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
Ep. 200 – Behind the Summit: The Bigger Why of GLM Summit
What’s really behind the Great Legal Marketing Summit?
In this special episode, Ben Glass shares the bigger purpose of the work we all do—not just as lawyers, but as entrepreneurs, leaders, and humans trying to build lives that matter.
🔑 Key Ideas Explored:
- Why “permission” is the most important word for entrepreneurs
- How legal marketing connects people with the help they actually need
- Why your job isn’t just running a law firm—it’s building a life that works
- The role our sponsors and partners play in this deeper mission
- The new definition of success: doing work you love, with people you love, for clients you love
Whether you attended the GLM Summit or not, this episode is your reminder of what it means to lead a values-driven law practice.
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.
But at the end of the day, pushing each other to ask questions over and over again, the question that gets raised is will this make you happy? Will this improve your life? Will this make you and your family really like that you chose to become a lawyer?
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to the Renegade Lawyer Podcast, the show that challenges the way lawyers and professionals think about life, business, and success. Hosted by Ben Glass, attorney, entrepreneur, coach, and father of nine, this show is about more than just practicing law. For over 40 years, Ben has built a law firm that stands for something bigger. He's helped thousands of lawyers create practices that make good money, do meaningful work, and still make it home for him. Each week, Ben brings you real conversations with guests who are challenging the status quo. Lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, thinkers, and builders. These are people creating bold careers and meaningful lives without burning out or selling out. If you're ready to stop playing small and start thinking like a renegade, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.
SPEAKER_01:Hey everyone, this is Ben Glass, and welcome back to the Renegade Lawyer Podcast. Um, this episode is a little different. I want to take you behind the scenes of the great legal marketing summit, why we do it, what really matters beyond just the marketing tactics, play a role in changing lives one client at a time. If you've ever asked yourself, what's all this really for? You know, this one's for you.
SPEAKER_03:This slide, entrepreneurs give themselves permission to do work that gets them excited. The most important word in this slide is permission. Amongst my group of um icon members and other mastermind groups I'm in, the thing that we talk about most when we really get down to it, is not marketing, is not advertising, it's not lead generation, it's not any of the technical strategic things. It is eliminating from our minds those limiting beliefs, those areas of self-doubt, the things that we think society has told us that we have to believe. Like the money isn't good unless it's earned the hard way. The money isn't good unless you're working seven days a week stealing time from your family. And so a heart, a large part of what Ben and now Brian, my son, who's in this business with me, have done and want to do is to just give you all permission to do things that make you happy within the framework of a law firm. And so we often talk about this goal doing work you really like doing with people you really like working with for the people that you really like doing the work for. And our suggestion, and and we've proven this over and over again in 21 years, is that if you solve for number one and number two, law firm lawyers are happy, support team likes to come to work on Monday, support team understands the mission, then the clients will be well served and the clients will be happy. And the subtitle of my very first book, written 25 years ago, was and still get time and still get home in time for dinner. But actually, now as I've crossed over several decades of doing this, there really is, it strikes me, just this higher purpose for what we are after here. And I'll talk about that in just a minute because I think it sets the framework for this fire hose of information you're gonna get over the next two and a half days, uh, whatever it is. Our master, so Brian and I flew in Monday with my team, came here Monday. Our icon and our hero mastermind groups met all day yesterday, then we met again half day uh this morning, talking a lot about marketing and hiring and culture and things like that. But at the end of the day, pushing each other to ask questions over and over again. The question that gets raised is will this make you happy? Will this improve your life? Will this make you and your family really like that you chose to become a lawyer? And it's and so important to have this like bigger person. Again, we started like, oh, how do we advertise more? How do we get more cases? How do we make more money? Which is all well and good and very important, but there's a bigger, bigger reason. So let me ask you this if you are, and the lights are really bright, so if you're in the room now and you are a member of any of the teams that are out there, our vendor, sponsor, partners out there in that room, you're any part of that team, stand up just for a moment. We want to first say thank you for being here. We believe this is the best conference, like we're the only conference that actually encourages our attendees to go and talk to these people because they're not like scary people. But here's what I want you to know is that you all are not just building, selling, and maintaining technology that gets more leads, or teaching lawyers how to answer the phone, or how to write a book, or how to do direct mail marketing, or any of the other types of specialties out there, like that's your job, but that's not that's not the reason. America is the most overregulated country in the world, probably. We live in this space of legal, but we forget that every single consumer or small biz owner who's has a problem or an opportunity in the law, that's stressful. And our bigger purpose as an organization, Great Legal Marketing, yes, everybody here, we want you to be happy. But our greater purpose, we move the world, we move society when we help match up the right lawyer to the right client. And I and you guys can sit down because what I want you to understand is that that really is your role. Like helping us, whatever your gifts, talents, and interests are, your technology, your skill, the thing you do to help lawyers and law firms, it really is with this ultimate goal of helping us say to the public, this is what we do, this is what we're really good at, and this is who we're looking for. And you would be a great fit.
SPEAKER_02:If you were at the summit this past October, or if you missed it, we've put together complete summit notes for you at GLM SummitNotes.com. These aren't summaries, they're the exact strategies, quotes, frameworks, and action steps that the smartest firm owners in the room took home and are already implementing. And now we're taking all of that momentum straight into the 2026 GLM boot camps. Boot camp is where you stop consuming ideas and start implementing. So grab the summit notes at GLM Summitnotes.com. Then join us at bootcamp. Let's make 2026 the year your law firm stops being a job and starts becoming the life you actually want to live.
SPEAKER_00:That's it for today's episode of the Renegade Lawyer Podcast, where we're rewriting the rules of what it means to build a great law practice and a great life. If something sparked a new idea or gave you clarity, pass it on. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this with someone who's ready to think bigger. Want more tools, strategies, and stories from the trenches? Visit GreatLegalMarketing.com or connect with Ben Glass and the team on LinkedIn. Keep building boldly. We'll see you next time.
