The Role of a Public Adjuster

I have had some major disasters in my life. When my barn burned down (photo above) in 2013, my friend Rick Searles recommended I call a public adjuster, and I am so glad he did. When a loss like a fire, flood, or storm damage happens, and you will have a big insurance claim, I highly recommend you call a public adjuster right away.

Recently my friend had a big flood from a tropical storm in the Mid-Atlantic area. I told him to call a public adjuster right away.

Insurance companies don’t want to pay out any more than they have to. You don’t know the fine print in your policy or the law. Dealing with the insurance company takes a lot of time, and it can wear you down.

The adjuster’s role is to make it easy on you, handle the loss and the insurance company, and get you all you are entitled to under your policy. 

So if you ever have a large loss, and I hope you never do, call a public adjuster right away! 

Choose short term suffering

“There are two types of suffering – short term and long term. You decide which one you want.” -Dan Sullivan

In long term suffering, you stop learning, stop innovating, and aren’t good with people (your team).

In short-term suffering, you learn every day, try things quickly, mess it up, and adjust, and you are a great team builder – being the kind of leader who inspires others.

Which is it? 

Compelling Marketing

Your product or service will not be seen or discovered by people unless you MAKE it seen.

Who is your target audience?  

What message will you make that is “hard-to-ignore”?

How will you get your “hard-to-ignore” message in front of them often?

If it's right, stay the course.

Once you find a good business that suits you and you enjoy, stick with it. The most successful entrepreneurs are ones who have stuck with one trade for a long time, and they get really good at it.

People who are always switching businesses never get really good at it – understanding the key but sometimes subtle distinctions that make all the difference in a business. They also struggle more as the greatest struggle for an entrepreneur is at the beginning when he/she is a total amateur.

This is not to say doing the same thing the same way for a long time will yield success. It’s not the longevity itself that is a critical factor. It’s practicing and learning and improving and investing in a business over long periods of time that will yield better and better results.

It is also important that if you are on a dead horse, get off. Sticking with that one will not make things better. Redeploy yourself into more fertile ground.

I’ve been doing really the same thing for 39 years, although the dimensions of it I work in have changed. I leverage each new project with what I have learned in the past and get greater results faster. It gets easier and more fun as I get better.

How long have you been doing and IMPROVING your business? How long will you be doing it? 

Bring the best out of your people

“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.” – John Buchan, 1875-1940

If a leader thinks he can change people, he is largely mistaken. The good news is we don’t have to. What we must do is be the kind of leader that identifies the skills and talents people have and draw out the best within them.

This means it includes being thorough and patient in hiring so that we understand who that person really is and if they match the talents of the position we are looking to fill before we bring them on, and putting people in positions where their strength is valued and their weaknesses don’t matter much.

It also means celebrating the talents you see emerging and doubling down on them. And it means observing the talents and skills in your people as they emerge and making adjustments to how the team operates (re-assigning people to jobs suited for their strength) so each team member is in their sweet spot, and collectively the department or organization works with the diversity of genius available.

Yes, training makes people better – but training in the area of their inherent strengths will be far more effective. 

Produce more value than you consume

The way to make a profit, is for your business to produce more value than it consumes.

You are buying labor, materials, and the services of other businesses, mixing them together, and hopefully coming out with something that others are willing to pay more than what it cost to you produce.

How can you reduce your cost to produce the result?

How can you add value so your customers will pay more?

How can you sell more without increasing your cost as much?

When selling is unethical

When you are selling something that is not in the best interest of the buyer, or that will make their life worse, selling is unethical.

If you are selling something that will make their situation better, it’s ethical.

When I say “make their life better”, this definition would include the effect of paying for your product also.

For eample, a student who is in debt for 15 years – the debt would have to be calculated in the overall benefit they experience from what they bought.  Or someone buying solar panels and signing a 20 or 25 year mortgage – the interest would have to be understood as an offset to their benefit.

Is your sales effort ethical?  With everyone you are trying to sell to?

How to accomplish your goal

I know you are working towards accomplishing a goal.  You must be – you subscribe to Think Daily!

Have you completed these steps?

Study and Learn – Have you and are you learning from the best people in the world about how to do what you are trying to do? (thesoe.com – ahem)

Did you make up your mind that you WILL prevail, with no doubts?

Prepare – did you get ready, physically and mentally, for your (next) action well?

Team – Do you have a great team around you?  

Do you remove team members who are not a good fit or are not helping.

Do you try stuff, mess it up and learn quickly?

Do you try again soon and differently?

Are you persistent?

Grateful for what didn't happen

In history, we most remember great figures who fought great battles. For example, Patton or FDR in World War II. What we don’t remember is what did not happen and who avoided it. Do you recall World War III with the Russians? No, because Ronald Reagan avoided it, and saved tens of millions of lives and world catastrophe.

So it is on a smaller scale – we don’t think about the troubles, large and small, that didn’t happen. The power didn’t go out last night, our family members all woke up, a storm did not come, our car started, the WiFi works and we feel good.  

We often focus on what is wrong. It doesn’t take much thought to see that so very much is right. Give thanks for all the bad things that could have, but did not happen.

Isn’t it wonderful?

Gratitude in Business

“Thanks are the highest form of thought, and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” – G. K. Chesterson

Who helped you get where you are?

Who are your great customers?

Who’s got your back?

Who is solving problems day in and day out and is handling things?

Leadership is full of soft arts, and gratitude is one of them. Tell them how you feel – and make it authentic, sincere, and heartfelt.