In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Charles Gallaer discuss:
- Simplifying communication for clarity
- Building systems for an organization
- Investing in professional growth
- Learning resilience through experience
Key Takeaways:
- Lawyers who communicate simply build stronger connections with clients and colleagues. Clear language removes confusion and makes legal concepts easier to understand. Simplicity earns trust and enhances professional credibility.
- Effective systems keep information, tasks, and deadlines in check. Tools like OneNote, Remarkable, and frameworks like “Second Brain” support focus and structure. The organization ensures consistency and reliability in client service.
- Continuous learning and adopting new technologies strengthen long-term success. Investing in tools, systems, and skills helps lawyers stay efficient and relevant. Growth-minded professionals turn adaptation into an advantage.
- Setbacks are learning opportunities, not reasons for regret. By reflecting instead of reacting, lawyers can grow wiser and more confident. Resilience transforms challenges into lasting professional strength.
“It’s important to keep things simple…anything we can do to boil it down into as simple as terms…through that simplicity, it can really give you a level of clarity that you didn’t think was possible.” — Charles Gallaer
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About Charles Gallaer: Charles Gallaer, Esq., is an attorney focused on automotive retail and dealership law. He is licensed in New York, New Jersey, and Florida and serves as an associate advising manufacturers, dealer groups, and franchised operators.
Before law school, he held roles at Ford Motor Company and served as general manager of his family’s Lincoln-Mercury dealership, giving him hands-on operational insight into the industry. He earned his J.D. with distinction from Brooklyn Law School and holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Charles advises on transactions, litigation, compliance, data privacy, EV mandates, and vendor contracts. He speaks regularly at industry events and contributes to publications on dealership law and regulation.
Connect with Charles Gallaer:
Website: https://www.afslaw.com/attorneys/charles-gallaer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesgallaer/
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. Steve Fretzin Here, just want to make sure you’re signed up for be that lawyer live. These are the people that have been on this show. Tim semaroff, Casey Grabenstein, Neil Dishman, some of our top rainmakers sharing their best tips and secrets with you. So check it out. Be that lawyer on October 30, you can sign up at fretzin.com/events Find it on Eventbrite, and I know you’ll love it. Enjoy the show everybody.
Narrator [00:26]
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 [00:49]
Hey everybody. Steve Fretzin, here and welcome to the be that lawyer podcast. This is the show twice a week where you can get everything you need to be a successful lawyer, confident, organized and skilled Rainmaker. Help you be that lawyer every single week. I also want to mention we just recently changed the name of our other of my other podcast, from Coach’s Corner to future rainmakers. So check out future rainmakers. It’s really a show, really, where I’m talking about and helping you directly to be a better network or be better with your time, be better and how you follow my sales, free selling methodology. So please check that out. If you love it, give us some kind reviews. Share it with others. I think it’s a really more direct way for me to give back to legal community, while also, you know, highlighting what I do every day with my clients. So check that out. Everybody. I’ve got Charles waiting in the wings, and you and I, if you’re not, if you’re listening to this, you’re not going to know, but we are both wearing purple shirts, so we are the purple team today. How you doing?
Charles Gallaer [01:42]
Yeah, I’m doing great. And I just it’s like one of those great minds think alike, euphemisms you want to use or whatever. But something told me to put on the purple shirt today, and I’m glad I listened to it.
Steve Fretzin [01:52]
Yeah, I’ve got all these shirts lined up in my closet, and today was purple day. So you and I are already on the right track with our dress. And let’s also agree that this quote of the show is really killer. I absolutely love it, and I try to do this with my writing. And most of the things that I you know, have to dumb down to make it simple and make it easy for people to be able to internalize it, not because it’s dumb, because it’s smart, to make things simple. So here we go. This is Scott Adams. Simplicity transforms ordinary into amazing. So welcome to the show, Charles, and tell us why you love that quote.
Charles Gallaer [02:26]
Well, I thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it. And I I love that quote because it’s just, it really boils down why it’s just important to keep things simple. I’m a big Reddit fan as well. I could go on Reddit. You know, not going to tell you what my redditor name is, that’s like, one of those things we never share with each other, but I am on Reddit. Don’t post more of a lurker. But one of the Reddits I love is explain it to me like I’m five, yeah, and I think that is just in that particular Reddit subreddit, people will pose these complex questions, and it could be anything, right? Someone will post a really complex question, and they’ll say, just explain it to me like I’m five. And I think one of the things as lawyers that we get into a habit, a bad habit of, is that we explain it to somebody like they’re a JD with 20 years of practicing law experience, and we make things overly complicated, so the easier way anything we can do to boil it down into as simple as terms, not just as we’re explaining things to the client, but also to the court. The courts appreciate that. And then even in your personal life, taking out the complexity in terms of your processes, in terms of the way you organize your things, you know, boiling it down, making it as simple as possible. And through that simplicity, it can really give you a level of clarity that you didn’t think was possible.
Steve Fretzin [03:40]
Yeah, and I think there’s also that line. It’s not Mark Twain, although I think he said it was, if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter. Like, how can we make things simple? Make things clear. You don’t need a ton of some times, people will send me paragraphs in an email, and I’m like, uh, you know, I got to read this and, like, figure it all out. I’m like, you know, give me the shortest possible version, and just in what I’m teaching, right? And my second to last book is called Business Development is in rocket science, because it isn’t and doesn’t mean it’s easy. It just means that we’ve got to take some complex things in the law, take complex things in business development, in whatever it is that we do, and explain it in a way, and get people bought in in a way that’s very, very simple, and that’s brilliant.
Charles Gallaer [04:23]
Exactly. Yeah, no, it’s just anything you can do, where you’re just making things as easy as possible for the because, again, you know, we’re in a world where, I know a lot of lawyers, we hate to think about it, that we’re selling, and for me, we’ll get into my background a little bit. The selling part isn’t, isn’t a taboo, that isn’t a bad word, but you are. It’s like you’re, you have your services either sort of a business development standpoint, you’re selling that that prospective client as to why you want to, they want to work with you. Or if you’re in Court arguing a motion, or before a judge on a hearing, why is it that the judge should go with you, as opposed to your opponent? And again, keeping things as simple as possible, explain it to them like. They’re five. That’s been something that does. I tried to, at least I tried to do it as much now, whether or not, in reality, it happens sometimes, like you said, you talked about the emails, you type those things out and then you get that huge paragraph. You forget your Yeah, let’s keep it simple. Then you go back and you’re like, yeah, that’s why I don’t send these things immediately. I’ll sit back and wait a couple of minutes to digest the email before I send it so.
Steve Fretzin [05:21]
Well, yeah. And these days we can use, you know, AI, to say, hey, look, this is everything I wanted to say, you know, make this, you know, short and easier to read, and then it will and, yeah, God, I wish I had thought of that.
Charles Gallaer [05:33]
Yeah, just remember to take the hyphens out, right? What are they called? N, yeah, because then they’re on to get that, if you do that called N dashes or M dashes, yeah, hyphens, or whatever it is, the little lines that they draw into the the AI will.
Steve Fretzin [05:46]
I had a client that was going to post something on LinkedIn. I think it was like her first post she was going to do on LinkedIn as a way of getting started in the routine of a weekly post. And she used chat GBT. It was her story and her words, but, and it had like seven or eight of those in there. And I immediately, she asked me edited it. I was like, first of all, pull all those out. Right? Nobody needs to know that. It’s AI, especially if it’s your words. Like some people just use it straight up. Like, give me 10 things that blah, blah, yeah. But if you’re telling your story, and then it gives you their version of it with all those n dashes, then hor, hyphens, then yeah, pull those suckers out. Yeah. Hey everybody, we’ve got Charles Gallaer. He is a lawyer at Aaron Fox shift, and we are going to get into the weeds a lot about, you know, business development and with the dirty word sales and all that, but give us a little bit of your background, how you came to be.
Charles Gallaer [06:35]
So I, you know, everybody likes to think they’re that unique snowflake, but I think I actually am. I came to the law much later in life. So I started off work when I graduated from college. I worked for Ford Motor Company. Taking a step back, I have a history of the auto business, automotive business in my life. My father was a car dealer down in Virginia. Literally grew up in the business. So it’s some cars have always been something I’ve always loved. So I went to work for Ford Motor Company after college. Then I went to back home for about seven years in Virginia and ran one of my dad’s dealerships. But deep down inside, I always wanted to be a lawyer. It’s just something ever even though I love the cars, I always, you know, I’d watch Matlock, or I’d watch Law and Order, or these other great shows, and you see the lawyers, or I would interact with lawyers that my dad worked with, and I just always thought that was, like the coolest thing, and something I always wanted to do. So at the ripe old age of 35 I tell it was like my early midlife crisis. Instead of getting a Porsche or something like that, I took that money and went to law school. You know, when I look at those student loan balances, I maybe the poor, you know, I think to myself, maybe I could have gotten the Porsche, but this is a much better investment. No regrets here. No regrets. 100% I love it. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. So I came up, moved from Virginia up to New York to go to law school, and I’ve been practicing as an attorney since 2014 and I absolutely love it when they say that if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. And that really is me with being in the law.
Steve Fretzin [08:00]
Yeah, that’s fantastic. And I sort of have a little bit of a passion for cars in, you know, I lease every three years, and I look at like, what’s the hot up and coming thing? And, you know, right now, I’m into EVs, and those have been funky in the market lately because of a number of reasons. But I think that gives you such an interesting background. Because I think when people think of the two worst, like, TV characters, it’s going to be the ambulance chasing lawyer and the car salesman, the used cars. Yeah? Like, those are the two we talk about, like, the stigma of sale. Like, those are the two that stand out as, like, gross.
Charles Gallaer [08:34]
Yeah. I remember when I was in law school, my 1l year, I went to law school part time because I was 35 years old. I had two children I was raising while I was in law school, while my wife would go work during the day, then I would go at night to Brooklyn Law School, and I was there studying, and I had this great civil procedure professor, Professor Fullerton, and she would have everybody together for like a pizza to have the 1l section together for like a pizza dinner. And we were going around the room telling everybody. And she told, you know, I told her my background, and I said, I’m going for the trip back diet. Now I just have to become a politician. And I would have, like, the three most heavy careers, a lawyer, car dealer and a politician. So I got two of them so far. No plans to run for office, but I got two out of three so far. So yeah.
Steve Fretzin [09:14]
There’s still time. There’s still time. So I mean, just what from that perspective, why do you think lawyers struggle with business development, sales. Why do they struggle with the mind of it, that the idea of it, the concept of it, as someone who’s been in both shoes.
Charles Gallaer [09:29]
I think it comes down to a couple of things. It’s a we, when we go to law school, we hear about how it’s this learned profession, and it really is right we go through and we learn about these old cases, and we were taught about being advocates and really immersing ourselves in the law, what you really don’t learn is the nuts and bolts of the law, and also the nuts and bolts of doing business development, being able to go out and, you know, advocate for yourself and build your client base. And I think a part of it also is that the lawyers that we associate that type of work. With and not throwing any shade out of you know, some of my best friends are in these fields, but it’s like the personal injury attorneys, the ones that really have to go out and they eat what they kill, to use a sales phrase. So they’re the ones that are very, very aggressive in terms of of their marketing, because they have to be. And so I think a lot of our non personal injury attorneys will look at this and say, Hey, that’s not me. I’m not a salesperson. I’m more of something else. And so that they kind of get scared off by that. But there’s some great lessons you can learn from that. Again, what I’ve learned with my friends in the personal injury area, not only do they do a lot of advertising, like you see the billboards and all of that, they have an incredible net. The ones that are really, really good, have an incredible referral network so that they can go in and they work with other attorneys, they work with people they know, so that they can get the referrals, and they build their business that way. So there’s a lot that we can learn, even if you’re not that type of person that’s going to or in a field of law where you’re going to put billboards up on i 95 or wherever it is, you are saying what kind of, you know, call the hurt line, or, you know, one of those kind of things, you can still market yourself out there and don’t get caught up in this whole thing about selling.
Steve Fretzin [11:06]
Well, I think, similar to religion, there’s people who are incredibly religious and stick to certain rules, and there are people who are more filtered down and kind of pick and choose what they want. And I think, you know, business development is similar. I mean, you can be as salesy and aggressive as you want for your personality and your business, and you can be as chill as you want. I’m sort of in the middle like I feel like I’m really out educating and trying to build value and help people, you know, whether they work with me or not. That’s my style. There are other coaches I know who are, you know, severely aggressive, and have a brand for that. And by the way, they have a following of people that love that about them, and they want to emulate that. So I think everybody’s got to kind of find their own path. But what we can all agree on, I hope, is that in the people listening to the show are listening to the show for a reason, right? It’s not just their health that we all need to develop our own clients as a way to help more people. If you don’t have clients, you don’t have control of your future and everything else, but you also aren’t directly helping people in the same way that if you do have your own clients. So I think it’s exactly, you know, it’s like, you know, maybe you’re behind the scenes, you know, winning for everyone else, but not for yourself, and not in the direct relationship that you want to have.
Charles Gallaer [12:14]
Yeah. And I would just say too, is, I think, one of the things that a lot of, again, laws, a big area. There’s people in, you know, attorneys and small practices, mid sized practices, law practice, large practices, government attorneys, what have you. But I think one of the things that a lot of us will lose sight of, especially when you’re younger, is that importance of being able to build your own book of business so that you can self sustain. And of course, you want to be that go to associate for your partners or partners that you work for, but you also want to have it where you’re adding value to the team. And if you know things aren’t going so great with that particular partner, you have your book of business as well. And you can add value to your firm that way. And you add a lot of jobs. There’s a lot of job stability and security that comes with that too.
Steve Fretzin [12:59]
Yeah. And I just, you know from previous conversations with you, you know you seem highly organized, and that’s, I think, a big problem for attorneys, is a lack of organization, a lack of process. Obviously, that’s a big part of what Scott Adams talks about is systems and process. Tell me a little bit about what you’re feeling and what the reasoning is of why or how you’ve become so organized and process driven?
Charles Gallaer [13:23]
Yeah, I, by my very nature, that’s not who I am, right? So one of the things that.
Steve Fretzin [13:29]
Me too purple shirts, right? I’m a feather on the wind as much as anyone. Yeah, need, but now not so, not at all.
Charles Gallaer [13:38]
Yeah, I think it’s funny, because I contrast myself to my father, right? My dad was a successful car dealer down in Virginia. Was had these dealerships for many, many, many years, and he would, he was an incredibly organized person. That was just the way his mind was wired. And I could mention to him, like, do you remember this conversation that we had two years ago about whatever? And he would, he had these daily planners where he would go out, and he would take all these notes and these daily planners, and he knew exactly where to go to get the daily planner to pull out, and he could recall everything chapter, verb at first, that’s not me, and I realized early on that if I wanted to be able to stay on top of things, whether it’s when I was at the car dealership, balancing all of the different things that I had to balance on My day to day there, or transitioning to becoming a lawyer, either on the professional side, or working in my firm, and then also with networking and doing things like that, I had to come up with some kind of system that would work for me, right? So I fell down the rabbit hole. I looked at a bunch of different organizational techniques and methodology so that I could offload a lot of those things that were living in my head, where there weren’t really organized, and put them into a place where I would feel comfortable that my notes were being stored somewhere, my to do’s were being stored, all of those things so that I could then focus on, you know, the actual practice of law, having fun with it, still having a family life in. Then also doing some networking too.
Steve Fretzin [15:01]
Yeah, so I know it was a combination of one note and then you mentioned the remarkable to a remarkable Pro. You have the Pro. I have the remarkable two. I mean, you guys just listening to this. You know, wherever you are, the organization that you create around yourself allows you the ability to be successful, to delegate, to identify, you know, like I used to have post it notes right on one on top of another. And somebody would ask me something, right? I have stacks of business cards, and someone would say, Hey, who’s that guy we networked with at that thing a couple weeks ago? And I’d be like, hang on a second. Then I take a half an hour and I just sit there and flip through all these business cards that I never put into my system. I mean, you can’t be successful very easily without having systems and without, especially on organization and time management. So what’s your actual system that you use, that you would recommend for other attorneys to emulate? I guess.
Charles Gallaer [15:55]
Sure. So what works? And again, this is your mileage may vary, another Reddit term, right? So you, you have to, ultimately, you got to come up with something that works for you, right? So, if it works for me, I It’s a great system, but ultimately it I got to where I am through a trial and error, right? There was a lot of things that I would work with, and sometimes it works, sometimes it didn’t work. And this is kind of where I boiled it down. One thing to keep in mind before I go into that, and Steve brought up a great point, is that we have these great technologies, right? Like, I’m a big tech guy. I got all sorts if you were to look at my office, it would I just, like, got all sorts of tech things here. But ultimately, it all boils down to, even if you’re not one of those people, there’s lots of different ways that you can organize yourself, and just don’t let the technology either be a crutch or a hurdle to doing what you need to do to get your life straight. So what I’ve done, I do a combination of what’s called a second brain, building a second brain by TIAA. And I’m terrible pronouncing names, so I apologize in advance to Tiago forte, who’s the person who came up with this concept. And then the other one I use is getting things done, which, that one’s a little bit easier, where I forgot the name of the author of that book, but it’s a combination.
Steve Fretzin [16:59]
Steven Alan. He’s been brought up on this show. He’s the one who changed, yeah, transform my life completely.
Charles Gallaer [17:05]
Yeah, he did that with me. And just for those at home that aren’t familiar with these systems, is basically what the second brain is. You’re creating a filing system or an organization system, so that those to do’s like your court like your court filings or dates in your contract, that you like, your due diligence, expiration dates, you’re coming up with a way to organize these tasks and create a put them somewhere so that you can then reference them easily. And you’re not storing them all in your head. And with getting things done, it’s based, it’s you’re organizing your task by what’s the next step that you have to do, right? So you would create, like, if you have a case that you’re filing, you know, what’s the very next step to move that case forward? So it’s maybe doing legal research, or whatever you’re coming up with. You’re tracking that. You’re coming up with deadlines. And again, that’s really even critical, regardless if you’re a person just managing yourself, or you’re managing multiple people, because as you advance as an associate, go on to different levels of your organization, you know you’ll have other attorneys that are answering to you, or paralegals that are answering to you. They’re looking to you for guidance. So it’s very important to be able to know, like, who you’re giving, who you’re delegating, what to, being able to follow up with those people, so that you’re not running around the day of the filing saying, Hey, where’s this brief and then you’re looking at it for the very first time that afternoon.
Steve Fretzin [18:22]
With proven SEO and digital marketing strategies that drive actual clients to your firm. Rankings.io. Prides itself on proof, not promises. Mentality. The best firms hire rankings.io. When they want rankings, traffic and cases, other law firm marketing agencies can’t deliver, get more rankings, get cases and schedule a free [email protected] today. Hey, be that lawyer friends. If you’re looking for smarter ways to grow your law practice and want to stay ahead of the curve in legal tech, business and strategy, then it’s time to check out legal verse media, the go to hub for lawyers who want more. This international platform connects you with global thought leaders through articles, podcasts, webinars and interactive forums that are shaping the future of law, explore everything with a free 14 day trial, including early access to tools peer discussions and a chance to build your brand as a thought leader. Don’t wait. Visit legalverse media.com and register for membership today. Hey everybody, it’s Steve Fretzin as the you know, I’m the host of the be that lawyer podcast, and if you’re serious about growing your law practice, let’s talk. I’ve coached hundreds of attorneys to build bigger books of business without selling chasing or wasting time. This isn’t a sales pitch, it’s a real 30 minute strategy session to explore what’s possible for you in your practice, just head over to fretzin.com and grab a time that works for you. And let’s make this your breakout year. And you think about things like just how we keep track of information about people. So I have you know this podcast is associated with my remarkable too. So you know whether it’s the questions I’m going to ask, it’s the intro. It’s tracking the time on when you said something that I want to then put into a video. How we’re going to wrap it up, like just making sure that everything is in line. And then the conversation we had to set this up is recorded. The conversation we’re gonna have afterward is we’re going every and everything is filed under your name, Charles. So anytime you and I are going to talk, you know, two kids, and you’re, you know, you’re into, you know, New York, whatever, Virginia dealerships, whatever it might be that we have in common portions, you know, it’s all there. And I think lawyers don’t realize how important it is to keep track of all that and have things easily searchable, like you mentioned in your pro, remarkable Pro, like, you can put PDFs and information from other things into that file along with the other things. Like, I run a provisors group, and I take the PDF of the agenda, put it in my remarkable two I can write on top of it, take notes on it. I mean, these are not inexpensive tools, but they’re absolutely critical tools. And what I would say is, like, is a brain surgeon going to worry about the price of a scalpel if it’s going to make the brain surgery more effective? Yeah, I think they’re going to go with the highest end scalpel. And we taking notes and writing things and having notebooks and paper everywhere. It’s really not the future of how people need to keep organized.
Charles Gallaer [21:09]
Yeah, and then it could. That really goes into when I was debating going to law school, right? Because I had to. I had a great life down in Virginia. I was running a dealership. Things were going very well. It was a great job where I loved working with my dad. That was one of the best times in my life, being able to as if you’re in a family business, that sometimes you know, that’s something not everybody gets to experience. But for me, it was a wonderful experience. But one of the things I forgot, who mentioned this to me, but somebody said it to me, and it stuck with me, is that you don’t go wrong investing in yourself, right? So if like going to law school, going on, if you’re a non lawyer, listening to this and you’re thinking about taking some kind of courses that cost some type of money, or getting another type of degree, you’re not going to go wrong investing in yourself. If you spend the money on yourself, you’re investing in yourself even it’s going to expand your horizons more than you possibly thought it could do it so again, if, and again, if, for those folks that are listening, if they’re saying to themselves, Oh my gosh, I’m not a tech guy. This is all scary to me. Whatever. There’s very simple ways you can do it. I was on a call the other day, and someone was mentioning just using, like, Apple notes, right? Like, everybody’s got an iPhone you got, if you have a Google phone, they have a similar app as well. You have a note function on that. Just start making sure that you can take notes on it. You’re at the networking event. I’m terrible with names like I mentioned. I will have my phone there, and I’ll type out a quick little, you know, I spoke to John Smith. John Smith is the General Counsel, blah, blah, blah, and his kids name are Amy and Sue. And then I have that little note and just so that I can go back to that, and then now I I’m not relying on just sticking that all in my head.
Steve Fretzin [22:45]
Yeah, yeah. It’s again, it’s really important for people to realize, you know, the importance of organization. The other part of it is it helps us to build relationships and be responsive to our clients. It might give us reasoning in ways of doing more connection with them, sending them more regular emails, communicate and really build that relationship. And how does being organized help build trust and credibility with clients? For in your space.
Charles Gallaer [23:15]
Yeah, I clients look they’re coming to us because we’re here to solve a problem form right there. You know, you get to know them, hopefully, as your career develops and you’ll get friendships with some of your clients, but for the most part, they’re there because you’re there to help solve a problem for them. So your job as the attorney is to do that. You’re coming up with solutions to whatever their problem is, and advising them on on how what you think is the best way to proceed, and giving them all of the information that they need to make that decision. So the more organized you are in knowing when dates are coming up, or different aspects of their business that they need to keep on their radar, that you then become their second brain, right? You’re the person that they can then come to and say, I don’t have to worry about that, because Charles is on top of that. And if they have the confidence in you knowing that you’re keeping up to date. It just really comes up, like in the transactional world a lot, where you do, let’s say you do an asset agreement, and you have, you know, all of these different dates within your agreement as to certain deliverables, right? Like doing due diligence, doing environmental studies, getting a title report, all of those things, those are all organizing them in a way that you can then stay on top of them, giving your client heads up, saying, hey, remember, you’re you know, in a week you’re supposed to get this, have this. Where are we with this? In two weeks you have this coming up because that might need a little bit of a longer runway and something that the client can’t do at the last minute, they’ll appreciate that, and then they come to rely on you for the for saying, Hey, I’m going to keep those things straight. I know Charles has all of that under control, and I feel very comfortable with giving him, my giving, putting my trust in my business, in his hands to help him do what he needs to do then.
Steve Fretzin [24:54]
Yeah, and through getting things done and a number of other organizational skills building pro. Programs or philosophies, I actually do the remarkable to my email and my schedule all together. So for example, I need, I promised you that I was going to send you this tutorial on LinkedIn, right? So it’s here in my notes. I’m going to then in my remarkable too. I can take the page and I can forward it to an email. Okay, so now I’ve got an email. The email is going to act as a task of something that I need to get done. Well, I clear out all of my emails at the end of every day. I am at a zero inbox every day, but I’m not gonna, but I need to send you the email the LinkedIn tutorials, which I’ll do. So great. I’ll send it off to you. Then that email becomes viewed and handled, and it’s off my plate. I know that I’ve done it. It took me, you know, two minutes to do. Or I’m taking that and saying, Look, this is a bigger deal, like, I have to record the video for you and actually create a video for you that’s going to go in my calendar as a function of a to do. I know it’s going to take 15 minutes, and I’m going to schedule it so it’s all working together as a system that doesn’t allow for me to miss things and end up blowing a relationship with you or with a client or with whomever, because I said I was going to do something and then I didn’t do it, which is at the part of what breaks relationships, and on the other side, it allows me to do better and be more communicative, more responsive, because I’m so organized with all these tasks.
Charles Gallaer [26:18]
Yeah, and I think on top of that, it also gives you your life back, because what happens is, when you’re not worrying about these different all of these different dates and deliverables and all this stuff floating around in your head, those are the things that’ll keep that you wake up at three o’clock in the morning with a cold sweat saying, Hey, did I blow this deadline? Did I forget to send Steve this email that I was going to do? So once you get as you work those processes out, and you get comfortable with them, you find that you end up having a lot more time to do the networking, do the other things that you need to do, because you have those other things are being handled. You know they’re being handled.
Steve Fretzin [26:53]
Yeah, put your head on the pillow knowing that you completed everything you have. Nothing weighing on you is something I didn’t have. I mean, I was feeling the pressure of the world and the pressure of being in a young entrepreneur at 34 years old, and until I got organized with the zero inbox and not having stacks of crap everywhere, and really organized when something comes in, what to do and how to manage it, Delegate all that that’s like this massive weight. And so one of the books I send my when I start with a new client, I send them all my books, and David Allen’s getting things done. It’s a part of the package, because I figure, you know, if they take the time to read it and exercise it, and we do work on that as a group, as a class, and all that that they’re going to they’re going to buy into it and get cooking with it, because that was such a game changer for me. So let me ask you this, yeah? Charles, final thoughts.
Charles Gallaer [27:42]
Yeah, it’s look it’s like we have a lot going on in our lives. Everybody’s very busy. We have a lot of things as lawyers that we’re really stressed about and that we have to keep on top of. But you know, again, anything you could do to make your life easier to go through and invest in yourself, invest in your processes, getting things nailed down so that you feel that comfort level returning back. You’re putting your head down on the pillow, and you’re sleeping for eight hours or seven hours, or whatever it is, and you’re not waking up in the cold sweat. Your time is well worth it. And again, that just making your investing yourself going through and learning those different things about what works for you and implementing them. And again, it’s not just a one size fix all. It’s not a, Hey, I’m going to do this, and my life’s going to automatically be better. It’s, you’re working it. You’re it’s like exercising this, like playing golf. It’s like, whatever it is that takes some talent.
Steve Fretzin [28:32]
That needs to become part, yeah, becomes part of your life, internalize the system, and then you’re able to use it over and over again. I think when we do that, we feel good, right? When we have the part of what Scott Adams says in his book, How to fail in almost everything and still win big, is systems are what save us from the stress and save us from the winging it, whether it’s a sales, free selling system, whether it’s an organizational system, a networking system, an actual software that helps you with how you practice the law and communicate. All fantastic. Hey, man, let me ask you this. It isn’t always perfect, right? What’s, what’s Charles’s big mistake?
Charles Gallaer [29:10]
So this happened pre law, and when I was back running the dealership, I had, I had a situation with an employee come up and won’t get into too much of the details, because there’s, you know, different things like that. But I took something personal, right? There was something that happened, and I took it personal with because it became, it turned into a lawsuit. And I learned one thing, that you can do everything right. You know, you can do everything that you think is right, but then something still can happen right, because that’s just the way it works. And, you know, in this particular case, you know, it was over a client, our customer, you think you’re doing everything right for the customer, you’re bending over backwards for it, and you still get sued. And I’m a video gamer myself too. Like, I’m like, my nerd alerts are going off. You know, I talked about Reddit. Now I’m going to talk about video games. And I didn’t know the term for it back then, but it’s, don’t tilt right if you. Playing video like a multiplayer game, and you get angry, you tilt then all of a sudden, now your game, you’re going to lose, right? So I’ve learned that, you know, you don’t take things personally. Sometimes you can do everything that you possibly think you can, that you’re doing right, and still, something unfortunate happens. You get sued, or whatever it is. Don’t get negative about it. Don’t take it personal. Don’t tell learn what you can from the experience and move on. And that’s all you can do.
Steve Fretzin [30:27]
And you know, the tilt comes from pinball machines, right?
Charles Gallaer [30:30]
Oh, yeah, yeah, that’s you shake it, and then the ball goes.
Steve Fretzin [30:33]
The whole point is they didn’t want people, you know, breaking or messing up the pinball machine, so they set it up as don’t tilt, so that if you aggressively move the pinball machine too much, it will put you on tilt and your game ends. And that’s how they got, you know, that going. But I mean that great. It’s a great point, everybody. If you want to, if you’re a PI firm, and you want to really grow the number of leads that you’re getting inbound, check out rankings. Io, there’s a soft and subtle way to talk about our sponsors of the show. If you want, if you’re a woman, you want to hear great and you’re in the practice of law, and you want to hear great, great advice from professionals around the world. Check out law her with Sonia Palmer, and, of course, legal verse. If you’re international in scope, or you want to learn more about what’s going on internationally in the practice of law, check out legal verse. Media.com Charles, people want to get in touch with you. They want to figure out, you know, they want to, you know, send you work for dealership stuff, because you’re.
Charles Gallaer [31:24]
Always love that.
Steve Fretzin [31:25]
Yeah, right. How do they get in touch with you?
Charles Gallaer [31:28]
So phone numbers, 212-484-3900, that’s my direct line to our New York office. And then I, luckily, I have a very Google, Google friendly name, so if you Google me, you’ll get my contact information. That’s what my my kids are impressed with that they can go online and they Google me and they they’re shocked that I come up. That’s yeah, you could, you could reach out to me. I’m an Eric box chef.
Steve Fretzin [31:52]
Fantastic. Well, thanks for being on the show and for sharing your wisdom. And I think the lawyers listening hopefully got a lot out of this, because the organization and how you manage your time directly impacts your ability to build business. Directs immediately impacts your business your ability to be successful. Because how do you free up time and how do you get to do the things like speaking, writing, social media, networking and all the actions that help you build your law practice? If you’re not organized, it’s very, challenging. So thank you, Charles, I appreciate you coming.
Charles Gallaer [32:22]
Steve, thank you very much. I really appreciate it too.
Steve Fretzin [32:25]
Thank you. Thanks for wearing purple. This way we can be buddies forever.
Charles Gallaer [32:28]
I can assure everybody we didn’t plan this. Everybody’s like, yeah, right, right. But no, seriously, for real, now you knew it would be planned if I had the Jordan background too. This was just a happenstance, but good fortune.
Steve Fretzin [32:41]
Good fortune, good fortune. All right, thank you and thank you everybody for hanging out with Charles and I for last 30 minutes, helping you to be that lawyer, confident, organized in a skilled Rainmaker. Take care. Everybody. Be well. Be safe. Check out future rainmakers. I know you’re gonna love it. Take care. Be well. Bye.
Charles Gallaer [32:57]
Thank you.
Narrator [33:02]
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.