Why The DESPAC Podcast Exists: Protecting Companies After the SPAC

Josh W: Well, what this is a treat. Chaz, I'm getting to come on to your show and interview you. Um, this is Josh Wilson. You might be listening into, to the Voice here and longtime friend and fan of Chaz. Known him and his family for extremely long time, and I'm honored to be in, uh, media relations deals with him and, and doing some really cool stuff.

So, uh, what we decided to do is have a conversation about. Who Chaz is, right? A lot of time hosts don't get the opportunity to be in the spotlight on their own. Show the show that they've invested a lot of money into highlighting other people. So I, you know, as the executive producer and, and team member of Chaz's, I decided, I said, Hey Chaz, we gotta put the mic on you just for a few minutes.

So with that, Chaz Churchwell of the Depac podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, what's up buddy? What's up, brother? You're ridiculous, man. I love you. You're 

Chaz C: great. You're great. 

Josh W: Yeah. 

Chaz C: What's going on? 

Josh W: Well, what the, the coolest thing, you know, like for people listening in, you know, I'm looking at you, you, you look, you look cool, man, but behind you, there's this huge hammer that's on your shelf.

You have an American flag, and a frame, and a hammer. What do those two, uh, items, those two icons mean to you? 

Chaz C: So, uh, American Flag, it's actually my grandfather's burial flag. Um, my, my family is, I, I guess you could say we're a military family in sorts. Um, my grandpa was in the, uh, he was in the army, um, technically it was the Air Force, but World War II version of the Air Force, uh, the Air Corps for the Army, and then.

Um, you had my uncle was a Green Beret. You had, uh, me, then I was in the army. And, um, but I just, I, I consider it an honor to have my grandpa, my grandpa's flag, and then the hammer, um, the hammers from an organization called the Mighty Oaks Foundation. So, uh. We give a lot of money to them. I, I, I'm unapologetic about the fact that we give a lot of money to fight veteran suicide.

Um, the Mighty Oaks Foundation, they do a couple of things, but one of the things that they do with excellence is they take actively suicidal veterans. This is men and women. Life has hit 'em hard. Um, they saw things that you can't unsee. You know, they did things that they can't undo. And, uh, and it haunts 'em when they come home and they, they get back here and they feel isolated.

They don't. They don't really know who to talk to or how to talk about it, and they, uh, they even sometimes feel that their life doesn't have worth and meaning anymore. And so we love partnering with the Mighty Oaks Foundation and we, uh, we give 10% of all of our profit on any new d and o policy that we write.

Um. To support them, and we will basically pay to fly actively Suicidal veterans, they took the pills and it didn't work. They were, they were on the bridge and they got talked off, you know, they had the gun to their mouth kind of thing. Um, the, the horrible stuff that you never wanna know about, that these people are dealing with, and, uh.

We will fly 'em down to a ranch in central Texas where these people will fight for their life. And, uh, the Mighty Oaks Foundation will show them hope and they will show them love and mercy and they will show them that their life has value and that there is a plan and meaning for who they are. And so, um.

So, yeah, Churchwell Insurance gives a lot of money away to the Mighty Oaks Foundation, and they, they gave us that cool hammer and it just says, never fight alone on it. So, 

Josh W: yeah. I know that you're a mission-driven, purpose-driven dude, and I, I love the fact that you took an industry like. Capital markets or insurance and d and o insurance and you tied a, a strategic mission, right?

So in, in doing that, right, so every d and o policy that you write for capital markets leaders, you're giving money back to a very important mission that's important to you. Do you find that that helps, like push you through tough times or to do more deals or to be more pro like, how does that impact you in the way you do business?

Chaz C: So, um, actually no, I, I don't think that giving like that impacts me. Um, dude, I, I think that what impacts me is kind of twofold. Number one, it's these two amazing ladies that are right over my shoulder with me in that photo. Um, my family. And then the other part of it is really just my faith. Um, like I'm a dude who loves Jesus.

Like I, I mean, I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but man, my, uh, I, I, I would say that my faith in God is really, uh, paramount to who I am. Um, it, I've even got something up on my wall that it's like, heaven, I commanded you to be strong and courageous. Don't be dismayed, don't be afraid. You know, coming from, uh, from Joshua one nine and like.

There are days to where the weight of the world could crush any of us, dude, and it's, uh, it, I, I do feel afraid sometimes because I'm taking on stuff to where I, I feel so blessed and so honored to have opportunities. Um, and I'm just like, who am I that I've been put in this room, in this moment at this time?

And given this opportunity to work hard for all of these people to protect them, um, in the event that anything goes sideways and it's just, uh, it, it's such a blessing and I believe that a lot of insurance agents, they don't get it. I feel like a lot of insurance agents do what I do. Just for a paycheck straight up.

And I used to do that and it was just, I mean, don't get me wrong, man, I'm competitive. I love to compete. I love to win. And uh, and, and I don't think you could do what I do if that wasn't part of the game, right? But, but when it's all said and done, I think your why matters. And for me, my why. Is really just, I feel called to love people and I feel that I'm a protector.

It's why I was in the Army. It's why whenever I was in college, all my friends would go talk crap and then run and hide behind me. Um, like, I mean, just, I, I don't know, I guess like I've just always been a protector and, uh, so it's, it's. Call it fortuitous, call it destiny, that I'm in the position that I'm in now, to where I have the honor and the privilege to, to stand up and mind the gap between securities litigation, between derivative lawsuits and this company and its balance sheet, and this board and this, this group of officers, you know.

And I have the, uh, the privilege of defending them and protecting them whenever crap hits the fan. And it all starts by doing it the right way with excellence and passion on the front end. I think that that's really kind of what sets me and our mission apart with Churchwell Insurance, and that's why we work hard, protecting what our clients work hard building.

'cause these CEOs, these board members, these CFOs, they bust hump. Putting in crazy days, crazy hours, crazy weeks. And, and like they, they risk a lot when they're public by going out and making these decisions. And so they like it, it's liberating for them. Whenever they know that they've got the right coverage in place because somebody had their back and was committed to doing it the right way.

All right, so I overshare it on all that. I don't know. 

Josh W: Actually, we didn't even hit record. You might have to. I'm just kidding. Now this, this is so awesome to to hear people's why, like I'm a. I love studying human motivation of why people do what they do, and then why do they push through when life gets tough, right?

They overcome things. But when we, when we talk about like your called to protect, right? Like it's a part of your identity, it's a part of your chemical makeup. You're gonna do it no matter what field you are in, whether it's the artillery field as an army guy or whether it's in a board room. Protecting them with DO insurance.

We could get into identity and callings, uh, and we might in this interview, but what I'd really like to know for, you know, there's people in there go scratching their head going, all right, that's cool. What the heck is DO insurance? So why don't you give us an overview of what Churchwell Insurance does and some of the policies that you write, because you leverage it as a part of your mission Yeah.

In life to protect people. But kind of describe what the heck is it? 

Chaz C: Yeah, man. So I, I would tell you that the, the whole reason that I'm doing this d SPAC podcast, right, it's, it's the fact that I work with public companies, uh, Churchill Insurance, we veteran owned boutique firm that focuses on protecting publicly traded companies on d and o insurance, which is directors and officers liability, um, errors and omissions, cyber crime insurance.

Uh, employment practices liability, that's the insurance to where if somebody, if one of your employees sues you because they feel that you harassed them or discriminated against them. It's like we have these executive liability lines and that's our wheelhouse. And so. Uh, for me, it's, this entire podcast was birthed outta the fact that I do a lot with SPACs.

Uh, I write d and o for a lot of SPAC teams. Um, I'm involved in a lot of SPAC transactions and like, and as a result, I just, uh, I, I saw that there was just target after Target private company, after private company. In case you didn't know, the private companies that want to go public through the, through the SPAC process, they're called targets.

And so these targets, man, they'll, they'll come, they'll go public through a spac. And then they crash and burn the stock tanks or, um, or they end up in massive securities or derivative litigation or maybe both. Um, and I'm just like, man, there there is all of this talk, all these resources that are deployed around SPACs.

Everything is SPAC this, SPAC that. But the reality is nobody's talking about what do you do? When the SPAC dissolves and goes away, what happens for that go forward private company that's now public? Like how could they have done it better? And so for me. This entire thing here was baked around the idea of, like I told you, man, my heart is, I'm a protector, right?

I, I want to see private companies go public through SPACs, but do it with excellence. 'cause there's better ways and like, there's so many pitfalls that are out there, so many bad deals that get done. Um, uh, I have heard deal after deal after deal, story after story to where Targets talk about, uh, they didn't realize this or they didn't know about that until all of the sudden they were deep in the muck and their stock had crumbled from 10 down to a dollar.

And they're just like, why? And then all of a sudden we'll have a consultant that I might bring in and recommend somebody and they connect and. And they're like, oh, it's this right here, um, in the deal structure that you had, blah, blah, blah. You know, just, uh, there's, there's so much that could be done if these people knew what they were getting into before they got into it.

Pacs are a great vehicle when done the right way, 

Josh W: man. Well said. Right. Sometimes it's, it's good to look like the SPAC side. That's super exciting. And, and we, we own a lot of, uh, media work, and you and I do a lot of work in that, in that space. The, the d spac is kind of like a, it, it's like the, the coach comes back into the.

The locker room and he goes, okay, cool. The play's done. We're going into halftime. Here's what we did. We could look back. Here's what we could have done better. Now as we go back out to win. 'cause we still have to run and operate this company and do it well, we now, we now could have play by play on some things that we could do better.

You're having those conversations with SPAC leaders, investors, sponsors, service providers, people that you work with inside the SPACs on this podcast show, and you did this. To protect other people to make sure that they don't do it the wrong way. 

Chaz C: Another way you could look at this using the same type of analogy is.

You, you've got a SPAC that's trading really strong and then all of a sudden, lane Kiffin decides that he's gonna, he's gonna move and he is gonna go to LSU and he's got this LSU company that doesn't deserve right now it's not ready. It's uh, it's not public ready. He's, but he's gonna step over and he's gonna step up, step in, and he's gonna turn him into a powerhouse again.

You know, and, uh, and. So it's if, if you want to go current media, right? It's, uh, yeah. It, it's one of those deals to where if, if done excellent, somebody should be able to move from the spac. Do the reverse merger combination into the D SPAC and move forward and win and get big doubles. And it happens. It does.

Um, I, I've got SPAC teams that are clients of mine that they crush it deal after deal. They know what they're doing. They know how to like put double use on the board. They know what kind of companies to work with, how to structure the deal to make sure that they succeed out on the backside of it. And uh, and, and those type of things are wildly important.

Josh W: Man, 

Chaz C: that's 

Josh W: super cool. So let, let me ask this question. As a protector and, you know, working with public companies, you, you chose this path or maybe this path chose you. Um, why don't you kind of walk us through a little bit of the, the journey because. I've known you probably seven or eight years. I've known your family since I was five, so like, or maybe six, but a long time.

But kind of like explain how you went from Army. You had to. Cool. Uh, there's, uh, something about acting somewhere in there to the world of SPACs and capital markets. Talk us through your journey, brother. 

Chaz C: Yeah, long story short, um, man, I'm the guy who shouldn't even probably be here. I'm the guy that grew up in a trailer park, broken home.

Um, my mom was working three jobs just trying to keep the light bill on. So I kind of was a latchkey kid that for the most part, raised myself and, uh, nobody ever even taught me how to study. Um, so I, I basically kind of got passed up the ranks through high school because I was a football player, not even a great one, but in Texas you don't have to be, you just had to be a football player.

And so and so, like, literally it just kept pushing me through and then all of a sudden, um, I end up having a, an. An injury that was really significant. I tore tendons in my hand and had to have them replaced and do surgery. And, um, any hopes that I ever had of pulling out a scholarship to any kind of school and athletics just went down the drain.

Um, so, but I knew I wanted to go to college because all my family around me, God bless 'em, loved me. Some rednecks, my family was redneck and uh, and I did not want that to be my story. It just wasn't who I was. Um, I wasn't a blue collar worker. Um, my dad was a truck driver. A lot of my family did air conditioning repair.

It just wasn't my style. And so I knew I wanted to go to college, but now with athletics gone, um, my GPA wasn't rocking, but I did score, um, I believe a 32, outta 36 on the a CT. So I ended up actually getting a small scholarship. Purely because I scored pretty well on the a CT, but I knew I was gonna need more money than that.

Um, so I ended up going, joining Army Reserve. It was an eight year contract. Um, a little time active, a little time not, but um, but they helped with college along the way and it was like, I, I basically did what I had to do to find a way and. So ended up, uh, finishing up school outta school, ended up in insurance, um, bounced around doing things for a while, and fast forward, I'm, uh, I, I'm in a position to where I'm living in Charlotte, North Carolina, working for a large insurance agency.

My dad passes away and when my dad passed away, there was a little life insurance policy and I told my wife, I said, Hey babe, I'd really love if I could use this money. To open an insurance agency and put my, my family name on the door. Um, I think that there's a lot of ways that I see that things are done, um, to where they're more concerned about their investors and profits than they are about doing stuff the right way.

And I'd really like to change that and. She supported me and so I went for it. I went all in and, uh, open Churchwell Insurance in 2014. Um, along that way you mentioned the acting thing. My, uh, my wife and my wife and I ended up getting our daughter Madeline, into acting. Um, she started doing some on-camera acting.

In fact, she, uh, she had some bit parts and summer I turned pretty and black phone and different things like that. So, but, so she was way more successful than me. I, I did some local commercials in like Florida and, uh, and ironically in insurance. Um, spread. That was with an, with some life insurance company and a couple of other things, but man, yeah, it wasn't, it, it was just a hobby for me.

I was still rocking insurance as my primary go-to, and I was mostly doing it just kind of in tandem with my daughter, and then she got bored with it, and so when she got bored with it. I was done, kinda hung up the cleats, so to speak, and, and now it's just been more dialed in than ever on growing my agency, um, caring for clients and doing things.

Uh, with excellence and so, yeah. That's really 

Josh W: it. 

Chaz C: Yeah. 

Josh W: In the time that I've known you, I've, I've seen you, you know, really got into capital markets and like exploded like you did. You've done really well for yourself. You've made a name for yourself. You're you, I see you speaking at conferences and you know, like I've, I've been cheering you on.

I'm really proud of that, but. You didn't start in the capital markets, you started in other industries. How do you, how do you, how does one go about finding their path? Finding their niche? That is one of the hardest things for investors and founders, you know, to kind of do, 

Chaz C: finding a niche is hard. In fact, um.

Before I ended up doing capital markets. So I, I did undergrad, did grad school. None of it had to do with insurance whatsoever. Right. And so I'm, I get into it and I actually started with home and auto. Um, but then one day I had a client call me up and they're like, Hey, um, can you do d and o for a spac?

And I'm like, yeah, of course. 'cause I knew I could do anything that came my way. And so I hang up the phone and I straight went to Google and I'm like, what is a spac? What's b and o insurance? What's a spac? It was like seven years ago. Yeah. I didn't have a frigging clue. Like I, I was, I mean, I was clueless, right?

So then, uh, but then the funny thing is I didn't even win that deal. Um, I presented a IG. Um, USA and they ended up going with a IG Hong Kong. And it was, uh, it was one of those deals to where had I known then what I know now, I believe I would've won that deal because I know about a lot of the exclusionary language that's on any deal coming out of Hong Kong, coming outta Singapore.

That's, uh, it's, it's very precarious wording that you have to be cognizant of and, and leery of candidly. Um, but. But seven years ago, man, and then it was one of those deals to where, uh, that guy came back to me for another opportunity and then I was like, Hey, I, I, I really love this. Um, I, I've tried doing other niches and I hate them, and, but this, I, I love this.

Um, I, I just went head first. I joined the Professional Liability Underwriting Society. Started reading books, started doing audible. I mean, I was just, I was all in. Um, a point came to where I told my, uh, my team, I'm like, Hey, if it's not public, DNO, I don't touch it. And like, this is all I want to do and this is all I am.

So I just built up a team that I could hand everything else off to. Very quickly and, uh, and for the past five years, this is exclusively what I've done is d and o and other lines of executive liability for public companies. 

Josh W: I was listening to, I forget who it was, but he was talking about to decide and pretty much the what to decide means is, what am I gonna say no to?

That, that's hard to do. 'cause as an entrepreneur, as a, as a investor or founder, someone who's trying to build a company and go public and, you know, like the, the ambitious people in the world who are going after it, like you and I do every day, to say no to something is challenging. What, how do you find the fortitude in what to say?

No. 'cause you have to say no 99 times to get to your one. Yes. Right. 

Chaz C: So I, I say no a lot. I love saying no. I think no is actually the most positive word in the English language. Um, so I, I believe in saying no to a lot of things. Um, I, I have to say no to stuff so that I can say yes to the things that are important to me.

Um, for example, nine 30 last night. I, I love my clients, but at nine 30 at night, I was trying to have some quality time and just to enjoy the, the quiet of the evening and just have some good conversation with my wife and one of my clients wanted to hang out and, and chat with me about some things. And, and I was just like, sorry, man.

Done for the night. Let's, let's talk tomorrow. Like, I, I love my clients and it's not often, like I'm, I'm available at 6:00 AM a lot. I'm available at 9:00 PM a lot, but like, but I said no in that moment because. I was with my wife. She's the most valuable person to me. And so I'm gonna say no to that. Like, um, I say no to a lot of other deals that just don't fit in my wheelhouse because they can be a succubus of my time and I know that I can go and I can be enjoying what I'm doing over here, or I can be.

Miserable doing something over here. Um, I might make more money over there, but I do really well. I'm blessed, like I make enough money to where I can say no to things if they're not what I want. And so I, I do excellent work for my clients and yeah, so that's kind of my, my heartbeat and my, my philosophy on being able to say no to things.

Uh, one of the things that I struggled saying yes to. Was doing this podcast. Um, I struggled with it, man, because the reality is like, who am I? Right? Like who am who am I to be out here talking about it? And I actually took people, multiple people talking me into doing this thing to say, yes to doing this podcast.

And they were like, man, who, like there, there's a lot of crappy people in capital markets. Just putting it bluntly, there's a lot of sharks, a lot of people that will, they will eat your child if it means that they can make a, a $500,000 commission. And like, and the reality is, is that people talk to me into doing this podcast because of the fact that I operate with integrity.

I genuinely care about the people that are around me, not only service providers, but also. Public operators, clients and, uh, and, and I'm willing to say what I believe to be true and, and stand on ethics and morals and, uh, and take a high ground. So. I don't know, man. I, that's ultimately why I ended up doing this podcast and saying yes to this is because I, I tried to say no, feeling like I might not be the right guy.

Not because I didn't think it would be fun, 'cause I actually love doing this, but it's, but it was one of those things of just trying to get over my own feelings of inadequacies. Um, because I think we all have 'em. I mean, like, if. If we're honest CEOs, you do stuff that scares the crap out of you. CFOs, board members, um, parents, like all of us in life, we do stuff that scares the crap out of us going public.

It should scare the crap out of you, but it doesn't mean you say no to it forever. Eventually, if you know it's the right thing, you say yes. Chaz, 

Josh W: man, you're, you're so fun, man. Um, we've got, we've got a few minutes before we gotta wrap up today, but what could people expect for, you know, you being the host of this, what, what's your vision and then what, what kind of questions do you think you might ask some of the guests coming up that maybe, uh, is, has nothing to do with the capital markets?

Chaz C: Dude, I'm not doing it, but I sure wanted to do the thing, like the hot wing guy who makes everybody go hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter. Like part of me wanted to do that and like bake that into what we do, but we're not gonna do that. I'm not that cool and I don't have a budget and a studio like that, so that's not gonna happen.

But, um, but I will tell you this, I'm bringing on SPAC teams that are doing things with excellence. Um, I'm bringing on service providers. These are attorneys. These are. People that do press releases, Edgar Filings, this is, uh, investment bankers. Um, I'm bringing in Cayman Council. I'm bringing in all of these different people, pardon me, that are, they're about the SPAC d SPAC process.

They are not only people that do it in service providers in the space. But they're people that do it with excellence. Um, literally since I, since I announced and that we were doing this on LinkedIn, I've had so many people that have never, never even talked to me about trying to do business together.

Reaching out, saying cha, Hey, great, great that you're doing this podcast. Love to be on your show. I'm, and I'm like, and I'm telling all of them. I'm like, man, I'd love to get to know you, love to find a way for us to do some deals together. I don't bring people on the show that I don't know and trust their integrity and that they're going to care for their clients with excellence.

So I want people to know that the ones that are come on this show. Dude, they're battle tested. These are people that you can know are going to handle things with honor and with integrity whenever they work with you, and that they're gonna bust hump working for you. Um, so that's one thing that I do know, and for those people that I bring on, whether they are SPAC teams, whether they are service providers.

Um, everybody's all about business all the time, right? But I believe that people love to do business with people that they like. And so we're gonna like tap into the humanity of the people that we bring on this show. Um, I want to make sure that we're, we're letting you know the heart matter of these different individuals that are there so that you can connect with them beyond just finance.

Like put finance to the side, put legal to the side. Can you connect with these people and want to do business with them? And that's how we're gonna make sure that we're tapping into the humanity of how they are. Chaz. 

Josh W: Awesome. Ladies and gentlemen listening in as always, do me a favor, uh, I'm just a temporary host.

As you know, Chaz takes and runs this, but what I'd love for you to do is go over and give a. Really, really awesome review, uh, for this podcast for Chaz and, and, and bet on him. He's gonna do a great job here, so give him a great review. Share this with a friend, and if you have a group that that's looking to, you know, maybe do the SPAC or go through the process, talk to Chaz.

Okay? Till then, we'll talk to you all on the next episode. See you guys. 

Chaz C: Appreciate it, brother. Thanks everybody.