E04: From Lawyer to Entrepreneur with Jeff Greenman

Jim: What is up, Remote Start Nation! My name is Jim Doyon, your host, and I want to welcome you to another episode. I'm on a mission to bring you actual strategies, roadmaps and stories on starting your own business, building a brand and creating your desired lifestyle. Today, I have a very special guest. I want to introduce you to a very good friend of mine from high school, someone that growing up, we used to have ideas on starting a business together, and without further ado, Jeff Greenman, I wanted to welcome you, say hello to Remote Start Nation.

Jeff: Remote Start Nation, What's up! Jeff Greenman here.

Jim: So Remote Start Nation, on this episode, we're going to be talking about starting a business and not being afraid to jump into a new job, new direction. Jeff is going to go into more detail on his journey of being an entrepreneur where he started and kind of get into some of the stories to help you out, and you know, we're going to be asking a lot of details on what he's done to get where he's at today. So Jeff, I know that you know, you started as a lawyer and I love to kind of talk a little bit more about that and how now you're really into real estate and absolutely crushing it.

Jeff: Yeah, no problems, and thank you for having me and to take this back a little further, I think this all started in high school where I was a little bit cooler and a little bit better looking than you and you know, that really set me off on a trajectory of success. So, no, I'll jokes aside man, thanks for having me. Yeah, as you know, after high school, I went up to college, University of Washington, good Pac-12 School, big school, fun school and made a ton of connections there as far as actually learning, you know how to be social and in the real world with other humans, you know, it gets you out of your cave away for college, and have to experience life without having mommy, daddy, helping you. So, that, I think I attribute a little bit of my success to through college took a lot of courses was always interested in the law, my father was a lawyer, and so that was sort of my, my path, I have a brother and a sister who are attorneys as well., so, you know, I thought that was my end goal, I thought this is going to be my career and so I went down that path, graduated college, went down to a small Law School in Orange County called Chapman, California, did find there and got a passion to help out plaintiffs people who are injured, so I point out my first year, my first job this is back in 2007 right before the recession and got a job, luckily, and I worked there for about a year and, you know, I did enjoy it, but I really didn't like working for somebody else, a couple of the stories, which I laugh at now, my boss, it's a very nice guy, but very hard-nosed and very worth work ethic, you know, centered and it's more about you being in the office actually, what you're getting done type of situation. So I recall, I'm one occasion, I was in court that morning, I was wearing a tie and, you know, it was just a suit and tie kind of firm and they was all buttoned up, and I came back from work and it's lunch time, I take my time off, Jack it off, I was sitting in my room, which had no windows and no clients coming in and my boss has me a little knock, Knock, he comes in, closes the door behind that like a shit, either fired, and he looks at me, “Jeff, we're trying to instill some professionalism here, the workplace” and then “great I'm on board”. He's like, “where's your tie? “I think it's, you know, behind the door there”. He's like “yeah, you mind” and I was like, “yeah, yeah, no problem”, you know, and then I get out, put my tie on and then I knew it was tied kind of place and I've been there for months, so I didn't really quite get it sort of strange to me and it's just one of those extra rules that a box will put on you that just box people, you know, like.

Jim: so was that kind of your aha moment that you were you thought to yourself like, this is it, I like, I don't want anybody else tell me what to do, like, I want to start my own thing?

Jeff: Yeah, that was a good tip off, and then the next story there was, I was on a date, I have left the office at 7:00 p.m. There was a 60, 70, 80, our kind of place, Saturday's, included all that grinder. And I was on a date like 7:00, I got a call from same guy. “Jeff, where are you?” “Hey, I'm on, I'm on a date”, this had now, he's like, “well, Dave's still at the office”. I said, “And Dave’s older than me”. He's like, “you know, you know, Jeff, you're the low guy on the totem pole here. You're the new guy, you need to be the first in and the last out every day”, and I said, “okay, so now I can't have a social life either’. And yeah, those two instances were all I needed. I found another lawyer, who has extra cases who's willing to share, let me get started. He said, “Just incorporate your own firm and I'll teach you a few cases and get you some office space for work together. And what you bring in, you eat what I give you, I give you a little piece”, I said, “You know, that's fine”. So one year out of law school, I started my own firm.

Jim: That's awesome. Now, did you spend a lot of time with, you know, coming up with a design and the name and everything else we’re was just like, I've got to get this going, like, I know I've got something good here, I've got the education, I know what to do, I just need to get, you know, take a step forward and just start.

Jeff: Right, yeah, so this back in ‘08 and I'm 26 or something, and I really just wanted to get started, so I know you know, you're big on branding and that came later, but as far as the beginning, I said, “I’m going to go, I going to go”, I collaborated, and I left and then after they're standing corporated, the logo, which I changed many times over the past 15 years now, and how I went about getting cases, all these types of things changed, but to get going, I just wanted to get.

Jim: And it's, you did in such a smart way you didn't just jump out there without being prepared, you found somebody that you knew you could get help from and lean on and work together with and that's so important, it's so important to that people realize that, you know, Remote Start Nation, like you don't need to come up with a full business plan at a 40 page, business plan just to get your business started, like Jeff's a perfect example, just understanding that, he had what it took, he had the background, he just need to get out and work knock on doors and make it happen, and Jeff obviously, you did that and you know, you crushed it and you were, you have a lot of accolades in the legal field that, I know have come from your hard work and just jumping in and not being afraid to get out there, so, hit on that a little bit, with some of the things you've been able to accomplish as a lawyer.

Jeff: Yeah, thanks, I agreed. And I went out and a lot of people are scared to do that, and I talk to them. Ten years later and they're still trapped these grind-it-out jobs, boss, making good money, but not great money and not having the time, the time is what I'm after. As a lawyer, right, I won multi-million dollar verdicts, I have the highest settlement for attorney under 30 in state of California and history, I have one trial over the year, for local organizations, their various accolades along the way, I’ve been super lawyer for 10 years now, whatever it is, so I'm really proud of those and I like the profession and look at it and at this point, I'm in a point where I transitioned a bit into some other things, as well as hired underneath me, which is kind of where you'll you should be getting to, if you have been successful long enough to start kind of passing off the the duties that you don't enjoy as much about the job and having other people do them and learn the trade, so it's kind of where I've transitioned.

Jim: And a lot of people wait for so long to make that transition, they want to do everything. They started a business, it started be successful, they want to do everything themselves, and what that really does is hold you back and, and that can hold you back in a lot of different ways, like I found for me personally being able to bring on a team allows me to live the lifestyle desire and, you know, you mentioned that 60, 70, 80 hour weeks, when you work for somebody else, you know, let's go back a minute and when you first started your own firm, did you were, you putting those kind of hours or did you know that your business, you are not going to do that, you're going to step back and just kind of, work at your own pace, how did that work?

Jeff: Yeah, good question. So I started with this guy Nick, I was probably working 20, 30 hours had a lot more time and a lot more cut on those cases, so I was actually making far more money but working less, which, you know, is great spot to be in and they think you don't realize that until you're an entrepreneur, how much more you can make doing it yourself or having later on people do those tasks for you, but yeah, no, it was a great spot, I had my freedom back, it made good one.

Jim: So you start your own business in California. Start or raise a family there, had a great thing going with your firm, and now you own a business in real estate, and so talk to me a little bit about that transition and talk to me about, when you knew as well, like, okay, I was it the lifestyle like, “hey, I'm not happy anymore or hey, I want to keep growing and I've already got this law thing down and now I want to start another business and something else that I'm very passionate about”, how did that kind of work?

Jeff: Yeah, I think it's the latter. I really do like being a lawyer but you know, it can get boring in a same thing for your whole life, I always see, you know, people who work the same jobs for 40 years. Okay, some point I'd be itching to do something different, and that's what happened. Things are good with the firm, I made some money and my whole childhood growing up, my dad is big investment. And so, I started to look at other things that I could do investment-wise, you're always here about a 401k or, you know, stock market and stuff like that, and that works for most people and you plug in every year, you put your money in your pension away and 401k’s and then you retire and you have a good clip of money, but for me, it seems that also seems sort of boring, and so having started a law firm invested it myself and money to that, they said, you know, this is great, a great model or doubt, let's try investing in some other things. So outside of the law firm, I stock market, I started buying into, friends of mine that would come up with company ideas. And I'm going to be honest, a lot of these fails, you know, it's part of I invested and my body drops me in oil company, mining company, put in, you know, chocolate big chunks of money for me at the time and, you know, I still have not paid back because I started, my mind I came up with this idea of a good book to write a children's book, it's a series, and actually took it from start to finish thinking that they'd sell overnight, and, you know, I still have boxes of books in my garage that have never sold. So, you know, you got to try and fail, you going to just keep trying. Eventually, some of these things will hit, start making a little bit of money, little side hustle, so I did all that while running them off in about, you know, eight years ago, so about halfway into my legal career, I decided to instead of the stock market started buying real estate, every book I read about, you know, being wealthy see all these guys, 50 million, 100 million dollars, how they get there, all of them on real estate or work through real estate to get there. So, that was a Tipping Point for me, well, maybe this is another thing that I can invest in and maybe I could do this myself versus investing in someone else's company or something starting out. So I took some money and I bought a few, quads of for flexes out in Salt Lake City two of those and I bought a another one had like six units, so I had 14 units in Salt Lake City and they were all residential and they were not the greatest, but they were a good price and they made a good return on my money every month, and so, that was the transitions, one more thing, now, look at me, I'm trying a case and then I start getting calls from tenants at Salt Lake City that might pipes burst like, oh shit like a lock on all of a sudden, it kind of dawned on me that maybe I could get some help in the law firm and start exploring the real estate more, that's where that initially started. It was the side gig and now I have two very successful businesses as well as other investments I've made along the way that have been very successful.

Jim: And it kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier, where a lot of your success, it seems like you get it going, you get it off the ground, you understand it, you, you know what it takes, get it there and then you bring in somebody to help so you can again, live this lifestyle, you want to live and not have to work 60, 70, 80 hours a week because it would be easy, let's be honest to work that much knowing how involved you are and what you created and how well how successful you've become in both these businesses, and so and I know, you know, these aren't even your only to businesses, so, you know, the power of who, right? And who you're going to bring in and what you're going to hand off to them so you can enjoy your life.

Jeff: Right, and employee selection is tantamount. My wife will tell you, I'm a horrible judge character, I think, I am, but I think that benefits me in some way because I trust everybody , anyone that comes in the door, I trust them until they burn me, and so you're going to get burnt by employees or people that you trusted. But I think with that sort of mentality, the long-term effect of trusting and giving people a chance to really pay out, that's been good for me, but there are bumps along the road and when you find someone good you need to compensate them, you pay them. When I got that first sort of gig outside of the first real legal job I had, it was a, kill what you eat, right? It was whatever you cases you were bringing in and instead of eyes me just go out and bring this cases, I made more money and I didn't have to pay a lot of these costs stuff associated with that. So it gave me a lot of incentive and then when I started getting a ton of cases and that my staff and even handle, I offer the same two attorneys. I say, hey, you know, Mike, Jim and Sue, you know, you want to take some of my extra cases and all, they had 25% on them or whatever you work out or they're more than happy, and if they're good at it, I give a more, if they're not great, I part my way to move on.

Jim: Thank you for sharing that. What are, you kind of said there are some bumps in the road and one thing that I think it's so important to share with the Remote Start Nation is that, nothing's ever going to go, perfect, right? There's always going to be things and one of the things that I think, for me, personally, that I've learned from being an entrepreneur, is that, it's not what's going to happen, because something's going to happen, right? It's how you react to it, it's what you do and learning from that mistake or learning from whatever it is, to move forward the next time, right? So talk to me about some of your wins and some of your failures as well.

Jeff: Yeah, you know in the law I put in money, you know to try a case and I've lost I've been out at 60, 70 thousand dollars on one case that's a huge amount of money to just be gone, that just disappeared, squad and that'll sink in, that is the risk of a business. The book I started, you know, I put in 7 or 8 Grand, I'm never going to sleep again, the oil and the mining company, those are, sixty thousand dollars, gone, I'll never see it. And those were early on that was I defeated, no. These are bumps on road I learn from it, don't do that, don't do this, don't maybe go too far out of your lane sometimes because you don't know what's out there but if you got a basic learning in a certain area or understand stuff, I understand real estate because we learned in law school and I owned a house and that wasn't for me to like, be like, “oh, this isn't so hard, the law, of course took some training and then it comes down to this who, like if you're going to team up with somebody, what are they know that you don't know what, can you offer to bring them? And that's what's brought me into some of these later investments that have been very successful. So talk about some successes with the law firm, wildly successful, the real estate has been wildly successful, but there’s been some bumps that for instance, I had a tenant move out, one of my buildings, infomercial warehouse in New Mexico and this happened like, last name I still don't have it, and I'm still paying the mortgage, just that there was a theft of property. So no one wants to move in and it's missing all the copper and the power doesn't work, and so now I'm dealing with insurance companies, this not but you know what, I think I've had enough battles were I don't walk away from this kind of battle, you know?

Jim: Yeah, we have to take the good with the bad, right? And so you're looking at it and saying, “okay, so yeah, this is one little thing but in the grand scheme of your overall businesses, you've seen growth and you've done what it takes”, and thank you for sharing that. One thing on this podcast I really like to talk about his lifestyle. And, I know you're very good, you have a family and you're very good at being able to spend time with the family and getting things done when you need to but really understanding that, family comes first. And I love that about you and I think so many business owners who are successful. They have a hard time balancing that, family time, personal time and that business time. And I know for you, you moved from California to Boston and you know, you've been able to really spend quality time with your kids and I'll talk about that a little bit for me, do you have a routine that you follow every day so you know exactly like I've read books where it's like “hey knock your most important, the thing that's going to move you the farthest get that done first”. Do you have a routine like that or is there something that you do that kind of helps you to live that lifestyle?

Jeff: Yeah, I will say I don't have an alarm clock, but I wake up at the same time every day, and that's just my body, I've read those things to so-and-so, wakes up at 5 a.m., and eats two eggs, I don't have that time. So yeah, I agree, I wake up, I work out like in my house and I make a to-do list while I'm working out my brains flying in at that point. And I take that to do list and I email it to myself, and then I get up with the kids making breakfast, give my wife a little downtime and help, you know, help them get ready, and I take them both to school and I loved it, that's my favorite part of the day is walking one of my sons to school and a driving the other one goes to a different school, that's the best, and once I drop off my second song, I head over to my office is nearby and I knock out that to to-do list, and usually I can get that to do list done in time to  go pick them up for school, so my hours right now are from 9 ‘til 2, but I go grab it real quick, 15-minute bite somewhere in there, but that's it. And then I go home, I get my kids bring them all home. We have a baby too, so we're all home together, hang out for a few hours, whatever until dinner, and in the meantime, I am feeling emails occasional calls, but I'm still home playing in the yard with them, I'm taking them to sports, I coach little league year-round, basically, I'm doing baseball with my oldest and soccer with my youngest, so it's great. We have a boat, that's a nice day in Boston, we are on a boat, fish, summer nearly every day for at least an hour or whatever, so these are the things, you know, time I purchased with the success, right? This is the most important thing for me, it’s not being told to get at 9:00 doing my own schedule and being able to leave when I want and not have an answer something to somebody constant, I mean, work needs to get done, but I've crafted in a way at this point where I really own my time, and it's a beautiful thing.

Jim: that's incredible. Remote Start Nation, I hope you listen to that and I hope you can take a couple nuggets of that wisdom from Jeff and apply it to your life. For me, I try to get up every morning early and I start with a list as well and you know, I'm not as probably as good as you are of crossing that list off, it's something I'm always working on is trying to get done everything I set up, but I like to think over put to me things on the list and then I can't get through them all, but yeah, I noticed it’s huge.

Jeff: I think they're important. One thing I want to say, I'm not trying to knock somebody who's had a, you know, 40, 50 year career, but you always hear these people like in movies or the real world like “he woke up every day at 6 a.m., he grinded that job until you know, 7:00 and I never saw him growing along”, the guys like “yeah, I worked at that plant this for, like that's what they're proud of that then they're like, yeah, right, and that is there is something to be proud of in that Greek, like if given the option, “Hey, would you rather done that for 40 year or would you rather work half the time made more money and really seen your kids grow up, and I think everyone would take that second option, right?

Jim: Absolutely.

Jeff: No brainer. So I get the pride in that but same time much more proud of situation, I've been able to build in a lot of entrepreneurs, you know, right here, lawyers in L.A. are work ethic, you know, was you work till 9:00? Like that’s lamest thing I've ever heard, who wants to work 9:00? And there it is.

Jim: Yeah, I don't understand that, I try to work as the least amount as possible to get as much accomplish as I can, and that way I can be with a family and, you know, it's also it goes along those same lines to were how many people do you talk to you that say, oh, you know, at 60, I'm going to retire and travel the country, like for me personally, you know, 16 months ago, my wife and I said, hey, let's travel the country, now, let's spend the time of the family, let's do the things that we want to do to live our life and enjoy it before it's too late, cause you never know when it's going to be gone, right? And so, you're doing it right now, it's incredible.

Jeff: Yeah, it's a sweet spot to be in you as well. I know what you're doing. It's pretty cool, I'm very jealous of the amount of time you got in the adventures.

Jim: Well, it's awesome, I mean it was six months ago to be, go see you in Boston and hang out for the week and you know, and then travel around and then now we're out west and I mean, I'm in Utah with my brother right now and it's cool to be able to do that and really see your friends and all the experiences the kids have and all the stories they have, but, you're doing it in your own way with your kids on the boat, and to me it's not about where you’re at or what you're doing, it just spending that quality time with them, right? And teaching them stories, and you know, it's cool when you get to hear your kids, talking to somebody and you're not either they don't think you're listening and they're basically, telling a story about something that you shared with them, it's rewarding for sure.

Jeff: It is, yeah, I mean, how many stories I have with my dad, there are not as many because he worked, he was a grinder. So, I'm sure my kids now, many more stories already, because I constantly around for good or for worse for them.

Jim: The fishing stories are endless with your boys.

Jeff: Oh, yeah, amazing, I was actually talking with my dad, “you’re doing really well, why you are working still? What are you doing? And I'm like, “you know, I’m doing this to buy time, that's what success is, right? That's what money, I don't own a Lamborghini, I do have a nice house, but I consider that in a desk, I don't have a couple pairs of jeans and a couple nice shirts. I have a couple suits, they have to as a lawyer and, I am very minimalist and I will use things until they're done, broken, falling apart and my wife laughs. I've never had the need for material stuff and I think that's where a lot of young people get caught up, but they made their first hundred grand or 200 grand and go buy a Lambo, what? Yeah, take that hundred put it into an investment that will make you 800 bucks a month for the rest of your life and you build a portfolio of those and before you know it, you don't have to work and that's what the real estate was for me. It was little chunks, 25 grand, 50 grand, missed that, this, bringing in friends to invest with me and now we're at a point and nobody laughs at this in a few years, but we have 35 properties now and my company, by be 102 years, that's well, look back at this class. But all those things are just little mini annuities, each one of them, you can look at it, well, there's 800 this one from this one, well, that pays for my car, this one pays for my part of my mortgage, you know, this is my grocery expense and then those exams gone forever, right? Don't want you coming in and then you keep adding to that and do this, now, you get new travel, but all these other things, maybe you sacrifice that of that money in what you want to do now is you don't even want to show off I think or insecure about it, but don't just show off when you're older and you're in your 40s and 50s and have time to spend with your kids versus work until you're 70.

Jim: such a good piece of advice, huge, if more people did that there'd be so much less stress in the world, take your money and put it to work for you.

Jeff: Like if you don't have enough cash to buy that car in the bank, you should know that car. The only exception would be a house.

Jim: Yeah, and like you said because it's an investment.

Jeff: Right, people, I see so many people in those cars that have five grand in the bank, I'm like, you're living life on the edge band. But yeah, I mean to go moron, Lifestyle here, It's beautiful, I can pick up go on vacation, I can stay in the nice hotels now, which is an experience, you know, get along with people for the kids. A lot of the things I didn't do as a kid.

Jim: So well, it’s awesome, and you know, it's going to be coming to an end here for the podcast, we're running out of time. But I want to have you tell the listeners where they can find you where if it's real estate, if it's for you know, check out your Law Firm, where can they go to find Jeff Greenman. 

Jeff: Yeah. So my Law Firm is GreenmanLaw P.C. were based out in California, Orange County, we handle personal injury, medical malpractice right cases from financial of your herd, feel free to give me a call, I don't advertise never have that's been a beautiful too and my real estate is called disagreement Industries and it's got the greenmanlawpc.com. So get the Greenman,  check us out. We owned properties right now in 14 States happy to have anyone, get a hold of me to invest, they're not sexy, you know, just like I don't drive a Lambo, just like I'm not sexy, it is literally boring real estate holdings with tenants that pay the rent every month and I cut checks every month to everybody, everyone's so happy, very much for money and not have to worry about it or stress about it. I take the lead on all that as the attorney company.

Jim: And again, it's putting money, it's putting that money to work.

 Jeff: Yeah, it's like it's not Bitcoin, it's not tassel stock but I there's no risks, you know, I mean, it's very very minimal risk. Do that on your own, you know, investment, whatever stock you thinks going to the moon, gamestop or whatever, but everyone needs to diversify. If you want something safe that's going to turn over 10% a year, my company is the place to be for sure.

Jim: Well, there you go, you heard it there? Jeff, I have one more question for you when you're working do you prefer listening to music or do you like quiet?

 Jeff: Interesting question. I always have music going. 

Jim: So my next question to that is it Pennywise or who is it that you're listening to music?

Jeff: I think lately, I've been playing a lot of like 90s summer hits.

Jim: Are you singing while you're working for?

Jeff: Sure. A lot of alternatives, I definitely get into like a punk month or two a year or glare and talk but my wife has never heard any song I like she's in the country, yeah, like my mind, go phone calls, you turn right back on.

Jim: That's I have a podcast coming out that talks about just like the different mindset in the music and a solicitor, like, hey, what, you know, what are you listening to? That's a good question because it's interesting to me like, for me, I wake up and sometimes it's classical other times, it's Pennywise or heavy metal or, you know, something to get me going, I like certain days in the, you know, the sunshine days, the dawn, some sublime and get excited, but it's always something always different mood.  So I appreciate your time, Jeff, it's been awesome.  Thank you so much for everything and Remote Start Nation I hope you got to take some of these that Jeff throughout us and you can use them to start your own business and don't be afraid to hit Jeff up, we'll put his information as well on me on the podcast page. So you'll have it there and with that Remote Start Nation, go out, start a business, build a brand and create your own lifestyle. Thank you for listening. Jeff, have an awesome day and we'll talk to you soon, my brother.

Jeff: Thanks, Jeff. Take care.