Think running a black market cigarette ring as a Soviet youth sounds extreme? That was just the beginning for this episode's guest Sasha Berson. Tune in to hear the maverick marketer detail his rocky rise from teen hustler to leader of an 8-figure digital agency. You'll learn the KEY mindset shifts that took Sasha's discipline and hustle to the next level when he emigrated to America with nothing. 

If you're a law firm owner struggling to convert leads, you can't afford to miss Sasha's game-changing growth strategies and free marketing assessment offer. Join hosts Richard James and MPS on Your Practice Mastered podcast as they get into the uncensored origin story of self-made millionaire Sasha Berson!

YPM - EP040 SASHA BERSON

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We were actually in an insanely great position to rip the rewards of the recession. As so many lending institutions were getting out of business, we were cranking out insane volume and we're growing by the month. My partner loved the business and I hated it by that time because the stress level was insane.

My former business partner, who's still a good friend, is an insanely rich guy. When I say insanely rich guy, one of the richest people I've met. And I co-authored the book with Steve Forbes. My former business partner is wealthier than Steve Forbes. Sole owner of over half a billion dollar in revenue service business.

So, by the way, my dad died of a heart attack. I do not regret and never regretted the decision to sell that business because I was well on the path of getting my heart.

​

MPS: Hey, law firm owners. Welcome to the Your Practice Mastered podcast. We're your hosts. I'm MPS.

Richard James: And

I'm Richard James and MPS, I'm excited today because we're going to get to talk to somebody that's got real like boots on the

ground,

MPS: Yeah, today,

We've got the pleasure and honor to speak with,

Sasha Berson a real marketing brain here to speak to some law firms today.

Sasha, welcome

on

Sasha Berson: Thanks, gentlemen.

Good to be here.

MPS: Absolutely.

Sasha Berson: Absolutely.

MPS: Well, we appreciate you taking the time to be on. And,

If you've watched any of the show before, we like to just break the ice a little bit,

Sasha Berson: you know,

MPS: get, get the,

get the law firm owners listening and opportunity to learn a little bit more about you.

So, tell us what is something that maybe not everybody knows about you.

Sasha Berson: I'm an entrepreneur through and through. I started making money when I was 13. Never asked my parents for allowance. I'm 45 now. Never stopped for the last 32 years. Was always self sufficient. Told my parents that I'm going to leave them as soon as possible when I was 4 years old. My mom Who is now almost 80, reminds me of that from time to time.

So small business is what I leave and breathe every single day for the last 32 years.

then?

Was very common. So first I got myself, now remember I'm 13, I got myself into wholesale cigarette distribution

Richard James: Okay.

MPS: Wow.

Richard James: That's great. So you were the modern day Dukes of hazard or the 90's day version of Dukes of hazard.

Sasha Berson: Kinda.

Richard James: Yeah,

that's

MPS: That's awesome.

Richard James: Michael, do you remember yours?

MPS: Yeah, I had a few. I did the

MPS: Nike elite socks and people wanted custom colors. So. My friend and I,

we would,

We would go buy the socks and then we'd get the dyeing kit. We'd dye it and then we'd flip the socks on eBay for about 30 percent margin,

And then,

Built

a,

a landscaping business local in the neighborhood. And so,

Went door to door, which was awesome. And,

Continued to get clients for the landscaping. And would have my buddy and I go cut the lawn. And at one point, got to the point where I got to go on vacation and he and a friend would cut the lawn.

So, I started to learn leverage really early on.

Sasha Berson: going door to door. Some of the best sales training out there.

MPS: It is. It's a great way

to,

learn and to grind out and,

Understand the importance and the value of rejection. And Learn the importance of winning when you do win.

So

I,

I think

it's a,

it's a very valuable skill.

So Sasha

Sasha Berson: Te

MPS: tell us

a,

a little bit that, I mean, that's pretty cool.

That's a

fascinating story. And then

you,

you moved over to the us so why don't you tell us

Sasha Berson: a, you know,

MPS: a,

a little bit more about your story as an entrepreneur to where you are now?

Which was absolutely devastating because I came to be self reliant over the years. By the age I was 15. And here I am, like, I can't earn anything. So I'm living off of my savings. Money that I made back in Russia. And it took me Nearly seven. Yeah, just about seven years before I started my first brick and mortar business here.

And that was a mortgage company. I worked for a mortgage company for two and a half years before I was like, I can do this on my own. So my partner and I, my good friend I, we started this mortgage company. It's just the two of us.

It was very challenging at first. And the challenge really came from inability to generate leads.

MPS: Hmm.

So my very first brick and mortar business, I sold for really well for seven figures and I walked away from it very happy when I didn't know at the time, and by the way, my decision would not have changed, but what I didn't know at the time was that in four years, that slightly over 10 million business would be doing quite a bit over, and I cannot disclose the exact number, but over half a billion dollars in revenue.

in

Richard James: You know, so thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I think we have a lot of, when you're an Entrepreneur, you have your, times when you exit maybe early, or maybe you hang on too long. I mean, you know, what's the right timing. I think if you have Simon Sinek's definition of the finite game, which means you, you think that it's a competition and exiting means you win or achieving a certain amount of wealth means you win, then I suppose that you could regret or lament some decisions that you make.

to sell my companies and then fill in the blank 5 million to 105 million in the bank. It doesn't matter what the number is. And then I'm going to do nothing.

I,

what I want and most, I think entrepreneurs that I know wants

some,

some want more and more money and they do because it's a measurement of it.

But what I want is I'm,

I'm in a relentless pursuit of independence. And so what I want is I want to be independent to be able to make the decisions I want to make the moment that I want to make them. Now, I also need to be structured to be able to do that.

But if I want to take a vacation, I want to be able to take a vacation without anybody telling me I can't do it.

If I want to be able to play golf on a day, I want to be able to play golf on a day without anybody telling me I can't do it. I also want to know that financially we're secure and that God forbid one business would go under the savings is there for us to be able to live in support while we get something else started.

And then lost it all and then had to build it all back up again. I can tell you that,

I no longer have that perspective. I'm much more about, okay, how do I just enjoy the day every day?

It's not easy every day, but how do I enjoy the day every day? And how do we just get a little bit better today than we were yesterday? And can we build compounding wealth,

For us, for the community, for.

The, the,

the world that God's created. And so

I, I,

I don't know, I've just changed my perspective on this and so I appreciate you sharing that fact that you feel like,

Sasha Berson: you know,

Richard James: you exited and you didn't have any regrets.

'cause

you,

Sasha Berson: you know,

Richard James: you didn't wanna die of a heart attack and I think you're spot on.

I,

I think you made the right decision. Thus though, you may not have as much money in the bank as you would've if you stuck around,

You're here on this earth,

you're happy and

Sasha Berson: I

Richard James: happy and you're still moving

Sasha Berson: I could have been

lost

and have been

dead

Now he's on this endless pursuit to, reverse his biological age. And he actually has, I think he's a 43 year old that turned his biological age into 18 right now. His routine is absolutely absurd. But I tell you that because I agree with you there are sacrifices that have to happen. And you.

So I think that's a very good story that you illustrated there. And I think it's great that you live without regret because I think ultimately led you to where you're at now. So speaking of where you're at now, tell us what, what for you along the journey, what was kind of that breakthrough moment for you?

When did things just click?

Sasha Berson: I think they continue to click and every year is different. I don't feel like I am successful. I have close to 60 employees now and by a long shot, do I not feel like I'm successful? I think that that dissatisfaction with the current status, I don't call it status quo because the current status that's always changing.

Richard James: congratulations

Sasha Berson: thank you.

And today I'm,

I am no longer in sales department. And my sales department that I'm leading is doing better without me doing the selling than it was doing with me doing selling part time. Because as any other business owner can attest, you wear numerous hats. And because you wear numerous hats, you really cannot be good at everything.

So you become very mediocre at everything that you do. So. That was the last major click that I had. And then the next one is going to be where our lead volume is going to put us on path to doing 10 million in revenue. We're not there yet, but my assumption is that in the next, and this is something that I really want law firm owners, just business owners to understand, like these things take time.

Richard James: Yeah, I mean, Michael and I,

So Michael just, we're in January. So Michael just,

You know, he wired the money over. He's officially the owner at 49 owner of your practice mastered.

We too, the only thing we did to celebrate as we went down and played Arnold Palmer scores down in Florida,

Played Bay Hill, took a lesson with a golf pro down there.

And,

It was a great weekend. And now we're back

MPS: It was a heck of a celebration. I like it, but we are right back

at it

Richard James: great celebration We ate great food. I thought I was starting to on the path to losing the Christmas 10 and it felt like they went right back on after that weekend because we ate a lot of great food and drank great wine and played great golf, but but now we're back at it, right?

But I want to recognize that there very well may be a law firm owner out there that's listening to this right now that's struggling, that they're in the middle of chaos. They actually can't figure out how to be profitable. I talked to a law firm owner the other day was doing $140,000 a month in gross sales and was keeping $5,000 for themselves, right?

So, so three, roughly 3.3 profitability. In their firm, total owner's benefit. It just broke my heart and I knew why that was that way. And they didn't, and you know, getting them to where they are, to where they need to be is going to be a journey. It's going to take time. So I know that there are some law firm owners that are really in the middle of chaos.

And secondarily, once you get those fundamental things fixed and you build those systems or frameworks that can start to operate the business at a very high profitable level. Now we can start to generate plans where we can remove the owner from certain dynamic roles like sales, because it's the most demanding.

It's the most it requires the most erratic behavior, timeframes based on follow ups and, and, and how you're going to run your sales team and the client's needs and desires. Plus it's just. As you said, their attention is fractional because of all the other things that they're doing. And so they're not doing as good of a job at it as they possibly could be if somebody else were doing it.

But in the beginning, they can't afford to hire that salesperson or attorney salesperson, whether it's attorney or non-attorney that's going to replace them oftentimes because they're struggling with chaos and profitability. And so you, you nailed the, the, you hit the, the head on the, yeah, you hit the nail on the head, Sasha, when you said.

And so he started telling me out of schools and I'm like, all right. So we started making like a 10 year plan. And we built out the 10 year plan based on where he wants to be financially, where I want to be financially and what we want the business to look like. We set really, really conservative goals.

15 growth every year, year over year, not massive growth. Could we grow faster? Sure. But then it might feel like we're pushing the big rock up the hill. And so we're like, look, we don't have to, if 15 is pretty darn good, we do 15 every year from now to 10 years from now, we are going to hit every financial goal we have and we're going to help as many people as we want to help.

It it for lots and lots of reasons. And once you do it, as long as you utilize that time to start focusing on growing the firm the sky's the limit for you.

Sasha Berson: Yeah, thank you. And I also want to add that it took me close to six years to get out of sales. But while I was in sales. The company stagnated in growth in three years prior to me joining. Since I joined it more than almost four and a half times increased in size in those six years. So I couldn't get myself out of sales for that long.

So for those viewers or listeners who do not know, Michael is Richard's son. And what is really remarkable, something that you mentioned is that you had him buy into the business. It wasn't given to him. I think that's a really, really important point. We are living in a time when kids expect. To be given things.

And I'm a firm believer. You're 18.

You're good to go.

Richard James: yeah, right. Exactly.

Sasha Berson: go You're good go to college. Amazing. Here's how much it's going to cost you after four years in payments based on the current interest rates. Just be mindful. So my oldest 16 year old, he is like, I'm going into the air force after college and air force going to pay for it.

Richard James: Well, I'm

Sasha Berson: really

important.

Richard James: I'm confident we screwed it up somehow, but yeah, but, but yeah, we got, we got two good boys and proud of both of them equally, they're different in their, in their pursuits. But Michael's pursuit has always been small business and, and he's already been. And when, when I tell people is.

michael didn't come to me as a this was a favor I very much recruited him and so This wasn't me doing something even selling the business to my son because he's my son that that wouldn't happen I I did this because one he had the wherewithal financially and experience wise to To fill the the goals that we needed in this company and two he's going to make us better We're going to be a bigger stronger company because of him because without him,

I probably would have played golf three or four days a week and just let the company be small to be honest, right?

I think I chose well, because

he's,

he's nailing it just yesterday.

Sasha Berson: He,

Richard James: He went a hundred percent on an event and,

Sasha Berson: That's a,

Richard James: that's tough to do.

Sasha Berson: And so.

Richard James: Anyway,

we're,

Sasha Berson: we're proud.

Richard James: I'm proud of him. I'm proud of what he's accomplished. Thank you for acknowledging that.

Michael, I know we've taken this completely off track for you. So where do you

from here

MPS: No, but this is good conversation.

This is,

this is good conversation and a good conversation makes for good listening. So,

With that said, I very much appreciate your words, Pops.

And then Sasha, thank you for acknowledging that.

So tell us

for,

for you

on,

on a daily basis, what are some of

the,

the success habits?

What,

what do you do

on,

on a daily that helps you continue to grow?

Sasha Berson: That's an

Before I go work out, I get my two boys up and they go work out with me, 16 year old and 13 year old.

Richard James: Nice.

I find that they talk to when they talk to law firm owners Many of them are always stuck in this doer mode where they do what they have to do when they have to do it without putting very much thought into it. So it's a very, very reactive mode of operations, which if you're not consciously working on things that will grow your business.

The 10 of law firm owners who really care about growth, not worrying is really hard.

Richard James: Yeah

Sasha Berson: So whenever

we have those frank conversations, I talk to them, well, how do you structure your calendar? Like what are your recurring tasks? What are your recurring activities? And also how much time do you spend worrying?

Like before the camera went live, we talked about

like. It's somebody who may be awake at night, worrying about their law firm, worrying about how they're going to make things happen by next payroll or next month or next quarter or next year. I'm like, do what you have to do, let things take their natural course.

And this is something I had to remind myself so incredibly often.

Richard James: By the way,

how do you,

How

Sasha Berson: I look at my calendar for the following day to make sure that I know exactly what's coming my way. And there are

some,

some meetings that, for example, we're recording this on Thursday. Every Thursday, 8:00 A.M I have a meeting with my project manager and members of my marketing team, production team. And we talk about KPI's

MPS: mm,

Sasha Berson: So

every,

every Thursday, and the reason why we do not do this monthly, but weekly. It is because as a marketing team, we know which levers we need to pull on every single day to drive us toward that next big objective. As I mentioned in about 18 months, we need to be at 10 million in lead flow.

Richard James: hmm.

Sasha Berson: So it's really important for us to have those meetings weekly.

Richard James: Yeah,

Sasha Berson: You have to do this way more often.

Richard James: I'm just

Sasha Berson: So at the end of the day, sorry, at the end of the day, I look at the calendar. I make sure that I'm prepared for those tasks, activities, and meetings that are not regularly on my calendar. And then I spend some time with my family to make sure that I wind down the day and spend it with the people who are

truly, truly, truly,

truly important.

Richard James: Yeah, that's great advice.

You know,

you talk,

we work with law firm owners all the time. And sometimes

I, I talk

after I talk to them, I think sometimes I've said out loud. Sometimes I think it in my head. Are you a lawyer or are you a fireman? Because you, all you seem to do is go put out fires all day long.

And

what, and, and

they tell me what all the reasons why it's not possible,

Based on their practice area, based on

the, you know, the,

the type of cases they have

and,

That based on their client type, they've all got their reasons. But

a good,

mentor of mine told me a long time ago, you can have reasons that you can have results, but you can't have both. And so

you,

you

really need to, I, in my opinion, feel you

really need to have a

really

good grasp on your schedule. And

we,

we run our world the exact same way that you do Sasha. So I can see why your success, I say success leaves clues. And it does. And

if you go find a successful person, you'll find that they have

almost,

almost always, not always, but almost always they have a very structured schedule that they follow and they review that schedule and they are disciplined to stick to that schedule most of the time,

Sasha Berson: not.

Richard James: And I say there are exceptions.

I've,

I've met and I've listened to people who claim.

Sasha Berson: Okay.

So kind of wired this way, but

I,

I do find the reason that is,

Sasha Berson: is,

Richard James: and by the way, I wasn't always this way. I discovered that not taking a break from working out on vacation is actually definition of success. Because if you.

Sasha Berson: If you

Richard James: still, if you don't work out while you're on vacation, when you get back from vacation, you've broken the habit.

It's harder to get back started. Everything broke down. You don't feel as good. Vacation was like wasted, right? If you work out while you're on vacation, you get all the benefits of vacation and you maintain your disciplines. And so maintaining disciplines is a

very,

very high

Sasha Berson: for me,

Richard James: success

Sasha Berson: threshold to help the

Richard James: threshold for us to achieve success on a regular basis.

Michael, you agree.

MPS: Yeah,

I

I definitely agree just having discipline just I think if you boil it down

it's

Sasha Berson: what,

MPS: what's got you fired up and excited today?

It could be business, could be personal. What's got you excited?

Sasha Berson: I am in general, very excited about life and every single day. And one of the reasons for that is that I am disciplined and I have goals. A great NFL coach, Lou Holtz, said this decades ago. If you wake up uninspired, you simply don't have enough goals.

MPS: Well

Sasha Berson: If you don't have enough goals, then you're just floating down the river.

my

other success habit is that every morning when I wake up, I thank God for that day. There's a very specific prayer that I recite that takes 30 seconds, gets me aligned.

Richard James: Hmm.

MPS: Mm

Sasha Berson: Like

I do that before I get out of bed. If I forget, I do it as soon as I remember, but I don't forget most of the mornings. Super important. And another quote that came to mind as you were talking about discipline

and,

and you, Michael, you said that if you took away like one thing

from this,

from this podcast, I want you to really drill this down in your head and just remember that.

Discipline equals freedom, according to Jocko podcast. I'm not going to spend much time talking about, or I'm not going to spend any time talking about who this guy is, but believe me, he is worth following.

Richard James: Hmm.

MPS: Yes. He is

Sasha Berson: Discipline

equals freedom. Most people, when they think about discipline, they think about like it's labor, it's constraints,

it's,

Discipline equals financial freedom. Discipline equals physical, like your health freedom. Discipline equals all of the freedoms that you want to have in life. As long as you live in a free society and the government does not control you. Like,

like, like

freedom in Russia, what it is today and what it has been for so long and freedom in us are two very different freedoms, but if you live in us and chances are, if you're listening to this podcast, if you're watching this, you live in us, like you have a lot of freedoms.

Now, what do you do with those freedoms? You can create a lot more freedom for yourself by making sure that your discipline equals your freedom. I have, as I mentioned, 16 year old and 13 year old. Boy, do they know that concept. And if you're a parent of younger children, even if they're not younger, Jocko Willink published a number of books on discipline.

There are five books that were written for kids. Those are the favorite books for my kids.

Sasha Berson: They read them more than once. I, as a parent, read them. And geez, I wish that Jocko would have written them when I first became a parent. Actually, when I was a teenager. Because my life as a teenager would be easier

if I understood only,

if only I understood the things that he shared in those books.

So, highly recommend him, to follow him, and also check out his books. Like, if you're struggling with discipline, if you're having a hard time

getting out,

getting out of bed in the morning, Listen to his stuff, man. It will get you fired up.

I will,

Richard James: I agree. I think discipline is doing what needs to be done, even when you don't want to do it.

And I,

and I'm going to speak to the people that,

Maybe wake up in the morning. I'm not a wake up in the morning, never have been wake up in the morning and throw the curtains open and say, good morning world.

I'm here. I grudgingly get out of bed. I have to, and I have to crawl to my cup of coffee.

and what gets me through is the discipline to a structure. Even when I don't want to do it, I did not want to run today.

I didn't, I,

I did not want to run today, but I did it. Anyway,

and,

and there are days when I wake up when I want to crawl in the corner and suck my thumb.

And I don't know if I was born that way. I don't know if I've got a chemical deficiency. I don't know. I don't have an answer.

I've been,

I'm 53 years old. I've been trying to figure it

out my whole life. And there are just going to be those days for some people.

And,

and I am one of those people that have that day every now and then.

But the, you got to figure out what works for you and then you got to go do it anyway. And that for me has been my biggest, not struggle, but my reality check is there's going to be a lot of days. I don't want to do it. I'm still excited about life. I'm still excited about my goals, but I don't know. I just wake up with some reason and I feel miserable today.

Sasha Berson: Here's my admission I am

chronically sleep deficient. Doesn't matter how much I sleep. I do not get enough rest. So for me getting out of bed, it's not like, it's more like a,

say my prayer. I'm on it. I'm getting after it. It doesn't, it doesn't matter how I feel because guess what? I feel the same way seven days a week.

MPS: Fair point. . Yeah.

Sasha Berson: My discipline and my goals, they just get me going, get me fired up. Say the prayer. Feel good. Whenever I finish saying the prayer or when I say the prayer, I smile a little. You know, when you smile, you can't feel shitty about life.

Richard James: Yeah, it's tough. You're right,

MPS: true.

Sasha Berson: say

the prayer while you're smiling. You're good to go.

Whether you want to or not, you're good to go.

Richard James: That's good advice.

MPS: Yeah. I

Sasha Berson: Those dumbbells, those dumbbells, they ain't going to lift themselves

MPS: True.

MPS: that's great. This discipline pushes you through and it's such an important attribute. Sasha, where can people learn a little bit more about you and how can they connect with you?

if they'd like

to

Sasha Berson: I appreciate

that question, but let me add one more thing about discipline. I think this one is really important. Maybe will really drive the point across. I'm happy to share that my wife and I are expecting a child.

Richard James: Hmm,

Sasha Berson: My very good friend, my former business partner, when I told him about that, he's like, oh man, he has four kids.

Richard James: hmm,

Sasha Berson: A

boatload more energy. I haven't had a cigarette in over a decade. I very rarely get a drink. Very rarely. I can run like I couldn't when I was 28. I can lift like I couldn't when I was 28. I can run on fewer hours of sleep like I couldn't at 28. All of those things, like that discipline equals freedom, I'm a good example of that.

So if you're thinking like, Eh, you know, it's hard. It will get harder.

Richard James: hmm.

Sasha Berson: Unless you get after it.

Richard James: I love it.

Sasha Berson: can

Richard James: Congratulations,

by

the way

Sasha Berson: thank you so much.

MPS: Congratulations

Sasha Berson: excited.

Super

Richard James: When

when is the baby

due do

Sasha Berson: Middle of June. Yeah. So we're about

four, four months,

four months in, you know, and,

MPS: I love it.

Sasha Berson: yeah.

Where people can connect

with,

with our brand it's GrowLawFirm.Com And,

I don't want people going there, but actually if they want to talk to one of our growth experts, please be my guest,

but,

but there is a free,

very,

very simple offer that we have on the website. And that is if you go to Compare.GrowLawFirm.com you can get an instant marketing assessment that's absolutely free. It will tell you how your website performs, not from a technical standpoint. But from business generating, attracting new business standpoint, not only will it tell you how your website performs, it also will compare it to how your direct competitors perform, how their websites perform.

So you understand how much demand there is. It will show you how much of that demand comes to your website, how your website performs overall. And in comparison to your direct comparison, it will give you. Usually quite a few ideas, how to improve on that performance. You don't have to go to us to help you with those improvements.

You can take the report and go

like

bash your current marketing vendor and say

like,

look at all the shit that you missed. It's a

really,

really powerful tool. And that report, you don't need to talk to anyone. It took us close to two years to build it. It's fully automated and it takes

less than,

less than a minute and a half to run.

Richard James: That's great.

That's a great

Sasha Berson: instant.

Richard James: Yeah.

MPS: Fantastic

offer.

Everyone

listen

Richard James: there.

Yeah,

that's

that's that's what we call an irresistible there.

Sasha Berson: right right there

It is Compare.GrowLawFirm.Com Go check it out.

Richard James: nice

MPS: we'll throw it in the description as well, but Sasha, thank you for

Sasha Berson: Thank you.

MPS: Thank you for investing some time. And we've got the gentleman's agreement around here.

So this isn't your first time listening or watching, and you got some value today, Drop a like show some love for Sasha in the comments and make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button depending on where you're listening or watching. We appreciate you investing some time. We enjoy investing our time and that's your way of giving back and showing love for us, giving our time, money and resources to this.

But Sasha, thank you. We appreciate it. Truly a great conversation

today.

Richard James: Yeah,

Sasha Berson: Thank you.

Richard James: This

Sasha Berson: a great time. Yeah.

Richard James: All right. That's the pod