The Business Guide
Just a regular guy that decided to quit his stable job and start a business. After successfully being in business I've learned a thing or two, unfortunately the hard way. I've created this podcast to share my successes & failures and to talk about the "real" ins & outs of business. I'll be personally sharing my stories along with guests.
As Business Owners we wear so many different hats and we have so many different struggles, we will breakdown those struggles together and talk about how we've overcome them and how it's shaped us to be better. If your a business owner currently going through a struggle, I hope this content helps!
The Business Guide
From the Corporate World to Entrepreneurship: With Patrick Robison
Unlock the secrets of entrepreneurial success as we sit down with Patrick Robinson, the dynamic owner of Golden Coast Claims. Growing up under the influential wing of his father’s corporate career, Patrick's journey is a compelling mix of perseverance, family balance, and business acumen. Throughout our conversation, we explore how Patrick manages the complexities of running a business in California while raising five children, offering a candid glimpse into the realities of entrepreneurial life. This episode is packed with insights that will inspire aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned business owners alike.
From high school side hustles to launching multiple ventures, we break down the less glamorous side of entrepreneurship. Together, Patrick and I share personal stories of overcoming fears, such as the dreaded cold calls, and the unexpected challenges that come with business ownership. You’ll hear about my own path through various roles, including stints at State Farm and Farmers, to ultimately carving out a niche in the insurance industry. The discussion underscores the importance of every job as a stepping stone, providing invaluable lessons for future success.
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is no small feat, but Patrick and I share our strategies for integrating fitness, family, and business. Hear how we incorporate activities like jujitsu and cardio into our routines and leverage family time for personal well-being. We also dive into the intricacies of marketing strategies, time management, and the role of community support. Whether you're new to the entrepreneurial journey or looking to refine your approach, this episode provides practical advice and motivational stories to guide you every step of the way.
Hey everyone, it's Jonathan Wagner and this is the Business Guide. Thanks for joining us on another episode. Today, I have a special guest, patrick Robinson. That's right. I always mess up his last name, so we've known each other for a couple of years now, 2017. 2017. Yeah, it's been some really cool. We've done some really cool things together. I mean, you'll hear about that in this episode, but it's funny how your network of friend or business owners that you meet can become friends, and that's definitely what has happened here. So I'm excited that he is here with us today. Patrick, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll just jump right into it. Thanks for having me. Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to be here. Hey, thanks for being here. This is cool.
Speaker 1:The listeners know this is a new show too, so we're still getting the hang of guests and the shows. So you know, guys. Again, if there's any tongue ties or mess ups, that is totally expected, as this is unedited to you in a raw version, so you can really hear what this is about. But anyways, back to you, patrick. Who are you?
Speaker 2:Who am I? Good question, Well, business podcast right. So we met each other in 2017. That's actually when I started my business. My business is Golden Coast Claims. I'm a public insurance adjuster. I'm sure we'll get into that later. But who am I? Yeah, who areer? I'm sure we'll get into that later.
Speaker 1:But who am I? Yeah, who are you?
Speaker 2:I mean, so you're a business owner. Business owner family guy have five kids.
Speaker 1:Five kids Guys, think about that too. Five kids, yep, and you were able to grow a business. So it's pretty cool Growing the family growing the business.
Speaker 2:All at the same time, which has been fun and exhausting and all over the place. But chaos is good a lot of times. So, yeah, I mean California, native, grew up in the area, went to school here, family is all local here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, trying to think of what else. You know, Nice, yeah guys. California, Again, we're from California. Business not super business friendly here. Right, it is a little challenging at times being a business owner in a state that is just, it's difficult, but it's beautiful Feels like they don't want you to start a business.
Speaker 2:They try to do everything they can to dissuade you from that. It feels like sometimes.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, the weather's great, so we've got that going for us for sure, for sure. Um, all right guys. So let's jump into some questions, let's uh, let's get some questions going to you. Here's some core questions for you, patrick, but, uh, you know, you kind of recapped who you were, um, specifically what led you to the start of your you know, your your business journey and a little bit about your background and kind of let you know what led you to start your business. But your, your journey and your background.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, um, I've always sort of grown up I think it was a big influence was my dad who worked in corporate jobs and kind of went that path and he always kind of hammered into me at a young age like sort of the definition of success always seemed to be built up to myself as at a young age of being a business owner, being your own boss, right. I think that gets thrown around a lot and a lot of people probably don't put a lot of thought into all of that that entails. People probably don't put a lot of thought into all of that that entails, but it was just sort of hammered in that like the people making the money, the people that have the balance, the work-life balance, the people that can go beyond their salary and really earn a lot of money, are the people that own the business. So I've always had this sort of spin at a young age to be the business owner, of spin at a young age to be the business owner.
Speaker 2:I've started several companies from high school through college, everything from sourcing electronics, buying them from China and selling them to distributors. It was related to what my dad was doing, sort of had an in there, the typical lemonade type stand stuff, mowing lawns, just anything I could to sort of do something sort of like side hustles in the beginning, while I had other jobs Like even in high school I worked at Ralph's bagging groceries and then had a business on the side. So I've always sort of had that bend towards trying to start something right. So you've always had that entrepreneur drive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think so, and you know, I'm learning a lot more too about, like, entrepreneurship and what that actually means. You know, I think that there's entrepreneurs who are really good at coming up with an idea and getting it launched, and then I've realized that that, like, there's starting something, there's running something and then potentially getting out of something, and I think those are all different phases of, you know, entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1:But I think people don't realize that that, being an entrepreneur, there's so many different routes you can go be in that you know that entrepreneur. Yeah, and I think that that you know that guy sitting at his job that wants to break out of it, or that gal um, and they want to break out of that Um, not knowing that it can change in so many different directions, of what you like, what you don't like and things like that.
Speaker 2:Or even just thinking. I think it's almost kind of like romanticized, you know like, oh, I want to start a business, I'm going to make all this money, and it's so easy to get trapped into. You know, starting a business and then becoming an employee of your own business and kind of feeling trapped in it, and it's like at that point are you really an entrepreneur?
Speaker 1:You're more just a I would probably have to say like a lowpaid employee, because the amount of hours that you put in versus what your pay is, and then, on the flip side, a lot of business owners carry debt. So you are a low-paid, debt-carrying employee of your business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all the risk and not a lot of rewards in that type of scenario.
Speaker 1:For sure, for sure. Well, thanks for the background. Okay, well, what is your current business that you're in right now? What's your background on that? What kind of led you to be like you know what? I need to start something full time now and I need to get out on my own.
Speaker 2:Sure. So I sort of fell into insurance. You know, I graduated from college, got married soon after there and sort of didn't really have a path, kind of listless or just sort of wandering. I worked at a motorcycle shop for actually a number of years. It was interesting because I basically was brought in to start a department, so they had zero online presence. I had built websites and run e-commerce sites in the past, so I was brought in to basically start their online arm of their business and it was fun for a while. You know, I got to basically have that kind of cut my teeth in a little bit more formal sense of like entrepreneurship being tied to a company. So it was like I had the safety net of getting a salary but the incentives to start a business and try to grow it as much as possible. So I played around with that for a couple of years, started getting some pressure to come up with more money as family started growing and just kind of needing to like level up in the career path.
Speaker 2:So got into banking. This was like 2006, 2007. That was the best time to be in banking. So I started doing subprime home loans with zero experience and I actually took it strategically, because I used to have this crazy phobia where I would not call a person on the phone to save my life, like literally. If it was something even simple like call in food at a restaurant, I just like I had this weird thing about calling people. So what did I do? I jumped into a job that was 95% cold calls and it was a nightmare I mean one the timing right, so being there during the housing crisis or at the very start of it. But just knowing that this was something that was holding me back and I think for me, I use that as kind of a gauge of what I need to work on. Right. So when I have a major like resistance to something, I know that, like, something good is on the other side of that. So not being able to call anybody it's going to be a huge limiting factor in generating sales, building relationships, networking, all that kind of stuff. So it's super important. So I wanted to get over that and was kind of thankful that I had the foresight to just throw myself to the lions in that kind of an environment. And it was brutal. I mean it was like what is that movie? Boiler Room? Have you ever seen that yeah, like Wall Street, you know, like calling people, it was similar to that. You'd be on the phone, you'd have like three guys behind you critiquing it, telling you don't say uh anymore, and just like kind of a fun environment so but it was like very on the spot and just so.
Speaker 2:In that couple of years that I was there obviously got over the whole calling phobia so and then that kind of dwindled out 2008 or nine, you know, the chickens came home to roost and the office went from.
Speaker 2:You know I was one of 30 down to I was the second guy still left in the building and parted ways with the, with that company, and then, just sort of scrambling trying to find something new, fell into insurance through a connection that I had through my wife.
Speaker 2:So I started at State Farm, worked as a adjuster for them for probably three to four years and then switched to Farmers, worked there for another three to four years and then switched to farmers, worked there for another three to four years and a nightmare job, you know, just sort of going through the paces trying to earn a paycheck, but the amount of stress and the lack of ability to kind of earn more money was just it kind of hammered home to me that like if you're going to do this, it has to be now.
Speaker 2:I literally got to the point where I just couldn't continue to do that job anymore and I think at the time I probably had three young children and not a well-paying job. My wife was working at the time. But we talked a lot and got on the same page and just decided that like, we're going to try to do something, we're going to try to do it now. So took the leap, you know, just quit the job didn't have anything really going substantial, tried to get as much runway as possible while still maintaining a job, trying to get all the ducks in a row with this business to get started and made the leap in 2017.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking what a journey kind of the leaning up to so many different hats of the entrepreneurship, kind of working at Ralph's having something on the side, the pieces kind of falling into place.
Speaker 1:And guys, if you remember the episode with Shane, things started to fall into place and I think that you know we'll talk about this later on, I'm sure, some future episodes but just really how things fall into place, some future episodes, but just really how things fall into place. And if you're in a position, like you were in the insurance position, not necessarily like, hey, I'm going to own the insurance company, but take away from any position that you're working at, use that as experience and leverage to get into your own business. In my situation, it was management at Walgreens and that's where I was like, hey, you know, I knew how to you know clean carpets and do a little water damage, and then kind of took my management experience and the pieces fell for me. When I had Shane on, he mentioned that that pieces kind of fell in together and it sounds like that's kind of the story of like, I want to be an entrepreneur. You're taking everything that you know right and then you finally get, you know, get going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I don't know if I realized that at the time. I think for sure with the cold calling thing it was a purposeful like I need to get this skill, but I think anybody that can. You know, if you want to start your own thing, if you're looking to go that path, any any task or job that you're doing, you need to look at it as like you know you're, you're picking up skills as you go and all of those are going to factor into cause when you own a business you have. You know, when you start out, you're literally doing every aspect of it, from cold calling to bookkeeping and, um, you know, to be able to get to the point where you can do that and manage it and be successful, you've got to sort of accumulate some, some basis to kind of drive that forward.
Speaker 1:So I think for the entrepreneurs out there, use your job as your school right now. If you haven't, if you haven't launched it yet. Right, take, take the skills that you're learning, um, um. I mean, patrick, I know that you know you've got a lot going on in life the business, the family, everything. Business owners consistently have to be their own cheerleaders. Right, specifically, we have to motivate ourselves. How do you motivate yourself? And you know what keeps you motivated during, you know, during times that are tough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a lot of times it feels like you're just in it. You know, for me it's just uh. There's a lot of pressure to keep things going. Uh, there's really no alternative at this point. So it's more just uh. It's almost like fear driven to some degree, which is probably not the most healthy situation to be in long term. But I think Shouts out guys.
Speaker 1:Hey, real quick. The first step, overcoming the fear of getting started, was one of our very first episodes. Speaking of fear, I just want to shamelessly plug You're talking about fear. Every business owner deals with fear and we don't let it stop us. You got two business owners here that are fearful of different things, but we're in business, we're making money, we're thriving.
Speaker 2:So sorry, but yeah, no, I mean, you know, I think that's the difference, and probably the kind of barrier to entry is like the people that can go past that fear point or figure out a way to overcome that. You know, that's probably for me. It was the hardest obstacle, for sure. What were we talking about? I forgot the question.
Speaker 1:So just overall, just I mean, you know obviously like what keeps you motivated, motivated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:During the, you know, during all the tough times, I mean cause you know businesses waves, right, you've got, you've got a. I mean, and specifically guys as I've brought in, you're going to closely see. A lot of my network is close to our industry right now. These are the people that I deal with day in and day out and have become really good friends with, but our industry is a very feast or famine industry, and so I think you are definitely capable of saying hey, like how are we getting motivated? Right, it's really, really busy. Yeah, and we're like living good, it's all good. And then you know what? Hey, it's slowed down. You know holidays, whatever it is Like, hey, it's not as good as it was last month. What are we doing to stay motivated?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's, you know, for my business. I think in particular, one of the struggles has been figuring out, trying to keep it consistent. So it's not really seasonal for me. We deal with insurance claims. People are constantly having damage to their house. Sometimes it's driven by weather events, which could be seasonal, but a lot of what we deal is plumbing failures and those pop whenever they're going to pop.
Speaker 2:So there's not a lot of like historical data that you can look at and say like, oh and, in springtime we're really busy and it slows down in winter. But I have noticed that like we seem to ramp up, we get really, really busy. I switch gears to OK, we're really busy, how do we handle all this work? I switch gears to okay, we're really busy, how do we handle all this work? That then pulls me away from marketing, which leads us to start to slow down as we finish up that work. We're now slow. So then I switch hats again into a marketing role and trying to drive more business and just that roller coaster of going up and down is pretty exhausting mentally. That roller coaster of going up and down is pretty exhausting mentally, you know it. It takes a lot of energy to keep switching gears from driving sales to handling the work. I'm almost to the point where you can be, like you know, if I go and market I'm just going to get so much more work, it's going to create another issue, right. And so it's sort of highlighted some problems with my business of. Like you know, it's pretty loosely run right now. There's a lot of autonomy in the adjuster world. You sort of just handle your work and get the task done. So it's easy to get lost in just doing the tasks and completing the work and trying to move things forward. And it's a little harder to sort of pull yourself back and look forward and say, if I only focus on getting the work done for the next three months, we're going to have another slow period. How do we even this out? And so for me, that's something to try to stay.
Speaker 2:Motivated is, I think, constantly trying to change some aspect of the business, whether that's implementing a process, something that's going to help streamline something or give me more data, to try to run it more like a structured business, versus just see your pants running and gunning and everything. Motivation for me is maintaining a certain lifestyle. You know, obviously with five kids there's a lot of expenses. We purchased a home recently. That's been a lot of pressure.
Speaker 2:Keeping all of that going is kind of the main motivation right now, and I think also for me it's trying to see a light at the end of the tunnel and figuring out a way to not be doing this for the next 15 years. I think if I was doing the exact same thing in even five or 10 years, I would look back and think I really missed some sort of an opportunity. Or if I had just done this differently, I'd be in a different spot. And so it's really for me I think the motivation is just looking at what kind of life am I trying to design in the future and how do I get there? Sort of reverse engineer it.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for that. Yeah, I know that. You know us business owners always motivating ourselves, can. It weighs on the brain, right, you're up, you're down, you're, you know it becomes exhausting. So I think that you know if and it's important we all go through it and I think, recognizing that you know, recognizing that is important for sure. Okay, so, patrick, I have three unspoken challenges, right, I like the, I like business owners to know that every business owner goes through all of these different challenges. You're not alone in these challenges. And crafting to the listeners.
Speaker 1:Patrick was given a list of questions and he could really pick from that list of, specifically, something that resonates with him and his business and maybe a challenge or a success that he's dealt with. So I'm going to get into those questions but, yeah, really just kind of the goal to open, just open the floodgates and say, hey, it's okay, we all deal with something and this is how we are dealing with it. And hey, or how I'm dealing with it right now and maybe haven't gotten through it. So number one is the fear of failure. The fear of failure, coping with the consistent fear of the business failing, I mean that's a big one, that's a big one that's a deep one, because I think every business owner definitely experiences this. I know I am consistently fearful of my business failing and I think that helps launch me to succeed. Yeah, but specifically on your question, I don't know fear of failure, how to cope with it. What are your thoughts on it? Yeah, I mean, it's obviously something that everybody goes through.
Speaker 2:I don't know fear of failure, how to cope with it. What are your thoughts on it? Yeah, I mean, it's obviously something that everybody goes through, and probably different phases of it as well. I think there's the fear of failure which stops you from starting. There's the fear of failure that stops you from doing things that you know are going to progress the business in the direction that you want to go. And it really, I mean, for me it's just all a mental game. The fear is kind of always there and it can be a driver. You know, I think you can use the fear as like fuel to sort of push yourself. I think, long term, that's not the best strategy, you know. I think that's going to lead ultimately to burnout or resentment, or maybe even just not clear thinking about the decisions that you're making. If you're deciding everything for the future based on fear, you know, I don't think that's going to be the best case scenario for the business or for yourself personally.
Speaker 1:So I used an analogy of I like like to. I like to use this analogy I've used it in the past is like fear can be a passenger in the car, but it can't tell you where to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly, because if, if they're directing every turn, then who knows where you're going to end up, right? So I mean it's a constant struggle. I definitely don't have it figured out. I think it's a constant checking back in mindset. I've noticed like stress management, trying to work out, do stuff physically helps a lot like anxiety wise, which is related to fear.
Speaker 1:Can I chime in and say something about you know working out? I think this is important for you know, for people to know. But as business owners, you don't have to live an unhealthy life. Patrick, you recently dropped a ton of weight. You have five kids, you have a full-time business, so being able to fit a fitness schedule into that a fitness plan, is doable, would you say it's doable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's for sure it's not easy and it's easier to give yourself the excuse of, like I've got to do this, I have to do that. But it comes down to recognizing the importance of certain things and just carving out the time for it. So, like I'm on a kick right now where Monday through excuse me, monday through Friday, I do something for at least 30 minutes. We're doing jujitsu and I've been able to incorporate my son into that. So it's kind of a blending Like in my world. I kind of have to blend a lot of things because if I'm not driving kids to summer camp, you know, because we're in the summertime, or dropping off at school or pickups or whatever the family needs, there's a lot to juggle there. So anytime I can kind of kill two birds with one stone, I try to take that opportunity. So like Monday through Friday, I'm carving out at least 30 minutes, you know, and if I can find 30 minutes, I think pretty much anybody can.
Speaker 2:I do actually have a lot of flexibility in my time. It's one of the biggest perks, I think, of owning your own business and one of the main reasons of why I've always wanted to go that I've hated like from you know 8 to 5, you're sitting at your desk and you better look busy or you're on the chopping block kind of a thing. You know it's like I'd rather be my own boss and be efficient and use my time as I can. So jujitsu has been huge, and doing that with my son has been really cool. Cardio on the other days, just get it in, go for a quick jog, go to the gym really quick and just kind of making calls at the same time. You know, you just kind of have to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool and I know it got a little off topic, but I think it's important because I think that you know us business owners, we get so tunnel visioned into the day-to-day we think we can't. You know, maybe you've got, maybe you have that single guy that's that's running the business, or single gal that's running a business right now thinking, well, I can't start a family, or maybe they have, you know, a family. And now it's like, well, I can't be healthy because I'm, you know, I'm running a business and I have a family. But this is where I think you know people understand that, yeah, I think people understand that, yeah, in business you can do, you can have a healthy lifestyle, you can have a family.
Speaker 2:and you can have a thriving business, yeah, and you can convince yourself that that's not possible For sure. But I think if you make a bunch of money but you're so stressed out and overweight that you have a heart attack when you're 55. You know what was the point, kind of a thing. So for me it's tying it back to some future goal. But you know, the exercise and why we started talking about that is it's a major tool in managing anxiety for me, which leads to fear and it's really a mindset thing. Leads to fear and it's really a mindset thing, and it's really hard to keep a positive mindset and to have the energy to do all these things if you're out of shape and all that stuff. So it's just become something that's very apparent to me, that like needs to be an emphasis. So that's one strategy, I think, with dealing with the fear.
Speaker 2:I like to. You know, when I think of something that I want to do or accomplish, I kind of have a negative train of thought. I can find all the flaws in it pretty quickly, you know, and I think what you focus on is kind of what becomes. So I've had to really sort of push against that and just say, oh yeah, that that thing could turn out like that. But you know, just remembering that it also could work out. And now that I have a kind of a track record of like, hey, if I reach out to this company and I build a relationship with them, yeah, they may tell me they don't want to work with me or they're working with somebody else, but they also might say, yeah, we can definitely work together. And that's how all the relationships that I have so far have started from reaching out to people. You and I are a good case study.
Speaker 1:I want to mention that and again, shameless plug over to the listeners the art of networking, building meaningful business relationships. I did mention Patrick in that episode. He is one of the guys that I talked about when I met on my birthday and you know it has been very lucrative for him and very lucrative for me, and it's just all it took was, you know, patrick essentially asking my guys when he ran into them for my contact information and me being open to always networking. So, as you are building your business, you're always keeping the marketing out, you're always marketing, you're always selling your business, you're always thinking about people. People will connect you with different people and in business that's important. You never know where your work's going to come in from. But on the flip side, yeah, you can really build some great relationships and here's a prime example. Here's a prime example.
Speaker 1:We have both have, um, have grown together in our businesses. It has been, uh, you know what, six years, five years, five plus years, 2007, seven years. So time flies when you're having a good time, you know, on some of the, some of the slow days back in those days, pretty interesting, don't know if you remember, should I bring it up? We would. We would drive around. You know what we were doing when we were driving around, I do.
Speaker 1:I remember we were playing Pokemon go, but that was we were looking for leads right.
Speaker 2:We were looking for leads right we were looking for leads.
Speaker 1:But I think what's funny is we had fun in those in those early days of when we had time to carve out kind of for each other and that built a friendship and developed the business relationship for sure. So, yes, we had the business relationship, definitely developed a friendship there and you know it's been really good. So I think keeping your, you know, just keeping the business relationship definitely developed a friendship there and it's been really good. So I think just keeping the marketing always open, you never know who's going to walk into your life or your business life, and maybe it's you wearing your polo with your company name at the grocery store and you spark a conversation. So always be ready to have those conversations. Okay, so moving on to, our second question is going to be marketing ROI.
Speaker 1:So the uncertainty and effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Right, I mean in business, we spend a ton of money doing everything, right, you could spend a ton of money on online ads and the company that's selling you those online ads are telling you oh, this is absolutely going to work, or whatever it may be, and we know through trial and error that things work. Things don't work. But, specifically, what's your take on it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, you and I have talked about this a lot, lot and because of how I started the business and sort of fell into it and developed some really kind of core relationships early on, that led to my business. Basically, you know, a public adjuster helps a homeowner or a business owner that's having a claim deal with their insurance. So the client is not really elusive because it happens all the time and there's a whole industry built around it. But most people maybe file a claim or two in their entire life and they have no idea that a public adjuster exists typically, right, I think some of that's changing is tough market and you have to be right there, right when it happens right in the beginning, you know, and so like somebody has to think, and so how do you find those people?
Speaker 2:Right?
Speaker 2:And so, obviously, companies like yours, where if you have water damage to your house you're calling a water damage company, they're coming out.
Speaker 2:You know if they can educate the client, that people like I exist and get me in front of them, that's hugely important for our business, right, and I've. So I've really focused on networking, building relationships with kind of key industries of people that are, I call it like the start of the funnel, right, and they're, they're in there in the beginning, they're in front of the client and they can educate the client and get me in the door, basically. So that's been like my go-to from day one. As we've grown, as I've added adjusters as the needs of the business have developed to where more consistent leads are needed, you know, I started focusing on having a website and putting content on that website organically to kind of hopefully drive traffic that way. I think anytime you get into that situation, you start playing around with pay-per-click and online ads and things like that, sponsoring events, running, you know, ads in like circular, like magazines that are targeted to specific areas. Past client referrals.
Speaker 1:That's huge. That's huge for me, I mean, which is hard, because when you're you know, when you're new in business you don't have that. But as you've established your business, you've done right by your clients, that funnel of For sure it's huge.
Speaker 2:For me right now it's probably I would say it's the largest source. You know cliche, I guess, but taking care of the client, providing a level of service that creates an environment where the customer is just like singing our praises right, that's the cheapest marketing that I've found. Yeah, taking care of the client doing a good job makes it easier to get paid and then sets us up for referrals in the future. And anytime somebody goes through something like dealing with an insurance claim and fighting with the insurance company, it can be a horrible experience. But if they have that insight, and then you know when somebody has a leak, they tell everybody oh, my house flooded. I'm staying in a hotel. It's a nightmare. My kitchen's all ripped up. The insurance company is giving me $10,000. All the contractors want $100,000. I'm staying in a hotel. It's a nightmare, my kitchen's all ripped up. The insurance company is giving me $10,000. All the contractors want $100,000.
Speaker 2:I don't know what I do and like having those people out there and it's a numbers game because the more clients you help, the more people you have out there potentially spreading the word. But that's been my focus and it doesn't cost money, but it costs time. But I've also seen, and obviously through our conversations I've seen the importance and the potential of, you know, filming short video clips or putting out a pay-per-click ads, and I kind of look at that as maintenance right now. You know, again, the fact that I don't have like hard data on all this stuff is one of the things that I'm trying to work on so I can say like X percent comes from past client referrals, x percent comes from online paid versus organic, x percent comes from all the other sources, right, and I think having that real hard data can help you make better decisions with it. But I'm just not at that point right now. So I'm sort of going by gut and it's like focus on what I know network client relations but then also keep doing all this stuff.
Speaker 2:I got a call this morning from a guy that clicked on one of our ads it may turn into something it may not. Morning from a guy that clicked on one of our ads it may turn into something it may not. But yeah, I think early on I kind of developed a kind of a negative attitude towards paying for the just the phone call, right, because if I'm putting money out there to get somebody call and they call and it's like oh, my claim got denied two years ago. Is there anything I can do? Sorry, can't help you. Waste of money, waste of time. Versus like a fully vetted, warm handoff from a client that comes like from your company where they have a claim, it's covered and they're interested, so I go and I meet with them, kind of a thing.
Speaker 1:I think it's important to you know there's a lot to definitely a lot to unpack there. But you know, specifically on the marketing, I've got something to add on the creativity. I think that, and yeah, you advertise and you're paying for a lead where you can't do anything with that lead. I have that happen all the time and kind of understanding that it's an overall thing. So not that one lead was necessarily paid for, but taking it of, okay, I can tell if I get 10 clicks to an ad, one of those people actually convert to a client. So finding out what that number is, what you've paid for, that, that way you kind of wash out the noise with the other nine people. Now I do want to stress to people listening is guys, patrick is a legitimate business. He's been in business for I think seven years, right, Seven years yeah.
Speaker 1:So seven years I've been in business over 12 years. We're always working on something that is, I think, important for everybody to understand. So if you have something going on in your business and you feel like you're not getting the data like you think your competitor is getting, or whatever it is, every person in business is still developing something in their business and we never stop developing. But going back to, I think, creative I've got a story real quick but creative marketing. So you know you, obviously it's unique, right? You've got people that never have to deal with this and you are trying to get in front of those people and you have a very limited window to do.
Speaker 1:That reminds me of a story of when I was a kid. So for everybody that doesn't know, my mom was a funeral director, undertaker for a while gone funeral director then turned business owner and I think that's what gave me the entrepreneurship. But I remember there was a friend that would randomly send us to Disneyland. Hey, take the kids to Disneyland. Me and my brother would go. This was so great it was paid for. This friend's business had paid for it and we'd go every year and there was always this blowout Christmas party and all these different businesses were there and it was really cool. I mean, I grew up with it.
Speaker 1:I'm currently in business. Right, I'm now kind of networking. I'm improving my circle. I still go to these parties. This is something we still get invited to because there is a legitimate friendship that was made years ago. But probably my third or fourth year in business I'm sitting there at this Christmas party and now I'm going to tell you what these people do. These people are personal injury attorneys Nice and I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, okay, this person's from a funeral home, this person's from a hospital. I'm like this is a marketing thing that these guys are doing. So I go and tell my mom. I said, hey, were they sending us to Disneyland back when we were a kid for fun? She's like, no, they were looking for our referrals and I consistently referred them.
Speaker 1:Business off of if somebody died from a wrongful death Interesting.
Speaker 1:She would refer them and say, hey, if you need a good attorney, here you go. And I was like I never thought that's there. But you have to get creative with your marketing and you build legitimate relationships there. I mean, my mom has been out of the funeral business for 20-some years now and we still go to these things because she's just got a good friendship with these guys. Got a good friendship with these guys and, a matter of fact, early on in business, one of the main lead attorneys there that I mean it was pretty much his business right. I sat down and got the pleasure of just kind of talking with him for three or four hours, went to a local restaurant and he, I mean he just unloaded on everything business.
Speaker 2:So you do build friendships, it develops into things and so, anyways, just unique marketing is kind of interesting, yeah, and that kind of you know I always call it like proactive marketing where you're building those relationships, you're putting out a benefit so that when the capital to host a big event like that I mean I know how much Disneyland costs it's not cheap. So at a certain point I think something like that becomes more realistic. But figuring out how to get to that point and determining at what point it makes sense Cause you can go broke hosting a bunch of parties- oh for sure, Don't just go out and do all these parties.
Speaker 1:But if it makes sense in your budget and your marketing, you've got to get. You've got to get creative right.
Speaker 2:But don't just start a business and and uh you know that would be a hard part If you were trying to start and develop leads that way. It would be a hard, a hard way to start. It would be a lot of money to do it and you would go broke real fast, but you kind of evolve, you know, into that position where you probably are looking at like a tax write-off or something and you also get to have some fun. Yeah, heads up, it was always at the end of the year.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, Sometimes they didn't have them. That's weird. Yeah, slow year, slow year, All right, moving on to our third unspoken challenge. It is everybody's favorite. Everybody deals with this. Patrick definitely selected this. It's kind of funny. We're here right now. It was fun getting here today. It's time management, juggling multiple roles and responsibilities. I think as business owners, we wear different hats, right? One day I'm the IT guy, One day I'm the CFO and one day I've got to be the you know HR. So we've got so many different roles that we're always wearing or wearing hats to. They're evolving. They're evolving. I was a technician at one point and now I've gone on to different things. So, juggling multiple roles and responsibilities. Please take the stage, Patrick. How do you do it? What's your outtake on it? I got it all figured out.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So getting here obviously is kind of and that's why I picked that question is something that I need to work on right, kind of like the cold calling thing. It's like forcing yourself to figure it out. So I'm down a guy this week you hit me up earlier. We've been talking about doing a podcast for a while and just carving out that little bit of time in between the drop-offs and the business and all the other things. There's a family member that has an injury. We're taking care of her right now. There's a lot on the plate. Obviously.
Speaker 2:It comes down for me it comes down to priorities right, trying to do the things that are hard, that you know are going to push you in the direction that you're trying to go, hard, that you know are going to push you in the direction that you're trying to go. If you can step back and prioritize stuff, because for me I have a really bad habit of just getting stuck in the easy, quick hitters. I think mentally it feels like I'm doing something, so like you know, it's stuff that needs to get done, but ultimately I'm probably at a spot where I should be delegating this stuff more, right, but it's kind of addicting to like just, I'm going to just do this. I'm going to, you know, write this estimate. I'm going to email this adjuster. I'm going to call this client. I'm going to give these clients updates.
Speaker 1:You know all this and you get sucked into that vortex.
Speaker 2:Clients updates, you know all the sucked into that vortex. They all need to happen. Yeah, they're all super important to some degree, but they, they don't move us forward. They keep, they just keep the bus rolling. We're not getting on the freeway by me completing tasks, right, so it's it's hard. It's something I'm struggling with.
Speaker 2:When you own a business, you have a lot of flexibility in your time, but it also means that if it doesn't get done, it doesn't get done, and who's going to do it? So it all ultimately falls on you. So it's easy to get lost in just doing those day-to-day tasks. And again, the flexibility of time. I can go and drive a kid to an event or whatever, or spend time with my kids, and I just may be, you know, texting clients at 10 o'clock at night or sending emails or doing stuff later. You know I can stack it wherever I need to.
Speaker 2:But I think when I'm trying to design more time management for me, what I try to focus on is like what are the things that I've continually put off, that I know need to happen, that are the next step to get us to the next level?
Speaker 2:How do I carve out the space and the time to do that among all the other things that need to happen, and so trying to figure that out right now. Honestly, I think it's going to be some sort of combination of creating some business processes that streamline some things. We've talked a lot about that. Setting those systems up, I think, are going to give me the ability to delegate things more effectively and be able to keep track of them. In the past, I've kind of delegated some things and then followed up with them, you know, maybe a week later and found out nothing happened or didn't happen the way that I thought it was going to happen, and that's super frustrating because it's like you know, I'm just like get it done, get it done, move forward, keep going, and other people don't seem to have that kind of sense of urgency, which is frustrating, I think, as a business owner.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean time management. It's huge wearing, you know, wearing those different hats. And I think, between you know, let's take it back to a time because I know a lot of people are, you know, in that spot is they have started a business, it's starting to become, become successful, they're taking off, they're going out, they're the ones doing those estimates, are the ones meeting with those adjusters, they're the ones really consumed in that work and they're really thinking about their first hire, but they're nervous. They're nervous that it's actually going to stunt their growth. Maybe their money that they're making is going to go to now a salary. What if it gets slow? How are you going to? Those are struggles that we talked about with your first hire before your employees, your employees and I've explained it to so many people that once you have you know, those employees, you still have you, you are still just as busy, and I think that that is a common misconception is, when I have my employees, I will no longer be busy and it's just that the hats change and the roles change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and that's something I'm dealing with right now is the expectation that if you were going to duplicate me and I don't have to think about this anymore, it really hasn't turned out to be the case, there might be. You know, I push it back on myself, right? So if I'm in a situation that's not working out, it's because I created it basically. So yeah, managing you had some experience managing other people.
Speaker 2:I was never in a managerial position in my prior like jobs. I was always the either the sales guy or the person completing the tasks. I was never responsible for the output of other people and it's a tough thing to learn and teach yourself in real time. For sure, on your dime On your dime, all the steak, everything's on the table. So it's something that we're figuring out, but it definitely plays into the time management aspect of it, and it's because it's like I quickly realized that in my business I'm sort of the limiting factor. I can only handle so much work, I can only call so many people, I can only do so much, and in order to grow, I need to bring people in that can add value and handle some things, so that I can focus on the other things that keep the business moving forward.
Speaker 2:So it's just a lot to juggle and try to figure out. We're always doing it.
Speaker 1:Everybody is. You know, everybody's doing it, and I think that if you're looking at your competitors, your competitors are doing it too. Don't think that somebody is, you know, outshining you, because everybody's got their own struggle. Patrick, looking back, what is one piece of advice that you wish you had starting out, one piece of advice that you wish you had when you were starting out With this business?
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Or in any business, but just that you know something that maybe you you would really like to tell your younger self as you were getting into business.
Speaker 2:Hmm, I probably would have started sooner. I think I I held on way too long at at the companies that I worked at and you know I really only needed maybe a year or two working as an adjuster to kind of figure it out and be able to roll that into what I'm doing now. So I think just you know making that jump before the point that I did because I really rode that thing out to where it was insanely stressful and it took a toll and probably wasn't necessary and if I had started sooner I'd be that much further along.
Speaker 1:Um, that's uh, that's some good advice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Good advice. I mean it is because how many people wait, and then maybe that that weight turns into never, you never do it and that turns into regret.
Speaker 2:I mean, I know people, yeah, and I know people that they just can't make the mental shift of like they have a desire to, or at least they say they do, but the comfort of just. I think for me it was really getting to the point of realizing like, oh, I can get fired at any point. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:As your business owner, you kind of have control of it, right, I mean, you can, you're not going to get fired, but it's on you for just like getting fired is probably on you as well. But I think there's like a false sense of security that a lot of people have. And you know, I just didn't want to have the regret of like going through and you know I just didn't want to have the regret of like going through. And it comes back to kind of like my dad and how I grew up. It was like he sort of had in the way that he was telling me, like, be your own boss, start your own company. You could tell it was sort of like a regret that maybe he had of you know, I'm doing this, I'm working my butt off, I'm doing all these things and I'm making all these other people all this money. And seeing that and kind of passing that onto his son was, you know, a big, big influence for sure Shouts out to Patrick's dad yeah, shouts out Pops, shouts out to Pops.
Speaker 1:Well, patrick, I know you're busy and I really appreciate you taking the time to be on the podcast. You know the goal is really just to let everybody understand. There's so many different ins and outs of business. Everybody goes through it and having your insight on that, I know, is greatly appreciated. So thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah thanks for having me on, guys. Thank you for tuning in. If you made it this far in the episode, I really appreciate you listening. Remember, our goal here is to bring the business community together. If you're dealing with a challenge or you're dealing with something, you're not alone. There are other business owners out there that are going through it and, at least on this podcast, if there is a struggle that we can answer for you, then I would consider this podcast a success. If you like today's episode, drop us a comment or send us a text message. I really appreciate you taking the time. I'd love to hear your feedback. I'd love to hear if you have any questions. So if you're dealing with something or there's an issue that you'd like to be addressed, let me know, and if I don't know the answer, I'll get somebody on here that does. All right, guys. Thanks for checking it out.
