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Smell the Grass: Three Moments That Changed My Life

Luis Scott is the Managing Partner of Bader Scott Injury Lawyers and the Co-founder of 8 Figure Firm, where he helps law firms reach 7 and 8 figures. In just two years, Luis grew his firm from 25 to 150 employees and almost $100 million in settlements. Before this, he was the managing partner of a multi-million dollar firm where he oversaw the assistance of thousands of families who were injured in serious accidents.

Luis is a native of Puerto Rico and moved to Georgia after he was recruited to play baseball for the University of West Georgia. He graduated with a B.B.A in Accounting and went on to receive a Juris Doctorate from Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. Luis is also a member of the State Bar of Georgia, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, National Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Institute of Legal Counsel. He has been heralded as a Super Lawyer’s “Rising Star.”



 

 

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • Law firm growth coach Luis Scott talks about the terrifying event that significantly impacted his outlook on life
  • How to overcome imposter syndrome
  • Luis shares the defining moment that inspired him to pursue a law degree
  • The importance of developing authentic relationships with no ulterior motives
  • Why Luis decided to start his own law firm
  • The most valuable advice Luis received from one of his biggest influences: his father

 

In this episode…

 

It’s easy to get discouraged when life doesn’t turn out the way you planned. However, Luis Scott, the Managing Partner of Bader Scott Injury Lawyers and Co-founder of 8 Figure Firm, believes that what you perceive as a bad experience may actually be your greatest opportunity.

 

This is the idea that propelled Luis on his journey from a professional athlete to a managing partner of his own law firm. From a near-death experience to the loss of his first job, Luis recalls three defining moments that unexpectedly changed his life for the better. 

 

In this episode of The Guts and Glory Show, Luis Scott, the Managing Partner of Bader Scott Injury Lawyers and the Co-founder of 8 Figure Firm, is interviewed by Dr. Jeremy Weisz of Rise25 Media about his journey to starting his own law firm. Luis discusses the three moments that changed the course of his life, how he deals with self-doubt, and the best piece of advice he received from his father. Stay tuned.

 

Resources Mentioned in this episode

 

 

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

 

Intro

 

Luis Scott  0:00  

 

I’m Luis Scott Managing Partner 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.

 

Luis Scott here, host of the Guts and Glory Show, I feature top leaders who share the obstacles and challenges of leadership and the guts it takes to succeed and the glory of success. Today, I have Jeremy Weisz here who has done thousands of interviews with successful entrepreneurs and CEOs. And today we’re flipping the scritch script. And he’ll be interviewing me, Luis,

 

Jeremy Weisz  1:05  

 

thank you for having me. And, you know, today, we’re going to talk about three moments that changed your life. All right. And so I was especially excited about this episode. Before we talk about that I want people to kind of know a little bit of your background a little bit. And this episode is brought to you by 8 Figure Firm Consulting an 8 Figure Firm, you know, you help law firms go to seven, 8 figures, and I was talking to someone was, and you spent, you know, over 80 hours a week to make partner after that you finally start your own firm and you wish you had someone walking you through these steps to growth that you’ve had to kind of endure. And that’s probably where the guts and glory Oh, to start any company, you have to have some guts. And there’s some trials and tribulations so people can check out 8FigureFirms.com. And by the way, I know people I’ve talked to well, if you could start a law firm, it really those fundamentals apply to any company. And so I know you’ve, you know, given advice and helped other types of companies too, but people can check it out. They’re interested 8FigureFirm.com. So the three moments, the three moments that change the trajectory of your future. Um, bring me back to where do we start?

 

Luis Scott  2:16  

 

Well, I always like to start about probably, there was a moment before those three moments that really kind of hit it off and started off for me, the first moment was a an almost accident that I had, I tell people about one day I was driving down the road, I was leaving baseball practice, all I wanted to be when I was a younger person when I was in my 20s was a professional athlete. By the way,

 

Jeremy Weisz  2:41  

 

yeah, it goes back to when I was five, not even 21 I

 

Luis Scott  2:46  

 

know what it went back earlier than that. But you know, in my 20s I had the skills and the tools and I thought that I could make it unfortunately my body didn’t have the ability to withstand, you know, the long hours and the pressure and I got injured several times. But there was a particular day I was leaving practice and I was going home windows down sunroof open only because I had no AC in the car, not because I had a fancy car. But I’m I’m driving down the road 65 miles an hour and out of the right corner of my eye I see a dog coming out into the road. And so I immediately you know, all of my training went into into first gear I realized I need to hit the brakes and hit the dog because if I swerved there was a car coming in the other in the other lane. I couldn’t swerve I was gonna hit the dog but what happened was when I hit the brakes it fishtailed my my car so I got scared I reconnected still went into the other lane. And as I was going in the other lane I always say that I looked at the guy in the truck coming in my way we locked eyes We both realize this may be it. None of that actually happened. I was all I was thinking was there he’s Don’t hit me. Yeah, it was super scary. And and I tell people that that maybe my car flipped a couple times. But I think it was only one time I landed in a ditch I didn’t hit anything.

 

Jeremy Weisz  4:00  

 

I was this little car actually flipped.

 

Luis Scott  4:02  

 

Spin I’m sorry. Wow. And no got flipped over. Yeah, so it’s spend all the way around 360 landed my cart. But I didn’t hit the dog. I didn’t hit the truck. I didn’t get injured, nothing happened. I was able to drive the car out of the out of the ditch after somebody came in and checked on me. But it was like that moment where I realized, man life is so so quick. Like you could lose it at any time. Yeah. And and I started really thinking about what I was going to do to create an impact and significance in my life. And it’s interesting because now I have my personal vision and my personal vision is to lead a life of significance. And all of that stemmed from that time when I was 20 years old, where I had, I almost, you know, got into a head on collision with another with another car. So that’s, that’s really the the moment that sets the stage for the three moments that I had. And that’s that’s kind of what what started it all.

 

Jeremy Weisz  4:52  

 

You know, and you have this philosophy and talk and you gave this to the state of the firm and you kind of started it. I think with Have the total number of years. Right?

 

Luis Scott  5:03  

 

Yeah, I always tell people that, that, you know, if we’re lucky, if we’re lucky, we have 80 years, 80 years to live a life of which 33% of that time will spend sleeping. And another 30% of that time will spend working. And so that leaves us with very, very little time to make an impact and 80 years, it’s 42 million minutes, 336 million breaths. And so every breath we take, isn’t it one breath less that we’ll have. And that’s if we’re lucky, and kind

 

Jeremy Weisz  5:31  

 

of scary to think, actually,

 

Luis Scott  5:32  

 

it is. I mean, it’s it’s kind of morbid, but at the same time, it’s, I think it puts everything in context that our lives need to be spent doing something great for ourselves, for others for our family. Because if you’re going to spend 30% of your life working, that work has a real impact in what your life is about, you know, people, they spend so much time thinking about the weekend, and thinking about vacation, not realizing that if you take vacation three, three weeks a year, that’s a very small portion, that’s not even 10% of your year. If you go on the weekend, that’s two out of seven days, you’re spending five days wishing it away, so that you could go spend time on the weekend where I encourage people to do something, they love something they become so passionate about that Monday becomes a weekend. And I’m a big fan of Mondays, I’m on Sunday night, I’m ready to go to bed, wake up the next morning, I get up early at six o’clock go to the gym, because I’m ready to get the day started and do what I love and the passion that I have for what I love.

 

Jeremy Weisz  6:28  

 

You know, one of my friends has a T shirt that says thank god, it’s Monday said thank you. Um, so that was the first moment or one of the first one of the moments that changed the trajectory, you realize life is precious, fast for what was the next thing that kind of changed your trajectory.

 

Luis Scott  6:46  

 

So so that was kind of what set the stage for these other moments actually having any meaning in my life. And but what I would consider the very, very first moment that that changed my life was, I was in a business law class, it was part of my my getting my accounting degree, it had nothing to do with accounting, it was just one of those kind of pre, you know, business prerequisites that you had to take. And I was in a business law class. And all my life, my parents said, you’re going to be an attorney one day, because you talk a lot, and you love to argue, and but I never really thought that I had the smarts to do it. And frankly, you know, we have 30 lawyers here in our in our law firm. And, you know, sometimes I’m around them. And I’m like, man, we have some very smart lawyers like, even to this day, sometimes I feel you know, just being completely transparent. Sometimes I feel like not adequate to have these conversations, we have some smart people. So I never thought I was going to be smart enough to to be a lawyer. And I remember being in this business law class, there’s three rows of seats, about 60 people in there. And the professor said, we are going to have everyone stand up. And they’re going to tell us their name, what they like to do, and what they plan on getting out of the class. And I was terrified. Number one, I didn’t want to get up. Number two, I didn’t want to talk. And I number three, I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. Remember, all I wanted to do was play baseball. And so this was like a terrifying moment in my life. But they finally got around to me. And I stood up and to try to take the tension away. I said a joke. I said, my name is Luis Scott. And I love long walks on the beach and candlelit dinners, and then I just sat down. And you know, people,

 

Jeremy Weisz  8:18  

 

you got a few days? No, I’m just kidding. No,

 

Luis Scott  8:20  

 

no, no way. If he was famous, I probably thought I was a nerd or something. I don’t know that. It was it was one of those things where people laughed. And and I realized now it’s probably incredibly disrespectful to do that. But this judge, you know, he didn’t he didn’t let me get away with it. He said, he said, you know, stand up, you didn’t tell us what you’re gonna get out of the class. And in that moment, all I could think about was what my parents had said about being a lawyer. So I thought it would be good, it would sound really great to just say, I want to be a lawyer. And so that’s what I said, I said, I want to be a lawyer. That’s what I want to get out of the class. And then I sat down and I was like, Oh, my gosh, I just said that out loud. I had never said that out loud. You know, I’m not smart enough. I’m not capable enough. But what ended up happening what what ended up happening is that the judge, I guess, he saw my conviction, or he felt sorry for me, whichever, you know, whichever perspective you want to take. He called me down. He said, Mr. Scott, come here. Let me talk to you after class. He talked to me after class, he offered me a summer internship. And just based on that moment, like those 10 seconds, led to him offering me a summer internship. And we’re still friends today. 17 years later, we’re still friends. And because of that internship, I realized that somebody believing in me was was all I needed to believe in myself at that moment. And I needed to put that kind of like in the universe, and things would start happening. And so that moment is what led me to eventually getting the job that I got at my old law firm and also to having the confidence to go to law school because I didn’t want to disappoint him. You know, he had so much faith and belief in me I had no choice but to go to law school at that point. So that was probably the very first defining moment after I realized that significance was something that I wanted to attain in my life.

 

Jeremy Weisz  10:00  

 

Yeah, I want to get to the next moment. But you know, I want to know how you get over self talk, you know, people out there are thinking, well, maybe I’m not smart enough. I’m not good enough, you know, there’s an imposter syndrome, even with the most successful people we know. Right? Yeah. And you were saying that I’m not smart. But then you got over that. And created, you know, went on to law school went on your own firm and all that, how did you get over that self talk? That to just keep going, even though you’re like, I’m not, I guess good enough for whatever you were saying to yourself at the time.

 

Luis Scott  10:41  

 

You know, I don’t know if this is going to be comforting. Or if this is going to be it’s going to lead somebody to more depression. But, but I don’t I don’t know if you ever get over it. You know, I don’t know if you ever get over the imposter syndrome. I don’t know. If you ever get over feeling good enough, or that you are smart enough or attractive enough or good enough? I think what happens is that you start accepting who you are, and creating new opportunities for yourself. You know, I recently I heard a quote from Tony Robbins. And he said that being confident is not a feeling it’s an action. Even when you’re not feeling confident at competently and people won’t know like, nope, people, I don’t know how many people tell me man, you are so confident when you walk in the room. I’m like, really, because I did not want to talk to anybody. I’m terrified, sitting on the you know, sitting on the wall, just like hoping nobody says anything to me. But I’d never act that way. I always try to act the way that I want people to perceive me. And you know, they say fake it till you make it. I don’t know if that necessarily works. But you definitely want to want to it’s a process of confidence.

 

Jeremy Weisz  11:41  

 

Yeah, it’s a prep salutely.

 

Luis Scott  11:43  

 

It’s a practice and it’s something that you have to really work on. And, and, yes, there are going to be something that you’re going to become more confident on for sure. Like, I’m more confident walking into my firm today than I was two years ago, or when when we had just started getting this thing off the ground. And we had 20 employees, I’m much more confident today with 150 employees, but I still come every day with the sense of, I don’t know what’s next. And I’m not confident that I can lead us there. But I’m going to continue to act confident. And I’m a big reader also. So I read a lot. And I think that that’s a that’s a huge skill that you need to develop.

 

Jeremy Weisz  12:21  

 

So the first moment, um, you know, is just sometimes you just have to kind of put yourself out there and you know, really interesting things happen in spiral, what was the next next moment? You know, the

 

Luis Scott  12:34  

 

next moment is actually the day I met my, my business partner. And if I didn’t know, I was meeting my business partner, the day that I met him, I was going to a networking event, and not feeling super competent, but trying to act competent. I was walking around talking to some people, we finally got to a table, which is where I wanted to be because I did not like being in the open field. You know, I felt like I was I was exposed in the open field, but in the table, everybody’s confined to the table. So you have no choice but to talk to those people and they’re much more open. You don’t have to like look for you know, opening conversations. And so I go to the table, there was one seat next to me that was empty. And he came in fashionably late, if you know him, he’s he’s notorious for coming in fashionably late to things. He comes in, he sits down, he extends his hand out. And he says, Hey, Seth Bader, you know, said Bader, and I was like, oh, separate, like, I know, this guy, you know. And it was weird, because like, it took a second for me to read it for it to resonate. Not only do I know this guy, but he’s like a competitor at the time, I was at a different firm. And the reason that was the moment that changed my life is because I didn’t realize that just the friending, you know, we became friends before we became business partners. I had no intention to working with him, I had no desire to work with him, I was a partner, my other firm, I was not in any way, trying to develop a relationship. for business purposes, I was not trying to get any gain. And the reason that was a moment that changed my life is because I realized, if you just strive to build relationships, like authentic relationships with people, those relationships will eventually take you other places, whether it’s to new people, new financial places, and I think a lot of times people, they go into the relationship with an ulterior motive. They go into the relationship, saying, What can I get out of this relationship instead of what can I give to this relationship? And it was that moment that I realized that giving to the relationship was what I needed to do and it went back to the to the car accident, the way I build a life of significance is by giving and giving to a relationship without an ulterior motive. So one was, it was, you know, really, exclaiming, what I wanted to do and overcoming that, that fear number two was developing relationships with no ulterior motives. And that was, that was a second moment that really has changed my life.

 

Jeremy Weisz  15:00  

 

Yeah, I love that Luis, and thanks for that reminder. Because I think, you know, in anyone’s life, relationships are the most important. I don’t care if it’s health, wealth, you know, whatever it is. And giving with without expecting something in return is amazing. And it’s sometimes hard to grasp, it’s hard to hold on to, it’s hard to do. Because we always have these wants or desires in general in life. So I love that going in just just focusing on giving, and nothing else, and good things that really focus on giving. Good things happen. So what’s the next? So what was the next moment after that?

 

Luis Scott  15:38  

 

So the third moment that really changed my life is, is I worked for a law firm for 14 and a half years. And, you know, I thought I was gonna retire there. I thought I had heard in college, that the the average person has 12 jobs. And I said, you know, what, I’m way ahead of the curve, I’m not going to have 12 jobs and at one job, it was really the only job I had ever had, it was the only professional job I had worked there, since my junior year of college all the way until I was 35 years old. And so it was the only thing that I knew, and I thought I was gonna work there forever. But, but I remember walking in on on a cold January day, they will. My two other partners called me to the office, and they had documents or they were dissolution documents, they handed them to me, and it was we’re going to dissolve the partnership within 30 days. And like, I didn’t have any warning, right. Now, I will say that, that I could sense that there was a misalignment in our in our values, and in our, in our goals and so forth. You know, I wanted to grow a big business. And I wanted to be the leader of that big business. I did not want to be a lawyer. You know, I talked about this a lot that I don’t identify as a lawyer, I identify as a businessman. And so there was a misalignment because they were lawyers first and business people second. And they they like trying cases and doing those things. They were excellent litigators. They’re great litigators, great lawyers, they, I mean, I have nothing but I learned so much from them. I mean, I learned a lot about life, they gave me my first opportunity. I’m very thankful for them. But we were just misaligned. And that’s okay. You know, that’s totally okay. But but for my heart, it hurt because I wanted to be there forever. And what I realized in that moment was that I had a lot more courage than I ever thought I could have. I left that day, in January. and a month later, I went to as well, two weeks, I spent on a couch doing nothing, just eating ice, like crying about eating ice cream. But But after those two weeks, my dad called me He says, Look what God has for you, he has for you. And if it’s not at that firm, it’s gonna be somewhere else doing something else. And I got up that day, and I made the decision, I’m going to start my own law firm. And I started my own law firm. Within four or five months, I had 100 clients, I had six employees within a four or five month period of time. And now today, I’ve partnered with, with Seth and, and we have an organization with 150 employees. And we’re in five cities around the state, and, you know, voted one of the fastest growing law firms in the state of Georgia. And that couldn’t have happened if I wouldn’t have had the courage to go out and do something. And so I thank them for pushing me into my destiny, you know, and that was the moment that really made me realize that courage is all you need. And courage is not a feeling, it’s an act. It’s a behavior, and just like getting over your, your lack of confidence. And so, those are the three moments when I think about what really changed my life. It was, it was that moment of, of exclaiming what I wanted, it was that moment of building relationships without ulterior motives. And then it was at that last moment, of having the courage to do something that I know was was going to take me into my destiny has, I mean, completely changed my life completely changed my life. And so that’s my story. Yeah.

 

Jeremy Weisz  18:52  

 

At least I love that story. I love hearing, it’s really for me, and hopefully, people listening, motivating, because it’s like when life kicks you, it could be the biggest opportunity you could have. Right? And so instead of we could view it as like, Oh, that’s the worst thing that’s happened in my life, because you could have easily viewed it that way. And then kept that mentality. But it turned out to be the biggest opportunity.

 

Luis Scott  19:17  

 

Well, and the thing is that I never wanted to burn bridges. And you know, I haven’t talked to them in many years. But to this day, I am so thankful for those 14 and a half years, like why ruin that by going out in a firestorm and acting like, like a complete idiot, you know about it. And I think some people, they take the wrong approach. They’re upset about it. They’re angry about it, not realizing it could be the greatest opportunity you’ve ever had. And that’s how I viewed it. And so I’m just I’m so thankful that that it happened and that the things in my life, the moments in my life have happened the way they have because it’s really led me to who I am today.

 

Jeremy Weisz  19:51  

 

Yeah. So first of all, before we wrap up, I have one last question. But I want to point people towards Your show the guts and glory show, and check out more episodes. And I want to point people to towards the 8 Figure Firm.com. And I mean, I don’t know, who would want a person like you, you know, who has their back in their company. But um, you know, I want to finalize this with, um, you know, you are humble, but you take the advice, and we all stand on the shoulders of giants. And your dad’s been a big influence on you, I’d wonder some of the best advice that your dad has given you on this on this journey.

 

Luis Scott  20:37  

 

Oh, man, you know, he has been an incredible influence on me. I always say, you know, as he gets older, I, I know that his time is, is coming. Right. I hope that God gives him 30 more years. But I know his time is coming as he gets older. And what I told him and my mom actually, the other day, I said, I just want you to know if anything ever happens to you. I want you to know that your life mission has been accomplished, you know, your life mission, because because you have helped so many people, and you’ve inspired so many people. And even if you only inspired me, this is what I told my mom, even if you only inspired me, just know that I will lead a life of significance in your name. And I will never never let that go. So. But one of the things that he’s always told me that I still remember from like, my college days playing baseball, was to smell the grass. Because I would go out to the field and I’d be so upset. I cannot believe I got injured again, I cannot believe I lost my speed. I cannot believe I’m not getting to start every single game, because I should be starting every single game. And he said just smell that smell the grass. And I’m like, okay, it smells like fresh cut grass, what do you do? And he would tell me, he says smell that. Because one day, one day, you will not be able to play this game one day, you will not be able to enjoy this moment of being on this team, with these people doing the thing you love. And now I look back 20 years and I’m like, Oh, my gosh, he was so right. Like, enjoy the moment today. Enjoy the moment today because like you don’t know. You don’t know when it’s going to be taken away from you that that opportunity. And it reminds me of my favorite show the office. There’s a character on

 

Luis Scott  22:15  

 

that. Yeah,

 

Luis Scott  22:17  

 

that Yeah. And in the final season, Andy says, What if today was really the good old days, you know, we always talk about the good old days. What if today was the good old days? like are we living that way? And so that was probably he’s told me a million things I could go on forever, but that’s the one that resonates with me. Like just just always, I’m always thinking about just enjoy today. The moment today. Just enjoy that. You know, and 

 

Jeremy Weisz  22:43  

 

I think in book titles, and I think that’s your best seller smell the grass. Yeah. So, Luis, I appreciate that. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me. Everyone. Check out more episodes the show, check 8 Figure Firm and I will see on their side. All right. Thanks, Jeremy. Thanks.

 

Outro  23:02  

 

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.