Shadowing Practice: What Firms Really Look For When Hiring Storm Adjusters - Learn English Speaking with Video

Alright, picture this.

It's Thanksgiving this year and you're walking through the door with a perfectly marbled, staining rib roast.

We're talking the good stuff here.

Prime meat.

You set it down on the table, and when your uncle starts reaching for his wallet, you just wave him off and say, don't worry about the cost.

This one's on me.

Why is it on you?

Because you just wrapped up a three-month hurricane deployment that didn't just wipe out your credit card debt, it actually padded your savings account.

You are sitting pretty.

Now, let's flip the script.

Same day, same house, but this time you

and your family are huddled around a single packet of ramen because another storm season just slipped right through your fingers.

Phone never rang, those deployments you dreamed about never happened, and that adjuster's license you worked your ass off to get is basically just expensive wall art at this point.

Here's the brutal truth about what separates those two scenarios.

Independent firms only deploy adjusters who can crack open Exactimate and pump out solid carrier-ready estimates on day one,

not day seven, not day 27, not after some hand-holding, day one.

And today I'm going to completely erase that barrier for you.

I'm Matt, I've been in this industry for 26 years, I've handled more than 10,000 catastrophe claims, and I'm here to make damn sure that you're the one serving up

that rib roast instead of fighting over 25 cents worth of noodles.

Starting now.

Here's the dirty little secret about Xactimate.

It is incredibly powerful, but it's about as user-friendly as the dashboard of the space shuttle.

You really do have to be trained to use this thing, and most new adjusters get hung up on the software itself, not on writing good estimates.

And here's where it gets you.

First, you don't know what things are called, right?

Or more importantly, what Xactimate calls them.

If you're from the north and you know those metal things

that catch water on the edge of your roof as eaves troughs, good luck finding that in Xactimate, right?

You're looking for gutters.

and floodcut, this is something that you're gonna use constantly on hurricane deployments.

Those two words together aren't found anywhere in the software.

Same with silcock, when you need a hose bib, right?

Second, even if you know what something is called, actually finding it in Xactimate can be a nightmare if you don't know how to use the search function.

The search in Xactimate is incredibly powerful, but it's not immediately intuitive.

Once you know how to use it, you're off to the races.

But if you don't, you can spend hours trying to find stuff

when you could have closed this file and moved on to the next one.

You know, most new adjusters never get deployed because they sit around waiting for firms to notice them.

That's why I put together a free on-demand masterclass

that shows you how to flip the script and take control of your own deployment odds.

Join us right now at adjustertv.com slash deployment.

And third, new adjusters waste massive amounts of time building intricate sketch diagrams

when all you really need to do is jot down a few calculations on your scope sheet and manually input the dimensions.

It's all that time spent trying to navigate Xactimate that drags a new adjuster down to a crawl.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking and firms are looking for speed and reliability, not software struggles, okay?

All right, here's the real reason that adjusters get kicked off storms and it's not what you think.

It's because they confuse being busy with being productive.

There's pressure from everybody, homeowners, managers, agents, for the new guy to just get out there and start looking at the houses.

So they do, at the expense of everything else.

They become what we call over scoped and here's what that looks like.

They've inspected 15 or 20 houses, run around like crazy, feel busy as hell, but they don't have any files finished and uploaded by the end of the week.

Zero.

They've got scope sheets scattered all over their hotel room, an SD card loaded with unorganized photos, and a growing queue of voicemails,

texts, and emails from frustrated homeowners asking when they're going to see their estimate.

Meanwhile, the carrier and IA firm are looking at their dashboard

and seeing a big fat zero next to this adjuster's name in the closed files column.

And here's what most new adjusters don't understand.

The carrier and the IA firm care way more about closed files, they get something, anything, in the insurer's hands than they do about picture-perfect estimates.

Why?

Because even an imperfect estimate gets the homeowner started on fixing their house, and it can always be adjusted later.

More importantly, it keeps the insurance company out of hot water with state law requirements for first contacts and first inspections.

The adjusters who survive storms are the ones who understand this.

They might inspect fewer houses in a day, but they're finishing the files.

They're closing these claims.

They're keeping the pipeline moving instead of creating a bottleneck.

All right, so here's the thing about Xactimate.

It is what is called a fungible skill.

That means that practice and reps are what are gonna win the day, not some magical shortcut, macro, or secret technique.

You have to practice this software.

If you actually wanna master this software, or at least be dangerous in it, you need to approach it systematically with three steps.

Step one, learn the buttons and navigation through an officially sanctioned training course.

I'm talking about something like the pro subscription inside of Adjust Your TV Plus

that will build your skills so that you can tackle the Xactimate user certification exams.

This teaches you how to find stuff and build estimates without fumbling around for hours.

Step two, learn how to use Xactimate in the context of the claims process.

This one is huge, okay?

Because knowing how to click buttons is one thing, But knowing how to use Xactimate as one tool in the greater claims process is what separates the pros from the pretenders.

We're talking about photos, which ones are required, how to take them, how to import them, how to label them, diaries, general loss reports, where to put the deductibles,

real scenarios for applying sublimits, labor minimums, invoices, depreciation.

All that stuff doesn't get covered in the basic training.

A fast-tracked deployment program covers all of those things.

And then step three, build muscle memory through reps.

No certification or course will make you good at Xactimate more than focused practice.

Doesn't have to be a lot, just touching the software a few times a week for 30

minutes to write a basic estimate is gonna be enough to build the skill and keep it fresh. That way

when you get deployed you're hitting the ground running instead of

scratching your head trying to remember where to put itail pricing for carpet.

And if you're watching this and you know where that is, let us know in the comments.

The goal isn't to become the fastest Xactimate user in the world, it's to become reliable and efficient so that you can focus on what actually matters,

which is closing files and making money.

So here's what happens

when the next category five hurricane makes landfall firms are scrambling

to deploy adjusters who can navigate exact me without getting lost

in the software who understand the difference between being busy

and being productive and who can consistently close files instead of just piling up inspections okay

when your name comes up and you can legitimately say i know how to find

when i need an exact mate i can balance my inspection load with my file closing responsibilities

and i can consistently deliver closed files that get money in homeowners hands

You're going to be on the road while everybody else is still figuring out how to make a curved staircase and sketch.

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That's the leverage that turns a single storm into a six-figure season.

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That's what separates the adjusters who finish the deployment from the ones who get sent home for being over-scoped.

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And that's what lets you walk into Thanksgiving dinner with a standing rib roast instead of a block of ramen.

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Now, solid estimates are only half the battle.

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You can be the smoothest X-Actimate user in the world, but if you can't handle the field workflow, the inspection, the documentation, the customer communication,

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you're still going to struggle.

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So we're going to plug your Xactimate skills into the complete field workflow

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so that you can run your very first claim from

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that first photograph all the way to final payment without needing a babysitter.

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Make sure you don't miss it because this is where everything comes together.

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You can check it out right here.

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And as always, thank you so much for watching and have a great storm.

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you

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: What Firms Really Look For When Hiring Storm Adjusters - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What is the Shadowing Technique?