Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The official podcast of Shoemaker Films. Every week we share content related to digital marketing, video production, and brand building; and frequently meet with local creatives, entrepreneurs, and business owners for in-depth conversations. Get to know local heavy hitters and influencers in the Greater Philadelphia region while picking up some tactical advice and tips on starting and running a business, being productive, creating content, and everything in between.
Hi, everyone. This is Dane Schumacher. Welcome to the Schumacher Films podcast. I'm here with Glenn Amaril, Glenn, of, your Connick Agency. Glenn,
Glenn Ammarell:how are
Dane Shoemaker:you today?
Glenn Ammarell:I'm doing great, Dane. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. And, you know, here at the Willows, who can, you know Yeah. Pass this up for sure?
Dane Shoemaker:Willows Park Reserve, Willows Mansion in Radnor. It's beautiful.
Glenn Ammarell:Awesome.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. So, you know, we're, we've been trying to get this on the books for a long time. I know. Absolutely. I'm coming out of here right now.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. Fantastic.
Dane Shoemaker:This is great. So thanks for thanks for joining. So excited to dive into, the world of commercial insurance, learn a little bit more. It's definitely an area that I need to brush up on. I know a lot of people typically, it's one of those things that maybe they're not too excited to jump into.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. It's not too exciting Yeah. But
Dane Shoemaker:it's for,
Glenn Ammarell:people like me, I guess.
Dane Shoemaker:But it's, it's critical, obviously. Oh, absolutely. It's required and, it can really save your save your business.
Glenn Ammarell:So Absolutely. I mean, that's your biggest investment.
Dane Shoemaker:So why don't you tell us tell us just a little bit about yourself.
Glenn Ammarell:Okay. Tell
Dane Shoemaker:us about your iconic agency.
Glenn Ammarell:Well, I'm with the your iconic agency, which is, part of the Keystone, Agency Partners
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:Which essentially what that does is, that gives us bigger buying power. Right? So, you know, it gets us to more markets. We're able to do, you know, captive insurance for larger businesses. You know, it just gives you a a larger infrastructure.
Glenn Ammarell:So but we still have the, you know, the small feel, which is great. You know, sometimes I have to, you know, remember that I have those resources, which are awesome. So, I've been with the agency about 10 years.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:It's a a great company. And if you're in the Lehigh Valley, you know the Yirconic Agency. So I'm trying to help develop that a little bit more out here in the mainline.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:You know, that's where I met you in the mainline chamber, which has been a fantastic resource for me to get to to know the community and the businesses and the people. You know? So some great relationships.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Absolutely.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. That's, you know, tried to stay involved in the community. Like I said, meeting you in the, mainline chamber, you know, being part of Rotary and just really trying to give back to the community.
Dane Shoemaker:Yep. Yep.
Glenn Ammarell:So that's it's been awesome.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. I agree. And just kind of a just kind of like a quick commercial for mainline chamber Commerce. They've been awesome. I've been a member for maybe 2 years now coming on year and a half or so.
Dane Shoemaker:But, yeah, you you kinda got us to got us to join. I think we came to a networking event. We had just joined, but then you you introduced us to the ChamberConnect group and, you know a lot of the members there. So I've made some introductions. So it's been really great.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. I mean, it's it's I look at it like a bank account. In the beginning, I was just making deposits. In other words, I was going to everything, every meeting, everything out there. And now I can take the withdrawal.
Glenn Ammarell:So if I'm not around for a month and I go to a meeting, I still know people, which has been tremendous. You know? And, you know, and some of the relationships, even some that that aren't business have been been great, you know, because it's it's a balance, you know, a work life balance. So you have to enjoy yourself along the way as well.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Absolutely. I love that analogy of making making deposits and, you know, it's like anything in in business. You gotta put in some work in order to get something out of it.
Glenn Ammarell:You know, I'm part of the, you know, ambassador committee, and I'll talk to somebody and, you know, they'll be talking ROI. And sometimes when you're talking ROI, it's like you have your blinders on. Yeah. It's like, first off, how often have you gone to meetings? The mainline chamber, you know, BNI, no matter what it is, is not gonna work if you don't go.
Dane Shoemaker:Right? Right. Right.
Glenn Ammarell:So first off, you have to do that. And and sometimes I sit sit back and realize, like, oh my gosh. This really great, you know, contact that I met wasn't through the chamber, but it was through somebody at the chamber. And sometimes you really have to to think about that and how valuable those relationships are. Yep.
Glenn Ammarell:And sometimes, like, with the Society of Professional Women
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:You walk out of there and it's just you know, you're inspired to to do more.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. That's a great organization.
Glenn Ammarell:Value. So that's what I'm talking about by taking the blinders out often, really realizing everything that you can get out of the the chamber.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And and just networking is such a huge part of business, referrals, building relationships.
Glenn Ammarell:Absolutely. Yeah. Yes. And and just coming up with ideas. You know, brainstorming like our Chamber Connect group.
Glenn Ammarell:Right? It's it's kind of a mastermind, so you don't feel that pressure to give leads.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Glenn Ammarell:You can come in there and say, hey. This last quarter has been tough. You know? This is what I'm seeing, and, you know, has anybody else seen this, and and and what have you done to overcome that?
Dane Shoemaker:So Right.
Glenn Ammarell:It's kinda like a support group. We all need them from time to time.
Dane Shoemaker:I agree. Yeah. And I love the, you know, David Wyman who runs the ChamberConnect Group does such a good job at bringing people in. You know, we just kinda share what's going on and, you know, get help with different business issues. So I found that to be a really
Glenn Ammarell:Oh my gosh. Yeah. He has a wealth of knowledge in, you know, working with larger companies, and we get the value of that. Yeah. Again, you know, it's like if you're looking at your spreadsheet, you're not seeing dollars and cents directly.
Glenn Ammarell:But indirectly, I'm sure you're seeing a lot.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Absolutely. Yep. So it went on a little bit of a tangent there
Glenn Ammarell:on main
Dane Shoemaker:on mainline chamber. So hopefully welcome.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:But, yeah. Talk to us a little bit about what's going on in in, insurance industry.
Glenn Ammarell:Well, it it's been a a hard market, which, has been challenging. And, you know, most of my customers, you know, they may not call it a hard market, but they know that they've been paying more in premiums. Yeah. We've had to move to different carriers because, you know, the capacity in the market has shrunk. So in other words, you know, some of these carriers are not putting the capital into certain market segments.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:And, basically, it's caused by economic conditions, inflation Yeah. You know, cost of, you know, cost of goods, you know, increases your property cost, which increases your premium, and catastrophic losses, you know, with, you know, all these natural disasters because it's spread across, you know Okay. You know, you're helping pay essentially for other people's losses. So, you know, there every insurance company purchases reinsurance.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Glenn Ammarell:So the reinsurance market has been getting hit a lot with these catastrophic losses so that in turn, increases their premiums, and it just trickles all all the way down to, you know, the the consumer, which would be my, my customers.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Do you have a, like, do you have a specific clientele that you focus on? Maybe the agency overall or maybe your segment specifically?
Glenn Ammarell:Or I'm kind of a generalist. You know? I like to work with, you know, contractors. I like, you know, every even if they're in the same industry, every company has different needs. And, you know, whether it's pollution and things like that to to really dig into their policy.
Glenn Ammarell:I mean, I'm not just there to transact the you know, like, hey. Here's your quote. Yeah. I'm here to take a look at at, your current policy, analyze that, and, you know, see if there's any gaps in coverages and, you know, and, you know, inform the customer of what what they're missing out on and, you know, you know, putting together recommendations.
Dane Shoemaker:You know, why is it so important for a business to pick a particular broker? I mean, I know there's a lot of there's a lot of options out there. I mean, why you know, what makes brokers different from each other, and and why would they go with you?
Glenn Ammarell:Well, broker selection, which is it took a while. I mean Yeah. When when you're starting out in the business, you're so desperate to to get business. You go into situations where if you were to see the red lights going in, you would have stopped immediately. But, broker selection so if you have a you know, everybody has insurance.
Glenn Ammarell:Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:And if they're looking to, look at alternatives, you don't wanna have 2 or 3 other agents quoting because they're all just stepping over each other. So what you wanna do is interview those agents and see what resources can really, you know, benefit you as a customer. So that could be, you know, claims management, risk control, and, you know, helping set up a safety committee. All those various things are are resources and access to the market. Right?
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. So that's where I've been fortunate with, you know, KAP being part of the Yaconic agency that that I have access to, markets that, you know, other carriers or agents may not. So Okay. It's been helpful. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:But I'll tell you, it's no matter how much you know, it's really hard to walk away from business. But, you know, when you keep losing because it wasn't the right right situation you learned. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not in the business of, you know, just giving a price.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure. Yeah. Do you have a particular, like, an ideal client? You know, like, what would be a what would be with the best case scenario for a client?
Glenn Ammarell:The best ideal client would be somebody that understands that they have these needs
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:And they don't feel that they're getting them.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:So there's there's a problem. Because I've I've learned going in, you know, I've talked to people. It's like, yeah. Sure. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:I'll take a look and see what you got. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that that's not a good opportunity because you start asking questions, and I've done this where I say, hey.
Glenn Ammarell:You know, when your agent does this, you know, how's that worked out for you? And you go through all those questions, and it seems like they're doing a good job. Yeah. So at that point, yes. It's like
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. You know, they probably
Glenn Ammarell:shop you out. Yeah. And you don't need me to do that because chances are you wouldn't move anyway.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Glenn Ammarell:You're just seeing what what's out there because Yeah. You think, like, when you're doing your deck and it's just a different Yeah. Different situation.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Are there are there typical things that, or common things, I guess, you you you identify where where people have gaps in their current policies or, anything like that?
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. I mean, it could be from pollution to cyber coverage. And I mean Yeah. All businesses are starting to understand cyber. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. Because a lot of the business owners policy, pack package policies have, like, data compromise.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:And I talked to my cyber liability expert, and he's like, that's kinda like, you have a $600,000 house and you insure the door. Right? Right.
Dane Shoemaker:Right.
Glenn Ammarell:So you need 1st party, 3rd party, and you need somebody that that understands that. And the most important thing I've learned about, like, cyber, for example Yeah. Is that's like having a 911. Yeah. Because if you were to if I were to get hacked right now, I'd be like, I don't know.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. I have no idea. Where they have the resources, they know how to negotiate with the bad actors, you know, and they even know them, which is crazy. So, you just make that call and they take care of that for you.
Dane Shoemaker:That's that's interesting. Yeah. I'm sure that's a a rising, you know, issue. Oh. So how does that work?
Dane Shoemaker:So if I'm a business, I mean, are there's, like, the IT side of things where you actually, you know, your your data protection and malware, you know, threat detection stuff, but then you also have the insurance side of things.
Glenn Ammarell:That is, you know Okay. Very insightful of you, Dan. Okay. Because, You know, first off, you know, I I I like to surround myself with people that are, smarter in certain areas than me, and, you know, cybersecurity is one of them.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:So somebody doesn't have that situation going on right now, I say, hey. You need to talk to you know, here's somebody in cybersecurity. You know, they can, either make sure that you're not just putting a Band Aid on something that needs stitches.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Glenn Ammarell:But now a lot of the stand alone cyber liability carriers are requiring that you have certain things in place like the multifactor authentication Okay. And things like that.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Okay. So I had, like, a background in security, but, like, I'm not too familiar with the insurance side of things. So the the insurance is kind of set up in the event that you do have a data loss or a breach or
Glenn Ammarell:Data breach, data
Dane Shoemaker:loss, rates, and The company might have to pay fines or something and then insurance. Yep. Yep. Got it. Wow.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. So I have a guy that does cyber liability for us. So
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:Even if you have a stand alone policy, I'll take it, send it to him. I'm like, tear it apart. And he'll come back and say, it's missing this. It doesn't have the 3rd party coverage. It has a sublimit Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:Where they think they're covered for 2,000,000, but they're only covered for 250 Yeah. 1,000. So I've seen that. So I rely on somebody that knows does that every single day. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:So, yeah, you you find, you know, even within the coverage, you find gaps of coverage. Sure.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. And I'm sure most people or a lot of businesses are gonna have kind of the bare minimum starting out, or at least I know that I I know for a fact I have, like, the bare minimum. So I think we need to talk at some point.
Glenn Ammarell:But Well, yeah. You know, it's different now. It's not as expensive as you think. Yeah. Right.
Glenn Ammarell:And it's easy enough to come up with, an idea how much it costs. Yeah. Number of employees, you know, your sales number, boom. There you go. This is around where it'll be, and then we can if you decide, yeah, I'm I'm interested, then we go deeper.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right. Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:And, you know, then you get a you know, your IT people, they like it too. It helps protect them as well. Yeah. I mean, they don't they work together very well with, you know, cybersecurity. They wanna keep everything working because it's a bread and butter.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure. Sure. Is that usually are you working with the IT teams on that usually or is it more on the legal?
Glenn Ammarell:That would be like, if I bring in a cybersecurity professional, they would work with the IT IT people. And then cyber liability, when those applications come out, the IT people are gonna need to help.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Right.
Glenn Ammarell:You know? Because it's beyond me. I mean Yep. I'm not a cyber liability expert. Again, that's why
Dane Shoemaker:That's why you have the experts.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. Right. Like, I'm not a media expert. That's why this guy right here. Right?
Glenn Ammarell:I mean, truly. Yeah. Because I don't know. You know? So I know what I don't know and try to stick in my lane.
Dane Shoemaker:So you had mentioned something before, a term I've not heard before. So hard markets versus soft markets.
Glenn Ammarell:Mhmm.
Dane Shoemaker:You know, to, you know, the layperson. What what are what explain those terms and then what are we in right now?
Glenn Ammarell:We're in a hard market, but it may be coming to the end of the hard market. Yeah. So there's been some indicators, but that a hard market is the increase in premiums, you know, the lack of you know, the lower capacity to write the business. And, I mean, I've certainly had some challenges, especially on property. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:Property has gotten very difficult because, you know, if it doesn't have, you know, mean to be gross, it's not a, you know, a perfect risk. A lot of carriers are saying, no. I'm not writing that.
Dane Shoemaker:Really?
Glenn Ammarell:You know, in the sprinkler system. So it's it's it's a challenge.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure. Sure. And the soft market is just when things kinda ease up.
Glenn Ammarell:When it eases up. Because I think some of the hard mark you know, like, I think maybe in the soft market, things are priced just to get business because right now, the workers' compensation is pretty easy.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. You know, so 8 years ago, that was the problem. We're a cop. Rates were going up, and it was just, it was a challenge.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Our insurance and this might be a dumb question. Are insurance rates tied closely to the fed and the interest rates?
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. They you know, they're they're tied to the market. Yep.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Okay. Yep.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. I mean, hopefully how that's, you know, how their investments are are working for sure. There's definitely some economic indicators there that that, drive drive a hard market.
Dane Shoemaker:And what do you see for the next, you know, couple years? I mean
Glenn Ammarell:Well, what I I don't know what's gonna happen with AI. I mean
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:Either even from, like, now people can clone your voice. So if your wife calls you, I mean, you're gonna need a safe word. Right? It's like she says, hey. You need to wire, you know, to such and such media be for you know, pay this bill.
Glenn Ammarell:And you're like, okay. Yeah. But that wasn't her. It was somebody that cloned her voice. I mean, those are things that I'm like, what's gonna happen?
Dane Shoemaker:I mean, AI is touching every part of of the business, you know, our business too. I mean, you know, you're gonna be able to
Glenn Ammarell:Oh, yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:You know, we're we're you and I are gonna be able to, like, just do this virtually and make it look like we're in person or something. You know?
Glenn Ammarell:Literally, you know, I was thinking before I came here, just went on to AI and like, hey. What Yeah. What's going on? What are the, you know, the hot topics right now in in the insurance industry? You know?
Glenn Ammarell:So Yeah. It's so easy. It's it's really Right.
Dane Shoemaker:The tools that are out there. I mean, if things get progressively more advanced too, I mean, a year from now, who knows what it's gonna look like? It's crazy.
Glenn Ammarell:So Oh, I've
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:I I can't imagine. But, you know, my that and my biggest concern is these catastrophic losses. I mean, are they gonna continue to be Yeah. Natural disasters?
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:I can't imagine my counterparts working in Florida Yeah. Or along the coast anywhere. I mean, it just really depends
Dane Shoemaker:on about climate change or, you know, weather or
Glenn Ammarell:Climate change or Yeah. You know, whatever Yeah. Is causing it. It's definitely you know? So far, knock on wood.
Glenn Ammarell:I don't know what I would around here, but the hurricane season's been kinda kinda good.
Dane Shoemaker:This Yeah. Yeah. I would I would say it's a little tamer than it has been in
Glenn Ammarell:the past. A little cool waters off Africa. Yeah. I saw that this morning in the news.
Dane Shoemaker:Atlantic, Nina, or something like that. Have you seen that? Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker:I mean, what else? I mean, do you, you know, what do you what are your clients coming to to you asking about? What are some common questions?
Glenn Ammarell:I mean, a lot of the questions are, you know, centered around, like, I have some renewals coming up, and I know the current carrier is not going to renew them.
Dane Shoemaker:Really?
Glenn Ammarell:So whether it's certain aspects of their business, they decide they don't wanna do anymore. Yeah. So now I gotta scramble to find another carrier. So at a comparable rate.
Dane Shoemaker:So Just because they've done some kind of risk analysis or would like?
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. They said, like, they'll do a risk analysis of their whole book. Like, it could be, carrier decide, well, we've had a lot of losses in the HVAC, so we're not we're gonna put a pause on it. That's the word that is
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:For now.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:And we're not gonna write any more, heating and air conditioning contractors for an example.
Dane Shoemaker:Oh, wow. Just because it's, yeah, just because it's not profitable for them or there's too much risk or yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. Yeah. Because they look at the data.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Right.
Glenn Ammarell:And the data says, hey. You know, we're we're taking a beating on this. It's all about the the loss ratio. Mhmm. I mean, I think, you know, a lot of these carriers, if they were to have, for every dollar they took in Mhmm.
Glenn Ammarell:They put out 97. They'd be having a party. Yeah. I mean, that's great. You know?
Glenn Ammarell:So, you know and I know a lot of people are like, ah, insurance companies. Right? So, yeah, it could be a challenge. I mean, there's a lot of insurance companies going out of business in Florida. You know?
Glenn Ammarell:It Sure. Because of what happened, you know, the you know, some of these disasters. So I think it's, yeah, it's gonna be interesting interesting times for sure.
Dane Shoemaker:We're we're probably lucky being up here kind of mid Atlantic. Mhmm. You know, Pennsylvania. It's pretty pretty temperate climate, I would say. I mean, it's not not too hot, too cold unless I I don't know.
Glenn Ammarell:Right. Well, you know
Dane Shoemaker:We haven't got a whole lot snow in the last couple of years. So
Glenn Ammarell:A glass half full.
Dane Shoemaker:Okay.
Glenn Ammarell:So
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:Whether it's a hard market, soft market, whatever market, you know, we could all complain about it. Or we could look at it. Hey. Here's an opportunity.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure.
Glenn Ammarell:Right? Because everybody else is having the same problem. So I could come in and say, hey. I can solve your problem that you're not getting solved right now.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:So it's about solving a problem. And why would I wanna go if somebody's doing a good job, I don't really wanna come in and take their business unless, you know, their premium, I could tell, is way out of line.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. If they're doing
Glenn Ammarell:it, then somebody's gonna come do it to me. So somebody's doing their good a good job. There's plenty out there that aren't getting the service that they need.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:And that's who my ideal market is.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. And I can you know? I mean, you just have you're very personal in the way, you know.
Glenn Ammarell:Oh, yeah. You're too kind.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. I can I can see where, like, you know, a lot of it comes down to relationships
Glenn Ammarell:Mhmm?
Dane Shoemaker:And that trust. Like, delivering on what you on what you
Glenn Ammarell:And going back. You know? And it's like I I told a guy in the office, I had this epiphany. I'm like, you know, sometimes when you, walk into the fire, you get less burned. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:It's the truth because so many of us, I don't wanna deal with that situation. Right? Mhmm. You know, you just keep calling. You know?
Glenn Ammarell:And sometimes things like, if you have a a disaster like a I had an account, you know, 5 years ago, and they just had a disaster. A tornado ripped through, knocked down a 150 trees.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:It's just they're mad.
Dane Shoemaker:Right. Right.
Glenn Ammarell:I didn't do anything wrong, but they're mad.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure.
Glenn Ammarell:Then you just have to keep going to the plate and saying, here I am. Yeah. I will always answer your phone call, and I will always go to bat for you. And, you know, it it eases the pain a little bit because it's no fun, but you know? And I think you see that in lots of walks of life where when when it gets tough, people kinda shy away.
Glenn Ammarell:I don't feel like dealing with that.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. And I especially in your business, I mean, I feel like, you know, everyone has it, insurance. Mhmm. But when you have an issue, that's when it really counts. Right?
Glenn Ammarell:Correct. Right. And you want somebody that's gonna, you know, go to bat, advocate for you, and, you know, do do what it takes. Yep. Sometimes it just takes answering the phone.
Glenn Ammarell:Yep. Right? I've answered the phone and let somebody just talk about it. It's like, I can't believe this happened, and it's like, you know, how can we deal with this? And you just listen.
Glenn Ammarell:Sometimes it's just as simple as listening. Right? I mean, there's nothing you can do right at that moment, but just listen. Yep. Yep.
Glenn Ammarell:And if you didn't answer that phone call, then it just starts to So it's
Dane Shoemaker:a bad domino effect there.
Glenn Ammarell:Right. Right. We don't want that.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:It's like you. Like, if if you were you know, we're supposed to deliver something by 1 o'clock and it's 2 o'clock, somebody calls, you gotta answer the phone. Right? And say, hey. I'm This is the issue that I'm dealing with, and I will get to see you or whatever.
Glenn Ammarell:Right. Not that that would ever happen with Dang.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. It happens sometimes. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:We're all humans.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure.
Glenn Ammarell:Every one of us and I mean, other than the AI, if we're we're gonna have challenges. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. It's
Glenn Ammarell:just how we handle them.
Dane Shoemaker:Yep. Yep. Last question you had spent on here about board of advisers.
Glenn Ammarell:I mean, board of advisers yeah. I mean, yeah. It does
Dane Shoemaker:Relevant to, like, a business? Or,
Glenn Ammarell:Well, board of advisers, you know, I learned this from, you know, another, like, very successful agent Yeah. That said it's really important to have a board of advisers, and he's right. In your in your my industry. In in any industry.
Dane Shoemaker:It's
Glenn Ammarell:probably good in your industry. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Like Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:There's satellite industries that relate to you. Right? So if, like, a board of advisors would be if there's anything media related, you're on my board of advisers. Right? I'll call you.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Absolutely.
Glenn Ammarell:If somebody needs a commercial loan, I have somebody there that I I've kinda vetted to a degree. Right? You know, I have somebody that I work with that's a, you know, fractional CFO. Yeah. So if you need those services, I could say, hey.
Glenn Ammarell:You know? Mhmm. This is your guy.
Dane Shoemaker:Yep. You
Glenn Ammarell:know? Give him a call. Right? So people that do things that I don't do Right. And, you know, can make me more valuable.
Glenn Ammarell:You know, somebody can call up, say, hey, Glenn. Do you know anybody that does this? Yep. And I say, yes. I do.
Glenn Ammarell:Right? Yep. You know, I had a customer just yesterday, h HVAC customer. They they wanted somebody who does heat calculations through the chamber mainline chamber membership. I reached out to, you know, somebody at Barry Isaac and said, hey.
Glenn Ammarell:Do you know anybody? And, you know, Aaron gave me somebody that they could call.
Dane Shoemaker:Yep. You
Glenn Ammarell:know? So it's it's important to have people surround you that, you know, do things that you don't do.
Dane Shoemaker:So you had mentioned something to me, earlier when we were talking before the show about really having a board of advisors, you know, whether you're a business owner or you're, you know, an independent contractor, whatever it is, right, having being surrounded by the right kinds of people you know, to help you with your business, it really makes a lot of sense. And we're we're as a business owner, I'm trying to do that now
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. Absolutely.
Dane Shoemaker:As well. Right. And you've been a big help with that, actually, with connecting people within the Chamber and other other groups as well. How do you act as, like, an adviser to to to business owners? And can you talk a little bit about that?
Glenn Ammarell:How I would act as an adviser to somebody? So you came to me and you said I'm working with ABC Company.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:And, you know, they're having some issues, would you be willing to review their policies? Absolutely. Yeah. No strings attached. No I'm gonna try to sell them anything Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:Because nobody wants that. When they want information, they want information. And when you give information, it's like that book, The Go Giver. Yeah. At some point, it comes back to you.
Glenn Ammarell:I mean, whether it comes back to you then or some other time, it really doesn't matter.
Dane Shoemaker:Mhmm.
Glenn Ammarell:Just gotta do the right thing. You know? And, because as as you know, sales can be come off as dirty. Right?
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. That's the stigma sometimes. I mean, a lot of times. But yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:I just wanna be a resource, help people. And, so that's how I would act, you know, as somebody, you know, the go to person in insurance. Right? Right. And people call me up and say, hey.
Glenn Ammarell:My home my home auto. I'm like, let me connect you with somebody. Because funny enough, it's like, I don't do home and auto every day. I said, I don't know. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:You know? There might be some some nuance that I I'm not aware of. So here you go. Here's somebody in my office. Talk to them.
Glenn Ammarell:They'll know better than me. Yep.
Dane Shoemaker:So you can That's great.
Glenn Ammarell:So yeah. So yeah. I mean, and if I have like, I talked to you before this. I'm like, what if I wanted to do a podcast? How would I go about it?
Glenn Ammarell:Right? Mhmm. I you're the person to ask, right, when you have these these relationships, and it's super valuable.
Dane Shoemaker:Sure. Absolutely. Kinda build, like, your own, like, kinda network of people. Mhmm. Yep.
Dane Shoemaker:And it all comes down to relationships and, you know, so critical for business. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:You know? And good strong relationships for sure.
Dane Shoemaker:Yep. Well, Glenn, this is really insightful. A lot of fun. How can people, you know, get in touch with you, get in touch with your your Conic agency? You know?
Glenn Ammarell:Well, anybody could email me at, g amarell@yorkonic.com, or they can call me at 610-952-7145.
Dane Shoemaker:Cool. Alright. We'll put a link to the website also.
Glenn Ammarell:That'd be awesome. Yeah. Appreciate it.
Dane Shoemaker:Any closing thoughts or anything?
Glenn Ammarell:So what do you think opening day on Friday in Brazil, Eagles versus the Green Bay Packers, who's gonna win?
Dane Shoemaker:That's gonna be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely, I mean, I gotta I think Eagles have a pretty good shot. I mean, I you know?
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. I hope it did. We don't have the same problem after the Phillies went to, England there. No. Because they went downhill after that.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Glenn Ammarell:Yeah. So it's I can't believe it's gonna be fall, but thank you for for having me. And, you know, it was a lot of fun.
Dane Shoemaker:Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks, Glenn. Appreciate it.
Glenn Ammarell:Appreciate it. Take care.