In today’s episode, we sit down with Jeremy Richter, attorney at law, and author of Level Up Your Law Practice and Stop Putting Out Fires, to get tips on how to level up your law practice with some secrets from his new book.
We’ll chat with Jeremy about his new and existing books, what factors prompted his switch to law, and the importance of mindset, as well as…
- Creating sustainable business practices
- Finding clients, and building on existing relationships
- How to take criticism and feedback, and
- How you can apply game theory to leveling up your law practice
Listen now…
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Davina Frederick: Hello and welcome to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast. Our mission is to provide thought-provoking, powerful and practical information to help you in creating your own sustainable wealth-generating law firm without overwork or overwhelm, so you can live your best life. I’m your host, Davina Frederick, and I’m here today with Jeremy Richter, attorney and author of Building a Better Law Practice and Putting Out Fires.
We’re talking today with Jeremy about his upcoming book, Level Up Your Law Practice and get some tips, some inside information on leveling up our own law practices, maybe before his book even comes out. Welcome, Jeremy. I’m so pleased to have you on the Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast.
Jeremy Richter: Well, thanks. I’m really excited to be here today.
Davina: And I realized I forgot to ask you before we started if I’m pronouncing your last name correctly. How do you pronounce your last name? Because I’ve heard it pronounced a couple of different ways.
Jeremy: Yeah. So we, I pronounce it exactly like you said it. And you may be the first person in my entire lifetime to have said it the way we pronounce it without asking because we do it, we’re the very small minority of people who pronounce it ch like church. So you did great. Good job.
Davina: Okay, good. Good. I appreciate that because I was going to ask you before we started and then I forgot because we were chatting and so I’m glad that I didn’t mispronounce it. Well, so welcome today and I’m so happy you’re here. Can you tell us, before we jump into talking about the books, which I want to talk about today because you’ve written two and you have another one coming out with lots of great information. I want to just get everybody to get to know you a little bit. Tell us about your journey to becoming an attorney and what you’ve been doing in your practice, how you serve your clients, and then we’ll go from there.
Jeremy’s Attorney Journey
Jeremy: Alright, so my journey to becoming a lawyer was unexpected, I guess. I went to college intending to be a teacher. Got an education degree in history. And then for six years after college, I did teach high school and junior high in a school here in Alabama. And I really loved it and had a great time. It was a small school. So I got to coach and help with football and basketball. Just be involved in a lot of different areas of the school.
I got a master’s in history while I was there and I really thought that that’s the journey that I was going to take and that’s just what I had intended. And then I was preparing to get married. And I realized that at the small private school that I was at, the salary that I was earning was not going to be able to help me raise a family in the way that I wanted to and have options and I was also under the impression that all lawyers made money, like good money, which turns out may not be entirely accurate.
So, with that false information, I thought, well, I’ll just go to law school. And I did. And so it was just kind of like, here’s something I could do. I’d also thought about medical school, but I didn’t have a science background. So I was gonna have to do two more years of undergrad and that didn’t sound interesting. So it was kind of an uneducated decision that I would certainly not advocate for anybody to make that decision with as little forethought into it as I put into it.
Davina: I think a lot of us do that sort of way. They just go that sounds like a good idea.
Jeremy: Right. It’s a really expensive idea. But, you know, it’s been, I’ve been doing this for, I graduated in 2012. So that was in the middle of the recession, and none of the people that I had clerked for were in a position where they could take on another lawyer. So I graduated. My wife was a nurse or is a nurse at the children’s hospital here in Birmingham. And she had worked to put us through school. And I graduated without any job prospects, took the bar without any job prospects, was sending out dozens and dozens of resumes and cover letters and it was just crickets.
And so then one of the folks that I had clerked for probably in August, a couple weeks after the bar, called me and said, hey, there’s a firm in town that’s looking for somebody, are you interested in insurance, defense work? And I was like, I don’t really know exactly what that means. But yes, I’m interested. And he said, Okay, well, I’ll have them call you and so they couldn’t take on me. Or you know, the folks I clerked for I couldn’t take Me on, but they were willing to recommend to me. And here we are eight years later and I’m still at the same firm.
Davina: Oh, wow. So you’re, so you, it’s kind of like how you went to law school you kind of got into the practice area you’re in by just seeing where life sort of took you on that.
Jeremy: Yeah. It really, because when I went to law school I thought well I think I would like to do criminal prosecution. I spent my first summer at a district attorney’s office and decided, nope. I don’t know what I want to do, but it’s not this. So,
Davina: Well, if you were looking to make more money to, you know, going from being a teacher to a prosecutor, most prosecutors probably tell you it’s not a huge step up. Well, tell me then how you started, because you’ve been with this firm and before you started writing your books you started out with a blog. And tell me what inspired the blog for you. What was that about? And when did you do that? What was the purpose behind it for you?
Why Jeremy Decided to Blog
Jeremy: In 2016 I was in my fourth year and insurance defense is super competitive. I mean, I know all areas of law are competitive. So maybe it’s not more competitive than others but it’s all I know. It’s really difficult for young lawyers to break in with new clients and develop your own book of business because what you’re dealing with is giant, sometimes multinational insurance companies that why are they going to send their work to a fourth-year associate as opposed to somebody who’s got 20 or 25 years of experience? So I was not a person who knew before I went to law school, any lawyers.
I didn’t have any family who were lawyers. I didn’t have any connections in the community. So I didn’t have the resources and the reach to develop my own business. So I thought, like, Okay, what can I do to distinguish myself from the people around me? Because I don’t have one of those big personalities that’s magnetic and charismatic and just draws people to you. So I needed to do something. And for me, one of my strengths has always been writing.
And so I just put some thought into, okay, what can I do? And at first, I wrote some articles for like, our Alabama Defense Lawyers Journal and for some industry organizations. And then I decided, you know what, I can start a law blog. So I started out briefing appellate cases that helped me keep up with my practice area, but also was able to provide some information to, well, what I envisioned when I started, it is not what it has become. Because when I started, I thought, well, insurance people will find this and read it and be interested and contact me.
But it turned out that my readers were other lawyers who were dealing with the same stuff I was. And so eventually, my interest in what I was writing about changed from briefing appellate cases to writing about the things that I’m dealing with in my law practice on a daily basis, whether it’s client relationships or managing cases or trying to build and grow a practice area.
So it evolved over time from what I expected it to be and what I thought my readers were going to be to realizing who my readers were. And how can I, still relatively young lawyer, like I’m learning stuff that I didn’t know and had to figure out the hard way. Maybe I can make the journey a little bit easier for other people who are going through the same thing and just kind of share what I’m learning along the way.
Davina: Right, right. It sounds like you’re still, that teacher is still in you as well. You know, somebody who wants to help others not have to learn the hard way. Maybe they could learn something from your journey and you can teach what you do know. And as you discover new things, you’ll teach that as well. That part seems
Jeremy: That’s definitely true. And I’ve certainly realized that about mine because when I started blogging, I was doing a lot of reading about blogs and they’re, you know, different voices and perspectives and how you can approach it. And I’m like, Well, I’m definitely sharing information from personal experiences, and it is, it’s an education, but not like I’m up here on a pedestal teaching you, you know, teaching you, the reader, about all the things I’ve learned. It’s more like, Hey, I’m going through this and so I think other people similarly situated are too. So let me help, you know, like the rising tide raises all the ships sort of thing.
Davina: Right, right. And it’s, it was interesting because that’s the thing that really jumped out to me. You sent me an advanced copy of Level Up Your Law Practice, which is your new book that’s coming out. And that was the thing that really struck me about it as I was reading it, about is, about how transparent you are in there and sharing some of your, some of the issues that you grapple with and I do want to get into that, discuss that a little bit later. What I’d like to ask the first is for you just to tell us about your three books, and what, you know, what the differences are between them because I’m sure there’s been some evolution there as well.
The Three Books
Jeremy: There definitely is. The first two books, Building a Better Law Practice and Stop Putting Out Fires, I think are really similar in that they broadly look at three different aspects of. So I have a litigation practice. So it’s three different aspects of litigation that our client management, case management, and practice management. And so those three books take different looks. And I do a lot of interviews with other lawyers to deal with those three things.
This new book, Level Up Your Law Practice is a lot more focused and I do feel like it’s a lot more personal. And that was very difficult to commit to doing and then to actually do it and decide to leave things in there that, I don’t know if it seemed to the reader as vulnerable, but it seemed vulnerable to me in writing things and sharing things about myself and my own struggles. And so, the new book focuses on mindset and having a mindset that enables us to be successful and prepares us and empowers us to be successful.
And then how we can use that successful mindset to build our businesses and have sustainable business practices that can work over the long term and don’t rely on gimmicks and short-sighted sort of enterprises. And then the third part of the book deals with client relationships and how we can find clients, build clients and have relationships that are built on mutual trust and benefit and, you know, relationships that can exist over a period of decades rather than here today and gone tomorrow.
Davina: Right, right. So let’s, there’s a lot there I want to talk about. So let’s talk about the vulnerability and the transparency. I read it and I thought, you know, wow, he’s very transparent that these are things that he struggles with too. And I think that that is I mean, I think that’s wonderful. And I love that part of your book because I know that it’s something I’m in a lot of attorney groups on social media, you may be as well, and it’s something that didn’t exist when I started my practice in 2007.
And, you know, Facebook was just a baby and Instagram hadn’t been born yet is what I say. So, but so I really love these lawyer groups that are out now that help where you see other lawyers helping each other in their practice and providing that sort of support. And you get a little, a lot more insight into how other people are struggling with the same things you are or they may be struggling with things that you’re not but you’ve been there already or done that already. And it’s so heartening, you know, to read those kind of things, you feel like you’re not alone in doing that.
And I noticed with you, one of the things that you talked about, there was a couple things that jumped out at me. One was comparison and the other was envy, which I think they’re very closely related, you know? We compare ourselves to others and then we start in being where they are in their journey, versus where we are. Our opportunities they’ve had that we don’t have, that kind of thing. Give us some, kind of go into that a little bit and tell us maybe some of the things that you shared in the book or things that you left out of the book or whatever, to give us some insight into how you dealt with those kinds of things.
Jeremy: Yeah, so for me, as far back as I can remember, and it’s one of those things that I wish I could change about myself, but just I’ve had to come to terms with that status and others’ perception of me and where I belong, kind of among my peers is way more important to me than I wish it were. And it’s, I’ve tried to bury it, I’ve tried any number of ways to get around it. And it just comes back to this matters to me, whether I want it to or not.
And so whenever, you know, whenever they’re my law school sends out emails and talks about the different things that alumni are doing. And they haven’t done that for me, then that just, it just smarts and it irritates me. And it’s also evident in like when I look back in doing things in college, or in when I was teaching that I wanted to leave a mark and I wanted to be able to look back. And some of it is vanity and some of it is, has good roots. Also, but I want to look back and say I made a difference there and that it was a lasting difference and not something that’s fleeting.
But I think that’s also something that drives my writing is that I want to be able to look back over decades and say, Okay, this mattered. But at the same time, the unhealthy part of that is, I also look around me to other people that are doing, other people who are writing books and say, this is going to sound arrogant, and I don’t intend it to be but this, you know, this is where we’re at is I look at somebody else’s book that’s maybe selling more copies and think my book is way more practical than that, or better written, or it just has more values in that book, but there’s is selling more.
And it’s just comparing myself to people and to situations that I don’t have any control over, and it’s not healthy, and it’s not useful. And so I tried to redirect those energies in that attention to things that I can control. And so it’s just, you know, this comparisons to other people and other situations, and having envy over what others have achieved is just, it’s a constant area of struggle for me of being conscious of it and trying to focus on things that I can do to improve myself and improve what I’m doing without regard to what others are doing.
Davina: Right. You know, it’s, it’s funny because it’s often just perception too you know? Like we, what we perceive to be a value versus what they perceive to be a value because you might have somebody that person that you’re comparing yourself to and feeling envious of, is, you know, they’re looking at other people, somebody else and going, I want to be, you know, this person and I’m not there yet. I want to be a Gary Vaynerchuk or a Tony Robbins or whatever, you know?
Jeremy: Exactly.
Davina: And they’re not there. And even those people that I named are driven by, have been driven their whole lives by, you know, a desire to accomplish and achieve and to have impact. I think that’s really where the shift comes in is when you start looking at and going, how can I impact others by the work that I’m doing?
And then you get out of your own head about accomplishment and it becomes more about impact, you know? And creativity and turning to creativity as a sap, you know, and saying this, I do this because I need that creative outlet. And I know that something you talked about in your book is that you kind of started the blog because you didn’t have time for a creative outlet that you had when you were younger because now you had a family and so you’re using something for work to also be creative.
Jeremy: That’s right. That’s exactly right.
Davina: What is it they used to do?
Jeremy: I used to do a lot of photography. And when I now, I was able to do that, even through law school and after law school, just, you know, going on hikes, or going kayaking, and doing photography, and then we had kids. And all of that spare time went into raising children, and, you know, so those things weren’t options anymore. And so that creativity just was dormant for a few years. And then when I started, the idea for blogging was really about the things that I talked about earlier, but it also was able to fill that creative desire for writing and particularly, no, it took months of doing it to find my voice and then develop that I have something to say.
And once I developed all that over, you know, it probably took eight or 10 months to really find that, that’s when my expression and my creativity really kind of came into its own and it’s developed into what has become very fulfilling in doing this writing, and writing books and writing blogs and sharing with others and developing communities and finding communities like you were talking on social media, of other people who are going through the same thing. That we can support each other and help promote each other’s work and just have a group of people that sometimes you can laugh together and sometimes it’s commiserating together.
Davina: You know, when you were talking about creativity in the book and that it started out that way. I can see as a writer myself, I can see the evolution and the more you get the more you practice your creativity, that thing that you’re passionate about, right?
The better you get at it, and the more it’s like opens the floodgates for you because the ideas are there. It’s about how, you know, if you’re an artist of any kind, it’s about communicating them. I mean, the ideas are there, how do we communicate them? And the more you master your craft, the better you get at communicating your ideas and formulating your ideas and getting clarity and being able to put a fine point on it, you know?
Jeremy: Absolutely.
Davina: So speaking of that, you, It appears to be that you, based on some of the things I read the book, that you to do this work you do you also are really a student of self-development. And there, you probably do a lot of reading, listening to podcasts and things like that. Is that true?
Jeremy: Yes, very much. I am all the time listening to podcasts, although it switches between things that are really useful and helped me grow and sports. So yeah, you got to fill all your, and so between that, I listen to a lot of audiobooks. And some of it is fiction that just fills that entertainment void, and others are nonfiction.
And so and also reading, like, the last thing I do before I go to sleep, or usually facilitates going to sleep is read. So, you know, kids are in bed wife and I watch whatever so we’re watching, she goes to sleep, and then I’ll read for a few minutes. So, yeah, I’m always trying to intake information or new ideas that can help me, you know, figure things out a little better.
Davina: Who are some of your favorites? Or who is your favorite sort of when it comes to self-development? Who do you tend to like to read or follow in that sort of area?
Jeremy: I’ll tell you a book that I read, probably in 2018, that was hugely helpful for me was Susan Cain’s Quiet. It’s about the differences between introverts and extroverts. And for me, there was just a lot of self-revelation in there of understanding. I mean, I always knew that I was an introvert. I could go you know, an entire day at work without talking to anybody and be fine with it. And I would much rather spend a day in a library than with a group of people.
And but understanding what that means and how it affects various aspects of my life and being able to accept that and use it to help my marketing efforts and understand how I can, you know, just apply that rather than seeing it as a limitation. Being able to apply the strengths of what, you know, is attached to being an introvert to help my law practice and my personal stuff and my writing and, you know, so I just found that to be a really helpful book.
Davina: Right, right. Yeah, I agree with you. That’s a wonderful book. And in my family we call that, we don’t call it introversion. We say it, you have a very rich inner life. A very rich internal life because you like hanging out in your head, you know?
Jeremy: Yeah, for sure.
Davina: Yeah. So tell me, you talk a lot, you use gaming as a metaphor in this new book. And tell me about your relationship. I mean, you grew up a gamer, obviously, loving to play games. And
Jeremy: Yes. I grew up on a Nintendo for sure.
Davina: Yeah. Why did you choose that as a metaphor? What do you think the similarities are? You know, what sparked it for you that Oh, this is so similar to being an attorney.
Jeremy: Yeah. Well, I’ll tell you
Davina: Getting blown up. Is that what it is?
Jeremy: It was that it is so difficult to find a good title. Like I went through dozens of iterations of titles, and most of them were terrible. And then I came across the idea for Level Up Your Law Practice. And then no, I’m like, okay, I kind of like this. But what is it? You know, what can I make this look like to make it interesting? And so I started thinking about Super Mario Brothers and how, you know, you have these foundational elements of when you get Mario, he’s little and he’s vulnerable, and one little attack from an enemy and your game is over. But then he gets a mushroom and he’s a little stronger.
He has the ability to go on the offensive. He has a little bit of defensive measures about him because, you know, one hits, not going to end everything. And so it’s just these building blocks of being able to add on of, okay, I’ve so applying that is in the way I’ve written it in the book, is with the mindset ideas. When you learn to develop yourself and understand yourself and how to take criticism and feedback and to apply it. And how to sometimes ignore it, because it’s not helpful and it doesn’t come from a good place. Or when you learn to manage your fears of failures.
Those are all things that once you have a really good focus and grasp on yourself, then you can move on to the next thing. And the next thing is okay, I’ve got myself in order a little bit here, although that’s a constant process, and it’s not like a one time fix. You have to continue to manage it. But I can focus on making my business better, and then I can focus on my client relationships and improving how clients find me. And growing this business for that is sustainable over the course of years. So I just thought those things kind of connected really well of just building on each other to get to a final outcome.
Davina: Right, right. So I’m just kind of looking at your book here. And there’s some other things I want to pull out. One of the things I want to talk about your part about getting clients. And give me some insight into some of the advice or tips you have in for that in your book. Talk to us about that section.
Jeremy: Getting clients is really difficult. I think we’re all probably well aware of that
Davina: It’s every attorney’s thought process that it’s difficult even when reality is to the contrary. You always think it’s like It’s gonna dry up anytime. Like it’s some well that’s gonna dry up on you, even if they’re flowing to you, you know? Attorneys always have, right?
Sometimes a Bad Outcome is Inevitable
Jeremy: Well, and absolutely, because and I’ve seen it and everybody’s seen it where, you know, people that you’ve practiced with or people who are in the same practice areas as you that are your peers have one bad case and lose, you know if they’re depending on one client like an insurance defense. So, you know, we may have one major client that feeds a large volume of cases.
And if they have one bad verdict, one bad outcome, that client may pull all those cases. And all of a sudden, they’re 50 years old and just lost their entire book of business, or at least a substantial part of it that is hard to recover from. And so, yeah, that’s always in the back of your mind that that’s a possibility, but it’s something that you try not to focus on. But and so part of the way to minimize those risks, because if you, you know, if you’re in a litigation practice, you’re going to have some bad outcomes. And sometimes that’s just going to happen. And there’s nothing you could have done differently. That’s just the way it goes.
Davina: You got bad facts.
Jeremy: That’s right. And so, if you have an open and communicative relationship with your clients and tell them ahead of time, like, hey, here are all of the risks. Like, you want to go to try this, and that’s fine. And that’s what we’ll do. But you need to understand, like, here’s the terrible thing that could happen. And when over time, you have had open communication, you’ve had timely communication with both the good things and the bad things, then you build up trust so that when something bad does happen, they know like they were made aware of it in advance.
Or when you have bad facts and give them a bad evaluation, they can trust that you’re not just kind of running scared from the case. But truly, this is something that they need to consider settling or some other alternative here. And so it’s just the biggest thing for me with clients is open communication throughout the entire process.
And for me with my particular kind of litigation practice, that means having litigation budgets that are pretty close to accurate, although things can always change, having early evaluations of what the risks are in a case, and, you know, reporting in a timely fashion. And so for me, like in my practice, that’s the three biggest things with relating to clients that when I do those things, I know that we will have established mutual trust between us so that this thing regardless of the single outcome is built to last over the long haul because of the communication and the trust we have with each other.
Davina: Tell me how do you think we can help potential clients find us, you know, keep that stream of potential clients coming to us so that window so that we don’t find ourselves suddenly with all of our eggs in one basket.
Jeremy: I think one of the most important ways to do it, it used to be when somebody needed a lawyer, they went to the phone book, but that’s not a thing anymore. Most people don’t have phone books in their house. So I wanted, a really basic thing to do is have a website. The number of lawyers I see who have aol.com email addresses rather than something that, you know, reflected their firm name or even individual name.
Davina: I know. Kind of shocking isn’t it?
Jeremy: Yes. It’s like, guys, we need to catch up like 30 years here. And so having a website is a good start. Being on social media. So for me, the social media that my clients are at is LinkedIn. And so I have a presence on LinkedIn. I am active on LinkedIn. That’s where I connect to the people that I work with on a daily basis. So that when they go and check, and some of them check it regularly, and some don’t.
They’ll see me, they’ll see the things that I’m writing or, you know, just thought that I’ve had communicated on there, and it keeps me top of mind. And so wherever your clients are is where you need to be. So whether that’s Facebook or LinkedIn or community events, if you have a more local practice, you need to be present where the clients are so that you are on their mind when they have a problem.
Davina: You know, we’ve been talking about all of this and all of these things. And I think one of the, you know, I talk to my clients about marketing activities and stuff like that. So many of them feel pressed for time. But we’ve talked about you being, you know, married and having two very small children. And you are, you’ve been in this practice, and you’re working in your practice, how many hours like 50 hours a week or so in your practice?
Jeremy: A lot. I don’t know how many.
Davina: Maybe more than that, right?
Jeremy: Next week, we’ll be getting ready for trial. So it will be a lot.
Davina: A lot more than that. I know in the book you talk, you give some real examples of like some of your heavier periods of time versus, you know, a little bit lighter the next month. But you also, you read, you’re listening to podcasts, you’re listening to audiobooks, and then you’ve also, you keep up this blog, you’re on LinkedIn.
And now you’ve written, you’re writing your third book and publishing your third book. So the big question is the question that, you know, everybody’s going to have is listening to this because it’s the biggest complaint we all have is, how are you fitting it all in? You must really be a master of time management, are very regimented in your time management, the way that you manage your priorities. What are some of the things that you think kind of help you do that?
Jeremy: Determination to do it. You’re going to have time for the things that you want to do. And sometimes that means rather than just flipping through Twitter for half an hour, which is easy to do, you use that time for something more productive. Which isn’t to say that, like, there are plenty of days where I, you know, like find the end of Twitter and I would not say that I’m a master of time management. There, I wish that I were but I intentionally go about and set time to write. You know, every day, every weekday, I get up at five.
And a lot of days, I use that period between five and when my five year old wakes up somewhere around 6:15 and that’s when I write. And that’s what I work on a blog post or a book or whatever it is, that I’m working on at that particular moment. But also the other times, that’s when I am, I just do work so that my goal every day, is to leave the office by five o’clock because I want to get home and help with dinner and help with the kids and, you know, have that evening time with them that’s not being sacrificed to me sitting in the office somewhere because I just can’t stand the thought of that.
Now there’s sometimes that’s not a reality. But that’s the goal anyway. And so it’s just dedicating and allotting time to do certain things. And for me, early mornings are for writing, or for work if that’s what needs to get done so that I can stay ahead of things or at least not too far behind on things and try and stay afloat.
So it’s just, it’s being intentional about it. If it’s a priority for you, you’re going to do it. And if it’s not, then it’s going to fall by the wayside. And like for me, I used to run a lot. And right now in this season of my life, to be able to work and raise the kids and do the writing, the running has gone by the wayside and miss it. And it’s something that I enjoyed and will do again at some point, but right now, it’s not a priority and it’s falling away so that I can make time for these other things that are a priority.
Davina: Right, right. You’re, It sounds like you’re very driven in your career right now and with this passion with writing and all of that. So, it’s always about what we choose, you know, for ourselves and whether or not we’re choosing something that we’re really passionate about or we’re choosing time wasters, you know? Which can be soothing at times, but
Jeremy: That’s right. And sometimes that’s necessary too. It’s mindless amusement.
Davina: Right, exactly. So tell us, we’re about to wrap up here but before we do, I want to know what do you think the biggest lesson is that you can share from us from your body of work so far? I mean what stands out to you? What message do you really want to share with other attorneys out there who are building their practices that you think would be kind of a gold nugget?
Jeremy: So I was thinking about this and you sent me some questions at a time. And so I was thinking about this one particularly. And I think there are three things that contribute to our success and sometimes our failure, but only one of them is in our control. And the two of them are talent and luck.
And I have never, ever in anything that I can think of the tried have been the most talented person. And I’m not a particularly lucky person and haven’t had a lot of things just break my way, I don’t feel like either. And so those are things that like, you might look around you and compare yourself to others and think that person is extraordinarily talented at, you know, trial practice or, you know, whatever aspect of your life that you’re looking at, you’re going to see people that are more talented than you in all likelihood.
And that’s out of your control. There’s nothing you can do about that. You also can’t control whether things break your way or not. But what you can control is your work ethic and how much time and energy and effort you’re willing to put into things to improve your capacity. And to use a sports analogy here, the best person I can think of that most people can readily identify is Steph Curry who plays for the Golden State Warriors.
He was never the most gifted person. He was lucky in some ways in that he was born to an NBA, a former NBA player, but he was never the biggest or most gifted, but he put in thousands and thousands and thousands of hours to becoming what, by the end of his career, is probably going to become the best shooter in NBA history.
And it all came down to just putting in the work in persevering and willing himself to overcome obstacles and failures. And each and every one of us are going to experience those things in our day to day life. And it’s just a matter of persevere, pick yourself up after failure, figure out what you can learn from it and let’s try this again.
Davina: Right, that’s great. Very good advice. Let me ask you this. What do you think your why is? You know, Simon Sinek cast that wonderful question about, you know, figuring out what your why is. And you’ve talked about, you mentioned earlier about legacy. And I know you have, you know, a family, a young family. Tell me what you think drives you to be such an achiever.
The Drive to Create a Legacy
Jeremy: I think that’s it. I mean, what you said and what we talked about earlier is leaving something behind me that helps others and has helped others and can continue to help others learn from my own whether it’s a success or whether it’s a failure, or but my experiences along the way that I can help bring people with me and just have a legacy that is positive, that my children can see and experience and grow from. And, you know, hopefully it’s something that they can follow, not exactly, but maybe it will be an example to them.
Davina: So tell us where we can find out more about you, where we can find your first two books, when we can expect the new book to be coming out and all of that information.
Jeremy: Okay, so my website is jeremywrichter.com. That’s where all of my writing is. All of my books are available wherever it is that you prefer to buy books. And so if that’s Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or Books a Million, wherever it is that you want to buy books, you can find my books. And, or at least the second two. The first one is a little more limited. It was published through the ABA, and so their distribution is a little bit different than how the other two are. But it’s all on Amazon. And that’s where everybody buys anything these days anyway. So that’s probably the best place.
Davina: Yeah, get a little plugin for Jeff Bezos.
Jeremy: Yeah, because he needs it. So the new book, Level Up Your Law Practice is available for pre-order now, and it will be released on May 5, 2020.
Davina: Wonderful, wonderful. Very excited. Well, we’ll look forward to that. And I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun finishing it up, getting it polished off and putting all of your best recommendations in there for us so we can focus on growing really great law practices.
Jeremy: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the editing and proofreading is definitely the worst part of the whole thing, but it’s unavoidable. So we’re in the throes of that right now.
Davina: Yeah. When somebody bleeds all over your brilliant piece of writing that you thought was so wonderful. Yeah. Well, thanks so much for being here today, Jeremy. I really enjoyed our conversation. And I’m excited for you about your new book. And I’m sure that a lot of people will be going to Amazon or Barnes and Noble or wherever and checking out your other books, Building a Better Law Practice and Putting Out Fires. There’s both have subtitles but I’m just telling the main title. So thanks again for being here today.
Jeremy: Well, thanks. I really enjoyed it.
