In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Addison Watson discuss:
- Building and sustaining a law practice through intentional business development
- The challenges of transitioning from large firm life to independent or entrepreneurial practice
- The influence of mindset, discipline, and mentorship on legal career growth
- The evolving role of technology and AI in shaping modern legal careers and firm structures
Key Takeaways:
- Failing to invest time in networking and business development early in one’s career can severely limit future autonomy and opportunity.
- Setting aside even one weekly breakfast, coffee, or lunch meeting can spark lasting professional relationships that later generate referrals.
- Attorneys who treat themselves as entrepreneurs—outsourcing low-value tasks and tracking ROI—free more time for growth and client work.
- Lawyers who own a portable “book of business” gain control over their careers, whether moving laterally or launching a solo practice, and are less threatened by AI or firm instability.
“If you feel the anxiety of being an entrepreneur, it might not be for you.” — Addison Watson
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Episode References:
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki: https://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Teach-Middle/dp/1612680194
Tees and CLEs take place April 15–17, 2026, at the Arizona Grand Resort & Spa, uniting legal professionals for accredited education, networking, and a round or two of golf: https://www.teesandcles.com/
About Addison Watson: Addison Watson is the founder of Summit Legal Consulting, a Birmingham-based firm that helps businesses and law firms close deals efficiently and build smarter legal operations. Leveraging his background as a corporate attorney at Balch & Bingham LLP and his current role as General Counsel at ClickFunnels, Addison brings a dealmaker’s mindset to every client engagement. He’s also the co-founder of Tees and CLEs, an annual event combining accredited legal education with networking and golf for attorneys nationwide. A graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law, Addison is passionate about blending legal strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation to redefine how modern lawyers practice and connect.
Connect with Addison Watson:
Website: https://www.teesandcles.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/addison-watson/ & https://www.linkedin.com/company/slc205/
Connect with Steve Fretzin:
LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin
Twitter: @stevefretzin
Instagram: @fretzinsteve
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: Fretzin.com
Email: [email protected]
Book: Legal Business Development Isn’t Rocket Science and more!
YouTube: Steve Fretzin
Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Steve Fretzin [00:00]
Hey everybody, if you want to be that lawyer, you’re going to want to stand out and get noticed and attract more clients. This is where my new show be that lawyer Coaches Corner. And it’s all about that. I share marketing strategies that work for lawyers about wasting time or money. We’ve got episodes up live now. Search be that lawyer Coach’s Corner and subscribe.
Narrator [00:21]
You’re listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode your host, author and lawyer coach, Steve Fretzin, will take a deeper dive helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now here’s your host, Steve Fretzin.
Steve Fretzin [00:42]
Hey everybody, welcome back. It’s Steve Fretzin, and this is the be that lawyer podcast, super excited that you’re here, and is always looking to give you all the things that you need to do to be that lawyer, confident, organized and a skilled Rainmaker. Again, another quick update, if you haven’t checked out future rainmakers with Steve Fretzin, my other podcast. Go check that out. That’ll be up and running, and give you direct feedback on how to be that lawyer and how to make it without selling and all the fun things I teach every day. So definitely go back into your and subscribe to that and check out that show. I think we’re already 678, episodes in on that. Addison, I’m going to take a breath and say, Hello. How are you doing? Great, Steve, thanks for having me on. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I knew as soon as we met that this was going to be a match made in heaven, and that we were going to work well together. And it always starts with the quote of the show, and this is one of my favorites. In fact, I probably find myself not attributing I don’t take credit for it, but I’m not. I just kind of say it because it’s so true, and it is, Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it. I guess you mentioned that you heard it first from Lou Holtz, but it’s attributed to chuck Swindell. But welcome to the show, and tell us why you love that quote so much.
Addison Watson [01:52]
Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. So the quote itself, the first time I heard it, legendary football coach Lou Holtz said it, and I was like, you know, that’s a really neat quote. And I heard this when I was really young. I grew up in rural Mississippi, and that has its own challenges than itself, but I also grew up in a single parent household in Mississippi and grew up playing soccer, which are all things that are not common for someone who’s trying to be overly successful in Mississippi. But I heard the quote, and to me, I internalized it a bunch, and was just like, you know, you can have any circumstance. You can be dealt a hand of cards that you don’t love, but it’s what you’re dealt. The next step is, how do you build off that? How do you make the most out of what you’ve been given? And the way that I always say it, and my wife probably hates to hear it nowadays, but I always say, no matter how bad someone has it, you always have it better than somebody else, right? And I hate to say that, but it’s the God’s honest truth. So like I mentioned, grew up in rural Mississippi, single parent household. College was, you know, kind of a little bit of a far cry for me, but I excelled in soccer, and so I went and played at Missouri State University afterward. Men’s soccer team. Picked up a few accolades there, but did most of my schooling online. Because, again, schooling was just like, not the thing for me. I knew in high school I always wanted to go to law school and do contracts and transactional type work, which is an odd thing for someone in high school to say, like, is
Steve Fretzin [03:14]
it because you knew a lawyer, or you just, like, saw law shows? Or like, how did you even think about that?
Addison Watson [03:20]
That’s the perfect question, because being from Mississippi, you don’t have a ton of idols, right? Like, for me, it was Brett Farve and John Grisham. And so I was not, I could not throw a football quite as good as Brett. So I knew it was going to come down to all the John grishams I read got me super interested, got me energized. He’s actually an alum of Ole Miss law school, the same as me, and so it was almost just bringing the circle all the way back. And it was fantastic. Loved Ole Miss. It was great. Straight out of Ole Miss. I took a job at a midsize regional firm in the southeast, in Birmingham, Alabama, Boston, Bingham, and did primarily m a work which I loved. And then I know we’ll get to the piece now, but I grew out of that role a little bit a little bit quicker than most people do, because they you begin to realize you want to do things differently. You want to be your own kind of lawyer and be that lawyer. And that’s not necessarily for the big firm model. A lot of times,
Steve Fretzin [04:13]
yeah, and again, I think you’ve got big firms with different types of cultures and experiences. And there’s a number of people that have been on this show who talk about, you know, the service partner role at a law firm. And we all know it’s either you’re up or you’re out, and you can be a service partner for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, maybe. But I think mostly we’re finding that there’s a shelf life. And the lawyers who are thriving are, you know, they’re going to take matters into their own hands, and the ones that don’t absolutely little bit up up to risk, and then they go look in house, thinking that’s a solution. Talk to a gentleman this morning who he’s had five jobs in five years, from solo to big law to and it’s nicest guy in the world, smart as a whip, and he’s not really, you know, sure his, you know the job’s gonna be around like it’s just all very, you know, questionable. Because he’s not really in control,
Addison Watson [05:02]
right, right? And that’s the way the world has trended. If you’re not in control of your destiny, you’re not in control your destiny, right? Like if you are not the person who’s building up that book, building up the interest that you want to pursue, you’re always at someone else’s whim. And so you can be the smartest, best lawyer that’s out there, but if you can’t put that into a game plan to create the business for yourself, you’re always going to be subject to, you know, this partner, and I blew him off for dinner, so he’s not sending work my way anymore, right? Like you just never want to be in that circumstance, at least in my opinion. So I think that actually lines up. One of the questions that we talked about previously was, you know, a favorite book, and if you ever hear me talk, I will send any of my friends a free copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Anybody that’s interested in hearing the word, I will absolutely send you Robert Kiyosaki book. And that’s where it really cemented in my mind, like, Hey, I didn’t grow up with this mentality, but I can change it now and be the master of my destiny, yeah,
Steve Fretzin [06:02]
and, you know, it’s not easy. If you think about a big firm, or even a solo who is so slammed by business, which seems like a great thing, slammed by business billing, you know, 5060, you know, hours a week. And then on top of that, has to somehow figure out, how do I go out and develop my own book? And by the way, at the big law it’s like, all right, I bring in $100,000 matter. Great. They don’t want it. They want the million dollar matter, right? They won’t even look at $100,000 matter. So you’re like, there’s all these things working against lawyers in many ways. So what’s your take on how lawyers, whether a big firm, mid market, whatever, need to start developing relationships and developing business when they’re under that heavy workload and pressure.
Addison Watson [06:46]
Yeah, you know, it really does start Steve at the associate level. It’s not preached enough. You’ll hear it in law school. That was what I heard all the time. What is the biggest takeaway? And every speaker that we had would come in and say, network, network, network, make connections and start to nourish those connections. That’s something I failed at in my first few years in private practice, and that’s because, like you mentioned, you’ve got this heavy workload. I realized toward the end of my second year in practice, I was like, I’m just not meeting people. I’m up here all day and all night, like, this is not this isn’t going to be me forever. I can’t do this forever. I’m a little more outgoing than most transactional lawyers, so I do like to talk to people on occasion, but the big issue is, you’ve got such a heavy workload and you just feel like you’re spending all the time. The way that I began to counteract that was I specifically would set aside time in my calendar at least once. It started as once a week, I would get either a breakfast, coffee or a lunch with someone else who worked downtown, whether I knew them, whether it was a friend of a friend, and we just start building a relationship. We just talk, just get to know them. That’s how I started playing in my soccer league in town. I met a guy who knew a guy, and then now that’s one of my best friends. He’s referred plenty of business to me, although that’s not the original intention. You just start to meet people, and if you find people who have that same interest as you, it’ll just evolve over time. But you have to be intentional. If you’re not intentional about it, it very few lawyers just fall into great business development, but
Steve Fretzin [08:15]
it’s always going to get pushed down. Addison, right? Like you got a workload, it’s always going to get pushed down. So how do we push it up. And that’s really the not the promised land, but that’s the starting point for many attorneys, is figuring that out, for example, like, where’s some low hanging fruit, right? Like, I have friends that are GCS, and they could get me work, but I’ve never talked to them because I’m in the friend zone, or there’s I’m a part of a private club, or I’m on a board, or I’m part of a church or a temple, and I’m not meeting with anybody individually. This is the these are people who already like me, know me, trust me, and I just haven’t even brought up that I’m a lawyer, and I’m thinking about, like, how can I do this? Well, there’s opportunity there. It’s just that maybe you don’t know how to open up that door.
Addison Watson [08:55]
Yeah, and that’s the other thing, Steve, is some people aren’t naturally good at promoting themselves. I’m a big advocate of working with coaches, working with people who can help you develop that level of business. It’s not just you’re not going to wake up one day and be that person that can go out and self promote if you’re not, if you’re struggle talking to people, if you have social anxiety, it’s okay to work with someone. It’s okay to start to figure out, hey, how do I do this in a way that’s going to lead me down that path that I want. And like you said, one of the first things out of my mouth when I meet people is certainly Hi, I’m not. I’m a lawyer, right? Like I typically, I want to get to know somebody on that personal level first. But making that transition from friend relationship or CO board member to, you know, attorney client relationship, that takes practice. It really does, and it might not come naturally. You’re going to fail at it a few times. People are going to ask you for free work over and over again. So getting into that sweet spot for that attorney client relationship, it’s where you want to end up, but you might just need help getting there.
Steve Fretzin [09:55]
Yeah, and I, again, not taught in law school. Everyone knows that it’s been set ad nauseum. And ultimately. Be, whether you’re an associate your new solo, you’re just trying to make equity like whatever situation you’re in. There’s two ways to do anything. One is to just figure it out on your own and take the time and effort and energy to learn something from nothing and move up and and make mistakes along the way and hope for the best. The other is to be a student of the game by investing time in learning and educating yourself through podcasts and books, articles, anything that you can find out there or to your point just directly, say, Hey Steve, or hey other coach, or whatever. Like, I don’t want to have to spend years figuring this out. Tell me what to do. Like, what’s the plan? What’s the process? How do I get from here to there and starting with a new client yesterday or on Saturday. Today’s Monday, and this is a gentleman who he’s moving to a new area where he has to build a law practice from nothing. You know, he’s in his 50s. He’s got a family, he’s had this whole other career, which is amazing. And so we sat together for an hour and a half on a Saturday and wrote a plan, and I could see the weight lifted off his shoulders, because we discussed like, this is what you actually have to do. And he realized he had been not fully kind of, you know, involved in some of the things he should be involved with, and should have been involved with, but now he will be involved with because I’m going to push him into it. It’s just sometimes it’s just hard to know the path. That I kept telling him, it’s like having a really high end GPS system, so it just tells you where to go, and then if you make a mistake, how quickly can we make a turn and get on a better path? And he really liked that analogy, I think,
Addison Watson [11:30]
yeah, and that’s a great one. And that’s the other piece. Steve is if you if we had all the answers as attorneys about how to develop the business, how to where to fit the product, market fit for your services, you wouldn’t need an outside person. If we could remove those blind spots, there would be no use, right? But that’s a big issue for us as attorneys. We see a lot of times we’re all specialized. You’re in your little niche area, and there’s something else that’s you’re not thinking of, whether that’s on your business development side or in your practice, and sometimes you just have to ask somebody for help. That’s as simple as that, but you know, we’re supposed to know all the answers, so it’s always hard for us to ask for that kind of help. Yeah, but
Steve Fretzin [12:06]
I think, you know, you’re hearing what people are hearing what we’re saying, and they’re saying, you know, maybe I need to ask for help. And it could be, again, a coach. It could be a rainmaker friend of yours. It could be someone who opened up their own firm five years ago, and it seems to be doing really well. Well, let’s sit down and grab a lunch. Let me pick your brain for an hour. I mean, geez, this sounds pretty amazing, and then you find out it’s horrible, okay? Well, maybe find someone else, but Right? Or you find out they’re really struggling and they’re not making any money. And you go, Well, I don’t want to do that. I’ve got to find a way to do this and not end up like my friend John, or whatever the name is. There’s a point, though, and I think it’s happening at a fairly solid pace right now. Of people considering leaving in house or established firms and striking out on their own. Are you seeing that too? Yeah.
Addison Watson [12:51]
And, you know, there’s no shock here, but we have a bit of an age gap between us and with a much younger than you. Yeah, yeah. That’s right, that’s right. That’s what it is. It’s just good genes over here, moisturize every night, right? There we go. But the with our generation, one of the new things that you see, and I’m early 30s, one of the things that you see with our generation is you see people getting nervous about the impact that AI is going to have on on the legal business in general. And you may not see that with older lawyers quite as much, and there’s a couple of reasons for that. One is that the younger attorneys have neglected business development for so long because it’s about getting in, cutting your teeth, putting in your hours, and just doing the work for somebody who’s got the relationships, whereas the older attorneys that are more established, they’ve got church connections, they’ve got their people whose kids play on softball teams together. You know, you’ve got that built in network where you’re starting to develop and people are trusting you. But for the earlier attorneys you’re you really fall into that struggle gap where it’s, Hey, I can do the work, but I don’t know anyone because I’ve just been so busy. And that’s where the business development issue is really coming in, and we’ll talk a little bit more about it, I’m sure. But that was one of the big pieces for me as to when I realized I was doing myself a disservice. By, you know, December 2020 when I hit 337 hours in a month, and was like, I feel terrible, and what do I have to show for it at the end of the day? Sure, we closed deals. That was great, but I wasn’t at home with my wife. I neglected my friends during that time, and the amount of the impact that that has on the people around you and your relationships. I mean, it can’t be understated, and especially it doesn’t give you an opportunity to go and meet new people. So it’s the business development fault that gets people concerned. If you’ve got to book a business, you’re not worried about AI’s impact on your business as much, because you know what, you’ve got people who are going to pick up the phone and call you and make sure that even if they find something AI generated, you’ve set eyes on it, because you’re that trusted individual. But that’s something that grows over time and just lunches, breakfastes, you know, golf outings, whatever it may be with. People who share a common interest with you,
Steve Fretzin [15:02]
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Addison Watson [17:38]
Yeah, without a doubt. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to immediately pivot and go hang a shingle, right? But you do see that a lot, a lot of people get that panic. They say, Hey, I know I’ve just been laid off from my job. We see that all too often in the news, and it says, Well, what do I do next? Well, you know, I I know something about x. I know people need x. So, like, I’ll just, I’ll start my own firm. And I’ve seen it, even with folks that I’ve graduated law school with, they’ve gone ahead and they have started a firm, and I’ll tell you, it’s the firm’s no longer existing, and they’ve gone back in, whether it’s in house or to a teaching role or something like that. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just a different career path. You if you feel the anxiety of being an entrepreneur, it might not be for you. You’ve got to have a little bit of extra optimism to be an entrepreneur, especially when you spend all day working out of your house and you hear your dog barking out the window every day. You just got to get it done.
Steve Fretzin [18:31]
There’s a sacrifice. I mean, no entrepreneur is successful without sacrifice. And if you just want quality of life with your your spouse and your pets and your kids or whatever it is, and you’re not going to put anything you know more into this, you know that’s going to be very challenging. Because even though there’s faster, better, stronger ways of doing anything, and it’s never been easier, like today, than it’s been in the past, low overhead and software and things that can get you up and running, which we’re going to talk about in a minute, very quickly, it doesn’t mean that it is easy. Otherwise everybody would just do it. So getting yourself set up as an associate. Start building relationships, start building some business, start educating yourself and be a student in the game. Get it maybe 100 200 $300,000 in your book of business, and you’re in a much better place to say, hey, you know what? Now I’m ready to go out on my own. I’ve got a little bit of a buffer, and I feel more comfortable than if I had nothing.
Addison Watson [19:23]
It’s worth a shot. If nothing else, you know, you’re creating relationships. Even people have dropped out of the practice of law recently just because of how much of a struggle they feel it is right now, with the emergence of different technologies and the competition, but nothing else, you’ve made new relationships. You’ve met new friends. It doesn’t have to turn into, you know, billable hours for you once you strike out, but in the best case scenario, it does right? And you’ve got a business that you can control. You’re the master of your own destiny, and you’re not subject to someone else’s whims. You got
Steve Fretzin [19:53]
to put in a little time up front to get things organized and to get the business and the business development everything working the benefit. Of that is that, especially if you’re in your 30s, I mean, that’s even the most incredible than if you’re in your 50s or 60s, but and then, you know, you’re 35 you’re 40 and everything now you’ve got an associate or two or three under you, doing all the work AI’s kicking in. You’re living this great lawyer’s life. And that’s sort of where I think a lot of lawyers want to be. But it’s not without some risk and some issues with the challenges that can happen from it. What would you say is the number one challenge of a lawyer can expect switching from like an established firm to creating their own business,
Addison Watson [20:32]
one you’re not going to have a paralegal or an administrative assistant to help you with the stuff that you just wouldn’t think about, right? When you’re a lawyer in a firm you may use, like at a rant or some kind of timekeeper, submit your time, and then it just goes off into the abyss. The bill get paid. Everyone’s happy, and you just keep doing your work, right? Well, when I open summit legal consulting, the big difference for me was okay. I kept my hour. I was diligent. Every single day in a firm I was going to put it in at the end of every single day, we had this beautiful software, I clicked the timer and put a matter number in, and everything was perfect. Well, I don’t have that now, because I’m not gonna I don’t have the startup funds to pay for that beautiful software, so I’m taking it by sticky note. Every single day you start taking it by sticky note, well, that’s great, but when you’re done with that, at the end of the day, you’re spending another 1520 minutes allocating it to where it’s supposed to go on a bill sheet, and it’s every little piece. And then maybe you have your lunch break. Well, instead of stepping out to go eat lunch with you know, a colleague, I’m researching, you know, Thompson, Reuters or LexisNexis to figure out what kind of extension I can get on my existing legal research. Because you’ve got to sort all those things out yourself. If you’ve got your own desk and office set up, that’s great. But if you don’t, if you pop in and you’re like, Hey, I’m just gonna hang a shingle, man, you’ve got to outfit the whole office. You got to do it all. And it’s a lot of that, again, turns into that time suck that keeps you from doing your business development. But in my experience, it’s absolutely worth it to take that short term, I would say extra like administrative type work. And you’re always going to have the administrative work, but getting set up in the first place, it’s a little bit more of an investment on the front end, but then you free yourself up to make those business development contacts as soon as you get moving and get the initial shock over, feels great.
Steve Fretzin [22:18]
Yeah, I would talk to if you’re thinking about going on in your own I would also talk to, you know, three to five lawyer friends that you have that have done it, and ask them, you know, what are the first five things I need to do that could be your tech stack, right? What’s your software? Is it practice? Panther? Is it smoke ball? Is it Clio? Is it lawmatics? What are you what’s your marketing channel? Okay, so, all right, so that I started with, by the way, I started, I don’t know about day one, but almost day one with a bookkeeper. I was like, All right, so right off the bat, I’ve got money coming in. Great. I don’t want to deal with invoicing. I don’t want to deal with monthly I don’t have to do any stuff. I need someone in that seat to do that. So I had a bookkeeper, and I’ve had a bookkeeper. I’ve been in business on over 21 years. I’ve had a bookkeeper. You can get vas. You need an assistant. You need a marketing person, whatever it is, day one, they’re eight to $12 an hour now to get somebody in your corner to help you with that stuff. So I think it’s there’s a risk in going out on your own. How? But one of them, I don’t think, is too much on the financial side, as far as, like, what’s going on? It used to be 10 to 20,000 a month was going out, and you had to plan for that, right with the office and the assistant and secretary, phone and service all this up, everything now is automated and digital. And, you know, even answering phones like, I’ve got a new thing on my phone. I just bought the new. What is it called the new, like Apple air, just, oh yeah, and the others, okay. But it automatically just has this voicemail thing where every single spam that comes in, like, if they can’t say their name and who what they’re calling about, they’re done, like, they’re immediately marked as spam, and it’s done, I don’t even know about it, right? Versus people that can say their name and why they’re calling, which then gives me a message and allows me to answer the phone like, I love that, right? So it’s like all these automations and people that we can hire for a nickel, it’s really helping to keep the overhead low so people can go out on their own and be successful without the fear of the five to 10,000 a month or whatever overhead.
Addison Watson [24:12]
And one thing that you mentioned there, Steve, is when you go out on your own as lawyers, we’re always limited by the amount of hours in the day, and you’re charging for your time. I’ve switched a lot of my practice to be flat fee model now just that’s a whole different story. Yeah, but the hourly model is here to stay for a lot of people, because they don’t know what else to do or how to charge. But on that, you learn what sorts of things you know you can outsource, like you said, getting a VA that might be overseas in the Philippines or somewhere else, and they’re working for $10 an hour, and they do a way better job administratively than I ever could. But if my time is worth, you know, theoretically worth, you know 40 or 50 times that per hour, it’s all about the ROI and the trade off. And that’s when you start thinking like an entrepreneur and stop just thinking like an attorney who’s working on a. Bill sheet. So once you get out, you will understand what is worth your time to spend and what is worth you hiring someone else to do it. For example, I love mowing my lawn. I pay someone else to do it now, and that’s great. I love it because you know what? It might not be that ROI necessarily, that I just talked about, but when I’ve worked a long day and my wife and son are downstairs. That’s what I want to spend my time doing, right? I want to hang out with them. I want to see them. And to me, that time’s worth whatever it costs somebody else to come and mow my lawn every single week, and I’ll continue to do it as long as I can.
Steve Fretzin [25:33]
By the way, if you decide that that’s your time of Zen or that’s your time to like, relax and do your lawn, listen to be that lawyer podcast, everybody. It’s not a bad play. Put it online anyway. Hey, let’s wrap up Addison with what’s your big mistake? Addison’s big mistake.
Addison Watson [25:49]
Big mistake was, when I was in private practice, I truly failed to work on the business development side. When I was working at the larger law firm, I really got sucked into a mode of all right. Partnership track is, you know, eight years I’ve got to build this many hours per year. This is what that breaks down to, monthly, weekly, daily. And I would just look at numbers, and that was it. If I went out with somebody to grab lunch, I was thinking. And, you know, point one hour increments, just six minute increments, is how I live my life, and I failed to invest the proper amount of time into the business development side, and so I’ve really made a switch in that. In my life, I’ve tried to make sure that I’m reserving, honestly, probably 30 to 40% of my time, checking in with old classmates, friends of mine, who may not. I mean, honestly, it’s just fun to keep up with people, see where they’re at, see what they’re taking on, and making sure you reserve that time is something that I made a huge mistake on, and I lost years because I did not properly invest into the business development side.
Steve Fretzin [26:50]
Yeah, well, it could be the most important thing, you know, said on any show that we’ve had is just the mistake of not recognizing, realizing and taking action on the importance of having control in your future, and how the book of business affects that directly. And with AI coming on and all these other aspects coming on, increase competition, be introspective and really look at where you are, and look at where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. And if you don’t see a clear path, you know, maybe start talking to some other folks and trying to figure it out?
Addison Watson [27:22]
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s no matter where you are in your career. If you’re a 3l at law school, or you just pass the bar and you’re not sure what Job is waiting for you, you know, start meeting people. Talk to them. If there’s somebody that has a job that you want talk to them. Get to know them. Don’t expect it to always lead to a job, but just pick their brain. Use whatever free resources you have and whatever you can do to invest in yourself, and that will pay dividends in the future.
Steve Fretzin [27:47]
And the interesting thing is, I mentioned at the beginning of our show about this gentleman I spoke to is in house, and the development of relationships in the companies and the firms where he’s been, and that could lead to a better job. That could lead to, you know, having enough relationships where, when you go out on your own, you’re able to say, look, I worked it, you know, with you at this thing, I went in house. But if you want me back, or you want to work with me again, let’s, let’s do it. I’m going to be, you know, not at 1000 an hour, but at, you know, 600 you want to come with me and a bunch of other people, and because you develop relationships and network effectively. You know, it still ends up becoming an important part of your growth in your career or as a private practice attorney. So really great stuff. Let’s wrap up with thanking our sponsors. Of course, law her podcast, I met Sonia at pimcon A few weeks ago. Wow. Amazing powerhouse. Great show, and, of course, legal verse media check that out online. And then rankings. Io, if you’re in pi and you want to get the most leads you’ve ever seen and you want to work with one of the best and most established companies in the world for bringing in inbound lead generation, you’re going to want to talk to rankings. Io, people want to get in touch with you. They want to hear about Summit, legal consulting and T’s and C, C. Les, what are the best ways to reach you?
Addison Watson [29:03]
Addison, yeah, Steve, and we’re opening ourselves as resources to people, so I think it’s right, if you’re in one of these positions and you want to talk about anything we’ve talked about on the show here, send me an email. Addison at Summit, legal consulting.com I’m happy to engage with people, give them whatever free knowledge that I have, or if I can just be a guide post and someone to be a sounding board. I’m happy to do it. And then second is, you mentioned T’s and Cl ease. We’ve got an event that is an inaugural event coming in April 15 through 17th, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. This was a big mistake of mine not attending events like this in the past and not developing the business side of law. So we’re hosting an event. We’d love to have people there that are attorneys looking to get their CLE credits for the year. But also it’s a great networking opportunity. You can hit me there, that’s at Addison, at teas and cles.com but either email works, and happy to connect with your audience.
Steve Fretzin [29:55]
Well, thanks for coming on the show sharing your wisdom. I think for a lot of the folks. Listening. They might be in a position of transition where they’re interested in making a change. Some obviously already have and are crushing it, and they’re listening to the show to continue to get great advice and help, but just thank you so much, and I’m really happy that we met and that we’re able to get you on the show and kind of go back and forth to help out my audience.
Addison Watson [30:18]
Yeah, Steve, and thanks for doing this. For other attorneys out there who are just afraid to ask the question. So it’s awesome that you do this. Appreciate you having me on and then this is such a cool experience and podcast, I hope we can grow this internationally and make it even bigger.
Steve Fretzin [30:31]
Yeah, it’s continuing to go. I’m getting calls from Poland and Saudi Arabia and all types all over the that’s amazing Nigeria. It’s, yeah, this show has been I spoke on this at pimcon, I just said, Look, I’ve written five books. I’ve been writing articles for major publications for years, and nothing has influenced my life in my business more than this podcast, the people I’ve met and the business I’ve gotten and the lawyers that I’ve been able to change lives, and people that come up to me and tell me how much it’s helped them. It’s all making me feel warm and fuzzy talking about it. So anyway, you know what it is. It’s all about being that lawyer, everybody, confident, organized and a skilled Rainmaker, take care, be safe, be well. We will talk again soon.
Narrator [31:13]
Thanks for listening to be that loyal, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve’s website, fredson.com for additional information and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today’s episode, check out today’s show notes.