Speaker 1: 0:13

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Speaker 2: 0:42

Funds. Okay, we want to welcome you all to our Giving Power to the Business Owner webinar series. I'm your host, jacqueline Jackson, with TDJ Equity Funding, and today we have some special guests. We have some guests Aaron and Kristen is actually from Champion Commercial Insurance. Now let's talk about commercial insurance. When it comes to business, we don't really think that we need it or even think about it. It's like a flat tire, you know. You don't think about a spare tire sorry, a spare tire until you actually need it. That's what we're trying to prevent. We try to have these webinars where we can give you some tools and some resources in your business, that kind of give you some guidance on where you go, and then also we give you experts that you can actually reach out to. They will be available for you guys after the webinar. We also have them listed on our refer page on our website where you guys can actually reach out to them personally yourself. Okay, so we want to get it started.

Speaker 3: 1:43

First of all, we're going to start off with them introducing themselves, ms Kristen, if you would tell them a little bit about you as we go forward. Good morning, I'm Kristen Lonergan. I am the CEO of Champion Commercial Insurance. I've been in the insurance business for 38, 39 years now, worked with two of the world's largest brokerages and large notable names that you might recognize, from Texaco all the way down to very small up and coming entrepreneurial businesses so vast experience across many industries.

Speaker 2: 2:24

All right, great. Okay, Aaron, will you give us a little bit about you as well?

Speaker 4: 2:28

Absolutely. My name is Aaron Flores, one of the newer members to Champion Commercial. What I bring to the table is I have a lot of real estate background. I have 16 years of real estate background. I have 16 years of real estate background anything from commercial real estate, residential multifamily and moving all that experience into the insurance world and bringing those benefits and values to our clients.

Speaker 2: 2:57

OK, great. So we see that we actually have you guys to come in and give us some of your industry experience and some of your insights. So let's start off with some questions that we actually have. We've actually went and polled some of our business owners and so they did submit some. They did submit questions that they would like for you guys to answer. So I will answer the question, and it is up to Kristen and Aaron. Whichever one of you I want to answer will be great. So the question we have first, what are the most common gaps you see in business owners, commercial insurance policies, and how can these gaps put their business at risk?

Speaker 4: 3:34

So I would say, from my perspective, you know property coverage right now, property coverage and sublimits, and when I say sublimits, you know you have your coverage and sublimits. And when I say sublimits, you have your coverage. And then you have other limits for different parts of the policy that may or not be looked at in depth and having the right insurance agent that's going to go through those sublimits and make sure your coverage is covered. And that's where we're seeing a lot of gaps. So just a small example is you have a retailer that has spent extra money on signage outside of his storefront. We spent that extra money that may have cost $40,000. When you look at their policy you know maybe that sublimit for the signage is only $10,000. If that's overlooked and something happens to that sign, you know who's going to be out that extra 30 grand to get a new sign.

Speaker 2: 4:27

Right, the business owner.

Speaker 4: 4:29

So that's a small example.

Speaker 3: 4:32

One of the areas where I feel like we see a great deal of gap or lack of attention to detail is going to be in the business interruption area. So inside of your policy you should have a limit for business interruption and extra expense. This is an extremely difficult to quantify area of coverage. It requires the business owner to really get a hold of their financials. They need to understand their peak season, if they have one. They need to understand how the flow of product or raw material what does that look like? How is that interrupted if they have a loss at their premise? So, understanding in advance what your business income limit needs to be. What does your disaster recovery plan look like? Do you have that modeled? Do you know where you're going to go to keep your business flowing if you have a fire at your location or a loss, a significant loss, at your location and you can't function there?

Speaker 3: 5:36

These are some of the big areas where we see gaps. Another area, another common area, can be where insureds don't understand the takeaways or the exclusions in their coverage. So if you take your policy and you flip it over and you start reading from the back, that's where all the damage is Right. Go to the back of that policy. Read what's there and understand what life looks like with that language inside your form.

Speaker 2: 6:05

OK, which is very Cause. You're right, there's definitely someone to look at and like while we do this show is because a lot of business owners we will do the bare minimum sometime because either maybe lack of money, but it also a lot of it, and I know we've had to talk, aaron, that it's a lack of knowledge. People do not know what they should have in insurance, they just do the basics. So that's why we have you here, christine. I thank both of you so much for being here so we can go through that. So let me ask you this other question and, aaron, hopefully you can answer this how does inflation impact the commercial insurance premiums and what strategies can business owners implement to manage the rise in cost of premiums?

Speaker 4: 6:50

I think we're going to let Kristen handle that one.

Speaker 2: 6:53

I kind of thought about when I said. I said she's going to know this. Okay, Kristen, yeah, no, that's fine. That's fine. Sorry, Erin, Me and you.

Speaker 3: 7:02

We're all good and you know. Thank you again for having us here. So you know, kind of reflecting back on your comment, jackie, what, as much as we love insurance and you know it just kind of oozes from every, every orifice of our body how much we love it Most people don't like it. I don't even. I don't even like to pay my own insurance premiums. I don't like it. I have teenage drivers. It's horrible, I don't like it.

Speaker 3: 7:26

So we appreciate the mindset of our business owners and the people that are, you know, going to tune into this, because it's a difficult it's a difficult thing to exchange funds for an intangible right so inflation. It changes the impact on your insurance premium because when there are driving costs like labor, materials, material shortages, labor shortages and just general impact to the economics across the United States as a whole, even overseas inflation, because we do import so much right. So these types of things are not, they happen at such a rapid pace that the insurance industry, the insurance companies, have not necessarily had enough time to fund for those inflationary increases when they put their pricing into effect in you know December or in.

Speaker 3: 8:26

I'm sorry, somebody's got their mic on.

Speaker 3: 8:30

So when they when someone puts their pricing model, when the insurance companies put their pricing model in place for the upcoming 12 months, some of the economic impacts are not known yet, because we've known our own government to raise interest rates, you know, two or three times in a year. So these are the kind of things that ultimately insurance companies have not necessarily funded for them appropriately. They do ultimately because if they're, if the insurance company is underfunded one year, they're going to make up for that funding the next year.

Speaker 2: 9:07

The next year exactly. And let me give a little data on that. As far as having an insurance, they're actually saying that, according to the Insurance Information Institute, around 40 percent of small businesses never reopen after a disaster. Never reopen after a disaster. Having business insurance can mitigate financial losses, enabling businesses to recover more quickly. So that is something that's amazing.

Speaker 2: 9:33

We know we don't have that insurance, we don't think, oh, it's not a big thing. But the thing we have is business, and I think we've had this discussion that most business owners get the very minimal because they say just enough to say I have it. But, aaron, I know you said earlier we talked about it when it even come to loans, people have to understand the lenders are going to look for you to have a loan policy, a policy to actually be the amount of the loan. So a lot of us may start, you might start off with 250 or half a million, but if your loan is two million, three million, they want your insurance to cover that, they want you to have general liability and they are looking. Some of my loans have required, kristen, that interruption insurance. Okay, so you're right. So we definitely need to get into that.

Speaker 2: 10:15

So let's move to the next one, also to let everybody know. You can raise your hand and we'll turn your mic on. If you want to ask a question, okay, because they are here to answer any question you all may have. All right, so let's go to our next one. So can you explain the benefits of having like a and I guess it's more? We're interested in it as loan brokers because we run across it, which is the customized insurance audit. What should a business owner expect during this process?

Speaker 3: 10:42

Sure, so what we mean when we say a customized insurance audit just really means sitting down with your insurance agent and spending an uncomfortable amount of time with them. Really go through what you have, what you're contemplating doing. What are the financial implications of changing course? If I go out and buy a building, if I don't own a building and I want to go out and invest my money in real estate for the tax benefits or investment benefits whatever they are, understand the financial impact that that may bring to you. Before you go out and put a loan document in place to buy a building and then call your insurance agent, have these conversations in advance.

Speaker 3: 11:36

Sit and talk about what keeps you up at night. You basically have to bare your soul. You basically have to bare your soul and if your insurance agent cannot spend an uncomfortable amount of time with you, then you need to find a new agent. Like this needs to be somebody that you bring into the fold. They need to know more about you than your spouse knows about you. Like it needs to be that, that comfortable and that that type of reciprocal arrangement. Because if you, if you, it's kind of like trying to trying to change the outcome of a test by cheating when we know everything we need to know. We will keep you out of trouble as often and where we can. As often as we can and as much as we can. Does that make?

Speaker 2: 12:29

sense. That makes a lot of sense. So basically, you're saying and I know it took a minute for me to realize it too, and I know I had a discussion with you all that when you're in business and you get insurance, you know we get it and we walk away. So you said you don't do that. You need to have an audit every year because things change within your business and we may have to change some things. That's basically what you're saying now, right, I mean not just once a year.

Speaker 4: 12:54

I mean it could be, multiple times a year.

Speaker 4: 12:56

If you're in rapid growth mode. If you're, you know you're scaling. You know you're a newer company that's scaling and moving quickly. You're buying locations, you're a franchise franchisor that's getting multiple locations and you're in complete growth mode. I mean those conversations are going to need to be had regularly. So it just you know a it depends on the business number one. But also, I mean things change all the time with the economy, with, you know, with you know a disaster that may happen today, tomorrow, the next day, like these things happen all the time.

Speaker 4: 13:33

So constant communication, you know, with our clients is a priority. You know that's, you know, one of the things that we do at our company, that we make sure that we have that connection, that communication with our clients, but always constant.

Speaker 2: 13:50

And constant. Okay, and that makes a lot of sense, because that's why I have you guys on that show. We want people to know that it's more than just going and getting an insurance policy. Like you said, you need to build a relationship, but you need someone that knows about your business and what all you need, and that's the thing. We don't really do, that we just go. If you got insurance agent under your name, here we come, and that's what we have to stop as business owners, because things are changing so rapidly in the economy now that you guys keep up with the changes. You know what I'm saying and you let your clients know hey, let's come back in and let's look at you again. And that's what we're trying to tell people. When you have a business, make that insurance really I mean intentionally make that insurance a part of your business plan.

Speaker 3: 14:42

And that's what we kind of come into. Well, and to your point, jackie, it's really important that we not label insurance as a commodity. Insurance should not be purchased on price alone, because I'm here to tell you that you absolutely can have three insurance options in front of you, and the least expensive does not necessarily mean that it's the best, and the most expensive doesn't necessarily mean it's the best. The least expensive isn't the worst Maybe that's a better way to say it. So you can't look at it based off of price. You can absolutely look at it and say, okay, I can't afford this. Or how do we make this more affordable? And then have your agent go over the components within that premium, within that quote, that are movable. There are movable components in there.

Speaker 3: 15:29

What can we do to assist with the pricing? And they need to be able to help you understand where you're insuring something, where you are going self-insured on something, and what you are contractually transferring away to someone else. These are the ways that we deal with risk. We mitigate risk, we insure for risk or we absolutely prepare for risk by a funding mechanism when we know, for example, we need a $50,000 wind hail deductible on our building to make our premium more affordable. Okay, well, now I have a $50,000 deductible If something hits my building. I've got to be able to come up with that 50 grand. How am I going to do that? So understand it's not a commodity, it should not be looked at that way and understand all of the variables.

Speaker 2: 16:32

I think I I'm thinking I emailed one of you guys on a question that a person had sent us, which was how do you re which? I didn't know what reinsurance trends is? What they said you guys knew I didn't. How do reinsurance trends and changes in the commercial property market affect small and medium-sized businesses?

Speaker 3: 16:55

Sure. So the reinsurance market is the is the financial backing to the insurance companies that you know there are. There are all the names that I'm not going to use any specific names, but you see them all over the place. They're big sponsors of all types of sporting events and other types of events. You know the names. But in the background we have reinsurance companies. They share in the risk that the insurance company name that you know. They share in that financial risk in the event that when a loss occurs. So the reinsurance company actually sits in the background. And they are the ones that say, if I'm going to give you money and sit in this position with you on this risk, I'm going to share in this risk with you. I'm just here to tell you I no longer want roofs over 10,000 square feet, I no longer want gun manufacturers, I no longer want food manufacturers. They dictate to that fronting market. They dictate what they want to be involved in to that fronting market. They dictate what they want to be involved in.

Speaker 3: 18:03

So that fronting market that you see plastered their names are all over the place. They then have to shift how they are going to work with the customers and work with us. So it changes coverage availability, it changes terms and conditions. It may cause one of your favorite insurance companies that you've dealt with for 10 years to say I'm sorry, but I can't work in Texas anymore. That's how reinsurance affects what we see. The nice thing is is that the reinsurance treaties renew early in the year January to April so you should know by Q4 of every year what your insurance trends should look like for the coming year. The disasters have been the national disasters have been so incredibly high and out of average for the trailing five years that even the reinsurance carriers aren't able to keep up. It's been a real challenge the last three years.

Speaker 2: 19:01

And see, and I think that's why it's important to have you guys, and I hope and first of all thank everybody again for being here. But you all can see, by getting an insurance agent that has knowledge, a commercial insurance agent, to have knowledge to help you with your company is so important. Because I tell people things are changing and we had discussion. I mean, even in a lending business it is changing, not from week to week, it's day to day. So you need someone that's going to communicate with you because the way they're looking at insurance now, same way with the lending business, they're not looking at it how it was a year ago or two years ago. So that's why it was so important to have you guys come on so people can know. I have a question for you, aaron. I know you can probably do this one. This is dealing with Forrest. What are the key indicators that it's time for that tells a business owner to reassess or switch their commercial insurance provider?

Speaker 4: 19:55

Because you just said how many times they do it. But what would be the key indicators of that? I mean, I think honestly it's just accessibility. I mean, let's just look at who you want to do business with in general. You know if you're not in communication with your agent or you're not getting any updates on your business and you know things are changing or fluctuating in your business you're downsizing, you're selling, you're growing. You know you have a lot of moving parts in a business. You know if you manufacture stuff, you know things are changing If you don't have that communication back and forth with your insurance agent to make sure that you are covered in a situation where things happen and that's what we're here for is to help you in situations when things happened.

Speaker 4: 20:41

So I'd say accessibility, communication. I mean that's 100%. And I'll quote Ms Kristen in saying follow your gut.

Speaker 3: 20:55

Trust your gut, trust your gut, and it's really, really important. Trust your gut, trust your gut, and it's really really important. You know your insurance agent? I don't know. I pride myself on the fact that I'm largely available to my insureds. They have 24-7 access to me and I will tell you this is a true story.

Speaker 3: 21:15

Saturday afternoon I'm in my bedroom, I'm folding laundry, just like you do on any Saturday. I have the TV. On mid-afternoon, news break happens. I turn, look at the TV. There's a big fire. It was an explosion. Firefighters are on the scene and I look at the building and I'm like I recognize that building. Oh run, that's one of my clients. So I pick up the phone. I speed dial the CFO. He answers the phone because it's Saturday. He's mowing his yard and I said he goes, what's up? And I said I'm just calling to see if you need anything. What happened, what's going on? He goes what are you talking about? I said, dude, your building is on fire. He goes what, wow, what? And I said, yeah, it's all over the news. He was like, oh, my gosh. So that seems crazy. That's a true story. But that is just how, being connected, that somebody reciprocally in a reciprocal arrangement. He's to take my call on a Saturday because he knows I'm going to take his call on a Saturday Exactly, and that's what we need right now.

Speaker 2: 22:27

I mean the formality of what things used to be compared to where it is now. I know they talk about branding and all of that, but I think what will never go away is relationships 100%.

Speaker 4: 22:39

You said it, jackie, and just to follow up on that, it's just good old fashioned service, Like being there for your, being there for your client, regardless. You know, a testament to Kristen like we've been there, been here as late as it can be on on any given given, any weekday night, if we got things going on, you know we're here till the job's done. You know, and even on Saturdays her and I have had plenty of conversations where you know I need help on something or I have a question or I can.

Speaker 2: 23:07

Now wait, you know you both don't sound like insurance. You really don't. I just need you to know that. Okay, keep going.

Speaker 4: 23:22

In case in point, why I joined this firm. I mean, it's a situation where service is number one. That has always been a staple in my business in the past. But bringing that to the forefront and joining this team and being able to offer that to our clients is great. And having the experience somebody like Kristen and our partners you know they have so much experience you know we have anything that pops up, that arises that you know we need a little bit more, a little bit more information or a little bit more backing up. We have a whole team here that's willing to back us up individually and as a team. So it's great.

Speaker 3: 23:54

And you know, aaron, to that point. You know I do want to talk about the team here and why that's important. Because you know you definitely have your account management team that is on your account every single day and that person needs to be as informed with what's going on with your account as your agent, with what's going on with your account as your agent, and when that team is cohesive, communication is good. Then really it's kind of like a two-headed dragon If you can't get a hold of one, you can get a hold of the other. Everybody knows what's going on. Depth of knowledge across the entire team is really important. We have very, very strong team members here, from our marketing team across to our employee benefits team, our personal lines team, and when we are allowed the opportunity to have all of those lines of business for one insured, where we have their benefits, their commercial, their personal, anything else bonding, whatever else, that allows us the opportunity to cross communicate.

Speaker 3: 24:58

That allows us the opportunity to cross communicate and if I need to know something on my commercial side that might be important to my benefits producer, I can walk down the hall and say let's have a conversation about this so that when those two things come together we don't have gaps, we don't have surprises.

Speaker 2: 25:18

And that is so important for us as business owners. I love that about you guys. I love it. So let's ask the next question what steps can businesses take to reduce their claim risk and demonstrate to the insurers that they are a lower risk client?

Speaker 4: 25:34

Good question and at the end of the day, the more proactive you are on mitigating risk, the better chance you have, the better chance it gives us to go into a carrier, to a broker and argue your case. So anything from improving the building from a standpoint of implementing sprinkler systems or adding video camera, your security system, any kind of upgrades you know to a building, to a business that's going to give us that info to go back whenever your renewal pops up or whenever you know we're, you know, quoting you. On insurance, we have more to negotiate with you. It gives us a little bit more leeway to help us get you a better coverage for a better rate.

Speaker 2: 26:24

Right, okay, and that makes a lot of sense too, in knowing that, christy, go ahead, you as well.

Speaker 3: 26:29

Another area, what Aaron is touching on, is risk mitigation on property. Another area for liability risk mitigation, Again, you know earlier we talked about the fact that you can transfer liability away via a contract. You can make somebody else either wholly responsible or you can make them. It's called a bilateral indemnification agreement where you are mutually responsible, depending upon what your relationship is, particularly for manufacturers, that's important. If you are an assembler, that's important. So you may put a product out on the market but you don't manufacture any of the pieces. The pieces all come from different places. You pull them all in-house, you assemble and you ship out.

Speaker 3: 27:16

So how do you identify where that loss resides if that product is out in the public float and something happens? Right, somebody gets hurt so strongly. Leaning into your contracts, looking at them, going over them with your insurance agent who's not an attorney, by the way, nine times out of 10, not saying that that doesn't exist, but just mostly. We just play attorneys on TV. You shouldn't listen to us for legal advice. They just put bumpers around it, right.

Speaker 3: 27:54

But it's important to look at those contracts, understand where you need to have a contract, where you may be lacking and what might be lacking within the four corners of that contract, because one of the key things that will occur when you have a loss is your insurance adjuster is going to show up, they're going to look and assess and then they're going to say, okay, let me see your lease, let's see your contracts, let me see. They want all the legal ties and documents out there so that they can use those documents to determine where coverage even gets triggered within the four they call it the four corners of your own policy. So know that your contracts are tight, know what's in them and your lease agreements, because insurance companies will go there practically first thing when you have a claim.

Speaker 2: 28:47

OK, that makes a lot of sense. Documentation, documentation, what is it? Do that? So let me ask you guys this, and I want both of you to answer OK at the time, not the same time what industries are currently facing the most challenge, challenges in securing commercial insurance, and what advice would you give those business owners, aaron, what do you think?

Speaker 4: 29:17

I mean in all honesty, in this economy, I think everything is a little bit tight right now. I think every business is struggling from an insurance standpoint on getting insurance or making sure you're covered in the right way. From a real estate standpoint, multifamily is extremely tough right now with everything that's happened on both coasts.

Speaker 4: 29:39

You know it's tough to get various things covered and and it's tight, and having the right company on knowing where to go, having the right relationships to even get covered. So you know, if you don't get renewed because of of of a carrier pulling out of an area, you know know you're going to have to get it covered. So having somebody that has those relationships to help you go move forward is extremely important.

Speaker 2: 30:08

So so how do you recommend, what do you think for as advice for them for dealing with that? They just have to go and find an insurance company, like what you all are talking about basically.

Speaker 4: 30:18

I would just say my number will be listed and you're more than welcome to call it. You just call us, it's very simple.

Speaker 2: 30:27

It's simple, which we'll definitely get you guys on our referral page, and we'll talk more about that at the end. Okay, kristen, give me your opinion. What's your thoughts?

Speaker 3: 30:35

You know when Aaron and I were talking through some of the opportunities that might come up during this conversation. This is definitely one of them. Every single business out there is facing not an equal load of challenge, but it's not super simple for anyone. If you have an auto fleet, you have a large auto fleet. That's troublesome because auto prices have gone up.

Speaker 3: 30:59

The premium has gone up 15% year over year over year for the last seven or eight years. It's been relentless. That's almost wholly and solely driven by what we call nuclear verdicts. A nuclear verdict is where you have I don't want to call it a simple auto claim, but let's call it a semi-simple auto claim where you have some bodily injury involved and some of our amazing attorneys and these beautiful billboards that we find scattered throughout our lovely city, they make their way to this injured individual and, you know, instead of a $50,000 billboard claim payment, we have a $1.5 million claim settlement. That's a nuclear verdict. Those nuclear verdicts are impacting our auto pricing. They're impacting our umbrella pricing and so if you've got auto, you've got a fleet, you're feeling it. You are literally feeling it there. The other, the secondhand side to that is the number of hailstorms that we have here. So we can't forget how the physical damage piece also affects auto pricing, right?

Speaker 2: 32:06

Right.

Speaker 3: 32:07

So if you've got an auto fleet, you're really feeling it right now. Workers' comp is the least of our issues, unless you have, you know, a propensity for claims Workers' comp. Like you can't even look at a company that has three or 400 employees and say, ooh, that might be a problem. Not really anymore. That's kind of one of the easier things for us to do. You have a large roofline properties with square footage. Roofline square footage is a real challenge. Like if I had to just nail it down to two things. These are the two areas and that's going to cause you to really need to have a conversation early on with your agent. I'm expecting this. What's it going to look like and what can I do right now? How can we be creative about that quote so that we can do something about this price? Well, great, it makes sense.

Speaker 2: 33:05

It makes a lot of sense and I think what you all are giving is what this business offers to go back. Hopefully, everybody go back, and we're going to send this out to all our people as well that they ask the questions. We don't ask enough questions, kristen and Aaron, we talked about we don't know. So that's why I'm listening to you guys and I've listened to you before many times that you talk about that. You know. Ask the questions. Come, talk, let's find out what out, what we need to do. So the question I have that I don't even know I could ask this question, but I want to ask you how can business owners prepare for renewal negotiation? I didn't know anything about that. So with their insurance to provide us to ensure that they're secure the best rates and terms? I didn't know we could do that. I thought when you sent me a bill, pay it and move on. So please, let's talk about this.

Speaker 3: 33:56

You know what, if that's the kind of client you are, you are few and far between you got to ask questions, you got to ask questions, you got to ask questions, you got to ask questions, you got to ask questions. So I think where we're headed with that is how do we, as consumers, participate in the placement and execution of our insurance? Is that really what we're trying to get down to here of our insurance? Is that really what we're trying to get down to here? So again, you know I can tell you at our own book of business that we have here all of our agents. They're at head of it, they're way out of head of it. Our marketing team is way out of head of it. We know what's coming.

Speaker 3: 34:40

So we are preparing ourselves to prepare our insureds. So I don't want to say the onus is on you as the consumer, it's partially on you, because we have no way of guaranteeing that your agent's reaching out to you to say, hey, here's what's likely coming your way and let me help you prepare for it. So if that's not happening, then you know we I think you need to this may be the year this needs to be the year then that you are proactive and you do. You do reach out and call so that we can, we can, help you through some of this.

Speaker 2: 35:19

Exactly so. That's what I'm saying. It's something we were in the office talking about that they're like, well, we get our renewal, we just say well. And so you just said, well, you want to go. Well, I tell you what I got about 11 more people. I'm going to tell them the same thing, but Christy said so. Thank you so much for that answer.

Speaker 3: 35:36

Okay, we'll take care of you.

Speaker 2: 35:38

We'll take care of you. I know you will. That's what we we're gonna have to. So, air, you got anything to add to that?

Speaker 4: 35:43

I. I think she hit the nail on the head. I mean absolutely. I mean just uh, preparation and being ahead of being ahead of the eight ball. Just, you know, 90 days, 120 days out, where we're? You know we're doing what we need to do on our side to, uh, to help prepare our clients and get ready if there's, you know, big changes or other changes or things or angles or things that we can look forward to to, to combat that.

Speaker 2: 36:08

Okay, great.

Speaker 2: 36:08

So and I think that is so awesome you guys do reach out. I know you reach out because I've seen some of your stuff that you send it. You like saying and then let me say this about you guys too you were right about Forrest being and I just love you guys Easy to talk to, easy to contact. I send something to Aaron on a weekend about a client asking a question of my stuff. I said, well, I'll get back with you when I hear from him in two minutes. Ok, so what do you need? What are you doing? So it's seven and it's six in the morning to do it.

Speaker 2: 36:35

I mean, so that is great because you guys do that, but that is not what most of us get to see. We don't even know all this is available, what you give. And when you said, jack, I'll call you, I'm like, I went with, I'm not gonna call their name, and we had insurance with them for years. I don't remember one time, one time they called us to say, let's go over your insurance. I'm just being honest. So, and I know other we talk. Other businesses I've talked with have spoken with. They've said the same thing. You know, know, we're like really. So that's why I would say we've got to have these guys on. They're really good at what you do, You're all knowledgeable and the thing that I love the best you guys care.

Speaker 3: 37:12

You care, we do care, that is for sure that is Our entire team, our entire team here, cares and it shows. So thank you for saying that. That's very meaningful.

Speaker 4: 37:33

Thank you. Thank you, Jackie, for having us on. It was definitely just a privilege to be asked and I know you're not connected and it was just we hit it off pretty quickly. We've been talking ever since. Yeah, absolutely, so I love it.

Speaker 2: 37:45

Let me ask you this so what do you all want to say to business owners when it comes to insurance? I want you to give your spill and say what they need to know, because I know you guys have so much. So I want to give this time for you to talk of what you want to say to everybody. Start with you, Aaron, that you'd like to let business owners know to everybody.

Speaker 4: 38:03

Start with you, Aaron that you'd like to let business owners know. What I would like to say is you know, for business owners out there that are, you know, having any kind of questions or doubts about whether they're covered or whether they're getting the amount of service that they want, deserve or need, if they have anything in question, you know we're always willing to help and, at the end of the day, that's what we're here to do. We're here to protect your business. We're here to protect you and offer a service that's above and beyond Very simple, wonderful Christy, what would you say to our audience today?

Speaker 3: 38:52

you say to our audience today. So for me it's if you haven't made really close friends with your insurance agent, you really need to. They need to be a strategic part of your business planning, part of your business planning. They need to be a strategic part of any meaningful acquisitions, whether that's of property, or maybe you're acquiring another business, you're contemplating going in a different direction, I don't know.

Speaker 3: 39:22

I can sit here and list off you know a thousand reasons why you should have a really deep, close relationship with your agent. They should be a confidential source where you can put your ideas and your thoughts without any concern over what that information, how that information, will affect you. You should be able to have these conversations openly and with a trusted source so that you know exactly what you have, what you're getting into and what to avoid down the road. I really just think that we can't emphasize that enough. Don't be afraid of us. Don't be afraid to tell us something. If you don't tell us and we don't know and we don't ensure or teach you or tell you how to transfer that risk away or prepare for it, that is not a fun day when a claim comes up in that area, you know. Let us help you as much as we can Go with your gut.

Speaker 2: 40:30

Go with your gut. Yeah, that's it, that's Christine. Go with your gut. And so, before we end, I want to say to everybody and a lot of people are not aware of this, with some changes coming in on the loan brokerage, on the lending area. When it comes to insurance, we're're finding out when we work with the underwriters that they're asking for your insurance, but they're looking at how long you've had it. They are really weighing in on that. So and that's why we say it was so important to hear from you guys is because people need to know business, know that things have changed.

Speaker 2: 41:00

So, when it comes to getting working capital, insurance is playing a major, major part than what it played before, because when you had a small amount like up under, like $250,000, it wasn't a big deal. They do up Now, it doesn't matter what the amount is. There are some of them really looking for you to have that. We talked about. I think you and I talked about the key man insurance. We had talked on that. They're looking for you to have that type of protection insurance and so they're looking for the liability insurance.

Speaker 2: 41:33

And then I told you they also looking for like I said that you said an intermediate when you, if you lose some loss of revenue at a certain time, they looking for that. So they're looking for that. So it's basically something that I think businesses only need to raise their head up and look at the insurance. I know you're working hard and trying to get things done, but we really need to raise our head up and take care of something before we actually need it. That's why we're actually doing this show, so I do want to thank you for coming. I'll say anything else that you guys want to say to our audience today else that you guys want to say to our audience today.

Speaker 4: 42:05

Thank you, Jackie. Thank you for having us.

Speaker 2: 42:08

I don't want to leave nothing out because y'all got so much information. Kristen, I appreciate you guys so much for being here. If anybody have any questions, definitely you can send them to us. You can put them in a chat and I'll get them to them. And in the meantime, we do have you guys already featured on our referral page at TDJ Equity LLC. Behind me, I always wanted to do that, oh, and it works, okay. So if you all would please reach out to us, reach out to Champion Commercial Insurance and get the help you need, just to call them, because you all said they can call you guys, let them look at what the insurance you have now, let them do a little audit with you and see, you know, make sure you are covered before you need them. Okay, so, thank you again. We appreciate you all. You all have a great day and I'll talk to you, you guys, later.

Speaker 3: 43:03

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 43:03

Jackieie, thank you so much we hope you enjoyed this episode of tdj equity funding insiders podcast. If you'd like to be a guest or get in touch with us, please visit our website at tdjequityllcnet, forward slash podcast or email us at podcast at tdjequityfundinginsidersnet. Until next time, take care.