IAM493- Founder and Trial Lawyer Uses Modern Technology to Give a Legal Experience

Michael is an 18-year trial lawyer who is the founder of MLE Law, a full-service labor and employment/business law firm that uses modern technology to give businesses, individuals, and municipalities a legal experience that is efficient, transparent, and price-predictable.

Michael is also the founder and host of “Game 7: The Sports, Business & Lifestyle Podcast.” Michael's podcast explores the psychology of what makes people successful in sports, business, and life. Some of Michael's guests have included 30-year NFL front-office legend, Michael Lombardi; Arkansas Razorbacks head basketball coach, Eric Musselman; Orlando Magic co-founder, speaker, and author, Pat Williams; and NFL Super Agent, Bret Tessler.

• CEO Hack: Focusing on a single thing at a particular time
• CEO Nugget: Ignore the noise
• CEO Defined: Promoting and enforcing a culture

Website: https://mlelawfirm.com/

Instagram: @melkins1
Twitter: @melkins31175
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mlelaw

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello, hello this is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Michael Elkins of MLE Law, Michael, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Michael Elkins 0:39

Thanks for having me today.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Michael so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Michael is an 18-year trial lawyer who's the founder of MLE Law, a full-service labor and employment business law firm that uses modern technology to give businesses individuals, and municipalities a legal experience that is efficient, transparent, and price predictable. Michael is also the founder and host of “Game 7: The Sports, Business & Lifestyle Podcast.” Michael's podcast explores the psychology of what makes people successful in sports, business, and life. Some of Michael's guests have included 30-year NFL front-office legend, Michael Lombardi; Arkansas Razorbacks head basketball coach, Eric Musselman; Orlando Magic co-founder, speaker, and author, Pat Williams; and NFL Super Agent, Bret Tessler. Mike, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Michael Elkins 1:34

I am looking forward to it

Gresham Harkless 1:36

Awesome, Let's do it, I wanted to kick everything off to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story, what led you to get started with your business, and of course, your podcast.

Michael Elkins 1:46

Well, I think at least it started with podcasts. Just as a litigation attorney, I was working at a law firm. And the legal industry generally is pretty far behind when it comes to modern marketing, and exploring sort of new trends. So I had an epiphany that it might be a good idea to try to get ahead of that as a lawyer at least. So I started doing the podcast, as just an outlet to talk about support initially and explore avenues for putting myself out there. One thing led to another and my prior law firm sort of made some business decisions that didn't quite align with what I wanted to do going forward both financially and also from a marketing and social media PR perspective. Again, keeping in mind, you know, lawyers tend to shy away from modern types of ways to market. So I already had the podcasts out there for a little bit. I thought it was an opportune time, but then leave big law, I can go ahead and start my own from and try to do things a little bit differently.

Gresham Harkless 2:53

Nice, I definitely appreciate you for doing that a lot of times, you know, creating a way out of no way or seeing an opportunity when nobody else is doing it and understanding that everyone may, you know end up going that way. But you know, I absolutely love by the way I meant to tell you this. When we got started. I love the name of the podcast. I'm Brian outside of the Washington DC area. So we had a really big game seven. So yeah, definitely relate to that and how awesome it was.

Michael Elkins 3:21

And congratulations, by the way, that's a huge win for the nationals and DC.

Gresham Harkless 3:26

Yeah, definitely. I'm not a Redskins fan. So I said as long as it's not the Redskins. I'm cool with that.

Michael Elkins 3:32

I hear you.

Gresham Harkless 3:33

Well, awesome. So I know we delve down a little bit and I talked a little bit more about the podcast and everything that you're doing with your business, or take us through a little bit more of like what we can expect on the podcast and some of the people that you work within your business as well.

Michael Elkins 3:46

In terms of the podcast, I'm always looking for successful individuals, who are sort of crossing that intersection between sports and business. It could be anywhere from a front office person like Michael Lombardi to players who may have crossed into the business world from being an athlete and then moving forward, of course, so we're working on a number of guests coming up very soon. But really, the idea is to sit down with people and unpack what it is that they did to become successful. And I think the common theme that I've noticed, at least from my recent guests, Lombardi and as well as COACH MUSSELMAN and Pat Williams is, you know, the constant desire to continue to learn to not pigeonhole yourself to whatever your business is.

And so certainly taking from that I've been able to expand my horizons, you know, from not just being a lawyer, but continuing to learn about different topics. In terms of business, I mean, I practice labor and employment law as an 18-year litigation attorney so by I try cases I mean, that's, that's pretty much what I do. So always working with local businesses, some national clients as well and even individuals to help solve their problems hopefully before litigation, but if it gets down a road, I'm certainly not afraid to be in the courtroom.

Gresham Harkless 5:06

Makes perfect sense. And, you know, I'm a big sports junkie myself. So I always, you know, love to talk about sports. And it's funny, that's why, you know, we're so attracted to your podcasts because I feel like, there are similarities, just as you talked about, but I don't even feel like and I don't know, if you find this same thing is like this, like the kind of like the process of what makes a great athlete successful is a lot of times that same thing, as you talked about, that makes you successful as far as business or whatever venture you might be working on, whether it's a podcast, or a small business, or whatever that might be building an app, you have that kind of assignment, same makeup, and there's some overlaps in that.

Michael Elkins 5:48

Yeah, I think in business, right, it takes a lot of discipline, dedication, and sort of, you have to be like a racehorse, right, and put the blinders on a lot of times to go forward. And sure that that crosses over with the athlete 100%. I mean, you know, you can be talented, but if you're not dedicated, and you're not disciplined, and we've seen that a million times, that talent will only go so far. And the flip side of that, maybe you're not as talented. But if you are dedicated discipline, take to your coaching, and work on your craft.

And that would apply to business too. You can go a lot farther than the person who just rests on their laurels. I mean, I see that even in loitering. I've seen some really talented lawyers, who are just horrifically disciplined and unfocused, and it hurts them. Whereas I've seen some people maybe with a little less skills, from a scholarly standpoint, but very disciplined, dedicated, and focused. And they tend to, you know, kind of come out ahead. So I think you've got a really clear overlap there.

Gresham Harkless 6:51

It's funny, it's always one of the things that I always say that I wish I could tell myself that you know, is to understand that because I think a lot of times when you hear the story of the athlete, you think that athlete that is, you know, that makes it to the top of their craft, whether it be you know, a head coach, or a front office executive, or an action or an athlete that's actually on the court, you think a lot of times they've always been the best. But sometimes in a lot of cases, really, they've been consistent. They put in a lot of hard work, but they a lot of times I've been the most talented or the most intelligent, those people just didn't have that same kind of consistent actions and ways they approached life and business and all aspects of being great at their craft.

Michael Elkins 7:34

Yeah, I mean, look, that's a really good point, we really don't have to look any further than, you know, a guy like Bill Belichick. I mean, right now, everybody builds things, the greatest ever, or arguably the greatest ever, but it wasn't always that way for Belcheck. I mean, he got fired from his first head coaching job, had to toil around again, for another, I think, you know, five or six years before he was hired in New England, and was on the verge of getting fired in Greenland. So now, you know, no one dared question Belichick. But you want to talk about dedication, and staying the course. Staying with your method, staying with how you do things, understanding that your culture or your system is going to work. I mean, that's a perfect example of that. And I think a lot of people don't do that.

Gresham Harkless 8:20

Yeah. And it's so funny about what's happening in New England, not only do you have Bella check, but you can go a little bit farther, not even too far, I should say. And look at the guy named Tom Brady. He's, he's done pretty good. Okay, from being a pretty late-round pick and undervalued and underappreciated.

Michael Elkins 8:36

Yeah.I mean, that's again, you know, he had to battle for a starting job in Michigan. I mean, they didn't even want him to start. get AIDS one night, he's picked number 199. He gets to New England and he's behind the at the time franchise quarterback Drew Bledsoe who had just signed a 10-year 100-something billion-dollar deal. And Brady just kept working and even, you know, a lot of people think Brady just became a superstar.

They did win that first Super Bowl. That's true. But the next season, they didn't make the playoffs. They went 972 1002 A lot of people forget that it's kind of lost in history. And there were questions about you know, having traded Bledsoe for Brady. And like, you know, he stayed the course kept believed in what he was doing believed in himself, and then obviously the rest is history but very easily could have given up easily could have, you know, fought the system, but you know, didn't, it was coaching and now he is where he is.

Gresham Harkless 9:31

Yeah, yeah, it makes so much sense. And I find it at least when I read, you know about our hair about you know, the Tom Brady's Bella checks the Michael Jordan's and you know, the people that are great athletes of the world, they kind of have like this chip on their shoulder, so to speak, where even at that level, that's what makes him so special is that even at that level, even when nobody's talking trash about them, they can manufacture trash, so that they can continue to kind of keep that edge.

And that's definitely a lot of I see like successful aspects of or their secret sauce, I guess you can say, but I wanted to, I guess ask you, what would you say your secret sauce is? What do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique? And that can be for you or can also be for your podcast, your business, but what do you feel kind of gives you that edge?

Michael Elkins 10:17

Yeah, well, I think there are two things. One is the kind of the chip, I mean, certainly this when I started a podcast, you know, a lot of people snickered at that, when it first started. And I got that to a certain degree. And I also thought to myself, you know, if people are going to snicker, those are just people who aren't afraid to do things. So I'm just gonna keep doing what I need to do. And then when I started this law firm, and you know, I have a very different approach to the business of law, I think there were a lot of people that said, you know, that's not going to work. You can't rely on social media when you're a lawyer, that doesn't apply to this industry, which is just, which is hilarious, because all of the industries that have been disrupted,  all of the people who were there before said all that that won't apply to our industry.

So there's a certain standard, there's a certain amount of like, yeah, okay, you know, keep telling me that, because it's just gonna keep me going. But I would say the other part is kind of the opposite of that. It's the ability to sort of ignore the noise, and focus really on what I can control, which ultimately boils down to my own choices. And then my reaction to the things around me, I think, I think if I was solely fueled by, I'm going to prove a, b and c wrong, eventually that would wear out. And I think I would burn out or plateau or wouldn't be as excited.

So I'm really conscious that to make sure that I'm just driven by what I believe in, ultimately, and sort of again, put those blinders on focus on what I control, and worry only about my reaction to the externals. But otherwise, you know, if I don't control it, I try not to let it in. And I try to make sure that what I'm doing is based on what I believe in, because it's something I love, enjoy, and am passionate about, how are we going to describe that? Or kind of a combination of all those things?

Gresham Harkless 12:03

Absolutely. No, and it makes so much sense. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Michael Elkins 12:16

Yeah, you know, I think my habit is, to focus on a singular thing at one time, we hear a lot about multitasking. And I know a lot of people that are really into that. I am not into that.

Gresham Harkless 12:29

Absolutely. That makes so much sense. So now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, and this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you could hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Michael Elkins 12:42

I mean, it's a cliche, but it's true, I would tell my younger self to ignore the noise.

Gresham Harkless 12:47

Absolutely. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So Michael, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Michael Elkins 13:01

I think for being a CEO, your job is, to promote and enforce culture. That's the most important thing, the way I see it. You know, you got to let people perform their individualized jobs or individualized tasks, your job is to deal with the culture to for people when things aren't right, take the hit, you know, I think the CEO has to be the one on the frontline that takes the hits when things go bad, and then steps back and lets everyone else take the glory when things go, well, that's a leader, as a CEO, and that's how you build a positive culture.

I mean, I learned that just by interacting with individuals like Michael Lombardi, I mean, I learned that from him who he learned that from Bella check, you know, we worked with Bella check for, for decades. And I mean, if you look at Bella check, they win the players and when they lose, it's the coach's fault. So it's an interesting thing and that when Lombardi said, that made so much sense to me, that's what your job is to do is to promulgate culture, keep culture going. Because you can get people to do the different jobs. They're out there. It's just a world full of tons of people who are skilled in so many different things. But the culture the tone has to be set from the top.

Gresham Harkless 14:49

Absolutely, yeah. And I always say you know, success leaves clues. So a lot of times you want to look at those things and those people that have been able to be successful as you've been covering, you know, on your podcast or All those, you know, phenomenal people what they do to be successful, we can, you know, implement that, you know, in our businesses in our lives as well. So I appreciate that. And I appreciate your time even more Michael, what I want to do is pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get an overview, find out about your firm, and then also subscribe to your podcast and hear about all the awesome things you're working on.

Michael Elkins 15:23

Yeah, I mean, I'll just direct everybody to the various channels that you can find me whether it's to learn about the podcast or my law firm. Everything's kind of house on my law firm's website, which is www.MLElawfirm.com. You can follow me on Twitter, which is @melkins31175, and Instagram, which is @Melkin number one, so @melkins1 and then myself and a law firm are both on LinkedIn and Facebook so Michael Elkins you can find me there as well as an ally law.

Gresham Harkless 15:57

Awesome, awesome. Awesome. We will make sure to have all those links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. But Michael, appreciate your game. Appreciate you know all the awesome things you're working on in your time today.

Michael Elkins 16:07

Thank you

Gresham Harkless 16:09

And hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day problem.

Outro 16:11

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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