#23: Ali Razavi - The Mastermind Behind “Who Hurt You?”, Investing in Yourself, and Giving Back - One Thousand Gurus Podcast

Episode Transcript
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J.R. (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of 1000
Gurus with me, your host, jrYonocruz.
Today's guest is Ali Razavi.
Ali Razavi is the founder andmanaging attorney at Razavi Law
Group, which he started hisfirst year out of law school.
He is an OC native andgraduated at the top of his
class at UCLA and then pursuedhis law degree at Chapman
University's Fowler School ofLaw.

(00:22):
Ali has been solely focusing oncivil litigation and
alternative dispute resolution.
He has scaled his business forthe past eight years and
trademarked who Hurt you.
He is also a philanthropist anda donor to underprivileged
children.
So Ali and I worked at the samelaw office back in 2016 at James
Bergener's law firm.
It was nice to hear his storyof his success over the last few

(00:45):
years, as I've watched himscale his business on social
media, and this was a prettywide-ranging conversation and
also very tactical, startingfrom what going through law
school was like, how he scaledhis firm for the last eight
years, how to build a goodoffice culture and the
importance of marketing andbranding.
We then finish up by talkingabout giving back and his own

(01:07):
philanthropic endeavors.
So I really enjoyed thisepisode and I hope you guys will
too.
So, without further ado.
Please enjoy this episode withAli Razavi.
All right, ali Razavi, welcometo the show.
Thanks for having me, man.
Yeah, thanks for being here.
Yeah, appreciate it.
Cool.
So it's been a while.
We were just chatting right now.
So I feel like when we bumpedinto each other maybe a few

(01:30):
years ago coast of mace orsomething, like that yeah yeah,
and then before then we workedtogether.
Well, I guess I should go intoit, but we worked together at
james bergner's office, like2016-ish, something around there
right, like eight years ago.
Yeah, eight years ago, exactlyright, because I was before you
started your firm, which iseight years ago, right.
But, yeah, thanks for beinghere.
I wanted to say, man, I've beenfollowing your career.

(01:50):
We're Instagram mutuals andseeing all your face on the
billboards all over.
You're a local celebrity.
We'll be driving on the freewayand it's like who hurt you?
And I'm like oh.
I know that guy.
I used to work with him Rightnext to James Bergener's face.
You know sweet.
James, it's like man, famouspeople on billboards, so I'm
happy to have you here, man.

Ali (02:07):
Thanks for having me.
I'm glad to see you again,Cause I only worked at one place
before I went out on my own, sothe people that I met at that
firm they're you guys hold aspecial place for me.

J.R. (02:18):
Yeah, no, I feel the same.
It was basically my first jobout of college, technically
second, but it was.
I tell my friends this all thetime.
It was a tough place to workbut I appreciated it because it
really kind of set thefoundation for how I approached
work, moving forward, workingwith other attorneys and really
high achievers really set thebar for me in terms of my
mindset.
So I I lots of props to myfellow coworkers there, you

(02:40):
included, and the, the ownersthere, for really setting me on
the right path.

Ali (02:50):
And I feel like I got a lot from that.
I couldn't agree with you more.
They set the standard.
I always wonder if I didn'twork there, where would I be now
?
Because they kind of showed youa blueprint of what's expected
of you and it was tough, notgoing to lie, it was tough there
, but I'm appreciative as well.

J.R. (03:03):
Yeah, definitely.
So I want to go into how I knowyou.
So I, like I mentioned, weworked at James Bergner's law
firm back in 2016 ish, maybe ayear before that.
I was in liens and negotiationsand then accounting, and then
you were an intake, I believe,right, yeah, and then you were
studying for the bar, you passed, and then you had the ceremony
thing like in the office, Ibelieve, yeah, I remember I was

(03:24):
there too and I think maybe youposted photos or maybe they sent
out photos, but I remember thatyou had really long hair back
then, right?

Ali (03:29):
Yeah, I'm trying to bring it back.

J.R. (03:31):
Yeah, nice, let's see.
And then, yeah, you pass thebar and then since then, maybe
the following year or the yearthat year, you started your own
firm and then you set out onyour own and then you've been
growing it ever since, right.

Ali (03:42):
Exactly yeah.

J.R. (03:43):
Yeah, so yeah, and I've been following you and your nice
Instagram stories with yoursuits and your nice cars and
everything.
I'm like man, this guy isliving the dream.
So, yeah, I'm happy for yoursuccess, man, and, yeah, I've
been wanting to bring on theshow.
Hopefully you can pass on someof your lessons learned and
wisdom and leadership to ouraudience.
So yeah, audience, so yeah.

(04:09):
So I'm pretty excited andlooking forward to it.
I'm happy to, but you gottastill teach me how to dance.
Yeah, no, definitely.
I mean, I get the amount ofpeople who have asked me to okay
, you were tangent.
So now, when I have a newworkplace, I don't tell them I
dance, because if I start withthat, I become the dance guy and
you know clark fielding, right?
Yeah, of course, every time.
He would see me, not every time, but like he would see me in
the hallway and he'd be likedance battle, marla, let's go.
And I'm like I'm just trying tocut these checks.
But clark is super cool, butyeah, so then every, every place

(04:30):
I worked at after that I wouldhold off on the information and
then later on they find out thatI dance and then it's like a
surprise.
But yeah, that's because ofthat, that's awesome.
Yeah, all right.
Any other clarifications otherthan that?
What we, what said?
I will have read your bio bythe time they get to this point,
but anything you want toclarify?
No, perfect Cool, all right.
So let's go into our firsttopic.
So the first one is usuallyorigin story, kind of connecting

(04:54):
the dots from the maininfluences you had, let's say,
growing up, until where you arenow.
Connecting the dots on what ledyou to here, getting into law,
going school, starting your ownfirm.
Want to start with there sure.

Ali (05:07):
Funny enough, it was a story that I told you guys when
I passed the bar.
James berger asked me to givethem a story, and my story was
when I was six years old they,they.
My first grade teacher asked meto draw who you want to be when
you grow up.
And my grandfather was anattorney.
My dad's biggest dream was forone of his kids to become an
attorney.
So at six years old I drew anAfrican-American guy in a

(05:31):
courtroom and at the time Ithought OJ Simpson was a lawyer.
And so I was like I want to beOJ Simpson, I want to be a
lawyer.
And my teacher was like I don'tknow what goes on in this guy's
house, but definitely not thecase.
But to that point I've known Iwas supposed to be a lawyer
since I was six years oldbrainwashed by my parents,
probably, but I'm grateful forthem giving me direction.

(05:53):
And my dad has the MBA and he'san entrepreneur, so I've seen
him build and crash businessessince I was a kid.
So there's that.
And then his father was anattorney.
He wanted me to be a lawyer.
So I kind of knew since I was akid I'm supposed to become an
attorney.
And when I got into law school Irealized I sucked at public

(06:13):
speaking and I was afraid ofpublic speaking.
So I tried out for thenegotiation team and just to get
my jitters out, and lo andbehold, I make the team Like
fluke.
I thought I did so terribly.
I screwed up saying my own namethat's how nervous I was.
And from there I got picked upto be on the competition team

(06:34):
and from there I got picked upto represent the school in an
international competition.
It was like 130 competitors, 40countries.
I ended up being a finalist.
From there, my coach wasfriends with James Bergener,
yeah, so full circle.
He's like I want somebodythat's good at talking to
clients and he's going to be anattorney.

(06:54):
And he's like I got the perfectguy.
So I went from this hermitthat's afraid of speaking to
anybody to like my job was totalk to everybody.
And so working at James'soffice, I mean it was the best
experience I could ever ask for.
I mean they, they set thestandard of what's expected in
the industry as a lawyer.
And also I got an opportunityto talk to so many clients.

(07:15):
I mean I remember at the timewe're talking to hundreds of
clients a month and I had theopportunity to do that and I
feel like as a brand newattorney, you don't get to do
that.
And so I did that.
And yet what you were sayingearlier probably by the end of
the year I went out on my ownand I started a little law firm
out of my bedroom at my parents'house and I got a PO box.
I had a Google voice number, Igot a MyFax.

(07:37):
I created my own website onSquarespace.
When it went into the countyrecorder's office, I couldn't
even afford to open up acorporation, so I had a DBA,
opened up a bank account and Istarted putting out ads on
Craigslist affordable attorneyCome to find out.

(07:57):
Nobody wants an affordableattorney.
It's not sexy, you don't wantit.
That sounds like malpractice.
So I wasn't getting a whole lotof phone calls doing that and I
was doing a little bit ofcontract work.
There's a lot of attorneys thateither don't like going to
court or they're lazy and sothey'll hire appearance
attorneys and for an honestday's wage you can go show up.
So I was making a little bit ofmoney, packing my own lunch,

(08:17):
trying to just figure it out,and it was tough.
It was tough.
I was meeting clients atStarbucks and they're like you
don't have an office.
I'm like I'll come to you andtry to make it look as nice as
possible, but at the end of theday it's tough.
It's tough as a brand newattorney going out on your own.
But what helped me out wastwofold was the experience I got

(08:37):
at James's office.
I knew how to talk to a clientand I knew what information I
needed to see whether or not aclient had a case.
That was a and b I had.
My entire network is in OrangeCounty right.
I was born and raised in OrangeCounty and people, people batted
for me when I went out on myown, people started sending me

(08:58):
cases and I was.
I was the one-stop shop toeverything.
I was doing family law, I wasdoing criminal law, I was doing
immigration.
And somebody told me that don'tbe, don't be the jack of all
trades.
Be the master of one right,because it's just as an attorney
.
In this day and age, you can't,you have to specialize.
So what ended up happening?
my friends and family startedsending me car accidents and car

(09:19):
accidents.
I remember this one particularcase early on landed on my desk
and that kind of changed thetrajectory of my career because
I got a case I would never get,friend and family referred it
and I knew what to do with itfrom what I learned from James's
office and that was kind of theseed money that I reinvested
and kind of took me to the nextlevel.

J.R. (09:39):
I see there's so many good points in that story,
especially being that it seemslike at that point where you
were starting your own firm, youobviously didn't have the
infrastructure of the shinybuilding and the office space
and receptionist, but you hadthe skills from what you
developed beforehand in lawschool but also at James's
office.
So then when the opportunityarose and you got that case, it
helped take off for you thenright.

Ali (10:02):
Exactly.
I mean invaluable what Ilearned at James' office and
then having a strong network too.
That's huge.
I mean they always say your networth is in your network.
If I had started shop in acompletely different state, I
don't think I'd be in theposition I am today.

J.R. (10:18):
It makes sense.
So I wanted to go back reallyquick.
You said that you kind ofessentially fluked certain parts
of going through law school andthen eventually ended up
getting that referral for James.
I can't imagine you just keepfluking for however many years
and then you land at James'soffice.
But were there any insights,turning points or things that
you think helped you get towhere you are?

(10:38):
You said you were kind of thatyou were very different when you
started than where you are now.

Ali (10:43):
Yeah, I mean I.
I think as a new attorneyyou're always going to have or
new in any career.
To be honest, you have impostersyndrome.
You're always like how am Ihere?
Do people know I shouldn't behere?
This is, this is kind of crazy,but one thing that I try to be
true to is life begins at theend of your comfort zone, right.

(11:05):
When you you, when you putyourself out there, when you're,
when you're uncomfortable,that's, that's a signal, that's
your moral compass, that someyou're doing something right and
I don't mean that in allscenarios right, but yeah but
when it comes to tryingsomething out, work-wise,
school-wise, putting yourselfout there.
You've now, I've realized, andthat's what I realized on the

(11:26):
negotiation team I separatedmyself from so many people by
just trying.
A lot of people they don't,they just don't want to try.
And they could be, and eventoday they're probably way
better than I am, but they justdidn't put themselves out there
because of fear of rejection,fear of failure.

J.R. (11:46):
Yeah, that makes sense.
So just even just showing up ishalf the battle, or whatever.
That saying is right,absolutely Right.
Another thing I wanted to ask,but maybe just a quick TLDR, but
for those who have never goneto law school or studied for the
bar, what is that like, maybe?
And do you have any insidertips or advice on how to
approach?
Like if someone is like Ireally want to go to law school

(12:08):
I've heard this guy, ollierizavi do you have any advice
for how they can navigate that?

Ali (12:12):
totally, I think.
I think two types of peoplewill be successful in law school
if you're just naturally justgenius, high iq, brilliant or if
you're disciplined anddedicated.
Right, there's no substitutefor hard work.
Um, I don't personally seemyself as this brilliant, genius
person.
I mean, I I finished at the topof my class at ucla.

(12:33):
I went into law school thinkinglike I got this.
And it wasn't the case.
Right, there's some reallysmart people in law school.
They just they just get it.
They're fast readers, theycomprehend quickly, they can
analyze, they can conclude, andso if you're willing to put in
the hard work, I think you'regoing to do just fine in law
school.
And they say in law schoolthere's three years generally.
So the first year theprofessors actually they try to

(12:55):
scare you to death.
Right, you see all these moviesabout the Socratic method where
they call on you and then theyquestion you until you have no
idea what you even read.
And then the second year theyload you up with work.
You generally have to get a jobto set yourself up as a lawyer,
and then you also have the sameschool load.
So year one they scare you todeath.
Year two, they work you todeath.

(13:16):
Year three they bore you todeath.
That's kind of the saying goes,because I think the scariest
thing for law students enteringlaw school is you know what you
know, you know what you don'tknow, and then there's this
third part of you don't knowwhat you don't know.
That's scary for people.
So once you go through thefirst year of law school, you're
like, okay, that was tough.

(13:37):
That was maybe even the hardestthing I've ever done, but I
know what to expect now and it'snot scary.
I think the scariest thing forpeople going to law school is
all the horror stories they'veheard the competitiveness,
people ripping pages out oftheir textbooks so they don't
get the proper study materialfor the test.
But I think if you do whatyou're supposed to do, read your
cases, don't be lazy.

(13:58):
Work hard.
You don't need to be brilliant,you just have to be disciplined
.

J.R. (14:02):
I love that.
So, on that topic, or maybemoving forward again, what was
the impetus for you to want tostart your own firm and be an
entrepreneur and all that stuff?
So I know that you said therewas.
You knew you wanted to be alawyer because maybe because of
family, and then your dad was anentrepreneur and so maybe that
was a combination of that.
But some people become a lawyerand maybe they work for another

(14:23):
firm, but then it's a differentgame, right when you're playing
, when you are the founder andyou're the owner of the firm.
What made you decide to go thatroute and maybe any insights on
lessons you've learned alongthe way?

Ali (14:35):
Yeah, it has to be the perfect storm, right?
For example, my dad was anentrepreneur.
I knew I was going to be anattorney.
The economy wasn't hot when Ibecame an attorney.
I applied for a lot of jobs.
I mean, granted, I had aposition, but the really top
paying positions.
They're going to the top rankedstudents at the school, right,

(14:59):
which I wasn't, honestlyspeaking, and so you have all of
that going on.
And then you have somethinglike a few hundred thousand
dollars in student loans, right?
When you do the math, the mathdoesn't math.
You're like I'm probably gonnabe working till I'm 105 years
old to probably pay half mystudent loans yeah right.

(15:20):
So it was more.
It was more of.
I looked at my life and I saidright now, I'm not married, I
don't have kids, I'm still notmarried, I still don't have kids
, but I'm not married, I don'thave kids, I don't have a
mortgage.
My life will never be thischeap.
This is as cheap as my lifewill be, and I was so blessed
that my parents lived in OrangeCounty.
I could live at the house thatI grew up in when I was starting

(15:49):
off, and so I figured bet onyourself.
If you hit it, it'll be thebest success story ever, and if
you don't, there are jobs forattorneys.
There's the public sector,there's different things that
you can do.
Being an attorney is veryuseful in our world, in our
economy.
You might not be balling, butyou're not going to be living on
the streets.
So for me, the risk of failingstarting my own firm was there
wasn't even a risk.

(16:09):
It was okay, I'll just get anormal job okay.

J.R. (16:13):
So it just made sense to you math wise, logic wise you're
like might as well start my ownfirm.
Cool on that topic too.
So now building your own firm.
I'm very curious about thisbecause I'm pretty I don't want
to say passionate aboutleadership or building team
culture.
And as someone who has builtyour firm over the last eight
years and has scaled like youmentioned do you have any?

(16:34):
I want to ask stories.
But also, the second part ofthat is really just what are the
insights or takeaways thatyou've learned along those eight
years on how to scale abusiness, how to build a good
office culture and whatnot?
I know it's a big topic, but wecan start wherever it makes
sense.

Ali (16:50):
Yeah, what I've, what I've gathered, what I think has been
really helpful for me is lead byexample.
I've been going to the officefor eight years five, six days a
week, sometimes seven, butshowing up to work every day,
showing up on time.
I require my entire staff towear a suit every single day

(17:14):
just like how it would work.
I took that because I thoughtwhen you wore a suit and you
went to work every day, you justyou did better work.
You felt more confident.
Even though you're on the phone, your voice might be a little
stronger, a little deeper, and Ijust feel there's better work
product because you got ready,you feel good about yourself.
I think it's important to beconfident, but I think leading

(17:34):
by example, being supportive,not not leading by fear, I don't
, I don't believe in that.
I don't believe in marlo.
You didn't believe in Marlo,you didn't do that.
Therefore, you should benervous that you won't have a
job tomorrow.
Right, I come from a place oflead by example.
And if and if you messed up,acknowledge it and what can we

(17:56):
do so that doesn't happen nexttime.
From a very problem solvingperspective, that's been really
helpful for me because, forexample, sometimes now at this
point, upper management is likewhy didn't you come down on that
person for missing that phonecall?
Right, me coming down on them.

(18:18):
What is that going to do?
At this point, it's not goingto take us back in time.
I want to know why did theymiss that phone call and what
can we do, moving forward, forthat not to happen.
That's more important to me,moving forward, as opposed to me
scolding you for missing thephone call, because, quite
frankly, I can't go back andchange you missing the phone
call, and that's just a smallexample.
So I don't like it to behostile, I don't like it to lead

(18:41):
by fear.
I like to be problem solvingand I want to lead by example.
I think that's been reallyhelpful for me.

J.R. (18:48):
Yeah, that makes sense because it's lead by example,
like you mentioned, but it'salso looking forward.
The coaching aspect of that tohelp make your employees and
your team work better is goingto be like a rising tide that
lifts all boats right.
As opposed to, their motivationis to not get yelled at in that
scenario, right, and thatdoesn't really promote the
culture of, okay, well, they'retaking ownership and they're
growing, and they know that mybosses appreciate and value that

(19:11):
accountability and growth right.

Ali (19:13):
Yeah, I really like what you just said about ownership
and accountability.
I don't like and it stillhappens everywhere you go
kicking the can, pointing thefinger, right.
I don't like and it stillhappens everywhere you go
kicking the can pointing thefinger, right.
I don't think that's conducivefor a good work environment.
Pointing fingers because, atthe end of the day, your firm,
your company, your business isas strong as the weakest link,

(19:34):
right?
So you got to raise the tidetogether and you got to figure
out how can I fix the weakestlink, how can we get that up to
speed so that we're all stronger?

J.R. (19:43):
I like it.
I want to ask maybe last thingon building a firm is maybe what
are some of the greatestchallenges for building a firm
scaling and whatnot andsomething that you can pass
along on what you've learned sofar, beyond what you already
mentioned.

Ali (19:59):
I think the most difficult aspect of building a firm or
scaling it with your team iskeeping them motivated.
For you, it's your company.
For you, it's your identity.
For you, it's your creation.
But how do you get somebodythat's off the street to believe

(20:21):
in you, to believe in yourstruggle and to fall on the same
sword as you?
It's tough, it's tough, and sothat's the most difficult part,
and what I've found to behelpful is creating a path where
there's growth in the company.
Right, we live in an era wherepeople want everything right now

(20:46):
, here today, and so showingthem with time, with hard work,
this company has the ability toprovide you what you want, and
I'm not saying in the sense ofsell them a pipe dream that's
never going to exist.
Build a company that cansupport their dreams too, and it
doesn't just have to be yourdream, and your dreams and their
dreams can be completelydifferent too, and I need to

(21:07):
acknowledge that not everybodywants to be me, and maybe I
don't want to be them butfinding a place for them, and I
found that that will keep themmore motivated.

J.R. (21:15):
I like it.
Last thing on this topic as apersonal injury attorney, what
do you think people get wrongabout the industry?
Or any misconceptions or thingsthat people just don't know, as
opposed to an insider who mightknow?
That would be helpful advice orinsights.

Ali (21:34):
I think a lot of the public believes that all personal
injury attorneys are the same.
They're all going to providethe same service.
They're all going to providethe same service.
They're all going to provideyou the same settlement.
They're going to provide youthe same communication.
They're going to charge you thesame.
So it's as if you're purchasinga Rolex let's call it a

(21:57):
Submariner Rolex, More or less.
That Submariner Rolex, thatyear, that color is going to be
the same price everywhere you go.
It might change a little bit,but more or less you're getting
a Rolex, that there's a marketvalue for that Rolex.
That's not the same for personalinjury attorneys.
Personal injury attorneys canget you different results based

(22:19):
off of their experience, basedoff of what they've seen.
Somebody could settle a casefor very low because they
thought it was a soft tissue,muscular case, which is a big
injury.
Or somebody can settle thatsame case for millions of
dollars because your heart isalso soft tissue, right, it just
depends on how you, how youskin the cat.

(22:39):
So I think that's a bigmisconception.
I think when attorneys doconsultations with clients, it's
hard to get that across becausethey're saying, hey well, the
law offices of Joe Bob iswilling to do this case for 30%.
What can you do?
Oh, what I can do is I canprovide you honesty.

(23:00):
I can provide youaggressiveness.
I can provide you honesty.
I can provide youaggressiveness.
I can provide you results.
I don't know what they provideand I don't even want to start
thinking about what they provide, but two different services.
I don't know who they are, butyou can't compare apples to
oranges just because we're bothpersonal injury attorneys.

J.R. (23:17):
Yeah, that's really good insight.
That's also something that Ilearned working at James
Berger's office too, is that,yeah, you can shop around all
you want, but services aredifferent.
You can't say that one companyor one firm or one attorney is
like the other one.
So, I think that's really goodinsight topics you wanted to
touch on, and so I mentionedbefore in this recording I'm
seeing you all over right, allover town, the who Hurt you,

(23:48):
attorneys and I see your newsarticle posts.
And then I saw you on theSchool of Hard Knocks Instagram,
which I followed too, and whenI saw you come up I was like,
hey, I know that guy, that'scool, and that dude has Shaq and
other people on his page.
So it was really cool to seeyou.
And a Lamborghini is my dreamcar too.
So I'm like, dang, this guy man, he's living my dream.
But, yeah, respect to you, Ireally admire all the hard work
that you put in, but youmentioned a few things in that
video and I'll link to it aswell.

(24:09):
Which is that page for peoplewho don't know and check it out,
kind of like interview someoneon the street and us through any

(24:35):
of those points that you wantto touch on.
I know there's a lot.

Ali (24:37):
Yeah, no, that's fair.
And School of Hard Knocks.
Those guys are awesome.
They're super young and they'rechanging the game.
They're crushing it.
So I was really happy when Iworked with them.
But to unpack that branding andadvertising is so important to
generate business, which wouldlead to your company growing

(24:58):
right and ultimately lead toprofits to your company growing
right and ultimately lead toprofits.
But something that I didn't getto say in that interview is
spend your time and allocateyour resources to honing your
craft right.
Once you hone your craft, onceyou hone your product, then put
dollars behind it and get it outto the public.

(25:21):
So if you provide a goodservice, then you want the
masses to know.
If you just get the masses toknow about your crap products,
right, you're going to get badreviews, you're going to get no
phone calls and you'll probablyget canceled the next day.
I didn't get to express thatduring that interview because I
think that's very important isto be good at what you do and

(25:41):
you want to be better than thenext person.
So I think if you focus on thatand you're like, hey, I'm
actually good at this, that'swhen you decide to put dollars
behind it, that's when youadvertise and hit the masses.
Conversely, if you, if you'regood at what you do and you
never put dollars behind it, itdoesn't mean you won't be
successful, but it won't amplify.
It's not going to scale the waythat your friend the good old

(26:05):
benjamin has your back right.
If you put money behindsomething, it's going to grow a
lot faster yeah, that's veryinsightful.

J.R. (26:11):
It's work on your craft first, because that's the most
important thing, because peoplecan come knocking at your door
and they're like wait a minute,what is this?
So I think that's a really goodpoint.
So, on that, let's saysomeone's working on their craft
and let's say they're decentlygood at it, or whatever, how do
you approach branding andmarketing?
As someone who has it's withinyour field of expertise, how

(26:32):
would you advise someoneapproach branding and marketing?
I know you said put moneybehind it, but is there
something deeper than that?

Ali (26:39):
Yeah, absolutely the marketing and advertising that's
putting money behind it andgetting it out to the public.
But branding is, which Imentioned in that interview it's
your identity.
It's your identity to thepublic.
So you need to think whatseparates you from everybody
else, and maybe that's nothingand maybe that's your angle,
that you're just like everybodyelse.

J.R. (26:59):
I'm just like everyone else.

Ali (27:02):
So there's so many ways to to spin things, but see what,
see what separates you for me.
At the time, I was 26 and Istarted a law firm and I just I
was just called myself themodern lawyers and I was young
and we're using tech and ai istaking over.
So much now but at the time, aisuper, super integrated, but
we're still using it.
We're being paperless formedical records.

(27:24):
That was a big deal.
So I was just showing that Icould be faster and more
efficient than some of thesemore senior attorneys that have
been doing things in an archaicway.
That was my angle then, which?
Now, if you're not using AI andyou don't use it as support,

(27:44):
you're just slowing yourselfdown.
Right, so the industry haschanged, but then we transferred
to the who hurt you.
So, to my point, you need tofind something that makes you
stand out but connects to thepublic.
Right, because in personalinjury, for example, as a lawyer

(28:08):
, my client could be the unbornfetus all the way to my 98 year
old grandma.
Right, I got, I got a bigdemographic.
How do you hit the masses?
Right, what's the message thathits the masses?
And so you got to think aboutwho your target audience is and

(28:28):
how are you?
How are you different thaneverybody else?

J.R. (28:32):
so how did who hurt you come about, or how did you just
discover it, decide on it andhow did you kind of leverage it
or put the gas on the?

Ali (28:40):
fire.
Yeah, I, I get this, probablyquestion the most out of
everything.
And my marketing director at thetime we were designing our very
first billboard about threeyears ago, and I don't know if
he was listening to music orwhat was going on, but he made a
billboard.
It was.
My picture showed there werepersonal injury attorneys.
And then he's like what do youthink about the text on this?

(29:00):
Don't worry about the text, I'mgoing to change it, but what do
you think about the location ofthe text?
And so I saw my picture.
I saw injury attorneys.
And then I saw who hurt you onit completely different font and
all that.
And I was like who hurt you?
I?
I really like that.
It spoke to me.
And so I was like I like whohurt you, let me, let me see
something.
And so that night I went homeand I looked at the domain name

(29:23):
who hurt youcom and it was likethree thousand dollars right,
and at the time I mean that'sdirt cheap for for your new
company's website.
So I went and snagged who hurtyoucom and then I went and
trademarked who hurt you.
Nobody had a trademark on whohurt youcom.
And then I went and trademarkedwho hurt you.
Nobody had a trademark on whohurt you.

(29:44):
And so I knew I knew.
Now I had this and and, justlike I mentioned once, you have
a good service and and now youhave the brand you just you put
money behind it so it was justkind of a serendipitous accident
.

J.R. (29:54):
You're like, oh, that sounds good, let me just see it.
And you saw the opportunity andthen went behind it absolutely
that's.

Ali (29:59):
That's a lot of what it is.
It's where hard work meets luck.
Right Hard work meetsopportunity Of course
preparation.

J.R. (30:06):
Let's see.
One other thing that youmentioned was achieving
five-star reviews across theboard.
How do you approach customersatisfaction?
I'm assuming that's a big partof it, right?

Ali (30:15):
Yeah, I think that's number one.
Number one is customersatisfaction.
It it's and you know thisbetter than anybody it's such a
competitive field.
You have an economy ineconomics, you have perfect
competition, perfect competitionbeing that anybody can open up
shop.
So I don't know if we're goingto sell clothes, for example.

(30:36):
If you have the, if you havethe money to start that, or I'll
take that back.
If you have a lemonade stand,any of that, or I'll take that
back.
If you have a lemonade stand,any of us can start a lemonade
stand.
Right, it's who makes the bestlemonade.
It's called a perfectcompetition because anybody can
compete.
Personal injury attorneys onestep away from that.
Yes, you're an attorney, so youhave to pass the bar exam, but
once you pass a bar exam, it's,in my opinion, one of the more

(31:00):
simple businesses that you canrun.
Now, scaling it and being fivestars is a completely different
story, but any attorney canbasically tomorrow, without
doing any additional schooling,can say they're a personal
injury attorney.
Almost like how there's morereal estate agents than homes.
Same idea with personal injuryattorneys.
There's a lot of personalinjury attorneys, so there's

(31:23):
steep competition.
So what are you going to dodifferently than everybody else,
right, and you got to put theclient first.
You have to put the clientfirst, you have to communicate
with the client.
You got to keep them in theloop every step of the way.
And you can't be greedy, right,you have to work with the
client and so that's how I've.

(31:43):
The method I've used to havefive stars is I try to finish
every transaction with theclient.
You're gonna have your ups anddowns with clients, right.
It's, it's a relationship, butat the end it's very important
that we leave on good termsbecause that client chose me,
chose my firm, and they alsotrusted us and they have their

(32:07):
friends and family, right.
So I think a lot of attorneys,they stand on principle and they
say, well, this is what myagreement says, pay me, right.
People have differentsituations and I think if you
have that human element, thathuman factor, and the client
sees that, you can also havefive stars.
I think it's something assimple as that.

J.R. (32:30):
I love it.
Cool, that was great.
That completely answers myquestion, and I think a lot of
people get value out of that.
So I wanted to pivot tophilanthropy, and you mentioned
buildlabettercom, which we'llget into in a bit.
I want to pivot to philanthropy, and you mentioned
buildLAbettercom, which we'llget into in a bit.
I want to start off with one ofthe things I admire about you,
aside from your Lamborghini andhaving a lot of success and all
that stuff, is that you'rereally big on philanthropy,

(32:51):
donating to causes that mean alot to you, and I've seen on
your stories too, you're goingto these events and you're
putting your efforts andenergies into things that you
feel like matter.
I think that's important.
I think we should emphasizethat, especially for role models
like someone like you in thecommunity to really give back or
pay it forward, and so I wantedto ask you well, we can go

(33:12):
different ways with this.
One is maybe I wanted to askwhat organizations are important
to you.
Or two, how did you get intophilanthropy, or what's your
philosophy on that, and how doyou move forward with it?

Ali (33:23):
I think philanthropy is the most important thing for a
business owner.
Once they get to that level,there's a time and place where
you want to do it but you justcan't.
Or you can do it but not on thelevel that you want to do it.
But I think it's as a businessowner and if you're a profitable
business, it's important to payback and pay it forward.

(33:48):
And so I feel like the story Itold you about my negotiation
coach at law school picked meand gave me a chance and gave me
an opportunity.
James gave me an opportunity,right, I felt like I was a very
average person and I still amvery average, but I was given an

(34:10):
opportunity.
Um, and I was given anopportunity.
I hit it out of the park, but Iwas given an opportunity.
And so it's so important that Ithink everybody gets a chance.
Everybody gets an opportunity,and what better than
underprivileged children rightFrom the very beginning?
Because some people are justborn into a social class,

(34:31):
they're born into a country inthe world, they're born
somewhere where they don't havethe resources to ever make it.
Everything is stacked upagainst them right resources to
ever make it.
Everything is stacked upagainst them right.
And so if I can give back tokids and just give them a chance
and it's what they do with it,right, but they had an
opportunity I feel like I'mdoing my part in this world, I

(34:52):
see.

J.R. (34:53):
There was a who was that rich person who mentioned that
it was maybe Rockefeller orsomething where he was, like,
spent the first half of his lifebuilding wealth and the second
half of his life giving it away.
I might be misattributing it,but you know that concept.
I definitely subscribe to thattoo, similar to what you're
saying.
What is the point of successand wealth and whatever, if you
don't try to and I feel like youhear those stories about those

(35:14):
very successful people who triedto give all their money away
and it just comes back to them,right?
I believe that.

Ali (35:20):
I believe that whatever you put out into the universe, you
get back, and so, finding thoseopportunities when we can, like
you said, to give back and findthose areas that mean most to us
, I feel like we get the most inreturn, and not for that reason
, but it just kind of makes theworld a better place, right,
absolutely I think, I think it'simportant I echo what you said,
I I think the more you give the, the more it comes back to you,

(35:42):
and I think it's such a crazyconcept.
But I truly believe that,andrew Carnegie.
Okay, there you go.

J.R. (35:46):
It was one of those guys Andrew Carnegie, dale Carnegie,
rockefeller those are the richpeople, but definitely so before
your business reached the levelwhere you can make this sort of
impact.
Was there anything that youwere doing before then or
anything that influenced you tohave this mindset or perspective
?

Ali (36:02):
Yeah, I mean we always donated to neighboring
elementary schools beyondblindness, buying them materials
, buying them pencil boxes andschool books and things like
that.
Recently were able to donatesix figures to Children's

(36:23):
Hospital of Orange County forcancer research, or Pencil for
Promises, which they believe ineducation and they're building a
school in Guatemala.
Those types of foundations areso important because that's our
future.
It's talking about kids atgrade zero, giving them a chance
, because that's when you'rereally changing the trajectory

(36:45):
of their life, right.
That's when they're learninghow to speak and they're
learning how to read, and in 20years, 25 years, 30 years,
they're going to be running forCongress, right, and they're
running our country.
So I'm investing, and not justtheir future, investing my own
future too.

J.R. (37:04):
Yeah, I like that.
So I want to touch onbuildlabettercom.
So you want to let us know whatthat's all about or what's
going on to that.

Ali (37:14):
Yeah.
So my heart goes out toeverybody that's been affected
either directly or indirectly bythe LA fires.
I mean, you see this on thenews and you've seen it in the
past and you just never thinkit's going to happen to you,
it's never going to happen toyour neighbor and it's
devastating.
One day.
It's the most beautiful, mostexpensive city county in the

(37:39):
world, right, and then it'sburnt to ashes.
Right, and I was born andraised in Southern California.
Then it's burnt to ashes, right, and I was born and raised in
southern california and I thinkthere's there's a better way to
build la.
And so my thought when, whencreating buildla bettercom is I
have I have a big network and Iwanted to connect people free of

(38:02):
charge to my network andwhether it's legal aid I mean I
don't know if you've seenthere's so many wildfire
attorneys right now on socialmedia.
They go from car accidents towildfire attorneys.
That's not the angle that I'mtrying to go.
I want to get them connectedwith those lawyers if that's
what they need, If they needhelp with relocation, if they

(38:23):
need help because their houseburned down, the insurance
company's not paying them, Iwant to get them set up.
If they're injured from smokeinhalation.
I want to get them set up withthe lawyers.
On the flip side, people haveto rebuild their homes.
If they need to get set up withcontractors, engineers,
architects, toxic contaminationcleanup, construction supplies.

(38:45):
I want to connect people thereand then I want to give out
grants to people, people thathave been affected by the fires
fill out their information andjust cut them a check to be
honest, and just help out whereI can, and I'm creating an icon
where it says join our team Ifyou're a professional out there
that you want to be part of thenetwork, or if you have
additional clothes or food, oryou want to be part of the
network, or if you haveadditional clothes or food or

(39:06):
you want to be part of a drive,or we can get the, get different
governmental agencies that arethat are giving back, get them
linked into it.

J.R. (39:14):
So just kind of like the la plug for fire victims so I
know that as of this moment yousaid it's not up yet the website
, but it will be soon and this,this episode, probably will air
around march 10th ish, if I'mnot getting my dates wrong.
But so maybe what can peopleexpect if they go to this
website or you know what kind ofhow does that?

Ali (39:36):
process look yeah, I I think it's going to go live by
this week and you can go on thewebsite and basically it's going
to be a drop down menu of whatyou need.
And basically it's going to bea drop-down menu of what you
need and then you're going toput in your contact information
or you can call and then we'llget you connected with who you
need.
So I'm basically extending mynetwork to the public.

J.R. (39:56):
Cool, perfect.
So you guys check that out.
I know again, this is going tobe a little bit later than when
we're recording this, but Ithink it's going to be a really
good resource for people.
So appreciate that.
Cool.
So you ready for rapid firequestions?
Let's run it.
This is the fun part of this.
All right, so not that youdon't already have billboards.

Ali (40:18):
But if you can have a billboard, anywhere that will
reach millions of people.

J.R. (40:22):
What would it say?
Buildlabettercom Perfect.
We love it.

Ali (40:26):
What is one of the hardest challenges you faced in your
life and what did you learn fromit?
You don't have to be liked byeverybody.
It's impossible to be liked byeverybody, and that's okay what
it's impossible to be liked byeveryone.

J.R. (40:35):
That's crazy.
Let's see Self-inflicted wounds.
So do you have a story aboutsomething that's gone wrong in
your life that was your faultand you can't blame anyone
because you did it to yourself?

Ali (40:45):
There's a lot of stories, but I'm probably going to have
to pass right now.
That's all good.

J.R. (40:48):
If you could redo one thing, what would you do
differently?

Ali (40:52):
Sounds crazy, but I would repeat everything the same way
that I did Perfect.

J.R. (40:56):
Yeah, and my follow-up to that is most people say that too
as a thought experiment geniein a bottle, redo something and
you make, do something different.
Would you do somethingdifferent or could you?
Or sorry, what would you dodifferently?

Ali (41:10):
I would have my parents invest me a little bit more so I
can become a professionalsoccer player.

J.R. (41:15):
Ah, perfect, Love it.
If you could give your youngerself advice any age or time
period, what would it be?

Ali (41:22):
Keep working hard.
You're going to have your day,too.
Period.

J.R. (41:25):
What would it be Keep working hard, You're going to
have your day too Nice.
Oh, you're like speedingthrough this.
My fastest guess In the lastfew years, what new belief,
behavior or habit has improvedyour life?

Ali (41:35):
I think creating boundaries is really important, creating
healthy boundaries.
You have a set of principles,you have foundation, you have
morals and I think in this dayand age we kind of deviate from
it, depending on situations.
You either want to be liked, oryou want to fit in, or you
don't want to make the otherperson uncomfortable.
I'll give you an example.
Maybe you don't like grilledcheese sandwiches and your

(41:57):
friend always wants to eatgrilled cheese sandwiches and
just to hang out with them.
You're eating grilled cheesesandwiches.
Well, you don't like it, don'tdo it, and it's OK to tell them
that you don't like grilledcheese sandwiches, and if they
don't like you for that, thenmaybe it wasn't a friendship to
begin with, right?
So I think in 2025, I want tostay true to my principles and
and have healthy boundaries.

J.R. (42:17):
I love it.
Who would you call successfuland how do you define success?

Ali (42:22):
I think somebody's successful where they have a
great work-life balance, sothey're successful in work and
they're also successful in theirfamily life.
I think that's really important, nice.

J.R. (42:40):
I totally agree.
It's like what's the point ofTonybins quote, what is if?
Success without fulfillment isfailure?
And I feel like if you don'thave that balance for the things
that are important to you, thenwhat is success?
Right?
Why are we doing all thisExactly?
If you knew you couldn't fail,what would you try?
Or what would you be doingright now?
I'd be doing standup comedy.

(43:00):
There you go, nice.
Did you know I do standupcomedy?
No, there you go, nice.
Did you know I do stand-upcomedy?

Ali (43:07):
no, just for fun like just like once a month, just do a set
, learn really, yeah, it's superfun.
Yeah, that's like.
That's.
If I was like unlock my next,next, next level, that's what I
would do, yeah you could totallydo it so I took a 101 class and
a 201 class at this theater inhuntington beach.

J.R. (43:19):
They teach you it's like a , it's like an hour long class,
four classes.
They teach you how to dostand-up comedy and it's
literally just set up punch, setup punch, set up punch, and
then it's just going out thereand just doing it, because the
teachers are literally justwrite jokes, tell them, and then
you bomb or you do well, andthen you just keep moving
forward.
So it's easier than you think.

Ali (43:37):
That's really cool.

J.R. (43:39):
Maybe I'll make jokes about you and they make you
laugh and they'd be like come upon stage, man Cool man let's
see Favorite hot take orsomething you think most people
wouldn't agree with, I thinkwatching sports is overrated.

Ali (43:53):
I think, whatever your career is or whatever you're
passionate about, that should bewhat you're taking statistics
on.
That should be where you'refocusing your time on Going to a
sports game, making events withyour friends.
I mean, having an experiencewith your friends is one thing,
but watching sports every day ora couple of times a week for a
few hours is a time killer.

(44:14):
And that next person isn'tdoing that and they're investing
in themselves.
You're kind of falling behindin life because we all have a
finite amount of time in ourlives.

J.R. (44:23):
Yeah, I love it.
It's a really good hot take.
Actually, what is one of thebest or most worthwhile
investments you've made ineither time?

Ali (44:37):
money or energy or et cetera.
Going to school yeah, going tocollege and then going to law
school and getting a graduatedegree to just not only expand
your mind, but kind of separateyourself from the masses.

J.R. (44:44):
Favorite recent purchase within, let's say, $50 to $100
range that has impacted yourlife the most in the last six
months or so.

Ali (44:53):
I recently purchased these parking pads from Amazon for $20
that you put on your wall whenyou park your car so you don't
ding it.

J.R. (45:03):
So it sticks on your car or the wall.

Ali (45:06):
Yeah, they're little pads that you stick on the wall, so
in case you hit the wall, it'scushion.

J.R. (45:10):
Oh, okay, okay.
So just a small little thing.
How much was it?
Like 20 bucks?
20 bucks, yeah, and you're like, this is going to save me a lot
of money.
Game changer, nice, I love itThinking ahead books, movies,
videos, articles or any mediathat you share or recommend the
most.

Ali (45:25):
I don't know how appropriate this is, but I love
Wolf of Wall Street, oh yeah.

J.R. (45:31):
What about it?
I like the movie too, but whatdo you like about it?

Ali (45:35):
I think sometimes you just need inspiration.
I'm not saying inspiration, howit ended, but just that drive,
that bigger-than-life drive tojust win and be large and build
something bigger than yourself.
Yeah.

J.R. (45:51):
I would say that it's one of those.
We're not putting the dude onthe pedestal, but it's the
energy that you can get inspiredfrom and be like, yeah, let me
take something from this, getinspired by it.
Yeah, I feel like good art doesthat for people, right, it kind
of inspires you or makes yousee something differently.
Cool, all right, that is it forrapid fire questions.
We've come to the end.
You are one of my fastestguests.
You're speedy man, all right,so ending questions.

(46:14):
So I would like to end withgratitude.
So, ali, what are you gratefulfor?

Ali (46:19):
I'm grateful for my health and my immune system and being
able to get up every day on myown and put in the fight.
I think that's something that Itake for granted, and in 2025,
I I made it, made it a point toslow down, smell the flowers,

(46:39):
because you talk aboutappreciating things, but you,
you sometimes don't even knowhow to appreciate it.
So I I'm trying to now breakdown what I'm appreciative for
and I'm I'm really appreciativefor, for the most part, being
being a healthy person I love it.

J.R. (46:57):
any final asks from the audience or any final takeaways
that you want them to have inthis conversation, so the first
part you can plug yourself.
You can be like, yeah, check usout, but any final ask or any
final takeaways you want them tohave in this conversation, so
the first part you can plugyourself.
You can be like, yeah, check usout, but any final ask or any
final takeaways you want them tohave, or both.

Ali (47:11):
I think if you guys picked up anything from this, it's
don't hesitate to bet onyourself.
It's going to pay tenfold.
Put it all on black and find uson buildlabettercom.

J.R. (47:26):
Nice, perfect, all right.
Ali, where can we find you?
Social media handles, websites,et cetera?
I know we're going to link yourInstagram and your firm's
website, but where can we findyou if they want to check out
what you're up to or that stuff?
You guys can find me at yourlawyer Ali Perfect, nice, all
right.
Ali, it was great to have you.
I really appreciate it.
I've learned a lot from thisepisode.

(47:48):
I feel like I've been inspiredjust a little bit too, and
hopefully our audiences as well.
So I really appreciate it.
Thanks for being here, man.
I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, thank you, and so for myfinal sign off, thank you guys.
Learned something from thisconversation, just a reminder to
always be kind to others,especially yourself, and you can
always learn something fromsomeone if you take the time to

(48:09):
listen.
So thanks for being here.

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#23: Ali Razavi - The Mastermind Behind “Who Hurt You?”, Investing in Yourself, and Giving Back

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#23: Ali Razavi - The Mastermind Behind “Who Hurt You?”, Investing in Yourself, and Giving Back