Lessons Learned from the Accidental Entrepreneur: A Business Lawyer's Journey | Mitch Beinhaker

Mitch Beinhaker, a New Jersey-based attorney and host of the Accidental Entrepreneur podcast. Mitch talks about his journey to becoming a lawyer, which began after a night out with a friend in college, and his grandmother's encouragement! Despite not being initially enthusiastic about law school, Mitch found that having a law degree offered him a lot of opportunities. As a homeservices business owner, you can benefit from the insights shared by Chris, Alan, and Mitch who talk about what successful networking looks like, starting a business, and the “why” behind podcasting! Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

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Mitch’s Links:

•  LinkedIn | beinhakerlaw 

•  Website | https://mitchbeinhaker.com/ 

•  Podcast | The Accidental Entrepreneur

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GOLD NUGGETS:

(02:55) - Mitch’s Bio

(06:48) - In case You Wanted to Start a Law Firm 

(10:55) - What SuccessfulNetworking Looks Like

(14:28) - Starting Mitch’s Business

(22:57) - The How and Why of Podcasting

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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!

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If you loved this episode try these!

• Insights from Paul Sansone: Landing a Job in Atlanta's Nonprofit Sector and Scaling Your Home Services Business

• Building Multiple Businesses in a Blue-Collar Industry | Seth Lewis

• Driving Growth and Efficiency: Leveraging KPIs for Home Services, Small Business Momentum, and Streamlined Onboarding | Troy Trewin

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Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!

Transcript

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:13:00
Mitch Beinhaker
You know, you mentioned what was it your son before? Yeah. You know, my son when he was 67 years old, they would fight me on everything. Dad, you don't understand. Whatever I said. You know, the only thing we have in common is that I thought I knew everything when I was your age, too. Because that's what happens, right?

00:00:13:01 - 00:00:44:13
Mitch Beinhaker
You have these experiences in life. It's just unavoidable. You can't. You can't avoid the mistakes. You try and limit them, but you can't avoid because mentally or emotionally or maturity wise, you're only so far where you are. Right. So there's very few people you meet who are, you know, 25 to 30 and really get it all. There are some people, but some of them were slinging hammers when they were nine, you know, and they they got life experience in there very young for whatever reason, that not that they went to college and came out.

00:00:44:13 - 00:00:46:17
Mitch Beinhaker
We're like, what's going on in life? I have so much stress.

00:00:52:15 - 00:01:14:24
Chris Lalomia
Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers. That lyric. When navigating the wild world of small business ownership, I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountain top of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from any of your own personal and professional goals.

00:01:15:04 - 00:01:41:12
Chris Lalomia
So strap in, adventure team, and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. Here we go. Once again, Small business Venture team. The Small Business Safari is in the house, ready to rock and roll. We have an incredible guests who believe or not, for a little while, not from Atlanta and not from Australia and not from Canada.

00:01:41:22 - 00:01:43:07
Alan Wyatt
We've got a lot of Canadians.

00:01:43:07 - 00:01:44:13
Chris Lalomia
We have a lot of Canadians.

00:01:44:13 - 00:01:46:20
Mitch Beinhaker
We're friends of Canadians, too. Yeah, Yeah.

00:01:47:09 - 00:01:57:12
Chris Lalomia
So we have a great guest because he has he has the experience that we're all looking for. He actually is the host of the Accidental Entrepreneur podcast. Mitchell Kinekor, but he goes by.

00:01:57:12 - 00:01:59:01
Mitch Beinhaker
Mitch Yeah, Mitch has.

00:01:59:01 - 00:02:02:16
Chris Lalomia
Got Mitch is good and he is a business lawyer.

00:02:03:12 - 00:02:05:12
Alan Wyatt
He's a New York City lawyer and.

00:02:05:12 - 00:02:11:10
Mitch Beinhaker
A lot of fun in the law. Actually, I'm in New Jersey. I'm waiving into the New York bar. That should be done. But I am the attorney.

00:02:11:11 - 00:02:13:19
Chris Lalomia
Oh, so this is ought to be good. But I.

00:02:13:19 - 00:02:15:07
Mitch Beinhaker
Drink bourbon, so, I mean, it can't be that.

00:02:15:07 - 00:02:25:08
Chris Lalomia
Bad. So I like, you know, I do actually. One of my best friends and Alan's met him, too. He's an attorney. Lifelong attorney, says I hate other attorneys. I said, you know what? I said, we hate that.

00:02:25:09 - 00:02:29:22
Mitch Beinhaker
Don't you want to go to that bar event? I said, I don't want to go hanging out in a room with 100 other attorneys or work with them.

00:02:30:12 - 00:02:31:16
Chris Lalomia
That's exactly what he said.

00:02:32:14 - 00:02:32:21
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah.

00:02:33:03 - 00:02:51:07
Chris Lalomia
Yeah. So, Mitch, we're we're happy to have you on the show. Alex. Excited? I've actually been on your podcast. Yes. And had a lot of fun because what happened was Comcast took out my Internet connection as we were doing this over Zoom and we had to do the part too. So I did a wardrobe change. It's what it's going to look like now on his podcast, right?

00:02:51:19 - 00:02:55:07
Mitch Beinhaker
Just all of a sudden change to explain what happened. But yeah, it's funny.

00:02:55:17 - 00:03:07:10
Chris Lalomia
But before we get too much into giving everybody incredible business advice, maybe even from the legal side, is this something you want to do right when you started? I mean, how the hell did you get to this point? Did you go to school going, I'm going to be a lawyer?

00:03:08:12 - 00:03:26:19
Mitch Beinhaker
Oh, are you kidding me? Somebody just asked me that last night. I was telling the story. I was. So I went to Cornell in upstate New York. I was a finance and economics major, I think. And, you know, you're talking 35, 40 years ago. And I was sitting around with a good friend of mine at our fraternity house, definitely drinking, I don't think, bourbon.

00:03:26:19 - 00:03:41:14
Mitch Beinhaker
And we couldn't afford that stuff in those days, just beer. And he I said, what are you going to do after school? We were like juniors at this point, he says, I'm go go to law school. So I was like, All right, I'll go to law school, too. Just about two weeks later, he sobered up and he's like, I decided I'm not going to law school.

00:03:41:14 - 00:04:04:13
Mitch Beinhaker
So, you know, I decided, what if I just go in because he was drunk with me? Or do I really want to go? And I didn't want to get my MBA. I didn't feel that was something I really wanted to do, was more entrepreneurial step and stuff. And I always knew that, you know, unlike going to medical school or get your architectural degree or going to an engineer for an advanced engineering degree, you could go to law school and do a lot of things with the legal with a law degree.

00:04:05:04 - 00:04:20:01
Mitch Beinhaker
And my grandmother, may she rest in peace, also always said, go to law school. Go to law school. MITCHELL Go to law school. So to make her happy, I applied and got into some law schools. You know, I was not I was in the upper half of the class, but I wasn't in the top portion of the class.

00:04:20:01 - 00:04:31:23
Mitch Beinhaker
So and I also needed money. My dad was like, let's not get pay for your sister. Go to college of good luck. So my grandmother said, If you go to law school, I'll pay for you to go to law school. So I was great. So I got into law school, got some money. I get this check from my grandmother.

00:04:32:04 - 00:04:51:12
Mitch Beinhaker
This was 1990, 1989, 1990. I get this check from my grandmother. It's 1500 dollars. I call my grandmother. I say, Grandma, I got the check for the books. I'll send you the other end. But she goes, Isn't that what law school costs? I go, No, it's about 10 to $12000 a year. Of course, now it's like 30 or something.

00:04:52:00 - 00:05:05:24
Mitch Beinhaker
And she's like, Oh, well, when your uncle, when it was only 1500 dollars, I said, Yeah, that was 40 years ago. So she's like, Oh, okay, you have more than that. So she sent me 5000 dollars all three years. And the I said I had to borrow work and whatever.

00:05:06:12 - 00:05:21:00
Alan Wyatt
Is the exact same thing happened to me. My dad wanted me to go to the school that he went to and he said, Son, you can go to college anywhere you want. But if you know, if you want any financial support from us, then you go to this one. And I'm thinking, I should have I should have been smarter.

00:05:21:00 - 00:05:28:13
Alan Wyatt
I mean, we grew up dirt poor. There was no big pile of cash under the bed. And so I ended up going to the school that he steered me towards and I got a check for $300.

00:05:28:22 - 00:05:29:10
Mitch Beinhaker
Hey, you go.

00:05:30:18 - 00:05:32:11
Alan Wyatt
Move cross country for that team, by the way.

00:05:32:14 - 00:05:35:17
Chris Lalomia
Yeah, of course. What do you say to grandma? You go. Thank you. You don't say.

00:05:36:04 - 00:05:38:12
Mitch Beinhaker
The whole thing or said he'd pay for you to go to school.

00:05:39:03 - 00:05:42:15
Alan Wyatt
He said, Do you think we could sue him? No.

00:05:44:19 - 00:05:47:24
Mitch Beinhaker
But if he's going to pay you to go to school, $300. You know, you're young.

00:05:47:24 - 00:05:49:23
Chris Lalomia
It's now you're now he.

00:05:49:23 - 00:05:55:23
Alan Wyatt
Said he carefully crafted it. He was a little while earlier than I thought. He said, if you want any financial support from.

00:05:56:00 - 00:05:58:00
Mitch Beinhaker
There you go. Well, that was psychological support.

00:05:58:02 - 00:06:08:01
Chris Lalomia
It was in our box. Yeah, he did it. He did. He lived off words. And David, actually, I'm I'm saying this. I should. I should let the lawyer say what? Say you?

00:06:08:01 - 00:06:10:15
Mitch Beinhaker
Lawyer about what event this did.

00:06:10:16 - 00:06:11:12
Chris Lalomia
He fulfilled his commitment.

00:06:11:12 - 00:06:13:00
Mitch Beinhaker
I think. I think he met his obligation.

00:06:13:01 - 00:06:14:01
Chris Lalomia
To talk on it. Well.

00:06:14:16 - 00:06:15:09
Mitch Beinhaker
It's kind of hard to.

00:06:15:09 - 00:06:19:05
Chris Lalomia
Prove which is good, because unfortunately, Alan did lose his dad last year.

00:06:19:16 - 00:06:20:14
Alan Wyatt
So we kind of hard to.

00:06:20:14 - 00:06:23:07
Chris Lalomia
Go after him and going after the club.

00:06:23:07 - 00:06:23:16
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah.

00:06:23:17 - 00:06:48:11
Chris Lalomia
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, that were a trifecta then, because I lost my mom. So I is the season for us, right, boys? Yeah. Anyway, let's get this back going again. So you, you go to law school and what I've heard with people who go into law school is you say, okay, I'm going to law school and maybe you're an excellent lawyer, but they go, I'm going to go in and I'm going to get into trial law or I'm going to go in and I'm going to get into corporate law and come out doing exactly nothing close to it.

00:06:48:11 - 00:06:51:07
Chris Lalomia
So did you what did you go in trying to do and what did you come out doing?

00:06:51:15 - 00:07:06:19
Mitch Beinhaker
No, I actually came out. So I went in not knowing what I wanted to do. I certainly didn't want to go to court. I wasn't a confident guy. Individual moot court. I didn't I didn't do that. And but very early on I got an interest in tax and planning and my dad was in the life insurance business. So I, I grew up around that business.

00:07:06:19 - 00:07:25:14
Mitch Beinhaker
And I had said, you know, what do you do when you're doing all this planning? And I kind of learned about it. So I got interested in tax planning and estate planning and took as many of those courses that I that I could. But the reason that that happens, Chris, is that there's really no connection between like taking the entrance exam, going to law school, taking the bar and practicing there.

00:07:25:14 - 00:07:45:21
Mitch Beinhaker
Like for unrelated events, they're just singing exercises. So you really aren't really locked into, you know, what you're doing with some with some exceptions. So I didn't even take evidence in law school. There was I was taking all these tax courses and then I realized I there had been evidence I couldn't get any of the evidence course. So I went into the guidance office and I said, What am I going to do?

00:07:46:01 - 00:08:01:21
Mitch Beinhaker
How can I practice love? I didn't take evidence. Go, Oh, it's not a requirement. You'll learn it in the bar review course anyway. And he was right. I learned enough to pass the bar and whatever. And you learn it on the job. So yeah. So I came back kind of doing what I do when, you know, you go to law school, you don't really practice on your own.

00:08:01:21 - 00:08:09:09
Mitch Beinhaker
There was this book floating around at the time How to Start your own law firm, because none of a lot of kids were getting jobs or they were making very little money this.

00:08:10:12 - 00:08:11:10
Chris Lalomia
Early nineties, right?

00:08:11:16 - 00:08:13:05
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah, right, right, exactly.

00:08:14:05 - 00:08:15:11
Chris Lalomia
So this one time I came out, I had.

00:08:15:11 - 00:08:36:21
Mitch Beinhaker
Friends get a job for $19,000 a year in New York City, you know, per diem work. So I was just like, you know who starts? You don't start your own law school, little law law law firm. That's ridiculous. We went to law school going to get a job. Right? And nobody but, you know, and then you then you find next part of it is you're 50 years old and your buddy loses his job at the law firm and says, Hey, can I come work for you?

00:08:36:21 - 00:08:43:02
Mitch Beinhaker
You said, Do you have a book of business? And he goes, No, I don't have a book of business, and you're screwed so far.

00:08:43:07 - 00:08:45:07
Chris Lalomia
So did you come on and start your own law firm right away?

00:08:45:19 - 00:09:07:17
Mitch Beinhaker
No. I went to work for insurance companies and insurance agencies. I lived in Columbus for three years. I really didn't start practicing law until, like 90, almost 2000. Okay. Practicing on my own. I did some stuff on the side, but I was mostly in house for financial companies doing business planning, estate planning things on that.

00:09:07:24 - 00:09:20:08
Chris Lalomia
All right. So you were in the corporate world. You were doing your thing. You were you were counsel, general counsel, if you will. But helping all insurance companies doing that things. And after you go, when did you cut the cord and start your own law firm, you said.

00:09:21:01 - 00:09:37:01
Mitch Beinhaker
Well, I went to work for like insurance and financial agencies, locals with a lot of salespeople. They'd be bringing me in on business cases. So people would start walking into my office. You know, Chris is my client. He needs a business agreement. Can you do an operating group, buy, sell agreement, non-qualified deferred comp agreements, all kinds of stuff.

00:09:37:08 - 00:09:57:05
Mitch Beinhaker
Wills, trust. I just got so busy there that I was like, Well, I don't even want to you know, I don't like sales. I mean, I like sales. That's fine. But I didn't want to do the product side of it. I liked the creative side of it in the law and I was just so busy. I probably work with 100 financial advisors in New Jersey doing a lot of work with them and all kinds of other people that I work with.

00:09:57:14 - 00:10:13:07
Mitch Beinhaker
It was just a natural progression. I gave them all my licenses and I want the compliance issues anymore. And then opened a little office within the agency I was and eventually moved out, took my own space. I've had partners over the years, different things. Now I'm solo, doing my own things. I've been doing this long enough so that's it.

00:10:13:08 - 00:10:14:16
Mitch Beinhaker
So kind of a process.

00:10:15:02 - 00:10:29:00
Chris Lalomia
So when you take, you know, you've talked to a lot of people and you've given advice and you obviously learned a lot of advice on the podcast. Yeah. As you took that leap, one of the things I'm interested is, I mean, did you take a book a bit? Did you have business Year one? Were you breaking even making money?

00:10:29:19 - 00:10:50:21
Mitch Beinhaker
Nope, I had connections. I knew guys who were in the financial business who had clients that needed wills, trust, business, work, whatever. So I had that market. But no, I had a buddy took me, must have been like 96, 97 to a networking event. I'm like, What the hell's that? Like that we would prospect for business. That's we do prospective clients.

00:10:51:03 - 00:11:05:22
Mitch Beinhaker
So I went to this event. He took me under his wing, taught me everything I knew about. He was also in the title business. They taught me everything I knew about real estate closings. I started making some extra money doing that, and he just introduced me all kinds of people. And ever since then I've been very good at introducing other people and networking.

00:11:05:22 - 00:11:17:02
Mitch Beinhaker
And I speak about it right about it. I you know, my first guy, my podcast is a good friend of mine who taught me about networking. You've written books on it. He died last spring, unfortunately. But the real, you know, The Godfather.

00:11:17:11 - 00:11:31:08
Chris Lalomia
We talk about that quite a bit on the podcast, and that's how Alan and I actually met was through networking. Well, we talk a lot about death, but we didn't meet through death. We did meet through networking, networking, death, networking, death and networking to death.

00:11:31:22 - 00:11:32:10
Mitch Beinhaker
We did it.

00:11:33:03 - 00:11:44:09
Chris Lalomia
But, you know, when you first get into it and try to figure out what it's like, especially coming from the corporate world, you're like, What the hell is this walking around? Hey, what's your name? He would you do? Hey, who gives a shit life?

00:11:44:19 - 00:11:47:12
Mitch Beinhaker
You know, aluminum siding and tin roof salesman, right?

00:11:47:19 - 00:11:50:07
Alan Wyatt
Yeah. Coming up with your clever elevator pitch.

00:11:51:14 - 00:11:58:23
Mitch Beinhaker
But the world changed. Now, that's the thing. Everyone does it. Now you're in groups. That's how you connect with people. LinkedIn It's crazy, you know.

00:11:59:19 - 00:12:17:15
Chris Lalomia
I've got I've got two coins there. I've got the coin that says, Hey, dad, that was a good idea. And I'm not just TV, Dad. My son actually got a job through my networking because I and he has been introduced my daughter, who wants to be in the health care field and pay. She has no doubt you understand networking doesn't work in the health care field.

00:12:18:03 - 00:12:31:07
Chris Lalomia
And I just want to absolutely get either hitting it right now. So obviously, networking helped you in the beginning. You're a big fan of it as well, and you do it today where you are established. You've been doing this for years. So you don't need a network at all anymore, right?

00:12:31:20 - 00:12:46:22
Mitch Beinhaker
Right. Of course, the moment that you close your eyes and set out to do this and when the business completely stops, I think even in my dad's career, he'd been the insurance business since 1965. I think he got to a point where he thought like, Oh, I don't have to prospect any more. Business is just going to keep coming in.

00:12:47:01 - 00:13:06:19
Mitch Beinhaker
And then he realized that is not true. No way, you just got it. You have to keep connecting with people. You have to stay relevant. They think you just dropped off the face of the earth. And so the thing you just you just get better at it. It gets easier. You you have bigger networks, you know, you go to events and half the people you know, Now it's as opposed to the room being, you know, unfamiliar.

00:13:06:20 - 00:13:21:24
Mitch Beinhaker
I used to go to events just be uncomfortable. I didn't know anybody, but I was like, I got to get out there. I got to pay my bills. I got kids. They eat every day, at least once a day, sometimes more than once a day. And you had to get out there. Do stuff so you'd get out of your comfort zone and and, you know, get out there.

00:13:21:24 - 00:13:33:20
Mitch Beinhaker
I remember when I was young and I would come home and I have an event at night and my wife's like, What are you going out for? You not home. Now, when I get home in five, my wife looks at me, is like, What are you doing home? Yeah, I go your age. There got to be an event.

00:13:33:20 - 00:13:56:01
Mitch Beinhaker
You've got to be somebody you can meet, get out there, talk to people. But she she understands like where the business comes from and how it comes in. I rarely get people just calling me off the Internet. I get some of that from SEO and postings and blogging and stuff like that. Local people search. I do a lot of Google reviews, but I don't just get like, you know, I'm not doing click pay per click advertising.

00:13:56:07 - 00:13:58:10
Alan Wyatt
How many, how many events a week do you go to?

00:13:59:13 - 00:14:17:01
Mitch Beinhaker
I have I probably have two or three regular groups, and then I pick up a couple of other meetings here and there. So probably 3 to 5, depending on the week per week during the pandemic was probably 6 to 8 and doing like 41 on one Zoom chats because all my clients were like closed because of the pandemic.

00:14:17:03 - 00:14:27:21
Mitch Beinhaker
All business clients. So there's nobody to talk to. I figured, well, I'm not going to fall off the face of the earth during pandemic. Just keep talking to people and just keep networking, connecting. So do you.

00:14:28:05 - 00:14:38:16
Chris Lalomia
Go back to when you were starting the business? You again started with zero clients. Of course, everybody thinks if you're listening to this, you probably were thinking, the answer is I got at least 100. And yeah, I was breaking even in year one.

00:14:38:16 - 00:14:39:02
Mitch Beinhaker
I'm like.

00:14:39:14 - 00:14:46:11
Chris Lalomia
No, if you remember my story, yeah, it was me being the smartest guy in the room. Six months. No problem. Got this. How many overnight success? Zero.

00:14:46:23 - 00:15:01:01
Mitch Beinhaker
I mean, breaking a little bit in the transition. I was working for a company and I was still doing work on the side, so I had a salary, but one was going up and the other was going down. So it was a little bit of a transition. But yeah, once I hit the street, you know, and in the work that I do, a lot of it's one off.

00:15:01:14 - 00:15:17:05
Mitch Beinhaker
I mean now I do a lot of regular stuff. I have retainer clients, people pay me every month. I'm available to them. I handle all their stuff in those days. Now I do an agreement for you now. You know Allen needs a will out soon. You need another one, you know, So I would always be looking for new business.

00:15:17:12 - 00:15:32:04
Chris Lalomia
So before you started it, you and I talked about in the podcast with me, you know, I was, you know, pretty thoughtful. Did the business plan did you have a plan in place and did you have a direction you were going to go? Did you really think through that, what the three, five, ten year plan was going to be?

00:15:32:16 - 00:15:50:05
Mitch Beinhaker
Kind of. Yeah, but it's, you know, I yeah, done all kinds of different plans, strategic planning, but it's changed over the years. Partnerships break up and then you decide you want to go in this direction or I, I find an area of the law that I like that I start learning. I just recently got into cannabis law because I had a couple of clients that looked interested, became legal in New Jersey.

00:15:50:05 - 00:16:07:06
Mitch Beinhaker
So I don't do the compliance stuff, but I do general work for those those companies. And so, you know, kind of goes a different direction. But yeah, I did have a vision and a strategic plan of, okay, if we have so many attorneys doing so much business and then we'd have a structure and a how to run the law firm, how are we going to market the firm?

00:16:08:00 - 00:16:12:12
Mitch Beinhaker
Some of it came, some of it's still with me and some of it has morphed and changed.

00:16:13:03 - 00:16:18:17
Chris Lalomia
So your plan was to bring in junior associates and have them work under your law practice and work up in lawyers.

00:16:18:17 - 00:16:29:22
Mitch Beinhaker
In what it was. Yeah, Yeah. For a time it was. But, you know, I realized I was making less money doing that better. And now I know, you know, I can plug anybody in I need. So I try and run as light as I can nowadays.

00:16:30:10 - 00:16:36:17
Chris Lalomia
So that's a hard lesson, I think, for all of us. Illinois first starter businesses that we think bigger is better and really sometimes.

00:16:36:17 - 00:16:37:12
Mitch Beinhaker
Definitely not better.

00:16:37:12 - 00:16:46:20
Chris Lalomia
Right, Right. You've got to put it, you've got to have the processes in place. And especially in my business, I'm up to 44 employees and you're like, Oh, this must be wow, Chris, your ton.

00:16:46:20 - 00:17:02:22
Mitch Beinhaker
You must be wealthy. Yeah. Wow. Look what you keep, not what you make. Yeah, I learned that very early on. So because we, we had a point we're doing, I don't know, 1,000,005 $2 million of gross revenue for a small firm. We had a couple of attorneys, but net we were we're very low now. Our net was pretty good.

00:17:02:22 - 00:17:21:14
Mitch Beinhaker
I had friends were doing five or 6 million in their firm. They had 40 employees and seven attorneys. They were so top heavy employee, heavy that they weren't keeping a lot of my money months that that part doesn't get any money. I said, How is that possible? And we're managing themselves well. So, you know, gross revenue and size doesn't matter at all.

00:17:21:22 - 00:17:41:20
Chris Lalomia
Yeah, I think that's another great point. But it's hard. It's hard. It's easy to say it now. You know, after 15 years, in your case, doing no practicing law for over 20 years on your own, right, 25, 30 over 30 or over 30. So I'm didn't mention I was the engineer. And people.

00:17:41:21 - 00:17:42:08
Alan Wyatt
Know how you miss.

00:17:42:08 - 00:17:45:22
Chris Lalomia
That and people are economy. Right before we were coming on this call people are calling me.

00:17:45:22 - 00:17:46:14
Mitch Beinhaker
23, but.

00:17:47:00 - 00:17:51:20
Chris Lalomia
I see I'm off on that too. People are kind of me to put a beam in their house to make sure the house doesn't think so.

00:17:51:21 - 00:17:53:03
Mitch Beinhaker
Oh good luck.

00:17:53:03 - 00:18:04:13
Chris Lalomia
But yeah, they're they're in trouble. But you've been doing it. It's hard to say that if you went back to yourself 30 years ago and go, Hey, Mitch, you're going to think getting bigger is better. But don't do it. You would have been good.

00:18:04:13 - 00:18:17:13
Mitch Beinhaker
You were mentally not capable. You know, you mentioned what was that your son before? Yeah. You know, my son when he was 16, seven years old. They would fight me on everything. Dad, you don't understand. Whatever I said. You know, the only thing we have in common is that I thought I knew everything when I was your age, too.

00:18:18:12 - 00:18:40:20
Mitch Beinhaker
Because that's what happens, right? You have these experiences in life. It's just unavoidable. You can't. You can't avoid the mistakes. You try and limit them, but you can't avoid because mentally or emotionally or maturity wise, you're only so far where you are, right? So there's very few people you meet who are, you know, 25 to 30 and really get it all.

00:18:41:05 - 00:18:53:09
Mitch Beinhaker
There are some people, but some of them were slinging hammers and they were nine, you know, and they they got life experience in they're very young for whatever reason that not that they went to college and came out. We're like, what's going on? Life have so much stress.

00:18:57:01 - 00:19:07:05
Alan Wyatt
Yeah, it's tough. I've got three sons. They all have an IQ that's probably double mine. And I have to tell them, Look, you may actually be smarter than me, but what you don't have is perspective.

00:19:07:14 - 00:19:10:20
Mitch Beinhaker
100%. Yeah, Yeah, you can't. Three.

00:19:10:20 - 00:19:12:03
Chris Lalomia
How many of them listen to you? None.

00:19:12:06 - 00:19:13:18
Alan Wyatt
Adeboye over three over.

00:19:13:18 - 00:19:15:01
Mitch Beinhaker
Intelligence gets in the way.

00:19:15:04 - 00:19:18:12
Chris Lalomia
I said one. I thought one out of 3 hours, but. All right, all right.

00:19:18:23 - 00:19:24:22
Mitch Beinhaker
They're coming. That's coming around. That was like, Oh, Dad, you were right. You had a times of you're like.

00:19:25:05 - 00:19:27:16
Alan Wyatt
Can you say that over more slowly so I can record that.

00:19:28:13 - 00:19:28:17
Mitch Beinhaker
And.

00:19:28:24 - 00:19:30:13
Chris Lalomia
And can I have your mother hear that?

00:19:30:16 - 00:19:33:01
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah, but wait. Wait till your mother comes in the room.

00:19:33:01 - 00:19:42:24
Chris Lalomia
So, so. So looking back at your career, what was the like if you went back to and said, I want to relive this year, this is the period I wanted to be in again. What was the most fun you had and why was that fun?

00:19:43:06 - 00:19:47:02
Mitch Beinhaker
Jeez, I don't know. It's all a blur at this point. I know.

00:19:48:12 - 00:19:49:23
Chris Lalomia
Actually, I can't even answer that question.

00:19:49:23 - 00:20:04:14
Mitch Beinhaker
And Columbus was fun. We were young, doing a lot of stuff. I was traveling around a lot, but it got old quick, you know, waking up in a hotel room and not realizing where the bathroom is because think you're home, that type of stuff. That got old quick. But I don't know. We were in a crossroad where we could have ended up in different parts of the country.

00:20:04:14 - 00:20:26:10
Mitch Beinhaker
It would have been interesting to see how that played out. I was I was interviewing with a firm in California, Newport Beach. I was interviewing with a friend. This is when I was in Chica in Columbus. I was interviewing a firm in Miami or Coconut Grove, I think near Fort Lauderdale, something like that, and a firm back in D.C. know my dad was affiliated with and the firm in California.

00:20:26:18 - 00:20:42:16
Mitch Beinhaker
They were doing this kind of work. It was just when CPAs were kind of coming into the financial services business, they were going to build this whole kind of models sports. Guess I didn't think it would really work. It folded. Three years later, they closed up shop and then the one in Florida, they made me an offer and I said, okay, that's great.

00:20:43:03 - 00:21:00:18
Mitch Beinhaker
Just send me a contract for me to review. And we don't work on contracts here. And I go, Well, I'm not a personnel company. And moving to South Florida, he goes, Well, you know, you trust me, right? I go, No offense, but you could die or sell the company or whatever. So I that was a pretty lucrative offer.

00:21:00:18 - 00:21:16:06
Mitch Beinhaker
And I turn that down. Six months later, he sold the company. Oh, my God. I think it was because I wasn't there. I you know, I'm not to give myself that much credit. So he sold the company and know I don't know what would have happened. So, you know, then I went to the Southern Firm and then, you know, migrated.

00:21:16:16 - 00:21:19:17
Mitch Beinhaker
It was reinventing yourself. I was fine with that.

00:21:19:17 - 00:21:37:02
Chris Lalomia
But I have to say, those are probably when you look back on some of the more fun times, for me, it was, you know, growing the business. While it was hard in the beginning, there was just days where I went, Man, I'm so glad I'm not sitting in a stupid meeting right now, and I'm out here talking to this customer about their bathroom and then driving over and seeing a deck that my guys had built.

00:21:37:03 - 00:21:46:19
Chris Lalomia
But you know what? I'm having a good day in a sun was shining and traffic was nice in Atlanta, almost like heaven, but usually birds were chirping. Yeah, Yeah, exactly.

00:21:46:21 - 00:21:47:02
Mitch Beinhaker
You know.

00:21:47:16 - 00:21:48:16
Chris Lalomia
The master's, Of course.

00:21:48:16 - 00:22:09:09
Mitch Beinhaker
My favorite time is now because I have some of the same challenges that I did ten years ago. But they're my battles. I'm not dealing with it for somebody else or for a partner or trying to bring business in for everybody. And, you know, I'm getting to the point where I do get bigger opportunities and I do need more people because I have a lot of experience and I am getting exposure.

00:22:09:09 - 00:22:33:04
Mitch Beinhaker
I'm doing some federal tax stuff now that came to me because one guy who ran the program got sick and somebody said, Well, we need an attorney to do this. Who knows this stuff? And one of the guys in the group said, I know this guy for 20 years. That was me and he knows all this stuff. And they called me and now I'm involved in this whole thing and it could be a it's growing, but it could be a really lucrative opportunity, you know, that wouldn't come for me.

00:22:33:04 - 00:22:48:08
Mitch Beinhaker
To me, to be honest, I had the experience that I've had, the networks that have grown, the people that I've come across, the opportunities that I've taken advantage of. So I think right now is probably them having lost my dad to somebody like that. But yeah, I like the control over my life.

00:22:50:07 - 00:22:56:19
Alan Wyatt
And things have branched out for you. It sounds like. I mean, you've got this podcast and you're writing a book. I mean, yeah.

00:22:57:03 - 00:23:03:03
Chris Lalomia
Yeah. Let's talk about what name, why, why are you doing the podcast? You know what I would have enjoyed, right? Yeah.

00:23:03:15 - 00:23:21:21
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah. Well, I'm doing a podcast because you got to market yourself, right? And I like podcasting, just like you guys do. So I one day and if you listen to podcasts, I probably told the story 400 that so you criticize me later. But I was you know, I listen to a lot of podcast history, podcasts and business, especially in the business for podcasts and stuff.

00:23:22:23 - 00:23:41:23
Mitch Beinhaker
So I was maybe watching a video with Pat Flynn or something like that, and he's like, You can start a podcast for 75 bucks. I'm like, Don't you need like studio people and, you know, like big mikes like this? But so there was like in the show notes was the equipment I went and bought equipment was really crappy equipment didn't sound very good if you listen to the early episodes and I was like, We're going to do a podcast.

00:23:41:23 - 00:23:56:03
Mitch Beinhaker
My partners at the time were like, What? Like why we going to do that? I said, Well, you're not going to do it. I'm going to do it. So I started interviewing people and I realized that I was good at it and I enjoyed it and I was like, This is going to be our marketing thing. And we tried some different things, but I came up with the Accidental Entrepreneur.

00:23:56:09 - 00:24:10:12
Mitch Beinhaker
And when I went back out on my own, I took a with me. But it's the core of my of my marketing, like the book I'm writing with a coauthor friend of mine who's a publicist because he pushed me to do it. It took us three and a half years. I would have never done it without him. But you got to have some collateral material and you're blogging and stuff.

00:24:11:03 - 00:24:20:19
Mitch Beinhaker
But that's why I, you know, it's all supports my legal practice, really. I don't make I told you have sponsors now with the podcast you know it's like 50 bucks a month they cover my expenses.

00:24:21:17 - 00:24:27:22
Chris Lalomia
It sounded I tell you, it sounded good. In fact, it sounded like a Pepsi Coca Cola deal where I thought. Exactly. I mean, I thought your intro that.

00:24:27:23 - 00:24:28:17
Mitch Beinhaker
You're out of by.

00:24:28:19 - 00:24:30:18
Chris Lalomia
Yeah, I figured you were getting the whole thing, you know, the whole deal.

00:24:30:18 - 00:24:33:22
Mitch Beinhaker
The 15 million with Spotify, see?

00:24:34:14 - 00:24:37:02
Chris Lalomia
Right. So I'm not the only one. I'm actually I'm not a.

00:24:37:02 - 00:24:37:14
Alan Wyatt
Drink big.

00:24:37:14 - 00:24:42:08
Chris Lalomia
Chris. I'm not even going to do anything. I just want Smartless Bateman I mean, I'm taking those guys out.

00:24:42:18 - 00:24:45:08
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah, I'm going to check that out. And that was smart.

00:24:45:15 - 00:25:05:10
Chris Lalomia
It is. Those guys are good. But as Alan has pointed out, they can get some serious A-list celebrities and they just go off the cuff and go, Hey, super secret celebrity, boom, It's J.J. Abrams. Boom. It's the guy who wrote the camera. Yeah. Yeah. And and they go back years. They know each other, have known each other for years, like, oh.

00:25:05:10 - 00:25:06:01
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah, I know him.

00:25:06:01 - 00:25:07:14
Chris Lalomia
Oh, well, we're all good friends.

00:25:07:20 - 00:25:09:16
Mitch Beinhaker
Bateman And Will Arnett. Yeah.

00:25:09:24 - 00:25:10:20
Chris Lalomia
Bateman. Arnett and.

00:25:11:01 - 00:25:11:20
Alan Wyatt
Sean Hayes and.

00:25:11:20 - 00:25:29:07
Chris Lalomia
Sean Hayes. It's good Smartless it's I have to say, there are some really good interviews in there. They had Woody Harrelson on. It was good. I mean, I find it's good for me after grinding on podcasts where you're trying to do self-development. After a while, you're like, You know what? I'm sick of getting better.

00:25:29:13 - 00:25:31:11
Alan Wyatt
I just I just want a gig. I want to giggle.

00:25:32:09 - 00:25:54:00
Mitch Beinhaker
DAX Shepard He's got a lot of people on, actually. Did you watch Ted Lasso Oh yeah, yeah. So Roy right now is probably the funniest character on Roy Kent. Cheers. Roy Kent He doesn't talk like that. He's this guy. Brett Goldstein is a Jewish guy from from England, and he's got a podcast called Films I Want to Be Buried With, and he's got some good people on on the podcast.

00:25:54:01 - 00:25:54:12
Alan Wyatt
Oh, that's.

00:25:54:12 - 00:26:11:19
Chris Lalomia
Awesome. I have I have really dug in on that whole Ted Lasso thing. I've actually used it to. I do it to train my folks with with a couple of the messages they get from it. And it's, you know, it's a it's a story that, you know, if my kids were back in high school, I would make him watch that with us because there's just so many great life lessons in there.

00:26:11:19 - 00:26:20:13
Chris Lalomia
And it's packaged with great humor, right? Yeah. Well done. Yeah. And after all that, they get to go to the White House. Did you see that movie? No, They went to the White House.

00:26:20:14 - 00:26:21:12
Mitch Beinhaker
They going to the White House?

00:26:21:12 - 00:26:44:07
Chris Lalomia
They did already. He shows up. Yeah. She's doing the this the press secretary is doing a conference. Doing a holding is a deal with all the reporters. Right. And he comes in, he goes, hey, guys, I didn't know you guys were doing this. Next thing you know, he's up there basically doing a bit. And the reporter and Ted Lasso from the The Independent.

00:26:44:17 - 00:26:45:21
Mitch Beinhaker
Who always got wrong here.

00:26:46:02 - 00:26:46:23
Chris Lalomia
Who's always nailing them.

00:26:47:08 - 00:26:49:22
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah, they came out great.

00:26:50:01 - 00:26:55:11
Chris Lalomia
Doing great. They planted him in there and he said, I'll take one question. He goes, You, sir. And here it was booming pops up.

00:26:55:20 - 00:26:56:14
Mitch Beinhaker
It's so funny.

00:26:56:14 - 00:27:01:11
Chris Lalomia
It's on social media. I was like, It was great. Yeah. I mean, in fact, it made the White House look funny.

00:27:01:20 - 00:27:06:20
Mitch Beinhaker
I was the president. I really like all the people that I wanted to meet, all the famous people I want to meet, just absolutely.

00:27:07:21 - 00:27:11:22
Chris Lalomia
Because I am the president. Hey, I've always wanted to meet you. Oh, Mr. President, Of course. Come on in.

00:27:11:22 - 00:27:12:21
Mitch Beinhaker
And of course, come on.

00:27:14:04 - 00:27:17:18
Chris Lalomia
All right, so the podcast, the book, doing all that to help promote.

00:27:17:21 - 00:27:18:17
Alan Wyatt
What about the business?

00:27:18:18 - 00:27:20:04
Chris Lalomia
Yeah. So what is the book about?

00:27:20:14 - 00:27:34:07
Mitch Beinhaker
The book is called Ten Ways to Get Sued by Anyone and Everyone. I love that guide to staying out of court, so she should be doing so. You don't get in trouble with your vendors, with your partners, with your employees, with OSHA, with you know.

00:27:34:21 - 00:27:36:08
Chris Lalomia
So I like it, but I want to get a.

00:27:36:08 - 00:27:36:22
Mitch Beinhaker
Copy of it.

00:27:37:10 - 00:27:40:14
Chris Lalomia
Of course I like it. But can we we got to make it just a little shorter.

00:27:40:14 - 00:27:52:01
Mitch Beinhaker
It'll be on Amazon next. Yeah, should be on Amazon next month. Well, my my buddy Barry, he's right. He's doing this like ten Ways series. So he says we want to do ten ways. So it's got to be a catchy, you know I love it is.

00:27:52:11 - 00:27:56:10
Alan Wyatt
Can you drop a couple of nuggets or do you have to read the book, give us a teaser?

00:27:56:15 - 00:28:13:15
Mitch Beinhaker
Know, I'll tell you I'll tell you the book is not a parable. It's a you know, it's it's got paragraphs. You can use, chapters you can use for different things. So it talks about, you know, having a written business plan, always having agreements with your partners, dealing with clients and vendors in writing, you know, making sure the document things.

00:28:13:15 - 00:28:41:18
Mitch Beinhaker
I interviewed a lot of attorneys in their divorce attorney about what happens to your business if you get divorced. I'm an employment law attorney and we have some bonus chapters if you actually do get sued. We talked to some litigation attorneys, collections, all types, types of things. But the main theme is, which I always talk about, is make it a habit in business to put things in writing, like, you didn't do that with your dad, so you have no way to prove that he should have paid for your tuition because he made this statement or whatever, and nobody ever remembers anything.

00:28:41:18 - 00:28:44:04
Mitch Beinhaker
I interviewed a memory expert in booked it, so.

00:28:44:13 - 00:28:46:02
Chris Lalomia
Oh, my God. A memory expert.

00:28:46:14 - 00:28:47:20
Mitch Beinhaker
But I can't remember. Yeah.

00:28:48:01 - 00:28:49:24
Chris Lalomia
Yeah. What's his name? I you know.

00:28:50:10 - 00:28:52:20
Mitch Beinhaker
What you're saying. His technique didn't work for me.

00:28:53:01 - 00:28:58:19
Chris Lalomia
Back in the day. My wife has a horrible memory, and she bought these these cassette tapes. And how to build your memory.

00:28:59:20 - 00:29:00:09
Mitch Beinhaker
Though, right?

00:29:00:10 - 00:29:07:10
Chris Lalomia
Yeah, but you know who eventually ended up going to jail, right? So she gets these. Oh, yeah. Yeah. For tax evasion or something. Cause I can't remember. I forgot.

00:29:07:10 - 00:29:08:10
Alan Wyatt
To pay, as you can remember.

00:29:08:10 - 00:29:09:01
Mitch Beinhaker
To pay stacks.

00:29:09:24 - 00:29:19:02
Chris Lalomia
So. But I said, I said hey, so whatever. She's listed these things, she has a horrible memory. I'm like, I'm the one who has to remind her when our anniversary is, which is awesome.

00:29:19:02 - 00:29:20:20
Mitch Beinhaker
Gentlemen, very rare to.

00:29:21:00 - 00:29:38:10
Chris Lalomia
Yeah, I love this because I'll say, No, no, no. We're supposed to be in the basement drinking bourbon tonight, doing podcasting. I don't remember you telling me that. I'm like, Oh, yeah. So I said, I came up to him like, Hey, you said there was cassette tapes about memory. Where are those things that she goes, Hi, Yeah, I can't remember.

00:29:39:10 - 00:29:50:24
Chris Lalomia
I said, I said, Oh, I see that. That's really guy. And then, and then he came up with another book. Another book then Barry I forget why he was in jail because I didn't read the cassette but back. That's awesome. Going back to. So you interviewed a memory guy.

00:29:51:10 - 00:29:53:20
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah, I had on my podcast.

00:29:54:08 - 00:30:17:00
Chris Lalomia
Here's the parable if you would have interviewed me. I've been in business for 15 years. I had been in business. I've been served now four times. Yeah, Yeah. So in fact, when I the first time I got served, one of the guys went, Really? It took you eight years. That's pretty good. I said, Yeah, the second time. First time I got served by the sheriff in the office comes in.

00:30:17:10 - 00:30:32:16
Chris Lalomia
It was a frivolous lawsuit for somebody who actually had bamboozled me, and they knew for 50 bucks they could at least get me served and I had to show up at court. And of course they didn't, because they knew they didn't do the they didn't do any print advertising. They were supposed to for me, because I didn't none of the cards ever came out.

00:30:32:16 - 00:30:48:04
Chris Lalomia
I had seated a bunch of my friends in this to see if they actually did it and nobody got it. I didn't get it. I figured maybe she had just taken me up. No, nobody got it. So she's never mailed it. So I, I get the money got, got back. Anyway, my wife's like, you know, a certain point of my time.

00:30:48:04 - 00:31:05:04
Chris Lalomia
Not that my business has always been rosy and I'm sure this before it's not rosy, but she said one time she goes, you know, maybe it's time for you to give this up and go find something that you can make money. And I'm like, I think we're right and I think I'm right there. And she sit in the office at my front door and we're in this house.

00:31:05:13 - 00:31:17:22
Chris Lalomia
She's in her office. Ah, office looks at the front door. Ding dong here are you Chris. Let me I'm. I guess I am. He goes, okay. Do you think she's looking at me? Because I'm like, Oh my God.

00:31:18:18 - 00:31:19:23
Mitch Beinhaker
That was not proving your point.

00:31:20:13 - 00:31:23:12
Chris Lalomia
I said, This is not helping. This is not helping at all to play in traffic.

00:31:23:12 - 00:31:30:13
Mitch Beinhaker
You're going to get hit right? I mean, just question about it. So, yeah, there you go. I serve two or three times that I can remember. You know.

00:31:31:14 - 00:31:53:19
Alan Wyatt
So when you talk about I got a question for you getting things in writing. And so I'm in commercial real estate and it's just a lot of verbal back and forth between the agents. And sometimes it's in person. Most of the time it's on the phone. Sometimes you come to agreements on things via text, via email, or.

00:31:54:04 - 00:31:55:16
Mitch Beinhaker
You're talking about letters of intent, like.

00:31:55:23 - 00:32:07:11
Alan Wyatt
It's not even that far along, but just various commitments. I mean, is is a text is an email. Okay. Okay. Not enforceable really at all.

00:32:07:11 - 00:32:10:02
Mitch Beinhaker
Very hard. Very hard. I mean, you have to have.

00:32:11:04 - 00:32:18:00
Chris Lalomia
Wait, Ellen wants to ask again. Now let's see if get if if I ask the question a little bit differently, will you say. Yes?

00:32:18:03 - 00:32:26:23
Alan Wyatt
I'm just trying to I'm trying to jog. No, he's memory. Maybe. Maybe, maybe his memory classes didn't stick. No, no. It's still no. No matter what I said to them.

00:32:27:00 - 00:32:27:12
Chris Lalomia
Still. No.

00:32:27:19 - 00:32:42:21
Mitch Beinhaker
No. Look, I do. Clients come to me and say, Yeah, I lend money. This guy for his business and I said, All right, well, where's the agreement? We have agreed, but I've left text messages. Can you make a contract that you could try? I mean, you would sue the guy and then you'd have to submit this to evidence and the judge would have to look at it.

00:32:42:21 - 00:33:00:24
Mitch Beinhaker
You have to cobble together some sort of an agreement. And the judge's job or the mediator, whatever his job is, to kind of settle this thing so that while you promised this, you promise that. But if you don't really first of all, there's an issue about detrimental reliance, right? So if you don't really rely on any sort of promise, sort of misrepresentation, questions, what are the damages?

00:33:00:24 - 00:33:27:02
Mitch Beinhaker
Right. You can always breach contract. That's not illegal. But then the question is there's a lot of terms missing right from that verbal representation. So it becomes very difficult and courts are very hesitant to enforce those kind of things. Although I do have a guy in my in my town who was I think he started like in HUD housing in Florida when he was like 16 years old, came over on a boat from Ireland.

00:33:27:02 - 00:33:44:10
Mitch Beinhaker
He's now worth a lot of money. He's very wealthy guy. He bought this building in town from another property owner who needed money, and they did it at a bar and they signed a napkin and then the guy balked on the thing. And this guy, he's got money, got his attorneys after then they got the building for whatever half of what it was worth because the guy needed money.

00:33:45:00 - 00:33:46:00
Alan Wyatt
But it was on the napkin.

00:33:46:12 - 00:33:55:08
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah, well, they got it enforced probably, but their threat was probably like, we're going to sue you so long. You're going to tie up this building. We're never going to see the light of day. So. All right.

00:33:55:18 - 00:33:57:21
Chris Lalomia
What is the lesson you just learn for everybody? Go ahead.

00:33:57:21 - 00:34:01:08
Alan Wyatt
Ensure that you can't do in a textbook. You can do it on the napkin.

00:34:01:09 - 00:34:08:17
Chris Lalomia
That's exactly right. All right, everybody, remember, you want to get it contract, put it in the wrap. Can. Mitch supports that napkin. Yes.

00:34:09:22 - 00:34:26:21
Mitch Beinhaker
No. And that's why the real estate business, you know, basically done in writing, Right. Any transaction you do has to be in writing the statute of frauds, things like that. So it's hard to enforce. Like, you know, you told me that I can have 25% of the commission. We had an email that said that or a text that would help, but more than nothing.

00:34:27:02 - 00:34:35:09
Chris Lalomia
We're coming towards the end. But one of the things I've really enjoyed talking with Mitch as we've gotten to know each other, in fact, when you come to Alpharetta, I'm haunted and I'm coming into the family.

00:34:35:21 - 00:34:38:03
Mitch Beinhaker
Going over Mr. Rothwell Right. We go for drinks.

00:34:38:13 - 00:34:58:21
Chris Lalomia
Of course we are. We're going to go down to Garden City. We're going to we're going to hook up with another guy we had on our podcast who is down there. If you were right now here, I know we all know ideas don't make great businesses, processes, dedication, devotion, working things out, problem solving. That's what makes it looking going forward for the next four or five years.

00:34:58:21 - 00:35:08:21
Chris Lalomia
I haven't asked anybody a lot of this, but I just think he's got a great perspective. If you're in business or you're thinking about getting into business, where would you recommend people go or how would they go about it?

00:35:09:08 - 00:35:11:01
Mitch Beinhaker
The start? You mean like they have an idea?

00:35:11:11 - 00:35:12:14
Chris Lalomia
Yeah, I got an idea.

00:35:13:01 - 00:35:36:04
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah. I think the biggest problem is that everybody gets too in love with the idea that they have because that will get them all jazzed up, which is great. You know, if you're not jazzed up, you're not excited, you're not going to follow through. But they don't really take the time to and you don't have to do a formal business plan, But they don't take the time to work through the idea of what it is, how are going to produce it, where are we going to market it?

00:35:36:04 - 00:35:58:23
Mitch Beinhaker
Is there a market for it? What are the actual costs of running this business? You know, if you want to open a a shop that sells little items, how many of those items are easy to sell and what price can you sell it at? And I think a lot of people don't work through it. And the next thing you know, they're kind of so far down the road and they've committed money to it and emotions to it and they've told their friends and they kind of have to go forward and they don't see any of the problems that are coming.

00:35:58:23 - 00:36:14:21
Mitch Beinhaker
They might have been able to avoid them if they worked through them ahead of time and did the work. But nobody wants to do the work and we want to write a business plan and you have to write it and use it and work it and think about it and test it and market it and make some more phone calls and do don't talk to six of your friends.

00:36:14:21 - 00:36:16:04
Mitch Beinhaker
So that's a market research.

00:36:16:15 - 00:36:17:00
Alan Wyatt
Right?

00:36:17:14 - 00:36:36:03
Mitch Beinhaker
That's a great point. People that, you know, talk to a 100 people, the best guys, people that have had on my podcast or that are clients of mine that are really good at what they do and are always growing, are constantly checking with their customers or people that didn't do business with them or whatever to find out why they didn't do business or why they did do business long and nine times out of ten.

00:36:36:03 - 00:36:53:05
Mitch Beinhaker
It's not the reason that the person thought it was. It drove them to do business with you. So you got to always be asking those questions are it's going to catch up with you and you're going to go the wrong way thinking that's the way to go. I know what people want. That's like the death knell of any business.

00:36:53:15 - 00:36:58:20
Mitch Beinhaker
I know what people want, but are you kidding me? All right. I know what your customers want you to say.

00:36:58:23 - 00:37:03:06
Chris Lalomia
So you're saying I shouldn't invest in cryptocurrency and just sit on the sidelines and watch my money grow?

00:37:04:16 - 00:37:07:05
Mitch Beinhaker
You can do it. Well, won't grow. You could watch your money.

00:37:08:01 - 00:37:10:14
Chris Lalomia
But I don't even know what the hell it is. That's what I'm asking. I mean, I.

00:37:10:21 - 00:37:11:21
Alan Wyatt
Don't think anybody does.

00:37:12:16 - 00:37:33:18
Chris Lalomia
I think that that's if I learned that early on when I was early on, I had somebody told me that once at the bank when I first got into banking, I didn't know anything about it. I was just there to be the fix it guy as a process guy. And these guys would wow me with all their big talk about credit risk and managing risk and, you know, everything you know about earnings calls, which, you know, I've ended up having to do other reports for.

00:37:34:05 - 00:37:50:22
Chris Lalomia
And one guy looked at me like, you know what, Chris, you're a pretty smart guy. If somebody can't explain it to you where you don't understand it or you can't understand it, they don't know what they're talking about, right? You shouldn't just buy their bullshit. And we don't we didn't see that in the banking world. Not just yeah, we didn't say that word in the Southeast.

00:37:52:14 - 00:37:54:10
Chris Lalomia
I which I did. But that's a great.

00:37:54:10 - 00:37:55:09
Alan Wyatt
Piece of advice though.

00:37:55:09 - 00:38:00:06
Chris Lalomia
But think about that for a minute, because if somebody can't explain it to you well enough where you can understand it.

00:38:01:01 - 00:38:01:08
Mitch Beinhaker
And.

00:38:01:12 - 00:38:15:09
Chris Lalomia
Then don't do it this goes to a CEO, this goes to marketing, this goes to, hey, I got this next great idea, and somebody comes and says, Let me be this website. Well, what's the website going to do for me? Oh, it's going to it's going to get you to first page on Google and it's going to get you to SEO.

00:38:15:09 - 00:38:19:23
Chris Lalomia
You're like, Well, wait a minute, there's only one page on Google. How am I going to get all the way to the first one?

00:38:20:03 - 00:38:21:02
Mitch Beinhaker
Right? Does it make sense?

00:38:21:16 - 00:38:28:08
Chris Lalomia
Hey, wait a minute, Does that make sense to me? Now I think you're full of shit. So yeah, I think that's a great thing.

00:38:29:01 - 00:38:39:18
Mitch Beinhaker
I'm going to just use your best in cryptocurrency. I'm like, I don't even understand what the hell it is. Not investing in something I don't understand because you'll lose your money. Don't invest in business that you can't understand, you can't explain.

00:38:39:23 - 00:38:42:24
Chris Lalomia
I watched five YouTube videos. I still cannot explain it.

00:38:43:09 - 00:38:51:05
Alan Wyatt
I've asked tons of friends of mine and they can't explain it to me in a way that makes any sense. It goes back to the Warren Buffett thing, right? I mean, it sounds like what you're saying, Mitch.

00:38:51:09 - 00:38:53:20
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah, They only invest in things they understood. Yeah.

00:38:54:15 - 00:39:03:06
Chris Lalomia
I was waiting for you to say it. We're not going to get Buffett on. I don't think I want him on. You know, he's get old. He's he doesn't he's not with the times. He's not here to.

00:39:03:12 - 00:39:04:05
Mitch Beinhaker
Turn it down.

00:39:04:08 - 00:39:05:03
Alan Wyatt
Probably doesn't like.

00:39:05:07 - 00:39:12:20
Chris Lalomia
You know, he actually has people reach out reach out to me He said he's flying into Atlanta, wants to meet with you. I'm a surrogate. Can't do that. You know, trying to get around that.

00:39:12:24 - 00:39:14:11
Mitch Beinhaker
Don't tell Warren. I'm just not about.

00:39:14:19 - 00:39:18:15
Chris Lalomia
Where I live. Too busy worried kid. Have kid have great advice for me right now.

00:39:19:21 - 00:39:26:04
Mitch Beinhaker
You know. You know the story about the guy who owned I guess it was exactly jet in that to now the story where.

00:39:26:05 - 00:39:27:10
Chris Lalomia
No I don't know that one go ahead.

00:39:27:10 - 00:39:41:16
Mitch Beinhaker
So it's like on his birthday time he gets his call and his secretary says Warren Buffett's on the phone now. He says Mr. Buffett is on the phone. It was his birthday. It's a big Jimmy Buffett fan. He's like, oh, buddy of mine, too. I got Jimmy Bostick on. He gets the phone, says, Hey, Jimmy, how you doing?

00:39:42:05 - 00:40:02:04
Mitch Beinhaker
The guy says, No, it's it's Warren is like Warren Buffett. He goes, Yeah, and we want to buy your company. But I want to know what you know. I don't know. They bought 15, 20, $30 million. But I want to know what are the two or three things you need to have been able to do? He said something like, Well, first of all, we happened to be able to get Boeing to make jets for us, Warren says.

00:40:02:04 - 00:40:25:00
Mitch Beinhaker
Hold on. They conference called the head of Boeing. You know, Chris, you're going to be making friend we're buying Mr. sent to these company you're going to be making planes for him and he says you got to Warren. And then he said, the other problem is we have trouble landing in Heathrow to a conference call. The secretary of transportation in London and says, I'm buying this descent whose company we're going to need to land in Heathrow is no problem.

00:40:25:00 - 00:40:29:21
Mitch Beinhaker
Wow. Yeah. It's so I have.

00:40:29:21 - 00:40:35:16
Chris Lalomia
To be making really bad decisions, which I'm very good at that I will take I'll take words next call.

00:40:36:07 - 00:40:39:16
Mitch Beinhaker
You know, definitely it's won't be. And even if it's Jimmy Buffett, I would take that call.

00:40:40:03 - 00:40:42:03
Chris Lalomia
You know I would, too, wouldn't you? I mean.

00:40:42:09 - 00:40:44:22
Mitch Beinhaker
Again, in is one of my favorite places.

00:40:44:22 - 00:40:53:16
Chris Lalomia
I actually would even talk fun stuff with him. I would talk I mean, why did you come up with this whole idea of business? Because everything I've read about you was all about I didn't care about business. I just wanted to.

00:40:54:06 - 00:40:55:08
Mitch Beinhaker
Get rid of him, right?

00:40:55:08 - 00:40:56:21
Chris Lalomia
Yeah. Yeah. So I think.

00:40:56:21 - 00:40:58:21
Mitch Beinhaker
The shark, I think, is part of him. Yeah. Yeah.

00:40:59:09 - 00:41:04:17
Chris Lalomia
Right. I mean, so he's got his tentacles in all kinds of stuff. All of a sudden you're like, where they come from. Yeah, right.

00:41:04:22 - 00:41:05:22
Alan Wyatt
It's kind of a big deal now.

00:41:06:06 - 00:41:10:19
Chris Lalomia
He's kind of a big deal, you know, he's. You know what? I'd have him on a back, you know?

00:41:10:19 - 00:41:12:14
Alan Wyatt
It's hard. That's good. I'm glad you came to that.

00:41:12:14 - 00:41:22:02
Chris Lalomia
We get along this. We got Mitch, you know, So, you know, nothing had me somewhere. We got Mitch. So. Well, now we clear out the. The big the big stuff. Now we'll start working on the smaller fish.

00:41:22:09 - 00:41:23:18
Alan Wyatt
So we'll get to Jimmy eventually.

00:41:24:00 - 00:41:24:12
Mitch Beinhaker
All right? Mitch.

00:41:25:05 - 00:41:36:10
Chris Lalomia
I've enjoyed this, man. This has been a lot of fun. Well, we're definitely gonna keep talking, but. Yeah, but the podcast, Let's go ahead and wrap this up before we get into the four questions that we want to ask you. It's really.

00:41:36:12 - 00:41:37:01
Mitch Beinhaker
Oh, yeah.

00:41:37:06 - 00:41:51:03
Chris Lalomia
Timed the they're going to be rapid fire but and they've got to be well thought out and they have to be real good treatise on what's going to happen because your lawyer expecting word suppression I want I want Big Ten set words that I don't understand. All right.

00:41:51:03 - 00:41:52:18
Alan Wyatt
So before you the words.

00:41:52:23 - 00:41:59:12
Chris Lalomia
Before we do that, what do you want to plug for us? We going to put everything in the show notes. Obviously, you got your law firm, but tell us what else you want us to plug.

00:42:00:14 - 00:42:22:14
Mitch Beinhaker
I know we mentioned the books coming out should be available on Amazon. I'm hoping sometime in May. We're waiting on the publisher. He's been a little slow, but, you know, I know he's not he's not giving us attention, but it should be out late May probably, if you want. I do a live show, a stream on YouTube and LinkedIn at 1030, the third Thursday of the month, Eastern Time.

00:42:24:05 - 00:42:29:19
Mitch Beinhaker
Not every week, just that one week. And and you can find me on Spotify, Amazon, Google.

00:42:30:09 - 00:42:33:00
Chris Lalomia
Your accidental entrepreneur. I look at.

00:42:33:00 - 00:42:33:02
Mitch Beinhaker
It.

00:42:33:10 - 00:42:47:07
Chris Lalomia
You know we all are by the way so that's awesome. We'll put all that stuff in the show notes. Mitch, we got to jump into this because I can't wait to get it. Or the first thing is, and this is actually going to be for me because I've sort of listened to a less podcasts, a little bit more audible.

00:42:47:07 - 00:42:51:19
Chris Lalomia
I just finished Bob Iger's book Ride of a Lifetime. Really good. Not mention the size.

00:42:51:22 - 00:42:54:17
Mitch Beinhaker
Of That's graduation. He's an IU grad is like.

00:42:55:00 - 00:42:56:19
Chris Lalomia
Oh yeah. Oh sure, somewhat. Ithaca.

00:42:57:15 - 00:42:58:13
Mitch Beinhaker
No, IU Siena.

00:42:59:08 - 00:43:03:18
Chris Lalomia
Oh, okay. Well, I thought you did. Okay. Anyway.

00:43:04:01 - 00:43:06:02
Mitch Beinhaker
So The Graduate That's right.

00:43:06:21 - 00:43:07:21
Chris Lalomia
He's amazing, dude.

00:43:08:02 - 00:43:09:03
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah, he was a great speaker.

00:43:09:03 - 00:43:16:02
Chris Lalomia
The book was phenomenal for me anyway. But what book would you recommend to our audience?

00:43:17:18 - 00:43:37:00
Mitch Beinhaker
What I like on your favorite. My favorite book is called The Referral of a Lifetime by Tim Templeton. It's one of the Ken Blanchard series books. It's a parable. It's like a hundred pages, but it's probably the best book I've ever read about building a Keep in Touch program with your client contacts. I read it 20 years ago when you had sent postcards.

00:43:37:08 - 00:43:40:00
Mitch Beinhaker
Now you can do it electronically, so it's much easier. Nice.

00:43:40:00 - 00:43:41:06
Alan Wyatt
That's a that's a great one.

00:43:41:12 - 00:43:47:12
Chris Lalomia
That is too. I've actually circled that sucker that's going to that's going to. But, you know, I did listen to the Gene Simmons book.

00:43:49:22 - 00:43:51:09
Mitch Beinhaker
I don't know if that one was audible, though.

00:43:51:16 - 00:43:53:06
Chris Lalomia
You did. You can't get this one.

00:43:53:10 - 00:43:54:05
Mitch Beinhaker
The one that I said.

00:43:54:05 - 00:43:55:14
Chris Lalomia
Yeah, right. You actually have to read it.

00:43:56:01 - 00:43:57:03
Mitch Beinhaker
I think so. I know.

00:43:57:09 - 00:43:59:02
Alan Wyatt
Maybe there's lots of pictures. Chris.

00:43:59:03 - 00:44:00:06
Chris Lalomia
Oh, as long as there's pictures.

00:44:00:06 - 00:44:02:22
Mitch Beinhaker
No pictures in the book, but it's on a hundred pages, let's say.

00:44:03:07 - 00:44:04:13
Chris Lalomia
All right, books. All right.

00:44:04:20 - 00:44:06:19
Mitch Beinhaker
All right. I'll let you check in on the next question.

00:44:06:21 - 00:44:09:09
Chris Lalomia
All right. Number two, what is your favorite feature of your house?

00:44:10:08 - 00:44:21:04
Mitch Beinhaker
Of my house? Like my where I live. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You can get it on Audible. I don't know if I have any favorite features in my house that I live there. I don't know anything favorite.

00:44:21:17 - 00:44:22:17
Chris Lalomia
You don't like anything? Your house.

00:44:23:16 - 00:44:24:22
Alan Wyatt
You mean you need a new house?

00:44:25:00 - 00:44:30:07
Mitch Beinhaker
I shouldn't say that. I like my backyard. I like doing outdoor things. We have lights strung up, firepit in the back.

00:44:30:18 - 00:44:32:01
Chris Lalomia
Okay, See? There you go.

00:44:32:11 - 00:44:35:13
Mitch Beinhaker
It's that I'm buying that we haven't used yet, but it's not buying it.

00:44:35:18 - 00:44:36:21
Chris Lalomia
There you go. Come on. All right.

00:44:36:21 - 00:44:41:16
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah, I know what you. I drink bourbon around the fire. It's nice there. There we.

00:44:41:16 - 00:44:44:22
Chris Lalomia
Go. See, we just. We just helped you uncover your favorite.

00:44:45:07 - 00:44:45:11
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah.

00:44:46:08 - 00:44:59:21
Chris Lalomia
It is bourbon driven, which we are bourbon fun, because you'll see in the background we get a lot of bourbon. Right? All right. What is a customer service pet peeve of yours? Because we are really big about this because we are customer service freaks. Thank you.

00:45:02:07 - 00:45:06:03
Mitch Beinhaker
Not in terms of how I deal with customers.

00:45:06:03 - 00:45:08:08
Alan Wyatt
No. When you're out, when you're out getting.

00:45:08:10 - 00:45:16:23
Chris Lalomia
You're in a restaurant, you're at a Wal-Mart. If you're at a Walmart you go to a restaurant or. Yeah, you go to a hardware store, something that just pisses you off.

00:45:17:02 - 00:45:35:23
Mitch Beinhaker
Oh, I don't know. Definitely lack of attention. Like they'll let you walk around the store like an idiot and don't even come up to say, you know, somebody walks into a nobody walks into my office. But if they did, well, actually, people do walk into my office. I work in a covered space. I go out front. So me sitting there, I say, somebody helping you, I go into stores, you walk around for hours.

00:45:35:23 - 00:45:42:11
Mitch Beinhaker
Nobody says anything, especially like Home Depot and stuff. The stores like that, restaurants want the waiter to come over. Give me a drink. Get me going.

00:45:42:23 - 00:45:43:12
Chris Lalomia
That's a big one.

00:45:43:20 - 00:45:44:01
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah.

00:45:44:02 - 00:45:45:10
Chris Lalomia
They're making me feel like grown.

00:45:45:11 - 00:45:51:19
Mitch Beinhaker
People back, right? If somebody reaches out to me, I don't get back them within six or 8 hours. Certainly within 24 hours. Dead.

00:45:52:13 - 00:45:55:08
Chris Lalomia
No end dead to me. If you don't get back to me in time.

00:45:56:00 - 00:45:57:07
Mitch Beinhaker
I have another 30 by then.

00:45:57:15 - 00:46:06:07
Chris Lalomia
All right, last one. I want to DIY nightmare story. We like fire, we like flooding. We like people getting dismembered. I mean.

00:46:06:07 - 00:46:07:00
Alan Wyatt
Explosions.

00:46:07:08 - 00:46:25:14
Mitch Beinhaker
Explosions. Our story. When we lived in Columbus, we were a young couple. We were actually two. We got married when we were 11. So at the beginning we weren't married, but this home we were. We're going to rent a house without apartment. We moved out there from the East Coast and they still haven't. You want to spend? I said, I don't know, like 1250 a month.

00:46:25:14 - 00:46:47:11
Mitch Beinhaker
That's what we were spending in there. They got 1250 a month. You can get a whole house for that. So we did. You bought a house now? Perhaps we bought a house, but it was a mess. My wife did a lot of the work when I was traveling and I remember the we had this big porcelain sink and I was trying to see some of the plumbing and I slipped.

00:46:47:11 - 00:47:01:05
Mitch Beinhaker
I had this is a cap. Oh, kid. And I slipped. And you remember we just moved to Columbus. So my dentist, I got a dentist bang and it knocked it of my mouth and I was like, Oh my God, He does it. When he.

00:47:01:05 - 00:47:02:04
Chris Lalomia
Hits dismemberment.

00:47:02:05 - 00:47:03:17
Mitch Beinhaker
He loses it to try to.

00:47:03:17 - 00:47:06:04
Chris Lalomia
Fix up but is sick. That's my boy.

00:47:06:15 - 00:47:06:23
Mitch Beinhaker
Yeah.

00:47:07:11 - 00:47:12:16
Chris Lalomia
So maybe I brought the power. He brought the he that one that was that's memorable.

00:47:12:24 - 00:47:13:20
Mitch Beinhaker
And doesn't look.

00:47:14:06 - 00:47:14:16
Alan Wyatt
Epic.

00:47:14:18 - 00:47:19:05
Chris Lalomia
Because good news is oh my fingers they've grown back but they've all taken beatings, that's for.

00:47:19:05 - 00:47:23:06
Mitch Beinhaker
Sure. This one chopped. This was Chop when I was a little kid. Yeah. So it it back on.

00:47:23:13 - 00:47:37:02
Chris Lalomia
Actually the biggest thing for me was always I use this I call this my hand clamp, what I was doing shooting that, shooting the gun and it was always catch like the meaty part of my finger. So this guy over here, I can't even feel him anymore. So he's gone.

00:47:38:04 - 00:47:40:00
Mitch Beinhaker
Like a real gun or like a nail gun.

00:47:40:02 - 00:47:41:13
Chris Lalomia
Oh, nail gun. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah.

00:47:42:01 - 00:47:46:08
Mitch Beinhaker
I'm one of those two. I nailed my finger when I was working on some bone. The nail right through my hand.

00:47:48:00 - 00:47:54:21
Chris Lalomia
Yeah. Those good mitts. This has been awesome. I tell you what, you're almost redeeming lawyers one by one. You may actually.

00:47:54:22 - 00:47:55:20
Mitch Beinhaker
Them that much credit.

00:47:56:00 - 00:47:59:16
Chris Lalomia
Yeah. So we may actually kind of like you. I don't know. But everybody I.

00:47:59:16 - 00:48:02:24
Mitch Beinhaker
Think that I'm to saying don't attribute that to the whole profession.

00:48:03:11 - 00:48:06:03
Chris Lalomia
He says I will not speak for the whole profession, but you can make me.

00:48:06:14 - 00:48:07:03
Alan Wyatt
Smart, man.

00:48:07:15 - 00:48:20:13
Chris Lalomia
If you didn't pick something up from this episode, you weren't listening, you weren't paying attention. Go out there, make it a great day. You can do this. And by the way, don't get sued. Don't get served. But when you do, just know you're part of a great company. That is us entrepreneurs. We're out here.