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April 29, 2024

Conquering Insurance Challenges for Property Investors with Andy Gurczak

Unpack the role of conquering insurance insights using public adjusters in ensuring fair insurance treatments with Andy Gurczak in episode 79 of the Aim High Podcast.

Embark on a journey of discovery with Andy Gurczak, a renowned public adjuster and entrepreneur, as we peel back the layers of the insurance claims industry. Andy shares his personal narrative from a Polish village to the U.S., where he battles the double-edged sword insurance companies wield as judge and jury. This episode promises to arm you with the knowledge to navigate the treacherous waters of policy coverage, emphasizing the indispensable role of public adjusters in fighting for policyholders' rights. From the perils of policy misinterpretation to the vital necessity of expert reviews, Andy's insights are a guiding light for homeowners and real estate investors alike.

Real estate enthusiasts and budding business moguls, prepare to absorb strategies and insights that could revolutionize your investments. I open up about my own escapades in property disasters and the profound impact public adjusters have had in turning the tide. Our discussion spans the financial debates of FSBO versus an agent and the intricacies of ROI in property and business growth. Andy and I also reminisce on some of the most outlandish claims we've encountered, adding a dash of the unexpected to the already complex world of insurance.

Lastly, our conversation takes an entrepreneurial twist, as I share the rollercoaster ride of my business journey—from the brink of financial collapse to expanding operations across multiple states. Discover the marketing strategies that propelled my company forward and the patience required to see them to fruition. We wrap up with a reflection on the pillars of success: resilience in the face of failure, the transformative power of education, and the unyielding drive towards achieving your dreams. Join us for a session that not only enlightens but also inspires action and change.

Reach out to Andy:
https://www.facebook.com/allcityadjusting/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-gurczak-528b9b64/
https://www.allcityadjusting.com/

outro for the podcast

WebPage:
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Social Media!
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WebPage:
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Chapters

00:00 - Navigating Insurance Claims as an Investor

11:23 - Real Estate and Business Insights

18:49 - Company Growth and Marketing Strategies

26:48 - Achieving Growth Through Education and Focus

35:16 - Lessons in Entrepreneurship and Financial Management

41:29 - Embracing Failure Leads to Success

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.870
In this episode of the Aim High podcast, I'm talking with Andy Gershak.

00:00:02.870 --> 00:00:07.751
He shares his journey from a small village in Poland to becoming a successful entrepreneur in America.

00:00:07.751 --> 00:00:12.191
Andy talks about his initial challenges and unexpected opportunities that shaped his career path.

00:00:12.191 --> 00:00:19.469
He dives into his role as a public adjuster, explaining common misunderstandings about insurance claims and the importance of having proper policy coverage.

00:00:19.469 --> 00:00:31.751
The takeaways for today is when he emphasizes the value of public adjusters in helping policyholders receive fair treatment from insurance companies and provides insights into handling large-scale claims and the intricacies of all of your policy terms.

00:00:31.751 --> 00:00:36.902
Find out about all that and more, where we provide real estate investors with the tools to achieve generational wealth.

00:00:36.902 --> 00:00:38.067
Let's aim high together.

00:00:38.067 --> 00:00:39.651
This is episode 79.

00:00:39.651 --> 00:00:41.942
Hello and welcome to the AIMI podcast.

00:00:41.942 --> 00:00:45.685
As always, I'm your host, Bud Evans, and I'm here with Andy Gershack.

00:00:45.786 --> 00:00:48.088
How are you today, buddy, bud, thank you so much.

00:00:48.088 --> 00:00:48.487
I'm doing.

00:00:48.487 --> 00:00:48.709
Great.

00:00:48.709 --> 00:00:50.831
Thanks for having me on, dude, you're the true.

00:00:50.871 --> 00:00:57.476
American dream Came over here and you found the entrepreneurial lifestyle, started your own company and you're killing it.

00:00:57.476 --> 00:00:58.801
Can you do me a favor and give an intro?

00:00:59.444 --> 00:01:02.548
Yeah, I wish it was that I didn't have a choice.

00:01:02.548 --> 00:01:08.623
They just packed my suitcases, put on a jumpsuit and said we're going somewhere.

00:01:08.623 --> 00:01:12.069
Lo and behold, I'm at an airport and all of a sudden I'm on a highway.

00:01:12.069 --> 00:01:13.471
I'm like holy smoke.

00:01:13.471 --> 00:01:14.474
There's five lanes.

00:01:14.474 --> 00:01:15.801
Where am I?

00:01:15.801 --> 00:01:17.084
Listen?

00:01:17.084 --> 00:01:19.087
I came from a village of 1,000 people.

00:01:19.087 --> 00:01:21.173
It was definitely a shock.

00:01:21.173 --> 00:01:24.742
Fell in the right places, met the right people.

00:01:24.742 --> 00:01:25.545
Was in construction.

00:01:25.545 --> 00:01:31.046
Met a public adjuster that was in the industry for 40 years, chased them Actually, was in real estate.

00:01:31.046 --> 00:01:32.625
I was actually getting into wholesaling.

00:01:32.625 --> 00:01:42.183
Met the adjuster and for about two years I was just calling him nonstop until finally I was about to give up, made a last call and said hey, you know what, I'm about to retire.

00:01:42.183 --> 00:01:43.808
Yeah, let's do it, I'll mentor you.

00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:51.483
And so it was a lot of long two years.

00:01:51.483 --> 00:01:54.135
Definitely, I know you invested in real estate, but the real reason that I wanted you on here is because you're an adjuster man.

00:01:54.135 --> 00:02:01.509
I can't tell you how many times that, as you're going through this business, you wind up with an insurance claim and you get low balled.

00:02:01.509 --> 00:02:02.069
Yeah.

00:02:02.209 --> 00:02:08.346
All the time and people, even when we call people, we talk to people like, oh no, the insurance adjuster's on my side or he's going to take care of me.

00:02:08.346 --> 00:02:09.209
I know the agent.

00:02:09.209 --> 00:02:12.165
First of all, the agent has nothing to do with any part of the claim.

00:02:12.165 --> 00:02:13.264
They have no idea what happens.

00:02:13.264 --> 00:02:22.948
When I hear agents say this insurance is so good, I'm like, have you're talking about?

00:02:22.948 --> 00:02:24.971
When it comes to rates, maybe?

00:02:26.171 --> 00:02:32.661
And then what listeners have to keep in mind is and again, we don't bash any insurance companies.

00:02:32.661 --> 00:02:36.221
They're in the business to do what they're doing, to make money, and obviously it's a business.

00:02:36.221 --> 00:02:37.243
They're not a charity.

00:02:37.243 --> 00:02:41.581
But you have to look at an insurance company as the adjuster that's coming out for them.

00:02:41.581 --> 00:02:45.271
The agent, all their vendors, everyone works for the insurance company.

00:02:45.271 --> 00:02:48.927
So everyone pays their bills right, their bonuses, their vacations, everything.

00:02:48.927 --> 00:02:54.790
So how can that adjuster and that agent represent you and represent the insurance company at the same time?

00:02:54.790 --> 00:02:55.873
It's a conflict of interest.

00:02:55.873 --> 00:03:06.818
So that's why I stated a long time ago they made a public adjuster license division in every state to represent the policyholder.

00:03:06.818 --> 00:03:11.586
So the policyholder has someone on their side without going to an attorney.

00:03:11.586 --> 00:03:14.774
That's how you have to look at it.

00:03:14.794 --> 00:03:24.080
So what's like the number one thing that you're seeing with these as far as, like, the claims that are being made that insurance companies are going like, yeah, we're not paying that.

00:03:26.502 --> 00:03:27.322
There's so much.

00:03:27.322 --> 00:03:28.301
There's just a lot of.

00:03:28.301 --> 00:03:31.002
We hear a lot when we call in claims.

00:03:31.002 --> 00:03:33.883
We're not paying for this, it's in our guidelines.

00:03:33.883 --> 00:03:41.227
Your guidelines do not supersede policy language, right, you can't just okay, our guidelines are you pay max claim every time.

00:03:41.227 --> 00:03:42.667
We can't just go for guidelines.

00:03:42.667 --> 00:03:44.108
There's a policy enforced.

00:03:44.108 --> 00:03:46.048
So we're seeing that a lot.

00:03:46.048 --> 00:03:53.591
And then different policy coverages are being excluded and a lot of people don't know what's in their policy.

00:03:53.591 --> 00:04:06.814
So a lot of we're just seeing the policies being written really against the insured and people are calling claims without knowing what's in their policy, without knowing they have this on their policy that this policy doesn't cover anything.

00:04:06.814 --> 00:04:11.395
So it's just getting harder for these claims Now that we're looking at claims.

00:04:12.176 --> 00:04:18.978
You're looking at a claim and you say, man, this person's only covered if they have a fire and even then they're not going to be covered for much.

00:04:18.978 --> 00:04:26.148
So why even have a policy at this time and they're getting so expensive with deductibles so high even have a policy at this time and they're getting so expensive with deductibles so high?

00:04:26.148 --> 00:04:29.694
It's really important on the agent to do their job and make sure they're selling the right policy.

00:04:29.694 --> 00:04:35.161
There's right coverage.

00:04:35.161 --> 00:04:36.788
Some of the services we offer is we look over investors' policies all the time.

00:04:36.788 --> 00:04:37.653
We have clients, some of their policies.

00:04:37.653 --> 00:04:42.629
We'll look over what's going on just to make sure that when something does happen, they have the right coverage.

00:04:42.629 --> 00:04:44.701
There's nothing that can hurt them Right.

00:04:45.382 --> 00:04:51.254
Right, having gone through this, it's a it.

00:04:51.254 --> 00:04:56.165
Unfortunately, it's a daunting task trying to deal with the insurance companies yourself.

00:04:56.165 --> 00:05:05.810
But before we even start, how do you protect yourself from having those parts of the policy that are supposed to be in there that just never happen?

00:05:05.810 --> 00:05:06.512
They're not in there.

00:05:07.180 --> 00:05:13.553
Unless you're a policy interpreter you've read policies every day and you understand policies you'll have no idea what you're reading.

00:05:13.553 --> 00:05:18.011
They're supposed to be made in plain English written and they're not.

00:05:18.011 --> 00:05:19.384
They're hard to understand.

00:05:19.384 --> 00:05:26.769
Tell them oh, your agent should be the one who sells you the right policy that has the right coverage, and most agents don't know what they're selling.

00:05:26.769 --> 00:05:28.391
They're salespeople.

00:05:28.391 --> 00:05:29.992
They're selling you a policy and that's it.

00:05:29.992 --> 00:05:53.980
So it's hard no-transcript.

00:05:53.980 --> 00:05:54.802
And you might like.

00:05:54.802 --> 00:05:59.252
We have investors that work with us that have never used our services.

00:05:59.252 --> 00:06:07.915
All we've done is free work for them, meaning we've looked at their policies, we've looked at their buildings just to make sure that if something does happen they're fine.

00:06:07.915 --> 00:06:11.069
Then hopefully we get the business done.

00:06:11.069 --> 00:06:17.913
But that would be the right situation for investors to have a PA or staff, someone else, look over those policies for you.

00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:24.528
Yeah, having those second set of eyes is a game changer, because you're I don't know what I'm looking at.

00:06:24.528 --> 00:06:26.589
Set of eyes is a game changer because you're I don't know what I'm looking at.

00:06:26.589 --> 00:06:33.569
You have a busted stack or, god forbid you get hit with two weeks of rain and your downspout falls off, and now you've got water pouring in your basement and burns out your HVAC unit.

00:06:33.569 --> 00:06:36.288
You got to know if, whether or not, you're covered.

00:06:39.793 --> 00:06:40.680
Yeah, we've seen those a lot.

00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:44.269
We get a lot of, we've got a lot of calls from California.

00:06:44.269 --> 00:06:47.083
Large influx of waters that happen.

00:06:47.083 --> 00:06:49.567
A lot of those aren't covered losses.

00:06:49.567 --> 00:06:50.589
That was hard.

00:06:50.589 --> 00:06:52.774
Most people don't understand.

00:06:52.774 --> 00:06:54.163
We had water coming to the basin.

00:06:54.163 --> 00:06:57.331
Unless you have flood insurance, that's not covered, Right?

00:06:57.331 --> 00:07:08.019
So it's important to know your policies and know what you're covered and what you're not for know your policies and know what you're covered and what you're not for.

00:07:10.519 --> 00:07:17.425
Now, when we're looking at actual insurance policies, what are some things that we should be making sure are in there that we're covered for as investors when we're dealing with let's start with the flippers, right?

00:07:17.425 --> 00:07:24.310
So if you have an unoccupied structure, what would you recommend to make sure that they have in their policy for the, just in case?

00:07:24.872 --> 00:07:36.413
Yeah, so when you're a flipper or an us or like we just did one, his policy was on a named peril basis, right, meaning only what was covered, so most okay, the name covered peril.

00:07:36.413 --> 00:07:43.072
So meaning he was only covered for what it said in the policy meeting fire, when it was like six barrels.

00:07:43.072 --> 00:07:48.505
That he was covered for, yeah, most policies is you're covered for everything, and then there's the exclusions.

00:07:48.505 --> 00:07:59.473
So he was only covered for, like fire, tornado, like some of the major stuff they were cutting the tree pillar on the house not covered because it wasn't included in that name barrel Crushed the whole house in half.

00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:16.170
So, knowing what policy you have and then also knowing that you have a replacement cost policy, a lot of what people don't know is a lot of policies now being sold to investors are actual cash value only, meaning that you're only going to get the actual value.

00:08:16.170 --> 00:08:17.321
What is the property worth now?

00:08:17.321 --> 00:08:27.182
Meaning if it takes $200,000 to fix your building up but it's, let's just say, 20 years old, they're going to depreciate it by a hundred thousand.

00:08:27.182 --> 00:08:42.831
You're only going to get that actual cash value, that upfront money, that back depreciation, which is called recoverable depreciation, would not be recovered because you have an actual cash value policy and more and more we're seeing that happen because again it lowers the premium by a significant amount.

00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:47.066
Save a dollar now, lose a hundred thousand later.

00:08:47.066 --> 00:08:49.009
Yep, that's it.

00:08:49.009 --> 00:08:53.549
That's unbelievable, and I can't tell you how many people actually do that kind of stuff.

00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:57.330
So when we get, when we do get those calls, I go why do we need you?

00:08:57.330 --> 00:09:00.409
Or you guys charge your feet, okay.

00:09:00.409 --> 00:09:05.607
My friend always says would you like a what's better?

00:09:05.607 --> 00:09:08.974
A piece of grape or just a or a piece of watermelon or whatever.

00:09:08.974 --> 00:09:13.530
He says, like people keep looking at the small, they don't look at the end run.

00:09:13.530 --> 00:09:17.125
But again, everyone is.

00:09:17.125 --> 00:09:20.272
Everyone has their own mind and makes their own choices.

00:09:20.812 --> 00:09:22.647
Yeah, do you want the grape or do you want the vine?

00:09:22.647 --> 00:09:23.966
The vine's only a stick.

00:09:23.966 --> 00:09:24.023
Yeah.

00:09:24.023 --> 00:09:24.825
But if you plant the vine, you want the vine.

00:09:24.825 --> 00:09:25.128
The vine's only a stick.

00:09:25.128 --> 00:09:25.183
Yeah.

00:09:25.183 --> 00:09:28.196
But if you find the vine, you have a whole bunch of grapes, right.

00:09:28.196 --> 00:09:29.321
Not that I just want the grape now.

00:09:29.321 --> 00:09:30.886
I deal with that all the time.

00:09:30.886 --> 00:09:32.091
I see it all the time.

00:09:32.091 --> 00:09:33.817
It happens in real estate.

00:09:33.918 --> 00:09:35.663
It happens in any business.

00:09:35.663 --> 00:09:37.970
You saw people will come back to you and say why do I need your?

00:09:37.970 --> 00:09:38.652
They'll start.

00:09:38.652 --> 00:09:41.583
What they do is they calculate basically how, everything, what it's going to cost them.

00:09:41.583 --> 00:09:47.392
They calculate basically how, everything, what it's going to cost them, but they don't calculate what the return is.

00:09:47.392 --> 00:09:49.215
They can't comprehend the return.

00:09:49.215 --> 00:09:51.980
So when people look at it, why would I pay you our fee?

00:09:52.400 --> 00:09:54.248
And you probably asked this question what's our fee?

00:09:54.248 --> 00:09:56.067
It's 10% across the board.

00:09:56.067 --> 00:09:57.698
Whatever we recover, it's 10%.

00:09:57.698 --> 00:10:02.164
Now, some cases it's more if it's if we're coming in a backend or something like that.

00:10:02.164 --> 00:10:05.292
But most of the majority of the time it's 10% of the claim.

00:10:05.292 --> 00:10:09.388
So you have to look at okay, you're charging me 10%.

00:10:09.388 --> 00:10:09.811
So I had a lady once.

00:10:09.811 --> 00:10:10.475
She got 5,000.

00:10:10.475 --> 00:10:14.919
It was a big roof, it was like a $300,000 claim and she got 5,000.

00:10:14.919 --> 00:10:21.047
She said, if you're charging me 10%, so if you give me another 200,000, I got to pay you20,000?

00:10:21.047 --> 00:10:26.518
I said, yeah, then I'm only going to have $180,000.

00:10:26.518 --> 00:10:30.106
I said, yeah, but right now you only have $5,000.

00:10:30.106 --> 00:10:31.250
Then, okay, then you know what.

00:10:31.250 --> 00:10:36.961
If you're already calculating what we're going to make, then this is probably not a good match because you're more worried about what you're going to pay.

00:10:36.961 --> 00:10:38.187
We haven't even worked your claim.

00:10:38.187 --> 00:10:39.494
It probably gets denied.

00:10:39.494 --> 00:10:42.423
I don't think we ended up going with that claim anyways.

00:10:43.565 --> 00:10:50.945
It's like dealing with a for sale by owner property where someone is saying I don't want to pay, I don't want to pay an agent.

00:10:50.945 --> 00:10:56.830
Okay, do you know that for sale by owner properties usually make 85% of the after repair value that an agent could get you?

00:10:56.830 --> 00:10:59.059
Yeah, no, I'm like.

00:10:59.059 --> 00:11:01.923
So you don't want to pay 6%, so you're willing to lose 15.

00:11:03.764 --> 00:11:07.690
Okay, but they don't, but you don't, yeah, they don't do the math, they just can't, Right.

00:11:07.690 --> 00:11:13.797
So you just, and some people you can't explain, and it's fine, let's understand.

00:11:13.797 --> 00:11:17.860
I guess for myself, when I look into stuff, I will always look at what the return is.

00:11:17.860 --> 00:11:22.985
So if I'm doing marketing campaign, whatever we're doing, I'm always looking okay, we spent a hundred thousand, what's the return?

00:11:22.985 --> 00:11:23.907
Right?

00:11:23.907 --> 00:11:26.370
Or if you spend 10,000, you look at what your return is.

00:11:26.370 --> 00:11:28.455
A lot of people can't get over that.

00:11:29.659 --> 00:11:30.240
Simple ROI.

00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:34.879
Man, if you're going to put this into the house, how long will it take you to pay that off?

00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:40.467
If you're doing a rental property right, oh, I'm going to put in this, but it raises my rent 150 bucks, great.

00:11:40.467 --> 00:11:42.191
How much did it actually cost you?

00:11:42.191 --> 00:11:45.940
The answer is nothing, because it's eventually going to.

00:11:45.940 --> 00:11:47.023
Your rents are going to cover it.

00:11:47.023 --> 00:11:48.787
But how much?

00:11:48.787 --> 00:11:55.254
How long did it take you Four months, three months, five months to make that payment With you guys.

00:11:55.254 --> 00:12:03.927
When you're hiring a public adjuster and I'm just saying this through experience because I've dealt with a public adjuster before the 10% is well worth it.

00:12:03.927 --> 00:12:10.184
When I don't know, man, pick something right your basement.

00:12:10.184 --> 00:12:23.188
Something happens in your basement and all of a sudden your electrical panel decides I don't feel like working anymore, you can't make this stuff up, somebody left something somewhere and the next thing you know, your entire box is burned out.

00:12:23.188 --> 00:12:26.388
It's just crazy.

00:12:26.388 --> 00:12:27.472
Stuff happens all the time.

00:12:27.472 --> 00:12:31.208
So I got to ask you what is the craziest thing you've seen as an adjuster?

00:12:32.212 --> 00:12:35.873
Oh man, this business, there's never a dull day.

00:12:35.873 --> 00:12:38.692
After 15 years, there's never been a claim that's similar.

00:12:38.692 --> 00:12:44.513
I can never pinpoint what's like the similarity in each claim Because each claim is so different in a time limit.

00:12:44.513 --> 00:12:46.010
Everything just changes in each claim.

00:12:46.010 --> 00:12:56.200
But the craziest thing, or like the most interesting, we've had fires where the stain rags caught fire.

00:12:56.200 --> 00:12:58.291
Yeah, which I never knew about.

00:12:58.291 --> 00:12:58.645
Oh, interesting fire.

00:12:58.645 --> 00:12:59.091
We just had fire, yeah, which I never knew about.

00:12:59.091 --> 00:12:59.575
Oh, interesting fire.

00:12:59.595 --> 00:13:07.297
We just had the lady had an extension cord going from one outlet to the lamp and she took a.

00:13:07.297 --> 00:13:16.326
They took the bed apart because they were selling it and they took the bed, the rust, the head rust, the wood board head rust and they put it against the wall.

00:13:16.326 --> 00:13:18.767
What they did was they put on that extension cord.

00:13:18.767 --> 00:13:21.126
I didn't know this, but what happens?

00:13:21.126 --> 00:13:22.289
It's like kicking a hose.

00:13:22.289 --> 00:13:25.317
So they did that and it caused the knowledge.

00:13:25.317 --> 00:13:28.010
The whole house burned down, but that was the cause of fire.

00:13:28.010 --> 00:13:29.595
They put a headrest by accident.

00:13:29.595 --> 00:13:30.605
They put on the extension cord.

00:13:30.605 --> 00:13:31.649
Yeah, I never knew that.

00:13:31.649 --> 00:13:32.650
There's some.

00:13:32.650 --> 00:13:33.995
There's been some.

00:13:33.995 --> 00:13:37.667
Yeah, I would have to go back, but there's some interesting ones, definitely.

00:13:37.667 --> 00:13:38.246
We're just doing it.

00:13:38.246 --> 00:13:40.148
We just went yesterday.

00:13:40.148 --> 00:13:41.369
I think this is on our Facebook.

00:13:41.369 --> 00:13:46.032
Yesterday or two days ago, we were at a marijuana plant cannabis.

00:13:46.032 --> 00:14:05.094
The humidity was so high they just grew mold and basically when they took them out they said they had to wear masks.

00:14:05.094 --> 00:14:06.530
They were just like crumbling apart.

00:14:06.530 --> 00:14:09.467
Yeah, there's a lot of interesting stuff we see.

00:14:10.791 --> 00:14:17.230
That's a shame I would say I'm retired now.

00:14:17.230 --> 00:14:19.251
Hey, that's what I thought.

00:14:19.351 --> 00:14:19.854
That's a shame.

00:14:19.854 --> 00:14:21.350
Two million dollars worth of big bucks.

00:14:21.350 --> 00:14:21.831
I got it.

00:14:25.645 --> 00:14:26.889
I've seen the stain rag.

00:14:26.889 --> 00:14:28.115
I've actually seen it.

00:14:28.115 --> 00:14:29.450
I looked over it.

00:14:29.450 --> 00:14:37.355
Somebody was doing some work it was a neighbor and I'm in the business and I went yo, man, you want to get that rag.

00:14:37.355 --> 00:14:39.267
It's in the sun on the deck.

00:14:39.267 --> 00:14:45.154
He's wiping his deck down with the stain and it poof Really.

00:14:45.535 --> 00:14:47.298
Yep, I didn't.

00:14:47.298 --> 00:14:49.240
I still didn't understand how that works.

00:14:49.240 --> 00:14:52.793
How it that the rag can catch on fire?

00:14:52.793 --> 00:14:53.014
Yep, yeah.

00:14:53.924 --> 00:15:01.955
It's just absolutely amazing and I'm like yo man, I've never actually, I had never actually seen it before that, and then all of a sudden it was up and running.

00:15:04.405 --> 00:15:05.587
He's running for extinguisher.

00:15:05.587 --> 00:15:06.990
At least he had an extinguisher.

00:15:06.990 --> 00:15:08.971
I don't think I even had one in my house.

00:15:09.552 --> 00:15:10.134
State law man.

00:15:10.134 --> 00:15:16.708
You got to have them in your kitchen now, really, and you should anyway, really.

00:15:16.708 --> 00:15:23.072
You get the overzealous people doing a flambe Kill your entire meal.

00:15:23.072 --> 00:15:28.071
That's not good.

00:15:28.071 --> 00:15:30.674
You've invested in real estate yourself, right?

00:15:30.674 --> 00:15:33.238
You said you were doing wholesaling Me and my wife.

00:15:33.238 --> 00:15:34.639
Yeah, we invest in real estate.

00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:43.991
Any incidents while you were doing that?

00:15:44.011 --> 00:15:44.874
led you down the path that you're.

00:15:44.874 --> 00:15:45.576
That brought you into this field.

00:15:45.576 --> 00:15:48.325
No, so I we always be like we got married before we got married me, my wife's, this class, we all stay.

00:15:48.325 --> 00:15:54.663
So it's something that I was able to with income we've made is to invest in real estate.

00:15:54.663 --> 00:15:55.506
We always wanted to do it.

00:15:55.506 --> 00:15:56.690
It's always, it's like a hobby.

00:15:56.690 --> 00:15:58.355
We want to keep growing our portfolio.

00:15:58.655 --> 00:16:12.254
As our business grows, so does our real estate portfolio, and so when we got married, we moved out of state and we bought a duplex, ended up living on one side and renting the other side, so we lived for free for I think, three, four years.

00:16:12.254 --> 00:16:19.268
I was able to grow the business without worrying about making money, not taking money out of our pocket, but also not bringing money home.

00:16:19.268 --> 00:16:22.735
My wife worked enough to pay the bills and everything, so it worked out great.

00:16:22.735 --> 00:16:34.438
And then we bought another duplex, then bought a building like in our little downtown area that we turned into commercial building, bought another townhouse that was a foreclosure and now we just did our first 1031.

00:16:34.438 --> 00:16:37.945
We just sold our second duplex we bought.

00:16:37.945 --> 00:16:42.157
We did a 1031 from that money into a seven unit commercial building.

00:16:42.157 --> 00:16:44.350
It's like about 50,000 square foot commercial building.

00:16:44.792 --> 00:16:45.533
Good for you, man.

00:16:45.533 --> 00:16:46.317
That's fantastic.

00:16:46.945 --> 00:16:48.410
So, yeah, we're building a house right now.

00:16:48.410 --> 00:16:58.589
We'd probably be buying more and doing more, but because we have so much going on, we're building a house for ourselves that we I told my wife we buy the house right now.

00:16:58.589 --> 00:17:01.813
It's yeah'm getting overwhelmed.

00:17:01.813 --> 00:17:04.558
So I'm like let's hold off, because it's a little bit too much going on at once.

00:17:06.806 --> 00:17:10.150
Oh my goodness, man, you can get people going home.

00:17:10.891 --> 00:17:11.772
But I do have that itch.

00:17:11.772 --> 00:17:13.454
I go on like real realer.

00:17:13.454 --> 00:17:14.576
I'll go on loop net.

00:17:14.576 --> 00:17:17.160
I'm looking, I'm like I could do a lot with this one.

00:17:20.451 --> 00:17:21.816
No, oh man, I love it.

00:17:21.816 --> 00:17:25.836
When I retired, I was like I'm not going to get another job.

00:17:25.836 --> 00:17:29.675
And then the next thing I know I'm like oh, you're working like 60 to 70 hours a week.

00:17:29.675 --> 00:17:31.471
I work if you like it.

00:17:31.471 --> 00:17:33.991
I work harder for myself than I work for somebody else.

00:17:34.814 --> 00:17:35.134
That's it.

00:17:35.134 --> 00:17:38.595
It feels different when you're doing something, especially real estate.

00:17:38.595 --> 00:17:40.047
It's fun, it's interesting.

00:17:41.088 --> 00:17:48.952
When you started your company, what were the growing pains that you had scaling like right immediately, or how did that work out?

00:17:49.705 --> 00:17:50.851
My biggest growing pains.

00:17:50.851 --> 00:17:54.991
So I'll be totally honest, I had no clue about business.

00:17:54.991 --> 00:17:58.556
No one in my family had a business close by.

00:17:58.556 --> 00:18:06.449
I have an uncle that's out of state or some out of state that do have businesses family, but no one close by did so.

00:18:06.449 --> 00:18:09.614
I never was around anyone that had a business or sales or anything like that.

00:18:09.704 --> 00:18:27.192
So I went to school of hard knocks, mistakes, right, a lot of mistakes in terms of took a credit line for my dad to start the business, had no clue where to put that money, they didn't know how to get jobs, they didn't know how to get clients, spent money on an office, spent money on furniture, spent money on stuff I never needed.

00:18:27.192 --> 00:18:42.676
So I spent money quicker than I can and I trusted to, and quicker I spent it quicker than it was coming in and I brought in too many people that hurt the business, that hurt me, that lied, and I didn't know any better because I was young and gullible.

00:18:42.676 --> 00:18:44.771
So a lot of growing pains.

00:18:44.771 --> 00:19:03.992
I was trying to rob Paul to pay Peter, or vice versa, or however that term goes, and just wakes up, woke up one day half a million dollars in debt and then that's when I reset everything downsized, everything paid every penny off and got the business going.

00:19:03.992 --> 00:19:06.792
It was definitely interesting ride.

00:19:07.494 --> 00:19:09.491
Yeah, and how's the growth now?

00:19:11.226 --> 00:19:12.551
We've doubled in size every year.

00:19:12.551 --> 00:19:14.372
We're in almost 40 states.

00:19:14.372 --> 00:19:16.048
I don't even know how many offices.

00:19:16.048 --> 00:19:16.851
We have no more.

00:19:16.851 --> 00:19:17.934
We have a great team.

00:19:19.386 --> 00:19:21.241
I still overlook the business I focus.

00:19:21.241 --> 00:19:21.983
I pulled back in terms of doing the.

00:19:21.983 --> 00:19:22.219
We have a great team.

00:19:22.219 --> 00:19:22.483
I still overlook the business I focus.

00:19:22.483 --> 00:19:24.513
I've pulled back in terms of doing the PA stuff a little bit.

00:19:24.513 --> 00:19:26.156
I still overlook some claims.

00:19:26.156 --> 00:19:30.050
Majority of what I'm focusing is growth, sales, marketing.

00:19:30.050 --> 00:19:31.173
How do we enter new markets?

00:19:31.173 --> 00:19:32.597
How do we get to clients quicker?

00:19:32.597 --> 00:19:33.988
How can we help clients quicker?

00:19:33.988 --> 00:19:38.945
So that's been really fun and really seeing the company take off now.

00:19:38.945 --> 00:19:45.309
And my mentor always used to tell me Andy, if you could stick it out five years, you've made it.

00:19:45.309 --> 00:19:49.973
And I always thought that's such a silly thing to say like five years, just five years.

00:19:49.973 --> 00:19:53.628
And honestly, after that five-year mark all the debt was paid off.

00:19:53.628 --> 00:19:59.648
I was clear and it seems like everything just got better after that fifth year where it just got easy and money got easy.

00:19:59.648 --> 00:20:02.788
And now that issue isn't money's coming in.

00:20:02.788 --> 00:20:03.690
That's not the issue now.

00:20:03.690 --> 00:20:06.827
It's figuring out how do you keep growing and how do you stay ahead of your competition.

00:20:07.429 --> 00:20:11.317
Yeah, what's your primary focus as far as marketing goes?

00:20:12.906 --> 00:20:30.453
so we've focused primary to get to where we are originally how to get leads in our industry, because in most products, for example, product business you can say, okay, I sell phones, so I can see who's looking for phones, I can market it on different websites or whatever.

00:20:30.453 --> 00:20:33.153
What us is how do I know who has it fired?

00:20:33.153 --> 00:20:36.670
How do I know buttheaded claim I don't Like, you have to look for me.

00:20:36.670 --> 00:20:39.894
But how do you even know if you've never heard of a public adjuster?

00:20:39.894 --> 00:20:47.786
You don't know.

00:20:47.786 --> 00:20:48.227
So it's educational.

00:20:48.247 --> 00:20:56.854
So we've spent a lot of money on educating online on Google, doing a lot of SEO and marketing that way, and now we're trying to go direct to consumer whether it's false or whether it's phone call emails, and try to get to those people right away.

00:20:56.854 --> 00:21:04.196
We get a list of people that had claims in our area or in certain areas and we could get them quicker and we hope to get to them as quickly as possible.

00:21:04.196 --> 00:21:08.173
So then when they call us so then they don't call us in 30 days and the claims deny.

00:21:08.173 --> 00:21:11.127
That's the whole problem, the whole aim behind it.

00:21:11.609 --> 00:21:13.154
Yeah, yeah Great.

00:21:15.586 --> 00:21:16.869
But it's a big investment.

00:21:16.869 --> 00:21:24.457
It was a big at that time if someone, the business was growing but I wasn't pulling money out of the company, everything was staying in.

00:21:24.457 --> 00:21:30.998
So I took a big chunk of money and said, okay, I'll put it down every month on a huge campaign.

00:21:30.998 --> 00:21:38.259
And I the the, my marketing, my marketing manager at that time told me, hey, we're not going to see a return for a year and a half.

00:21:38.259 --> 00:21:40.566
So I was like holy smokes man.

00:21:40.566 --> 00:21:45.790
We got to keep putting a ton of money and not see anything, so that we figured out other ways to get the clients.

00:21:45.790 --> 00:21:47.452
But it took a while.

00:21:47.452 --> 00:21:56.362
But then you start seeing, okay, one call a day, two call a day, three, five, six, and it just kept growing and growing into where we are now.

00:21:57.786 --> 00:22:00.813
So yeah, I'm just going to ask you do you work in south jersey or in new jersey?

00:22:01.674 --> 00:22:02.056
we do.

00:22:02.056 --> 00:22:03.647
We cover jersey, new york.

00:22:03.647 --> 00:22:05.132
I actually I go to.

00:22:05.132 --> 00:22:05.913
I was just in jersey.

00:22:05.913 --> 00:22:07.806
I have a lot of family in clifton garfield.

00:22:07.806 --> 00:22:09.388
Okay, you're north of me.

00:22:09.388 --> 00:22:15.526
Yeah, I'm polis, big population over there in in jersey, so I have a lot of family.

00:22:15.526 --> 00:22:16.446
So we just had a claim.

00:22:16.446 --> 00:22:18.810
I was a church that had some water damage.

00:22:18.810 --> 00:22:22.635
I forgot this was in, I think, passaic.

00:22:22.635 --> 00:22:24.378
How do you say it?

00:22:24.378 --> 00:22:25.019
Passaic?

00:22:25.019 --> 00:22:25.680
Is that how you say it?

00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:28.426
God damn it.

00:22:28.426 --> 00:22:29.730
That's not how the Polish people say it.

00:22:29.730 --> 00:22:30.172
Listen, this is.

00:22:30.211 --> 00:22:32.196
Port Richmond, right across the bridge from where I am yeah.

00:22:32.196 --> 00:22:35.673
That was big over there.

00:22:35.673 --> 00:22:37.429
Yeah, you can't.

00:22:37.429 --> 00:22:39.611
You got to adjust for language.

00:22:39.611 --> 00:22:41.459
Yeah, there can't cheat you got to adjust for language.

00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:42.384
Yeah, there's a lot Jersey.

00:22:42.384 --> 00:22:42.684
I'm in Chicago.

00:22:42.684 --> 00:22:44.469
We're outside of Chicago now.

00:22:44.469 --> 00:22:47.215
We moved out of state 45 minutes.

00:22:47.215 --> 00:22:51.153
That's every country, every language you want to find.

00:22:51.153 --> 00:22:51.513
It's here.

00:22:52.276 --> 00:23:08.308
Awesome, and listen, you got a client I'll be more than happy to pass your information on to, because we have the property management company within AIM, high Second Street Property Management, so we have investors that, if something happens, I'd be more than happy to help them out in your general direction.

00:23:09.111 --> 00:23:13.027
I appreciate it If I can help your listeners, even if I'll leave, I'll get it done.

00:23:13.027 --> 00:23:14.269
I'll leave on my phone number.

00:23:14.269 --> 00:23:15.294
I'm more than happy.

00:23:15.294 --> 00:23:26.788
We're more than happy anyone on our team to look over a policy, to look at prior claim history or anything that we can help, because it takes us a couple minutes, because we do it all the time and we're happy to do it for free.

00:23:26.788 --> 00:23:28.487
We don't charge for any of that services.

00:23:28.627 --> 00:23:37.828
So if you're listening, if they want to take advantage, call us or email us for sure and I'll make sure all your contact information is in the show notes and all that.

00:23:37.828 --> 00:23:41.637
But there's a I know you're you just bought into commercial.

00:23:41.637 --> 00:23:43.809
There's a huge difference.

00:23:43.809 --> 00:23:44.451
Let's go over that.

00:23:44.451 --> 00:23:51.664
What is the difference between you have a commercial property, industrial, whatever office space, multifamily property?

00:23:51.664 --> 00:23:54.654
What's the difference of dealing with something like that versus the single family home?

00:23:56.325 --> 00:23:59.012
Let me so the tenants.

00:23:59.012 --> 00:24:00.826
You're not getting as many calls, I feel so.

00:24:00.826 --> 00:24:01.750
This is an office building.

00:24:01.750 --> 00:24:02.492
There's seven suites.

00:24:02.492 --> 00:24:06.434
It's 15,000 square foot cut up into suites.

00:24:06.434 --> 00:24:08.471
You're not getting as many calls.

00:24:08.471 --> 00:24:13.017
I would say the calls are more, maybe a light bulb or something small.

00:24:13.017 --> 00:24:16.054
The income is much, much better.

00:24:16.054 --> 00:24:18.071
The tenants stay much longer.

00:24:18.071 --> 00:24:19.449
They read you because you're not.

00:24:19.449 --> 00:24:22.786
You don't want to move your business With.

00:24:22.786 --> 00:24:25.194
The margins, I feel, are much better.

00:24:25.984 --> 00:24:28.652
The one thing that we're going to see now is we have our first.

00:24:28.652 --> 00:24:30.317
We had it fully, 100% occupied.

00:24:30.317 --> 00:24:32.231
One of the larger tenants is moving out.

00:24:32.231 --> 00:24:40.318
So now when we've put out our especially in Indiana where we're at when we put up a for rent sign for residential, you get calls.

00:24:40.318 --> 00:24:45.307
There's not enough housing, rental housing, but for commercial.

00:24:45.307 --> 00:24:49.417
I'm curious to see how long it's going to take to get a tenant in there.

00:24:49.417 --> 00:24:52.354
Are they going to want to pay for the build out or are we paying?

00:24:52.354 --> 00:24:55.807
This is all new to us, so it's all a risk.

00:24:55.807 --> 00:25:04.378
But again, when we calculated the building, we took that into account, that if we lose half our tenants, we would still be able to be at zero worst case scenario.

00:25:04.940 --> 00:25:05.161
Okay.

00:25:05.244 --> 00:25:06.672
So we took this into account.

00:25:06.672 --> 00:25:08.852
We figured they might move out.

00:25:08.852 --> 00:25:13.598
So now it'll be interesting to see how quickly we could find a tenant and how that process is going to be.

00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:24.691
Okay, and then in your company, how hard is it to deal with claims at the corporate big building level versus those independent little bitty at home?

00:25:25.594 --> 00:25:26.757
I would say the commercial.

00:25:26.757 --> 00:25:35.405
Our specialty is large loss, so mostly it's going to be fires, and largest, whether it's for home, for homeowner claims, it's going to be mostly fires.

00:25:35.405 --> 00:25:38.131
And then we move on to commercial and large loss.

00:25:38.131 --> 00:25:47.012
I, I we're there, it's the same amount of work, we specialize in it, so we have the team to do it.

00:25:47.012 --> 00:25:53.337
And with the small loss again, some PA firms are built to just handle wind and storm claims for residential, for roofing.

00:25:53.337 --> 00:26:00.618
For us, if we get those claims, we pass them on because we don't have a team to build for it or we don't specialize it.

00:26:00.618 --> 00:26:05.271
So we've built a niche on those larger losses and for us it's just an easier process.

00:26:05.271 --> 00:26:07.951
We have the right team, we all have expertise in it.

00:26:07.951 --> 00:26:09.588
So if that, makes sense.

00:26:10.432 --> 00:26:13.732
Yeah, perfect sense, man, and that's great that you're upfront with that.

00:26:13.732 --> 00:26:15.912
Hey, we're too small for us.

00:26:15.912 --> 00:26:17.391
We're going to push to somebody else.

00:26:18.184 --> 00:26:23.198
I just we don't have that we wish you could help everyone and take every claim.

00:26:23.198 --> 00:26:28.724
But if you have someone call you and hey, we got $10,000 for a roof, but the roofer's given us $15,000.

00:26:28.724 --> 00:26:30.086
What do you?

00:26:30.086 --> 00:26:32.595
How can I come in and help and bring any value?

00:26:32.595 --> 00:26:39.338
We'd have to charge you $60 to make any because the fight for that $5,000 is going to take six months and going to take hours.

00:26:39.338 --> 00:26:43.529
Right, it just doesn't make sense financially and that an insurance companies know this.

00:26:43.529 --> 00:26:45.756
What do you do?

00:26:45.756 --> 00:26:52.653
It's hard to say no to people but again, that's how we've been able to scale, know what our strength is and focus on that.

00:26:54.484 --> 00:26:59.372
That's the same in every business man Know exactly what yourself.

00:26:59.372 --> 00:27:02.499
That, I know, is that own self be true, and so on and so forth.

00:27:02.499 --> 00:27:06.494
But yeah, that's, the best way to grow is to focus directly on that niche.

00:27:06.494 --> 00:27:07.396
That's a great point.

00:27:07.396 --> 00:27:14.617
So, eddie, as you've been growing, what is one thing that you learned as your wealth increased?

00:27:16.885 --> 00:27:21.634
As my, as our wealth increased a lot more opportunity.

00:27:21.634 --> 00:27:27.435
When you have wealth, a lot more opportunity opens because you have money and you can invest and you can do stuff.

00:27:27.435 --> 00:27:38.472
But also you're more aware of money and you're, I guess the risk tolerance for me went a little like used to be, I said high risk tolerance, I didn't care.

00:27:38.472 --> 00:27:43.395
But the older you have, the more money, so you have a family, that risk tolerance kind of goes down.

00:27:43.395 --> 00:27:57.162
I'm still a risk taker but you analyze a little bit more and because you're like, hey, if we lose out on this, there's more to lose than when we had nothing, yeah, yeah, that's a true point too.

00:27:57.182 --> 00:28:08.114
Yeah, I forget who it was, but I was listening to one podcast and the person said the funny part about making money is you get to a certain point like you want to get to that first million.

00:28:08.114 --> 00:28:11.656
Once you get to that first million, it's easier to make the next million, and so on.

00:28:11.656 --> 00:28:16.781
But once you get to a certain point, it stops being about earning the millions and starts being about protecting the millions.

00:28:16.781 --> 00:28:17.845
Protecting the millions.

00:28:18.526 --> 00:28:25.113
That's it, the Robert Kiyosaki that said it's not what you make, it's not what you make it.

00:28:25.113 --> 00:28:26.596
How does he say it?

00:28:26.596 --> 00:28:29.814
What you keep, it's what you keep, not what you make, it's what you keep.

00:28:29.814 --> 00:28:31.650
So that's always been the back of my mind.

00:28:31.650 --> 00:28:33.695
Now, okay, we make this.

00:28:33.695 --> 00:28:35.128
What are we actually keeping?

00:28:35.128 --> 00:28:36.131
What's leftovers?

00:28:36.131 --> 00:28:42.887
But that's right, once you make a million, it is easier.

00:28:42.887 --> 00:28:43.249
You do have more.

00:28:43.249 --> 00:28:46.237
Okay, now we can invest in this, we can do this, so it I think it opens up more avenues.

00:28:46.237 --> 00:28:47.180
Yeah man.

00:28:48.082 --> 00:28:54.326
All right, so we're going to go into the story, for these are the same four questions that I ask every guest that can help someone who's just starting out achieve new heights.

00:28:54.326 --> 00:28:56.449
What keeps you motivated?

00:28:58.971 --> 00:28:59.532
self-growth.

00:28:59.532 --> 00:29:08.215
Not to be selfish, I have so many things that I focus on myself a lot, but for me it's self-growth if I keep growing.

00:29:08.215 --> 00:29:27.557
I just there's something that I've put in my mind that I don't want to stay at this one level and I have this fear of staying constant and being overtaken by other people or in business, where I keep pushing to reach different levels, whether it's fitness, whether it's health, whether it's family, whatever it is.

00:29:27.557 --> 00:29:32.557
It's just that never want to go back to where I was before.

00:29:32.557 --> 00:29:39.960
It's to keep aiming higher, just like a podcast, aiming higher for something better.

00:29:41.751 --> 00:29:46.796
We got the name of the podcast, that, and it was the old Air Force slogan.

00:29:46.796 --> 00:29:48.058
But yeah, it's awesome about it.

00:29:48.058 --> 00:29:52.955
Look, somebody said it once if you aim for the moon, even if you miss, you'll still hit the stars.

00:29:53.557 --> 00:29:56.405
So I've got forensic accountant.

00:29:56.405 --> 00:29:58.290
That's his slogan, really.

00:29:58.290 --> 00:30:03.840
He goes, we aim for the moon and we try to land somewhere in between the stars, so we always laugh at that.

00:30:05.303 --> 00:30:05.964
That's right, man.

00:30:05.964 --> 00:30:07.232
You just you can't.

00:30:07.232 --> 00:30:09.319
If you want to stay here, that's great.

00:30:09.319 --> 00:30:09.760
Good for you.

00:30:09.760 --> 00:30:12.917
I'm constantly moving forward.

00:30:12.917 --> 00:30:15.174
That's a great point.

00:30:15.174 --> 00:30:18.015
What is one thing that you learned that completely changed your mindset?

00:30:20.539 --> 00:30:22.852
Constant education, what Education?

00:30:22.852 --> 00:30:24.298
And books and reading books.

00:30:24.298 --> 00:30:36.423
And when I got a hold of books and I never read in high school, never was interested in high school at all but then all of a sudden I got a hold of these books, started with Robert Kiyosaki's books and then I have a list.

00:30:36.423 --> 00:30:38.476
I have a library of books In the new house.

00:30:38.476 --> 00:30:40.401
We're literally dedicating a room just for a library.

00:30:40.401 --> 00:30:43.939
But once I got a hold of these books, there's so much knowledge.

00:30:43.939 --> 00:30:47.721
You can go to these books and every book I have is highlighted with notes.

00:30:47.721 --> 00:30:50.679
There's so much good stuff that's out there for free.

00:30:51.211 --> 00:30:56.083
If someone wants to take and learn something, we live in it, especially in today's world.

00:30:56.083 --> 00:31:03.182
The scary thing about Facebook and YouTube and all that it's short clips and it's very tailored to what you want.

00:31:03.182 --> 00:31:06.351
They're tailoring the audience With the book.

00:31:06.351 --> 00:31:14.394
They're just putting all their ideas and everything they know majority of books and then you just pick out all the good stuff and it's just, I don't know.

00:31:14.394 --> 00:31:18.240
There's something about books and education.

00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:20.315
I fully agree.

00:31:20.315 --> 00:31:25.134
Oh, I saw, I don't know what the title is.

00:31:25.134 --> 00:31:36.625
You got the four-hour work week there in the middle, I'd call them the classic atomic hat Dale Carnegie.

00:31:36.766 --> 00:31:38.270
There's all the different kinds of stuff over here.

00:31:38.270 --> 00:31:42.909
It's like the big red real estate book or something zig ziglar, it's zig ziglar.

00:31:43.068 --> 00:31:45.013
I got a couple of his right.

00:31:45.013 --> 00:31:46.276
I mean, tim fair.

00:31:46.276 --> 00:31:47.439
Is that four-hour work week?

00:31:47.439 --> 00:31:49.102
That that's like a?

00:31:49.102 --> 00:31:54.521
That's like a children's book compared to his other books, the four-hour body or whatever those are?

00:31:54.521 --> 00:32:00.353
Like the tie tools, what's the one of tools of the tie-ins or something that's like this thing like a bible?

00:32:01.316 --> 00:32:03.240
yeah, exactly the fact that this.

00:32:03.240 --> 00:32:04.633
It's just.

00:32:04.633 --> 00:32:05.974
I read that book.

00:32:05.974 --> 00:32:11.894
After I read robert kiyosaki rich dad, poor dad I was 48 years old and I was like what am I doing wrong?

00:32:11.894 --> 00:32:18.872
And then started in real estate at 50, that 49 and by 51 I was retired.

00:32:18.872 --> 00:32:25.244
So, holy smokes, dude, those books are like, yeah, man, reading and education.

00:32:25.244 --> 00:32:29.053
I cannot agree with a person's response more than the one you just gave.

00:32:29.073 --> 00:32:31.598
There's something about those.

00:32:31.598 --> 00:32:32.781
You have to look at those books.

00:32:32.781 --> 00:32:41.005
Now again, I'm not referring just to this book, but Robert Kiyosaki's or not, tim Ferriss's, like the Tools of the Titans or whatever.

00:32:41.005 --> 00:32:44.836
He literally interviewed like the top, whatever 100 or how many?

00:32:44.836 --> 00:32:47.323
Like top executives, top people at their position.

00:32:47.323 --> 00:32:58.976
So you're going into a mindset of the top, like performers in their field, yeah, and then you take out like what they're doing, what they're eating, what they're doing at night, you're just like holy smokes.

00:32:58.976 --> 00:33:03.422
And then you're taking out the comments like that book was so interesting, because then you see similarities.

00:33:03.422 --> 00:33:04.595
Okay, I wake up early.

00:33:04.595 --> 00:33:06.678
Okay, all these people are waking up early.

00:33:06.678 --> 00:33:07.974
You see similarity in success.

00:33:07.974 --> 00:33:19.334
Yes, yeah, it was like and to take that much time and to write a book like that, and then like for me, for us, like 20 bucks or 30 bucks to have this book and have all this knowledge.

00:33:19.334 --> 00:33:21.959
I don't know how people are passing up on all this.

00:33:24.381 --> 00:33:33.074
And Andy, I got to say man, I had the senior master sergeant one time asked me sir, how do you do all this stuff when it's 24 hour day?

00:33:33.074 --> 00:33:39.260
I said the same the 24 hours that I have and that you have is the same that Warren Buffett has and the same that Oprah Winfrey has.

00:33:39.260 --> 00:33:43.082
It's just what you do with it, that's it.

00:33:43.851 --> 00:33:44.395
That's 100%.

00:33:44.395 --> 00:33:45.769
And I see people all the time say I don't have time for this.

00:33:45.769 --> 00:33:47.854
And there's time for everything.

00:33:47.854 --> 00:33:50.800
There's time for the gym, there's time for family, there's time to work.

00:33:50.800 --> 00:33:51.782
There's time for everything.

00:33:51.782 --> 00:33:54.175
It's how you prioritize it.

00:33:55.330 --> 00:33:58.555
So then the next question fits right in what do you use to keep you on track?

00:34:00.359 --> 00:34:04.750
You know what I keep you on track.

00:34:04.750 --> 00:34:05.553
You know what I journal.

00:34:05.553 --> 00:34:06.354
At least once a week I try to journal.

00:34:06.354 --> 00:34:17.733
I go back to maybe 10 years that I started journaling Fitness, definitely the gym, and constantly going, not breaking a habit, right, there's days where there's a saying no, it's easy to do and it's also easy not to do.

00:34:18.295 --> 00:34:23.923
Sometimes, when I'm doing something like I'm getting a pro, I'm thinking, okay, I got to get everything ready for tomorrow, cause if I don't like I'm getting a pro, I'm thinking, okay, I gotta get everything ready for tomorrow.

00:34:23.923 --> 00:34:35.490
Because if I don't like, I try to prep everything the day before my water intake, my minos, everything and my shakes the night before, and sometimes I'm like I'll just get the water bottle ready, I won't do the minos and I'm like shit, easy to do, easy not to do.

00:34:35.490 --> 00:34:37.032
I'm just gonna do it and I'm gonna.

00:34:37.032 --> 00:34:48.505
In my head I'm gonna wake up and be angry, prepping the day before and getting as much as of whether it's laying out your clothes for the gym or the work, getting all your meals, getting everything ready the day before.

00:34:48.505 --> 00:34:51.480
So when you wake up you have less to think about.

00:34:51.480 --> 00:34:53.918
My wife left once.

00:34:53.918 --> 00:34:56.429
She's like why do you, why'd you order like 20 white shirts?

00:34:56.429 --> 00:35:03.061
I'm like because I read somewhere that like Tim not Tim Ferriss, but not Bill Gates Apple guy Steve.

00:35:03.101 --> 00:35:04.505
Jobs and all these guys yeah.

00:35:04.650 --> 00:35:05.534
They just had the same.

00:35:05.534 --> 00:35:06.838
Why they always had the same outfit?

00:35:06.838 --> 00:35:11.481
Cause when they wake up the last they don't want to spend time their head thinking about what they're going to wear.

00:35:11.481 --> 00:35:17.896
So I try to make and prep the stuff I'm going to wear the night before, but in the morning when I wake up, I'm not thinking about it.

00:35:19.420 --> 00:35:19.780
Perfect.

00:35:19.780 --> 00:35:27.835
That's the the less that you got to think about the simple thing like my cup of coffee.

00:35:27.835 --> 00:35:29.400
Right, I drink coffee on days that I don't take a pre-workout.

00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:29.701
Why?

00:35:29.701 --> 00:35:34.918
Because I don't want to have to think about how many, count how many grams of caffeine I'm taking in that day.

00:35:34.918 --> 00:35:38.972
But yeah, and then what's thing?

00:35:38.972 --> 00:35:42.141
What is one thing you would change if you had to start all over?

00:35:44.242 --> 00:35:45.570
what's one thing you would change if you had to start all over.

00:35:45.570 --> 00:35:52.418
What's one thing I would change, I see, about everything I've done and all the mistakes I've made.

00:35:52.418 --> 00:35:54.222
It's what got me to this point.

00:35:54.222 --> 00:36:05.086
It's hard to say what I would change, because it got me If I didn't make all those mistakes and didn't get in that and didn't, I wouldn't be here.

00:36:05.889 --> 00:36:06.552
Let me restate this Cause.

00:36:06.552 --> 00:36:07.554
I'm going to change this Cause.

00:36:07.554 --> 00:36:08.838
I feel exactly the same way.

00:36:08.838 --> 00:36:11.934
If I didn't do the things that I did, we wouldn't be where we were Right.

00:36:11.934 --> 00:36:14.541
So let's say this, let's say it this way.

00:36:14.541 --> 00:36:27.376
Let me ask you this question If today, for some reason, all your money's gone and you have to do exactly what you did the way you did it, what would you do to improve the process?

00:36:29.030 --> 00:36:31.018
First of all, I had no money today and I lost everything.

00:36:31.018 --> 00:36:33.333
I always say I would still be happy, life would still be.

00:36:33.333 --> 00:36:36.175
I don't, it's fine If I did it once.

00:36:36.175 --> 00:36:37.679
I'll make it happen again.

00:36:37.679 --> 00:36:40.994
What I would do different if I had to start all over.

00:36:40.994 --> 00:36:55.264
I would definitely analyze money more and keep that money closer to me when, instead of spending and not thinking where that money is going or how I'm spending it, I was more of trying to please everyone.

00:36:55.264 --> 00:37:00.336
I know that's a good question because I don't think about it often, but if I do look back, I spent money.

00:37:00.336 --> 00:37:01.159
I try to please people.

00:37:01.159 --> 00:37:03.778
That person said hey, give him money, let's pay him, we'll get this.

00:37:03.778 --> 00:37:14.750
And I had no clue and I wish I surrounded myself with better people and spend my money better and on better things and had some more education before I started.

00:37:14.750 --> 00:37:23.001
So even if it was a couple of years of college on business and basics of money, anything that before I started would have helped.

00:37:23.001 --> 00:37:24.923
Nice, that's what I would do different.

00:37:25.824 --> 00:37:33.864
Great, yeah, I just saw again that Grant Cardone thing where he dropped himself off in the middle of a town with nothing.

00:37:33.864 --> 00:37:38.318
I think he had a hundred dollars in his pocket and he made a million dollars in a month or something.

00:37:38.318 --> 00:37:41.835
Really, yeah, because, look, you lose everything.

00:37:41.835 --> 00:37:47.576
You still have the knowledge.

00:37:47.576 --> 00:37:48.981
That's one thing they can't take away from you.

00:37:48.981 --> 00:37:50.385
Exactly, exactly.

00:37:50.445 --> 00:38:00.856
so even if you don't know anybody, you just start networking and get to know people yeah, I, I think it's, I think that goes it once you've done it or you can.

00:38:00.856 --> 00:38:05.711
How success success looks like then you're like okay To me.

00:38:05.711 --> 00:38:09.842
Now what's interesting to me is, if I grew this, keep growing the company one day it would be fun.

00:38:09.842 --> 00:38:13.701
I told my wife it would be to buy another business or buy something else and grow something else.

00:38:13.701 --> 00:38:21.764
Because now that I have an idea of what success looks like and how it's done, it's not easy, nothing's easy in life.

00:38:21.764 --> 00:38:29.356
And when I say easy, it's not easy, but at least I would be more or less be able to replicate some similarities of what we did here that was made us successful.

00:38:30.038 --> 00:38:30.498
Exactly.

00:38:30.498 --> 00:38:32.061
Yeah, that's perfect.

00:38:32.902 --> 00:38:33.784
Hey, I get it.

00:38:33.784 --> 00:38:40.173
I do want to know this two year success from being retired to Through from retiring.

00:38:40.474 --> 00:38:42.981
Yeah, three years, all real estate Dude to through from retiring.

00:38:42.981 --> 00:38:45.608
Yeah, three years, all real estate dude.

00:38:45.608 --> 00:38:50.161
I basically I did.

00:38:50.161 --> 00:38:51.547
I practiced what I preach.

00:38:51.547 --> 00:38:54.831
I if I did it.

00:38:54.851 --> 00:38:56.273
So, all things being equal, I had 62 people under me.

00:38:56.273 --> 00:39:06.501
I was a senior intelligence officer for a, for an air force unit, a RPA unit that's the that one over there and I was working sometimes 10 hours, 12 hours a day.

00:39:06.501 --> 00:39:11.324
I'd leave the cause you can't make calls in the office, cause it's secure.

00:39:11.324 --> 00:39:16.701
So you walk outside every once in a while you make a couple of calls, you check your messages Soon as I get in the car.

00:39:16.701 --> 00:39:20.155
At the end of the day I'm networking looking for those deals.

00:39:20.155 --> 00:39:24.324
And once they started to roll in, I didn't look back.

00:39:24.324 --> 00:39:34.818
I sat there one day on a it was a Wednesday and that Monday I had made more on three deals than I would ever, than I would make as a, as an Air Force major.

00:39:34.818 --> 00:39:36.490
And that's when I decided, yeah, I'm done.

00:39:36.490 --> 00:39:44.943
I closed on two borough properties and a flip in one day and I was like I made a hundred and almost $150,000.

00:39:45.445 --> 00:39:48.117
Oh, props to you, man, that's awesome.

00:39:48.277 --> 00:39:48.739
Thanks, man.

00:39:48.739 --> 00:39:51.094
Yeah, but look, it's entrepreneurism.

00:39:51.094 --> 00:39:53.213
Right, you have the fever or you don't.

00:39:53.213 --> 00:39:56.902
1992, 1991.

00:39:56.902 --> 00:40:05.762
I bought an Italian restaurant, got talked into it by a family member and failed horribly.

00:40:05.762 --> 00:40:09.958
That took my wife's risk tolerance and into the toilet.

00:40:09.958 --> 00:40:22.335
But $80,000 in debt at in 1992 with a brand new baby and when you're married two years, that's a lot of stress, but it never left.

00:40:22.335 --> 00:40:27.757
I knew exactly what I eventually would get back into and that was owning my own business, running my own business.

00:40:27.757 --> 00:40:28.340
Now I've got eight.

00:40:31.592 --> 00:40:42.159
I think there's someone that once said that you have to come close to failure or you have to feel failure or actually go through it.

00:40:42.159 --> 00:40:45.652
Yeah, and if you can get past past it, that's when you'll be successful.

00:40:45.652 --> 00:40:48.137
You can actually deal with the lowest point in your life.

00:40:48.137 --> 00:40:50.110
You dealt with it, I dealt with it.

00:40:50.110 --> 00:40:57.293
I think a lot of people that that the easiest way is to just curl up or file bankruptcy or whatever and just call it quits and never.

00:40:57.293 --> 00:41:02.797
But they actually fight and get through it and go and get get moving.

00:41:02.797 --> 00:41:03.318
I go and get moving.

00:41:03.338 --> 00:41:03.981
I don't know.

00:41:03.981 --> 00:41:10.360
The military paid for all my education, so I've got a bunch of degrees, but the best learning experiences I've ever had were the things I screwed up.

00:41:12.670 --> 00:41:13.172
That you can't.

00:41:13.172 --> 00:41:14.096
No one could teach you that one.

00:41:14.096 --> 00:41:14.778
Nope.

00:41:15.831 --> 00:41:17.817
And sometimes you wish you looked back and you go.

00:41:17.817 --> 00:41:18.880
Man, I wish I didn't learn that one.

00:41:20.971 --> 00:41:22.456
I'm wearing a $400,000 loss.

00:41:22.456 --> 00:41:23.228
Oops, I wish I didn't find that one.

00:41:23.228 --> 00:41:23.184
You know I'm like what are the?

00:41:23.099 --> 00:41:24.030
$400,000 loss.

00:41:24.030 --> 00:41:24.293
Oops, I wish I didn't.

00:41:24.293 --> 00:41:26.400
That would have been really nice not to have done.

00:41:26.400 --> 00:41:29.838
So you know what I'm talking about.

00:41:29.838 --> 00:41:31.715
Eddie, it's been a pleasure talking to you.

00:41:31.715 --> 00:41:35.199
I will make sure that all of your contact information is in the show notes.

00:41:35.199 --> 00:41:37.780
And, man, it's been a real pleasure.

00:41:39.007 --> 00:41:39.429
Thanks, buddy.

00:41:39.429 --> 00:41:40.494
Hey, thank you so much for having me.

Andy GurczakProfile Photo

Andy Gurczak

CEO

Andy Gurczak is the Founder of AllCity Adjusting, a licensed public adjusting firm with a focus on making sure their clients get what they truly deserve from their insurance claims. Over the last decade, Andy has not only protected thousands of people from being defrauded, but he has also helped them receive more money than what their insurance initially offered. Andy grew up with the family motto, “If you’re going to do something, do it right, or don’t do it at all” - a sentiment he now carries into his business.