In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Steve Haddadin discuss:
- The importance of cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset in professional growth
- Building and maintaining strong client relationships through communication and transparency
- Managing and mitigating risk while pursuing opportunities
- Leveraging marketing tools and personal branding for visibility and credibility
Key Takeaways:
- Being proactive is essential because waiting for the “perfect time” to act often delays progress and causes missed opportunities, while those who start early gain momentum and reach their goals faster.
- Creating and maintaining accessible online profiles across LinkedIn and legal directories allows professionals to be easily found, build credibility, and attract clients who would otherwise never discover them.
- Providing excellent client care requires consistently clear communication, setting realistic expectations, and educating clients so that they not only feel informed during the process but also appreciate the value of your work.
- Instead of trying to eliminate risk, professionals should identify potential risks, apply mitigation strategies, and continuously monitor and refine their approach so they can confidently move forward rather than remain stuck.
“[Entrepreneurship is] about creating your own opportunities. It’s about finding out what you can do in the marketplace that’s different than others.” — Steve Haddadin
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About Steve Haddadin: Steve Haddadin is a Real Estate Attorney, Broker, and Entrepreneur with over a decade of Real Estate experience, and is the Founder and President/Broker of King Real Estate Group in Brea, CA. He entered the industry at 18 and built a diverse background in Commercial and Residential sales, property management, lending, and development in Orange and Riverside Counties. In 2025, he passed the California Bar Exam on his first attempt, was sworn in on May 9th, and was admitted to the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States District Court | Central Court of California. Haddadin has also developed electric car charging stations, created National Wagyu Day, and completed the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, American Whiskey Trail, and the B-Line tour while traveling to all 50 states. He is a graduate of Capital University Law School and CSUF College of Business & Economics with numerous designations, including CCIM, CPM, CIPS, and SFR, and currently serves as an active board member of the CSUF Center for Real Estate, where he established the Student Travel Endowment to support students attending national conferences.
Connect with Steve Haddadin:
Website: https://www.stevehaddadin.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevehaddadin
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!
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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, hey everybody.
Steve Fretzin [00:44]
Steve Fretzin, and you are on the be that lawyer podcast. Welcome. Welcome. We are so excited to have you. As you guys know, this has been running for a while. I think we’re six years and like 550 episodes at this point, and my job is to just continue to bring you amazing guests. Today’s no different before we jump into that, though, I want to just mention, be that lawyer Coaches Corner with Steve Fretzin is available in live. It’s my other podcast. You’re looking for direct tips and advice on how to be that lawyer. You’re going to want to check out that podcast. So flip over from this one, finish today, jump over to that one. Check them both out. I know you’re going to enjoy it as much as I love making it. And with that all being said, I want to welcome Steve to the show and also just bring up your quote of the show. And I love this, and I love Grant Cardone, and I want to bring it up, and then I want to get your take on it. Is that cool? Absolutely. Let’s do it so it’s be obsessed or be average, and I’ve got to spin on that. I want to share, but I want to get your take on it. Welcome to the show and tell us a little bit about that quote. Absolutely.
Steve Haddadin [01:43]
So be obsessed or be average. It’s actually something I lived by my entire life. And I didn’t know of Grant Cardone until I looked up a quote along the lines of that, like, be obsessed or be average. I don’t remember what I put in exactly online. And He came up and oh, this guy has already become known for that. And I looked into him, and I really liked the guy. But all my life, I’ve noticed that anytime i i get into something, and I really dial in and get obsessed, that I end up doing very well in it. And it’s common sense with anything really, the more you you give an effort and time into something, the better you become the 1000 hour rule, yeah, or 10,000 hour. I don’t know
Steve Fretzin [02:25]
10,000 but 1000 is pretty damn good. I don’t think you’re gonna go wrong if you spend 1000 hours doing anything. You know, I’ve got an ADHD son, and I think I’m an adult that’s undiagnosed with it. But I found that if something was interesting to me, if I was if I would become obsessed with it, and single minded and driven. And I think that that my son is the same way. When things are boring to him, he just isn’t going to give it, you know, the time of day. But when he’s into it, like guitar and fishing and things that he does, holy crap, get out of his way. He’ll run he’ll run you over. But I think that’s so important. I’m obsessed with lawyers, which is weird and odd, but it’s the case, and in watching them succeed is sort of my jam. But other than that, maybe a little bit of bourbon, a little bit of smoking, like smoking some meat and drinking some bourbon, and you’ve got quite a bourbon collection, I believe, right? Oh yeah, I love bourbon. I hear it’s good for you too. Is that? Did I just make that up?
Steve Haddadin [03:18]
It’s, I can be. It can be, everything in moderation.
Steve Fretzin [03:21]
Everything in moderation. Okay, all right, so four or five drinks a night, probably not the Yeah, the way to go. Well, everybody, we’ve got a Steve Haddadin. I knew I was gonna mess it up, and then I got it right. Real estate lawyer and broker, Steve Haddadin, Esquire. Welcome to the show, man. Give us a little background, because I, when I met you, I right away, I was like, Holy mackerel, young, active, aggressive, passionate, you know, great bourbon. I mean, I needed to get you on the show. So tell us a little bit about how you came to be.
Steve Haddadin [03:51]
All right, so I’ll make it as brief as possible, because there’s a lot going on. I am where I want to be, and I’m very thankful for that. But my beginnings are, I always wanted to be in real estate, and I’ve always had the passion to become an attorney. And I got into real estate, and I was obsessed with it, as we talked about, be obsessed or be average, and I became a broker and started my own real estate brokerage, and everything was going well. And I’ve always had the I need to be an attorney in the back of my mind. Always had it, and then eventually, one day, I woke up and I said, it’s time to take that LSAT, go to law school, take that bar and become an attorney. And rest was history. Yeah. And, you know, being an attorney and doing all the stuff I’m able to do at once, it’s to me, I am where I want to be in my life. And there’s a lot that came into that. I’m sure we’ll get into that in today’s discussion. Other than that, I’ve had other hobbies on the side. You mentioned the bourbon. I got into bourbon during law school and did the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, and that was a lot of fun. That was a little side thing I did on my off, my free time during law school. Yeah. And other than that, you know, I started a national holiday called National wagyu day, and that’s kind of gotten some eyes raised when my name will come up in that, then they’ll say, Oh, this guy’s also a real estate broker and attorney. And I’ve gotten some leads through that as well. I’ve gotten some people reaching out to me through that. So, oh, I’ve done all kinds of interesting things in my life. And you know, today where I stand, real estate broker, real estate attorney. That’s who I am.
Steve Fretzin [05:22]
And I know you love to travel too. So I think bourbon travel meet. I think you and I both are, you know, obsessed with certain things. What’s your favorite? Your favorite state that you visited? My favorite state that’s, you know, I have states for different things, but I
Steve Haddadin [05:39]
really, like, you know, Florida, Kentucky, California, Maine, Alaska, some parts of Michigan, I really like Tennessee was awesome. The whole country is beautiful and has different things about it. But everybody has different activities. Some people might like one state over the other. For me, overall, I’m blessed to live in Southern California. I think we have the best weather in the country. I think we have so much going on here that we take for granted. And I’ve been everywhere and every time I realize it’s so nice and so cool in other states, but nothing beats the weather we have out here. So I would give California as the top spot overall. But every other state, to me, is phenomenal, and those eight that I listed were amongst my favorite.
Steve Fretzin [06:30]
Yeah, it’s on my bucket list to do more traveling, see more states. I’ve probably seen half of them, but I think you know, you’ve seen them all, and there’s something to be said about that. And really experiencing, you know, maybe where I eventually want to either live or spend more time or whatever I’m at the age where we start to think about those things. And you’re, you’re in a different place. But, you know, something that I observed about you early on was just everything around you was entrepreneurial, that you just seem like you have the mindset and the heart of an entrepreneur. What do you think that means? What does that mean to you? Being an
Steve Haddadin [07:02]
entrepreneur, it’s about creating your own opportunities. It’s about finding out what you can do in the marketplace that’s different than others. And to me, what I’ve learned is the more I can solve problems for the people I work with, the better of an entrepreneur I can be, and the more people will interact and do business with me. So that’s where I got into real estate, where I learned some accounting and some finance stuff and got some tax knowledge, and all that built credibility and trust for me. All the licenses and certifications and designations I got, built credibility, built a skill set in me to whether it’s in the analysis of a property or how I market things, how I look at things, it came from all the education I had, and When I demonstrate that to my clients, that makes me stand out, that brings more business to me, and it makes my clients happier. And at the end of the day, the goal is to have happy clients. So entrepreneurialism is about that if you’re an entrepreneur, that that’s what you got to do. If you’re not an entrepreneur, if you’re working within a business now your goal becomes a task. By the task as an entrepreneur, your goal is the whole nine yards, everything from the start to the end, you have to be solving problems. It’s all about solving problems.
Steve Fretzin [08:36]
Yeah. And I think a big part of my job in legal is to is to help people move from the worker bee service, you know, service or attorney, into the Rainmaker, into the entrepreneur, to start real, having them realize that you know it’s you in and you know, if you want to go where you want to go in life, that you can’t just hit your, you know, hit your post on someone else’s ride. It may work for now. It may not work forever. I don’t think that there are people who have built careers where they’re very successful and made great money and lived a great life doing that in the past. I just think it’s harder now than ever to sort of figure out like, this is the person I’m going to be attached to that’s going to feed me work forever, and they get hit by a bus or retire, or the firm gets bought, or they leave, or whatever, and you’re kind of, you’re you’re, you’re sort of at risk. So think that’s a big part of what. Even if you’re not feeling like an entrepreneur, you could still have sort of an entrepreneurial, you know, slant to you. So that entrepreneurial, you know, you kind of then went into, you know, more client centric, sort of a comment, commentary. So there’s one thing about being, you know, like being your own boss, and like being an entrepreneur, and having that mindset, but then you go into like taking care of clients. What does it mean to take care of clients? How does that what do people need to do to ensure that they have long term relationships with clients? Great. I’m going
Steve Haddadin [09:57]
to talk to you about that in two different approaches, right? I’m going to talk. About it in a general sense, and then with attorneys, because I am an attorney, and I’ve been a client before, so I’m going to talk about that, but then I’m also going to talk about my real estate experience with that, how it ties into that. So we take care of a client. Say, you came to me you wanted to do a transaction. My job is to make you feel comfortable. My job is to make you understand what’s going on, to make you feel like you know that what I’m doing is serving your best interests, and also part of what my goal is to make you more informed about the process by the end. So when you want to come to me next time now you know what’s going on, and now you even appreciate what I’m doing even more. And that’s that’s part of my goal. Because a lot of people, they don’t know what real estate brokers, real estate agents do. They have a general idea about, okay, they got to market my property, they got to just get the paperwork done and close escrow, and we’re done. But there’s a lot that happens in between. So what I do is I show them everything. I give them guides. I send them PDFs. Hey, this is what I’m doing right now. You want to be more informed about this part of the transaction. This is something you can read or I’ll explain that to them. I’ll go on, zoom in the middle of a transaction. Tell them, hey, look what I’ve just uncovered. What do you think of this? I’ll have different things. Some people don’t want to do that. Some people say, okay, that’s nice. I’ll cut it short. But most people, they get intrigued by what I show them, and my big part of what I do is I like to show and be transparent. Now, in terms of attorney, client, when I was a client, and I’ve hired attorneys before becoming an attorney, and I’ve got a feel for what makes you a good attorney and what makes you an attorney that needs some professional development, if you will. And the difference between the two is this, it’s about communication and it’s about managing expectations, and it’s about knowledge of the law and being able to convey that to the client and make them feel like, yes, you’re going to do the work. Yes, you’re going to fight for them. Yes, you’re going to do what they want, however. You need to not over promise or not make them walk out of your office and feel lost, or feel, man, I’m screwed, or just make them feel just like things are over, and this is it, and or scared, or make them feel like, oh yeah, he’s got it all. And then at the end, you actually don’t got it all. Yeah, it’s about that. And a lot of people get that part wrong. If you can learn how to communicate better, that’s
Steve Fretzin [12:33]
the first step. Sounds like, like a good bedside manner, exactly.
Steve Haddadin [12:37]
And then the second thing too, and what differentiates me, for most attorneys, because I’ve been an entrepreneur before become an attorney, is this is an inherently risk averse industry. So being in business, it’s about taking risks. In my purview, being an attorney, it’s about managing risk. But the problem is, it’s like most attorneys I talk to or meet, they want to eliminate risk completely. That’s how they operate, and they don’t want to embrace risk. To me, I’m like, no risk to me is it’s red, right? If I can manage that risk, that red turns to gray, and I can operate in the gray area, I can say, hey, look, this isn’t going to completely eliminate the risk. This is going to work towards safety. It’s going to work towards, you know, you’re doing things right? You can do, oh so much to, you know, let go of liability. You can do, oh so much for that. But if you do these things, you’re more safe. Now you can get in this business, because it’s better to do do something than do nothing. That’s what differentiates you.
Steve Fretzin [13:44]
Let’s put two together, though, because the entrepreneurial spirit and the risk aversion are the kind of the rub, right? One seems like very risky. Being an entrepreneur seems very risky. How do you get people? How did you get to the gray and what do you recommend people that are risk adverse, but know that it’s in their best interest to be independent. How would you coach them through getting to the gray
Steve Haddadin [14:08]
so understand what your risks are. Identify them. You need first, you need to identify them, because there’s risks out there you don’t even know about. First you got to identify them. Awareness is number one. Okay, after awareness, start looking into mitigation strategies. Ask for help. I don’t know it all. I’ll never know it all. I know I know a good amount. I know enough to where, when I get the help, I know what to do with it. That’s where you want to be. If you can get to that, ask for help. Get the resources, get that going. Find the right templates, find the right people. You’re gonna have to spend some money. You’re gonna have to spend some time. Once you get the mitigation strategies in place, you and then you apply it, and you monitor it. That’s how you manage risk. That’s how you get yourself to operating once you’re in operation stage. Now you just monitor, you monitor. What you are doing, and you and you continue to refine it. That’s how I’m doing things. I have all kinds of documentation and procedures and how I monitor what I’m doing, and then I continue to refine it.
Steve Fretzin [15:17]
Hey, pi attorneys, if you’re serious about scaling your firm. There’s one event you can’t afford to miss, pimcon, 2025 happening October 5 through the eighth at the Phoenician resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. Pimcon isn’t your average legal conference. It’s an experience. Learn how to take your firm from good to goat with some of the biggest trailblazers in the PI space, including yours truly, as we share our elite marketing and brand building strategies. Tickets on sale [email protected] that’s p i m, c o n.org, or just hit the link in the show notes. Your climb to the top starts at pimcon 2025 let’s go from good to go. 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, podcast, 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. Here’s the you know, the dirty little secret that I’ve shared on this show, many, many times, it’s scary to be an entrepreneur. It’s scary to do marketing. It’s scary to do a lot of these things. But guess what? It gets less scary the more you research it, the more you study it, the more you become a student of the game of it, more you have mentorship coaching and, to your point, help. So if you know that independence, control, freedom in your career means building a book of business, wherever you are, as a broker, as a lawyer, as a doctor, whatever it might be that you’re in, maybe it makes sense to start thinking about, you know, watching videos or reading books or listening to podcasts like this, like you folks that are listening already, are already on it. What else could you be doing to take it to the next level and to get the risk, you know, calm down to a reasonable level? I think a lot of the risk is in your head, exactly.
Steve Haddadin [17:53]
And then you brought up marketing. That’s another thing that I I really enjoy doing in business, and I’ve learned it through real estate, and I’ve noticed a lot of things in common between real estate and being an attorney. And I’ve noticed the first thing I noticed when I became an attorney was everybody’s trying to sell you something in marketing and in business and everything, the same thing happened in real estate. And one of the first things I did when I became an attorney is I created a lot of profiles for myself. There’s a lot of profiles like Martindale, Hubel Albo and all these other platforms find law and some of these platforms not going to say which one some of them try to sell me on a subscription as I was trying to sign up. And some of them made it seem like I had to pay before I even got the profile. And they did the same thing in real estate when I created profiles. So my SEO is on point, and you just have to understand what you need and what you’re willing to spend on, and make decisions based on that. And what I’ve learned is, you talk, you communicate, you be clear. Hey, I want to do a profile. You show me what you’re able to do, but I want to create a profile. You get the profile up, you work on your SEO, and now you start to pop up in marketing. That’s one of the first things I did, and that’s and I and I know a lot of attorneys, they don’t have all these profiles. You can’t find them. The only way you find them is through their firms, and that’s
Steve Fretzin [19:14]
so I got to tell you, Steve, since you brought it up, it’s so frustrating when I am trying to find an attorney that does a certain area in a certain part of the country, that does a certain practice area, and there’s a dozen people with the same name, and they’re just nowhere to be found, and it’s clear that they’ve put no time into creating those profiles and putting enough information and content on the internet to be found. And I think what that does is it really lowers the belief in me that they’re real or that they’re good, and maybe they’re the best lawyer in the world, but if no one knows about it, and no one can find them, they’re just the best kept secret. So it’s
Steve Haddadin [19:54]
a big problem, exactly. And you know, we have a saying for that in real estate, and one of my first A. Office Manager, slash broker, told me this. He said, Steve, are you a real estate agent, or are you a secret agent? I love talk with me throughout my entire career. Yeah, that’s great agent. Let everybody know.
Steve Fretzin [20:11]
Yeah, that’s so that’s so right on. So, you know, even getting your, you know, LinkedIn profile, I mean, I would say that’s for me, that’s 80% of my search is, do they have a LinkedIn profile? Because I need the short form resume version of their picture, their title, what they do, the summary about I want to be able to all in one snapshot, and it’s better than a bland bio on their website. So you know, definitely update that. But I think, to your point, you also want to be found on all the other websites that allow profiles to be created. And, yeah, don’t get sucked into the sales trap of you need to buy this or need to buy that to get in here. That’s most of that’s not a scam, but it’s, you know, it’s, it’s not necessary.
Steve Haddadin [20:56]
And LinkedIn is very effective. You know, I’ve had a VM on LinkedIn recently about a issue someone had, and then I spoke with them after that, but they found me through LinkedIn. And by the way, I see your book in that background. I bought your book. I actually received. Let me show it to you right now.
Steve Fretzin [21:13]
You’re gonna pull out the book. Well, anytime someone shows me a book I’ve written, boy,
Steve Haddadin [21:19]
that’s great. I I just opened it up the other day, and I saw you had a chapter that mentions LinkedIn, being on LinkedIn, and now you mentioned that? Yeah, I will get to that part soon. I just got it, but I am looking forward to reading this book. But you know, being on LinkedIn is something that a lot of people don’t even do, and I’ve met attorneys saying I don’t need a link to I don’t have one. I was like, Well, this is how you stay connected with everybody. Your CPA friends are going to need you one day. Your vice versa is going to need you. People are going to find you that way, and they still, I don’t know, to me, the more the merrier, the more you have, the more results you can get. That’s that’s how I
Steve Fretzin [21:57]
approach everything. You know, there’s never been a tool in the history of mankind, humankind that has been more effective at building a brand and in business development than LinkedIn. I’ve, I used to, I was telling my client teacher class every Tuesday morning, and I was, I was telling them today that I had jobs right open a phone book, and I’m looking at, you know, lists of lawyers or list of pizzerias, or whatever it is I was selling, and it was, you know, and then you’re dialing for dollars LinkedIn is, you know, just the top, top, top playbook for business development, getting inside connections you want to meet a GC that’s totally out of your reach. Then you look on LinkedIn and see that one of your best buddies knows that GC, or may know that GC and would be open and interested in introducing you that is so far from my world in the 90s that I can’t believe people aren’t using it on a day to day basis. And the ability to post your content and stay top of mind and provide value to the people you’re connected to, it’s just an absolute home run, but lawyers generally, Steve, are hesitant to put themselves out there. Why? Again, maybe it goes to the risk. Maybe it goes to fear, but it’s for the clients that I work with. I get them ingrained in LinkedIn very early on, and I have yet to have one that hasn’t thanked me for it profusely.
Steve Haddadin [23:17]
Yeah. And I also another thing is a lot of law schools don’t teach it. You know, I had a solo operation or small firm class where they talked a little bit about that, but thankfully, I had experience doing all this before law school. But during law school, they, in my law school, they had announced, I thought that was great, that they did that for people. But most people, they get out very technical. They’re ready to pass the bar. They go, they get their job, and they they operate not from a a service and business minded person, but more of a task based person and a technical person. That’s, that’s the problem. You’re absolutely right about that.
Steve Fretzin [23:52]
Yeah, so you, you know you’re doing two things. You’re you’re balancing being a lawyer and and being a real estate broker, that’s, that’s not easy. There are a number of lawyers that I know that have two companies or that do two things. How is that? How are you able to balance that? Because it seems like that might be more challenging than just focusing on one thing.
Steve Haddadin [24:16]
It gets challenging at times they do overlap and they feed each other. That’s that’s where I’m at. So because I had people I serviced before becoming an attorney, they became clients too. They gave me work. They gave me their problems. They trusted me already. Okay, so, but what happens oftentimes is sometimes I’m in the middle of doing something real estate related, and I just start thinking of all the legal stuff. Yeah, you know, I’m doing this right now, but I want to make sure that you know this. This is the way it should be done. I learned this as an attorney and now as a realtor or slash broker, this is what it looks like. And then I said, Oh, yeah, no, this. Looks great. This is awesome. I’m going to stick with that. Like one thing I learned to appreciate is a lot of the templates that the realtor Association uses are actually very well drafted. And, you know, during law school or when or became, before I went to law school, I never, never really knew if they were that well drafted or not. I now that with this knowledge I have seeing them, I start to realize, yeah, you know, these are great templates, and this how I make them even better. So there’s overlap. But at the end of the day, it’s about finding a way to make them work for you and be connected. And thankfully, I get fed on both sides, not, but, not, but, but there are rules about what you can which can’t do, and I make sure I don’t, I don’t cross those lines, you know. If I’m doing you in the legal side, I’m going to stick to that real estate side, stick to that, you know.
Steve Fretzin [25:51]
But I think it’s a lot easier than if you had two things that were totally, completely different. So one hand, you’re running a flower shop. On the other hand, you’re a personal injury attorney, like what get sent flowers to the person, people that are hurt, but that would be about the only connection, right? So I think, I think, yeah, so when I got into legal marketing for a short while, and thinking that it was very synergistic with business development for lawyers, and it is, but I also realized very quickly that I didn’t enjoy it, and it wasn’t my passion, and it wasn’t something that I wanted to deal with and I unloaded it. But it was, you know, sometimes you take shots, right? You take you take shots at things, and hopefully the risk is low, and the and the money, you know, what you invest in, it is low. Just see what it is, you know, tip your toe in the water and see if it’s something that you can make work. Let’s wrap things up, though, with Steve’s big mistake. What happened to you and your career life that you know you learn from that would be helpful to my audience, mistakes.
Steve Haddadin [26:46]
I would say, not doing things right away, waiting for a specific time, waiting for something or some event to transpire before you take action. I’d say, Look, I’m thankful to be where I’m at right now. And I feel like 90 in I’m in the 90% of accomplished what I want to do in my life at this stage. But I feel like I could have done more or reached this stage earlier, had I not waited for, let’s just say, Oh, when I graduate from my undergraduate, or when I have this certification that I would be ready to talk to these people or do these things, I I start now. I don’t have these. I will do this once that happens. And a lot of people fall into that. And most people I talk to they say, oh, you know, once I just have this new suit, I’ll be able to look good enough to talk to this person to get this deal. No, why don’t you start practicing now? Why don’t you try now? Why don’t you find something that’s worthy in what you’re doing to get those people to do business with you? Why are you waiting? And I realized I made those mistakes
Steve Fretzin [28:01]
waiting, waiting is a killer. Waiting is a killer. I’m gonna, you know, I decided I’m gonna lose, you know, 50 I’m not gonna lose 50 pounds, but let’s say I’m gonna lose 50 pounds, and I think I’m just gonna wait six months and then I’m gonna start trying to lose 50 pounds. Is that how it works, right? I think I’m gonna wait, you know, wait. I don’t wait till I’m an equity partner, before I start doing business development, or before I get involved in marketing, really, people need to do things now, and they need to do things right away, or they just don’t get done. And that’s just the reality of life. And so I love that you learned that and that you’re sharing that with with my audience. Steve, final thought, advice for young lawyers coming up, and that you know, if you know again, that you could just share, you know, 30 seconds about one, one other thing that you’d recommend that they consider, always be learning.
Steve Haddadin [28:49]
Always be learning. On my way to the office today, I was listening to a zoom on new adu laws for 2025, and while I don’t specialize in ADUs, it’s just good to have this background. It can connect to other things I’m doing, and it’s a conversation piece for somebody I know that might be getting into an adu. I’m always learning, I’m always developing, and you will never stop. And if you feel like you know it all, that’s when you’re going to lose.
Steve Fretzin [29:15]
It’s a hidden treasure. Podcasts, where you can learn, YouTube, you could learn. You know, even social media, like even Instagram, where it’s puppies and kitty cats and people falling down, there’s micro learning to be done, little tips and things that you can pick up from following the right people that are just outstanding. So really fantastic. So before we get wrapped up, I want to take a moment to thank our wonderful sponsors. Last chance for pimcon, everybody, personal injury mastermind, Scottsdale, Arizona, big time lineup, a first class experience. If you’re in PI you’re going to want to check that out and sign up right away, before the spots are filled. Check out law her podcast with Sonia Palmer. If you’re interested in another great podcast to get great takeaways, that’s one. To check out. And also another wonderful online resource is legal versus media. Check out, legal versus media.com. And you can hear and check out all the international things that are happening there. Steve, people want to get in touch with you. They’re interested in learning more, working with you, doing real estate deals with you, whatever it might be. What are the best ways for them to get in touch.
Steve Haddadin [30:21]
Go my website. Steve auditine.com, I have all my contact information there, and socials, everything. You know, can get a hold of me there, and I’ll be there. Easily findable, by the way, everybody, and that’s the most important. You have to be accessible. If you’re not accessible, then, you know, yeah, what’s the point? Anything done? Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Steve Fretzin [30:43]
Well, thanks for coming on the show sharing your wisdom. So many great takeaways. I’ve got my typical page of notes here, and I just can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. And let’s have you back sometime soon, for sure, absolutely, anytime. Yeah, fantastic, fantastic. And thank you everybody for hanging out with the two Steves for the last 30 minutes, helping you to be that lawyer, confident, organized in a skilled Rainmaker. Take care. Everybody. Be safe, be well, and we will talk again very 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.