“Welcome to week one of the rest of your life!”
Better Call Kong learns the realities of working for himself
Did I succeed? Did I fail? What did I need to get done? Was that actually needed?
I decided months ago I needed to work for myself to find out what I am made of.
Do I have what it takes to build a business? Create jobs? Have enough money to stop “advertising” on Hinge?
Answer:
I don’t know, but what I did last week will not cut it.
Why will last week not cut it?
Besides I generated zero income.
Zero.
It doesn’t matter it was below zero, it doesn’t matter it was four, not five days.
Zero.
Do I have leads? Yes.
Do I have work that will pay?
Yes.
But zero is a breadline. I did zero hours of anything that was billable. That HAS to change!
I told myself it could be a month, maybe months, before income came in, and that’s ok; I saved for the occasion.
Upon reflection, that’s a loser mentality. Scarcity.
Another reason I left to do defense and divorce was the lawyers in my area. They are competent, decent people, but I can do better.
That did not happen last week, and there’s no reality that changes that.
What went right?
I am more optimistic than ever I made the right decision. The above doesn’t sound like it, but I am. Here’s why:
my plan of flyers and posting about my hustle generated multiple leads. One of the leads has potential to be a HUGE revenue generator for years to come. People respect hustle and grind.
I had a few “come to Jesus” moments already. My office isn’t fully finished. Why? BECAUSE I NEED CLIENTS FIRST!!!! I found myself procrastinating more than I expected, and each time the correct response of “you are being a Fucking idiot right now” came to mind. I developed some lazy habits as a prosecutor (mostly too much phone time), and I need to end those ASAP.
I’m on round two of the Goggins & Huberman podcast, which is ironic given Goggins mentions on the podcast how people attend stuff over and over and never change anything. Anyhow, Goggins talks about looking in the mirror and being honest. That’s when life starts. I did that and will keep doing that.
The office is basically set up. It’s clean, has everything I need to work. I’ll take the small win.
I walked for hours in negative weather putting flyers in people’s mailboxes. That’s something. Another small W.
Was anything funny or are you just lazy and melodramatic?
Going to the VFW to post a flyer, seeing it was closed, then noticing a drug deal 100 feet away. I didn’t give them my flyer and do not regret it. It looked like a way to get shot. Maybe I’m a pussy and need to add that to my mirror talk
listening to the two other lawyers berate their clients acting like morons. Law is more funny on the inside. It mostly consisted of said clients violating court orders and not caring. “NO CONTACT IS NO CONTACT PATTI, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”
No, Patti did not.
Their admin is an older woman who is openly conservative and hard of hearing, so I was able to have the fun of loudly saying “I think it’s because Biden is a communist” at least a dozen times.
Seeing my former colleagues look miserable. God bless them for fighting the good fight. But man am I glad I decided to build a practice/go poor trying.
Where to improve for next week:
more of a set schedule: I need to be up by 3, 330 latest every day. Early AM is for deep work/gym #1 (cardio or bjj),
AM #2 (think 8-12) is marketing/advertising, whether saying hi to groups in the community I’ve worked with, making new friends (I joined a YMCA and the mayor of the place, Don, says I need to do cycle with him next week. He knows everyone so yes, yes I will) or handing out flyers (ink is expensive, I got lazy printing at work; another expense item I didn’t foresee; regardless, has to get done)
Lunch is networking Lunch or gym #2 (getting ripped too, I’m single LFG),
PM (1, 130-5) is follow-up if anyone pinged me, work on my client/BILLABLE stuff.
Night (530-930) is eat, tidy up, play w Toddler K if it’s my week, post on the socials about my hustle, take and return any calls.
Will I do the above?
Yes. Yes I will. I refuse to be writing again in a week about making no billable income.
If you got this far, thank you! Starting next week, I’ll be going to paid, with occasional free posts.
If you want to learn and see how to build a nine figure business (I’m willing it to happen) with humor Sprinkled in, I ask you to do yourself a favor a sign up!
Namaste,
KONG
I'm a 3 strikes qualified public defender in Washington working in Seattle.
I get paid a good amount (150k, benefits package better than anything but high level tech company).
Like you a newly divorced dad. I've got primary custody (girls stay at my house every night mom has them 2.5 evenings a week most of the day on Saturday) mom owes me child support (but not much still hasn't finished grad school).
Im responsible for the health insurance. One of my kiddos has special needs.
I've contemplated going private, don't have the savings. The interesting thing in Seattle is that because public defense is so robust, and because if you are in custody at time of filing you automatically get appointed a public defender on all felonies without a financial screening, there isn't a lot of room to get high level cases as a private attorney unless it's sex cases. Other than that you are stuck slinging duis.
I talked to biggest dui firm in town and with the kiddos needing insurance, and my amazing pension plan currently, I'd likely take a pay cut unless I wanted to work just as much as I do now.
That's kinda the thing though, it's at least 60 hours a week doing this work. But I get to practice criminal defense at an extremely high level. I'm an expert in complex mental health litigation in homicides. And there is that public service aspect too.
When you are honest with your self and your work ethic you are on the right track. Finding what drives business in your area will take some time. I have confidence in you.