Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign most firms survive. The best ones scale.
Welcome to the Managing Partners podcast, where law firm leaders learn to think bigger.
I'm Kevin. Daisy.
Let's jump in. Right, we are recording. Christy Hagan, welcome to the show.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Thanks for having me.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Thanks for being here. I appreciate you sharing what you have with me already. I'm excited to have the audience listen today. We got some cool stuff for you today. Chris has got a lot of interesting background and different approach to things, which I hope a lot of you will find interesting. I wanted to ask right off the bat, though, got younger attorneys or, you know, even attorneys that are looking to go start their own business, or maybe they're inside a firm right now. Maybe they're not sure if they want to do their own thing or not. From your lessons and things that you've learned, what's. What's a piece of advice you'd give them listening right now?
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the biggest piece of advice that I would have is that you don't have to wait until you have your own law firm to market yourself or to start thinking about having your own personal brand. You know, while you're even at a firm, you can be marketing yourself within a firm. And there's benefits to both yourself because you're making your presence known, you're making your expertise known. And there's a lot of benefit to a firm having someone like that because everyone wants to hire someone they know like and trust, and you become that person that's trustworthy and the person that people think of when they think of that law firm you're associated with. So I think that's something I definitely wish I knew sooner was the importance of having a personal brand.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: I love that. I mean, you know, we were talking a minute ago about a few folks that we know that have done that successfully. It's so true. I mean, any of my employees, even at my firm, it's like, you know, just establish yourself and stand out. You know, speak loudly and proudly. So whatever it is, you know, establish your own brand and don't be afraid or think that you have to own your own firm to be able to do that. We all have a personal brand, whether we like it or not.
So, you know, have influence on that and you tell the story of what you know you want people to think about you and know you for.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, if you think about social media, for example, I bet we could both name tons of attorneys we follow. I probably couldn't name one law firm that I follow because people hire the person not necessarily the firm. Right. So that's something big that went into the consideration of how important it is to have that on your own personal brand.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I have law firms all the time. Like, yeah, we need to have like our law firm LinkedIn page with like, no, you need to have the lawyers bought in and have a process and, and be individually building their own LinkedIn followings and content. And, you know, it might sound like undertaking what you mean every single lawyer.
You know, don't pick one if you want to have the face. But it has to be a person.
It cannot be the company brand in this case, you know, unless you're Nike or some big kind of apparel brand that's different. But at the end of the day, it comes down to a person they want to follow, listen, to, get advice from, and do business with. So, yeah, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. I love it. So, yeah, if you're in a firm right now and you're listening and you don't ever want to start your own firm, you know, I feel like this show still brings some value and you can be applying a lot of things, marketing, brand, social media, all that, just to your own personal brand. You'll just be that much more valuable within the firm you're at. And maybe building a firm or running your firm is not the way for you, maybe not the right path. And that's okay.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And another tip I'd have is thinking about what attracts you on social media and doing more of that. Because when I was practicing, when I had my own firm, I was constantly posting stuff about like, here's what to do if you're in a crash, and here's why this is so important. Crash, crash, crash. And then it's like, when I see that content, I skip right by it. But it's the content from lawyers who are golfing or out with their kids or doing funny things that I'm like, you know, I want more of that content. Because you can relate to that person and someone you can relate to becomes more trustworthy and you tend to feel like you really know that person. And so if or when you're in that time of need, that's the person you think about. It's not the salesy, call me, call me, call me, I'm the best attorney. It's the person who you can relate to and who seems most trustworthy.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with that. I think anything you're forcing in this content, you don't really care about yourself and you're not authentic. And it's it's not going to come across that way and people are not, they're just going to sniff it out. I know attorney Ryan. I've, I've talked with him before. He's got a huge following. And one of the things he was telling me was like, one tip he had was like, instead of him trying to be like, I want to be known as the, the car accident lawyer, like, he doesn't talk about that kind of stuff. He just wants to be known as your lawyer. And if they're not, if they don't have a case that's fit for him, he's, that's fine, he'll refer to someone el or whatever. But instead of trying to get too granular on like, well, what kind of law does he do? Well, I don't care. I just want them to know that I'm a lawyer and I'm trusted and bring your, bring your, your issue to me and then they'll, they'll get that to the right person and refer it out. But instead of trying to be like, well, I am just your car accident or you're just your truck lawyer and that's all you should ever think about. So, and the content gets really repetitive.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: So, yeah, I love that approach.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Well, without further ado, I wanted to have you introduce yourself. Christie's actually in, outside of Detroit in Michigan. And tell us about yourself quickly, your story and we're going to dive into as well here, folks how she started a multimillion dollar practice of her own. Tell about that story just a little bit, but also kind of what she's doing now and kind of that transition set she's made. So introduce yourself, tell us your background and we'll go from there. Today's episode is brought to you by Answering Legal. Now, I just switched my company Array Digital over to Answering Legal and it's made my life a whole lot easier. If I can't get to the phone, their 247 virtual receptionist take the call and take them through a full intake process so we never miss new business again. Now Answering Legal has been at this for more than a decade and they specialize in answering phone calls for law firms like yours. They even have a brand new, easy to use Apple and they integrate with all the top legal softwares and platforms. So from our listeners today, we actually have a special deal of a 400 minute free trial offer of Answering Legal services that you can try out by going to answeringlegal.com array. You can also call 631-437-4803 and use special code Daisy. That's my last name. D A I S E Y.
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[00:07:05] Speaker B: Yeah. So I am practicing in metro Detroit currently. I wasn't always in Michigan, even though I grew up here. I decided to move out to Colorado right after law school. I got an opportunity to intern with the Denver District Attorney's office.
And it was my last semester of law school. I was thinking, you know, I'll just go out here, do this semester long internship, see if I like it. But the plan was always to move back at some point because my whole family is in Michigan. But I didn't realize how much I was going to love Colorado, you know, Shocking. It was the most amazing place.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: That's awesome place.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: I got a ton of experience in the courtroom. So in your last semester of law school, you can practice actually in a courtroom under what's called the Certified Student Practice act in Colorado. So I was literally up there in the courtroom with a supervising attorney just sitting at the table and handling DUI cases. And it was the most bizarre experience and the most amazing experience because I got to get trial experience even before I was a lawyer. While it was an amazing experience, it was also something where I knew I didn't want to do criminal law long term. I always had a passion for doing the civil side and negligence law, in particular personal injury. But I did get a lot of good experience. Ultimately landed at a personal injury law firm in Colorado and was out there practicing for about 10 years. I was with a couple different firms, some of the larger firms in Denver. And then I met my husband out there. He's also from Michigan. Coincidentally, we found out we were pregnant and you know, we were like, okay, we can do this without any family. It'll be fine. We found out it was twins and we were like, oh, we should probably move back to Michigan.
You know, the family help would be. Would be nice.
So that's what we did. And you know, with this was all during COVID times, so it became really easy to practice remotely. I still practice remotely handling some Colorado cases, mostly Colorado trucking cases. It's my specialty area is truck accidents. But you know, it was.
That's when I also started my own firm. You know, we have twins at home. Luckily we had additional family support being in Michigan. But I decided to start a law firm because I wanted to see what it was like to do things with complete autonomy and had this whole vision of how I wanted to approach the practice of law and what Specific clients I wanted to serve, being truck accident and brain injured clients because that was really my specialty area. That's the specialization I really honed in on when I was at those larger firms practicing.
Got a lot of experience there and, you know, it was a really, really great opportunity and a really great thing to run a law firm. It's very challenging. I think I underestimated how much work it was. And you know, no one really prepares you for that in law school. Right. No one prepares you to be a business owner in law school. So took a lot of going to courses, reading books, hiring a coach. So lots of, lots of people to help, hiring a bunch of staff. And then also I built this up.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: I mean, over those couple years and exited that, that firm. So tell us a little bit more about.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: That kind of, you know, process, which, I mean was, we're in 2025 now, so that was not too long ago.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Not too long ago, no. So started the firm with zero clients. So, you know, quickly had to learn how to market myself and how to use my personal brand and what client, you know, how to really hone in on which clients I wanted to serve. And initially started out how I think a lot of personal injury solo attorneys start out, which is, you know, we'll take any and every personal injury case. Slip and fall, trip and fall, dog bite, car crash. Well, the problem is specific things are what people remember. When you're that general, it's not going to stand out in anyone's mind. So me saying I do personal injury just falls flat on anyone I'm talking to. And it wasn't until I started working with a coach and she said, you know, well, how do people know that you specialize in truck accident law? How do they know that you're the go to, what are you doing to market yourself as this truck accident expert? And I was like, well, honestly, not a whole lot, because I just say I'm a personal injury lawyer. And I know it seems counterintuitive, but it wasn't until I started telling people, you know, I handle truck accidents, that I started getting the truck accident cases.
Because it was the specific things that stuck in people's minds. So they hear truck, they think of me, they hear personal injury, they, you know, think of billboard attorneys and a million others and doesn't ever get to me. But once I really developed that niche area, that's when the practice really took off.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: It's funny how that works. You know, I tell the story all the time that, you know, we're niched into legal marketing. But we used to handle stuff for everybody. And it, it always seems so, like a bad move to niche. Like, well, we cut ourselves off from anyone else that needs marketing. And, you know, just the opposite happens, of course. But, yeah, I think, I think lawyers are afraid, like, well, but I could handle that case and I could maybe do some estate planning work. And I mean, I've. I've heard lawyers tell me all kinds of stuff, mostly clients like, well, why is this on your website? Well, this one time, you know, we got this one case and it went okay, so we just put it on our website. Well, no, that's confusing to Google, and it's confusing to AI and it's confusing to people that read your website. So when you can hone that in, that's. That's the way to go, right?
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: And I helped you establish yourself. You started getting leads.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, it's funny because the opposite also happens in the sense that people think of me as the truck accident attorney. Kind of going back to what you said about attorney Ryan. Now I'm their attorney and I'm getting all these referrals, and you still have people call you saying, hey, I know you do truck accidents, but do you also handle dog bites? Well, yes, I do. You know, because they just remember you as, you're their attorney. You're the attorney that they refer all their friends and family to. Now, that's how our business really took off and we developed that strong client base.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: I love that. And that, that does work that way, you know, because it happens to me too. And on the flip side, so I have, yeah, we're mostly known for doing marketing for firms that have a decent budget, couple thousand, five thousand a month or more. And I used to establish that really strongly. Like, hey, you know, we're looking for clients that can spend at least 5,000 or more on web and SEO. But then you. I still get a lot of going, hey, this is probably too small for you, but let me. Here's a referral. And sometimes it's a great fit, and we can take it. On the flip side, you know, I had a comp, I got a competitor that only does small and solo, like super small. But sometimes it's like you take them referrals, say, well, I got one that's a little bit bigger. It's not that they won't. They can't do that or they won't do that, but I, I think it, Most people think, hey, I know you, you want to do truck, and that's what you specialize in. But I had a friend that got in a car accident. Would you be able to take that on?
[00:13:36] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: So I think it puts you up here, and it. It still allows them to think about you for other cases. So you're not just pigeonholed into trucks only, which is interesting.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: That's super cool. Okay, so you've kind of niched down. You're building your firm, and, you know, I guess tell us what that process is like and. And where you're at now.
So you exited that. So what was kind of like the life cycle there of starting that firm, building up, growing it to where you came to a point where you're like, hey, I want to. I want to make this other decision to go this direction.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. So it was really just, you know, while you can practice remotely, while I could still and still do practice in Michigan, but take Colorado cases, I lost that human connection. I'm a very social person. I love being around people. And it just got to a point where it wasn't making sense anymore that I'm living in Michigan, but I'm marketing only to Colorado clients. So I was like, you know, it's time to bite the bullet. I've been licensed in Michigan for a while. Michigan. And I have a great network of attorney colleagues in Michigan already. So I was talking to some. They were actually looking to add a trucking attorney to their practice. It's the firm I'm at right now. So it's Oldsman, Mackenzie Peacock, and they have a really, really strong brand. They're known really well for doing nursing home neglect and medical malpractice. And I came in and partnered with them, and I really head up the auto and trucking department now of our firm. And it's just been a really great partnership. They're amazing people to work with, extremely talented attorneys. One of my partners is in trial today, you know, this week on a Med Mile case. And it. It was just a perfect opportunity that I couldn't pass up. And it also allowed me to practice where I'm living and be around people, you know, who. Who are around me physically, who could really use my help when it comes to trucking expertise.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. So. So you're running your own firm and. Yeah, I think one of the things that you're telling me there is, like, you know, thinking back, you know, talking, you know, positioning yourself and value in the firm and exiting the firm is something that you, you know, we kind of talked about the other day. When we. When we spoke. So I'd like to hit on that point just a little bit. And then also a great point you made when we were chatting prior to recording was the. Your personal brand with Inside the Firm, I think is a huge talking point right there. That would be great for. For the audience here. But. But tell me a little bit more about, you know, kind of that positioning and building that firm and kind of how that went down and, you know, maybe some lessons learned there.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So I think a lot of people probably haven't been in the position I've been in, which is I worked for a large firm, I owned a law firm, and now I partnered with the law firm. I think there's a lot of people who, you know, maybe start by owning their own firm and don't get that big law experience, or even if they do, they end up retiring at a point where they don't then go and join another firm. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd hate for it to be more of an afterthought of what does it look. What does my exit strategy look like? And so that's something that I wish I would have started thinking about sooner, is what drives value of a law firm. While, you know, it's certainly something that I knew something about, it wasn't something that I was really focused on until it got to be, oh, my gosh, I'm trying to exit now what? And so looking back, you know, it's nice to know now what drives value of a law firm, because I have a lot of autonomy where I'm at, and I can be implementing these things on a daily basis. You know, so things like having written policies and procedures, making sure you have really tight standard operating procedures, the importance of client and customer satisfaction, and brand recognition, all of these things really drive the value of a business and of a law firm. So eventually, you know, if you want to position the firm for sale or whatever your exit strategy is, you want to be thinking about these things much earlier on. We were talking earlier about, you know, even something as small as do you name the law firm with your last names, the partners last names, or do you do a dba? You know, something I've seen a lot of law firms transitioning to are you, you know, the Chrissy Hagan law firm, or are you the interstate truck accident law firm? So which one has more value to a potential buyer in the future, depending on if that's the end goal, is to sell the law firm?
[00:17:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I hear about that one a lot. I have a client right now that's you know, trying to decide I wanted to do and they, they were going multi state and some states they can't use the name like a DBA name. So it's like well, I wanted to grow into this. They. Oh well now I. So, so there's some challenges there I think you need to look into as well as far as like future growth and what's the plans and. But yeah, I think that's a good question. You know, people sell and exit their firms with their name on it all the time. Is it more valuable to have a branded name like a dba? Like you're saying?
Not sure what the answer is to that, but something that, that I get asked a lot and I know some of my clients are always looking at that. I know this. Get your domain, don't have all your partners names in the domain if you can help it, because we've helped. I don't know how many firms switch domains and all the SEO and brand value and all that stuff that's pointed to that domain. And if you know, Hagen leaves and you're in the dot com and that has to be removed, then that's, that's a nightmare. So go with, you can go with a generic domain.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's also easier for potential clients to remember. Right. How hard is it to remember, you know, all of these multiple partner names back to back to back versus something that's simple, concrete and explains exactly what you do? I think that's really the benefit of it. And then you brought up another point that really goes into the valuation of a law firm, which is growth potential. And whether you're looking at expanding geographically, there's lots of other ways to grow. Right. It's geographically. Are you looking to get into more states and what goes along with that? Are you looking to add services or different practice areas so kind of growing more horizontally? And those potentials, you know, that potential really drives value as well as having systems and processes. And how easy would it be to essentially hand your law firm over to a potential buyer? Or another thing that, that we talked a lot about when I was going through this was how dependent is the law firm on the owner? So if the owner had to be unexpectedly out for three months, could the law firm still run without them or would everything fail? Because you know, if it's reliant on one person and that person ultimately wants to leave, that's not going to be that appealing to a buyer.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, they have the Put golden handcuffs on them or make them stay for a period of time or something. Right.
Is typically what you see. But no, those are all huge things to think about and planning ahead of time years and years in advance. Most like private equity people I know and stuff like that, they say three to five years to really get everything in order to be as valuable as possible.
There's all kinds of change your accounting structure, there's all kinds of things that you can get into. But also I will, I'll add, just because I'm in marketing and SEO, that's important to tell your agency partner. So if you go, hey, I'm going to go multi more practices are coming soon. That's a good thing to know. If you're going to go multi state. That's a good thing to know versus just growing within maybe your region.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: So quick tip. I'll say say if you were you wanted to just be a Detroit, Michigan truck accident attorney because you're thinking focus, niche, let's just focus from SEO strategy. You're going to want to actually have your website focused on Michigan and then you're going to drill that down and maybe you just only focus on Detroit. But if your whole website like the homepage says Detroit truck accidents and then you want to go into other cities in the state, Google and everything doesn't recognize like it's very difficult to hop around like that because you just told Google Detroit is, is what I want to be known for.
So if you want to go multi state in the near future, you got to also think about, well, are you going from a state level if you're going to go multi state now we have to have a whole different kind of architecture to the website. So things to think about as you're planning, are you going to grow rapidly or are you kind of like, you know, lifestyle business style but just have those conversations with others on your marketing as well. Because you can make a switch like that just like the domain name change and then you're, you're really destroying a lot of work that's been done in the wrong direction.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: So personal brand, that's another big thing that we touched on. And so you went from being like your own brand, personal brand of yourself, but your, your firm brand too is, was also you, you developed clients in, you know, in Colorado and then you're, you wanted to switch over to Michigan where you're from. And you go from that to now being inside a firm that you've partnered with. And you know, you brought up a great point which is, no matter you own a firm or you work in a firm as whatever, focus on that personal brand. You tell me a little more about, like, what you've done to transition and stand out within the firm you're in.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. So it was really important to me when I joined the firm that I didn't dilute the brand that already existed because like I said, they're known across the community of the state of Michigan, having this really strong brand. And in some, instead, I have been able to keep my brand, which is the truck accident, brain injury lawyer, and, you know, just work with that and doing that. What I've done is, you know, growth. I've helped grow the firm's social presence by posting on my own social media platforms because I'm still associated with the firm and it has more of a reach. Instead of just doing, you know, kind of what we were talking about before, pushing out things from a law Firm's page on LinkedIn or on Instagram, you know, there's not a ton of following there, unfortunately. It's. It's the individual lawyers that people want to see updates about and want to see what they're doing and how they're impacting their communities, what they're interested in, and, you know, how you can relate to that person.
And so that has been what I've continued to be able to do is to maintain my personal brand. And it also builds that trust publicly and then it helps the firm because when I bring in clients, I bring clients into the firm, so there's that joint representation. But it's ultimately like we talked about, people are going to hire the person, not necessarily the law firm.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: No, a hundred percent. That's awesome. Yeah. So. So you, you know, I would assume with them wanting to partner with you, that's. That's a value add for you, like why they would consider bringing you in. You had that personal brand, you had that following, you have that reach. That's, that's you're bringing that value to this firm and makes you more valuable.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, everyone always likes to talk about authenticity and how it comes across as fake if you try to be someone you're not on social media especially. And I wholeheartedly believe that. And so it's another reason why having a personal, personal brand is important because you still get to be yourself. You get to put out their content of things that you're interested in. You know, I've, I've heard so many people say, you know, I follow you on social media, your kids Are adorable. I have twins too. It's why I reached out. It's like, okay, so nothing related to law, but you somehow are like, hey, she has twins, I have twins. You know, and, and I kind of know she's an attorney, so let me ask her this question.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. They know you're an attorney, so they, they turn to you because they like trust and you know, see your content.
No, I love that. I think if I own a law firm, right, I would want every lawyer to do as much as they possibly could and support them as much as you could to have them do their own thing, do their own brands, build that up. It's just going to benefit the firm as a whole and versus the firm having a kind of small cap marketing budget and you know, does a poor job of even marketing themselves. Get behind the lawyer, individual or you know, sometimes it's like, hey, which. Who is the lawyer that's going to be the face that we can get this behind and stand up. Not every lawyer wants to do this stuff because I got plenty of clients that are not interested, most of the lawyers. And so there's usually one of the partners or one of the, you know, the group that becomes the guinea pig, if you will. But make that decision, I think is important.
But it'd be great if you have multiple. Multiple, like sweet James out there, I was talking about that earlier. Like they have multiple influencers that are their own strong personal brands underneath that brand. So.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: One of the things you could do, there's a pro tip.
You can use Google Analytics or like Ahrefs or SEM Rush or one of those kind of like tools. But you can look at the website analytics and search history, what keywords you rank for and how often people search for that. And you can see names. And so I do this sometimes it's like just for fun.
But you can see which attorneys get searched more and who brings in most of the traffic from a brand search with their personal name. And you can kind of do like a fun contest, you know, you know, who, who has more basically brand reach because people are looking for them by name. And so it sometimes is very clear who the breadwinners are, the rainmakers, if you will, in the firm because they'll be above everyone else by, by a large margin. So, and typically they have done social, they've invested time and energy, they're doing videos or they're getting themselves out there. So that's a good way to maybe recognize the partners or the other attorneys that are, that are really Doing a good job is looking at that brand reach, you know, through search. Doesn't lie.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And while of course, it takes time to do social media, it's generally low cost or no cost, so it's hard to pass up. And if you think about how often people are already on their phones, you know, just give them some more content to look at. They're already looking.
You have this huge platform that you can work with, so just be posting as much as possible. I think Bob Simon does a great job at this. He's just like posting, posting, posting. Right.
But he keeps you engaged. And it's funny content, it's relatable content. It's intermixed with some lawyer content. So, you know, he's a lawyer, but that's, you know, his personal brand is so much more than that.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Bob does an amazing job and he literally just, he's all. Most of the time he's just sitting in one spot in his house at a table, just like, yeah, you know, like this. So it's. And he'll be like, personal stuff, it'll be news type of stuff, it'll be laws, it'll be his kids and them like going on the beach. So very well. A good example of just a mix of like, just nothing's made up. It's all just him going through his day and just documenting that. I think Gary Vee said, don't create content, just document. Because we're already like me and you were filming right in this second. Right. So, you know, as you're going through your day, you can just capture those moments, speak your mind. You know, it could be fun, it could be family, it could be whatever. So I don't, don't think about it too much. I think most people just say, like, I gotta plan it and I gotta have equipment and I gotta have.
You don't need anything. Like just, just be natural. Right.
[00:28:20] Speaker B: A hundred percent. And as lawyers, you know, I think we all get questions every single day, probably multiple questions a day. Use that as an opportunity to create a post. That's what I started doing. And, you know, I never have a shortage of content to post because I get these questions, you know, like, well, if I file a lawsuit, is it against the person individually or insurance? Okay, create a post. Who. Who pays for a dog bite attack? Homeowners. You know, create the post. Because so many people out there aren't lawyers, so they don't know what we, we think is like common knowledge. And so use that as an opportunity to create posts, create reels Do a quick story. If there's an update on a crucial law in your state, do an update so people know about it.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, there's anyone listening. Like, there's no shortage of content.
Don't overthink it. Just start doing stuff because you're. I tell this people with podcasts all the time. I'm in like a podcast mastermind with a bunch of folks. And some of us have established podcasts for many years and some are trying to start one. And the biggest thing is they don't start. It's like. But you're. You're not going to like the way you look or sound until you get comfortable with it. Jen Gore, like, she can jump on a camera in two seconds or Bob or anybody, no worries at all. Right? They're just. But you just don't get there overnight. You're just. You've done it enough, it becomes easy. So you just gotta start doing it. You're gonna hate it. Keep it up anyway. Just be yourself and publish. And it's. Yeah, I just put a video up just an hour or so ago, just right here. Boom. Recorded a couple things about our mastermind that we started. Threw it up on LinkedIn. And it's one time take. No scripted, no editing, nothing. Right. So just start getting stuff out and then you kind of figure out, you know, what's working and what you like or what you don't like, I guess, at the same time. So. Yeah, well, you've had just a really cool journey and going from starting your own firm, Covid, Having twins, moving back home and, and having a, you know, an exit and. And now partner with a firm where you complement each each other and you're still able to have your own personal brand. I think that's huge. I don't know if all firms like you to have your own personal brand or not. Cause most of the firms I work with are the owners themselves, but yeah, for sure.
[00:30:25] Speaker B: And I just think there's so many benefits to the firm that it'd be hard not to appreciate if someone wants to be out there marketing themselves and bringing in cases and bringing in clients. But yeah, you never know. I guess you have to have that trust with your partners and, and be able to understand each other as to how they complement each other and the importance of having those really strong brands to attract a whole wider variety of clients.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I think it's a good strategy that firms should be talking about internally and putting a plan together and encouraging the lawyers, even down the associates, you know, like how Are how are they moving up and how are they creating their own brand and how, how are they going to be able to be producers?
Yeah. As, as they become partners or whatever they might be. So it's. And everyone's always going to stay. So you can't, you know, it's just like you train someone, they can leave. Right. But, but you got to go all in anyway and say we're going to give you everything we can and we're going to do our part. You know, but you know, someone could leave something in firmness that can happen but there's no need to not allow it to happen because of that fear of, of that. So. And good on them. Right. They leave, they have a good brand and they can start their own thing. Referral partner for life. If, if it was a good, you know, good parting. So.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: Well, I appreciate you sharing. Yeah. You, you know, unique story of just your path through in this journey. Any big tips, anything else that you haven't covered? Maybe you'd like to. That you could share or anything. Lessons learned.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: No, I mean just again, just going back to the importance of marketing yourself and how invaluable that is whether you're on your own or with a firm and how easy it is to do. And also, you know, I'm always here. I'm happy to talk to people who are. Have any questions about how to do this themselves. I frequently present on this topic to new and young lawyers. It's something I'm really passionate about is creating content and making yourself known in the community because people need attorneys who are really passionate about what they do and who are experts in their field and no one's gonna be able to find you unless you market yourself like that. So I'm always here to help and it's something that, that I enjoy doing and I had a lot of mentors on the way so I'm always happy to pay it forward.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: Excellent. I love that. I appreciate that. So everyone listen to her, connect with her, reach out, ask her questions. Kristy, what's the best way for folks to find you connect with you? Is there a preferred platform or the website itself?
[00:32:41] Speaker B: Yeah, so email is probably the best. My email is C Hagan C H A G E N smanlaw.com and that's O L S M A N law. I'm also on social media, so lawyer Chrissy C H R S S Y is my handle. I'm also on LinkedIn so either of those, any of those social media platforms, feel free to direct message me or send me an email.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: Excellent. Well, I appreciate that everyone, as always, you can reach out to me, leave a comment if you're watching this on LinkedIn or YouTube or Facebook and if you want to make a connection, I'll make sure that happens. If you've got any questions during this recording too, drop them in the comments. I'll tag her. We'll, we'll answer any questions you have in regards to what we talked about today and then.
Yeah, but reach out and connect. Christy, congrats on the success and excited to see where you where you go and I'll be following your socials as well. So we appreciate you coming on today to share your story. We'll see you all soon. Just a couple of quick things. We have the Managing Partners podcast which you're listening to. Appreciate you listening. I have so many awesome lawyers that that tune in and I hear feedback from. But we also just started the Managing Partners Mastermind. We have about eight members right now of law firm owners in the group and it's a little quicker than I expected. We had a first meet and greet last week and it was just amazing. We have our second one coming up here soon, but any questions about that, let me know. We're taking on a few different members, kind of hand selected but right now looking for owners any category and size but, but that's new. The Managing Partners Mastermind. We'll see where it goes. So I'm excited to share more about that soon. So Chrissy, thank you so much and everyone, thanks for tuning in. We'll see you in the next episode. Make sure you go follow her.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: Thanks Kevin.
[00:34:20] Speaker A: Yep, absolutely.
