Deep Specialization_Brendan Chard_EP# 57_Audio_Edited_Transcript
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Corey Quinn: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Deep Specialization Podcast, the show where we blend focus, strategy, and client intimacy in order to scale and simplify our businesses and our lives. I'm your host, Corey Quinn. Let's jump into the show. Today, I'm joined by the owner of a law firm marketing agency out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
It's called The Modern Firm. The founder and owner's name is Brendan Chard. Welcome, Brendan. Hey Corey, thanks for having me on here. Brendan, thank you so much for coming on. I'm excited for our conversation. Can we kick things off by. Would you share a little bit about yourself and about your, your agency?
Brendan Chard: Yeah. Hey, so I'm a lifelong Ann Arbor resident and I was raised by lawyers. And so I sort of found myself in this very particular vertical and yeah, I own an agency now that has grown to 17 people and we serve solo and small law firms specifically all around the country. Uh, really be there sort of outsourced the digital marketing department.
Corey Quinn: Interesting. So much, so much there. So you were raised by [00:01:00] attorneys. What kind of law did they practice? I did
Brendan Chard: landlord tenant work and he had just had a pretty much a solo practice. And my mom, interestingly, ran Michigan Institute for Continuing Legal Education. That is, It's one of the most highly regarded, you know, CLE organizations in the country.
So it's a pretty, pretty serious operation. It's under the umbrella of the University of Michigan, but it's kind of its own, own little thing with, uh, you know, 40 or 50 person staff, you know, helping the lawyers do their thing.
Corey Quinn: Beautiful. And so you were raised by these two attorneys. I, by the way, was raised by an attorney.
My dad's an attorney. I almost went to law school. I took the LSAT. And then I did fine, but I decided not to do that. Any temptation to follow in your parents footsteps and becoming a lawyer? Yeah, no. Nope. But I
Brendan Chard: didn't, you know, but I, I apparently I couldn't get too far away from it, you know, growing up around it and then just me being me and wanting to solve problems.
I [00:02:00] saw lots of things that needed help. And it's funny, even my brother, he's law adjacent as well. He's a police officer out in Las Vegas as well. So we. Laws in the family, in one way
Corey Quinn: or another. Yeah, you're all dealing with the law, in some form or fashion. That's fascinating. Could you tell us sort of the origin story?
So I know that you've been, you've been at this for a while now. When did you start the agency?
Brendan Chard: Yeah, I started over 20 years ago when I was in college at University of Michigan. It's kind of a hilarious start. I've always had a knack for fixing problems, troubleshooting, fixing tech, that sort of stuff. And that spun itself into a tech support company that I did on the side while I was in school.
And the. The funny thing, it started with a law firm there and I showed up to solve some problem with OCD ROM libraries. You know, that was before pre internet, you know, it was like the research fine law, you know, would like send you 80 CDs every month. And, uh, I had a lawyer who was trying to [00:03:00] share that on his network, couldn't figure it out, had all these people in, it was a big frustration for him.
And, uh, so he let me in to, you know, Connection through my dad to try it out. And he said, I'm Brendan. Well, here's the problem. And here's the keys lock up when you're done. You know, I basically saying, I doubt you're going to fix this. And 20 minutes later, I saw the problem, fixed it, left him a bill for 20.
And I was like, this is, you know, like pizza money for the week. You know, that was sort of where my brain was at at the time, but it was accidentally one of the best marketing things I could have done. So he was so thrilled. He talked me up to all the other law firms in the building. I started doing their tech work and then the internet came around, you know, a couple of years later and my IT client started asking me as their IT guy, Oh, can you make us a website?
For a while, I was like, no, this internet thing is a fad. Definitely, you know, CD ROMs is where it's at, man. Why would you do the internet? But, you know, they kept asking and I eventually. So, [00:04:00] well, this seems like something that should be done. So I partnered with a friend in my dorm room, even, and he has like, I'll sell them, you build them and that's how our first ones got made and then it's just sort of been growing like every little iteration from there, you know, to, you know, eventually being, you know, full time gig when I left college and then just, you know, kept on growing organically, eventually adding full suite of marketing services and here we are.
Corey Quinn: So you've, you've always been in the legal vertical, let's say.
Brendan Chard: Yeah, there was, in the early days, there was some dabbling with other small businesses in town. And a lot of that was just, it started off with law firms, but then they were connected with businesses. And like in 2000, nobody knew what a website was.
And so it was just like, well, who do you know? And so the businesses asked their lawyers, the lawyer said they used me. And so we did that for a little while, but after about four years, you know, definitely made like an affirmative choice to go all in on law and then sort of continued to refine the, the, [00:05:00] within that vertical from there.
Corey Quinn: Sure. So what was happening in the business at the four year mark? That led you to say, you know what, let's just focus here and let's not, let's try not to do business elsewhere. Yeah.
Brendan Chard: A couple of things. One, some special things about working with lawyers in particular that were just like really good synergies for growing the business.
I think that unlike other professions or even businesses, there's so much, so much of a collegial and like helping atmosphere in the law that they're just, they're always networking and talking with each other. They might be on the same side of a, of a deal or a case one day, they're on opposite sides the other day, you know, they're meeting up at different functions for continuing ed or, you know, bar functions.
So there's just lots of like chatter and we got a ton of, you know, pre Google and all that, and it's just a lot of referral. And, you know, because they're talking to each other, there's also like in the legal, there's like that one upsmanship too, you know, like, Oh, he's got that website. I need that website here.
You know,
Corey Quinn: I'm [00:06:00] familiar. So
Brendan Chard: it was, you know, that it was sort of more straightforward and there was a clearer path for like marketing to that audience. And then also as we started doing more volume, it just made sense to start consolidating around like a single set of processes and, you know, being able to hire people on with specific legal experience.
So instead of like, you know, one day you're on a muffler shop, the next day you're doing cupcakes, the next day you're doing a dentist, you know, it just, we could really start to build everything around this one
Corey Quinn: group. That sounds like it was a pretty major milestone in the growth of your business four years in.
What are some other? milestones that, that has helped you to kind of level up and what I call 10 X the business. Have there been some other milestones along the way? Yeah. Great
Brendan Chard: question. Yeah. Some of them that come to mind were one was rebranding the firm. The company was originally named after my last name because of just the local knowledge and, you know, uh, you know, the family history, but then as the company started [00:07:00] expanding beyond that geographically, and then also just in terms of the scope of.
The work and the clients, I wanted to develop a brand that wasn't just about me. And that was really, that was a big milestone because then pretty shortly after clients started coming through the business that never had any interaction with me and they didn't know, I mean, if they, if they looked deep enough on the website, they'd find that I'm the owner, but it wasn't, it wasn't about me.
It was about like the concept. That's great. And so, so that was a big one. We also, you know, in the beginning. Websites were just about validation. Like in those early days, it was like, Oh, this is just the next thing that my law firm needs to have. It's expected, got to have it. And then when we started getting into, you know, adding on marketing services, that was, you know, that's now the majority of what we do.
And that was a big shift as well for our clients to, you know, start dipping their toes into that and then really see the potential for what they could do for growing their own businesses online. [00:08:00]
Corey Quinn: And what about as a leader? I mean, you started off with a business partner. Is your business partner still, still with you and this agency, the one that started way back when you were in college?
Yeah. Correction. There
Brendan Chard: was never a partner. It was always just me. I sort of used partner informally there.
Corey Quinn: Got it. Okay. We were two buds
Brendan Chard: in the dorm making our, making our pizza money. So, uh, yeah, so, uh, no, it's always been, I've always been the sole owner of all those here.
Corey Quinn: And so you started off as yourself, now you have 17 people, what were some of the growth milestones and some of the growth that you had to go through as a founder, you know, operating independently and bringing people on, like, you know, how have you changed over the years?
Brendan Chard: Yeah, learning to let go is a big one. You know, we sort of followed this model where, you know, never took any financing or anything like that. It was always just sort of growing very, just sort of steadily and has needs with clients of all, and we'd sort of grow in this stepping up model where get an idea.[00:09:00]
So say like making websites and. Oh, there wasn't, you know, in the very early days was not the volume to like hire full time people. So we, you know, I, I put together different groups of contractors and keep on growing. And then eventually, oh, these three contractors that ends up to, you know, a person. So boom, hired a person and just keep on repeating that process.
So it sort of gave us a way to like, especially in the early days to really grow the team in a sensible way and not get too far out over your skis with expenses. You know, and yeah, so that's sort of, you know, how it grows. Try to bring it in back to the, if there's a second part to that question.
Corey Quinn: Yeah.
Just other milestones along the way. Like, yeah. So you learn how to let, let go and bring in other sort of resources who could help to, to take on some of the work. Were there any other, any other ideas or milestones come to mind as far as maybe how you lead people, how you manage the business? Yeah,
Brendan Chard: that's really, that's really starting to come into, into play much more now that we've gotten to the size and we're starting to have, you know, like layers to [00:10:00] the company.
It was always so flat, you know, in the, in the earlier days and it was just sort of, you know, what, what's Brennan doing. So now, yeah, there's a lot more going into sort of figuring out who's accountable for what and, you know, aligning everything up so that everybody sort of knows. Where the responsibilities lie.
And we're doing a lot of training with people and used to be just sort of me and what's for him to know and get that out of his head. And then now we're going to get more and more and more formal training processes. So that's a big one. I learned something really early on when it came to hiring from somebody that I always considered a mentor, one of my early clients.
And when I was asking her what her management style was, she's like, I, I hire great people and I trust them to do what they do. And that has really served me very well, you know, over the years. But now we've added a twist to it, which just comes, I think, with the size of just, you know, hire people that are great at what they do, trust them to do it, [00:11:00] but have some systems in place to make sure it's all, it's all happening.
And that the, you know, that, that, that things are being, you know, continuing to be done to standards and that people are able to, you know, to grow as well. I'd say that's another thing that comes along with a company growing is. Not just thinking about myself, but like the entire team and where are they at in their careers and where do they want to, you know, progress and get to, and how can we, you know, be, um, you know, help them grow or be a stepping stone for them.
Corey Quinn: That's beautiful. So, going back to the early days, when you were, so that you were locally focused, you had the relationship with the local law firms, uh, that you were, you were building the agency around. How did you break out of the local scene and acquire clients outside the, let's say, the local area?
What, what was that process like? And was it, was it difficult at all? Like, what did you do? Yeah, it's
Brendan Chard: almost hard to remember at this point. One of the common ways that, uh, sort of started branching out was so back in the 2000s, I moved briefly out of Ann [00:12:00] Arbor to Minneapolis. And so that was sort of a new, just new area.
And I got connected in with the, the continuing ed people there and was, you know, speaking at seminars and doing webinars and, you know, all of the whole speaking circuit thing that I, you know, went to several other states as well. But so that kind of. Started the process of getting out of just Michigan, but then it was really, to be honest, just being an early mover in Google, you know, once, once Google came around and we had a website, we had a whole portfolio of clients that were starting to be in different parts of the country.
It's been a ton of, a ton of Google ever since, you know, all organic.
Corey Quinn: That's great. And so is that where you get today? Most of your business now is people coming, finding your, Your website on Google, and then they're coming in and they're, they're filling out a lead form or whatnot.
Brendan Chard: Yeah. Yeah. The majority through Google or through referral now that we've, you know, been at it for so many years.
Yeah. Just again, still the social and competitiveness of lawyers. They'll say, Oh, was somebody else in [00:13:00] town got this nice new website or they're starting to outrank me on everything, you know, who are they using? So that happens. We get a ton of referral, a lot of repeat business because, you know, really if we do it right.
Our clients never leave, you know, they are coming back, you know, for additional services when their website starts to like, maybe either if they're outgrowing it or if their objectives are changing, you know, or just styles change, you know, three, four or five years later, they're coming back for a refresh or something new.
Yeah. That's the, you know, so to, yeah, big mix, but most new, a lot of new people in through Google.
Corey Quinn: And today more than ever, we're both, I think we're both aware of how many agencies there are targeting attorneys. Some of which have been on this show. There's a theme, right? A lot of these types of agents, but there's many, many out there.
In this sort of. No, I would say potentially noisy environment. I, you know, the, the typical attorney based on my experience isn't [00:14:00] extremely knowledgeable about marketing or digital marketing and they, they do, they definitely need help for sure. But you know, how do you communicate your different, that you're different than the other alternatives?
To this attorney, maybe who's on your website. How do you differentiate or position your agency differently?
Brendan Chard: Yeah, so that gets into some of like what we've done within the legal vertical. And there's a few things there. One is that we Specifically want to work with solo to maybe five attorney firms. So the smallest of the firms out there, that's where we have the most fun and make a big impact.
They, you know, when it starts to get to being bigger firms, it just, we can still do great work. It's different. Now there's committees, there's multiple cooks in the kitchen. We aren't necessarily working with the decision maker. And so we really like working with that small group, both selfishly and because we're changing their lives.
Like we get, their [00:15:00] spouse will be on the phone and talk about like, Well, this is great. You know, we just put a condition on our house and we move near well, you know, whatever it, so it's, it's literally improving their life by, you know, making their business more sound and more, you know, more resilient. And I think also we're really good storytellers.
And so that's, it's easier to draw out like the story and the brand and the unique reason why. A solo or a small firm is in existence because they've taken a huge risk, you know, in, in doing this. And so I think that the joy that we have in working with it really comes through when we're talking with them.
You know, we really get to know our clients. It's a true relationship. It's difficult to scale, but it's the way we like to do it. And, and I think that comes, I think that just comes through in the very first conversation they have with us, that they're, they're working with people that, you know, feel it's real
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Go to www. anyonenoteveryone. com That's www. anyonenoteveryone. com Now, back to the show. I think in speaking with you, it's authentic. It's real. You do get joy out of serving this specific segment of that, of the legal industry. But how do you, how do you convey that effectively on a website? Yeah, I'd say
Brendan Chard: it's a lot of subtle things with the language in terms of how we You know, try to convey that we understand where they're coming from.
It's certainly in the display of our work. You know, when, when a small firm comes to us, they're going to see a lot of other small firms are calling us home, you know, for them so that it sort of starts building upon itself because we've been focused on that group for so long. But it is. I would say it's a hard, it's hard to [00:18:00] convey, you know, like that you really care, but we do.
And it comes through in a lot, a lot of subtle ways. Yeah.
Corey Quinn: I would, I would say also, I'm looking at your website right now. The headline is website design and marketing for small firms. And that alone is a positioning statement. If I'm a small law firm, typically I'm used to being ignored or, you know, overlooked because.
A lot of agencies are chasing after the big PI firms and whatnot, right? And they're not necessarily dedicated to the solo to the, or small, small practices. And just that headline alone, obviously more of the copy and the website reinforces all of that. But that, that alone is, is, is differentiated, differentiated, different, unique.
And I think it's super interesting positioning. Yeah. There's
Brendan Chard: no segment, there's no language or segment on our website or even a service offering for medium sized firms or big firms. We're all [00:19:00] in on the
Corey Quinn: small firm. That's awesome. So as it relates to your growth, you mentioned you have 17 people. Do you have sales resources on, on the team or are the sales coming through you these days?
Like how do you manage closing new deals? Yeah, we have
Brendan Chard: one main salesperson and again, it's all, it's all inbound. You know, so really it's, yeah, it's conversations with her and her job is to really, you know, it's, it's not even to sell, you know, it just, it's all about like the, the fit, you know, connecting, yeah, connect, you know, it, can we solve the problems they have?
Are we good for them the way we do things the way, you know, got to be compatible with what their expectations are. That's nice. Yeah. And that's it. And it, and we're interesting in that, like we don't, so yeah, there is no, there's no outbound sales force. There's no team of people sitting around huge job it is to just sell and then hand it off.
You know, the, the people involved in our sales are also, you know, involved in some parts of the project itself. So [00:20:00] I think that also gives, especially small firms who've been burned. You know, that it's pretty common that we're getting somebody who's, you know, had a poor experience with another agency and they like knowing that, Oh, okay.
The person I'm talking to in developing this relationship is actually not leaving the room as soon as I sign up, like they're going to be checking in and sort of evolved along the way.
Corey Quinn: What was the process like for hiring your first salesperson and what was happening in the business when you realized, Hey, we need to bring a dedicated resource here.
Yeah.
Brendan Chard: So Kristen, she's the person that she didn't even come on as a salesperson. I, she, she's worked through all parts of the company. It was hilarious. She came back in the day as we were like, you know, putting ads on Craigslist. So to find people that was the, that was the main job board at that point. So she'd been with me a long time.
And. Yeah, it just sort of evolved through that, you know, all the different stages of the company. And then really there was a time, you know, nine years ago when my son was born and I knew [00:21:00] that we're going to be facing some medical challenges and that I had to be able to step away, you know, from the company and couldn't have the sales going through me.
And so that's when she, she took over sales for me at that point. Great,
Corey Quinn: that's a good success story for your first sales person in that, you know, they don't always work out that well, the first one, at least. Yeah. When it comes to hiring, do you find that you have to hire folks with people with a legal background or does that not really play a role in your hiring process?
Brendan Chard: It plays a pretty big role in certain parts of our hiring process. Okay. So for certain roles, like I would say on the creative side, it's not as important. But for anybody that's going to be touching content or the marketing, we really look for somebody that has a legal background, all of our writers are lawyers, you know, so, you know, contract writers and our staff writers all have law degrees and some of them, you know, are retired from practice or are no longer practicing.
And so that's been huge. And then on the, on the [00:22:00] marketing and the SEO side, we really try to find people. You're not, it's harder to find somebody who is, I'm a lawyer. Now I'm an SEO, but we, you know, most of our people have come out of the marketing departments of big law firms. So they're, you know, they're hitting the ground running, you know, as far as like understanding, you know, the unique things that come up with, with, with marketing for attorneys, but, um, yeah, the writing has been a huge one because there's a lot of interaction with the writers and so being able to talk the same language.
End. And for the writer to maintain interest, you know, legal stuff is not the sexiest stuff to write about, you know, so
Corey Quinn: unless you're
Brendan Chard: a lawyer, so yeah, we have, you know, in my first iterations of hire of like, that was a problem to solve was contact. Like we get the design done and there's no contact. And so like, well, we're going to solve this problem.
So I started hiring writers and I started out hiring writers that just said they were writers. And they, but they had like, you know, a degree in [00:23:00] poetry or, you know. Yeah, whatever. So they get three or four websites in like peace out. I'm not doing this. Yes. Yeah. But for when it's a writer who is an attorney, they're interested in what they're writing about, you know, they care.
So it's, yeah, it's, it's, they're interested in the research. They know how to do the research and it's a topic that's intellectually, you know, interesting to them. So. Les Burnett. That's
Corey Quinn: great. That's great. Do you provide productized services to your clients or is it a hundred percent bespoke and custom for every client or what, you know, where, where does that fall?
Yeah, it's so to the,
Brendan Chard: everything really comes across as custom, you know, and I think the things that are more, it's not really anything that I'd say is like productized. But our product, because we're working with such a tight segment of the market, it's our processes that have gotten to be. So, you know, that's where we pick up the efficiency.
And so the, you know, we're, [00:24:00] each client is going to get very unique treatment and we're going to listen to them and put together solutions and build a team around exactly what they need, but then behind the scenes, We've, it's not our first rodeo. You should think done these hundreds of thousands of times.
And so we've got the, you know, the efficiency gets picked up there by really honing in on, on tight processes.
Corey Quinn: And so therefore you don't have sort of fixed prices based on scope. It's more, you know, we'll come in and we'll scope out based on where you're at and what you're trying to do. Yeah. Yeah. No,
Brendan Chard: there's a range that's pretty predictable, but yeah, especially today, you know, Internet's been around for a couple of decades and we're, sometimes we get a firm who's coming in and it's brand new, you know, and they, they don't have anything, they, so they, they got no photos.
They need the content all written in the, that's actually, that's a pretty easy project, but then we'll get somebody comes in and they're on their fourth website and they just terminated the contract with Findlaw and they're coming out of some proprietary system with [00:25:00] 4, 000 pages. And it's like, and, oh, and they're ranking while on Google.
So we don't want to mess anything up. Yeah. Yeah. So that's like a very different scenario for like, how do we, how do, how do we meet their goals and not screw anything up and, and get them untangled from, from all of this? So, yeah.
Corey Quinn: How do you, how do you address the solo attorney in a competitive market like Houston or one of these things who wants to be on page one of Google or the maps for personal injury, Houston?
Brendan Chard: Yeah, not going to happen. I mean, it's where it started. I say this a bit in jest, you know, but it starts with really, you know, having an honest conversation about what, you know, and there's, there's some marketplaces and some practice areas that are, you know, practically impenetrable unless you've got the budget to throw behind it.
And so you just got to have, the website itself is still important. You know, but they've got to have another [00:26:00] strategy, you know, that, that, that goes with that to, to generate that business. That's probably going to be not SEO or Google ads.
Corey Quinn: Sure. Maybe, maybe LSAs, maybe not. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe. So taking a step back, looking at the 20 years now, as it relates to verticalizing the business, having a vertical focus, have there been any negatives along the way that maybe caught, made you think twice about, you know, what you're doing?
Staying so focused on not only, you know, law firms and attorneys, but the small to, you know, one to five attorney law firms. Yeah,
Brendan Chard: I can say, honestly, not really. I feel extremely fortunate to have picked this vertical out in the beginning. Like I said, we, we've refined it, you know, more like it was just law.
And then it started getting more down into smaller firms and then to really, you know, solo and really small law firms. But it was, it was kind of lucky out of the gate, you know, it's been, it's been a good market. They've been fair, you know, lawyers are fairly recession proof. So [00:27:00] we've, you know, never had it, you know, negative year.
And the only thing, you know, the thing that itches at you sometimes just as like a techie and a marketing person is that lawyers are not like the most cutting edge. And so sometimes there's stuff out there like, man, it would be really cool. Like if I could do that, you know, but it's just. You know, either it's not the right fit for them or there's ethical concerns without, you know, the tech marketing or the platform.
So sometimes it's just, you know, a marketing guy. I'm like, Oh, I wish I could play with those tools and toys, but, but no, otherwise, no, it's
Corey Quinn: been great. That's fantastic. I love that. So what would be your party advice here, particularly for an agency owner who may be struggling with scaling, kind of getting.
The kind of success that you've seen.
Brendan Chard: A few things. So I mentioned earlier processes, you know, that's really important to hammer down, like to just figure out how is the thing going to get done consistently and who's responsible for what and making sure that that's like [00:28:00] really bulletproof. And to build on my point earlier of like, of letting go, I think as an owner and you're wearing so many hats and ideally as your company grows and scales, you start taking those hats off and other people are doing those things and you've really got to like go.
And one of the things, you know, that bothered me in the beginning of that process was like, well, they, I'm having this person do it, but they aren't doing it like the Brendan way. You know? Yeah. Uh, and then I just realized, well, no, they're, they're doing it. Their way, and sometimes their way is better than my way, or it's different, or it accomplishes in this, you know, it gets to the same result.
And having the realization that like, look, our, our clients aren't talking to each other in that way. You know, like, you know, you of course have like a level of service that you want to deliver on, but how you get there can be different from client to client, we could do something with one client today and completely change the process tomorrow for another client.[00:29:00]
And they're not going to like compare notes, you know, they're just, you know, so you can really give yourself permission to try new stuff with pretty little risk. It just, you gotta let it go, which is hard
Corey Quinn: for a lot of people sometimes. What was the, was there, was there any one thing that when you finally let it go, it had a sort of a, an interesting impact on the business?
Was there any thing you were holding on to that once you, once you did let go, it, it, um, had a massive impact? I don't know if you mentioned
Brendan Chard: sales earlier. Sales was a huge one, you know, because I was so, I was just so familiar with everything, you know, and, but I wasn't, Yeah. Yeah. And, but I was, it allowed having me not do the sales, allowed somebody to be more objective with it, you know, and, and, and do a better job of signing on the clients that were the right for us, you know, right.
You know, right for us negotiating better, you know, just. It [00:30:00] was, uh, it was interesting to see, you know, the sale, you know, the sales really come off my plate. Yeah, that, that was, that was a big one. Yeah,
Corey Quinn: and would you, and would you, like, obviously, you brought this person up through the organization. Sounds like she sat in a lot of different seats along the way.
And that transition to a sales, sales role, was sort of natural. Maybe she needed to pick up some skills potentially because you're not a hard selling kind of organization, but, but still would that be a route if you were advising an agency to bring on their first salesperson, maybe to look for, look for someone from within that has sort of the aptitude for that?
Brendan Chard: Oh, potentially. Sure. I mean, it just, I guess it depends on, on the agency, but yeah, I think, especially if it's like a complicated sale, you know what I mean? There is. Websites, online marketing. It's pretty like technical and sophisticated stuff. The person has to have a lot of, a lot of knowledge. And so if they haven't come up from within and have picked up a lot of that stuff and especially.
You know, that also really absorbed like [00:31:00] the ethos, you know, culture of the organization, then, you know, you want, you want somebody ideally to be thinking more about, you know, and just, Oh, I got to get the sale, you know, and happens
Corey Quinn: after the sale. Right, right, right. Beautiful. All right. My last question for you is what's your motivation?
You know,
Brendan Chard: two things that it's sort of interrelated to, I think about how to be helpful. And how to save time, you know, that that's like a huge motivator for me. And that's why I've mentioned processes before, but it's something I think about with our clients a lot and with our team, I'm just like the only thing we don't get more of.
And so I think, you know, try to think very flexibly about. You know, how our work gets done and prioritizing times when people, I'll say like creative folks, you know, they've, they might not be able to turn on the creative juices on, you know, on a strict nine to five schedule. So thinking more flexibly about like when work gets done, you know, has really, you know, sort of, you know, been a [00:32:00] helpful and sort of strategic thing for, you know, being more efficient and more, you know, better use of your time and then same with our clients.
When everything we're doing is about trying to take stuff off their plate so they can do more of what. They want, and so that, that's, uh, yeah, saving time is a big one. Being helpful
Corey Quinn: and saving time. I love that. I think, you know, the more, the more, uh, we could all get better at, uh, creating the same or better results with in less time is, is definitely a big value add in today's world.
So. That is awesome. Brendan, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people reach out to you if they maybe want to ask a follow up question?
Brendan Chard: Yeah, sure. So people can find me, you know, and us at themodernfirm. com and we have a team page, my email's right there. Anybody can just, uh, want to shoot me an email and I'll go right to my inbox.
So that's probably, I'm on LinkedIn. I don't do much. I have my qualms about social, so , but I'm on LinkedIn too, so you can find me there as well. But yeah, sure, sure.
Corey Quinn: Sounds like the web, [00:33:00] the website, the website's a great direct line to you. We'll make sure we put that in the show notes. Yeah. All right.
Thanks so much for joining,
Brendan Chard: Brendan. Yeah, thanks Cory. It's a pleasure.
Corey Quinn: That's it for today. I'm Corey Quinn, and I hope you join me again next time on the Deep Specialization podcast. If you received value from this show, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review. Thanks. And we'll see you soon.
