Career Coaching Secrets

No Experience, No Problem: How Pablo Jose Gonzalez Coaches Adjusters to Success

• Davis Nguyen

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Join Rexhen Doda as he speaks with Pablo Jose Gonzalez, a bilingual career coach, seasoned insurance professional, and a father of nine. Pablo, representing AdjusterPro, focuses on a highly niche area: coaching aspiring insurance adjusters to find work without prior experience. He shares his 12-year journey from one-on-one calls to scaling through webinars and his new "Well Adjusted" podcast, launching June 4th.

Pablo emphasizes the unique challenges of the adjuster industry, particularly for second-career individuals (50-55+), and his strategy of generously providing free, educational content to attract clients. He discusses the importance of a well-suited CRM (moving to ActiveCampaign from HubSpot) and adapting marketing to the evolving digital landscape, including AI optimization and the increasing relevance of podcasts over traditional search. Pablo's core advice to other coaches is to embrace podcasting for authentic communication and to leverage new communication channels to scale their impact.

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Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

Contrary to what people think, just getting your license is not going to get you work. Once you have the license, you have the ability to work, but how do you get work as an adjuster without experience? That's the biggest stumbling block. And that's where really what I focus is in coaching people and showing them what steps they need to take to what I call becoming a complete package so that

Davis Nguyen:

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Nguyen, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. Before Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven- and eight-figure career coaching businesses myself and consulted with two career coaching businesses that are now doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or just building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Rexhen Doda:

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm your host, Rejan, and today's guest is... Pablo Jose Gonzalez, he is a bilingual career coach, a seasoned insurance pro, and professional dad of nine. With over 25 years in the industry and 11,000 plus adjusters launched, PJ plans real world wisdom, humor, and heart to guide people into meaningful, profitable careers. And it's my pleasure to have you on the podcast today. Welcome to the show, Pablo.

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

Hey, thank you very much for having me, Reginald. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Rexhen Doda:

Certainly, when I was doing your research, I was like, did I read that right? Was it a dad of nine? I was like...

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

Seven boys, two girls, and the oldest is 18, and the youngest is one year old. So it's not career coaching, but I do a lot of coaching at home. Trust me.

Rexhen Doda:

You are so lucky to have nine children. That is amazing. It's a blessing. It is. Yes, that's right. Definitely a blessing. So tell Tell me more about what inspired you to become a coach.

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

Well, you know, my industry is the insurance adjusting industry. So I work with people that want to become insurance adjusters. And it's kind of like a very small industry that doesn't have a lot of, at least when I started helping literally coach people into the industry about 12, 13 years ago, there wasn't that much information on what insurance adjusters do. And people tend to get their license and not know how to get work. And so there seemed to be a gap in the credentials required and how to be able to get into the industry. I work for a company called Adjuster Pro. We license and train insurance adjusters. So we provide courses for people that want to become adjusters. And there's quite a few companies, we realize, that do this, that they provide licensing and training courses. But we didn't see anyone out there helping people actually get work, coaching people how to get into the industry. And so we saw that there was that gap there, and that's kind of how it started, just really one-on-one conversations with phone calls of somebody calling in and saying, I want to be an insurance adjuster, how do I get work? And then we started showing them steps and things that they need to do, coaching them on how to actually find work without experience.

Rexhen Doda:

And so just for me to understand that, When you want to become an adjuster, you need some credentials. You need some certification for that before.

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

Right. So you need to most states license adjusters are required to have a professional license. And either you have to take an exam or you have to take a course. And contrary to what people think, just getting your license is not going to get you work. Once you have the license, you have the ability to work. But how do you get work as an adjuster without experience? That's the biggest stumbling block. And that's where really what I focus is in coaching. people and showing them what steps they need to take to what I call becoming a complete package so that the companies that do the hiring can look at you and say, okay, you know, he doesn't have experience, but he has a license. He has all these credentials. He's taken all these certifications and he's network and done these things. let's give them some work and see how it goes. And that's what really what I do. I just coach people on how to get work without experience. Cause in this industry, the majority of postings out there are like, we're looking for an insurance adjuster, but they must have one to three years of experience. And so I, Really, my coaching is how to overcome that experience requirement using your professional background and soft skills, especially like communication skills, and network yourself into the industry.

Rexhen Doda:

I like how niche this is. Yeah. So it's been about 12 years and five months. So how does that look like now? Obviously, maybe it has changed a lot from the beginning to now.

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

Yeah, so I think it has changed a lot in the sense of how much information there is out there. There's definitely a lot more information now. Insurance adjusters, basically what they do is they represent the insurance company when you have damage to your home. So a hurricane, a tornado, a fire, a flood, something damages your home. Like where you're at now, you're in a beautiful room. Imagine a tree falls down and there's water coming in. You call the insurance company. The adjuster is the person that And they're going to make your life whole again. So there wasn't that much information 12, 15 years ago in the sense of the internet space, for example. There's a lot more now. But for me... As far as coaching people, it really went on one basis. People were calling me, hey, my name is Pablo, my name is Reggie, and I live in this state. I want to be an adjuster. And then I would just give them basically a career consultation, you know, kind of find out. We had three hurricanes in a row in the United States. We had Harvey, Maria, and Irma. I mean, it was like boom, boom, boom. And... So at that time, I decided I can't be talking one-on-one to people. I don't have the time. So I created the Intro to Adjusting Webinar. It's a webinar that's at the very top of our Adjuster Pro page. There's a link on there. And I do it twice a month on a Wednesday night. People register for it. And what I do is I spend about an hour. It's usually about five minutes. four to 500 people registering per webinar and about 200 showing up required. So again, from 2012 to 2017, mainly on email campaigns. We used to work with Infusionsoft. Then we moved to Hubs. It was just drip emails, those type of things, and people contacting me. Then we moved to the webinar, and the webinar has been very successful. And then just recently we started, so now we want to move it to an even higher audience, so now we're doing a podcast, just like you're doing here. It's called Well Adjusted. We just recorded our first four episodes. And I imagine this pertains to a lot of different careers where people do coaching, but If you see, it's kind of been on steps, you know, like one-to-one emails, having people click through emails, contact us to a webinar that we provide twice a month, getting about 400 to 500 people registering every webinar, so maybe targeting about 1,000 people. And then now we're doing a podcast, and our idea is to get a few thousand working as an administrator. You can, again, you have damage to your property. Somebody's going to come out there with a ladder, and I can't help it. They're using a phone camera. There's softwares that are going to do estimating. And then there's what's called inside adjuster, somebody who does that remote adjuster. The age could be anything. You know, it could be millennials. It could be that is typically second career people. That's 50, 55 years or older. Because again, it requires like, you know, maybe you're living in Florida and a hurricane goes through North Carolina and then they're like, Regan, we need you out there in 48 hours and you're going to be working 12, 14 hours a day for... Six weeks. Not everyone can do that. But it pays really well. So, you know, it's a good thing. But again, the flexibility that's required tends to be, that demographic for fuel just tends to be, not everybody, but the majority are second career people. Early 50s, mid 50s and are trying to, you know, change careers. And I get people from all backgrounds. They have this freedom that maybe their children are grown or out of the house or can take care of themselves and they want to travel a little bit, but they want to make money. So that's typically the demographic for the field adjuster.

Rexhen Doda:

I like that. Actually, it is an interesting field. I hadn't heard about it until today, but it's very interesting to put a name to it. So you mentioned doing the webinar and also the podcast. How do you currently, and by the way, are you going to think of doing both at the same time now?

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

Yeah, so we're going to alternate. So one Wednesday we're going to have the webinar, which we have every other Wednesday night, and then every other Wednesday we publish a podcast. Personally, I think the podcast is going to be the way to go. I think podcasts, I mean, they've been, you know, podcasts, I don't know about you, but I'll put my earplugs on and I'll walk around the neighborhood and I'll listen to everything. from news to diet and health and religion, those type of things, because I'm walking around my neighborhood trying to get some exercise, and I need to do something for 30, 45 minutes. So podcasts are very popular now. And I think podcasts were very, very popular, and they kind of, I think, settled down a little bit. But I think there's a rebirth, if you may say, of people listening to podcasts. I can't explain it. I don't know. above my pay grade. I'm not that technology savvy, but I think eventually we're going to phase out of the webinar and just do the podcast because even in my own experience, and as I said, I have, you know, teenagers that listen to different things. My wife listens to different things. Podcast is a very, it's a great way of communicating something now. And I think, you know, it's just really what we're going to focus on from here on out.

Rexhen Doda:

I definitely agree. I feel like it is obviously getting more trendy um years um and you said so you're gonna do two weeks podcast two weeks webinars and then eventually shift to a podcast seeing which one works kind of like testing for a while that's right and how are you marketing each of these

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

so again we we we We're constantly sending out email campaigns and generating traffic to our website. And if you go to the website, you'll see at the top that you can register for the webinar. You can just click on it, register, choose your date and come. And in fact, if you happen to register and you can't make it, I send you a recorded version of it. So we get people through the webinar. Now, the podcast, what we're doing is we're advertising it through the webinar. I mentioned it June 4th. So it's like brand new. You end marketing on marketing. And it's this idea of marketing without marketing in the sense of just giving free information all the time. In my case, I'm just letting people know how you get work, how you get licensed, giving experiences of people that have been successful, just giving as much information as possible. And then hopefully you will buy a course from me. You will buy an adjusting licensing course for me. Is there a possibility that somebody can get a ton of information on how to become an adjuster and go to another company and buy a licensing course? I mean, there is. The truth is that really by being generous with the amount of information we give out for free, in return, we get a lot of sales. And, you know, again, we attract people through email campaigns and drip campaigns and all that. But the strategy for us has been for a long time just to be very generous with the free information that we give. to help people become investors, and that's turned out really well.

Rexhen Doda:

emails for the webinar and webinar they will know about the podcast but how do they even get into their email list or is it called email

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

no so actually on our so they they come to us and then there are several different things that we offer besides the webinar so we have an ebook on how to become an adjuster and then we have another one called the five steps on how to become an adjuster and of course there's a wall in the sense of you have to give us your name and your email address and in our case in particular uh we ask for the state that you live in because licensing is so state-specific that we like to know that information. So that's all really what we require. So we have two different e-books. We have the webinar. We have a typical Contact Us form. You know, it's great. As you notice, it's a very niche industry. But because of that, there's a lot of incoming requests for information.

Rexhen Doda:

They find you on Google or somewhere else. Right. So we're working, obviously, with

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

And then, you know, we also, you know, one of the things that we do use is, you know, we're just not sure, you know. So we have a, what's called an abandoned checkout workflow, which immediately notifies me that, hey, Regin was about to buy and he abandoned his checkout. And so basically the system will send you an email saying, hey, Regin, I saw that you were really interested in coming. Do you want to go to one of my webinars? You know what I mean? Just because... And people in sales will tell you all this, that when people say no in the sense of buying from you, the majority of the time is, that's what we're doing. So the abandoned checkout workflow, it's a good way to kind of see who's in the cusp of purchasing our courses and finding out what else they need to know. And most of the time... Now, I

Rexhen Doda:

want to move away from marketing. I wanted to ask you, do you have any... Like, obviously, you mentioned the podcast.

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

You know... I think, you know, I personally, I kind of look at social media with a grain of salt, to be honest with you. I mean, it can be good, it can be bad, you can waste a lot of time. Personally, I like LinkedIn. I do for our industry, I like LinkedIn. And I really want us to, you know, be more active in LinkedIn. You can do live webinars. Really, I mean, again, like I said, our first show is going to be published June 4th. So we're really just kind of starting that. Working stronger with social media, I think that's also, you know, not trying to knock Facebook, but I think for our industry, LinkedIn is a better match, is a better fit. You have people of all professional levels that are trying to promote themselves and programs, any masterminds or communities or whatever

Rexhen Doda:

it is that you feel that has

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

actually... I mean, we do paid advertisement on Google and Google ranking and those type of things. And really, I think the most important thing is to make sure you have the right CRM. We started out with Salesforce and then we went to Infusionsoft and then we went to HubSpot. And then now we're going to start actually July 1st, we're going to start with Active. campaign. And I like HubSpot. I just think for the size of our company and the niche that we're in, it's too much, to be honest with you. There's too much stuff there that we don't use. And I think if I was giving anybody advice on a CRM, it's just make sure that it fits your needs specifically. Because sometimes you see HubSpot has worked well for us, but there's just a ton of stuff in there that we don't use, that is not necessary for us. It's not That's good for us. And again, I'm happy with HubSpot. But, you know, after kind of looking at, you know, investing in a different CRM, you know, we found that ActiveCampaign was really more, you could laser focus it more on what we're trying to do and kind of get away from the noise of all the other pieces of advice I can give in investing in a CRM. Just make sure that it fits specifically to what you're trying to do. You know, I know, I mean, I'm on LinkedIn and there's a lot of career coaches that reach out to me and stuff like that. And, you know, I could tell sometimes by the conversations we have that they get distracted when you have too much of a system, you can get distracted and not really be able to get your message out, show people really what you're trying to do for them because there's just too many distractions in that system.

Rexhen Doda:

So just giving you the reason why we moved there is because we needed some extra automation. The opposite of us. That's funny. So far, what would you say is the biggest challenge you're currently facing in further scaling your coaching business?

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

I think that one of the reasons why we have the podcast Because of artificial intelligence and the way people look for information now, before it was like, are you going to Google this? Are you going to Google that? And now, I mean, I use ChatGPT for just about everything, which I'm sure a lot of people do too. So I think one of the biggest challenges is to be able to direct AI to our business, AI optimization. That, I think, is one of the biggest challenges anymore. I mean, they are, but, you know, ChatGPT has taken a big chunk of that. So how do we, you know... wrestle that animal, for lack of a better expression. And I think specifically to what I'm trying to do, I think, you know, it's important to, you know, how do we bring the information to the people that are interested in our industry and are looking for help, needing to be coached, that they get educated, you know? I mean, one other, you know, just funny type of thing is, ironically, I don't get annoyed, but I'm always surprised when somebody will call me and they'll say, I bought this package that you sell that includes licensing and software training and all these courses that show me how to be an adjuster. But I was wondering, so how do I get a job? And it's like, wow, you bought this package before you even researched the industry. And that kind of always baffles me. And to me, it's a matter of there's this lack of education, of being able to get information out. And, you know, I think the challenge is, again, to combine that, to give solid information on whatever your industry is, and then understand how, you know, ChatGPT works and be able to kind of put those two together so that people can get well educated and then be funneled to your site. That's really what I think is the biggest challenge right now.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, I feel it's a challenge for a lot of coaches, even for us. We've seen, like, obviously, if we were having this conversation about three years ago or four years ago, we'd believe that we were moving away from Google. I know. That's crazy.

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

That's

Rexhen Doda:

crazy. That's exactly right. Google was such a monopoly back in the day. You just, like, SEO was such a big thing. And, yeah, now...

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

You know, we, I mean... We shouldn't be afraid. We just got to figure it out. And we can, you know, I mean, it's, I'm not saying it's easy, but you know, we have to figure it out because if, if people are moving away from Google to chat GBT, and of course you still have a lot of Google users, but if you have a significant amount of people using chat GBT, you're going to have to figure it out, but you're going to be left behind.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, I agree. And is there any final advice you'd like to give to other coaches who are looking to scale their impact?

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

I think, Again, just look at what people are doing nowadays and get your information out that way. And that's one of the reasons. And I actually think we should have had a podcast about a year ago. But I'm grateful that our podcast is coming out now. I think podcasts are a great way to put your information out there and get traffic to what you're trying to do. You have to kind of look at all the opportunities for communication and figure out what works best for you. And the thing about podcasting is that you and I, we're just having a conversation. And you can just have a conversation about whatever specific industry you're in. And if you're really passionate about that industry, I love insurance adjusting. I think it's a great opportunity. I think people get to help people in a time of need. There's just so many rewards besides financial. I really am passionate about that. and we just have a conversation on a podcast, I think you'll generate traffic because it's authentic. It's just, I think if I had to give somebody advice, they're trying to scale up their career and they do not have a podcast, that's the route that I would go.

Rexhen Doda:

And I feel like one of the main advantages and probably why it's getting more attention recently might even be because of AI, because it's something that Maybe AI is not there yet. Podcast, this feels so much human. So yeah, I agree with you. It was a pleasure having you on the podcast today. Likewise. For anyone who wants to find you, they can come into your LinkedIn.

Pablo Jose Gonzalez:

Absolutely. Go to my LinkedIn or you can email me to Pablo at AdjusterPro.com or just look at AdjusterPro.com and kind of see what industry we're in, what kind of courses we offer and how we help people break into that industry. Any one of those ways. And hopefully listen to my podcast when it comes out June 4th. Thank you. Thank you so much, Pablo. Thank you so much, Roger. Nice talking to you.

Davis Nguyen:

Thank you so much.