Episode 15: Quick Hits - 21 years working on disasters with Justin Hoellerich

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How Do You Rebuild After Losing Everything? 

In this episode, we sit down with disaster recovery expert Justin Hollerich from Bright Harbor to talk about what really helps after catastrophic loss—what works, what doesn’t, and what most people overlook. With over two decades navigating recovery from wildfires, floods, and hurricanes, Justin shares practical lessons on managing the mental toll of starting over, building back stronger, and staying grounded when life is in chaos.

We cover:

• Why most people underestimate the mental strain of recovery
• Simple strategies to protect your health and mindset during tough times
• How community can make or break the path to rebuilding
• Why facts—not fear—are essential to recovery
• The unique resilience Justin has witnessed in Los Angeles after the fires

Whether you’re navigating personal loss, supporting someone who is, or just interested in how people rise after devastation, this conversation offers grounded insights and actionable takeaways.

🎧 Listen now to understand why community matters more than ever.

If you find this useful, share it with someone rebuilding or working through hard things.

Shared Ground is produced by Sean Knierim and Allan Marks. Thanks to Cory Grabow, Kara Poltor, Corey Walles (from The Recording Studio) for your support in launching this effort.

For more stories of resilience & rebuilding, kindness & generosity: visit shared-ground.com and subscribe to Sean's substack. We invite you to share your own stories of resilience at the Shared Ground website - whether in response to the January fires in LA or other situations.

Follow us at seanknierim.substack.com, Instagram, or wherever you listen to podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc).

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for joining today.
As we've been talking aboutresilient rebuilding here in Los
Angeles and beyond for the lasttwo days, could you introduce
yourself and share what you'reup to these days?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, sean, thanks.
My name is Justin Hollerich.
I work with a company calledBright Harbor.
We are a entire recoveryprocess.

(00:30):
The company was founded basedon the concept of the founder,
joel Wish had a friend inColorado that lost his home his
home.
This individual tried tonavigate the recovery process on

(00:50):
his own, found the process tobe extremely aggravating and
very undefined in terms of howto even navigate a total loss
rebuild, and Joel found thatthis was an area that really has
not been addressed just interms of support in general for
people to actually recover fromthese type of events.
Our company is currently in LAright now helping navigate the

(01:11):
complexity of rebuilding, alsosupporting renters in their
issues with potentiallyrecovering their assets that
they may have lost.
If they're underinsured, ifthey're uninsured, we really try
to help get them in a positionto financially try to rebound in
any way that they can.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
And right now I don't know if people are going to be
able to hear.
In the background we have about50 people working in a design
session to support and many ofthese folks have worked over a
long time in disaster andservice to communities.
You yourself, you said 21 years.
What were you doing before youcame to Bright Harbor?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Correct.
Yeah, I've been in the recoveryindustry for a little over 21
years, mostly as a publicadjuster.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I was also a carrier adjuster for a period of time,
as well as an independentadjuster and expert witness in
legal actions relating toinsurance recovery.
Justin, we've talked to peoplethroughout this, the last six
months and, in fact, the last 10years.
That Side Porch has been aroundabout working on hard things,
especially when you're insituations where you yourself
are being affected in tough ways, when others might be coming
through pretty traumaticexperiences.
What have you seen in terms oftaking care of yourself, from

(02:21):
you and from others?
You've been around, like anyinsights you've seen on how to
take care of yourself so thatyou can even manage in these
situations?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Absolutely.
I think this is one of the mostoverlooked components of people
trying to recover in terms ofthese aspects.
The mental aspect, the mentalhealth of you when you're trying
to go through this recoveryprocess, is critical.
If you're not sleeping well, ifyou don't eat well, if you're

(02:48):
waking up at 2 am with thoughtsabout what you're missing on
your personal property list,things of that nature, it adds
up and what it adds up to iskind of a fogginess, a brain
fogginess that also includestrauma, things that people are
trying to work through in termsof really trying to process what
the event was, in terms of howthat affected their lives.
What I have noticed in thiscommunity, especially in the LA

(03:12):
community, is a tremendousamount of resilience in terms of
not only addressing theimmediate trauma of losing their
home and losing their communityand things of that nature, but
also not giving up andtruthfully really putting full
effort into trying to make thiswork in terms of rebuilding and

(03:32):
or moving back if they have arenter or if they're in a rental
situation, having theirlandlord involved as well and
trying to get back as soon aspossible.
So the community, in my opinion, has been extremely effective
in supporting each other throughthis process, in terms of
guiding people in a very complexsituation to just reassure that

(03:56):
this isn't the end of the world, that there are things that you
can do, that this is manageableand that this is potentially
doable with the support and theguidance that typically is
needed in this situation.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
So if I pull out a few things I heard from you and
I've heard from others over theyears eating a little bit better
, sleeping a little bit more, ifyou can, a little more
hydration, physical activity, alittle more hydration, physical
activity and, importantly,really try and prioritize the
community.
Many in times of trauma or intimes of struggle will isolate,
will try and take on thingsthemselves, and I think what I

(04:27):
heard from you really clearly isopening up to community and
being vulnerable, which issomething we heard a lot about
over the last weeks, can reallyhelp one work through this.
So how about you for yourself?
Like you're really good abouttalking about others, sure, you
yourself, what do you findreally helps you when you're
working on these hard things?

Speaker 2 (04:46):
So, at the end of the day, in my opinion, what helps
calm me down in these types ofsituations is relying on facts.
There's just a lot ofmisinformation out there or not
understanding basically what isreal, and in order to really
make good decisions movingforward, you have to understand
what the facts are and what'sreal.
And I feel like at the end ofthe day, especially with

(05:09):
insurance and the anxiety ofrecovering and insurance and a
few of the things that Iactually focus on when I'm
thinking about trying tomaintain a healthy level mental
health level is exercising,eating well, taking walks,
leaving a notepad and a pen byyour bed in case you wake up at

(05:32):
2 am and have thoughts aboutwhat you need to talk about.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
I find a lot of times , if I wake up or even during
the day, if I have thosethoughts and I don't put them on
a piece of paper, they'll keepbanging around in my brain.
But by putting them physicallythis doesn't work.
If I type it, it works.
If I write it, it helps me thenrelinquish those to another
time.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Absolutely.
You want to get your thoughtsdown so that you don't have this
dynamic cycle that keeps goingon about trying to cover a
thousand different things at thesame time.
Focus on things that you canattack now and then plan on
short-term and long-term goalsin terms of what really is
necessary for you to move from Ato Z in terms of the recovery

(06:10):
process.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
And focusing on what you can control versus what you
can't, and I find a lot of times, especially in moments of
struggle, many of the things Itry to work on are things I
actually can't do, which leadsto continued frustrations.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Absolutely, especially in the grant world
where things change daily.
The FEMA world insurance ingeneral is kind of a product
that is subjective and very hardto project in terms of the
output.
Yeah, we look at, you knowthese are all things that create
really a sleep issue and oranxiety, and we highly recommend

(06:44):
that people do seek, you know,mental health advocacy out there
in terms of being able to openup and share the trauma that
typically people go through withsomebody that's other than
their family.
And I feel like that's also avery important concept is you
know you have your family, youhave your support system, but
you know you need to havesomebody kind of outside your

(07:06):
circle, in my opinion, to reallykind of really explain and or
show somebody how you feel aboutwhat you're feeling inside in
terms of your recovery processand I find that, as someone who
came through losing my house andmy family's house earlier this
year, seeing others bevulnerable helps me understand
it's okay to feel the way I am.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
So as we move forward so we've talked about a lot of
these hard things what'sbringing you hope, Justin?

Speaker 2 (07:32):
First and foremost, I would say the community aspect,
in terms of the effort beingput forward to rebuild in LA, is
something that I have notwitnessed in 21 years of
disaster recovery.
People want to rebuild here andthey are very adamant at trying

(07:53):
to recover their community, andthat is something that will
completely resonate through theentire rebuild process, from the
government level to the locallevel, to the individual
businesses and the actual peoplethat live there.
They all need to work togetherand they have in terms of trying
to recreate something that iscompletely lost.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Wonderful.
Thank you so much for findingtime and pulling away from what
I'm sure the audio will pullthrough that there's a whole
crowd behind us designing a fundto try and support communities
around here.
Thanks for what you and BrightHarbor are doing, Justin, and I
hope some folks can look toy'all and find some support from
you.
Thank you, Sean, I reallyappreciate it.