Charlotte Christian is the Founder of Charlotte Christian Law, a firm dedicated to protecting clients from unfair legal situations without destroying the family. Born and raised in Alabama, Charlotte is committed to helping those who experienced loss overcome their hardships and build a new life. After losing her father and her husband, Charlotte knows what it means to practically and legally create a future filled with hope, security, opportunity, and happiness.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Charlotte Christian discusses why she became an attorney
- Charlotte’s favorite story from her practice
- How 8 Figure Firm has helped Charlotte grow in her career
- What does it take to start your own practice?
- The best advice Charlotte has received from mentors — and her favorite books
In this episode…
When you’re running a business, you have to go all in. For Charlotte Christian, this meant leaving what she knew, stepping out of her comfort zone, and completely rebuilding. How did she do it?
As someone who lost her father and husband, Charlotte understands the fear of losing loved ones. That’s why she decided to become an attorney and start her own practice. She understands the pain and created her firm to offer crucial support to families and individuals struggling with loss and other tough situations. Knowing that she had to give her whole self in order to succeed, Charlotte uprooted her life — she gave up a secure income, moved to a different city, made new relationships, and built a fresh marketing plan, all for the benefit of her business.
In this episode of The Guts and Glory Show, Chad Franzen sits down with Charlotte Christian, the Founder of Charlotte Christian Law, to talk about her journey of building up a business. Charlotte shares her favorite stories from her career, what she learned from Luis Scott and 8 Figure Firm Consulting, and how advice from mentors leads her from strength to strength.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Charlotte Christian on LinkedIn
- Charlotte Christian Law
- Charlotte Christian Law’s phone number: 256-859-7277
- How Did You Do It, Truett?: A Recipe for Success by S. Truett Cathy
- Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People: Doing Business the Chick-fil-A Way by S. Truett Cathy
- Jim Collins’ books
- Chad Franzen on LinkedIn
- Luis Scott on LinkedIn
- 8 Figure Firm
- Bader Scott Injury Lawyers
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by 8 Figure Firm.
Co-founded by Luis Scott and Seth Bader of Bader Scott Injury Lawyers, 8 Figure Firm helps transform your law firm into a 7-figure or even 8-figure firm.
After their own law firm scaled from $3.5 million in revenues to $30 million per year in revenues in just two years, Luis and Seth started the 8 Figure Firm to share their strategies and help other law firms achieve exponential growth.
Visit www.8figurefirm.com to receive a consult call and start scaling your business today.
Episode Transcript
Luis Scott 0:00
I’m Luis Scott, Managing Partner of Bader Scott Injury Lawyers one of the fastest growing law firms in the country. And I’m also the co founder of 8 Figure Firm Consulting. I’ve successfully built multiple companies by focusing on leadership, operations and culture. Using these principles, my companies have generated close to $100 million in revenue. But before any of this success, I started my legal career as a receptionist, and I worked my way up to becoming managing partner. And each episode of this podcast I sit down with leaders and entrepreneurs who have had the guts to step out on their own, and the courage to face adversity. They share with us their tips for achievement, the challenges they have faced and the glory of success. I welcome you to The Guts and Glory Show.
Chad Franzen 0:46
Chad Franzen here one of the hosts of The Guts and Glory Show where we feature top leaders who share challenges of leadership, the guts it takes to succeed and the glory of success. This episode is brought to you by 8 Figure Firm Consulting at 8 Figure Firm they help law firms grow to eight figures. Luis Scott was telling me when he started his career, he was working over 80 hours a week to make partner. After that he finally started his own firm and wished he had someone walking him through the steps to growth. At 8 Figure Firm they show you how to develop a business that works for you. Instead of you working for it. Go to 8figurefirm.com to learn more. Today, we have Charlotte Christian, the owner of Charlotte Christian Law in Huntsville, Alabama, where she is not only driven to serve her clients and employees, but also to wake up daily with a plan of how to do and be better. Charlotte, thank you so much for joining me today. How are you?
Charlotte Christian 1:36
Thank you for having me. I’m doing well. Thank you.
Chad Franzen 1:38
So tell me a little bit more about Charlotte Christian Law and what you guys do and what kind of clients you serve?
Charlotte Christian 1:44
Yeah, absolutely. So we’re a firm that’s based in Huntsville, Alabama, we serve from Birmingham, Alabama northward. We have offices in Birmingham as well as Huntsville. But we do family law and we do personal injury. So we sort of look at it as that we serve the family already all the way around. So if you have a family law issue we’re going to build to help you, we can help you we know you know, the best people to send it out to so we try to just say, you know, come back to us and we’ll take care of you in all gamets of the family.
Chad Franzen 2:17
What’s an example of family law?
Charlotte Christian 2:20
Yeah, so if you just look at family law itself, you’re going to be looking at divorce, custody, child support, issues between parents, that’s going to be the family law. And then of course, the personal injury is you know, if you’re if you’re injured, or your family or your friends are injured, that’s the personal injury piece that goes along with it.
Chad Franzen 2:39
What attracted you to becoming an attorney? When did you and what did you first know that you wanted to be one
Charlotte Christian 2:45
you know, I wanted to be a business person I grew up sort of with a business person mindset. I remember when I was a little chap, I probably was, you know, I was in grade school. I remember deciding that my grandfather who I lived with needed to have a small engines business even though he wasn’t a small engines person, I’m not sure where I got that from, but I set him up a little business down in our basement and started trying to figure out how to get him some customers so I made some little cards up and took them to school for my friends to give to their dad’s and put some information into grocery stores and he started getting a little business off of that but I knew that I wanted to be a business person and then when I grew older I decided I really want to go to law school because I thought I could help more people that way. I mean, I made the decision went to law school and a practice for many years before I started building the family in the in the personal injury practice but you know now and we’re pretty busy and I’m not able to personally practice as much anymore on a more firm management but I oversee all the cases I have my hands on them I know what’s happening but you know as a general rule those I oversee the practice now and act for a CEO role, but that in itself is plenty of work.
Chad Franzen 4:00
You said you wanted to you thought that you could help more people that way what what made you kind of what in your upbringing made you decide you wanted to help people it’s kind of a daily thing.
Charlotte Christian 4:10
Yeah, so I was unfortunately lost my father at a very young age I was 18 months old and he was killed in an accident and they have accident that he was killed in was very much preventable a small latch on the door opened and caused him to be thrown from the vehicle and and he was killed as a result from that so and that weighed heavily on me my whole life and then suddenly I was married it was in a great marriage my husband passed away suddenly. So you know those two things together sort of made me look at the fact that are really understand losing everything. I understand the fear that came from losing and losing you know, those that you love and so, it really those two events put together made me really want to step out and help more people because I saw the pain the through and I saw you know You know, either having somebody or not having somebody support you how crucial that is for for you to survive. And it’s just the life that I lived, I think really broke down for me that I wanted to help people. So it drove me into that direction.
Chad Franzen 5:15
Good for you. That’s a great story of resiliency. So how did how did you kind of get into the legal industry then once you went to law school?
Charlotte Christian 5:24
Yeah. So when I went to law school, I, when I got out, I actually was a real estate closing attorney and had that practice up until my husband passed away. And after he passed away, I then just decided I really didn’t want to stay in the town where he and I lived, and I need to do something else. So changed, changed areas change direction, so much real estate, closing practice, and new tried to really try to break into helping more people than just those who were purchasing or selling a house.
Chad Franzen 5:55
So then how did Charlotte Christian Law come about?
Charlotte Christian 6:00
Yeah, so I guess that was a my biggest step out, but I had to step out and you know, had a comfortable living, and I had to step out and say, I want to do something else. So I went down the road to to Huntsville, where I am now and started a new start a new practice and shows a shows helping others be family law, and Pei, and really started putting those two together. And then Rob, before COVID started really putting a firm together, because I saw that, you know, just me, I could touch 50 to 60 people a year. But if I had other lawyers working in the firm, who were really high quality lawyers who had the ability to scale what I was doing, we could touch and help so many more. So we’re a completely we’re a driven firm on our values. And so we measure everything we do against our values. And so really teach that we’re here to help people, we’re here to understand people’s why. So we’re not just here to shuffle paper through or to, you know, look at you as a number. If you’re our client, we’re really client focused and try to get to the why. So that we can help people. So I know that that makes us different. I see that the time, you know, the time that we spend, and the promises that we make, and that we fulfill are just completely different than I see in other places. So I’m happy with that and happy that we’ve been able to put that together.
Chad Franzen 7:30
How big of a firm do you have now?
Charlotte Christian 7:34
So we have? Oh, let’s see, we’re having our fifth attorney. Now. Besides myself, we have about 19 employees. So okay, small firm.
Chad Franzen 7:43
Sure. Not very nice, very nice. What’s a favorite story from your practice?
Charlotte Christian 7:49
You know, my favorite story is I had a father who had two little girls and their mother took them to another state and I won’t tell who it is or where, where she took them. But she took them to another state to, to live with a boyfriend. And we taped we traced her down, found her and got a court hearing basically pulled her back to Alabama, streamed Alabama all night from the other state along with her boyfriend got here early morning. And tell the judge basically, she intended to stay in other state with her boyfriend. And the judge told her if she did that, that that was the sponsor choice. But he gave custody to our client, which was a was an emotional day for all of us, the children were, you know, torn because they had been taken to this other state, they didn’t know exactly what was happening. So we really spent the first day and then many days thereafter trying to get their comfort level created and trying to really reach out and provide something magical for them. So we worked hard on that case, but the joy in that has been watching those girls grow up. You know, I’ve watched them from the time dad got them until now and think one of them’s in high school now. So it’s been really, it’s been really a joy for me to watch them grow up and know that what we did contributed to their being here being safe with their dad.
Chad Franzen 9:11
Yeah, well, that’s a great, great story. So I’d like to talk about more of your some of the lessons learned in your practice journey. How did you discover 8 Figure Firm and Luis Scott.
Charlotte Christian 9:24
So I’ve coached with several different people. And you know, I attribute so much of the success of this firm to coaching and to who I’ve worked with who’ve helped to bring the firm to where it is but I just got to a different place and discovered Luis was happy to find them because, you know, it’s takes about two hours and 15 minutes from my house to get to where they are. So I’m over there quite a bit and 8 Figure Firm is just it’s just, it’s really kind of hard to explain. It’s just the it’s a group of people who really care about you care about your firm and you know, they take the time Just spend it with you. And Luis just has numbers figured out, you know, he’s able to put put numbers to make them make sense for your firm. So I attribute a lot to what he’s done to, to our growth, we were fortunate in 2021, to grow pretty exponentially. And, you know, he was a large part of that. And you know, there’s, there’s no time but I can’t reach him, if I have a problem, I’m able to get to him or talk to him, or, you know, he’s just, he’s there for me. So I don’t have to remind him every coaching session, what my issues are, because, again, I talk during the week, or, you know, I’m talking to somebody that’s in his business during the week. So they’ve got some kind of system fixed up so that they can really know everybody knows what’s going on. So it’s very helpful.
Chad Franzen 10:45
What do you say he has numbers figured out? What are some, maybe a lesson you learned from him that helped that kind of changed your practice?
Charlotte Christian 10:53
Yeah, so he’s, he’s really good about knowing in giving you the exact percentages that you should be using from your budget. So if you bring in a million dollars a month, there’s a formula of how you should actually spend that money if you’re either wanting to grow or if you’re wanting to, you know, stay static, or just grow a small amount. So there’s different percentages on how that money should be spent based on where you are and what you want to do. He understands those numbers and shares those he understands and shares with you how much how much money you should be bringing in per person who’s employed in your firm. That’s a that’s a real number. And you know, that’s a business number that a lot of people do not teach. He also, you know, teaches and is aware of how much money you should be able to make in your population. Before, you know, before you’ve grown out of your population before you may need to add other practice areas are looking to another geography. So he brings a lot of numbers, he’s good with that Luis’ background, I think, you know, his pain, excuse me, his dad is a really good guy who seems to have taught him well, and he’s just brought a lot of business perspective to Bader Scott in is very free and sharing that with 8 Figure Firm clients,
Chad Franzen 12:11
how much of a transition was was it for you to kind of go from, you know, a skilled attorney to more of like a manager or a CEO type person, you know, running a business?
Charlotte Christian 12:22
you ran into businesses difficult, there’s nothing easy about it. But but, you know, my firm was able was actually able to really grow and transition to provide a better product, once I was able to get out. And I was able to put the bases in place. So it was quite a transition to, to run a business like a business, but it’s so much better for the clients, because now I can oversee, you know, everything that’s being done, the processes and procedures are in place. So it’s not just willy nilly that, you know, you get treated this way, if you get this attorney or this way, if you get this attorney, you’re going to have a static process with us. If you no matter who your attorney is, you’re going to be treated well. And you’re going to be treated the same way. So putting all that together, took a took a pretty serious transition, but it’s been one that’s has been beneficial to what we’re doing for sure.
Chad Franzen 13:09
So as you know, this is called The Guts and Glory Show. We like to feature stories involving Guts and Glory. So can you tell me a story that took guts, you know, where you guys overcame something?
Charlotte Christian 13:21
Yeah, the guts that it took, I think thing my guts story is just that I was willing to lay down a practice area that was providing me with a good income and do something else. I think that that was my gut story is that I was willing to do that. And I was willing to go all in, I mean, you have to go, you know, you just have to go all in, you can’t just have your hand a little bit in it. And in plan to succeed, you’ll you’ll wake up and be 25 years from now and have not succeeded. So I think the big gut story for me was there was a starting a practice area that that’s done very well.
Chad Franzen 13:59
What made that gutsy Do you feel like?
Charlotte Christian 14:03
Well given up, you know, given up a sheer income or giving up something that you’ve known for 15 years, going to a new city where I didn’t know, you know, I didn’t know the courts as well didn’t know the judges had to build completely new relationships, had to build a completely new marketing plan had to build everything to go to another city. And that was that that took guts. I couldn’t have done that. If I had been scared or timid or afraid. You know, I failed plenty of times. I mean, I’ve got plenty of failure stories, but I’ve tried to fill up you know, so I’m in probably about the fifth iteration of Charlotte Christian Law of trying to get it right to take care of people the most, you know, the best way that I can. Certainly I wouldn’t say that the first iteration of anybody’s firm is there in the duration. If it is out. I would argue that it has room to grow.
Chad Franzen 14:54
That’s it. That’s a great story. Good for you. Good for you, Charlotte. Can you tell me a glory story? Like well What are you particularly proud of?
Charlotte Christian 15:02
You know, I’m really proud of the team that we’ve put together. We have, we just have an amazing team, we have a great team of lawyers who are highly skilled, who came to work with us out of most of them out of big law where they were, you know, burned out on spinning, the time feeling like they weren’t necessarily fulfilling their own personal goals and objectives. And they, you know, came to our firm, and, you know, they feel like that it’s a different firm. And so for me, that feels good, because I know that they’re able to give good relationships to the clients give good care to the clients. But, you know, when you work in family law, it’s, there’s gonna be some rough times. I mean, even if you win, it’s what we call a win, you still haven’t won because when you get a divorce, you’re losing half of you, you know, you’re losing half of what, you know, if you’ve been injured in an accident, you’ve, you’ve had to go through injury, pain, you’ve had to go through, you know, so much to get back to be whole, there’s not really a way to win at the end of the day. So, you know, it’s, I guess, just seeing people come out on the other end, at least able to start a new day and a new life. That’s, that’s the glory that we feel.
Chad Franzen 16:17
Final question for you. Do you have a mentor or some mentors? And can you tell me maybe what their best advice was for you?
Charlotte Christian 16:26
Yeah, I think that I’ve had several mentors throughout my life. I had some teachers who were mentors and I had, my grandfather was a great mentor to me. And the way that he was a great mentor is that he was he was a very studious nightly he would read books is a before he would get a bed, he would sit down, read, study his books, and he was always prepared, but he was always just good to people. He taught me to be good to people and to, you know, not take anything for granted, but just live every day and really try to be good to people and just give myself so that’s what I tried to do. He was a great mentor that I had, you know, a few teachers who were really good mentors in my life, but I’ve tried to put myself in situations where people were knee more than on a who could, you know, give something to me to try to make me better I’m, I’m a pretty voracious reader, I really like to read and, you know, try to pull out as much as I can from from reading and from other people who’ve been there. Luis is an amazing mentor for me. There’s there’s several that I can name but those those those, those folks there have been very influential in my life.
Chad Franzen 17:42
Do you have any books that you have found particularly enjoyable or valuable?
Charlotte Christian 17:45
Yeah, recently, I read a couple of the Chick-fil-A books from there from the marketing director, I believe and then the HR director of Chick-fil-A books just put out put out books recently those are really good and then of course, you know Jim Collins books are good and good grade all those are good. There’s, there’s just so many good books right now. It’s it’s, it’s hard to name just one but I’m a huge fan of the Chick-fil-A books.
Chad Franzen 18:16
Okay. Yeah, those are good suggestions. Well, thank you so much for today, Charlotte. It’s been a great treat having you on. We’ve been talking with Charlotte Christian, the owner of Charlotte Christian Law, where can people find you?
Charlotte Christian 18:28
You can find us online at Charlotte, Christian law.com. Or you can call us at 256-859-7277.
Chad Franzen 18:37
Okay, great. Thank you so much for all I appreciate it. Thank you so much, everybody.
Outro 18:44
You’ve been listening to The Guts and Glory Show with Luis Scott. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to share. For more information on this episode. Please see the show notes at www.GutsandGloryshow.com And join us next time as we talk to another leader in business that had the guts to overcome all odds for the glory of success.
