August 2, 2024 • 51 mins
Unlock the secrets of entrepreneurial success as we sit down with Patrick Robinson, the dynamic owner of Golden Coast Claims. Growing up under the influential wing of his father’s corporate career, Patrick's journey is a compelling mix of perseverance, family balance, and business acumen. Throughout our conversation, we explore how Patrick manages the complexities of running a business in California while raising five children, offering a candid glimpse into the realities of entrepreneurial life. This episode is packed with insights that will inspire aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned business owners alike.
From high school side hustles to launching multiple ventures, we break down the less glamorous side of entrepreneurship. Together, Patrick and I share personal stories of overcoming fears, such as the dreaded cold calls, and the unexpected challenges that come with business ownership. You’ll hear about my own path through various roles, including stints at State Farm and Farmers, to ultimately carving out a niche in the insurance industry. The discussion underscores the importance of every job as a stepping stone, providing invaluable lessons for future success.
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is no small feat, but Patrick and I share our strategies for integrating fitness, family, and business. Hear how we incorporate activities like jujitsu and cardio into our routines and leverage family time for personal well-being. We also dive into the intricacies of marketing strategies, time management, and the role of community support. Whether you're new to the entrepreneurial journey or looking to refine your approach, this episode provides practical advice and motivational stories to guide you every step of the way.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everyone, it's Jonathan Wagner and this is the
Business Guide.
Thanks for joining us onanother episode.
Today, I have a special guest,patrick Robinson.
That's right.
I always mess up his last name,so we've known each other for a
couple of years now, 2017.
2017.
Yeah, it's been some reallycool.
We've done some really coolthings together.
(00:22):
I mean, you'll hear about thatin this episode, but it's funny
how your network of friend orbusiness owners that you meet
can become friends, and that'sdefinitely what has happened
here.
So I'm excited that he is herewith us today.
Patrick, why don't you tell usa little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, I'll just jump right into it.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to behere.
Hey, thanks for being here.
This is cool.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
The listeners know this is a new show too, so we're
still getting the hang ofguests and the shows.
So you know, guys.
Again, if there's any tongueties or mess ups, that is
totally expected, as this isunedited to you in a raw version
, so you can really hear whatthis is about.
But anyways, back to you,patrick.
(01:07):
Who are you?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Who am I?
Good question, Well, businesspodcast right.
So we met each other in 2017.
That's actually when I startedmy business.
My business is Golden CoastClaims.
I'm a public insurance adjuster.
I'm sure we'll get into thatlater.
But who am I?
Yeah, who areer?
I'm sure we'll get into thatlater.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
But who am I?
Yeah, who are you?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I mean, so you're a business owner.
Business owner family guy havefive kids.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Five kids Guys, think about that too.
Five kids, yep, and you wereable to grow a business.
So it's pretty cool Growing thefamily growing the business.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
All at the same time, which has been fun and
exhausting and all over theplace.
But chaos is good a lot oftimes.
So, yeah, I mean California,native, grew up in the area,
went to school here, family isall local here.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, trying to think of what else.
You know, Nice, yeah guys.
California, Again, we're fromCalifornia.
Business not super businessfriendly here.
Right, it is a littlechallenging at times being a
business owner in a state thatis just, it's difficult, but
it's beautiful Feels like theydon't want you to start a
business.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
They try to do everything they can to dissuade
you from that.
It feels like sometimes.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
But, yeah, the weather's great, so we've got
that going for us for sure, forsure.
Um, all right guys.
So let's jump into somequestions, let's uh, let's get
some questions going to you.
Here's some core questions foryou, patrick, but, uh, you know,
you kind of recapped who youwere, um, specifically what led
you to the start of your youknow, your your business journey
and a little bit about yourbackground and kind of let you
know what led you to start yourbusiness.
(02:50):
But your, your journey and yourbackground.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah.
So, um, I've always sort ofgrown up I think it was a big
influence was my dad who workedin corporate jobs and kind of
went that path and he alwayskind of hammered into me at a
young age like sort of thedefinition of success always
seemed to be built up to myselfas at a young age of being a
(03:14):
business owner, being your ownboss, right.
I think that gets thrown arounda lot and a lot of people
probably don't put a lot ofthought into all of that that
entails.
People probably don't put a lotof thought into all of that
that entails, but it was justsort of hammered in that like
(03:39):
the people making the money, thepeople that have the balance,
the work-life balance, thepeople that can go beyond their
salary and really earn a lot ofmoney, are the people that own
the business.
So I've always had this sort ofspin at a young age to be the
business owner, of spin at ayoung age to be the business
owner.
I've started several companiesfrom high school through college
, everything from sourcingelectronics, buying them from
China and selling them todistributors.
It was related to what my dadwas doing, sort of had an in
(04:01):
there, the typical lemonade typestand stuff, mowing lawns, just
anything I could to sort of dosomething sort of like side
hustles in the beginning, whileI had other jobs Like even in
high school I worked at Ralph'sbagging groceries and then had a
business on the side.
So I've always sort of had thatbend towards trying to start
(04:25):
something right.
So you've always had thatentrepreneur drive.
Yeah, yeah, I think so, and youknow, I'm learning a lot more
too about, like,entrepreneurship and what that
actually means.
You know, I think that there'sentrepreneurs who are really
good at coming up with an ideaand getting it launched, and
then I've realized that that,like, there's starting something
(04:48):
, there's running something andthen potentially getting out of
something, and I think those areall different phases of, you
know, entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
But I think people don't realize that that, being
an entrepreneur, there's so manydifferent routes you can go be
in that you know thatentrepreneur.
Yeah, and I think that that youknow that guy sitting at his
job that wants to break out ofit, or that gal um, and they
want to break out of that Um,not knowing that it can change
in so many different directions,of what you like, what you
don't like and things like that.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Or even just thinking .
I think it's almost kind oflike romanticized, you know like
, oh, I want to start a business, I'm going to make all this
money, and it's so easy to gettrapped into.
You know, starting a businessand then becoming an employee of
your own business and kind offeeling trapped in it, and it's
like at that point are youreally an entrepreneur?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You're more just a I would probably have to say like
a lowpaid employee, because theamount of hours that you put in
versus what your pay is, andthen, on the flip side, a lot of
business owners carry debt.
So you are a low-paid,debt-carrying employee of your
business.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, all the risk and not a lot of rewards in that
type of scenario.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
For sure, for sure.
Well, thanks for the background.
Okay, well, what is yourcurrent business that you're in
right now?
What's your background on that?
What kind of led you to be likeyou know what?
I need to start something fulltime now and I need to get out
on my own.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Sure.
So I sort of fell intoinsurance.
You know, I graduated fromcollege, got married soon after
there and sort of didn't reallyhave a path, kind of listless or
just sort of wandering.
I worked at a motorcycle shopfor actually a number of years.
(06:34):
It was interesting because Ibasically was brought in to
start a department, so they hadzero online presence.
I had built websites and rune-commerce sites in the past, so
I was brought in to basicallystart their online arm of their
business and it was fun for awhile.
(06:56):
You know, I got to basicallyhave that kind of cut my teeth
in a little bit more formalsense of like entrepreneurship
being tied to a company.
So it was like I had the safetynet of getting a salary but the
incentives to start a businessand try to grow it as much as
possible.
So I played around with thatfor a couple of years, started
(07:18):
getting some pressure to come upwith more money as family
started growing and just kind ofneeding to like level up in the
career path.
So got into banking.
This was like 2006, 2007.
That was the best time to be inbanking.
So I started doing subprimehome loans with zero experience
(07:42):
and I actually took itstrategically, because I used to
have this crazy phobia where Iwould not call a person on the
phone to save my life, likeliterally.
If it was something even simplelike call in food at a
restaurant, I just like I hadthis weird thing about calling
people.
So what did I do?
(08:04):
I jumped into a job that was95% cold calls and it was a
nightmare I mean one the timingright, so being there during the
housing crisis or at the verystart of it.
But just knowing that this wassomething that was holding me
back and I think for me, I usethat as kind of a gauge of what
(08:26):
I need to work on.
Right.
So when I have a major likeresistance to something, I know
that, like, something good is onthe other side of that.
So not being able to callanybody it's going to be a huge
limiting factor in generatingsales, building relationships,
networking, all that kind ofstuff.
So it's super important.
(08:47):
So I wanted to get over thatand was kind of thankful that I
had the foresight to just throwmyself to the lions in that kind
of an environment.
And it was brutal.
I mean it was like what is thatmovie?
Boiler Room?
Have you ever seen that yeah,like Wall Street, you know, like
calling people, it was similarto that.
You'd be on the phone, you'dhave like three guys behind you
(09:10):
critiquing it, telling you don'tsay uh anymore, and just like
kind of a fun environment so butit was like very on the spot
and just so.
In that couple of years that Iwas there obviously got over the
whole calling phobia so andthen that kind of dwindled out
2008 or nine, you know, thechickens came home to roost and
(09:35):
the office went from.
You know I was one of 30 down toI was the second guy still left
in the building and parted wayswith the, with that company,
and then, just sort ofscrambling trying to find
something new, fell intoinsurance through a connection
that I had through my wife.
So I started at State Farm,worked as a adjuster for them
(09:59):
for probably three to four yearsand then switched to Farmers,
worked there for another threeto four years and then switched
to farmers, worked there foranother three to four years and
a nightmare job, you know, justsort of going through the paces
trying to earn a paycheck, butthe amount of stress and the
lack of ability to kind of earnmore money was just it kind of
(10:20):
hammered home to me that like ifyou're going to do this, it has
to be now.
I literally got to the pointwhere I just couldn't continue
to do that job anymore and Ithink at the time I probably had
three young children and not awell-paying job.
My wife was working at the time.
(10:41):
But we talked a lot and got onthe same page and just decided
that like, we're going to try todo something, we're going to
try to do it now.
So took the leap, you know,just quit the job didn't have
anything really goingsubstantial, tried to get as
much runway as possible whilestill maintaining a job, trying
(11:01):
to get all the ducks in a rowwith this business to get
started and made the leap in2017.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I'm just thinking what a journey kind of the
leaning up to so many differenthats of the entrepreneurship,
kind of working at Ralph'shaving something on the side,
the pieces kind of falling intoplace.
And guys, if you remember theepisode with Shane, things
started to fall into place and Ithink that you know we'll talk
(11:37):
about this later on, I'm sure,some future episodes but just
really how things fall intoplace, some future episodes, but
just really how things fallinto place.
And if you're in a position,like you were in the insurance
position, not necessarily like,hey, I'm going to own the
insurance company, but take awayfrom any position that you're
(11:58):
working at, use that asexperience and leverage to get
into your own business.
In my situation, it wasmanagement at Walgreens and
that's where I was like, hey,you know, I knew how to you know
clean carpets and do a littlewater damage, and then kind of
took my management experienceand the pieces fell for me.
When I had Shane on, hementioned that that pieces kind
(12:18):
of fell in together and itsounds like that's kind of the
story of like, I want to be anentrepreneur.
You're taking everything thatyou know right and then you
finally get, you know, get going.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah, and I don't know if I realized that at the
time.
I think for sure with the coldcalling thing it was a
purposeful like I need to getthis skill, but I think anybody
that can.
You know, if you want to startyour own thing, if you're
looking to go that path, any anytask or job that you're doing,
you need to look at it as likeyou know you're, you're picking
(12:50):
up skills as you go and all ofthose are going to factor into
cause when you own a businessyou have.
You know, when you start out,you're literally doing every
aspect of it, from cold callingto bookkeeping and, um, you know
, to be able to get to the pointwhere you can do that and
manage it and be successful,you've got to sort of accumulate
(13:10):
some, some basis to kind ofdrive that forward.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
So I think for the entrepreneurs out there, use
your job as your school rightnow.
If you haven't, if you haven'tlaunched it yet.
Right, take, take the skillsthat you're learning, um, um.
I mean, patrick, I know thatyou know you've got a lot going
on in life the business, thefamily, everything.
(13:35):
Business owners consistentlyhave to be their own
cheerleaders.
Right, specifically, we have tomotivate ourselves.
How do you motivate yourself?
And you know what keeps youmotivated during, you know,
during times that are tough.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, so a lot of times it feels like you're just
in it.
You know, for me it's just uh.
There's a lot of pressure tokeep things going.
Uh, there's really noalternative at this point.
So it's more just uh.
It's almost like fear driven tosome degree, which is probably
(14:09):
not the most healthy situationto be in long term.
But I think Shouts out guys.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Hey, real quick.
The first step, overcoming thefear of getting started, was one
of our very first episodes.
Speaking of fear, I just wantto shamelessly plug You're
talking about fear.
Every business owner deals withfear and we don't let it stop
us.
You got two business ownershere that are fearful of
different things, but we're inbusiness, we're making money,
(14:36):
we're thriving.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
So sorry, but yeah, no, I mean, you know, I think
that's the difference, andprobably the kind of barrier to
entry is like the people thatcan go past that fear point or
figure out a way to overcomethat.
You know, that's probably forme.
It was the hardest obstacle,for sure.
What were we talking about?
I forgot the question.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
So just overall, just I mean, you know obviously like
what keeps you motivated,motivated.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
During the, you know, during all the tough times, I
mean cause you know businesseswaves, right, you've got, you've
got a.
I mean, and specifically guysas I've brought in, you're going
to closely see.
A lot of my network is close toour industry right now.
These are the people that Ideal with day in and day out and
have become really good friendswith, but our industry is a
(15:23):
very feast or famine industry,and so I think you are
definitely capable of saying hey, like how are we getting
motivated?
Right, it's really, really busy.
Yeah, and we're like livinggood, it's all good.
And then you know what?
Hey, it's slowed down.
You know holidays, whatever itis Like, hey, it's not as good
as it was last month.
What are we doing to staymotivated?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, and it's, you know, for my business.
I think in particular, one ofthe struggles has been figuring
out, trying to keep itconsistent.
So it's not really seasonal forme.
We deal with insurance claims.
People are constantly havingdamage to their house.
Sometimes it's driven byweather events, which could be
(16:05):
seasonal, but a lot of what wedeal is plumbing failures and
those pop whenever they're goingto pop.
So there's not a lot of likehistorical data that you can
look at and say like, oh and, inspringtime we're really busy
and it slows down in winter.
But I have noticed that like weseem to ramp up, we get really,
(16:26):
really busy.
I switch gears to OK, we'rereally busy, how do we handle
all this work?
I switch gears to okay, we'rereally busy, how do we handle
all this work?
That then pulls me away frommarketing, which leads us to
start to slow down as we finishup that work.
We're now slow.
So then I switch hats againinto a marketing role and trying
to drive more business and justthat roller coaster of going up
(16:50):
and down is pretty exhaustingmentally.
That roller coaster of going upand down is pretty exhausting
mentally, you know it.
It takes a lot of energy tokeep switching gears from
driving sales to handling thework.
I'm almost to the point whereyou can be, like you know, if I
go and market I'm just going toget so much more work, it's
going to create another issue,right.
And so it's sort of highlightedsome problems with my business
(17:10):
of.
Like you know, it's prettyloosely run right now.
There's a lot of autonomy inthe adjuster world.
You sort of just handle yourwork and get the task done.
So it's easy to get lost injust doing the tasks and
completing the work and tryingto move things forward.
And it's a little harder tosort of pull yourself back and
(17:33):
look forward and say, if I onlyfocus on getting the work done
for the next three months, we'regoing to have another slow
period.
How do we even this out?
And so for me, that's somethingto try to stay.
Motivated is, I think,constantly trying to change some
aspect of the business, whetherthat's implementing a process,
(17:53):
something that's going to helpstreamline something or give me
more data, to try to run it morelike a structured business,
versus just see your pantsrunning and gunning and
everything.
Motivation for me ismaintaining a certain lifestyle.
You know, obviously with fivekids there's a lot of expenses.
We purchased a home recently.
(18:15):
That's been a lot of pressure.
Keeping all of that going iskind of the main motivation
right now, and I think also forme it's trying to see a light at
the end of the tunnel andfiguring out a way to not be
doing this for the next 15 years.
I think if I was doing theexact same thing in even five or
(18:38):
10 years, I would look back andthink I really missed some sort
of an opportunity.
Or if I had just done thisdifferently, I'd be in a
different spot.
And so it's really for me Ithink the motivation is just
looking at what kind of life amI trying to design in the future
and how do I get there?
Sort of reverse engineer it.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Well, thank you for that.
Yeah, I know that.
You know us business ownersalways motivating ourselves, can
.
It weighs on the brain, right,you're up, you're down, you're,
you know it becomes exhausting.
So I think that you know if andit's important we all go
through it and I think,recognizing that you know,
(19:21):
recognizing that is importantfor sure.
Okay, so, patrick, I have threeunspoken challenges, right, I
like the, I like business ownersto know that every business
owner goes through all of thesedifferent challenges.
You're not alone in thesechallenges.
And crafting to the listeners.
(19:45):
Patrick was given a list ofquestions and he could really
pick from that list of,specifically, something that
resonates with him and hisbusiness and maybe a challenge
or a success that he's dealtwith.
So I'm going to get into thosequestions but, yeah, really just
kind of the goal to open, justopen the floodgates and say, hey
, it's okay, we all deal withsomething and this is how we are
(20:07):
dealing with it.
And hey, or how I'm dealingwith it right now and maybe
haven't gotten through it.
So number one is the fear offailure.
The fear of failure, copingwith the consistent fear of the
business failing, I mean that'sa big one, that's a big one
(20:31):
that's a deep one, because Ithink every business owner
definitely experiences this.
I know I am consistentlyfearful of my business failing
and I think that helps launch meto succeed.
Yeah, but specifically on yourquestion, I don't know fear of
failure, how to cope with it.
What are your thoughts on it?
Yeah, I mean, it's obviouslysomething that everybody goes
(20:52):
through.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I don't know fear of failure, how to cope with it.
What are your thoughts on it?
Yeah, I mean, it's obviouslysomething that everybody goes
through, and probably differentphases of it as well.
I think there's the fear offailure which stops you from
starting.
There's the fear of failurethat stops you from doing things
(21:17):
that you know are going toprogress the business in the
direction that you want to go.
And it really, I mean, for meit's just all a mental game.
The fear is kind of alwaysthere and it can be a driver.
You know, I think you can usethe fear as like fuel to sort of
push yourself.
I think, long term, that's notthe best strategy, you know.
I think that's going to leadultimately to burnout or
resentment, or maybe even justnot clear thinking about the
(21:42):
decisions that you're making.
If you're deciding everythingfor the future based on fear,
you know, I don't think that'sgoing to be the best case
scenario for the business or foryourself personally.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So I used an analogy of I like like to.
I like to use this analogy I'veused it in the past is like
fear can be a passenger in thecar, but it can't tell you where
to go.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, because if, if they're directing
every turn, then who knowswhere you're going to end up,
right?
So I mean it's a constantstruggle.
I definitely don't have itfigured out.
I think it's a constantchecking back in mindset.
I've noticed like stressmanagement, trying to work out,
(22:26):
do stuff physically helps a lotlike anxiety wise, which is
related to fear.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Can I chime in and say something about you know
working out?
I think this is important foryou know, for people to know.
But as business owners, youdon't have to live an unhealthy
life.
Patrick, you recently dropped aton of weight.
You have five kids, you have afull-time business, so being
able to fit a fitness scheduleinto that a fitness plan, is
(22:53):
doable, would you say it'sdoable.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, I mean, it's for sure it's not easy and it's
easier to give yourself theexcuse of, like I've got to do
this, I have to do that.
But it comes down torecognizing the importance of
certain things and just carvingout the time for it.
So, like I'm on a kick rightnow where Monday through excuse
me, monday through Friday, I dosomething for at least 30
(23:18):
minutes.
We're doing jujitsu and I'vebeen able to incorporate my son
into that.
So it's kind of a blending Likein my world.
I kind of have to blend a lotof things because if I'm not
driving kids to summer camp, youknow, because we're in the
summertime, or dropping off atschool or pickups or whatever
(23:38):
the family needs, there's a lotto juggle there.
So anytime I can kind of killtwo birds with one stone, I try
to take that opportunity.
So like Monday through Friday,I'm carving out at least 30
minutes, you know, and if I canfind 30 minutes, I think pretty
much anybody can.
I do actually have a lot offlexibility in my time.
(23:59):
It's one of the biggest perks,I think, of owning your own
business and one of the mainreasons of why I've always
wanted to go that I've hatedlike from you know 8 to 5,
you're sitting at your desk andyou better look busy or you're
on the chopping block kind of athing.
You know it's like I'd ratherbe my own boss and be efficient
(24:21):
and use my time as I can.
So jujitsu has been huge, anddoing that with my son has been
really cool.
Cardio on the other days, justget it in, go for a quick jog,
go to the gym really quick andjust kind of making calls at the
same time.
You know, you just kind of haveto figure it out.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Oh, that's cool and I know it got a little off topic,
but I think it's importantbecause I think that you know us
business owners, we get sotunnel visioned into the
day-to-day we think we can't.
You know, maybe you've got,maybe you have that single guy
that's that's running thebusiness, or single gal that's
running a business right nowthinking, well, I can't start a
family, or maybe they have, youknow, a family.
(25:02):
And now it's like, well, Ican't be healthy because I'm,
you know, I'm running a businessand I have a family.
But this is where I think youknow people understand that,
yeah, I think people understandthat, yeah, in business you can
do, you can have a healthylifestyle, you can have a family
.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
and you can have a thriving business, yeah, and you
can convince yourself thatthat's not possible For sure.
But I think if you make a bunchof money but you're so stressed
out and overweight that youhave a heart attack when you're
55.
You know what was the point,kind of a thing.
So for me it's tying it back tosome future goal.
(25:41):
But you know, the exercise andwhy we started talking about
that is it's a major tool inmanaging anxiety for me, which
leads to fear and it's really amindset thing.
Leads to fear and it's really amindset thing, and it's really
hard to keep a positive mindsetand to have the energy to do all
these things if you're out ofshape and all that stuff.
(26:02):
So it's just become somethingthat's very apparent to me, that
like needs to be an emphasis.
So that's one strategy, I think, with dealing with the fear.
I like to.
You know, when I think ofsomething that I want to do or
accomplish, I kind of have anegative train of thought.
I can find all the flaws in itpretty quickly, you know, and I
(26:24):
think what you focus on is kindof what becomes.
So I've had to really sort ofpush against that and just say,
oh yeah, that that thing couldturn out like that.
But you know, just rememberingthat it also could work out.
And now that I have a kind of atrack record of like, hey, if I
reach out to this company and Ibuild a relationship with them,
yeah, they may tell me theydon't want to work with me or
(26:48):
they're working with somebodyelse, but they also might say,
yeah, we can definitely worktogether.
And that's how all therelationships that I have so far
have started from reaching outto people.
You and I are a good case study.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I want to mention that and again, shameless plug
over to the listeners the art ofnetworking, building meaningful
business relationships.
I did mention Patrick in thatepisode.
He is one of the guys that Italked about when I met on my
birthday and you know it hasbeen very lucrative for him and
very lucrative for me, and it'sjust all it took was, you know,
(27:27):
patrick essentially asking myguys when he ran into them for
my contact information and mebeing open to always networking.
So, as you are building yourbusiness, you're always keeping
the marketing out, you're alwaysmarketing, you're always
selling your business, you'realways thinking about people.
People will connect you withdifferent people and in business
(27:48):
that's important.
You never know where yourwork's going to come in from.
But on the flip side, yeah, youcan really build some great
relationships and here's a primeexample.
Here's a prime example.
We have both have, um, havegrown together in our businesses
.
It has been, uh, you know what,six years, five years, five
(28:09):
plus years, 2007, seven years.
So time flies when you'rehaving a good time, you know, on
some of the, some of the slowdays back in those days, pretty
interesting, don't know if youremember, should I bring it up?
We would.
We would drive around.
You know what we were doingwhen we were driving around, I
do.
I remember we were playingPokemon go, but that was we were
(28:30):
looking for leads right.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
We were looking for leads right we were looking for
leads.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
But I think what's funny is we had fun in those in
those early days of when we hadtime to carve out kind of for
each other and that built afriendship and developed the
business relationship for sure.
So, yes, we had the businessrelationship, definitely
developed a friendship there andyou know it's been really good.
(28:53):
So I think keeping your, youknow, just keeping the business
relationship definitelydeveloped a friendship there and
it's been really good.
So I think just keeping themarketing always open, you never
know who's going to walk intoyour life or your business life,
and maybe it's you wearing yourpolo with your company name at
the grocery store and you sparka conversation.
So always be ready to havethose conversations.
Okay, so moving on to, oursecond question is going to be
(29:17):
marketing ROI.
So the uncertainty andeffectiveness of your marketing
efforts.
Right, I mean in business, wespend a ton of money doing
everything, right, you couldspend a ton of money on online
ads and the company that'sselling you those online ads are
telling you oh, this isabsolutely going to work, or
(29:37):
whatever it may be, and we knowthrough trial and error that
things work.
Things don't work.
But, specifically, what's yourtake on it?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, so you know, you and I have talked about this
a lot, lot and because of how Istarted the business and sort
of fell into it and developedsome really kind of core
relationships early on, that ledto my business.
Basically, you know, a publicadjuster helps a homeowner or a
(30:07):
business owner that's having aclaim deal with their insurance.
So the client is not reallyelusive because it happens all
the time and there's a wholeindustry built around it.
But most people maybe file aclaim or two in their entire
life and they have no idea thata public adjuster exists
(30:29):
typically, right, I think someof that's changing is tough
market and you have to be rightthere, right when it happens
right in the beginning, you know, and so like somebody has to
think, and so how do you findthose people?
Right?
And so, obviously, companieslike yours, where if you have
water damage to your houseyou're calling a water damage
company, they're coming out.
You know if they can educate theclient, that people like I
(30:51):
exist and get me in front ofthem, that's hugely important
for our business, right, andI've.
So I've really focused onnetworking, building
relationships with kind of keyindustries of people that are, I
call it like the start of thefunnel, right, and they're,
they're in there in thebeginning, they're in front of
the client and they can educatethe client and get me in the
(31:15):
door, basically.
So that's been like my go-tofrom day one.
As we've grown, as I've addedadjusters as the needs of the
business have developed to wheremore consistent leads are
needed, you know, I startedfocusing on having a website and
(31:37):
putting content on that websiteorganically to kind of
hopefully drive traffic that way.
I think anytime you get intothat situation, you start
playing around withpay-per-click and online ads and
things like that, sponsoringevents, running, you know, ads
(31:59):
in like circular, like magazinesthat are targeted to specific
areas.
Past client referrals.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That's huge.
That's huge for me, I mean,which is hard, because when
you're you know, when you're newin business you don't have that
.
But as you've established yourbusiness, you've done right by
your clients, that funnel of Forsure it's huge.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
For me right now it's probably I would say it's the
largest source.
You know cliche, I guess, buttaking care of the client,
providing a level of servicethat creates an environment
(32:38):
where the customer is just likesinging our praises right,
that's the cheapest marketingthat I've found.
Yeah, taking care of the clientdoing a good job makes it
easier to get paid and then setsus up for referrals in the
future.
And anytime somebody goesthrough something like dealing
with an insurance claim andfighting with the insurance
(32:59):
company, it can be a horribleexperience.
But if they have that insight,and then you know when somebody
has a leak, they tell everybodyoh, my house flooded.
I'm staying in a hotel.
It's a nightmare.
My kitchen's all ripped up.
The insurance company is givingme $10,000.
All the contractors want$100,000.
I'm staying in a hotel.
It's a nightmare, my kitchen'sall ripped up.
The insurance company is givingme $10,000.
All the contractors want$100,000.
I don't know what I do and likehaving those people out there
(33:21):
and it's a numbers game becausethe more clients you help, the
more people you have out therepotentially spreading the word.
But that's been my focus and itdoesn't cost money, but it
costs time.
But I've also seen, andobviously through our
conversations I've seen theimportance and the potential of,
(33:43):
you know, filming short videoclips or putting out a
pay-per-click ads, and I kind oflook at that as maintenance
right now.
You know, again, the fact thatI don't have like hard data on
all this stuff is one of thethings that I'm trying to work
on so I can say like X percentcomes from past client referrals
(34:03):
, x percent comes from onlinepaid versus organic, x percent
comes from all the other sources, right, and I think having that
real hard data can help youmake better decisions with it.
But I'm just not at that pointright now.
So I'm sort of going by gut andit's like focus on what I know
network client relations butthen also keep doing all this
(34:27):
stuff.
I got a call this morning from aguy that clicked on one of our
ads it may turn into somethingit may not.
Morning from a guy that clickedon one of our ads it may turn
into something it may not.
But yeah, I think early on Ikind of developed a kind of a
negative attitude towards payingfor the just the phone call,
right, because if I'm puttingmoney out there to get somebody
call and they call and it's likeoh, my claim got denied two
(34:49):
years ago.
Is there anything I can do?
Sorry, can't help you.
Waste of money, waste of time.
Versus like a fully vetted,warm handoff from a client that
comes like from your companywhere they have a claim, it's
covered and they're interested,so I go and I meet with them,
kind of a thing.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
I think it's important to you know there's a
lot to definitely a lot tounpack there.
But you know, specifically onthe marketing, I've got
something to add on thecreativity.
I think that, and yeah, youadvertise and you're paying for
a lead where you can't doanything with that lead.
I have that happen all the timeand kind of understanding that
(35:31):
it's an overall thing.
So not that one lead wasnecessarily paid for, but taking
it of, okay, I can tell if Iget 10 clicks to an ad, one of
those people actually convert toa client.
So finding out what that numberis, what you've paid for, that,
that way you kind of wash outthe noise with the other nine
people.
Now I do want to stress topeople listening is guys,
(35:57):
patrick is a legitimate business.
He's been in business for Ithink seven years, right, Seven
years yeah.
So seven years I've been inbusiness over 12 years.
We're always working onsomething that is, I think,
important for everybody tounderstand.
So if you have something goingon in your business and you feel
(36:19):
like you're not getting thedata like you think your
competitor is getting, orwhatever it is, every person in
business is still developingsomething in their business and
we never stop developing.
But going back to, I think,creative I've got a story real
quick but creative marketing.
So you know you, obviously it'sunique, right?
(36:39):
You've got people that neverhave to deal with this and you
are trying to get in front ofthose people and you have a very
limited window to do.
That reminds me of a story ofwhen I was a kid.
So for everybody that doesn'tknow, my mom was a funeral
director, undertaker for a whilegone funeral director then
(37:01):
turned business owner and Ithink that's what gave me the
entrepreneurship.
But I remember there was afriend that would randomly send
us to Disneyland.
Hey, take the kids toDisneyland.
Me and my brother would go.
This was so great it was paidfor.
This friend's business had paidfor it and we'd go every year
and there was always thisblowout Christmas party and all
(37:22):
these different businesses werethere and it was really cool.
I mean, I grew up with it.
I'm currently in business.
Right, I'm now kind ofnetworking.
I'm improving my circle.
I still go to these parties.
This is something we still getinvited to because there is a
legitimate friendship that wasmade years ago.
But probably my third or fourthyear in business I'm sitting
(37:45):
there at this Christmas partyand now I'm going to tell you
what these people do.
These people are personalinjury attorneys Nice and I'm
sitting there and I'm thinking,okay, this person's from a
funeral home, this person's froma hospital.
I'm like this is a marketingthing that these guys are doing.
(38:06):
So I go and tell my mom.
I said, hey, were they sendingus to Disneyland back when we
were a kid for fun?
She's like, no, they werelooking for our referrals and I
consistently referred them.
Business off of if somebody diedfrom a wrongful death
Interesting.
She would refer them and say,hey, if you need a good attorney
, here you go.
And I was like I never thoughtthat's there.
(38:27):
But you have to get creativewith your marketing and you
build legitimate relationshipsthere.
I mean, my mom has been out ofthe funeral business for 20-some
years now and we still go tothese things because she's just
got a good friendship with theseguys.
Got a good friendship withthese guys and, a matter of fact
, early on in business, one ofthe main lead attorneys there
(38:48):
that I mean it was pretty muchhis business right.
I sat down and got the pleasureof just kind of talking with
him for three or four hours,went to a local restaurant and
he, I mean he just unloaded oneverything business.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
So you do build friendships, it develops into
things and so, anyways, justunique marketing is kind of
interesting, yeah, and that kindof you know I always call it
like proactive marketing whereyou're building those
relationships, you're puttingout a benefit so that when the
capital to host a big event likethat I mean I know how much
(39:34):
Disneyland costs it's not cheap.
So at a certain point I thinksomething like that becomes more
realistic.
But figuring out how to get tothat point and determining at
what point it makes sense Causeyou can go broke hosting a bunch
of parties- oh for sure, Don'tjust go out and do all these
parties.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
But if it makes sense in your budget and your
marketing, you've got to get.
You've got to get creativeright.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
But don't just start a business and and uh you know
that would be a hard part If youwere trying to start and
develop leads that way.
It would be a hard, a hard wayto start.
It would be a lot of money todo it and you would go broke
real fast, but you kind ofevolve, you know, into that
position where you probably arelooking at like a tax write-off
or something and you also get tohave some fun.
(40:18):
Yeah, heads up, it was alwaysat the end of the year.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah Right, Sometimes they didn't have them.
That's weird.
Yeah, slow year, slow year, Allright, moving on to our third
unspoken challenge.
It is everybody's favorite.
Everybody deals with this.
Patrick definitely selectedthis.
It's kind of funny.
We're here right now.
It was fun getting here today.
It's time management, jugglingmultiple roles and
(40:43):
responsibilities.
I think as business owners, wewear different hats, right?
One day I'm the IT guy, One dayI'm the CFO and one day I've
got to be the you know HR.
So we've got so many differentroles that we're always wearing
or wearing hats to.
They're evolving.
They're evolving.
I was a technician at one pointand now I've gone on to
(41:05):
different things.
So, juggling multiple roles andresponsibilities.
Please take the stage, Patrick.
How do you do it?
What's your outtake on it?
I got it all figured out.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Yeah.
So getting here obviously iskind of and that's why I picked
that question is something thatI need to work on right, kind of
like the cold calling thing.
It's like forcing yourself tofigure it out.
So I'm down a guy this week youhit me up earlier.
We've been talking about doinga podcast for a while and just
(41:38):
carving out that little bit oftime in between the drop-offs
and the business and all theother things.
There's a family member thathas an injury.
We're taking care of her rightnow.
There's a lot on the plate.
Obviously.
It comes down for me it comesdown to priorities right, trying
(41:59):
to do the things that are hard,that you know are going to push
you in the direction thatyou're trying to go, hard, that
you know are going to push youin the direction that you're
trying to go.
If you can step back andprioritize stuff, because for me
I have a really bad habit ofjust getting stuck in the easy,
quick hitters.
I think mentally it feels likeI'm doing something, so like you
(42:22):
know, it's stuff that needs toget done, but ultimately I'm
probably at a spot where Ishould be delegating this stuff
more, right, but it's kind ofaddicting to like just, I'm
going to just do this.
I'm going to, you know, writethis estimate.
I'm going to email thisadjuster.
I'm going to call this client.
I'm going to give these clientsupdates.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
You know all this and you get sucked into that vortex
.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Clients updates, you know all the sucked into that
vortex.
They all need to happen.
Yeah, they're all superimportant to some degree, but
they, they don't move us forward.
They keep, they just keep thebus rolling.
We're not getting on thefreeway by me completing tasks,
right, so it's it's hard.
It's something I'm strugglingwith.
(43:05):
When you own a business, youhave a lot of flexibility in
your time, but it also meansthat if it doesn't get done, it
doesn't get done, and who'sgoing to do it?
So it all ultimately falls onyou.
So it's easy to get lost injust doing those day-to-day
tasks.
And again, the flexibility oftime.
(43:26):
I can go and drive a kid to anevent or whatever, or spend time
with my kids, and I just may be, you know, texting clients at
10 o'clock at night or sendingemails or doing stuff later.
You know I can stack itwherever I need to.
But I think when I'm trying todesign more time management for
(43:48):
me, what I try to focus on islike what are the things that
I've continually put off, that Iknow need to happen, that are
the next step to get us to thenext level?
How do I carve out the space andthe time to do that among all
the other things that need tohappen, and so trying to figure
that out right now.
Honestly, I think it's going tobe some sort of combination of
(44:11):
creating some business processesthat streamline some things.
We've talked a lot about that.
Setting those systems up, Ithink, are going to give me the
ability to delegate things moreeffectively and be able to keep
track of them.
In the past, I've kind ofdelegated some things and then
(44:32):
followed up with them, you know,maybe a week later and found
out nothing happened or didn'thappen the way that I thought it
was going to happen, and that'ssuper frustrating because it's
like you know, I'm just like getit done, get it done, move
forward, keep going, and otherpeople don't seem to have that
kind of sense of urgency, whichis frustrating, I think, as a
(44:52):
business owner.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
So yeah, I mean time management.
It's huge wearing, you know,wearing those different hats.
And I think, between you know,let's take it back to a time
because I know a lot of peopleare, you know, in that spot is
they have started a business,it's starting to become, become
(45:15):
successful, they're taking off,they're going out, they're the
ones doing those estimates, arethe ones meeting with those
adjusters, they're the onesreally consumed in that work and
they're really thinking abouttheir first hire, but they're
nervous.
They're nervous that it'sactually going to stunt their
growth.
Maybe their money that they'remaking is going to go to now a
salary.
What if it gets slow?
(45:36):
How are you going to?
Those are struggles that wetalked about with your first
hire before your employees, youremployees and I've explained it
to so many people that once youhave you know, those employees,
you still have you, you arestill just as busy, and I think
that that is a commonmisconception is, when I have my
employees, I will no longer bebusy and it's just that the hats
(45:58):
change and the roles change.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, yeah, and that's something I'm dealing
with right now is theexpectation that if you were
going to duplicate me and Idon't have to think about this
anymore, it really hasn't turnedout to be the case, there might
be.
You know, I push it back onmyself, right?
So if I'm in a situation that'snot working out, it's because I
(46:22):
created it basically.
So yeah, managing you had someexperience managing other people
.
I was never in a managerialposition in my prior like jobs.
I was always the either thesales guy or the person
completing the tasks.
I was never responsible for theoutput of other people and it's
(46:43):
a tough thing to learn andteach yourself in real time.
For sure, on your dime On yourdime, all the steak,
everything's on the table.
So it's something that we'refiguring out, but it definitely
plays into the time managementaspect of it, and it's because
it's like I quickly realizedthat in my business I'm sort of
(47:09):
the limiting factor.
I can only handle so much work,I can only call so many people,
I can only do so much, and inorder to grow, I need to bring
people in that can add value andhandle some things, so that I
can focus on the other thingsthat keep the business moving
forward.
So it's just a lot to juggle andtry to figure out.
(47:32):
We're always doing it.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
Everybody is.
You know, everybody's doing it,and I think that if you're
looking at your competitors,your competitors are doing it
too.
Don't think that somebody is,you know, outshining you,
because everybody's got theirown struggle.
Patrick, looking back, what isone piece of advice that you
wish you had starting out, onepiece of advice that you wish
(47:54):
you had when you were startingout With this business?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Or in any business, but just that you know something
that maybe you you would reallylike to tell your younger self
as you were getting intobusiness.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Hmm, I probably would have started sooner.
I think I I held on way toolong at at the companies that I
worked at and you know I reallyonly needed maybe a year or two
working as an adjuster to kindof figure it out and be able to
roll that into what I'm doingnow.
So I think just you know makingthat jump before the point that
(48:37):
I did because I really rodethat thing out to where it was
insanely stressful and it took atoll and probably wasn't
necessary and if I had startedsooner I'd be that much further
along.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
Um, that's uh, that's some good advice.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Good advice.
I mean it is because how manypeople wait, and then maybe that
that weight turns into never,you never do it and that turns
into regret.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
I mean, I know people , yeah, and I know people that
they just can't make the mentalshift of like they have a desire
to, or at least they say theydo, but the comfort of just.
I think for me it was reallygetting to the point of
realizing like, oh, I can getfired at any point.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
As your business owner, you kind of have control
of it, right, I mean, you can,you're not going to get fired,
but it's on you for just likegetting fired is probably on you
as well.
But I think there's like afalse sense of security that a
lot of people have.
And you know, I just didn'twant to have the regret of like
going through and you know Ijust didn't want to have the
regret of like going through.
And it comes back to kind oflike my dad and how I grew up.
It was like he sort of had inthe way that he was telling me,
(49:54):
like, be your own boss, startyour own company.
You could tell it was sort oflike a regret that maybe he had
of you know, I'm doing this, I'mworking my butt off, I'm doing
all these things and I'm makingall these other people all this
money.
And seeing that and kind ofpassing that onto his son was,
you know, a big, big influencefor sure Shouts out to Patrick's
(50:15):
dad yeah, shouts out Pops,shouts out to Pops.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Well, patrick, I know you're busy and I really
appreciate you taking the timeto be on the podcast.
You know the goal is reallyjust to let everybody understand
.
There's so many different insand outs of business.
Everybody goes through it andhaving your insight on that, I
know, is greatly appreciated.
So thank you.
Yeah thanks for having me on,guys.
(50:40):
Thank you for tuning in.
If you made it this far in theepisode, I really appreciate you
listening.
Remember, our goal here is tobring the business community
together.
If you're dealing with achallenge or you're dealing with
something, you're not alone.
There are other business ownersout there that are going
through it and, at least on thispodcast, if there is a struggle
that we can answer for you,then I would consider this
(51:03):
podcast a success.
If you like today's episode,drop us a comment or send us a
text message.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
I'd love to hear your feedback.
I'd love to hear if you haveany questions.
So if you're dealing withsomething or there's an issue
that you'd like to be addressed,let me know, and if I don't
know the answer, I'll getsomebody on here that does.
All right, guys.
Thanks for checking it out.
Hey everyone, it's Jonathan Wagner and this is the
Business Guide.
Thanks for joining us onanother episode.
Today, I have a special guest,patrick Robinson.
That's right.
I always mess up his last name,so we've known each other for a
couple of years now, 2017.
2017.
Yeah, it's been some reallycool.
We've done some really coolthings together.
(00:22):
I mean, you'll hear about thatin this episode, but it's funny
how your network of friend orbusiness owners that you meet
can become friends, and that'sdefinitely what has happened
here.
So I'm excited that he is herewith us today.
Patrick, why don't you tell usa little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, I'll just jump right into it.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to behere.
Hey, thanks for being here.
This is cool.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
The listeners know this is a new show too, so we're
still getting the hang ofguests and the shows.
So you know, guys.
Again, if there's any tongueties or mess ups, that is
totally expected, as this isunedited to you in a raw version
, so you can really hear whatthis is about.
But anyways, back to you,patrick.
(01:07):
Who are you?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Who am I?
Good question, Well, businesspodcast right.
So we met each other in 2017.
That's actually when I startedmy business.
My business is Golden CoastClaims.
I'm a public insurance adjuster.
I'm sure we'll get into thatlater.
But who am I?
Yeah, who areer?
I'm sure we'll get into thatlater.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
But who am I?
Yeah, who are you?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I mean, so you're a business owner.
Business owner family guy havefive kids.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Five kids Guys, think about that too.
Five kids, yep, and you wereable to grow a business.
So it's pretty cool Growing thefamily growing the business.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
All at the same time, which has been fun and
exhausting and all over theplace.
But chaos is good a lot oftimes.
So, yeah, I mean California,native, grew up in the area,
went to school here, family isall local here.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, trying to think of what else.
You know, Nice, yeah guys.
California, Again, we're fromCalifornia.
Business not super businessfriendly here.
Right, it is a littlechallenging at times being a
business owner in a state thatis just, it's difficult, but
it's beautiful Feels like theydon't want you to start a
business.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
They try to do everything they can to dissuade
you from that.
It feels like sometimes.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
But, yeah, the weather's great, so we've got
that going for us for sure, forsure.
Um, all right guys.
So let's jump into somequestions, let's uh, let's get
some questions going to you.
Here's some core questions foryou, patrick, but, uh, you know,
you kind of recapped who youwere, um, specifically what led
you to the start of your youknow, your your business journey
and a little bit about yourbackground and kind of let you
know what led you to start yourbusiness.
(02:50):
But your, your journey and yourbackground.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah.
So, um, I've always sort ofgrown up I think it was a big
influence was my dad who workedin corporate jobs and kind of
went that path and he alwayskind of hammered into me at a
young age like sort of thedefinition of success always
seemed to be built up to myselfas at a young age of being a
(03:14):
business owner, being your ownboss, right.
I think that gets thrown arounda lot and a lot of people
probably don't put a lot ofthought into all of that that
entails.
People probably don't put a lotof thought into all of that
that entails, but it was justsort of hammered in that like
(03:39):
the people making the money, thepeople that have the balance,
the work-life balance, thepeople that can go beyond their
salary and really earn a lot ofmoney, are the people that own
the business.
So I've always had this sort ofspin at a young age to be the
business owner, of spin at ayoung age to be the business
owner.
I've started several companiesfrom high school through college
, everything from sourcingelectronics, buying them from
China and selling them todistributors.
It was related to what my dadwas doing, sort of had an in
(04:01):
there, the typical lemonade typestand stuff, mowing lawns, just
anything I could to sort of dosomething sort of like side
hustles in the beginning, whileI had other jobs Like even in
high school I worked at Ralph'sbagging groceries and then had a
business on the side.
So I've always sort of had thatbend towards trying to start
(04:25):
something right.
So you've always had thatentrepreneur drive.
Yeah, yeah, I think so, and youknow, I'm learning a lot more
too about, like,entrepreneurship and what that
actually means.
You know, I think that there'sentrepreneurs who are really
good at coming up with an ideaand getting it launched, and
then I've realized that that,like, there's starting something
(04:48):
, there's running something andthen potentially getting out of
something, and I think those areall different phases of, you
know, entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
But I think people don't realize that that, being
an entrepreneur, there's so manydifferent routes you can go be
in that you know thatentrepreneur.
Yeah, and I think that that youknow that guy sitting at his
job that wants to break out ofit, or that gal um, and they
want to break out of that Um,not knowing that it can change
in so many different directions,of what you like, what you
don't like and things like that.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Or even just thinking .
I think it's almost kind oflike romanticized, you know like
, oh, I want to start a business, I'm going to make all this
money, and it's so easy to gettrapped into.
You know, starting a businessand then becoming an employee of
your own business and kind offeeling trapped in it, and it's
like at that point are youreally an entrepreneur?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You're more just a I would probably have to say like
a lowpaid employee, because theamount of hours that you put in
versus what your pay is, andthen, on the flip side, a lot of
business owners carry debt.
So you are a low-paid,debt-carrying employee of your
business.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, all the risk and not a lot of rewards in that
type of scenario.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
For sure, for sure.
Well, thanks for the background.
Okay, well, what is yourcurrent business that you're in
right now?
What's your background on that?
What kind of led you to be likeyou know what?
I need to start something fulltime now and I need to get out
on my own.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Sure.
So I sort of fell intoinsurance.
You know, I graduated fromcollege, got married soon after
there and sort of didn't reallyhave a path, kind of listless or
just sort of wandering.
I worked at a motorcycle shopfor actually a number of years.
(06:34):
It was interesting because Ibasically was brought in to
start a department, so they hadzero online presence.
I had built websites and rune-commerce sites in the past, so
I was brought in to basicallystart their online arm of their
business and it was fun for awhile.
(06:56):
You know, I got to basicallyhave that kind of cut my teeth
in a little bit more formalsense of like entrepreneurship
being tied to a company.
So it was like I had the safetynet of getting a salary but the
incentives to start a businessand try to grow it as much as
possible.
So I played around with thatfor a couple of years, started
(07:18):
getting some pressure to come upwith more money as family
started growing and just kind ofneeding to like level up in the
career path.
So got into banking.
This was like 2006, 2007.
That was the best time to be inbanking.
So I started doing subprimehome loans with zero experience
(07:42):
and I actually took itstrategically, because I used to
have this crazy phobia where Iwould not call a person on the
phone to save my life, likeliterally.
If it was something even simplelike call in food at a
restaurant, I just like I hadthis weird thing about calling
people.
So what did I do?
(08:04):
I jumped into a job that was95% cold calls and it was a
nightmare I mean one the timingright, so being there during the
housing crisis or at the verystart of it.
But just knowing that this wassomething that was holding me
back and I think for me, I usethat as kind of a gauge of what
(08:26):
I need to work on.
Right.
So when I have a major likeresistance to something, I know
that, like, something good is onthe other side of that.
So not being able to callanybody it's going to be a huge
limiting factor in generatingsales, building relationships,
networking, all that kind ofstuff.
So it's super important.
(08:47):
So I wanted to get over thatand was kind of thankful that I
had the foresight to just throwmyself to the lions in that kind
of an environment.
And it was brutal.
I mean it was like what is thatmovie?
Boiler Room?
Have you ever seen that yeah,like Wall Street, you know, like
calling people, it was similarto that.
You'd be on the phone, you'dhave like three guys behind you
(09:10):
critiquing it, telling you don'tsay uh anymore, and just like
kind of a fun environment so butit was like very on the spot
and just so.
In that couple of years that Iwas there obviously got over the
whole calling phobia so andthen that kind of dwindled out
2008 or nine, you know, thechickens came home to roost and
(09:35):
the office went from.
You know I was one of 30 down toI was the second guy still left
in the building and parted wayswith the, with that company,
and then, just sort ofscrambling trying to find
something new, fell intoinsurance through a connection
that I had through my wife.
So I started at State Farm,worked as a adjuster for them
(09:59):
for probably three to four yearsand then switched to Farmers,
worked there for another threeto four years and then switched
to farmers, worked there foranother three to four years and
a nightmare job, you know, justsort of going through the paces
trying to earn a paycheck, butthe amount of stress and the
lack of ability to kind of earnmore money was just it kind of
(10:20):
hammered home to me that like ifyou're going to do this, it has
to be now.
I literally got to the pointwhere I just couldn't continue
to do that job anymore and Ithink at the time I probably had
three young children and not awell-paying job.
My wife was working at the time.
(10:41):
But we talked a lot and got onthe same page and just decided
that like, we're going to try todo something, we're going to
try to do it now.
So took the leap, you know,just quit the job didn't have
anything really goingsubstantial, tried to get as
much runway as possible whilestill maintaining a job, trying
(11:01):
to get all the ducks in a rowwith this business to get
started and made the leap in2017.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
I'm just thinking what a journey kind of the
leaning up to so many differenthats of the entrepreneurship,
kind of working at Ralph'shaving something on the side,
the pieces kind of falling intoplace.
And guys, if you remember theepisode with Shane, things
started to fall into place and Ithink that you know we'll talk
(11:37):
about this later on, I'm sure,some future episodes but just
really how things fall intoplace, some future episodes, but
just really how things fallinto place.
And if you're in a position,like you were in the insurance
position, not necessarily like,hey, I'm going to own the
insurance company, but take awayfrom any position that you're
(11:58):
working at, use that asexperience and leverage to get
into your own business.
In my situation, it wasmanagement at Walgreens and
that's where I was like, hey,you know, I knew how to you know
clean carpets and do a littlewater damage, and then kind of
took my management experienceand the pieces fell for me.
When I had Shane on, hementioned that that pieces kind
(12:18):
of fell in together and itsounds like that's kind of the
story of like, I want to be anentrepreneur.
You're taking everything thatyou know right and then you
finally get, you know, get going.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah, and I don't know if I realized that at the
time.
I think for sure with the coldcalling thing it was a
purposeful like I need to getthis skill, but I think anybody
that can.
You know, if you want to startyour own thing, if you're
looking to go that path, any anytask or job that you're doing,
you need to look at it as likeyou know you're, you're picking
(12:50):
up skills as you go and all ofthose are going to factor into
cause when you own a businessyou have.
You know, when you start out,you're literally doing every
aspect of it, from cold callingto bookkeeping and, um, you know
, to be able to get to the pointwhere you can do that and
manage it and be successful,you've got to sort of accumulate
(13:10):
some, some basis to kind ofdrive that forward.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
So I think for the entrepreneurs out there, use
your job as your school rightnow.
If you haven't, if you haven'tlaunched it yet.
Right, take, take the skillsthat you're learning, um, um.
I mean, patrick, I know thatyou know you've got a lot going
on in life the business, thefamily, everything.
(13:35):
Business owners consistentlyhave to be their own
cheerleaders.
Right, specifically, we have tomotivate ourselves.
How do you motivate yourself?
And you know what keeps youmotivated during, you know,
during times that are tough.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, so a lot of times it feels like you're just
in it.
You know, for me it's just uh.
There's a lot of pressure tokeep things going.
Uh, there's really noalternative at this point.
So it's more just uh.
It's almost like fear driven tosome degree, which is probably
(14:09):
not the most healthy situationto be in long term.
But I think Shouts out guys.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Hey, real quick.
The first step, overcoming thefear of getting started, was one
of our very first episodes.
Speaking of fear, I just wantto shamelessly plug You're
talking about fear.
Every business owner deals withfear and we don't let it stop
us.
You got two business ownershere that are fearful of
different things, but we're inbusiness, we're making money,
(14:36):
we're thriving.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
So sorry, but yeah, no, I mean, you know, I think
that's the difference, andprobably the kind of barrier to
entry is like the people thatcan go past that fear point or
figure out a way to overcomethat.
You know, that's probably forme.
It was the hardest obstacle,for sure.
What were we talking about?
I forgot the question.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
So just overall, just I mean, you know obviously like
what keeps you motivated,motivated.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
During the, you know, during all the tough times, I
mean cause you know businesseswaves, right, you've got, you've
got a.
I mean, and specifically guysas I've brought in, you're going
to closely see.
A lot of my network is close toour industry right now.
These are the people that Ideal with day in and day out and
have become really good friendswith, but our industry is a
(15:23):
very feast or famine industry,and so I think you are
definitely capable of saying hey, like how are we getting
motivated?
Right, it's really, really busy.
Yeah, and we're like livinggood, it's all good.
And then you know what?
Hey, it's slowed down.
You know holidays, whatever itis Like, hey, it's not as good
as it was last month.
What are we doing to staymotivated?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah, and it's, you know, for my business.
I think in particular, one ofthe struggles has been figuring
out, trying to keep itconsistent.
So it's not really seasonal forme.
We deal with insurance claims.
People are constantly havingdamage to their house.
Sometimes it's driven byweather events, which could be
(16:05):
seasonal, but a lot of what wedeal is plumbing failures and
those pop whenever they're goingto pop.
So there's not a lot of likehistorical data that you can
look at and say like, oh and, inspringtime we're really busy
and it slows down in winter.
But I have noticed that like weseem to ramp up, we get really,
(16:26):
really busy.
I switch gears to OK, we'rereally busy, how do we handle
all this work?
I switch gears to okay, we'rereally busy, how do we handle
all this work?
That then pulls me away frommarketing, which leads us to
start to slow down as we finishup that work.
We're now slow.
So then I switch hats againinto a marketing role and trying
to drive more business and justthat roller coaster of going up
(16:50):
and down is pretty exhaustingmentally.
That roller coaster of going upand down is pretty exhausting
mentally, you know it.
It takes a lot of energy tokeep switching gears from
driving sales to handling thework.
I'm almost to the point whereyou can be, like you know, if I
go and market I'm just going toget so much more work, it's
going to create another issue,right.
And so it's sort of highlightedsome problems with my business
(17:10):
of.
Like you know, it's prettyloosely run right now.
There's a lot of autonomy inthe adjuster world.
You sort of just handle yourwork and get the task done.
So it's easy to get lost injust doing the tasks and
completing the work and tryingto move things forward.
And it's a little harder tosort of pull yourself back and
(17:33):
look forward and say, if I onlyfocus on getting the work done
for the next three months, we'regoing to have another slow
period.
How do we even this out?
And so for me, that's somethingto try to stay.
Motivated is, I think,constantly trying to change some
aspect of the business, whetherthat's implementing a process,
(17:53):
something that's going to helpstreamline something or give me
more data, to try to run it morelike a structured business,
versus just see your pantsrunning and gunning and
everything.
Motivation for me ismaintaining a certain lifestyle.
You know, obviously with fivekids there's a lot of expenses.
We purchased a home recently.
(18:15):
That's been a lot of pressure.
Keeping all of that going iskind of the main motivation
right now, and I think also forme it's trying to see a light at
the end of the tunnel andfiguring out a way to not be
doing this for the next 15 years.
I think if I was doing theexact same thing in even five or
(18:38):
10 years, I would look back andthink I really missed some sort
of an opportunity.
Or if I had just done thisdifferently, I'd be in a
different spot.
And so it's really for me Ithink the motivation is just
looking at what kind of life amI trying to design in the future
and how do I get there?
Sort of reverse engineer it.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Well, thank you for that.
Yeah, I know that.
You know us business ownersalways motivating ourselves, can
.
It weighs on the brain, right,you're up, you're down, you're,
you know it becomes exhausting.
So I think that you know if andit's important we all go
through it and I think,recognizing that you know,
(19:21):
recognizing that is importantfor sure.
Okay, so, patrick, I have threeunspoken challenges, right, I
like the, I like business ownersto know that every business
owner goes through all of thesedifferent challenges.
You're not alone in thesechallenges.
And crafting to the listeners.
(19:45):
Patrick was given a list ofquestions and he could really
pick from that list of,specifically, something that
resonates with him and hisbusiness and maybe a challenge
or a success that he's dealtwith.
So I'm going to get into thosequestions but, yeah, really just
kind of the goal to open, justopen the floodgates and say, hey
, it's okay, we all deal withsomething and this is how we are
(20:07):
dealing with it.
And hey, or how I'm dealingwith it right now and maybe
haven't gotten through it.
So number one is the fear offailure.
The fear of failure, copingwith the consistent fear of the
business failing, I mean that'sa big one, that's a big one
(20:31):
that's a deep one, because Ithink every business owner
definitely experiences this.
I know I am consistentlyfearful of my business failing
and I think that helps launch meto succeed.
Yeah, but specifically on yourquestion, I don't know fear of
failure, how to cope with it.
What are your thoughts on it?
Yeah, I mean, it's obviouslysomething that everybody goes
(20:52):
through.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I don't know fear of failure, how to cope with it.
What are your thoughts on it?
Yeah, I mean, it's obviouslysomething that everybody goes
through, and probably differentphases of it as well.
I think there's the fear offailure which stops you from
starting.
There's the fear of failurethat stops you from doing things
(21:17):
that you know are going toprogress the business in the
direction that you want to go.
And it really, I mean, for meit's just all a mental game.
The fear is kind of alwaysthere and it can be a driver.
You know, I think you can usethe fear as like fuel to sort of
push yourself.
I think, long term, that's notthe best strategy, you know.
I think that's going to leadultimately to burnout or
resentment, or maybe even justnot clear thinking about the
(21:42):
decisions that you're making.
If you're deciding everythingfor the future based on fear,
you know, I don't think that'sgoing to be the best case
scenario for the business or foryourself personally.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So I used an analogy of I like like to.
I like to use this analogy I'veused it in the past is like
fear can be a passenger in thecar, but it can't tell you where
to go.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, because if, if they're directing
every turn, then who knowswhere you're going to end up,
right?
So I mean it's a constantstruggle.
I definitely don't have itfigured out.
I think it's a constantchecking back in mindset.
I've noticed like stressmanagement, trying to work out,
(22:26):
do stuff physically helps a lotlike anxiety wise, which is
related to fear.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Can I chime in and say something about you know
working out?
I think this is important foryou know, for people to know.
But as business owners, youdon't have to live an unhealthy
life.
Patrick, you recently dropped aton of weight.
You have five kids, you have afull-time business, so being
able to fit a fitness scheduleinto that a fitness plan, is
(22:53):
doable, would you say it'sdoable.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, I mean, it's for sure it's not easy and it's
easier to give yourself theexcuse of, like I've got to do
this, I have to do that.
But it comes down torecognizing the importance of
certain things and just carvingout the time for it.
So, like I'm on a kick rightnow where Monday through excuse
me, monday through Friday, I dosomething for at least 30
(23:18):
minutes.
We're doing jujitsu and I'vebeen able to incorporate my son
into that.
So it's kind of a blending Likein my world.
I kind of have to blend a lotof things because if I'm not
driving kids to summer camp, youknow, because we're in the
summertime, or dropping off atschool or pickups or whatever
(23:38):
the family needs, there's a lotto juggle there.
So anytime I can kind of killtwo birds with one stone, I try
to take that opportunity.
So like Monday through Friday,I'm carving out at least 30
minutes, you know, and if I canfind 30 minutes, I think pretty
much anybody can.
I do actually have a lot offlexibility in my time.
(23:59):
It's one of the biggest perks,I think, of owning your own
business and one of the mainreasons of why I've always
wanted to go that I've hatedlike from you know 8 to 5,
you're sitting at your desk andyou better look busy or you're
on the chopping block kind of athing.
You know it's like I'd ratherbe my own boss and be efficient
(24:21):
and use my time as I can.
So jujitsu has been huge, anddoing that with my son has been
really cool.
Cardio on the other days, justget it in, go for a quick jog,
go to the gym really quick andjust kind of making calls at the
same time.
You know, you just kind of haveto figure it out.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Oh, that's cool and I know it got a little off topic,
but I think it's importantbecause I think that you know us
business owners, we get sotunnel visioned into the
day-to-day we think we can't.
You know, maybe you've got,maybe you have that single guy
that's that's running thebusiness, or single gal that's
running a business right nowthinking, well, I can't start a
family, or maybe they have, youknow, a family.
(25:02):
And now it's like, well, Ican't be healthy because I'm,
you know, I'm running a businessand I have a family.
But this is where I think youknow people understand that,
yeah, I think people understandthat, yeah, in business you can
do, you can have a healthylifestyle, you can have a family
.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
and you can have a thriving business, yeah, and you
can convince yourself thatthat's not possible For sure.
But I think if you make a bunchof money but you're so stressed
out and overweight that youhave a heart attack when you're
55.
You know what was the point,kind of a thing.
So for me it's tying it back tosome future goal.
(25:41):
But you know, the exercise andwhy we started talking about
that is it's a major tool inmanaging anxiety for me, which
leads to fear and it's really amindset thing.
Leads to fear and it's really amindset thing, and it's really
hard to keep a positive mindsetand to have the energy to do all
these things if you're out ofshape and all that stuff.
(26:02):
So it's just become somethingthat's very apparent to me, that
like needs to be an emphasis.
So that's one strategy, I think, with dealing with the fear.
I like to.
You know, when I think ofsomething that I want to do or
accomplish, I kind of have anegative train of thought.
I can find all the flaws in itpretty quickly, you know, and I
(26:24):
think what you focus on is kindof what becomes.
So I've had to really sort ofpush against that and just say,
oh yeah, that that thing couldturn out like that.
But you know, just rememberingthat it also could work out.
And now that I have a kind of atrack record of like, hey, if I
reach out to this company and Ibuild a relationship with them,
yeah, they may tell me theydon't want to work with me or
(26:48):
they're working with somebodyelse, but they also might say,
yeah, we can definitely worktogether.
And that's how all therelationships that I have so far
have started from reaching outto people.
You and I are a good case study.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I want to mention that and again, shameless plug
over to the listeners the art ofnetworking, building meaningful
business relationships.
I did mention Patrick in thatepisode.
He is one of the guys that Italked about when I met on my
birthday and you know it hasbeen very lucrative for him and
very lucrative for me, and it'sjust all it took was, you know,
(27:27):
patrick essentially asking myguys when he ran into them for
my contact information and mebeing open to always networking.
So, as you are building yourbusiness, you're always keeping
the marketing out, you're alwaysmarketing, you're always
selling your business, you'realways thinking about people.
People will connect you withdifferent people and in business
(27:48):
that's important.
You never know where yourwork's going to come in from.
But on the flip side, yeah, youcan really build some great
relationships and here's a primeexample.
Here's a prime example.
We have both have, um, havegrown together in our businesses
.
It has been, uh, you know what,six years, five years, five
(28:09):
plus years, 2007, seven years.
So time flies when you'rehaving a good time, you know, on
some of the, some of the slowdays back in those days, pretty
interesting, don't know if youremember, should I bring it up?
We would.
We would drive around.
You know what we were doingwhen we were driving around, I
do.
I remember we were playingPokemon go, but that was we were
(28:30):
looking for leads right.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
We were looking for leads right we were looking for
leads.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
But I think what's funny is we had fun in those in
those early days of when we hadtime to carve out kind of for
each other and that built afriendship and developed the
business relationship for sure.
So, yes, we had the businessrelationship, definitely
developed a friendship there andyou know it's been really good.
(28:53):
So I think keeping your, youknow, just keeping the business
relationship definitelydeveloped a friendship there and
it's been really good.
So I think just keeping themarketing always open, you never
know who's going to walk intoyour life or your business life,
and maybe it's you wearing yourpolo with your company name at
the grocery store and you sparka conversation.
So always be ready to havethose conversations.
Okay, so moving on to, oursecond question is going to be
(29:17):
marketing ROI.
So the uncertainty andeffectiveness of your marketing
efforts.
Right, I mean in business, wespend a ton of money doing
everything, right, you couldspend a ton of money on online
ads and the company that'sselling you those online ads are
telling you oh, this isabsolutely going to work, or
(29:37):
whatever it may be, and we knowthrough trial and error that
things work.
Things don't work.
But, specifically, what's yourtake on it?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, so you know, you and I have talked about this
a lot, lot and because of how Istarted the business and sort
of fell into it and developedsome really kind of core
relationships early on, that ledto my business.
Basically, you know, a publicadjuster helps a homeowner or a
(30:07):
business owner that's having aclaim deal with their insurance.
So the client is not reallyelusive because it happens all
the time and there's a wholeindustry built around it.
But most people maybe file aclaim or two in their entire
life and they have no idea thata public adjuster exists
(30:29):
typically, right, I think someof that's changing is tough
market and you have to be rightthere, right when it happens
right in the beginning, you know, and so like somebody has to
think, and so how do you findthose people?
Right?
And so, obviously, companieslike yours, where if you have
water damage to your houseyou're calling a water damage
company, they're coming out.
You know if they can educate theclient, that people like I
(30:51):
exist and get me in front ofthem, that's hugely important
for our business, right, andI've.
So I've really focused onnetworking, building
relationships with kind of keyindustries of people that are, I
call it like the start of thefunnel, right, and they're,
they're in there in thebeginning, they're in front of
the client and they can educatethe client and get me in the
(31:15):
door, basically.
So that's been like my go-tofrom day one.
As we've grown, as I've addedadjusters as the needs of the
business have developed to wheremore consistent leads are
needed, you know, I startedfocusing on having a website and
(31:37):
putting content on that websiteorganically to kind of
hopefully drive traffic that way.
I think anytime you get intothat situation, you start
playing around withpay-per-click and online ads and
things like that, sponsoringevents, running, you know, ads
(31:59):
in like circular, like magazinesthat are targeted to specific
areas.
Past client referrals.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That's huge.
That's huge for me, I mean,which is hard, because when
you're you know, when you're newin business you don't have that
.
But as you've established yourbusiness, you've done right by
your clients, that funnel of Forsure it's huge.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
For me right now it's probably I would say it's the
largest source.
You know cliche, I guess, buttaking care of the client,
providing a level of servicethat creates an environment
(32:38):
where the customer is just likesinging our praises right,
that's the cheapest marketingthat I've found.
Yeah, taking care of the clientdoing a good job makes it
easier to get paid and then setsus up for referrals in the
future.
And anytime somebody goesthrough something like dealing
with an insurance claim andfighting with the insurance
(32:59):
company, it can be a horribleexperience.
But if they have that insight,and then you know when somebody
has a leak, they tell everybodyoh, my house flooded.
I'm staying in a hotel.
It's a nightmare.
My kitchen's all ripped up.
The insurance company is givingme $10,000.
All the contractors want$100,000.
I'm staying in a hotel.
It's a nightmare, my kitchen'sall ripped up.
The insurance company is givingme $10,000.
All the contractors want$100,000.
I don't know what I do and likehaving those people out there
(33:21):
and it's a numbers game becausethe more clients you help, the
more people you have out therepotentially spreading the word.
But that's been my focus and itdoesn't cost money, but it
costs time.
But I've also seen, andobviously through our
conversations I've seen theimportance and the potential of,
(33:43):
you know, filming short videoclips or putting out a
pay-per-click ads, and I kind oflook at that as maintenance
right now.
You know, again, the fact thatI don't have like hard data on
all this stuff is one of thethings that I'm trying to work
on so I can say like X percentcomes from past client referrals
(34:03):
, x percent comes from onlinepaid versus organic, x percent
comes from all the other sources, right, and I think having that
real hard data can help youmake better decisions with it.
But I'm just not at that pointright now.
So I'm sort of going by gut andit's like focus on what I know
network client relations butthen also keep doing all this
(34:27):
stuff.
I got a call this morning from aguy that clicked on one of our
ads it may turn into somethingit may not.
Morning from a guy that clickedon one of our ads it may turn
into something it may not.
But yeah, I think early on Ikind of developed a kind of a
negative attitude towards payingfor the just the phone call,
right, because if I'm puttingmoney out there to get somebody
call and they call and it's likeoh, my claim got denied two
(34:49):
years ago.
Is there anything I can do?
Sorry, can't help you.
Waste of money, waste of time.
Versus like a fully vetted,warm handoff from a client that
comes like from your companywhere they have a claim, it's
covered and they're interested,so I go and I meet with them,
kind of a thing.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
I think it's important to you know there's a
lot to definitely a lot tounpack there.
But you know, specifically onthe marketing, I've got
something to add on thecreativity.
I think that, and yeah, youadvertise and you're paying for
a lead where you can't doanything with that lead.
I have that happen all the timeand kind of understanding that
(35:31):
it's an overall thing.
So not that one lead wasnecessarily paid for, but taking
it of, okay, I can tell if Iget 10 clicks to an ad, one of
those people actually convert toa client.
So finding out what that numberis, what you've paid for, that,
that way you kind of wash outthe noise with the other nine
people.
Now I do want to stress topeople listening is guys,
(35:57):
patrick is a legitimate business.
He's been in business for Ithink seven years, right, Seven
years yeah.
So seven years I've been inbusiness over 12 years.
We're always working onsomething that is, I think,
important for everybody tounderstand.
So if you have something goingon in your business and you feel
(36:19):
like you're not getting thedata like you think your
competitor is getting, orwhatever it is, every person in
business is still developingsomething in their business and
we never stop developing.
But going back to, I think,creative I've got a story real
quick but creative marketing.
So you know you, obviously it'sunique, right?
(36:39):
You've got people that neverhave to deal with this and you
are trying to get in front ofthose people and you have a very
limited window to do.
That reminds me of a story ofwhen I was a kid.
So for everybody that doesn'tknow, my mom was a funeral
director, undertaker for a whilegone funeral director then
(37:01):
turned business owner and Ithink that's what gave me the
entrepreneurship.
But I remember there was afriend that would randomly send
us to Disneyland.
Hey, take the kids toDisneyland.
Me and my brother would go.
This was so great it was paidfor.
This friend's business had paidfor it and we'd go every year
and there was always thisblowout Christmas party and all
(37:22):
these different businesses werethere and it was really cool.
I mean, I grew up with it.
I'm currently in business.
Right, I'm now kind ofnetworking.
I'm improving my circle.
I still go to these parties.
This is something we still getinvited to because there is a
legitimate friendship that wasmade years ago.
But probably my third or fourthyear in business I'm sitting
(37:45):
there at this Christmas partyand now I'm going to tell you
what these people do.
These people are personalinjury attorneys Nice and I'm
sitting there and I'm thinking,okay, this person's from a
funeral home, this person's froma hospital.
I'm like this is a marketingthing that these guys are doing.
(38:06):
So I go and tell my mom.
I said, hey, were they sendingus to Disneyland back when we
were a kid for fun?
She's like, no, they werelooking for our referrals and I
consistently referred them.
Business off of if somebody diedfrom a wrongful death
Interesting.
She would refer them and say,hey, if you need a good attorney
, here you go.
And I was like I never thoughtthat's there.
(38:27):
But you have to get creativewith your marketing and you
build legitimate relationshipsthere.
I mean, my mom has been out ofthe funeral business for 20-some
years now and we still go tothese things because she's just
got a good friendship with theseguys.
Got a good friendship withthese guys and, a matter of fact
, early on in business, one ofthe main lead attorneys there
(38:48):
that I mean it was pretty muchhis business right.
I sat down and got the pleasureof just kind of talking with
him for three or four hours,went to a local restaurant and
he, I mean he just unloaded oneverything business.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
So you do build friendships, it develops into
things and so, anyways, justunique marketing is kind of
interesting, yeah, and that kindof you know I always call it
like proactive marketing whereyou're building those
relationships, you're puttingout a benefit so that when the
capital to host a big event likethat I mean I know how much
(39:34):
Disneyland costs it's not cheap.
So at a certain point I thinksomething like that becomes more
realistic.
But figuring out how to get tothat point and determining at
what point it makes sense Causeyou can go broke hosting a bunch
of parties- oh for sure, Don'tjust go out and do all these
parties.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
But if it makes sense in your budget and your
marketing, you've got to get.
You've got to get creativeright.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
But don't just start a business and and uh you know
that would be a hard part If youwere trying to start and
develop leads that way.
It would be a hard, a hard wayto start.
It would be a lot of money todo it and you would go broke
real fast, but you kind ofevolve, you know, into that
position where you probably arelooking at like a tax write-off
or something and you also get tohave some fun.
(40:18):
Yeah, heads up, it was alwaysat the end of the year.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah Right, Sometimes they didn't have them.
That's weird.
Yeah, slow year, slow year, Allright, moving on to our third
unspoken challenge.
It is everybody's favorite.
Everybody deals with this.
Patrick definitely selectedthis.
It's kind of funny.
We're here right now.
It was fun getting here today.
It's time management, jugglingmultiple roles and
(40:43):
responsibilities.
I think as business owners, wewear different hats, right?
One day I'm the IT guy, One dayI'm the CFO and one day I've
got to be the you know HR.
So we've got so many differentroles that we're always wearing
or wearing hats to.
They're evolving.
They're evolving.
I was a technician at one pointand now I've gone on to
(41:05):
different things.
So, juggling multiple roles andresponsibilities.
Please take the stage, Patrick.
How do you do it?
What's your outtake on it?
I got it all figured out.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Yeah.
So getting here obviously iskind of and that's why I picked
that question is something thatI need to work on right, kind of
like the cold calling thing.
It's like forcing yourself tofigure it out.
So I'm down a guy this week youhit me up earlier.
We've been talking about doinga podcast for a while and just
(41:38):
carving out that little bit oftime in between the drop-offs
and the business and all theother things.
There's a family member thathas an injury.
We're taking care of her rightnow.
There's a lot on the plate.
Obviously.
It comes down for me it comesdown to priorities right, trying
(41:59):
to do the things that are hard,that you know are going to push
you in the direction thatyou're trying to go, hard, that
you know are going to push youin the direction that you're
trying to go.
If you can step back andprioritize stuff, because for me
I have a really bad habit ofjust getting stuck in the easy,
quick hitters.
I think mentally it feels likeI'm doing something, so like you
(42:22):
know, it's stuff that needs toget done, but ultimately I'm
probably at a spot where Ishould be delegating this stuff
more, right, but it's kind ofaddicting to like just, I'm
going to just do this.
I'm going to, you know, writethis estimate.
I'm going to email thisadjuster.
I'm going to call this client.
I'm going to give these clientsupdates.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
You know all this and you get sucked into that vortex
.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Clients updates, you know all the sucked into that
vortex.
They all need to happen.
Yeah, they're all superimportant to some degree, but
they, they don't move us forward.
They keep, they just keep thebus rolling.
We're not getting on thefreeway by me completing tasks,
right, so it's it's hard.
It's something I'm strugglingwith.
(43:05):
When you own a business, youhave a lot of flexibility in
your time, but it also meansthat if it doesn't get done, it
doesn't get done, and who'sgoing to do it?
So it all ultimately falls onyou.
So it's easy to get lost injust doing those day-to-day
tasks.
And again, the flexibility oftime.
(43:26):
I can go and drive a kid to anevent or whatever, or spend time
with my kids, and I just may be, you know, texting clients at
10 o'clock at night or sendingemails or doing stuff later.
You know I can stack itwherever I need to.
But I think when I'm trying todesign more time management for
(43:48):
me, what I try to focus on islike what are the things that
I've continually put off, that Iknow need to happen, that are
the next step to get us to thenext level?
How do I carve out the space andthe time to do that among all
the other things that need tohappen, and so trying to figure
that out right now.
Honestly, I think it's going tobe some sort of combination of
(44:11):
creating some business processesthat streamline some things.
We've talked a lot about that.
Setting those systems up, Ithink, are going to give me the
ability to delegate things moreeffectively and be able to keep
track of them.
In the past, I've kind ofdelegated some things and then
(44:32):
followed up with them, you know,maybe a week later and found
out nothing happened or didn'thappen the way that I thought it
was going to happen, and that'ssuper frustrating because it's
like you know, I'm just like getit done, get it done, move
forward, keep going, and otherpeople don't seem to have that
kind of sense of urgency, whichis frustrating, I think, as a
(44:52):
business owner.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
So yeah, I mean time management.
It's huge wearing, you know,wearing those different hats.
And I think, between you know,let's take it back to a time
because I know a lot of peopleare, you know, in that spot is
they have started a business,it's starting to become, become
(45:15):
successful, they're taking off,they're going out, they're the
ones doing those estimates, arethe ones meeting with those
adjusters, they're the onesreally consumed in that work and
they're really thinking abouttheir first hire, but they're
nervous.
They're nervous that it'sactually going to stunt their
growth.
Maybe their money that they'remaking is going to go to now a
salary.
What if it gets slow?
(45:36):
How are you going to?
Those are struggles that wetalked about with your first
hire before your employees, youremployees and I've explained it
to so many people that once youhave you know, those employees,
you still have you, you arestill just as busy, and I think
that that is a commonmisconception is, when I have my
employees, I will no longer bebusy and it's just that the hats
(45:58):
change and the roles change.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, yeah, and that's something I'm dealing
with right now is theexpectation that if you were
going to duplicate me and Idon't have to think about this
anymore, it really hasn't turnedout to be the case, there might
be.
You know, I push it back onmyself, right?
So if I'm in a situation that'snot working out, it's because I
(46:22):
created it basically.
So yeah, managing you had someexperience managing other people
.
I was never in a managerialposition in my prior like jobs.
I was always the either thesales guy or the person
completing the tasks.
I was never responsible for theoutput of other people and it's
(46:43):
a tough thing to learn andteach yourself in real time.
For sure, on your dime On yourdime, all the steak,
everything's on the table.
So it's something that we'refiguring out, but it definitely
plays into the time managementaspect of it, and it's because
it's like I quickly realizedthat in my business I'm sort of
(47:09):
the limiting factor.
I can only handle so much work,I can only call so many people,
I can only do so much, and inorder to grow, I need to bring
people in that can add value andhandle some things, so that I
can focus on the other thingsthat keep the business moving
forward.
So it's just a lot to juggle andtry to figure out.
(47:32):
We're always doing it.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
Everybody is.
You know, everybody's doing it,and I think that if you're
looking at your competitors,your competitors are doing it
too.
Don't think that somebody is,you know, outshining you,
because everybody's got theirown struggle.
Patrick, looking back, what isone piece of advice that you
wish you had starting out, onepiece of advice that you wish
(47:54):
you had when you were startingout With this business?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Or in any business, but just that you know something
that maybe you you would reallylike to tell your younger self
as you were getting intobusiness.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Hmm, I probably would have started sooner.
I think I I held on way toolong at at the companies that I
worked at and you know I reallyonly needed maybe a year or two
working as an adjuster to kindof figure it out and be able to
roll that into what I'm doingnow.
So I think just you know makingthat jump before the point that
(48:37):
I did because I really rodethat thing out to where it was
insanely stressful and it took atoll and probably wasn't
necessary and if I had startedsooner I'd be that much further
along.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
Um, that's uh, that's some good advice.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Good advice.
I mean it is because how manypeople wait, and then maybe that
that weight turns into never,you never do it and that turns
into regret.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
I mean, I know people , yeah, and I know people that
they just can't make the mentalshift of like they have a desire
to, or at least they say theydo, but the comfort of just.
I think for me it was reallygetting to the point of
realizing like, oh, I can getfired at any point.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
As your business owner, you kind of have control
of it, right, I mean, you can,you're not going to get fired,
but it's on you for just likegetting fired is probably on you
as well.
But I think there's like afalse sense of security that a
lot of people have.
And you know, I just didn'twant to have the regret of like
going through and you know Ijust didn't want to have the
regret of like going through.
And it comes back to kind oflike my dad and how I grew up.
It was like he sort of had inthe way that he was telling me,
(49:54):
like, be your own boss, startyour own company.
You could tell it was sort oflike a regret that maybe he had
of you know, I'm doing this, I'mworking my butt off, I'm doing
all these things and I'm makingall these other people all this
money.
And seeing that and kind ofpassing that onto his son was,
you know, a big, big influencefor sure Shouts out to Patrick's
(50:15):
dad yeah, shouts out Pops,shouts out to Pops.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Well, patrick, I know you're busy and I really
appreciate you taking the timeto be on the podcast.
You know the goal is reallyjust to let everybody understand
.
There's so many different insand outs of business.
Everybody goes through it andhaving your insight on that, I
know, is greatly appreciated.
So thank you.
Yeah thanks for having me on,guys.
(50:40):
Thank you for tuning in.
If you made it this far in theepisode, I really appreciate you
listening.
Remember, our goal here is tobring the business community
together.
If you're dealing with achallenge or you're dealing with
something, you're not alone.
There are other business ownersout there that are going
through it and, at least on thispodcast, if there is a struggle
that we can answer for you,then I would consider this
(51:03):
podcast a success.
If you like today's episode,drop us a comment or send us a
text message.
I really appreciate you takingthe time.
I'd love to hear your feedback.
I'd love to hear if you haveany questions.
So if you're dealing withsomething or there's an issue
that you'd like to be addressed,let me know, and if I don't
know the answer, I'll getsomebody on here that does.
All right, guys.
Thanks for checking it out.
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