00:00:13:20 – 00:00:39:26

hello. Well, good Monday morning, August the 24th, 2026. It’s still summer. It is, it is. You know, it used to be. You could see, like the ten day. And you could see that little glimmer of hope for the end of that ten day, and you’re laughing. Nothing. Nothing. Well, we’re going to still, try to stay as cool as we can.

00:00:40:02 – 00:01:06:00

Big week this week. Yes. Tomorrow. Everyone vote. It’s the runoff election. Thank goodness. Which last week. I think today is. I guess it would have been just last week was early. You could have early vote right. Early voting started on Thursday, which you can go to, you know, whenever your county election board. But this is like literally go and stand in line and vote.

00:01:06:00 – 00:01:35:03

So it’s a runoff just FYI. So runoff for all the primary races that were held in June. And so if you got 50% plus one vote, not 51%, 50% plus one vote, then you would have won out, right? But but there were so many people in all the races that they take the top two percentage. And those those have to vie for the runoff election, which is tomorrow.

00:01:35:05 – 00:02:04:26

So governor has a runoff election. Insurance, insure education, education, labor Commissioner. Lots of the lots of the legislative seats have runoff elections, which this would be a terrible summer to have to campaign in. That’s why I would always hate to be in a runoff, because it’s so stinking hot. You got to get to August. So. So if you were one of those little, you know, those little umbrella hats that you.

00:02:05:02 – 00:02:22:22

Oh, yeah. And that would, would you scare our votes if you walked up to I mean, you know what? I think if someone walked up to my house and did, that kind of creeped me out a little bit. Yeah, it’d be a little bit weird, but saying all that. So then what happens is that tomorrow when we get all the results in, then we know who will be in the general election.

00:02:22:22 – 00:02:44:20

So against either Democrat or Republicans, because there’s runoff on both sides, and then it’s just one from one party, one from the other party. And that election is in November. So the ads will not stop. And they battle it out in the Octagon. Right. Does that. Does that not happen? Oh, yeah. That’s not how it works. No, it’s it’s more commercials.

00:02:44:22 – 00:02:56:19

More. More. Battle is out in the commercial air. Oh my goodness. Yeah. How many do you think? How much money do you think the TV stations make?

00:02:56:21 – 00:03:17:16

I don’t know. They just. They are wearing me out. The AI is wearing me out in the negativity. Just. Well, even on social media, you know, so I, I had, you know, we have friends we had a dinner with on Friday night and they said, how do we know? And I said, don’t believe any of the ads.

00:03:17:17 – 00:03:35:21

Just don’t believe in all of them. It doesn’t matter what side you’re on. They’re all they’re all wrong. So, I mean, I guess this would be one of those things where you would just encourage them to watch the debates. I mean, you know, used to be I would get on their website. Yeah, I would. People don’t realize how accessible they are.

00:03:35:21 – 00:04:02:12

Send them an email. Yeah. And just, you know, these are my concerns. How do you feel about that? And it’s surprising they’re very most any candidates very very accessible. Yeah. So but you’re right I mean you could watch the debates. Those are, those are good. And most, most all the offices have had debates. And then if you’re in your local, like, if it’s one of your local legislators, there’s a ton of that.

00:04:02:12 – 00:04:22:20

You know, Kiwanis club and, you know, whatever they have them in to speak at their luncheons and things like that. So you get to you can shake your hands and get to know them. So, yeah, those are great questions. Yes, I know they could lie just as easy standing up there in front of you, but you can also kind of get a feel of their personality.

00:04:22:23 – 00:04:48:26

And you’re going you’re going. Yeah, you are a better judge of character than you. You let yourself out to be surprisingly, you know, I don’t know any candidate that goes in for the wrong reasons, but the majority of them that I know and I know many, they they go in for the right reasons. They want to make our state better or they want to make their local county better.

00:04:48:27 – 00:05:07:23

They want to be a better whatever, sheriff, but they’re not going in it to to ruin the system. They’re going to end it because they want to make a better place for their friends and their neighbors and their families. So, it’s just not easy because you have to depend on a whole lot of other people. Politics is not fun.

00:05:07:23 – 00:05:25:24

So with it, you have to be pretty thick skinned. So yeah, kudos. I wish them all the best of luck. And, we’ll do a follow up at some point with the elections and we’ll kind of know where we stand. A lot of really important votes, a lot of changes going on, big changes. There’s a couple of state questions that are really good.

00:05:25:24 – 00:05:46:22

Be sure you can go on your county election board and you can get sample ballots, which are and get get on there and read those which with that, if you look at the scroll or down at the bottom, BIGiOK.com/VoterVoice that will guide you to everything that you’re talking about through your voter, your, your, your election board and things like that.

00:05:46:22 – 00:06:15:23

And, and since it’s Monday morning, you have plenty of time. You do. And and I’ll just be real honest with you, if you have questions about the, the ballots or what it really means, pull up a little AI and do some questions. Just stick that. Oh, that’s a great idea. You know, find the the text, put it in there and just say, tell me how this tell me, explain this to me in layman’s terms, which I have to do that numerous times.

00:06:15:26 – 00:06:35:17

I usually say, explain it to me like a third grader. Yes. Then I do really well. So that was so that’s coming up. We’ll talk more about that next week. We’ll see how it all ends up. We had a great Monday morning last week because we had a guest speaker interview on mutual holding companies. We’ve gotten some really nice feedback from that.

00:06:35:24 – 00:06:54:09

It’s been nice to have a guest speaker. He was a pretty good sport because we hadn’t had anyone like that. We’re going to have a few more of those. So great feedback. Super interesting. We’ll do an election follow up next week, and then some of the, some other issues that are coming up, I think we have to get through the runoffs first.

00:06:54:09 – 00:07:15:26

But yeah, I think since you haven’t seen that, I would encourage you can go to our website and you have a link BIGiOK.com. At the bottom is all of our morning videos. You can pick the one. Any of them. Yeah it’s good. This week is going to be fun besides voting. So once we get through voting, then we have our past presidents luncheon.

00:07:15:26 – 00:07:41:06

So it’s all of those that have been the past chairman of our association. We have some that literally are I think Bob McCowan maybe was a chairman in the 80s. So he comes to every single one of them, the 1900s. He was in the 1900s, for sure. So we we’re going to bring him into our building this year, which I think is kind of fun.

00:07:41:06 – 00:07:59:24

And and we don’t usually do that. We usually take them out someplace, but we thought it might be kind of fun to bring them into the building. And then we’re getting ready for our 120th anniversary celebration. So yeah, we’re going to get to video a few of them. So which is really which is really cool. So I’m excited to see them.

00:07:59:26 – 00:08:20:04

I’ve served with many of them, so I think it’s really cool. So that’s we have a busy week going on just in the buildings. So which in in regards to the celebration of the 120 years of Big I, we’re a lot of this is going to be showing up in, in, INSURCON coming up in May.

00:08:20:05 – 00:08:40:18

Yeah, yeah. So you know, a lot of these, this video stuff and yeah, you know, other things. We have to work on it now, don’t we. We yes we do I know. Yes we do. So a couple of education things coming up on August 25th. There’s a free webinar with claims go big social inflation, nuclear verdicts and the end of small losses.

00:08:40:20 – 00:09:03:14

You know, that’s been a big issue in the elections with many of the candidates because for one thing, they don’t fully understand the nature of insurance. I know it’s complicated. I’m not going to get into the depths of that. However, we have to deal with, an issue with tort reform that we really want to, to talk about going forward is we’re getting into the elections.

00:09:03:14 – 00:09:25:18

But when you look at nuclear verdicts, that’s happening in Oklahoma right now, this would be a great webinar to just kind of talk about, you know, understand what drives it, understand what the cost of insurance. It’s not just the ice storm from January. It’s literally there’s a variety of things that that adds into the cost of insurance. I don’t even want columns of cost because they’re not they’re hard cost.

00:09:25:20 – 00:09:46:18

So learn practical strategies and and identify escalating risks. It’s good for agents to know this too, so that when they’re meeting with your clients and they have an understanding of how this works, instead of I, I paid in all these years, and I’m never going anything out of it. Well, back in the 1900s, back in the 1900s for sure.

00:09:46:20 – 00:10:10:06

Then on August 26th, we have another free webinar, and it’s a builders risk reality check. So coverage gaps, timing traps and claim dispute. So builders risk is before you move into your house. And so it gives you information because you do have claims. I had a builder’s risk claim one time that someone was building their house. And a weirdly a tornado came through.

00:10:10:06 – 00:10:28:12

Not a big one. And it didn’t hit them directly. But the way the wind shear was, it twisted the entire frame, so they end up having to tear it all down. And yeah, well, that was the builder’s risk claim. So it was off their builders risk policy. That’s not part of your homeowner’s. So, that’s that’s why it’s really important.

00:10:28:12 – 00:10:57:14

So here’s the thing that, that we want everyone to know on these free webinars that they have, they’re free. Your boss will love it. They’re super interesting. There’s some great classes. However, there is a quiz at the end because that’s just how we have to meet the statute of education. So it’s fun to sit there and just, I don’t know, play solitaire on your phone while you’re listening to education, but in reality, you need to pay attention because in order to get the credit, in order to get the credit, you do take a quiz.

00:10:57:14 – 00:11:22:24

So we did have some questions about that this week, which you get, which they’re free to membership but not free to nonmembers. So it would be well worth your time if you became a member to have all this free. Yeah, great. I can’t even imagine. You know, I know we do a return on investment. That education alone is is huge.

00:11:22:26 – 00:11:39:29

Yeah. Yes. It can be. Any agency principal call me and we can talk about how we can cut his cost and and make it valuable for a big, membership. So you can get the pencil and paper out and shown’em. Absolutely. Or if they can do math in their head, I can do that, too. There you go. Okay, September 16th and 17th.

00:11:39:29 – 00:11:58:11

Our young agent conference is coming up. So now we’re less than a month away. It’s not very far. It’s at River Spirit Casino in Tulsa. So right on the west edge of Tulsa. So does it say I don’t want to drive through Tulsa? Well, you don’t have to. You don’t even have to. And it’s a beautiful resort. God, I love it.

00:11:58:11 – 00:12:18:22

It’s really cool and super easy to get to. So people from Tulsa can get in really quick. Or if you’re in Oklahoma City, it’s just a quick trip up Turner Turnpike. And I guess there’s always construction on Turner Turnpike, but it should be pretty easy. So if it’s not too late, you can still register. There’s some great, great speakers.

00:12:18:22 – 00:12:38:17

Like it sounds like it’s going to be really cool. Yeah, I don’t know if I’m going to have a chance to be both up there or not. I hope so, and so, yeah, that’s what’s going on this week. Busy, busy, BIGiOK.com/YAconference. Yeah, we’ll get you right to all the information and and if I may throw something else in.

00:12:38:17 – 00:13:08:09

Sure. So we have a little website BIGiOK.com/why_BIGiOK. Which is a kind of a testimony type questionnaire that we would love to hear your thoughts about. The the Institute webinars. And then anything else about Big I Oklahoma that, you know, maybe give us some positive feedback. Well, yeah, I was going to say feedback’s really important to us because sometimes we’re in our own head.

00:13:08:09 – 00:13:27:25

So we’re sitting here just working, and sometimes someone has outside perspective that is so helpful to us that we appreciate it. We don’t we don’t take it lightly. We really do appreciate it. Yeah, because someone said that men work out of boxes. And when I get in my little box, yeah, I get it, I get it head down.

00:13:27:25 – 00:13:39:29

So yeah, give us some feedback. We love to hear it. You betcha. Okay. You stay cool this weekend. I don’t know, maybe at some point fall will get here, but enjoy your week. You too. Have a good one. Bye bye.