The Lawman's Lounge

Leading with a Purpose: Leo, Author, and Thought Leader in Personal Injury with Christopher Earley

This week on The Lawman’s Lounge, Christopher Earley joins us to talk about how being vulnerable changed the game for him. 🎙️✨

From a simple Instagram post shared from a grungy hotel room 🏨 to an outpouring of love, support, and connection—Chris learned firsthand how sharing your story can spark incredible growth. 💬❤️

His takeaway? When you own your story, you inspire others and open doors to success you never imagined. 🚀

Catch this inspiring episode that shows the strength in authenticity and the power of storytelling. 💯

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-lawman-s-lounge--4267400/support.

Duration:: 44m
Broadcast on:: 31 Dec 2024
Audio Format:: other

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But it could be an emotional show for us. Yeah. Wow, it really could. What happens if we start crying? And like our guest doesn't know what the fuck's going on. It would be sad. It would be sad for who? It would be just us, right? No one else is going to care. Yeah. That's true. Although we have a good listenership. That's true. Our next guest is a guy that I've seen through the conferences. And I just always like, you have to start reading his LinkedIn posts, Ashley. I'm not on LinkedIn much. I really feel like for a long time it didn't feel like it fit me. But there were some other guys that were on it. And I think this next guest, he doesn't know this, but I started reading his stuff. And I'm not religiously reading it. And then I said, do you know what I need to post? Put some stuff up. Because he's authentic and he talks about real stuff and really, really utilizes the platform. And I was really amazed how he grew his audience. I actually saw him grow his audience from the beginning. You didn't know this, Chris. But I actually watched you as you started getting more and more likes and comments. And they're from real users, they're not from LinkedIn bots. And he's just a wonderful guy. Like I just, you can feel the warmth about him just from LinkedIn, which is pretty amazing. And it feels authentic and warm and caring. And I've had a couple of interactions with him at conferences and masterminds and he's the same way. So he just never, like we should have had him on earlier, like, I say that about everybody. Not everybody. That's true. Yeah. People season one or season two, I didn't say that. No, that's true. Because they were early. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, you're actual friends and people that use, you know, surround yourself with in your circles. Yeah. And there's too many of them to get them all on in the first season. Yeah, that's true. We're doing season five now. I know. We're going to get emotional about it. We're not even going to get to this next thing in a long journey. I know. Well, I feel like this is the first time that I haven't even made fun of you. Yeah. Don't let it stop now. Yeah. I mean, your shirt looks really good. You look fit in the shirt. I mean, yeah, yeah, did you get that out of your wife's closet? Actually, you know what's funny about this shirt? I had this shirt in high school. Okay. That's impressive. That's impressive, right? Yeah. I had this shirt in high school. I remember wearing it my junior senior year of high school. I've kept it this whole time. Dude, that's impressive. Are you still in the same suit? Are you still in the same pant size too? No. Like you grew, you shrunk. I grew. Like what's your waist size? My waist size in high school. I was 135 pounds on high school. 135 pounds? I'm 185 right now. Oh, okay. Yeah. You're still the same shirt size. Yeah. I guess so. Well, back then in high school, I was so skinny. I was always covering. I went to like, we're baggy or stuff. Oh, you were like goth before it became popular. Almost. And then now all the. Okay. Yeah. Bob, dude, that's that's pretty cool. I don't know. We're talking 23 years. This shirt is. That's impressive. And it looks brand new. Actually. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you look good. Thank you. Let's talk about your wardrobe now. Yeah. My wardrobe. I looked like I'm kind of like a disco king, but I don't know what I am, especially that the whole colors messed up. Go ahead. Take a shot at me. No. No, no, do it now. Get it over with before you get our guests on. Yeah. You look good. Okay. Good. Cause my wife picked it out and she mixed the patterns and I was like, that's a mixture of patterns. A lot of shit going on. Yeah. But like I gave out a scholarship this morning and when you give out money, no one gives a shit what you look like. So anyway, our next guest is Chris Early. Hi, Chris. Hey guys. How you doing? Good. Glad you came on our show and, you know, you gave us your bio, but your, what that wasn't the most interesting thing is that you gave us kind of a statement about your life. And I thought that was really cool got to really get to know you. I knew some of that stuff about you, but you really condensed it. So tell our audience a little bit about who you are and, you know, I got you on the show to talk about LinkedIn and other things. But tell us a little bit about yourself, dude. I appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me on. And going in to know you, I've enjoyed it here in your podcast. So I'm really excited to be on. So I'm Chris Early, my personal injury attorney in Boston, first of all, some husband and father. So my focus is really on my family and then, you know, work second. So I try to really run the business so I could have the best life possible with my family that I don't miss stuff. So I'm involved in a very rapidly scale. I'm rapidly scaling my firm here in Boston, taking all the punches that go with that. And so just really going through a real serious growth phase of business transformation and personal transformation. That's why, like you, you know, go to those masterminds to level up, grow and just 48, just trying to get a little more things figured out, you know, dealing with stuff and figuring stuff out, growing. How long have you been a lawyer? 20 years. Wow. So you're at that 20 year mark and what you do personal injury, what is the size of your firm now? 18 people right now, we really started scaling the pandemic. So I think we're 18 as of right now. And how many lawyers? Yeah, three lawyers total, three lawyers. Yeah. And higher. And you're still practicing? Yes. Trying to phase away more than CEO stuff. But I'm still stuck in a few some cases here and there, but trying to disentangle from how as much as possible, kind of, you know, focus on running the business, growing the business, scaling. Yeah. So when I read your story, I was impressed by some of the things he talked about. He's written six books, I think. But one of the things that connected with me was his father. And his father was a very, very successful man who lost everything because of alcoholism. Can you tell us a little bit about that story? Because I feel like that will resonate and it's part of your story. And, you know, even when, yeah, I'd like to hear a little bit about that. So just seven back. I take my three years ago, I started just be a little more open on social open with my team. Even more about my family and that I was dealing in my thirties and early forties with anger issues. Like I was a really angry lawyer. A lot of people think I'm like chill and relax like, no, I have had a lot of turmoil in my life. That stems from, you know, stuff that happened decades ago. I'd really had to work around stuff and you Bob, I started meditating journaling, you know, really working on my, on my head space. You and I had a conversation and I said, you know, I can, I tend to catastrophize things. And that's just like who I am. And so the law is a really good profession for some of the catastrophizes things because we're trained to worry about everything and actually all the time. So that was not doing any favors. So a few years ago, I started to really work on mental health. And then what happened was my business really went up. That kind of like was no longer the lid on the growth of the firm. So I started to work on mental health stuff, the meditation journaling, reading, you know, doing stoicism, really trying to find deeper meaning as opposed to just being an attorney and a really deeper life. That's kind of what I've been peeking out on hard core and like I find build the more I'm open and honest, the more my career grows, the more my life gets better. So I found something that kind of works for me being authentic because for many years, I was just sort of very cagey. I wouldn't share this stuff with you. I would never come on your pot against and talk about vulnerabilities, you know, but now it's like, shit, why not, like get a short turn here on this earth. So let's just be real and upfront and I've embraced that really good things have developed. I've seen so feel good about that. Yeah. So I mean, I want to talk about what it was like though, because I think the measure of you is made up with obviously of every human being's made up with different parts. Tell me that journey a little bit about how you grew up, where you were living, what you were accustomed to, and then what happened as a result of your parents and how that really struck a tone for maybe the rest of your life. So it's born to a very unstable, dysfunctional household and family. There was the addiction, my father was a very, very bad alcoholic. He became homeless and I just finished my memoir. It's called Scaling the Wall and it's about getting over. So what I had to get over this wall was sort of being a healthy, well adjusted adult in the face of all this weight that I was carrying from heavy childhood stuff. And my father just sort of abandoned, you know, the family because he was a hardcore alcoholic. He was like, he almost was hopeless. He was that far gone. How old were you at the time, like seven, eight, seven, eight years old? Where were you living at that point before he abandoned the family? A nice New Jersey suburb. And then he became, he went to the streets of New York City, literally like on the, he was in a skyscraper, entrepreneur. That business went on to create a stream well for the people who took over the business that he didn't get to be a part of, that he himself started. And so I saw this loss, I saw this tragic loss and that was just sort of my normal and that just gave me a chip my shoulder, maybe very angry and prone to fights in school. And I was, I believe on a path to being a serious loser in life. Well, you, did you, did you lose your house or did you go into another neighborhood or how did that? Yes. Yeah, really good question. So we had a nice house. My mom was a state of her mother and the bills, the IRS was knocking. Like there were literally, there was no money coming in and the mortgage wasn't getting paid. So we had to move in with my mother's parents, my grandparents, which is about 15 minutes across the border in New York state. And so we just, I'm sure that was very humbling for my mom. I think I'm like eight at that point, it's 1983, I'm seven, eight years old. So I moved in with the grandparents and then they would pass away a few years later. And then my mom was angry because she was pissed about what happened. How old was she late 40s, probably my age now like 48. So when this all happened and your dad sunk low, your mom, so I told you I'm going to get deep, dude. It wouldn't be authentic. We're going to get authentic. So hit me. Yeah. So like I'm just trying to, I just, because I think the lessons are in these stories that I don't, I want to leave time for LinkedIn. But if your mom was 48 at the time, your dad was roughly how old, same age, 47. So you were living in a nice neighborhood in New Jersey, nice suburb. Your dad had some money. You were probably in a decent school. Then you had to move to your mother's house at the age of 48. You said the word humbling up that probably damn right. That was humbling for her. Did you have siblings when you moved into this house? Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're about 15 years older than me. So they were in their early twenties, you know, adjusting the best they could with their father crumbling for the world to see, you know, they would visit him in Manhattan and see him literally on the streets. So I was younger. And so we had different experiences, unique experiences, relative to our age at the time. What was the neighborhood you moved into? We were in an old to pan, New Jersey, and we moved to Pearl River, New York, a suburb like 35 minutes west of Manhattan, just put on the map. And my mom would take me in to see him. My father, you know, he was, you know, taught, he was living in a car. Then he lost the car. Just like shambles, we actually don't know what happened. And I share this not, you know, opity meat, but no, that's actually, I look at like almost like a blessing was you can look at adversity and decide, what am I going to do with that? But for me, it was like, all right, shit, that's what happened. What are you going to do with it? So I have two kids and a wife, like, am I going to, am I going to sink my own life because of the shit that I had to do with as a kid? No, I'm going to like, I got to figure shit out. And so I think my mom pressed the right buttons for like, turn the right dial. So I had to fail and become a screw up. So very dead to her, but she imprinted on me like a lot of anger. Yeah, I was just thinking, do you think she took you to see him not because he was your father, but she almost wanted to make a point like, this is what your dad did to us. And so I'm going to let you see how far your father sunk or was it because of her own anger that she felt justifiably so because I mean, but what you say, she imprinted a lot of anger on you. Do you remember the exchanges when she brought you down to see your dad at his lowest point? She said she didn't want to shelter me from the real world. She said, I want to, even though you're a child, I want you to see reality. So I think it was like, toughen me up. This is a mini meditation guided by Bombus. Repeat after me. I'm comfy. Comfy. I'm cozy. I have zero blisters on my toes, blisters, and that's because I wear Bombus. The softest sucks underwear and t-shirts that give back. One purchased equals one donated. Now go to bombus.com/addlarge and use code "addlarge" for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash "addlarge" and use code "addlarge" at checkout. And just going to New York and this is New York in the 80s. It was not this New York of today, crack graffiti ravaging the city. It was just a different, different metropolis than it is now. So he was literally on those streets and I don't know why she went to bring me there. She claimed it was to sort of, you know, show me reality. But like, that stuff, you know, happened for a reason. I guess that was part of the deal. But I flip it now where I'm the dad that I wasn't, that I didn't have, the spouse that my father wasn't for my mom. So it's almost like flipping the script a little bit. But I'll let that to my mom to help me get through that stuff. But like, this is to me, the point of like why I'm here is to be a dad and to be a present dad who doesn't miss stuff. So I look at the business bill as it means to an end to facilitate being the dad husband home that I didn't get to witness. Does that make sense? Oh, it makes a lot of sense. I think a lot of us try to make up for the sins of our fathers and I came to peace of my own father. He wasn't definitely, he's definitely not the worst dad in the world, but he definitely had major issues and I feel like I tried to be better than him. But you know, as you get older, I will say, I'm 10 years older than you, you know, is your father still alive, for example? No, he passed away in the late, late 80s. We actually don't know what happened. He just disappeared on the face of the earth. Yeah, so that's tough. I came to a different reckoning with my father in my late 30s, then in my late 40s. And now my late 50s, I had a recent conversation with him and it's not about getting stuff off my chest anymore. It's about understanding him more and understanding what he went through and more of an acceptance of him. But I do think that there's two ways to go. You could repeat the sins of your father with your children or you can be present. You got to be careful though, Chris, because sometimes even the sins of the father, you know, when they're not fully worked out, you might, you know, even as you're evolving and growing, they kind of sneak up on you at certain stages of your 100%. Yeah. And it's just, you know, you always got to be kind of aware of stuff. Do you drink by the way or no? Very occasionally. So the weird thing is like I don't have that genetic predisposition, that inclination. So I can have like a couple of beers. I don't need to have like 80, you know? Yeah. And my wife comes from a similar background, her father was an alcoholic. We honestly, but we worry about our kids. So my wife and I have this lineage, we worry about our kids. We can't control what's going to happen. So we're trying to pour into them, but we don't know their genetic propensity. So I guess we find out. How old is that? That's what was 12 and 8, 9, 12 and 9. So it's just shit I worry about sometimes, you know, but it is what it is, you know? Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I have a very good friend in town who's a major partner to big law firm and, you know, very, very faith-based, a lot of things and a lot of his stuff was challenged, had an alcoholic father. His wife had also an alcoholic father and they were worried about the same thing. They were good, but they were very, very tight and strong on their kids. And just as a, not going to say this happens to you, but when they started having issues with one of their teenage sons, you know, it was like, it was no, no, no, and I'm not saying you were doing any of this, but you're just very rigid because of the fear of what happened to their father and it really pushed the kid completely the other way. And he reached out to me because I was the opposite. I didn't have genetic predisposition for anything and, you know, I played around with all kinds of stuff when I was younger, but never got addicted to any of that. But like I kind of gave my sons the opposite leeway. But, you know, there's always issues with that. And so we went through that and I just, it's interesting to me. It's just because you, you know, at eight years old, dude, you know, to see your mom because the biggest thing for you is probably is to see your mother become so angry because your dad wasn't present, but your mom was still there for you. Did she ever release the anger and meet anyone else or no? No, very angry, very angry. My wife thinks it's my mother and not my father that really kind of brought me, gave me extra weight in a funny thing. Yeah. Bingo. And I can't, you know, my mom listens to my podcast. I love your mom. She worked three different jobs. She got us through and she definitely showed me about unconditional love. But, you know, I mean, it is funny because your dad, your dad did some things and rightfully your mom had those feelings. It's just how does your mom resolve that to move on because for yourself too, it's the same thing when your children and when people do you wrong, how do you deal with that? Because, you know, I'm very fortunate that my mother is a very loving person and forgiving and everything. But there was a time right after my dad left, it was tough. So interesting, the weight of your shoulder. So it's just not the dad, but the mom, but it kind of makes me understand a little bit about how I can understand that you're not this always friendly guy and you have your demons, but I do see the authenticity and the kindness that you give to people and new people and the way you want to help people. And that also stems probably from your experience with your father and your mother too, actually, you know, the opportunity that you are pouring into your children, you're now pouring into other people. So I kind of get that more. Tell us a little bit about like, you know, we can talk about your practice. It's great scale to 18 people in 20 years and you've got three lawyers and you're doing the work. But, but I'd like to know about you and as your professional life and how you got so much into LinkedIn and why that was the vehicle you chose and why you share what you share and what your end goal is with that. Because you definitely say some of the most really, really deep things on LinkedIn and deeper than most people that I see on there. I appreciate and just one, just want to make one comment, a lot of people listen to your show entrepreneurs, they, a lot of entrepreneurs, you know, John Morgan, John Morgan was the first guest of my podcast and we got deep into his traumatic upbringing. A lot of entrepreneurs grew up around some element of turbulence or dysfunction. It's this funny thing. It's not funny, but sort of ironic like when, when people get through hardship like that, they can weather harder things in life. So it's almost like that's, that should toughen you up in a way, but the more and more I get a job entrepreneurial life, I see there's so many people just like me who have had to get over something, right? Much, many, much worse than me, you know, 10 times worse than me, yet they still succeed. So I think that's really interesting. I just want to share that. Oh, yeah. I don't want to digress from that, but then you're also a young father. You have a 12 and nine year old and it always begs the question of like, how though your children are going to have some type of, you don't want to be an alcoholic, obviously, and you don't want to give pain to them, but how are they going to build those tools? What pain are they going to feel? What failures are they going to endure? What setbacks are they going to have to resolve in order for them to figure it out on their own? They'd be thought about that. That's the hardest thing. That's the hardest thing is to not coddle them, right? I mean, kids need to be protected, but not too much protection have to be exposed to some reality, right? So my wife and I try to do that, we talk about shape, we don't have secrets. We were open, but my kids are seeing me go through the battles of scaling a law firm, which, I didn't want to listen to this understand that pain, that struggle, that uncertainty, the turbulence. So seeing dad get over and seeing dad, like I said, he'll write in a book so they can see my story and just showing them that you can do big things as long as you're brave and then you go for it, but just want to answer your question. So what happened was I went to a conference a few years ago, and the speaker got up on stage and he said, he said he started sharing his story, right? I was like, okay, that sounds interesting. I'll have to give it a try. So that night my hotel room with this grungy, this grungy hotel room, I just put my story up on Instagram and the reaction in the morning when I was in the airport, you know, checking out my social. It was like blowing the F off people like I had no idea about your story, I didn't know about that. I was like, huh, it was created. My wife, you know, I was like crying, reading the comments because it was so genuine that the response, I had never revealed that. It was like a big secret. So I share that because that got me sharing more with my team and like success started coming away because I was like just being myself and I just pissed off lawyer, I started to fight with you and needle you into an argument. So being real and then I just sort of just went to LinkedIn and that's like natural for me on LinkedIn because it's just like I'm going through a tough time of like always being challenged by the biz. It's very rewarding, but it's hard as hell, right? And so just sharing on LinkedIn, I think a lot of people, they, they're born, especially in this legal professional boring, there's too much boring news and I try to just like stand out and like take a position, you value and try to share stuff because my story is legit. So I feel like I have a little bit of street card like I can talk about getting over some things and not be a fraud, right? Not be a charlatan about it. So I think that's my voice, lean into that. And I do, I post every day I have for like three years, sometimes twice a day and it's created so many opportunities, it keeps, it helps you and I stay in touch, right? It creates podcasts opportunities, it creates referrals, but it's my, my voice like I do see bill lawyers out there on LinkedIn, they're not, they're, they're being someone else and that doesn't resonate. Like people don't want to hear how great you are, amazing, you know, reviews are the one here like how are you struggling, how are you having a hard time? What do you do to, what do you do about it? How do you, how do you have a, what do you do to have a better life? And that's, that's the shit I share and I, you know, no authority, but I just share what I'm authority on, which is my life and just like getting over shit. Are you also on Instagram or Facebook? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I just wondering, so what is it that LinkedIn has for you that's missing from like Instagram? Is it the genuineness of the connections that you're finding more on LinkedIn? Why did it blow up on LinkedIn and do you feel like you could have shared that on Instagram or Facebook and it would have had no effect? I think so. You're talking about like, so LinkedIn is really B2B primarily, where is Instagram sort of because B2C arguably right, but Instagram, right? I mean, it started off as like a photo platform, right? We're just, right. And it kind of still has that same, it hasn't lost it, right? It's original meaning, like you share photos. This is like what, this is my life. This is what I did today. This is where I'm eating at. This is my food, right? It still has its same luster that it originally started with. I want to see, because you can be genuine and authentic on Instagram, but we're talking LinkedIn and how LinkedIn has connected you to other professionals, right? Yeah, Mike, I'm wondering, could you have done that on Instagram? And I'm thinking in my head, it might not have had the same effect. Probably not. No, I think you're right. I think it's a different room that you're a different audience that you're talking to in the LinkedIn room, right? Professionals. It's such a blue ocean. I see more more lawyers coming on, which is good, but like a lot of lawyers, again, are born. Guys like Ryan McKee and they understand the platform and they inspired me, you know, to post, but you got to do the reps. Like you have to do the work that the other guys to ways to do. That's my philosophy with business. Like do the work that no one very few will do every day, day in, day out. And so yeah, what is the work and I know the answer, but what is the work that you have to do? Great content, you know, like under like, okay, shit, the wild drive. I don't know what I'm going to talk about today. We'll go for a walk, you know, and take a picture and get some inspiration. I think that's the people who want, LinkedIn is inspiration, encouragement, especially the younger audience who's coming up and they're maybe just getting into law school, the Red Law School, they're deep in the shit. And they want to reach out to like, I put it out there, like, Hey, reach out and call me. I'd love to, you know, connect the hook up and, you know, talk about the thimble full of knowledge that I have, but I'll share some stuff with you like relationship. That's what social is, I think, is relationship building. There's no selling. A lot of lawyers that pound their chest, it's like, that one cares, and I'm going to just ignore you. The algorithm is going to suppress your content. And you're not doing sales, navigate or any of that stuff, are you? No, I don't do. I just learned about that at our recent meeting in D.C., I never heard of it, to be honest with you. How about you? Yeah, no, I don't really spend much time on LinkedIn. I think, you know, the, you see, because you've commented on some of my posts, it's funny. I'm just like here Monday, then on Thursday, Saturday, I'm much more on Instagram. And one of the reasons why Jeff may have asked you that question is like, I put some emotional content on Instagram and I do get feedback from it. But I do think, you know, I've toy around with the idea of bringing that authenticity truly to Instagram on a more daily basis, but you also have to, there's other work you have to do. And that's, I think, the issue, and we'll get to that. Some of the practical stuff is not only developing the content, but you also have to like read, comment on other people's content. And that's, to me, that's even the harder work is that you've got to look at other people's stuff, because you got to, you know, a relationship takes to you got to, you got to give to get, right? And you know, I find that, I think for me, it's hard because if I see your stuff or Tom Tony stuff, I can, and I'm not on it every day, I'll go, yeah, I like his stuff, but there's probably other individuals and I'm not, you know, looking at their stuff or asking them to follow me or making friend requests or LinkedIn requests. I'm not doing any of that. So, you know, I think that's a question, like for our audience, what time are you posting in the morning? What time are you posting in the afternoon? And how much time do you spend on LinkedIn, other than the writing piece? Yeah, great question. So I just want to, I'm going to answer that, but just a lot of people look at it like vanity, like how many likes did I get? How many shares did I get? Well, like frankly, you can't deposit that in the bank and help your family out with those things. So it's like, I'm playing a kind of a different approach here is like relationships, just like the money's going to come. You know that though, right? You foster. That's what this show is about authentic relationships, connections. It's going to come inevitably, but if people focus on vanity stuff, you know, they only got like five legs like screw that, like keep posting, give value and you're going to some big doors going to be, you know, opened up for you, I guarantee you. So I want to stop people at that because they hear this all the time about vanity numbers. So that's, that's the easy thing that Chris said. But what he additionally said is the goal that we just want to make sure I'm sorry to interrupt you. But the goal that you just said is you never, if you keep doing the content, it could just take that one person that's responding to you that can open that door and that has happened time and time again, a friend of mine that you know, Tom, same thing, not a tremendous and number of likes, but there's that one guy because his content's amazing. He's very authentic and resonated and they did business. And I think that that's key for you listeners out there is that if you're going to spend the time, you got to give, but don't worry about whether that post is designed to get a ton of content. Just keep posting and you'll start noticing that the people that like you start following you. And if it's only a tribe of three, it could be a tribe of three and that, that third person could say, Hey, look at my friend Bill and could be that fourth person who is opening a door to you that you never knew existed because you were giving, giving, giving, giving. And, and I guess here's a question I have to ask you though, when people are worried about vanity numbers, it's not just for personal, they sometimes think that if there's only a post that's not well liked or well viewed, then who influential is going to be looking at that or they'll cross over that not even pay attention because that vanity number is low. How would you address that? The algorithm rewards effort, so you have to keep posting. It will, it will, I call it just traction, you're going to get more traction. Your muscles will get stronger with more reps, right? People know, you know, you'll find your voice and I think you need to, like, my voice is real, real clear. Like I'm just a dude struggling and I'm trying to figure shit out just like, you know, just like all of us. And I, but I'm authentic and I don't like hide away from who I am anyway, but just back to question from Indigo. So six 30 in the morning, oftentimes I batch posts. So again, it's been a few years of never missing and sometimes usually, occasionally it's two posts a day, but usually on Sundays I'll pre, pre-schedule, right, all the, all the content because I believe in ideation and just, you know, batching things, not just like, because then shit doesn't get done. You're going to forget about Thursday. It's not going to get done. You'll get distracted. So six 30 in the morning posting, that's just sort of a sweet spot for me that I find. That's a lot of people when they first crack open the app in the morning. So I want to share it. So one post kind of broke it from your talk about opportunities happening and I can't tell you many referrals, you know, good, I just got a big monster case referred in, you know, actually I just have another case yesterday from like then. And so one post I, and I share this because you have to be authentic and share your voice. I shared my voice and how I came out of law so I couldn't get a job. I just was struggling. I couldn't get a job. And I sort of kept fighting and fighting and that post hit a quarter of a million people is like over 3000 engagements, 50 shares, like it went viral and that, but that took time like to like stoke the fire, like, does that have my family like pay the mortgage? Like, no, but it's like these compounding things, you know, maybe, you know, just opportunities happen. I find right. So do the work, do the reps, but like honestly, like I do have a unique story. So like I talk about that and like you got to talk about what's unique to you in your life. There's something unique about all of us. You have to really lean into that, but it's cathartics. I talk about shit. Right. So it's like coming out like a real deal book, you know, Neil Goldstein, yes, New York. Yes. Yeah, we're very good friends. He's on a podcast. Yeah. And he's a very good friend of mine. And I love his book. The way he got he wrote his memoir that inspired me to write my right. So he then he and I had lunch a very special lunch like these connections and we stay in touch on LinkedIn. So just, you know, my whole philosophy bill is try to be everywhere at all times because I have a family that's depending on me to bring it home, right? To bring home the, the bacon. So I might, I take that seriously. So kind of do as much activity. Encourage all the lawyers, you know, daily activity, create a lot of content, do reps. I feel like good things happen. A lot of us get lazy and sidetracked, work doesn't get done and then I'll try something else. It's not like give it a shot. Like LinkedIn, it will reward you. And if you're real and you keep showing up and you're social, it's a social platform. Let's interact with each other. Let's not be a shy and standoffish here. Let's see LinkedIn premium or just LinkedIn, regular LinkedIn. Premium. I don't know. I don't even know there's a real benefit. I think I pay 50, 60 bucks more. I started doing like a year ago. So I just keep paying. I don't know if it helps or not. Yeah. So I got it now. So LinkedIn is like, if we're going to make an analogy out of other social platforms, LinkedIn is like you're networking, right? You're going to go to networking, have like a beer, drinks, you know, it's all professional. You make those professional connections, right? Facebook, it's like a house party. Like you invite your friends, you, you know, your people, your friends, your close-knit group of friends show up to your house and you kind of party with them. And then there's Instagram where it's like EDC, you know, Chris doesn't know what EDC is. Electronic music festival. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're still in that world. Yeah. You're trying to my, you see, like, I spent, I spent house records and tech records, my man came. So. Okay. And so you should also, we should, and he's also a drummer. Yes. That's right. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Drummer band. Those are DJ. You know, not really. Not really. But he, you know, you could. We could have went to EDC. We could have. And that would have been good content. Yeah. That would have been good content. Yeah. Well, just, we didn't go. We have a baby on the way. There are some other law firms that went to see that. It sounds like you're jealous of that, but I did the right thing. I didn't want to go this year, you know, yeah, yeah, but I, you know, it's funny. I was thinking, Chris, like, what is your, I mean, your kids are 12 and nine. So you're really in the middle of it, like you got about like 10, 13 more years of like getting them through college and helping them. What do you, what is your plan? Like, do you want to go into coaching? Have you thought about that? I don't see you as a scaling guy, like trying to create a coaching program and see more of as a one on one guy. But like, have you been thinking about that or anything going in your mind about that? I do a little bit of that. I do a little bit of coaching because I actually enjoy it. And one person was like, dude, you're a coach like, like almost like, what do you think you are? It's like, instead of we're complicated, right? If you, you know, you can share value by value. But I think coaching is hard to scale because it requires you to do it unless I'm also doing it for you. So that space is going to be tough for me to do. You got to pick your spots. I feel like you only be so many places at one time, direct so much energy to one channel. I like the mastermind, you know, rooms and I know you do just geeking out on the stuff, reading books, trying to try to find a better way to figure stuff out. But Jeff, the way you just described those rooms is really spot on. That's a really good way to like break it down, right? Because like, you got to know what room you're on, or I'll show you, we're going to look at you like you're fulfilling and ignore you entirely. So no, and not just like social media, just know your audience, right? Like now you're talking to and sometimes lawyers can be kind of tone deaf and myself included, my wife will be the first one to tell you that about me. But like, yeah, okay, so you're in that LinkedIn room. So let's talk to the audience in a way that's helped for the audience. It's not like what I'm going to get out of this, it's like sharing stuff to you if you're on Instagram. Don't talk about how great of a lawyer you are, share like, you know, some resources, some educational resources, if you're trying to acquire cases, right on LinkedIn, I think the best way to do is provide value, share things, things to avoid or, you know, do give away. It's like, yeah, right? We're going to do, we're looking to do a turkey giveaway, some type of, you know, Thanksgiving giveaway, you know, giving away free stuff every month, we do a donation to a charity, we started doing that a couple months ago, hand-flip or check, just like, if you're trying to grow your business, I encourage you to be social in these social rooms to get outside, help the community, be a giver, be a giver everywhere you can, I think, good things to happen. I learned that later in life for sure. I was always a taker. So. Interesting. We can talk about that. You've been a taker versus a giver, but I do have a question for you. You've done a lot of self-work. How do you handle now when you have to deal, you say you're authentic, you're authentic self and that's easy a lot when you're now accustomed to sharing your story and getting open and giving. What about when things are tough? What about when someone pisses you off, either on a social platform or at work? But no, for the public to see, I'm sorry, work could be in a mastermind group, it could be at a conference. I know that really happens because people are trying to get something out of people, so they're on their best behavior. But have you recently come across a situation where, you know, darn it, you were just angry and then you had to like process that because to be authentic, you want to be authentic to yourself and let that person or, you know, know how you feel or express whatever discomfort, but still does that make sense? I mean, still keep maintain stoicism because being authentic is also dealing with people that you may not like or may say just whatever. Yeah. Yeah. It's like I have a PhD in anger, like serious anger, and so I had to work through it. Honestly, just, you know, listen to your question, meditation has been my thing that I kick out on me. For some people, it's yoga, journaling, whatever, like journaling and meditation every morning. That helps me not react to bullshit, you know, to someone trying to, because I would, I would have lost my bar card a long time ago, if I had to get my shit together, honestly, like, just always want to fight you. So now it's like, all right, you do you do meditate, do you guys meditate for now? I did in law schools where I learned, I even know what my mantra is. And I've, I've kind of gone back and forth with it, you know, transcendental meditation is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like I stopped doing it. You know, you mentioned journaling and I just, I got to tell you, like that's, that's a good one. I write a lot of poetry, but journaling might be good because then you come up with the ideas as it relates to your business and instead of getting on a, you know, like electronic medium, right stuff, and that can transfer into a medium, you know, so no, I got away from meditation. And yeah, I'm curious. What kind of meditation do you do? Because I am interested in that Jeff does tantric yoga. Yes. Yeah. Awesome. I'll ask you, since we're being recorded, that's obviously a joke that just, uh, can you can envision that though in his new shirt from high school? Yeah. But anyway, like very well, I do a, I do a brain dump personally. I, I pray, uh, in the mornings or tried to, most mornings have a little quiet time, but the thing that actually helps me as far as the stress the most is more of a, just a brain dump. I have to brain dump on paper. Like this is everything in my head and I have to put it on paper and it, it literally could be just anything from like house chores to like work to like personal life gym. I feel fat. I just brain dump everything on there. And then I'm like, okay, I got it out now it's on paper and I can look at it. That's how that's how I do it. Do you throw the piece of paper out? No, I keep it. I keep it. It's in a journal essentially. So I brain dump. If you look back, you go back and read it, review or not, uh, the, the day I do usually, but I don't go. I don't ever go back like, you know, a week ago or a few days ago and go back and kind of look at what that brain dump was. Typically, if it's not on my brain the next day, it wasn't too important to me to begin with. Honestly, or I, or I saw. Where do you do it? Like, do you have a young baby on the way you do it in your bed? Do you do it outside? No, I, I normally, if it's nice out and it's cooler, I'll do it outside on the patio. If not, it's usually going to be in my office or in the kitchen, something like that. But it's, it's not with people. It's just myself. Yeah. Yeah. I, I'm, I'm, you know, it's funny. I have three journal books in my nightstand and there's not one thing that's written. I did a gratitude journal, which I stayed with, but that became too formalistic. So I'm learning as I'm talking about to you, you know, there's something, you know, a discipline and just hit home with me, you know, I have a nice porch. Yeah. I can sit out and watch and I drink coffee in the morning or maybe breakfast would be the perfect time for me to do that. I tried to. It's not very long. It could be, sometimes it can be like, honestly, it could be five minutes. It can go up to a 30, but it's usually never over 30, but it, yeah, I mean, I just usually I'll pick a daily verse or something like that. I'll kind of meditate. I do a little, you know, meditate on that verse for a second pray and then here comes the brain dump, right? I love it. How about you, Chris? How long do you journal in the morning? Not long. I just write. So I meditate for 15 minutes. Just sit there in the dark, you know, for 45 in the morning, for my family gets up, just sit there for 15 minutes. And that's hard to sell because anyone in meditates, no, this is hard stuff. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a form of rigor. It's hard. And then just honestly, just a few minutes journal, I like to journal three things that went well yesterday. Right? Cause sometimes we get so distracted with like, Oh, I got this problem. It's like, actually like pretty freaking lucky dude here. And I got like, remember that myself and write stuff down. So just a little hack. I try myself and it's worked up pretty well. Three things that worked out well yesterday, cause you forget that stuff, right? That'll just like escape if you don't acknowledge that, write it down. So yeah, I, I, you know, I, I'm just excited. I'm such a free spirit. I try things. I'm disciplined and working out and some other things. But when it comes to that stuff, and I read multiple books at one time and then I never finish any of them, but I'm reading them. I read like five books at one time. I got, but I, I, I interesting with the journaling, I, I think that I got trapped with like a gratitude journal. For those of you that are a little bit like me, that are clusterfucks, you know, like, if you're, if you're, if you change your interest, you don't have to do your gratitude journal for a year, even if it says a year, and I bet there's a journal out there that has different journaling techniques like, Hey, we'll do for 30 days of gratitude. We'll do 30 days of what you did well. We'll do 30 days or whatever. I'm going to look for something like that. Cause I, uh, I love, that's great. Writing is, is really peaceful and it's funny. I learned about it. I didn't know that Jeff does a brain dump. I thought he just took a dump, but, uh, oh, that's a bad way to end the show. Isn't it? Wow. Yeah. That's literally going to be what our audience like remembers now. Yeah. Well, you know, that's okay. Way to go. Yeah. We've been on five years. We haven't kicked off yet. Anyway, uh, tell us, tell our listeners how we can get in touch with you, how they can get in touch with you and, uh, a little bit about, you know, best ways to contact you, bro. All my cell, I'd love to hear from you. Connects. We can hopefully, uh, help each other out some way, right? Sort of relationship. Who knows where it may lead, but reach out, please. My cell is Eric with six, one, seven, nine, five, six, two, five, oh, one again, six, one, seven, nine, five, six, two, five, oh, one. Follow me. Love to talk with you and chat share the shit. So I enjoyed having you on, uh, you can tell he's a very, uh, genuine kind person. Yeah. I'm just fearful, like, in two weeks when this airs, all your, you know, crazy listeners, he's going to end up having to change cell phone. Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. And our podcast is filled. We're going to be getting our lawyers and strippers. Yeah. I'm like, Hey, Chris, Hey, Chris, early to rise. Okay. That's, that's early. I'm sorry. We're going to keep that in, baby, because we're authentic. Well, thanks for listening. The law man wants to hear from you. So if you have any questions, give them a shout out, follow them on Instagram. That bill is the law man. You can also visit the website at www.thelawman.net and on YouTube at bill the law man, umansky. And they'll be placed there where you can ask questions. And if you have any questions about your business or anything, just hit them up and we'll try to get an answer to you. We try to bring the best advice that we possibly can. 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