On this episode of The Renegade Lawyers Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Patrick Slaughter, a former magician turn ed lawyer who has a unique approach to starting and running a law firm. We discussed his journey from being a magician to opening his own practice, the importance of focusing on the things that matter, and the key pillars of a successful law firm. Patrick also shared his upcoming book, "The Law Firm Blueprint," and his mission to help aspiring lawyers open their own firms. If you're a law student or young lawyer interested in starting your own practice, this episode is a must-listen.
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.
We've always been proud of the tools we give lawyers to create the law firms of their dreams. We know exactly what modules you should, software you should utilize, and the strategies you need to employ to build a law-firm that is a cash-generating machine. When someone initially becomes a GLM member, you can bet that they're joining for the tactics and tools that we offer.
On this episode of The Renegade Lawyers Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Patrick Slaughter, a former magician turn ed lawyer who has a unique approach to starting and running a law firm. We discussed his journey from being a magician to opening his own practice, the importance of focusing on the things that matter, and the key pillars of a successful law firm. Patrick also shared his upcoming book, "The Law Firm Blueprint," and his mission to help aspiring lawyers open their own firms. If you're a law student or young lawyer interested in starting your own practice, this episode is a must-listen.
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.
We've always been proud of the tools we give lawyers to create the law firms of their dreams. We know exactly what modules you should, software you should utilize, and the strategies you need to employ to build a law-firm that is a cash-generating machine. When someone initially becomes a GLM member, you can bet that they're joining for the tactics and tools that we offer.
So today's world, so much digital stuff, right, and every single day there's a new algorithm to learn and there's a new social media channel to learn and there's new technology, right, Case management software and technology. And lawyers, I think, don't give themself enough time to sit in quiet and think a bit either, maybe thinking about a client's case and the one thing that could make the case move along and get sold for the client we're thinking about their business, right, and just identifying and focusing on the one big thing right that can. If we could move this, everything else would be moving even faster.
Speaker 2:I'll give you an example too, here in COVID. For some reason, I developed an irrational fear of sharks. Don't ask me why. I've struggled all over the dang world, but I have this irrational fear of sharks. My wife loves Shark Week on Discovery Channel. It's awful, so she will watch these things.
Speaker 2:And then, out of the corner of my eye, something caught my interest because they were going to deal with the top 10 ways to avoid shark attacks. Number one don't go out in the water after five o'clock or early in the morning. Two don't wear a yellow or a white bathing suit. Three don't wear a jewelry. They went through all these things and at the end of the thing, I was shocked to find that Stay Out of the Dang Water wasn't on the list. Same thing With lawyers. We want to focus on oh, how do I increase my conversion rate from intake? Or how do I get more leads or likes or whatever's on social media? They focus on all these other things. But you know the one thing that I know for sure without fail that will positively impact your practice get you more business, make you happier, be a better lawyer. Nobody wants to talk about that one.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Renegade Lawyer Podcast, the show where we ask the questions why aren't more lawyers living flourishing lives and inspiring others? And can you really get wealthy while doing only the work you love with people you like? Many lawyers are. Get ready to hear from your host, ben Glass, the founder of the law firm Ben Glass Law in Fairfax, virginia, and Great Legal Marketing, an organization that helps good people succeed by coaching, inspiring and supporting law firm owners. Join us for today's conversation.
Speaker 1:Hey everyone, this is Ben Glass. Welcome back to the Renegade Lawyer Podcast, where each episode I get to talk to really interesting people inside and outside the legal world who are making a ding on the world. I've got a very interesting guest today, patrick Slaughter. Patrick's mission in life is to really match up those who need legal services with those frustrated lawyers who, if only they knew how to start their own practice, they could. These two groups could come together and the world would get better. Patrick's backstory is interesting. He will dig deep in a minute, but basically for 20 years he was a magician, knew my buddy, dave D out of the Dan Kennedy world, and when he decided to convert his life from being a magician into going to law school and then starting his own practice after a bit he took everything he knew about being a magician and marketing that. The important thing is illegal, which is something we talk about a lot like. The best ideas come from outside of legal. So, patrick, thanks for carving out some time today. Thanks for getting on the program.
Speaker 2:Man, I appreciate you having me. This is the most fun I'm going to have all day, probably all week.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe I mean, and we had a good little riff before we went live and I said, hey, we got to stop. Let's just push the button and talk about this stuff, because, as we were not introduced ourselves to each other, we've got threads that go back to the Russell Runston world, the Dan Kennedy Bill Glaser world, back to Dave D and the magicians, and so you and I have seen a lot of the products and the people over the years, and apparently we were both in Orlando a few months ago for a little happy lie. So tell us, tell us that story a bit about. You know your career path 20 years, as you said. You know chopping your wife in half and revocating her and all of this stuff. It must be pretty cool.
Speaker 2:And then the funny thing is, I started back performing magic back in Chicago. I was a street performer and got fairly good at it. Parris decided I needed to finish my education, so I got my undergraduate degree and then went back to being a professional magician for a number of years Perform. I performed mostly in the resort market and the corporate market and traveled around the world. It was great, made a lot of money, had fun. But then 9-11 happened and suddenly being a magician traveling with weird crap was not quite as fun as it had been. So I was traveling about 100,000 miles a year on airplanes and got tired so decided I was going to do something else. I didn't know what that was.
Speaker 2:Fate and Happenstance ended up moving me from Virginia Beach, virginia, to Knoxville, tennessee, and I ended up going to law school. If you told me I was going to be a lawyer, I would have laughed at you. That was not something that was on my radar. I can tell you the funny story about how all that happened. But I eventually ended up going to law school at a brand new law school. I was part of it's inaugural class in the middle of nowhere, tennessee, and I graduated and was like, okay, now what? And you would have thought, okay, you find a job, you go out, you do the thing. It didn't work for me. I was lucky. I mean, I did well in law school. I was number two in my class, I graduated semicund lauding, all that stuff, but I couldn't find a job. I had a friend who let me work for him as a glorified law clerk. He paid me 20 bucks an hour but it was billable hours. So I was lucky to make 500 bucks a week and I did that for a few months I don't think I don't remember being terribly long and a few things happen and I can tell you that story too.
Speaker 2:But I ended up saying I got to do something. So I ended up opening my own firm and when I went to open my firm I looked around going what in the blue places am I doing? I don't know how to practice law, I don't know what I'm doing and I couldn't really find a whole lot of people to help me as far as teaching me, like the business, and I just assumed that all these lawyers were doing really well. I just assumed that. You know, I was way far behind because I didn't start law school until I was like 39 years old, so I assumed everybody was doing really well and I started okay, well, I got to get business. I got to get people come through the door.
Speaker 2:So I used some of the direct marketing things that I'd learned as a magician, because I figured if people will pay $5,000 for a magic show, I bet they'll pay more for divorce, because you know why divorces are so expensive? Because they're worth it. So I thought I'll do that, using that same marketing stuff that I did and that worked. And then it's like okay, I got, I got business. Now how the hell am I going to figure out, how the heck am I going to figure out how to practice law?
Speaker 2:And I started kind of using some of the things I'd learned as a magician, because when you're practicing, when you're a magician, you have to learn things from books mostly, or at least that's the way I was brought up.
Speaker 2:So I started, you know, looking about that and I figured out how to narrow my practice area, so I didn't have as much to learn. And suddenly people thought I was good, which was weird because I didn't know what I was doing and I started getting a lot of people. A lot of people started wanting to hire me and then it got to be like overwhelming, and then I had to figure out how to manage stuff. And then I thought my wife and I had managed some very large disaster recovery projects. So we started using some of the same stuff that we'd used for that and things just started kind of clicking and working out. And I'd like to say that I was real smart and just came up with all this stuff, but I am more just a victim of fate and it kind of came together. So that's the 50 cent version.
Speaker 1:You're probably too modest because to go to law school at 39, so I am curious now about that story, because obviously you had other options To graduate number two in your class and then to, in a relatively short period of time, start running your own practice, no matter what it was, I mean, there's actually a lot there. So why law school?
Speaker 2:Man, I am proof. I tell everybody when they ask me. I am living proof that God has a sense of humor. The first thing we moved to Knoxville, tennessee, and I thought, well, I need to go to school to do something, I don't know what. So I thought I'd go be a teacher because my father was an educator and I thought you know summer's off and they don't get paid bad, it'd be all right. So I went to University of Tennessee and I talked to the admissions people there and it was going to take me almost four years to get a master's in education because I was going to have to student teach for a year. And I made. The guy aggravated me and I said, lord, I could go to law school and get out sooner than that. And I'm telling you, little pimply face kid looked me dead in the eye and said if you could get in, and that ticked me off. Challenge, I did not have spectacular undergraduate grades. I had like a B average, a 2.8 PA, and when I wasn't really thinking much about it, that kind of ticked me off and got me thinking about law school. But I put it off.
Speaker 2:I ended up going over to Europe to Street Perform in Venice and Florence particularly, and did pretty well. But it came on me. Okay, I hate to say it's a religious experience because that sounds kind of crazy, but I was in Venice and I was, like you know, the body of St Mark is right there and I got made a bunch of money doing shows and a docent was showing some of the mosaics in St Mark's and it was like somebody said, if I can do all this, why can't I get you into law school? And I thought, well, okay, I'll take the, I'll take the test and try it when I get back. And I did. I came back and I took the test and I did terrible. I got a 148. Terrible. So I was convinced I was never going to have to go to law school.
Speaker 2:And then I again had this thing back in my head saying well, you got to apply. He said you'd apply. I said, well, okay, I did so. I ignored it like any other, you know, faithful man, and I would start working for Apple. I was selling Apple computers and I was good at that. I could sell computers.
Speaker 2:But all my clients were lawyers, every single one of them Bill, heck, robin, all these people were lawyers and they kept telling me I needed to go to law school, and I kept saying I can't get into law school. My LSAT is terrible, I'm old, it's not gonna happen. And then there was this young lady I'll never forget her name, libby King, who I was trying desperately to sell her a computer, and she told me that she just happened to work at the new law school. New law school, turns out it was like four miles from my house and I was like, okay, fine, I'll apply, I'll do what I said I'd do, and. But I kind of put it off and then the deadline had passed. I found out the deadline to apply had passed. I'm like I ain't got to do it this year, I'll do it next year. And then I got an email saying the deadline had been extended and I went well, crap, okay, fine, I can take it.
Speaker 2:So I took my application, I went down, I was wearing cut-off jeans, birkenstock shoes and a t-shirt and I walked in to drop off my application in some little box and the young lady at the desk said oh, here, let me introduce you to Paul Carney. He was the director of admissions and he wanted to talk to me. And I went come on, I don't want to talk to you. I'm giving you my piece of paper and I'm getting a heck out of dodge. I got stuff to do and he started talking to me a real nice guy and he said now, what instrument did you play?
Speaker 2:And I said what are you? He goes well, you were a musician. I know I was a magician. He said oh, our Dean is an amateur magician. You've got to go meet the Dean. And I went are you kidding me? So he takes me. I meet the Dean, said Beckman. He knew me from where I had been performing for a long time and that seemed to be an interesting indication that I was going to go to law school. Long story short, yes, I got in and there I was.
Speaker 1:They were looking for diversity in their class, in their first year class, and I think the magician background was diversity.
Speaker 2:You know, I think they're just trying to pad the curve for the other smart kids. I think that's what it was.
Speaker 1:You know. But the lesson here is I too, when I now it's 40 years ago now, but when I went to law school, it was in its first year, full ABA accreditation, you know. It just doesn't really matter, I think, for most people who are going through law school and want to become lawyers and that's what we're going to talk about here in a couple of minutes, about starting law firms. But you also blew past the part you said when you started your practice, you just started doing the things you learned to do and clients started to come in the family law area. Tell us about some of the things, the simple things, because they probably were not very complex. I suspect that got you a lawyer who you know did magic tricks on his way into law school, in your law school, and now you came out and you don't even know how to practice, but you're getting clients. So that's interesting.
Speaker 2:Well, you know the thing that hit me right away and I knew just from the time I've been in law school again that there is a ton of people that needed lawyers. Access to justice numbers will tell you there's a ton of people that need representation. So I knew they were out there. It was just what was I going to do? To be different than everybody else or to put myself in a position where people would want to find me and hire me? And I never took the attitude of, oh God, I got to get clients. Getting clients was never a problem for me, it just from the very first day. But I think that's because I put myself out there to say, hey, this is what I do and these are the very few people that I'm capable. The only thing I did at the beginning was agreed divorces because I figured you couldn't screw them up too awful bad and by limiting who I was, what kind of case I was going to take, it became easier to learn that area of the law. But also it made me sound a little I don't know what the word for it is but because I was different than other people and I did a couple other things.
Speaker 2:There was an old timer that had said in his day that all lawyers, if you didn't have a case or you didn't have something that you had to do, you were expected to be at the courthouse until lunchtime with the legal pad ready to help the court. And I was crazy enough to say shoot, why not? Because I went to court every day and I hung out at the courthouse and the people started talking to me and the clerks were very nice. They called me biscuit boy because I made some biscuits in gravy for one of the clerks who'd been there since Mathews was a baby and things just kind of. People knew who I was because they saw me and I'm sure they talked about me in some kind of way.
Speaker 2:And judges, I was trying to be helpful. If they needed something I got funny stories about that I would do it and I think just putting yourself out there in any way that you're comfortable doing educates the market that you're available and if people need what you do and they know that you're out there, they will find you and hire you to do it. I think nowadays people get so wrapped up in Google ads or social media ads or how do I do this marketing strategy and click, funnel this and the direct mail that. I don't think the medium matters. I think people need to focus on the message more and then have fun disseminating the message to whatever medium you're comfortable with.
Speaker 1:There's also a life principle you just espouse, which is put energy into the world first.
Speaker 1:The world doesn't do anything, you could have not gone over and sat in the courthouse. You could have just like, waited for the yellow page rep or whatever to come by and saw you and add but you didn't. So you put energy into the world first and then things start to happen. And that's unfortunately kind of a lost life principle, with so many people thinking, hey, I went to law school, I have all this debt, like, I'm entitled to a good job, I'm entitled to make a lot of money and title that clients come to me.
Speaker 1:And you're exactly right, the market doesn't care about any of that stuff. They don't care about your own needs, they care whether you can help them solve a problem that they're having. And you're right, there's an overwhelming need, I think, for quality legal representation at reasonable fees and rates. And I think some honestly, patrick, I think today's law school they almost don't even know about that world because everything is geared to send you off to big law so that we can get your alumni money or something right when you go and you work your two 80 hour a week jobs at one big law firm. So, yeah, so good for you for doing that.
Speaker 2:I'm convinced that big law is what I call plantation business. They turned them out of law school with the idea of hey, we want you to know just enough where we can train you to do what we need you to do, but we don't want you to be able to go out and open your own thing or think you can open your own thing, because we need cheap labor and we need you working for us for a long time. So we convince folks that they have this delayed gratification. If you just work for me for 20 years and let me keep at least 30% to 60% of what you generate, then maybe one day you'll be entitled to have fun and have a decent life. And people buy into that because we've been doing it since the Civil War. Today the world's just different and people they're just looking for somebody to help them and if you, as a lawyer, have the ability to do that and you're nice to folks and you're honest with folks, they can't wait to hand you money. They will come beating down your door to hand you money.
Speaker 1:Well, like you said, they're waiting in line at the Apple store to buy the nice, shiny new phone or computer or iPad or any of those things. So they have money and it's a matter of priorities.
Speaker 4:Hey guys, this is Ben. If you like what you've been hearing on this podcast not just the marketing and practice building strategies, but the philosophy of the art of living your best life parts. You should know that my son, brian, and I have built a tribe of like-minded lawyers that were living lives of their own design and creating tremendous value for the world within the structure of a law practice. We invite you to join us at the only membership organization for entrepreneurial lawyers that is run by two full-time practicing attorneys. Check us out at greatlabelarketingcom.
Speaker 1:So now let's start. We're recording this late in 2023. So let's now talk to maybe law students or young lawyers who are wondering about you know, am I smart enough to have enough money? Am I good enough to start my own practice? Because that really is your space right now, Like you've been in the past, that you made every mistake known to man and woman and you know you can help someone like speed along that journey without necessarily having all of the tough experiences you did from mistakes. So let's talk to those young lawyers for a bit about what it really takes to start a practice in 2024.
Speaker 2:You know, I think, the desire to do it and a certain amount of humility and a belief in yourself. Folks, you're not. Everybody thinks when I know this or when this event happens or when I get to be comfortable with that, then that will be the time. Those things never happen. You're never going to feel comfortable with it. You're never going to feel like this is the time. You're never going to feel prepared. You're going to have to take a step of faith and do it, and you have to do it with humility, because you don't know what you're doing exactly yet.
Speaker 2:There's a ton of people that will bend over backwards to help you. I can't tell you how many lawyers helped me when I got started, but it was because I recognized I was an idiot. One of the first things I did at the courthouse was take in a bunch of. I took got little plastic cups you know, just regular cups you get at the grocery store and I filled it with Hershey kisses and little Hershey chocolate bars, little miniatures and my business card. I took it to all the clerks at every court that was in the courthouse and said this is me apologizing for the stuff I'm about to screw up that I don't know anything about. Please protect me from myself. And they thought that was funny, but it served me very well because, you know, I didn't know what. I'd go to file something that looks like, no, that's not right, you need to go fix that, and I, okay, and I'd go do it. So I think humility helps an awful, awful lot, but at some point you've got to believe and have faith that what you're doing will produce the results you want. You know you're going to be able to earn a living, you're going to be able to do the things that you went to law school to be able to do, and the longer you keep doing it, the better you're going to get at it and the more success you're going to have.
Speaker 2:My whole principle, or the everything I think about law firms really there's only three things you have to do, three types of things that you have to do. Everybody gets wrapped up in this strategy or that tactic or this methodology. There's three things. You know you've got to practice law. Well, go figure, if you're a lawyer, that's easy. First pillar is practicing law. Second thing you got to do is you got to manage things. You got to manage yourself, your time, your money and your people. And then, finally, the last thing you got to do is you got to acquire clients, and those are it. And if you do them in that same proportion, then you can't help but be successful. You really can't, I mean, unless you were just a jack wagon of a person who ticks off a plate of cat food, who's mean to people and is arrogant, whatever. As long as you were a decent human being, you can't help but be successful in this business.
Speaker 1:I want to emphasize something that you said, and I hope that the young lawyers who are listening to this. I want to get you to believe this there are a lot of us who will help you, who will mentor you. Yes, many of us run coaching programs and we have events and all of that stuff for sure. But if you reach out with curiosity and humility and a real desire to learn and to get your questions answered, there's just a ton of us in small firms across the country who have built firms that are meaningful, that are fun places to come to work, and we believe I don't know if I'm speaking for you on this, patrick, but maybe we believe that the profession as a whole does a really bad job of mentoring, that the formal programs are crappy and that what you need to do is you need to reach out to people like Patrick and Ben and a whole bunch of other people we could introduce you to, you know, on LinkedIn or friends across the country who say yes, dan, we will help you. Feel free to reach out. Now, when you reach out, I want you to ask curious questions. I want you to show me you've done some homework. I want you to show me that you're willing to work and to change. Don't just waste our time. But you got to know that we are out here and we believe that that's part of our role now, me elder statesman in the business, 40 years and we are willing to do this. So good for you for putting it that way, patrick. I think that's so critical.
Speaker 1:Let's look back to the firm now. So your firm is growing. You're doing domestic relations work and you said you know, because one of the three things is learning to manage and learning to acquire, and because of your magician and your marketing background, you probably had the a lot of the acquiring clients ideas there. But what did you not know about managing and developing systems and all the sort of stuff that really necessary, and how did you get to learn it?
Speaker 2:I mean I was awful. That was the hardest part of the dang job. I was fortunate We've managed. When the four hurricanes went through Florida in 2004, zina and I Zina's, my wife, we. I was a project manager for helping to clear up all the roads in FDOT, district one, which is a lot of roadway, and we had 600 contractors from around the country come in and we had to manage a whole lot of stuff and it became very apparent that doing things in a less than organized fashion would keep me up at night and cause all kinds of problems. So Zina was really good at bringing order out of chaos. Just that's her nature, her personality. And I tell everybody I was paid to translate Redneck because the engineers couldn't talk to the hillbillies, but we worked it out and so I realized that was important and so that was kind of the dawning back in my head. Then also we started making money and I was like oh gosh, now this is serious.
Speaker 2:A friend of ours, ernie Spencer, and I'm sure you know Ernie, he had a small firm boot camp and I went to that and that kind of opened my eyes to possibilities of things and from there Zina had quit working at her other job and she's working full time now managing the office, and you know. And so we started kind of working together to say what are the things that we can do to deal with our actual problems. And this is a funny story. This is one of the things I tell lawyers all the time. They know what? Listen to me. One of the things new lawyers do that drives me nuts whenever they they want to deal with imaginary problems. I will tell you, ben, the only reason I got through calculus in law school was because I was dating the TA in undergrad. I will never forget the day where I walked in and she was getting ready to start teaching her class and she draws a little eye with a negative sign in front of it and says that's an imaginary number. And we're going to talk about imaginary numbers. In my mind I'm going don't we have enough problems with the real ones? And that's the way I feel about problems. You know both lawyers they go out and they create all these systems for things that aren't really causing them trouble, that don't don't necessarily impact their life or their practice in any way. Generally, if you will focus your energy on things that are actual problems, things that are causing you actual heartburn and you fix those, the other things will solve themselves. So I think, learning to focus on things that matter rather than things that could be Like.
Speaker 2:I was working with a young lady. She was in the state planning down here in Florida and she was, oh, she had bought confusion soft and she was getting everything set up to automate all this stuff and she was telling me how she's automating her onboard systems and she's automating this thing. I'm like, lord God, how many phone calls did you get a week? She's like, oh, 10 or 15. I'm like what? You're going through all this stuff for 10 or 15 calls? Can't you just do that and don't worry about this?
Speaker 2:But what I've discovered is we as lawyers, we like to solve complicated imaginary problems. Because it gives us the freedom, when we do that, to not have to focus on the thing that really matters. Because focusing on the thing that really matters can be uncomfortable, because it generally indicates at least I discovered in my part that all the major problems my practice had were usually because of me deficiencies that I had or things that I didn't want to acknowledge. But by focusing on something else, it gave me the freedom not have to deal with the things that really matter. But when you deal with the things that matter, that's the stuff that improves your practice and improve your life.
Speaker 1:There's a book called the War of Art. Yes, it's all about it. It's about the resistance and it's about all of the things that, as you just said, like we can imagine these things that aren't really problems so we can go and solve those, because they actually know how to solve when we like to tinker, rather than going and identifying and solving the one big thing that could either move cases along or get more cases in or increase the client experience somewhat. And so, again, if you're listening to this, the War of Art is a neat, older book about overcoming the resistance that Patrick just talked about. You don't have to be a lawyer to enjoy the book. It's not actually written for lawyers.
Speaker 2:The Crushfield. I love his stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you're exactly right. And so today's world, so much digital stuff Every single day. There's a new algorithm to learn and there's a new social media channel to learn and there's new technology right Case management software and technology. And lawyers, I think, don't give themself enough time to sit in quiet and think a bit, either maybe thinking about a client's case and the one thing that could make the case move along and get solved for the client, or thinking about their business right, and just identifying and focusing on the one big thing Right that can. If we could move this, everything else would be moving even faster.
Speaker 2:I'll give you an example too, here in COVID. For some reason I developed an irrational fear of sharks. Don't ask me why. I've struggled all over the dang world, but I have this like rational fear of sharks. My wife loves shark week on Discovery Channel. It's awful, so she will watch these things.
Speaker 2:And then, out of the corner of my eye, something caught my interest because they were going to deal with the top 10 ways to avoid shark attacks. Number one don't go out in the water after five o'clock or early in the morning. Two don't wear a yellow or a white bathing suit. Three don't wear a jewelry. They went through all these things and at the end of the thing, I was shocked to find that Stay Out, the Dang Water wasn't on the list. Same thing With lawyers. We want to focus on oh, how do I increase my conversion rate from intake? Or how do I get more leads or likes or whatever's on social media? They focus on all these other things. But you know the one thing that I know for sure, without fail, that will positively impact your practice get you more business, make you happier, be a better lawyer. Nobody wants to talk about that one.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's a big, that's a big part of it, and you know, you learn that through experience and being around and seeing, because that translates into client experience being better. It translates into having a team that enjoys coming to work for you, and if you have a great team, then the client experience will be better. So all that's true. So tell us, what are you working on today, who are you working with and what's your? Because I think you sold the practice at some point.
Speaker 2:right, I did in 2022, a year and a half ago. A little over a year and a half ago, somebody offered me board bending. I thought I'd see and I said, what the heck? That sounds like a good idea. And my wife and I we're big fans of Disney World. You can only go to Disney World so many times.
Speaker 2:So I watched some things and again I thought, well, I really want to help kids be able to open a practice and so I wrote it at first. You know, I'm in the ClickFunnels world and they're like well, you need to write a lead magnet and do these things and whatever. And my lead magnet turned into like a 120,000 word book. So I wrote a book on how to my experience, on how to open a law firm without spending a ton of money on ads and all this kind of stuff and just kind of a down and dirty in the trenches what I know will work approach to open a law firm. So I wrote the book. That's actually the publishers. Right now. It's in the process of being published. It's a hardcover. What's the title? Law firm blueprint.
Speaker 2:Okay, and so that's coming out and I am. Here's my problem. I desperately want to help lawyers do this, but I'm also a little bit lazy, so I'm not going to take this on to be the. I'm not trying to sign up a thousand people, I'm not trying to turn this into another job, but I do want to help folks. So I have this goal I want to help five people in every state open their own law firm. 250 law firms can serve a whole lot of people. So that's, I'm doing this. I'm I'm working towards this small group coaching program and a small coaching program for folks who can stomach. One, my Southern vernacular and two, my kind of direct approach to things. So that's coming. I have a website called onyourownlawfirmcom. I'm doing a newsletter there. I'm going to be putting out a whole lot of free content, just different videos about different things. So that's all kind of in the process of emerging.
Speaker 1:And is your wife a partner in the business?
Speaker 2:Of course, yeah, oh, of course you know it was funny when I had with the law firm. I had clients and I would tell them look, I know you're going to want to talk to me. I am funny, I am charming and, dare I say, good looking, but I'm expensive to talk to. If you talk to my paralegals, my associates, they're a whole lot less expensive and you're going to be a lot happier. But here's the one thing I can guarantee You're worried about what I think, whether I'm mad at you, whether I'm going to stay in your case.
Speaker 2:You don't need to worry about that. You understand, my wife is really in charge. That last name on the door, that Lafever and Slaughter it's her last name too. As long as you keep Zena happy, we're going to get along just fine. But if you get Zena mad, I might let you go, because I got to sleep with her tonight. Everything it's funny, every kind of big, major breakthrough that we came through the practice. It was because of something Zena had been saying for six months and I finally just agreed that she was right.
Speaker 1:So yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's only target date for the book release. Is it pre-Christmas? Is it 2024?
Speaker 2:I'm really hoping to get everything off by January 1st 2024. It probably will happen before then. It's the publishers, ingramspark, and they have the files and they're supposed to be doing that right now. And Shanda Trove she's real big into all the ClickFunnel authors, people. She's the one that did it for me. She's doing her magic and I'm just leaving her the heck alone, her. I had an editor, mary Mary Rembrandt, and I tell I'm going to do whatever y'all women tell me to do, because I'm married. I'm used to being bossed around by women. I do what I'm told, so they're doing their thing. I expect it'll be sometime in the next week or two but that's very, that's very exciting.
Speaker 1:And is there stuff up at Unionlawfirmcom? Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Right now you can opt in for the, the newsletter that I put out on Fridays. Basically, I'm going to be putting out videos every Tuesday, wednesday and Thursday Some very direct about law firm things that you can do to help your law firm. Some things are just funny that will help break the monotony of the otherwise dreary job or dreary week, and some are just strictly educational. So I'm going to do that on Tuesdays, wednesdays and Thursdays. I started doing a little bit. I'm LinkedIn. I've got a decent presence. I guess I've got like 3,000 people that seem to like to hear what I have to say. But we're going to expand into YouTube and doing some things that Zina says I mean.
Speaker 1:Well, there's all sorts of places you can expand into, but remember your own mantra, like keep it simple.
Speaker 2:I you know, that's my thing. I like video. I like going in front of them and saying hey, and just saying this is what I do, and wherever they want to put it and how are that. I leave that to Zina and she'll have fun with that. I've got a friend named John D Funny story A bunch of funny stories with him but he has a knack for being able to make things go viral on TikTok. He has a thing he's doing, a course now and everything about viral TikTok videos this I mean. He's a fat, overweight, bald guy like I am. He can get in a jacuzzi on a cold Asheville morning and pitch a course for this and has all kinds of people beat down his door to do it. So he and Zina have conspired to do different things with our videos and I'm just letting them do whatever they want to do.
Speaker 1:I think I need to have Zina on as my next guest. I told you yeah.
Speaker 2:Every time I took a case that she told me I shouldn't take, I regretted it. Yeah, I bet, I bet, yeah I know that feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, patrick, look, it's been great to speak to you. The book is law firm blueprint, the website is own your own law firmcom and Patrick is one of those guys out there. And there's guys and gals out there who will help you, who want to help this next generation of lawyers. Not hate the legal profession, but sadly it's like the course for so many folks coming out of law school now don't even see this alleyway. Starting and running your own small firm Get only shown big loss, stuff get burned out after five or six years and get disgusted with the whole thing and then they go run and be a magician or something I don't know A lot of. Are you still performing? Do you still perform?
Speaker 2:Yes, I do I still. I like to street perform. I enjoyed the heck out of that because I can just show up, do what I want. People throw money at you and you go away. I went around the world doing that, so I still do that. So I'm also getting into public speaking a little bit more. I didn't really, though that was something that I enjoyed doing as much as apparently I do, because people have been asking me to do it and I show up and I talk about human potential. I believe that we have the potential to do a whole lot more than we believe we do, and I think Myron Gold and his it's funny Myron's little brother, who's actually 10 feet taller than him, was the business consultant who sold my practice.
Speaker 2:So I'm mad at those folks, and Myron's belief is that expectation is our human superpower, and I think that's true. So I have a whole presentation, a keynote, that is structured around people actually experiencing physical demonstrations of human potential that people didn't know was possible, and it uses magic tricks and stuff from karate that I was involved with.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this, because now you have my curiosity. So who else do you follow? Read, you mentioned Funnel Hacking Live, now Myron Goldman. Who else is influential to you these days?
Speaker 2:You know, recently I tell you this I have these crazy designs, three stated goals that I want to really accomplish right now that I write down every day, and one of those is I'll make a long story short I want to run an Iron man. I want to finish an Iron man by the time my 55th birthday. I run half marathons and other stuff, but that's going to be stretching it. So I have lots of periods of time where I'm either jogging or riding a bike and I'm listening to Audible and I've been listening to Benjamin Hardy a lot. I like Dr Benjamin Hardy. I like a lot of his stuff, but he's very erudite, he's very academic and all of that. So but I like his stuff. Simon Sinek I like a lot of his things. Start with why. I've listened to his Find your why right now is one of them. I like Stephen Pressfield. Like you talked about War of Art. He's got a bunch of other little stuff too and they're quick kind of motivational reads Like Put your Butt In A Seat. I like that one a lot.
Speaker 2:Other people that I'm involved with, that help man there's just all kinds of folks all over the country that seem to tolerate me on a regular basis. Most of them are either magicians or in some other kind of field that people know a whole lot about or wouldn't care a whole lot about. I just finished reading some books by Eugene Berger, and Eugene Berger was a magician. He died several years ago, but he put out these books posthumously. That revealed different things that he had done, and he was one of the first magicians I met in Chicago when I ended up up there. He has a mystery school group of people with Jeff McBride, who's a magician in Vegas that I opened for for a number of years. I've just I've got all kinds of folks that tolerate me and I listen to on a regular basis.
Speaker 1:Sounds like you have a very happy, fulfilled life.
Speaker 2:Man, I'm living the dream. I get to go to Disney World whenever I want to. My wife still tolerates me. She hasn't filed for divorce. I get up when I want to get up. I go to bed when I want to go to bed. You know, like I couldn't ask for anything more than what we got and, honestly, these kids with law, practice and law should be one of the funnest things you ever get to do. I agree, it's just I don't know where it happened, where somewhere along the line there was this disconnect and people become these miserable curmudgeons. But practice and law again. Even if you don't buy a thing from me, I will probably give you a copy of my book. I will probably work out something from you if you're just willing to give it a shot and do the thing you know.
Speaker 1:Well, look, hey, thanks for carving out the time today for being who you are too, because I think the world needs more voices like you have, because these youngins aren't getting this in undergrad and they're not getting this in law school and they're not getting it in the early years of the profession. They're only getting it by getting into rooms. People like you, following you, reading books like yours, Like this, is what we you and I and a bunch of others of us now to keep just pushing this message that the fault in the legal profession should not be the unhappiness, sadness and depression. The fault should be joy.
Speaker 2:Life's too short. If you hate it, do something else, but do it the right way. You find out. It ain't too bad. If there's any of these things like this, any of these other events, podcasts, I can be whatever let me know. I'm happy to do it. You know, I guess I got a bunch of time.
Speaker 1:Appreciate it, patrick, great to talk to you today, sir, thank you, thank you.
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