00:00:48One of the most important things, a small business owner can do is set up goals that will move their initiatives forward. If you've ever struggled with setting up goals, and following through on them, or you just setting up the right goals. I created a free ebook for you just to help you understand the three key components for setting up your goals. Is he go to Jen, mcfarlane.com free, you can download this guy today. Happy goal-setting, Michael Jonas is the principal attorney and owner of rational unicorn Legal Services. LLC a community-based business law firm. The Firm offers pay-as-you-go legal services, including but not limited to business formation contract review in drafting and preparation and filing of trademark and copyright applications.

00:01:47Passionate about Community engagement, Michael dedicates time to volunteering with several nonprofit organizations. He currently serves on 3, nonprofit boards new leaders Council. The Hub. Progressive Millennial thought leadership hatch Innovation, a social entrepreneurial Innovation, incubator, the Main Street Alliance of Oregon. The local chapter of a national network State baseball business coalition's. He is dedicated to empowering all community members by practicing community business law for everyone in the community, please welcome Michael to the show.

00:03:09Long story short, got a Bachelor's degree in Psychology for me. See Santa Barbara.

00:03:20Graduate in 2009, in the recession, lost my apartment and my car took nine bar exams passed my 9th bar exam. And then in 2017. I finally passed the bar opened up my Law Firm rational unicorn Legal Services.

00:03:50As a lawyer as opposed to me being what people want me to be. So what does that mean? It means that our firm is a certified benefit company. We believe in community building and business building. At the same time. We offer pay-as-you-go services and our clients are small businesses, nonprofits, and artists and entertainers.

00:04:33How people not only figure out their their dreams and the logistics of that, but to talk about their projects, you know, what inspires them. What are they want to do? What, what do they vision for their future?

00:05:38Most of the people who I'm really inspired by or businesses. I'm inspired by they do both at the same time. They do community building and business building at the same time and it's possible and it's possible to do that and to also make a profit. So when I started my firm for me, that was the only way is making it. So the community was involved making it so that Services were accessible making it financially affordable to have a lawyer so that you're paying a project fee versus a large retainer that were eating away in a trust fund. So all those things I've sort of thought about for years and they've been a part of who I am and then when I made my Law Firm, my kind of folded.

00:07:28An advocacy, how to be a better leader, how to grow. And then the beauty of it is there's people from every Walk of Life and every career. So it's not just a group of 20, lawyers or politicians, you know, there might be an environmental scientist to meets. Somebody works in the legislature and they can talk about things with each other. So that I'm also on the board of Main Street Alliance, and we advocate for small business owners for nauseous Fair wages, but for access to commercial leases to

00:08:09For just a variety of things were sort of arguing for those things. And I don't know if arguing is right word, but there's been a lot of talk about fighting and fighting for change. So I guess arguing is appropriate. And then the third thing that I'm involved with is I'm on the board of hatchlab and so half is a social incubator for entrepreneurs. So I help administrative liat, help also help with some of the social Enterprise stuff. So for the social pictures, I do a free legal clinic for all for all of them to do an overview of business law.

00:09:38Does the language of this makes sense? Is this project affordable?

00:10:10Oh, that's so cool. And and I think that's the main thing for people to take away is just the fact that you can have a successful business and stand up for what you believe in. It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. I know that I've, I've gotten pushback from family members really can't say that stuff online, like the part of me and then, it's as an extension part of the brand. And I guess there's risk in that, but it's also finding your people down my brand of who I am. The goal would be to get as many clients. Right? So if you are more General, you feel like

00:11:55So it actually makes me happy because it means that I knew you or not. He's not going to come to her office expecting services and I'm happy with that. So I actually like my clients and so not only with the

00:12:44That's amazing. So, how did you come up with the name rational unicorn? Well, the first part of it is I didn't want to be scales of Justice or Jonas law or something like that. I thought that those are really boring and take in and then the other part of it is, I knew that I wanted to work with a lot of creative people on community people. So I thought that I could use a creative name and basically I love unicorns, a lot of people love unicorns but the issue is, is how to be a dreamer with also being a realist. And so I have that issue and also clients have an issue. So the goal in my firm is for me to be irrational unicorn before I Frolic black and glitter and Sparkle and dream him and all that. Or while I'm doing that. I have to also do reality testing follow laws, be logistical, do goal, setting breakdown projects.

00:14:02I love that. I love that. Yeah, I think sometimes creatives spend too much time being unicourt and it holds it holds us back a little bit because there is this whole world do we have to navigate? That's not frolicking all the time. I tell people, you know, you could be the best singer, the best baker, the best writer or whatever it may be. But there's also this business admin component, and a lot of people who are really successful.

00:15:15You know, what are the legalities behind it? Because, again, you could be the best in the world at what you do, but if you haven't figured out the business side or the legalities, unfortunately, the world won't see you or no. You but also, people can take advantage of you or, or try to steal your intellectual property or things like that. So, irrational, unicorn, or when a client is irrational, unicorn is, when the client has figured out. This is a business. I am all in, I'm in, I'm in a business admin way, a marketing way, and a I know my liabilities way. And then that and then I say, okay. Well, looks like you're rash on unicorn now, that's so awesome. What do you think are like the two or three, most important things or things that you tell people over and over and over again to help them when they're just getting started?

00:17:01You have to break down your goals and you have to counter them out. Right? And you can't I'm blocked and you can say, you know, this week. I'm going to be working on this and next week. I'm going to be working on this and that's what happens. Is everything sort of hit us. We want to do everything and with process-oriented things. You cannot do that even process or into things that have to be broken down. So I think don't forget break things down.

00:18:07You're almost there. Try again, or you'd say, look, you've done 80% of this thing. But to us, we continually beat ourselves up. We're mad at ourselves is not enough. You didn't do enough that day or you scheduled, you know, 80 things to do in one day, which was unrealistic. So I would say, the last one is be patient with yourself and talk time leader yourself. And it's something that I have to practice on a daily basis, because there's always more to do, right? And highly ambitious people, they often say to themselves, you know, more more more not enough, but that's really not a beneficial way to live and it's not really recipe for Success. You have to have moments where you breathe and what you've done and you say okay. Well I did this this week. I'm going to do this other thing next week. So all those kind of.

00:19:54You're okay. I'm not looking down upon you or thinking, you know, how is this person to ever be successful? They don't know the law. It's not like that at all. My, my job is to help you with that. So in again, we're back to the being patient, but I treat law and a preventive business way where we start early and we figure out what we're doing and why? And there's an educational component, a lot of Warriors. It's

00:21:06But I want a client to have a contract that they actually understand, and then they use it in their business practices. I don't want them to say, my lawyer wrote this, I have no idea. What means, so I think a big part of demystifying. These legal things is with preparation, is with knowledge, is with discussing known. I lost our client contact. Me and say, have really great contract that you wrote for me. I still haven't used it. I admit the head, and I go, okay. Well, why let's talk about it. And then, it may be that there's a part of it that they don't understand. It may be that it's not presented in the right way, like, for example, maybe it should go with other forms. If you're giving out or maybe it can go on fun stationary a Contraption. It could be paying you. No, like a legally Bond type.

00:22:25Exactly. Yeah, I know. I totally love that and

00:23:23To trademarks a client service agreement and maybe a contract agreement. This is what each of these will cost. You can decide to do one of them. You can decide to do all of them. You can do once someone of mine, the difference is, is throughout that process. You're already talking to us. Whereas, there are some firms where the or the traditional way is you, do you pay me $3,000 to start with our firm. I put it in a trust account. You don't see it. And then what happens is as I'm working on your project. I take money out from the trust account one. It could be eaten through right away and maybe you owe it to steal money for the projects to

00:24:43I don't like the idea of holding money. And if you think about it, say, for example, someone is opening a brand new business like a coffee shop. Like I mentioned and have kids, if I take $3,000 from them, they may not be able to pay the rent. They may not be able to feed their kids. They may not be able to pay their other expenses to open up that coffee shop to get it going. So the idea of taking that money and put it in trust and holding it. It doesn't help them. It doesn't really help me. So, it's, it's a simple menu or all a car, which makes me hungry legal service is in. And I, I think it's

00:25:46Yeah, yeah, absolutely in and we give options, there's never, you know, of course, if you need it will tell you. Okay, maybe you need this, but there's never an option charged. I never throw anything in there and say, okay, you owe me another thousand dollars.

00:26:16Sounds great, everybody. It's honestly, it's a really great way of practicing law.

00:26:37Personalized, legal help.

00:26:45edits of contracts up to a month after completed are included as well. And so, if I write you, no client service agreement for you and you want to fix it. I don't just say, oh, that's going to cost you just for money or I already delivered it to you. It's done. We make an appointment. We do real-time editing of that contract, and maybe I didn't get something. Right, right, like maybe I didn't explain the scheduling process or the fee process, or maybe you want to add something, or maybe you want to talk about one of the Clauses that I added her example and intellectual property class. So we actually take time to do that before I leave you with your final draft and then you go and put it into play. And I think that that additional process of editing or confirming with the client that this is what they need is really crucial.

00:27:46I delivered the service as desired and they got what they needed to help their business. You've been very helpful and you know what? I'm going through it and I know that I can ask questions if I need to. And that's really, that's really the thing. I think a lot of times it can be a black box like the money goes, there are the attorneys take it out. They tell you it's gone. And that's a little scary for people, you know, for all the reasons that you said, but then also, when we talked before you've mentioned that sometimes people are hesitant to call and they might not actually get what they need. So I appreciate that. It's about. It's a lot in the way that I work to about wanting people, to, actually, use whatever it is, that you've delivered, not just once for, like over and over again.

00:29:23It's a more humane way. Yes, it again. It's it's it's not revolutionary. It's simple. It's the way that it should be. I don't know how he got into the other. We could have gotten to the other because corporations were paying, we could have gotten the other because attorneys have a lot of bills. So maybe they thought that if they build that way that they would make more money. My whole thing is, if I don't feel good about it, if I feel like I'm being slimy or screwing people over. I don't want to be practicing this way or in this profession. So, I try to make sure that my

00:30:12I think that's awesome. So how can people get in touch with you or do you have anything that you want to share especially for people who are in Portland, Oregon state, must alitiz of communications, you know, where on Twitter or not too active, but we're on Instagram, all-time Facebook, quite often and you can email me. You can contact us through our website. We have a website, contact submission page for potential clients, or people who just want to chat about these things. We do offer a no-cost, 30 minute phone, or in person, consult. Obviously, if you're no further out, phone would essentially be the best to sing. I want to share is, we have a really great seminar series called the more you claim 0, all so trademarks.

00:31:55Class participates. It's a lively environment. It's not your standard boring legal type of thing. So that's going to be posted on our website ww.w., Rational, unicorn. Calm, and, and under the events section, and then it'll length right to all the Eventbrite events.

00:32:51That's so cool. And I missed the ones about podcasting. So I'm really hoping that something like that will be offered again cuz you had, you had a couple. I think that I missed. And then the other one that I missed that, I was super stoked about was like Halloween time. It was like wine witches and like, taxes or something. It was wine, which is in with holding, we try to do. We, we do our own or were, you know, the teacher me or one of my of counsel attorneys, but we also do a lot of kind of Goodwill resource type thing. So we have bankers and attacks panel. We're going to be doing an event of all about funding.

00:34:13That's so cool. Thank you so much for being on the show that aligns with your vision and your values, a business that support your lifestyle. And I know it's been a bumpy ride. Sometimes I see it all the time. Women overspending on shiny objects in Magic pills because they're tired of not seeing results. Business decisions based on short-term gains without a critical eye toward the future. Most heartbreaking of all women who walk away because it's just too damn hard. But good news is you're not alone. You have support all around you. If you're ready to take joyful action on your biggest Business Schools, if you need strategy, accountability, and a path to get you exactly where you want to go.