and we're going to be walking through the steps of what that looks like um prior

SPEAKER_01: 2:51

any day now

SPEAKER_00: 2:52

exactly with oklahoma weather you never know what's going to be happening like saturday with the floodwaters a bunch of people were just out at the mall and then got their car stuck trying to get back home. And your car insurance is what you're going to need for that sort of situation. And before I was in insurance, I was a bar manager, bartender. I had been in restaurants since I was 16, working my way up from the hosting, serving through the ranks. And COVID had hit, made it a little bit more difficult to enjoy our customers in a restaurant setting. It was a lot of passive interactions and quick interactions. And so I just kind of saw that as the best time to maybe look into a different industry that would be a little bit more stable for our family through that time. But.

SPEAKER_01: 3:42

Very cool. I mean, that's it's not always the pivots. that we expect that can lead us to really cool things. Sometimes it's the challenges that come along that push us towards the stuff that we end up loving. And that kind of sounds like what your journey was. But insurance is one of those things where truly we think we don't need it until we do. And then it's too late. So I'm sure that you have... quite a few stories with claims. What's the craziest claim? that you're allowed to tell us

SPEAKER_00: 4:26

about. Yeah, so we just won't use any names or locations or anything like that. Nolan

SPEAKER_01: 4:32

Rogers.

SPEAKER_00: 4:34

Nolan ran into, no. I have not even an exact client, but there have been situations where a vehicle has run into homes and that triggers not just the auto insurance, but also the home insurance or running into McDonald's while you're going through the drive-thru line and scraping the side of your new car on it, damaging the building. There are definitely... You know, more than a fender bender that can occur out there. Personally, I've had hit and runs where somebody ran into me, drove off, and then on the line with the emergency line, they were like, keep a visual. We had a miniature game of GTA for about two miles straight down the road. And by the time, you know, if we were where an officer was, they saw them turn and were able to stop the driver, ended up damages were absolutely minimal. but I had had my car for All of seven days, the first car I'd ever bought myself either. And I'm still driving her because I kind of call it your Easter egg car where you love it. It's your first car, but you're going to have dings and dents and things are going to happen to it just because it's the first time you've bought a car. A hailstorm hit 30 days after I got rear-ended and damaged my vehicle then again. So... I'm trying to think, too, some more on the home side. Sometimes that can be the craziest that you see. If you're just charging a battery in your garage, say for your kid's Jeep, the little electric Jeep they ride around or for a four wheeler. those can cause fires where you may say or tell me like, no, we're good. It's just in the garage. We'll get the garage fixed. The whole home needed to be cleaned, deep clean, get the soot, everything out of it. And these are all things that the homeowner's policy is going to take care of for you as long as you're carrying insurance. But I feel like more often now when I'm seeing horror stories on the news about a total loss, the homeowners are choosing self-insurance And they're just taking that risk of... I don't need insurance right now. I own my home. And that is the craziest thing to run into, in my opinion, is just because you own your home outright doesn't mean you don't necessarily need insurance anymore. You might not file insurance for smaller losses because you have more money to retain, not paying a mortgage payment. But you're also going to have to go get a whole new mortgage if you have a total loss. And at that point in your life, when you've paid off your home, are you ready to or wanting to dig into another 30 year mortgage. Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:24

Yeah. That's, that's wild. So you said like one of the toy Jeeps, I know that's like, it's like a, a legit toy. Like your, your child is, is driving this thing, but it caught on fire and somebody's house is,

SPEAKER_00: 7:39

Yeah, while charging. So even though we think we can charge our phone and walk away, and that's totally fine. So you want to plug in the toys battery in the garage and walk away. You always want to kind of be around that vicinity of the area. And also just making sure your electrical stuff is up to par. Our group touched on that a little bit this morning. And how important it is that as your home ages, you're investing back into your home, wearing can be considered wear and tear, things like that, and they start to trickle down to more serious risks and potential losses.

SPEAKER_01: 8:18

You mentioned Driving through the drive-thru and dinging your car at McDonald's, I have to tell on my wife. She is a phenomenal driver. And if she ever listens to this, which, you know, it's about a 50-50 split whether she would. You are a great driver, sweetie. I love you. But she has hit more inanimate objects than what I think... She's hit a traffic cone, just sitting still in a parking lot. She has done the drive-through, hitting the pole. She has hit a car that was standing completely still. It was parked.

SPEAKER_00: 8:58

These things were all moving, right? These things were all moving. They weren't standing still. I've got her back. That cone jumped out at her for

SPEAKER_01: 9:05

sure. The

SPEAKER_00: 9:06

cone definitely jumped out at her. That's fair.

SPEAKER_01: 9:08

That's fair. But it's wild what all scenarios can pop up.

SPEAKER_00: 9:13

Yeah. I've had somebody, she was driving down. It was a real windy day, just driving down. I think it was around May and Hefner area. And one of the restaurant's patio chairs just flew across the roadway and into her car. And she didn't have time to go around and had to drive overseas. chair or pile up would have occurred or worse accident and it's insane the things that you're just minding your own business going straight down the road and an object does fly at you or it's just It's hiding. Our cars like to create blind spots. And who doesn't love a good blind spot?

SPEAKER_01: 9:51

Absolutely. The things I can't see can't hurt me. Correct. Or the numbers you see on your bank account statement can't hurt you. Which, in that case, that's why I have a small plug for Lauren over here. She saved me approximately$600 on an insurance premium because the unnamed... Insurance company I was going with was really overcharging me whenever I wanted to rebuy insurance. So even if there are no big issues or anything else going on or you're not accident prone, I really like having such a lower insurance bill that also includes more stuff. Nolan, I'm worried about your cough. It's a really bad.

SPEAKER_00: 10:32

We might need to get that checked out. Have

SPEAKER_01: 10:34

you seen a doctor lately? Don't need to. Apple a day and all

SPEAKER_00: 10:38

that. Yeah. Yes. Or

SPEAKER_01: 10:40

progressive insurance, which you can also work with a number of different insurance companies,

SPEAKER_00: 10:44

right? Yes. Yeah. So in the insurance world, it has definitely gotten really unique where some carriers are a lot more specific on what clientele they're going to accept. And sometimes they'll just straight up say due to loss history and even credit score. A lot of people don't understand that your credit score is reflected in your insurance. So for some situations where if there's a hardship over a couple of years and that affects the credit score, it in turn can also affect the insurance rates and make those go up as well. So sometimes when you have no explanation as to what's going on and you ask the client if they've checked that out, that can also be the issue. But yes, with the carriers doing that, we definitely work with finding our customer the best fit for them and also customizing the coverages to making it sure that you have what you need because you can buy any type of insurance really online without a agent. There are carriers who don't give agents access and you go straight through 1-800. So it is on your knowledge of insurance and you do have to have a license to sell it. So it's putting the community at risk when you decide, and yourself financially, when you decide to self shop and just kind of plug in to get the cheapest number. And the cheapest or the lowest coverages sometimes are not the cheapest as well. If you have multiple needs and you need to stack different policies, you can get discounts for increasing coverages. And that's one of my favorite things I like to do is saving people money is amazing and really fun. But the best part is being able to sleep at night knowing that if they are in a car accident, if they do have a house party and they have pool that if worst case scenario does end up happening, that them and their friends and family are going to be protected in that situation. Your car insurance can protect your home and your financial assets from lawsuits. Anything in insurance that says liability, think lawsuit protection because if that number isn't what it needs to be, you're going to get sued for your assets instead over the insurance paying out to the lawyer to then disperse to the person that you hit in a vehicle or slipped on your back porch or something like that. And we never think these things are going to happen, but you don't want to lose everything that you've spent the last 20, 40 years of your adulthood building up and wanting to pass down for generations can be gone overnight because you want it to be cheap and not spend an extra 40 bucks a month on a policy.

SPEAKER_01: 13:31

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think to your point, there are some industries where you want to be able to see the professional licensed and what's like, I don't want my engineer building a bridge to not have license. Right. Like, and in the same way, if I'm, if I'm getting insurance that can cover some of my most important assets that go over all kinds of legal areas that I may not be familiar with and I'm not somebody who's gonna advocate for you, just on a personal side, you want somebody who wants the best things for you and when it's when it's you for the first time jumping on a call and and trying to yell at the insurance agency that you decided to self-shop with it's going to be a lot more difficult than if you have a seasoned veteran who's going to somebody who they work with on a regular basis that they know how to be able to make a needle move for um you want somebody who's licensed and you know good at what they do so thank you thank you for taking up the mantle on this profession.

SPEAKER_00: 14:42

Well, thank you. Yes. And that is a huge difference that can make one agency stand out from the next agency. We are big believers that if you need to file a claim, you call us first. We tell everybody, do not call 1-800. We can help kind of navigate those steps because what I do see when I'm looking at new prospects or potential clients with their claims history is a bunch of$0 payouts And what that is, it's not because the loss isn't covered by the insurance policy, but the repair is under the deductible. If the repair is under the deductible, insurance is going to tell you, go ahead and pay, get the repair started. If it exceeds your deductible that you've purchased or selected on the policy, then you can start sending receipts and getting reimbursed. So what we take pride in doing is connecting our clients with the right trades and local professionals that also know the local market, that know how the homes are maintained, how they're built, and the different resources that they have towards their access. And we find out, can we fix this real quick, out of pocket? Is it worth the claim? Or, hey, this is a big issue. We're going to get the claim going. The adjuster will call you. Whatever the timeline may be, that can vary per carrier and per policy type as well. But yeah, and with that being said, you call them me, you don't call the adjuster if you have a tiny question and they're not available. I'm happy to answer those questions. And sometimes no matter what carrier you're looking at or you're with, you may just get a bad seed when it comes to how the claim is going. And we are going to go at bat for you. We're going to pick up that phone and call the adjuster, the adjuster supervisor, take it up the ladder and up to district if needed when claims are not going by the policy backing and by what the customer and I have perceived and sold the policy as or purchased it as. And nine times out of 10, when somebody is unhappy with a claim, if they're willing to communicate with the office and with their agent, we can smooth that out and get an understanding and fix the problem for them so that their claim is resolved and their home or car is fixed.

SPEAKER_01: 16:57

Excellent. Very cool. Yeah, I'm interested because, you know, you started Started five years ago, and you clearly have, you know, a ton of knowledge in the space that you're in. But I'm assuming that, you know, you made this transition, and all of a sudden you had all the clients who jumped on with you, and it was just a success overnight.

SPEAKER_02: 18:22

No,

SPEAKER_01: 18:24

what was the process? Because we have a lot of business owners, business leaders who listen to the podcast. What was that process like for you as you were getting started?

SPEAKER_00: 18:35

Yeah, I definitely want to just let anybody in the insurance world or thinking about it, let them know it. It is a bit of a slow burn intro to the profession. You're not going to jump in and all of a sudden be writing$50,000 in premium a month or something like that. You're going to start out at$5,000 to$10,000 month after month, kind of climb your way up. We are... depending on who you work for, of course, but the most common business model in insurance is not just new business, but retention as well. And so the first three years with our office, I was actually on the retention team and my whole job was to be a customer service rep. We divide our clientele based into an alphabet. We split it up so that that person as a customer service rep is dedicated to a portion of the book. Instead of having to learn all of the book and everybody talks to everybody, we mainstreamed it to where you have a dedicated account manager to you. And that was a really good training tool on what do people need? What questions do they have? They already bought the insurance from our agency from somebody else, a sales rep or from the owner. And we're just here to service it. So being in a sales position for three years before I jumped in, three and a half years before I jumped into sales, kind of gave me a lot of the background knowledge that I'm using now. And then also just the confidence to be able to, I'm not going to talk somebody into a policy or a needs, or if they're just not ready to make a change, then I'm just going to use that as an educational moment between both of us. I like to coach people with insurance as well, not just sell them a product. If you don't go with me, but we were able to strengthen your knowledge on what product you need, I'll be honest about, yeah, X, Y, and Z is going to fit your financial situation way better right now, but have them change these three coverages. It's going to be$100 more, but I'm$2,000 more let's find out where the happy medium is that kind of thing um and so it was 2023 i decided to jump into sales 2024 going into 2024 that january was my first month in sales and nice so i just i want to tell everybody who's starting in sales in any industry not even just insurance and Don't forget to be out there in your community and network and meet with people. People do business with people that they trust. And I enjoy taking care of people that I know. a lot more than a stranger. And I will take care of a stranger, a referral, a connection, all the same and treat them as if they were my own family and want them to be protected as if they were my own family. But it is a huge driving force in being successful for an insurance type of job by connecting with the community, not sticking to your desk. Cold calling works for some. I'm not a fan of it. But I definitely think you see more traction in in this realm with um going face to face and showing people you care about things that they care about as well and finding those people with similar interest as well instead of just trying to conform to a business suit and an eight to five business model

SPEAKER_01: 22:01

yeah yeah there's a a kind

SPEAKER_00: 22:05

of

SPEAKER_01: 22:06

kind of legend in the marketing industry named Seth Godin, who I never know how to say his last name, but anyway, he, he wrote a book called permission marketing and it's, you know, cold calling is not a unsuccessful thing. tactic completely. But for the most part, we don't want to give out our personal information or have somebody reaching out to us unless we've given them permission to do that.

SPEAKER_00: 22:32

Exactly. And it is the first question when you start a quote, do you have the customer's permission to run this quote? So even if somebody online has said, hey, I'm interested in a quote, I'm going to pick up the phone, confirm the details and confirm that they want the quote, that they didn't click on something by accident, read it wrong and think that ADT was going to call them Yeah. the same as one month's premium to keep the service on. Now, that's not to say we need to be protecting our homes and that certain people would much prefer having a monitored system. We do. But, you know, it's not like a pressure point to save money like it used to be. The biggest thing for us has been roofs and just making sure that homeowners know what to do with their roofs or they're prepared for the next step because, you There's a good chance each homeowner, we have one good free, not free, but we have one good roof left with a full replacement cost and good deductible before we start seeing more coverage is stripped down from what they are. And yeah, tell a lot of people, stay where you're at, get some stuff taken care of, and then we'll start looking again when your home is fixed up and that roof has had some damage.

SPEAKER_01: 23:58

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I appreciate what you were saying about, you know, taking care of people and going out into the community and making relationships. It's, you know, a couple of old adages. The people that we know, like, and trust, those are the ones that we will do business with. And nobody cares what you know until they know that you care, you know? Yes. Oh, I love that. It's... so important that in any industry that we're in, we build relationships with our clients and our prospects and just the people we need on a day-to-day basis. So appreciate, you know, that that's kind of your approach that you're taking with all that. Nolan, on the other hand, he is terrible at that. I mean, he hits me all the time. He always tells me that I look bad in my shoes.

SPEAKER_00: 24:57

There's a hotline number for that.

SPEAKER_01: 25:00

I'm

SPEAKER_00: 25:01

sliding it. I'll slide it across the table for you. I blink twice if

SPEAKER_01: 25:05

you

SPEAKER_00: 25:06

need help. Yeah. I make

SPEAKER_01: 25:09

sure that Garrett is always in his place at all points in time. Whenever Grace is not around, don't worry. I've got you covered. Is there a number for reporting on mean podcast co-hosts? That's the number I need. Is there a spiritual consultant insurance that we can make sure protects Garrett from his horrible co-hosts? Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_00: 25:32

I don't know about protection, but my brain's just going Ouija board.

SPEAKER_01: 25:36

Ouija board. Oh, man. It all points to Nolan, I tell you that. It all points to Nolan. Those nasty insurance demons that we've got to exercise from your policy. Oh, my goodness. You're going to be better at that than me,

SPEAKER_00: 25:46

though. Yeah. Hey, yeah. Next time we have a claim that's going wrong, we're going to get Nolan on the line. We're going to cleanse the spirit realm, and we're going to get the good juju going back in for that homeowner. 23rd

SPEAKER_01: 25:58

song all day.

SPEAKER_00: 25:59

If they're on their fourth claim in two years, then I'm sending you to their house so you can fix some juju.

SPEAKER_01: 26:04

It may actually be cursed at that point.

SPEAKER_00: 26:05

It might have a curse that we need to lift and unhex the doorways.

SPEAKER_01: 26:12

But I mean, apart from just being a consummate professional and being great at your job, Lauren, what else is insurance doing for you? What's the big picture for you as a businesswoman? going forward?

SPEAKER_00: 26:24

Yeah. So, I mean, honestly, a big reason why I jumped into sales from customer service, it was to grow so that, um, over time I can kind of create my own schedule or be available for school events, sporting events, um, and just be able to take, take care of my family, you know, plan vacations and things like that where, um, maybe previously in a different job description, you kind of get capped out or restricted on growth and things like that. I wasn't ready to be restricted. I wanted to keep seeing how far we can go, how much we can do. I am still in Edmond where I was born and raised. I went to Edmond Memorial. Go Bulldogs. And we're kind of at that turning point with my generation or my class where we're stepping out of the shadows of our parents. We're stepping out of the shadows of our bosses or working entry level jobs into building careers, building businesses and becoming business owners. And I felt like it was a very valuable time in my life to be able to connect with those people through what I do with insurance and watch that grow. And then like coming down to Bethany once a week and doing Oklahoma City Young Professionals, I don't want to restrict myself to a 10 mile radius. We can actually service 14 different states through our agency. And that is all the states around us touching and then quite a few others for sure. And so with that outreach, it is important to me that As I grow, the community grows and vice versa. If there are ways that I can pour into the community and unintentionally, but also intentionally, right? You do these acts to eventually grow your own life and your sphere, but you're not necessarily doing it to get a paycheck in 30 days from a commission, but it can turn into that by being persistent. You don't want to show up to an event or a group once and never show up again. You're not going to get a referral that way or a relationship, but by consistently showing up for these people and learning more about how you can help, they ask how they can help you and how they can help you grow. And that's just very beautiful to me where I feel like God put a lot of us, he put us all here for a purpose and I am a big giver. And I think I've finally found a way where I can give, but also be able to take care of my family and have a career at doing it.

UNKNOWN: 28:57

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 28:58

And do it very well. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 29:00

I appreciate that. So

SPEAKER_01: 29:02

today we've covered a whole slew of things. Very big slew. Switching over from the restaurant industry into the insurance side. You've navigated transitions and learned how to be able to dive into... the deep end of the pool with everything on the retention side to sales and building relationships along the way. So it has been an absolute pleasure to be able to have you on the cast today. Tell us if somebody wants to find you or get in contact with you after they listen to this episode. Where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00: 29:45

Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me on Facebook, Lauren Hill. I also have a Instagram that's going to be under Lauren Knox. I like to share that because I also want my people to get a glimpse into I'm not a robot. I am a real woman. I have a real family and real passions and things that we do. I'm going to want people to know me more than just, hey, I can call you. I never talk to you again. Again, we're good from there. I also, you can reach me. My email is Lauren at insurance fam.com. That's F A M like family, because in the club, we all fam and we're going to take care of you. So yes, absolutely. And even just broad questions. You don't necessarily have to come to me to, to look at a quote. If you're wondering, Hey, is this a good coverage or a good policy? I'll, I'll put some notes on it and you can go back to your agent with the notes to make them do the changes.

SPEAKER_01: 30:48

Perfect. Well, we've got to do our sign off now. Say goodbye

SPEAKER_00: 30:52

to all of our listeners. Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you for being here. We

SPEAKER_01: 30:56

appreciate you have you. memorized our sign-off yet through listening to the podcast yourself. I

SPEAKER_00: 31:02

have

SPEAKER_01: 31:03

not. Don't lie, you know it. You know it. We say, stay sharp, think biz. We'll say the first part, you say the last part. So, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening. As always, this has been Think Biz Podcast Solutions. Remember to stay sharp.

SPEAKER_00: 31:19

And think biz.

UNKNOWN: 0:00

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