Sterling Hawkins joins us today to discuss his “No Matter What” approach to success. This mindset has helped him grow through some of the most challenging transitions in his life, and he is sharing this mindset with the PILMMA community as the keynote speaker.
Growth is uncomfortable, but it is an inevitable part of change. This is unavoidable if you want your law firm to grow. But how do you navigate the discomfort so that you can thrive in your firm and successfully achieve your goals?
In this episode, we discuss:
Sterling’s “No Matter What” approaching that stems from unwavering commitment to goals
Embracing and growing through discomfort
The importance of external accountability
This episode and the next several will feature PILMMA speakers in our “Spotlight on PILMMA” podcast series.
Visit Sterling online here: https://www.sterlinghawkins.com/.
We’ll be at PILMMA Super Summit 2025: https://optimizemyfirm.com/pilmma-2025/.
See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.
Transcript:
Welcome to the personal injury marketing minute where we quickly cover the hot.
Topics in the legal marketing world. I'm your host, Lindsey Busfield. As business owners, we didn't just wake up one morning and go, I think I'll be a lawyer, or I think I'll run an SEO agency.
We had visions for success. We had inherent goals, even if they weren't 100% hashed out. Maybe your goals have shifted over time, or maybe you've reached your initial goals and are building on the results.
Either way, you are listening to this podcast because you want more. Not only that, but you're willing to take steps and time out of your day to learn how to get to your next level.
Continuing our Spotlight on Pilma series, Sterling Hawkins:, Pilma's keynote speaker, joins us today to discuss his upcoming presentation on his no-matter-what approach to success.
STERLING HAWKINS:
Thank you so much for joining us today, Sterling. Lindsey, thanks for having me on. I'm looking forward to diving in together.
Lindsey:
Absolutely. Well, let's get started with a bit about yourself and about your background.
STERLING HAWKINS:
Yeah, of course. Well, I... I grew up a fifth-generation retailer in my family's supermarket. From there, I got into the entrepreneurial software tech world and got pretty lucky early on.
I mean, don't get me wrong, we worked really hard as well, but the first company I founded became part of this Apple Pay before Apple Pay.
Lindsey:
Nice.
STERLING HAWKINS:
And we raised hundreds of millions of dollars. I thought it was only a matter of time until I'd crowned myself the next Steve Jobs.
But when the housing market collapsed, our investment dried up, and things went a totally different direction for me.
Lindsey:
Yeah, that will absolutely make a big shift, and unless you are able to pivot out of that, you can really get bogged down with that first big dip.
STERLING HAWKINS:
Totally. And I did get bogged down for a number of years, just sitting in my self-doubt and self-pity and everything else.
But what I started to realize is that that failure was an opportunity. We learned a lot of things as an organization, what to do in a culture, and then just for myself, what I need to do as an individual to grow.
And it was reflecting on some of those really hard, even dark times that kind of gave me the tool set first for myself, and then for organizations I worked with all over the world to help them grow, regardless of the circumstances.
In other words, no matter what.
Lindsey:
Well, nobody wants to listen to a motivational speaker, if you will, that hasn't failed hard, because why would anybody who has just succeeded over time be able to speak to business owners and attorneys who are struggling, who are here because they don't have all the answers?