Latest / The Art of Adjusting® Podcast / Episode #100: How Two Adjusters Built A Podcast

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Episode #100: How Two Adjusters Built A Podcast · The Art of Adjusting® Podcast

• 0:06
  William Auten: Hello, I'm Bill Auten of Auten Claims Management.
• 0:09
  Chantal Roberts: I'm Chantal Roberts of CMR Consulting, and welcome to the Art of Adjusting Podcast.
• 0:14
  William Auten: Today we're going to talk about life as an insurance adjuster from the perspective of property, auto, liability, or workers' compensation adjusters.
• 0:22
  William Auten: Our goal is to bring interesting topics in the world of claims adjusting to people who are working as an adjuster now and to people who are considering a career as a claims adjuster.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Surprise!
• 0:33
  William Auten: Hi, how are you?
• 0:34
  William Auten: We're together.
• 0:36
  William Auten: Live in person.
• 0:38
  Chantal Roberts: In person?
• 0:39
  unknown: Oh my god.
• 0:40
  Chantal Roberts: It's so exciting! It's our hundredth episode.
• 0:44
  Chantal Roberts: And we're together.
• 0:46
  William Auten: So we had the idea to meet together, uh, either either up where we live or down where she lives.
• 0:51
  William Auten: And I'm down here in Kansas, and uh we're gonna do a live episode together.
• 0:56
  Chantal Roberts: Yay!
• 0:57
  William Auten: We're having a lot of fun.
• 0:58
  Chantal Roberts: We are yeah, having so much fun, and I got my or our birthday cake or something, anniversary cake or whatever.
• 1:07
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 1:07
  William Auten: So I have some iced tea.
• 1:09
  William Auten: Iced tea.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Shlante.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Uh-huh.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yes.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Oh, oh, oh my god, we have a live audience.
• 1:20
  William Auten: We have a peanut gallery.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I'm so excited about this.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I cannot wait.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:27
  William Auten: So uh I don't want to point out the obvious, but there's some wait, some swag.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Swag.
• 1:34
  William Auten: I'll have another one of those iced teas, please.
• 1:37
  Chantal Roberts: Um, we have some swag.
• 1:39
  Chantal Roberts: I made swag for us.
• 1:40
  William Auten: Yes.
• 1:40
  Chantal Roberts: Along with the the hundred and fabulous.
• 1:43
  William Auten: Yes.
• 1:43
  William Auten: So we're gonna have to have some merch uh for sale at some point here in the near future.
• 1:48
  William Auten: So absolutely uh bang on our door if you want some merch.
• 1:51
  William Auten: Woo!
• 1:52
  Chantal Roberts: Okay, so special episode.
• 1:55
  William Auten: Yes.
• 1:55
  William Auten: So today we're going to talk a little less about claims and a little more about how we started doing this, why it came to be, and uh how we met.
• 2:05
  William Auten: And because we've never, this is like the first time we've ever met in person.
• 2:09
  William Auten: Absolutely.
• 2:10
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, so yay, yes.
• 2:11
  William Auten: Yeah, yes.
• 2:12
  Chantal Roberts: I'm so excited.
• 2:14
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 2:14
  William Auten: So um, how did we first meet?
• 2:17
  Chantal Roberts: Okay, so I always thought that when I was at ARM, I had assigned you a claim to work for us, and we talked it over and we decided that was not the case.
• 2:30
  Chantal Roberts: I've just imagined it.
• 2:32
  Chantal Roberts: So I think like the first time we quote met met was via LinkedIn, of course, and you had talked about uh one of my favorite movie, Double Indemnity.
• 2:44
  Chantal Roberts: And so I printed off Key's speech, framed it for you, and mailed it off to you.
• 2:51
  Chantal Roberts: So I think that was the first time we actually met.
• 2:53
  William Auten: Yes, yeah.
• 2:54
  William Auten: Then um, I think you were doing a thing on an app called Clubhouse.
• 2:59
  William Auten: Yeah, and Clubhouse is kind of neat because you have these live open rooms where you can just talk with people about different topics, and people that come across it can pop in the room, ask questions.
• 3:12
  William Auten: So that was kind of cool because we got non-insurance people and some insurance people that would come in and and strike up a conversation with us.
• 3:21
  Chantal Roberts: And that's how we got our very first listener, Brandon.
• 3:24
  Chantal Roberts: Hi, Brandon.
• 3:25
  William Auten: Hi, Brandon.
• 3:26
  Chantal Roberts: Um, and that was during COVID, and it was kind of like live radio, but without the radio.
• 3:32
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 3:32
  William Auten: It was almost like a talk show.
• 3:34
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, exactly.
• 3:39
  William Auten: And I don't know how the algorithm of that app worked, but depending on your in interests, it would feed you certain things, and it's still out there and still going, but we are not there yet.
• 3:49
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:50
  Chantal Roberts: It it just never ended up really working out for us that much.
• 3:53
  Chantal Roberts: It was it was difficult.
• 3:55
  Chantal Roberts: It was difficult.
• 3:56
  William Auten: It was difficult to build an audience, but uh and some of the things that we said on there were so very valuable that we had to keep it recorded uh for posterity.
• 4:07
  Chantal Roberts: So and I think they kind of went away.
• 4:09
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, like your episodes would go away after so many times, and so I mean, that's not cool.
• 4:13
  Chantal Roberts: So um, yeah, so as you know already, I mean, Bill's in New York, I'm in Kansas, so yeah, we um had hundreds of conversations.
• 4:22
  Chantal Roberts: You were doing the Daily Claim podcast.
• 4:26
  William Auten: Daily Claims podcast started in 2022.
• 4:29
  William Auten: Yes, and the reason I did it is my my daughter had expressed interest in becoming an adjuster.
• 4:35
  William Auten: So I experimented with uh maybe doing some training videos or training curriculum, which is a huge other project that nobody has time for.
• 4:44
  William Auten: Right.
• 4:44
  William Auten: Not this guy, anyway.
• 4:46
  William Auten: So what I started doing was I I thought, well, I'll just do a small podcast, put it out there, she can reference it and learn from it, and we would go from there.
• 4:56
  William Auten: Um, so that's what I did, and then I had you as a guest.
• 5:01
  William Auten: Yeah, with Barry Zelma.
• 5:03
  William Auten: Oh yeah, we had Kevin Quinley, I think.
• 5:06
  William Auten: Kevin Quinley.
• 5:07
  William Auten: Yeah, so it just started to grow, and then um you got busy.
• 5:11
  William Auten: I got busy.
• 5:12
  Chantal Roberts: As one is want to do.
• 5:13
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, as one is want to do, and I our first the the the art of adjusting first like 26 episodes is the daily claim, I think.
• 5:22
  William Auten: Daily claim under the daily claims there, yeah.
• 5:25
  Chantal Roberts: And then uh you hadn't uh done anything for I think a month, two months, something like that.
• 5:31
  Chantal Roberts: And you're like, I I just have to let it go.
• 5:34
  Chantal Roberts: And I think that's when uh you either said, Can you take over me?
• 5:38
  Chantal Roberts: And I said, Well, no, I don't want to do it because it's really and it is hard talking to yourself, yeah, basically, if you're not like talking with someone like we are.
• 5:46
  Chantal Roberts: So uh I said, Well, we can do it and split the the difference.
• 5:52
  Chantal Roberts: Split the work, yeah, and it's um it's a lot easier when when you get to split the work.
• 5:57
  William Auten: So and I suggested that we name this after her book The Art of Adjusting.
• 6:01
  William Auten: The Art of Adjusting, yes, which is a great book, and you should buy it if you haven't already.
• 6:06
  Chantal Roberts: Yes, and if you did, buy one as a gift for someone else, absolutely, yes, and then bring it to some kind of group that we're gonna be at somewhere in some future time, and I will autograph it for you.
• 6:17
  Chantal Roberts: Yes.
• 6:18
  William Auten: So that's how we got to be the Art of Adjusting podcast, which is what we are today.
• 6:22
  William Auten: Yay! And we have had no shortage of things to talk about.
• 6:26
  Chantal Roberts: No, because you know, you know us, we are always going to be talking about something, and and I I think that's our benefit, is we can just sit here and chew the fat with one another.
• 6:37
  William Auten: So it's been a lot of fun, even when someone's wrong.
• 6:44
  Chantal Roberts: So that's his wife, she agrees.
• 6:48
  Chantal Roberts: I don't think so.
• 6:51
  Chantal Roberts: My husband, on the other hand, is not in here so that he doesn't hear anything that I say is wrong because he knows that he would get a divorce.
• 6:59
  Chantal Roberts: So there you go.
• 7:02
  William Auten: So let's talk about our stories.
• 7:04
  William Auten: Our stories.
• 7:04
  William Auten: What is your story?
• 7:06
  William Auten: So, how did you get into the insurance business?
• 7:09
  Chantal Roberts: Uh yeah, so my dad was in the insurance business, and I remember growing up and him taking recorded statements of truck drivers like at 8 p.m.
• 7:20
  Chantal Roberts: You know, or at on a Sunday at 3 p.m.
• 7:25
  Chantal Roberts: And I remember thinking, oh my god, it's boring, you're boring, everything about insurance is boring, and I'm never gonna get into insurance.
• 7:34
  Chantal Roberts: And when I went to school, sure enough, I studied radio, TV, film, and French.
• 7:40
  Chantal Roberts: I was a dual major, and so that got me a lot of places.
• 7:45
  Chantal Roberts: Woo! So I was in kind of a dead-end job, and dad said, Look, you've really got the personality to be a claims adjuster, you don't take any flack from anybody, you should give it a whirl.
• 7:56
  Chantal Roberts: I was living in Dallas at the time, and Liberty Mutual was there, and he goes, I can get you at least an interview.
• 8:04
  Chantal Roberts: And basically, I got hired right away.
• 8:06
  Chantal Roberts: And three days into my training, you know, I'm still reading the propaganda, you know, that that a carrier will give you and everything.
• 8:17
  Chantal Roberts: And I'm like, this is so cool.
• 8:19
  Chantal Roberts: I've got money, I can help people when they're, you know, at the worst part of their time.
• 8:26
  Chantal Roberts: Why is why are people not lining up for this job?
• 8:29
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, this is a great job.
• 8:31
  Chantal Roberts: And uh you realize, of course, the reason why is because uh you get yelled at a lot, but I mean, there you go.
• 8:38
  Chantal Roberts: So that is how I got into claims.
• 8:41
  Chantal Roberts: Cool.
• 8:42
  Chantal Roberts: How did you get in?
• 8:44
  William Auten: Well, we're doing Chantel first.
• 8:45
  William Auten: Oh, we're gonna.
• 8:46
  William Auten: I flipped it too because you had me first, but we're doing you first.
• 8:49
  Chantal Roberts: So uh I see, I didn't even do mine, I don't even think I there's no page numbers on this.
• 8:54
  William Auten: Who made this up?
• 8:55
  Chantal Roberts: Who made this at GBT?
• 8:57
  William Auten: How did you become an expert witness?
• 8:59
  Chantal Roberts: Okay, so uh dad's company sold, and Aaron and I kind of figured, you know, when companies usually get sold, the the new company comes in, and they usually fire a lot of the the management and everything.
• 9:18
  Chantal Roberts: So we figured this would be a good time for us to move, to leave, and be somewhere closer to his family.
• 9:27
  Chantal Roberts: Because like I said, I think I've said before, Aaron is from Iowa, so we moved up to Kansas.
• 9:32
  Chantal Roberts: So his kids were still in Arkansas at that time.
• 9:36
  Chantal Roberts: They've moved since then, but you know, we're six hours from Iowa, we're six hours from Little Rock and uh could go there.
• 9:43
  Chantal Roberts: I tried being an adjuster because I thought, oh, this would be great.
• 9:48
  Chantal Roberts: You know, I'm gonna be an adjuster, I don't have to manage anybody anymore.
• 9:51
  Chantal Roberts: Yada, yada, yada.
• 9:52
  Chantal Roberts: I tried it for three months and I could not do it because uh amazingly, you're doing it all wrong.
• 10:00
  Chantal Roberts: I don't want to do it that way.
• 10:02
  Chantal Roberts: You're doing it wrong.
• 10:03
  Chantal Roberts: And I'm I uh don't play well with others, apparently.
• 10:07
  Chantal Roberts: I don't, I just like I don't know what that's about.
• 10:10
  Chantal Roberts: So that's when I started being uh an expert witness so that I could tell everybody you're doing it wrong.
• 10:18
  William Auten: So is that why expert witness work fascinated you?
• 10:21
  Chantal Roberts: No, I actually I don't like being an expert witness to all truth be told, because I mean there's always some aspect of a job that you don't like.
• 10:32
  Chantal Roberts: And I don't mind reviewing the file and writing the report.
• 10:36
  Chantal Roberts: Uh what I do not like, and I've said this many times, so it's it's nothing new, is the depositions.
• 10:45
  Chantal Roberts: I don't understand depositions.
• 10:48
  Chantal Roberts: I understand being in a courtroom and explaining the facts to the jury.
• 10:53
  Chantal Roberts: I don't understand being in a in a room with a bunch of attorneys where I've written my report to such an effect that I've answered all of their questions.
• 11:05
  Chantal Roberts: So why are you asking me again?
• 11:07
  Chantal Roberts: It's like, are you stupid?
• 11:10
  Chantal Roberts: Um, so and I can't say that.
• 11:12
  Chantal Roberts: So I don't I struggle.
• 11:14
  Chantal Roberts: It may show on your face.
• 11:16
  Chantal Roberts: You know what?
• 11:17
  Chantal Roberts: I I am pretty sure it does show on my face because I'm like, you've got to all, and listen, by the way, if y'all are listening, you gotta go back to the YouTube to see because I got decorations.
• 11:30
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, I went all out for this.
• 11:33
  William Auten: Show them your sash.
• 11:34
  Chantal Roberts: I did.
• 11:34
  Chantal Roberts: I got a sash that says a hundred and fabulous.
• 11:37
  Chantal Roberts: I've got a tiara that says a hundred and fabulous.
• 11:41
  Chantal Roberts: Bill is weird and apparently doesn't like like sweets or cake or whatever.
• 11:49
  Chantal Roberts: And so I'm like, fine, I'm getting myself a cupcake.
• 11:53
  Chantal Roberts: Since you don't want a piece of pie for for our anniversary, but I did I did decorate and everything.
• 12:02
  William Auten: So well, there's something I should say too.
• 12:05
  William Auten: Happy birthday.
• 12:07
  Chantal Roberts: Yes, oh my god, so this is so cool.
• 12:10
  Chantal Roberts: It's like Kiss Met or whatever, because this episode is landing on my birthday.
• 12:16
  Chantal Roberts: Woo! So this is a very special episode.
• 12:19
  Chantal Roberts: It's 100th anniversary for our podcast, and it's my birthday.
• 12:24
  William Auten: And don't make the mistake of thinking she's 100 years old.
• 12:27
  William Auten: That's not what the TR is for.
• 12:29
  Chantal Roberts: I look so good for 100.
• 12:30
  Chantal Roberts: Although I am going to live till I'm 100.
• 12:33
  Chantal Roberts: I already have a plan and I've got an attorney lined up.
• 12:37
  Chantal Roberts: Oh, that's all I'm gonna say.
• 12:39
  Chantal Roberts: It's gonna involve an attorney.
• 12:42
  William Auten: That's one way to extend your life is with a content.
• 12:44
  Chantal Roberts: Yep, yep, yep, yep.
• 12:46
  William Auten: Okay, so so tell us about this crazy book, The Art of Adjusting.
• 12:50
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, so being an expert witness, I was was having a hard time, of course, getting a lot of gigs, probably because uh I don't particularly care for it.
• 13:03
  Chantal Roberts: And um, being new, you know, no one wants to hire you when you're new, they only want to hire you when you're experienced.
• 13:09
  Chantal Roberts: And and it's that age-old thing of how can you get experience if you never get hired?
• 13:16
  Chantal Roberts: So, as every college graduate knows.
• 13:19
  Chantal Roberts: Anyway, COVID hit, right?
• 13:22
  Chantal Roberts: And all of the cases that I did have, once everything started to pick up, because finally everything was picking up, and I'm like, yay, finally, COVID hit, and all the courts closed.
• 13:33
  Chantal Roberts: And since we had no idea how long we were going to be out of work or out of court or whatever, naturally, we could settle claims via telephone, and that's what the defense counsel and plaintiff counsel did.
• 13:51
  Chantal Roberts: So don't need me anymore because you know, we're gonna settle this case.
• 13:58
  Chantal Roberts: We don't need to depose you, we don't need to bring you into court or whatever.
• 14:02
  Chantal Roberts: So all of my cases then settled.
• 14:04
  Chantal Roberts: I was looking at all of the opposing experts, and they had all done some teaching, they had all written books as well as articles, and of course, I've written a lot of articles, all available on my website.
• 14:19
  Chantal Roberts: And so I said, okay, so I'm going to write a book.
• 14:24
  Chantal Roberts: And I was originally thinking, what I'm gonna do is write a textbook that all colleges have to buy and everything.
• 14:33
  Chantal Roberts: So, like, I'm thinking, right?
• 14:34
  Chantal Roberts: I'm thinking, and I absolutely hated it.
• 14:37
  Chantal Roberts: It was absolutely really, really boring.
• 14:39
  Chantal Roberts: And then I knew I'd have to have all of this uh knowledge that I had, but I'd have to look it up to see where I got it from because you know it's 25 years of knowledge.
• 14:49
  Chantal Roberts: References, yeah.
• 14:50
  Chantal Roberts: So where do you where do you find that stuff, especially all of the unwritten rules?
• 14:55
  Chantal Roberts: Right, you know, like how do how everybody tells you, oh, you answer your emails all in the morning so you can get it just up and out of your way, or whatever, do it right before you leave, or you know, some of these unwritten rules.
• 15:08
  Chantal Roberts: And so that's what I decided to make the book about, more of an intermediate book, because there's books for beginners, those are great through the institutes.
• 15:17
  Chantal Roberts: Do do the institutes, get that, get your CPCU, your AIC, all of that.
• 15:22
  Chantal Roberts: And then there's really advanced books, which you could go through college and and and do, but there was nothing in the intermediate space, like five to 10 to 15 years, somewhere around there.
• 15:33
  Chantal Roberts: So that's what I decided I would try to gear myself for in that instance.
• 15:38
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, and then you wrote another book, and then I wrote another book because uh A, I'm an overachiever, and then B, um I uh I wanted the art of adjusting to be good, right?
• 15:56
  Chantal Roberts: And and so Mission accomplished, by the way.
• 15:59
  Chantal Roberts: Thank you.
• 16:00
  Chantal Roberts: Thank you.
• 16:01
  Chantal Roberts: It's like where are my roses?
• 16:04
  Chantal Roberts: You know, I feel like I should have a rose, you know, like it's a roses.
• 16:08
  Chantal Roberts: By the way, at Chateau Chantel, where we have um the French room, which is where Bill and his lovely bride are staying.
• 16:19
  Chantal Roberts: I've put flowers in there so you could have the full French experience.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 16:24
  Chantal Roberts: Anyway, um, so I I hired uh an editor because I wanted the art of adjusting to look professional.
• 16:35
  Chantal Roberts: And I knew that I wouldn't be able to basically get a you know book deal because I mean who wants to who wants to publish books on insurance?
• 16:45
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, like none of the traditional five or the big five or whatever are gonna publish this book.
• 16:52
  Chantal Roberts: So I hired an editor and she and I deliberately picked someone who didn't know anything about insurance.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Uh choice.
• 17:01
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah.
• 17:01
  Chantal Roberts: So I I because I decided, you know, if she doesn't know anything about insurance, and if she doesn't understand what I'm saying, then maybe an adjuster might not understand what I'm saying.
• 17:12
  Chantal Roberts: And I'm just going to assume that they are, but I don't know.
• 17:16
  Chantal Roberts: So it was she who came back and said, Do normal people know about this?
• 17:23
  Chantal Roberts: And I said, if the adjuster is doing their job right by reading my book.
• 17:29
  William Auten: Is she presuming we're abnormal?
• 17:31
  Chantal Roberts: I I don't know.
• 17:32
  Chantal Roberts: No, I think she means consumers.
• 17:34
  Chantal Roberts: Got it.
• 17:34
  Chantal Roberts: You know, like claims non-insurance people.
• 17:36
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, like claimants.
• 17:37
  William Auten: Lay people.
• 17:38
  Chantal Roberts: Lay people, consumers.
• 17:39
  Chantal Roberts: So she, you know, because she would be, do consumers know this?
• 17:43
  Chantal Roberts: Do consumers know that this, this, and this, you're supposed to be doing this, this, and this?
• 17:47
  Chantal Roberts: And I said, well, again, if the adjuster's doing their job right, yes.
• 17:51
  Chantal Roberts: And if they read my book, of course so.
• 17:53
  Chantal Roberts: Um, so she suggested that I write a book for consumers.
• 17:59
  Chantal Roberts: And that was once upon a claim, but it started off being the art of adjusting for consumers.
• 18:07
  Chantal Roberts: And I wrote maybe five, six chapters for the consumer art of adjusting, and I absolutely hated it.
• 18:15
  Chantal Roberts: I I um thought it was preachy and condescending and everything.
• 18:22
  Chantal Roberts: And I was like, this I I didn't even like writing it.
• 18:26
  Chantal Roberts: I didn't like reading it.
• 18:28
  Chantal Roberts: And you know me, I didn't talk about insurance all day long, and I hated it.
• 18:33
  Chantal Roberts: And and and it occurred to me the way that we remember things throughout history, any culture, any history, religions, everything.
• 18:45
  Chantal Roberts: We remember things by stories.
• 18:47
  Chantal Roberts: Like, don't get in the candy van because we know what happens to Hansel and Gretel when they got into the candy van, right?
• 18:54
  Chantal Roberts: Um, you know, don't go home with strangers, you don't go into people's homes.
• 18:58
  Chantal Roberts: We know what happened to Goldilocks when she went into a stranger's home, right?
• 19:03
  Chantal Roberts: Um, and beware of strangers because they have big teeth and big ears and big eyes.
• 19:09
  Chantal Roberts: And so it occurred to me that we we remember stories and we remember these rules.
• 19:17
  Chantal Roberts: And we could take insurance rules and apply them to our fairy tales, our fables, our nursery rhymes, and all of that.
• 19:29
  Chantal Roberts: And and the moral of the story would be what is insurance related.
• 19:37
  Chantal Roberts: And then halfway through that, as I am wont to do, I got bored.
• 19:43
  Chantal Roberts: So then I started changing things.
• 19:45
  Chantal Roberts: Like Rumpel Stiltskin is all a film noir movie, basically.
• 19:50
  Chantal Roberts: Um, you know, and Baba Back Black Sheep, I think I I um have a car crash in it, or I don't even remember.
• 20:00
  Chantal Roberts: Um, so yeah, that's how we did it.
• 20:03
  William Auten: So that's Once Upon a Claim a Claim.
• 20:05
  William Auten: You should check it out because it it ties these nursery rhymes into insurance related concepts and stories and it makes it a little more fun.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:14
  William Auten: I think it's a mother-in-law who's in her 80s, even likes it.
• 20:17
  Chantal Roberts: Oh, well, that's that's a very good, that's a that's a nice thing.
• 20:21
  Chantal Roberts: She loved it.
• 20:22
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah.
• 20:22
  William Auten: It's illustrated.
• 20:23
  Chantal Roberts: It is, it is, yes, because I was talking to my husband too, because again, it I wanted the full fairy tale kind of experience, and so I wanted to get it illustrated.
• 20:34
  Chantal Roberts: And this was first right when AI was coming out, and it still wasn't very good at illustrating.
• 20:39
  Chantal Roberts: So, you know, you'd get the six fingers and the five hands and all this kind of stuff.
• 20:44
  Chantal Roberts: And my husband, I had a virtual assistant because you have virtual assistants and you had referred me over to some, and I had a virtual assistant, and I contacted her and I'm like, I need an illustrator because my husband goes, Why don't you try, you know, looking in the Philippines where your virtual assistant lives?
• 21:03
  Chantal Roberts: Because in America, to get just like 10 illustrations is $3,000.
• 21:10
  Chantal Roberts: And I'm like, Yeah, I have a total of $3,000.
• 21:12
  Chantal Roberts: Um, you know, so and so her son ironically was going through art school, and I hired him to do the majority of the illustrations.
• 21:26
  William Auten: And I'll put a link to to the uh resource that we have for offline uh offshore help.
• 21:31
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 21:31
  William Auten: Um, and uh you can check that out.
• 21:33
  Chantal Roberts: So good.
• 21:34
  Chantal Roberts: I've referred my virtual assistant over to like five different people.
• 21:37
  Chantal Roberts: She's fantastic.
• 21:38
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah.
• 21:39
  William Auten: Yeah, we have a good team too over at ACM.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:44
  William Auten: So uh what uh what excites you and what worries you about the industry?
• 21:52
  Chantal Roberts: I am hearing more and more for for excitement.
• 21:55
  Chantal Roberts: I'm hearing more and more about how people are.
• 21:59
  Chantal Roberts: Coming in to insurance, which is great, uh, and I and I think that's a good thing.
• 22:06
  Chantal Roberts: However, I also hear that what they're not doing is coming into claims.
• 22:11
  Chantal Roberts: And I think the thing that worries me is this idea.
• 22:14
  Chantal Roberts: And I kind of wrote a white paper on it, and I'm and I mentioned it, but didn't really expound upon it more because the white paper was focusing on other things, is that these companies are using AI to handle the easy quote unquote claims.
• 22:33
  Chantal Roberts: So if AI is doing all of the easy claims and handling all of those, where do our new adjusters cut their teeth?
• 22:43
  Chantal Roberts: And you because you can't just give a new adjuster a medium complexity file.
• 22:49
  Chantal Roberts: They're gonna be way over their heads, right?
• 22:51
  Chantal Roberts: That's okay.
• 22:52
  Chantal Roberts: He's playing, he's playing footsie with me.
• 22:54
  Chantal Roberts: No good.
• 22:56
  Chantal Roberts: You can you can play footsie with me.
• 22:58
  Chantal Roberts: I don't care.
• 22:59
  Chantal Roberts: My husband's upstairs.
• 23:00
  Chantal Roberts: It's fine.
• 23:00
  Chantal Roberts: It's fine, it's fine, fine.
• 23:03
  Chantal Roberts: Anyway, um, and his wife's right here, so it's fine, it's good.
• 23:08
  Chantal Roberts: We've got a chaperone, anyway.
• 23:10
  Chantal Roberts: So what what what I am excited about though?
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, look at all he's blushing.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, he's so cute.
• 23:20
  Chantal Roberts: So what are we becoming excited about?
• 23:22
  Chantal Roberts: What is exciting me that I can start getting back on topic, damn it.
• 23:26
  Chantal Roberts: Um, so yeah, but what excites me is that more people are getting interested in insurance.
• 23:32
  Chantal Roberts: They want to be in insurance.
• 23:33
  Chantal Roberts: I just want them to be in claims more because I think claims is is, and I said this in the white paper, it's like where the promise is is kept.
• 23:41
  Chantal Roberts: This is why people get insurance is to have their covered claims paid.
• 23:46
  Chantal Roberts: And the only people who can do that are insurance adjusters, not the underwriters, not the agents, not any of that.
• 23:51
  Chantal Roberts: So um if and also I I really do think if we had more claims adjusters, we all wouldn't be so stressed.
• 24:00
  Chantal Roberts: We could answer those phone calls, we could talk to the insureds and explain the process so that insurance aren't constantly mad at us and yelling at us.
• 24:09
  William Auten: I think that's the that's it.
• 24:11
  William Auten: If we had more adjusters who were better trained, yes, the public would be more educated um about the claims process and they wouldn't feel like they're ignored in the process.
• 24:23
  William Auten: Um emails would be answered.
• 24:26
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 24:27
  William Auten: Um, so I I mean I've seen scenarios where um newer adjusters don't really know the answers that the to to questions that the policy holder has.
• 24:36
  William Auten: And um when they don't have the answer, the policy holder feels let down or uh left in the lurch.
• 24:44
  William Auten: They lose trust.
• 24:45
  Chantal Roberts: Yes, they lose trust because they're sitting there thinking, what what kind of professional are you uh if you can't answer this question?
• 24:57
  Chantal Roberts: And and guys, I do want to tell you, some of the best things that I have done as an adjuster would be to say, I don't know.
• 25:07
  Chantal Roberts: And and you know, Bill and I talk about this all the time.
• 25:10
  Chantal Roberts: If if we get into a subject where we just literally we don't know the answer, we will say we don't know.
• 25:16
  Chantal Roberts: And then for you to email us, tag us, put a comment in there, troll us, whatever.
• 25:21
  Chantal Roberts: We're still looking for more trolls, by the way.
• 25:24
  Chantal Roberts: Um and let us let us know.
• 25:27
  Chantal Roberts: And I think when you say, I don't know, but I'm gonna look up that answer for you and I'm gonna call you by 4 p.m.
• 25:34
  Chantal Roberts: today.
• 25:35
  Chantal Roberts: And of course, put in a note in your calendar so that it dings so that because you'll get busy and you'll forget, and then you'll erode that trust again.
• 25:45
  Chantal Roberts: But I think that's like the best thing you can do is to go, you know what, I don't know, but let me look it up for you and I'll get right back to you.
• 25:52
  William Auten: There's always gonna be scenarios that you run into where something is new, and that's kind of the fun part about the job is that there's always some weird thing that happens that you've never been exposed to before.
• 26:03
  William Auten: Absolutely.
• 26:03
  William Auten: Uh, but two years ago we had a chemical spill, destroyed this building, and um I I was asked, oh, so what do you guys allow for cleanup in a situation like this?
• 26:15
  William Auten: Oh, oh, when a hydrogen peroxide tank blows up, you mean?
• 26:18
  William Auten: Oh, let me look, let me look in the manual.
• 26:21
  William Auten: Um, so there is no manual for that.
• 26:23
  William Auten: So you have to learn as you go, and um but telling them that look, I I don't really know, but uh we'll find out and we'll get through this together.
• 26:32
  William Auten: We did, yeah, and we settled that claim.
• 26:34
  William Auten: Absolutely, that's what you gotta do.
• 26:36
  William Auten: Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
• 26:39
  William Auten: So um, AI, how is that changing the industry?
• 26:45
  Chantal Roberts: I hear a lot of things.
• 26:46
  Chantal Roberts: Um the one of the latest things that I've heard is that all of the insurers who have jumped onto the AI bandwagon really, really soon realized it didn't work out as well as they thought it would.
• 27:01
  Chantal Roberts: And they're like, oh crap, we've spent all this money and now it's not working.
• 27:05
  Chantal Roberts: Um but I think that they're still really trying to force a square peg and a round hole with AI.
• 27:14
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, you know, you hear about State Farm, for example, requiring a lot of their agents to use AI now so they that they can develop more personal relationships with people.
• 27:25
  Chantal Roberts: Uh you know, I personally don't want to speak to AI.
• 27:30
  Chantal Roberts: I would rather speak to a person.
• 27:32
  Chantal Roberts: Now, now I love me some chat GPT, don't get me wrong.
• 27:35
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, it's it's it's the only person who will laugh at my insurance jokes.
• 27:40
  Chantal Roberts: But um, you know, I don't want I don't want it to do things for me that way.
• 27:48
  Chantal Roberts: So I think um that is a problem.
• 27:52
  Chantal Roberts: And like I said, when AI is coming through and being an adjuster, or uh they think that like some of the C-suite, I wrote about this in in the white paper uh, where the C-suite, for example, will believe that, oh, we can just use AI to do some of the administrative tasks of the adjuster, such as sending out a letter, the 30-day letter, right?
• 28:20
  Chantal Roberts: That we all have to send out.
• 28:22
  Chantal Roberts: The issue is that the adjuster still has to sign off on that letter.
• 28:26
  Chantal Roberts: And some states are coming down and saying AI can't adjust.
• 28:30
  Chantal Roberts: AI is not a person, it can't get an insurance adjusting license.
• 28:35
  Chantal Roberts: So the adjuster has to adjust.
• 28:37
  Chantal Roberts: Companies are like, that's fine.
• 28:39
  Chantal Roberts: I mean, the AI can write the letter and then the adjuster signs the letter.
• 28:42
  Chantal Roberts: But if you're so overworked because the company is cutting jobs and and laying off adjusters so that you're now doing the work of three other people and you're having to review what AI is coming out with, and it may be AI slop.
• 29:01
  Chantal Roberts: I don't know.
• 29:01
  Chantal Roberts: It may be, it may not be.
• 29:03
  Chantal Roberts: I don't know.
• 29:04
  Chantal Roberts: That is what I worry about with with um AI changing, adjusting, is that it will compound our issues like Colossus once did.
• 29:15
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 29:16
  William Auten: Well, it's the the problem it it has is it has the same effect on human beings like you and me is it it has that same effect on industries.
• 29:24
  William Auten: And I think the people who run those industries saw AI, listened to it, and thought, wow, this sounds like a human.
• 29:31
  William Auten: And they tried it, they tried to push it.
• 29:33
  William Auten: And they said, Whoa, this is really like a human.
• 29:35
  William Auten: And the the harder, but but when you really push it and really listen to what's coming back, you realize it makes mistakes.
• 29:43
  William Auten: It's not a human, and it's not something that should be substituted uh for human beings and and human beings who are making decisions, the important decisions in running the business, uh particularly in claims.
• 29:56
  Chantal Roberts: Yes.
• 29:57
  William Auten: Because people's lives are affected by that.
• 29:59
  Chantal Roberts: Absolutely.
• 29:59
  Chantal Roberts: Absolutely.
• 30:00
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah.
• 30:01
  Chantal Roberts: So what about you?
• 30:05
  William Auten: What about me?
• 30:06
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah.
• 30:06
  Chantal Roberts: We're gonna start with how did you get into insurance?
• 30:09
  William Auten: Oh, yeah.
• 30:10
  William Auten: So um I was um I was a carpenter in the construction business, and um, I dated a young lady whose father was a manager of a claims operation called Crawford and Company.
• 30:23
  William Auten: And um, he said, You know what, Bill, you're a pretty smart guy.
• 30:26
  William Auten: You know a lot about buildings.
• 30:28
  William Auten: You should become a claims adjuster.
• 30:29
  William Auten: And I said, Okay, what's a claims adjuster?
• 30:31
  William Auten: And uh so I spent a couple of years looking for a job as an adjuster, and I didn't have any experience as an adjuster, so I was turned out a lot, but um, I kept trying.
• 30:43
  William Auten: And it was in the days when you didn't have indeed.com.
• 30:46
  William Auten: Uh you didn't you you had to look at newspaper ads for job listings, and um um eventually I wound up going to work for his competitor.
• 30:57
  Chantal Roberts: So I I was became so that made it awkward for Thanksgiving, yeah.
• 31:02
  William Auten: Um so I worked for uh Lindsay Morden, and um that's a that was a large independent adjusting firm, and I did that for about five years, and I went to a carrier and uh then uh back to the independent side um for a little bit and then landed at Ontario Insurance Company and managed their claims department for 10 years before going back on my own and starting ACM, which is where we are now.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Yay, yay, yeah.
• 31:31
  Chantal Roberts: So uh I'm surprised that you had a hard time getting to be hired as an adjuster because usually that's uh we have such a dearth of adjusters that you know everybody can be hired.
• 31:48
  Chantal Roberts: But I think that the deal is that the first part that gets a hiring freeze is the adjusting, the claims department.
• 31:56
  William Auten: Yeah, so the uh the positions I was interviewing for were um they were all looking for somebody with at least five years of experience, yeah, which I didn't have.
• 32:05
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 32:06
  William Auten: And um, and again, it was a I could only cast a net that was so wide so wide uh being in Buffalo, New York.
• 32:14
  William Auten: Um, there's not a whole lot of carriers headquartered headquartered there.
• 32:18
  William Auten: Um, there were at the time probably five or six independent firms, and I didn't apply to any of those except Lindsay Morton.
• 32:26
  William Auten: So um, and I think your odds of getting hired without experience might be better with an independent than with a carrier.
• 32:35
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, and we talked about that last last week.
• 32:37
  Chantal Roberts: With do you start off with the company, uh, or do you start off or like being a multi-lined adjuster, or you know, going independent, or do you start off with kind of like a monoline being with the company?
• 32:48
  William Auten: Yeah, and multi-line I still think is the best route to go when you start out, if you can.
• 32:53
  William Auten: Um, and and if you have to be a single line adjuster, uh try to make an effort to become multi-line at some point in your career just so that you have exposure because you may like a different line of uh business.
• 33:06
  William Auten: Like I started out, I was hired to be a property guy.
• 33:09
  William Auten: Right.
• 33:09
  William Auten: Within a month, they made me multi-line.
• 33:12
  William Auten: And today I run an uh an independent adjusting firm that only handles liability claims.
• 33:18
  Chantal Roberts: So, so what about ACM?
• 33:20
  Chantal Roberts: That must have been a little scary going off to um on your own and everything.
• 33:25
  William Auten: Yeah, it was.
• 33:26
  Chantal Roberts: It I think it is kind of scary.
• 33:27
  Chantal Roberts: A lot of people don't realize how scary it is to start off your own business.
• 33:31
  William Auten: Yeah, so um I had been listening to a lot of podcasts about independent adjusting, and um I realized that the folks that were being successful were doing so with just a fraction of the experience that I had.
• 33:47
  William Auten: So I knew that I could go out there and and make a go of it.
• 33:52
  William Auten: Uh, so I did, and um, I started out really just handling well, I first started doing a catastrophe claim with Hurricane uh Harvey.
• 34:03
  William Auten: And then Irma hit.
• 34:05
  William Auten: So I did that, and then um uh I did property for about a year and a half, two years, and then took over a friend's liability business and changed that, changed the name.
• 34:19
  William Auten: And uh we've been rocking and rolling ever since, and now we've got me and three other adjusters.
• 34:24
  William Auten: Sounds great, and um, we're covering pretty much all of New York State right now.
• 34:29
  William Auten: Yeah, and uh doing a lot of good stuff.
• 34:32
  Chantal Roberts: You need like a half of an adjuster.
• 34:33
  Chantal Roberts: I need I so so if you if you're a half of a person, um, you know, come on down.
• 34:41
  William Auten: That's a dynamic thing.
• 34:42
  William Auten: Sometimes I need a half of adjuster, sometimes I need a whole one.
• 34:46
  William Auten: Yeah, we're really getting to the point where we need another body.
• 34:50
  Chantal Roberts: So that's great.
• 34:50
  Chantal Roberts: That's congratulations.
• 34:52
  Chantal Roberts: That's fantastic.
• 34:53
  William Auten: Yeah, I used to have hair.
• 34:54
  Chantal Roberts: Uh yeah, I know.
• 34:56
  Chantal Roberts: So, what what would you say um are the biggest lessons that you've learned uh either as an adjuster or as an entrepreneur?
• 35:07
  William Auten: Sue.
• 35:07
  William Auten: Uh biggest lessons I've learned, I'll say as an entrepreneur, the lessons I've learned as an adjuster would fill a book.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:15
  William Auten: So I can't really pinpoint anything in particular.
• 35:18
  William Auten: I guess if there's one thing, it's to build trust.
• 35:21
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 35:21
  William Auten: To build trust with your um policy holders, with the people you report to, um, and with claimants.
• 35:29
  William Auten: Even if even if you've got bad news for them, uh make sure they understand why you're delivering that bad news.
• 35:36
  William Auten: It's not because you're a hateful person, it's not because you don't like their cologne, it's that they there's there's just a reason, either legal or contractual, that you had to make the decision that you did.
• 35:49
  William Auten: And if you can articulate that, that's gonna be the best skill that you have to build trust.
• 35:53
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, and we talk about that quite a bit on the podcast with communication.
• 35:56
  Chantal Roberts: Right.
• 35:57
  William Auten: And so as an entrepreneur, um, as an entrepreneur, I would say to the best thing you can do is build a business that can, I'm gonna laugh when I say this, run by itself.
• 36:12
  William Auten: I'm not there yet, but what that's that's what we're working toward because um uh otherwise you get married to this job that you can't turn your back on or it'll bite you.
• 36:24
  William Auten: So that that is uh involves another level of trust, uh trust in your team and all that, and trust in your systems, and um, and then your clients have to trust that all that works together too.
• 36:38
  Chantal Roberts: So because you still have to be able to come visit your friends down in Kansas, right?
• 36:42
  Chantal Roberts: And do a hundredth podcast together, right?
• 36:45
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, so your your your job has to be able to to take care of that, yeah.
• 36:48
  William Auten: And the new claim uh this whole trip, the new assignments kept coming in.
• 36:52
  William Auten: So something has to has to happen.
• 36:54
  William Auten: And uh so our team team is working on those and go team.
• 36:58
  Chantal Roberts: Yay, team Otton Claims, woo! So do you have a biggest mistake either again as a claims adjuster?
• 37:06
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, because I think we've probably talked about these sorts of things, and I think it would be again for me, maybe communication, uh, where I did not communicate well with a person and and it kind of you know um imploded on me.
• 37:21
  Chantal Roberts: Uh, but do you have a biggest mistake?
• 37:24
  William Auten: Yeah, I don't make many mistakes.
• 37:27
  Chantal Roberts: No, you're perfect.
• 37:28
  William Auten: Um, we've already discussed no, I make a whole bunch of mistakes.
• 37:31
  William Auten: And um again, that would fill a book also.
• 37:34
  William Auten: Uh, but uh I would say that um I'll keep it simple and just say ignoring the trust factor is probably the big biggest mistake you'll make in your personal life and your business.
• 37:48
  Chantal Roberts: I would uh when we're talking about that, I mean it sounds so normalized and everything, but the thing that you'd also want to want to think about as adjusters is this trust factor is being open and honest and transparent.
• 38:03
  Chantal Roberts: We hear a lot about this transparency because our insurance, our claimants, have no idea what's going on.
• 38:11
  Chantal Roberts: They haven't read my book, once upon a claim, or else they'd know.
• 38:15
  Chantal Roberts: But but yeah, um, so what still excites you about?
• 38:18
  Chantal Roberts: What makes you get up in the morning uh and and go to work?
• 38:24
  William Auten: So as I said earlier, we see some of the craziest things that you could imagine.
• 38:29
  William Auten: The stories that we have, I wish I could talk about them, but I can't because they're open files.
• 38:35
  William Auten: But some of the stuff that happens is just so bananas.
• 38:38
  William Auten: Um the stories are sad.
• 38:40
  William Auten: There's never rarely any happy stories.
• 38:43
  William Auten: Um, I mean, if if there's a bad claim and we settle it and everybody goes off into the sunset with uh, you know, and they can make their lives whole again, that's that's as good a story as you're gonna get.
• 38:54
  William Auten: Um, unfortunately, we deal with people who uh perish, you know, and uh those stories doesn't matter how much money you throw at it, the that's those are sad stories.
• 39:04
  William Auten: So um, but the stories are interesting and the people are interesting, and I think that's the main reason that I like this job so much is that you're always seeing something new and meeting new people, whether they're crazies or normals or whatever, or or your podcast partner, doesn't matter, lunatics in Kansas.
• 39:24
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, it's crazy.
• 39:25
  Chantal Roberts: Um, yeah, um what about you?
• 39:27
  Chantal Roberts: Where do you think the industry is is headed?
• 39:31
  William Auten: I think automation is going to continue to evolve to this to the extent that um it goes through some, I think, some pretty significant ripples that there's going to be some big problems for carriers who try to overuse automation and AI.
• 39:51
  William Auten: Um, and then the ones that are the ones that will win are the ones who will figure out how to blend it and mesh it properly into their business and use it as a tool instead of you the relying on it to solve their problems.
• 40:05
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, and speaking of AI, what do you think?
• 40:07
  Chantal Roberts: Um, AI, how is it changing like the claims industry?
• 40:11
  Chantal Roberts: What's your take on that?
• 40:13
  William Auten: So I've heard that there are some carriers who encourage all their staff to use AI for everything all the time.
• 40:19
  William Auten: And I think I think part of that is they're just they just want to see how far they can push it and see what the results might be.
• 40:27
  William Auten: But I think there's going to be a really uh firm pull back from that at some point when they realize um that could get out of hand kind of quick.
• 40:35
  William Auten: So um I think it's a moving target.
• 40:38
  William Auten: I think the models, uh, the the way the models are evolving is one thing that I I can't really account for because all of the things that I can think of that would go wrong, they may be able to solve that with some of these models.
• 40:53
  William Auten: It's it's amazing how they how they can improve.
• 40:57
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, yeah.
• 40:58
  Chantal Roberts: And I I see too when I'm talking to AI, how I don't ask it the right questions sometimes.
• 41:08
  Chantal Roberts: And so it'll get like completely the wrong answer.
• 41:11
  Chantal Roberts: And then I realize, oh, well, I just said something like define a legal contract, and it'll give me the legal ease, like the lawyer version rather than the insurance version.
• 41:22
  William Auten: But as humans, we both know, well, we're in insurance, we mean the insurance version, but it doesn't, it doesn't it's getting better at contextualizing what you're asking, yeah, and um and filling those blanks in properly.
• 41:36
  William Auten: I've noticed.
• 41:37
  William Auten: Um, some of the more advanced models are really crazy, yeah.
• 41:41
  William Auten: But um so I don't know, I don't know what's in store, but at the end of the day, we're all human beings, uh dealing with other human beings, and human beings don't want to deal with machines when they're in a bad situation.
• 41:53
  William Auten: So uh no, I don't think our jobs are going away.
• 41:57
  William Auten: I don't, I don't change, but I don't think they're going away.
• 42:00
  Chantal Roberts: I agree with you.
• 42:00
  Chantal Roberts: Okay, so besides getting involved with uh an expert witness and teacher and author uh doing a podcast in Kansas, what would you do differently?
• 42:12
  William Auten: Um not come to Kansas at all?
• 42:14
  William Auten: Um no, no, no.
• 42:16
  William Auten: What would I do differently about about what?
• 42:18
  William Auten: About the podcast?
• 42:20
  William Auten: About the career.
• 42:23
  Chantal Roberts: Well, I guess yeah, about ACM or or your career, how would you do it differently?
• 42:29
  William Auten: Um I don't know.
• 42:32
  William Auten: I don't think I would.
• 42:33
  William Auten: I don't feel like maybe if the podcast, the one thing I might change about the podcast is to build it more like a business.
• 42:42
  William Auten: And we never did that.
• 42:43
  William Auten: We just kind of just we're just kind of talking to the machine here.
• 42:47
  William Auten: Um but I think there's um I think there's a lot of value in the stuff that we produce and the people the things that people listen to from us, the guests that we have are very valuable.
• 42:59
  William Auten: And I think it would be important to spread that around a little more for people in the industry because um people who hear it for the first time, uh I often get comments, you know, I never knew that, or that's an interesting thing, uh concept that you were talking about.
• 43:14
  William Auten: So I think there's a need for it in the industry, and I think more insurance companies should know about us.
• 43:20
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, absolutely.
• 43:21
  William Auten: I would say and we don't really do a good job of promoting it at this point.
• 43:25
  Chantal Roberts: We don't, and and it's mostly because I'm cheap.
• 43:28
  Chantal Roberts: So if anybody wants to be our producer for free, I'm all for it.
• 43:32
  Chantal Roberts: But then you usually get what you pay for, so there's that too.
• 43:36
  Chantal Roberts: Maybe we need sponsors.
• 43:38
  Chantal Roberts: Yes, like Diet Code.
• 43:45
  William Auten: Or oh, who's the iced tea?
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, who's our iced tea thing?
• 43:50
  William Auten: Palmer, yeah.
• 43:52
  Chantal Roberts: Cedar rich cedar rich ice tea.
• 43:55
  Chantal Roberts: Put that away.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Cedar rich what it's iced tea.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Nice tea.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Um, yes.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: So anyway.
• 44:05
  William Auten: Anyway.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Hi.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: We're all together.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: Yay.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Um, so where are we now?
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: I you know, I don't know.
• 44:13
  Chantal Roberts: Because you know how we do these things.
• 44:14
  Chantal Roberts: We flipped over it.
• 44:16
  Chantal Roberts: We did.
• 44:17
  Chantal Roberts: And we flipped it around and then we we did a summer.
• 44:22
  Chantal Roberts: I think we're on this summer.
• 44:24
  Chantal Roberts: We're we're on closing already.
• 44:25
  Chantal Roberts: That's fantastic.
• 44:26
  Chantal Roberts: I think so.
• 44:27
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, because we probably we've talked about ourselves long enough.
• 44:30
  William Auten: We have we have rambled on.
• 44:31
  Chantal Roberts: So yes, nobody wants to hear any more of this.
• 44:33
  Chantal Roberts: Everybody's fast forwarded to like where are we going next?
• 44:36
  William Auten: So um so you've got a little script here, and and I um I don't like reading scripts, but this is pretty much it.
• 44:42
  William Auten: When we started on Clubhouse, I don't think either of us ever imagined we'd be sitting here recording episode 100.
• 44:49
  William Auten: I don't think so either.
• 44:51
  Chantal Roberts: And um, and then you say, and we certainly didn't imagine we will still have this much more to talk about.
• 45:00
  Chantal Roberts: By the way, though, I will say this.
• 45:01
  Chantal Roberts: Um, a friend of mine did send me a card, a congratulations card for our 100th episode.
• 45:09
  Chantal Roberts: And she had written in there saying, you know, not a lot of podcasts get to 100.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 45:16
  Chantal Roberts: Uh especially when they have no listeners.
• 45:18
  Chantal Roberts: Right.
• 45:18
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, you know, because we're just like we're still rambling into thin air.
• 45:22
  Chantal Roberts: Um, but it that is that is quite an accomplishment and quite a feat.
• 45:27
  Chantal Roberts: So yeah, yes.
• 45:29
  William Auten: When you consider that we do this every two weeks, um, that is a pretty big accomplishment.
• 45:35
  William Auten: Yeah.
• 45:35
  William Auten: I mean, I've seen podcasts where they release 20 minutes every day.
• 45:38
  William Auten: That's different.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:40
  William Auten: We uh we uh we take it seriously um and we're kind of dedicated to it.
• 45:45
  Chantal Roberts: Right.
• 45:46
  Chantal Roberts: And we will think it's important.
• 45:47
  Chantal Roberts: And and we do take when we get ideas from from our listeners, like what about this?
• 45:52
  Chantal Roberts: I think it was early 2025.
• 45:55
  Chantal Roberts: We had five or six questions from one of our listeners that we went through and did that.
• 46:01
  Chantal Roberts: So I mean, we we we do look at that.
• 46:05
  William Auten: We joke about having no listeners, but that's uh disservice to the people who do listen with their they number in the thousands.
• 46:10
  William Auten: Yes, they do.
• 46:11
  William Auten: So thank you to all of you.
• 46:12
  William Auten: Uh share and uh subscribe and like and uh post on LinkedIn and Facebook and all that stuff.
• 46:19
  William Auten: Um, because uh we appreciate the uh attention.
• 46:23
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, and um we're supposed to tease episode 101, and I actually didn't look it up.
• 46:28
  Chantal Roberts: So I have no idea.
• 46:30
  Chantal Roberts: Yeah, your guess is as good as mine.
• 46:33
  William Auten: Maybe we'll maybe we'll do an episode on iced tea.
• 46:35
  Chantal Roberts: I think we should like what our recipes are for iced tea and how uh liquor liability insurance plays into it.
• 46:44
  Chantal Roberts: See how I can tie everything back to insurance, y'all?
• 46:47
  Chantal Roberts: Everything we have our fingers in everybody's pies or cupcakes for that matter.
• 46:54
  Chantal Roberts: So so we'll see y'all later.
• 46:57
  William Auten: Bye.
• 46:58
  William Auten: Thanks for thanks for joining us.
• 46:59
  William Auten: Thanks for joining us on the Art of Adjusting podcast, where we talk about life as an insurance adjuster.
• 47:04
  William Auten: Hit that subscribe button real quick and tell all of your adjuster friends to check this out as well.
• 47:09
  William Auten: For independent adjusting services, go to www.autin.claims.
• 47:14
  William Auten: And for anyone interested in working as an independent liability adjuster, go to the contact us tab to join our roster.
• 47:22
  Chantal Roberts: So this wraps up another Art of Adjusting podcast.
• 47:26
  Chantal Roberts: If you enjoyed this podcast or this episode, please give us five stars and a review.
• 47:31
  Chantal Roberts: It does help the algorithm pick us up.
• 47:34
  Chantal Roberts: In the meantime, you can contact me at theartofadjusting.com for consulting and training purposes.