The Salty Adjuster

Casual Professionals, Chronically Unhinged. Certified Professional Chaos Understander. Claims People Crying Uncontrollably. We’re pretty sure CPCU stands for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter, but we have some proposals. Salty objects to “crying uncontrollably” because you have to be able to turn it off when the phone rings. In this Grains of Salty episode, Associate Producer Heather Blevins...

“Once you get that binder, once you get the policy, that’s your ticket to dance. That’s not the end of the relationship, that’s the very beginning of it.” Matthew Struck joins Salty and Producer Brett to talk about what happens after the sale, when coverage meets a catastrophe and someone is counting on you to help them get their life back. The insurance broker, entrepreneur and Ungovernable podca...

“The people that are busy telling you they’re important usually aren’t that good.” Alex Bond spends his days helping InsurTech businesses hire leaders. He’s picked up a few things about the ones people actually want to work for. The FinPro founder, recruiter and Leadership in Insurance podcast host joins Salty and Producer Brett for a candid conversation about why people leave jobs, what “we work...

An insurance broker, a hurricane and an aquarium full of penguins. Naturally, we’re trying to get Tom Hardy involved. Matthew Struck joins Salty and Producer Brett with a Hurricane Sandy story involving a failing generator, an emergency gasoline run he nearly had to make and penguins he absolutely could not let down. Within minutes, we’re pitching a rescue movie with laser guns, Terminators and a...

“I had no idea that just showing up to work, a smile on my face, was doing anything but masking my own pain and my own agony.” Natalie Arroyave was a teenager rebuilding her life after Hurricane Katrina when someone told her that her presence had helped save their life. She hadn’t known what they were going through. They hadn’t known the full weight of what she was carrying, either. That experienc...

"If you want to be treated as a trusted advisor, act like a trusted advisor. Even if it’s detrimental or if it’s risky for you.” Tell clients the bad news early. Know their business. Return the call. And when a claim happens, be there. Chris Poveromo , president of the brokerage division at Poms & Associates , joins Salty and Producer Brett to talk about the everyday work that earns a bro...

“If I have a friend who is eating, I see has a pack of Starbursts and I ask for one and they hand me a yellow, they’re not the friend I thought they were.” She’s new here, but she already knows where she stands. Assistant Producer Sophia Fouse joins Salty and Producer Brett for a family episode about how Team Salty came together, what 32 episodes taught us and becoming a Signal Awards finalist in...

Welcome to Season 2 and to our new "minisode" series "Grains of Salty: Behind the Episode." Going forward, these five minute snippets will capture Team Salty's reaction to pivotal conversations. Today, Assistant Producer Sophia interviews Salty and Producer Brett on being named Signal Award Finalists in the "Best Trailer" category. If you didn't listen to the...

“I don’t have to know everything. I just have to know where to go to get the answers.” — Chris Stanley That’s one of the most valuable things Chris Stanley learned during six months of training with his father-in-law. He was 20, working at Walmart distribution and learning auto damage appraising four days a week. He’d never even changed his own oil. Eighteen years later, he’s helping other people...

“The insurance industry doesn’t have a talent problem. It really has a taste problem.” — Chris Stanley Chris Stanley has a question for the insurance industry: If you’ve found someone you want on your team, why not teach them claims? The IA Path founder, author and independent adjuster mentor joins Salty and Producer Brett to talk about the people getting overlooked while companies keep searching...

“I don’t think you’re as salty as everyone says.” Well. We’re back. And we're a SIGNAL AWARD FINALIST! You can vote for us right here (please do!). After a two-week hiatus, The Salty Adjuster is kicking off Season 2 with author Chris Casaleggio, who wasted approximately 30 seconds before questioning the entire premise of this podcast. According to Chris, property adjusters might be “lightly sa...

“Adjusters are professional problem solvers who happen to work in insurance.” Chris Casaleggio has spent his career in claims, serves as a forensic expert and regional director at MC Consultants, and has written six books about the profession, including his newest, Claims Crossroads: Fresh Starts, Smart Pivots & New Paths for Adjusters . So when he says adjusters may underestimate just how tra...

"I don’t like this.” - Salty What happens when you let (aka “are bullied into letting”) your guest ask you the rapid fire questions instead? The Salty Adjuster found out the hard way when Morgan Blocher pulled off a hostile takeover. Is soup cereal? Does the color gray go with… other gray? Turns out everybody’s got salty opinions. ICYMI, here’s an excerpt from Season 1 Episode 30, our BrokerT...

🌹 “We tend to compare our everyday selves to what we see and what we think is real with people we put on a pedestal... we’re comparing our everyday to their best day.” — ⁠ Rose Hall, PE , RH Business Ventures, LLC Rose Hall has spent a career doing some pretty impressive things. She’s an engineer. An insurance and construction veteran. An innovation strategist. Her last three roles, inside of car...

“Conversations with real human beings are so much more valuable than applications.” — Josh Fischer The claims job market is weird right now. Experienced adjusters are applying to dozens, sometimes hundreds, of jobs and hearing nothing. Recruiters are getting buried under hundreds of applications for a single opening. Hiring managers are struggling to find the right people. And somehow everyone inv...

“I guess the question that’s probably on all of our listeners’ minds is: How does The Salty Adjuster show up to a conference with his face?” Episode 30 of The Salty Adjuster takes us to BrokerTech Ventures ' BrokerTech Connect in Chicago (8/31-9/2), the pod's first major trade show event and Salty’s first ever insurtech trade show. Turns out an anonymous podcast host can move through a con...

How does an anonymous podcast host attend and cover a trade show? We're spilling the salt. The Salty Adjuster team had an absolute blast at BrokerTech Connect in Chicago Aug. 31 - Sept. 2, where we recorded minisodes with Omer Rimoch , CEO of Advance; his colleague Morgan Blocher, Director at Advance and long-time friend of Producer Brett; and the one and only Marissa Buckley of RevUp. This ta...

“You don’t have to be an insurance person to be successful in insurance. It certainly helps, but you should acknowledge what you understand and what you don’t understand.” — Chris Luiz Chris Luiz has seen enough insurtech pitches to know the difference between a founder who has done the homework and one who thinks insurance is an industry just waiting for technology to come save it. As the founder...

“What part of the industry do you serve? ‘We serve all of it.’ Okay, that’s a pretty aggressive stance. What problem are you focusing on? ‘Oh, we can do anything.’ It’s like, well, you’re literally dead in the water.” — Chris Luiz If you've listened to any of The Salty Adjuster thus far, you know we love a claimstech founder who has done the work to understand the adjuster ecosystem. We don&#3...

What happens when two claims people meet on LinkedIn, become friends and decide risk management desperately needs to be more fun? You get Riskfetti . Sandy Avina and Angel Guerra both came up through claims before building careers in risk management, giving them a front-row seat to what happens when the textbook version of insurance collides with actual human beings. They also discovered they make...

Raise your hand if you’ve found your person in insurance. The one who makes you better at the work, makes the hard days funnier and somewhere along the way became a dear friend. Salty and Producer Brett built The Salty Adjuster on that kind of partnership, so we know it when we see it. And Sandy Avina and Angel Guerra have it. Between them, Sandy and Angel bring decades of experience across worker...

“The shiny object syndrome is very real when you’re on your own.” Meg McKeen has a folder in her Google Drive full of ideas. Some became real things. Some were completely built and ready to go before quietly dying. Some might come back someday. That feels about right for someone who has spent the last eight years figuring out what she actually wants her career, business and life to look like. Meg,...

“It’s messy in the in-between, to put it mildly.” Meg McKeen knows the highlight reel is rarely the whole story. Eight years ago, she stepped away from a traditional corporate career and started building something of her own. Since then, that has grown into a business, a podcast, a community and, eventually, a life on the road. But there have also been SOS calls to old managers asking, “Are you hi...

What happens when an insurance pitch competition becomes a road to the Startup World Cup ? Stacey Brown, founder of InsurTech America, joins Salty to talk about the 2026 Innovation Challenge , where startups, innovators and students are competing for $30,000 in awards , carrier exposure, mentorship and, for one winner, the opportunity to represent InsurTech America at the Startup World Cup in San...

“One winner from our contest will have the opportunity to go on and represent us, and represent InsurTech America, in the Startup World Cup.” What if your insurtech idea could take you from Hartford to the Startup World Cup ? InsurTech America founder Stacey Brown joins The Salty Adjuster to make the case for entering the 2026 Innovation Challenge , where startups and innovators will compete for $...