In this heartwarming episode, dive into Scott Snelling's extraordinary journey of resilience. Struck by illness, he needed a kidney transplant, a test of both bravery and friendship. Hear how Scott's best friend stepped up in a life-saving act of generosity. A tale of true camaraderie awaits—tune in now.

I had an amazing kidney doctor who was all over it you know, testing me frequently. He had me on high dose steroids right away, which saved my kidneys for about 10 years. But yeah as I kind of approached the kidney level, where a transplant was going to be necessary. My doctor was like, I don't want you on dialysis.

My father in law was also a match. Jacob is a little bit younger than my father in law, Gary. And so, yeah Jacob gave me his kidney on October 31st, Halloween morning. Nothing like being wheeled back to the operating room to get your best friend's kidney on Halloween morning. And at that time his wife was eight months pregnant.

So yeah, just he's my hero. I try to mention his name and his sacrifice for me every time I can. And he's doing fantastic. So for anybody out there who's thinking about donating, absolutely do it. You're gonna be somebody's hero. And the the end result for him is he's had zero issues. And if you donate, you get bumped to the top of the list.

If you ever need anything.

Jonathan Hawkins: All right, Scott. Welcome. Thanks for

Scott Snelling: Thanks man. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Jonathan Hawkins: So, introduce yourself. Tell us who you are and where you practice.

Or kind of anything in between, as long as it's personal injury and we can help somebody out, then that's what we do.

Jonathan Hawkins: So you're about to have three offices. How many attorneys, staff, how many folks do you got?

Scott Snelling: Yeah, so there's five attorneys and I think we have seven paralegals slash assistants and then several outside vendors as well. So it's kind of hard to answer that question especially in today's world where there's so many virtual assistants and then outside vendors that you utilize for different processes that you also have to manage.

It feels like sometimes there's 50 people that we're managing and sometimes, you know, just kind of the 12 that are under roof.

Jonathan Hawkins: So you've got an interesting story that, that I want to explore here, but you know, how long, when did you start your firm?

What the plaintiff's attorney is called collapsed somebody got really injured, then those were the cases that I was on. So I had an amazing. Training ground was surrounded by amazing attorneys and got to work on pretty much nothing but multimillion dollar cases. So after doing that for four years, of course, I already knew everything, right?

Jonathan Hawkins: So, did you have kids at the time?

Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah, that's, yeah, we'll get into that. So, so you left your first firm, started a firm with a a partner. What happened there? You guys end up separating or,

Scott Snelling: Yeah. You know, we, I think we just kind of had different visions of where to go. And you know, we said, you know what you do your thing, I'll do my thing. And we've both been really successful in the different directions that we've taken. So I think it was a great decision for both of us.

Jonathan Hawkins: you know, people ask me a lot, they say, you know, what causes law firms, partnerships to break apart? And one of my top answers is sort of a divergence in the vision. You know, somebody wants a big firm, somebody wants a small firm, somebody wants to do personal injury, somebody wants to do Something else and that's huge, you know, visions, obviously you can change over time, but if you don't have the same at the beginning, you know, it's not gonna last very long.

So how long were you two together?

So I know what's going on in her life. She knows what's going on in my life and we talk about firm stuff. And vision comes up all the time. And so I think really one of the keys to having a solid partnership is communication and staying on the same page. You know, you mentioned visions change. Yeah, absolutely.

Sure. They do. Sometimes they grow. Sometimes, you know, they take a different direction. And I think if you're constantly communicating on that, then that is a huge asset to the partnership.

Scott Snelling: Yeah, because man, if I'm, I don't know how you are, if I'm in the office. It is dang near impossible for me to get through a conversation any kind of deep work without either somebody coming and distracting me or me willingly getting up and wandering around and looking for a distraction because it's really hard to think through something.

So being offsite, you know, you can also speak freely. You don't have to worry about other people listening in. That's really a concern, but I think you just feel different offsite. You feel less guarded.

Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah. So you mentioned a minute ago that LinkedIn post about being naive. I did see that one and I wanted to ask you about that. Maybe have you elaborate a little bit. How were you naive and would you've done it differently? Perhaps if you sort of know what you know now, if you knew it then,

Right. And I think sometimes you make the best progress in life when you just take action. Right. Seth Godin had a calendar entry yesterday on my daily tear off calendar about, Hey, sometimes you just got to take action. And so, you know, I made the jump and yeah, on the way down, I realized just how far it was.

Right. And so I think had I known all of the things that I didn't know, all of the difficulties that we face. There's no way I would have done it.

Jonathan Hawkins: and you said you were married, I imagine your wife was supportive and perhaps she had a day job to help.

If you sign up a case on day one, chances are, you're not gonna get paid for about 9 months. So I knew that was coming. So, yeah, that was definitely helpful. But when I started the 2nd firm, you know, when I split with my law partner. I was married to my current wife and we had two, well, three kids.

I have a stepdaughter who is now 17. Back then she was, gosh, I guess about 10. And then I had Olivia who was either two or three and Jake who was probably around one. So yeah, that was a different beast. And I was the sole breadwinner. My mom, or my mom, my wife stays at home with the kids.

And yeah, so that was a bit more stressful really when you have the kids and then you're the sole breadwinner,

I had an amazing kidney doctor who was all over it you know, testing me frequently. He had me on high dose steroids right away, which saved my kidneys for about 10 years. But yeah as I kind of approached the kidney level, where a transplant was going to be necessary. My doctor was like, I don't want you on dialysis.

My father in law was also a match. Jacob is a little bit younger than my father in law, Gary. And so, yeah Jacob gave me his kidney on October 31st, Halloween morning. Nothing like being wheeled back to the operating room to get your best friend's kidney on Halloween morning. And at that time his wife was eight months pregnant.

So yeah, just he's my hero. I try to mention his name and his sacrifice for me every time I can. And he's doing fantastic. So for anybody out there who's thinking about donating, absolutely do it. You're gonna be somebody's hero. And the the end result for him is he's had zero issues. And if you donate, you get bumped to the top of the list.

If you ever need anything.

They did it pretty quick. And so, yeah, two months after opening my doors, I was handing the keys to a paralegal who I'd known for a month and a half, saying, hey, Keep the wheels on and try not to to screw too much up here while I'm getting a kidney transplant.

Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah. What's the recovery time? I mean, how long were you out of the office to, I mean, how in the world, this is just amazing to me.

And the doctors that I have, dr clintmom I mean, he has an entire hospital wing named after him was just fantastic. Funny story about him real quick. You know, when I woke up from the surgery, right? He said, Hey, how are you? When he came in the room and I was like, I'm really hurting.

Right. He's like, he kind of looked at me and he's this German guy with a German accent. He says, well, I did just cut you with a knife. So that's to be expected. But yeah, you know, the recovery was super fast. Zero complications and was able to kind of get back on the saddle. Really the timing worked out perfectly because starting a new firm, I had cases that I had brought with me.

I was doing most of the stuff on every facet, right from operations to marketing to administration and HR and all that stuff. So it was, it worked out perfectly, man.

Jonathan Hawkins: and it was just you in a pair of legal.

Scott Snelling: Yeah. Yeah. Just being a paralegal.

Jonathan Hawkins: Wow. You know, it's funny. You know, I started out in product liability defense too. I went to law school wanting to be a plaintiff's lawyer. We did Michelin tire defense and this was back when all the Ford rollovers were happening. And so they would sue the car company, maybe a GM or a Ford, and then they'd sue the tire company.

So I went along on a lot of those. But, you know, as fate would have it, I've never practiced plaintiff's law at all. But it's funny how

Jonathan Hawkins: no, it's not necessarily, you know, I represent a lot of plaintiff's firms, but and I have a you know, a soft spot, but just the path took me a different direction.

What about you? Did you know that you wanted to be a plaintiff's lawyer? And did you know that you eventually were going to start your own firm?

Scott Snelling: Yeah, so I never wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to be a doctor and you know, my first semester at Baylor, I made all A's and a D and the D was in biology. So I was cured of that pretty quickly. And so I was a psychology major and I really loved it. Absolutely loved it. Had zero interest in the law.

And then my dad was out hunting one day, I think it was my junior year of college. He was out dove hunting and he had on a Baylor shirt and this guy yelled at him. He's like, Hey, did you go to Baylor? And my dad said, no. And he said, well, come hunt with me. And so they chatted throughout the day and my dad was telling him about me.

We helped these two little girls whose mom and dad had been killed in a crash with an 18 wheeler. And so, you know, I got to see the amazing impact. That you can really make on people's lives and it wasn't just sitting behind a desk all day doing discovery work and all that kind of stuff. Kind of like I pictured there's a ton of strategy to it.

There's a ton of investigation to it and really liked it. So I turned around and took the LSAT that next fall and got into Baylor. So I did Baylor undergrad and law school and only thing I ever want to do is plaintiff's law. And so I took a job right, personal injury, took a job right out of law school doing personal injury work on the defense side, always knew I was gonna be playing a lawyer.

I don't know that I would practice law. This is kind of the sole thing that has always interested me and that I've loved.

Jonathan Hawkins: That's great. You know, Part of the reason I did not go into plaintiff's law, during law school, all I applied for were plaintiff's firms, but I didn't know it at the time, but pretty much they don't hire anybody straight out of law school, most

Scott Snelling: No, they don't want to train you.

Jonathan Hawkins: Exactly. They want the defense side to train you first, but not too long.

Cause then you're not the mindset. Yeah. It's like if you've been on the defense too long, you don't put your, push your cases and you know, you're a little more reactive. Yeah. So, okay. So you started out, it was you and paralegal, you had your kidney surgery immediately after you started. And then of course, now you've got about three offices and lots of attorneys to take us through sort of how it grew after you got back from surgery. How did you start to grow your firm?

I'm great on the creative part and the planning part. I don't like to execute stuff. I like to go on to the next shiny thing. So she really balances me out there and has, is really, you know, a huge reason why we are where we are today. In terms of. So I went from the paralegal to hiring what I'll call just like an intake specialist.

And then moved into our offices here, got a lit paralegal and the marketing was really taken off and then just started adding team members. Right. And then about, I think it was June of 22, we started with EOS. We hired an implementer and started EOS and that's the hockey stick. That's where the hockey stick starts and what that's really allowed us to do.

Is set the vision, implement the core values and really start being more data driven more metric driven and communicate. You know, we talked a lot, but it was about cases. We never really talked about the business. And so I would say that was probably a massive decision for us was starting EOS.

Jonathan Hawkins: you self implement or did you hire a consultant to help you?

So people are invested to really help talk you through it, hold you accountable. You have to report back to help you develop things, kind of teach you next level EOS. And yeah, that's been a massively successful decision for us.

Jonathan Hawkins: So, you know, some folks I've talked to, some law firm owners that have done EOS, you know, they, they sort of, at least their opinion is you've got to have sort of a minimum number of folks really before you can start doing that. I don't know if that's correct or not. You probably need more than one, but how many folks did you guys have?

When you sort of started,

I think you kind of, you educate yourself on all the different facets, right? And so then what you do is you start developing, okay, well, what do I want? Because that's the perfect time to be implementing your vision is right from the get go. So. You're building exactly what you want to build. First off, you know what you want to build, and then you start building that with the end in mind.

I think the biggest mistake that law firms make is they just grow and they don't have a real idea as to where they're headed. And, you know, that's something that you want to be developing before you even start your own law firm, right? Like if you're at a law firm right now and you know that you're going to do it, those are the things that you should be talking about or thinking about.

And so that way you have a running start. Now, as your team gets bigger, you may need to bring in an integrator to really help you. You know, do the full thing. But from the get go, yeah, I think traction is absolutely helpful.

Jonathan Hawkins: so,

Scott Snelling: with those other

Jonathan Hawkins: so how many folks are on your, I know they sort of, you have a leadership team that sort of helps implement it. How did you pick who's on the leadership team? And has it changed over time?

I mean, you don't want half of your team on the leadership team, but I think with three people, it's way easier to make decisions. It's way easier to address issues. And your. You can turn the ship really quickly, right? Whereas the bigger your leadership team, the more opinions people feel like they need to put out there.

And I feel like with our leadership team, we communicate so often at our weekly meetings that when we get to our quarterly meetings, when we get to our annual meetings, we're all still on the same page that we just knock it out. And I think that's been really helpful for us. So, I mean, I would advocate for a smaller team.

Yeah. You may gain deeper insights from that, but I think where we are right now, speed is more

Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah, not yet is the

Scott Snelling: Not yet. Yeah. That's right.

Jonathan Hawkins: So, so you said it was the EOS was sort of the hockey stick. I guess part of that was vision. What other aspects of it in your opinion sort of helped. Fuel

Scott Snelling: Core values. Core values. I tell every single person that interviews with us and starts with us that my number one job at the firm. Is to guard our culture. And so, you know, we came up with our core values during EOS. You know, it's not, they're not aspirational, right? This is like actual core values.

This is what the people that we've built, this team that we've built actually exhibit and, you know, it's not just a list. In fact, you're not going to see any marketing materials. Well, that's not true. I think we post them on social media and it's on our website, but we have posters hanging around, things like that.

When we have to discipline people or. Let people go. A big part of that is our core values. You can be a great worker, but if you're not within our core values, then you're just not right for our firm. And so, you know, we've tried to, we have a Slack channel for core values where people give shout outs and we count those and we go through 'em at each team meeting.

Just so that there's something always there with our core values just to make sure that people have 'em ingrained in their head and interacting according to those.

Scott Snelling: Yeah. So, basically the way our, ours is set up is we kind of a two thirds bonus based on firm performance which we've kind of changed over the years to give the team more control or being able to meet those bonuses. And then we do one third based on personal performance or individual performance.

And we have, I think, four or five different categories. You're catching me at the end of the quarter here. I don't have them all memorized. And so one of those categories is core values. And so we'll look at, did the team shout you out on anything? What have we observed over the last quarter? You know, in our L10s, there's employee headlines.

And so you get points for each of the thing. And so. If the, I think the total points you get is 20. And so if you get like 20 points, you get your full bonus for that one third of it. And so then it scales down from there. So that's how we've incorporated it.

Jonathan Hawkins: That's cool. I like that. You know, I've talked to a lot of folks and read a lot about core values and, you know, the old corporate speak core values, you know, don't really mean anything and nobody understands them. I think the fact that you guys have a. Shout out channel. It demonstrates, you know, behaviors and examples of what those are.

So then people know what they are and it reinforces, I think that's smart.

Right. Anybody can come up with core values. Maybe they're good, maybe they're not, but unless you actually do something to make sure that they're implemented and they're followed and people know what they are then yeah, man, I would continue to roll my eyes because unless you're doing those things and they are pointless, just a, an exercise in futility, quite frankly.

Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah. So I want to shift a little bit. You know, you have two separate offices, you're about to open a third. That's something I'm very interested in. So, you know, it's one thing, you know, it's hard it's hard to scale a firm, but it's difficult to do it in one location. When you add another location, it just adds a level of complexity.

And now you're about to add another you know, talk me through, you know, sort of your thought process maybe, and then how you did it the first time, what you learned and the mistakes you're correcting, at least on this one, which I'm sure you'll make a few more mistakes in your fourth office.

You'll fix those. Talk me through that a little bit.

I

Jonathan Hawkins: And how far is that from your headquarters?

Scott Snelling: so door to door is about 45 minutes. But it's very different in terms of, you know, Frisco is a thriving. Suburb of Dallas Cowboys had world headquarters. We have the PGA here now, and they're opening up a universal studios. So just a massively growing community.

But the way that we approach the two markets has probably been the biggest learning experience for me, you know, in a more urban population, your digital marketing, your print media, and all of the other. Avenues tend to work better and in a more urban, I mean, in a more rural area like Sherman right now.

It's really more about relationships, man. It's about relationships. It's about the older trusted authorities like radio and TV. And so it takes a different approach. You know, like we, we do print ads and local publications both in Sherman and Salina, which is kind of in between Frisco and Sherman.

That's why we have an actual office there. We don't just do digital advertising. We want to be a part of the community. And same thing in North Dallas. You know, we want to be involved in, you know, the schools and the government, the city government, and all of those things around us and in the boards and in the charitable organizations and really give back to the community, right?

We don't want to be the takers. We don't want to be the people coming in, taking cases, and then just kind of. Flying through and back to our big corporate headquarters, we want to actually dig in and help the community thrive.

Jonathan Hawkins: you have people that are actually in the office every day? How do you do that? And then

Scott Snelling: yeah. So,

Jonathan Hawkins: you manage that? Are you driving back and forth or how do you do that?

Scott Snelling: yeah, so I'm in Sherman twice a week. We did have someone there five days a week. And then she ended up having to move to Nacogdoches. So she's now a virtual employee. So we're trying to fill that spot in Sherman where we are there five days a week. But right now I'm there two days a week and someone else is there usually two days a week.

Office space is cheaper, and you know, we're in an area where we already have, you know, influence and contacts and can build. So we decided, yeah, let's go do that. Let's go, you know, build another digital presence out there and then be able to serve an even larger community.

Jonathan Hawkins: So how far is Dallas from your other locations?

Scott Snelling: So, so Frisco would be central. From Frisco to the Dallas office would probably be like 25 minutes. And you're on highways, so that could easily stretch into an hour and a half if there's a big crash. But yeah, about 25 minutes, I

Jonathan Hawkins: So, are you planning, are you thinking about, I guess you got to open Dallas first, but you know, you've got EOS. I'm sure you've, you guys have already thought about the future. Are you looking to add more offices and then would you go farther than just sort of the Dallas area where you are now?

I'll

I'm perfectly fine having three offices for forever, right? As long as this law firm exists, if the business grows and there is a need and we can really fill that need, then yeah, we'll grow wherever that is. Obviously we have eyes on different markets to see, okay, well, where's there a need? We have eyes on, you know.

All kinds of different things that we could jump into, but you know, right now it's about doing it really well and being a real asset for every community that we do have an office in.

Jonathan Hawkins: tell you, you know, Texas, I mean, you're in the middle of it, but it's growing big time. Everybody's moving there, right?

And so, yeah, getting in kind of early and getting that footprint down and starting to develop all the relationships. You know, and Sherman's a special place for me too. We had kinfolk out there. I learned to drive on Sherman roads. I was probably 12 pickup truck and, you know, we go dove hunting out there with family and we went out there every Thanksgiving.

And so I've always loved that area. And so it holds a special place for me too.

Jonathan Hawkins: So shifting again another LinkedIn post, maybe from, I don't know, within the last week or so. You talked about your coaching stack. And I thought that was a really insightful. I want to hear about that. You've got different coaches for different things. And tell us about, I mean, obviously you find them helpful.

Scott Snelling: Yeah. The idea kind of came from. Everybody was talking about tech stacks. And in fact, I think that morning Ryan McKean had written a post on what his tech stack looks like. I could be wrong on that, but I think that's what kind of kicked it off. And I was like, well, I got a coaching stack. I'll talk about that today.

And so, yeah, you know, I'm a huge proponent of of coaching. If Michael Jordan, if Wayne Gretzky, if Tiger Woods, they all need coaches, then who am I to not need a coach? And so it was actually last year. I just kind of started thinking, okay, you know, if I really want to be at my absolute best and every aspect of my life, how would I go about doing that?

So I said, okay, well, what other aspects of my life could I obtain coaching in? Okay, well, fitness, nutrition, that's pretty easy. Right. Like lots of people have personal trainers. And so I did some research and found one that would work for me on both those fronts. And it's been great. You know, I'm feeling good.

I'm in, you know, good shape, probably best shape I've been in, in a long time and aiming to really grow there. And then started going and seeing a psychologist. I'd never had any counseling before, and so I was like, okay, well, that would be really cool. Like, what is going on in my head that is really limiting me that I don't even know it's there.

It is so traumatic to so many different people, yet counseling can help. Be such a huge help. And, you know, I still think there's a massive stigma on it today. That there just shouldn't be right. And so I always dreaded me advocating for counseling. And then a client asking me, have you ever had counseling and saying, no, like I would always get that feeling in my stomach every time, because I knew somebody was going to ask me.

I don't know. Maybe a couple of months now, but I love it. I absolutely love it. It's a really positive experience. It's really helped me draw some connections that I never would have seen. And that's one of the things I'm most excited about moving forward. So I've got those things covered. So I'm in a mastermind group, great legal marketing.

Same one as you. And so got that amazing group. And then I am in the, I think I called it a challenge club in my post Epic grit club, and that's basically a bunch of super motivated. optimistic people who want to challenge themselves to go further, right? To continue to develop grit in all aspects of their lives.

Maybe when you're in school you're not focused on your health. And, you know, a long run seems awful and you just don't have the ability to get through it. Maybe when you're more established in your career, you don't have that same hunger you did earlier and things you could have overcome when you were younger, you just.

Cause I want to start speaking more. And so, yeah, those are the people that are in my coaching stack right now. And more on the horizon. Man, I can't get enough. I want every aspect of my life. I want to where I want to grow. I want to have a coach. So I'm learning Spanish right now. I'm using Duolingo, but I feel Spanish coach or tutor in my future

Jonathan Hawkins: yeah, I love it. That's awesome. You know, the epic group or whatever you call it, the

Scott Snelling: I think great club. Yeah.

Jonathan Hawkins: you know, yeah. You know, you're building a firm, you've built a firm and, you know, it's sometimes you're going, you know, 90 miles an hour and you're going forward and every now and then this, at least for me, you take a break and you're like, oh, crap, what am I doing?

Am I messing up here or, you know, you sort of get paralyzed, but if you're in a, you know, this epic grit club, you know, that kind of thing, where if you push yourself in other areas, gives you the confidence probably to keep pushing. And every other area,

And so put it on the calendar. Well, when it's on the calendar and you have a buddy who is going to be running by your side, like I'm not going to, I'm not going to fail. So I started running and you know, when I when I crossed that finish line at 13. 1 miles, I had an immediate mental asset that I can go back to in any long runs that I have now.

Hey, look, man, you've run 13 miles before you got this. And other aspects too. Like, Hey you've accomplished this big thing that seemed, you know, unattainable. And I can go back to that and at the end of this year, I'm gonna have another mental asset because in fact, yesterday Charlie and I just signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon

Jonathan Hawkins: uh, full marathon,

full marathon this

Jonathan Hawkins: When is it and where is it?

Scott Snelling: Yeah, it's, it's in DC we get to run through the monuments and all that, so it's gonna be really cool. And then it's in the, at the end of October. So yeah, it's going to be it sounds crazy to me right now, quite frankly, and I'm gonna have to start training, you know, in the Texas summer.

So yeah, I really bit it off on that one.

Jonathan Hawkins: Well, now you got to do it. You've announced it.

Scott Snelling: I have. I have. Yeah, putting it out there. So you'll hold me accountable.

Jonathan Hawkins: nice. So, you know, a couple other things here. I know you're active on LinkedIn. What other, and I know you have a podcast. We can talk about that too, but talk about sort of your marketing stack that you got your firm marketing stack and then you got your marketing stack.

Let's talk about yours. And what kind of stuff you do?

Right? And then I started A lot of the mastermind guys were jumping in and, you know, once they were consistent for six months, a year, things really started to happen for them. And so, I think a lot of why I never really got into it is the intimidation factor, right? You can post pictures on Instagram, you can have funny little jokes or updates on Facebook, but you know, LinkedIn, man, that's the professional place and it was boring.

I have an idea for a post. And then I'd put it together and it'd sit there for four or five days. And finally I would hit post. Right. And then you wouldn't get much of a reaction because you weren't really connected with anybody. So then it would be frustrating and that would go on and off and on and off.

And then finally I made the commitment to, okay, I'm going to really take this seriously. That was probably about six months ago. And, you know, I don't post daily but probably two, three times a week I interact daily. And for me, like that's been a massive I would say benefit because I've gotten to meet a ton of really cool people yourself included.

So, yeah, it's a lot of work, but I enjoy it and it's kind of a, an avenue to flex my creative muscle, if you will, and it made me think outside the box,

Jonathan Hawkins: Well, I'll tell you, I've had a similar experience. I thought LinkedIn was boring. I thought it was sort of a joke. Someone encouraged me to get on there and I've been on there consistently. And, you know, you get to meet a lot of cool folks. You get to, you get different perspectives for anybody out there that's not following you.

I encourage them to do so your stuff lately has been really good. And you found the voice and I, you know, it was hard for me at first and, you know, some days are better than others, but I feel like the ideas, the more you do it, the more ideas start to flow and then it just gets easier but you're putting out some fire.

Content out there right now. So keep

Scott Snelling: Well, thank you, man. I appreciate that. And I love tuning into yours daily too. I was like, anytime I see your your name and picture pop up, I'm like, Oh, I'm going to read this one. This is going to be a good one.

Jonathan Hawkins: I'm going to start, I'm going to start experimenting, get a little edgy. We'll see what

Scott Snelling: There you go.

Scott Snelling: Yeah. So it's called the driven crowd. Premise is driven people learning from other driven people. And really it started out as a way for me to add some immediate value to people I wanted to create relationships with. So whether it was attorneys that I wanted to get to know better, whether it was people in Frisco or Sherman or wherever that I wanted to get to know, I could invite them on the podcast and they would have immediate value provided right there.

Then we post the podcast, we take clips out and then we push it out on social media and we'll put money behind it sometimes to really push their name out there. Right. And so I'm a huge believer in when it comes to networking, you got to provide value. Be the first one to provide value. Don't be a taker.

So, that's how it started. And then as we've kind of gotten more traction, I've had people reaching out, wanting to be on the show and kind of bigger audiences, right? And LinkedIn has been fantastic for getting guests as well, super interesting people who do any number of different things. Some people do jobs that you wouldn't even think were out there.

So that's been really cool to watch it grow and kind of have different content as well.

Jonathan Hawkins: So we'll be sure to put a link in the show notes to your podcast. I encourage folks to go check it out. It's really

Scott Snelling: Awesome. Thank you.

Scott Snelling: yeah, you know, I think having the vision first and foremost, right, what are you trying to build? So many people end up building firms that I don't like. Because they didn't intentionally build it. So what are you trying to build? Get clear on that. Put your list together. Go through every single person you know and create your list.

That's your starting point. And then each year you should be growing that list. Your network is everything. Those are the people who are going to refer you cases. Those are the people who are going to support you in other ways. Those are the people who are going to tell people about you. So grow that list and then figure out how to best use that list, right?

You got to know your avatar client. You got to have a marketing plan to go get your avatar client and then you got to have a way of operating. Okay. How am I going to handle the work when it comes in? And so all those things can be done before you ever hang your shingle, right? And so I think working through those things will give you a gigantic head start from day one.

Jonathan Hawkins: All right, so this might be a tough question. You sort of alluded to this earlier. But let's imagine there's no such thing as plaintiff's personal injury lawyers anymore. So you can't do this. What would you be doing?

I still love it. I love the fact that we get to make a massive difference in people's lives. We get to be there for people. A lot of them, it's the worst moment of their lives. Maybe a loved one's died. Maybe they've suffered a catastrophic injury. Maybe they've never been through the process before, and it is, it's tough, man.

The personal injury process here in Texas, not easy. And so we get to have a really massive impact on their lives, which I love. As I started Snelling's Law, you know, I have no business background at all. I was a psychology major and I never stepped foot in the business school. And so I really had to dig deep, man.

So. I found a second passion in business. I love it. I love the strategy. I love the team that we build. I love, man, I come to work every day excited. So I would probably be doing some other kind of business building if it wasn't for If it wasn't in the law,

Jonathan Hawkins: So that leads to this question. Now sitting here today, do you identify more as a personal injury lawyer or more as a entrepreneur business owner?

Scott Snelling: I'm an entrepreneurial personal injury lawyer, man.

Jonathan Hawkins: Split the baby.

Scott Snelling: Yeah, no, I mean, based on what I do on a daily basis, probably more of an entrepreneur but I'm still involved in, we do an attorney round table every week where, you know, we talk about the cases. We talk about strategy. I'm involved in helping to train.

It feels like on some days. But I'm working on getting back to the 20 percent that I'm the best at we're actually just onboarded an executive assistant today. So that's my Christmas present is cause I got an executive assistant.

Jonathan Hawkins: Nice. So, so, thank you for joining us today. You know, I think. If you can grow your firm, you know, start and grow a firm like you have in the midst of an organ transplant anybody can do it. And people, there's no excuse for other folks. So, you know. To end, you know, where can people find you?

Scott Snelling: Yeah. I'm not, you know, my podcast LinkedIn is Scott Snellings and then Instagram, Facebook is Snellings Injury Law.

Jonathan Hawkins: and what's your real quick your websites, just Scott Snellings or Snellings Law.

Scott Snelling: SnellingsInjuryLaw. com.

Jonathan Hawkins: Okay, well, great. Well, I appreciate you joining us and look forward to seeing you on LinkedIn.

Scott Snelling: Absolutely, man. Thanks for having me on.