July 21, 2025 • 50 mins
In this episode of Local Leaders the Podcast, Jim Chapman sits down with David and Marissa Hofstetter of Restoration 1 of East Baton Rouge to discuss the lesser known facts of storm prep as well as other information to get you ready should disaster strike.
Restoration1 on the web:
https://restoration1.com/east-baton-rouge
Restoration1 on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/R1EBR
Restoration1 on the web:
https://restoration1.com/east-baton-rouge
Restoration1 on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/R1EBR
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hey everyone, and welcome back to local leaders of the podcast.
And look, I'm excited today because I have some familiar
faces in front of me, knowing them a long time,
and if you are in the Livingston Parish area you
might know them too. They're David and Marissa Hofstadters. So
first off, and you're with Restoration one. But first off, welcome, yep,
(00:35):
thanks for having us, Thanks having I am excited to
have y'all here. And look, we couldn't pick better time.
And we were talking about this off air prior to
recording this podcast, but we have a storm actually in
the golf right now as we record a crossing into
the golf.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You just never know where they're going to pop up.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
It's that time of year. It's uh, we're all used
to it at this point. Yeah, for South Louisiana, it's
just that time of year.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
That's right, And that's going to kind of be the
cusp of what we're going to talk about today, is
the fact that you've always got to be prepared this
time of year for storms, not only hurricanes, but sometimes
like what's coming in the Gulf, it's more of a rainmaker,
but that can be worse for South Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, depending on precipitation up to maybe a given year
and the ground saturated, and we've had some rain here recently.
It otherwise may not be an issue, but it feels
like they're getting kind of earlier and earlier every year. Yeah,
you know, the whole say the whole thing, June first
and November first, But like here in the last few years,
we've had some events that are occurring earlier and earlier.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Absolutely, So before we get into it, and we're going
to give you some tips today, folks that are off
the beaten path, if you will, what you're used to hearing,
but as important or more important, So stay tuned for that.
I do want to talk a little bit about restoration
one your company, and David, I'd like to start off
(01:58):
with you. You a story about you know, I call
it the LinkedIn story. It's become a famous story in
these parts, but it blows my mind every time.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
You tell it.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So just quickly some up. How you ended up in
the restoration business.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yea rest Following the flood in twenty sixteen, I left
kind of the corporate field and went to work for
a local builder here. Did that for a few years,
and was having a lot of success, was happy with
what I was doing, but there was just something inside
of me, that entrepreneurial spirit that I just wanted to do.
Turned on at the time, I think it was called
career interest on LinkedIn, where it would it would send
(02:34):
out your resume, your profile, but not alert your current employer, which.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Is always a good Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
So I turned that on and get flooded sort of
with in my inbox with offers and interests, i should say,
and this guy selling he's a franchise broker selling different franchises,
and after about a ten minute call with him, I
knew it's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
We talked about it last time, researched her for a
few weeks before I brought up to Marisa's attention, and
answer was okay, let's do it. And fast forward seven years,
here we are. We've had a lot of success, been
very fortunate, been able to serve and help a lot
of people, have created careers for our employees, and I mean,
we could not be more proud of what it is
we've accomplished.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, yeah, it really has been a journey for you.
And look, I'm not surprised From a minute that I
met you, folks, I knew you had it together. I
knew you have what it took to be an entrepreneur.
Definitely have the spirit for an entrepreneur, which is an
important thing, and you've really just taken that ball and
(03:33):
run with it. You have a company, franchise company behind you,
Restoration One, that is really amazing with the training.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I always see.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
You on Facebook, both of y'all going to training events
and just constant education.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, it's been a huge part of our success is
not just limiting ourselves to our local market in terms
of knowledge. We've got plenty of people in the professional
world that we lean on. Vendors, right, You've served that
role for us for quite some time, but we've really
taken advantage of the national footprint of Restoration One and
what we're able to offer. For example, next week Monday
(04:09):
and Tuesday, I'll be up in Ohio within our peer group,
which is about fifteen other Restoration one owners. They lock
us in a room for two days and we talk
about business. It's all structured, and you know that has
been invaluable for us. For the last number of years.
We've been able to participate in.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
That absolutely, And of course you're in an area where
we're prone to having events, if you will, But you
don't just serve people when these hurricane events happen.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Are storms, I mean.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, fire, yeah, you know, which could be possibly out
of the blue.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
You help with that, Yeah, absolutely, Marissa.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
So you are the other side, I guess, the other
side of restoration one, the part B of this power couple,
if you will. We've talked about fires before and things
that people miss, and one of those things is like
dryer land. That was one of the things that surprised
me that cause a lot of fires. And I'll tell
you how serious this is. I'll tell you a personal story. Actually,
(05:09):
you gave a talk at a networking group that I
was a part of. I went home and I told
my wife, you won't believe this, but Drydalant. You got
a whole house kitchen on fire. And that's the number
one thing that people miss.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And what does my wife do.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
She goes and pulls a limp thing and it was full,
chalk full. Now she was like a dog to a
bone at that point. She's getting it out of there.
So we try to suck it out with the vacuum
only got so much so she's ordering things off Amazon
that you fish in there to pull it out. You
wouldn't believe how much we pulled out just doing that.
(05:43):
Just shocking, how much how important that is to do that,
you would never think, right, You see a lot of
that when you when you go on these jobs or
you get called out for an emergency, and it's it's
things that could have been avoided just taking a few
some steps.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, Preventive maintenance is a very real thing. Equally as
much though, you know, insurance is designed to protect us
as consumers from things that they deem you know, sudden
and accidental. Although cleaning dryer linens are preventedive maintenance thing,
a lot of what we see just happens with with
sort of no signs of warning. Electrical shorts. I mean,
(06:22):
when you consider how much electrical is given inside of
a building and plumbing, it's really quite fascinating of all
the different contact points where you could have something like
that occur. So there's a huge degree of me that's
you know, it's not divine, but you know, if something's
going to happen, it may be something that you absolutely
had no control over. Sure, however, you get into like
Christmas season, and we see it all the time with
(06:43):
space heaters and overloaded circuits and maybe an old breaker
that was supposed to trip at fifteen amps but it didn't.
Then it continue to let it get hot and then
it causes a fire. So there's some things that as consumers,
you know, we can stop ourselves from doing. But GYM,
a lot of it is sudden and accidental. I mean
you had no real way of knowing. Oh I didn't know.
(07:03):
I was supposed to inspect my plumbing once a year
to make sure everything was fine. Until something happens. It's
just kind of it. There's no way to see it coming.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Yeah, Like speaking of Christmas, I mean you probably have a.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Drawer full of chargers. Yes, everybody does.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
And just because it fits into something doesn't mean it's
the one you should use. But again, if someone's not
educated on that, it fits and walks away, whether it's
hoverboard or you know, new toy from Christmas. All yeah,
different things and those can you know, catch fire and
cause a lot of damage if not caught immediately.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
So and just things like that.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
That was something I also learned from you, you folks,
And I'll tell you I have a charger now for
my lawnmar. My lawnmar runs off battery. It's awesome actually,
but uh, you know, these are big batteries, really big batteries,
and so I'm very careful and watching that. Of course,
I have to charge a thing up, but I don't
(08:01):
leave it plugged in all the time because it kind
of feels hot when you do that.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I've I've found myself so many times in the last
few years going into the garage and taking my Ryobi
or Milwaukee batteries off the charger that have been running
for a month, or like the hot wheels, I don't
know what it's called, the little jeep we have for
our sun. Yeah, it'll be you know, sometimes ten o'clock
a night, I'll open the grass let me. I won't
plug that because we've just seen so many of these
(08:27):
house fires occur around golf carts, lawnmowers, anywhere you have
battery and electrical it's possible for it to happen.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Yeah, a large amount of them start in the garage,
So I mean that's a really good place to start
if you're trying to you know, just kind of do
audit and see what can I be doing what can
I be checking on what can I do to prevent
something like this happening, which, of course you're not gonna
prevent it all, but the garage is definitely a good
place to start.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, and I'll tell you you folks.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Are dealing with people in some of the worst times
of their lives. In some cases, maybe their house burned down.
I mean, we saw a irreplaceable plantation home burned down
right across the river from us. That was likely an
electrical related issue in that case.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
But things happen out.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Of the clear blue, and you have to have I
would imagine Marissa's a demeanor about you, if you will,
to be someone that has a calming nature, because these people,
whoever you're dealing with, this is a bad moment in
their life, and it's probably something you got to.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Keep in mind all the time. I don't know how
you do it. Really.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
We're in restoration, but we're in the business of people,
and people come before the restoration, before the work authorizations,
before the contracts, all of those things, and it's you're
helping someone navigate, like you said, one of the most
(10:04):
devastating events in their life, possibly and especially if it's
a home.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
That is that's their their.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Their sanctuary.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yeah, thank you, they're they're sanctuary. That's where their things are,
their children's things, all of the all of the memories,
all of the keepsakes, all of the photos. You know,
there are things that can be replaced, but it's it's
just the emotional toll that it takes on someone that
really has to be put before anything else. And so
(10:35):
we we make sure to really invest in training.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
Our team on that.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
And I think we've done a really good job at
just making sure from the get go that we hire
people that already embody those same values that we have,
and they are people people. They are there for the
person first before anything else.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Well, one thing I'll kind of add on that is,
you know, we were not privy to the after right,
you know, whether it's a fire or water damage. We
get in there, we do our job, and we turn
the keys back over and say, hey, welcome home. I've
followed up with a few of our clients in the
past or had you know, was it a referral and
we knew these people personally. One of the things that
has never talked about from my perspective is what happens
(11:16):
in the six to twelve months after something like that,
especially a fire, I mean that there's gonna be some
pretty traumatic experiences. You know. You know what's gonna happen
the first night we spend back in there, if the
fire started upstairs in the kids bedroom, and I'm gonna
be really concerned that that's gonna happen again, because we
just went through the six to eight month ordeal. So
for those that go through these types of things, it's
not just from the time of the event to the
(11:36):
time we give you your keys back. It's it's probably
a lifelong thing. We were talking about the twenty sixteen
flood off air and how we see what's happening across
the country and we naturally feel, Man, we just went
through that kind of stuff. And if you've lived in
South Louisiana long enough, you've probably been through multiple events.
So it's it's also just as important, I think, to
not only take care of people, but in the event
(11:59):
they have some lingering trauma from what they've experienced, is
to try to be there for them if necessary there
as well.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, and and PTSD is a real thing when it
comes to that. I know many many people that have
PTSD from the flood and including myself. I mean when
it when they talk about a lot of rain, you
better believe I'm hyper focused on that a meet river
at Denim Springs and what the the the level is
of that river as it rises. And I never did
(12:29):
that before twenty sixteen ever. Uh So that is a
byproduct of going through that. Let me let me switch
gears a little bit. One thing that I think is
just awesome about your company is the recognition you've received
for the great work that you've done. Both of you
look Future five winners, right Marissa Hofstadter one one in
(12:55):
twenty twenty two. I say one was selected for Future
five in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
David was selected. Couldn't couldn't agree with that more.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
That's a testament to your leadership ability and the things
that you do for your community.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I think that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Just follow him Marissa's footsteps. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
That's right, said it, not me, he did.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And uh you were also a Livingstone Young Professionals Member
of the Year in twenty twenty. Uh So you're very
involved in your community out and that's the point I'm
getting at there. Outside of your business your business does
tie into your community, but you're very involved. You give
a lot of yourself outside of just to your business.
(13:38):
And I think that's important when you're when you're dealing
with companies, especially in the restoration business, because there's reputable
ones and there's ones that maybe aren't so reputable. Uh,
And so one thing about restoration one you've got to
you've got it's a legit company behind that name that
(13:58):
is going to see it through all the way whatever
event you're going.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, I've told the Risks this a few times. You know,
she's from from Livingston Parish. I'm not, but I've lived
here for the last ten years and this is home.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
I grew up in Washington Parish, which is always going
to be a degree of home for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
But yeah, I think a watermelon into one, I think
the best around.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I've picked a few of them. Yeah, but you know,
not not having been born or from this area, but
I've lived here now the entire time we've been married,
and Livingston Parish is home, you know, and it's just
such a great community. It has been a great place
to start a business and grow and uh, serving that
community is very important. Speaking for myself.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
So yeah, and when you look at our business and restoration,
we're not traditional contractors where you come up with an
idea or an addition or a new home, you're planning
for it, you're budgeting for it, you're shopping around all
of these things. When you call us, it's a oh
(14:57):
crap moment and it's something that has to be taken
care of right away, and you don't have the time
to shop around to you know, compare this or that.
So trust, like you said, is so huge. We're asking
people to blindly trust us to come into their home,
their sanctuary, and tell them what needs to be done,
and do it all very you know, in a very
(15:20):
short amount of time, very quickly.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
So of course it's important.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Reputation is huge for us and important for us not
only because I'm from here and we live here and
our kids go to school here and play.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Sports and all those things.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
But we understand the gravity of that call and that choice.
And so the more we have helped our community and
get to know the people in our community, it just
builds that trust, and we hope that makes it easier
for someone to just kind of say, hey, you're the expert,
(15:53):
please just do what.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
You know needs to be done.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
That's right and it reflects as a matter of fact,
just this or best of Winter for restoration services by
the advocate.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Huge honor. Now huge honor. There's some good ones out
there and say to.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Win that, uh, well deserved and another huge honor for
your company that just continues to do great things.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Uh. Let's talk about some of the things that you
do do.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I know obviously house fires big or small.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Uh what else?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Storm damage, work, floods, things like that, water damage, I
guess of any sort. Uh am I leaving anything out.
Mold mold remediation.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
So in the sale Louisiana, you do have to be
licensed in molder remediation. We do hold a mold license,
so we're able to do that if the water damage
was not mitigated quickly enough or something that was kind
of hidden and when unnoticed for some time, so we're
able to take care take care of that as well. Biohazard,
(17:01):
it could be anything from bad bugs to.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
Crime scene clean up.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah, we've that's probably an episode for another day in
terms of the bio because it can did pretty pretty gnarly.
But one thing in the last couple of years we've
started a new division is in personal property. So you
know we talked about house fires a lot. You know,
if if your property sustains smoke or fire damage, you know,
we can come in and inventory every widget down, everything
(17:29):
in the junk drawer, submit that list back to your
insurance company for compensation, you know, if it's damaged, or
we can take that property, clean it stored off site
so that your house doesn't become a storage locker. It
just makes the entire process that much easier. So it
usually starts with personal property, then the mitigation phase, and
then the subsequent repairs that need to occur. And they know,
by the way, we'll come back at the very end
(17:50):
of the job and put everything back in your home
and set it back up to your specification. So that's
the personal property side. We started about two years ago
when we moved into our new facility. And yeah, a
general contractor at heart, but we offer some services that
nuance in the area of property and casualty.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Very interesting And.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I'm gonna give you a scenario real quick, and you
tell me how this would be handled. So I wake
up at three o'clock in the morning, maybe I'm going
to the restroom, I step in the bathroom and I
feel water, and then I look down and maybe.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
A pipe's busted.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Most people aren't gonna deal with that a whole lot
in their lives, but when they do, they probably aren't
going to know really what to do other than turn
the water off, which you have a water main in
the front of your house. Once that is done.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
A couple of.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Interesting things about your company. Number One, you're twenty four
to seven. So if it's three o'clock in the morning,
I can still call David might not am, he might
answer Hello.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I'll probably call him directly.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
And I had that frog in my throat at three
am a few times.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Just and if he doesn't answer, yeah, sometimes you.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Know is a right, I get it.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
But you are twenty four to seven, so that's especially
good for businesses who may need to get up and
running as quickly as possible.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
But in addition to that, you also you work with
the insurance, right.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yeah, absolutely. So one of our biggest value add services
I WILL is not the physical restoration whatever we're doing,
it's being a trusted partner in the process in the
nuance of insurance and navigating claims. Yeah, I want to
be very clear, we are not licensed adjusters. We do
(19:38):
not make coverage decisions behin any stretch. However, we do
offer advice to people that say, oh, well, you have
a state farm policy and here's what I see, here's
what we might be able to expect from this policy
based on previous experience. However, we still need to corroborate
that with your adjuster to make sure all as well.
And most people are trusting in that sense, right. Sure,
(19:58):
that goes back to reputation, and a lot of phone
calls to get are based on the reviews we have
and people have done that homework before they even call.
But just simply put, not only restoring physical property, but
helping the insured navigate that insurance process can be invaluable.
Of course, I feel that way, and I'm sure if
you would pull people that we've served, they would say, yeah,
(20:19):
I mean I didn't never been through this before. I
wasn't sure what to expect. So again, not just having
someone that's good from a trade standpoint, but also having
someone with some experience to say, hey, here's what you
can expect to happen. And it's also really satisfying when
we explain that, and then it just domino. It just
falls into and you can see minute by minute that
trust starting to grow. Like yep, I did talk to
(20:40):
my adjuster. They did corroborate what you said about X
Y Z. Okay, thank you. Obviously I was a little apprehensive,
but hey, let's move forward. That's always a huge one
is being able to get someone to see that. Yeah,
I mean we do have experience in this, of course.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
And when these insurance claims are made, is there money
required up front?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
No money up front, just insurance verification somewhere once.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
You explain kind of the mitigation kind of starting in that.
You talked about blind trust a second ago. Want you
just kind of talk about that not only the blind
trust from the client to us, but us the blind
trust we put in the insurance company.
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
So, yeah, when we were talking about this is a
oh crap moment, you're not planning for it. So what
we're asking someone who's standing in front of us in
a flooded house or a burning house or whatever it
might be, We're saying, we need you to sign this
work authorization giving us permission to begin work.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
We don't know the.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Exact costs yet, but we're going to work with your adjuster.
Every step of the way. We use the same exact
software that they use for pricing. It's line item pricing.
We're going to keep them informed. If there's anything that
comes up, we're going to make sure that they know
about it. If there's anything that needs special permission, we're
going to talk to them out it, and we're kind
(22:02):
of just we're gonna vi that liaison between you know,
the two between the insured and the insurance carrier, and
we're going to make sure that there are no surprises
and that everything is done and documented correctly so that
whenever we submit this invoice on your behalf, that we're
gonna get that you know, that payment from the carrier
(22:25):
that that you're owned based on your policy. So again,
that takes a lot of blind trust from someone, which
is also why it's so important to have the reputation
in your community to earn to earn that trust from somebody.
And then on the flip side of that, we're also
performing work with zero dollars down and we're trusting blindly
(22:49):
trusting our customer that whenever that those funds are deposited
or received, that they're going to give us what we're owed.
Sure so both parties are asking, you know, for a
lot of trust from one another in that sense.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
And I'll tell you you almost cannot put a price
on the the I don't want to use the term
you're holding somebody's hand and walking them, but you kind
of are people that And this is a stressful time
already for people, especially people that don't deal with it often.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
And so the last thing.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
They want to have to do is deal with not
knowing the proper steps that they need to take in
order to get resolution to that issue, whatever it is,
whether it's water damage, smoke, mold, whatever. So you just
can't put a price on it. And you can mention reviews,
and I'm glad you mentioned that I wanted to. Throughout
(23:51):
this podcast, I'm gonna review a couple of these reviews
with the people listening. I think those are important, and
I'm going to one that really stuck out to me.
I'm gonna read it quickly, says woke up at three
point thirty am to chaos my neighbor's garage, fire, jumping
to our place, cats freaking out, tearing up the side
(24:12):
of the house.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
This person can write, by the way, very well.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
And through the attic between the fire and the water
from the firefighters. The house was nearly a total loss,
and you don't think about that, but the water from
the fire hoses eventually stripped down to the studs. Needed
a new roof and second floor frame. Truly terrible situation,
but here comes restoration. One of Baton Ruge specifically, is
(24:37):
it end to one. Okay stepped up big time. He
was my main point of contact through the entire ordeal.
And that right there is what we were just talking about.
There's a contact there that is working with you. This
person described it as an ordeal. This is not something fun.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
You know. His sister lives.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Down the street, called him immediately and he was there,
introduced himself while things were still unfolding. By ten am,
his crew was already tarping and securing what was left
of our house. The immediate response in a crisis meant everything.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah. Huge.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
We pride ourselves so much more reviews because I mean, look,
anyone can get on there and say whatever they want,
right so we you know, we don't take feedback like
that for granted, and this case in particular, I mean
this was a ten month relationship from the time the
fire occurred to the time these folks were able to
move back in was ten months. Jim, you're talking we
(25:34):
were a part of their life for a significant portion.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
By the way, these folks got married a month into
this what the fire occurred and they wow, got married,
went on a honeymoon, and when they came back, we
had accomplished mini scopes. So yeah, you talk about trust.
You know, we can't underscore how important that is huge.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
And and the fact that this person took the time
to really and I only read a couple paragraphs of it, folks,
but you can go on there and look, and I
encourage you to do that. Check out these reviews. But
that meant the impression you put on them was something
where they said, you know, I'm going to really be
descriptive about how happy I was with the service from
(26:16):
this company.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
It's huge.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
It's hard people will I say it all the time.
If they have a bad experience, in two seconds, they'll
give a negative review. Someone that has a good experience
sometimes they.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Expect that, so they don't go give the review.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
But you have a lot of glowing reviews, and I
think that is a testament.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
To the good work you're doing. For the community, there's
no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Let's get into some hurricane prep stuff that we've put
together today.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I want to talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And you know, it's not always a hurricane that comes
through as we as we discussed earlier, that may cause
a situation where you need to call restoration.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
One.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
The good thing about hurricane or the good thing about
the fact that hurricanes blow through here is that usually
have a little warning, right, there's a little time, a
little time when it's sitting in the golf. One thing
people need to keep in mind though, Uh, you can't
call and get insurance when it's in the golf.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Golf it's over.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, So once it hits that, once it hits that
golf it is it is too late. So make sure
number one that you're insured. What what is something that
maybe you see more often than not that they miss
you mean as far as coverage, Well, both coverage and
the proper work ahead of time.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yeah, coverages are and I want to be again like
a full disclaimer about me and I am not a
license insurance professional. However, we see this so much that
it has forced me to go review our own policies
right after seeing something with a certain carrier, like let
me make sure I've got that on my house. As
(28:01):
hard as this is to ask the audience to do,
you really need to know your policy as well as
you can. And that's why you have an agent, you know,
whoever you bought that policy from. That is their job.
And the agents that we partner with and the people
we talk to want to be that conduit to say
I want you to understand what's in your policy. I
would suspect as an agent that if an event occurs
(28:22):
and I have someone call me and I've got to say, hey, Jim,
you don't have coverage for that because of X, Y
Z right, and I gotta imagine it's a pretty gutting feeling.
You know, you want to be there. You've sold them something. Obviously,
I would imagine that that's a challenging thing to deliver,
to say, yeah, you have this policy, but here. So
we find a lot of those agents want to explain it.
(28:43):
They want their clients to be educated on what it
is they are covered for and against, and frankly it
should make I would imagine it makes their job easier
in the time of event because they've laid the correct expectations,
so I don't I'm probably going to indirectly answer your question,
but just knowing your policy, knowing what coverages you have,
no one wants to be surprise. You mentioned off air
during the flood of the difference between you know, structure
(29:04):
insurance and contents on flood YEP. I canna imagine that
was a big kick in the gut. Oh yeah, and
we've heard dozens of those stories. You know, we didn't
have flood insurance back in twenty sixteen flood zone X
didn't know any better. Yeah, we'll never make that mistake again.
But anyway, it you know, you pay this premium, you
have coverage in place. You really and the owner should
be one to use the policy holder to know what
(29:25):
you have. Sure again talking about blind trust, that's okay too,
but communicating those needs to your agent and say, look,
i've heard these stories of X y Z. I don't
want that to happen to me. What's that provision and
that policy going to cost extra if anything, for us
to be insured against that?
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, great point, and one thing that you probably run
into a lot. And I know with my policy, I
didn't realize that this was an adnum to your policy.
It wasn't something automatically included, was like sewer coverage. So
if you sewer back, if you sewer backed up, your
toilet backed up, I don't know, pick a t tragedy.
(30:00):
But unless you have that extra endorsement endorsement on your
insurance yeap, on your own, you'll probably see that.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
We see it, We see it often, and a lot
of carriers will cap that coverage at around ten percent
of policy max. So if you're insured for two hundred
and fifty thousand in your structure, you've got twenty five
thousand dollars worth of coverage in that example for sewer
and drained backup if it applies, and there's there's different
kickers on what is concerned, you know, considered sewer and
drained backup versus not, But that that twenty five thousand
(30:32):
includes all of it, the mitigation, the personal property, the repairs,
an the al e, which we'll get into in a
second terms of what that means. That's an all encompassing coverage.
So if the mitigational loan is ten thousand dollars, will
you really only have fifteen left to put it back together?
And often those coverages may not be enough to support
the amount of damage that's there. So anyway, just knowing
what's in your policy, it's critical please consult your agent,
(30:55):
review it annually. If you hear something happening to someone,
go autit your own policy and just just I emplore
you to make sure you have the coverage necessary.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yeah, and making sure that you have access to it
after the event may happen. Whether I mean, I would
say having both digital you know, whether it's screenshotting it
on your phone, but then let's say the power goes out,
you don't can't charge your phone, it dies, whatever the
situation is, having a paper copy as well, and just
(31:26):
making sure to you know, seal it in something watertight
to keep you know, putting it up high, putting in
a rubber made container or you know ziploc bag. Just
things like that that you know, once the the damage
has been done, you're not thinking about that. Those are
things you can do ahead of time to just be
prepared all hurricane season long.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
I've got to give a shout out to the people
of Livingston Paris. It may surprise you. It surprised me
in the early days of how many people have physical
copies of their policies these days, it's actually really high.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
I've been on countless jobs where I show up and
this is not always a rhetorical question. I'll say, Hey,
do you happen to have a copy of your policy
your declarations page at least so that we can see
what you have? Yeah, I'm problem. Here you go and
it's like that happens a lot. Yeah, so I want
to give a shout out to the people of this parish.
It happens a lot.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Love paper around here.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
I'm a paper go see, that's exactly what I'm saying.
That was not rehearsed. It happens so often, and as
a contractor, again, we're not determining coverage, but at least
giving us an idea. It happens often on fire. Personal
property can sometimes be undervalued. Sure, Jim, if you go
in your house right now, I'm not gonna loudcap you here,
(32:42):
but you you and your home have upwards, if not
more than, one hundred thousand dollars worth of clothes, spoons, cups.
I mean, your personal property adds up in a hardening you.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
No doubt about it, especially larger families. Oh my case,
five people.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
It's it's nothing for a two thousand square foot house,
just to give a number to have one of two
hundred thousand dollars worth of actual clothing. Shoot, I mean
just anything, computer screens everything. I mean, those.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
TVs are so unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
We see it often. On the personal property side. There
sometimes can be some coverage deltas, and it's so important
for us on that very first day to go, hey,
you have a two thousand square foot house, I would
suspect you have X in terms of value. You have
seventy five K worth coverage. We need to be very
careful on what you're requesting here because we don't want
(33:31):
to run up a tab with the insurance company and
take away from that number to get you reimbursed for
your mattresses, your couches, your clothes. Like, we have to
take all that into consideration. Yeah, all that to say,
having copies of your deck page for us often helps
steer the ship in terms of how we should approach something.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, it's it's a roadmap to what to what you
need to get back home again or what's possible.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
And I think to going along with that, the just
the documentation of your contents ahead of time, It's different
than if you know, you had a leak in your bathroom,
someone like restoration one would go in and document those
things after the fact, because that's not going to affect
(34:16):
hundreds of thousands of dollars of contents. But we're talking
about hurricanes, storms, floods. You've probably heard to just go
through every room of your house and.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
Video would be the quickest way.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
But you can take timestamped photos, especially those higher priced items,
those jewelry, valuables, things like that, because God forbid your
roof get torn off, or you know, flood comes up.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
Six feet in your house. You know, how are you
exactly going to prove exactly what it was that you had.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I cannot tell you how many times this just happened
here locally for a house fire we were doing. You
know I mentioned we it's called a pack out and
a pack in inventory. We take everything out and then
we bring it back when it's time. We brought a
client's belongings back to them after the house was put
back together, and the feedback that got to me was, oh,
I forgot I had this. I forgot I had that.
I mean, in your home, you may have some things
(35:11):
stashed away in a closet that you sort of forgot about.
But people, you have a lot of stuff. Whether you're
a collector of things or not, you know, just an
any one person that is affected by this has more
than they consider. It always happens when you move right.
I did not realize how much stuff we had, yes
to pack it, unpack it right or after.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
The flood when when when you're packing it out to
the fourt yard and it's a mountain and you're like, wow,
we had as much stuff in the.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
House and on that to also, you know, people want
to get the wet stuff out as soon as possible
and in a large event like that, but a lot
of times the adjusters are going to want to see
what was removed from the house, or at least have
good video and photos of it. So before throwing stuff,
(36:00):
I'll make sure that you you know, speak to your
guster and and get the okay or get that documentation.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, because that's a proof that you actually had it.
And I remember, specifically during the flood a lot of
chatter of if you throw it in your front yard,
don't let them pick it up, keep it there or
take pictures of it or something. First, I have some
proof of what you lost, which you know after the
(36:27):
fact we all did, but taking a video of it
ahead of time, I think if.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
It's a fire, it's gone.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
So if you take a video of it, at least
you have something there to remember what you had, because
unlike a flood, with a fire, it's non existence. A
lot of stuff just burns up completely. Absolutely so very
important and very good point. And I'll say something else
on that front, and that is make sure that you
you know, you start you generating. You pretty much everybody
(36:56):
if you live in South Louisiana, you've got a generator
at least, and make sure you start that every season
when it starts June first, for those that don't know.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
And actually I went out there to do it last season,
and when I started it, my gas was leaking everywhere,
a dry rot at hoses and I ended up getting
another generator. But I wouldn't have known that if I
wouldn't have went out there. And the worst time to
find that out is after a storm when you don't
have electricity.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Yeah that not only the lines at the box stores
get pretty long. And if you mayerators and not oh yeah,
everything else. Yeah, again, being being from South Louisiana or
your listeners here are obviously gonna likely this won't be theory.
They will be reflecting on some memories of I remember that. Yeah,
I remember Ida Gustave. I remember those.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Oh yeah, And you know it doesn't this year, for example,
they they projected at the beginning of the hurricane season
it was gonna be a higher than average year. Now
they've kind of backed off on that a little bit.
But just some information for everybody. Don't take too much,
don't pay too much attention to those numbers. In nineteen
(38:06):
ninety two, they have one storm hit Louisiana. That was it,
but it was Hurricane Andrew and it was a mess
around here for quite a while. If you remember that,
I was in high school when that when that storm hit,
and I do remember it only one that year, but
all it takes is one.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
That's the thing.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
You know, you mentioned something earlier. That's typically we do
have some some runway time to Yeah, hay storms on
the way. If you and your listeners will remember, i'da
spun up and within seventy two hours it was on
shore as a Cat three that I just remember it
formed off the Yucatan right there in the southern golf
Oh yeah, and that way it seems like within you know,
(38:46):
twenty four hours, it's like, get out of town. I mean,
just things going to be serious, get away from the coastline.
From my recollection, the path for the longest was between
Lafayette Baton Rouge, right, if we all remember, I mean
that thing towards spring Field Albany Up. I mean that
that path kept shifting to the east and almost like
it was changing every hour on the hour. And then
(39:07):
I remember when it came on shore. It's set, it's
set on top of La Fouche Parish for what seemed
like hours, right, and then it kind of jogged and
then that's when it came north. But these things are
just so unpredictable, you know, you talk about being fascinated
with weather and just the sheer respect we should have
for these things. And that's why it's important not only
from a coverage standpoint to make sure we're taking care
of ourselves, but just respecting these things in general, because
(39:30):
you know, everyone remembers two thousand and five with Katrina
and Rita. That was I mean, God forbid we ever
experience anything that devastating again.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yeah, that was right.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
And then Laura Delta Zeta late you know, Southwest Louisiana. Yeah,
what it's been five years now, which is crazy, But yeah,
these these things are just it's good to be prepared,
but just respect them in general because you never know
what could happened.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah, and and another good U hint for you to
prep for type of storm. Always have a waterproof bag
with your prescriptions and things like that in it. One
of the most important things she can do. You know,
medicine gets ruined or.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
Or if it's you know, the damage is catastrophic, and
your local pharmacies aren't opened for yeah, a month, two months,
three months, so it just makes it that much more
difficult to get those refills and things like that. So yeah,
I mean I would things like that that you can
go out and do some things that most people.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
Don't think about.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
We all know to go get your canned foods, go
get your hurricane snacks, you.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
Know, get stocked up on all the things. But you know,
you don't think about sting kits.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
Yeah, you know, you're you're picking up debris and you're
you're disturbing things that haven't been disturbing sometime and there's
a huge nest and someone gets stung or just you know,
those are those are often the things that are thought
up in that initial planning.
Speaker 5 (41:08):
But you know, cooling kits for your pets.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Great point.
Speaker 5 (41:13):
You know they have all of those types of.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
Things out there that are available and often, you know
in South Louisiana people like to joke about, you know,
when a hurricane comes and it's not bad, and then
you know, I would rather that every single time getting
more damage than you know you expected. So this is
stuff that you can buy ahead of time, have it
(41:35):
ready just in case. Hopefully you don't have to use it,
but when when the time comes and you need it,
you'll be very thankful that you did.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah, I say a lot. I would rather have it
and not need it than need it and not have it.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
I mean every day of the week.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Because I've been on both sides of that and in
different things, so I totally agree with that. Now let's
switch gears again and let's talk about the mistakes that
people make when when these storms come.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
What do they miss the most? And I know one
of those is what we've already discussed, access to insurance.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
They didn't maybe print out that form and put it
in a waterproof deal and you may say, hey, everything's
online now I can just pull it up.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Well not if you don't have internet.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Been there, done that a couple of times. So always
have that backup. No understanding of what's actually covered, which
is something you help.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Walk people through. Yeah, I mean you can look.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Over he's not a state farm agent or an agent
of any type, but he certainly deals with insurance.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
I would say, you know, not to belabor this point,
but just knowing what's in your policy, it's just so important.
You know, in the time of natural disaster, you know,
everyone wants to get started as soon as possible. There
is nuance to this. Getting approvals maybe hard. You know,
often in a cat event you've got adjusters from all
over the country that fly in. You know, for certain
natural disasters, you're you're, you're. Your adjuster may be from
(43:05):
who knows where, USA and may be here on a
deployment for a month to adjust as many of these
as possible. You're, you're, that's your field adjuster. Your desk
adjuster may be sitting in Dallas somewhere, or in Los Angeles.
You never know, so uh, documenting things, Uh, you know,
for me, expectations are very important in life. And uh,
you know, we loosely had a discussion about deductibles. You know,
(43:28):
many people get caught off gore during a name storm
that their hurricane deductible is two to five times what
it may normally be if you have a one percent
deductible or your hurricane maybe two to five percent. Wow,
And and it comes in a lot on on a
large event. If you have one hundred thousand dollars worth
of damage and you have a five percent deductible, that
(43:50):
money is going to come out of your pockets as
the insured. You know, contractors are not allowed to eat
deductibles public service announcement as it does happen. But any way,
it's it's incredibly important to have the right set of
expectations to you know, we talked about sort of being
let down from a from a knowledge standpoint. We want
as many people to go into an eye as wide
open as possible and not number one have to be
(44:12):
the bear of bad news when we say, Amos Smith,
did you notice this five percent deductible here? Well, no,
what does that mean? And then we've got to deliver
that information. It's a lot easier to say, hey, I'm
just making sure you're aware of your deductible. Yes, I'm aware.
I know it's high. You know, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
That's a much more comfortable conversation than being the one
to literally tell them, hey, this is going to cost
you a few extra bucks in here.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
So I can only imagine, yeah, that that cannot be
any fun at all, especially when you're already going through it,
you know, and you hear things about that. One thing
I want everybody to do right now is I want
them to take their phones and I want them to
type restoration one in it in a phone number. First
(44:55):
of all, what's your contact information anything, anything anybody has
in the way of water damage, fire damage, smoke damage, mould.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Re mediation, those sorts of things. What's the phone number
so you can reach us.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
At two two five to seven seven zero eight zero seven. Now,
of course, if you were to Google us or Google
my business number is different. They all come to this
to the same place. We can be reached on any
of our social media platforms. Sending a message on Facebook,
Instagram LinkedIn those will get answered very quickly. But calling
(45:35):
us this of course, is the quickest way to get
in touch with someone on our team who is ready
and willing to help.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
We talked about the twenty four to seven things, so
we I think it's important that we have four people
on call at every moment of the day, three hundred
and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
That's humble.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
You know, that blows my mind because that's some logistics there,
and I'm like, man, how does David or us pull
that off?
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Google calendar? And really really good people who believe in
the mission and the values of what we represent.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Ant And I think that is something that I want
everybody to get out of today's podcast is people matter,
And to me, it matters. I want to do business
people that are good, people that care about the community,
give beyond themselves, things like that, and you are both
shining examples of that.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
And in addition, you're pretty darn good at what you do. Yeah,
and so it's the best of both the world.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
I tell our team this all the time. You know,
having a servant's heart is critical to our success. And
I've been very upfront with people that I've worked for
us in the past. If you lose sight of that,
if you lose sight of the empathy of the people
we're serving, You're not going to make it in this industry.
It's too tough. Is it is unlikely that if you
don't care about what we do when I call you
(46:54):
at three am to get out of bed, yeah, when
it's thirty degrees outside, If you don't care about serving,
you're probably not gonn last very long in this industry.
And it's not just us. So having that servant's heart
is just critical to us providing the level of service
that we need to provide.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
I can't agree more. And so, folks, I'm gonna link
the website in the description of this podcast and some
of their social media go give them a like on Facebook.
They share great tips on the Facebook.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Page that keep you engaged.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
If you will also take your phone restoration one. Put
in the number now if you ever need them, it's
already in there. You ain't gotta go hectic looking for
what was the number of that local leader's podcast. Put
it in there right now, it'll be there. Save it
and twenty four to seven, We're ready to serve, Ready
(47:50):
to serve. Thank you so much for coming on and
helping get people prepared for what they can do to
maybe take some of that sting out of hurricanes seas
and should a storm come.
Speaker 3 (48:01):
This way, and Jim, thanks for having us. Thrilled to
be back.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
It's a few years, it has been, you know. It's interesting.
It popped up on my Facebook feed. I want to
say last week or the week before, but it said
three years ago or something like that, and I'm like, wow,
has it been that long?
Speaker 3 (48:15):
And thanks for the great work you do and getting
the words out for long businesses. It's invaluable things.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
Labor love.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
For me, I'm just blessed to sit down with good
business people and I learn every day just like everybody else.
With good business people that come on this show, you
certainly reflect that. I am so happy to see the
massive success that you've had. It's all earned and it
came through a.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
Lot of hard work. And here we go.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
Our success is o to our team, and we'd be
remiss if we walked out of here without saying that
that we've had the success we've had because we've got
the right people in the right seats. We've got people
that care about what they do. We have people that
care about serving the person in front of them. And
without our team, which has grown to twenty five plus
at this point, I mean, without them, this doesn't exist.
So there's no way we're walking out of here without
(49:02):
acknowledging them. They're they're the real real heroes behind all
of this.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Yeah, no doubt about it. And all of that, uh
comes from good leadership. And look y'all, y'all our husband
and wife duo here and uh and so it requires
a strong relationship to be able to pull that one off.
And so it's you have no doubt about it, Wendy Chatman,
you ain't coming to work here any times.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
They just kid double cut that.
Speaker 5 (49:29):
Out in the dryer, lint out.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Yeah, that's right, get that lit out.
Speaker 3 (49:35):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
Well, thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
And uh, folks, give them a like on Facebook. I
want to see some people out there hitting that like
button and click that link and check them out on
their website for more information. And until next time, I'm
Jim Chapman, your host of Local Leaders of the podcast
reminding you love your community, support local business and coal
(50:00):
restoration companies and keep leaving.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Thank you very much,
Hey everyone, and welcome back to local leaders of the podcast.
And look, I'm excited today because I have some familiar
faces in front of me, knowing them a long time,
and if you are in the Livingston Parish area you
might know them too. They're David and Marissa Hofstadters. So
first off, and you're with Restoration one. But first off, welcome, yep,
(00:35):
thanks for having us, Thanks having I am excited to
have y'all here. And look, we couldn't pick better time.
And we were talking about this off air prior to
recording this podcast, but we have a storm actually in
the golf right now as we record a crossing into
the golf.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You just never know where they're going to pop up.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
It's that time of year. It's uh, we're all used
to it at this point. Yeah, for South Louisiana, it's
just that time of year.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
That's right, And that's going to kind of be the
cusp of what we're going to talk about today, is
the fact that you've always got to be prepared this
time of year for storms, not only hurricanes, but sometimes
like what's coming in the Gulf, it's more of a rainmaker,
but that can be worse for South Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, depending on precipitation up to maybe a given year
and the ground saturated, and we've had some rain here recently.
It otherwise may not be an issue, but it feels
like they're getting kind of earlier and earlier every year. Yeah,
you know, the whole say the whole thing, June first
and November first, But like here in the last few years,
we've had some events that are occurring earlier and earlier.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Absolutely, So before we get into it, and we're going
to give you some tips today, folks that are off
the beaten path, if you will, what you're used to hearing,
but as important or more important, So stay tuned for that.
I do want to talk a little bit about restoration
one your company, and David, I'd like to start off
(01:58):
with you. You a story about you know, I call
it the LinkedIn story. It's become a famous story in
these parts, but it blows my mind every time.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
You tell it.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So just quickly some up. How you ended up in
the restoration business.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yea rest Following the flood in twenty sixteen, I left
kind of the corporate field and went to work for
a local builder here. Did that for a few years,
and was having a lot of success, was happy with
what I was doing, but there was just something inside
of me, that entrepreneurial spirit that I just wanted to do.
Turned on at the time, I think it was called
career interest on LinkedIn, where it would it would send
(02:34):
out your resume, your profile, but not alert your current employer, which.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Is always a good Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
So I turned that on and get flooded sort of
with in my inbox with offers and interests, i should say,
and this guy selling he's a franchise broker selling different franchises,
and after about a ten minute call with him, I
knew it's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
We talked about it last time, researched her for a
few weeks before I brought up to Marisa's attention, and
answer was okay, let's do it. And fast forward seven years,
here we are. We've had a lot of success, been
very fortunate, been able to serve and help a lot
of people, have created careers for our employees, and I mean,
we could not be more proud of what it is
we've accomplished.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, yeah, it really has been a journey for you.
And look, I'm not surprised From a minute that I
met you, folks, I knew you had it together. I
knew you have what it took to be an entrepreneur.
Definitely have the spirit for an entrepreneur, which is an
important thing, and you've really just taken that ball and
(03:33):
run with it. You have a company, franchise company behind you,
Restoration One, that is really amazing with the training.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I always see.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
You on Facebook, both of y'all going to training events
and just constant education.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, it's been a huge part of our success is
not just limiting ourselves to our local market in terms
of knowledge. We've got plenty of people in the professional
world that we lean on. Vendors, right, You've served that
role for us for quite some time, but we've really
taken advantage of the national footprint of Restoration One and
what we're able to offer. For example, next week Monday
(04:09):
and Tuesday, I'll be up in Ohio within our peer group,
which is about fifteen other Restoration one owners. They lock
us in a room for two days and we talk
about business. It's all structured, and you know that has
been invaluable for us. For the last number of years.
We've been able to participate in.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
That absolutely, And of course you're in an area where
we're prone to having events, if you will, But you
don't just serve people when these hurricane events happen.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Are storms, I mean.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, fire, yeah, you know, which could be possibly out
of the blue.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
You help with that, Yeah, absolutely, Marissa.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
So you are the other side, I guess, the other
side of restoration one, the part B of this power couple,
if you will. We've talked about fires before and things
that people miss, and one of those things is like
dryer land. That was one of the things that surprised
me that cause a lot of fires. And I'll tell
you how serious this is. I'll tell you a personal story. Actually,
(05:09):
you gave a talk at a networking group that I
was a part of. I went home and I told
my wife, you won't believe this, but Drydalant. You got
a whole house kitchen on fire. And that's the number
one thing that people miss.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And what does my wife do.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
She goes and pulls a limp thing and it was full,
chalk full. Now she was like a dog to a
bone at that point. She's getting it out of there.
So we try to suck it out with the vacuum
only got so much so she's ordering things off Amazon
that you fish in there to pull it out. You
wouldn't believe how much we pulled out just doing that.
(05:43):
Just shocking, how much how important that is to do that,
you would never think, right, You see a lot of
that when you when you go on these jobs or
you get called out for an emergency, and it's it's
things that could have been avoided just taking a few
some steps.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, Preventive maintenance is a very real thing. Equally as
much though, you know, insurance is designed to protect us
as consumers from things that they deem you know, sudden
and accidental. Although cleaning dryer linens are preventedive maintenance thing,
a lot of what we see just happens with with
sort of no signs of warning. Electrical shorts. I mean,
(06:22):
when you consider how much electrical is given inside of
a building and plumbing, it's really quite fascinating of all
the different contact points where you could have something like
that occur. So there's a huge degree of me that's
you know, it's not divine, but you know, if something's
going to happen, it may be something that you absolutely
had no control over. Sure, however, you get into like
Christmas season, and we see it all the time with
(06:43):
space heaters and overloaded circuits and maybe an old breaker
that was supposed to trip at fifteen amps but it didn't.
Then it continue to let it get hot and then
it causes a fire. So there's some things that as consumers,
you know, we can stop ourselves from doing. But GYM,
a lot of it is sudden and accidental. I mean
you had no real way of knowing. Oh I didn't know.
(07:03):
I was supposed to inspect my plumbing once a year
to make sure everything was fine. Until something happens. It's
just kind of it. There's no way to see it coming.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Yeah, Like speaking of Christmas, I mean you probably have a.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Drawer full of chargers. Yes, everybody does.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
And just because it fits into something doesn't mean it's
the one you should use. But again, if someone's not
educated on that, it fits and walks away, whether it's
hoverboard or you know, new toy from Christmas. All yeah,
different things and those can you know, catch fire and
cause a lot of damage if not caught immediately.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
So and just things like that.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
That was something I also learned from you, you folks,
And I'll tell you I have a charger now for
my lawnmar. My lawnmar runs off battery. It's awesome actually,
but uh, you know, these are big batteries, really big batteries,
and so I'm very careful and watching that. Of course,
I have to charge a thing up, but I don't
(08:01):
leave it plugged in all the time because it kind
of feels hot when you do that.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I've I've found myself so many times in the last
few years going into the garage and taking my Ryobi
or Milwaukee batteries off the charger that have been running
for a month, or like the hot wheels, I don't
know what it's called, the little jeep we have for
our sun. Yeah, it'll be you know, sometimes ten o'clock
a night, I'll open the grass let me. I won't
plug that because we've just seen so many of these
(08:27):
house fires occur around golf carts, lawnmowers, anywhere you have
battery and electrical it's possible for it to happen.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Yeah, a large amount of them start in the garage,
So I mean that's a really good place to start
if you're trying to you know, just kind of do
audit and see what can I be doing what can
I be checking on what can I do to prevent
something like this happening, which, of course you're not gonna
prevent it all, but the garage is definitely a good
place to start.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, and I'll tell you you folks.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Are dealing with people in some of the worst times
of their lives. In some cases, maybe their house burned down.
I mean, we saw a irreplaceable plantation home burned down
right across the river from us. That was likely an
electrical related issue in that case.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
But things happen out.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Of the clear blue, and you have to have I
would imagine Marissa's a demeanor about you, if you will,
to be someone that has a calming nature, because these people,
whoever you're dealing with, this is a bad moment in
their life, and it's probably something you got to.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Keep in mind all the time. I don't know how
you do it. Really.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
We're in restoration, but we're in the business of people,
and people come before the restoration, before the work authorizations,
before the contracts, all of those things, and it's you're
helping someone navigate, like you said, one of the most
(10:04):
devastating events in their life, possibly and especially if it's
a home.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
That is that's their their.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Their sanctuary.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yeah, thank you, they're they're sanctuary. That's where their things are,
their children's things, all of the all of the memories,
all of the keepsakes, all of the photos. You know,
there are things that can be replaced, but it's it's
just the emotional toll that it takes on someone that
really has to be put before anything else. And so
(10:35):
we we make sure to really invest in training.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
Our team on that.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
And I think we've done a really good job at
just making sure from the get go that we hire
people that already embody those same values that we have,
and they are people people. They are there for the
person first before anything else.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Well, one thing I'll kind of add on that is,
you know, we were not privy to the after right,
you know, whether it's a fire or water damage. We
get in there, we do our job, and we turn
the keys back over and say, hey, welcome home. I've
followed up with a few of our clients in the
past or had you know, was it a referral and
we knew these people personally. One of the things that
has never talked about from my perspective is what happens
(11:16):
in the six to twelve months after something like that,
especially a fire, I mean that there's gonna be some
pretty traumatic experiences. You know. You know what's gonna happen
the first night we spend back in there, if the
fire started upstairs in the kids bedroom, and I'm gonna
be really concerned that that's gonna happen again, because we
just went through the six to eight month ordeal. So
for those that go through these types of things, it's
not just from the time of the event to the
(11:36):
time we give you your keys back. It's it's probably
a lifelong thing. We were talking about the twenty sixteen
flood off air and how we see what's happening across
the country and we naturally feel, Man, we just went
through that kind of stuff. And if you've lived in
South Louisiana long enough, you've probably been through multiple events.
So it's it's also just as important, I think, to
not only take care of people, but in the event
(11:59):
they have some lingering trauma from what they've experienced, is
to try to be there for them if necessary there
as well.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, and and PTSD is a real thing when it
comes to that. I know many many people that have
PTSD from the flood and including myself. I mean when
it when they talk about a lot of rain, you
better believe I'm hyper focused on that a meet river
at Denim Springs and what the the the level is
of that river as it rises. And I never did
(12:29):
that before twenty sixteen ever. Uh So that is a
byproduct of going through that. Let me let me switch
gears a little bit. One thing that I think is
just awesome about your company is the recognition you've received
for the great work that you've done. Both of you
look Future five winners, right Marissa Hofstadter one one in
(12:55):
twenty twenty two. I say one was selected for Future
five in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
David was selected. Couldn't couldn't agree with that more.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
That's a testament to your leadership ability and the things
that you do for your community.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I think that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Just follow him Marissa's footsteps. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
That's right, said it, not me, he did.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And uh you were also a Livingstone Young Professionals Member
of the Year in twenty twenty. Uh So you're very
involved in your community out and that's the point I'm
getting at there. Outside of your business your business does
tie into your community, but you're very involved. You give
a lot of yourself outside of just to your business.
(13:38):
And I think that's important when you're when you're dealing
with companies, especially in the restoration business, because there's reputable
ones and there's ones that maybe aren't so reputable. Uh,
And so one thing about restoration one you've got to
you've got it's a legit company behind that name that
(13:58):
is going to see it through all the way whatever
event you're going.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, I've told the Risks this a few times. You know,
she's from from Livingston Parish. I'm not, but I've lived
here for the last ten years and this is home.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
I grew up in Washington Parish, which is always going
to be a degree of home for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
But yeah, I think a watermelon into one, I think
the best around.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I've picked a few of them. Yeah, but you know,
not not having been born or from this area, but
I've lived here now the entire time we've been married,
and Livingston Parish is home, you know, and it's just
such a great community. It has been a great place
to start a business and grow and uh, serving that
community is very important. Speaking for myself.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
So yeah, and when you look at our business and restoration,
we're not traditional contractors where you come up with an
idea or an addition or a new home, you're planning
for it, you're budgeting for it, you're shopping around all
of these things. When you call us, it's a oh
(14:57):
crap moment and it's something that has to be taken
care of right away, and you don't have the time
to shop around to you know, compare this or that.
So trust, like you said, is so huge. We're asking
people to blindly trust us to come into their home,
their sanctuary, and tell them what needs to be done,
and do it all very you know, in a very
(15:20):
short amount of time, very quickly.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
So of course it's important.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Reputation is huge for us and important for us not
only because I'm from here and we live here and
our kids go to school here and play.
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Sports and all those things.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
But we understand the gravity of that call and that choice.
And so the more we have helped our community and
get to know the people in our community, it just
builds that trust, and we hope that makes it easier
for someone to just kind of say, hey, you're the expert,
(15:53):
please just do what.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
You know needs to be done.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
That's right and it reflects as a matter of fact,
just this or best of Winter for restoration services by
the advocate.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Huge honor. Now huge honor. There's some good ones out
there and say to.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Win that, uh, well deserved and another huge honor for
your company that just continues to do great things.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Uh. Let's talk about some of the things that you
do do.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I know obviously house fires big or small.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Uh what else?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Storm damage, work, floods, things like that, water damage, I
guess of any sort. Uh am I leaving anything out.
Mold mold remediation.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
So in the sale Louisiana, you do have to be
licensed in molder remediation. We do hold a mold license,
so we're able to do that if the water damage
was not mitigated quickly enough or something that was kind
of hidden and when unnoticed for some time, so we're
able to take care take care of that as well. Biohazard,
(17:01):
it could be anything from bad bugs to.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
Crime scene clean up.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah, we've that's probably an episode for another day in
terms of the bio because it can did pretty pretty gnarly.
But one thing in the last couple of years we've
started a new division is in personal property. So you
know we talked about house fires a lot. You know,
if if your property sustains smoke or fire damage, you know,
we can come in and inventory every widget down, everything
(17:29):
in the junk drawer, submit that list back to your
insurance company for compensation, you know, if it's damaged, or
we can take that property, clean it stored off site
so that your house doesn't become a storage locker. It
just makes the entire process that much easier. So it
usually starts with personal property, then the mitigation phase, and
then the subsequent repairs that need to occur. And they know,
by the way, we'll come back at the very end
(17:50):
of the job and put everything back in your home
and set it back up to your specification. So that's
the personal property side. We started about two years ago
when we moved into our new facility. And yeah, a
general contractor at heart, but we offer some services that
nuance in the area of property and casualty.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Very interesting And.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I'm gonna give you a scenario real quick, and you
tell me how this would be handled. So I wake
up at three o'clock in the morning, maybe I'm going
to the restroom, I step in the bathroom and I
feel water, and then I look down and maybe.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
A pipe's busted.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Most people aren't gonna deal with that a whole lot
in their lives, but when they do, they probably aren't
going to know really what to do other than turn
the water off, which you have a water main in
the front of your house. Once that is done.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
A couple of.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Interesting things about your company. Number One, you're twenty four
to seven. So if it's three o'clock in the morning,
I can still call David might not am, he might
answer Hello.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I'll probably call him directly.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
And I had that frog in my throat at three
am a few times.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Just and if he doesn't answer, yeah, sometimes you.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Know is a right, I get it.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
But you are twenty four to seven, so that's especially
good for businesses who may need to get up and
running as quickly as possible.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
But in addition to that, you also you work with
the insurance, right.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yeah, absolutely. So one of our biggest value add services
I WILL is not the physical restoration whatever we're doing,
it's being a trusted partner in the process in the
nuance of insurance and navigating claims. Yeah, I want to
be very clear, we are not licensed adjusters. We do
(19:38):
not make coverage decisions behin any stretch. However, we do
offer advice to people that say, oh, well, you have
a state farm policy and here's what I see, here's
what we might be able to expect from this policy
based on previous experience. However, we still need to corroborate
that with your adjuster to make sure all as well.
And most people are trusting in that sense, right. Sure,
(19:58):
that goes back to reputation, and a lot of phone
calls to get are based on the reviews we have
and people have done that homework before they even call.
But just simply put, not only restoring physical property, but
helping the insured navigate that insurance process can be invaluable.
Of course, I feel that way, and I'm sure if
you would pull people that we've served, they would say, yeah,
(20:19):
I mean I didn't never been through this before. I
wasn't sure what to expect. So again, not just having
someone that's good from a trade standpoint, but also having
someone with some experience to say, hey, here's what you
can expect to happen. And it's also really satisfying when
we explain that, and then it just domino. It just
falls into and you can see minute by minute that
trust starting to grow. Like yep, I did talk to
(20:40):
my adjuster. They did corroborate what you said about X
Y Z. Okay, thank you. Obviously I was a little apprehensive,
but hey, let's move forward. That's always a huge one
is being able to get someone to see that. Yeah,
I mean we do have experience in this, of course.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
And when these insurance claims are made, is there money
required up front?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
No money up front, just insurance verification somewhere once.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
You explain kind of the mitigation kind of starting in that.
You talked about blind trust a second ago. Want you
just kind of talk about that not only the blind
trust from the client to us, but us the blind
trust we put in the insurance company.
Speaker 5 (21:14):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
So, yeah, when we were talking about this is a
oh crap moment, you're not planning for it. So what
we're asking someone who's standing in front of us in
a flooded house or a burning house or whatever it
might be, We're saying, we need you to sign this
work authorization giving us permission to begin work.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
We don't know the.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Exact costs yet, but we're going to work with your adjuster.
Every step of the way. We use the same exact
software that they use for pricing. It's line item pricing.
We're going to keep them informed. If there's anything that
comes up, we're going to make sure that they know
about it. If there's anything that needs special permission, we're
going to talk to them out it, and we're kind
(22:02):
of just we're gonna vi that liaison between you know,
the two between the insured and the insurance carrier, and
we're going to make sure that there are no surprises
and that everything is done and documented correctly so that
whenever we submit this invoice on your behalf, that we're
gonna get that you know, that payment from the carrier
(22:25):
that that you're owned based on your policy. So again,
that takes a lot of blind trust from someone, which
is also why it's so important to have the reputation
in your community to earn to earn that trust from somebody.
And then on the flip side of that, we're also
performing work with zero dollars down and we're trusting blindly
(22:49):
trusting our customer that whenever that those funds are deposited
or received, that they're going to give us what we're owed.
Sure so both parties are asking, you know, for a
lot of trust from one another in that sense.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
And I'll tell you you almost cannot put a price
on the the I don't want to use the term
you're holding somebody's hand and walking them, but you kind
of are people that And this is a stressful time
already for people, especially people that don't deal with it often.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
And so the last thing.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
They want to have to do is deal with not
knowing the proper steps that they need to take in
order to get resolution to that issue, whatever it is,
whether it's water damage, smoke, mold, whatever. So you just
can't put a price on it. And you can mention reviews,
and I'm glad you mentioned that I wanted to. Throughout
(23:51):
this podcast, I'm gonna review a couple of these reviews
with the people listening. I think those are important, and
I'm going to one that really stuck out to me.
I'm gonna read it quickly, says woke up at three
point thirty am to chaos my neighbor's garage, fire, jumping
to our place, cats freaking out, tearing up the side
(24:12):
of the house.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
This person can write, by the way, very well.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
And through the attic between the fire and the water
from the firefighters. The house was nearly a total loss,
and you don't think about that, but the water from
the fire hoses eventually stripped down to the studs. Needed
a new roof and second floor frame. Truly terrible situation,
but here comes restoration. One of Baton Ruge specifically, is
(24:37):
it end to one. Okay stepped up big time. He
was my main point of contact through the entire ordeal.
And that right there is what we were just talking about.
There's a contact there that is working with you. This
person described it as an ordeal. This is not something fun.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
You know. His sister lives.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Down the street, called him immediately and he was there,
introduced himself while things were still unfolding. By ten am,
his crew was already tarping and securing what was left
of our house. The immediate response in a crisis meant everything.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah. Huge.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
We pride ourselves so much more reviews because I mean, look,
anyone can get on there and say whatever they want,
right so we you know, we don't take feedback like
that for granted, and this case in particular, I mean
this was a ten month relationship from the time the
fire occurred to the time these folks were able to
move back in was ten months. Jim, you're talking we
(25:34):
were a part of their life for a significant portion.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
By the way, these folks got married a month into
this what the fire occurred and they wow, got married,
went on a honeymoon, and when they came back, we
had accomplished mini scopes. So yeah, you talk about trust.
You know, we can't underscore how important that is huge.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
And and the fact that this person took the time
to really and I only read a couple paragraphs of it, folks,
but you can go on there and look, and I
encourage you to do that. Check out these reviews. But
that meant the impression you put on them was something
where they said, you know, I'm going to really be
descriptive about how happy I was with the service from
(26:16):
this company.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
It's huge.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
It's hard people will I say it all the time.
If they have a bad experience, in two seconds, they'll
give a negative review. Someone that has a good experience
sometimes they.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Expect that, so they don't go give the review.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
But you have a lot of glowing reviews, and I
think that is a testament.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
To the good work you're doing. For the community, there's
no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Let's get into some hurricane prep stuff that we've put
together today.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I want to talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And you know, it's not always a hurricane that comes
through as we as we discussed earlier, that may cause
a situation where you need to call restoration.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
One.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
The good thing about hurricane or the good thing about
the fact that hurricanes blow through here is that usually
have a little warning, right, there's a little time, a
little time when it's sitting in the golf. One thing
people need to keep in mind though, Uh, you can't
call and get insurance when it's in the golf.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Golf it's over.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, So once it hits that, once it hits that
golf it is it is too late. So make sure
number one that you're insured. What what is something that
maybe you see more often than not that they miss
you mean as far as coverage, Well, both coverage and
the proper work ahead of time.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yeah, coverages are and I want to be again like
a full disclaimer about me and I am not a
license insurance professional. However, we see this so much that
it has forced me to go review our own policies
right after seeing something with a certain carrier, like let
me make sure I've got that on my house. As
(28:01):
hard as this is to ask the audience to do,
you really need to know your policy as well as
you can. And that's why you have an agent, you know,
whoever you bought that policy from. That is their job.
And the agents that we partner with and the people
we talk to want to be that conduit to say
I want you to understand what's in your policy. I
would suspect as an agent that if an event occurs
(28:22):
and I have someone call me and I've got to say, hey, Jim,
you don't have coverage for that because of X, Y
Z right, and I gotta imagine it's a pretty gutting feeling.
You know, you want to be there. You've sold them something. Obviously,
I would imagine that that's a challenging thing to deliver,
to say, yeah, you have this policy, but here. So
we find a lot of those agents want to explain it.
(28:43):
They want their clients to be educated on what it
is they are covered for and against, and frankly it
should make I would imagine it makes their job easier
in the time of event because they've laid the correct expectations,
so I don't I'm probably going to indirectly answer your question,
but just knowing your policy, knowing what coverages you have,
no one wants to be surprise. You mentioned off air
during the flood of the difference between you know, structure
(29:04):
insurance and contents on flood YEP. I canna imagine that
was a big kick in the gut. Oh yeah, and
we've heard dozens of those stories. You know, we didn't
have flood insurance back in twenty sixteen flood zone X
didn't know any better. Yeah, we'll never make that mistake again.
But anyway, it you know, you pay this premium, you
have coverage in place. You really and the owner should
be one to use the policy holder to know what
(29:25):
you have. Sure again talking about blind trust, that's okay too,
but communicating those needs to your agent and say, look,
i've heard these stories of X y Z. I don't
want that to happen to me. What's that provision and
that policy going to cost extra if anything, for us
to be insured against that?
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, great point, and one thing that you probably run
into a lot. And I know with my policy, I
didn't realize that this was an adnum to your policy.
It wasn't something automatically included, was like sewer coverage. So
if you sewer back, if you sewer backed up, your
toilet backed up, I don't know, pick a t tragedy.
(30:00):
But unless you have that extra endorsement endorsement on your
insurance yeap, on your own, you'll probably see that.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
We see it, We see it often, and a lot
of carriers will cap that coverage at around ten percent
of policy max. So if you're insured for two hundred
and fifty thousand in your structure, you've got twenty five
thousand dollars worth of coverage in that example for sewer
and drained backup if it applies, and there's there's different
kickers on what is concerned, you know, considered sewer and
drained backup versus not, But that that twenty five thousand
(30:32):
includes all of it, the mitigation, the personal property, the repairs,
an the al e, which we'll get into in a
second terms of what that means. That's an all encompassing coverage.
So if the mitigational loan is ten thousand dollars, will
you really only have fifteen left to put it back together?
And often those coverages may not be enough to support
the amount of damage that's there. So anyway, just knowing
what's in your policy, it's critical please consult your agent,
(30:55):
review it annually. If you hear something happening to someone,
go autit your own policy and just just I emplore
you to make sure you have the coverage necessary.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yeah, and making sure that you have access to it
after the event may happen. Whether I mean, I would
say having both digital you know, whether it's screenshotting it
on your phone, but then let's say the power goes out,
you don't can't charge your phone, it dies, whatever the
situation is, having a paper copy as well, and just
(31:26):
making sure to you know, seal it in something watertight
to keep you know, putting it up high, putting in
a rubber made container or you know ziploc bag. Just
things like that that you know, once the the damage
has been done, you're not thinking about that. Those are
things you can do ahead of time to just be
prepared all hurricane season long.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
I've got to give a shout out to the people
of Livingston Paris. It may surprise you. It surprised me
in the early days of how many people have physical
copies of their policies these days, it's actually really high.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
I've been on countless jobs where I show up and
this is not always a rhetorical question. I'll say, Hey,
do you happen to have a copy of your policy
your declarations page at least so that we can see
what you have? Yeah, I'm problem. Here you go and
it's like that happens a lot. Yeah, so I want
to give a shout out to the people of this parish.
It happens a lot.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Love paper around here.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
I'm a paper go see, that's exactly what I'm saying.
That was not rehearsed. It happens so often, and as
a contractor, again, we're not determining coverage, but at least
giving us an idea. It happens often on fire. Personal
property can sometimes be undervalued. Sure, Jim, if you go
in your house right now, I'm not gonna loudcap you here,
(32:42):
but you you and your home have upwards, if not
more than, one hundred thousand dollars worth of clothes, spoons, cups.
I mean, your personal property adds up in a hardening you.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
No doubt about it, especially larger families. Oh my case,
five people.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
It's it's nothing for a two thousand square foot house,
just to give a number to have one of two
hundred thousand dollars worth of actual clothing. Shoot, I mean
just anything, computer screens everything. I mean, those.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
TVs are so unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
We see it often. On the personal property side. There
sometimes can be some coverage deltas, and it's so important
for us on that very first day to go, hey,
you have a two thousand square foot house, I would
suspect you have X in terms of value. You have
seventy five K worth coverage. We need to be very
careful on what you're requesting here because we don't want
(33:31):
to run up a tab with the insurance company and
take away from that number to get you reimbursed for
your mattresses, your couches, your clothes. Like, we have to
take all that into consideration. Yeah, all that to say,
having copies of your deck page for us often helps
steer the ship in terms of how we should approach something.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, it's it's a roadmap to what to what you
need to get back home again or what's possible.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
And I think to going along with that, the just
the documentation of your contents ahead of time, It's different
than if you know, you had a leak in your bathroom,
someone like restoration one would go in and document those
things after the fact, because that's not going to affect
(34:16):
hundreds of thousands of dollars of contents. But we're talking
about hurricanes, storms, floods. You've probably heard to just go
through every room of your house and.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
Video would be the quickest way.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
But you can take timestamped photos, especially those higher priced items,
those jewelry, valuables, things like that, because God forbid your
roof get torn off, or you know, flood comes up.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
Six feet in your house. You know, how are you
exactly going to prove exactly what it was that you had.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I cannot tell you how many times this just happened
here locally for a house fire we were doing. You
know I mentioned we it's called a pack out and
a pack in inventory. We take everything out and then
we bring it back when it's time. We brought a
client's belongings back to them after the house was put
back together, and the feedback that got to me was, oh,
I forgot I had this. I forgot I had that.
I mean, in your home, you may have some things
(35:11):
stashed away in a closet that you sort of forgot about.
But people, you have a lot of stuff. Whether you're
a collector of things or not, you know, just an
any one person that is affected by this has more
than they consider. It always happens when you move right.
I did not realize how much stuff we had, yes
to pack it, unpack it right or after.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
The flood when when when you're packing it out to
the fourt yard and it's a mountain and you're like, wow,
we had as much stuff in the.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
House and on that to also, you know, people want
to get the wet stuff out as soon as possible
and in a large event like that, but a lot
of times the adjusters are going to want to see
what was removed from the house, or at least have
good video and photos of it. So before throwing stuff,
(36:00):
I'll make sure that you you know, speak to your
guster and and get the okay or get that documentation.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yeah, because that's a proof that you actually had it.
And I remember, specifically during the flood a lot of
chatter of if you throw it in your front yard,
don't let them pick it up, keep it there or
take pictures of it or something. First, I have some
proof of what you lost, which you know after the
(36:27):
fact we all did, but taking a video of it
ahead of time, I think if.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
It's a fire, it's gone.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
So if you take a video of it, at least
you have something there to remember what you had, because
unlike a flood, with a fire, it's non existence. A
lot of stuff just burns up completely. Absolutely so very
important and very good point. And I'll say something else
on that front, and that is make sure that you
you know, you start you generating. You pretty much everybody
(36:56):
if you live in South Louisiana, you've got a generator
at least, and make sure you start that every season
when it starts June first, for those that don't know.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
And actually I went out there to do it last season,
and when I started it, my gas was leaking everywhere,
a dry rot at hoses and I ended up getting
another generator. But I wouldn't have known that if I
wouldn't have went out there. And the worst time to
find that out is after a storm when you don't
have electricity.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Yeah that not only the lines at the box stores
get pretty long. And if you mayerators and not oh yeah,
everything else. Yeah, again, being being from South Louisiana or
your listeners here are obviously gonna likely this won't be theory.
They will be reflecting on some memories of I remember that. Yeah,
I remember Ida Gustave. I remember those.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Oh yeah, And you know it doesn't this year, for example,
they they projected at the beginning of the hurricane season
it was gonna be a higher than average year. Now
they've kind of backed off on that a little bit.
But just some information for everybody. Don't take too much,
don't pay too much attention to those numbers. In nineteen
(38:06):
ninety two, they have one storm hit Louisiana. That was it,
but it was Hurricane Andrew and it was a mess
around here for quite a while. If you remember that,
I was in high school when that when that storm hit,
and I do remember it only one that year, but
all it takes is one.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
That's the thing.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
You know, you mentioned something earlier. That's typically we do
have some some runway time to Yeah, hay storms on
the way. If you and your listeners will remember, i'da
spun up and within seventy two hours it was on
shore as a Cat three that I just remember it
formed off the Yucatan right there in the southern golf
Oh yeah, and that way it seems like within you know,
(38:46):
twenty four hours, it's like, get out of town. I mean,
just things going to be serious, get away from the coastline.
From my recollection, the path for the longest was between
Lafayette Baton Rouge, right, if we all remember, I mean
that thing towards spring Field Albany Up. I mean that
that path kept shifting to the east and almost like
it was changing every hour on the hour. And then
(39:07):
I remember when it came on shore. It's set, it's
set on top of La Fouche Parish for what seemed
like hours, right, and then it kind of jogged and
then that's when it came north. But these things are
just so unpredictable, you know, you talk about being fascinated
with weather and just the sheer respect we should have
for these things. And that's why it's important not only
from a coverage standpoint to make sure we're taking care
of ourselves, but just respecting these things in general, because
(39:30):
you know, everyone remembers two thousand and five with Katrina
and Rita. That was I mean, God forbid we ever
experience anything that devastating again.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yeah, that was right.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
And then Laura Delta Zeta late you know, Southwest Louisiana. Yeah,
what it's been five years now, which is crazy, But yeah,
these these things are just it's good to be prepared,
but just respect them in general because you never know
what could happened.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah, and and another good U hint for you to
prep for type of storm. Always have a waterproof bag
with your prescriptions and things like that in it. One
of the most important things she can do. You know,
medicine gets ruined or.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
Or if it's you know, the damage is catastrophic, and
your local pharmacies aren't opened for yeah, a month, two months,
three months, so it just makes it that much more
difficult to get those refills and things like that. So yeah,
I mean I would things like that that you can
go out and do some things that most people.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
Don't think about.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
We all know to go get your canned foods, go
get your hurricane snacks, you.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
Know, get stocked up on all the things. But you know,
you don't think about sting kits.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
Yeah, you know, you're you're picking up debris and you're
you're disturbing things that haven't been disturbing sometime and there's
a huge nest and someone gets stung or just you know,
those are those are often the things that are thought
up in that initial planning.
Speaker 5 (41:08):
But you know, cooling kits for your pets.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Great point.
Speaker 5 (41:13):
You know they have all of those types of.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
Things out there that are available and often, you know
in South Louisiana people like to joke about, you know,
when a hurricane comes and it's not bad, and then
you know, I would rather that every single time getting
more damage than you know you expected. So this is
stuff that you can buy ahead of time, have it
(41:35):
ready just in case. Hopefully you don't have to use it,
but when when the time comes and you need it,
you'll be very thankful that you did.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah, I say a lot. I would rather have it
and not need it than need it and not have it.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
I mean every day of the week.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Because I've been on both sides of that and in
different things, so I totally agree with that. Now let's
switch gears again and let's talk about the mistakes that
people make when when these storms come.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
What do they miss the most? And I know one
of those is what we've already discussed, access to insurance.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
They didn't maybe print out that form and put it
in a waterproof deal and you may say, hey, everything's
online now I can just pull it up.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Well not if you don't have internet.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Been there, done that a couple of times. So always
have that backup. No understanding of what's actually covered, which
is something you help.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Walk people through. Yeah, I mean you can look.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Over he's not a state farm agent or an agent
of any type, but he certainly deals with insurance.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
I would say, you know, not to belabor this point,
but just knowing what's in your policy, it's just so important.
You know, in the time of natural disaster, you know,
everyone wants to get started as soon as possible. There
is nuance to this. Getting approvals maybe hard. You know,
often in a cat event you've got adjusters from all
over the country that fly in. You know, for certain
natural disasters, you're you're, you're. Your adjuster may be from
(43:05):
who knows where, USA and may be here on a
deployment for a month to adjust as many of these
as possible. You're, you're, that's your field adjuster. Your desk
adjuster may be sitting in Dallas somewhere, or in Los Angeles.
You never know, so uh, documenting things, Uh, you know,
for me, expectations are very important in life. And uh,
you know, we loosely had a discussion about deductibles. You know,
(43:28):
many people get caught off gore during a name storm
that their hurricane deductible is two to five times what
it may normally be if you have a one percent
deductible or your hurricane maybe two to five percent. Wow,
And and it comes in a lot on on a
large event. If you have one hundred thousand dollars worth
of damage and you have a five percent deductible, that
(43:50):
money is going to come out of your pockets as
the insured. You know, contractors are not allowed to eat
deductibles public service announcement as it does happen. But any way,
it's it's incredibly important to have the right set of
expectations to you know, we talked about sort of being
let down from a from a knowledge standpoint. We want
as many people to go into an eye as wide
open as possible and not number one have to be
(44:12):
the bear of bad news when we say, Amos Smith,
did you notice this five percent deductible here? Well, no,
what does that mean? And then we've got to deliver
that information. It's a lot easier to say, hey, I'm
just making sure you're aware of your deductible. Yes, I'm aware.
I know it's high. You know, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
That's a much more comfortable conversation than being the one
to literally tell them, hey, this is going to cost
you a few extra bucks in here.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
So I can only imagine, yeah, that that cannot be
any fun at all, especially when you're already going through it,
you know, and you hear things about that. One thing
I want everybody to do right now is I want
them to take their phones and I want them to
type restoration one in it in a phone number. First
(44:55):
of all, what's your contact information anything, anything anybody has
in the way of water damage, fire damage, smoke damage, mould.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Re mediation, those sorts of things. What's the phone number
so you can reach us.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
At two two five to seven seven zero eight zero seven. Now,
of course, if you were to Google us or Google
my business number is different. They all come to this
to the same place. We can be reached on any
of our social media platforms. Sending a message on Facebook,
Instagram LinkedIn those will get answered very quickly. But calling
(45:35):
us this of course, is the quickest way to get
in touch with someone on our team who is ready
and willing to help.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
We talked about the twenty four to seven things, so
we I think it's important that we have four people
on call at every moment of the day, three hundred
and sixty five days a year.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
That's humble.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
You know, that blows my mind because that's some logistics there,
and I'm like, man, how does David or us pull
that off?
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Google calendar? And really really good people who believe in
the mission and the values of what we represent.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Ant And I think that is something that I want
everybody to get out of today's podcast is people matter,
And to me, it matters. I want to do business
people that are good, people that care about the community,
give beyond themselves, things like that, and you are both
shining examples of that.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
And in addition, you're pretty darn good at what you do. Yeah,
and so it's the best of both the world.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
I tell our team this all the time. You know,
having a servant's heart is critical to our success. And
I've been very upfront with people that I've worked for
us in the past. If you lose sight of that,
if you lose sight of the empathy of the people
we're serving, You're not going to make it in this industry.
It's too tough. Is it is unlikely that if you
don't care about what we do when I call you
(46:54):
at three am to get out of bed, yeah, when
it's thirty degrees outside, If you don't care about serving,
you're probably not gonn last very long in this industry.
And it's not just us. So having that servant's heart
is just critical to us providing the level of service
that we need to provide.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
I can't agree more. And so, folks, I'm gonna link
the website in the description of this podcast and some
of their social media go give them a like on Facebook.
They share great tips on the Facebook.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
Page that keep you engaged.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
If you will also take your phone restoration one. Put
in the number now if you ever need them, it's
already in there. You ain't gotta go hectic looking for
what was the number of that local leader's podcast. Put
it in there right now, it'll be there. Save it
and twenty four to seven, We're ready to serve, Ready
(47:50):
to serve. Thank you so much for coming on and
helping get people prepared for what they can do to
maybe take some of that sting out of hurricanes seas
and should a storm come.
Speaker 3 (48:01):
This way, and Jim, thanks for having us. Thrilled to
be back.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
It's a few years, it has been, you know. It's interesting.
It popped up on my Facebook feed. I want to
say last week or the week before, but it said
three years ago or something like that, and I'm like, wow,
has it been that long?
Speaker 3 (48:15):
And thanks for the great work you do and getting
the words out for long businesses. It's invaluable things.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
Labor love.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
For me, I'm just blessed to sit down with good
business people and I learn every day just like everybody else.
With good business people that come on this show, you
certainly reflect that. I am so happy to see the
massive success that you've had. It's all earned and it
came through a.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
Lot of hard work. And here we go.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
Our success is o to our team, and we'd be
remiss if we walked out of here without saying that
that we've had the success we've had because we've got
the right people in the right seats. We've got people
that care about what they do. We have people that
care about serving the person in front of them. And
without our team, which has grown to twenty five plus
at this point, I mean, without them, this doesn't exist.
So there's no way we're walking out of here without
(49:02):
acknowledging them. They're they're the real real heroes behind all
of this.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Yeah, no doubt about it. And all of that, uh
comes from good leadership. And look y'all, y'all our husband
and wife duo here and uh and so it requires
a strong relationship to be able to pull that one off.
And so it's you have no doubt about it, Wendy Chatman,
you ain't coming to work here any times.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
They just kid double cut that.
Speaker 5 (49:29):
Out in the dryer, lint out.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Yeah, that's right, get that lit out.
Speaker 3 (49:35):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
Well, thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
And uh, folks, give them a like on Facebook. I
want to see some people out there hitting that like
button and click that link and check them out on
their website for more information. And until next time, I'm
Jim Chapman, your host of Local Leaders of the podcast
reminding you love your community, support local business and coal
(50:00):
restoration companies and keep leaving.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Thank you very much,
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