Freddie Frenzy

Freddy Edders from Yes First Insurance is a guest on the podcast. He talks about his experience in the insurance industry and why he switched from selling cars to selling insurance. He also discusses the importance of insurance for pets and the different coverage options available. Additionally, Freddy gives advice to small business owners on the essential insurance they should have, such as LLC and liability coverage. He also mentions that travel insurance may not be necessary if you already have homeowners or renters insurance. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for tuning in to Your Home Talk, Living Your Best Life with Luke. Guys, I got a special guest here today, and his name is the one and only Freddy Edders from Yes First Insurance. So, Freddy, tell me a little bit about yourself, how you got started in insurance, how long you been selling. Tell us about it. Got my start in insurance around about 2000 and, let's see, probably 15. Got my first PNC, property and casualty license. So for about two years, had my own agency, Legacy South Insurance, run my own agency for about a year in a partnership with a gentleman, and kind of got back out of it. I was in retail grocery for 25-plus years, and retail management for 10-plus years. So I just kind of got back into that field and still sold insurance and sold some cars along the way, you know, for Woody Folsom and Vidalia. And had a good time there, learned some selling tactics and, you know, learned a lot from those guys and actually went back into the retail field and got back into insurance here recently over the last two years. Enjoying it. Love working for Yes First. Yes First is a great company, got great insurance, got great agents there, of course. Michael Phelps and myself. Yeah, we're going to have Michael on one day. Yeah, we'll get him on here. Yeah, because listen. He's got a lot to say. I bet he does. He does. He's got a lot to say. You mentioned that you work selling cars for Woody Folsom. Yeah. If you're from around the area, you all know who Woody Folsom is. Listen. Talk to me. Talk to me. All right, but I want to know what made you settle with selling insurance instead of selling cars in the retail? What made you? Well, you know, Luke, I tell people like this. To me, selling cars is a fast paced game. I think you know. I mean, you know. I've been there. I don't think it's a family man's game, in my opinion, because I am a family man. I have three kids and a wife. Actually, I have five kids and a wife. I have three at home. There you go. So, you know, I'm a family man, of course, first. Yeah. And with the hours you have to put in, with the car business, you know, that just wasn't shaking out for me as well with the family. Yeah. So, yeah. That makes sense. And guys that are tuning in, I want to let you all know that we have Yes First. We got Uri's Home Center. I work for Uri's Home Center. And I don't know what I'm saying. But I think I went off on a limb there for a minute. I thought I knew what I was saying. Y'all going to act like we scratched that one. I think what you're trying to say is Uri's and Yes First are sister companies. That's right. That's right. And what I'm trying to say is this podcast is for everybody. Right. Right. This is not trying to get people to come buy from us. Sure. This is industry-wide insurance and manufactured homes. This is industry-wide. So, if you know of anybody that's interested in coming on this podcast, y'all be sure to let me know. You can send an email to marketing at uris.com if you're interested in being on the show. We've had a great turnout, guys. We've had hundreds of viewers on this. And I'm hoping to get to thousands. And there are going to be some giveaways coming up. And speaking of that, I know that Uri's Home Center over in Baxley, they're giving away a house November 15th. A house. A house, son. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I'll put them details in the bio of this podcast. But anyways, back to Freddy. So, I had a question come on my phone. They want to know about insurance for pets, Freddy. Insurance for pets. And I don't like pets. You don't like pets? I don't like pets. I don't do dogs. I don't do cats. I don't do parrots. I don't do lizards, snakes, spiders. None of that. Okay. Okay. But why should pet owners consider purchasing insurance for their little furry friends they have? Okay. Well, since you don't like pets, you probably wouldn't know this. But some people consider pets as family. Some people make a great investment in their pets. You know, I've seen pet owners buy pets, buy puppies for $1,500, $2,000. You know, you get into the pet world and you see a pet maintenance and pet management, pet ownership is a big responsibility. Especially if you consider it, you know, as a part of your family, then you're willing to do whatever, you know, to make sure that animal is taken care of, make sure they're healthy. So we offer insurance solutions to help you do that. We have insurance packages that not only cover, you know, for when the animal becomes sick, but it also covers, you know, health plans for the animal along the way to make sure the animal stays healthy and stays at top peak, you know, peak performance as your pet. And also we have, you know, death benefits and all that. I mean, it's a great thing. It's a great, you know, tool. It's kind of like a human. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like, it is health insurance for animals. It's basically what it is. That's crazy. And it works, you know, it works on kind of a reimbursement basis. You know, you have different plans. You can get reimbursed to 80%, 90%. You know, they have different plans and, you know, different, but you can always, you know, we can always talk with you about that. You know, we can always explain those coverages to you and explain that to you. There's a lot of people, we have a lot of, a lot of pet insurance, surprisingly in Baxley. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I bet you, you probably couldn't even guess how many policies you've written in your lifetime. Well, in my lifetime, probably somewhere around a million dollars in book, you know, as far as, and that's, you know, when you're looking at auto and home, that's a lot of policies because, you know, dollar amount on those particular policies are not as much as, you know, with medical commercial policies or that thing. So, yeah, it's, you know, over 300 for sure right now. That's crazy. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. So, I want to ask you, we've got a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners that listen to this podcast, me being one of them. What types of insurance are essential for those small business owners and how do they differ from other policies? So, what's something essential for a small business owner? Okay. Well, let's, we can talk about that, but let's talk about if you're a small business owner in today's world, a lot of, I see a lot, one thing I see as an insurance agent, I see a lot of small business owners that are uneducated and, you know, they just don't have people with experience giving them, you know. So, what I would suggest, number one, overall, if you're going into business for yourself or you're going into having a side business or any kind of business in your name, I would LLC that thing, number one. Very first thing. Because it separates you personally. It's only $100, I think. It separates you business. Yeah. Yeah. And it helps so much in insurance if you're LLC because you're already designated to one activity or one work, you know, one type of work. Because I don't think you can get insured if you're not. Right. You have to, well, I mean, you can get insurance if you're not LLC. But the thing that LLC does is it just totally separates your personal you, Luke, from Luke, the business. Gotcha. It separates Luke, the personal, and it separates across your finance and across your insurance. Yeah. So, those two things right there before you even get insured will help you on the liability side. Yeah. Limited liability company, LLC. Yeah. Yeah. So, that would be my first suggestion for anybody going into business. I see a lot of business owners that don't have LLCs. They do DBAs. And, you know, it's still tied to your personal. That's right. You know, all the way. And if something happens, there's liability. You know, you never know if something's going to happen. That's right. You could be on the jobs. An accident could happen. You could damage a customer's property. That's where the liability kicks in and you're liable. You know, if you're negligent, if you're deemed negligent, you're deemed liable. That money comes out of your pocket. That's right. That's where your insurance comes in. That's where the LLC comes in to separate. Right. Where you don't have as much liability on your personal as you do your business. Yeah. And coming from the banking industry, which I did that for a little bit before changing careers, I know that the first thing we looked at when someone said, hey, I want to open a bank account for my business. We want to see a certification. We want to see an LLC. We want to see something. Right. Incorporated something. I get what you're saying that it's not going to be tied to your personal when you've got it separate. And I think that can benefit. Yeah. And it makes it easier insurance. You know, LLCs usually get a little better premium than, you know, average Joe just want to do this on the side. So, you will see premium differences between the two also. It's just a lot easier to designate insurance for an LLC because you already have that designation tied to your LLC. So, it's a lot less red tape when you're going through underwriting. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I got another question that came in. And, hey, guys, if you have a question for podcasts coming up, you can also send those to marketingatyourreef.com so I can get those questions wrote down. We're going to start doing this podcast every other week, not every week. I think that works better for everyone. So, every other week, every Thursday morning, okay? Somebody asked me about travel insurance. Now, do you sell travel insurance? Now, we do have some carriers that offer travel insurance. Okay. But I will tell you this, if you have home insurance or if you have renters insurance, those items that you take with you on those trips, they're covered by your homeowners insurance or your renters insurance. Yeah. And same applies to your auto. But, like I say, stuff that you carry with you is covered. Now, we do offer, you know, some carriers offer a special trip, what they call trip insurance, where you can insure, you know, money, jewelry, stuff like that, you know, because your homeowners only cover so much as far as jewelry and money and computers and guns and things of that nature. They don't cover 100% of the cost of those. Right. So, you know, if you have a homeowners policy, you need to read your policy and make sure, you know, you know what coverage is available for those things. Make sure what coverage is you got. Yeah. So, you know, and we can write trip insurance that will cover those things, you know, the special items that, you know, and cash and security and stuff. Okay. Okay. Well, I'm just going to be honest with you. I don't carry no expensive jewelry or no cash or nothing like that with me on a trip. No. I try not to. I ain't got it. That's the problem. Well, if I got it, I'm going to spend it. So, I try to leave it in some nooks and crannies somewhere so it'll be there when I get back, you know? Yeah. But I want to ask you this. So, you know, you guys are Yes First, and y'all are located in Baxley. Yes, we are. 147 North Main Street. 147 North Main. Let me tell y'all something. I ain't never met an insurance agent this cool. I mean, you got to be cool to know Freddie Eddards. Let me tell you something. This is a cool man right here. Y'all got to get to know him. So, even if you just call him and ask him questions about what they offer, he'll be glad to do that. What's y'all's number down there, Freddie? It's 912-2400-111. And the extension for the office is 8006. And my extension is 603. That means you get him directly. That's right. You come directly to Fred. I've been direct. And if he don't answer, that means he's saving somebody else money right now. Oh, yeah. I'll call you back. He'll call you back. Yeah, I'm calling you back. Every time I see Fred, he's on that phone. That's right. That's right. He's wheeling and dealing. That's where I make it. But I want to ask you this. People are saying, well, Luke, why should I choose Yes First if I'm with such and such? Why should I do this with Yes First instead of doing it with them? You know, how are they going to save me money? How are they better than the insurance office down the road? How can you answer that? Well, you know... Then I'm going to tell you how I want to answer it. Okay. Well, you know, Luke, for me, in this world that we live in where everybody's being driven to the Internet, you know, everybody's being driven to AI, you know, we're in the... I use AI. Yeah. I mean, we're transitioning. And, you know, I'm an old school guy in some ways, but I understand the, you know, application of AI. I understand that. And I understand that, you know, change is necessary. I encourage you all to look that up if you don't know what it is. Yeah. I mean, you see AI in everything. Yeah. But, I mean, when you're looking for a customer experience and, you know, and we're being trained not to look for that so much these days, but there are a vast majority of people out there that still enjoy the customer experience and still enjoy customer service. Right. And I think that insurance agents for a long time now have been pushed and just made to think production so long, you know, to make the commission, to make the dollars, that they have forgotten the service portion. They have forgotten, you know, the service after a sale. They've forgotten about, you know, these things. And that's, you know, that's true in a lot of industries these days. But I think that's the difference. One of the main differences with Yes First is we take that extra time. We take that extra, you know, we try to take that extra attention to detail, that extra attention to the customer's needs. That's right. And, you know, you can go get a quote online for auto insurance in a thousand different sites, okay? Right. And they'll all offer you a good price, okay? But once you sign that paper and get that policy, you know, thank you very much. We'll see you later, you know, until you have a claim and then who knows if your claim is going to get handled because you've never actually talked to a person. That's right. You only ever, you know, you only know what the computer is telling you. You only know what the phone is telling you. So, you know, when you need to hash something out with a person. And everybody trusts their phone. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we trust everything. I mean, these kids nowadays, they trust everything they read on the phone. They trust it. Yeah. And that's, you know, that's kind of where we're headed. But it's good to look somebody in the eye and know they're telling you the truth. Yeah. Especially when you have a lot. They can dissect what you have and what's covered. Well, I mean, you think about it, Luke. People have their life savings sometimes in their home, in their autos, in the things that they've invested their money and their time into. They put hard work into it. And why would you trust that to AI? Yeah. AI has no feelings. AI has no life experience. AI doesn't know how to get out there and go to work. Yeah. You know, so what can AI tell me, you know, about my insurance? No. You know? Exactly. So that's why. Oh, but then you owe them, do you or not? That's the difference in us, you know, and me and Michael take great pride in it, you know. That kind of rebounds off what I was going to say. You guys are in an office. You're physically there. The door's open all the time during business hours. People can get in contact with you. And I think that it's better that they can call you personally instead of going through an 800 number that they've got to dial 2 and dial 1 and dial 4 and put on hold for 30 minutes and hang on a minute. I don't see this blah, blah, blah. It's because those people have never talked to you. Right. They have Freddy Edders as their insurance agent. The man. The one and only. The end of flesh. And the guru, Michael Phelps. Yeah. The guru. They want to be able to physically shake your hand. Yeah. And that's one thing that's great about it is that you guys are in an office. You're available. Always. And you're able to talk. You're able to help them fix whatever problem they're having right then, right there. And if not, you'll try your best. I know y'all will. But that's something I want to talk about. When I was living back home in Sylvester, my insurance agent at the time, I had her personal phone number. And I'm not saying that's the case for everybody, but if I had a problem, I'd text her and she was on it. And that's the same thing. If they call that office phone and talk to you. Yeah. All my customers have my personal number. Yeah. Now, you know, you try to reach me at midnight, you might have a problem. But I always make sure that my customers have my personal number because you never know. You know, they could be out looking at a vehicle, you know, need something from you. It's good to be at arm's reach that they can reach you. Right. And, like, I hit a deer, I think, is what happened with me. And it was, like, 9 o'clock at night. Yeah. So I was that annoying customer that texts late at night when you're in family time. Yeah. But I said, hey, I just hit a deer. You know, what do I need to do? I mean, I was 16 at the time. I didn't know what to do. You know, and I think that's something that people don't know what to do when something like that happens. Yeah. So if somebody hits a deer or first gets in a wreck or something happens on the road, they're like, oh, my gosh, what do I need to do? I don't know what to do. Tell me or tell the listeners who may not know what they need to do when they get in a wreck or hit a deer. Well, y'all know down here, down here, them deers, we got these deers down here. And, you know, it's just a problem. You know, it happens much too regularly. And the thing about insurance is the first thing with a deer, okay, if you're, you know, surprised by a deer in the highway, don't swerve. Yeah. Just apply your brakes the best you can. Hope the deer runs off the road. Yeah. Because what you don't want to do is swerve because when you swerve in the eyes of insurance, in the eyes of the law, you take the liability into your own hands. Therefore, if you run in somebody's yard. Did y'all hear that? Yeah. Do not swerve. Do not swerve. I mean, I know it's the first human reaction is to swerve. But if you run into somebody's yard and mess up their, you know, $1,000 flower pots or, you know, something like that, at that point, you know, you're liable for it. You know, and then you just start adding. So, you know, same with deer. If you hit a deer, you know, and it's an upsetting thing, I recommend, you know, of course call the police first and let them do the report always. And then secondly, before, you know, before we file an insurance claim, talk to your agent. Yeah. You know, if you have that luxury, you know, like we did first. If you're on the Internet, you know, you may get somebody you may not. But if you could talk to me, I could advise you. And a lot of times, it's better to seek out, you know, just coming out of pocket with some things. Right. Because used to, you could put a headlight, say, on a Chevy Silverado for, you know, $300. Nowadays, a headlight for a Chevy Silverado is $1,500 to $1,700, upwards of $2,000. Yeah. So, you know, it's best to have that person you can reach out to in those situations to, you know, advise you. Yeah. And that's what we do. Yeah. And I will, here's another thing that I struggled with when I was a teenager because I did not know what any of this meant. Because they don't teach these things in school anymore, Freddy. That's right. They don't teach you anything about insurance. They don't teach you what a deductible is. They don't teach you, you know, premium, anything like that. So, I have a question. You know, there's different deductible amounts, I think, when you have a vehicle or whatever. Right. So, what is the difference? Why is one $250? Why is one $1,000? Why is one? Right. You see what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, the deductible is what you, as the insurer, agree to pay in the case of a loss. Okay. So, it's, you know, it's you kind of insuring yourself to a certain extent. So, when you, if Luke goes out and hits a deer in the Mustang and, you know, you have a lot of, say you have, you know, $2,000 worth of damage to your Mustang. And you have, say, a $500 deductible. Okay. So, if your Mustang is going to take $2,000 to repair, the insurance company will then send you a check for $1,500. Because it'd be $2,000 minus your $500 deductible. So, the insurance company will charge you less premium if you pay more out of pocket in case of a loss. So, say your deductible is $1,000. Well, your premium will be lower than it would if your deductible were $500. Right. Because you're agreeing to pay more in the case of a loss. Right. So, that's kind of where your deductible comes in right there. And I know that. If somebody's listening to this had no idea what that stuff meant, you'd be surprised. Because I was one of them. I ain't scared of what it meant. Yeah. I was one of them. Yeah, your deductible is what you agreed to pay, you know, in case of a loss. I just know when I went up there to pay, they said, hey, you got to pay $500. I said, I thought that's what insurance was for. Well, you know, in a lot of cases, it is. It is. But in a lot of cases with, you know, a lot of times you'll know a person that owns a body shop or something like that, if your car's been wrecked, and they'll work with you on the deductible side. Yeah. And in fact, nowadays, it's more prevalent than it used to. But a lot of times, if you have a $500 deductible, I don't hardly ever see anybody having to come out of pocket for that. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. A lot of guys just say, hey, I'll work with you, you know, we'll eat the deductible. Yeah. You know, so if you have a $500 deductible, that's what we quote standard, but that's what you agree to pay. Yeah. And of course, if you want your deductible to be more, you just tell them. Oh, yeah. You'll do it. We'll take them up. That's right. That's right. We'll take them up. All the way to $1,000 if you want to. Yeah, all the way down to $100 or $0. That's right. If you don't want to pay a deductible. That's right. Sure. And moving to a different subject, home insurance. Okay. Okay. Homeowner's insurance and renter's insurance. So I'm going to tell you that I had renter's insurance for every house that I ever rented up until now. Tell me why somebody would want renter's insurance. Tell me what's the benefit. I know it's the feeling of being protected, but maybe you can elaborate a little bit on that. How can they maximize that coverage? Okay. If you're a renter and you're renting from someone, okay, that is your landlord. They have an insurance policy on that home, but it only covers for the outside exterior structure of the home. It does not cover your contents. It does not cover your furniture, your et cetera, et cetera. So then we offer renter's policies to tenants. And what that covers is your clothing, your furniture, your electronics in your home, anything that you own that you brought to the home, it covers. And it covers, the important part is the liability portion that it would cover because that landlord liability only applies to the structure and the premises of the home, not the actual interior or the, if the tenant is occupying that spot, it does not cover the liability for the inside portion of the home. The tenant has to cover that liability. So that renter's offers that liability. So if you want that 85 inch TV cover, you better get it. Yeah, that will be it. Yeah. And we can offer up to, I think we can quote up to and write policies up to 100,000 for just personal content. That's a lot of money. I mean, if you think about it, 100,000 is a lot of personal content. And you lost everything. Yeah, yeah. So what if somebody broke in and stole it with that? Yes, theft is also covered. And, you know, as we mentioned earlier, there are some things that are itemized in your policy that do not, that your policy does not cover 100% of the cost. It only covers to a certain dollar amount. And you make that known to them. Yeah, those are always explained, always, you know, always evident in the policy paperwork. Yep, yep. And we try to highlight those when we can. And speaking of houses, you know, normally there's a garage there and some people have got collectibles sitting in there. They've got a nice car from the 1950s or the 1920s or whatever. I wasn't born then. Freddy was. I'm old, bro. I ain't that old. But I want to know, do y'all offer insurance for collectible cars? Yeah, we offer Antique Classic. American Classic is one company we write through. They insure classic autos and high-value items. Personal, what we call personal article floater, which is if you had a set of China that was worth $20,000, we could insure that for that amount. Yeah. And the same thing with, you know, the same thing with what you were saying. If anything is high-value, especially a car or anything like that, we write special insurance for those items and insure them at the dollar amount. Okay. So if you have anything high-value that you're worried about, you may not have, you know. I mean, me and Michael took a tour the other day right here in Baxley. I don't want to say his name. Yeah. But this guy has a sports museum set up. And it has a big metal building. And when you walk in, it's just like walking into like the Hall of Fame sports museum. Here in Baxley, I never knew. But those types of things, that's big money. I mean, I bet you there's $3 to $4 to $5 million worth of sports memorabilia in that building. Yeah. So, you know, he had to have special insurance. You don't just get a regular insurance policy for that. Yeah. And guys, when I tell you that Yes First can insure it, I promise you that they can. Oh, yeah. And they have a great track record in the community. And they've got plenty of customers that can speak on their behalf. Absolutely. And I think that's going to wrap us up for today, guys. And I thank y'all so much for listening. Freddy, is there anything else you want to say? Luke, I thoroughly enjoyed it, man. I enjoyed working with you. Yeah. It's a pleasure just being around you. Absolutely. And, you know, just remember Yes First Freddy. You know, if you ain't getting Yes'd up, you're getting messed up. That's him, guys. Y'all need to call Freddy Edwards down there at Yes First, 912-240-0111. What's your extension? Extension 603 or 8006. Even one of those guys can get you a bunch of savings, whether it's home insurance, whatever. He can save you a lot of money, and he'll be glad to help you. That's right. That's been another episode of Your Home Talk, Living Your Best Life with Luke. I hope y'all have a great Thursday. And as always, stay blessed.