The Tony Steuer Podcast with Blair Wachob: Connecting Insurance and Emergency Management

“Think of your household like a business. Build a balance sheet, so you know what are your assets, what are your liabilities; so that you’ll know where you’re starting from. Then create an income statement so you know your household income and expenses.” - Blair Wachob. 

In this episode, I spoke with Blair Wachob, Senior Director at CSAA Insurance Group about why the insurance industry isn’t stale and what makes a good leader. We also discussed how insurance & emergency management fit together.

Bio: Blair Wachob has worked in the insurance industry for over 15 years and is a Senior Director with CSAA Insurance Group.  Blair earned a Bachelors of Science in Finance from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, a Masters of Business Administration from Frostburg State University, and is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Emergency Management from Tulane University.  Passionate about insurance education, Blair has earned the CPCU, ARM, AIC-M, ARC, and AINS insurance designations.  Blair is active within the Las Vegas community as a board member of the Las Vegas CPCU chapter as well as being a member of the Community Emergency Response Team. 

The Tony Steuer Podcast is presented by Paperwork

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You're listening to the Tony Stewart podcast, where Tony interviews, financial literacy advocates who are changing the conversation on money. So you can catch up on the latest trends and ideas in the world of financial literacy and education presented by paperwork. Be prepared for life.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Welcome to the Tony Stewart podcast presented by paperwork. I'm pleased to be joined today by Blair[inaudible]. Blair is a senior director with CSA insurance group. In this episode, we'll be discussing why the insurance industry isn't stale leadership and how insurance and emergency management fit together. Blair, welcome to the Tony stir podcast. Thank you for joining me today.

Speaker 3: 0:49

Yeah, totally. Thanks for having me on. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Yeah, I am as well. You know, this is great. I don't meet too many people who have interest in both insurance and emergency management, so this'll be a great conversation looking forward to fantastic. So, you know, where I always like to start is learning more about you. Um, can you tell us about, you know, what is your origin story? How did you get started in insurance?

Speaker 3: 1:12

Yeah, it actually goes pretty far back. So as a, as a kid, I want to say maybe, uh, 11, 12 years old, I kinda got bit by the finance bug back in the day when they used to print the stock tables in the newspaper and people still got newspapers, you know, I was curious like, what, what do these numbers represent and what is this all about? And I quickly discovered that, uh, you know, there's this concept of having your money work for you. And I kind of pulled that thread and it led to me going to college to study finance and upon graduation really looked at getting into, uh, anything related to finance and, um, had an opportunity to join the insurance industry and kind of from getting my foot in the door there. Uh, I kind of dove head head first and really pursued a lot of the, um, uh, industry groups, uh, continuing education, um, to kind of further my involvement and my education in the space and just, uh, really enjoyed the career. You know, it's something where we can come in and help people and protect their families every day. And it's really noble work that I'm proud to be part of.

Speaker 2: 2:17

Well, that's great. And I think people tend to forget that sometimes that it is about protecting people and that it is about helping people at its core, uh, the insurance industry. And I think one of the other things you said there is also key is, uh, continuing education. W why do you feel continuing education is so important?

Speaker 3: 2:37

You know, things are always changing and it's a technical, uh, industry, you know, there's a lot of moving parts and it's important to kind of keep your skills sharp and current on trends. You know, um, when I first started in the industry, uh, you know, some of the risks that we manage today didn't even exist, you know, uh, 15 years ago, you didn't have strangers riding in your car, you working as an Uber driver or renting your house out as a vacation rental. Um, and there's been all these new exposures that have come in that are exciting because they keep things new and they keep us on the toes. And how do we respond to make sure that we're providing the, the proper coverages, um, that our customers need in a disciplined way as well to protect the insurance company.

Speaker 2: 3:20

Fantastic. And well, and there, you said something I think is also, um, a very key point is that the insurance companies do have a role in this. I think sometimes people forget that the insurance companies also need to maintain a profit, uh, to stay in business so that there'll be around the tip, pay a claim. So, you know, without set is how would you explain that to consumers? How do you explain that to your customers about, you know, that insurance companies also need to stay at the table?

Speaker 3: 3:52

Yeah. Oh, I think, I think it fits right into the theme of your podcast, Tony, with this whole idea of getting ready and, um, as, just as you would with a household, uh, an insurance company needs to be financially stable. You know, we've all seen the events that can happen over the, over the years from significant hurricanes to wildfires, to all the different types of, uh, events that come up that make the news, that there are significant losses and consequences that come with that. And the last thing you want when you've got to file that claim for, for your property or, or on your auto insurance, is for your insurance company to not, not be on that strong financial footing. So it's critical that they're strong stewards of the premiums that they earned and that they invest them wisely and conservatively to be there when the customers ultimately need to collect on that promise that that is their insurance policy.

Speaker 2: 4:49

Well, that's, uh, that's, that's great. And I think that's very well said. And I think that is something that consumers sometimes miss that, you know, the best insurance policy is not always the one with the lowest premium and the best insurance company is not necessarily the one with the lowest premium. So, you know, that's great. And I think that's important information for people to be able to take away is that, you know, it goes beyond that is you want an insurance company that's going to be there. Absolutely

Speaker 3: 5:22

That, uh, that has a strong track record that has great service. You know, the last thing you want when you're filing a claim is, um, company, that's not going to get back to you or be responsive or care for you, and what could be one of the most difficult times of your life, you know? And like you said, sometimes you get what you pay for. And, uh, it's a, it's an important decision that people to make. Um, as far as electing which company you want to be insured with, um, because in a lot of ways you're protecting, you're trusting them to protect your most important assets.

Speaker 2: 5:53

Definitely. And you're talking about big money is, uh, something I point out to people is that their total insurance premiums by all, you know, if you add up all the different lines of coverage that you have health homeowners, auto life, health insurance, that that can exceed your total housing costs.

Speaker 3: 6:11

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 6:13

So why not know where it goes? And that's the other thing too, is, you know, at hearing California houses are really expensive, you know, say, you know, I mentioned to people, I go, if you expect an insurance company to pay you a million dollars, if your house burns down, you can't be surprised that your premiums over a thousand dollars, right. You know, that's still a really good deal. Right. You know, explaining that leverage to people that you know, that the insurance companies have to pull that odds. And that goes towards the whole principle of insurance. Instead, it's all about pulling those odds because as you say, there's going to be that disaster or that earthquake and the insurance companies are going to be expected to pay calling it. Exactly. So, you know, one of the things you mentioned that I think is, um, oftentimes people don't think about is a, do you think of the insurance industry as being stale, but you've said that the insurance industry isn't stale, uh, why do you feel that the insurance industry isn't stale? Yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:18

You know, I think, um, as we've seen with technology and just the marketplace in general, things are moving faster and faster every year. And with new developments become new risks and exposures for people to manage. You know, earlier I was talking about examples with things like ride sharing with Uber and Lyft or, uh, vacation rentals. Um, so there's, there's constantly new risks that are being introduced, that one customers are desiring coverage for. And, uh, you know, insurance companies are tasked with coming up with, uh, creative products that can kind of meet those needs, you know? So I think there's kind of the, the, what we insure, but then the other kind of element that's exciting within the industry is how we do it. So in the financial space, you've heard of the whole FinTech movement, you know, same thing in insurance, you know, insurance tech, and there's so many different companies and vendors out there now that are trying to provide new data points or insights for insurance companies to be able to accurately, uh, rate policies and make that customer experience even more streamlined and smooth, um, throughout the process. So a lot of, you know, kind of going back to what we've talked about a lot, there's a lot of money in the insurance industry as far as premiums being paid. And that's attracting a lot of players into the space to come up with these creative solutions on how we can execute even better.

Speaker 2: 8:36

So, you know, one of the, you know, how we met was we share a common interest of both insurance and emergency management. Um, how do you feel that emergency management fits in with insurance?

Speaker 3: 8:50

Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think there's kind of two sides to it. So we talked about earlier, you know, within insurance there's, there's everyday claims happening every day. You know, people are getting into car accidents, um, homes are having leaks, but the big ones that make the news, you know, the hurricanes and the wildfires and things like that, those are major emergencies that communities need to respond to. So I find it interesting to have insights into what does that whole process look like as far as the logistics and the response and the communications on the community side and while the local agencies and, um, communities are responding at the same times, oftentimes insurance companies are responding as well to get a presence out there in the field to be close to their customers. Um, you know, oftentimes if, if customers are having to evacuate, um, they'd really don't have anywhere else to go. So it's a, it's a strong practice for insurance companies to go out and be at the evacuation sites to have, um, a friendly face there that can be there to support the customers and get them the information and to take their claim and to, to build that relationship and just offer them the support and the trying time. So it's kind of also tasked upon the insurance companies to figure out what the logistics and things, you know, booking the hotels and getting the resources onsite and coordinating everything while obviously not getting in the way or disrupting, um, what the local responders needed to be doing as well to keep everybody safe.

Speaker 2: 10:15

Well, that's great. And that's something, you know, that I've tried to, um, you know, talk about is that, you know, really when you're buying insurances, you are preparing for an emergency, uh, you know, whether that risk is your home burning down an earthquake, getting into a car crash. It it's, it's always about an event that you can prepare for. And that insurance is just a form of emergency management. So, you know, I love that you're going down that avenue as well is, um, do you think that that might help with consumers if they start thinking about insurance from that perspective that it's part of their emergency toolkit?

Speaker 3: 10:57

Yeah, I th I think absolutely. Right. Like everybody learns the value of insurance when they, when you have to have a claim, right. Something devastating happens, you know, nobody is, uh, eager to write that check each month, right. To pay for your, your car insurance or the life insurance, but man, and those events where something significant happens, um, you're going to be grateful that those dollars are spent and there's, um, I think as part of the emergency preparation process, it's so important that people know what they're buying, you know, and within the industry, we often hear so many times people throw out general terms like I have full coverage, you know, and, you know, to an insurance person that can mean so many different things because we offer so many different, uh, uh, levels of different limits and things like that. And just the more educated consumers can be. I know you're big into financial literacy and I think insurance is a big part of that and knowing what your coverages are and how you can better kind of manage the risks of household.

Speaker 2: 11:55

Definitely. And one of the things that I learned in first state is that you can have the most complex first aid kit, but if you don't understand how to use the tools in your first aid kit, they don't do you any good. Exactly. And that the best first aid kit is the one that you happen to have with you. So if you haven't stocked it yeah. In, like you said, is that gets into the coverages, um, that people have is maybe they don't read their policy or they haven't done a review. Um, I know that some of the things that I've seen is that people don't take it, you know, they, they get their insurance policy and they don't come back and look at it for a couple of years. Exactly.

Speaker 3: 12:37

Yeah. It's, it's kind of a set it and forget it, you know, and, uh, another practice that's really helpful for people, especially on the homeowner side is to do a home inventory. You know, you hear now about people, uh, taking pictures or taking a video across your house to kind of capture, you know, what was the construction and the materials used within my home, what were the different pieces of personal property that we kept? So that in the event that you've got to evacuate in the middle of the night, that you've got some really strong documentation, that's going to kind of help you support you throughout that claims process and just make it easier on you to go through that.

Speaker 2: 13:16

That's great. Yeah. I think that's valuable advice is that, um, you have to do the stuff ahead of times, you know, that's the whole word prepare if you can plan ahead. Um, so, you know, when either things is you're in a leadership position and, and, um, you know, leadership is really important. Um, and there's many different styles of leaders. Um, what is your leadership philosophy?

Speaker 3: 13:44

Yeah. To me with, um, you know, I lead a really great team and, um, to me it's really about caring for your people, caring about your customers and caring about the work that you do. You know, everybody's kind of got that built-in kind of BS detector that you can tell when people are being authentic or not. And I think it's so critical that, uh, leaders remain invested and visible amongst their team. You know, one of the quotes that I've really been leveraging a lot recently is, uh, your greatest ability is availability. You know, we always talk about the, the greatest gift you can give people is your time. And I think that's no different for leaders. And that doesn't mean that you need to hover around your team and micromanage them, but people take great comfort in knowing that man, if I really need somebody, something I can reach out to my leader and I know they're available and I'm not going to be bothering them. And, um, I think that's just such a great philosophy is really focused on your availability, creating those connections with your team, um, and building those personal relationships to be able to support them, uh, and getting the work done.

Speaker 2: 14:47

Yeah. Getting the work done. That's, that's it, I think what's even more is the communication component, as you mentioned, is great communication, I think is a sign of a good leader. Um, you know, you can have the strong, silent type, but you know, you need some communication so that, you know, the people you're working with on your team know what to do and what to expect and, and to be able to learn.

Speaker 3: 15:15

Absolutely. And I think, I think that's something that the pandemic has taught us over the last year, right? Communication has always been hard enough amongst the team, but you, you take everybody and go remote overnight and it's, you, you can't read that body language all the time. You're not passing people in the hallways at the office and you really need to be proactive and over communicate. Um, especially with the pace that business gets done these days, with the amount of change going on, that your people remained, uh, informed and engaged, uh, so that they can best perform and execute on the tasks.

Speaker 2: 15:47

Fantastic. Um, so, you know, as we're talking about that is what do you feel goes into being a good leader? What would you go if you have anything to go beyond that?

Speaker 3: 15:59

Yeah. I, I think, you know, if I'm judging a leader, I think there's kind of two components to it. It's, you know, one, are you getting results? And then two, um, you know, are your people engaged to know you're retaining your talent? You know, it's, it's easy to do them in not easy, but it's easier to do them in isolation, right? Like you can go out and, and grind your team and, and push everybody hard and you can get the results for, for a time. Um, but you're really gonna lose them on that, uh, engagement piece. And people are going to start to unplug, or are you going to lose key team members? And then on the flip side of that, you can really drive the engagement piece. You can, you can be everybody's buddy and have the fun environment and have everybody super excited to go to work. But at the same time, if you're not getting the results done, you're also not being successful as a leader. So to me, the, the leaders that really stand out or that are impressive are the ones that are able to do both of that, where it's, you can drive results, really execute on the strategy. But then at the same time, have a team of people that are passionate about the work engaged on what they're doing and excited to come in each day.

Speaker 2: 17:04

That's great. Well, it sounds like it's really being a good leader is about finding balance and, uh, between those being fun and being accessible and, you know, but also holding your team accountable. Absolutely. So, you know, so one of the things I know in emergency management that I spent a lot of time talking about was leadership. Um, have you found anything in emergency management training, leadership training that, that you might apply to the financial services? Well, you

Speaker 3: 17:37

Know, to me, the thing that really stands out about emergency management and it's one of the reasons why I started to study it is that, um, I was really passionate about leadership and I asked myself, where does, where does leadership need to show up the most? Right. And that's most often when we're caught off guard and there's an emergency going on, you know, but I think if you, if you dive into emergency management, some of the common themes are around communication preparation organization. And I think the more structure and framework you can put, uh, in place to operate, whether it's in the course of, uh, um, responding to an emergency or just how you manage your week or your day or your month, the more successful that you're going to be as a leader.

Speaker 2: 18:22

Well, that's great. Yeah. I think that's so important is, you know, that being a good leader is also being organized, um, having your own act together and your own day together. But as you point out, it's also, the communication is really key. Uh, one of the things that, you know, I learned when I did, uh, my emergency management training, that a lot about it is that hierarchy that you have things ready to go. So again, it's about being prepared, someone in emergency kicks in, everybody knows their role. There's not a discussion of like, okay, you're in charge. You know, there's a whole incident command system. Um, you know, so when you're thinking about that and for people putting together their insurances, you know, uh, you know, uh, not phrasing this question very well, but you know, how can people put those organization principles into effect, you know, when reviewing their insurance or thinking about their insurance policies is, you know, so they're prepared and organized.

Speaker 3: 19:28

Yeah. It goes to, uh, kind of their insurance preparation or even their financial preparation, you know, just like, um, with a business or anybody else. I think the first step is really understanding what are the risks that we're exposed to. Right. You know, so if, um, if I'm the only person maybe working in my household, uh, disability insurance is probably going to be pretty important if, if we're all dependent on, you know, my one income, um, you know, if you, you know, you look at, uh, your house, you know, being your biggest asset, you know, if, uh, obviously you're going to want to look to protect that and make sure that you have the proper coverages on that. You know, we always talk about in the finance world having an emergency fund, you know, you never know when the car's going to break, or you have the unexpected job loss that you are anticipating, those things, you know, everybody I know has either had a car breakdown or, uh, experienced a job loss. So while we call them an emergency, a lot of these things can be expected. We just don't know when they're going to surface. And the more we can think about them and plan appropriately on how we're going to respond to them when they come up, uh, the better we're going to be able to sleep at night. And the more prepared we're going to be in the event, that those things do happen. And even if they don't, you're going to be even better for it.

Speaker 2: 20:47

Well, fantastic. And I'm glad you brought up that that point is, um, like, especially with disability insurance or other things, is that you have to plan for certain events. And that is part of emergency management is you have to pack the right tools, um, for the different situations that you might face, because you don't know which kind of emergency you're going to be faced with. It'd be more convenient if you knew what kind of emergency, but that's not the nature of emergencies, you know? Yeah,

Speaker 3: 21:19

Yeah. You find out the hard way most of the time, you know, it's like,

Speaker 2: 21:23

Yeah. So you have to go through the checklist and that gets back to what you were saying earlier. It's about being organized and thinking about the different types of events that might happen since you can have a system in place for all those events, not just, you know, if you only have auto insurance. Oh, great. You're prepared if you get in a car accident, but if your house burns down, you know, you didn't prepare very well. So exactly. Yeah. That's like delineating that whole, uh, program to make sure you're protecting against all your risks. Um, you know, so, uh, you know, the question I always like ending up with is, uh, what is your number one tip on being financially prepared?

Speaker 3: 22:09

Yeah. I think, you know, finance is, uh, an area that I've, I've always been passionate about with personal finance and in talking to people about it. I think, you know, one of the biggest opportunities people have is to, you know, think of your household, like a business in some ways, right. And you know, every single business runs off of some common financial statements, you know? So I'd encourage people to, to build a balance sheet, to, to kind of explore where they're at in their house. You know, so many times I talk to people and they have no idea with where they're even starting from as far as what they have or who they owe and just doing that accounting of, uh, you know, what are your assets, what are your liabilities so that you know, where you're starting from. And then from there, I'd encourage people to take a look at doing some sort of income statement, you know, what is the income that our household is bringing in each month and then getting very diligent and disciplined about tracking your expenses? Um, you know, I don't think people have to do it forever, but I know there's been periods where I'll, I'll go in and we're meticulous about tracking every dollar. And it's amazing what you end up spending versus what you think you spend. Right? Because we all know about the big structural costs we all know about, oh, the mortgage payment or the car payment or the cell phone bill, but it's very easy to forget about, oh, I did spend$20 on girl scout cookies when I was walking out of the store or, you know, they were taking donations at work. So I contributed to the, put some money in the bucket and he started adding up all those little incremental things that we kind of do, uh, on autopilot. And it can really tell a different story and it can help people identify those opportunities they have within their budget to, to maybe increase their savings or be a bit more disciplined on, on their spending habits. It's

Speaker 2: 23:48

Definitely, well, those girl Scouts, they know how to get you the list is cookies, girl scout, exactly. Or girl scout cookies. I mean, right. That's all. And this show is not brought to you by the girl Scouts, but, uh, you know, all kidding aside that that raises a very good point. And I think this also gets back to the emergency management is that it's, it's the little things that start to add up and it's the attention to details. And I think that gets back to what you were saying at the very beginning with understanding your insurance and understanding your financial services products. And that's another way that I think emergency management translates to the financial services world is that emergency management dictates, um, you know, a certain attention to detail. You can't slip up. You have to have, like you said, you have to be organized. Um, do you find that as well that they can slide in that way?

Speaker 3: 24:50

I think, I think it isn't the details. And I would encourage people, you know, as you, as you want to pursue being a little bit more educated on, you know, what are my coverage is what does my policy cover? You know, a lot of the times people either have an insurance agent, or obviously you're tied to an insurance company. Like they want to educate you, you know, they can walk, walk through the process with you and help you better understand what you are buying so that you can make the most use of your insurance dollars and applying to the coverages that, um, are going to provide the most security to your household. So don't feel like you need to go out and figure it out on your own, you know, have them earn those premiums and be there to consult with you and provide guidance and answer your questions so that you feel good about the policies.

Speaker 2: 25:34

Well, that's great. And that's something I encourage people to task questions is, you know, you're, you're at the customer. If you're purchasing a policy, you have the right to ask your insurance company and your insurance agent questions, and you have the right to have your questions answered in a way that makes sense to you. Um, so that's, that's great that you guys encourage people to ask questions, because I think that's really important is for consumers to, to ask questions because you're not going to learn something if you don't ask about it.

Speaker 3: 26:11

Yeah. And it's, um, you know, it's heartbreaking to hear when people learn about it after the fact, right? Like the, the time to find out about your coverages is not after the claim has happened. You know? So in the spirit of this whole conversation about being proactive, being prepared, you know, these are things that you can be doing today so that, you know, hopefully you never encounter, you know, hopefully you never have to file a claim or go through one of these experiences. Um, but you know, look for those opportunities to be proactive and get ahead, um, to provide the best, uh, security to your family.

Speaker 2: 26:47

That's great. That's, that's great advice. So Blair, um, where can people learn more about your be in touch with you? Yeah,

Speaker 3: 26:55

Probably the best place for people to find me is just on LinkedIn. Uh, I love connecting with people, um, within the industry or across any industry. I'm always open up to, uh, building new relationships and helping other people. Uh, my name is pretty unique. So if they just search, uh, Blair Walker, w a C H O B on LinkedIn, I'm pretty easy to find and would love to, would love to connect with anybody that's interested.

Speaker 2: 27:20

Fantastic. And I'll put a link to player's LinkedIn profile in the show notes. So anybody who's listening or watching the podcast can just go to the show notes and, uh, go on over to LinkedIn and connect with Blair. Uh, Blair, thank you for joining me today. It's been great,

Speaker 3: 27:38

Tony. I appreciate the time and the conversation we had. Thanks so much for having me on.

Speaker 2: 27:42

Yeah. Thank you so much. And to everybody, thank you for watching or listening to the Tony Stewart podcast until next time.