Leadership In Law Podcast

S02E53 Vision, Values, & Having it 'All' with Brian Glass

• Marilyn Jenkins • Season 2 • Episode 54

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What if your law firm could be designed around your life rather than the other way around? Brian Glass, trial lawyer and entrepreneur extraordinaire, reveals how he built a multimillion-dollar practice while prioritizing family dinners and coaching youth sports.

Brian advocates for rejecting conventional business wisdom that focuses solely on revenue targets or copying others' success. He encourages finding your own authentic path based on what genuinely matters to you. This philosophy has yielded impressive results for him personally—securing Virginia's largest auto accident verdict of 2022 ($4.2 million) while simultaneously growing his firm's revenue by 383% over four years.

Brian discusses the difficult transition from hands-on management to visionary leadership, describing it as a "two steps forward, one step back" process. He recommends the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) framework to establish accountability and vision planning that supports growth while maintaining personal priorities.

Brian leverages Google Business Profiles and content repurposing for marketing, while running a coaching program with his father for small law firms. Their coaching stands out by optimizing clients' time and money rather than selling unnecessary services, creating a more valuable client-focused approach.

This episode delivers actionable strategies from someone who's achieved remarkable success without surrendering what matters most in life.

Reach Brian here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fairfaxpersonalinjury/
Website: http://www.benglasslaw.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebrianglass/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554707874110
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebrianglass
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-rZrcr90ob7pgK6urStw5g
Life Beyond the Briefs: https://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/life-beyond-the-briefs/id1651002001
2nd Edition Book: https://www.greatlegalmarketing.com/transform-your-firm-s-marketing

The Law Firm Growth Guild is designed to help you learn and use proven marketing strategies, grow your firm smarter, and scale your law firm predictably.

Visit https://checkout.lawmarketingzone.com to find out more and to join the private community.

My team and I are adding new content weekly so you can be intentional about your growth and development each week.

Join our private community, Law Firm Growth Guild, Your Shortcut to Marketing Mastery and More Clients at
https://checkout.lawmarketingzone.com

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Leadership in Law podcast with host Marilyn Jenkins. Cut through the noise, get actionable insights and inspiring stories delivered straight to your ears your ultimate podcast for navigating the ever-changing world of law firm ownership. In each episode, we dive deep into the critical topics that matter most to you, from unlocking explosive growth to building a thriving team. We connect you with successful firm leaders and industry experts who share their proven strategies and hard-won wisdom. So, whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your journey as a law firm owner, the Leadership in Law podcast is here to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to build a successful and fulfilling legal practice.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. I'm your host, marilyn Jenkins. Please join me in welcoming my guest, brian Glass, to the show today. Brian is a trial lawyer, real estate investor, ultra runner and devoted father of three boys. Brian is a trailblazer in the Virginia legal community. Among his results are a $4.2 million auto accident verdict the largest in the state in 2022,. A $3.4 million medical malpractice verdict in 2019, and the largest settlement involving the death of a child in Virginia history.

Speaker 2:

An entrepreneur at heart, brian grew the revenue of the auto accident section at Ben Glass Law by 383% in his first four years with the firm. He believes that shaping a law firm that aligns with your values, building a team and a client base that you enjoy working with, is critical to the success of any law firm. Raised in a family where the law was a way of life, brian's journey as a lawyer was inspired by his father's dedication to the profession. Today, as a father himself, he seeks to emulate the values he learned from his father, prioritizing family above all else. Brian's vision is not just about amassing wealth, but unlocking financial freedom to create a life that allows him to spend quality time with his family and pursue his passion. I'm excited to have you here, brian Welcome.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. My EA sent you the entire hit list.

Speaker 2:

It covers all the bases, right, except the coaching program, and we're going to get onto that, but it's excellent. I love revision of the work-life balance, which is so very important and so many people just can't seem to.

Speaker 3:

To get to that point, yeah, yeah, and you know I can't really figure out why that is we. I think the thing is that we you chase everybody else's priorities Right, and I kind of think of it like when you live in a dorm in college there's always something going on every night, like, but what you don't realize is that not everybody is doing everything every night, and so when you look around, especially on social media or linkedin, where, where you're very active, it's like you just see people doing all kinds of things and then you try to do everything all the time all at once and you just can't. So. So, yeah, prioritizing what's important to you is the only way to to achieve work-life balance, or integrations, as I like to say well and true.

Speaker 2:

The one of the things I like to point out to people is social media is the highlight reel of that person's life. Right, it's not the person's life, yep, so it does make a difference, but it's also. I was having a conversation with someone the other day about you know, women having trying to have it all right. Well, you can't if it's in someone else's idea of all. Yeah, makes a lot of sense. So let's talk about creating a vision for your law firm. So that obviously helps to to set the stage and grow to where you want to be. How do you work with that and the importance of having that vision.

Speaker 3:

Oh, I'm glad you asked that. So I'm fresh off our two-day off-site annual retreat with my leadership team. We run on the US traction model and we brought our implementer down to Spotsylvania, virginia, at a lake house for two days in the middle of January and it snowed. So we've just done this and we go back and forth on whether numbers and revenue are important and last year we did not set a revenue target on our 10 year vision for what we wanted to be. We said we want to dominate Northern Virginia in the personal injury space. We want to dominate the nation in long-term disability. We came around this year and we're like I'm not really sure that the nation, like how would you even know if you were the dominant player in the nation? And then, really, how would you know if you were the dominant player in personal injury even in Northern Virginia?

Speaker 2:

So we said who's?

Speaker 3:

metrics. Well, we so right. So we came back and we assigned some metrics to it this time, so the kind of reverse engineer. If we're going to get there, what do we have to do now? So we set a revenue goal for 25 million and I said on the morning of day two, like I don't know whether that's right or wrong or or otherwise Right, so we did about five, we did about 4 million last year, we'll do five this year.

Speaker 3:

But setting the target at 25 versus 15 or 30 really doesn't materially, I don't think, make a difference in our lives, right, but it does change the way that you have to think about what you would be building, because you're building a different firm if you're trying to add 20% revenue year over year over year than you are if you're just trying to grow five or seven and stay ahead of inflation.

Speaker 3:

And so that was the forcing function for us. And then the really critical part is like I don't want my life to get any harder. I really want to build a firm where I can operate in my zone of genius and only do the things that I am really good at and excite me to show up on Monday, and so for me that's like I have to have now an associate or a team of associates who can independently handle case files, confidently, talk to clients, do all the discovery, do the depositions and let Brian come in and try a case every once in a while if he still wants to. So that's kind of how we got to the structure of what, what it is that we're trying to build and and the other thing that I say a lot is, there's a number of different ways to build an eight figure law firm. One of them is to spend $8 million on Google ads and PPC right.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's fair, for do it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah so, but that wouldn't be any better for you than if you ran a $5 million firm, you know, and had a 40% net profit. So designing first for yourself, like what is it that you want to show up and do every Monday, right, and and then building the structure of the firm that needs to, that needs to be in place to support your dreams, is the piece that most lawyers I think get wrong. And to your point about chasing everybody else's model of perfect like we go to conferences and you go to mastermind meetings and somebody says they have a bigger revenue number or a higher head count in your office, you're like I want that right. I just think that's the wrong way to go about it yes, I'm, I agree, I I have.

Speaker 2:

I think we've all been in the position where you're at those masterminds and you're like it's, is it imposter syndrome or is it jealousy? It's like I want that, but then again it's, it's getting there and what? No matter where you are, your problems, you're still gonna have problems. So, yeah, which level problems are you prepared to to solve?

Speaker 3:

yeah right, your, your biggest problem is always your biggest problem. I don't know, and so. So, yeah, no matter your size, no matter your revenue number, no matter how much money you have in the bank, you're always going to have something that's that is is a problem to solve, which is that's that's like life in the building of a law firm is just the pursuit of a better set of problems, I think.

Speaker 2:

And you're. You're balancing yourself around being able to be at your sporting events and being there for your family and your wife, and being home for dinner every night.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah. So I coach youth soccer and baseball. So in the spring and in the fall my team knows we don't schedule anything for Brian after four o'clock because he's leaving to go be on a field somewhere. So that's important to me.

Speaker 2:

And then again you just have to build the law firm that supports that kind of a structure plan and obviously then you're taking on more of a leadership role than a management or a daily work role. How did you transition into that? I mean, how did that? Obviously you had a great example in your dad, but how did you personally transition to that in the firm?

Speaker 3:

Slowly, and two steps forward, one step back. So on, our three-year target in the law firm is that Brian is not doing any of the day-to-day legal work in the personal injury space. And if in three years that's going to be the case, then this year Brian can't take any new cases that come in. And so we got back on Thursday and yesterday we got a call with a case and I'm like that's interesting. I'd like to be involved in that case. No, but I just set the set the goal for the team that I wasn't going to take on anything new. So it is. It's like you have these things that you want and then something shiny and attractive comes along.

Speaker 2:

You know, maybe I don't want it that bad. Well, maybe maybe you just might dip your toe in the water a little bit with that, but I mean having that flexibility. I love that I'm sorry to interrupt you, but being able to say this is what I want, and so what do I need to do today to get that? That makes it identifiable and attainable.

Speaker 3:

Yes, exactly so you know. You asked how have you gone about extracting yourself from that? It's hard. It's hard to go from the only lawyer in the practice and I was for about a year the only lawyer on the auto accident side of our practice to bringing somebody else on. Then you have to build a portfolio that's long, that's large enough to support a second person, right, and then a second person, and they're paralegal, and then and then you have to build a portfolio that's large enough to support two lawyers and you don't do anything and you still need to be able to pay yourself to feed the family the dinner that you, you want to have every night.

Speaker 3:

It's it's hard to, especially when you know and you've, you've built a business, so you have the same um, I think I suspect you have the same problem, like you watch your people come across challenges and opportunities and you actually know the answer and you know how to get there in 30 minutes, right. But if you never let somebody else struggle with finding the solution, then they're never going to find the solutions on their own finding the solution, then they're never going to find the solutions on their own, and so that's, that's the thing, especially in a personal injury contingency fee practice for lawyers. Like you, have to let your lawyers solve problems, even if it means a case takes a little bit longer, even if it means that money isn't in your operating account for two more months. Like you, have to help them but also let them figure out how to do it on their own.

Speaker 2:

And I kind of go along with the fact that if my assistant would make the same decision, I would make, 80% of the time, that success.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

You're 20%, you can train, that's why, I would do it differently.

Speaker 3:

That's really easy to say.

Speaker 2:

It is. It's very easy, especially when you want to get something done and you can see I can do that, and it's really. Delegation is difficult when you know that you can, but you've got to get over the thought of I'm the only one that can do it right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and and yeah, it's really easy to say. And then you go man, they, they messed this up and I would have done that differently and I would have gotten that result faster. So, and then the thing that I really struggle with is this balance between, like knowing that's going to happen and then not just sticking my head in the sand and and not managing or holding them accountable at all. Right, Because you're right at the end of the day, if they're doing it 80% of the way that I would do it, it's pretty good, Because there's probably another quarter of that 80% they're doing better than I would have done it.

Speaker 3:

But I don't think, especially as you begin this journey, we don't give our team enough credit for that part of it. All we see is the things that we would have done better, faster, stronger, quicker, Right, but but they're. They're also doing things better than you, are we just I think we don't recognize it as naturally.

Speaker 2:

I don't. Yeah, I think once we, once it's out of our skill division and it's going well, I think we forget to compliment that, we forget to thank and that's one of the things we do on our weekly team meeting is we always have wins and gratitude because you've got to remind yourself to do this stuff and a lot of people, their job satisfaction is being told they're doing a good job.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2:

You know it makes a big difference. So then you've moved out of management for the most part and now we're in with the EOS. You're at the top, You're the visionary and you're managing the leadership and the vision.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, kind of sort of right. So technically I'm the implementer. My dad is the visionary. He, you know no secret, he's like 67. So he's on a limited time period. There's no definite plans to retire, but at a certain point it's Brian's got to elevate into the visionary role and start guiding where the firm is going. So I have a foot in both of those camps. What I've gotten out of the management of mostly is the management of the personal injury team and I'm managing and holding accountable more the rest of the leadership team now. So I manage the lawyer who runs the personal injury team more than I'm managing the paralegal who's operating in the team.

Speaker 2:

Agreed, okay, but that certainly makes sense now, and you're also making time for your coaching program that you and your father do together, correct, that's right.

Speaker 3:

So we we run a coaching and consulting and mastermind program for owners of solo and small law firms. We are, you know, one of the only businesses in that space who's not also selling services. So look around and most of our competitors are selling digital ads. Do your websites run your bookkeeping, things like that. We are really a philosophy and a mindset organization that can point you in the right direction for the problem that you have today.

Speaker 3:

We found it, I think, challenging to come up with a one-size-fits-all path, because there is no one-size-fits-all path because so much of it is. You know, what is your unique skill and ability that you really enjoy working on. Let's get you only in that quadrant and let's get you outsourcing or hiring to all of the other quadrants of your life. So, yeah, it's in our organization. It's called Great Legal Marketing. We run two mastermind groups. There's a group, actually coming in tomorrow and Friday, of lawyers who are running businesses larger than a million dollars in revenue. They meet four times a year in our office and in Fairfax, and then we have a big annual event that'll be in October, probably in the DC area this year.

Speaker 2:

Okay, okay. And so, basically, are you to be a good candidate for that? Say, I'm a solo? Do I need to have like a year under my belt? Do I need to have a certain amount of revenue? Who is your ideal client to help them get to where they want to be?

Speaker 3:

We are really excellent at taking somebody who's doing somewhere around a half million dollars in revenue per year and getting them over the million dollar mark and, to be honest, we kind of cap out at about 5 million. Because it requires marketing and advertising and structural expertise that, like I haven't gotten there yet and so I'm not. I'm not willing to have somebody as a client and coach them on the thing that they need to do to get from five to 10. Cause I haven't done it.

Speaker 2:

But if you come, because we always want a coach, that's one or two steps beyond where we are. You've been there, done that yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you want a coach that's actually done the thing right. Don't take directions from somebody who's never been to the destination. We're not great for a startup, you know. If you're doing $150,000 in revenue, it doesn't make sense for you to pay me 10 of that, because your greatest problem is how do I attract more and more and more clients? You don't have the problems that we like solving, which is how do you attract your best client, how do you surround yourself with great staff and how do you manage them appropriately?

Speaker 2:

And because you used EOS in your own firm. Is that part of the thing that you're instilling in or offering to get into the firms to help them fill the seats with the right people?

Speaker 3:

No, that's kind of Mike Morse's program in Fireproof. When we started EOS, I said I would love to do this for lawyers, Like if I had the flexibility to travel around the country, I think I would be an excellent implementer for law firms. But with the young kids in my house we're not doing that. No, we're really good at holistically assessing in a half hour to an hour long conversation Like what's the thing that you should spend your next hour and your next dollar on, and it might be a referral to an EOS implementer. You might be at the size where that's what you need. It might be that you need to fix your website or fix your GMB profile. It might be that you need to hire so that you're not the one sorting the mail. We are really good in those one-on-one consultations of helping you decide what's the best use of your next dollar an hour.

Speaker 2:

I like that, really narrow it down to what do I need to move the needle forward for myself, and you mentioned GMB, so that's one of the things that I really do a lot of teaching on. I think it's overlooked by a lot of attorneys, especially. You do business locally. You need to use this free tool from Google. You've been doing a lot of work with your Google business profile as well, haven't you?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so we've. You know, because of our position, we get and I don't say that arrogantly, but because of because we run this coaching organization we have kind of a mouthpiece, a megaphone, for lack of a better word. You know, we get pitched by all kinds of digital marketing agencies and we we have the ability to be in the rooms when they're teaching this stuff to the rest of our members more often than people who are not in these rooms at all. So we picked a little little things along the way and we and anytime I go to a conference or I'm in one of these meetings, I try to pick up one to three things, so things like adding the service areas, meetings, and try to pick up one to three things, so things like adding the service areas, adding the product listing. You know really little things like your your hours, that you're open, right, making sure that you check all the boxes about disability friendly and all this stuff that so many lawyers think just that's really really low hanging fruit for a lot of solo and small.

Speaker 2:

And we think that as long as they have reviews and their name, address and phone number, they're good to go. I still cringe every time I see one that says lawyer and law firm categories.

Speaker 3:

But even even like the name address, phone number thing. So one of the things that we did this year, earlier this year, was get a Yext account, which then helped us get our name, address, phone number to be the exact same across all of the listings that you pick up over the years. Right, your, your yellowpagescom listing is still out there somewhere and getting getting all of that aligned. So for us, you know the, the business name is law office of Benjamin W Glass III, PC. So that listing is out there somewhere. Right, we have a Ben Glass Law in places and it was in other places. We're calling ourselves Ben Glass Law, Auto Accident and Disability and in some places, Virginia Auto Accident and Disability.

Speaker 3:

So actually going out and getting a DBA for Ben Glass Law, Virginia Auto Accident and Disability Law lawyers and then getting the Yext account to tell every other listing that we've ever had that this is what we're doing business as. And even having done that, Google still changes my name back like once every 10 days. But we've got now paid 10 bucks to get the DBA done so that if it ever becomes a problem, we can hold up the piece of paper and say, no, this actually is the formal name. But all of those things are things that we've picked up from people just like you over the years as like just one little thing, one little thing, one little thing, and make these incremental changes and it's had a real serious increase in our appearance in the map pack and in the surrounding area.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic, and you know you were talking about hours of operation. I really emphasize, especially around any holiday time, you know. Make sure that you update it, because Google will actually list on there. When someone does a search, update it in red and it tells the searcher when the most recent update was. So if you haven't touched your Google business profile for two years, that's going to show right. So you're doing products and services. That's great. Are you doing posts at all? Yep.

Speaker 3:

Yep. So the other thing that we have gotten a little bit better about always getting a little bit better we're creating videos on YouTube and then turning that video into a blog, turning that blog into three social media posts, including a GMB post, and this is not my field of expertise, so if I screw this up, forgive me, but with a link that goes back to the website or goes out to somewhere else, right. But the principle is taking the one piece of content and figuring out seven different ways to repurpose it, and my marketing director has an EA, a virtual assistant assistant, in the Philippines who helps her with all of that.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic. I got a great idea this week earlier this week I was on a show that when he published the show he also published the AI sorry talking points. Books listed, links listed and a whole transcript as a LinkedIn article.

Speaker 3:

Oh, interesting yeah.

Speaker 2:

Very interesting. So, and then he is. I think he put that on Medium as well, so he's publishing that as a as a written piece, and I'm hadn't even thought to do that with the transcript. So that's an interesting concept to add to it as well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, which is all about taking up the most real estate on Google when somebody looks for your name or for your topic. Right, because all of those different URLs have the potential to show up above whatever else. You know. If you're not taking up one of the 10 listings and somewhere in the map pack and maybe an LSA, you know, you're just giving an opportunity for somebody else to be found when a client is looking for you. Giving an opportunity for somebody else to be found when a client is looking for you, and and behind all of that has to be the belief that you are the best solution for that client's problem.

Speaker 3:

And if you are, we say you have a moral and ethical obligation to make sure that they invite you. Right? This is, this is why we get good at at marketing. Right Is because everybody has the horror story of the case that we've taken over from the mega advertising firm that the client found because they just showed up first. And everybody who you can solve, who you can prevent from falling into the hands of a bad lawyer who doesn't care who. You're just a file in the office. You need to learn marketing so that you can do that.

Speaker 2:

I agree, and the Google business profile definitely needs to be looked at and maximized as much as possible. I agree. This has been a great conversation. Do you want to? Where can people reach you? I guess that's the first thing. And where can we talk about or learn more about the coaching program? Yeah, so I'm most active on LinkedIn. I think that's how you and I. And where can we talk about or learn more about the coaching program?

Speaker 3:

as well. Yeah, so I'm most active on LinkedIn. I think that's how you and I connected Every other social media. The handle is at vbrianglass. And then you know, I think the best. So, ben and I oh, this is, I have a book too. I forgot about this. I was behind, all right. So Ben and I just rewrote the second edition of Renegade Lawyer Marketing. That's available on Amazon. It's also going to be available as soon as we get a new stash of books into the office on the GLM website. So that's a good entry point, and we make the notes from our summit available for free to everybody who wants them. You can grab those at GLMSummitNotescom. All you have to do is trade me an email address.

Speaker 2:

Oh, fantastic, that'd be excellent. All right, great. Well, this has been wonderful. Is there any specific takeaway that you want the people listening that to have taken away from our conversation today?

Speaker 3:

Don't follow everybody else's path. Figure out the one that you actually care about achieving.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic. I love that. Brian. Thank you so much for your time today. This has been a great conversation and we'll make sure that all your links are in the show notes so people can reach you and get in touch with you and get your book. Thank you, Thanks for joining me today for this episode.

Speaker 2:

As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. And if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, you can connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take the next step with a digital strategist to help you grow your law firm, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to lawmarketingzonecom to book a call with me. Just go to lawmarketingzonecom to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, thanks for listening to Leadership in Law podcast and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. Remember, you're not alone on this journey. There's a whole community of law firm owners out there facing similar challenges and striving for the same success. Head over to our website at lawmarketingzonecom. From there, connect with other listeners, access valuable resources and stay up to date on the latest episodes. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep leading with vision and keep growing your firm.

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