Brian Glass is a personal injury lawyer licensed to practice in Virginia and Maryland. He is a Partner at BenGlassLaw, a personal injury and ERISA disability law firm based in Fairfax, Virginia. His specialties include helping people who have been injured in auto accidents go up against insurance companies and receive the compensation they deserve, providing high-quality and personalized representation, and educating Fairfax professionals on their best legal options for potential cases. Brian is a member of the Fairfax Bar Association, the Virginia Bar Association, and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, where he was recently named one of the Top 40 Under 40. He has been designated as a Rising Star by SuperLawyers Magazine each year from 2017-2022, an award recognizing only the top 2.5% of lawyers in the state.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Brian Glass’ inspiration for practicing law
• BenGlassLaw’s approach to serving their clients effectively
• What did Brian learn at his first law firm?
• The biggest turning point and milestone in Brian’s career
• How Brian and his firm overcame a significant challenge
• Brian shares his most rewarding personal and professional moments
• The best advice Brian has received
• Brian’s daily ritual for success
• What is Brian’s favorite software?

In this episode…

Taking legal action following an injury or accident is an arduous and often intimidating process, as you may run the risk of being taken advantage of by lawyers and opposing parties. So, how can you choose the right lawyer to represent you? Some lawyers are more concerned with making money than helping their clients, causing confusion about how to advocate for yourself in legal disputes. Most people are unfamiliar with the process — especially when dealing with insurance companies after an accident. Fortunately, Brian Glass and his firm, BenGlassLaw, can give you access to reliable information through a variety of free books and guides and providing legal representation to injured people. In this episode of 15 Minutes, Michael Renfro sits down with Brian Glass, a personal injury lawyer and Partner at BenGlassLaw, to discuss his journey as a lawyer representing people in personal injury cases. Brian explains the approach he uses to best serve his clients, a crucial turning point and milestone in his career, and the biggest hurdles his firm overcame.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Michael Renfro on LinkedIn
• Gladiator Law Marketing
• BenGlassLaw
• Brian Glass on LinkedIn
• From the Hip
• GoBundance
• The National Trial Lawyers
• CASEpeer

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Gladiator Law Marketing, where we deliver tailor-made services to help you accomplish your objectives and maximize your growth potential. To have a successful marketing campaign and make sure you’re getting the best ROI, your firm needs to have a better website and better content. At Gladiator Law Marketing, we use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and decades of experience to outperform the competition. To learn more, go to gladiatorlawmarketing.com or schedule a free marketing consultation. You can also send an email to Adam@gladiatorlawmarketing.com.

Episode Transcript

Intro  0:01  You’re listening to 15 minutes, where we feature community leaders sharing what the rest of us should know, but likely don’t. Michael Renfro  0:12  Hello, everyone, Michael Renfro here I’m the host of 15 minutes, where we talk with top-notch law firms and lawyers about what it takes to grow a successful law practice. This episode is brought to you as always, by Gladiator Law Marketing, where we deliver tailor-made services to help you accomplish your objectives, and maximize your growth potential. To have a successful marketing campaign and make sure you’re getting the best ROI, your firm needs to have a better website and better content. At Gladiator Law Marketing, we use artificial intelligence as well as machine learning and decades actually, it’s close to a century now of experience to outperform the competition. Feel free to learn more at gladiatorlawmarketing.com, where you can get a free consultation, and that is an evaluation for the valuation of your site as well as the competitors. Or you can reach out to me directly at michael@gladiatorlawmarketing.com. And Gladiator Law Marketing is simply spelled standard, gladiatorlawmarketing.com. Anyway, today’s guest is Brian Glass. Brian is out of Fairfax, Virginia, and he is a personal injury attorney as well as a real estate investor. And if I have my memory on today, a father of three is that correct, Brian? Brian Glass  1:34  That’s right, Michael, thanks for having me. Yeah, I got three young boys who are nine, seven and the youngest one just turned four. Michael Renfro  1:41  That’s funny that you say that because I have three 22 year olds, long story, two twins and a third one who’s not blood, but he’s been with the family now for so long. He calls me dad and vice versa. And I treat him as a fifth. And those three lives together. But then I’ve got a 10 and an eight that are just a year ahead of what it sounds like as your oldest and all boys. The good lord decided that girls were not in my technical. Brian Glass  2:10  Yeah, it’s noisy and loud in my house. Michael Renfro  2:16  Oh, it is. I have my mother and my wife. And they constantly joke about the amount of testosterone. So we did get a female dog and a female cat to kind of try to help balance things out a little bit. With that said, how did you get started? Brian Glass  2:33  So how did I get started in the law? I never wanted to be anything else, honestly. My dad is a lawyer. He did medical malpractice and personal injury law. I think I must have seen that growing up. I must have gone to court with him every once in a while. But I never in high school or college ever wanted to do anything else. I like talking to juries. I like talking to people. And so kind of being on stage in a courtroom, something that really appealed. Michael Renfro  3:03  So you also a litigator then as well. Brian Glass  3:05  I’ve been trial lawyer. Yeah. Michael Renfro  3:07  Got it nice. I don’t know if I had this, how long now have you been practicing? Brian Glass  3:14  So I graduated law school 2008. So 14 years, Michael Renfro  3:17  14 years already. And you’re doing quite well I might say and I did love the, it’s not a question on here, but I’ll just bring it up now since we’re kind of talking about you. But I love the idea, the approach, I guess the mission statement, if you will, of trying to be something different than any other law practice. Do you want to tell us just a little bit more about that? Brian Glass  3:37  Yeah. So we’ve spent the last three years, so my story is I graduated law school 2008 I went to work at one firm was kind of a general practice firm, and I lasted about four months there. I’m not good at doing things like billing my time. Which is why personal injury law is perfect for me. So I lasted about four months there and then went to work in an auto accident firm for about 10 years. And my whole reasoning out of law school for doing that was to make my own name and reputation and friends and way of doing things. And then ultimately at some point to join my dad’s practice. And so about four years ago, now I joined him. And we’ve been working with business coaches to construct. Okay, well, what are we really trying to build here? I think most lawyers are just looking for the next case and we want next year to be better than last year was. Everybody wants that. Right? But chasing those numbers year after year, I think gets a little bit repetitive. And so we took a step back and we said, we’re really good lawyers, but at the end of the day, I think I’m a better business person than I am lawyer. It’s really hard, especially in Northern Virginia, to be the top dog lawyer. And your client would never know the difference anyway, which is not to say that we’re not trying to build… Michael Renfro  5:12  Not to say that you guys aren’t the best. It’s just I get it, you have so much competition, and if you are the best, and then there’s three other guys that are doing just as good as you, or you’re doing just as good as them and vice versa. Brian Glass  5:25  And how does anybody ever know? I mean, you’re a law marketing firm. And every lawyer says the same thing. Every lawyer says they’re the best and the smartest, and they’re the most aggressive and whatever. What I wanted to do, what my dad and I want to do is build the best business, meaning we want to have the best people working for us people that we know, like, and trust and know like and trust us. We’re invested in their own personal growth as much as they are invested in the growth of the firm. And that passes down to the client. So clients are best served, when my employees are happy, and my employees are happiest and so. So really, what we’re trying to build here is not the best lawyers with the best objections and the best arguments, we get great results, yes, but we’re trying to build the best client customer service experience that you can have in a law firm. And so what that means is, if you’re an auto accident client of mine, you really should never have to call and ask what’s going on with your case, because we’ve done such a good job of keeping you informed about not only what’s happening today, but what the next three steps in your case are going to be. So we have a lot of ways to keep in touch with our clients, clients get periodic videos from us, they get check-ins with my paralegals, and with me, depending on the stage of the case. But the idea is that you should never be in a situation where you’re thinking, there’s something that’s going on in my case that I don’t know about or haven’t been informed about. And that’s really what we’re trying to build here is a place where the owners thrive, the employees thrive, and then ultimately, the client, the customer thrives. Michael Renfro  7:09  Keeping them 100% in the loop is definitely, we consider that’s what it is, but when you’re in business, I think that that should be the ultimate goal of any business, particularly if it is client based and ongoing. Brian Glass  7:27  It sounds really basic, but it’s not. And there’s a term for legalese. Most lawyers talk to each other and talk to their clients at a level that’s up here. And sometimes the clients nod and pretend that they understand sometimes they do understand, but a lot of times they don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. And so kind of coming down to normal person talk, right? I mean, it’s like going into I’m intimidated when I go into most auto mechanic shops. I don’t speak the language. So you got to talk to me like, I don’t speak the language. And most of us most lawyers don’t do that. So I forgot exactly how we got here. Michael Renfro  8:11  Oh, it’s fine. It’s funny, because I do the same thing. My son’s a mechanic now at 22. And he’s a hell of a mechanic and getting quite a reputation here in the area for being one of the best. And it’s funny, because just last night, he’s like, hey, dad, check this out. And he got a new bike. And I’m like, man, you’re showing me stuff. And you’re described, like, he took the carburetors apart. And he’s telling me all about these little ended and I’m like, I love you, son. But you’re way over my head. Can I just see the bike? I was like, can I just say what you bought? But I think doing that for your clients. And that’s how we got there, as you said that, and I was just saying, tying in that I think that’s ultimately anything. And I agree with you, I don’t believe it is a standard of most firms. And I’ll give you an example, to speak louder of you guys, of you folks over there? I just spoke to a firm yesterday that had and I won’t mention any names not like that. But they had scheduled an interview. Right. And when I called the disposition of the front desk person just right away was nasty. And then the follow-up that I got from the attorney was very cold and how I say, disconnected. And my immediate thought was, well, it seems like that whole firm is just in a little bit of discontent because it always starts at the top. You can say what you want. But typically speaking if your front end, if you’re seeing that, and then that’s what you see throughout the transition then it usually is trickling from the top end because if they’re not happy then. Brian Glass  9:49  Well and who wants to go to work 40 hours a week at a place like that. Right? How to most law offices answered the phone. Somebody picks up the phone and barks law offices in the if you don’t know, you don’t know who you call, our front desk is manned by who, lately we call her director of happiness. And her job is to make sure that everybody who interacts with our office via the UPS guy or  the food delivery guy, or we have an obese office who’s directly across the hallway from us. And during COVID, the partner and the other kids that they bring with them weren’t allowed to go into the OB’s office. So what did we do? We bought a bunch of teddy bears, and stack them up front, we said anytime you see a three-year-old wandering around the hallway, go out and give them a teddy bear. So we just want everybody who comes into our world to walk away with a positive experience. Michael Renfro  10:40  That even comes in and even in the fringe of it, because that’s really not even, technically speaking, that’s going above and beyond, and I will shut up because it is and you don’t see that every day. But that’s even not in your circle so much as fringing on your circle. And hey, I see you guys are not having the best time. Let me make it a little bit easier on your clients, your neighbors. Very cool. Well, let’s talk about those four years, just real quick, that you were having to Bill? What were those early days like? Brian Glass  11:10  Oh, yeah, so it was about six months? Michael Renfro  11:14  I thought you said four. Brian Glass  11:16  No, I’ve been here for four years. The first place that I was at for six months was a traditional law firm. There’s billable hours, there’s no training. And so I’ll tell you this, there’s very little thought given to how can we improve the client’s life? So this firm, a number of our clients came to us through one of these legal insurance contract plan, these employer-sponsored plans, we paid $25 a month or whatever. And then you get a discount lawyer, who’s a general practitioner to handle your case. And it felt this wasn’t stated. But it felt to me as though the primary goal for any of those people that walked in the door was to figure out a way to convert the issue that they had not from something that was covered by their legal insurance contract, but there’s something that we could then build them by the hour. And that ethos permeates everything that you do. Which can be an issue with the billable hour itself, just a whole another issue. But placing a premium on how does it benefit us rather than how does it benefit the client? Was something that it’s just culturally endemic to many law firms and certainly to that one. Michael Renfro  12:42  It’s funny, because before I started, first of all, I have a checkered past, and most everybody knows that. So I’ll just say, from 16 to 26, I was a douchebag on the other side of the law, and used criminal guys, criminal defense, guys, let’s put it that way. And that was the only exposure I’d really had to law was the criminal defense or a traffic ticket, right? And then seeing a few movies. And it’s funny, because when I talk to folks now, I always cite the firm because the firm gives you one concept. And it’s that type of firm, like the firm that is in that movie is the exact type of firm you’re talking about where it’s how many dollars, can we get out of this client? It’s not how well can we help this client? Another one of my favorites that demonstrates that, and I’m curious if you’ve seen it, but it’s an older movie. And if you haven’t seen it last time I saw was on Prime was called From the Hip. And it’s a great movie that stars one of the Brat Pack from the 80s. Oh my gosh, John Nelson, I don’t know if you know him from Joe Nelson right there. He stars as a fledgling attorney and a big firm, you would absolutely love. I’m telling you, you would love it. But moving on. Brian Glass  13:58  I have to check that out. Michael Renfro  14:00  Yeah, I’m telling you, man, you will, because everybody knows the firm, but very few people know that it didn’t do as well. But if you look, it actually has good, decent ratings, particularly since it was talking about like an 80s movie, late 80s. I’m going to kind of squeeze two questions here together, because they actually make sense more to me together. But what was the biggest turning point that in turn became the biggest milestone for your career where it ended up? Brian Glass  14:27  Yeah, so biggest turning point, it became a big milestone. Michael Renfro  14:33  They’re really one of the same if you look at it, let’s face it, a milestone and attorney point to me are kind of the same. So which was the biggest one, if you will, that had the biggest impact that led you to where you are today? Brian Glass  14:49  Yeah, so I think joining my dad about four years ago, over here, and building, the firm that I was at, just prior to being here, fantastic firm. But we really were running two parallel auto accident practices together, right? Like a lot of firms which and it works for many, many people, but it didn’t feel like I was building something larger than my own book. And so being here now, and my dad and I have a lot of symbiotic, one plus one equals three stuff going on. He’s good at stuff that I’m not, and I’m good at stuff that he’s not. And so now I feel like I’m building something greater than just my own practice and my own next case. And so that has been a big milestone for me. I mean, it’s not the thing that you would hang on a wall is like, greatest verdict. But that mindset shift from, okay, how do I make 10% more next year to how do we do that and make other people around us lives better? Has been a big change for me. Michael Renfro  15:59  No, to me, I would agree. I guess I’ll say this all agree that it may not be something that’s worthy of the, as you say, of the wall in the sense of the degree or certificate that says this happened at that moment, or even a victory, but for what you’re trying to build and where you’re trying to go, I imagine if I had spoken to you five years ago, I would have gotten some different answers right out of the gate, just because your mindset and what you were focused on was different. Brian Glass  16:26  And it’s funny that I use the metaphor and putting it on a wall, because we actually do have on our walls. Anytime somebody leaves us a five-star Google review and mentions one of our staff by names, we have an artist who strips out the staff members name. And takes a quote and puts out on one of these little wall plaques when we hang out on the wall in their office or in our conference room. So in a sense, yeah, all that stuff does go on the wall. Michael Renfro  16:57  It does go on the wall, because it’s about, I’ll say this. And I really, I’m not going to sit here and try to credit the first company. I think one of the earliest companies, I remember truly, back in the day, and I’m not talking about them today, let me be very, very clear on that. But Apple back in the day was very innovative, of looking at different ways that running their company. And I think that’s what helped builds a great company. It’s not just like you say, it’s not just the victories, and you guys have that, right. So the way you’re doing it, you have all these different things, you’ve checked that one off, we’re good at our job, we’re good at what we do in the sense of the service that we provide. Now, we’re good at businessman, can we be good at creating a culture that is different than anybody else? I think that’s exactly right. I think it’s always refreshing to me to do something that is different, with that, looking at the greatest one, what’s the biggest pitfall? And or mistake, however, you want to look at it. I don’t believe in mistakes. I only believe in hurdles that I knocked over and I learned how to jump the next time. So what’s the best one for you? Brian Glass  18:03  Yeah. So I think one hurdle that we had is the same hurdle that everybody had the last couple years is COVID. Like, trying to figure out and we were fortunate enough that we were technologically advanced at least as far as lawyers go, and all of our server is an online server, right? I don’t have to have people physically in the office to do anything other than open the mail. A lot of small law firms weren’t in that position. Michael Renfro  18:31  We know. Yeah. Brian Glass  18:33  Yeah. You know that. Yeah. Michael Renfro  18:36  A lot of scrambling was going on those first two weeks. Let’s just say that. Brian Glass  18:40  Yeah. And for an auto accident, firm that relies on people getting in car crashes, we didn’t have cars on the road for three months. So that was a scary time. And what we went around to all of our people that we had single moms working here whose daycares are shut down, and we’re out who’s that everybody, okay, what can we do? Like what would perfect be for you? We can’t promise that we can do whatever the thing, but what we’re going to try. And so we weathered that storm, we’ve been through now, until earlier this year, we had gone through really two months where we didn’t settle anything big. We didn’t try anything big because courts were closed for 18, 22 months in Northern Virginia. And so as you may know, on larger cases, the insurance companies were holding on to the money and just earning interest on it. I mean, we didn’t have any six figure settlements for at least a year and a half. Which has an impact. So we’ve gotten through that I think we’re stronger on the other side, we’ve kind of flesh out our portfolio and we’re up and running and ready to go for the next couple of years. Michael Renfro  19:56  The two points I want to come to on this, number one on anybody too have made it through COVID, I believe, particularly law firms and service based industries, not to sound rude. And I know some people are probably going to take this the wrong way. But it really thinned the crop, if you will, to the people who truly had successful businesses that could weather that kind of a storm, number one, and obviously, kudos for you folks to making it. The other thing I’ll say, it’s funny, because I always try to look at the balance of things. It’s just who I am, right? If it’s a bad day, that means tomorrow is going to be a good one, it has to happen. That’s the way it is. Right. But when I look at this, the insurance companies weren’t giving out money, excuse me, I apologize. But have they given out that money and paid that out? I wonder if that wouldn’t have hurt the economy more in the long run, because they weren’t able to get the interest to weather their own storms? And I know that sounds funny, and I don’t like to look at it either. But I used to work for the insurance companies. I was an agent for years. And I was always looking out for the best on my client. But then trying to understand why an underwriter would do what they would do. You know what I mean? If that makes sense, the risk factor. And I don’t necessarily agree with how it all transpired. But I think ultimately, I do believe everything happens for a reason. And I believe it all works out the way it’s supposed to. And I think these insurance companies played it smart, because they knew, what if we end up doing this and then don’t recover in a year or two years, and then where are we at? Brian Glass  21:29  Yeah, there’s something to that, and it’s something that they weren’t paying anything on smaller cases, I had guys, because they have to justify their jobs, too. I had adjusters that were making offers within two days of getting demand packages because they didn’t have any new files. Like, I got to do something. But certainly the bigger stuff just held on longer. I mean, it is what it is. Michael Renfro  21:53  Yeah. No, I was just following that up. So this can be personally or professionally and you know what? Actually, let me say this, as far as why don’t you give us one of each because you seem like a really nice guy. And I would actually be interested in both. So what is your proudest moment personally, because I know you do the real estate investing as more of a, that’s obviously not your focus point of business. And then you have the firm, so what would be a proudest moment? Brian Glass  22:22  So my proudest moments are personally or running moments. I’ve finished 100-mile foot race and it’s seven and a half mile trail race in western Pennsylvania. Absolutely exhausting. Michael Renfro  22:39  May I ask how many days that is or was that one? Brian Glass  22:41  No, it’s one day. So 100-mile race was 23 hours and 20 minutes? Michael Renfro  22:47  Oh, you’re on a bike? Brian Glass  22:48  No, no, no, no, running. Running in that I’m said Park in North Carolina. Michael Renfro  22:53  Oh, no, sorry. I was thinking you said 23 hours. Oh, wow. Oh, my God, you ran for a day, literally did you ever think to yourself, I feel like I’m Forrest Gump at this moment? Brian Glass  23:10  There’s a guy in my area that just did the Forrest Gump just finish the race across America. But no, what I thought ironically, and I have a distinct memory in the 70-mile races and in that, of sitting in a chair at an aid station 45 miles into the race. My wife was eight months pregnant. And I dragged the whole family, four hours west of Pennsylvania, and wanting to quit, but I didn’t drag everybody four hours west so that I could run 45 miles, my son’s in the winter here run 45 miles of the 70-mile mountain race. So those two are my proudest personal accomplishments that I’ve taken with baby number three, who’s now four years old, I’ve taken a couple of years off, but my goal next year, which would be my 40th year and a half is to do another 100-mile race. Michael Renfro  24:16  Nice. Are you going to repeat the same race in the same race? Brian Glass  24:24  No, I’m going to attempt Massanutten mountain 100, which is on Massanutten mountain. It’s rocky is one of the harder ones on the East Coast, time limit is 35 hours. And so I expect it’ll take me somewhere between 32 and 34. Michael Renfro  24:40  Wow. That’s just climbing the whole time isn’t. Brian Glass  24:46  Climbing sometimes is the easy part. Right? Because you can train on a stair climb. It’s coming back down that’s hard. When you blow up your quads, the coming back down is pretty hard. Michael Renfro  24:56  Yeah, I mean, I that would only make sense because ultimately they say resistance is the quicker and better way to build muscles. Right? And that’s exactly what coming down is, is resisting gravity to just take you down the hill. So yeah, that makes perfect sense. Brian Glass  25:15  And then professionally, like, we had a really good year. Michael Renfro  25:21  2021 or 2020? Brian Glass  25:23  Well, this year has been so far really good year. So I tried a case in April and got a four and a quarter million dollar verdict against a drunk driver who hit my client head on about three and a half years ago, and just cause catastrophic injuries. And so we got her three and a quarter million dollars of compensatory damages and a million dollars in punitive damages, which we believe to be a tie for the record and punitive damages in a drunk driving case in Virginia. So really proud of that. I mean, it’s in Fairfax County, which is a traditionally a conservative part of the state. Michael Renfro  26:04  Doesn’t award a lot of big winnings like that, I would imagine. Brian Glass  26:07  Yeah, but we’ll do it in the right case when you have a recalcitrant defendant, which is exactly what we had in this case. Michael Renfro  26:14  And when you prove your point, you know, I mean, quite frankly, I love talking to attorneys, because particularly litigators. Most of them get what I mean, but when I say this, but they’re the greatest salesman on Earth. Brian Glass  26:27  We are salesmen. Michael Renfro  26:30  You are the purest form of sales men, I tell people, the only difference is, you have someone’s money or life in your hands. That’s the only difference is that what you’re selling, essentially is you cannot put a value on it. Yes, you have the monetary side, but you really can’t put it because it’s always somebody’s life that’s going to be impacted on one side of the other. Both sides are going to be impacted. One to the better. One, obviously, to the worst. Now, I will love to see where you folks are in a couple of years. So who’s in this journey that you’ve had, who’s your mentors? What’s the best piece of advice, I should say that a mentor has given you. Brian Glass  27:18  She’s best piece of advice from a mentor. Michael Renfro  27:25  You can say your dad too. Brian Glass  27:26  I will. So I’m thinking him, but I didn’t really follow the advice that he gave me. Michael Renfro  27:32  Of course. Brian Glass  27:32  The best advice, looking back for somebody that wants to be a lawyer is to go to the cheapest law school you can find, wants to do what I do, right is if you go to a cheap law school, lower level law school, you’re not going to get a Wall Street job, probably. But if you want to be a trial lawyer, the best thing that you can do is graduate with little to no debt. And so that is really, really important understanding that $100,000 loan is, I don’t know, $25,000 a year in repaying it, and it doesn’t go away, doesn’t go away when you hit 100. So keeping financially savvy at the beginning, and making sure that you’re spending less than you’re making and putting money away so that you can do things like invest, and so that you have the financial stability to build a cool business is really important advice. Michael Renfro  28:41  Yeah, I 100% agree on that, because I think it makes more sense to get, you can call it whatever you want. But education nowadays is pretty standard. And what I mean by that is, particularly if you go to law school, there’s a certain amount that has to be taught right? And there’s a certain amount that has to be covered in order for you to go past that state’s bar or pass your state’s bar if you’re learning out of state, which I don’t understand why some people do that. Brian Glass  29:06  So yeah, so I mean, it’s, it’s a requirement, right? Like, you’d have to go to law school except in California. And accepting some states where you can study for whatever, like law school 99.9% of the time as a requirement, the bar is a requirement. But after three years of practice, nobody cares where you went to school. Michael Renfro  29:24  No, they only care about what have you done in the law, and getting your foot in the door, quite frankly, I think sometimes might be easier, if you’re the guy that doesn’t have all the accolades because they may look at you. I know that I did when I hire salespeople, if they went to the greater schools and all that stuff, I was always like, well, you’re not going to have a problem getting a job. And that’s just who I was like. I don’t need to worry about hiring you. You’re gonna have a handful of offers and probably not even going to take mine anyway. Well, I would look for the guy that or the gal that had little to no experience but would work their way through it, they really earned everything that they had. Brian Glass  30:06  And coming out not saddled by debt. Right? Michael Renfro  30:10  Yes, right. If you can be debt free, please. That’s the better way. I think a lot of people would learn from that statement, not just attorneys, quite frankly, like, you could take that on to the other big profession, like doctors who have to go through it, why go to the most expensive school and pay the most expensive money for you to get the same job that ultimately most likely somebody who paid half for a fourth of that is going to get as well. And it’s all about how you perform in the real world anyway, like you said, after four years and three years in it, who cares where you went? It’s what you did last week? Brian Glass  30:48  Yeah, you are what Google says you are after four years, right? Michael Renfro  30:52  Exactly. So run through just a daily ritual that is most, how to say most important and kind of give us your typical day in that. Brian Glass  31:06  Yeah, so I’m a big believer in winning the morning, win the day. And so my things that I’ve really started this year, first thing I do is drink a big glass of water, right? Because you dehydrated overnight, so 16, 20 ounces of water. And I like to exercise either go to a CrossFit gym, or I go for a run. And then if I can find 10 minutes to sit quietly and meditate, I like to do that. And then I’m on with the day, right? Then I can get the kids ready for school, get a shower come into work. When I’m at my best, I can do things like not open email until noon. If I have a day where I can come in and it’s hard to do, because you have to plan in advance. And you really have to be in the rhythm of doing this every single day. Or else it’s easy to fall off this wagon, but you can do the substantive work for the first two or three hours of the day. And then get to email. Like that’s a perfect time. Because every email that you send out at 8:30 in the morning is coming back to you by 10. So yeah, if I can have a day where I can do those couple of things, wanted to begin with workout, meditate and stay off email, that’s a good day. Michael Renfro  32:27  I liked the water that you mentioned that because I read this probably, I used to be much heavier, like about 65, 70 pounds, 70 pounds heavier, and started changing my daily ritual. One of the big things that changed by the way that really helped was just cutting out codes, stopped drinking and started drinking water. And I started drinking water and my wife read this thing like right after that. And she’s like, just read an article that says if you take 20 sips, 20 quick sips of water, right when you wake up, she’s like literally, immediately upon waking up, you still want to continue to hydrate throughout the first 15 minutes, but she’s like, if you take these 20 quick sips. She’s like, before you even start drinking your regular, she’s like quick’s it. Supposedly it’s kind of like warming up an engine, if you will on a car. And it’s those 20 quick sips that it’s just enough apparently from the study, right to give your body enough not overwhelm it so that it starts and then after five minutes you’re okay to start drinking your regular while doing all your regular things still, very quickly, but it’s that immediate wake up, drink some water, get the hydration go and get the engine going. Since getting that it’s been one of the vital things for my morning and I believe it or not, I also believe that just helped me lose weight. I think it said it even somewhere in the article, it helps promote good weight loss because the engine is started right away. So it immediately did I just hit them mic again? Brian Glass  33:19  No, you’re good, it kick-starts your metabolisms. Lowers your cortisol levels and makes you feel full. Michael Renfro  33:58  Yep. Exactly. It’s very cool. So what do most people not, here’s the key word, not know about you that might be something strange, quirky or maybe a hobby? And I will say this by the way, I have a belief that normal is strange. And so don’t be afraid to tell us anything because I promise you there’s not. Brian Glass  34:22  What strange thing that most people not know about. Let’s see. Michael Renfro  34:29  It could be the running. But I imagine that most folks that work with you probably knows. Brian Glass  34:34  We’re kind of like CrossFitters we talk about it a lot. Michael Renfro  34:37  Yeah. Brian Glass  34:37  What do most people not know. I don’t know. Michael Renfro  34:47  We can pass man, a lot of people, I tried to tell this like I don’t know that I have one anymore because I became such an open book over the last 15 years that like literally even the worst stories became no different to me. And I tell people like once you tell a bad story about yourself a few times, becomes a lot easier to so then you just, like if you really are an open book, you’re an open book. Brian Glass  35:08  Yeah, I mean, and so maybe that’s it, maybe I just talked about it a lot, right. So one of the things that I’m really proud of is I can be able to get out of the office at 4:30 most days when we’re in season go, coach, my two older boys sports. So I’ve coached soccer, I’ve coach baseball and I was doing two teams at a time for baseball last fall. Monday, Wednesday, with Nolan my seven-year-old and Tuesday Thursday with Kellen my nine-year-old. And then we go to two games on Saturday. And the greatest part about that was since the league knew I was coaching two teams, they scheduled me so I never had a conflict. I tell people, it’s why I did it. Right. I don’t have to worry about being in two places at once because it teams are all spread out. Michael Renfro  35:59  As long as you have no conflicts. Why not? Let’s face it. It’s what I call a happy responsibility. Brian Glass  36:06  Yeah, I know. And I like being there. I like being outside, like throwing the soccer ball around. Michael Renfro  36:13  Yeah. They keep me young man. Not just having mine here. But hearing their outlooks, I always love to hear the way they hear it again. And what I mean by again is taking myself back to that looking at the world from eight years old and being like, oh, yeah, like even at eight like, yeah, you know so much. But you remember as an adult, how much you were still in awe of everything that you experience, right? And it’s just so big and wonderful. So that’s awesome. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done? Brian Glass  36:46  Probably running 100 miles. Michael Renfro  36:48  Okay. And I assume since you work for your father, and you work for father’s firm, did you grow up there in Fairfax? Is that where you’re from? So what was it like? What was it like growing up there? Let’s take you back to you said you’re 40. So let’s take you back to 1983. From 83 to let’s say, 93. So when you were a kid, what was it like growing up? Brian Glass  37:08  Well, it’s different, right? I mean, we weren’t quite like the edge of civilization, but we’re not now. Right now it’s much, much, much larger. And so my kids were in the same school district that I went to. My kids go to that high school, we stay that they will. It was normal. I mean, I played soccer, I played in a SKA band. I played trombone and a SKA band in high school. Michael Renfro  37:41   Nice. You like fishbone? Okay. Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Okay, you got to remember to hit it again. I can’t stand that mic I’m 50. So I grew up with all those, in the 90s. I was a young, a young adult listening to a lot of fishbones and a lot of Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I seen fish bound several times. i It’s funny you say because I just had to stop. So many people still don’t even know the word SKA. It’s amazing to me. It’s like lacrosse. It’s like these two things somehow that existed for eons. And there’s a lot of people involved. But you talk about and a lot of people get lacrosse. Gods. I love the fact that you were a part of it. So I really do love, I try to tell people SKA is something that you cannot explain. You just have to hear it. It’s the best way. Brian Glass  38:36  And it’s funny so we made a CD at a small local recording studio. And I’ve got a couple of copies in my house. And once a year, the CD comes out and goes in the CD player. My wife doesn’t love it. Michael Renfro  38:49  Put up on Spotify man, you own it, put that up on Spotify and see what happens. I don’t know if you know this. But there are a ton of services and Spotify. Sorry, the coop is almost unreal. I know, Spotify is free to put it up. And there’s a lot of services that will essentially put you up on there. They’ll take it you give them some artwork. You do it yourself, you know what I mean? But then they’ll essentially put you on Spotify put you on the apple, and then a few other the big ones but Google as well and Amazon, those are really the four that you want. Just see what happens man, you never know. That wouldn’t have been astoundingly cool if like 10 years ago, and I feel like not only do I put it on a CD, but I go and see that I got 25 more followers this year. Brian Glass  39:37  Yeah, just show my kids and I love Spotify. Michael Renfro  39:40  Yeah, if nothing else, let me say your kids will absolutely love seeing you on an app that they know you use all the time, right one that they’re going to be using if they’re not already. So that’s cool. I think you already answered because you really said it from the very, very beginning you want to be an attorney so I’m not gonna bother repeating that question. These are the final ones. And these are really just kind of your favorites, your loves and hates, if you will. And really your loves because we have no negativities on our show. So colleagues next to your father because I know you have to go to have your father as an awesome man. But next year father, who do you most respect in the industry. Brian Glass  40:21  So a couple of guys, a couple of guys were in our mastermind group. And then now that I’ve said that I’m like, I’m better name everybody who’s… Michael Renfro  40:30  Just name the group. Brian Glass  40:33  Lens Beta, who’s up in Boston, John Griffith in Nashville and then my buddy, Adam Rossen and Manny Sarah, down in Miami, Florida. Two PI guys into criminal logins. Michael Renfro  40:51  And y’all were all obviously, I caught this but you were in a mastermind group. Was this from law school or out of law school? Brian Glass  40:57  No, we’re out of law school. So practicing lawyers now. Michael Renfro  40:58  Got you. No, what I meant when you did the mastermind, that was past law school, right? That was something Did you know me online that I was sending with all the different? Brian Glass  41:01  No, it’s my dad’s firm, Great Legal Marketing. So guys, remember is there. Michael Renfro  41:17  Okay, cool.  Very cool. If you have one, what is your favorite podcast? Brian Glass  41:23  I have a couple. So you mentioned, I do a little bit of real estate investing. Starting in that, my wife and I own a short-term rental property at the beach. And we’re looking to acquire a couple others later this year. So I’m a big Bigger Pockets Real Estate Podcast fan. I’m in a group called GoBundance, Tribe of Millionaires Podcast is a really good podcast to do a lot of member spotlights and haven’t listened to in a while. But Tim Ferriss was really one of the ones that got me hooked on podcasts began with. Michael Renfro  42:01  Cool. Do you have, a lot of PI guys love Panama. But do you have a favorite conference each year? Brian Glass  42:12  I don’t, I think I dislike most lawyer groups. Because I would rather be around business people than lawyers. So although I went to National Trial Lawyers annual conference in January. And it was much more business center, at least they had a business track, right? It wasn’t, how do we take a better deposition? It’s how do we do better marketing? Michael Renfro  42:39  How do we create a better business, period? It’s funny, you’ve said it so many times, I just want to take a real quick way, because I only have one question left. But one of the things that we try to preach to attorneys and we try to preach and teach, I should say is that you really have to when you’re looking at marketing a law firm, you’ve got to take off the attorneys hat, surely, and people don’t take this seriously. But I’m like, you really have to take that off. Because even though attorneys are salespeople, they’re not marketers, right. And marketing a business is more on the business side. And if you’re going to run a business, you really have to put on a business owner hat versus an attorney hat, even though you might be the same guy that is running the business and the main attorney, right. But you really have to wear that hat differently, we find it I’ll say this. It’s funny, because the way that you or your dad approach it are kind of similar to what, there’s multiple ways you can skin a cat as they say, right. But one of the things that we find is, if you have a firm where there’s no one person, don’t try to have one person do all the different features of that business hat, because it’s usually going to be too much for them to be an attorney, and be the full-time business runner of the company. So if you can get a COO, that’s great. But if you can’t then disperse it amongst the partners, and that sounds like the way that you and your dad have done it. And the balance there. I always love that too. My sons are a great example, the first twin sons, all the weaknesses of one are the strengths of the other, and vice versa. And when you have that kind of balance, it really does help you forge ahead, because you know what, what that really brings in, I point this out, is someone’s always putting you in check. And if you’re okay with their partner putting you in check what you have to be then you’re always like, let me give some extra thought to that. And almost an entirely, almost always, I don’t necessarily make a different decision, but I make an altar decision with a little bit more thought. It made sure that that decision was I’ve played out all the different paths, if you will, in my head of what I feel like the consequences would be of that decision. So with that said, What is your favorite tool and or software then maybe one? Brian Glass  42:43  Yeah, so we started using CASEpeer about two years ago, and I’ve been really happy. Sort of case management software, I’ve been really happy. I’m a dashboard guy. Like, I like to see how many cases that we have in each stage. And I’ve been really happy with the software since we started using it. It’s auto accident and injury specific, it’s not good for family law firm, it’s not for criminal defense, it’s been really good for us. Michael Renfro  45:27  No, to me, I think, quite frankly, the only way that they could really do that where you can make a good piece of software that would work for any lawyer in the sense of falling into cases, is if you have the ability to go in and customize, but then that takes so much time, because you got to customize your pipeline to fit your mold. And it makes it a lot easier if you have a piece of software like this, where you could just go in and I imagine they probably have most of it done where there’s very little need to customize it other than put your logos and things like that. Brian Glass  45:59  Yeah. And they told us as we were in the purchasing process, like is limited to no customization that you can do this thing. Obviously, you tell it what your state statute limitations are, right? And then you can organize your own, they call it a case flow. So if I open a file, what happens five, 15, 30 days after I open it, what gets auto-assigned? But you can’t go in and tinker with their fields or anything like that. But like I said it works for us. Michael Renfro  46:32  That makes it the KISS method, right? Keep it stupid, simple. I’ve always believed and my personal life as well as business life, the simpler you can keep it and less having to think about it. And that’s the stupid part. Right? the quicker you’re going to get it done and usually on, how do you say, done well, and done correctly. Most of the time. I know that sounds funny, because you’re like doing it quickly. Are you going to get it done? Yeah, if you keep it stupid, simple, then it gets done quickly, and it gets done correctly. Well, listen, I really appreciate it, Brian Glass of Fairfax, Virginia. It’s been a pleasure having you on. Just know that obviously, during the show, we will flash up your attorneys name website, we’re going to have all that stuff. On a side note, just know that also when this comes out, I will be reaching out to you individually and sending the links. We are well ahead on recording right now of releasing, but I assure you it will happen and once that happens, I’ll send you the link so you can share those links in however you want. Let me just mute this for a moment. I’ve tried my best to keep my throat clear, but I told you that’s really difficult here. Thank you so much again for being on and just a little side note as an outro and then I’ll talk to you for a quick second. Again, Gladiator Law Marking is the one that sponsors the show and if you would like to learn more about that, please go to our website. If you would like to be a guest on the show and just talk about your daily rituals and the things that make your firm a little bit different and or successful, please reach out to us as well. And you can just simply reach out to me directly to the email address michael@gladiatorlawmarketing.com. Thank you so much, and we’ll see you on the next episode. Brian Glass  46:43  Thank you, Michael. Outro  48:32  Thanks for listening to 15 minutes. Be sure to subscribe and we’ll see you next time.