In 2018 I made the shift to focusing all my time on flood insurance, flood education, and flood consulting. If someone had a flood question I wanted to make sure we had an answer, but more importantly I wanted to make sure we had the right answer.

So I thought to myself how do I do this? How do I climb this massive mountain and where do I start?

So I started doing some research on things. I started looking at using video more in business and using content to answer these questions. Through my research I came across 5 people that would help mold the vision of our company over the next year, change my life, and change the future for my family.

So in this blog we will discuss the first person

Nicholas Ayers

I had briefly communicated with Nicholas Ayers through a private agency owner group that I am. He is the cofounder of one of the fastest growing independent agency owners group in the country. In 2018 he created a video course called Made You Look Video. I had paid for all these courses through the years and while I had taken some value from them I felt this one would be a game changer.

So I took a risk and purchased the course. At this point I am walking away from what many would call an easy job of just collecting insurance renewals to basically start over.

On our first call it felt different with Nicholas. Unlike everything else I had done through the years. I could feel his heart to help and his authenticity. First of all unlike all these courses where they want to keep all the secrets secret, Nicholas wants you to share them with the world.

His sole focus is making sure he is helping you be successful whether you want to make a million dollars or try to change the world.

It's one of the great things he teaches in his course is finding a way to connect with people who are seeking information. It's also Nicholas who pushed me to create something new by combining looking like an idiot, being professional, and providing great content. You can see a picture of the famous poop hat below.

As I worked through my original goal of 30 videos in 30 days Nicholas made sure that I recorded some of the most uncomfortable videos. The goal was to get comfortable being on camera which can be challenging.

So when I finished this challenge I decided to commit to a year of video. Yes 365 flood education videos in 365 days. However we would travel the entire country shooting these videos. We recorded in flooded areas like Tulsa Oklahoma and Nebraska City Nebraska. We recorded videos at the top of the Mississippi River in Des Moines Iowa all the way to New Orleans Louisiana. Honestly I thought I would make it 10 days but some how I made it a year. Each step of the way Nicholas was there to answer questions either in his course or even by facebook messenger.

Trust me I had a lot of questions along the way, but I could also tell that my video skills where slowly growing.

Nicholas even connected me with another video newbie by the name of Michael Overstreet. We learned along the way really feeding off each other when it came to approaches and ideas.

Michael Overstreet has now become one of the top insurance video marketers in Arizona and owns Safe Street Insurance. He even has a gardening channel on YouTube called The Garden Nerd that I highly recommend you checking out.

Even I can grow fruit as you can see below.

So the year of video came to an end so now what? Do we stop? Do we keep going? Are we making a difference?

These are all questions I had. A day didn't go by where someone wouldn't send me a message telling me the difference our videos where making.

Some how over the course of a year we had built this national brand on flood education and awareness by using video.

We had appeared on multiple podcast across the country and done an interview with insurance journal. A kid who failed college English 4 times was now using video everyday and using it to create change.

You remember that group I told Nicholas Ayers started well it has one of the top conferences in the country every year. I had made excuses about not making it in the past, but I was dedicated to making the trip in 2020. So in January 2020 I made the trip to San Diego to connect with other insurance agents. The connections I made at that conference were incredible. Once again the work of Nicholas Ayers.

While in the conference I had stepped out of one of the presentations to call my wife. We were on different time zones and I wanted to make sure to catch her and my daughter before their bedtime.

As the session ended people came out congratulating me. I had no idea what they were talking about.

When I stepped out of the session I had missed accepting the award for member of the year. Me a one man operation getting the award among all these incredible people just felt kind of wrong. I was able to get the award from the other founder Dave Jackson a few hours later.

When I got it everything started to sink in. Everything that happened over the last year, and diving into a niche market that others said couldn't be done.

Once again I realized none of it would have been possible without Nicholas Ayers.

Fast forward to June 2020 and we are approaching 550 videos in 550 days on our way to 1000 videos. Will I stop at 1000? My wife probably hopes so, but I feel this is the way I am leaving my mark on the world. It's because of a man named Nicholas Ayers.

So this is the story of how Nicholas Ayers changed the Flood Insurance Guru and my life forever.

 

Recently we did taco night for dinner. It's usually a combination of tacos and cheese dip.

I always cook the cheese on low constantly making sure to not burn it. Some how every time I get distracted and burn it to the bottom of the pan. However this particular night the cheese came out perfect with no burning to the pan.

It reminded me that anything is possible like the city of Houston going a year without flooding or properties flooding that have never happened before.

Houston has been hit really hard with flooding over the last five years. Its not just hurricanes that have caused flooding but also urban flooding from afternoon thunderstorms.

Many of these areas were in non mandatory flood zones also known as flood zone X.

So many residents and property owners have been left with paying for everything out of pocket.

So if these were non mandatory zones why did they flood?

Part of the problem is that many people and sometime communities look at a flood map as what the risk of flooding in that area will be. It's important to understand that flood maps are used from a regulatory standpoint to identify high risk areas. They can't tell us if a property will flood and how much water will be in the property.

If that was the case many property owners would have had coverage in place to cover these floods. Apartment building owners are a group that have learned this lesson the hard way.

Apartment building owners can get hit twice when it comes to flooding.

1. Building
2. Rent

The first area that apartment building owners have to worry about is the actual building being damaged. Imagine having to completely redo 100 apartments. As you can imagine that can get expensive and be time consuming.

Now imagine losing rent on these units for 6 months. That could cause anyone to go broke. Well these are two areas that private flood insurance policies address. Having replacement cost on a building like this can be very important in bringing them back to being livable.

Imagine getting half way done with repairs only to realize you are out of money. This is exactly what can happen without the proper flood insurance coverage.

Unlike the National Flood Insurance Program private flood insurance companies can offer business interruption coverage. This coverage can help cover things like loss of rent. This can help a property continue to get income while a property is being repaired.

So how do you chose the right flood insurance replacement coverage on your apartment building?

Well its recommended that you find a good commercial insurance agent that deals with properties like this each day. Then make sure that the replacement cost on your flood insurance matches the building coverage.

So what about business interruption coverage?

Here at the flood insurance guru we recommend starting with about 6 months of expenses. If you can get this amount covered then it should hopefully give you enough time for repairs. It's important to understand that many private flood insurance carriers may limit business interruption coverage to 10 to 20% of the insured amount of the building.

So if you have questions about getting the right flood insurance on your apartment building then make sure to click here. you can also check out our daily flood education videos on our YouTube channel.

Remember we have an educational background in flood mitigation so we are here to help you understand your flood risks, flood insurance, and mitigating your apartment building against flooding.