🛡️ Shatterproof Your Business: Legal Insights with Scott Reib ⚖️
You know I can't start my day without caffeine, and that's just one reason we call this show 'Eye Openers.' The other? I’m all about bringing you those 'aha' moments through my interviews.
Today, I’m beyond excited to welcome Scott Reib, America's Legal Coach. With over 20 years of experience, Scott shares powerful insights on how to build a 'shatterproof' business. We also dive into our morning rituals and the pivotal role fitness plays in driving entrepreneurial success.
Eye Opening Insights:
Building a Shatterproof Business: Scott emphasizes the importance of treating your lawyer like a primary care doctor, not just an emergency room visit. Regular legal checkups can prevent costly mistakes. [00:13:00]
The Power of Fitness for Entrepreneurs: Scott shares how his commitment to fitness has given him mental clarity and energy, allowing him to perform at his best as an entrepreneur. [00:07:00]
The Importance of Vision in Leadership: After a challenging period in his business, Scott learned the hard way that casting a clear and compelling vision is crucial for team alignment and success. [00:29:00]
Listen Here:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify
Thanks for joining us for this eye-opening episode! Remember, asking the right questions can prevent a lot of mistakes, so don’t hesitate to reach out to Scott with your legal concerns.
Episode Highlights & Time Stamps
[00:00:00] - Brittany and Scott discuss their morning caffeine routines and how these small rituals contribute to their daily success.
[00:03:00] - Scott talks about his commitment to fitness and how it impacts his mental clarity and work performance.
[00:13:00] - Introduction to Scott's "Shatterproof Entrepreneur" concept—why it's essential to treat your lawyer like a primary care doctor.
[00:19:00] - Scott dives into common legal missteps entrepreneurs make, from vague contracts to not securing their brand properly.
[00:26:00] - Scott shares a pivotal moment in his entrepreneurial journey when he lost most of his team and how he rebuilt his business by casting a clearer vision.
[00:30:00] - Scott discusses how he now shares his vision with his team to ensure alignment and engagement.
[00:33:30] - How to get in touch with Scott Reib and access special resources for Eye Openers listeners.
Resources Mentioned:
Books:
Outlive by Dr. Peter Attia
The Shatterproof Entrepreneur by Scott Reib
Watch Here:
Eye Opening Insights:
Eye Openers 80: Shatterproof Your Business: Legal Insights with Scott Reib
This transcript is auto-generated. Please excuse any typos!
[00:00:00] Brittany: Hi, and welcome to eye openers. As you guys know, I can't get any work done unless I have my caffeine, which is why we call the show eye openers. I like to start with some warm cup of coffee in the morning, get my brain going, get the juices flowing.
[00:00:33] Brittany: So even though people think it's sunny California, it's not. And this is when a lot of our friends out here get seasonal depression. It's sad, but I think that a good cup of coffee can do the trick for me. How about you, Scott? What are you drinking today?
[00:00:49] Scott: I start every morning with a cup of coffee before I hit the gym.
[00:00:53] Scott: And then like you, I have to have caffeine going. So then I have, then I switched to my diet Coke on the way to the office, but I always have a bottle [00:01:00] of water with me cause I have to drink a gallon of water a day. So it's a, you know, it's always a two fisted day for me. I've got to be
[00:01:06] Brittany: double fisting, double fisting your, drinks there.
[00:01:10] Brittany: I love it. So you have like a real strategy. you're up with a cup of coffee before the gym. Now that's impressive. As much as I love coffee, if I'm doing an early gym morning, I don't do it before the gym. So how are you like a 5am or like, what are we talking here?
[00:01:25] Scott: No, I work out at nine. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, nine to Thursdays at eight because of my trainer schedule, but on the way to the gym, I'm drinking coffee.
[00:01:33] Scott: I have to have some caffeine in my system or I'm useless. So it doesn't work out the coffee and, and I've even got, yeah. And then later in the day, I'll switch to iced coffee if it's over 50 degrees. And I'll, if I go to Starbucks about two o'clock, I go through, they see me, they put my, they know what my order is.
[00:01:50] Scott: They put it up on the screen. I get my iced, my Venti iced Americano with a scoop of vanilla bean powder and two stevias. And then I'm ready for the afternoon. [00:02:00]
[00:02:00] Brittany: Do you guys hear how prescriptive this is? this is absolutely why I asked this question. When we do like the pre show people are like, why are you talking about drinks?
[00:02:09] Brittany: Right. You guys, I learned so much about people based on this regimen that they have. And what I noticed is like my high performers, my, you know, entrepreneurs here on the show. It is that prescriptive for a reason, because that's what works for you. You've probably tried other things. You've come down to like a system that works and the more things that we kind of can count on and that we build into our day, then the less brain power we have to use to make those micro decisions.
[00:02:36] Scott: exactly.
[00:02:37] Brittany: Yeah,
[00:02:37] Scott: I found out, I mean, I tried and tried to be an early morning person. I just couldn't do it. So it's like, if I'm going to be an entrepreneur, I want to design my life in a way that works. So. I don't work out at five in the morning.
[00:02:49] Brittany: Yeah. But let's talk about actually another eye opener that, that I actually don't talk about too much on this show and that's exercise.
[00:02:56] Brittany: And so that is clearly something that is, like a [00:03:00] basic, a table stakes for you and you've built it into your workday. Tell me how you've made that possible and why it's so important to you.
[00:03:08] Scott: Well, I'm 55 and so it's gotten more and more important to me that I want to age well and have longevity, right?
[00:03:15] Scott: And so, resistance training is really important. I want to try to maintain a reasonable weight. I'm on podcasts a lot. I speak on stages and it's like it, my parents matters to me. And so I want to look as good as I can for my age. And so you kind of combine those and it was, it's important. My journey in fitness kind of started when I turned 40.
[00:03:34] Scott: I knew I had to get better in shape. And so the last 15 years, I've been pretty consistent, at being in the gym, pretty consistent, the last three years it's been, unless I'm out of town, it's five days a week, at least, in the gym, I hired a personal trainer that I work with two days a week, so that I can focus on some different goals I'm working on at whatever time that is.
[00:03:56] Scott: And it works for me. Occasionally on a [00:04:00] weekend,I'll get a workout in, but it's not, it's the weekend is more flexible. And then I've, my wife started doing,going to a place that does sauna where you work out in the sauna. And so I'll go with her sometimes in the evenings and do an extra cardio workout in the sauna, but it's just
[00:04:17] Brittany: in the sauna.
[00:04:19] Scott: In the sauna, 130 degrees in the sauna, riding a bike. It's nuts. ladies and gentlemen, please
[00:04:25] Brittany: speak to your doctor first before crazy.
[00:04:29] Scott: but, we get to, we do it. It's fun to do it with her. and so I'll go do that and that I'm usually pretty dead, but, yeah, I just, I feel better when I work out, I like to run.
[00:04:38] Scott: And so right now I'm trying to get, I'm trying to be a little bit lighter. All weight is not equal. I mean, if you have more muscle, it's better than fat. But when you're trying to run, it's still weight. And so my knees don't like it. So I'm trying to get a little bit lighter so that I can get back on the road.
[00:04:53] Scott: But I love exercising. It's kind of my hobby. I probably need to have something else, but that's kind of become, [00:05:00] I think
[00:05:01] Brittany: that is amazing. maybe I'm going to shift the focus of the show. We can talk about what you're drinking or exercise because I have been a lifelong athlete. And so it is just, I like need it.
[00:05:12] Brittany: I need it like oxygen. and I noticed. My, my performance, my focus, my efficiency, and my work totally drops off if I haven't exercised for a while. and so I wonder, have you found that? So we've just talked about your kind of evolution in your fitness journey. I heard you mentioned some things like longevity, I'm reading outlive right now.
[00:05:33] Brittany: By Dr. Peter Tia. Have you read that? It's like 400 pages.
[00:05:38] Scott: Yeah, it's on my list, but I've got a couple before it and it's, yeah, that's going to take some time,
[00:05:43] Brittany: but it's just incredible. This difference in perspective. I think that, and he calls it like medicine 2. 0, which is like what we've been living in for the past few decades.
[00:05:52] Brittany: And then he's talking about the future of medicine, which is longevity and how we're looking at,I guess optimizing the machine that is our body for [00:06:00] long term health. And, what does he call it? Not just, the life cycle, but the health cycle. So like how long can we extend actually healthy, thriving life and not just like.
[00:06:10] Brittany: Having a heartbeat, because that's really what we want. We want to be able to be old and move around, not just like old and sit in a chair and say we made it to a hundred.
[00:06:20] Scott: Yeah. There's in there. I do a bootcamp Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, and there's a 92 year old lady in my bootcamp, that, like we do like plate pushes and she's pushing a 35 pound plate, 90 yards sometimes.
[00:06:31] Scott: it's very inspiring. And it's like, so. And it's because she's just always moved. She's just never stopped. Her routines continued. And if she'll occasionally get sick, be out a few days and then she's back. but she's amazing. And I hope that when I'm in my nineties, I'm still at the gym and hanging out with the younger people.
[00:06:51] Brittany: Awesome. I love that. Tell me one thing you've noticed about how it impacts you as an entrepreneur.
[00:06:58] Scott: Yeah, I think it gives me [00:07:00] a mental clarity. It's when I show up at the office, I'm ready to go. my mind, my body's tired, but my mind is clear and ready to dive right in. So I can, I walk in the office.
[00:07:13] Scott: My schedule is set. I can jump right into whatever it is. I am very clear. if I don't work out. It's not so clear. so my mental clarity is huge.
[00:07:25] Brittany: Awesome. Yeah. I find that too. I hear because I work with entrepreneurs all day long. I hear that, analysis paralysis happening for so many people where they kind of get so Okay.
[00:07:36] Brittany: Like taking all the information in, but they're not able to like execute and make decision. And I feel you after a great workout or after making that a regular part of my week that I'm able to move forward with things more quickly. I feel much better. Equipped to take that in and then, create an output.
[00:07:56] Brittany: That makes sense.
[00:07:57] Scott: Yeah. And it doesn't have the same effect if I do it at the [00:08:00] end of the day, at the end of the day, I don't, didn't have a great evening. It's just, then I'm tired. but if I do it in the morning, whatever time that is for you, that then it has that, it really gives me energy to go and work my five, six hours straight that I have to do.
[00:08:14] Brittany: Right. And there's actually like a lot of neuroscience behind that too, that before noon, like kind of 7am to noon, even if you're not a morning person, that is like the sweet spot for our cognitive,load. And we're able to synthesize much more strongly than let's say at 10 PM.
[00:08:30] Scott: So do you work out fasted or do you eat something first?
[00:08:34] Brittany: it's, so it depends on the day. but if I'm doing morning workout, I do work out fasted and I, Yeah, it depends though. I had a, I actually like had a health thing happen last year that, I had a little bit of rhabdomyolysis and, it was from not having had enough in my system. So I'm a little bit more conscious of it now.
[00:08:57] Brittany: Like I had worked out too hard and too close [00:09:00] together. I'd done an evening workout and then a morning workout and didn't have enough calories or electrolytes. It's in between. So I'm a little conscious of it now.
[00:09:09] Scott: I almost always get enough calories. So you don't get this size with that was skipping meals.
[00:09:12] Scott: So
[00:09:16] Brittany: okay, folks, thanks for, you know, sticking around for that part of the conversation. And I think in these like 10 minutes alone, we came up with a whole handful of tactics you could use to improve the outcomes of your business, even though none of that was technically business related. But there is. A real reason outside of Scott's, fitness routine that he's here today.
[00:09:38] Brittany: And I'll let you know just a little bit about him. So Scott is America's legal coach and zig Ziegler, small business lawyer, bringing 20 years of legal expertise to entrepreneurs. It's known for his. Access plan, legal service, and aims to make legal advice accessible and affordable, challenging the notion that it must be intimidating.
[00:09:59] Brittany: [00:10:00] As a Ziegler legacy certified trainer, Scott helps business owners shatterproof their ventures. So we're going to hear more about that. and we're going to hear actually about your recent book, the shatterproof entrepreneur and how. your advocate for treating lawyers like a primary care doctor instead of like an emergency room doctor.
[00:10:20] Brittany: Right.
[00:10:21] Scott: Yep. You got it.
[00:10:23] Brittany: Awesome. So let's actually, let's launch into kind of the premise of the book, because I think that will help us pull out some of those key stories I want you to share with the audience. So when did you decide like, I've got an important story to tell and what was the basis of that story?
[00:10:42] Scott: Yeah, so I've been doing this a long time, but the shatterproof journey started about 12 years ago. I had litigated everything that you could probably litigate,or at least been part of those teams and found that I was always getting people out of trouble for similar things. I had a problem. I had a problem [00:11:00] that I had repeat business that people kept making dumb mistakes that they could have avoided with a simple appointment with a lawyer or a phone call or hey, look at this document before I sign it and they wouldn't do it and I had to figure out why.
[00:11:13] Scott: And so I started down a journey of trying to figure out, you know, is there something wrong with me? Are they not calling me because they don't like me? Or is it the way we're doing business? And. Fortunately, the conclusion was that it's the system. It wasn't necessarily me because lawyers traditionally since the fifties have been billing by the hour, by the minute, right?
[00:11:36] Scott: So if you call a lawyer, money starts flying out of your pocket instantly. And so it created this disincentive to ask me routine questions that could have saved clients hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I had to change it. So I had a, so I had this vision. once I figured out the problem of an on demand system where entrepreneurs like me could just call and ask me any question, you can ask me dumb [00:12:00] questions.
[00:12:01] Scott: People say there are no dumb questions. They haven't been around long enough. I've heard a lot of them, but it's okay because when you just get them out of your system, because they're going to lead to a good one and you never know. Because if you're asking questions about something that isn't your, in your lane, it's not your subject matter, your expertise, you might ask a dumb question.
[00:12:18] Scott: That's okay. At least now, you know the answer to it. Move on. and then come back with more questions. And so I hired a business coach the first time I'd done that. It took me three. For someone to understand what I wanted, they kept wanting to work with me on my purpose and I'm like, well, I've got a purpose right now.
[00:12:36] Scott: I want to build this and, let's build that. And then once this is built, we can come back and talk about my life purpose. All you want. Can you get me from A to K? Z. But can you get me from A to K? And, the first who couldn't, I finally, was out to dinner with a friend of mine in Tulsa that I've known most of my life and he had hired a coach and was helping him transition from being a teacher to a [00:13:00] life coach.
[00:13:00] Scott: And I'm like, well, if he can do that for you, he can surely help me with my problem. So I called Clay Clark in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Clay took me on as a client and helped me build what's become the access plan. Right. And so the idea, like you mentioned is that. Lawyer become primary care, not emergency. And what happens too often is that you wait until the things are really bad.
[00:13:25] Scott: Your house is on fire. And then you come in and say, can you put this fire out? And sometimes we can put it out, but sometimes we can't. And if you can, it's really expensive. But if you deal with it, like you do with your health, and we just spent some time talking about health and fitness, if you are, If you're regularly doing those things, if you're having regular checkups with your lawyer as primary care, if you're doing those regular things, if you're asking questions when things hurt, instead of waiting until they become acute, then you can really avoid the bigger problems in life.
[00:13:59] Scott: And that's [00:14:00] so building being a shatterproof businesses. You have a business that will bend and not break. I see businesses, small business as the best vehicle to build your builder, achieve your life goals and dreams, but there's more millionaires created with small biz by small business than any other way.
[00:14:15] Scott: And so it's the best tool. And so it's a vehicle to achieve those dreams. Vehicles have windshields. Windshields are made of glass. And they're not made of regular glass because if they're regular glass, if something hits them, they shatter, it comes through and hits you in the face and you get all cut up and you're game over.
[00:14:32] Scott: If you have the right kind of glass in your car, in your vehicle, windshield, the shatter proof glass, the rocks hit your windshield, they market, they might crack it. You can finish your trip, fix it later. And we want our businesses to be that way by having the right structures systems and asking the right questions, because we have the right professionals on our team to where we're shatterproof, like our windshields in our car.
[00:14:56] Brittany: I love that. I love it. So I want, [00:15:00] I understand that analogy, which I love so much about the, you know, primary care versus emergency care. And, and then this idea of the windshields there, to help us. but it has to be shatterproof to help us complete that journey. And. I'm curious, you know, you mentioned you,there's no, or what would you say?
[00:15:21] Brittany: There are stupid questions, but I believe that stupid mistakes are worse than stupid questions. And so we want to get people in there asking, but in order to avoid mistakes, right? Because you'd rather ask a stupid question than have a stupid mistake. and so what were some of the key things or some of the themes you saw, entrepreneurs.
[00:15:40] Brittany: you know, what were their missteps that you noticed that you said, I need to find a way to let them have these, ask this earlier on. So what were some of those key missteps?
[00:15:51] Scott: Yeah, a lot of them were around their use of contracts. They either didn't have a contract or what I would see a lot was they [00:16:00] had vague and ambiguous terms in their contracts.
[00:16:03] Scott: And usually what had happened is they'd either. This is kind of, you know, this is early, so they probably weren't downloading all of them from the Internet, but they were taking things that maybe have been used somewhere else, and they were combining different deals and creating this contract that when they read it made sense, and so they used it, and instead of running it past someone that has 20 plus years of experience reading contracts, and a lot agree, to make sure you're not You're making the best decision possible.
[00:16:35] Scott: Even then you're still occasionally going to make a mistake. There's going to be something that some term that gets deemed vague and ambiguous and unenforceable, but by taking those extra steps, you diminish that risk incredibly. And that's what we'd see that I'd also see. operating businesses that weren't, they didn't have any legal structure.
[00:16:55] Scott: They're what we call sole proprietors, you know, just hanging a shingle [00:17:00] and then doing business running into a customer they couldn't make happy. And suddenly they're getting sued because they didn't ask a question about before I start this business, should I create. Some sort of entity for it, or can I just start it right now as myself and then do it later?
[00:17:16] Scott: The third thing is that they are building their business on someone else's brand accidentally because they didn't take the time up front to do trademark searches to make sure that the brand they're starting is a brand that they can actually own. So they end up climbing the ladder of success and it's lean on someone else's building.
[00:17:34] Scott: Those would be the top three.
[00:17:36] Brittany: Okay, that is so valuable. Thank you for sharing that. and so what,how does the access plan allow people to identify that early on? Like, how does someone, how is the service set up? To avoid that mistake.
[00:17:55] Scott: Yeah, the key ingredient to the access plan is the monthly check in call.
[00:17:59] Scott: [00:18:00] So we spent, we every month, every access member can, schedule a 20 to 30 minute call depending on which level they're in, with us. And on that call, we, they can ask us all the dumb, stupid questions so they can avoid stupid mistakes. but yeah, We can ask them questions, right? So we can ask them what they've been doing, what's coming up, what projects are next, things that, and then we can just have conversations.
[00:18:24] Scott: Sometimes we're just talking about their family vacation and what's happened, but occasionally something will pop out. Like, I'll be talking to a contractor and they'll talk about, especially During the pandemic that, you know, prices of materials are going sky high. I just got someone just sit in a bid and accepted a bid.
[00:18:42] Scott: I've done 90 days ago and I hope that I can still make money on it. I'm like, what do you mean? You hope you can still make money on it. And they're like, well, when I bid it, the prices were a lot lower on materials. Like, so your bid doesn't have a limitation for how long it's, how long the bid lasts?
[00:18:58] Scott: No. [00:19:00] So then we're able to change their form on the fly so they don't make that mistake again. But without having that regular conversation, those get missed. The other way is that when they have a business idea, they can text us, email us and say, Hey, I'm thinking about doing this. What should I be considering?
[00:19:20] Scott: Do we need to do a phone call? Or I need an L, I want have this idea. I wanna create an LLC so that I can make sure it's separated from all my other business stuff. And so we form the LLC for them, make sure all the documentation's right, it's got an operating agreement, it's formed in the right state and everything's good to go.
[00:19:38] Scott: And then if the deal doesn't work, it doesn't work. The liability's separate. But they can do that without, you know, all they have to do is fill out a form. we use a sauna for project management. And so we have a form for creating an entity. And so they just use their form, put in who they want to own it, how they want it set up, my team sets it up, ask questions if necessary, and they move forward.
[00:19:56] Scott: Same with contracts. You can just, there's a form to upload contracts. [00:20:00] Here's what, here's my goal with the project. Cause one of the main things you have to know if you're reviewing a contract is what is, why are we doing this deal? Because. Then you go through it and it is, does this contract actually achieve the goal?
[00:20:11] Scott: And so then we review the contract, get it back with red lines and comments and like, they can sign it if they want, but now they know, right? G. I. Joe used to tell us when we were kids that knowing is half the battle. So now we know that this may be a problem. But I can make, I can weigh the risk and move forward instead of just going blindly.
[00:20:31] Scott: So those are some of the ways that it makes a lot of sense to become an access member.
[00:20:36] Brittany: Yeah. Such a great point. it sounds to me that you have built this, business model off of tons of experience, of your own as a lawyer operating as a lawyer, but also as an entrepreneur. I'm curious. I'd love to hear about.
[00:20:51] Brittany: Like what was a key moment for you in your entrepreneurial journey? Because I've actually worked with several lawyers and law firms myself as a business [00:21:00] coach. And I find it really,uncommon to move beyond that idea of trading time for money as a professional services person. And so I'd love to hear about like, what was it for you?
[00:21:13] Brittany: Where you decided that This, my business needs to be different. And how did you look at that?
[00:21:19] Scott: Yeah, my, my journey as an entrepreneur started out a long time ago because when I got out of college, I was 22, just, we're just married, was trying to get an advertising job and they didn't exist in 91, 92.
[00:21:32] Scott: And so I was selling, and so I had a job for eight with AT& T as an independent authorized agent, selling aftermarket phone equipment to all of the AT& T customers in the Tulsa, Oklahoma region. and so I was, and I found some ways in their computer system to sell,warranty contracts as they were, expiring.
[00:21:52] Scott: It was created as mailbox money. I was printing contracts on my dot matrix printer on my dining room table. Things were going [00:22:00] great. We had cash coming in for, we were, like I said, 22, 23, it was more money than we had ever seen. And then suddenly a new manager came into that division and said, Scott, we love what you're doing, but we're going to take that away and have a minimum wage person do that.
[00:22:14] Scott: And we're going to send you to Southeast Oklahoma, which is the sticks and the sticks is code for, we have no technology, so they didn't need phones and so they've sent me out there to die, I went to see a lawyer and they're like, yeah, you've got. You know, they're treating you wrong. They're breaching your contract, but what are you going to do?
[00:22:32] Scott: So I, yeah, I'd say I did what any normal person would do. I went, I applied for law school, so I decided to go to law school. It, I had, I'd considered it earlier in life, but it was like, okay, now's the time, there's no good jobs out here. Let's go retool. And a lot of green made more sense to me at that time than, an MBA.
[00:22:54] Scott: So I went to law school and loved law school, probably the best, some of the best three years of my life. It was great [00:23:00] and got out and litigated and did all kinds of stuff, and figured out as I was working as a lawyer that what I really liked doing was not billing by the hour. That sucked all, all around.
[00:23:13] Scott: It sucks having to keep track of my time. It sucked that the client had to pay me that way. It just was awful. But what I really liked was when. I got my first business transaction. I was having lunch with the son in law of an ambulance company owner. And he said, Hey, my, my in laws want to sell their ambulance company.
[00:23:29] Scott: Could you help us? And I'm like, sure, I can help. And so I sold it for a percentage of whatever I could get them. And so we got them a really good deal and the firm made some, made a lot of money and it felt really good because I got paid for the value I delivered, not for keeping track of my time. And then I started working on some contingency cases like catastrophic injury, some big commercial, big real estate type of cases.
[00:23:55] Scott: And again, Big fees came in for how I [00:24:00] delivered, not keeping track of time. And so I really liked that. It, yeah, it was easier because I didn't have to keep track of the time, but it's just, I felt good when I was done because they got something of value that they wanted in exchange for my professional services.
[00:24:15] Scott: And so it just. To kept building and then, like I said, then eventually it became a problem where I,the general system wasn't working. I like to say the billable hours dead is to everyone doesn't know it yet. because the, if you're listening, you've never paid a lawyer by the hour.
[00:24:32] Scott: Great. I'm glad you haven't had to. But what you have is a lawyer that's in charge of everything that they do on the case or project. So they get to determine what work they do. And they've also determined the rate. And so they get to determine what they make by the hour, by the minute, and they get to determine what they do.
[00:24:50] Scott: And so as a client, you're like, well, did they really have to. Do that. They don't really need to take that long. You can't help it. Think that. And so it really, in [00:25:00] my professional opinion, really creates a, some conflict between the two. And as a lawyer, we're supposed to be a fiduciary and I think it's a big problem.
[00:25:09] Scott: I think that you've got to be delivering value for what you're, you've got to be on for what you're doing and be on the same side as your client. And if you can determine how much money you're going to make by how much time you spend. I think it's a problem.
[00:25:24] Brittany: So it's an integrity issue. Like is, is how I hear you shaping that.
[00:25:28] Brittany: And it comes
[00:25:28] Scott: down to that. and there's still, it's litigation is tough to do other ways. And so I don't do litigation anymore because it's just tough.
[00:25:40] Brittany: Right? And you could be the absolute best and there's still a lot of that. It's out of your control as far as what the outcome is.
[00:25:46] Brittany: And that probably doesn't feel good for you with the client. Right? Yeah.
[00:25:49] Scott: No. And I, instead of yeah. And It's just, it's not my model. I, we have partners that we, strategic partners that will do litigation for us. And,I, yeah, I just don't do by the hour. It's either we either [00:26:00] do the subscription plan or a flat fee project where I've had to estimate what it's going to cost.
[00:26:04] Scott: And if I'm wrong, I lose money.
[00:26:06] Brittany: Yeah. tell me about a time where, again, as you, as the entrepreneur were building your business, You had ideas, you went after it, and maybe you made a misstep because I think it's so important for a lot of the listeners to understand that that is just part of the journey and to see what it looks like after you dig yourself out.
[00:26:26] Brittany: So what's that look like in your. Yeah.
[00:26:30] Scott: So in 2014, so we're two years into the access. so the litigation side of our firm was starting to come down as I was spending more and more time building the recurring, revenue model. And we had, so I had three full time lawyers, five staff, we were getting ready to hit our first seven figure year.
[00:26:50] Scott: I thought everything was great. I asked the young lawyer on our team to put together a marketing plan so that she could start generating some business of her own. And she was, [00:27:00] had a marketing degree. I thought this was going to be a great opportunity for, she came in the next day and handed her key.
[00:27:04] Scott: And while I was in my other office, in my Dallas office, and, Never spoke to me again, a month later, I was on vacation with my family in California at, doing Disneyland and universal, all that stuff, and got an email from the other lawyer, who I'd known for 20 plus years, saying that he's resigning.
[00:27:21] Scott: Here's the list of clients I'm taking and files. Oh, and by the way, attached is the paralegals resignation. Um, my marketing person had taken another job. It was a great job and that was fine. So suddenly I was down to a receptionist. I had to make a decision. do I continue my vacations? We were right in the middle of the week long vacation with my two boys that were like six and 12 and they were young.
[00:27:46] Scott: or do I stay or do I go back and fight? And I figured I, so I called in that next, it was a Sunday when I found out I called that Monday. The 18 year old receptionist got scared when she got there. No one [00:28:00] was there. She never came back. so I hired a virtual receptionist company remotely, got my phones forwarded to them.
[00:28:07] Scott: They handled the phones for the next 3 to 4 days. And then I came back to my office the day after the vacation. So I'm in 2500 square feet and it's just me. And so you have to do some. deep soul searching of what, what went wrong, because I, it couldn't be all their fault. Right. I mean, I would have liked it to, to said that,
[00:28:30] Scott: and really what, and, what happened is that I had, I knew where I was going. I had a very clear vision of what I was trying to do. And I was hiring, I had three different coaches. I mean, I was driving hard. And I would ask them to do things. I would tell them to do things that would, they were part of my plan, but I never explained my vision to them.
[00:28:55] Scott: I never cast the vision in a way that they could get a hold of. This is why Scott's going to [00:29:00] these conferences. This is why he's coming back with these ideas. This is why he's no longer billing. As many hours, I never set that vision, so they didn't get a hold of where we were going. And so they all jumped ship, because I'd created confusion, and instead of clarity.
[00:29:19] Scott: And so it was all my fault. it was fine because I had the recurring revenue model. So one of the blessings, if when you lose all your employees is your payroll goes away. So I know no longer had to make payroll. It was just me. Okay. And so for about 30 45 days, I just kind of did my thing, considered filing a lawsuit against the other lawyer, decided it wasn't worth my, emotional time.
[00:29:41] Scott: And and so we, I moved on from that and started building the team back up in a little different way. And figured out how to cast that vision so that people understood why we were doing this, why I wanted to help entrepreneurs, why it mattered and where I saw this thing going.
[00:29:57] Scott: And, you know, now we've, we're [00:30:00] able to do seven figures with a fairly small footprint of people that.
[00:30:05] Brittany: Wow. That's incredible. So tell me like, a bit strategically or even the, tactfully, like how do you share the vision with your team now? How do you make sure that they're in touch and engaged so that you don't risk that?
[00:30:21] Scott: Yeah. So you have to have regular. Conversations and meetings with them, not just so it's not just about, Hey, what are these projects doing? Hey, where are we? you've got to be explaining as things shifting. Like when I wrote the book, I had to explain why I was why the book's coming out. Why are we doing a podcast?
[00:30:40] Scott: You have to explain all those things in ways that show how it ties into the overall vision of where we're taking the law firm. Why are you starting a consulting company? Well, it's going to drive more business to the law firm. And so you have to just, yeah, as you do it, you just have to just kind of pull back the, Curtains and say, Hey, here's what we're doing.
[00:30:59] Scott: Here's [00:31:00] why. it's not going to require more, you know, if it isn't require more work from them, tell them what it's going to require if it's not reassure them that just because we're doing this stuff over here, it doesn't mean you're going to have to do more things. It's just that they're happening over here and you need to know they're happening so that you can be part of the team.
[00:31:17] Scott: And if you just share it, very transparently and with clarity. And so as the founder owner, you need to have clarity of where you're going. And that's, that means you've done some work and you've done some, you're writing things down. You've written a vision statement that's clear and concise that if you share it with someone, they know exactly.
[00:31:36] Scott: what you're doing and where you're, and where you're going. And so then if you're, if it's a current team member, you can explain it to them easily, and if it's a potential team member, you can explain your vision and look at their eyes and see if that resonates or if they, if their eyes roll back in their head, cause they have no interest in that.
[00:31:54] Scott: And so you, but you've got to get clear on that. And I have, I call it the dream, a dream process. [00:32:00] I'll go of setting that vision and communicating that clearly. It's 1 of the resources that if you go to the book resource page, it's on that. You can download it so that you can. Not make the mistake I made and, make sure that you cast that vision appropriate.
[00:32:14] Brittany: I love that. Thank you. I think we hear so often, about goal setting, visioning and like, and that you should do that, but I don't think a lot of people understand why and, or exactly how that's done in an effective way. And so thank you for sharing that. you know, is. I know a lot of law is about, certain states and their bars just, or is anyone able to access, the service that you guys offer or is it specific to certain states?
[00:32:41] Scott: Yeah, and so we do, so we're legal coaches and consultants. And so we do all that from our home office in Texas. I am licensed in Oklahoma and Texas. I have lawyers that work for us that are licensed in other states as well for specific legal things. And then when there's something state specific, we will, we'll find someone local [00:33:00] that can jump in and do it.
[00:33:01] Scott: We manage it, quarterback it. But all of our general counsel work's done from right here At the world headquarters of reblog,and Shutterproof solutions. And so we help people all over the world, with different products with different problems. And, you know, cause as I'm speaking in Atlanta or Miami, or I mean, I meet people that need help.
[00:33:19] Scott: And so we have the two companies, so we can do that.
[00:33:22] Brittany: Love that. Of course you. created a solution for that, which just speaks to your true expertise and how you can help other people. Scott, how can people get in touch with you?
[00:33:32] Scott: You know, the easiest way to find me is probably on Instagram at the Scott Reeb.
[00:33:37] Scott: And we'd have a lot of shorts and tips and things that are published on a very regular basis there for easy consumption. And then if they'll come to the website at reblog. com R E I B L.
[00:33:52] Scott: I've got a page just for the listeners where they can get, there's a button where they can push and they can get 20 minutes of my time, not someone else from the [00:34:00] team. It'll be my time if they just want to ask me some stupid questions. So we can avoid some stupid mistakes. they'll have my undivided attention and they can download one of my eBooks there.
[00:34:09] Scott: But probably the best place to go is shatterproofnow. com and you can go there and get some of these resources I've talked about and get your copy of the shatterproof entrepreneur.
[00:34:21] Brittany: Awesome. Thank you for sharing all that. We are going to get that into the show notes. If you are hearing this on a non live stream, then those links should be provided below.
[00:34:32] Brittany: it has been such a pleasure to have you. I mean, it, this has been so eyeopening for me because like I said, I've spent lots of time with lawyers, but this is a very, very different, way of, of supporting people with legal help or consulting help and, and allowing them to. Avoid mistakes down the road, which is just so important.
[00:34:53] Brittany: So love this idea of primary care versus emergency care and how you've built it. also huge respect as [00:35:00] just an entrepreneur to entrepreneur that you've been in it yourself. And that is so valuable when you are hiring outside help as an entrepreneur to know that, Hey, I'm sitting across from another business owner who is also taking Face these challenges, had to make these decisions and, and has the lived experience to support me.
[00:35:18] Brittany: So huge advocate of that. thank you again for sharing all of this with us. I hope you listeners take him up on the offer for the special eye openers page. I think that's a really cool offer and, yes, moving forward, onward with stupid questions and less stupid mistakes. Thanks so much everyone for watching. [00:36:00]
About Scott:
As the official Zig Ziglar Small Business Lawyer and a Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainer, it’s no wonder that Scott Reib is known as “America’s Legal Coach.” For the last two decades, Scott has been helping business owners, entrepreneurs, and coaches “shatterproof” their businesses by implementing specific strategies for structure, growth, and protection.
Even with 20+ years of legal experience, Scott is a firm believer that legal advice doesn’t have to be expensive or intimidating. His passion lies in changing the way we view legal counsel: from “emergency” situations to “primary care provider” relationships. Scott is shifting this perspective via Access Plan, his groundbreaking subscription-model legal service, where he helps clients understand their legal questions before they find themselves in a legal emergency.
Scott has recently launched his own podcast, The Shatterproof Entrepreneur, where he shares these strategies with business ownersand coaches, watching them grow and succeed! He is also publishing his first book under the same name, which is due to be released in Spring 2024.
Special Offer: Shatterproof Now - Get 20 minutes of Scott’s time and access to free resources.