Ep 133 - "Clean Claims & Magic Plan"

0:00 What's up, dude? Kind of an interesting show today. A little tech-oriented. Yeah, very tech-oriented. You know, it's funny, like, Lane, he was like, you know, not to make this a sales pitch. This is not a sales pitch. These guys are not sponsors of the show. They weren't sending us lots of cash. But I think whenever you're talking about software, it's inevitable. Like when you try to contrast between like existing platforms and solutions on the market and trying to describe what's different about you. Inevitably, it sounds like a presentation, but I thought this was a really great conversation and it's very interesting. So we're talking about clean claims and magic plan. Yeah. And I think it's such an important episode because the impact of our job management software and the various software tools that we use is enormous in this business.

0:42 It is. Yeah. And it's an enormous area for pain. And we all know it. Oh, gosh. Lane kind of talks about that pretty early in the conversation as an extra store, you know, of this was my number one hatred on a weekly basis was showing up and talking to my people. Why aren't the photos in the system? Where's the doctor? Why didn't... Which is like ever-present where every store-to-store understands. And it's interesting, Andreas and Lane both have a background of being operators in the restoration industry, which I think is always, it seems to lead to the best products and service solutions is when people have actually been in the trench. And both of these guys have. And it shows up in the conversation, right? They understand.

1:23 They started these companies and have really developed these businesses out of their own pain as restorers. That's right. Right. And I think proof is there. I think you'll get it from some of the feature sets that we talk about and just kind of comparing and contrasting. But I think more importantly, you're going to walk, just go try their stuff. And the whole reason we have these guys on at the same time, MagicPlan in and of itself is a really powerful and easy to use and deploy sketching tool. But it's this combination of both. It's the integration, full integration. of MagicPlan's sketching capacity and LIDAR use, and then marrying that up to clean claims like kind of administrative accountability. It's really... It's cool. My wife and I had an experience with MagicPlan.

2:05 Actually, one of my friends is one of those desk estimator project manager guys at Home Depot. Oh, yeah. He's retired and he's kind of his retirement job. And he's like, we were getting ready to do a home kitchen remodel and... He's like, hey, you get just get MagicPlan out and just sketch your room and then you can fuss with the walls and taking walls out and moving this in here and there. And so we did and just did it on the iPad. It was super easy, super simple and free. So you can go download MagicPlan and do a couple plans yourself and play around with it at home while you're watching Netflix. What did you say? 136,000 users currently. Crazy. On MagicPlan from the App Store. Well, I think Home Depot has some sort of strategic partnership where they recommend it to their clients who are thinking about doing a remodel or whatever.

2:50 Yeah. But yeah, they've got traction. It's a big deal. It's not just in restoration, but gosh, after hearing about the integration with CleanClaims, it sounds like a rad tool. Instantaneous. Now I imagine. And that seems like the magic play. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's literally instantaneous. It happens right away versus having to wait and get an email or whatever. Yep. It's in your hands as you do it. Okay, so here we go. Andres and Lane. Let's go. Wow. How many of you have listened to the Head Heart and Boots podcast? I can't tell you that reaction, how much that means to us. Welcome back to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Brennan. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours.

3:31 I'm noticing that and I really appreciate it. I thought you did that on purpose. No, I don't. I didn't. And I am not happy with it. Hey, y'all. Thanks so much for listening to the show. Hey, if you're not already following, please do so. And ultimately share, right? The coolest currency that we have in terms of supporting this is share it with a friend, share it with somebody, a colleague, a peer, one of your downline team members. Let them be able to take advantage of the information you're already leveraging in your favor. And finally, guys, if you hear a show that really moves you, that really moves the needle, will you please leave us a review? Those five-star reviews help Right on. And listen, if you're trying to grow your business, you might consider checking out Floodlight's Business Opportunity Audit.

4:15 It's free. We provide it at no charge. It's actually what we use to assess new clients as they come in. It's 110 point assessment for your business. And we've now decided to give access to the general public for it. So go and take our business opportunity audit at floodlightgrp.com. It's going to help you identify the biggest gaps and opportunities in your business right now. And at the end, it'll assign you a health score to let you know exactly where your business stands right now. So go check it out, floodlightgrp.com forward slash audit and take the BOA. It's a great way to get a pulse on your business. Well, gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us and taking time. Lane, you just came out of the woods, didn't you? I did. Yeah. Yeah.

4:55 Back in civilization. So it's good. Thanks for having me. I think the last time we talked to you, you were talking about bears. So I think you still had camo on when we were actually. Yeah, I did. I did. Which is pretty awesome. It was probably good that we switched days. But that was probably a good day for Smell-O-Vision not quite coming to fruition just yet, right? We just need... I agree. I definitely agree. Three-dimensional on that. Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us, guys. Hey, just kind of get us started. Why don't we do this? Why don't we give everybody a 30-second pitch on who each one of you are, the companies that you're representing, and then we'll get into where we're headed because I think it's going to be a really fun conversation around our tech staff.

5:37 So Andreas, you want to get us started, my friend? Sure, absolutely. Yeah, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here today. So who am I? Andreas out of Germany. What's my story? I basically joined my family business 12 years ago as a project manager in recon and restoration jobs. And I was a little bit let down by the analog nature of all of that. And at that time, already a big iPad fan. So I always carried my iPad with me on my job sites. That was V1. That was not common at that time. And I really wanted to find a better way of kind of putting it all down, right? So I played around with GoPros and whatnot, but then I started working with MagicPlan as a user.

6:23 And now, long story short, now I'm here as the CEO of MagicPlan for the last eight years. I bought the company out of my own conviction that this is the product that the industry needs. And that's what I'm doing to this day. Nice, right on. You know what, I totally spaced it in our previous conversations that you grew up in the family business too. So both our guests are veteran restorers. So that'll be rad, man. I totally forgot about that, Andreas. Lane, for the two people that haven't heard anything about clean claims yet, you want to do a quick introduction of yourself, my friend? Yeah, yeah. So thanks for having me. I've been in construction, just my background, I've been in construction my whole life. I grew up cleaning up job sites from the time I was eight years old. So I like, that's my world.

7:05 So the fact that I want a software company is kind of weird now, but it was built out of necessity. So I built four of my own restoration companies. sold those as well and built the software along the way to kind of help for documentation and different things, just simplifying things. So the whole point was creating systems and places to where, you know, it makes it easy for the technician. The critical data is making it easy for the technicians in the field to be able to document. And it all starts with that. So if you can make it to where they get the data they need, then that's what's crucial and trickles down to all the way to getting paid, you know, eliminating all those problems. So that's kind of where it stemmed from is... living in that construction world and restoration to know what we need. So, yeah.

7:46 It's funny because I know everybody, we're always super guarded. We're not going to do an hour long pitch on a product. You guys, it's so interesting, this kind of merge. And the reason we were so excited to get you guys on the show, one is your two products working together is creating a pretty magical product. But more importantly, What we want to talk about is you guys, and especially obviously on the backbone of clean claims, there's just this really tech facing prioritization in terms of what you guys are doing. And so as we were kind of like coming up with these conversations leading up to this, we're like, man, we should get into that vein because I think that's the thing we miss. is that we create all these software solutions about getting more data, being able to track performance and do these things, which are great.

8:30 But then we miss the end user, which is actually not the leadership team if we really think about it. It's actually our tech staff and they kind of get left in the cold, it feels like, when it comes time to prioritize and pick these solutions. And so anyway, so that was a long ways around to say, we just kind of want to hang in that pocket and talk about what you guys have done to create a more effective platform performance. And I think people get a good picture of how the software can support that. But more importantly, kind of a mind shift that probably all of us can make as we prioritize the end user, i.e. our team members, maybe over some of these other priorities. So anyways, I've got a long workup, but I think we know where we're going. I think we got a starting point. All right.

9:10 Well, let's do this, you guys. Why don't we just kind of set the stage first with what's happening between these two products? And then I think that'll make a lot more sense while we're going to be talking about our tech staff. Andrus, do you want to just kind of give us that first overview of what it is that you guys are integrating right now? And then Lane, why don't you play cleanup on that and just kind of seal the deal for us? Yeah. Sure. So what are we doing? Basically, we are a mobile sketching and field documentation solution. And one of my core principles that I act upon is like, I want to plan ahead, right? And it's in the word, I need a plan, like I need a layout of the property, the site or whatever I'm dealing with, because that tells me the story.

9:51 So that has been my focus on, okay, give me the square footage, but give me also what rooms are in there, what's kind of like the DNA or corpse of the property. So we have that field sketching element that we are doing, and we try to make it as easy as possible, and basically using your mobile phone. And that was also kind of like what brought me to actually pulling the trigger and saying, yes, I want to do this because handing out the pure product to my project managers 12 years ago, I basically looked back after a year and they started picking it up themselves and used it for every project. And that kind of ease of use is what we try to preserve to this day.

10:34 And then basically handing over that documentation, that field sketch to CleanClaims, to Lane, so that he can really go into detail of all the different datasets that you need for a restoration project. Yeah, man. So just to add to that, like the key to this, that people need to know, and this is me putting my restore hat on, right? Speaking for the restoration company, I'm like, not as a software guy. I hate that everybody says they integrate, that everybody says that you use this, use that. You have 10 different logins. You have 10 different like double, triple, quadruple entries, the nightmare that never ends, right? And so the biggest thing is about our integration is, I mean, in our system is, you know, a lot of people know and maybe that don't is, I mean, I trained 68 technicians on a job in 10 minutes how to use the program.

11:19 No, no BS. That's not to like hype up my product and say that's the whole point of it. It's supposed to be simple. Right. But with that, my product without these true integrations isn't valuable to me. Like you have to have an integration. And so what we've done with Andreas in the magic plan is that it feels like you're in one system. Like even though you're going back and forth, the technician doesn't know that. Like, I mean, it literally is so smooth and easy to capture the data. And we have it to where it pushes and pulls that data back and forth to eliminate the double login and then the double entry. So the key to the integration, especially with us, is now we get a sketch tool that's right from your phone and it's instant, which that's the key that's huge for me.

12:02 That's what I was teasing you guys, I think last time about why I wanted to start another restoration company is I'm like, if I don't have to wait 24 hours and I have to go back out the next day to start, that's what's huge and that's what like, We're really excited and that you guys were having this podcast because that's what we're going to market is that the convenience of it. There's nothing really that convenient in the industry. And together, we're providing this insane convenience and speed, you know, and it's all live data. You can share that data with the carrier, the agent, the adjuster. I mean, you're allowing it to be create total transparency where that's never existed. So that's like one of the huge things I just want to touch on for like restores listening is that. That's what we're trying to provide. It's not an add on or another software.

12:43 This industry in the last three to four years has just been an insane amount of like, here, eat this software, have that one like nonstop. And it's like, we're trying to make it to where it's not that way. It's very, very simple. It's easy. And it's a one login use. You know what I mean? So that's what I would add to that. It's kind of interesting because I think one of the things that Chris and I have been having a lot of conversations with folks recently has been around closing and conversion rates. And one of the things that we've just seen kind of come true over and over again is that one of the ways that teams can secure a higher conversion rate, meaning from customers, EMS to, let's say, a repair service opportunity is how quickly do we get on site and begin gathering the information that will create that scope negotiation and get that process started?

13:30 Because we have this thing we reference as a... the silent phase, that handoff time where there's, you know, the restoration company's negotiating on the client's behalf to secure that scope approval, but they don't really know what's going on. And after five days, let's say of just crazy activity on the EMS side, it feels weird then for them to go into this holding pattern, right? where we secure funds and secure scope. But anyways, this is one of those things we push is like, how quickly can we gather information and get that really competently handed off from our EMS team into our recon team to create that kind of consistency, obviously, but to shrink those timeframes. And I was watching you, you demoed this product, I think at Large Loss Mastery was the last time we saw it.

14:13 And literally, you guys, as fast as you could walk the phone in a circle, essentially in the room, it was capturing the measuring data and creating the floor plan, which ultimately then can become the basis for that recon scope. I mean, if you guys want to elaborate on that a little bit, but that just kind of like blew my doors off. And that's what got me hyped is was, I don't have to send in now another person. My staff that's already on site and their normal protocol can gather what I need as a recon team and begin that process from the very beginning with this product, which to me, that's creating wins. And again, it's in the hands of the tech. This doesn't require a project manager to go out and scan.

14:53 I'm not carrying a $5,000 camera, right? So anyways, I don't know if you guys want to kind of like unpack that a little bit, but what are you guys seeing from that in terms of users? Maybe I go first again, because we kick it off. And then the key element to me always was and always is that the user is in full control. And when are you in control? When you have your results instantly and you can kind of like checkmark them off. And that is all that we care about is, okay, I am on site. I observe the scene or whatnot. Yeah. And once I leave the site, I want to have the peace of mind that I've done everything and I've closed everything. And I know that if I see the result instantly while I'm still there, right, I can do that.

15:36 And I can say, okay, that actually captures the picture that I had in my head while walking through here. And if I drive off, I can hand it off. I can pass it to the back coffers to whatnot, but I don't need to remember anything. And I most hopefully don't need to go back because I forgot anything. That is really one of the key elements why we want what we want to achieve, put the user in control and make it transparent to them if they've basically done their job. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, the key to add to that, too, is just the simplicity. This is what I love about Andreas and Magic Planet and us is it's all about keeping it simple, right? But what you guys were bringing up in the beginning, like all these CEOs want all these things, they want to see all this stuff. But it's like you got to get down to the heart of like where are you getting that data if you can't get the data correctly.

16:19 Right. And then Andre's point, like knowing that you have it. So when you combine magic plan sketching into clean claims process enforcement to where in our system for people that don't know, you can require everything from before pictures, videos, you know, moisture readings, whatever it is. And you can't move on. So we're now we're adding that sketch tool into that to where now. They don't have a choice. You're getting perfection every time, but without micromanaging or like just yelling down their throats about you need to do this, you need to do that. It's built to where you just you can't move on to the next step till you do it. So tying in magic plan into making sure that we're getting our daily photos and moisture readings and thermal imagings and all that.

17:00 Now we're tying in that sketch to where now you have to go through and do that scan. And with one click of a button, it opens up MagicPlan. You do the scan. And the other fun thing we've been doing with MagicPlan's team is our remote monitoring piece. So when you set the remote monitoring, when you scan that room, and Andreas, you correct me if I'm wrong, it'll pick up the sensors as well. So you want to talk about... instant moisture mapping then i'll probably be like in phase two that we're working on but it'll literally be if you have the remote sensor set up when you scan that room and you hit done it'll be instantly moisture map you don't even have to so i mean you want to talk about speed and efficiency and then i can share that data live with anybody i want the client if the adjuster wants to know about it here you go it's eliminating that he said she said argument that everybody wants to go i mean I was ready to leave restoration a couple of years into it because I was just like, oh, my gosh, if I have to go one more day arguing to get paid for what I did, even if I have the documentation, you know.

17:56 So this eliminates at the end of the job, if it took five days and then sending it and then starting the debate. Now it's like, well, let's just share the sketch and all the information right now as it's happening. And they can see it live as it's going on. And now everybody involved is all on the same page. And it's just it's this. There's no need to argue anymore, you know. So, okay. So I want to poke at that a little bit. I want to get your perspective on this because I've heard you make that comment before and it sounds rad on paper. And we know that like in recent experience, I think there's an absolute amp on frustration around negotiations and getting a claim close. So I just... I want to hear very specifically from you, Lane. What is it? Because this is your own experience.

18:38 This isn't just you pitching product, but this is the use of you internally. And your prospects and your current users right now are talking about it as well. What is it? What specifically is happening that's creating that reduction in friction in the approval process? Because, I mean, a lot of different ways we're providing documentation and it doesn't seem to be the silver bullet to make it a lot easier to close a claim out. So what is it that's happening that you're seeing? Yeah, what are adjusters like? What are these auditors of these claims like about this? So I would say, again, this is me just putting my restore hat back on, right, from my experience, and then I can add in, like, clients' experiences, too.

19:19 But the main thing is every software program out there that's been built for their store was either built by a software company that thinks that we know what we need, or it was by a carrier that's saying this is what we need. But it's not realistic in the field. That's just my opinion, right, from my experience, okay? So the difference is, is like in any other program that you use, you can edit and manipulate the data whenever you want. So every time I turn in a claim and no matter how much documentation I have, I can debate that all day long because in certain systems, I can change the dates, the times, the readings. So it leaves everything up for debate. There's nothing you can really trust on. Did you really do it or did you not? Right. Where in our system, it's the first of its kind of where you can't edit and manipulate the data. It is what it is, you know.

20:00 And so that's what makes it huge. it's simplifying it, right? That's not rocket science or anything. It's just, and then giving the data now in the moment, why wait till the end of the job to start the going back and forth? If an adjuster gets a sign right on site, I can send him a link to this job and he can see exactly what we're doing live. You can watch the videos. You can see the pictures. If you have any questions now you can ask. Now we don't have to wait till after five days and then Well, you know, the standard is only three, so I only want to pay, you know, you're trying to pay for five and that whole thing. We can have that talk on day one or day two already showing the progression or if it's not progressing and like what changes need to be made, you know.

20:42 So having the S500 standards built into the software helps a ton because then it tells the technicians what's recommended for equipment, what you need to do. So. That's all normal. The difference is that we're sharing that data live with all parties involved that want to be involved. So that's the key. So then you're seeing people get paid. We've had clients call us. I mean, it gives me goosebumps thinking about because it's what it's supposed to do. Like we've had a client do a 16 day drought on a Walmart. I won't mention who it is, but. They were sending out their daily snapshot reports out of clean claims every day to all parties involved, from the property owner, the manager, the adjuster. At the end of 16 days, they got paid out $1.8 million in four days of completing the job because there was nothing to debate.

21:26 There was nothing to argue. Everybody knew why it was taking 16 days. They knew what equipment was there. They saw the psychometric readings every day. That's the biggest difference. So it's not rocket science where we're trying to simplify it. Everybody thinks they have this grand, huge idea and make it all complicated. Our process is like the simpler you can make it for the field technicians. They're the ones collecting most critical data. So when you throw in our data collection and then magic plan scanning tool of instant sketch, I mean, it just makes it to where it's just, in my opinion, in a flawless system, you can't debate facts and real time data, you know? So that, what I would say be the biggest thing that really trickles down to your question of asking is, do you, how do how to adjusters debate or why does that make it better is it's just transparency it's just it is what it is live in the moment and i don't know how you debate that you know what i mean it's like it's just because that's the problem is they show up and they're like okay it's already been demoed and trashed and that's why the questions start but like if they're involved in that process from the beginning then there is no arguing you're fighting it's like okay cool here's where we are and what we're doing you know and it allows you to Hey, this hardwood floor is super wet.

22:31 We're going on two days of an injected dry floor system. It's not drying. And then the adjusters are part of that conversation saying, cool, let's give it a few more days. If we can save eight grand of ripping out that hardwood floor, then we should do that. Now it's collaborative. It's not fighting. It's like we're working together now. So that's the key. Yeah, I mean, that makes a lot of sense. I think a lot of the other ways that we've kind of merged into digital is it's just a way to gather the information. You're still essentially presenting it in that more static format at post-project, right? So formatting is a lot cleaner and more pro-looking than hand-scratch notes. Right. But you're providing a product that you could ultimately manipulate any way you want. It's just cleaner, essentially.

23:12 Right, right, yeah. Yeah. You know, guys, what I think might be useful is to draw some contrast or comparisons between some of the other solutions on the market. Because I think while everything you guys are saying makes perfect sense in terms of the transparency and the speed at which you guys render this information and provide it out and share it out, the transparency piece, I think there is an element with so many competing software solutions in the market that your typical restorer, they're like... And I feel like I've heard this before. It feels like everybody is kind of saying the same thing to one degree or another. You know, I think of even, I forget who I was talking to the other day. They were talking about how you can share inside certain job management software. You can create a public link for an adjuster, an insurance agent, referral partner, a client to where they can track with the real-time updates of notes in the system and so forth.

23:59 And I'm like, well, yeah, we utilize that in Dash, you know, seven or eight years ago. Yeah. So this is... So I think people can get lost in the noise of the market. So could you guys take a moment and contrast between say, like DocuSketch and Encircle or Matterport and some of these other types of solutions that are out there that Restores may already be using or have heard about with the integration with the platform that you guys have put together? I'm going to start with a quick one. I had one of my project managers and we basically interviewed him. What do you like best? And he was like, okay, now I can produce drawings that feel as if they were to come out of an architect's office.

24:41 And he was really proud of himself that he is producing field notes or whatnot that typically would require a trained architect to produce those. And that really, it's in the hand of the user and they are in control of their result and they are proud of it. That is what triggers me most of the time. It's like their product, they like it. And that's what gets the adoption. That's what gets everything. And once you get to that point, they actually want to do it. They want to produce more of their great work. And I think it's similar to what Lane is doing. And we are trying to combine those two, right? It's really a feeling of the people in the field that kind of carries us forward.

25:24 And I think, to be honest, that's the difference, right? To some of the other solutions, it's a little bit different. And that's what I've observed. And that's what is the feedback and what I also like, right? I want to enable and empower the people that are doing the work. And that's the feedback that I get. And that is. what I think then really tips the scale. I feel like to a certain extent, once they establish their own what's in it for them, if it's a high enough return, at least from their perspective, and it engages consistent use or even drives accelerated use, that's a pretty awesome outcome. what the execution looks like. I think anytime you get a user, one of our staff that's excited to use an end product, then I think we got to be pretty motivated by that as well.

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29:38 So can you dig into that just a little bit more, though? Like, objectively, when a technician is performing the scan, magic plan versus, say, what they might see or what might the end result be at the end of that scan between, say, DocuSketch or a Matterport scan and what the technician is experiencing in terms of user interface, articulate kind of the difference that they experience and why they'd be excited about that as producing an architectural drawing versus... what they're going to see or produce on site with, say, DocuSketch. Yeah. One of the differences, really, again, is this instantaneous element, right? They are producing it. They are doing it, right? And if there is a odd corner or something off...

30:21 We give you the opportunity to sketch on your tablet by hand. We give you the opportunity to connect a Bluetooth laser. That is the highest level of detail that you can get. And it's their product. It's their work, what they produce. And that gives them the whole perception of creating value. I think that is different. With some of the other solutions, you are supposed to do a certain procedure. And then in the end, after some time back, you... gets sent something that might or might not be how you recall it. And you can't edit it. You can't do it. It's not, it kind of like escapes your personal workflow.

31:01 And I think this is really where the difference is. Like I am out there. I know what the site looks like. I, know what I would like to produce to actually complete the job to its fullest. And you have that possibility at hand. That is really for the users, the difference that I observe. Because in the end, I mean, we can't debate about, okay, in the end, there is a floor plan, right? But how do you get to that result? And what does it take? And how qualified you get there? That is the difference. Yeah. Because most of the product, you're basically doing the scan. Yeah. And then you're waiting for some rendering to be available after a few hours or a day or whatever the platform is.

31:43 Okay. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Liam, why don't you hammer on that? Because obviously the translation is kind of where the rubber hits the road. It's like, we've done this scan. Now what are we doing with it? Right? Yeah. Well, I'll say from my perspective as a contractor, it's... what you were bringing up earlier, Brandon, it's one less item that they have to carry and lose. People live on their phones. You're not going to, I don't know anybody like sure in the house, you'll forget to place it somewhere. I don't know anybody that can't live without their smartphone, right? Everything is run on that, right? So it's just one item that's always in your pocket that can't be lost. That can't, you know what I mean? It just, it's again, the ease of use, the it's one less thing you got to carry around and break. Like, I mean, I've had stuff lost and broke.

32:23 And it's hard to account for tens of thousands of dollars being lost when you can just have it on your phone. So again, I always look at it just back to simplicity, right? Just it's all on the here. It's all on the phone. You know, I don't have to have another thing that I got to carry. Just that's one simple thing, you know, just coming back to the difference cost. You guys know, like I do, it's always the cost. The cost is significantly less, right? Like all the products are amazing. Don't get me wrong. Every question you guys have probably seen and heard on this podcast is always like, it's immediately, what does this cost? Like, that sounds awesome, but what's the cost, you know? And so that's a key element, you know, like in clean claims, you can buy as you go. You don't lose your credits.

33:04 You're like, if you buy a job, it's there until you use it. You don't lose it. Where I know our competitors, you got a monthly subscription to where you just have to buy it. So it works great for the new guy coming in, doing two jobs a month. And then we have companies that are doing $500 million a year. So. And again, all just comes back to ease of use, you know, and getting the instant sketches for me, what triggers it as a restore is that kind of like the point you guys are bringing back is I don't have to go back to the next day. I don't have to pay another guy. I knew when I sent out a crew, it was $325 every time we went on a trip. That was fuel cost there back in the time on site, right? If I can avoid those days, the efficiency goes through the roof and I can track that efficiency. Like we increased our efficiency by 30% in our company overnight.

33:47 just eliminating the extra wasted trips. I mean, that's a huge deal. When you have a three-day dryout and it's 325 bucks a day, that's an extra almost grand of just labor and fuel, right? And if I can cut all that out, then I mean, do the math. Like if you're doing one job a day, 365, $325. and you just save like $300 on every job, that's 110 grand a year. Do the math. It's like, it is not hard to grow and get more efficient. Like we increased our margins by 30%. And I didn't go get one new client. I didn't get one. We netted 30% better. of just being more efficient and eliminating, oh, I forgot to do this and I forgot to do that. We got to go back out. We got to argue. And all the waste of time in the office, it's eliminating all that.

34:28 You know, talking with insurance carriers, they have the same problem we have as restorers. You can't find people that work in the field today. You know, it's really hard to find good labor. And so they have the same problem with adjusters. You know what I mean? And then the ones they do hire have three days of... of experience and here's a checklist of what you need to tell the restore what they can or can't do it's we can automate it you know carriers big carriers we're talking to is like we're talking about anything under 10 gram because in clean claims with the process enforcement driven if you turn in that job it's either done or it's not right so if it's done then checks can go out like why wait like if they've or if they're within the standard and doing it it's that efficiency right on both sides i know that's cheesy but But it's a win win.

35:09 The contractor makes more because we're being more efficient. And then the carriers love it because now they're avoiding fraud. The big thing is we eliminate the three day dry out BS. Like we can prove that if it went further, it's irrefutable data in our system. So, I mean, that would be the biggest things is price, ease of use. And that transparency is what our competitors cannot touch what we're doing. I kind of want to hang in that pocket. We're friends with Rachel Stewart, right? Runs Accelerate, owns Accelerate. What's interesting, she's a pasture store, GM, very effective company, was really forward thinking, very commercial heavy, just a great operator. And one of the things that she's discussed and talked about, and again, the company she was a part of and her culture now, they prioritize culture.

35:51 They're not turning people over just because. And though, she just kind of spoke to the reality that our frontline tech staff, like when you walk into an organization, they have tenured staff that have been techs or leads or PMs for extended periods of time. We all recognize that and we all kind of tip our hat to it because it's hard. It's hard to do it. Reality of it is our frontline staff is going to turn over, especially in our industry. So even if you're prioritizing great culture development, employee stickiness, we're going to have people coming and going. And one of the things she just hyper focused on was you've got to build a routine where within 30 to 45 days, you have someone that can be competent enough. to begin creating some value in the field.

36:33 Like obviously they're just getting started, but we've got to cross that threshold where the only thing they can do is grab some gear out of the truck, right? And I just kind of want to hang in that pocket with you guys a little bit because I feel like you've made this comment now, I can train people in two days. Like let's have a reality check on that. don't give me the software spin, but give me what that means. And why is it that you can effectively say you know how to onboard somebody into that responsibility in such a short period of time? And if you can for me, Lane, especially is please try to separate the difference between what are they learning and they're able to do versus the stuff that the simplicity of the software is not addressing.

37:14 Just because I want it to be really clear because we kind of get caught up in that. Well, you do this and your whole experience and relationship with your tech will be easy. That's not true either, right? So just give us the reality check on that. What's that meaning? So here's my thing, right? Like, so when I had my four restoration companies, it was a constant training on trying to get people to do things. Every Wednesday meeting for six years was just begging. It was the most unproductive, worthless meeting. I think I kind of told you guys this story. And I tell this a lot. But it's true. It's every meeting was where's your pictures? Where's readings? Why don't you document? Why are we going back out? Why are we going to get paid? Like it never ended every Wednesday. I guaranteed that was my conversation with my team, whether it was my admin team or my techs in the field.

37:55 Right. That's the problem. So in clean claims and I'm not trying to like sales. The difference is, is that me as an owner of a company. I dictating control on a residential water or a commercial fire. This is what I want. And I check off what I want. So that becomes to where when the tech show up, they don't have any control over what they can or can't do. So me as the owner, I set that these are the patterns I want and this is the order it goes through. And I can't move on to the next step. That's the only way I could figure out how to create that consistency. And any other program that you go into is, All those options are there that we have as well. But you can do it whenever you want. And there's no like fluidity to get that consistency.

38:35 So that was the key and the biggest differences. And really what I told people this story, State Farm is the one that led me down this path to sell my restoration companies and do this because I got a call. This was five years ago and from one of their executives. And it was crazy. All they ask me is, why is it from your company, whether in Utah, Colorado, Nevada, we get perfect documentation for you guys all the time? So I had 47 employees when I sold my company, right? How do I get 47 restorers that are all thinking different? And one came from this company, one came from that company, and they have this opinion. That's the problem is that it's always that, right? And that's what you're always fighting as a staff. You can have a great culture, but you guys are still going to – and it's not that all guys are bad.

39:18 I'm making it sound like it's bad. Yeah. I'm guilty of it. When I'm on call by myself and 10 calls come in, you bet your butt that I'm going to forget to do things, right? The whole point of this is that you don't forget. It makes you spend the extra five minutes to take the picture of the structure, to take the outdoor reading. You have to do it, right? So that's the key of doing that is that it's not leaving it up to the technician to decide and then you have to micromanage them. You decide, you pick the requirements in that flow and they don't have a choice. They have to just go through and do it, right? So that's the real key. Is that kind of answering your question? I've opened kind of, I mean, it's like I had a 30 year veteran that worked for me, just cancer to my culture, just destroyed my culture.

39:59 He knew better than me. He knew better than everybody. Everything I said, he would say against it. Like it was hell. But like those are stores I think can relate. Like I kept him because it was like. Well, he knows what he's doing, but like, oh my gosh, but it was a nightmare, right? So when I finally had a really good reason to fire him, and that's a whole other story, holy cow. But when I did, I literally hired a kid that I met at a drive-thru through Taco Bell. I literally just thought he had a good attitude. And I was like, dude, I'll hire you and pay you more. Hired him. I spent 30 minutes with him in our flood house showing him that process that I'm telling you that we've built, right? Right. And in 30 minutes, he did the whole thing. Perfect. No joke. I sent him out the next thing you can ask our clients that this is not, this is not a try to BS people to buying our product.

40:40 This is just the thing I love about my product is it is what it is. Don't take my word for it. I'll give you five jobs for free and you go try it. And if it doesn't work, then don't use it. That's what I tell everybody. Right. But that kid went out the next day and did a whole entire residential loss. It was like a four bedroom loss, but he did it perfect. And he had 30 minutes of training and has no idea what restoration is. Now, I strongly love like the IRC or seeing the certifications. You need to understand what's happening. But think of how amazing it is in a temp, like when you hire on 10 temp labor, right? So my brother owns a restoration company in St. George and he called me and he's like, I just hired 12 guys to do content manipulation. I spent five minutes with them training and showing them.

41:21 Because the reason why it's easy to train is, hey, if you're not sure what to do, hit next or save. And it highlights in red what they have to do. And until they do it, they can't move on. So it's not rocket science and overthinking. It's just here's the task. You don't have any choice. And now if you're not sure, just hit next. It'll tell you what you're missing. And then you can move on. So that what I would say be really what it comes down to is just it all comes back to. just take the thinking away, make it simple and just a clear path to this is how we do it. And that trickles down, you know, the most critical data is being collected by the restorer in the field. And if it's hard and complicated for them and they don't know how to do it and understand it, you're consistently, this is the normal, you guys talk to probably more restorers than I do.

42:04 It is the never ending, he said, she said battle of, and then the arguing of making your technicians do it. You don't have to deal with that anymore. Like literally. And that's Don't take my word for it. Just try it. Everybody's tried everything out there. And it's always funny when I come into a class, I'm always like, I have to be like, I'm not another software. This is not on my promise. Like, let me just establish that. Right. So that's the anyway. Sorry. Going off on a tangent, but. I think what you touched on, and this is truth that I think some of us get a little callous to, is that normally it's not malicious intent. Like normally we don't have people that are just rolling their eyes and saying, oh gosh, I got to do X, Y, Z. Does that happen?

42:45 It does, but it's a rare. It's literally people doing the best they can most of the time. And either we normally fail to give them any kind of adequate training and, or there's just a reality that when you're new to an industry, taking on a lot of information is And it is hard to retain it all and be executing flawlessly within a really short period of time. It is difficult, right? And I think what you're talking about is creating a solution or a tool for our end user that eliminates the guesswork. We're just helping them be more confident in the steps that they have to take. But I also did hear that it doesn't teach you how to dry good. It just teaches you what administrative processes to go through, right? Or what steps to take.

43:26 So we still got to equip our people on how to do mitigation, if you will. All those other pieces that this makes a lot easier. Yeah. What this reminds me of, we talk a lot with restorers about creating grooves in their business. Kind of like when you get on the freeway, right? Or the Autobahn, Andreas, where it's like you have sections of road where just the grooves are well-worn. And it's like, you get on the on-ramp and you kind of almost slide into the groove and you have to work hard to get out of it. And there's so much value in creating those in our business where new people can just onboard and just like get in the groove. we have this established method. And so it sounds like your guys' platform in many ways is like, as a company, hey, this is the highway we all drive on.

44:06 And when people get into that groove, we also talk about like making it simple and easy to do the right thing, right? In all of our systems and processes. And that's what it sounds like is you guys are having people get into a highway where it's like, okay, the only option is The only option is this next thing, right? And then after you do that next thing, then there's a next thing. And then there's a next. There is no room for people to sort of pick and choose what they're going to do when they arrive on the job site. I mean, is that... Forget or remember, basically. And it makes so much sense to me because like you say, and I think to Brandon's point where I think in general, people want to do their... right thing, but they get so many pieces of conflicting data because you've got this guy, Billy, who's been in the industry forever and he has his own way of doing things or approaching a job.

44:50 And you got Sally over here that came from another big company and she knows what she's doing and everybody's kind of right, but they're all doing it differently. Whereas it sounds like your guys' platform is... forces people to, okay, you start by doing this thing, then you do the next thing, then you do the next thing. And there's a groove that it presents to them where they can just stay in the groove and they're going to produce a really positive outcome. And they don't have to stress about how or what next or anything else. It's just, hey, this is the next thing. And then the next thing, the next thing. Yeah, pretty much. It's just essentially just walking text, how they need to do. If you're an admin or a project manager or something, you can make changes on the fly if needed, but it's just set that exactly what you're saying. Just that path of like, This is what we're going to do.

45:31 And this is how we're going to do it. Simplest way to do it. Right. So that it's just so that's what's nice is you can have all these different ideas, but it's just like, hey, just do it. Just go through and do it. So you're all accomplishing the same goal. Andreas, like with your guys's piece on Magic Plan, one of the things I just thought was so interesting. And you guys have both references just literally your phone. LiDAR versus non-LiDAR. Talk to us about that, just so I think from an end-user perspective, we understand what kind of toolkit needs to be deployed to get the best result. Yeah. I mean, LiDAR combines a Bluetooth laser distance meter with your camera. So this is super powerful. And that obviously makes the process even simpler.

46:12 However, you don't necessarily need to be LiDAR equipped. Whereas if possible, we definitely recommend this. And then in terms of ease of use, I mean, I like to reference, we have, I think, more than 150,000 reviews in the App Store, right? We are focusing on the restoration industry, but we are out there. Like you can download this as a private individual and play around if you move home or whatnot. And that ease of use kind of gets validated day after day. That is what we try to hold ourselves accountable and make that possible to everyone. I mean, I was at a trade fair and there was a kind of bored kid, seven years old, and he asked me to pick up my iPad that I had and then he did it.

46:56 Right. And that is what we try to focus on and what we try to enable to really make it accessible. And it's accessible if you have it on your phone, your phone, you have it always with you. And it's easy for everyone. Also one story that I just like so much, we had one comment of like a couple in their seventies and they said, hey, thank you so much. Because we had the plan, we could actually talk to our contractor and visualize what we wanted, right? That is this renovation side that we have. But that really is the moment when I say, okay, it's all right. It's accessible enough for everyone to use it. You don't need hours of training.

47:38 You don't need to study architecture. You don't need to be trained in crazy equipment. You can just do it. And that is what I think is great about it and what we consistently try to stress over and over again. That's so funny. Literally from 7 to 70. From 7 to 70. Now that you say it. I think it's kind of funny because you guys have both mentioned the older dogs. We'll have that guy or gal on our team. They've been around. They're a seasoned veteran. They know how to do the job. But many of us too, we're deferring our commitment to technology. There's a few on the team still that... that haven't quite grasped that conversion. So I think knowing seven to 70 is a good number.

48:18 I think we can fit just about anybody in our roster into that toolkit. So that's solid. It's a small window. It's fine. If you fall outside of that, you probably shouldn't be in the restoration. Yeah. I think we're okay. That's really rad. Well, I'll tell you what, guys, like, you know, Chris and I have talked about both these solutions a lot and laying, you know, us getting a chance to kind of see it firsthand, both your guys's platforms working in conjunction with each other at the LLM piece there at Thomas's large last mastery event. It was like instant kind of I fell in love because I was like anything that we can do to make it easier to do the right thing is always going to be mandatory.

48:59 And I love the model. And again, we're really talking about MagicPlan is in and of itself a really powerful tool. But when it's embedded in this platform, it's magic. But I think it's this idea, like you said, Lane, try it. You get five claims for free. You're a per-claim fee structure is how CleanClaim works. It's silly to not try it. Just try it. If you don't like it, great. It's not going to hurt my feelings. It might hurt Lane's, but you'll never know because he's not going to tell you about it. But it's worth trying. We've just seen the system play out so far. And I am really impressed. I love the training wheels. I love the idea that we can just place some parameters on the process to prevent us from using that energy up, just trying to determine what next step to take versus being focused on the client.

49:45 And that's something that we didn't talk about much. But our people, Chris and I really hammer on. It's how we make them feel in the process. But when our people are struggling because all their energy is going to remembering this, do this, take this action, put this file in, send this thing out before you leave, we actually place them in a position where they can't focus their effort and their energy on the customer relationship. They're doing mitigation, yes, but they're not prioritizing how we make them feel in the process. And that's just one of the things I feel like when you can begin to remove... the need for energy to go to those places of just, no, I know what to do. It's like breathing.

50:25 I do those parts. I do them like second nature and I focus all my attention on what my client's experiencing. Dude, we start crushing. That has nothing to do with profit margin. That's top line. That's next opportunity. You put those two things together, you're making more money and you're creating more opportunities. I just don't see very many reasons for people to ignore that. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe top line and bottom line is not an important thing for our business. Well, I'd say the hard thing too, right, is like for us, and I'm not trying to make this, it is like a sales pitch, I guess a little bit, but what's huge is like, you've got to be in with the right networks, right? That's the key is like, if you're not accepted, it doesn't happen. So we being a newer product, but like I've been showing the product for two years about, but we've only been selling it seven, eight months technically, right?

51:09 But We just signed our agreement with contractor connection. We're working with Alacrity. We have a bi-directional integration that we are beta testing right now through exact analysis. So we built it to where carriers can push data into exact analysis, and that's now pushing into clean claims and vice versa. So it's again, it's not just eliminating that. You know, in CRMs, we have integrations where it's all built to it, pushes that data over automatically. So, again, if I can't. integrate with companies to where it's a true integration to where I'm eliminating that, then I'm not interested in integrating because everybody's selling that we integrate. And then it's like, well, you got to log in and out and you got to copy and paste this and that. And it's like, to me, I'm not going to buy that because I dealt with that my whole career. It's like, Unless it's talking back and forth and I don't have to go in and out and have my teams logging in, logging out.

51:53 That to me is not an integration. Sorry. So that's huge. CoreLogic, Scott Sabir let me tell people that they're integrating into our remote monitoring and all that. So what's huge is getting that acceptance and how fast we've been able to. If that doesn't tell you just use the product and find out for yourself, I don't know what is. It's like don't take my word for it. Try it. That's what's been amazing is getting these big companies like we've got pilot programs with insurance companies in different countries that are using it right now. You know what I mean? So it's just it is what it is, you know, and those integrations are huge. So I'd say that'd be the key thing that maybe stop people in the beginning. But now that like we're in with all these big contractors and insurance carriers accepting it, it makes it so much easier for clients to just stick into one situation.

52:35 system, you know, and that integration, everybody's got to have Xactimate or stability or whatever. Those integrations are critical because now we're pushing that data back and forth and eliminating that double, triple entry. Right. So that's what I would say is what we're very excited as a company, our trajectory, like we're moving at a great pace just because of those, if it wasn't for those integrations with like what we're doing with Andreas and Xact analysis and everything, it wouldn't, it's not going to keep going. It's like, oh, it's cool. Yeah. But it doesn't work with our system. It's now going to where we're very excited that we are now being accepted by a lot of different big, big players and companies. So it's pretty cool. I think at the end of the day, it warrants people taking some time, give it a test run. Obviously, you can try Magic Plan separately outside of Clean Claims in and of itself.

53:20 Super powerful tool, super powerful sketching and documenting tool. The two of you guys together is really silly. I just think it's super powerful. So let's do this. Andreas, just give us where people are going to go. If they wanted to try magic plans separately from the clean claims process, maybe they're already using something else and they're wanting to test out your guys' sketching tool, where are we going? And then Lane, I'll have you do the same thing. Go to your phone, open the app store, download and try. And then if you're happy, reach out to one of our team members. We give you opportunities to do so. So just open the app store in your phone, type in MagicClan, you're good. Nice. Lane? Ours currently just go to cleanclaims.com.

54:02 So today, actually, as we speak, we have 15 clients. We're onboarding right now with MagicClan and CleanClaims. So our native app will be in the apps. It's in the beta app store right now. Our native app will be in the app store in about two to three weeks, if I remember correctly. So maybe sooner. But yeah, just cleanclaims.com is the easiest place to go. You can do it all from right there. And then it will be in the app store here soon. Nice. Okay. So magic plan you can test for free, correct, Andreas? Yes. Yeah, test for free. We give you, I think, two free plans, but I'm following through on Lane's offer. If you want to test it, five projects all time, give it a try. I always typically say do three plans, one in your hotel room, one in your office, one in your home, and then you're done in terms of onboarding and training.

54:47 Give it a try. Tell us what you think. Love it. Yeah, nothing to lose here. Zero risk on our part to give it a test run. And I would advise everybody to give them both a real hard wrap and put it through the paces and see what you end up with. I think one of the fun experiments on clean claims would be literally put it in somebody's hands in your company that's never even seen a loss. and have them go out with an experienced tech. Experienced tech, keep your mouth closed and let this individual walk through the paces and see how bad they do for a first try with little training and input. And I think that'll give you a real strong understanding of, wow, okay, well, maybe if we took 10, 15 intentional minutes, we would reshape this experience. I think you'll actually be really pleasantly surprised.

55:29 It's super fun to see for sure. I do it live on demos. I'll pick somebody from the audience. Someone's the volunteer. I'll plug my phone in and I'll say, cool, just start going through it. And I'm not going to say anything. And like, if you have a question, just let me know. I'll do it live. And it's the funnest thing to see on job sites and that. So yeah. Yeah, I recommend the same. It's fun to see it happen. Super cool. Well, thanks, guys. We really appreciate you taking the time to hang out with us. Obviously, both of you have huge things in front of you right now. We'll continue to keep our eye on you and rubbing elbows at events. We got a few coming up. I'm assuming that both of you will have a team present and walking around. So we'll hopefully get some face time with both of you at the next event. Yeah. Thanks for having us. All right, boys.

56:09 Thank you for your time today. You got it. Thanks, guys. See you later. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart, and Boots. And if you're enjoying the show, but you love this episode, please hit follow, formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.