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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
Ep. 238 – Stop Feeling Guilty About Your Success
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Success isn't just money or possessions. It's having the freedom to choose who you work with, how you spend your time, and the life you build—and not feeling guilty for creating it.
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.
Introducing Ben Glass
SPEAKER_00Here's more from the renegade lawyer Ben Glass.
Redefining Success As Choice
SPEAKER_01Success is best measured by how many good choices you have to live your life. You know, and those choices are are many different choices. I give you my friend Kellum Parks sent me an email this morning, so we won't use any names because Kellum didn't give me any
The Consultation Fee Entitlement Test
SPEAKER_01names. But we have choices like who to accept as a client. So Kellum, I only wear my glasses like when I'm driving, when I'm driving, and when I'm here to see PowerPoint. And now I don't need them here. I'm all screwed up. So the process at Kellum's firm down at Virginia Beach is you want to be a new client, you got to fill out some forms. You pay for a consult. You pay for a consult. So, and the the potential client gets the email. So Kellum's team gets this email back. Dear intake manager, it was a pleasure speaking with you before I fill out these forms. Just want to let you know, I will not pay a consultation fee. I am an attorney and my wife's a surgeon. What's that? That's entitlement. That's I've worked very hard, and now you, as a part of the world, owe me something, which is total BS. And you have to rid yourself of any sense of entitlement. If they want my business, they'll have to waive that fee. I'm only going to deal with, oh, by the way, I'm only going to deal with one of the partners, right? Feel free to forward this to one of my one of the partners, right? Kellum writes a very nice email back, which basically justifies the fee, which I wouldn't have done. I would have been like much closer to his partner, which would have been some version of, dear big firm lawyer, because this guy was a lawyer, got your email. Looks like we won't be a good match. Hugs and kisses Ben. All
Building Joyful Law Firm Culture
SPEAKER_01right. But but but as you as you start to look at your life and look at what the law can do, success is measured. Yeah, we count with money. We count with money. But success is, I mean, the successful people have so many different choices of how to spend their day, who to interact with, who to surround themselves with in their firms, because that occupies a substantial part of our lives, right? And and so what we are trying to build are lives in the law that say this legal thing is a great tool. How about if we could build a lifetime of happiness in it? And again, I'm a slow learner, right? I struggle with a lot of this. We'll talk, I've got four sessions, and so we'll talk about at one point some of the big mind blocks that it took me longer to learn. And I'll show you, I think, some ways to accelerate getting rid of these blocks. But uh, and I and I'm fortunate I get to practice with my son Brian. He's been, I don't know, 12, 13 years. He may be listening to us online. He's a fabulous lawyer, he's a fabulous businessman. He brings skills to our practice that I don't have, and both in the in the doing of the legal things, right, but also in the management of the business. And it's just, we're just having an awesome time. And my whole team, we've got about, I don't know, 20 under roof now in BGL, maybe 18, 20 under roof. We expanded. So during COVID, we got more space and we hired more lawyers, right? We've we've really, really we're having a great year. We're not embarrassed. We're we're proud of it. We're, we're, we're leaders, we're inspirers. But my team and I, we look around a lot, lawyers and non-lawyers, and say, oh my God, like how blessed are we to be having so much joy and happiness out of the practice of law. So a lot of what I'm going to be talking about is like how we how we got there and how I think you can get there. Because this is really the great American dream, right? Right? It's not necessarily the Mercedes in the parking lot, although that's cool. I'm not a car guy, so I don't have a Mercedes in the parking lot. I have a I have like a $50 referee whistle. Like, I'll go search that out because I think that's cool as shit, right? But if it but the the car is not has never been a big deal to Sandy and I. We have a nice pool in the backyard. That's cool. She built it so she can swim last. We have a nice house, but but but we have a lot of choices too, right? With with nine kids, you get a lot of choices to do stuff. And and we don't feel guilty about it, right?
Drop The Guilt Keep The Dream
SPEAKER_01And so much of that doom scroll thing, if you read the editorials and you read what politicians, and I'm and I'm fairly apolitical, actually, because I'm a liberty guy, right? I'm a like live your life for yourself and don't violate anybody's rights, right? Let's all do that. But if you read that, it's a lot of that stuff is about you feeling guilty because you're happy. You feeling guilty because you should feel guilty. Maybe you don't, but you should feel guilty because you have so much, right? Like, well, you worked on it. You worked really hard to get there. You had to bring up, you had to improve the lives of everybody around you who's in your firm. You've made their lives better, right? Don't ever feel guilty about that.
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