From Factory Worker to 32-Person Law Firm — Joshua Hodges' Incredible Journey

Welcome to episode 44 of The Earley Show podcast, hosted by personal injury attorney Christopher Earley! For this conversation, Chris is joined by Joshua Hodges, Partner at Kruger & Hodges Hometown Injury Lawyers.

Check out the episode below. You can also enjoy it on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

This episode delves into Joshua's upbringing in Hamilton, Ohio, his non-traditional path to becoming a lawyer, and his initial career struggles. Joshua discusses his transition from a six-figure job at a big law firm to starting his own practice, all while facing familial and personal challenges. Joshua also touches on his marketing strategies, the significance of building a local presence, and how he continues to grow his firm despite the competitive nature of the personal injury field.

About our guest:

After getting valuable experience at other firms, and assisting clients both throughout the country and internationally, Joshua Hodges decided to bring his practice to his hometown of Hamilton, Ohio. This is where he lives, where his child goes to school, where many of his friends and family are, and that is where he wants to serve. Joshua practices personal injury law throughout Southwest Ohio. He lives in one of Hamilton’s great historic neighborhoods with his wife, son, and baby daughter. He loves his family, his community, and gives his clients everything he has. As part of this love for his community, Joshua has additionally dedicated much of his time to showcasing many local businesses and local leaders through his various social media accounts, appropriately named “The Hometown Lawyer.”

Learn more about Joshua's practice here!

About The Earley Show:

For nearly 20 years, Christopher Earley has successfully led a personal injury law firm in Boston. On the Earley Show, a new podcast launched in the summer of 2023, Christopher and other standout attorneys will be sharing their secrets to success, and discussing the law office management habits that have allowed their practice to thrive. If you’re looking to make better use of your time, increase daily productivity or even just spend less time answering emails, you’ll definitely want to tune in to The Earley Show.

Learn more about the Earley Law Group here!

Check out the previous episode of The Earley Show here!

The Earley Show is a part of The Answering Legal Podcast Network. Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Click here to learn more about 400 minute free trial!

This podcast is produced and edited by Joe Galotti. You can reach Joe via email at [email protected].

Episode Transcript:

Christopher Earley (Host): Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of the Earley Show sponsored by our friends over at Answering Legal. I'm your host Chris Earley. I'm an injured lawyer in Boston. And on this podcast, I always bring you the very best in the legal industry. And by the way, if you have not already picked it up, be sure to pick up my memoir, Scaling the Wall on Amazon. Today on this show, we have the one and only hometown lawyer, Joshua Hodges, a personal injury lawyer out of Ohio. He's getting after it. He's a creative marketer, creative entrepreneur. And so, I saw him at a conference last week. I said, "Hey, you got to come on the podcast." And he said, "Yes." So, Josh, welcome to the Early Show. How are you, man?

Joshua Hodges (Guest): I'm good. Uh, thanks for having me, Chris. You know, I'm hanging in there.

Chris: My pleasure. Okay. All right. So, I've known you for a few years, and I know that you're, you know, kind of a creative marketer. So a lot of success you're having today, right? But you started, you know, way back when way. Could you sort of take us back through, you know, sort of growing up, influences on you that sort of impacted you coming up?

Joshua: Yeah, man. It goes way back, I guess. How far back you want to go? But I mean, I long story short, I mean, I grew up work in a working-class town, Hamilton, Ohio. It's like a old factory town, you know. People would call it the rust belt back in the day, you know. So people my grandpa's age all had pretty good factory jobs, you know. And then uh you know during the 70s and 80s those started drying up there was a lot of economic kind of downturn in towns like mine. So when I was kind of a kid you know that wasn't as viable of a path but not everybody in my family most of the guys didn't go to college. So it's kind of people my age were trying to figure out what they're going to do. I think a lot of the good paying factory jobs they weren't coming back you know so you know most I did didn't do too well in high school. I didn't really care about school. I like my friends and I got good enough grades to play a sport or two, but that was really about all I did. And I got a job as soon as I was 18. I worked in a factory here in town. Uh, you know, wasn't as good of a job as there were in the past, but there were a few still. So, I found a couple of those. You know, I worked the night shift, did all kinds of little jobs um to get by, but I always was kind of curious. I knew I was smarter than maybe I'd put on in high school. Um, so I started taking college classes at night here at a branch campus of Miami. There was a a campus right down the street from my house. So I started taking, you know, one or two classes at night and kind of chipping away at it. And when you do that, takes a long time. So I just did that for pretty much all my 20s. And when I was 29, I finally graduated from undergrad, you know, with my degree. So I was uh nowhere near a lawyer through my 20s and didn't even think that'd really be something I would do. But you know somewhere along the last 2 three years in college I became a lot better student and kind of started setting my heights a little bit higher I guess my sights and decided to take the LSAT and end up getting a scholarship to go to law school and quit my job and went you know I had a family and a wife and kid and everything. So it was definitely scary but so I started law school when I was 29 and got done when I was 32. It was kind of funny I did kind of not so good in high school. I did pretty good in college. I ended up law school was kind of cut out for me like one big test for all the marbles you know that kind of is scary but that's kind of where I thrive more so than you know high school was like here's a homework to do every day you know um with not that much pressure on each one. I don't really rise to the occasion if it's 1% of my grade but when you know that first year of law school it's like everything writing on this test you know maybe I'm a little bit nuts but that I'm not going to say it was fun for me but I just knew like this is more and to my advantage than other people you know like I'm a bit sick. You know, I'd rather have one big scary thing to do than a bunch of small things to do. Um, it might have took me till I was 30 to figure that out by myself. But I did really good in law school, mostly because I kind of got under pressure and if I have one big thing I got to do, I just study my butt off and got it done. Then I end up getting a job in big law, which is definitely I didn't even know that existed when I was young that there was small law or big law or any I didn't know any attorneys, you know, when I was young. So, I got a job at one of the biggest law firms in Ohio. So, it was just hard to say no to that. You know, they put me in government services. I defended the government, small cities and townships and stuff in civil litigation. I didn't really love it, but I like the people I worked with, I guess. And it was a really good paying job, so I couldn't really say no to it out law school, you know, I've been pretty much not making that good of money all my life. And my wife had been working when I was in school. So, I took that for a couple years. And it was it was a good experience because I got to see like what a law firm, you know, they I think I just looked the other day, that same law firm has like 900 attorneys now. So, this was a business, you know, this was not a solo shop like a lot of my buddies started working at. Um, so I saw that like a law firm run like a corporation. I think I learned a lot from that. Like this is how the legal services can be, you know, distributed. The good and the bad, you know, it wasn't all good. But you know so when I decided 2017 I wanted to leave and start up a firm I do think I had a little bit of a background most you know solos didn't have by seeing you know a big operation run in the background um when I worked there for a couple years it gave me a little bit of advantage I think.

Chris: love the story I love the come up so I'm hearing a lot of different lessons for the listener one thing that pops out at me is like a late bloomer right like your path your path was was unique you graduated college um a few years beyond what most do. Couple other things you said. You're a little bit crazy. Same here. Right. First of all, first of all, back to late bloomer. I'm a late bloomer, too. I realized in college, junior senior year, I kind of got into school like kind of got serious about school. Started thinking big about the LSAT. So, that resonates with me. Your story again. Another common thing. I didn't grow up with any lawyers. No lawyer. Lawyers, they were in a different universe. They were like this rare, unrare territory that I would never approach. That's how I looked at it. Right. And so, you know, being a little bit crazy to start your own practice. I love the lessons that you picked up and you were obviously observing that law firm, how it's run tightly and you took that. So, you were crazy enough to start your firm. Did you have any cases when you started your firm?

Joshua: I mean, not when I decided to start it and I told my managing partner, you know, that was pretty scary and I'm going to leave six figure job. You know, nobody in my family even had one of those and I had I get one and then I quit. I mean, it's kind of nuts. So, even I was a little bit scared, but I didn't have any cases when I told him, but you know, I gave my two weeks or three weeks notice, whatever it was. Um, one of the other partners that I had done some work for knew a guy that got in a little trouble. And, uh, so the last day I worked at the big firm, he hooked me up this guy. So, the first day on Monday when I started my firm, I did have one client and he paid me 750 bucks and I probably did about $4,000 worth of work on that case because I didn't know what I was doing charging. You know, it was like a small criminal matter. that was my first uh client outside of big law and just kind of been building up ever since then you know start you know start with one case started trying to figure out you know I got a market the thing about you know overcoming maybe some adversity or whatever I don't really like thinking of that much like you know I think sometimes people feel sorry for themselves how they come up I think it it's more it can hold you back but I think once you get to a certain level it starts becoming your advantage so totally what I mean by that was like yeah it was harder to get through college and law school coming up how I did in my family. But once I did, pretty much everyone I grew up with, I'm like the only lawyer they know. So I think that was an advantage for me and I got busy pretty fast. I think part of it maybe I was had an act for marketing, but part of it was like nobody in the neighborhood I grew up in really was an attorney. Definitely not my age. If there was one, there might have been one some old guy somewhere that was one. But uh so I got busy pretty fast and started getting cases of all different varieties that I'd give to other lawyers or co-counsel whatever it was. But then I really decided after about a year I was like I need to focus on personal injury because I realized I'm in a smaller town. Most small town lawyers I think the mistake that they get stuck in is they start taking a little bit of everything and then that ends up being their career 30 years later. They never really get known for anything. I didn't want that to happen and I just saw that I think part of it, you know, big law I saw everyone had a very small niche. So, I was like, I got to be an injury lawyer. I I was a law clerk when I was in law school in an injury firm, really high-end one, like a two-man shop that did, you know, trial work. So, I started really kind of honing in on that and I did criminal on the side to pay the bills, you know, whatever you got to do. What I didn't say is, you know, about a few months after I quit Big Law, my we had another uh child, our second baby, and she uh she was really sick and we didn't know why first. So, we were in the hospital, you know, like a month at a time, more numerous times, you know, over the years. And that first year, my wife, when I quit, my wife had a job at the city with benefits and everything. So, I knew I wasn't going to starve, but in that first year, she had to quit her job, take care of Laya. So I kind of was really kind of put up against it after I left big law like I had to make it work. So it was like no no no option you know um and you know so I just put my head down. It's kind of all I know is like well I better I better figure it out. And to be honest you I guess looking back maybe I was nervous but honestly I don't think I was. And I think it's again back to it can become your advantage. Kind of growing up a little bit on the broker side. I wasn't like dirt poor but like we definitely didn't have much and sometimes live my grandma. And she was on, you know, social security or whatever at at points in my life. And uh but I was happy when I was a kid, you know. So like when I was broke, I was happy. So I knew and I knew people that are poor that were pretty happy. And I knew rich guys I worked for at the big firm that look like they hated their life. So what I don't know like failing, I didn't want to fail. And it's not fun to fail and I hate losing, but I know if I do, I've always kind of been a happy person. I was a happy kid. I'm happy now. If it all blew up, I think I'd still probably I might be pissed off at myself for losing, but I think I'll still get up with like a decent attitude. And and I think sometimes people who maybe grew up with a family of lawyers, they never been broke, it's more scary to them than it is to me because I've been there and and I'm not going to say it doesn't suck, but it's like I don't know, I could do it again and I'll be okay. Um that's a good mentality. So I think I think you kind of have an advantage at that point if you've been a little bit tight for money in the past. Well, I talk about turbulence a lot. You know, I don't mind a turbulent airplane. Like some people get freaked out. It's like I don't mind a rocky road, you know.

Chris: So, I got a couple questions for you. What does your family think about I'm going to be really honest like your success? Like, you know, you came up, you went to law school, like that I want to hear about. I also want to hear about did you get any family doubting you when you went to start your own practice. Were you like being too ambitious at that point for in some people's eyes or no? Talk me through that please.

Joshua: I mean, overall, I think my family's just really really proud that I got through as much, you know, schooling as I did. They were proud of me when I got an associates degree, you know, like, so it um it's kind of funny like when I was in law school, I my best buddy in law school sitting next to me. His u mom was a judge and his dad was an attorney and his uncle was on the Supreme Court of the state. And I just remember giving him like, "Damn, dude, like you got hookups everywhere." And you know, and like compared to me and he was like, "Yeah, I do." He's like, "But when you graduate from law school, your family will think you're a hero and my family will think, you know, I'm a loser if I don't." So, like, it cuts both ways. Everybody has their own little cross. I don't really wouldn't want to trade that position with him either because everybody's got pressure in different ways, you know, like, you know, if I I could have been the last graduating person in my law school class and my family would think I was awesome. And if he didn't graduate, he'd have been like the one that screwed up, you know? So, and that always kind of like just gave me a, you know, view of other people. You know, everybody's got something that it's their chip. And, and no matter how good he does, somebody could say, "Ah, it's his parents helped him out, whether it was true or not." You know, maybe some of it is, but it uh no one can say that about me. And that is kind of nice. Um, I've also saw a lot of people I went to law school with who were parents, had law firms, they go work with them, and it kind of gets stuck like with a dad or a mom that wants to do everything the old school way, and they can't get mom or dad to change. And I didn't have to deal with that. So, you know, for them, they weren't going to be broke. At least they had a job and I didn't, you know, when I started my firm, but I could do things my own way. And I think long-term for me, that's a lot better than being stuck with, you know, maybe an attorney in my family that's 70 and making me carry red wells around and not use file behind her own or whatever I got, you know. So, you know, everything kind of can cut both ways. Um, were there people who doubted me? I mean, probably my stepdad. I grew up my stepdad uh had a, you know, he he married my mom when I was three. My parents got divorced when I was young. And he was a construction worker his whole life. And he was uh just kind of get up 4:30 in the morning, go work every day, not complain. I remember when I quit, I had a government job. I I gave driving test to kids for the highway patrol. That was the job I had right before law school. It was a pretty decent little job, you know, you know, benefits, government, working for the state, but nowhere really to go. And when I quit that to go to law school, I do remember he he looked scared for me. He was just like, "I hope you know what you're you know, like like cuz a government job in my family is pretty good, you know, like uh you know, when I was a kid, I thought like a mailman or a cop was like maybe not rich, but like doing pretty damn good, you know, like I you know, I really did, you know, I just remember like that's a good job if you got a a civil service servant job, you know? I think people who grew up a little bit less do kind of maybe hold each other back a little bit because of fear. And once you get over that, you know, it's not it's not as scary sometimes to take a risk. And I don't think a lot of people ever get to that in their lives.

Chris: I love it. I love it. You're not you're not playing scared here, you know, and that's the key. And you're also not like beholden to your success. It sounds like if you you know, if you didn't have the success, you'd still be a happy guy, a happy dude. Now, let me ask you this. Was your wife freaked out when you hung a shingle or was she, you know, how was she feeling about that? Because that was a big moment for you guys.

Joshua: So, we've been together since we were 18 and she kind of always believed in me. She believed in me and pushed me to go to night school once I, you know, stopped going. I went to school with her full-time for a bit and then just started working cuz I was tired of being broke. And she always believed in me, pushed me to go further. She knew I was smart and, you know, she saw me work two, you know, a couple of jobs at a time and get classes done at night and just hustle. I think by the time I was time to go to law school, she just kind of believed I'd figure it out cuz she had seen me figure things out in the past, I guess. I don't know. And then by the time I got through law school and got the big fancy job, she just kind of knew I'd figure it out. And she never really acted scared. She's just always kind of been, you know, a big supporter of mine. I mean, I honest guy, a kid, like I think if I told her I was going to sell the firm and start, I don't know, an ice cream truck, she would like maybe be a little bit nervous, but she would let me do it. Like cuz she she like really believes in that I'll figure it out for us. And uh part of it she's always believed in me, but part of it I've also shown her that I'll do what it takes too. So it's kind of mutual, you know, respect and uh you got having a good partner. I mean like that's probably the number one thing I would tell someone you probably need in life or at least for me and I you know my dad you and he I just passed away last week but he was married four times and my mom's been married three times. So, I grew up with a lot of stepparents and step siblings, you know, ex step siblings, you know, he used to be my stepbrother. Stuff like that. But I still wouldn't say it was a bad childhood. I had a good childhood for the most part. But, but it's just the way I look at it. Definitely someone could look at it and be like, "Damn, that ain't good. That's not a good childhood if you've got, you know, seven marriages between your parents." But it did definitely burn in my brain. I didn't want that. I wanted like a stable marriage at all cost, you know, and I know that that doesn't work out for everyone, even if they try their hardest, but that's definitely probably the thing I'm most proud of is just we've been married 20 years, so that's like a record for for my family, you know. So, doing pretty good trying to like break that streak, you know, for my kids at best I can. Um, and it just makes life easier.

Chris: I think you're doing okay for sure. No doubt about it. So, yeah, same with me. I mean, my wife is super supportive, you know, she she is behind me. I wouldn't be successful as I wouldn't have today what I have today, Josh, if I didn't have my wife supporting me. I know a lot of guys in the industry and outside this industry that their spouses aren't supportive. And it's like, man, you're only going to go so far if you don't have that support back home, man. You know, it's hard.

Joshua: Yeah, she's supported me from the get-go. She believed in me more than I believed in myself younger when I was younger, for sure. And uh you know, now it's hopefully it's paying off. Doing a little bit better every year is kind of the goal, you know.

Chris: Yes, I think it's paid off very well. All right, so you you hang a shingle and you're you know you you got to put food on the table. You're hustling. How did you first go about you you knew a lot of people from growing up who you know knew you were their lawyer, but how did you go about you know getting business? Obviously you know you've landed to Tik Tok past few years, right? But before that like how were you actually getting cases and what is your how are you getting cases you know generally now with your approach?

Joshua: Yeah, I mean I kind of started educating myself. I mean, you got to learn before you can do, you know, I think. And so, I mean, I like I said, my daughter was in the hospital a lot and I we'd be there four weeks at a time sometimes and I would just sit there and there's nothing to do when you're at the hospital. It's stressful, but you're kind of bored at the same time. You're just sitting there and she's asleep and you're waiting on another test tomorrow or whatever. And uh and so I would just read a lot and listen. I mean, I've probably listened, not probably, I mean, definitely I've listened to every marketing legal podcast probably ever produced. I've read every book I can find about it and a lot of books about marketing and run a business that have nothing to do with law and just met as many people that are ahead of me as I can and some people that are maybe behind me, you know, you know, if you want to think of it as ahead or behind. I don't even know if that's the best way to think of it, but just people further along in the game. Try to learn from them, try to learn for brand new people behind me, see if I can help them. But just really dedicated myself to it. I realized like being and I learned it at big law. It wasn't always just the best lawyer at the big law firm running the show. Sometimes it was just the one that built the best team under them. There's some people that are great technicians as lawyers, but they don't have any common sense for law at all. And those people have a place in the legal field, but somebody's got to kind of like be their caretaker or, you know, they're the business person that keeps care of everything else. And I think I naturally have a little bit more maybe uh business savvy or networking ability. I like people a lot. I had a lot of different jobs and I can really kind of connect with people of all backgrounds. I think generally it just starts with I really am interested in other people. So I I've just I kind of got busy fast and I then I got too busy where I couldn't even handle all my cases. So I started giving you know my partner was busy then and then I was too we were too busy for my partner and me to do all the cases and I had to hire someone else. So it's just more and more you know just kind of the snowball got rolling and it was a little bit of everything. I mean, I did obviously website, Google. I started doing videos about five years ago, which, you know, I didn't want to do. I wasn't a face. I wasn't even on Facebook. I didn't do anything, you know. I didn't want to be a social media guy at all. Um, but I knew I had to figure it out and I started doing videos and yeah, I hated how I sound and you don't like how you look and you think you sound like an idiot. But I found out most people, you know, are not as critical about you as you are yourself. And if I was just myself, you know, I'm not some stiff lawyer. I just started doing a lot to highlight our firm and then in extended I'm going to highlight my towns, you know, like I don't want a person in Hamilton, Ohio that grew up, you know, next to an old abandoned factory building that I walk by every day hiring somebody in Texas or Florida that runs a fancy ad on Google. I want them hiring me. And I think some lawyers just whine about it like all these out of state firms with all this money. Yeah, that's okay. You could whine about that and I don't like it either. Or I could just get out there and do as much cheerleading as for these towns, this part of America as I can in Ohio to where at least I'm doing my part to let everyone around here know I exist and then instead of just sitting around sulking that Morgan Morgan has more money for Google Paper Click than I do. That's not going to do me any good, you know. Um, no. So, I just get out there. I want to, you know, if somebody out hustles me in Hamilton, then I'll just tip my hat to him. But it's gonna be hard. Um, because I do it every day. I mean, I I do a video every day. And I've done it for like 5 years and most people do it for a day or two or a month or two and quit. And you know, I'm always trying to do more stuff, highlight our team, highlight the community we're in, and then make our system in the background better, too. Like, you can't, my website's the hometown lawyer, and that's how I've branded myself. And I'm like the biggest cheerleader for my town. That's part of it. But you also got to do good work on the legal work. You got to have a good legal team. You got to have good attorneys and parallegals backing you up. And I've spent just as much time working on that if not more. You know, it's not what people see. The fun the fun parts the videos and it looks fun. You know, that is fun. That part maybe is fun sometimes, but you know, building out File Vine or, you know, operations and technology and policies and procedure and intake scripts, that ain't as much fun. And then, um, it's not sexy, but it's it's probably as important, if not more. Um, so it's it's it's a lot to it uh to run a good law firm. And that and I'm never happy with it. You know, I'm I can stop and smell the roses for a minute and be proud of where I came from. Talk to you about it for a half hour here today, maybe. But when I get back to the office, I'm not going to be happy with everything we got. I just never probably be like that till a day I retire. It can always be a little bit better for my clients and a little bit better for the staff and a little bit better for me, too. I mean, that's the goal. I want everyone to have a good experience here, especially the clients, but my team and myself as well. It's got to kind of work for everybody in it. It's a complicated thing to make all three of those work at the same time.

Chris: Yeah. Hey man, you're doing a really good job. I know that your hair is on fire. You're always getting after it. Think about Josh. He's not He hasn't think about the perfect Tik Tok video. He just like hits play, right? And you have, you know, a shot of maybe your wife cooking lasagna and like that's like you getting on people's level because you have like builtin credibility because you came up and you succeeded and you're not like high in the sky. like you're on the people's you got to get on your pe on the client's level. I tell lawyers all that all the time and I think you have really good command and understanding. I think your perception is a is a healthy one and you're rooted and grounded. Let me ask you this. How big is your team at? How many team members do you have today in ballpark?

Joshua: 32. Seven attorneys. I got a few offices around Ohio, so they're kind of spread out. But Hamilton, Ohio is the headquarters. That's where most of my team is. Then the rest are kind of spread around. Growing fast. I mean, it started, we had one part-time legal assistant, you know, with work 20 hours a week. That was in 2018. And then just every year just kind of escalated and got busier and busier. Always looking to connect with, you know, new talent, young people in the area that want to be in the legal profession. I like meeting with them, you know. I like meeting with people outside of Ohio, too. You know, people like you. I think a lot of people don't push themselves. You know, I can only learn so much from the attorneys in my town. There's a lot there's tons of knowledge in your town and any town you're in, but sometimes you got to get out of there and meet some other people, too. You know, I think a lot of attorneys get stuck on the day to-day. There's always going to be a pile of paper on your desk that you could sit there every day and legitimately have enough work to do till the day you die. But at some point, you got to put it on pause and go do something else and learn a little bit. It'll be back. It'll be there 100%. Are you are you handling cases now or no? Yeah, I uh I've got a handful. I kind of keep I've got a few bigger cases that I'm working on with the help of an associate. When I went to law school, I wanted to be a trial lawyer. I think that was where my skill set kind of was. Like I like connecting with people. I like getting up and talking in front of people. I like thinking strategy. I like standing up for others. But when Laya got sick, you know, I I was sitting in the hospital for like four weeks straight. And I'm like, man, it's going to be hard for me to be like first chair on a bunch of cases cuz then it it happened every year for her first five years of life. She was in the hospital for weeks at a time. And I'm like, I can't be the top trial lawyer of my firm cancelling depo. It's either going to be I'm out at a trial and she's going to be in the hospital without me. And I wasn't going to have that. Like I sit there with my wife the whole time. So, I was like, I can't really be the main litigator of my firm if my kid's going to be in the hospital every year this much. The last couple years, she's been on a really healthy streak. Not we haven't been there as much, but I kind of realized it's kind of twofold. Someone has to run this firm and most lawyers don't want to do it or not very good at it. And it seemed like I was at least trying to do an okay job at it more than most I knew. And we were growing. So, I was like, I have to do this and I can do this from the hospital. So, I kind of decided at least for the next, you know, few years, I'm going to try to be the best law firm owner I can be for my clients, my team, myself. I kind of hope, you know, as our team grows more mature, I can step out of even that role and then maybe I can go with some of my associates that have got to do more of the cases I've produced, you know, given to them to work on. Maybe I can get side chair with them and do more trials than uh you I've done a few you know I've did one jury trial in 2021 and then I did quite a few bench trials before that but the last three four years definitely since much after co I haven't been the court near as much just because we started getting busy and there was a lot of process I just saw so many things at the office that needed built out for our team and the other attorneys to do a good job for the clients like of course I'd rather go you know it's more fun to go do some depositions than sit here and figure out the call tree you know, but somebody's got to do it, you know, and I don't mind doing it. And it is fun. It is fun. I think uh I feel like I'm building a platform that other attorneys can excel. That's my goal for now. You know, if I get to where I'm big enough to hire a business manager that can do most of the work, you know, I'm doing now. Maybe I'll go do some more uh trial work. You know, maybe my associates can teach me some things they've learned. I don't even know yet. I mean, that's kind of maybe how it's going to be. Maybe when I'm in my 50s, I can start doing trials cuz I would like to. the the ones I did do were fun, but you can't do it all at once, you know, and you can't definitely can't do it from the hospital. So, you know, it um it uh you life throwing curveballs, you know, and yeah, it kind of sucks like that was my dream, you know, maybe it's put on hold. Maybe I'll never get there to be as good of a trial lord as I think I probably could have been, but you know, it gives me more time to lean into this. And you know, you got to look I try to stay positive. You know, it's not all going to be, you know, sunshines and rainbows. You know, like I just look back like my when I was a kid, I was talking about my stepdad earlier. For a couple summers, he literally ran a machine. Sounds like something out of a movie is called a rock crusher. And it did what it sound, you know, he crushed rocks and he'd come home like covered in rock dust. Like his hair would be gray, but it wasn't, you know, so it's like I don't know. Am I going to whine that I didn't get to do as many trials as I wanted, you know, but I get to run a business? Totally. I don't, you know, I got to work hard. I mean, they people in my family worked really hard just to get me to here. So, I'm not going to whine too much, even if things don't always go how I want it. And it and it makes you kind of reinvent yourself, too. Like, I I've got to spend a lot more time running a law firm than I would have ever thought. And I've kind of enjoyed that, too.

Chris: That's awesome. I love it. What's your biggest challenge now?

Joshua: Generally, nothing you don't know. Personal injury is competitive, and there are a lot of new in in just the last probably 18 months, there's more firms running ads in Ohio that I've never heard of than I've seen in the seven, eight years prior. There's people from Chicago, people from Texas, people that I don't even think are law firms running ads in my town saying that they're going to, you know, get the people live in my towns, you know, they they pay them, you know, they they pay him money, they break ethics, you know, there's all sorts of stuff. Um, so that, you know, just making sure we got enough cases coming in, which we have been successful with that, but that's a daily weekly battle, something I'm always thinking about. And then, you know, we grew enough now I'm building up my next level of leaders, you know, within the firm. For a while, it was like I was just burning a path through the woods myself and people were kind of following me. But you can't do that with 30 people. You can't I can't manage 32 people. It's just not. So, you know, I have an office operations person, but even, you know, two people can't manage 30 people effectively. So, like building up that next level of like middle management and I'm proud of my team. I got some really good young people on my team. I really do. And I think, you know, and this year we've made even better hires than I think we have in the past. So, like I think my I know my team's better now than it ever has been on all fronts, but yeah, we could get better still. Um I think we will. Um I'm going to do my damn to, you know, that's my that's my job and you know, and keep growing. I I don't want people in, you know, every there's a lot of towns like Hamilton and in my state and there's not to me lawyers that grew up like me that worked in a factory. So, like I think if you're a construction worker, a trucker or something like that and you got an injury, I grew up like that and I think I can do a better job because I I just came from that kind of life and that kind of family. Not that a guy in Chicago that's running a paper click campaign better with more money than me will do a bad job necessarily, but I know he didn't grow up in a town like me and he's probably going to come here to get his case and leave. Um, and I'm going to do stuff to support the community. So, I think it's my job to kind of make sure people know the difference. And people make their own choice. And some people are going to pick either one, but I want to, you know, make sure we're doing our best to get out there and let everyone know we're here. And they don't have to pick, you know, a giant firm with a thousand attorneys. They can pick one that's in their backyard. But we also got to do better. You know, like I, you know, I'm not, you know, that's competition. They're allowed to run ads. You know, I'm going to make sure I do better in marketing. Um, and that's that's the battle. And it's hard. As you know, you're in a big city. I mean, it's it's it's competitive, but it's also fun. I I I like doing hard stuff. Like I said, that's why I think I did good in law school. It was one big test for all the marbles. I kind of like my odds better in that than if it was a hundred boring things to do in a 100 days. Like, I know I'm going to lose that. There's a I know a ton of people that will beat me to death because about day five, I start snoozing. Um, so can't really snooze when you're doing marketing for PI because it's it's tough.

Chris: Yeah, it is. It It's super tough. I I love all the success. Hats off to you. You know, keep doing what you're doing. Um I know you're short on time. I want to be respectful of your time. How can people get up with you, get in touch with you?

Joshua: Yeah. I mean, uh the all my social media like on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram is the hometown lawyer. The website is the hometown lawyers with an s on the end.com. Yeah. You know, uh look me up there. Uh hit me up on uh you can look on the website, get my email, give us a call. I like meeting people uh that are doing different things, you know, other PI lawyers, but I'm really interested in other practice areas, too. I mean, I think the legal space is it's kind of in a big flux. The next 10 years is going to be really interesting. And I think a lot of people think it's scary, but I think it's just probably good opportunity if you're thinking, you know, and you're keeping uh nimble. So, I'd love to meet anyone that's listening to this. And I'm just trying to be like you, trying to get my uh trying to get my newsletter game up like you. I'm not quite there, but I did start mailing one this year. So, kind of, you know, it's always something I always add to. I need need to do my emails better like you do. But yeah, it uh always trying to push and I'd love to meet anyone else, you know, that's out there kind of trying to push the legal market forward.

Chris: Yeah, definitely get up with Josh. Doing good things. You got big vision. You're doing that work that compounds every day. So, love the energy.

Joshua: That's what it takes, man. You got to get after hustling every day. Never satisfied. No one's going to do it for you.

Chris: No. No. But I think most people won't do the work, Josh, to be completely honest with you. So, I'm not mad about that. There's a big space for guys like us who just will do that ugly work time and time again, man.

Joshua: Yeah, it's every day. Yeah, and I think I'll just say to the listeners if you're out there, it compounds, but it starts small because I, you know, that's how it is, you know. Yeah. But it start you'll see a little light at the end of the tunnel and it does grow. Now it's like it just it does compound but the first couple years are tough, you know. Now it's it's not as tough as it was, but I'm still pushing just as hard because I want a bigger vision. it. You know, you can't just do videos for a month and think it's going to pay off. It's, you got to do it for do it for two or three years, you know.

Chris: I appreciate it, Josh. Thanks for coming on, man. Really appreciate it. Keep doing your thing, mate. Doing all the right things, brother.

Joshua: For sure. You, too, Chris. Thanks, man. Hopefully see each other in person before too long.

Chris: Definitely. All right, that's it for this episode of The Earley Show. Be sure to check out more episodes of our show on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and the Answering Legal YouTube channel.