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Title: How to Make Millions with Vending Machines with Mike Hoffman Summary: In this conversation, Seth Bradley and Mike Hoffman delve into the world of vending machines as a business opportunity. Mike shares his journey from a Midwest farm boy to a successful entrepreneur in the vending industry, highlighting the evolution of vending technology and the potential for passive income. They discuss the importance of location, understanding demographics, and the scalability of vending routes. Mike emphasizes the need for upfront work and learning before delegating tasks, while also addressing the misconceptions surrounding passive income in the vending business. In this conversation, Seth Bradley and Mike discuss various aspects of entrepreneurship, particularly in the vending machine business. They explore the importance of capital raising, the journey of self-discovery, influences that shape business decisions, and the definition of success. The dialogue emphasizes the significance of flexibility, discipline, and focus in achieving entrepreneurial goals, while also touching on financial milestones and the attributes that distinguish successful entrepreneurs. Links to Watch and Subscribe:   Bullet Point Highlights: Mike's journey from a classic Midwest farm boy to a successful entrepreneur. The evolution of vending machines from traditional to smart technology. Understanding the importance of location in the vending business. The analogy of baseball levels to describe starting in vending. Scaling up from single A to big leagues in vending routes. The significance of demographics in product selection for vending machines. The potential for passive income with proper systems in place. The need for upfront work before achieving passivity in business. Vending is not a get-rich-quick scheme; it requires dedication. The future opportunities in the vending industry are expanding rapidly. Raising capital can dilute ownership but may be necessary for rapid growth. Self-discovery often leads to unexpected career paths. Influences in business can come from personal experiences rather than just mentors. Success is often defined by the ability to prioritize family and flexibility. Entrepreneurs work harder than in traditional jobs but gain flexibility. Discipline is crucial for saying no to distractions. Successful entrepreneurs often focus on niche markets. High foot traffic locations are ideal for vending machines. AI is transforming business operations and efficiency. Networking and connections can lead to valuable opportunities. Transcript: Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:04.898) Mike, what's going on buddy? Doing great brother, doing great. How about you?   Mike (00:06.748) Don't worry,   Mike (00:11.664) Good, I'm a little flustered. I usually have my mic set up over here, but I guess we just moved and it's not here today. I guess, yeah, new office and it's been a whole hot mess.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:19.822) New office or what?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:27.862) Nice man, nice. I see you got the whiteboard cranking back there. Love to see that.   Mike (00:33.114) Always. I love your background. That's sweet.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:38.03) Thanks man, yeah, I'm on camera all the time so I like I need to just build this out instead of using like a green screen so Made the investment made it happen   Mike (00:44.86) Totally.   Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:49.442) Have we met in person or not? I don't know if we've met at a Wealth Without Wall Street event or I couldn't tell. Okay. No, I did not go to Nashville last year.   Mike (00:58.478) I don't think so. don't think you're... Were you in Nashville last year?   Mike (01:04.634) No, okay. No, I don't think we've met in person. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:08.256) Okay, all good, man. All good. Well, cool. I'll just go over the format real quick. We'll do kind of a shorter recording. We're do like 30 minutes, something like in that range. And then we'll just kind of like break. And then I'll, want to record a couple of other quick segments where I call it Million Dollar Monday. I'm kind of asking you about how you made your first, last and next million. And then 1 % closer, which would just be kind of what separates you, what makes you the   top 1 % in your particular vertical. So we'll just kind of record those separately. Those will be real short, like five minutes or so.   Mike (01:44.924) Okay, yeah, I'll follow your lead. All good.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:47.15) Cool. Cool. Let's see. I think I already have this auto recording. So we're already recording. So I'll just jump right in.   Mike (01:55.377) Okay.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:57.782) Welcome to Raise the Bar Radio, hosted by yours truly Seth Bradley. We today we've got Mr. Passive, Mike Hoffman. Mike, welcome to the show.   Mike (02:08.189) Thank you for having me fired up to be here.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:10.855) Absolutely man, really happy to have you on. I know it's been a little bit of a trek here to get our schedules lined up, but really stoked to have you on today, man. I see you said you moved into a new office. You've got the whiteboard cranking, so love to see it.   Mike (02:25.372) yeah, whiteboards are the only place I can get my thoughts down.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:29.399) Yeah, man, it makes a difference when you actually write something rather than type it or even on a mirror board where you're doing it online. just there's something about physically writing something down.   Mike (02:41.328) You know, I'm glad you said that because yesterday I flipped to Seattle for a quick work trip and I didn't have wifi and I literally had three pages of just, I, was so like the clarity of some of these kinds of bigger visions I have now from just being able to write for an hour on a flight was, I was like, man, I gotta do this more often.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:00.363) Yeah, for sure. The key though is once you write it down, it just doesn't go into the trash or into a black hole somewhere where you never see it again. So that's kind of the disadvantage there. If you have it on your computer and you're taking notes or you have it on a mirror board, at least it's there to reference all the time. If you write it down on paper, sometimes, I've got my Raze Masters book right here for notes, but it's like, it might go into the abyss and I'll never look at it again. So you gotta be careful about that.   Mike (03:27.184) Yeah, yeah, I need to check out the Miro boards. I've heard a lot of good things about them.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:31.467) Yeah, yeah. Awesome, Mike. Well, listen, for our audience who doesn't know anything about you, maybe just tell them, you know, tell them a little bit about your background. Tell them about your your main business and we can take it from there.   Mike (03:43.354) Yeah. So I think for those that don't know about me, I'm a classic Midwest farm boy started with a classic, you know, showing cattle at the county fair and all of that and had a lemonade stand growing up. And then my first job was actually at McDonald's, you know, thinking about the whole success of that business model. But when I was coaching and, out of college, I got my first rental and I was like, wow, this is crazy. making money without.   really much time involved. and then with my work in Silicon Valley, know, Seth, was classic Silicon Valley, you know, cutthroat job that, startup life and traveling three weeks out of the month. And I was on, I was in airports all the time. And was like, these vending machines I would run into at airports were just so archaic. And so I went down this path of like unattended retail and kind of the future of, of that. And that's really where I just see a huge opportunity right now.   And so it's kind of what led me into all these different income streams that I'm passionate about.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:49.431) That's awesome, man. Well, let's dive into that a little bit deeper. me about these income streams. It centers around vending machines, right? But I'm sure there's a lot more to it. I'm sure there's a lot of different entry points for people. Maybe just kind of give us a general synopsis to start out.   Mike (05:06.78) Yeah, so I think the big thing with, you know, if we're talking vending specifically as an income stream, you know, most people think of vending as the traditional machines where you enter in a code, you put your card on the machine and then a motor spirals down a Snickers bar or a soda and you go into the chute and grab it.   Nowadays, there's these smart machines that literally you just unlock the door, or even if you go into, land in the Vegas airport right at the bottom of the escalator where it says, welcome to Las Vegas, there's a 7-Eleven with gates and AI cameras, and there's no employees in the 7-Eleven. And it just tracks whatever you grab and to exit the gate, you have to pay for it. So like, there's just this huge market now where we just installed it in urgent care.   less than two months ago and we can do over the counter meds in that machine because it doesn't have to fit into a motor. It's just shelf space. You identify with the planogram with the AI cameras like, okay, Dayquil in this slot or Salad in this slot and then whatever they grab, gets charged to the person that pulls it from it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (06:15.469) That's interesting, man. Yeah, I mean, my initial thought too, was just like the traditional old vending machine where you're getting a candy bar or a cola out of there. But yeah, nowadays, now that you mentioned that, you see this more and more every single day where you've got these scanners, you've got kind of self-checkout, that sort of thing. So that's kind of, that expands that world and really opens it up to the future, right? Like it just really, that's what we're trying to get to, or at least we think we wanna get there, where we're kind of removing humans and...   kind of working with technologies and things like that.   Mike (06:49.488) Yeah, and I think, you know, removing the whole human thing. mean, those machines still got to get stocked and you know, there's not robots running around doing that. But I just come back to, I was a Marriott guy when I was on the road all the time and I'd go to these grab and goes at a Marriott and grab a, the end of the night, I'd grab like a little wine or an ice cream sandwich. And I literally had to go wait in line at the check-in desk behind three people checking in just to tell them, Hey, put these on.   room charge and I was like if I had a checkout kiosk in that grab-and-go I could have just removed all the friction for this customer experience.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:27.772) Right, 100%. Yeah, I mean, there's a place and time for it and there's more and more applications for it that just pop up every single day and you can kind of spot that in your life as you're just kind of moving through, whether you're checking into your hotel or whatever you're doing.   Mike (07:41.456) Yeah, yeah. So that's just kind of what excites me today.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:45.973) Yeah, yeah, so when a stranger asks you what you do just in the street, what do you tell them? Because I have a hard time answering that question sometimes too, but I'd love to hear what your answer is.   Mike (07:56.804) Yeah, I would just say it depends on the day. You know, what do you do or what's your, you know, it's like at the golf course when you get paired up with a stranger and they're like, tell me about what you do for your career. And I just say, I'm a classic entrepreneur. And then I'm like, well, what do you do? And it's like, well, tell me about the day. You know, what fire are you putting out? Like today we just got the go ahead for five more urgent cares for our local route. But then, you know, we have a community of operators across the country that we help really build.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:57.933) haha   Ha ha ha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:09.879) Yeah. Yeah.   Mike (08:25.616) Vending empires and so we had a group call this morning. So literally, there's a lot of just, you know, it's classic entrepreneurial life. You never know what the day's script is gonna be.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:36.161) Yeah, for sure. And you focus a lot on not only on your own business, but also teaching others, right? Teaching others how to kind of break into this business.   Mike (08:45.402) Yeah, that's my passion, Seth. When I got into my first investment out of college was a $70,000 rental, you know, putting 20 % down or 14K and using an emergency fund. like my background in going to college was as a coach. like I knew I wanted to kind of take that mindset of like coaching people, you know, teach them how to fish. I don't want to catch all the fish myself. It's just not fulfilling that way. So that's really where my passion is.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (09:15.373) Gotcha, gotcha. tell me about like, tell me about step one. I mean, how does somebody break into this business? Obviously your own personal business is probably very advanced. There's probably a lot more sophisticated investing strategies at this point and you've got different layers to it. But somebody just kind of starting out that said, hey, this sounds pretty interesting. This vending machine business sounds like it can be passive. How do you recommend that they get started?   Mike (09:40.57) Yeah, so I'm always, I view like the whole vending scale as similar to Major League Baseball. You got your single A all the way up to the big leagues. And if you're just starting out, I always recommend like find a location where you can put a machine and just learn the process. Like to me, that's single A analogy. you know, that always starts with, people want to jump right to like, well, what type of machines do you recommend?   products, how do you price products? And the first question I'll always ask Seth is, well, what location is this machine going in? And they're like, well, I don't know yet. I was just going to buy one and put it in my garage to start. And it's like, no, you need to have the location first. So understanding that, is it a pet hospital? Is it an apartment? Is it a gym? Where is the foot traffic? And then you can cater to what's the best machine for that type of location.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (10:36.887) Got it, got it. Now is this a kind of a rent, you rent the space to place the machine with that particular business or wherever you're gonna place it or how does that all come together?   Mike (10:47.644) not typically, some people are kind of more advanced, like apartment complexes are used to the revenue share model. So they're going to ask for a piece of the pie for sure, for you to put the machine in their lobby. but like, you know, when we're talking urgent carers or even pet hospitals are viewing it as an amenity. And so we probably have, I don't even know how many machines now 75 now, and we, you know, less than half of those actually,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (10:50.423) Okay.   Mike (11:15.1) us rent or ask for a revenue share to have them in there. So I never leave lead with that, but we'll do it if we need to get the location.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (11:23.989) Interesting gotcha. So it's really a value add for wherever you're gonna place it and that's how most people or I guess most businesses would look at that and then you're able to capture that that space   Mike (11:27.366) Mm-hmm.   Mike (11:34.236) Yeah, absolutely. So, um, a great case study is we have a 25 employee roughing business here in Oregon. And you might think like, only 25 employees. It's not going to make that much money. Well, we do $1,200 a month. And the cool thing about this, Seth, is the CEO of this roughing company literally did napkin math on how much it costs for his employees to drive to the gas station during their 20 minute break. And then   How much they're paying for an energy drink at the gas station and then how much gas they're using with the roofing like the work trucks to get to and from the gas station So he's like I want to bring a smart machine into our warehouse Set the prices as half off so that four dollar monster only costs his rofers two dollars and then we invoice him the the business owner every month for the other 50 % and so he actually   Calculated as a cost savings not asking for money to rent the space   Seth Bradley, Esq. (12:35.597) Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. That makes sense. That makes sense. I love the baseball analogy with the single A, double A, triple A, even into the big leagues here. know, a lot of the folks that listen to this are already kind of, you know, in the big leagues or maybe think about some capital behind them. Like how would they be able to jump right in, maybe skip single or double A or would they, or do you even suggest that? Do you suggest that they start, you know, small just to learn and then maybe invest some more capital into it to expand or can they jump right to the big leagues?   Mike (12:48.891) Yeah.   Yeah.   Mike (13:03.966) I think they can jump right to the big leagues. this is, I'm glad you brought this up because just listening to some of your episodes from the past, there's no doubt that you have people that could buy a route like a off biz buy sell today. And I think this is a prime opportunity. it's very similar to flipping a house. you, you know, there's a route in Chicago, I think it was for $1.1 million, you know, whatever negotiating terms or seller financing or, or what have you, got a lot of, your, your   audience that is experts in that. But the cool thing about these routes is they have the old school machines that have the motors and that are limited to, this type of machine, you can only fit a 12 ounce cannon. Well, guess what? The minute you buy that route, you swap out that machine with one of these micro markets or smart machines. Now you just went from selling a 12 ounce soda for $1.25 to now a 16 ounce monster for $4.50.   Well, you just bought that location based on its current revenue numbers and by swapping out that machine, you're going to two or three acts your revenue just at that location. And so it's truly just like a value play, a value upgrade, like flipping the house of, okay, there's a lot of deals right now of these routes being sold by baby boomers where it's like, they got the old school Pepsi machine. Doesn't have a credit card reader on it. They can't track inventory remotely via their cell phones. So   They're not keeping it stocked. Like all those types of things can really play in your favor as a buyer that just wants to get to the big leagues right away.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (14:37.651) I love that. When you say buy a route, what are you really buying? Tell me about the contractual agreement behind that. What are you really buying there?   Mike (14:47.184) You're just buying the locations and the equipment associated with it. So like this Chicago route, it's like, we have machines in 75 properties all across the Chicago suburbs. And they could be medical clinics. could be apartments. could be employee break rooms at businesses, but that's when you start diving into those locations. It's like, I have a snack machine and a soda machine here. Well, you swap that out with a micro market that now instead of.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (14:49.279) Okay. Okay.   Mike (15:13.626) that machine that'll only hold a small bag of Doritos that you charge two bucks, well now you get the movie size theater bags that you can really put in there in a micro market. Like naturally just that valuation of that route based on those 75 machines current revenue, I mean you're gonna be able to two or three X your revenue right by just swapping out those machines.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (15:35.959) Wow, yeah, I love that analogy with real estate, right? It's just like a value add. It's like, how can I bring in more income from what already exists? Well, I need to upgrade or I need to put in some capital improvements, whatever you want to call it. Here's the vending machine upgrades or a different kind of system in there. And you get more income. And obviously that business in itself is going to be worth more in a higher multiple.   Mike (15:58.396) Absolutely. mean, a great example of this is we had a machine in an apartment complex and it was your traditional machine with the motors and you have to enter in the code. Well, we could only put in four 12 ounce drinks and then chips. Well, we swapped that out with a micro market. Well, now that micro market, we literally put in bags of Tide Pods for laundry, like these big bags of Tide Pods. We'll sell those like hotcakes for 15 bucks. And our old machine,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:25.281) Yeah, let's say those aren't cheap.   Mike (16:27.246) Yeah, our old machine Seth, it would take us to get to 15 bucks, we'd have to sell eight Snickers. That's one transaction.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:33.547) Right, right. Yeah, yeah. How do you do an analysis kind of based on like what you think is gonna sell there, right? Like you're replacing, let's say a Dorito machine with Tide Pods, you know? So you have to individually go to each location and figure out what will work, what will sell.   Mike (16:47.738) Yeah.   Mike (16:51.834) It's all about demographic. Absolutely. So, you know, we have, we have, we have a micro market and a manufacturing plant that's, it's a pumpkin farm and there's a ton of Hispanic workers. So we do a lot of like spicy foods, a lot of spicy chips. do, we do a ton of, mean, the sugar or sorry, the glass bottle cokes. They do, they love their pastries.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:53.431) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (17:06.349) Yeah.   Mike (17:15.868) So we just doubled down on the demographics. So yesterday I was filming at one of our micro markets that's in a gym and they crushed the Fairlife protein shakes, like the more modern protein shakes, but they won't touch muscle milk. So we're literally taking out one row of muscle milk just to add an extra row of Fairlife shakes. So you're constantly just catering to the demographics and what's selling.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (17:40.632) Yeah, yeah, this is awesome. I mean, this is literally just like real estate, right? Like you go and you find a good market. You're talking about demographics, right? Find the market, see what they want, see how much you can upgrade, how you can upgrade. If it's an apartment, it's a unit. If it's here, it's the product that you're selling and the type of machine, or maybe it's a mini market. A lot of things to kind of tie your understanding to here.   Mike (17:45.926) Yeah.   Mike (18:05.904) Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (18:07.615) Yeah, awesome, man. Awesome, Where are you at in your business? Like what, you know, what are the big leagues looking like right now? You know, what are you doing to expand your business, raising the bar in your business?   Mike (18:18.692) Yeah, I'm going after that's a really good question. I'm going after kind of these newer markets and we're kind of past that point of like, okay, let's pilot in this location. For example, that urgent care, we didn't know if it was going to be a good location two months ago when we installed. Well now it's already crushing it. Well, there's six other urgent cares in town and we just got to go ahead on five of those six. So like for me, it's doubling down on our current proof points of where.   okay, we know that manufacturing plant, the pumpkin farm does really well. So let's start getting intros to all their, manufacturers of the products they need to grow pumpkin. know, like we're just doubling down on scaling because now we have the operational blueprint to really just kind of to go after it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:03.917) Gotcha, gotcha. Tell me about how passive this can really be, right? So I used to have, before we switched over to the new brand, Raise the Bar podcast, it was the Passive Income Attorney podcast, right? I was really focused on passive investments, focused on bringing in passive investors into my real estate deals, things like that. And I think that word passive gets thrown around quite a bit, right? And sometimes it's abused because people get into things that are not truly passive.   Mike (19:18.427) Yeah.   Mike (19:28.784) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:33.517) What's your take on that as it relates to the vending business?   Mike (19:38.49) Yeah, so I think as far as with the vending business, there's clearly upfront leg work that needs to be done, whether that's finding locations or any of those things. So I have a route that is here in Oregon, and then we bought a route last year in Illinois and have scaled that route. I spend 30 minutes a week on each route now. that these urgent cares and stuff, like we have an operator that's running the whole route.   Here's the problem, Seth. It's like people are so scared to build systems to ultimately systemize things or they're too cheap to hire help. And I'm the opposite. like, you know, kind of like Dan Martell's buy back your time. Like I have like a leverage calculator and like I constantly think about is this worth my time? Cause as you know, you're busier than me. Like it's so limited.   for me, my routes, I would consider them passive, like one hour a week is, is nothing in my mind. But as far as like, you know, I'm, I'm also a passive investor on, we're building a, an oil loop station in Florida and I sent my money a year ago to, to my, active investor and I haven't talked to him since. Like that's actually truly probably passive now, you know, I'm not doing anything, but there's, there's different levels to that. And I'm a huge believer like.   don't delegate something until you know what you're delegating. So people that want to start with the vending routes, sure, if you want to buy a route that already has an operator, that's one thing. but these, if you're starting a vending route for your kid or for your stay at home wife or whatever, as a side hustle, like get in the weeds and install that first machine. So when you hire help to take over the route, you know what you're delegating.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:09.773) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:27.021) Yeah, that's key. That's key. And you you described just like any other business, right? I think that's kind of where people get themselves into trouble. That sometimes they get sold the dream that is truly passive. And eventually it can be. I mean, you're talking about an hour a week. To me, that's pretty damn passive, right? But you know, upfront, you you've got to learn the business. You've got to know what you're getting yourself into. Like you said, you've got to learn before you delegate so that you know what you're delegating.   There is going to be some upfront work and then as you're able to kind of delegate and learn Then you can make it more and more passive as you go   Mike (22:00.88) Yeah, I mean, it's no different than what's the same when people tell you that they're busy. I mean, you're just not a priority. Like that's a fact. you're not. People say it's the same thing when people come to me and they're like, I'm so busy. It's like, okay, well let me, let me see your schedule. Where are you spending your time? You know, it's like when people are like, I can't lose weight. Okay, well let me see your food log. What did you eat yesterday? Did you have ice cream? Like this is like the same kind of thing. That's where passive I think has been really abused.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:16.097) Yeah. Yep.   Mike (22:29.638) To me, the bigger issue is like, vending is not get rich quick. And so like, if you're expecting to leave your nine to five tomorrow and vending is going to make up for that in one day, like that's not going to   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:41.089) Right, Makes sense. Speaking of passive, do you raise capital or do you have any kind of a fund or have you put together a fund for something like this?   Mike (22:51.48) We haven't put together a fun, we're definitely buying routes is definitely becoming more and more intriguing. And I know there's some PE players starting to get into the vending game, but it's something we've been definitely considering and on our radar of do we want to.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:58.541) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:10.231) Gotcha. Cool. I mean, you brought in money partners for some of those routes yet, or is that still something you're exploring too?   Mike (23:18.168) No, I think it's just something we're thinking about. mean, what do you recommend?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:21.089) Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd recommend I mean, it depends, right? Like I'm I'm scared to turn you by trade, but I don't like to say you should always raise capital no matter what. Right. Like you've been able to scale your business as you have and grown it to where it is without bringing outside capital. It sounds which is great because you own 100 percent or with whatever business partners you might have. You know, when you start raising capital, you're giving a large chunk of that piece away, not necessarily your whole company. But if you're buying   you know, a set of routes or that sort of thing. You you're gonna give a big piece away to those past investors if you're starting a fund or even if it's up. Even a single asset syndication here for one of these, you know, these routes, you could put it together that way. You know, it's just something to consider. But a lot of times when people are looking to scale fast, right, if they wanna grow exponentially, you've gotta use other people's money to get there or hit the lottery.   Mike (24:08.294) Mm.   Mike (24:15.856) Absolutely, no, agree. That's spot-on and I actually before you know the Silicon Valley company That I was part of we had a we went through probably series a B C D C ground   Let's just say we weren't very fiscally responsible. So I come from the, you know, it's like the ex-girlfriend example. I don't want to just start taking everyone's money.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (24:42.413) Yeah, yeah, that tends to happen with some startups, right? Like before you get funding, you're super frugal because it's your money and every single dollar counts. And you're like, I don't want to pay, you if it's software, you don't want to pay the software engineers. I'm going to out, you know, put it, you know, hire Indian engineers, that sort of thing. And then once you get a few million bucks that you raised in that seed round, then it just goes and you're like, whoa, wait a minute, let's hire 20 people. You know, it's you got to be careful about that.   Mike (25:05.606) Yeah   Yeah, yeah, that's a great, great take on it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:11.245) Yeah, it's, yeah. It's a question I love to ask and I think it's about time for that. So, in a parallel universe, tell me about a different version of you. So a different but likely version, right? Like, for example, for me, I went to med school for a year and a half and then I dropped out and I ended up becoming an attorney. So that was like a big turning point, right? So I could have easily at some point just said screw it and became a doctor and that would have been a totally different route than I'm going down right now.   What's an example of something like that for you?   Mike (25:42.524) Wait, are you being serious about that? I took the MCAT too. I got into med school and then I, yeah, I was pretty mad in school. And then the more I learned about exercise science, I was like, organic chemistry is not fun.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:44.321) Yeah, totally.   yeah? There you go.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:57.39) It is not fun. I did not love that. I majored in exercise physiology and then I ended up switching to biology because it was just a little bit of an easier route to get my degree and go into med school and I went for a year and a half and then I dropped out because I absolutely hated it. I knew I didn't want to do it. I was just more attracted to business and that sort of thing.   Mike (26:16.346) Yeah, that's crazy. That's awesome. parallel universe. I, that's a really good question. I don't know. I, kinda, I have two kids under three and the other side of me wishes I would have traveled more.   you know, I mean, we'll get there hopefully when they get out of high school and someday. But right now I just think there's so many different cultural things and ways to skin the cat. And it's just fascinating to learn some of those things.   Mike (26:55.352) yourself in those cultures.   go to different cultures and really like understand how they did things for a time, a period of time to really just learn their thinking.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:07.777) Yeah, I love that man. I had a similar experience of what you're describing. I didn't travel abroad really other than like, you know, Canada and Mexico until I studied abroad in Barcelona during law school and I got to stay there for a couple of months. So you actually had some time. It wasn't like you're just visiting for a week or a weekend or anything like that. You got to kind of live there right for a couple of months and it just totally changed my, you know, my outlook on life and just the way that you see things like I feel like we're in the US and we just think   Mike (27:19.627) Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:37.76) US is number one and there's only one way to do things the way that we do things that kind of attitude. And then when you go to Western Europe and you see that culture and you drive or get on a train, it's like an hour away and you're in a totally different culture and they're doing it a certain way as well and it's working. You just see that other people are doing things differently and still being successful at it, still having a thriving culture and it's just awesome to see.   Mike (28:03.312) Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (28:06.251) Yeah. Tell me about some major influences in your life. What turned you or got you into that, the vending business? It's not one of those typical things. mean, I know you're in the education business, so you're kind of really spreading the word about this type of business. But I would say when you started, there might not have been a mastermind or educational courses around this. mean, how did you kind of get drawn into that? Were there any particular people or influences that brought you in?   Mike (28:29.308) you   Mike (28:36.188) Yeah. So the, biggest influence for me to get into vending, uh, wasn't actually a person. It was actually, was, um, I had landed, I was coming back from the Pentagon from a trip back to the Bay for the startup we were talking about. And I was in the Denver airport and 11 PM, you know, our flight was delayed. And then they're like, Hey, you have to stay in the airport tonight. The pilot went over their hours for the day, blah, blah, blah. So I went to a vending machine and I remember buying a bottle of water.   I think it costs like at the time three bucks or something. I knew that bottle of water cost 20 cents at Costco. And I was like, there is someone that's at home with their kids right now making money off me and they're not even at this mission. Like the machine is doing the work. So I had like an aha moment of like, what are my true priorities in life? And like, why am I chasing this cutthroat startup from.   Palo Alto and trying to make it when reality was my priorities are freedom to spend more time with my family. So that's really kind of what led me into this path of starting a vending machine side hustle to keep our lifestyle as we had kids. We wanted to have a nanny and we wanted to be able to still go on dates and things like that as a couple with my wife. So that's really kind of my family and just like...   having the freedom to do things. Like that's what I'm really passionate about.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (29:59.084) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, building on that, and you may have already answered that, but what does success look like for you?   Mike (30:01.766) next   Mike (30:06.268) an empty calendar.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:08.621) Good luck with that. Good luck with that.   Mike (30:11.516) Oh man, I was gonna say, how do we crack that code? No, yeah. No, but I think success to me is doing things like picking up my daughter at three and even being able to say no to the things that aren't gonna get you to where you need, like the discipline piece of this too.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:15.708) man.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:33.995) Yeah, yeah, mean, you know, for me, it's kind of similar, right? It's not going to be able to empty that calendar. Not yet, at least maybe here in the future. But for now, it's pretty filled. But it is it's flexible, right? Like us as entrepreneurs, you know, we probably work more than we ever worked when we were in our W-2s. But at the same time, it's you know, we're working in our own business for ourselves, for our families. And we have the   Flexibility, a lot of people will say the freedom, right? But we have the flexibility to move things around. And if you want to pick your kids up at school at three, or you do want to take a weekend off, or something comes up in your schedule, you have the flexibility to do that. Whereas if you're kind of slaving away at the nine to five, you can't really do it.   Mike (31:04.486) Yeah. Yeah.   Mike (31:20.198) Yeah, that's spot on. mean, I just wrote that down, but flexibility is, cause you're right. When you started becoming an entrepreneur, this is what I tell people all the time when they want to get a venting around is like running your own business. You are going to work harder than you do for your boss currently at your W-2. Like you have to do payroll. You have to do, like you gotta like make sure there's money to actually do pay, you know, like all those things that you just don't even think about when you have a W-2. It's like, today's   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:39.543) Yeah   Mike (31:48.89) You know, this Friday I get paid. Well, when you run a business, mean, that money's got to come from somewhere.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:51.905) Yeah   Right, yeah, 100%, man, 100%. All right, Mike, we're gonna wrap it up. Thanks so much for coming on the show. Tell the listeners where they can find out more about you.   Mike (32:05.286) Yeah, so thanks for having me. This has been great. I have free content all over the place. can find me on the classic Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, but I also have vendingpreneurs.com is where we help people that are more interested in actually the vending stuff. But I've been really trying to double down on YouTube lately because there's just a lot of content and you can't get it off a one minute reel.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:32.417) Love it, man. All right, Mike, appreciate it. Thanks for coming on the show.   Mike (32:35.91) Thanks for having me.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:37.227) Hi brother. Alright man, got a couple more questions for you. We do like a quick, kind of do the full podcast episode and then I'll just do kind of a quick episode that'll follow up on a Monday and then another one on a Friday. Cool.   Mike (32:55.814) See you.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:59.693) We out here.   Welcome to Million Dollar Mondays, how to make, keep, and scale a million dollars. Mike is a super successful entrepreneur in the vending machine business and beyond. Tell us, how did you make your first million dollars?   Mike (33:20.922) Yeah, Seth. It was probably actually through real estate and just getting a little bit kind of lucky with timing with COVID and short-term rentals and some of that. But yeah, that's probably how I got the first million.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:25.229) Mm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:37.079) Gotcha, cool. Yeah, real estate usually plays a role in the everybody's strategy down the line, whether they're in that primary business or not, whether they start out there or they end up there, real estate usually plays a part. How'd you make your last million?   Mike (33:53.956) Yeah, that's a good question because it's completely different than real estate, but it's actually been vending machines. So that's been kind of fun. just, you you talk about product market fit whenever you're an entrepreneur with a business. And that was just kind of the perfect storm right now of traditional vending really kind of being outdated. And we found a product market fit with it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:57.57) Right. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:16.215) Gotcha. Cool. that was from, was this maybe mostly attributed to kind of buying those routes, those larger routes?   Mike (34:23.32) Exactly. Yeah. Buying old school routes and really kind of flipping them like a house with modern micro markets charging, with different products and what would fit in a vending machine, like more of the unorthodox, you know, toilet paper and tide pods and things that wouldn't fit in a traditional vending machine. I mean, we'll sell $35 bottles of shampoo in these micro markets. So just kind of, go and add it in a different way.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:49.857) Yeah, and then with the aging population, there's gotta be more and more of these things popping up. So there should be more opportunity for people to get involved or for people like yourself to just snag everything, right?   Mike (35:01.102) Yeah, I think there's no chance I could snag everything, not even just in this town alone that I'm currently in. I mean, machines are getting cheaper, the technology is getting way better with AI. And nowadays, it's not what fits in a vending machine motor. It's okay, what's shelf space? if it's a bottle of shampoo or a glass Coke, it doesn't matter because it's not just getting thrown down the chute of a traditional machine.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:05.387) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:27.521) Makes sense, makes sense. Last, how are you planning on making your next million dollars?   Mike (35:34.3) I think probably with AI, we're doing a lot of interesting stuff with helping people scale their, their vending routes. that is applicable to any, small business. And so I'm really intrigued. Just every time I go down a rabbit hole with some new AI tool, I feel like there's another better one that just came right behind it. So I just think it's kind of that time where you can really get ahead by just learning.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:06.209) Yeah, totally makes sense. mean people that are not paying attention to AI whether it's simply using chat GPT instead of Google search are getting left behind quickly because it's just advancing so fast. I can't even imagine what this world's gonna look like five years from now the way that things are moving.   Mike (36:23.132) It's crazy. Three years ago when I was working for a tech company selling software into the government, I would have to work with three secretaries to schedule a meeting with the general to sell their software. Now my EA is literally an AI bot and everyone that's scheduling time on my calendar, they don't even know they're talking to a non-human, which is pretty   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:43.479) Yeah, 100%. We're gonna, I predicted within five years, everybody's gonna have a humanoid robot in their home with AI instilled and they're gonna be doing physical things for us at our homes. Yeah. Yep. Yep. 100%. Awesome, All right, moving on to the next one.   Mike (36:50.181) Yeah!   Mike (36:57.917) I hope so. I hope they can go to Costco get all our groceries do our do our laundry The dishes   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:11.501) You're clearly in the top 1 % of what you do, Mike. What is it about you that separates you from the rest of the field?   Mike (37:19.056) Ooh, that's a good question, Seth. I think it's just discipline, know, discipline and focus. One of the hardest things is being able to say no with the things that don't align. And when I was growing up, I had a quote that has really stuck with me. That's like, it's better to be respected than liked. And I think that really resonates. Like naturally as a human, you want to be liked and help people, but the 1 % are really good at saying no.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:47.649) Yeah, I love that man. That's a great answer. Kind of building on that, what do you think the number one attribute is that makes a successful entrepreneur?   Mike (37:57.468) probably focus. Yeah. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:59.212) Yeah, focus. Yep. The one thing, right? The one thing.   Mike (38:04.186) Yep. That's why you come back to like the most successful entrepreneurs. They always niche down and they niche down because they just, got hyper-focused. Like this is kind of why for me, you know, I started this passive Mr. Passive on social media before I even got into Vendi. Well, now everyone's like, well, how passive is Vendi? And well, it's like, what's really interesting is I was posting all these different, what I thought passive income streams in the time, but everyone, 95 % of the questions I got about   Airbnbs are all my different investments was about bending. So I just niche down on, on bending and I just looked back on that and I was like, it really forced me to focus.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (38:43.263) Awesome, awesome. What's one thing someone could do today to get 1 % closer to success in the vending machine business if they are really interested in learning more?   Mike (38:53.892) tap into your connections and find a location that has high foot traffic, whether that's a friend that works at an urgent care, a sister that lives at an apartment. You know, you take your kid to that gymnastics studio that has a ton of foot traffic between 4 PM and 8 PM. Like all those locations are prime locations to put one of these modern smart machines in. so, tapping into your connections, well, you know,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:24.567) Love that man. Awesome. All right, Mike, I appreciate it, brother. We'll to meet in person sometime,   Mike (39:30.574) I would love to. Where are you based, Seth?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:31.789) I'm in San Diego, where you at?   Mike (39:34.78) I am in Eugene. Yeah, Oregon. I'll come down your way though.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:37.39) Cool We're planning on doing yeah, we're planning on doing so me and my wife we have a Sprinter van and Last May we did we did going back to the flexibility piece, right? We did 32 days in the van up through Wyoming Montana and then into like Into Canada and they're like Banff and Jasper and all the way up to Jasper and then we circled back on the west coast Through Vancouver and then down back to San Diego Yeah   Mike (40:05.52) What?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:06.829) Pretty wild, pretty awesome. And the reason I brought that up is this year we're gonna do shorter trip. We're probably gonna do two, maybe three weeks at the most, but we're gonna do kind of the Pacific Northwest. So Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver and all those parks and stuff up there.   Mike (40:17.254) Yeah.   Mike (40:21.744) Yeah, you definitely have a, have you been to Bend before? Bend is like my, that whole area, Central Oregon is, and even Idaho, like all those kind of, yeah. That's awesome. Please let me know when you're up this way. I mean, I'll come meet you wherever. That'd be amazing. Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:24.641) Yeah, yeah I have.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:38.861) Sure man grab a coffee or beer. I appreciate it. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah all right brother great to meet you and I will send the information on when this is gonna get released and give you you materials and all that stuff so we can collaborate on social media   Mike (40:51.964) Okay. Okay. Yeah. Is a lot of your audience, like passive investors?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:58.593) So most of that, so now I'm rebranding. I rebranded because I'm gonna be speaking more towards like active entrepreneurs, Active entrepreneurs, people raising capital, that sort of thing. Whereas before it was based on passive investors and people really focused on attorneys. So I'm an attorney and I was raising capital from attorneys for my real estate deals. Now I'm really more into selling shovels. I'm scaling my law firm. I'm chief legal officer for Tribest, which is, we've got a fund to fund.   Mike (41:20.262) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:28.085) legal product there as well. So we're really trying to bring in active, active entrepreneurs and people raising capital.   Mike (41:29.777) Yeah.   Mike (41:36.572) Okay, because I got that, I was just thinking through when we talking about that oil development project, that could be a good, the guy that runs that fund could be a good interview for you. Just thinking through your audience, because he's always looking for investors into his fund and like these oil lubs are just crushing it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:49.901) Cool. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:58.464) Yeah, cool. Who is it? Just, I don't know if I know him or not.   Mike (42:02.183) Um, Robert Durkey, he's out of Florida. has, his problem is he's sitting on a gold mine that has no, like he's old school, doesn't know social media, any of that. So that's why I think he'd be perfect for you. Cause I think you could help him and he could definitely help you with some kickback. Yeah. So cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully we meet soon. Okay. See you Seth. Bye.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:05.645) I don't think I know. I don't think I know.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:13.889) Yeah. Gotcha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:20.705) Cool, okay, sounds good man. Yeah, I appreciate the introduction.   Yeah, all right brother. Talk soon. See ya. Links from the Show and Guest Info and Links: Seth Bradley's Links: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq?lang=en Mike Hoffman's Links: https://www.instagram.com/mikehoffmannofficial/ https://x.com/mrpassive_?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedhoffmann/ https://www.tiktok.com/@mr.passive

In this episode of, “Your Voice. Your Health”, we take a closer look at step therapy but this time through a financial lens. I sat down with Monica Bryant, Esq., Chief Mission Officer of Triage Cancer, to talk about how step therapy can create unexpected financial obstacles—from rising co-pays and delayed treatment to challenges with insurance coverage and staying employed during treatment in  your health plans, navigating appeals, and accessing financial aid. She also shares practical tips for choosing insurance plans, minimizing out-of-pocket costs, and using tools like Triage Cancer's new health insurance comparison calculator to make informed, cost-conscious decisions. If you or a loved one is facing treatment delays or financial stress related to step therapy, this episode offers clear, actionable guidance to help you take control. Special thanks to Amgen and Daiichi-Sankyo for making this episode possible.  

Steve Palmer sits down with Troy Hendrickson, our resident law student, for a deep dive into what law school doesn't always teach you—this time, focusing on the mysterious world of grand juries. They break down what a grand jury is, the differences between grand and trial (petit) juries, and why the standard of proof is much lower at the indictment stage than at trial.Steve and Troy use the recent Epstein case as a jumping-off point, discussing the secrecy surrounding grand jury proceedings, why those records are generally kept under wraps, and who gets to peek behind the curtain (hint: it's a very short list). They unpack the legal and historical reasons for keeping grand jury information confidential, the ongoing court battles about whether transcripts should be released for so-called 'public interest' reasons, and the potential for the Supreme Court to settle this debate once and for all.Plus, the conversation veers into attorney-client privilege, conspiracy theories about the Epstein case, and how high-profile cases influence the direction of legal rules. And, as always, they share their thoughts on what law school could do better—hint: more real-life cases, less rote memorization.Moments00:00 Probable Cause and Legal Standards03:19 Grand Jury Process Explained06:44 Memory Lapses in Consent Cases12:47 Judge Denies Release of Transcripts15:44 National Injunctions and Judicial Authority19:11 SCOTUS on Judicial Authority Limits21:35 Epstein's Suicide Theories Discussed25:48 Nixon, Pentagon Papers, Legal Precedents28:12 Beyond Law School DiscussionsHere are three key takeaways:Grand Jury Process Is Often Misunderstood: Many people—even in law school—mistake the role of a grand jury. Unlike the trial jury (“petit jury”), the grand jury's only job is to decide if there's enough evidence (probable cause) to indict, not to convict. Defense attorneys are usually kept in the dark and rarely present evidence or have the right to transcripts.Grand Jury Testimony Is Highly Confidential: The secrecy rules are strict—defense can only access transcripts upon showing a “particularized need.” The rationale goes back to witness safety, protection of ongoing investigations, and safeguarding victim identities—concerns that remain deeply relevant today.Legal Precedents Shape Access—Not Public Interest: While there's massive public interest around cases like Epstein, courts have repeatedly ruled that historical or public curiosity is not enough to override the secrecy of grand jury proceedings. Real reform, if any, must come from Congress, not the courts.Submit your questions to www.lawyertalkpodcast.com.Recorded at Channel 511.Stephen E. Palmer, Esq. has been practicing criminal defense almost exclusively since 1995. He has represented people in federal, state, and local courts in Ohio and elsewhere.Though he focuses on all areas of criminal defense, he particularly enjoys complex cases in state and federal courts.He has unique experience handling and assembling top defense teams of attorneys and experts in cases involving allegations of child abuse (false sexual allegations, false physical abuse allegations), complex scientific cases involving allegations of DUI and vehicular homicide cases with blood alcohol tests, and any other criminal cases that demand jury trial experience.Steve has unique experience handling numerous high publicity cases that have garnered national attention.For more information about Steve and his law firm,...

Recorded live at San Diego Comic Con on July 24, 2025, our Jurassic Park panel! Law finds a way….for amusement parks with dinosaurs to be liable for employee safety, injuring guests, and invasive species. Can dinosaur DNA be patented? Could Jurassic Park be insured? Would parents sue for children left at a youth camp to fend for themselves against dinosaurs? Could injured guests sue as a class action? Join our panel featuring Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman, Magistrate Judge Stan Boone, Kathy Steinman, Christine Peek, Stephen Tollafield, and Micheal Dennis for their analysis of Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, and Camp Cretaceous. Moderated by Joshua Gilliland, Esq. Presented by The Legal Geeks. Room: Grand 12 & 13, Marriott Marquis San Diego MarinaSupport the showNo part of this recording should be considered legal advice.Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok @TheLegalGeeks

Most physician owners of concierge medicine practices do not have experience going through a practice sale or major partnership transaction -- here are some helpful and practical recommendations to consider.   By  Dana Jacoby and Gary Herschman[1]   Over the last several years there has been a growing trend of consolidation and partnership transactions involving concierge medicine practices.[2]   Download this article as a PDF LISTEN TO OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW (Podcast)   The purpose of this article is both: (A) to educate concierge medicine physicians on why concierge medicine practices have been transacting with increasing frequency; and (B) to provide practical recommendations for owners of concierge medicine practices who are exploring the possibility of entering into such a transaction.   Why Are There So Many Concierge Medicine Practice Transactions?   We hope that these practical recommendations are helpful both: (i) if you decide to explore the universe of potential strategic options that may be available for your practice, and (ii) in the event that you decide to pursue a partnership transaction to achieve your long-term professional and financial goals and for your practice's long-term success.   Citations and References [1] Dana Jacoby is the Founder and President/CEO of Vector Medical Group, a strategic healthcare consulting firm that advises concierge medicine practices across the country on improving operations and profitability, and the pros and cons of various strategic transactions.  Dana's email is: djacoby@vectormedicalgroup.com. Gary Herschman, Esq. has been advising physicians on strategic positioning and major transactions for over 30 years and is the Co-Chair of the Health Care Transactions Group at the national healthcare firm of Baker Donelson.  He represents many concierge medicine groups on growth strategies and strategic partnership and sale transactions.  Gary's email is:  gherschman@bakerdonelson.com [2] Concierge Medicine Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2020-2030F [3] Hospitals cash in on a private equity-backed trend: Concierge physician care - ABC News   Disclaimers: THIS SITE AND ANY OTHER CMT MANAGED OR OWNED WEB PROPERTY by Concierge Medicine Today, LLC (herein CMT) DOES NOT OFFER MEDICAL, FINANCIAL, LEGAL, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. ERRORS OR OMISSIONS MAY OCCUR ON THIS SITE. The content is primarily designed for general informational purposes, targeting a healthcare professional audience. Any references, links, or interviews should not be construed as endorsements. CMT is not responsible for errors, omissions, statements, conduct, or claims related to guest posts, op-eds, podcasts, press releases, sponsored job listings, or advertised opportunities. Typically, CMT will strive to remove job listings that are older than four months, but this is not guaranteed. Always consult with reliable advisors before acting on the information you find here. By using our web properties, content, events, etc., in whole or in part, you agree to comply with the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy found here, releasing Concierge Medicine Today, LLC (CMT) from all liability. Additional terms may be applicable. CMT retains the right to remove any content, images, interviews, graphics, job listings, and similar materials at its discretion at any time, without notice and without liability. Thank you.

Title: How to Make Millions with Vending Machines with Mike Hoffman Summary: In this conversation, Seth Bradley and Mike Hoffman delve into the world of vending machines as a business opportunity. Mike shares his journey from a Midwest farm boy to a successful entrepreneur in the vending industry, highlighting the evolution of vending technology and the potential for passive income. They discuss the importance of location, understanding demographics, and the scalability of vending routes. Mike emphasizes the need for upfront work and learning before delegating tasks, while also addressing the misconceptions surrounding passive income in the vending business. In this conversation, Seth Bradley and Mike discuss various aspects of entrepreneurship, particularly in the vending machine business. They explore the importance of capital raising, the journey of self-discovery, influences that shape business decisions, and the definition of success. The dialogue emphasizes the significance of flexibility, discipline, and focus in achieving entrepreneurial goals, while also touching on financial milestones and the attributes that distinguish successful entrepreneurs. Links to Watch and Subscribe:   Bullet Point Highlights: Mike's journey from a classic Midwest farm boy to a successful entrepreneur. The evolution of vending machines from traditional to smart technology. Understanding the importance of location in the vending business. The analogy of baseball levels to describe starting in vending. Scaling up from single A to big leagues in vending routes. The significance of demographics in product selection for vending machines. The potential for passive income with proper systems in place. The need for upfront work before achieving passivity in business. Vending is not a get-rich-quick scheme; it requires dedication. The future opportunities in the vending industry are expanding rapidly. Raising capital can dilute ownership but may be necessary for rapid growth. Self-discovery often leads to unexpected career paths. Influences in business can come from personal experiences rather than just mentors. Success is often defined by the ability to prioritize family and flexibility. Entrepreneurs work harder than in traditional jobs but gain flexibility. Discipline is crucial for saying no to distractions. Successful entrepreneurs often focus on niche markets. High foot traffic locations are ideal for vending machines. AI is transforming business operations and efficiency. Networking and connections can lead to valuable opportunities. Transcript: Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:04.898) Mike, what's going on buddy? Doing great brother, doing great. How about you?   Mike (00:06.748) Don't worry,   Mike (00:11.664) Good, I'm a little flustered. I usually have my mic set up over here, but I guess we just moved and it's not here today. I guess, yeah, new office and it's been a whole hot mess.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:19.822) New office or what?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:27.862) Nice man, nice. I see you got the whiteboard cranking back there. Love to see that.   Mike (00:33.114) Always. I love your background. That's sweet.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:38.03) Thanks man, yeah, I'm on camera all the time so I like I need to just build this out instead of using like a green screen so Made the investment made it happen   Mike (00:44.86) Totally.   Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:49.442) Have we met in person or not? I don't know if we've met at a Wealth Without Wall Street event or I couldn't tell. Okay. No, I did not go to Nashville last year.   Mike (00:58.478) I don't think so. don't think you're... Were you in Nashville last year?   Mike (01:04.634) No, okay. No, I don't think we've met in person. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:08.256) Okay, all good, man. All good. Well, cool. I'll just go over the format real quick. We'll do kind of a shorter recording. We're do like 30 minutes, something like in that range. And then we'll just kind of like break. And then I'll, want to record a couple of other quick segments where I call it Million Dollar Monday. I'm kind of asking you about how you made your first, last and next million. And then 1 % closer, which would just be kind of what separates you, what makes you the   top 1 % in your particular vertical. So we'll just kind of record those separately. Those will be real short, like five minutes or so.   Mike (01:44.924) Okay, yeah, I'll follow your lead. All good.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:47.15) Cool. Cool. Let's see. I think I already have this auto recording. So we're already recording. So I'll just jump right in.   Mike (01:55.377) Okay.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:57.782) Welcome to Raise the Bar Radio, hosted by yours truly Seth Bradley. We today we've got Mr. Passive, Mike Hoffman. Mike, welcome to the show.   Mike (02:08.189) Thank you for having me fired up to be here.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:10.855) Absolutely man, really happy to have you on. I know it's been a little bit of a trek here to get our schedules lined up, but really stoked to have you on today, man. I see you said you moved into a new office. You've got the whiteboard cranking, so love to see it.   Mike (02:25.372) yeah, whiteboards are the only place I can get my thoughts down.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:29.399) Yeah, man, it makes a difference when you actually write something rather than type it or even on a mirror board where you're doing it online. just there's something about physically writing something down.   Mike (02:41.328) You know, I'm glad you said that because yesterday I flipped to Seattle for a quick work trip and I didn't have wifi and I literally had three pages of just, I, was so like the clarity of some of these kinds of bigger visions I have now from just being able to write for an hour on a flight was, I was like, man, I gotta do this more often.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:00.363) Yeah, for sure. The key though is once you write it down, it just doesn't go into the trash or into a black hole somewhere where you never see it again. So that's kind of the disadvantage there. If you have it on your computer and you're taking notes or you have it on a mirror board, at least it's there to reference all the time. If you write it down on paper, sometimes, I've got my Raze Masters book right here for notes, but it's like, it might go into the abyss and I'll never look at it again. So you gotta be careful about that.   Mike (03:27.184) Yeah, yeah, I need to check out the Miro boards. I've heard a lot of good things about them.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:31.467) Yeah, yeah. Awesome, Mike. Well, listen, for our audience who doesn't know anything about you, maybe just tell them, you know, tell them a little bit about your background. Tell them about your your main business and we can take it from there.   Mike (03:43.354) Yeah. So I think for those that don't know about me, I'm a classic Midwest farm boy started with a classic, you know, showing cattle at the county fair and all of that and had a lemonade stand growing up. And then my first job was actually at McDonald's, you know, thinking about the whole success of that business model. But when I was coaching and, out of college, I got my first rental and I was like, wow, this is crazy. making money without.   really much time involved. and then with my work in Silicon Valley, know, Seth, was classic Silicon Valley, you know, cutthroat job that, startup life and traveling three weeks out of the month. And I was on, I was in airports all the time. And was like, these vending machines I would run into at airports were just so archaic. And so I went down this path of like unattended retail and kind of the future of, of that. And that's really where I just see a huge opportunity right now.   And so it's kind of what led me into all these different income streams that I'm passionate about.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:49.431) That's awesome, man. Well, let's dive into that a little bit deeper. me about these income streams. It centers around vending machines, right? But I'm sure there's a lot more to it. I'm sure there's a lot of different entry points for people. Maybe just kind of give us a general synopsis to start out.   Mike (05:06.78) Yeah, so I think the big thing with, you know, if we're talking vending specifically as an income stream, you know, most people think of vending as the traditional machines where you enter in a code, you put your card on the machine and then a motor spirals down a Snickers bar or a soda and you go into the chute and grab it.   Nowadays, there's these smart machines that literally you just unlock the door, or even if you go into, land in the Vegas airport right at the bottom of the escalator where it says, welcome to Las Vegas, there's a 7-Eleven with gates and AI cameras, and there's no employees in the 7-Eleven. And it just tracks whatever you grab and to exit the gate, you have to pay for it. So like, there's just this huge market now where we just installed it in urgent care.   less than two months ago and we can do over the counter meds in that machine because it doesn't have to fit into a motor. It's just shelf space. You identify with the planogram with the AI cameras like, okay, Dayquil in this slot or Salad in this slot and then whatever they grab, gets charged to the person that pulls it from it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (06:15.469) That's interesting, man. Yeah, I mean, my initial thought too, was just like the traditional old vending machine where you're getting a candy bar or a cola out of there. But yeah, nowadays, now that you mentioned that, you see this more and more every single day where you've got these scanners, you've got kind of self-checkout, that sort of thing. So that's kind of, that expands that world and really opens it up to the future, right? Like it just really, that's what we're trying to get to, or at least we think we wanna get there, where we're kind of removing humans and...   kind of working with technologies and things like that.   Mike (06:49.488) Yeah, and I think, you know, removing the whole human thing. mean, those machines still got to get stocked and you know, there's not robots running around doing that. But I just come back to, I was a Marriott guy when I was on the road all the time and I'd go to these grab and goes at a Marriott and grab a, the end of the night, I'd grab like a little wine or an ice cream sandwich. And I literally had to go wait in line at the check-in desk behind three people checking in just to tell them, Hey, put these on.   room charge and I was like if I had a checkout kiosk in that grab-and-go I could have just removed all the friction for this customer experience.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:27.772) Right, 100%. Yeah, I mean, there's a place and time for it and there's more and more applications for it that just pop up every single day and you can kind of spot that in your life as you're just kind of moving through, whether you're checking into your hotel or whatever you're doing.   Mike (07:41.456) Yeah, yeah. So that's just kind of what excites me today.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:45.973) Yeah, yeah, so when a stranger asks you what you do just in the street, what do you tell them? Because I have a hard time answering that question sometimes too, but I'd love to hear what your answer is.   Mike (07:56.804) Yeah, I would just say it depends on the day. You know, what do you do or what's your, you know, it's like at the golf course when you get paired up with a stranger and they're like, tell me about what you do for your career. And I just say, I'm a classic entrepreneur. And then I'm like, well, what do you do? And it's like, well, tell me about the day. You know, what fire are you putting out? Like today we just got the go ahead for five more urgent cares for our local route. But then, you know, we have a community of operators across the country that we help really build.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:57.933) haha   Ha ha ha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:09.879) Yeah. Yeah.   Mike (08:25.616) Vending empires and so we had a group call this morning. So literally, there's a lot of just, you know, it's classic entrepreneurial life. You never know what the day's script is gonna be.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (08:36.161) Yeah, for sure. And you focus a lot on not only on your own business, but also teaching others, right? Teaching others how to kind of break into this business.   Mike (08:45.402) Yeah, that's my passion, Seth. When I got into my first investment out of college was a $70,000 rental, you know, putting 20 % down or 14K and using an emergency fund. like my background in going to college was as a coach. like I knew I wanted to kind of take that mindset of like coaching people, you know, teach them how to fish. I don't want to catch all the fish myself. It's just not fulfilling that way. So that's really where my passion is.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (09:15.373) Gotcha, gotcha. tell me about like, tell me about step one. I mean, how does somebody break into this business? Obviously your own personal business is probably very advanced. There's probably a lot more sophisticated investing strategies at this point and you've got different layers to it. But somebody just kind of starting out that said, hey, this sounds pretty interesting. This vending machine business sounds like it can be passive. How do you recommend that they get started?   Mike (09:40.57) Yeah, so I'm always, I view like the whole vending scale as similar to Major League Baseball. You got your single A all the way up to the big leagues. And if you're just starting out, I always recommend like find a location where you can put a machine and just learn the process. Like to me, that's single A analogy. you know, that always starts with, people want to jump right to like, well, what type of machines do you recommend?   products, how do you price products? And the first question I'll always ask Seth is, well, what location is this machine going in? And they're like, well, I don't know yet. I was just going to buy one and put it in my garage to start. And it's like, no, you need to have the location first. So understanding that, is it a pet hospital? Is it an apartment? Is it a gym? Where is the foot traffic? And then you can cater to what's the best machine for that type of location.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (10:36.887) Got it, got it. Now is this a kind of a rent, you rent the space to place the machine with that particular business or wherever you're gonna place it or how does that all come together?   Mike (10:47.644) not typically, some people are kind of more advanced, like apartment complexes are used to the revenue share model. So they're going to ask for a piece of the pie for sure, for you to put the machine in their lobby. but like, you know, when we're talking urgent carers or even pet hospitals are viewing it as an amenity. And so we probably have, I don't even know how many machines now 75 now, and we, you know, less than half of those actually,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (10:50.423) Okay.   Mike (11:15.1) us rent or ask for a revenue share to have them in there. So I never leave lead with that, but we'll do it if we need to get the location.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (11:23.989) Interesting gotcha. So it's really a value add for wherever you're gonna place it and that's how most people or I guess most businesses would look at that and then you're able to capture that that space   Mike (11:27.366) Mm-hmm.   Mike (11:34.236) Yeah, absolutely. So, um, a great case study is we have a 25 employee roughing business here in Oregon. And you might think like, only 25 employees. It's not going to make that much money. Well, we do $1,200 a month. And the cool thing about this, Seth, is the CEO of this roughing company literally did napkin math on how much it costs for his employees to drive to the gas station during their 20 minute break. And then   How much they're paying for an energy drink at the gas station and then how much gas they're using with the roofing like the work trucks to get to and from the gas station So he's like I want to bring a smart machine into our warehouse Set the prices as half off so that four dollar monster only costs his rofers two dollars and then we invoice him the the business owner every month for the other 50 % and so he actually   Calculated as a cost savings not asking for money to rent the space   Seth Bradley, Esq. (12:35.597) Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. That makes sense. That makes sense. I love the baseball analogy with the single A, double A, triple A, even into the big leagues here. know, a lot of the folks that listen to this are already kind of, you know, in the big leagues or maybe think about some capital behind them. Like how would they be able to jump right in, maybe skip single or double A or would they, or do you even suggest that? Do you suggest that they start, you know, small just to learn and then maybe invest some more capital into it to expand or can they jump right to the big leagues?   Mike (12:48.891) Yeah.   Yeah.   Mike (13:03.966) I think they can jump right to the big leagues. this is, I'm glad you brought this up because just listening to some of your episodes from the past, there's no doubt that you have people that could buy a route like a off biz buy sell today. And I think this is a prime opportunity. it's very similar to flipping a house. you, you know, there's a route in Chicago, I think it was for $1.1 million, you know, whatever negotiating terms or seller financing or, or what have you, got a lot of, your, your   audience that is experts in that. But the cool thing about these routes is they have the old school machines that have the motors and that are limited to, this type of machine, you can only fit a 12 ounce cannon. Well, guess what? The minute you buy that route, you swap out that machine with one of these micro markets or smart machines. Now you just went from selling a 12 ounce soda for $1.25 to now a 16 ounce monster for $4.50.   Well, you just bought that location based on its current revenue numbers and by swapping out that machine, you're going to two or three acts your revenue just at that location. And so it's truly just like a value play, a value upgrade, like flipping the house of, okay, there's a lot of deals right now of these routes being sold by baby boomers where it's like, they got the old school Pepsi machine. Doesn't have a credit card reader on it. They can't track inventory remotely via their cell phones. So   They're not keeping it stocked. Like all those types of things can really play in your favor as a buyer that just wants to get to the big leagues right away.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (14:37.651) I love that. When you say buy a route, what are you really buying? Tell me about the contractual agreement behind that. What are you really buying there?   Mike (14:47.184) You're just buying the locations and the equipment associated with it. So like this Chicago route, it's like, we have machines in 75 properties all across the Chicago suburbs. And they could be medical clinics. could be apartments. could be employee break rooms at businesses, but that's when you start diving into those locations. It's like, I have a snack machine and a soda machine here. Well, you swap that out with a micro market that now instead of.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (14:49.279) Okay. Okay.   Mike (15:13.626) that machine that'll only hold a small bag of Doritos that you charge two bucks, well now you get the movie size theater bags that you can really put in there in a micro market. Like naturally just that valuation of that route based on those 75 machines current revenue, I mean you're gonna be able to two or three X your revenue right by just swapping out those machines.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (15:35.959) Wow, yeah, I love that analogy with real estate, right? It's just like a value add. It's like, how can I bring in more income from what already exists? Well, I need to upgrade or I need to put in some capital improvements, whatever you want to call it. Here's the vending machine upgrades or a different kind of system in there. And you get more income. And obviously that business in itself is going to be worth more in a higher multiple.   Mike (15:58.396) Absolutely. mean, a great example of this is we had a machine in an apartment complex and it was your traditional machine with the motors and you have to enter in the code. Well, we could only put in four 12 ounce drinks and then chips. Well, we swapped that out with a micro market. Well, now that micro market, we literally put in bags of Tide Pods for laundry, like these big bags of Tide Pods. We'll sell those like hotcakes for 15 bucks. And our old machine,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:25.281) Yeah, let's say those aren't cheap.   Mike (16:27.246) Yeah, our old machine Seth, it would take us to get to 15 bucks, we'd have to sell eight Snickers. That's one transaction.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:33.547) Right, right. Yeah, yeah. How do you do an analysis kind of based on like what you think is gonna sell there, right? Like you're replacing, let's say a Dorito machine with Tide Pods, you know? So you have to individually go to each location and figure out what will work, what will sell.   Mike (16:47.738) Yeah.   Mike (16:51.834) It's all about demographic. Absolutely. So, you know, we have, we have, we have a micro market and a manufacturing plant that's, it's a pumpkin farm and there's a ton of Hispanic workers. So we do a lot of like spicy foods, a lot of spicy chips. do, we do a ton of, mean, the sugar or sorry, the glass bottle cokes. They do, they love their pastries.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:53.431) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (17:06.349) Yeah.   Mike (17:15.868) So we just doubled down on the demographics. So yesterday I was filming at one of our micro markets that's in a gym and they crushed the Fairlife protein shakes, like the more modern protein shakes, but they won't touch muscle milk. So we're literally taking out one row of muscle milk just to add an extra row of Fairlife shakes. So you're constantly just catering to the demographics and what's selling.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (17:40.632) Yeah, yeah, this is awesome. I mean, this is literally just like real estate, right? Like you go and you find a good market. You're talking about demographics, right? Find the market, see what they want, see how much you can upgrade, how you can upgrade. If it's an apartment, it's a unit. If it's here, it's the product that you're selling and the type of machine, or maybe it's a mini market. A lot of things to kind of tie your understanding to here.   Mike (17:45.926) Yeah.   Mike (18:05.904) Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (18:07.615) Yeah, awesome, man. Awesome, Where are you at in your business? Like what, you know, what are the big leagues looking like right now? You know, what are you doing to expand your business, raising the bar in your business?   Mike (18:18.692) Yeah, I'm going after that's a really good question. I'm going after kind of these newer markets and we're kind of past that point of like, okay, let's pilot in this location. For example, that urgent care, we didn't know if it was going to be a good location two months ago when we installed. Well now it's already crushing it. Well, there's six other urgent cares in town and we just got to go ahead on five of those six. So like for me, it's doubling down on our current proof points of where.   okay, we know that manufacturing plant, the pumpkin farm does really well. So let's start getting intros to all their, manufacturers of the products they need to grow pumpkin. know, like we're just doubling down on scaling because now we have the operational blueprint to really just kind of to go after it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:03.917) Gotcha, gotcha. Tell me about how passive this can really be, right? So I used to have, before we switched over to the new brand, Raise the Bar podcast, it was the Passive Income Attorney podcast, right? I was really focused on passive investments, focused on bringing in passive investors into my real estate deals, things like that. And I think that word passive gets thrown around quite a bit, right? And sometimes it's abused because people get into things that are not truly passive.   Mike (19:18.427) Yeah.   Mike (19:28.784) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:33.517) What's your take on that as it relates to the vending business?   Mike (19:38.49) Yeah, so I think as far as with the vending business, there's clearly upfront leg work that needs to be done, whether that's finding locations or any of those things. So I have a route that is here in Oregon, and then we bought a route last year in Illinois and have scaled that route. I spend 30 minutes a week on each route now. that these urgent cares and stuff, like we have an operator that's running the whole route.   Here's the problem, Seth. It's like people are so scared to build systems to ultimately systemize things or they're too cheap to hire help. And I'm the opposite. like, you know, kind of like Dan Martell's buy back your time. Like I have like a leverage calculator and like I constantly think about is this worth my time? Cause as you know, you're busier than me. Like it's so limited.   for me, my routes, I would consider them passive, like one hour a week is, is nothing in my mind. But as far as like, you know, I'm, I'm also a passive investor on, we're building a, an oil loop station in Florida and I sent my money a year ago to, to my, active investor and I haven't talked to him since. Like that's actually truly probably passive now, you know, I'm not doing anything, but there's, there's different levels to that. And I'm a huge believer like.   don't delegate something until you know what you're delegating. So people that want to start with the vending routes, sure, if you want to buy a route that already has an operator, that's one thing. but these, if you're starting a vending route for your kid or for your stay at home wife or whatever, as a side hustle, like get in the weeds and install that first machine. So when you hire help to take over the route, you know what you're delegating.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:09.773) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (21:27.021) Yeah, that's key. That's key. And you you described just like any other business, right? I think that's kind of where people get themselves into trouble. That sometimes they get sold the dream that is truly passive. And eventually it can be. I mean, you're talking about an hour a week. To me, that's pretty damn passive, right? But you know, upfront, you you've got to learn the business. You've got to know what you're getting yourself into. Like you said, you've got to learn before you delegate so that you know what you're delegating.   There is going to be some upfront work and then as you're able to kind of delegate and learn Then you can make it more and more passive as you go   Mike (22:00.88) Yeah, I mean, it's no different than what's the same when people tell you that they're busy. I mean, you're just not a priority. Like that's a fact. you're not. People say it's the same thing when people come to me and they're like, I'm so busy. It's like, okay, well let me, let me see your schedule. Where are you spending your time? You know, it's like when people are like, I can't lose weight. Okay, well let me see your food log. What did you eat yesterday? Did you have ice cream? Like this is like the same kind of thing. That's where passive I think has been really abused.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:16.097) Yeah. Yep.   Mike (22:29.638) To me, the bigger issue is like, vending is not get rich quick. And so like, if you're expecting to leave your nine to five tomorrow and vending is going to make up for that in one day, like that's not going to   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:41.089) Right, Makes sense. Speaking of passive, do you raise capital or do you have any kind of a fund or have you put together a fund for something like this?   Mike (22:51.48) We haven't put together a fun, we're definitely buying routes is definitely becoming more and more intriguing. And I know there's some PE players starting to get into the vending game, but it's something we've been definitely considering and on our radar of do we want to.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (22:58.541) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:10.231) Gotcha. Cool. I mean, you brought in money partners for some of those routes yet, or is that still something you're exploring too?   Mike (23:18.168) No, I think it's just something we're thinking about. mean, what do you recommend?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (23:21.089) Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd recommend I mean, it depends, right? Like I'm I'm scared to turn you by trade, but I don't like to say you should always raise capital no matter what. Right. Like you've been able to scale your business as you have and grown it to where it is without bringing outside capital. It sounds which is great because you own 100 percent or with whatever business partners you might have. You know, when you start raising capital, you're giving a large chunk of that piece away, not necessarily your whole company. But if you're buying   you know, a set of routes or that sort of thing. You you're gonna give a big piece away to those past investors if you're starting a fund or even if it's up. Even a single asset syndication here for one of these, you know, these routes, you could put it together that way. You know, it's just something to consider. But a lot of times when people are looking to scale fast, right, if they wanna grow exponentially, you've gotta use other people's money to get there or hit the lottery.   Mike (24:08.294) Mm.   Mike (24:15.856) Absolutely, no, agree. That's spot-on and I actually before you know the Silicon Valley company That I was part of we had a we went through probably series a B C D C ground   Let's just say we weren't very fiscally responsible. So I come from the, you know, it's like the ex-girlfriend example. I don't want to just start taking everyone's money.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (24:42.413) Yeah, yeah, that tends to happen with some startups, right? Like before you get funding, you're super frugal because it's your money and every single dollar counts. And you're like, I don't want to pay, you if it's software, you don't want to pay the software engineers. I'm going to out, you know, put it, you know, hire Indian engineers, that sort of thing. And then once you get a few million bucks that you raised in that seed round, then it just goes and you're like, whoa, wait a minute, let's hire 20 people. You know, it's you got to be careful about that.   Mike (25:05.606) Yeah   Yeah, yeah, that's a great, great take on it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:11.245) Yeah, it's, yeah. It's a question I love to ask and I think it's about time for that. So, in a parallel universe, tell me about a different version of you. So a different but likely version, right? Like, for example, for me, I went to med school for a year and a half and then I dropped out and I ended up becoming an attorney. So that was like a big turning point, right? So I could have easily at some point just said screw it and became a doctor and that would have been a totally different route than I'm going down right now.   What's an example of something like that for you?   Mike (25:42.524) Wait, are you being serious about that? I took the MCAT too. I got into med school and then I, yeah, I was pretty mad in school. And then the more I learned about exercise science, I was like, organic chemistry is not fun.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:44.321) Yeah, totally.   yeah? There you go.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:57.39) It is not fun. I did not love that. I majored in exercise physiology and then I ended up switching to biology because it was just a little bit of an easier route to get my degree and go into med school and I went for a year and a half and then I dropped out because I absolutely hated it. I knew I didn't want to do it. I was just more attracted to business and that sort of thing.   Mike (26:16.346) Yeah, that's crazy. That's awesome. parallel universe. I, that's a really good question. I don't know. I, kinda, I have two kids under three and the other side of me wishes I would have traveled more.   you know, I mean, we'll get there hopefully when they get out of high school and someday. But right now I just think there's so many different cultural things and ways to skin the cat. And it's just fascinating to learn some of those things.   Mike (26:55.352) yourself in those cultures.   go to different cultures and really like understand how they did things for a time, a period of time to really just learn their thinking.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:07.777) Yeah, I love that man. I had a similar experience of what you're describing. I didn't travel abroad really other than like, you know, Canada and Mexico until I studied abroad in Barcelona during law school and I got to stay there for a couple of months. So you actually had some time. It wasn't like you're just visiting for a week or a weekend or anything like that. You got to kind of live there right for a couple of months and it just totally changed my, you know, my outlook on life and just the way that you see things like I feel like we're in the US and we just think   Mike (27:19.627) Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:37.76) US is number one and there's only one way to do things the way that we do things that kind of attitude. And then when you go to Western Europe and you see that culture and you drive or get on a train, it's like an hour away and you're in a totally different culture and they're doing it a certain way as well and it's working. You just see that other people are doing things differently and still being successful at it, still having a thriving culture and it's just awesome to see.   Mike (28:03.312) Yeah, absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (28:06.251) Yeah. Tell me about some major influences in your life. What turned you or got you into that, the vending business? It's not one of those typical things. mean, I know you're in the education business, so you're kind of really spreading the word about this type of business. But I would say when you started, there might not have been a mastermind or educational courses around this. mean, how did you kind of get drawn into that? Were there any particular people or influences that brought you in?   Mike (28:29.308) you   Mike (28:36.188) Yeah. So the, biggest influence for me to get into vending, uh, wasn't actually a person. It was actually, was, um, I had landed, I was coming back from the Pentagon from a trip back to the Bay for the startup we were talking about. And I was in the Denver airport and 11 PM, you know, our flight was delayed. And then they're like, Hey, you have to stay in the airport tonight. The pilot went over their hours for the day, blah, blah, blah. So I went to a vending machine and I remember buying a bottle of water.   I think it costs like at the time three bucks or something. I knew that bottle of water cost 20 cents at Costco. And I was like, there is someone that's at home with their kids right now making money off me and they're not even at this mission. Like the machine is doing the work. So I had like an aha moment of like, what are my true priorities in life? And like, why am I chasing this cutthroat startup from.   Palo Alto and trying to make it when reality was my priorities are freedom to spend more time with my family. So that's really kind of what led me into this path of starting a vending machine side hustle to keep our lifestyle as we had kids. We wanted to have a nanny and we wanted to be able to still go on dates and things like that as a couple with my wife. So that's really kind of my family and just like...   having the freedom to do things. Like that's what I'm really passionate about.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (29:59.084) Yeah. Yeah. I mean, building on that, and you may have already answered that, but what does success look like for you?   Mike (30:01.766) next   Mike (30:06.268) an empty calendar.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:08.621) Good luck with that. Good luck with that.   Mike (30:11.516) Oh man, I was gonna say, how do we crack that code? No, yeah. No, but I think success to me is doing things like picking up my daughter at three and even being able to say no to the things that aren't gonna get you to where you need, like the discipline piece of this too.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:15.708) man.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:33.995) Yeah, yeah, mean, you know, for me, it's kind of similar, right? It's not going to be able to empty that calendar. Not yet, at least maybe here in the future. But for now, it's pretty filled. But it is it's flexible, right? Like us as entrepreneurs, you know, we probably work more than we ever worked when we were in our W-2s. But at the same time, it's you know, we're working in our own business for ourselves, for our families. And we have the   Flexibility, a lot of people will say the freedom, right? But we have the flexibility to move things around. And if you want to pick your kids up at school at three, or you do want to take a weekend off, or something comes up in your schedule, you have the flexibility to do that. Whereas if you're kind of slaving away at the nine to five, you can't really do it.   Mike (31:04.486) Yeah. Yeah.   Mike (31:20.198) Yeah, that's spot on. mean, I just wrote that down, but flexibility is, cause you're right. When you started becoming an entrepreneur, this is what I tell people all the time when they want to get a venting around is like running your own business. You are going to work harder than you do for your boss currently at your W-2. Like you have to do payroll. You have to do, like you gotta like make sure there's money to actually do pay, you know, like all those things that you just don't even think about when you have a W-2. It's like, today's   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:39.543) Yeah   Mike (31:48.89) You know, this Friday I get paid. Well, when you run a business, mean, that money's got to come from somewhere.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (31:51.905) Yeah   Right, yeah, 100%, man, 100%. All right, Mike, we're gonna wrap it up. Thanks so much for coming on the show. Tell the listeners where they can find out more about you.   Mike (32:05.286) Yeah, so thanks for having me. This has been great. I have free content all over the place. can find me on the classic Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, but I also have vendingpreneurs.com is where we help people that are more interested in actually the vending stuff. But I've been really trying to double down on YouTube lately because there's just a lot of content and you can't get it off a one minute reel.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:32.417) Love it, man. All right, Mike, appreciate it. Thanks for coming on the show.   Mike (32:35.91) Thanks for having me.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:37.227) Hi brother. Alright man, got a couple more questions for you. We do like a quick, kind of do the full podcast episode and then I'll just do kind of a quick episode that'll follow up on a Monday and then another one on a Friday. Cool.   Mike (32:55.814) See you.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:59.693) We out here.   Welcome to Million Dollar Mondays, how to make, keep, and scale a million dollars. Mike is a super successful entrepreneur in the vending machine business and beyond. Tell us, how did you make your first million dollars?   Mike (33:20.922) Yeah, Seth. It was probably actually through real estate and just getting a little bit kind of lucky with timing with COVID and short-term rentals and some of that. But yeah, that's probably how I got the first million.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:25.229) Mm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:37.079) Gotcha, cool. Yeah, real estate usually plays a role in the everybody's strategy down the line, whether they're in that primary business or not, whether they start out there or they end up there, real estate usually plays a part. How'd you make your last million?   Mike (33:53.956) Yeah, that's a good question because it's completely different than real estate, but it's actually been vending machines. So that's been kind of fun. just, you you talk about product market fit whenever you're an entrepreneur with a business. And that was just kind of the perfect storm right now of traditional vending really kind of being outdated. And we found a product market fit with it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:57.57) Right. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:16.215) Gotcha. Cool. that was from, was this maybe mostly attributed to kind of buying those routes, those larger routes?   Mike (34:23.32) Exactly. Yeah. Buying old school routes and really kind of flipping them like a house with modern micro markets charging, with different products and what would fit in a vending machine, like more of the unorthodox, you know, toilet paper and tide pods and things that wouldn't fit in a traditional vending machine. I mean, we'll sell $35 bottles of shampoo in these micro markets. So just kind of, go and add it in a different way.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:49.857) Yeah, and then with the aging population, there's gotta be more and more of these things popping up. So there should be more opportunity for people to get involved or for people like yourself to just snag everything, right?   Mike (35:01.102) Yeah, I think there's no chance I could snag everything, not even just in this town alone that I'm currently in. I mean, machines are getting cheaper, the technology is getting way better with AI. And nowadays, it's not what fits in a vending machine motor. It's okay, what's shelf space? if it's a bottle of shampoo or a glass Coke, it doesn't matter because it's not just getting thrown down the chute of a traditional machine.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:05.387) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:27.521) Makes sense, makes sense. Last, how are you planning on making your next million dollars?   Mike (35:34.3) I think probably with AI, we're doing a lot of interesting stuff with helping people scale their, their vending routes. that is applicable to any, small business. And so I'm really intrigued. Just every time I go down a rabbit hole with some new AI tool, I feel like there's another better one that just came right behind it. So I just think it's kind of that time where you can really get ahead by just learning.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:06.209) Yeah, totally makes sense. mean people that are not paying attention to AI whether it's simply using chat GPT instead of Google search are getting left behind quickly because it's just advancing so fast. I can't even imagine what this world's gonna look like five years from now the way that things are moving.   Mike (36:23.132) It's crazy. Three years ago when I was working for a tech company selling software into the government, I would have to work with three secretaries to schedule a meeting with the general to sell their software. Now my EA is literally an AI bot and everyone that's scheduling time on my calendar, they don't even know they're talking to a non-human, which is pretty   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:43.479) Yeah, 100%. We're gonna, I predicted within five years, everybody's gonna have a humanoid robot in their home with AI instilled and they're gonna be doing physical things for us at our homes. Yeah. Yep. Yep. 100%. Awesome, All right, moving on to the next one.   Mike (36:50.181) Yeah!   Mike (36:57.917) I hope so. I hope they can go to Costco get all our groceries do our do our laundry The dishes   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:11.501) You're clearly in the top 1 % of what you do, Mike. What is it about you that separates you from the rest of the field?   Mike (37:19.056) Ooh, that's a good question, Seth. I think it's just discipline, know, discipline and focus. One of the hardest things is being able to say no with the things that don't align. And when I was growing up, I had a quote that has really stuck with me. That's like, it's better to be respected than liked. And I think that really resonates. Like naturally as a human, you want to be liked and help people, but the 1 % are really good at saying no.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:47.649) Yeah, I love that man. That's a great answer. Kind of building on that, what do you think the number one attribute is that makes a successful entrepreneur?   Mike (37:57.468) probably focus. Yeah. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (37:59.212) Yeah, focus. Yep. The one thing, right? The one thing.   Mike (38:04.186) Yep. That's why you come back to like the most successful entrepreneurs. They always niche down and they niche down because they just, got hyper-focused. Like this is kind of why for me, you know, I started this passive Mr. Passive on social media before I even got into Vendi. Well, now everyone's like, well, how passive is Vendi? And well, it's like, what's really interesting is I was posting all these different, what I thought passive income streams in the time, but everyone, 95 % of the questions I got about   Airbnbs are all my different investments was about bending. So I just niche down on, on bending and I just looked back on that and I was like, it really forced me to focus.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (38:43.263) Awesome, awesome. What's one thing someone could do today to get 1 % closer to success in the vending machine business if they are really interested in learning more?   Mike (38:53.892) tap into your connections and find a location that has high foot traffic, whether that's a friend that works at an urgent care, a sister that lives at an apartment. You know, you take your kid to that gymnastics studio that has a ton of foot traffic between 4 PM and 8 PM. Like all those locations are prime locations to put one of these modern smart machines in. so, tapping into your connections, well, you know,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:24.567) Love that man. Awesome. All right, Mike, I appreciate it, brother. We'll to meet in person sometime,   Mike (39:30.574) I would love to. Where are you based, Seth?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:31.789) I'm in San Diego, where you at?   Mike (39:34.78) I am in Eugene. Yeah, Oregon. I'll come down your way though.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (39:37.39) Cool We're planning on doing yeah, we're planning on doing so me and my wife we have a Sprinter van and Last May we did we did going back to the flexibility piece, right? We did 32 days in the van up through Wyoming Montana and then into like Into Canada and they're like Banff and Jasper and all the way up to Jasper and then we circled back on the west coast Through Vancouver and then down back to San Diego Yeah   Mike (40:05.52) What?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:06.829) Pretty wild, pretty awesome. And the reason I brought that up is this year we're gonna do shorter trip. We're probably gonna do two, maybe three weeks at the most, but we're gonna do kind of the Pacific Northwest. So Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver and all those parks and stuff up there.   Mike (40:17.254) Yeah.   Mike (40:21.744) Yeah, you definitely have a, have you been to Bend before? Bend is like my, that whole area, Central Oregon is, and even Idaho, like all those kind of, yeah. That's awesome. Please let me know when you're up this way. I mean, I'll come meet you wherever. That'd be amazing. Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:24.641) Yeah, yeah I have.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:38.861) Sure man grab a coffee or beer. I appreciate it. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah all right brother great to meet you and I will send the information on when this is gonna get released and give you you materials and all that stuff so we can collaborate on social media   Mike (40:51.964) Okay. Okay. Yeah. Is a lot of your audience, like passive investors?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (40:58.593) So most of that, so now I'm rebranding. I rebranded because I'm gonna be speaking more towards like active entrepreneurs, Active entrepreneurs, people raising capital, that sort of thing. Whereas before it was based on passive investors and people really focused on attorneys. So I'm an attorney and I was raising capital from attorneys for my real estate deals. Now I'm really more into selling shovels. I'm scaling my law firm. I'm chief legal officer for Tribest, which is, we've got a fund to fund.   Mike (41:20.262) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:28.085) legal product there as well. So we're really trying to bring in active, active entrepreneurs and people raising capital.   Mike (41:29.777) Yeah.   Mike (41:36.572) Okay, because I got that, I was just thinking through when we talking about that oil development project, that could be a good, the guy that runs that fund could be a good interview for you. Just thinking through your audience, because he's always looking for investors into his fund and like these oil lubs are just crushing it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:49.901) Cool. Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (41:58.464) Yeah, cool. Who is it? Just, I don't know if I know him or not.   Mike (42:02.183) Um, Robert Durkey, he's out of Florida. has, his problem is he's sitting on a gold mine that has no, like he's old school, doesn't know social media, any of that. So that's why I think he'd be perfect for you. Cause I think you could help him and he could definitely help you with some kickback. Yeah. So cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully we meet soon. Okay. See you Seth. Bye.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:05.645) I don't think I know. I don't think I know.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:13.889) Yeah. Gotcha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (42:20.705) Cool, okay, sounds good man. Yeah, I appreciate the introduction.   Yeah, all right brother. Talk soon. See ya. Links from the Show and Guest Info and Links: Seth Bradley's Links: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq?lang=en Mike Hoffman's Links: https://www.instagram.com/mikehoffmannofficial/ https://x.com/mrpassive_?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedhoffmann/ https://www.tiktok.com/@mr.passive

"And first and foremost, we look for objections. So if the trial lawyer, if the defense lawyer says, object, this evidence shouldn't come in, or object, I want this evidence to come in and you're not letting me do it." - Steve PalmerI'm pulling back the curtain on how I approach analyzing trial transcripts during the criminal appeals process. I'll walk you through my method for preparing an appeal—from my first pass through those massive transcripts, to zeroing in on key objections, carefully reviewing the jury instructions, and finding the connective threads that could make or break a case. I'll share why I always read the closing arguments first, what I'm really searching for as I flag important moments, and how all these details come together when building strong assignments of error. Whether you're a fellow legal professional or just curious about what happens behind the scenes of an appeal, I think you'll find this episode packed with insights. And as always, if you have questions about the appellate process or want me to cover a specific topic, reach out at LawyerTalkPodcast.com. Here are my top 3 takeaways:Start with the End in Mind: Glenn always jumps to the closing arguments first. This helps him identify what both sides thought was most important, setting the stage for a focused, thorough read-through.Look Beyond the Obvious: Spotting objections is important, but so is reading between the lines. Sometimes, critical appellate issues crop up in jury instructions or voir dire, places many skip over.Find the Thread: Building a strong appeal is about connecting dots—assignments of error, evidentiary mistakes, and even courtroom themes need to be woven into a compelling narrative that judges can follow.Copyright 2025 Stephen E. Palmer - Attorney At Law Submit your questions to www.lawyertalkpodcast.com.Recorded at Channel 511.Stephen E. Palmer, Esq. has been practicing criminal defense almost exclusively since 1995. He has represented people in federal, state, and local courts in Ohio and elsewhere.Though he focuses on all areas of criminal defense, he particularly enjoys complex cases in state and federal courts.He has unique experience handling and assembling top defense teams of attorneys and experts in cases involving allegations of child abuse (false sexual allegations, false physical abuse allegations), complex scientific cases involving allegations of DUI and vehicular homicide cases with blood alcohol tests, and any other criminal cases that demand jury trial experience.Steve has unique experience handling numerous high publicity cases that have garnered national attention.For more information about Steve and his law firm, visit Palmer Legal Defense. Mentioned in this episode:Circle 270 Media Podcast ConsultantsCircle 270 Media® is a podcast consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in helping businesses develop, launch, and optimize podcasts as part of their marketing strategy. The firm emphasizes the importance of storytelling through podcasting to differentiate businesses and engage with their audiences effectively. www.circle270media.com

In this episode of the Immigration Lawyers Toolbox® Podcast, host John Khosravi, Esq. sits down with Joseph Barnett (WR Immigration) to discuss: ✅ FAM updates on Communist Party membership—and how they impact visa eligibility, adjustment of status, and even denaturalization cases. ✅ The evolution of EB-5 immigration post-Reform and Integrity Act (RIA). ✅ Visa Bulletin volatility and insights from Charlie Oppenheim. ✅ Tips for handling complex source of funds cases for Chinese, Indian, and Iranian clients.   This is essential listening for immigration lawyers navigating today's high-risk environment.   Check out his post on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joey-barnett-5b486915_10-things-to-know-about-communist-party-membership-activity-7342990401907134464-0Bar?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAGTPbQBNpryylGTgz75BHDARBYRRF5XFxA  

What should you do if you feel like your attorney isn't really on your side? I get calls like this more often than you'd think, and let me tell you—it's not as straightforward as just hiring someone new. I'll walk you through the realities of “firing” your lawyer, the ethical boundaries I have to consider when talking to someone who's already represented, and why communication breakdowns trigger most problems between clients and attorneys. I'll share stories from my own experience, offer advice on how to approach these tough conversations, and explain what happens if you're thinking of switching lawyers—especially if your case is moving fast toward trial. If you've ever felt left out by your lawyer or just want to understand how these situations are handled behind the scenes, you're in the right place. Key Takeaways:Communication is Everything: Most issues between attorneys and clients stem from miscommunication or a lack of updates. Before considering a switch, have a candid conversation with your current lawyer.Don't Wait Until the Last Minute: If you decide to change attorneys, do it well before important deadlines (like a trial date). Last-minute changes can put your case—and the new lawyer—in a challenging position.Follow Proper Steps: Formally terminate your current lawyer before contacting a new one. This avoids ethical complications and ensures a smoother transition.Got a question you want answered on the podcast? Call 614-859-2119 and leave us a voicemail. Steve will answer your question on the next podcast!Submit your questions to www.lawyertalkpodcast.com.Recorded at Channel 511.Stephen E. Palmer, Esq. has been practicing criminal defense almost exclusively since 1995. He has represented people in federal, state, and local courts in Ohio and elsewhere.Though he focuses on all areas of criminal defense, he particularly enjoys complex cases in state and federal courts.He has unique experience handling and assembling top defense teams of attorneys and experts in cases involving allegations of child abuse (false sexual allegations, false physical abuse allegations), complex scientific cases involving allegations of DUI and vehicular homicide cases with blood alcohol tests, and any other criminal cases that demand jury trial experience.Steve has unique experience handling numerous high-publicity cases that have garnered national attention.For more information about Steve and his law firm, visit Palmer Legal Defense. Copyright 2025 Stephen E. Palmer - Attorney At Law Mentioned in this episode:Circle 270 Media Podcast ConsultantsCircle 270 Media® is a podcast consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in helping businesses develop, launch, and optimize podcasts as part of their marketing strategy. The firm emphasizes the importance of storytelling through podcasting to differentiate businesses and engage with their audiences effectively. www.circle270media.com

In Ep. 62 of the State of the Market for Law Firm Sales in 11 Minutes, Senior Attorney Match's Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following: The Impact of Digital Rainmaking upon Law Firm Sales   As Poock explains, society's digital pivot in 2020 has revolutionized rainmaking in the legal industry as follows:   Unlike the pre-Google, pre-2020 Era during which Rainmaker Attorneys developed clients in-person and via Word-of-Mouth referrals, today's 3.0 Digital Era for the legal industry involves Digital Rainmakers whose law firms attract the online attention of prospective clients who search Google and multiple digital platforms (egs. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and more) for lawyers and law firms to hire.   Based upon the rise of Digital Rainmakers and the vanishing Word-of-Mouth Rainmakers, Poock shares the following 2 observations:   Observation No. 1: Those Senior Attorneys who do not commit to Multi-Channel Digital Marketing will not replenish their all-important Books of Business with new clients as often as during the pre-2020, pre-Google Era.   As a result, the value of their law firms will continue to decrease because of the correlation in Law Firm Sales 1.0 between a purchaser fee sharing upon revenues attributable to a selling law firm's Book of Business and the number of clients that comprise that Book of Business, i.e., as the Book of Business of a selling law firm's Book of Business decreases, so will the value of the firm itself.   Observation No. 2: As Growing Law Firms continue adopting Multi-Channel Digital Marketing to attract the attention of today's and tomorrow's clients who search online when considering hiring a lawyer or law firm, their practices will continue becoming more valuable because of the following 2 assets that Digital Rainmaker law firms continue developing:   (1) Digital Value   (2) Brand Equity   As Poock states, “[I]n Law Firm Sales 2.0, we are going to see higher multiples . . .because the sellers are selling not only the Book of Business, but also that Digital Value and Brand Equity . . . .”   For those Senior Attorneys who will not become Digital Rainmakers, Poock shares the following points:   If you already attract less clients than pre-2020, now is the best time to consider selling your law firm because Law Firm Sales 1.0 involves deriving value via an earnout based upon collections attributable to a selling law firm's Book of Business.   So far, the digital disruption in the legal industry has primarily disrupted rainmaking, i.e., business development.   Even though Senior Attorney-led firms may not develop as many new clients during today's 3.0 Digital Era, Growing Law Firms continue to need the following 3 resources that Senior Attorney-led firms offer: (a) Instant client growth; (b) Experienced lawyers and para-staff; and (c) Subject Matter Knowledge to convert to digital content.   As Poock states, “Even if your Book of Business is not replenishing as much as yester-year . . . you present an experienced workforce, and you have Subject Matter Knowledge that Growing Law Firms want and need because they need to convert your Subject Matter Knowledge into digital content to attract today's and tomorrow's clients who are looking to Digital Rainmakers that will catch their attention when they're looking to hire lawyers and law firms to meet their legal needs.”

In a historic move, the FDA has taken the first steps to phase out animal testing in research. Though it's been a requirement for new drug development for decades, there are other, more accurate methods that the FDA wants to move forward with. Elizabeth Baker, Esq. discusses these new methods and the emerging technology helping to remove animal testing from all drug research. Learn More: https://radiohealthjournal.org/the-fda-is-vegan-why-the-agency-is-phasing-out-animal-testing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew went to a special screening of the new F1 movie, hosted by IWC Watches, and today's podcast shares the experience. He talks about his personal connection to IWC, some cool watches in the film (including Brad Pitt's custom IWC), and why this movie has watch lovers and racing fans equally excited. More information and tickets at:  www.BocaRatonWrestling.comBoca Raton Championship Wrestling, because we are better than you, and you know it!!!!Matthew Mania is running wild at: www.MatthewMania.comCheck out our other Podcasts: www.MatthewMania.com/PodcastsShop Matthew Mania:   www.ProWrestlingTees.com/matthewmaniaBrought to you by:Matthew H. Maschler, Esq.Real Estate BrokerSignature Real Estate Finder, LLCwww.RealEstateFinder.comAsk about joining the Signature team! Learn more about the Signature Real Estate Companies and why you should join South Florida's real estate industry leaders, Ranked #1 in Boca Raton, #25 in Florida and #336 in the Nation.www.SignatureRecruiter.comOffices in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Coral Springs / Parkland, Ft Lauderdale, Miami, Naples, Palm Beach, Orlando and throughout Florida.Help Israel Now! All support goes Straight to Israel's Soldierswww.yasharlachayal.orgLearn how to support our efforts to provide housing in Haitihttp://www.frank-mckinney.com/caring-house-project

Join Michelle and Liz today and time travel to the 90s and more. We talk about some of the albums that helped to shape and form our fragile little minds when we were tweens and teens. Music by Sir Brandon Layne, Esq. Find us on IG: @betweentwoworldspodcast@confessionsofamallratpodcast@michelle_fett@ih8_prettyh8machine

Join us on this episode of Nothing But The Truth as we sit down with the remarkable Juliette Ashley Valle, Miss Florida 2023! Juliette shares her inspiring journey through the world of beauty pageants and beyond, revealing how she's leveraged her platform to advocate for critical causes. More about Juliette: ▸ Miss Florida 2023: Made history as the second Hispanic titleholder and the first Miss America contestant to deliver a bilingual onstage Q&A, placing in the Top 10 nationally. ▸ Advocate for Kidney Health & Women's Empowerment: A National Ambassador for Donate Life America and the National Kidney Foundation, she founded "Rise Up, Latinas!" – a nonprofit focused on Latina leadership and mentorship. ▸ Dynamic Background: A law student, aspiring reporter, and professional performer with a B.A. from the University of Miami and current studies at St. Thomas University College of Law and Harvard University. ▸ Award-Winning Talent: Recognized with multiple preliminary competition awards, she's also a verified recording artist who donates album proceeds to CKD charities.

Immigration law is shifting fast—and so are the challenges lawyers face. In this episode of the Immigration Lawyers Toolbox® Podcast, John Q. Khosravi, Esq. shares 10 essential updates that every immigration attorney needs on their radar: ✅ New visa reciprocity rules for Pakistan

Most people underestimate the true power of a single dollar—and even fewer know how to leverage it for long-term wealth creation. In this episode of Private Banking Strategies, Vance Lowe and Seth Hicks, Esq., break down how to redirect your cash flow, maximize your income, and build your own banking structure where your money works harder for you—in a tax free, … Continue reading Compounding Interest Vs. Traditional Cash Flow – Which Builds Wealth Faster | Episode 125 →

The Federalist Papers, The Constitution and Supreme Court Wrap-Up 2024-2025 w/ Dorollo Nixon, Esq & Jesan Sorrells---00:00 Supreme Court's Role as Congressional Check09:44 "Executive Power and Accountability Debate"14:12 "U.S. Military Engagements: Then vs. Now"18:14 "Expanding Presidential Power Debate"24:47 Power Shifts in Digital Politics32:37 Judiciary's Role and Challenges34:01 Court Review: Judges Halting Exec Orders41:12 Hamilton's Dictator: Federalist 70 Insights49:52 Limits of Executive Action51:26 Judicial Rulings' Geographic Limits56:27 Originalism vs. Digital Future01:02:48 Youth Vote Shift Towards Socialism01:11:37 Supreme Court Law Limitations01:12:59 Constitutional Interpretation & 14th Amendment01:22:52 Critique of Unaccountable Governance01:23:50 "Dorollo Nixon Live Broadcast"---Opening and closing themes composed by Brian Sanyshyn of Brian Sanyshyn Music.---Pick up your copy of 12 Rules for Leaders: The Foundation of Intentional Leadership NOW on AMAZON!Check out the 2022 Leadership Lessons From the Great Books podcast reading list!--- ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ Subscribe to the Leadership Lessons From The Great Books Podcast: https://bit.ly/LLFTGBSubscribeCheck out HSCT Publishing at: https://www.hsctpublishing.com/.Check out LeadingKeys at: https://www.leadingkeys.com/Check out Leadership ToolBox at: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/Contact HSCT for more information at 1-833-216-8296 to schedule a full DEMO of LeadingKeys with one of our team members.---Leadership ToolBox website: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/.Leadership ToolBox LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ldrshptlbx/.Leadership ToolBox YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@leadershiptoolbox/videosLeadership ToolBox Twitter: https://twitter.com/ldrshptlbx.Leadership ToolBox IG: https://www.instagram.com/leadershiptoolboxus/.Leadership ToolBox FB: https://www.facebook.com/LdrshpTl

All Home Care Matters and our host, Lance A. Slatton were honored to welcome Elena Sallitto, Esq. as guest to the show.   About Elena Sallitto, Esq.:   Elena is one of the leading authorities on elder and disability planning law in Maryland. She is at the forefront of expert representation, teaching, and legislative reform. She works alongside the Alzheimer's Association, the Maryland Chapter of AARP, aging life care specialists who coordinate home health, universities, and many other experts and advocates in her field.   About Stavely & Sallitto Elder Law:   Stavely & Sallitto Elder Law was founded with a singular mission: to empower individuals and families in navigating life's legal complexities with confidence and peace of mind. With seasoned attorneys who blend professional acumen with genuine empathy, Elena leads her firm in focusing on a range of practice areas tailored to meet the specialized needs of her clients and community.   At the heart of her practice is a deep understanding of the challenges faced by seniors, the disabled, and their loved ones as they navigate issues such as Medicaid & Asset Protection, Long Term Care Planning, Estate Planning, Estate Administration & Probate, Special Needs Planning, and Guardianship.   Elena's firm is uniquely rooted in a commitment to client-centered care. She empowers her team to foster meaningful relationships built on trust, respect, and understanding.   Connect with Elena Sallitto, Esq. & Stavely and Sallitto Elder Law: Official Website:  https://www.stavelysallittoelderlaw.com/ 

In this special Tax Tuesday episode, Anderson attorneys Amanda Wynalda, Esq., and Eliot Thomas, Esq., break down the major provisions of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" - nearly 1,000 pages of new tax legislation. They cover significant changes to child tax credits (increased to $2,200), expanded 529 plan qualifications now covering trade schools and licensing exams, and modifications to personal casualty loss deductions. The attorneys explain the updated salt (state and local tax) limitations increasing from $10,000 to $40,000, new charitable deduction rules for both itemizers and non-itemizers, and the elimination of clean energy tax credits after 2025. They also discuss the extension of lifetime estate and gift tax exemptions to $15 million, the return of 100% bonus depreciation for real estate investors, revamped opportunity zone investments starting in 2027, and enhanced qualified small business stock (1202) exclusions with reduced holding periods and increased limits. Tune in for expert analysis on these game-changing tax strategies! Submit your tax question to taxtuesday@andersonadvisors.com Highlights/Topics: Child Tax Credit Changes - Increased to $2,200 with $1,700 refundable portion for qualifying children. 529 Plan Expansion - Now covers trade schools, licensing exams, and K-12 up to $20,000. SALT Deduction Limits - Increased from $10,000 to $40,000 for state and local taxes. Charitable Deduction Rules - Non-itemizers get $1,000 single/$2,000 married; itemizers face 0.5% floor starting 2026. Clean Energy Tax Credits - Electric vehicle and solar credits eliminated after September 30, 2025. 100% Bonus Depreciation - Applies to property with 20-year or less lifespan; requires cost segregation study. Opportunity Zone Investments - 10% stepped-up basis after 5 years; tax-free appreciation after 10 years. 1202 Stock Exclusions - Reduced holding periods: 50% at 3 years, 75% at 4 years, 100% at 5 years. Resources: Schedule Your Free Consultation https://andersonadvisors.com/strategy-session Tax and Asset Protection Events https://andersonadvisors.com/real-estate-asset-protection-workshop-training/ Anderson Advisors https://andersonadvisors.com/ Toby Mathis YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TobyMathis Toby Mathis TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@tobymathisesq Clint Coons YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@ClintCoons

Get ready for your monthly deep dive into the world of U.S. immigration law.

I'm taking you behind the scenes of a fascinating aspect of criminal appeals that most people overlook: the cross appeal. Now, I know it might sound boring or routine at first, but trust me—once you're in the thick of appellate work, it gets a whole lot more interesting.I'll be sharing a recent experience from my own legal practice, where, after winning a significant post-conviction case, the state decided they weren't ready to walk away and filed an appeal against our victory. That put me at a crossroads—should I file a cross-appeal to cover the few issues the judge didn't rule in our favor on, even though we'd already won big?I'll break down the strategic reasons behind a cross appeal, the importance of preserving every argument for my client, and why sometimes, in appellate law, thinking several moves ahead is the key to real justice. If you've ever wondered about the nitty-gritty of criminal appeals, why every detail matters, or what it takes to go toe-to-toe with the government after a win, this episode is for you. Key Takeaways from this episode:A cross appeal preserves your arguments: If the opposing party (like the State) appeals a favorable decision, you may need to file a cross appeal to ensure all the issues you raised get reviewed—crucial for “playing chess” with the appellate process.Protecting future rights: By raising every possible issue on appeal, you protect your client's ability to bring those arguments to higher courts, like the Supreme Court, if needed. Failure to do so could waive those issues forever.Specialized appellate expertise matters: Appellate practice is a different world from trial work. Having a lawyer who understands the finer points of state and federal appeals can make all the difference for your case's outcome.Submit your questions to www.lawyertalkpodcast.com.Recorded at Channel 511.Stephen E. Palmer, Esq. has been practicing criminal defense almost exclusively since 1995. He has represented people in federal, state, and local courts in Ohio and elsewhere.Though he focuses on all areas of criminal defense, he particularly enjoys complex cases in state and federal courts.He has unique experience handling and assembling top defense teams of attorneys and experts in cases involving allegations of child abuse (false sexual allegations, false physical abuse allegations), complex scientific cases involving allegations of DUI and vehicular homicide cases with blood alcohol tests, and any other criminal cases that demand jury trial experience.Steve has unique experience handling numerous high publicity cases that have garnered national attention.For more information about Steve and his law firm, visit Palmer Legal Defense. Copyright 2025 Stephen E. Palmer - Attorney At Law Mentioned in this episode:Circle 270 Media Podcast ConsultantsCircle 270 Media® is a podcast consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in helping businesses develop, launch, and optimize podcasts as part of their marketing strategy. The firm emphasizes the importance of storytelling through podcasting to differentiate businesses and engage with their audiences effectively. www.circle270media.com

Have you found yourself wondering, “What do I do first when I find out I'm getting divorced?" In this solo episode, top family law expert and mediator Susan Guthrie introduces the concept of Divorce Triage: a clear, strategic approach to navigating those overwhelming first days of divorce. Whether you're the one who's decided to file or you've just been hit with the news, knowing who to call first (and why) can make all the difference. Divorce isn't one-size-fits-all. And the first steps you take can shape your entire journey. This episode helps you figure out where to begin based on your unique circumstances so you can avoid costly missteps. With more than 30 years of experience as a family law attorney and mediator, Susan walks you through how to stabilize your emotional, financial, and legal footing so you can move forward with strength and strategy, not panic. What You'll Discover In This Episode: Why your “first call” might not be an attorney and how to know who to call first How to navigate emotional trauma after infidelity, financial betrayal, or a surprise divorce request The key players on your divorce team, attorney, mediator, coach, therapist, CDFA, and when to bring them in Why too many outside opinions can cause confusion, not clarity Susan's #1 piece of advice if you're unsure where to start Take the Most of Your Listening Experience: If this episode resonates with you, be sure to: Subscribe to Divorce & Beyond so you never miss an episode. Share this episode with friends or loved ones who need hope and healing. Leave a 5-star review to help us reach even more listeners. Follow Us Online: Divorce & Beyond:  https://divorceandbeyondpod.com, IG: @divorceandbeyond MEET OUR CREATOR AND HOST: SUSAN GUTHRIE®, ESQ., the creator and host of The Divorce and Beyond® Podcast, has been nationally recognized as one of the top family law and divorce mediation attorneys in the country for more than 30 years.  Susan is the Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution and is a sought-after keynote speaker, business and practice consultant, coach and trainer. You can find out more about Susan and her services here: https://susaneguthrie.com Divorce & Beyond is a Top 1% Overall and Top 100 Self-Help podcast designed to help you with all you need to know to navigate your divorce journey and most importantly, to thrive in your beautiful beyond!   ***************************************************************************** SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT: HEADSPACE Hello, Divorce & Beyond family! We've teamed up with Headspace to guide you towards better mental health. With Headspace's meditation, mindfulness tools, and mental health support, you're set for a happier, healthier you. Sign up through our exclusive link for free two weeks of Headspace membership. Don't miss out on this opportunity to embrace well-being. ***************** YUMIYU Jewelry YUMIYU Jewelry is Susan's favorite source for meaningful, handcrafted jewelry designed to empower women and celebrate individuality. Each piece is made with care, using high-quality materials like real gold and vermeil, and is water-resistant, non-tarnish, and hypoallergenic. During difficult times, like divorce, wearing a symbol of hope or protection—such as a hamsa or an evil eye—can be a comforting reminder to keep the faith and stay strong. As a special gift to my listeners, YUMIYU Jewelry is offering 20% off your purchase! Use the code "BEYOND" at checkout to claim your discount. Explore their stunning collection at yumiyujewelry.com and find your perfect piece today! Link: https://divorcebeyond.com/YUMIYU  Code: “BEYOND” for 20% off! ***************************************************************************** SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE! If you would like to sponsor the show and reach our large community of those going through and healing from divorce, please reach out to us at  divorceandbeyondpod@gmail.com for pricing and details!!! ***************************************************************************** DISCLAIMER:  THE COMMENTARY AND OPINIONS AVAILABLE ON THIS PODCAST ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY AND NOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING LEGAL ADVICE.  YOU SHOULD CONTACT AN ATTORNEY IN YOUR STATE TO OBTAIN LEGAL ADVICE WITH RESPECT TO ANY PARTICULAR ISSUE OR PROBLEM.

I tackle a topic that sparks a lot of debate: why do people who seem obviously guilty still enter a "not guilty" plea in court? After a recent conversation with a sharp, strong-willed friend who was baffled by this, I decided it's time to break down what really happens at an arraignment. I'll share why starting with a not guilty plea isn't about denying the facts, but about making sure everyone gets the full benefit of due process and constitutional rights. I'll explain how this plea allows me, as a defense attorney, to fully review the evidence, negotiate charges if necessary, and ensure that any decision is made knowingly and intelligently. If you've ever found yourself frustrated or confused by this part of the courtroom process—especially when you see it play out in high-profile cases—I'm here to unpack the real reasons behind it. Here are 3 key takeaways for anyone interested in justice and due process:A Not Guilty Plea Is About Process, Not Denial: Entering a not guilty plea at arraignment isn't a claim of innocence. It's an essential first step to protect a defendant's rights and ensure full discovery and review of evidence.“Guilty” Pleas Without Understanding Are Dangerous: Our system requires that a plea be made “knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily.” Without complete discovery and legal counsel, it's impossible for anyone to meet that standard.Every Defendant Deserves Due Process: Sometimes the charges are overblown, the evidence is flawed, or constitutional rights may have been violated. Pleading not guilty gives defense (and prosecution) time to negotiate, review, and ensure fair outcomes, not just political theater.Got a question you want answered on the podcast? Call 614-859-2119 and leave us a voicemail. Steve will answer your question on the next podcast!Submit your questions to www.lawyertalkpodcast.com.Recorded at Channel 511.Stephen E. Palmer, Esq. has been practicing criminal defense almost exclusively since 1995. He has represented people in federal, state, and local courts in Ohio and elsewhere.Though he focuses on all areas of criminal defense, he particularly enjoys complex cases in state and federal courts.He has unique experience handling and assembling top defense teams of attorneys and experts in cases involving allegations of child abuse (false sexual allegations, false physical abuse allegations), complex scientific cases involving allegations of DUI and vehicular homicide cases with blood alcohol tests, and any other criminal cases that demand jury trial experience.Steve has unique experience handling numerous high-publicity cases that have garnered national attention.For more information about Steve and his law firm, visit Palmer Legal Defense. Copyright 2025 Stephen E. Palmer - Attorney At Law Mentioned in this episode:Circle 270 Media Podcast ConsultantsCircle 270 Media® is a podcast consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in helping businesses develop, launch, and optimize podcasts as part of their marketing strategy. The firm emphasizes the importance of storytelling through podcasting to differentiate businesses and engage with their audiences effectively. www.circle270media.com

In Episode 6, host Jordan L. Fischer, Esq. interviews Rachael Pashkevich Koontz, Associate General Counsel of cybersecurity and data protection for a large U.S. Government Contractor in the technology space. Rachael provides key insight into her unique role as an in-house cyber attorney, and the day-to-day role she plays in shaping the cyber policy and approach within her organization. Rachael and Jordan discuss how the cybersecurity industry is changing, and how that has made in-house advising on cyber more dynamic and impactful across the business and its operations. For more information on Rachael Pashkevich Koontz, visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-pashkevich-koontz-esq-8915ba48/. to contact our host, Jordan L. Fischer, Esq., regarding this podcast or to inquire into becoming a guest, please contact Ms. Fischer at jordan@jordanfischer.me.

During Ep. 26 of the Ask the Law Firm Seller Show, Jeremy E. Poock, Esq. addresses the following question: Why do Growing Law Firms want to purchase Senior Attorney-led Law Firms? Poock answers this question by explaining the following 4 upgrades that Senior Attorney-led Law Firms present to Growing Law Firms:   Upgrade 1: Instant upgrade to a Growing Law Firm's Book of Business by acquiring the Book of Business that a Senior Attorney-led firm has developed over the course of a career.   Upgrade 2: Upgrade to a Growing Law Firm's workforce by welcoming experienced and talented key employee lawyers and para-staff as part of growth by acquisition.   Upgrade 3: An upgrade to subject matter knowledge depth in multiple practice areas that Senior Attorneys and their key employee lawyers bring to a Growing Law Firm.   As Poock explains, “[B]y bringing in Senior Attorney lawyers and the lawyers that practice at their firms, they have often decades of subject matter knowledge that is going to make your [growing] practice more valuable by offering even more talent to your current clients and prospective clients.”   Upgrade 4: A Digital Value Upgrade, which includes the following (i) Adding bios of Senior Attorneys and additional lawyers to a Growing Law Firm's website; (ii) Adding pre-existing 5-Star Google Reviews and requesting new 5-Star Google Reviews from satisfied clients among a Senior Attorney-led Firm's Book of Business; and (iii) Convert Subject Matter Knowledge into digital content for a Growing Law Firm to post to multiple channels of social media (egs. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram), plus e-newsletters, podcasts, YouTube videos, and more to attract the digital attention of prospective clients in today's 3.0 Digital Era for the legal industry. 

John Q. Khosravi, Esq. dives into 21 February 2025 AAO decisions on EB-1A extraordinary ability cases. From sustained appeals to tough denials, discover trends, pitfalls, and practical strategies to strengthen your filings. This episode is packed with insights for immigration lawyers—covering cannabis-related work, comparable evidence for athletes and coaches, and challenges with high-salary and original contribution criteria. Plus, get a sneak peek into John's EB-1A Extraordinary Ability Course.

In this episode, we revisit Sunset Boulevard with Nicole Scherzinger and deep-dive into comparing Norma Desmond. We share how The Outsiders became a surprise favorite, complete with Tony connections and backstage access. Plus, a London trip to see Rachel Zegler in Evita takes a twist—what happens when your daughter misses the show and the balcony scene goes viral? Theater nerding, hotel perks, and a new life motto: “Stay Golden.” More information and tickets at:  www.BocaRatonWrestling.comBoca Raton Championship Wrestling, because we are better than you, and you know it!!!!Matthew Mania is running wild at: www.MatthewMania.comCheck out our other Podcasts: www.MatthewMania.com/PodcastsShop Matthew Mania:   www.ProWrestlingTees.com/matthewmaniaBrought to you by:Matthew H. Maschler, Esq.Real Estate BrokerSignature Real Estate Finder, LLCwww.RealEstateFinder.comAsk about joining the Signature team! Learn more about the Signature Real Estate Companies and why you should join South Florida's real estate industry leaders, Ranked #1 in Boca Raton, #25 in Florida and #336 in the Nation.www.SignatureRecruiter.comOffices in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Coral Springs / Parkland, Ft Lauderdale, Miami, Naples, Palm Beach, Orlando and throughout Florida.Help Israel Now! All support goes Straight to Israel's Soldierswww.yasharlachayal.orgLearn how to support our efforts to provide housing in Haitihttp://www.frank-mckinney.com/caring-house-project

Explore how Lambda Legal is fighting for the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people here: https://lambdalegal.org/ Get the latest updates on LGBTQ+ legal battles, victories, and insights from the Lambda Legal Blog: Blog Posts Archive - Lambda Legal Learn more about the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association here: The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association | Attorneys & Lawyers Join thousands of legal professionals, students, and advocates at the 2025 Lavender Law Conference: The 2025 Lavender Law® Conference and Career Fair Follow the legal response to anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders with the LGBTQ+ Bar's EO Litigation Tracker: Trump Anti-LGBTQ+ Executive Order Litigation Tracker - The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association Read the LGBTQ+ Bar's Bench Guide here: LGBTQ+ Inclusion From the Bench: A Best Practices Guide for Judges - The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association Bios: Whit Washington, Esq. (They/Them) is the Eileen A. Ryan Senior Attorney for the Nonbinary and Transgender Rights Project at Lambda Legal. Prior to joining Lambda Legal, Whit advocated on behalf of incarcerated people in the United States with a particular focus on the needs of incarcerated trans people. Whit was able to prioritize the rights of transgender incarcerated people through their Equal Justice Works Fellowship, their time with the Prison and Reentry Legal Services at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and as a staff attorney for the Miss Major and Alexander Lee TGIJP Black Trans Cultural Center. Since joining Lambda Legal in December 2024, Whit has co-authored two amicus briefs and has been active in Lambda Legal's state policy work. Whit's achievements have earned them recognition from the DC Mayor's Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which honored them with the "40 Under 40: Queer Women of Washington" award in 2019; and the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association, which honored them as the 40 Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40 in 2025. Whit's work has been featured in the National LGBTQ Bar Association newsletter and Washington Lawyer Magazine, and their writing can be found on the Lambda Legal blog. In addition to their legal work, Whit is a board member of the National Trans Bar Association.Whit holds a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from the Johnston Center for Integrated Studies at the University of Redlands, a Juris Doctor from the American University Washington College of Law, and a Master of Arts in International Affairs from the American University School of International Service. Their commitment to justice and equity continues to guide their impactful legal career at Lambda Legal. Mari Nemec (she/her) serves as Advocacy Counsel at the National LGBTQ+ Bar (LGBTQ+ Bar), where she monitors and responds to policy and judicial issues impacting the LGBTQ+ legal community and facilitates many of the Bar's programmatic initiatives, including the LGBTQ+ Bar's Law Student Congress and the Judicial Nominations and Executive Appointments Committee. As Advocacy Counsel, she works to make the legal profession and our legal systems more accessible and equitable for the LGBTQ+ community in all of its diversity.Mari most recently joined the LGBTQ+ Bar in the summer of 2023, but her history with the organization goes back nearly a decade. She first joined the staff in the summer of 2017 as an intern, before serving as Manager of Public Affairs. In 2019, she left the LGBTQ+ Bar to attend law school, but remained involved in the organization's work by serving in Law Student Congress first as Secretary and then for two years as Co-Chair. While in law school, she also clerked in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, worked at Step Up to Justice, a local legal-aid organization in Tucson, Arizona, and served as a Congressional Intern to Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick. After graduating in 2022, Mari served as a Dorot Fellow at Alliance for Justice, preparing reports on federal judicial nominees and monitoring the federal courts.Mari received her J.D. from the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law and her B.A. from the College of William and Mary. In her free time, Mari enjoys reading, hiking, trying new foods, and joyfully following the whims of her beloved blue heeler, Miss Matilda Fig. Laura J. Maechtlen is a member of Seyfarth Shaw's 7-member Executive Committee and the National Chair of the Labor and Employment Department.  She also led the Firm's global belonging and inclusion work for more than a decade.  Her practice is focused on counseling related to people analytics and EEO compliance, as well as employment litigation and includes the defense of class, collective and multi-plaintiff actions.  Laura is a national leader on issues related to law firm management and inclusion in the legal industry, and has held a variety of leadership positions through which she has advocated for systemic improvement in the legal industry.  She currently serves on the Board of the National Association for Women Lawyers, the Advisory Council for the Law Firm Anti-Racism Alliance, and the Board of the Center for Workplace Law.  She is a previous Latina Commissioner for the Hispanic National Bar Association, past President of the National LGBT Bar Association and the California Minority Counsel Program, and served as a Fellow for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), among service to other organizations.Laura speaks and publishes regularly on a variety of employment law and litigation topics, and issues regarding innovation, management and inclusion in the legal profession, and has been quoted on those topics by Harvard Business Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Reuters, Vogue, The Daily Journal, Employment Law 360, and many others.     The views and opinions expressed in this episode of the NAWL Podcast may or may not reflect those of NAWL, the hosts, or participants. Unless otherwise indicated, the hosts and participants are speaking for themselves personally, and not for any firm, employer, or any other organization. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and does not constitute and should not be considered legal advice. 

In this episode of The Immigration Lawyers Toolbox Podcast, host John Q. Khosravi, Esq. welcomes back the always insightful Ruby Powers, Esq., for a wide-ranging conversation on the challenges and opportunities facing immigration attorneys today. Fresh from a major conference, John and Ruby dive into key takeaways about the evolving landscape of immigration law, including the surge in detained cases and the implications of recent court decisions. Ruby shares her frontline experience managing removal defense and navigating an increasingly complex detention system. They also explore how law firms can leverage cutting-edge legal tech—from AI tools to email management platforms—to stay agile and efficient. With Ruby's expertise in law practice management (and as author of Power Up Your Practice), this episode is packed with practical advice for solo and small firm owners striving to grow and adapt in a turbulent environment. Tune in for a candid, actionable discussion on: The current surge in detention and what it means for practitioners Selecting the right legal tech and vendor partners Building resilience and systems to pivot with fast-changing immigration policies Ruby's insights on leadership as secretary of AILA Texas/NM/OK and upcoming conferences Whether you're scaling your firm, navigating removal defense, or looking for inspiration from one of the field's top thought leaders, this episode is not to be missed.

Raise The Bar Radio Launch Summary: Seth Bradley unveils his rebranded podcast, Raise the Bar, a bold evolution from The Passive Income Attorney. This show goes beyond passive income, it's about scaling real businesses, raising serious capital, and leveling up your life. Seth shares his personal journey from big law to real estate empire builder and lays out the podcast's structure, purpose, and powerful call to action. Highlights: Rebrand from Passive Income Attorney to Raise the Bar to better reflect the audience: not just attorneys, but all capital raisers, investors, and entrepreneurs Focus has expanded from passive investing to include business building, capital raising, and deal structuring Seth's background: former big law attorney, now securities lawyer, real estate investor, founder of RaiseLaw, Tribevest CLO, and co-founder of multiple startups Personal story: fired from big law, used it as a catalyst to go all-in on real estate and entrepreneurship Podcast is for real estate investors, capital raisers, and entrepreneurs ready to level up and ditch limiting beliefs New podcast structure: Monday – Million Dollar Mondays: how pros build and scale wealth Tuesday – RTB Live / Q&A: live shows, events, guest features Wednesday – Main deep-dive solo or guest interview episode Friday – 1% Closer: tactical, short-form deal-closer insights Theme: go all-in, raise your standards, and raise the bar in life and business Final call to action: subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and share with someone who needs to hear it Transcript: Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:05.196) Welcome to the brand new Raise The Bar podcast with yours truly Seth Bradley. This is the show for real estate investors, capital raisers, and entrepreneurs who are ready to take their game to the highest level. If you've been following me for a while, you know this isn't my first rodeo, but we're making a big shift. And today I'm going to break it all down for you. So first, why the rebrand? Why now?   and most importantly, what's in it for you. So let's dive in. So why the rebrand? If you've been rocking with me since the Passive Income Attorney Podcast, first off, cheers to you. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. It's changed my life for the better, and I hope it's changed for yours too. Our show is all about helping high income professionals escape the golden handcuffs, start building wealth through passive investing, and it was a killer show. Tons of incredible conversations. But over time,   I realized something. I wasn't just helping attorneys and I wasn't just talking about passive income. I was teaching people how to build a business, how to raise capital, how to structure deals, and how to build legacy wealth. So I had to ask myself, is my brand serving the people I want to serve? And the answer was clear. It was actually yes, but I needed to go bigger, bolder, more direct, and that's how Raise the Bar was born. This show is all about raising standards, raising capital,   and raising the bar on how you build your wealth in your business. I still love and believe in passive investing, but now we're also getting tactical and strategic, providing you with ways to explore active capital raising and entrepreneurship. So you can stop playing small and you can start operating like a real pro. So who am I and why should you listen? I'm Seth Bradley. I'm a securities attorney and a real estate entrepreneur.   who has closed billions of dollars in real estate transactions over the past decade plus. I'm a former big law attorney turned boutique securities law firm founder of RaiseLaw, and additionally, I'm the chief legal officer of TribeBest. I'm the co-founder of Klaviss and StackRack Battery Systems, and also the managing partner of Law Capital Partners. I've closed every kind of real estate transaction you can imagine, from house hacking into a duplex, to closing hundreds of syndications and funds. I've built businesses, I've raised millions,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:29.92) and worked with some of biggest names in the game. But here's the thing. I didn't start off in this world. I grew up deep in the mountains of West Virginia. No silver spoon, no family connections in real estate or finance, just grit, hustle, and the willingness to learn. And the willingness to take risks that most people were too scared to take. I walked away from the traditional path. I gave up the cushy, multiple six-figure, big law firm job. I broke free from the golden handcuffs and went   all in on building wealth through alternative investments, capital raising, and entrepreneurship. And now, I help entrepreneurs just like you do the exact same thing. Who is this podcast for? If you're a real estate investor, a capital raiser, or an entrepreneur, or interested in any of those things, if you're interested in raising capital, structuring deals, building a real business, and raise the bar in your life, you're in the right place. If you're ready to ditch the limiting beliefs,   to raise more capital and start thinking like the top 1 % that you are, you belong right here. Let me tell you a quick story. So I was flying high in a big law firm, prestigious law firm, big paycheck, fancy title, all that kind of stuff. But behind the scenes, I was absolutely miserable. I had no control over my time, my future, my life. Then one day I was involuntarily shown the exit. I was fired, just like that. Gut punch.   Looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Because that was the moment I realized, if you're not all in, whether that's a big law firm job, your W-2, whatever it might be, you're going nowhere. That experience forced me to commit 100 % to my own entrepreneurial path. No more safety nets, that was gone. No more playing it safe. So I went all in on real estate, capital raising, entrepreneurship, buying businesses, and I never looked back.   And that's what this show is all about. It's about going all in, raising your standards, raising your game, raising the bar. Not just for yourself, but for everybody around you. And if you're ready to level up, stick around because we're about to take things to another level. Raise the bar structure to give you a mix of high impact content, balancing deep dives, expert insights, short tactical takeaways. And here's the quick breakdown. Million Dollar Mondays, Quick Hit Insights.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:56.288) how top entrepreneurs, investors, capital raisers make and keep and scale millions. RTB Live, Q &A Tuesdays, guest appearances, top podcast interviews on When I'm on Other People's Shows, webinars, live speaking events, direct audience Q &As, send me your questions. And of course, the main episode will air on Wednesdays. Deep dive solo episodes for high impact guest interviews, breaking down success, capital raising, entrepreneurship.   On Fridays, we're going to do the 1 % closer, close out your week, fast-paced, short, taxable episodes, focus on closing deals, raising capital, leveling up to get you to be the top 1 % that you are. As we grow, we'll refine and evolve, of course, but right now, that's the game plan to help you level up fast. If you're ready to stop playing small, start raising the bar on your business and your life, hit that subscribe button, and make sure you don't miss that one show, that one single show,   It's going to make a massive impact on your life. And of course, if this has resonated with you, please leave a five star rating review. Share it with someone you love, your acquaintance, your loved one, your family, your friends, someone who really needs to hear it. That's how we grow. That's how we change the game. Welcome to Raise the Bar. Let's go.   Links from the Show: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq

Title: Raise The Bar Radio Launch Summary: Seth Bradley unveils his rebranded podcast, Raise the Bar, a bold evolution from The Passive Income Attorney. This show goes beyond passive income, it's about scaling real businesses, raising serious capital, and leveling up your life. Seth shares his personal journey from big law to real estate empire builder and lays out the podcast's structure, purpose, and powerful call to action. Highlights: Rebrand from Passive Income Attorney to Raise the Bar to better reflect the audience: not just attorneys, but all capital raisers, investors, and entrepreneurs Focus has expanded from passive investing to include business building, capital raising, and deal structuring Seth's background: former big law attorney, now securities lawyer, real estate investor, founder of RaiseLaw, Tribevest CLO, and co-founder of multiple startups Personal story: fired from big law, used it as a catalyst to go all-in on real estate and entrepreneurship Podcast is for real estate investors, capital raisers, and entrepreneurs ready to level up and ditch limiting beliefs New podcast structure: Monday – Million Dollar Mondays: how pros build and scale wealth Tuesday – RTB Live / Q&A: live shows, events, guest features Wednesday – Main deep-dive solo or guest interview episode Friday – 1% Closer: tactical, short-form deal-closer insights Theme: go all-in, raise your standards, and raise the bar in life and business Final call to action: subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and share with someone who needs to hear it Transcript: Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:05.196) Welcome to the brand new Raise The Bar podcast with yours truly Seth Bradley. This is the show for real estate investors, capital raisers, and entrepreneurs who are ready to take their game to the highest level. If you've been following me for a while, you know this isn't my first rodeo, but we're making a big shift. And today I'm going to break it all down for you. So first, why the rebrand? Why now?   and most importantly, what's in it for you. So let's dive in. So why the rebrand? If you've been rocking with me since the Passive Income Attorney Podcast, first off, cheers to you. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. It's changed my life for the better, and I hope it's changed for yours too. Our show is all about helping high income professionals escape the golden handcuffs, start building wealth through passive investing, and it was a killer show. Tons of incredible conversations. But over time,   I realized something. I wasn't just helping attorneys and I wasn't just talking about passive income. I was teaching people how to build a business, how to raise capital, how to structure deals, and how to build legacy wealth. So I had to ask myself, is my brand serving the people I want to serve? And the answer was clear. It was actually yes, but I needed to go bigger, bolder, more direct, and that's how Raise the Bar was born. This show is all about raising standards, raising capital,   and raising the bar on how you build your wealth in your business. I still love and believe in passive investing, but now we're also getting tactical and strategic, providing you with ways to explore active capital raising and entrepreneurship. So you can stop playing small and you can start operating like a real pro. So who am I and why should you listen? I'm Seth Bradley. I'm a securities attorney and a real estate entrepreneur.   who has closed billions of dollars in real estate transactions over the past decade plus. I'm a former big law attorney turned boutique securities law firm founder of RaiseLaw, and additionally, I'm the chief legal officer of TribeBest. I'm the co-founder of Klaviss and StackRack Battery Systems, and also the managing partner of Law Capital Partners. I've closed every kind of real estate transaction you can imagine, from house hacking into a duplex, to closing hundreds of syndications and funds. I've built businesses, I've raised millions,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:29.92) and worked with some of biggest names in the game. But here's the thing. I didn't start off in this world. I grew up deep in the mountains of West Virginia. No silver spoon, no family connections in real estate or finance, just grit, hustle, and the willingness to learn. And the willingness to take risks that most people were too scared to take. I walked away from the traditional path. I gave up the cushy, multiple six-figure, big law firm job. I broke free from the golden handcuffs and went   all in on building wealth through alternative investments, capital raising, and entrepreneurship. And now, I help entrepreneurs just like you do the exact same thing. Who is this podcast for? If you're a real estate investor, a capital raiser, or an entrepreneur, or interested in any of those things, if you're interested in raising capital, structuring deals, building a real business, and raise the bar in your life, you're in the right place. If you're ready to ditch the limiting beliefs,   to raise more capital and start thinking like the top 1 % that you are, you belong right here. Let me tell you a quick story. So I was flying high in a big law firm, prestigious law firm, big paycheck, fancy title, all that kind of stuff. But behind the scenes, I was absolutely miserable. I had no control over my time, my future, my life. Then one day I was involuntarily shown the exit. I was fired, just like that. Gut punch.   Looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Because that was the moment I realized, if you're not all in, whether that's a big law firm job, your W-2, whatever it might be, you're going nowhere. That experience forced me to commit 100 % to my own entrepreneurial path. No more safety nets, that was gone. No more playing it safe. So I went all in on real estate, capital raising, entrepreneurship, buying businesses, and I never looked back.   And that's what this show is all about. It's about going all in, raising your standards, raising your game, raising the bar. Not just for yourself, but for everybody around you. And if you're ready to level up, stick around because we're about to take things to another level. Raise the bar structure to give you a mix of high impact content, balancing deep dives, expert insights, short tactical takeaways. And here's the quick breakdown. Million Dollar Mondays, Quick Hit Insights.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:56.288) how top entrepreneurs, investors, capital raisers make and keep and scale millions. RTB Live, Q &A Tuesdays, guest appearances, top podcast interviews on When I'm on Other People's Shows, webinars, live speaking events, direct audience Q &As, send me your questions. And of course, the main episode will air on Wednesdays. Deep dive solo episodes for high impact guest interviews, breaking down success, capital raising, entrepreneurship.   On Fridays, we're going to do the 1 % closer, close out your week, fast-paced, short, taxable episodes, focus on closing deals, raising capital, leveling up to get you to be the top 1 % that you are. As we grow, we'll refine and evolve, of course, but right now, that's the game plan to help you level up fast. If you're ready to stop playing small, start raising the bar on your business and your life, hit that subscribe button, and make sure you don't miss that one show, that one single show,   It's going to make a massive impact on your life. And of course, if this has resonated with you, please leave a five star rating review. Share it with someone you love, your acquaintance, your loved one, your family, your friends, someone who really needs to hear it. That's how we grow. That's how we change the game. Welcome to Raise the Bar. Let's go.   Links from the Show: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq?lang=en

Title: Stop Chasing the Woman in the Red Dress: Multifamily Is the Smartest Move with Joe Fairless Summary: In this conversation, Joe Fairless and Seth Bradley discuss the importance of authenticity in business, the current state of the multifamily real estate market, and effective strategies for raising capital. Joe shares insights on sticking with multifamily investments despite market fluctuations, leveraging technology like AI and EOS for operational efficiency, and the significance of building authority and expertise in the field. The discussion also touches on personal reflections and aspirations, emphasizing the value of character and commitment in both business and personal life. Links to watch and subscribe:   Bullet Point Highlights: Authenticity is key in business interactions. Focus on your strengths and expertise. The multifamily market fundamentals remain strong. Utilize technology to enhance capital raising efforts. Building authority is crucial for new capital raisers. Networking through influential connections can be effective. Character is more important than reputation. Sticking to one niche can lead to greater success. Continuous learning and adaptation are essential. Coaching and mentoring can be fulfilling personal pursuits. Transcript:  Joe Fairless (00:03.629) Hey, how you doing?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:04.881) Alright man.   How are you? I don't know if we've actually met in person or not, but funny, I'll share the story once we start officially recording, but once upon a time when I was trying to find my place in this syndication world, had a phone call with you and it was awesome to actually get to speak with you at the time because it was just like, whoa, this is Joe Fairless, right? So it was a huge deal, so it's awesome to have you on the show.   Joe Fairless (00:34.966) You know what? I take notes of every conversation and I see it was around May of 2019. Yeah, yeah, I see that. It's awesome. Well, looking forward to every five years we should do this.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:43.988) There you go. There you go. Awesome, man. Awesome.   Yeah, let me...   Seth Bradley, Esq. (00:53.1) Sounds good, man. Sounds good. Sounds good. So just to give you a little bit of groundwork here. So I'm a securities attorney by trade. I've raised capital for syndications, those sorts of things. I'm currently with Tribest, I'm chief legal officer over there. So we do, put together fund to funds in a box for capital aggregators. And I'm rebranding the podcast. So once upon a time it was Passive Income Attorney. I was really focused on bringing in investors into my deals, raising capital, that sort of thing.   Now I'm rebranding this as raising the bar gonna be kind of more of a general General podcast on business and raising capital and in real estate that sort of thing. So It's gonna be more of a general audience before it was past investors This is gonna be more kind of business people active investors because I'm actively trying to bring in you know capital raisers and People like that. They're putting deals together for my law firm and for for tribe vest   Joe Fairless (01:33.998) Mm-hmm.   Joe Fairless (01:48.354) Mm-hmm.   Joe Fairless (01:51.884) Makes sense. Thanks for that context.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (01:53.544) Yeah, cool cool. So and then format wise we'll just do it'll be pretty short We're gonna do like 25 minutes 30 minutes And then we'll go into kind of these like mini segments because I want to do these mini episodes And I think I sent those over to you one is just million dollar Monday. Just kind of how you made your first million How you made your last million how you're make your next that sort of thing and then the next one is the the 1 % segment which is kind of you know, how did you become basically?   Joe Fairless (02:00.504) Sweet.   Joe Fairless (02:15.47) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:21.364) 1 % like the best top 1 % in what you do and that sort of thing and just kind of giving actionable steps to the listeners about how they can get there too.   Joe Fairless (02:25.442) Mm-hmm.   Joe Fairless (02:30.314) Awesome. Sounds good. Sounds like fun.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (02:32.98) Cool. All right, man. Well, we're already recording, so I'll just kind of jump into it and then we'll make the, I'll make the cuts later. cool. Welcome to Raise the Bar with me, your host, Seth Bradley, where we have elevated conversations on raising capital, real estate, and entrepreneurship. Today, we have an incredible guest, Joe Fairless. If you've been living under a rock, then maybe you haven't heard of Joe, but everybody in my industry knows Joe as an industry leader, a thought leader.   real estate entrepreneur, extraordinaire, marketer, master marketer, all of the above. So Joe, welcome to the show.   Joe Fairless (03:10.36) Looking forward to our conversation, Seth.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:12.884) for sure man. So, you know, I like this question because it's kind of unusual and I have a hard time answering it and you might too, but we'll see. you know, when a stranger asks you what you do and it just comes up to you maybe at a conference or on the streets, what do you say?   Joe Fairless (03:28.398) I'd I buy apartment buildings.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (03:30.546) I love it. Keeping it simple, man. I guess that was an easier answer than I anticipated.   Joe Fairless (03:35.182) Well, yeah, I've been to in my early days I went to seminars and they have much longer more thought-provoking responses like, know, I help high income earners create passive income or something along those lines, but I keep it simple. I buy apartment buildings and then, you know,   let the conversation go where it naturally would go.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (04:06.366) I love that man. Yeah, and you know, to be honest, know, that response that you just mentioned is a little bit played out. Don't you think? I feel like if you're on LinkedIn or if you're on, you know, conferences, everybody's like, yeah, I raised capital from passive investors so I can help them do this and do that. Do you think that's a little bit played out? Do you think that people need to kind of change that marketing strategy at this point?   Joe Fairless (04:25.697) Well...   I think you should just be authentic. think just go with what feels right for you and what you'll enjoy talking about. Just go with what feels right for you. That's what I do. I am not a salesy person.   I feel uncomfortable if I'm trying to sell someone something. I believe in what I do, but I feel uncomfortable if I'm trying to force it. And so if I'm like, I was just at a dad-daughter dance this past Sunday and we met up with some couples that I didn't know any of them. was just couples that, you know, my daughter...   goes to their parents of the kids who go to school with my daughter. And so I was talking to one of the dads and he said, what do you do? I I buy apartment buildings. And he said, that's interesting. Then we started talking about what I do because he was naturally interested. And I enjoy that much more than trying to intentionally bait a hook. I'd just rather just have a conversation.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (05:40.03) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (05:43.57) Yeah, yeah, I think that's the key, right? Especially in today's world where everything's online and you just get marketed to and advertised to all the time. You've got to be authentic and you need to have an elevator pitch, it's got to be authentic. It's got to be really who you are. And it can't be sales because people are so sensitive to that nowadays, whether you're raising capital or whether you're W2 doing your job. And we're all salespeople to a certain extent, whatever we do.   But people are very sensitive to that. So you've got to really focus on being authentic and coming from a place of genuineness.   Joe Fairless (06:20.91) Nobody in the world can do you like you do you. You've got a unique strand of DNA that no one else can be the Seth Bradley that you are, the Joe Farrells that I am, because it's impossible. It's impossible. There is no one like you. There is no one like me.   And it's just the more magnetic, the more genuine and true to who I am, the more magnetic I feel like I become because people enjoy authenticity and it's just the right way to play it, right way to do it.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (07:01.684) Totally, totally, totally. For our audience, just tell us what you're doing nowadays. mean, there's been kind of some changes in the market with the interest rates going up, those sorts of things, maybe starting towards the end of 2022. I know for myself, I was in the capital raising game for a number of years and then I kind of slowed down there towards the end of 2022, beginning of 2023, just to kind of see what the market was gonna do, just to see if we could still get some really good deals going, see if some of the other deals were going bad.   you know, what, what are you up to nowadays? Like what's your focus? right now.   Joe Fairless (07:36.77) The focus has been and always will be on our current portfolio and the deals that we have and operating those deals the best that we can and continuing to improve the NOI. So that is the focus.   There we have some deals that have floating rates with rate caps and the focus is to figure out how not to have floating rate with rate caps that you have to continue to renew once they expire. So that comes with refinancing and in order to refinance and sometimes you have to do a capital call or if you don't do a capital call you gotta bring in equity in some form or fashion to refinance.   some cases, it just depends on the deal. So the focus is on the portfolio and always will be. And then the secondary thing that we look at is acquisitions. How do we capitalize on the market that we're at right now? mean, the best way to describe it that I've read is it's stagnant. You know, it's just...   Not sure. The water, there's stuff growing in the water, but not sure if you really want to be part of what's growing in the water right now. Like it's just, it's stagnant and what will, but we also know what is coming.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (09:00.486) Yeah.   Joe Fairless (09:12.264) and that is the supply demand shift in multifamilies favor depends on the sub market and the market obviously. But generally the Sun Belt is going to greatly benefit in the next year, year and a half, in some cases six months from now.   with the supply-demand dynamic with new supply drying up and increasing the demand for the existing supply. Again, depends on the market, depends on the sub-market. So how do we capitalize on that? is there any way to be opportunistic with what's happening with some deals from other operators that   didn't work out. know, there haven't been a lot of foreclosures, but there have been some. And we have relationships with our lenders that are pretty strong. And in fact, one, a large lender that we have a really good relationship with, that we have properties with, they foreclosed on someone else's deal. And I won't name names on who they foreclosed on, but they foreclosed on someone else's deal and they came to us   Afterward and said hey here here. Here's a here's an opportunity. It's in a great area of Fort Worth and I'm from Fort Worth so I know we have a lot of property there too, but I know the market also I grew up there and We'll give you this special financing of around 3 % or so interest rate fixed interest rate   for year one and then it's fixed through the whole period of the loan but then the interest rate steps up to around four, four and a half percent over the five years. So to get that type of essentially seller financing but it's lender financing direct from the lender lending institution that foreclosed on the deal in a very good area of Fort Worth.   Joe Fairless (11:29.326) There are opportunities out there also. So it's how do we become opportunistic and find these deals. And so we're in the process of closing on that deal or doing due diligence on that deal. We're under contract and we're scheduled to close in about a month and a half from now.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (11:49.316) Awesome, awesome. Have you found it difficult at any point in time, kind of over these last couple years where the market has slowed down?   Joe Fairless (11:56.654) Whatever you're gonna say, yes. So finish your question, but the answer is yes. Yes, I found it difficult over the last couple years, but what exactly are you asking about that's difficult?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (11:59.732) Yeah. Sure. Specifically, should say sticking with multifamily because you are a multifamily guy and you you've seen you've seen where everyone, you know, everybody wanted that on that multifamily train for, you know, a decade, if not longer.   Joe Fairless (12:15.598) Mmm. Man.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (12:23.696) And now you've seen a lot of these same people change their tune and say, okay, well, you know what? Let's pivot to something else. Let's pivot to car washes or private credit funds or all these other things.   Joe Fairless (12:29.998) Man, I'm actually, I know you're an attorney, but can I strike my yes actually from that question? Cause no, actually the answer is no. I haven't found it difficult to stick with multifamily. Hell no. No. You know, you go to a restaurant at a diner and they offer lasagna, California roll and what else?   Seth Bradley, Esq. (12:41.16) Hahaha   Seth Bradley, Esq. (12:49.107) Ha ha.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (13:01.204) Ha   Joe Fairless (13:01.356) Pad Thai, you know, are they gonna have the best lasagna, California roll, and pad thai? No, no. They've got something for everyone, but they're not gonna be great at any of it. I'd rather go to an Italian restaurant that makes their own noodles, right? Makes their own pasta. And where they specialize in one thing.   Not at all. No, we I believe in the fundamentals of multifamily. I believe in the supply demand that is here. I mean we had a record number of supply across the board and multifamily and the occupancy maintained 90-91 percent depending on the market but it maintained in the 90s in a record number of supply and by the way at the same time you got   the capital markets raising interest rates the way they did. And a lot of people have been able to hold serve. And the fundamentals of the supply demand and how much...   how many renters there are out there and how that will continue is there. That's cold hard facts. There is demand, a lot of demand, and there will continue to be even more demand because the supply is trailing off. We have never looked.   outside of multifamily because it's so strong. I think that is a cultural thing actually because if you, anyone who's in the sports, college sports, they'll know about the NIL and   Joe Fairless (14:54.784) how you can bounce from one team to another year after year. And so you'll find some people who aren't starting and if they put in the work then, and I'm for NIL, I think players should be paid, but I don't think that they, I don't think they should, I don't think it serves them as young men and young women.   mostly young men in this case who are bouncing from place to place, to not compete and not work for a starting position and instead just go somewhere else the path of least resistance. That's not how you build character. There's a really good book, it's called The Road to Character.   and they talk about in the book, they give different examples of people throughout history. And they're not exceptional, like saintly people. They're people who are normal people, but what they did that is atypical for what our culture does now is they stuck with things even when it was tough.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:09.682) Mm-hmm.   Joe Fairless (16:09.998) and instead of bouncing from thing to thing because what happens is when you bounce from thing to thing you don't get an expertise you don't get the the depth of knowledge the scars that that you need in order to be truly exceptional at that one thing and it's just surface level   And it'd be like if you feed your kids candy for every meal. I mean, it's same thing. You can't live on mental candy, right? You gotta have some substance. You gotta go through things.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (16:43.06) Yeah, I love that man. I love that metaphor. I love that. Like you've got to get reps, whether the times are great or an easy or whether they're hard. And those hard reps are the ones that are really going to set you up for success down the line. Like if you're able to execute in the hard times, then when times turn good again, you're going to be at the top, right? You're going to be cream of the crop. What do you, what do you think it is about you and maybe your company that's enabled you to do that, to stick?   to multifamily and not say, ooh, you know what, I'm a really good marketer so I can raise capital for anything if I really want to, right? You're in that position and what is it about you and your company that's been able to allow you to stick to multifamily and just stick to it during these hard times?   Joe Fairless (17:32.762) the fundamentals are there. I mean, you could make an argument that if we were office investors, and I have some friends who are really keen on investing in office now and in the future, but you could very easily make an argument that with the amount of office space that people have currently, you don't need as much of that space.   It's not a five, you know, three to five to seven year play. Maybe it's a 20 to 50 year play. I don't know. Who the hell knows what's going to happen with office and working from home and AI and automation and all that. But with multifamily, the challenge is capital markets. Now there are some other aspects like the hyper supply, which has tapered off.   because of the higher interest rates increase in you know insurance which has tapered off back to the single digits by and large but that that was a big thing property taxes depending on where you're at but the fundamentals are there people are renting and consumers for yeah unfortunately for generally you know for the general consumer their credit card debt   is going up. They're still paying off their credit card debt from purchases almost 12 months ago. More than half of people are paying off purchases for more than 12 months ago. that's so right now they've been out earning their income because income has been increasing. But what happens if that income stops increasing the way it has been?   the debt's not going anywhere, especially credit card debt, and that's certainly not going to make more first-time home buyers that dynamic. So the fundamentals are there, and not to mention we already have a housing shortage deficit, major deficit.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (19:50.866) Yeah, so it's the belief and it's the knowledge like it's the education like you you know that the fundamentals are there you you're you're basing your resilience in the market to What you're seeing in the data like hey, it's you know We we believe in this asset type because of the data that i'm Well educated and well versed in   Joe Fairless (20:09.752) Mm-hmm.   Joe Fairless (20:14.346) Absolutely.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (20:16.168) That's incredible. That's incredible. Has anything changed in the way that you potentially because you've got a deal that might be going through in the way that you either have raised capital recently or how you are going to raise capital for your next deal as compared to when it might have been a little bit easier, let's say five years ago from passive investors?   Joe Fairless (20:38.612) Yes, we have implemented a system that I'm sure a lot of your listeners have heard of EOS, Entrepreneur Operating System, and that has been very helpful. We just did our focus day a month ago, but we've hit the ground running and we have our, I think, Vision Day part one later this month and Vision Day two.   next month and that has allowed ownership among the team members to really thrive because team members are responsible for rocks or their goals but if you say goals instead of rock they'll the EOS person will slap your hand so I'll continue to say rock so they're responsible for rocks and it's just   It takes more, the individuals on the team have more ownership. So that's not something sexy or flashy that I think your question was getting to. So I'll say something else that has been helpful would be doing Facebook ads for getting new accredited investor leads.   at scale. That's the best way that we found to get credit investor leads at scale is through Facebook ads. And we have an agency that we work with. And I just hired a director of marketing who has some really good experience and he's overseeing them and the marketing team. And then   Another thing that has been helpful that where I'd say just scratching the surface I'm a big proponent of AI and how I believe We are in the middle of a major change for our society with because of AI I think it is just as major of a change as it as it as when we all got internet in our homes   Joe Fairless (22:51.602) on a personal computer. I think it's that big to have access to, just think about phone books to Googling something on your computer. So with AI we've incorporated it and are incorporating as much as possible in one aspect to address your question about how we're doing things differently. One aspect.   is that on our investor calls, our prospective investor calls, we record them. They know it's being recorded and on a recorded line. We have an AI service that then takes the information from the call and grades the call. But then not only that is we look at, those investors, which ones of those investors invest?   What did we say? What did they say on those calls? What are some common commonalities? Which ones didn't invest? What did they say? What did we say? And starting to identify trends and words and topics to talk about and to address on the calls to increase the conversion rate.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (24:07.048) That's great, man. I love it. You kind of went full circle there. You've got EOS, which I'm a huge proponent of. We use that across the various companies that I have, some form or another. There's got to be a framework of organization and accountability and being able to look back and say, hey, we've had this problem before and here's how we solved it before. Or hey, this problem is still occurring from last week's L10 meeting. What do we need to do to improve it? How do we solve that issue?   Joe Fairless (24:33.166) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (24:36.712) How do we keep moving forward rather than, what did we talk about last week or what did we talk about last month? You've got to have a way to organize things and a way to solve issues organizationally, especially as you grow. So EOS, huge proponent of it, man. I mean, it's awesome. Like you have to have some form of it, even if it's not to a T with the book, Traction is where that comes from. You have to implement some form of organization and framework for your company. And then like you said,   Joe Fairless (24:41.389) Yeah.   Joe Fairless (24:56.575) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:03.284) you know, with AI, everyone has to stay on the forefront of what's going on right now. I know I was even a little resistant myself. was like, chat GPT, is that? Eh, you know, and put it off for a little bit. And then once you start using that, along with all the other things as well, I'm just using that as kind of a baseline, but just learning how to use chat GPT in your everyday life, it's just a game changer. Because now your whole thought process changes. It's not like,   Joe Fairless (25:08.547) Yep.   Joe Fairless (25:20.14) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:31.22) I need to put together this entire article or blog post. It's like, how do I prompt it correctly to to produce this blog post or this article in my voice and then edit it through that or, you know, all these different things you figure out, like how to prompt rather than how to actually take this solution all the way from start to finish. Let that technology tell you how to do it. So it's awesome. And then Facebook ads as well.   Joe Fairless (25:45.206) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (25:58.964) you've got to really dial those things in, right? It can be a money pit, but at the same time, if you can master that, and it sounds like you hired an agency that's very industry specific, which helps out a lot. And from what I've seen, we have gems, we have a capital raising business, we have all these different things, and finding somebody that's niche to that industry is super important.   Joe Fairless (26:22.434) That's right.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (26:25.756) I'd love to go back and stay on this capital raising subject, especially for people that just started out. So like now you're doing EOS, now you're using AI, now you're using Facebook ads, do you have some capital to be able to invest in those ads? What about for somebody that's just kind of starting out? they're, you know, maybe this is their first fund to fund or, you know, their first property that they're raising capital for. Like how do they effectively launch their first   Capital Race.   Joe Fairless (26:56.59) Well, I would read the book that I wrote on syndication because I walked through the whole process of that best ever syndication book. So, but for this this relatively short conversation, I'd say first,   Seth Bradley, Esq. (27:04.404) Great book.   Joe Fairless (27:19.606) People have to make sure you have to make sure that people perceive you and you are actually a real estate expert and That because you might have you might have been if this your first one first deal then I'm assuming you came from some other industry or   If it was real estate, maybe you're a property manager, they don't know about all aspects of your expertise as it relates to real estate. you've got to, by having a thought leadership platform, you'll interview others who have that experience, you'll continue to learn, hone your skills, and then you'll also be associated with those who have those skill sets, and that will be helpful for you.   Once you do that, assuming that you are the expert and you are also perceived as the expert, then what I would do, and what I did actually on my very first one is I created a spreadsheet. And the spreadsheet had the name of the person, how I knew them, and then,   What I did is I wrote down all the different names and then how I knew them. So for example, I was on the alumni advisory board for Texas Tech. I was on a flag football team in New York. I wrote someone's name down there. On my flag football team, was working at different companies. I worked at different companies, so I wrote down different coworkers at different companies.   the key here for doing it this way is identifying the person. So then you sort them by how you know them. all the people from the flag football team would be sorted together. All the people from XYZ company would be sorted together. And then you identify the most influential person within that group. And you talk to him or her.   Joe Fairless (29:39.306) about your opportunity. And once you talk to him or her about the opportunity, and if they find it appealing or at least they want to learn more about it, then you can go to the next person in that group and you can name check. You can say, I was just talking to Seth about this and he's got some follow-up questions about it and I thought it also would make sense to talk to you about it too.   So then you come in a little warm with the group dynamic versus if you come in cold on an individual level.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:11.924) Mm-hmm.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (30:18.822) I like that man. That's a very, very nuanced strategy tidbit there. What I really heard was, you know, authenticity and authority, authenticity in that. Yeah, you've got to educate yourself. You've got to be a real estate expert if that's what you're raising capital for and authority. And then you've got to show people, you know, why you're the expert, why you know all these things, why they should listen to you to invest in something like this and even leveraging the authority of others with that.   that strategy where you go to this influential person and say, look, this person likes this deal too, and here's why. And then they can go to them and they kind of look to them as additional authority because they kind of look to them as that thought leader or that leader in general. So pretty great, man. Start wrapping this up, but this is kind of a nuanced question that I love to ask and ...   Because once upon a time I went to I went to med school for a little while and then I dropped out and because I just I hated it knew it wasn't for me and I'm going to law school and then got into real estate. So you know in a parallel universe tell me about a different version of you a different but likely version of you if you didn't exist as you do today because right now you know you're you're an apartment buyer you're a great marketer you're an entrepreneur.   Joe Fairless (31:38.164) I'd say I really enjoy coaching my daughter in soccer. I do not know soccer. I grew up in Texas. I played football. I played baseball. I ran track in that order. There wasn't a soccer option or maybe even a soccer ball in Texas when I was growing up. But I enjoy coaching and in an alternative universe, I would   I would do more of that because time is, it flies whenever I'm doing that.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:15.036) Awesome, awesome. All right, Joe, for our listeners out there, what can they find out more about you?   Joe Fairless (32:21.494) You can go to AshcroftCapital.com and if you're looking at passive investing or if you're an operator or someone who is partnering with others, then my conference is a good place to be. It's besteverconference.com. It's gonna be March 3rd and 4th in Salt Lake City this year.   I can get a discount code to your people too.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (32:52.51) Great, yeah, I'll drop that in the show notes and I'll see you there, Joe. So we'll shake hands in person. So thanks again for coming on the show. Really appreciate it and we'll catch you next time.   Joe Fairless (32:57.304) Sweet. Awesome.   Joe Fairless (33:05.518) You know what, in just a second, I'm gonna just tell you the code, that way you don't have to do any work. Whenever I do a podcast and someone says, I'll send it to you, I'm like, more work for me to do later. So, all right, here's a code. Hurry 25, it'll be 25 % off all ticket types. H-U-R-R-Y, all lowercase, and then number 25, you get 25 % off all tickets, except for the LP ticket.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:09.917) Okay.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:13.808) Yeah, I know then you gotta follow up.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:35.924) Let's roll right into these million dollar questions and then I'll let you go.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:44.884) Alright Joe, let's jump into this. So, how did you make your first million dollars?   Joe Fairless (33:52.185) Same way I made my last one so spoiler alert. It's it's selling when a deal exited so The is probably The seventh or eighth Deal I had one million dollars on one transaction, right? Like is that chunk about? Yeah, I   Seth Bradley, Esq. (33:55.56) Hahaha   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:12.767) Really million dollars in your net worth   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:17.96) What puts you over the edge there? How did you grow that first million?   Joe Fairless (34:21.626) I lost my first million before I ever came across it. That was on the very first deal. It would just be, it'd probably be through an exit of a deal.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:26.056) Ha   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:35.614) Sure, yeah, and I'll bet it's probably similar. mean, how are you gonna, how are you planning on making your next million dollars? Same thing, the apartments, all about apartments, man. I love it, singular focus, that's where it's at. mean, riches are in the niches.   Joe Fairless (34:41.144) Same thing. Yep. The apartments. All apartments. That's right.   Yep.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (34:52.564) All right, you're clearly in the top 1 % of what you do. What is it about you that separates you from the rest of the field?   Joe Fairless (34:58.958) Mmm.   I do what I say I'm gonna do. And sadly, that separates me from a lot of people, not all people.   but that's a big focus of mine. And it's not about my, I recently read something that resonated and that was don't focus on your reputation, focus on your character. Reputation is such a vanity metric, but the character is who you are when no one's looking and being proud of who you are. And that's vital to me.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (35:37.524) Yeah, and it's not just saying what you're going to do to other people, but also with yourself, right? To yourself.   Joe Fairless (35:43.726) Mmm good point. Yeah when you're when when I'm on those runs and I can just stop Whenever I want But then I'll be I'll know I'll know I didn't go through this, you know, you know made up finish line that I had predetermined in my head and And that's that's there's there's something to be said there. I'm glad you brought that up   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:10.644) Yeah, that's that's the key right? It's not just when somebody when it's dependent on somebody else or somebody else is watching It's you know, what do you do when nobody's watching and what do you do when it's just a promise to yourself? Do you follow through do you keep those promises things as easy as hey when you set your alarm in the morning and you wake up Do you do you get up or do you hit the snooze button? Like you made a promise to yourself the night before to wake up and get up when that alarm goes off Do you keep that promise?   Joe Fairless (36:15.415) Mm-hmm.   Joe Fairless (36:25.229) Yeah.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:39.12) Awesome. All right, brother. I think that should do it. I will see you. I'll see you at BC, man.   Joe Fairless (36:46.42) Awesome. I appreciate it. yeah, if anything you can do to help get to get the word out about the conference to your email list, I'd appreciate that also. All right. Thanks, Seth. All right. Bye.   Seth Bradley, Esq. (36:57.404) Absolutely. All right, brother. Talk soon. See you. Links from the Show and Guest Info and Links: Seth Bradley's Links: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq?lang=en   Joe Fairless's Links: https://www.facebook.com/imjoefairless https://x.com/joefairless https://www.linkedin.com/in/joefairless/ https://ashcroftcapital.com/our-team/joe-fairless/ https://www.instagram.com/besteverpodcast/?hl=en

Setting Boundaries as a Young Lawyer: "And being able to discern what you can do, what you can't do, what you should do, and what you shouldn't do as you start practice." - Steve PalmerI'm sharing a lesson that stuck with me from right after my own law school days: a lawyer is not a bus. Troy and I dive into what that really means—why you don't have to stop for every client, why saying “no” can save your career, and how vital it is to set boundaries, especially when you're just getting started or when family and friends come calling for favors.We talk candidly about the challenges you face outside the classroom, like handling “can't you just…” requests, resisting the temptation to take every case (even for Aunt Joanne!), and balancing the desire to help with the realities of making a living. I draw from my own war stories and mistakes so you can avoid the same pitfalls—particularly around ethical responsibilities, pro bono work, and the constant pressure to do more than you should.Here are 3 key takeaways from the episode:Lawyers aren't obligated to take every case. Just because someone asks (even Aunt Joanne!) doesn't mean you have to say yes. Saying “no” — and setting healthy boundaries — is vital to avoid overcommitment and professional pitfalls.Beware of the “Can't You Just...” Trap. Clients (and family) will often push for free or heavily discounted legal help, asking, “Can't you just write a letter?” These situations rarely end well and can drain your time, energy, and resources.Pro bono is a choice, not an obligation. While giving back is important, the decision to do pro bono work should be yours. Don't let guilt or pressure dictate when, how, or for whom you volunteer your services.Moments00:00 Understanding Professional Ethics in Law04:29 Right to Decline Client Representation08:41 Learning to Say No in Law10:37 "Recognizing Problematic Client Cases"13:31 Doing God's Work vs. Paid Work16:59 "No Guarantees, Only Effort"22:25 "Lawyer's Time Is Valuable"24:58 Selective Pro Bono Participation26:45 Not My Area of ExpertiseSubmit your questions to www.lawyertalkpodcast.com.Recorded at Channel 511.Stephen E. Palmer, Esq. has been practicing criminal defense almost exclusively since 1995. He has represented people in federal, state, and local courts in Ohio and elsewhere.Though he focuses on all areas of criminal defense, he particularly enjoys complex cases in state and federal courts.He has unique experience handling and assembling top defense teams of attorneys and experts in cases involving allegations of child abuse (false sexual allegations, false physical abuse allegations), complex scientific cases involving allegations of DUI and vehicular homicide cases with blood alcohol tests, and any other criminal cases that demand jury trial experience.Steve has unique experience handling numerous high publicity cases that have garnered national attention.For more information about Steve and his law firm, visit Palmer Legal Defense. Copyright 2025 Stephen E. Palmer - Attorney At Law Mentioned in this episode:Circle 270 Media Podcast ConsultantsCircle 270 Media® is a podcast consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in helping businesses develop, launch, and optimize podcasts as part of their marketing strategy. The firm emphasizes the importance of storytelling through podcasting to differentiate businesses...

In this episode, Toby Mathis, Esq., of Anderson Business Advisors, sits down with Ryan Gibson from Spartan Investment Group to discuss the current housing market and the unique opportunities in self-storage investing. They explore how the housing market has changed with low transaction volumes due to homeowners holding onto low-interest-rate mortgages, creating opportunities in alternative real estate sectors. Ryan explains how self-storage offers advantages over traditional rental properties, including no evictions, automated operations, and steady cash flow. The discussion covers Spartan's approach to acquiring mom-and-pop storage facilities and professionalizing their operations, the different investment strategies in self-storage, and how millennials have become the largest demographic using storage facilities. With over 800 million dollars in assets under management and a track record of 16 successful exits, Ryan shares insights on market consolidation, value-add opportunities, and why self-storage has been the best-performing commercial real estate asset class. Highlights/Topics: (00:00) Intro (00:58) Current Housing Market Update (05:20) Self Storage Investing Benefits (08:33) How to Consider Investing in Self-Storage (12:39) Different Types of Strategies (15:40) Big Opportunities (19:23) Millennials are Using Self-Storage the Most (21:33) Self Storage is a Great Asset (22:44) Outro Share this with business owners you know Resources: Learn more about Ryan Gibson and Spartan-Investors https://spartan-investors.com/ https://spartan-investors.com/ Schedule Your FREE Consultation https://andersonadvisors.com/strategy-session/?utm_source=this-boring-real-estate-asset-is-crushing-it-in-2025&utm_medium=podcast Tax and Asset Protection Events https://andersonadvisors.com/real-estate-asset-protection-workshop-training/?utm_source=this-boring-real-estate-asset-is-crushing-it-in-2025&utm_medium=podcast Anderson Advisors https://andersonadvisors.com/ Toby Mathis YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TobyMathis Toby Mathis TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@tobymathisesq Clint Coons YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@ClintCoons  

Expert legal voices Amy Epstein Gluck, Esq., founding partner at Pearson Ferdinand LLP, and SHRM's Allen Smith, J.D., share best practices in applying the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) across the full employee lifecycle, from recruitment to post-employment. Starting with their own personal experiences with managing a disability, they join host Monique Akanbi to tackle real HR dilemmas in compliance, accommodation requests, performance management, and more — including answering top ADA questions straight from SHRM's HR Knowledge Center. This podcast is approved for .5 PDCs toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification. Listen to the complete episode to get your activity ID at the end. ID expires August 1, 2026. Subscribe to Honest HR to get the latest episodes, expert insights, and additional resources delivered straight to your inbox: https://shrm.co/voegyz---Explore SHRM's all-new flagships. Content curated by experts. Created for you weekly. Each content journey features engaging podcasts, video, articles, and groundbreaking newsletters tailored to meet your unique needs in your organization and career. Learn More: https://shrm.co/coy63r

You've got the big thinking ideas, but are you still thinking small when it comes to protecting them?When I re-branded to She Thinks Big, it wasn't just about titling my book or renaming this podcast. It encompasses my entire brand and business. I had to trademark it to ensure nobody else could claim it, and Cheri Andrews was the attorney who helped me do it.  In this episode of She Thinks Big, Cheri reveals everything you need to know about trademarks. Whether you're just starting your business or have been at it for a while, she'll clear up the confusion about when, why, and how to trademark your intellectual property. 3:18 – What intellectual property (IP) is, the different types, and its purpose7:58 – The best time to start thinking about trademarking 10:08 – What to consider when choosing a name to trademark and the cost of having an un-trademarkable one13:34 – What you can expect during the trademarking process and how long it takes21:28 – The surprising truth about the trademark and registered symbols and when you can use them23:00 – Why you can lose the rights to your trademark even after it's registered25:54 – The impact of a trademark on the value of your business27:30 – Misconceptions about LLC business names and trademarks being reserved for big business30:08 –  Your next best steps if you're thinking about trademarking an IPConnect with Cheri AndrewsCheri Andrews is a speaker, author, small business attorney, and expert in intellectual property. After an award-winning career with over 30 years of legal expertise, she left law firms and corporate settings to start a company where she could practice law her way and donate a percentage of revenue to charity. She works primarily with heart-centered, service-oriented, women entrepreneurs to help protect their business, move forward with confidence, and sleep better at night. With a holistic approach, she addresses concerns you may not even know you have and proactively resolves them so that they don't turn into legal problems.Cheri D. Andrews, Esq. | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTubeBook a Call with CheriMentioned In She Thinks Big, So She Trademarked It with Small Business Attorney Cheri AndrewsUnited States Patent and Trademark Office ® (USPTO)She Thinks Big by Andrea LiebrossAndrea's LinksBook a Call With AndreaAndrea on LinkedIn, Instagram, and FacebookYou don't need is another endless list of ideas or tools or generic advice, what you do need is personalized clarity. Well, good news. I've created something just for you, my brand-new quiz called, Are You Ready to Scale Big? Pinpoint exactly where you are in your entrepreneurial journey and get the customized guidance you need to unlock your next big step at andrealiebross.com/quiz.

“Can I appeal my conviction or sentence if I pleaded guilty?” I break down the realities of what happens when you plead guilty, how that decision limits your rights on appeal, and whether there's any hope of changing your sentence after the fact.I'll walk you through real-world scenarios I've seen in Ohio courts, explain the “magic words” judges have to say when handing down sentences, and why it's rarely a home run to challenge a sentence after a guilty plea. If you're thinking, “I'll just appeal if I don't like my sentence,” you'll want to hear my candid advice before heading down that road. Top 3 Takeaways:A guilty plea is a total admission: Once you plead guilty, the court and everyone else in the process will treat you as guilty, both legally and factually.Appealing a sentence is limited and rare: After a guilty plea, you can sometimes appeal the sentence, especially if you receive the maximum sentence or if "magic words" (required legal justifications) are missing from the judge's explanation. However, reversing or reducing the sentence through appeal is statistically rare.Be fully informed before pleading guilty: Don't assume you can “just appeal” if you're unhappy with your sentence. Talk to your attorney, weigh the risks, and make sure your decision to plead is made knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily.Submit your questions to www.lawyertalkpodcast.com.Recorded at Channel 511.Stephen E. Palmer, Esq. has been practicing criminal defense almost exclusively since 1995. He has represented people in federal, state, and local courts in Ohio and elsewhere.Though he focuses on all areas of criminal defense, he particularly enjoys complex cases in state and federal courts.He has unique experience handling and assembling top defense teams of attorneys and experts in cases involving allegations of child abuse (false sexual allegations, false physical abuse allegations), complex scientific cases involving allegations of DUI and vehicular homicide cases with blood alcohol tests, and any other criminal cases that demand jury trial experience.Steve has unique experience handling numerous high publicity cases that have garnered national attention.For more information about Steve and his law firm, visit Palmer Legal Defense. Copyright 2025 Stephen E. Palmer - Attorney At Law Mentioned in this episode:Circle 270 Media Podcast ConsultantsCircle 270 Media® is a podcast consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in helping businesses develop, launch, and optimize podcasts as part of their marketing strategy. The firm emphasizes the importance of storytelling through podcasting to differentiate businesses and engage with their audiences effectively. www.circle270media.com

THE MIRYAM INSTITUTE ADOPT-A-HOSTAGE INITIATIVEThe Honorable Brian And Marty KempGovernor & First Lady Of The State Of GeorgiaHost Public Press Briefing In Solidarity With Evyatar DavidIsraeli Hostage Held In Hamas Captivity.This Briefing Features:• Opening Remarks By Mr. Bart Cohen & Ms. Eden Doniger, Esq.• Statement Of Solidarity By Governor Kemp• Call To Action By Ilay David, Brother Of Evyatar David.On Thursday, July 10th, Governor Brian Kemp & First Lady Marty Kemp hosted a public press briefing at the State Capitol in support of hostage Evyatar David and all of the hostages still held in Hamas captivity. The MirYam Institute Adopt-A-Hostage campaign wishes to express profound thanks to the Governor and First Lady for their commitment to the release of Israel's hostages. We also applaud and distinguish Mr. Bart Cohen, Mr. Aaron Diamant and Ms. Eden Doniger, Esq., for their volunteer leadership and for bringing this important briefing to fruition. We are particularly grateful to Rozita Pnini, Co-Founder of The MirYam Institute, for her leadership and tireless organizational efforts on behalf of all the hostages and the David family.Evyatar David, was abducted by Hamas during the October 7 Nova music festival. He has been held hostage for over 648 days.Support the showThe MirYam Institute. Israel's Future in Israel's Hands.Subscribe to our podcast: https://podfollow.com/1493910771Follow The MirYam Institute X: https://bit.ly/3jkeUyxFollow Benjamin Anthony X: https://bit.ly/3hZeOe9Like Benjamin Anthony Facebook: https://bit.ly/333Ct93Like The MirYam Institute Facebook: https://bit.ly/2SarHI3Follow Benjamin Anthony Instagram: https://bit.ly/30m6uPGFollow The MirYam Institute Instagram: https://bit.ly/3l5fvED

One of the big questions that's been coming up everywhere lately: how does the First Amendment actually work when it comes to online pornography? In this episode, I break down the recent Supreme Court case, Free Speech Coalition Inc. v. Paxton, which addresses whether states can require age verification pop-ups on adult websites and whether that crosses the line into unconstitutional territory.I'll walk you through the basics of how the courts view content-based regulation versus time, place, and manner restrictions, and why that distinction matters for everything from protests on the statehouse lawn to what you see on your favorite websites. We'll talk about why challenges to these regulations are so important, what makes something pass constitutional muster, and where things might be headed next in the ever-evolving world of free speech and online content.If you love digging into constitutional law, or if you simply want to understand how these headlines affect your rights, this episode is for you. Got a question? Head over to lawyertalkpodcast.com, send it my way, and let's keep the conversation going. 3 Key Takeaways:Content-Based vs. Time, Place, and Manner:Content-based regulations, where the government restricts speech based on its message, are almost always unconstitutional. By contrast, time, place, and manner restrictions (imposing rules about when, where, or how speech happens) are generally permissible if applied fairly and equally.Strict Scrutiny Applies:Content-based restrictions are subjected to the strictest legal scrutiny and rarely survive court challenges. Time, place, and manner restrictions, if neutral and reasonable, tend to fare better legally.Slippery Slope & Future Concerns:The age verification requirement for adult content raises important “what's next?” questions. Could similar regulations creep into academic, legal, or other sensitive content areas? How might new rules affect non-pornographic but still controversial discussions or resources online?Got a question you want answered on the podcast? Call 614-859-2119 and leave us a voicemail. Steve will answer your question on the next podcast!Submit your questions to www.lawyertalkpodcast.com.Recorded at Channel 511.Stephen E. Palmer, Esq. has been practicing criminal defense almost exclusively since 1995. He has represented people in federal, state, and local courts in Ohio and elsewhere.Though he focuses on all areas of criminal defense, he particularly enjoys complex cases in state and federal courts.He has unique experience handling and assembling top defense teams of attorneys and experts in cases involving allegations of child abuse (false sexual allegations, false physical abuse allegations), complex scientific cases involving allegations of DUI and vehicular homicide cases with blood alcohol tests, and any other criminal cases that demand jury trial experience.Steve has unique experience handling numerous high-publicity cases that have garnered national attention.For more information about Steve and his law firm, visit Palmer Legal Defense. Copyright 2025 Stephen E. Palmer - Attorney At Law Mentioned in this episode:Circle 270 Media Podcast ConsultantsCircle 270 Media® is a podcast consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in helping businesses develop, launch, and optimize podcasts as part of...

If you've ever wondered why your law firm isn't showing up on Google—or what to do about it—this episode is your playbook. Guest host Bridgit Norris sits down with Lindsey Busfield, Vice President and Director of Operations at Optimize My Firm, to unpack what it really takes to build lasting visibility through SEO and content marketing. Whether you're doing it yourself or paying someone else to handle it, you'll learn how to make smarter decisions, avoid common traps, and start attracting more qualified leads without throwing money at paid ads. This isn't fluff—it's a direct line to better results, more clarity, and a sustainable way to grow online. If you're serious about taking control of your digital presence, hit play now.