Turning Opportunity Into a Career with Justin Reichl

Good morning, everybody. It's Jim Johnson here, the head coach at Contractor Coach Pro, and we are in this week's edition of the Contractor Training Room and our contractor radio podcast. And we have a real rock star with us today. Those of you that are Facebook folks and you know, in this insurance restoration side of the roofing industry, most of you probably know our guest. He's been doing this for about 20 years now. A little over 20 years.

And.

He just has this thing about him. I've watched him over the last few years, and he's been impressive with how he handles himself. He is very consistent. He's got strong faith. He tries to do things right. And we're going to ask him a bunch of questions today. So welcome aboard. Justin Reichel to Contractors Training Room. Glad to have you today, man.

Jimmy, how you doing, buddy?

Good, good. Real good, man.

All right, thanks for having me on.

Yeah, we're excited about it. Like I said, I followed you for a while, and it's like, hey, I want to get this guy on one of these days. Because he seems to be one of those guys that does it, right? You know, I've had a few conversations leading up to this, and my suspicions were accurate. You are one of those guys that does it right? And so kind of just give like, a little brief history, like, how'd you get into this? And kind of early years kind of start situation, man.

It was 1999, and I had actually met this girl at. We got invited to a party, and we were up at the top of the penthouse hanging out, and her dad had a Ferrari and a helicopter. And we were sitting there talking. I was like, dude, what does your dad do? And she looked at me, she goes, he's a roofer. I was like, a roofer. Wow. And I thought, man, I could do that, right? And got all excited. I left her party, went home, I got online, looked up, you know, ads for roofing salesmen, and sent out a few interviews. And about two days later, Joe Needham from Needham Re Roofing called me back, and I went in and met with him and was with him for a little bit, and then start our own deal in 2000. Wow.

That's kind of a funny connection there, because we were talking before we hopped on here that I was doing some work while I was in Florida and my commercial work, I passed off to Needham Roofing and Joe, so. I know.

Did you really? Wow.

That's a pretty wild world. Yeah, it is a small world.

That's crazy.

I did not know that so that's. That's kind of cool.

So that's what I started with.

So you started with those guys. Where to go from there? How long were you a sales guy? And kind of how have you progressed.

Along with sold for him? For probably a little over a year. And then a big storm hit in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in April 2000, and went quite about six months late to that storm and. Just knocked doors every day. Months. Me and my wife. Just me and my wife, we did everything, you know, we knocked the doors, we ran the materials, answered all the phone calls. We did it. We did everything.

I noticed that, like, you and your wife have this great relationship, so I'm going to assume that. So from earlier in your conversation, you said you were at a party, met this girl, met the. Met the dad, and you're like, what does he do? Right. And you didn't call him. Like, you went back and you, like, this, looked up other roofing company. So it must not have been that tight of a connection. I'm gonna assume there's a different.

It was a. Yeah, it was just a lady at the party, you know, and I was like, whoa. And it was her party, but so she was the one that told me her dad was a roofer, you know. All right, Pretty crazy story. And then, you know, just going at it ever since.

Yeah. And I've noticed, like, your wife is a big part of your life. Like, that's. Your relationship is tight. You're with her all the time. I was looking through Facebook to try and grab a photo of you that I could put on here for, like, the Justin picture. Right. But every single picture is you and your wife and you and your kids, like, this super strong family. How have you been able to accomplish that through, like, this is a tough business. It is travel. You're on the road a lot. It's just all that stuff. How do you balance that stuff?

That's my wife, man. She's just probably my greatest accomplishment, honestly. You know, she always gets it done, you know, and she doesn't complain. She does it with a full heart. And it's really amazing because I get to run around the country and sell roofs. And, you know, I fly home every weekend, though. Right. I don't miss. I don't miss the weekend. So I usually travel Monday through Thursday or Friday, and then I'm home, you know, Friday, and then leave again Monday during school, of course.

So where is home now? Florida. Is that home base? Okay?

Yeah. Moved to Florida two years ago now.

Okay. And are you originally from Tulsa or. Where are you from originally?

Born in Minnesota. Ah, yeah.

99. Your same storm I was in because I started 98. That same storm.

That was a big one. So I was actually in Dallas when 99 hit. It was storm that I worked in Dallas, and so I moved to Dallas when I was seven, grew up there, and then moved to Tulsa when I was, you know, however old I wasn't. Over 21 years or 20 years. 21 years ago. Wow.

Okay, cool. So that, like, you. You started up there young, and then you actually met it in Dallas.

Got it.

All right. And. Well, Dallas, the Mecca of hailstorms, right? Those guys think that stuff's supposed to happen every year. And everybody else, amazing guys.

Dallas, man, they're unbelievable. I don't know how they do it, but they kill it.

There's a little bit of competition there. Every time somebody calls me, like, hey, I'm thinking about going and getting set up in Dallas, I'm like, dude, don't do that. You're just asking for brutalness right there. So as you've kind of grown through this industry and been, you know, like, in it, like, really in it. Sales guy, you know. Have you managed before? Like, managed a bunch of people and that kind of stuff? Any of that?

Yeah, I mean, you know, I've owned my own thing for forever, and, man, we used to have 50, 60 salesmen. 2008, we probably did 30 million right around 30 million. About 3,000 roofs, you know, and then we traveled all over, New York, Wyoming, you know, wherever the storms would hit. And, man, it was just the same thing always. It was always doing the residential thing, all that stuff. And about four years ago, we got taken to Mexico by srs, maybe about five years ago on a Top Gun trip. And I met the hunters, you know, because I'm sure everybody's wondering how I get involved with them, But I met them and was looking him up online and looking up all this beautiful roofs that they do. You know, they build pretty roofs. And my wife was like, dude, you guys got to start selling better roofs. You're right. And so went. Went and basically stopped what we were doing. And I learned from one of the best. It's probably one of the coolest things. Hard decision, but I wish I would have done that earlier. I wish I would have learned from someone longer, you know, at the beginning, it would probably save me a lot of heartache through those. Through those years, you know, that's why we exist.

As I was out there, you know, selling accu links to people because that's what my previous life was to this. And before that, I was actual contractor doing 25, $40 million a year. Meeting with those folks at Accu Links. Take about an hour to get them to buy Accu Links. And it was like, so how'd you have, you know all these locations and run that many salespeople and how'd you have it set up and how'd you pay all those questions? And so that's kind of why we became a thing, right?

Let me ask you a question. You told me something the other day, and it blew my mind. So you're actually the real rock star, right? Like, a couple years ago, I sold and did 8 million. Matt Irvin did 11 million. You know, we wanted our guys this year do 13 million. But you said you did 28 million in sales one year.

27.3.

Holy cow.

Yeah, it was in Houston, Texas, Hurricane Ike. It was. It was unbelievable. Like they say, the perfect storm, right? Like, you. You have the information, you have the knowledge. There's no such thing as luck, right? Like, I don't think you luck into anything, but you have the right amount of information, the right amount of knowledge, the right amount of people, the right amount of experience, and one of those things happen. And one of your best friends is a property manager. Things turn out pretty good, right? Like, I grew up with them.

Wow. What was the biggest one? What was the biggest job you ever sold?

Probably somewhere around two and a half million. You know, nothing like.

And that's in 2003, though.

2008 was Hurricane Ike.

Was that before or after the price increase?

That was before the pricing, really? In Texas, until 2010, maybe 2012, even. Like, it's been pretty recent for that. Yeah. So just one of those things, man. Things worked out well. And it was. It was really good. There was also a lot of trials and tribulations. There's folks that, you know, didn't pay and stuff like that whenever it came time to get things done. And not my guy, but people that were doing the work. Because I was more of a consultant, like. Like, I would go give it to somebody and they were supposed to pay me, so. Well, don't worry about that. We'll talk about that stuff later.

Imagine that.

It did work out well. It did work out well. So there's a question I always ask everybody, and I forgot to ask it to you up front, so I'm going to ask it to you now. Not including getting married, your kids or family in any way, shape, form or fashion, what's your Greatest achievement to this point in life.

Man, I thought you. So you talking about in this business, right?

Just anything your greatest achievement, not including. Because that's the default, right? Like we say we got married to this great person or we got great kids. That's the easy one.

I made a couple of decisions and that were tough to make. Like I told you, kind of getting out from what I was always used to and going to learning from somebody was doing something awesome, you know, that was, that was hard. But I think that was leading up to what we're doing now is a huge achievement. And you know, also in this business, you know, I'm sure everybody else has. They'll lose so many best friends because your mindset's right. Wrong. So a few years ago I changed my mindset for like, you know what? I'm bringing these guys in. I would be like a high school football coach to them. Bring them three or four years and then if they go, man, they're going to awesome and I'll support them forever and I'll be with them and love them and if they stay, even better. Right? It wasn't always like that. So that's been huge. You know, it's been huge for my relationships and just everything. So, you know, those couple things were, I think, pretty big achievements leading forward, you know, as I move on.

Man, that's powerful. Like you mentioned mindset, right? Like when we're younger and we don't know, sometimes like, and maybe there might be this epiphany moment in your life, whatever that may be. I remember mine was about 15 years ago. Early on, man, it was all about that money. Like I could sell it. I sold like 108 jobs in span of three months. And like my first, very first three months in a business. I can remember calling my wife and going, hey, after two weeks, I'd sold 42 and I called her. I'm like, hey, I don't know what this is, but it's amazing. And you're not going to see me for a couple of years. Like I am going to go set ourselves like in a way that you couldn't imagine. And so it's like all about that money. I used to picture, like the door was a thousand dollar bill. Like every time I knock on the door it was like a thousand dollar bill. And that worked for a while. It really did. It worked for a while. And like I got the stuff and the houses and the boats and all like that all went really well. But I still didn't like feel good. Like There was no fulfillment. There was no, like, wow, man. I feel like I've arrived. Like, everything's great and wonderful. I kept still wanting something, and it really was a kind of a prayer moment for me. I'm like, where am I? Where am I missing this? And whenever I pray, I don't know. This is kind of weird for me. You know, people talk about God talking to him and stuff like that. I don't. I've never had one of those, like, hear a voice experience. But there's usually a word. There's like a word that resonates as I'm. As I'm having one of those prayer moments. And that word was serve. Like, just serve, serve, serve. So I started looking up everything about serving, started reading everything in the Bible about sort of like, how do I serve? How do I serve? How do I serve? And I started doing that with my folks. And very similar to you, there's a reason it's called contractor, coach, pro, not consultant pro. I like baseball hats. I'm a sports guy. I played sports growing up, and so we created a sports team. We were there to create a dynasty, and we wanted you to be on our team. And we were about winning, and it was about being that coach and giving you the fundamentals, training and giving you the stuff you needed to be really good.

And.

And, man, once we kind of flipped to that, things really turned out pretty cool. And I've kind of carried that on anywhere I've gone after that. So we got a lot of similarities there, right?

That's one of our core values. You know, our core values are to serve, to sacrifice, and to deliver. And if we all do that and everybody on our team does that, everybody wins, from our customers to the people that work with us, to us as owners, to our families. And, you know, it's just so.

So that's. You said one that I haven't heard before, man. That's what we do. We coach, like, how to find your purpose and your why and why you're doing what you're doing. Core values, mission, you know, that kind of stuff. And you used one I've never heard before, Sacrifice. What is. Like, how would you explain that to one of your people coming to work for you?

Well, you know, those three things basically embody Christ, right? Know what he did, it's what he did for us. And if we can do that in everything, you know, from your wife asking you do something you don't want to do.

Right.

Your kids need you to do something. You know, one of your guys calls you and needs you to do something. You make the sacrifice and your customers want you to do something that's, you know, whatever it says you sacrifice. If you just keep that up there, it's simple, right? That's just part of what we do. And it's awesome, right? Because it works.

It's so funny. Like, once that changed for me and once I started, like, putting that first, like, how can I just serve better? Like, figure that part out. Serve, serve, serve. And I quit worrying about the money side of it. Things just became even that much better, like, and almost. And you got to do it genuinely. It can't be like, I'm serving so I get something right? It's got to be like, I'm serving because I genuinely want to. And I want to be, you know, a servant to you in whatever way or fashion I possibly can when that's authentic and real 100%. People can't avoid to be involved with you. Like, they just want to. They want to be a part of whatever it is that you're doing. And we had this cool event this past weekend. I wasn't going to really talk about this because this is our stuff, but this storm into the new era thing, and I heard the word God mentioned more times in three days in this industry than I have in my entire career otherwise. It was amazing to see people have a passion for the spiritual side and not like, hey, holy roller, any of that kind of stuff. Just knowing that there is something bigger than us out there. And so how do you, like, walk that fine line in your business? Because sometimes, you know, people always talk about, like, if you have the fish on your truck or you have a verse on your truck, like, that's the guy to watch out for, right?

Usually he's the guy to watch out for.

Yeah. So bringing that into our business and being able to. To talk about that, how do you make that work in your business?

I made a post the other day that said our lives are consequences based on the choices we make. Right. So if we make those choices consistently to do what we're supposed to do, all the other stuff follows, right? It's not about a fish on our car. It's about answering your phone, you know, when someone needs something, handling it, and just living that life right and doing that.

So, yeah, before we hopped on here live, you were telling me a story, so I want you to share that with these guys. Like this answering your phone thing. And you were working for somebody before this and just.

Yeah, I was in the hair restoration business and Selling men's hair.

I could do some of that.

A company in Dallas, Texas, actually met the guy at church, and it was great, right? I was young and probably making $100,000 a year back in, you know, 97, 98, and selling men's hair. Basically selling wigs, kind of. Right, right. You know, I told these guys what would happen, and these ladies and his. This dude that owned this company would have a stack of pink slips on his death. Like, that thick, like, 20, 30, 40 people that would call and be like, dude, call him back. Oh, I'll get to him eventually. I'm like, it just. It drove me crazy. But that. I mean, that's just. You know, I learned so much from that. Don't be him. You know? And so when the worst phone calls come in, those are the ones I answer. Like, oh, no, I don't. That's not a good one. But I got to answer it. Right?

I can remember, man, I hated those phone calls. I'm like, because when you're in that position of leadership, wherever it is, whether you're leading a team or you're the sales manager, production general manager, owner, you know, it always flows, like, uphill until it just hits critical.

Right.

And I can remember at one point I was like, God, man, why can't my people just do their thing and address these things and resolve these issues? And I hated this when I really, like, violently hated them, and I didn't want to answer them either. And when I did, I had the wrong attitude about it, but kind of switched that around to go, hey, you know, this is just another challenge, and how can I handle this better than the one before that? And how can I solve this person's problem in a way that they're happy now? You can't make everybody happy. I wish it could, but as long as I do my part, I feel like I've done something. That's what you can do. All you can do, right?

Absolutely.

So as far as sales goes, let's just talk sales. Like, that's a lot of these guys listening. Today. We've got 35 people on here, another hundred or two watching on Facebook here. So let's talk. There's people who are like, justin's gonna be on. Well, it was funny. We were. And I'll get back to what I was just going to say, but we talked before this, and I said, you know, I'd love to have you on my podcast and do that. And you were like, yeah, I'll do it. And I was like, man, I'M surprised you haven't been on any others. Like I would expect, like you would be on there and you're like, oh, I've been asked and your words back to me meant a lot. I'll share them if that's okay with you.

Sure, absolutely.

Yeah. You said yeah. I haven't done them before, but I know you're a brother in Christ, so I'm up for it. And just so you know, you're doing a great job. You're fantastic. You should do more. You got a great message and people need that type of influence out there and to know it's okay to know it's okay to just do things right. You don't have to cut corners and stuff like that. I like the idea of being able to like be able to walk through the grocery store with my head up, walk around town with my head up type of thing. So back to sales. If one thing like this is a new guy listening today, there's one thing that would like be the piece of advice you'd give them. What would it be?

It's one word. It's just consistency. You got to go to work. You know, Paul Reed said a long time ago, get out of your truck. You know, I don't remember where he was at or wherever, but just get off your ass and get it and get, get out of your truck. Right? And that's, that's it. You got to go to work every day in sales, you know, we used.

To use that in ours. The hardest door to, to get open is the one to your truck. Yeah, yeah, right, get that. Like if you can open that one, you're on your, you're halfway there, man. Just go knock on the door at that point, go to the appointment or get in and do a marking. Maybe door knocking isn't your thing. I mean, there's some cool ways to find business these days if you.

It works better than anything. I mean, that's one thing that hasn't changed since I started this in 99. This right here still works a hundred percent better than everything else.

I call it instant business for low cost advertising. Right now I can go get a job. All I gotta do is get outta my truck, go knock a door and I can go get a job.

Absolutely.

And I don't think it should ever be like, not a thing. As a matter of fact, we had like a way of looking at. We teach to a lot of our contractors that it's not a situation of you're selling, you know, you shouldn't even look at it like that. It's. It's a responsibility to educate because all these people, they've got a problem. We know they have a problem. There's another entity that knows they have a problem too, the insurance companies. They're sure as heck not going to call them and say, hey, you should make a claim. Although I saw USA with this ad on TV saying they notified the guy.

I just saw that. Was that during the football game or something?

Like, I haven't heard that one yet. Neat commercial. But I haven't heard anybody actually like deal with that. But it's like a responsibility on our part to like, they're not going to do it. We need to let you know at least. And I can hop up there and let you verify one way or the other and then you can take it from there if you want to. Pretty easy thing to do. It's not like, like everybody kind of feels like slimy knocking on the door. This is the one. I was like, this isn't. This is door to door sales educating.

People that their property has, you know, turn 50, 500, a million dollars worth of damage on their property. They have no idea. I mean, what a, what a blessing we are to them to go help them.

Yeah, blessing, man. That's a great way to put it. We are a blessing to you. Just absolutely. It was lucky it was us. Right? Right. Yeah. So you talked about like my year. What's your best year?

Man, I probably wouldn't. It was 8 million a couple years ago that I sold and did. And then Matt Irvin smoked me the next year at 11 million.

So that's an interesting relationship the two of you guys have. Really throw in Eric Hunter into that group too. Like, it seems like the three of you, you're all on Facebook, it seems like all the time. I don't know how you do what you do and be on Facebook and do the things you do, but there's this strange dynamic with the three of you. Or interesting might be even a better word. You guys genuinely enjoy each other. Why is that?

Man? That's a great question. You know what? Eric's an awesome guy. Micah's amazing. You know, if you're, if you're on svg, go vote for Micah for woman of the year. Oh, yeah, right. If you're on here, Facebook Live or whatever this thing is, go vote for Micah Hunter on SVG.

And vote for Precision for residential roofer. The top residential roofer of the year. Yeah, man, I, I did yesterday.

Both of them. Yeah, me too. And so they're awesome. But me, you know, me and Matt went to go. You know, I wanted to learn from Eric, like I told you. Then Matt actually saw what I was doing with Eric, and he showed my house a little pink Prius, and we stood up all night showing each other our software programs that we've used forever and talking about our guys. And then we worked together for a few years, and then we partnered up whenever that hurricane hit in Florida. We became business partners. So now we're partners in Restore Masters. And, you know, if there's anybody on here also that is stuck in their business and want to learn from someone great in the commercial side of it, we're your guys. Call us. We can help.

Yeah. So that's the thing. Like, you wanted to build pretty roofs and do some bigger. You know, here's my attitude. This is why I got into the commercial side of it. Like, hey, that's one customer I got to keep happy instead of 100. And so that's why I consist. Like, I didn't start there. It took many years of gaining knowledge and learning, and I didn't have anybody out there that I could go to. Back in those days, guys were like, I'm not telling you anything, buddy. And so you had to rely on manufacturers knowing a little bit, you had to rely on suppliers knowing a little bit, and then kind of learn by fire. I mean, it really was. There wasn't this access to information, which, for me, I think that's the biggest thing that's changed in this industry in the last, really, five, six years. Just access to information, this knowledge, and this willingness actually to, like, crazy get out there.

Yeah. People call me with a question. I don't know. Right. I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but, man, I got some amazing people on my phone that I can text, and they're like, yeah, dude, no problem. Here's blah, blah, blah. Right. It's awesome. I mean, just people being willing to answer questions at the drop of a hat, you know? Yeah.

It's why we. It's why we do this. This doesn't cost anybody anything. We do this for free. We want people to learn, get better at what they do. Kind of set that bar a little bit higher, and hopefully we're kind of that pebble in the pond and these waves go out and saying, hey, man, this industry can be done right and still make a great living and actually probably do better than doing it wrong and kind of trying to run around the backside of things. So are you telling me Eric's hiring. Like, if somebody wanted to learn that stuff, he'd hire him and say, hey, I can teach you how to do these pretty roofs. And it sounds like you're hiring, too.

Like, hey, I'm sure Eric's. He's always hiring, right? But yeah, we're hiring too.

And that's a funny.

Don't call Eric.

Boy, that's gonna. I can't wait to see the comments on that one. It's like, thanks a lot, buddy. Taught you all this stuff and now you shoot me down. So what do you think is going to be the things that change in the near future? Like, as this industry continues on, how do you see it changing?

You know, just the. I guess would be the billing side of it changing. Right. You know, you see all the. I'm calling Eric.

Yeah. Christian Coleman's like, I'm calling Eric.

He won't answer his phone. Don't worry. I'm just kidding. He's always answering his phone. You know, just the billing side of it. I saw a deal the other day with hospitals having to, you know, show all their billing or prices up front or whatnot. You know, I think that's all going to change very, very soon. You know, all the, all the, all the insurance companies in their. What are they, the repair programs or whatever. I don't know how much that can ever happen, but, you know, that's probably one of the biggest issues that we're going to face.

Yeah, I think just this, like we said, technology, access to information, more and more of it, more transparency. I think that's something that we're going to see. Now. I do want to remind the people you guys are on the. The webinar aspect of this. If you want to ask questions of Justin, feel free to throw them up there. If you want to learn something from somebody that has been there, done it, and probably done, you know, a wide variety of information and done well, more than I have. Like, he's been a contractor the whole entire time, like from 99 till now. One way or the other. As a salesperson learning from another company, having his own company, this would be a great time to ask those questions. And if you're on Facebook Live as well, throw them in there and our team will grab them from over there and put them in here. But who's had the most impact on you in this industry? Like this one person, whether it be in the industry or outside the industry, like mentor type thing, who's been that person for you or people sales wise?

Probably Matt Urban. Honestly, that dude Works harder than anybody. I thought I worked a lot, and he just inspires me like crazy, you know, it's just. So I'm gonna have to throw that up to him. He's. He's a beast.

And we'll have to get that guy on here soon.

He's inspired me to, you know, just keep my foot to the pedal. Right. You know, and, you know, we're been doing this forever, and sometimes, you know, you go through that, as Anthony would call it, bell shaped curve or whatnot. Well, we don't. We don't have that around here. We just. We were always going. And so he's been a huge inspiration just to keep going, keep pushing hard.

Now, were you friends before this industry or just because.

No, we met on Facebook.

Okay. So I was kind of watching you guys as you met then I remember kind of that conversation. That's interesting because you kind of started off, like. And then it was, like, constantly talking to each other. All right, so when it comes to your wife, she obviously loves you, cares for you. What are some of the things that she said to you as you go through all of this that have inspired you, kept you going?

Why are you still here? I'm looking out on my phone. She's like, why are you still here? Get out of here. Right, right. She's like, go. And seriously, like, she's like, I see that. I hear that dinging on your phone. Why are you still here? You know, all the people call, hey, how's that storm? How's that? And over and over and over, you know, for 20 years. Why are you still here? You know?

So she's a little bit of that driving force, huh? Like, she pushes you.

Oh, yeah, yeah. She's awesome, dude. She's a beast.

So one of the things I noticed that's a similarity between, you know, contractors and sales guys, and just, like, who we are in this industry, the ones that are, like, successful, you know, influencers. I got called an influencer the other day, and then I've gotten called that, like, five times in the last two weeks. I'm like, what in the world? Aren't those, like, the models on Instagram and stuff like that? I don't really understand what that even is.

I think Jonathan Sherwood is the influencer this year, right?

I think so, yeah. He seems like he's awesome. I didn't even know who he was a year ago. Now he's like, everywhere, and it is awesome. I got to meet him. So, yeah, like, we have this opportunity, right? All of us, that being on this digital media doing what we do, we have this opportunity to impact people either positively or negatively. And we see a lot of the negative. Like I see that in these threads and people being frustrated with stuff and things like that. Right. And their first reaction tends to be to go to negative. That's just human instinct, is to kind of go to negative. I'm seeing more and more go to positive. More and more, like intentional about it. Like really thinking, like, hey, before I make this comment or do this thing, can I possibly be positive about it instead of negative? And I noticed that about you. Like, anytime you're on one of those things, it's pretty rare. You might have a lot of humor in it, but you're not. You're not negative. I haven't seen any of that. Is that intentional by you? Is that purposeful?

Well, of course, my. All the time, yeah. I mean, why not, right? Yeah, yeah, but who wants. Nobody's gonna listen to you, right? How to how to Win Friends and Influence People was a huge book I read a long time ago. And, you know, never criticize, condemn, or complain anybody. Right. The season. That's no reason to ever complain. No reason to be negative. You know, nobody wants to hear it.

Okay, so it looks like we got a couple questions, and I agree with you. I mean, nobody wants to hear you gripe and complain, right? And so there's first questions from Josh Hudson. Line item pricing versus total project pricing. How do you handle that? And do you have success getting carrier to agree to total project price? Or are you stuck putting. Playing the claim game, like line item stuff?

The claim game is, you know, it is what it is, right? You have to call and you have to make sense. You have to know what you're talking about. If you can explain it to the person on the other end of the phone, you can get your total project paid for, but you have to explain the line items to them. If you're just saying, I need a million dollars, they're not going to give you a million dollars.

It's got to be justified and reasonable.

You have to justify it. You have to make it make sense, and you have to prove it to them that you need that money. And then. And you're good. And we can do that, right?

Yeah. Steve Patrick uses that quite a bit justifiable and reasonable. And I think he has the word righteous on there as well. But I think the smaller companies, you know, they put together whatever it is, their estimate or their proposal, and it's got this price on it. It goes to the insurance company. As long as it fits within what the insurance company can do, line item wise, in their own stuff, they're usually okay with it. Now, the bigger you get and the more impact you have, they're going to want to see you kind of line item that stuff out and get on board with what it is that they do. I don't necessarily agree with that. We actually work with a lot of contractors that don't do that anymore. They actually say, hey, this is our project. This is what's included with it. This is our price. And your insurance company isn't ever going to pay what we charge. They don't do that. We put on and they don't pitch, you know, a good better best. They pitch better best and fall back to the rest. If we have to.