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The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
I am more convinced than ever that nothing that traditional bar organizations are doing is going to move the needle on the sad stats on lawyer happiness ...
The root cause of all lawyers' problems is financial stress. Financial stress holds you back from getting the right people on the bus, running the right systems, and being able to only do work for clients you want to work with. Financial stress keeps you in the office on nights and weekends, often doing work you hate for people you don't like, and doing that work alone.
(Yes, you have permission to do only work you like doing and doing it with people you like working with.)
The money stress is not because the lawyers are bad lawyers or bad people. In fact, most lawyers are good at the lawyering part and they are good people.
The money stress is caused by the general lack of both business skills and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Thus, good lawyers who are good people get caught up and slowed down in bringing their gifts to the world. Their families, teams, clients, and communities are not well-served because you can't serve others at your top level when you are constantly worrying about money.
We can blame the law schools and the elites of the profession who are running bar organizations, but to blame anyone else for your own woes is a loser's game. It is, in itself, a restrictive, narrow, mindset that will keep you from ever seeing, let alone experiencing, a better future.
Lawyers need to be in rooms with other entrepreneurs. They need to hang with people who won't tell you that your dreams are too big or that "they" or "the system "won't allow you to achieve them. They need to be in rooms where people will be in their ear telling them that their dreams are too small.
Get in better rooms. That would be the first step.
Second step, ignore every piece of advice any general organized bar is giving about how to make your firm or your life better.
The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
Renegade Lawyer Marketing (Audio Book) – Pre-Chapter: Should You Buy This Book?
This isn’t a book for every lawyer.
But if you’re a solo or small firm owner doing between $300K and $1M/year… and you’re starting to wonder if there’s more to life than 60-hour weeks and problem clients, this audio chapter is for you.
In this episode, Ben Glass reads the first full section of Renegade Lawyer Marketing (Second Edition)—starting with the powerful pre-chapter, “Should You Buy This Book?”, and continuing through the acknowledgments and disclaimer.
You'll hear:
- What makes this book different, and who it’s really for
- Why most law schools teach you to build a life of burnout
- How Great Legal Marketing lawyers design a business that serves their family first
- The origin of GLM’s philosophy and its roots in Dan Kennedy’s teachings
🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
📘 Get the book + bonuses at RenegadeLawyerMarketing.com
🎟️ Join us live at GLMSummit.com
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.
Hi everyone, this is Ben. Welcome back to the Renegade Lawyer Podcast, and this is part of the series where we are making the audio version of the book Renegade Lawyer Marketing, the second edition. If you haven't already listened to the intro, go back and find that episode and listen to that first, so you know what it is we're doing here. Okay, this book began with a chapter, a pre-chapter, called Should you Buy this Book?
Speaker 1:This book is not for everyone. It was written specifically for the solo and small firms in America that are generating between $300,000 and $1 million in top line revenue. The owners of these firms got there by grinding it out. They built a nice job for themselves, but they know by looking around, listening to podcasts and attending conferences that there are other lawyers like them who have built law firms that produce more revenue and more profit while requiring fewer hours from the owners. Those other law firms have broken through the seven-figure barrier and, as our friend Oklahoma attorney Matt Davis says, they passed through the badlands, and Matt was a member of our in-person icon mastermind group for a number of years. This book is for you if you want to see what's on the other side of the badlands. This book is also for you if you're looking for solutions. Great Legal Marketing has hundreds of members who have designed a life and a practice for themselves that solve these issues, both through their professional and personal lives. If you've heard me speak at all, you know that I believe that your one precious life is meant to be lived for your own happiness. Let's not let being a lawyer and creating a law firm and running a law firm screw that part up. Brian and I wrote this book for the law firms that are not spending tens of millions of dollars a month on search engine optimization, facebook ads, pay-per-click marketing or traditional broadcast media like TV, radio and billboards.
Speaker 1:Many of you are looking around at your peers with trepidation because you see problem drinking, depression and anxiety. There are sad statistics Nearly 36% of lawyers qualify as problem drinkers, 28% suffer from depression, 19% from anxiety and 23% from chronic stress. Younger lawyers in their first 10 years of practice, particularly those in private firms, have the highest rate of problem drinking and depression, and that's based on the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being report published a couple of years ago. If you don't want that to be your fate, buy and read this book. Let me ask you two other questions as we get started.
Speaker 1:These are great questions to journal every day. Question number one are you happy when you are on your way to work? Question number two are you happy when you are on your way to work? Question number two are you happy when you are on your way home? It's okay to say no to either or both of these questions, as long as you're being honest with yourself. But if your answer to both questions is not an enthusiastic yes, then yes, this book is for you.
Speaker 1:You should keep on listening. You should go buy a copy at Renegade Lawyer Marketing. It's actually free. You pay postage, I'll give you a couple bonuses for it and you should get it, highlight it and mark it up and then, when you're done, you should pass it along to your spouse or a life partner. By the way, most of our top members, when they attend our Great Legal Marketing Summit, bring spouse or life partner. These folks are often also business partners and it is immensely valuable to them to see a room full of people just like you, who are trying to figure this out, who are living lives of inspiration and import, and they're doing it through the vehicle of running a law practice, and they're doing it by reducing stress, making more money, doing work they love with people they love. And all of that was just a riff. That's not even in the book.
Speaker 1:Back to the book. This book was inspired by the thousands of lawyers who make up Great Legal Marketing's membership, have attended our events or have been influenced by our marketing and practice-building principles over the last 30 years and have reported their results back to us. Since 2005, we've been running a giant laboratory of marketing and practice building strategies for the solo and small firm lawyer. Now, if you do really quick head math, those numbers don't match. That's because before great legal marketing was a thing, an entity. I was already speaking, lecturing, writing on this topic of how do you build something that makes you happy first and giving lawyers permission to make themselves happy first. Little by little, we're improving not only the lives of the lawyers who are our members, but also the lives of their spouses and their families. When you, your spouse and your family are happy, your clients will be well-served. That's just the way it works.
Speaker 1:Now, fair warning Great Living Marketing is not for everyone. I have my haters out there. We firmly reject the status quo. I think most state bar organizations don't understand why so many lawyers are sad and depressed. Most bar groups wouldn't know what to say if you came to them and said can you help me build a better life for me and my family? And sadly, sadly, some of them would say that's not the goal, that's not what you signed up for. We disagree.
Speaker 1:Okay, the book has a disclaimer and it's not your usual disclaimer, but I got to do it and you'll find it interesting, and you may even steal from it and use it in your own published materials. Hey, I'm a lawyer. I have to write a disclaimer, right. Besides, my publisher made me include it here. It is the authors of this book. That's Ben and Brian Glass father-son team. The authors of this book that's Ben and Brian Glass father-son team.
Speaker 1:We are no more responsible for your own success than we are for your failures. Only the person you see in the mirror has that responsibility. Number one point I want you to remember We've taught and showed these materials to literally thousands of lawyers over 20 plus years. Many have become wildly successful. Some write us nasty emails. Same materials, same language, same philosophies. It is the person you see in the mirror that will have the most influence on your life.
Speaker 1:This book is not intended to be legal or ethical advice, and while I'm sure this book will inspire you, you should know that trying to copy one aspect of anyone's comprehensive marketing system without understanding what's going on under the hood can be dangerous to your wallet. Legal requirements and ethical standards governing advertising, marketing, client relationships and duties to clients vary from state to state. They vary a. Client relationships and duties to clients vary from state to state. They vary a little bit, and some states are pretty weird about this, but mostly they're pretty much the same. Only you are responsible for your own actions. Neither the authors that's, me and Brian nor the publisher makes any warranties, expressed or implied about whether any of the marketing documents, materials or instructions in this book are legally or ethically appropriate in your jurisdiction. If you're in doubt about the appropriateness of any of the materials or instructions, you should obtain competent guidance, just as you would with any marketing documents, materials or plans you develop on your own.
Speaker 1:Throughout this book and on our podcasts and during our public appearances on your own. Throughout this book and on our podcasts and during our public appearances, you will find references to and opinions about. Oh boy, do we have opinions about other products, services, vendors and coaches. It is your responsibility to use your own mind to determine whether a particular vendor, product or service will be right for you. To the extent you disagree with our opinions, write your own book and put it into the world, as we have done. Now, side note, what Brian and I are really good at is hearing your story, hearing where you want to go and helping you decide what the best use of your next dollar or your next hour is.
Speaker 1:Plenty of great vendors out there. Not all of them have something that's right for you right now. There is a next step in the process. Great Legal Marketing is all about building that foundation. Building it right so that as you add on, as you make more money, add on and afford more things right. They are the right things for growing the practice the way you want it to be grown. Obviously, we're making no income representations here. Many lawyers who have been exposed to the ideas in this book will join our tribe.
Speaker 1:At Great Legal Marketing. We actually have a group called the Tribe. They'll end up taking massive action and reaping financial, emotional and professional benefits. Whether you will survive and thrive in a world of marketing vultures, 800-pound gorillas and invisible bots depends entirely on your proclivity to take action, manage a law practice and provide competent legal services. See, nothing we do here is about being a bad lawyer and being a great marketer and killing it right. The presumption is you actually know what you're doing in the specific area of law that you are practicing.
Speaker 1:Now we believe that income inequality is a feature, and not a bug, of living in the world, and particularly of living in the United States of America. Let me read that again we believe that income inequality is a feature. You have the opportunity to make as much money as you want. It is not a bug of living in a capitalistic United States of America. Now we've had attorney members across the United States and Canada and from such far-flung places as England, ireland, russia, australia and New Zealand. In many places outside of the United States, lawyer advertising is basically in the same state as it was in the United States before Van Osten got the preposterous idea to advertise legal services, in other words, advertising. As we know, it is basically not allowed in those countries, and if our members in Russia can figure this out, so can you.
Speaker 1:All right, the next section was an acknowledgement section. This came first from me. Ben you solo and small firm lawyers are heroic figures and must be acknowledged and thanked. Here you are not only ensuring that legal services across the entire legal spectrum are available to everyone, but you are doing it while dealing with the challenges of running a small business in a world that at times seems to be against both attorneys and small businesses. The weight of the world rests on your shoulders. You should be applauded by your communities, but I know that most of you are not. This book will help position you as the authentic hero in your town.
Speaker 1:Behind all of this is my wife and best friend, sandy. We met in 1977, married in 1981, have been living life big ever since. Most of you know we have nine children and as I am recording this, we have eight going on nine grandchildren. Most of the philosophy you read in this book comes from the discussions that Sandy and I and our nine children had around the table for years. Finally, I'm indebted to my friend Dan kennedy, without whose provocation to just do it, there would be no great legal marketing. His advice over the years has been more valuable than he knows and this is a quote from dan. To the vast majority who are not successful, it's a mystery as to why top achievers achieve to the top achievers. The only mystery is why the unsuccessful don't emulate the behaviors of the successful. Most behaviors are observable If you don't have a personal live access to a top achiever. Your library is a great and free source of biographies and autobiographies of them. That stands, quote. I would add that the tribe of great legal marketing, the people in great legal marketing, can be a great resource. Thank you, okay, and this is Brian's acknowledgments.
Speaker 1:At my law school graduation, a Supreme Court justice hey, it was Sandra O'Connor welcomed us to the profession by stressing the part of the oath of admission that lawyers take that talks about demeaning or subverting our interests and our family's interests to that of our clients. She actually said this is bad. She actually said, because I was there, you have a new master and your master is the client. I thought that was bullshit. This was 2008,. Back to Brian's words, this was 2008 when credit markets were melting down and big law firms were pulling job offers. Many of us who had gone six figures into debt to pursue a degree felt like we had gotten a raw deal. No shit. Ben pulled me aside later to say everything she said is BS.
Speaker 1:I'm grateful to have been brought up with the ethos that it doesn't have to be as bad as everyone else says and that you are in control of your own fate. I'm also thankful that the law never became the jealous mistress that the justice promised it would. Instead, I've been able to use it as a tool to create more time in my life and the flexibility to travel the world with my wife and number one supporter, krista, and our three boys. I'm going to use this book as a vehicle to equip you to do the same. Note from Ben. Krista is our HR leader at Ben Glass Law and at Great Legal Marketing. It is really fun to work with your oldest child.
Speaker 1:Brian has his own podcast where he speaks mainly to those lawyers who are maybe five six. His own podcast where he speaks mainly to those lawyers who are maybe five, six, seven years into the profession, trying to figure out do they want to stay in the profession? If so, do they want to stay in their firm or do they want to start their own gig? So find his podcast on any place you can find your podcast. Follow him on LinkedIn. He is a terrific, terrific resource, particularly for those kind of early to mid-career attorneys. Okay, that's it for the first section and we'll see you next time.
