The Elder Law Coach

Shorten Your Elder Law Learning Curve from Five Years to One Weekend

• Todd Whatley • Episode 55

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Ever wondered if there's a faster way to master elder law without years of costly mistakes? In this episode, Todd Whatley unveils his groundbreaking Transformational Weekend Summit, a revolutionary program designed to compress what typically takes years to learn into just one intensive weekend.

Drawing from his 26 years as a practicing elder law attorney, Todd shares how his own journey took five painful years of trial and error to become proficient in elder law. Now, he's created a solution for attorneys looking to transform their practices quickly and effectively. What makes this program unique is that Todd continues to practice law twice weekly, keeping his advice current and practical—something many coaching programs lack.

The Transformational Summit builds on a successful pilot program Todd recently conducted, now expanded to a full three-and-a-half days in February. Participants receive everything they need: comprehensive training covering Medicaid law, estate planning, marketing, practice management, plus all of Todd's refined documents, forms, checklists, and marketing materials. But it doesn't end there—the program includes six months of follow-up support with personalized coaching calls and group sessions. Todd even covers all expenses including hotel, meals, and ongoing marketing support, backing his program with a powerful guarantee: double your investment within six months or receive additional coaching at no cost.

Ready to transform your practice and fall in love with your professional life again? Visit theelderlawcoach.com or call Todd's office to learn how you can join this life-changing experience and become the elder law authority you've always wanted to be.

Check out our new website www.TheElderLawCoach.com.

Speaker 1:

Thank you. Specialized experience, Whether you're an established attorney looking to refine your expertise or an emerging lawyer seeking a successful foray into elder law, this is your masterclass. Now let's get started with the luminary in the field. Here's Todd Whatley.

Speaker 2:

Hey there, this is Todd Whatley, the elder law coach, and thank you so much for joining me. You'll see if you're viewing this on YouTube, I am in my new studio. You can't see a whole lot of it right now. I will use some of the other sets, but this one's very straightforward, very non-obtrusive, and I want to talk today about something I am super excited about and I was excited even before two weekends ago, but now I'm super excited and that is Transformational Weekend. I have created this based on demands from people, needs of people, and I want to explain basically what it is and why I am super excited.

Speaker 2:

I did a quick run through two weekends ago. I had all of the current coaching folks into not all of them, a good portion of them into Northwest Arkansas and we got together for two and a half days all day Friday, all day Saturday, half a day Sunday and did elder law start to finish. Okay, from the very beginning, here's the basics of Medicaid law, all the way up through the most complex cases. Then we did estate planning for elder law and then we did marketing, we did how to set goals, how to run your office. I mean, we did everything in one weekend and one of the common results from that, from comments, was it's too short, you've got to add a full another day. So when I do this in February, it's going to be all day Thursday, all day Friday, all day Saturday and then half a day on Sunday and probably go up a little bit extra. So what is it? It is a transformational weekend. I am expecting people who want to do elder law these are brand new people who are like I am ready to transform my practice into something. That is fun, that I am in control of the calendar, that I like my clients, my clients like me and I can make a very decent living doing that. Okay, that's elder law. Okay, if you want to completely transition your practice into elder law, or if you want to add elder law to your existing practice, we can do that. Okay, and I would love to help you do that.

Speaker 2:

Just so you can sort of understand the um growth of this is when I became an attorney back in 1999, I did general practice and then figured out there was this thing called elder law and I was like, hey, this is fantastic, I'm sure, since there's a whole lot of people in America and even back in 2000 that were over the age of 65, there's gotta be a lot of people doing this. Well, there were. There was hardly anyone doing it, and there was really just one other attorney in Arkansas that I could call and I tried that and that didn't work very well. He was not sharing information, and so I've figured this out by myself. Yeah, I went to NALA courses, but, yeah, one topic on this or one hour on this one topic does not make you the expert in elder law. And so I. I did all the courses that I could, but I just buckled down and I've studied the state policy, the federal law, and I did it.

Speaker 2:

I made a ton of mistakes, okay, missed a lot of things, misread a lot of things, misunderstood a whole lot of things, and it literally took me five years to to figure this out, okay, to figure out the law, how it applies to facts, and then to know it well enough to teach it. And so, through a lot of things in my career, I've still practiced law, and I think that is one thing that separates me as a coach from a lot of the other coaching programs is I still practice law. I still see clients on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Wednesdays are my coaching days and I love what I do on all four days. Okay, I love to see clients, but I really love to do coaching and I think a lot of the elder law coaching programs are just programs out there, are taught by people who either have never done elder law or it's been a long time since they've practiced law. I still do it. I'm still dealing with the very same problems that my coaching clients are dealing with and that keeps me on top of my game and able to not just explain it and help you learn it, but also deal with it and take my circumstances, my client cases, and give them to you to say it. And take my circumstances, my client cases, and give them to you to say, hey, here's how we solve this problem and it's just been tremendously successful.

Speaker 2:

But back to the beginning. It took me five years five years of a lot of mistakes, a lot of study to become, I think, what was an adequate elder law attorney. I became certified about six years after I've started this and so I then took that. And during COVID and different situations, I was invited to teach a lot of these courses, for these companies to come in for the weekend and teach Medicaid and the people would get the information. They're like I got it, okay, good, they would go home. And the first case that walked in the door, they're like wait, I don't have this. I don't understand how these facts apply to the law and I don't know how I can get the law to solve this problem. And so they were calling me saying, hey, todd, and I was like I'll be glad to help you, but this company did not pay me to do follow up. I, you know they pay me to go teach and I'll do what I can, but I'm still practicing law and this is taking up a whole lot of my time. And then I think a few of them were like if you charge for this, you know to set aside time, knowing that you're going to get paid for this. I would pay that. And I was like huh, maybe this is a good business deal. And that's when I started, particularly during COVID. A lot of things were different. But I thought you know I can do a coaching program and with my experience I am a certified elder law attorney. I also have my LLM in elder law. I mean, I think I've done just about everything I can do, plus 26 years of experience in elder law, I kind of know what I'm doing and so I take this and give it to people and teach them how to be a good elder law attorney. Now I say, look, if you'll join coaching, it's a monthly program where if you'll sign on for a year, it is $1,500 per month.

Speaker 2:

Okay, you get all of my videos. I've done all the videos on Medicaid, estate planning, office management, everything. And I've done it in single topic videos where each topic is somewhere between five and maybe 20 minutes. Okay, so that you can jump into the videos. I do recommend, the first time that you go through it, go start to finish, because it builds on each other and it's how we think through these cases. But then, once you've been through it a time or two and it's how we think through these cases but then, once you've been through it a time or two and you just need a refresher, you can go directly back to that one video, like on community spouse resource allowance what is that? How does that fit? You can go to that video, watch it. It's like oh yeah, got it and carry on. You don't have to wait through you know six hours of videos. You can go straight to that topic.

Speaker 2:

I give you every document that I use in my office. Okay, every form, every checklist, every contract, slide decks, marketing materials, anything that I use in my office. You can get that also, and, trust me, over 26 years I've done it and redone it and redone it, and redone it to where it's not perfect, but it's pretty good, okay. And then we do phone calls, and I think the phone calls are what coaching clients have told me. That is what is what is different than everything else and it's worth the price of coaching on its own.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and so you get four 30 minute phone calls each month with me. Okay, I will talk to you, I will go through your fact patterns, I will go through the slides, I will. Whatever that you need from me, I am there for you for two hours every single month, okay, and so by doing that, I can't take everyone. I do have a limited enrollment so that I can spend the time with you, and a lot of times it's not just that 30-minute phone call. If you send me fax beforehand, I'll probably spend another 30 minutes going through the fax, looking at this, comparing things, looking up your state policy. Yes, I'm a nerd. I will go through your state policy and figure this out for you and help you do this.

Speaker 2:

But I absolutely love what I do and so generally, after a year OK, in my slogan for the traditional coaching, what I just talked about for a year, if you give me a year, I'll make you a pretty good elder law attorney. Ok, but it truly does take a year because I only have two hours. I'll go over two hours of phone calls if you need me, but you're busy, you're doing things and it. I have just learned over the last probably almost six years that it takes time. Okay, it takes a year to do that. And then recently I got to thinking and people had said, todd, I want to jump into this and I want to go hard at it and I want to learn this thing very quickly. And that got me thinking. I thought you know, I've, I've got the coaching down where I've got it figured out and I can make it super concentrated and I can make it so that if you'll go through all the videos, if you'll go through the um, the fact patterns, if you'll go through everything that I give you, you can do this very quickly.

Speaker 2:

Now, under the traditional coaching, people don't do that. They, they don't take the time to go through it. And so what was nice about two weeks ago, when I had all of the coaching people into Bentonville? We, we almost locked them into a room and I stood in front of them for, I think, 10 hours each day and basically made them pay attention and made them go through this. And they said, todd, this was excellent because I was away from the office, I was away from home and all I did this weekend was elder law. And even though I've been in your coaching program and there's a after one year program that you can join, and some people have been with me for years they know their stuff I think two of them are about to become certified law attorneys, they know it they just still wanted me to be on board with them. So some of those people have been with me for three, four or five years and they said, todd, this was excellent to just sit down and just concentrate in a room and get this stuff basically force fed to me to make me concentrate. And I was like good. And so that's what transformation summit is.

Speaker 2:

It is one weekend it's Thursday, it's Friday, it's Saturday and half a day, sunday of intense sitting in a room and figuring this out. Okay, you get everything that I have, and I'll. And for the transformation summit, I am paying for everything. Okay, I will pay for your hotel while you're here, for your food while you're here, for the marketing while you're for here, and for six months afterwards I have, I think, cracked the code on the website and social media marketing to get people to come into your office. I finally, with some help from some really smart guys to figure this out and to do this, and I will get you in to that program. It is literally everything that you need to transform your practice from not doing elder law to being really good in elder law.

Speaker 2:

So it's the weekend and I know from experience the weekend doesn't solve all the problems it's six months after the weekend. We do phone calls, we do monthly group meetings. I do my phone calls with you independently. We get you up and going and you go and you would definitely make all of your money back within those six months and I'm saying that you'll even double it. And if you don't double your money in those six months, I will stick on another three months with you and probably even come to your place to figure out what's going on.

Speaker 2:

Why have you not made your money? I want you to be successful. I think this is the best job in the world. I absolutely love what I do and I love helping people get into this and learn this and do this extremely well. So I encourage you either. If you want to take a year and do it, that's fine, I would love to see you for that. If you want to take a year and do it, that's fine, I would love to see you for that and we can get you signed up for monthly coaching traditional coaching, as I call it. But if you're ready to absolutely transform your practice quickly, effectively, and just get in there and knock it out and start helping people and doing a great job and loving your professional life, I encourage you. Call the office.

Speaker 2:

Let's talk about the Transformation Summit. Okay, it is in February of 2026. It's in Bentonville, arkansas. If you've never been to Bentonville, arkansas, it's beautiful Maybe not so much in February, but it doesn't get super cold here, and so I think that's a great time. There's not a whole lot else going on. Take a weekend, come spend Thursday, friday, saturday, sunday with me and I will get you into elder law to do the best job in the world and truly make a difference in clients' lives, but also make a difference in your life, all right, so please go to the website, the elder law coachcom, call the office the number will be on the screen to call. Let's talk. Okay, talk to me, I will talk to you. I'll explain everything to you, but I want to help you do the best job in the world and um truly make a difference. Okay, thank you, and I'll see you next time.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining this episode of the Elder Law Coach Podcast. For those eager to take their elder law practice to new heights and are interested in Todd's acclaimed coaching program, visit wwwtheelderlawcoachcom. With Todd Whatley by your side, the journey to becoming an elder law authority has never been more achievable. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing and stay passionate about elder law.