Inspiring Entrepreneurial Journey of Attorney Keith Lamar Jr. | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast - Black Bridge Mindset

Episode Transcript
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CJ (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast
where culture, entrepreneurship,and business intersect to fuel
inspiration.
This podcast celebrates thepower of diverse voices shaping
the future of business.
So whether you're building abusiness, breaking barriers, or
just looking for some seriousinspiration, you're in the right
place.

(00:22):
The Black Bridge Mindset.
Podcast is hosted by your threefavorite best friends, Mike,
Ken, and CJ.
So now sit back, relax, andabsorb the gems being dropped on
you by today's special guest.

Mike (00:38):
I got good news.

Ken (00:39):
yes.

Mike (00:41):
Ken, I don't know if I've said anything to you, but, so I
partnered with some folks and Ithink we're gonna buy a house in
Atlanta next week.
It near you.

Ken (00:51):
Where in Atlanta?

Mike (00:52):
Well, it's not Atlanta proper, it's like 45 minutes.
West of Atlanta.
I forget the name of the city.
McCoon is that.
Is that a county or a city?

Ken (01:03):
Keith.
Because I wouldn't know.
He's laughing.
So the answer,

Mike (01:08):
it wrong.
It's okay.
But anyway, I'm 45 minutes

Ken (01:12):
oh, Macon.

Mike (01:13):
Macon.
Uh, listen, I could, I could buythe property there.
I don't need to know the name ofthe city.
Macon Bacon.
Got it.
Macon.
Macon.

CJ (01:29):
got it.
Yeah.

Mike (01:32):
Macon.
me and my partners just bought ahouse in Macon.
I'll, I'll show you pictures andthings of it.
He's there today and he walkedthe property and, we're pretty
excited.
We're gonna close at the end ofthe the month, so, yeah.
So that, that's my good news forthe week.

CJ (01:48):
you said you saw here?

Mike (01:50):
Say it one more time.

CJ (01:50):
Was that in addition to, is that in place of the one you
said you saw here, or

Mike (01:54):
The one that we, yeah, the one we saw in Columbus wasn't
gonna work out, so we, we nixedthat one.

CJ (01:59):
Hmm.

Mike (02:00):
But, the one, so I'm pretty excited.
I don't know.
Yeah, We're gonna have ourfirst, rental property as a
joint venture, together here inyour neck of the woods.
So when I come visit, I'm gonnahave to go do a drive by and
check it out.

Ken (02:13):
All right.
It'll be, it'll be six o'clockin the morning, but we'll do it.

Mike (02:17):
Oh, trust me.
I don't wanna be in trafficeither, so whatever it is,
whatever it is.
it's co-living, so I can't, Ican't necessarily, I mean, I
could go into the house anytime,but I can't necessarily, like,
you know, I don't, I can't gointo the rooms and stuff if
they're rented, but, so yeah.
That's, that's, I

CJ (02:34):
currently rented already.
You just

Mike (02:36):
it is there, there are five rooms to the house and, we
can actually add one more roomand another bathroom at some
point.
each room is individuallyrented.
Yep.
It's a co-living, situation.

CJ (02:49):
It sounds like something you get into in New York or la.

Mike (02:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It, I mean, those are, those arepretty expensive places.
But, yeah, so that, that's myexcitement for a week.

Ken (03:00):
I'm trying to think if there's anything crazy going on.
So, Bruce was in town the, thispast weekend.
My friend from Miami, for thoseof you who don't know but are
nosy, and this was one of thefirst weekends.
I was out from like Thursday toSunday, and by Sunday at three
o'clock, I was like, I'm goinghome.
Like I was, I was done.

(03:21):
I can't do it.
Just cannot do it.
That and I will tell you, thingsare not cheap anymore.
You know, just going out,hanging out.

CJ (03:31):
when been in.

Ken (03:34):
Things were cheap in Atlanta whenever I first got
here.
Yeah.
Things were cheap in Atlanta.
Not anymore though.
But it's, you know, it's allgood.

Mike (03:43):
Yeah.
I, I tell people now, when theyask me to go out on the weekend,
I'm like, you get one night,

Ken (03:47):
That's it.

Mike (03:48):
you get Friday, or Saturday or Sunday, you don't
get two.
You get one

CJ (03:53):
Oh,

Mike (03:53):
because it takes me, it takes me two or three days to
recover.

CJ (03:56):
Oh, I can recall the times where you called me old and
wanted me to say.

Mike (04:00):
Oh, I still will call you old now if I'm around y'all.
Exactly.
If I'm around y'all, I'll, I, Ican make it a couple of nights,
but nowadays I'm like, eh, I,I'm not here to see anybody or
do anything.

CJ (04:13):
to tell us, keep, just keep living.

Mike (04:17):
That's the plan.
That's the plan anyway.

CJ (04:21):
Nothing really going on here except for, oh, next weekend is
derby and.
Before we were always playingsoftball on Sundays and you
know, Saturdays with stuff goingon, is the first year that I'm
actually going to a Derby party.
So I get a little bit of here inOhio.
Some friends of ours that we'vemet, late last year, of'em is

(04:43):
actually from Louisville,they're one a Debbie party.
So I get to get all up and havesome, mint jus next Saturday.

Ken (04:54):
Those are the nastiest drinks.
I'm not trying to get on.
I'm not trying to get on,

CJ (04:58):
of

Ken (04:59):
but

CJ (04:59):
but

Ken (05:00):
Right.

CJ (05:00):
I'm not a big fan either, but I'm sure I can to or take
away from or something to makeit palatable.

Mike (05:07):
Let's, let's get started.
Let you go ahead andintroductions.

Ken (05:11):
Today I.
On the Black Bridge MindsetPodcast, we would love to
welcome our guest attorney KeithLamar, Jr.
Who is the founder and managingattorney of the Law Offices of
Keith Lamar, Jr.
Keith received his BA inpolitical science from Morehouse
College and his JD from theThird Good Marshall School of

(05:32):
Law at Texas SouthernUniversity.
He has handled, handled over1000 criminal and civil matters,
and has worked as a DeputyDistrict Attorney in Fulton
County, Georgia in that role.
Keith was given the privilege tosupervise the communication
prosecution division and wasrecognized as the non-complex
attorney of the year, FultonCounty Employee of the Year, and

(05:56):
earned the Fulton County PublicService Award.
He has served as a board memberfor the National District
Attorney Association and servedas the National President of the
National Black ProsecutorAssociation.
Keith also serves on theadvisory board for the American
University School of PublicAffairs, where he is helping
work on criminal justice reformand case management.

(06:18):
Keith has consulted and spokento countless audiences across
the nation about the practice oflaw, criminal justice, reform,
motivation, and overcomingobstacles, and, and a host of
other topics.
Keith is a proud member of fiveBeta Sigma fraternity, emerging,
100 Atlanta Resource Fellows,American Bar Association, and

(06:40):
the Gate City Bar Association.
He takes pride in making surethat he makes a positive impact
on everyone he encounters inlife.
Everybody puts your handstogether for my workout group
partner, Mr.
Keith Lamar, also known as theShark

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHA (07:01):
Sharp.
Appreciate it, man.

Ken (07:03):
of course.
Welcome to the show.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK" (07:05):
Hey man, it's honor to

CJ (07:06):
with those accolades, I don't know if we're worthy.

Oh

Ken (07:09):
We are not.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK (07:10):
out.

Ken (07:11):
me.

Mike (07:13):
I know I.
I, I literally told them, I readyour bio and I was like, man,
I'm have to think of some bigwords to use during this
interview.
We'll start with McKoon.

I was born down there in Macon.
Down in Macon.

Mike (07:32):
Oh yeah.
Nice.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SH (07:34):
That's.

Mike (07:35):
well, I'm doing the speed round later and number one was
gonna be Macon or McKoon, but Ithink we beat that one to death.
I'm gonna scratch that one offthe list.

CJ (07:46):
I thought that.

Mike (07:46):
Well, nice.
Well, I, I'm excited to hearabout your story and your
journey and everything else.
So, the thing that I always askat the beginning is just, let
us, let us know, you know, whatmakes Keith tick, the shark
tick.
And how did you, what made youwant to become an attorney?

All right.
Well, you know, you know, when Iwas in in college, I wasn't
really sure what I would reallywanted to do.
You know, I know I wanted tomake some money.
I saw people driving around innice cars.
I'm like, man, I would like tohave a nice car one day,
especially coming from a coon.
so I was like, this is what Ineed to do, man.
So I, I would go to a, a, a lawschool fair, and, I had took the

(08:25):
lsat.
My score wasn't that great.
And so I was thinking about, youknow, taking a skip year.
But then the dean of the schoolwas like, Hey man, I think your
score is okay.
What's your GPA?
I told him, he was like, man,why don't you just apply?
And so I was like, okay, thenwhy not?
And then boom, I got accepted toThurgood.
And, probably the best decisionI ever made in my life, changed
the whole way of thinking.
As far as once I started, like,I don't even remember what I was

(08:46):
learning beforehand, man, it's,there's that much going on in
law school and, but greatpeople, great experience and
love Houston.
That's my second home.
So I had a great time out there.
Then came on back and, startedworking at the DA's office, man.
So never thought I'd be a da,but I graduated law school in
2010 and the market market waspretty bad.

(09:06):
So that's, if everybodyremembers that, but, you know,
oh 8, 0 9, it was a slide.
And so graduated in 2010.
It was like, okay, y'all got anymoney to pay anybody or every,
everybody, oh wait.
But, but I did that man.
And so when I got into it, Iactually started to enjoy my
job.
I started to look at it and seewhere there's things that needed
to change, in the system.

(09:27):
so that's why I did thecommunity prosecution.
I.
I looked at it where it's like,what can we do to actually
change it to make it a bettercommunity for us?
And it was working.
So I was doing that for a coupleyears, got promoted pretty
quickly, enjoyed it.
but I felt like I wanted to dosomething bigger.
And so I remember one time Iused to talk to these kids and
this one guy, little kid waslike, man, you keep talking
about college man, who gonna payfor it?

(09:48):
I kind of stumped me because Iwas like, it ain't gonna be me.
I'm a government employee.
What y'all talking about?
You know, I just said you needto go.
But, then I thought to myself,I'm like, man, know what?
Every time a little kid ask methat, man, I wanna be in a
position to be like, I can ifyou, you know, and do this.
And so I decided, I was like,you know what?
I'm gonna open up this firm.
Cultural service, service forhumanity is kind like the little
theme behind it, man.
And so basically when I do thisfirm is every time you have a

(10:11):
really big case or somethingreally big, I give back to the
community.
And so that's the whole goal fordoing the firm.
Man.
I wanted to be able to dosomething big, leave like a
legacy.
I've always had a lot ofinterns, so we got two, three
interns right now that are doingreally well.
Try to get them into law school.
And my main goal is, man, justto inspire.
Like I said, it's, it's ablessing to do this.
I never thought I'd be able toown my own firm.

(10:31):
But now I'm out here doing itand it was a leap of faith to
start, I tell you that.
'cause my parents were like, whyare you leaving the DA's office?
You a deputy district attorney.
You're 30 years old.
You the national president, yougonna leave president?
Like, look man, I would telleverybody, but yeah.
Like, I feel like I got to it.
Just something inside of mesaid, you know what?
You gotta do something, yougotta do something bigger.

(10:52):
I wasn't, I wasn't gonna stay inthat little space and it's a big
space, but I felt small, youknow, I just, I was like, I
wanna do something different.
I wanna be me.
I wanna jump out there and youknow, I don't wanna go through
all the red lines and doing thisand doing that, man, let's just
do something big, do somethinggreat for somebody immediately.
So if I got the money they needsome, like computers or anything
at the school, I ain't gotta begeverybody in the county, Hey,

(11:12):
can y'all gimme a penny?
Because that's what they givingyou.
And I would say, nah, let's goget the schools right now.
I mean, let's go get thecomputers right now.
So that's why I started thefirm.
It's going well.
And man, I'm looking forward tothe questions y'all have, man.
But I definitely, I think lawschool was definitely a change
in my life.
And, overcoming the fear becauseit was fearful.
I always, now, I always wantedto do something, but overcoming
the fear of saying, you knowwhat, I'm finna just do this.

(11:34):
And I jumped out.
You

Mike (11:36):
Yeah.

out.
And, when you jump out thatwindow, man, you just gotta,
there's no looking back, man.
So just, just know that if youprepare hard, you work hard, you
do what you're supposed to do,you'll never fail out here.

Ken (11:46):
So let, let's take a step back and let's talk about, what
you had mentioned earlier aboutyour LSAT scores and you
thinking that they weren't, youknow, really that great,

Mm-hmm.

Ken (11:56):
right?
'cause I know sometimes, a lotof people who are talking about
starting their own business,starting a, you know, a new
career, that kind of thing.
It's small things that they kindof get caught up on.
So tell the audience about whatyour mindset was.
The, you know, if you can talkabout how the conversation with
the dean kind of changed thatand made you kind of push

(12:19):
forward into, you know, makingthat decision to get to, to go,
to apply to law school.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHAR (12:25):
Well, you know, now see I talk to a
lot of kids now that still havethat same fear I had, but it's
like, oh man, I didn't score inthe one sixties.
I didn't do this.
I didn't do that.
I, I can't get into Harvard andYale.
So what?
Can you get into law school?
you get into, a good school?
Have you done good in yourregular, curriculum?
Right?
So if you have a decent GPA, youdon't have to score a 1 60, 1

(12:47):
70.
That helps to get scholarships.
Yes.
But if you can score a decentabove 1 40, 1 45, you can get in
with a good GPA.
And see, when I was talking tothe dean, the dean was just
like, man, look, you got aphenomenal GPA.
You've been, doing a lot ofextracurricular things.
You've been doing this, this,and this.
I was in all kinds of differentgroups and he was like, I think
we can, that's enough, man.

(13:08):
So I would tell the people thatout here are concerned about
their scores.
'cause I see people taking ittwo, three times.
I'm like, why you taking it somany times?
Okay, you taking it, that's who,that's what your score is.
If you did your best, that'swhat your score is, don't trip.
You can get into a law schooland guess what, if you do really
well your first year of lawschool, you get on scholarship
then, or you can transfer to theschool you want to go to.
Why don't you just kill yourfirst year?

(13:29):
Right?
So sometimes you gotta be, youknow, might have to ride the
bench for a season.
okay.
It's okay, but you need to comeout here and swing for the
fences every single time becauseI think that, you know, if I
didn't do that, if I didn't talkto him, who knows what I'd be
doing today, but I can't evenimagine it.
So I'm just glad he gave me thecourage to say, you know what,
you can still go to law school.
And I really enjoyed myself.

CJ (13:48):
Would you

Mike (13:48):
Yeah.

CJ (13:48):
that that Dean one of your mentors?

I don't know if I call him a
mentor all the way.
Would say he's probably a verybig influence, because he has so
many people that he wasinfluencing at that time, you
know, being an intake and, doingall that.
But I would say that he, hedefinitely has a very big
inspiration on my life.
I wouldn't call him a mentor,but he knows man, I love him to
death.
As far as like a mentor, I wouldsay for me mentor is more like
my dad, maybe.

(14:12):
'Cause he is just there everyday, right?
You talking about somebodythat's going like you really
messing up on a daily basis.
Maybe you like, man, I just madea bad decision.
Let me call somebody real quick.
Hey man, I just stepped to some,you know what man?
Let me, let me fix that.
But, but nah man, great guy.
I met also some great teachersthere, great professors, and
then some really close friendsthat I talk to on a daily basis
from law school.
So anybody that's listeningthat's in law school or thinking

(14:32):
about going to law school, thepeople you meet in law school,
man, those are your peers, man.
Those are your colleagues forlife.
Like, for life.
Like, these are the same peopleyou're gonna be calling.
I've been outta law school now,how many years, man?
That's, not, not even like thatold guys, but I've been outta
law school, 15 years, 15, 16years now.
And I talk to these people allthe time, it doesn't even feel
like it's been that long.

(14:53):
And then, you know, you justlook up and like, wait a minute,
I got a question.
'cause you don't know the entirescope of the law, right?
So if you got a real estateissue, you might have to call
somebody else.
got a commercial, issue, yougotta call this person.
So you wanna have networks ofpeople and your network is
starting and your law school.
Then from there, join adifferent organizations like
bsa, black Law StudentAssociation, and get to know
people in other law schools,man.

(15:13):
'cause guess what?
When it's out here in thisworld, man, you gotta go get it.

Mike (15:16):
You hit on a couple of things that, we, we try to talk
about a lot whenever, we havepeople on that.
One is, you know, imperfectaction is what I always talk
about.
And you sort of hit on that byjust, just taking the leap and
going, it was, shoot, I can'tthink of his name.
Steve Harvey, who made thefamous video that said, you just

(15:38):
gotta jump and, you know, as youjump you're building your, your
parachute on your way down.
You may not know what you'redoing.
You may, you may do it scared,but at least you took that, that
leap and before you hit theground, you're gonna have it all
figured out.
So, I think that's awesome thatyou, you took that leap and you
realized that you didn't have itall figured out,

Not definitely.

Mike (15:59):
to hear that, that you were scared is, I mean, that's
real, right?
Because a lot of people thinklike, oh, I'm gonna go into this
profession.
I need to know everything.
And then as soon as they taketwo steps, they're like, oh,
there's so much stuff.
I don't know that I'm gonna taketwo steps back and just not do
it.

Oh yeah.
And that's, that's easy to fallinto that man, you missing that.
'cause I, when I jumped out, Idid a personal injury law firm.
And so remember I was a da.
you talking personal injurylife, this is a different life
than the DA life.
Now of course I did somecriminal defense to start only
'cause you know, you gotta eat.
the personal injury, I was like,you know what?
That is how I'm going to changethis game because it's way more

(16:35):
lucrative.
And so jumping out, like yousaid, is, it is nervousness, but
you gotta, you know, I was like,you know what?
I've done well so far, I'm gonnaput up my 110% into it and
whatever happens, happens.
And the, honestly, the takingthe leap is, that's the hardest
thing.
It's not even about keeping, itis like the leap, the first
thing.
And to get the engine going, itis gonna be your hardest thing
once you start.
If you can get outta that,great.

(16:57):
Okay.
'cause once you know you can doit once, guess what?
You can do it again and againand again.

Mike (17:02):
Right.
Exactly.

Ken (17:04):
Tell us about how you expanded the practice, right?
You said that you started outwith criminal defense, went into
personal injury, like talk aboutwhat kind of the, the decision
or the triggers were for you toexpand your practice.

So I, I knew I wanted to do the
personal injury.
I wanted to make sure that I didthe best job for people though,
because I, I'm really big onthat.
I wanna make sure reputation,you know, that's one thing I've
always been on when I was a kid.
So I wanted make sure I had agood reputation.
So only way to have a goodreputation as a personal injury
lawyer is to get big money forpeople, right?
Because they be like, he a goodguy, but if he get me paid or
not, right?

Mike (17:39):
Mm-hmm.

know what, I gotta do the right thing
because these people want to getpaid.
So, you know, talking to a lotof different attorneys that was
already in the space and theywere very helpful by the way.
You know, telling me about whatI need to do here.
You know, I remember I got myfirst case and I was like, okay,
I got it.
Somebody trust me.
Cool.
Okay.
I immediately went, go talk to adifferent attorney, say, okay,
what I need to do, man?
All right.
Because you gotta make sure, Imean, my thing was I'm always

(18:03):
trying to give them the bestproduct.
And my thing is, even if I don'tget the most outta the case, I
want them to get the most outtathe case.
So certain cases, if I don'tknow what it is, I'm definitely
gonna go to the top tier person.
'cause I gotta bless andactually know some of these
people.
And I'm like, you finna get themost money possible.
So even if I got the split it ornot, my client will be the
richest.
And so that's what I was tryingto go after, man.

(18:24):
And so I wanted to make surethat when I, when I changed
over.
To the personal injury that Ican do it and I can do it so
well that if we build a realengine, it can run itself
eventually as I scale up withdifferent people.
And that way that's how you canreally make a real change into
the community.
So hopefully, you know, wegetting there, we crank it up
right now, but man, you know, ifwe do it right, we can take over

(18:45):
and do a lot of things.

Ken (18:47):
For those of you who don't know, the state of Georgia is
probably one of the betterplaces in the country to be, if
you are a personal injuryattorney, and there are a lot of
personal injury attorneys.
And so the next time you guyscome visit, you'll notice all
the billboards whenever you comefrom the to and from the
airport, right?

(19:07):
You'll see them.
So, so talk to people.
Tell us what it is that you didto figure out what lane you're
supposed to be in, because thereare some very big national type
personal injury firms here,right?
So, so talk to the people abouthow you figured out where your

(19:31):
niche is.

You know, for me it's, it's funny,
man, I got, you know, real bigdreams.
I was like, man, I'm gonna bejust as big as Morgan.
Morgan and that bigger, allright?
And how we gonna do that?
I don't care if I got the knockon every single door, I let them
know I exist.
I will do that.
Because Morgan, Morgan mighthave a billion dollars a day,
but hey, I, I'm shark, everybodyswim, swim my phone.
You real quick.
You know what I mean?
But really that's how I did it,man, was really just going back

(19:54):
to where I'm from.
You know, letting people know,Hey, I'm Keith, I'm out here.
I exist.
just hitting people up saying,Hey, just gimme a chance.
You heard know anybody in theaccident?
Gimme a chance to do it.
I guarantee you.
I got you.
You know, and it started withone client at a time.
And so the very first client Igot, I was like, great, let's do
it.
That person might refersomebody, then I might get a
friend to refer somebody and I'mlike, boom, let's do a good job

(20:16):
every time.
And then you look up after ayear or two, it's like, okay,
now it's consistent.
Like how's this working?
And it's really about word ofmouth and doing the right thing.
That's my biggest thing for usto grow our firm right now is if
you do right with one person,that can create 10 more people.
But you gotta do right with oneperson.
Don't try to take advantage ofthat one person.
Say, oh, I'm gonna squeeze thisperson for every penny, man.
No, you better stop it.
You treat that person right,because you never know your next

(20:38):
referral comes from.
And even though I know we gotbillboards all over the world
out here, but.
All in all honesty, people talkand I think if you have good,
reputation amongst people, whenthey're talking about lawyers,
that's how you get a goodclient.
That's how you get people tosay, you know what?
I'm gonna go with Keith.
Versus well I seen hisbillboard.
It's cool, but who, who is he?
Right?
Because if somebody tell youlike, oh, I actually don't, I
know this guy.

(20:58):
He'll do right by you.
I promise you, he'll tell youeverything.
He's transparent.
If you can build that reputationand it keeps going and growing,
that's how you come a longlasting, big time firm.
So that's the goal over here.

CJ (21:09):
How has your philosophy for your firm evolved over time?
I know you wanted to, to be thatpersonal industry, excuse me,
personal injury attorney.
You said that you, you go about,using word of mouth to get your
reputation down, to gain yourclients, but how has, your
business evolved over, you know,the time that you've been, been
open?

Well, you know, having, uh, when it
started out, it was just me inmy little briefcase and we gonna
do this thing to, get in theoffice, get in the office space,
get in employees, and knowinghow that's, you know, when
you're doing it yourself, youcan, you can go a hundred, a
hundred miles an hour where youcan change things up randomly.
But when you have a team, yougotta be consistent.
I'm, I'm real big on that.
I don't want them to be like,man, I don't know he gonna have

(21:49):
a good or bad day today.
He's like, no, I'm, I'm the sameevery day.
finna come in here, we finna dothis.
All right.
And this are a clear set goals.
And it is really, it seems likemore work for me, right?
Because it is like, Hey, I wannamake sure I'm, I'm leading the
right way.
'cause I really believe that,you know, I don't wanna just
say, y'all do this, y'all dothis.

(22:10):
I'm showing you how to do it.
You're seeing how I work.
And hopefully if you're payingattention, you can follow that
lead, right?
Where it's like, okay, this mandoesn't mind working.
He'll do, he's not gonna ask meto do something that he wouldn't
do.
And so I wanna build a cultureof like, Hey, if you want to be
great, let's be great.
If you don't want to be great,on you.
But I'm trying to be greatbecause

Mike (22:29):
Mm-hmm.

don't wanna be great but me.
I wanna be great, and if youwanna be great with me, then
let's do these steps.
And so I've had to learn how tomake sure to, talk to people the
right way, make sure that Imotivate them the right way too,
right?
Because everybody's motivateddifferently.
So, you know, some people mightcome in and you just gotta say,
what's up?
Let's do it.
And they ready.
Other people, they might begrumpy, but it is okay.
They can still be motivated,they can still be, get the best

(22:52):
out of'em.
So just learning how to talk topeople, learning how to build up
that way to make sure thatthey're still doing the same
thing that I would do if Italked to a client, right?
So I like to build a personalrelationship with clients where
they, you know, know who they'retalking to.
So talking to my team and tryingto say, Hey, when you talk to
'em, ask'em how their day was.
Come on.
Don't just say, Hey, what's up?

(23:13):
This is from the law office.
You did that.
Okay.
Don't do that.
Give'em something, you know, let'em know you care a little bit,
please.
Right?
But you gotta, but it startswith me talking to them, right?
So how do I talk to my team?
How do I, communicate with them?
And so it's, hopefully it's atrick down effect.
And so that's how I look ateverything as I build, the firm
up as we grow is if you doeverything like you're supposed

(23:35):
to and they say things trickledown, then we should have a
really good firm.
So that's why I gotta work hardnow so that we have the right
people there.
They see the work ethic, andhopefully man, things will go
well to the future.

Mike (23:47):
And you say you have a team now.
So you know, you, you mentionedearlier it was just you and your
briefcase.

Yeah.

Mike (23:53):
when did you realize like, oh, I need to, I need help.
Like what was that trigger foryou?
Because, you know, some, somepeople try to be, be solo CEOs
and you can't do that.

Period.
Nah, you can't do it.
So I real, yeah, got got like myfirst kind of good little
settlement from a personalinjury case and I was like,
okay, this is, that's, that'ssome pretty good money there
because you know, beforehand,boom, little case here, little
case here with a criminal.
But I was like, whoa, what'sokay?
So I could sit down for amoment.
Then I realized if I sit downnow, I might mess up the
momentum because I started toget a little bit more traction.

(24:24):
So I was like, well dang, Idefinitely want more of this
money.
Ain't no doubt about it.
I know people gonna think aboutthat, like, what's up with this?
I'm like, I want the money,trust me.
But I want to make sure that theproduct that I'm still giving is
still the same, right?
Because if I didn't hire anyhelp, the people that would get
service today, they'd be cheatedout of our product.
If I'm trying to be greedy andkeep it all myself, you gotta

(24:46):
have a team, right?
You gotta have somebody to helpyou.
And so for me, I'm like, youknow what?
I'm finna invest in thisbusiness.
So whoever starts the business,whoever's listening to this
podcast, no matter what businessit is, not just a law firm, but
you gotta invest in yourbusiness.
so that's what I did.
I was like, okay, I'm not gonnago on a trip.
I'm gonna just save up thismoney to hire my first person.

(25:07):
Boom, did that save up thismoney to hire the next two
people?
Boom.
Did that.
All right, call'em in.
Okay, I'm taking a chance, Lord,have mercy.
Please don't blow my money, butwe finna do this, y'all.
All right.
And so we doing it.
so, but it's been a blessing,man.
I've had great teams, greatpeople that work with me.
End it to the end, man.
People have been really good.
And like I said, I keep a lot ofinterns.
And those interns, man, they're,they're brilliant.

(25:28):
They're really smart kids theyreally just keep us on our toes,
man.
I'm like, oh, okay.
I didn't even realize that.
So my thing is just learning,you know, have to keep scaling
up like that.
'cause when you grow, you hit abig case.
I just gotta keep investing tothe business.
Investing to what made us gethere, right?
And not get too comfortable.
'cause at the end of the day, Isaid, I wanna be like Morgan,
Morgan.
I ain't nowhere near them rightnow.
So we got to go ahead and keepgoing, man.

(25:49):
We just, we cranking it.
We living, you know, we areokay.
But hey, if you want to be thatguy that, that doesn't, does
something that's generationallike that.
You gotta keep

Mike (25:57):
Mm-hmm.

and get a good team around you.
'cause it won't be by myself.
It has to be with a whole bunchof sharks.
There won't be no solo pack.

Mike (26:03):
Exactly.
And just for any type ofbusiness, right?
People have to, I'm sorry.
People have to understand likeyou can't wear all the hats.
So by you hiring a team,underneath you or to work with
you or underneath you, you'reable to focus on the bigger
ticket items while they'rehandling the day-to-day And this
is rinse and repeat for anybusiness that's out there.

man.
And, and you gotta, you gottahave faith in your team for your
entrepreneurs that are a littlescared.
All right, because I know whenyou, when you out here doing
your own thing, man, you, you belike, man, y'all been there.
Mess my money up, man.
You know, because that's how I'mlike, please don't mess the up.
But you have to trust your team.
All right?
So you just gotta, you gottahave that faith fall again,
right?
Because you have the faith toleave your job and do your own

(26:49):
things.
Entrepreneur.
Now you gotta have faith to havea team to do what you envision,
right?
And so that's got, that's,that's faith too, because it's
like, Hey, I'm saying this, I'mthinking about this.
Are y'all gonna do this?
And then when they do it, man,you gotta app praise'em and let
people know that you reallyappreciate'em.
So, you know, as anentrepreneur, don't, don't be
stingy and people doing thatthing, they giving you some
money, man, you better bonusyour team up, okay?

(27:10):
Because your team is everything.
And I tell my team that.
So we got big goals and I'mlike, man, we hit this number
here.
I'm gonna give it to you thesame day.
Okay?
You ain't have to worry aboutit.
And you let people know that I'mreally, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm
happy that y'all are here and itis a blessing'cause you don't
have to be here with me, but youhere.
So let's do it together andlet's be great.
So that's all it's about.

Ken (27:29):
talk about, talk about how that motivates people.
'cause I don't think this issomething that we've talked
about yet.
On the show about incentivizingthe people who are working for
you and kind of what that impactis, right?
Or what the impact could be foryour business.
So can you kind of talk aboutthat a little bit?

Yeah, man, I can even talk about it,
from how I left, right?
So when I was at the DA's

Ken (27:52):
I.

I enjoyed the job, but what, you
know, what are we doing tocontinue to make it fun for the
people?
What are we doing to continue toelevate?
Is there, is there an elevation?
Is there a cap?
And so when you have a business,especially if you're trying to
grow your business, you have todo something where your team can
see that there's a brighterfuture for them.
The person, right?
A lot of people are still stuckon, oh, it's my business, it's
my, this, my that.

(28:14):
It ain't your nothing now, allright, you got a team, all
right?
And so you're organizing things,you're trying to make sure
things work, but you want themto feel like it's their
business.
just, I would recommend it.
Right?
I want y'all to buy into thebusiness too.
Like, Hey man, this is a, thisis part of you, Because that's
how bad I want it.
I want you to want it the sameway.
And so therefore what I do is Ilike to make sure that I tell'em

(28:34):
like, Hey man, we get a case andlet's say we close this much
money this month, or this muchmoney, this quarter.
Well, guess what?
If this is your case and youworked on that case, we finna
give you some money, man, okay?
Because I can't do it withoutyou, right?
I can't read a million pages ofmedical records without somebody
else helping me, can I?
And so I think that's important,and I think about treating
people like how I want to betreated.
So I know it's a blessing to bea owner, but not everybody is an

(28:56):
owner.
And so I wouldn't want, I wouldwanna work for somebody that's
to say that would treat me theway I'm trying to treat these
people, man.
Where it's like, Hey, if I'mdoing this much work, should I
get paid for it?
Yes.
If I'm making your company abillion dollars, like some of
these other companies we know inthe world.
Shouldn't I get paid a littlebit more than$50,000 today?
I mean, I did make y'all, youknow, 250 million last quarter.
I mean, is it okay to ask for afive,$5,000 raise?

(29:18):
You know?
And so my thing is I wanna beable to have that type of
environment where we're doingsomething that big, where people
work over here, they're gonnasee the money in their pocket,
and they won't leave becauseit'd be a good environment if
they do leave, it's okay.
But I wouldn't.
Right.
And that's why I want to sit itlike that, where it's like, Hey,
if we're gonna take care of you,hey, it is a good business.

(29:40):
But definitely do that.
Entrepreneurs, I I, if y'alldon't, if y'all want to really
grow your business the rightway, treat your, your team,
right?
Right.
And the reason I call'em a teamdon't, that's, don't beat the
people.
How high?
That's my team.
That's my teammates.
I can't do nothing without'em.
All right.
And if you, and if you treatyour team right, man, your
business can grow.
And if somebody's tripping onthe team, you gotta be able to
talk to'em.
You can't trip too.
All right.
So you gotta have a littlematurity out here.

(30:01):
Somebody might trip one day.
It's okay.
Okay, man, people have trippydays, but if you gonna be the
leader, you say you going to be,right?
You gotta be able to handle atrippy day.
You gotta be able to handle itbecause ain't nobody a hundred
percent perfect man, you know,not even you leader.
So make sure that you able tounderstand that from all
aspects.
So when somebody's having a badday, you don't push they button,

(30:22):
you help them guide them all theway through the process.

CJ (30:26):
Listen, I don't have a law degree, but, I get on?
I mean, you handing out bonusesright, and sideways,

We

Mike (30:34):
I know.

CJ (30:38):
right?
No.
Say I, excuse me.
I am, you know, I'm a graduate.

mm-hmm.

CJ (30:43):
about to graduate from, you know, Ohio State Law School
Right now

Okay.

CJ (30:47):
I'm thinking about, starting my own firm.
What would be your advice?
One for my, my firm off theground, and then two, how did
you go about financing your, youknow, your firm in the very
beginning?
What, what would you tellsomeone just starting out what
they should do, you know, how,how should they go about
proceeding?

Great question, man.
So the first thing for theperson that's just graduating,
wait a couple years before youstart the firm, go work with
somebody, go learn how topractice law, please.
'cause going to law school, yes,you have a good memory, but you
don't know what you doing inthat courtroom and you don't
know how to really practice thislaw.
All right?
It ain't black and white.
I can promise y'all that.
This thing is not, oh, well, thebook says if I say this, I

(31:30):
should win.
Judge, I just said that loseevery day, right?
So you need to go on out, how,actually learn how to practice
law.
Work with somebody, get a mentorfor a few years, okay?
I know a lot of people jump outlike, man, I ain't work for
nobody.
I can do this myself.
Which you can.
Not saying you can't, but wouldI recommend it?

(31:50):
No.
And waiting a couple years,learning additional skills that
nobody's gonna give you once youstart your own business.
I think you should do it.
All right.
As far as the funding goes, soI'm a madman.
A lot of people are differentthan me.
I will say that, but I justjumped out there, bro.
I said, you know what?
I'm finna do this and they ain'tfinna stop me.
All right?
And so I had my first criminalcase.
I think I charged'em$5,000.

(32:10):
I said, well, there goes therent for the month.
One case, all right, we in, andthen I'm working that.
Boom, we got another one going.
Boom, we got another one going.
Boom.
We got another one going.
Okay, cool.
Oh, got a personal injurysettlement.
Okay, now we getting some moneyin here.
So I was like, I said, I'm alittle different.
I want y'all to understand that.
And I just went out there and Isaid, I ain't finna make this

(32:31):
happen.
Okay.
did I work at the DA's office?
Did I have a, a retirement thingthat I could have jumped into?
Yes.
And I was ready to do it, readyto do it, but I said, I'm finna
jump out here first and see if Ican just make this money on my
own and build this from scratch,literally.
And, that's what I did.
I was like, we gotta save it.
So I, make the money on thecase, have enough for the pay,

(32:52):
the real, rent the bills, put itto the side, sit there and say,
okay, can't do nothing else.
Boom.
Get another case.
Do it again.
I was out here saying real lawfor food.
I'll go to the courtroom.
I say, y'all about to go tojail.
Y'all might want somebody tohelp you.
It's on y'all.
know, I found some clients thatway.
I was just like, Hey, I, I doit, but I gotta pay me

(33:12):
something.
I mean, I'm here.
anything?
All right.
And I did that for a coupletimes, man.
But it's funny'cause some ofthose clients I met, we kept in
contact and they gave me some ofmy personal injury cases, right?
So you just never know whereyour cases are gonna come from.
But when you out here and youstart doing business, don't be
afraid to get dirty.
Man.
I was going to the courthouseand I'll sit, they be like, why
is Keith over there sitting?
Keith, you good?
I'm good, bro.

(33:32):
Waiting on a client to walk in.
I know somebody about to walk inhere.
right.
I know some of y'all, you aboutto go to jail, my man.
You really don't need no help.
Alright, see.
And so, so I got outta jail.
They was, they was like, yeah,he, okay.
So it to work out, but.

(33:53):
Don't be ashamed to do it.
Step outside the box, bro.
Because I was way outside.
I was like, man, I gotta get tothis.
My family was already judging,so I was like, nah, ain't I
finna show y'all?
We finna go crazy.
And you just gotta, believe me,you gotta have a crazy belief
too.
So that's one thing I'll tellyou as an entrepreneur, man,
you, but other people aresaying, Hey man, what's that
about?
You got to believe in yourdream, all right?
Because they gonna question you.
And there gonna be days youmight question yourself, but you

(34:14):
better write a note down orsomething to get yourself back
up, all right?

CJ (34:18):
Right.

er can't stop dreaming, so you
gotta continue to dream.
All right?
And

CJ (34:23):
Nobody's gonna do it for you.

ain't anybody gonna do it.
So it's like, get up.
And I was like, okay, shoot.
It is another day I'm able tolive because I'm like, this is
this.
And the pandemic has started tohit.
And I was like, wow.
Nobody told me that was gonnastart.
I was like, I'm supposed to bethrowing a business.
What is this?
So the world shut down.
Oh wow.
But I see that the courts neverdid shut down, thank goodness.
And y'all boys kept on drivingin Georgia.
So I was like, okay, so ain'tnobody gonna get out the road.

(34:45):
All right then.
Great.
Found everybody gonna chill, butain't nobody wanna chill.
So, we still was living out hereand so, so I looked at it, man,
I was like, man, this is ablessing and we gonna do
everything we can, man, but yougotta have some real, real,
tough faith endurance becauseyou gonna have some down days.
You gonna have some up days.
Don't get too high on the upones.
Don't get too down on the downones, man.

(35:06):
Just know you blessed to be ableto do your own thing and, wake
up and, you know, set your ownschedule.
That's a blessing.
So I don't take, I take everyday, man, this is a blessing.
Every day I'm out here dog.
So

CJ (35:15):
man.

on the show with y'all.
Right?
This is cool.
I ain't gotta go and, you know,sign off on a waiver with,
somebody saying, Hey man, can Italk to them?
Nah, rather talk, you know, andthat, and that's a blessing.

Mike (35:26):
I love it.
th this is just the way I think.
So as you were telling thatstory and you said that, you
know, you're, you're going into,to the courthouse and you say,
Hey, you need some help.
You need some help, you needsome help.
How, let's say, let's say I gotinto some trouble.
I walk in the courthouse, youcome to me as a newbie, and
you're like, Hey, you need somehelp.
And my, my first thought is, Ican't afford you.

Yeah.

Mike (35:49):
how would someone like me compensate you representing me?
Because you gotta get fed.

I'm, I'm gonna get paid, but you'd be
surprised.
Right.
So this is how you do it, right?
It depends on what kind of case.
Now I'm not gonna jump in hereif you a murdered person.
Nah, I ain't finna help you out,bro.
but if, but if you got, youknow, if you got, got some, a
marijuana charge, a DUI, youknow, you, you a common man
crime.
Not, not, you know, you ain'tout here on no Rambo stuff and

(36:17):
nah, I can't really help you,brother.
You tripping.
But marijuana charge, right?
So it's like, man, whathappened?
You got this marijuana charge?
Not going, I'm not finna hit youup over the head.
Do you have$500 dog?
I'm finna just help you outtoday.
Why am I doing this for so cheapfor you?
Because first of all, I want youto tell people about me and then
understand that I wanna do thispersonal injury.
So guess what?
I just helped you out.
All right?
Didn't charge you number$500.

(36:38):
Have a good day.
He was like, that's it.
That's it.
All right.
Have a good day.
And so I did that, man.
But you gotta, don't be afraidto go out there and do that kind
of stuff randomly.
I got a sponsorship with themoney team when I, by my second
year to the firm.
How did that happen?
I helped somebody, that I didn'tknow was a part of the money
team that helped them out,right?
And I didn't even charge'em atall.
They was like, he was like,what's the fee?

(36:59):
I was like, man, all good.
Don't worry about it.
All good.
Let me get your card.
I was like, all, all right.
I like, that's not normal, buthere you go.
And, he hit me up and he waslike, makes you plow out to
Vegas.
And, you know, I'm gonna showyou around.
I want you to meet Floyd.
I was like, man, I ain't, Iain't really know this guy, you
know?
So I was like.
I'm kind of skeptical, but I dolike Vegas.
I'm coming out there.

(37:19):
But if you, if you faking it, Idon't care.
I'm gonna enjoy Vegas.
That's all I was thinking tomyself I got out there, that man
was not faking it.
He was legit.
And I was like, oh my God.
And so you just never know howthings could happen in life,
man.
Because that's how I got thatfirst, sponsorship with the
money 10.
They wore it in the fight, hadthe KL on the shorts.
I was really excited.
I was like, oh my god, my, mystuff is on they shorts.
But

CJ (37:38):
Mm.

know, that happened just randomly
because I just helped this guyout.
Right.
And so, I thought, think aboutstuff like that all the time
because if you able to do thingslike that for people, that's how
you get blessings, man.
You gotta be a blessing to get ablessing.
Right.
So you gotta do something right.
Do something for somebody.
You can't just sit back and say,the world ain't giving me
nothing.
What you giving the world?
So, you know, give something tothe world.
You know what I'm saying?

(38:00):
And then you'll get somethingoutta it.

CJ (38:01):
Yeah.
I had to think for a second whenyou said the money team, I'm
thinking you talking aboutsomebody local in Atlanta, and
then when you said Vegas, it hitme.

Oh yeah, yeah, Man.
It was a blessing man.
Met the man,

CJ (38:11):
So that was a true blessing.
I.

Yeah, outta nowhere.
And he was like, you the guythat got my guy help my guy out?
I was like, yeah, that was me.
He's like, man, you ain't wantnothing.
I was like, nah.
He's like, he told me he ain'tpay yet.
I was like, and I didn't ask himto, you know?
And but that's how he was socool about it.
He's like, really?
And so, I just look at it, man,where you gotta keep doing that
stuff, man.
It is.
You keep going forward, youknow, do things, the right
intention, right?
So some people do things thatmight look right, but they ain't

(38:34):
got the right intention.
Do things with the rightintention, especially as an
entrepreneur, because all youhave is just society, right?
All your people around you,y'all are my community, right?
So you gotta do things with theright intention because as you
start tripping out here, a badperson, that kinda spread, I
promise you, you do.
All right?
If people see you doing badbusiness, they gonna be like, do
not mess with that dude downthere.

(38:54):
All right?
Bad business.
So you gotta make sure keepdoing the right thing, the right
intention dog, so that you cangrow your business.
It's real simple, but you gottagrow your business.

CJ (39:05):
I'm curious, and I know, Ken touched on, on a minute ago, you
know, me visiting Atlanta asmany times as I have, I have
noticed all of the billboardsand the, you know,

Yeah.

CJ (39:15):
the attorney billboards and the, the ads on the radio and,
you know, you're in an Uber, youhear ads for an attorney in
Atlanta, probably every othercommercial the market, I guess
in, in Atlanta being sosaturated with personal injury
lawyers, do you do and how doyou stand apart from the rest?
How do you, I know you marketyourself by being, you know, a

(39:38):
common man and, and doing goodthings for good people, but how
do you, yourself to stand outabove all of these other sharks
that are out there?

Oh, so basically, man, it is, I just
wake up every day and I, and Irepeat what I, what I know,
right?
So I just know that I wanna bethe best.
I wanna be the, I, I'm a funguy.
I like to have fun.
I know that when it kind getserious, I get serious, but at
the end of the day, I likelaughing and joking.
So I just be myself and everyday.
But I try to be the best versionof myself every day.
So I wake up and I'm like, man,what I'm feeling like doing
today on Instagram.
You know what?

(40:06):
I'm finna do this and just doit, you know?
And, so for me, marketing isreally about consistently doing
what you got, how you got here,consistently doing it though,
not falling off, talking topeople when you're going out to
a little club or something.
Let people know that this iswhat I do.
I ain't gonna talk your yearoff, but about it.
But I do do this.
All right?
And, just going out and doingstuff like this, for instance,
right?

(40:26):
This is, you know, indirectmarketing man coming out,
talking to you all, let peopleknow that I exist.
'cause some people might notknow who I am.
So it's like, all right, well Iexist, hit me up.
And then when they talk to me onthe phone, when you call the
firm, it's gonna be the samekind of energy.
It's like, Hey, you getting hit?
Oh my God.
First of all, you okay?
You good, but then you ain'tgood.
Just go ahead and get you to thehospital.
So you gotta go out and, and,and have some fun with it.

(40:48):
You gotta, at the end of theday, man, you really just, I
think for me, that keeps megoing and how to motivate and
how to keep marketing myself toget bigger and bigger is
understanding who I am, theperson, and embracing, you know,
things that I think make megreat and just embracing who I
am and showing the worldunapologetically.
Like, Hey, this is who I am,man.
So I'm trying to get it for youall.
I'm gonna give y'all my best,but I, I'm, I may tell some

(41:09):
jokes along the way, if youdon't mind.
And that's it.
But nah, we gotta make sure,man, that at the end of the day
that we gonna do the right thingwith the marketing.
So marketing, it changes everyday.
We gotta just make sure that youjust own it, man.
And then I like, I like TikTokand the different trends, so,
you know, you see somethingthat's cool, jump on it.
But then it also is expensivefor marketing.
So bills have gone up as you getbigger.

(41:32):
So when you wanna do thosebillboards and that free, they
do cost.
But it depends on what you wannado, whether it's, whether it's
Google searching, whether it'sFacebook, whether it is, you
know, newspaper ads, whatever itis, you just gotta make sure
that you're target in and, youknow, kinda like Phish,
hopefully somebody bite.

Ken (41:50):
Talk about your community involvement.
I'm piggybacking off of what,what CJ was talking about.
Like talk about your communityinvolvement and how important
that is to your business.
Right.
Because I think that a lot oftimes, you know, especially like
new entrepreneurs or you know,folks who are just starting out,

(42:11):
don't realize how important thatcan be to, helping the success
of your business.

Oh man.
So I think that honestly medoing that with the DA's office,
being a community prosecutor,has.
It's a very pivotal part becausethat's how people know who you
are, right?
So that's why people even, youknow, I felt a little bit more
confident jumping out and doingmy own business.
'cause it wasn't like I justjumping out and didn't nobody
know who I was.
It was like, well, I've been inthe community for the last eight

(42:37):
years in this DA's office doingeverything I can.
You know, it's changing as muchas I can.
So community kinda supported meon the way out was, you know, I
was very blessed and thankfulfor that.
They was like, you're doingwhat?
I'm like, I'm jumping out.
And they was like, okay then howcan we help you?
So, I think when you get intothe community, you get out of it
what you put into it.
So if you've never put anythinginto your community, if they
don't know who you are, youain't never done anything for no

(42:59):
children in your community.
You don't wanna go back to theschool and talk nobody.
You don't wanna do, you know, nonice little marathon run or walk
to help somebody out.
If you don't wanna do nothingfor nobody, I don't recommend
you become an entrepreneur.
Okay?
Because.
You gonna be pissed at home.
All right?
Because they gonna be looking atyou like, I can't believe this
person want me to do what withthem.
I ain't, who, who are they?
know?
So you gotta make sure that youdo that.

(43:20):
You, get outside of yourself andenjoy these people, man.
Because at the end of the day,man, what makes the world
beautiful, man is people, youknow, and get a chance to see
everybody.
'cause everybody's verydifferent.
And so get a chance to knowthese people.
And that's why I see Joy as ada.
I was like, man, I'm gettingmeet so many different people.
People I never would've thoughtlike, whoa, okay, this is cool.
Oh, he ended that too.
Okay, cool.
So, you know, just get a chanceto know as many people as
possible.

(43:40):
Be yourself.
Learn, learn from these people.
Learn what you not, who you are.
And at the end of the day, man,just treat people right.
It's real simple, but you know,people be tripping, But it is so
simple.
Treat people right, man.

CJ (43:50):
I'm just curious, and this is just a general question.
What's something about being alawyer or a firm owner that
people often misunderstand andyou've been in this game long
enough to have seen and and donea lot?

Some people, I guess it is a
stressful job, right?
So I know that I like to go outand you see a lot of attorneys,
they seem like they have a lotof money or they just, they're
always happy celebrating.
It's a very stressful job with alot of hours.
Right?
But, my thing is I'm embracingthose hours'cause those are my
hours.
I decided to put these hours in.
So that's how I'm able to gothrough it versus working
somebody else's hours, if thatmakes sense.
Right.
It's like I've decided I wannaopen up my business and somebody

(44:30):
wants me to work, and if I wantto eat, then I'm gonna have to
work these hours.
Okay.
There are, there is no, I knowthe sign may say nine to five,
I'm 24 hours a day out here.
'cause I, you are on my mind.
Okay.
And so I, I would say thatpeople just need to understand
that being a lawyer.
It.
It can be a stressful job.
They do have different types oflawyers that are not as
stressful, right?
But doesn't pay the same.

(44:50):
Understand that.
So if you want a job that's notgonna be a little stressful, a
little high intensity,understand that you're gonna
make a little less.
I ain't saying you gonna bebroke, but you gonna make less.
So don't trip, right?
And you saying, I hear a lot ofyoung folks saying, oh, I need
to make one 50 coming out.
I'm like, man, what world?
What?
Are you smoking the best treeever?
I can I one 50 coming out.
Doing what?

(45:11):
What you gonna do?
I'm like, they change thescales.
I didn't know.
I didn't know they were doingthat.
I see people talking about thisand I'm like, calm down.
If you come out, you have a joband you're successful and you're
learning something, you'll getto the bag, I promise you.
Right?
But learn something on thatjourney, all right?
Because if you come out and younever heard, you might get
success too early sometimes.

(45:31):
And people like success tooearly.
What does that mean?
You gotta be able to understandwhat's going on around you.
Be able to appreciate it, right?
Because if you're making ahundred thousand dollars, I say
bless them.
Don't look at it as like, man, Ineed to make more.
That is a blessing.
Big one, up a good one, right?
And so you got let these peopleknow that Instagram has people
thinking that, oh, everybody'smaking all this and all that.

(45:53):
It's not like that.
Okay?
It's not like that.
In reality, if you got a job andyou are able to support yourself
and you're able to do what youwanna do on a daily basis, may
not be stunting, but you're ableto do what you want.
Do you living a great life?
All right?

CJ (46:06):
Message.

to understand.
Yeah, it is like, you gottaunderstand like that.
And so I look at it where as anentrepreneur, you go, you gotta,
as a lawyer as well, you gottagotta think, okay, this is a
blessing that I'm able to go outhere and charge people this
amount of money.
But then what do I need to do?
Be a good steward with it.
So I need to put something tothe side here.
I need to do this so I cansurvive it.
Because guess what?
One day there might be somebodyelse that's like, oh man, I'm
gonna mess with a dolphin.

(46:28):
that's messing up my littleshirt thing.
I don't know why you callyourself a dolphin, okay?
But you gotta be prepared for.
Man, but you gotta be onjourney.
This, this a rollercoaster outhere, the entrepreneur, man.
So I'm all about it though, man.
So I'm, I'm up, I'm up for thethrills and the downs, man.
But at the end of the day, I'mglad to be on the ride.

CJ (46:48):
I was just curious about that.
'cause I know, as a kid and as ayoung adult, I always thought,
you know, lawyers, doctors.
Those are the, the, the big, bigmoney jobs that you, you
automatically coming out sixfigures, seven figures,
regardless, but uh,

thought too.
I learned the hard way.
I was like, I'm about to berich.
I'm gonna law school.
I came outta school.
I was like, they gave me, Ithink I started off at the DA's
office.
I shoot, I think they startedoff at 55,000, 58,000.
I was like, and I'll take it.
All right, I'll,

Mike (47:25):
I mean, that was the same thing for me coming outta
college as an engineer.
You know, I got 50 k, I was soexcited.
I.
I was like, yes, let's go.

just gimme a house.
I'm here.
I have arrived, right?

Mike (47:38):
Right?

now it up.
But now everybody's like, oh, Ineed this.
So I try to tell, I'm like, lookman, whatever you get me, be
humble with it, man.
Be happy with it.
You'll get the way you need toget to.
Just make sure you put in thework all right.
And

Mike (47:50):
Mm-hmm.

you know, especially as
entrepreneur, but anythingyou're doing out here, it ain't
no shortcuts.
I know everybody wanna say, ohman, it ain't no shortcuts.
All right.
You gotta put in the work.
All right?
Even in talking about communitywork, you have to actually put
in the work in the community.
You can't go out there one day,take a picture, say, Hey, I was
that guy.
know you.
Yeah, you got a picture.
Nobody know.
You need to come

Mike (48:11):
Mm-hmm.

every day and really be a part of the
community.
Alright?
And then ain't about thepictures, man.
'cause like at the end of theday, what I've noticed is that
if you really out there, nobodyneed to even see no picture of
you.
They going to know you.
And so that's how you know youreally, in the community, it's
like, are you doing this for afake?
Are you really just out here?
Just, I'm gonna take a picturereal quick.
Gimme inside of this car, thiscountry town, that dude, right?

(48:33):
Are you, are you that guy whereit's like, this country town is
killing me?
Or you gonna go out there andreally enjoy the country town,
embrace it, and be a part ofthat city, and actually make
that city better?
So that's my whole goal.
And as a marketing standpoint,every time I'm out, every time
as an entrepreneur in general,every time I step outside this
house, you marketing yourself.
Just remember thatentrepreneurs, I know y'all
wanna go to the store, flipflops, you know, bonded on

(48:56):
whatever it is y'all wanna rock.
If y'all, y'all better look onpoint Every time I see you,
okay?
Every time

CJ (49:04):
Look, I need you to look in the camera and say that.

you gotta get yourself together out
here because when you out, you,your face everywhere, every time
I see you, you sell yourproduct.
There's know that as anentrepreneur.
So every time I see you.
That's the product.
You are the product.
So if I see you in Publix andyou look toe up, I'm like, that
product must be toe up too.
All right?
Because she looks horrible.
Alright.
He looks horrible.

(49:30):
You gotta fix that.
Alright?
So you gotta make sure thatevery time you step outside, you
put on your best foot forward.
And I ain't saying you gotta puton all makeup or nothing, but
just look presentable.
Right?
Let people know you out heretrying to get to it, that you're
a business person and that'swhat's on your mind it business.
So, you know, just embrace thejob and ride.
Man.
I'm, I'm living it.
And I think that anybody that'sout here listening to our
podcast, man, to your podcast,you gotta live it all right?

(49:52):
Live the dream.
But you gotta really live itthough.
Okay?

Mike (49:55):
Mm-hmm.

gonna just so, so sell.
You got to really live it.

Mike (49:59):
Has all been great.
We definitely gonna have to haveyou on again.
Love your energy, love the, theknowledge that you're giving
everybody.
And, when I go visit the house,I'm about to buy in McCoon.
I will, definitely make sure

Yeah,

Mike (50:13):
that can, that can reaches out to you.

CJ (50:16):
Listen, I'm gonna need you to practice that name several
times before you go.

Mike (50:20):
Nah,

CJ (50:21):
You would

Mike (50:21):
it's like one of my favorite.

CJ (50:23):
embarrassing.
The Black Bridge mindset.

Mike (50:25):
It's okay.
It's all right.
I, I know y'all looked allcrazy.
Like, what, what, what?
Like, y'all live in Atlanta.
Y'all should know Macon.

CJ (50:36):
Listen, all I heard was coon.

I'm like, where?
I'm like the cool

CJ (50:41):
That's all I heard.

like, it might be one, lemme think
about it.
You

CJ (50:46):
I know it's Georgia and all, but come on.

it Houston County, but it's
actually Houston, you know, butthey call it Houston County down
here.
So you know you're from here ornot.
down here like, yeah, I wentdown to Houston earlier.
They're like, Houston, youtalking about Houston?
So you gotta make sure you knowyour areas out here in Georgia.
And when you said Columbus, Ithought you were talking about
Columbus, Georgia.
That's why I was like Columbus.
Okay.
Okay.
Down the street.

CJ (51:07):
Nah, a little, little bit further than that.

No.
I did a circle, tower area, huh.

CJ (51:14):
Way up north.

Hell yeah.
But definitely, man, it's apleasure, man.
I'm glad you, y'all had me onthe show.

CJ (51:21):
Yeah.

Mike (51:21):
Well, we're not done with the Yeah, we got two more little
things to do, with you.
So the first, the first thingwe're gonna do, is called a
speed round.

Okay.

Mike (51:30):
I'm gonna ask you, I have six or seven questions written
down, but we'll see how many weget to, the, the one minute
timer that I'm about to put uphere.
what I'm gonna do, yep, I got, Igot a timer for you.

CJ (51:43):
when you I have one.
One additional.

Mike (51:46):
okay.
So, what we're gonna do, don'tthink too much about it, it's
just gonna be a quick, you know,answer the first thing that
comes to the top of your mind.
All right.
So, c CJ teased us earlier withhis sound machine, but I'm still
the sound machine.
This is what episode?
Like nine or something likethat.
So here we go.

(52:08):
Getting into the speed round.
So I'm gonna ask you, I.
I, I could fix this, you know,in editing and actually add that
sound, but my sound better,we're just, we're gonna stick
with it.

Sound?

Mike (52:21):
I'm gonna do my sound.
I'm gonna be me.
So I'll start the timer after Iask the first question, and then
I'm just gonna go through themuntil we get to the end.
If we still have time, to answerthe last couple, which I think
we will, then we'll answerthose.
I'll ask those two.
All right.
We good?
All right, here we go.
First question, what's yourfavorite car?

Car, you said car?

Mike (52:47):
Car?
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
What's your favorite car?

Keith Lamar Jr. A (52:50):
unfortunately it is Tesla still.
I know the man tripping.
I get it.
I get it.
But the Tesla kind of All right.

Mike (52:54):
Yeah, I used to work for him and, and he's crazy, but the
cars are great, so he didn'tmake it.
We'll, we'll give the engineersthe credit for that.
well this answers this question,EV or gas,

EV.

Mike (53:08):
Um, weights or cable.

Freeway weights,

Mike (53:14):
All right.
You call yourself shark.
What's your favorite?
Shark?

The great black shark.
That's me.

Mike (53:20):
All right.
park or beach.

Beach

Mike (53:27):
All right.
All expense.
Paid trip.
Where you, where you heading?

spade.
I'm probably going to go Allexpenses paid.
Oh Lord.
Dubai.

Mike (53:37):
Dubai.
All right.
after working out, where doesKen want to eat for lunch,
subway, or KFC.

I'm gonna get Subway.
I'm be nice.
I'm be nice Subway, though Iknow you like Popeyes than.

CJ (53:52):
Hold up.
I got one for you as well.
Maxine Shaw or Annalise?
Keating.

Maxine Shaw more real life.

CJ (54:02):
Okay.
Okay.

I mean, saying, I've seen so many
people like Maxine Shaw on aeveryday basis.
Ooh, real life.

Mike (54:15):
Well, you, you killed that.
So, so the last thing that we dois I ask everybody to do what we
call the Wakanda Peace Pause.
it's just some point I'm gonnapost these pictures of everybody
doing it is, is our marketingthat I haven't used for
marketing yet.
What we're gonna do is we'rejust gonna do like the little
Wakanda cross little piece andthen you're just gonna sit there

(54:37):
for a minute and smile at thecamera.
And then, that's it.
then I'm gonna use it later.
I'll take a screen grab of it,of us all doing the Wakanda
Peace.
Two.

All.
That's it.
All

Mike (54:49):
Easy enough.

ready for it.

Mike (54:51):
Just gonna count to three and we're all gonna do it.
Ready?
One, two.
I saw CJ got a light start, so Ihad to hold it a little bit
longer.
We good?

All day.
All day, man.

Mike (55:08):
Yeah.
But no, I appreciate you.
Like I said, this has beengreat.
I, I learned quite a bit and youhit on some nuggets that, or
some gems that, that peopleshould use no matter what, what
of entrepreneur they're tryingto be.
So hopefully they, they werelistening and they caught'em,
and if you didn't catch them,watch it again or listen again
wherever you're

Ken (55:28):
Right,

Mike (55:29):
this.
So,

Ken (55:29):
right.

All

Ken (55:30):
An immense thank you for this.
This is this Fanta this.
This is great.
Honestly, you were great.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA (55:37):
Appreciate it, man.
Oh, lemme tell

CJ (55:38):
Yeah,

at.
So if you're on that Instagram.
Simply Keith, like the orangejuice.
Really bro.
Simply Keith.
All right.
K-E-I-T-H.
All right, that's my Instagram.
Then if you get in an accident,the injury sharks.com.
I got a jingle coming one dayfor y'all.
It'll be pretty funny.
I can't think of it yet, butit's coming.
so we're gonna have it out thereand y'all can replay this and
let'em know that I told y'allthe jingle was going to be a

(55:59):
hit.
Okay, one the most downloadedjingles, I promise you.

Mike (56:03):
Well, you have to let us know when it's out there.
I mean, I'll be following you,but,

y'all dunno.
Y'all gonna know we

CJ (56:07):
yeah,

Mike (56:08):
okay.

CJ (56:09):
reach out to Jamie Fox.
He can get you a jingletogether.

Need to come outside.
Shoot.
Let's do it

Mike (56:20):
Y'all crazy.

CJ (56:21):
Yeah,

Mike (56:22):
right.
Well, once again,

CJ (56:23):
We appreciate you.

all

Mike (56:25):
we, we appreciate you.

CJ (56:26):
Thanks for tuning in to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast.
If today's conversationresonated with you, don't forget
to subscribe, share, drop acomment, and leave a review.
We're building bridges, onestory, one mindset, one move at
a time.
Show our guest some love bychecking out their socials too.
Until next time, keep pushing,keep growing and keep walking in

(56:49):
your purpose.

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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;}Inspiring Entrepreneurial Journey of Attorney Keith Lamar Jr. | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast