%20(3).png)
The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
I am more convinced than ever that nothing that traditional bar organizations are doing is going to move the needle on the sad stats on lawyer happiness ...
The root cause of all lawyers' problems is financial stress. Financial stress holds you back from getting the right people on the bus, running the right systems, and being able to only do work for clients you want to work with. Financial stress keeps you in the office on nights and weekends, often doing work you hate for people you don't like, and doing that work alone.
(Yes, you have permission to do only work you like doing and doing it with people you like working with.)
The money stress is not because the lawyers are bad lawyers or bad people. In fact, most lawyers are good at the lawyering part and they are good people.
The money stress is caused by the general lack of both business skills and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Thus, good lawyers who are good people get caught up and slowed down in bringing their gifts to the world. Their families, teams, clients, and communities are not well-served because you can't serve others at your top level when you are constantly worrying about money.
We can blame the law schools and the elites of the profession who are running bar organizations, but to blame anyone else for your own woes is a loser's game. It is, in itself, a restrictive, narrow, mindset that will keep you from ever seeing, let alone experiencing, a better future.
Lawyers need to be in rooms with other entrepreneurs. They need to hang with people who won't tell you that your dreams are too big or that "they" or "the system "won't allow you to achieve them. They need to be in rooms where people will be in their ear telling them that their dreams are too small.
Get in better rooms. That would be the first step.
Second step, ignore every piece of advice any general organized bar is giving about how to make your firm or your life better.
The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
Renegade Lawyer Marketing (Audio Book) – “But What Will We Tell the Kids?”
Welcome to the audio edition of Renegade Lawyer Marketing (Second Edition)—the guidebook for lawyers who want to build profitable practices without sacrificing their families, freedom, or sanity.
In this episode, Ben Glass reads the first part of the book including:
- His message to young and future lawyers (“But what will we tell the kids?”)
- Why expensive law school is often a trap
- How small firm lawyers can thrive by not doing what the big firms do
- And the philosophy behind Great Legal Marketing’s mission to help lawyers stop stealing time and money from their families
📘 Want the physical copy of the book and three powerful bonuses?
Get yours at RenegadeLawyerMarketing.com
🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Ben Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury and long-term disability insurance attorney in Fairfax, VA. Since 2005, Ben Glass and Great Legal Marketing have been helping solo and small firm lawyers make more money, get more clients and still get home in time for dinner. We call this TheGLMTribe.com
What Makes The GLM Tribe Special?
In short, we are the only organization within the "business builder for lawyers" space that is led by two practicing lawyers.
One thing we're sure you've noticed is that despite the variety of options within our space, no one else is mixing
the actual practice of law with business building in the way that we are.
There are no other organizations who understand the highs and lows of running a small law firm and are engaged in talking to real clients. That is what sets GLM apart from every other organization, and it is why we have had loyal members that have been with us for two-decades.
Hey everyone, this is Ben Glass. Welcome back to the Renegade Lawyer Podcast. This episode is another in our series of turning Renegade Lawyer Marketing, the second edition, into an audio product. If you don't own the book, you can go to renegadelawyermarketingcom. We'll send it to you for free. You pay postage and there's three really cool bonuses that go with it when you buy it through that website. Okay, we're still in the introductory part of the book.
Speaker 1:There's two sections I'm going to read to you and comment on today, and the first is called but what will we tell the kids? If you're an experienced attorney, young people have undoubtedly asked you from time to time should I go to law school? And if you're an experienced attorney, young people have undoubtedly asked you from time to time should I go to law school? And if you're in law school, you may be wondering have I made a wise decision? Maybe you're thinking about going to law school and wondering is that still a good idea these days? I'll share the answer I give to these questions. Here you go Thinking about going to law school. Good for you.
Speaker 1:The law needs smart people who can solve problems. There's a never-ending supply of clients, rich and poor. You can help lead through an ever more regulated society. As times change, we need people who can protect individual liberties and the flow of good ideas, help people make practical decisions about their legal situations and become heroes to their communities. You'll have to think outside the box. Forget about going to the fanciest, highest rated and the most expensive law school you can find. It's not worth it, brian, and I think it's really stupid, actually, unless you want to go into politics or you want to go work in big law, which, if those are your legitimate goals, then, yes, sure, pay a ton and go to a quote-unquote famous law firm, but most of the people you'll come across in your career won't care what law school you went to. Nobody ever asks, and the debt you'll incur going to an expensive law school may enslave you and prevent you from living a fulfilling, productive life. Man. That is a truth, particularly with today's fees and tuitions for going to law school. You'll have to think outside the box in other ways too, because most law schools are good at preparing you for a world that no longer exists. Instead of law review, you should take classes that tell you how to run a business, how to read a spreadsheet, how to get clients and how to become influential in your community. Your law school probably doesn't have those classes Mine didn't but that shouldn't stop you from enrolling in some business classes at a community college. Go ahead and do it Hour for hour. It'll be far more valuable than law review. I know that's controversial. That'll mean that this book doesn't show up in the law school bookstore, but whatever, I want you to know something else about your decision to be a lawyer.
Speaker 1:Lawyers can be heroes in countless ways today and it's really cool to be a hero. Sure, you help clients and, but there's more. When you run a profitable practice that doesn't drive you up the wall and allows you to get home in time for dinner and soccer and ballet and date night and all that, you'll be a hero to your family. Lawyers do make easy villains, manipulating the legal system to exploit loopholes and bury evidence, skirting ethical gray areas to win cases and climb the ladder, and raiding trust accounts to take advantage of clients who trusted them. Just as your law degree can be used for evil in the world, it can do great harm at home. Show me a young lawyer who hasn't heard a professor or bureaucrat lament that the law is a jealous mistress. We talked about that in the last chapter. Don't let that be you. The law she is, and if the entrepreneur inside the lawyer doesn't tame that mistress, she can wreck your family, your mental health and your body.
Speaker 1:This book, the book you are listening to is for those renegade lawyers who choose to live the life they didn't tell you about in law school, because when you not only survive but also thrive as a small business owner, you will become a hero to your community, someone who employs people, pays most of the taxes and is an inspiration for all the other small business owners in your community, who are, after all, the economic engine of America. I want to thank you for becoming a lawyer. We need people who can make a real difference in other people's lives. You just have to think a little differently than I did when I started my legal career. Now, what we didn't say in that book was that that was my rebuttal letter to the editor, to the Virginia State Bar after the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court this is years ago of the Virginia Supreme Court said something about you know, if you're gonna go to law school, you have to think differently. But then he talked about actually not becoming a lawyer. Like the thinking differently was to not get into the profession, not becoming a lawyer. The thinking differently was to not get into the profession. Frankly, I thought that was crazy talk and so they published my letter to the editor.
Speaker 1:Okay, the next section of the book, before chapter one, was a page called Our Philosophy, and I think this is important. If you don't agree with this philosophy, you can stop listening to the book. You don't have to buy the book. You're probably not an avatar, client or member for Great Legal Market. If you agree with the philosophy, understand that we have built a tribe of lawyers who believe this to their core, who live for this philosophy and who are becoming heroes to their families and icons in their communities.
Speaker 1:That is what Great Legal Marketing is all about. Yes, it has marketing in the name, because in the beginning that's what it was all about teaching lawyers how to advertise better. But we are far more than we were 20 years ago. So here's our philosophy. Number one you have one life to live and that life is meant to be lived in joy, not misery, and you are the master of your own life. Number two you should have more clients magnetically attracted to your firm than you can realistically take on. This allows you to be selective on the cases you want to take and allows you to work only with clients you like working with. Yes, I give you permission to say that and to do it.
Speaker 1:Number three solo and small law firm owners should not do the same marketing as the big firms do. That's a recipe for bankruptcy. They don't know what we know. We don't have the money to keep up with them the way they want to market. Don't follow their marketing and try to replicate, duplicate or challenge them in the pond that they play in. Number four advertising should never feel expensive, because you should have a reliably consistent response rate and an ROI return on your investment on the ad by using marketing that is trackable. You will hear people say, oh, it's not trackable. Today, there's multiple reasons why someone calls us. That's not a reason to not try to track, to track everything you can. So when you send a dollar out, you know how many dollars it's bringing back. If you don't know that formula, if you don't know that equation, if you don't know how that's working for you, then you're pissing your money away.
Speaker 1:Number five your firm should not take away from your family and or your personal life. It should compliment it and give you the feeling of more time in your day instead of less. That is what great legal marketing is all about. It had a quote if I can do this while raising nine children, anyone can. Once you know how that's from me, because I have raised nine children. Anyone can once. You know how that's from me, because I have raised nine children, got nine grandchildren now. And if I can do it and I was not the smartest marble layer in the marble box, trust me I spent a lot of time learning, spent a lot of time, energy and money investing in myself, investing in mastermind groups and gurus and coaches, and I became a student of business building.
Speaker 1:Finally, on this page it says stop stealing time and money from your family. Think about that. Read it again, listen to it again. Stop stealing time and money from your family, because what happens? The family is the last right. If we're working more because we screwed up the rest of the week, we're stealing time at dinner time, after dinner time and on weekends. That's theft. Ask your spouse and your kids whether they like you to be working nights and weekends. This is all preventable when you master the strategies and the philosophy laid out in this book. You, too, will become a hero to them and an icon in your community. I guarantee this. All right, so that was the end of the introductory chapters. On the next episode, we'll start with chapter one, which is all about 800-pound gorillas, venture capitalists, vultures, invisible bots and the Bar Association. All threats to solo and small firm lawyers. All right, we'll see you next time.
