As a thriving hub for legal expertise and entrepreneurial spirit, The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast recently welcomed Dan Fulkerson, the co-founder and managing partner of Botta Fulkerson Law Group. In this enriching Episode 38, Dan opens up about the unconventional methods that shaped his law firm into a powerhouse of personal injury litigation and philanthropy. Hosted by Darren Wurz, this episode is a treasure trove for law firm owners seeking guidance on merging legal acumen with business growth, all while making significant community impacts.

In this must-listen episode, our host Darren Wurz engages with Dan Fulkerson, a trailblazing attorney whose practice transcends the traditional models of law firm management. Fulkerson’s approach intertwines ethical business practice with genuine philanthropy, supporting 20 different nonprofits and embedding transparency at the core of his law group’s philosophy. No greedy pursuits, no mass marketing—just a bulldog mascot symbolizing their tenacity and unique grassroots marketing tactics that resonate with the community. Fulkerson shares his commitment to sustainable growth, demonstrated by their firm’s cautious financial strategy and dedication to ethical representation, putting people over profit.

Listeners will learn about:

1. Implementing Systems for Scalability: Discover how Dan Fulkerson systematized operations, from comprehensive manuals for each role to aids that allow for law firm expansion while maintaining exceptional quality.

2. Financial Stability in the Law Sector: Pick up essential tips on ensuring your firm’s financial health, including why keeping at least six months’ worth of overhead is critical.

3. Community-Oriented Business Models: Learn the value of incorporating your passions into your law practice and how it can enhance your firm’s reputation and fulfill community needs.

4. Principles for Ethical Growth: Embrace the impactful lessons of sacrificing for the greater good and integrating ethical practices into all layers of your business operations.

5. Building a Loyal Team: Find out how recruiting top talent and creating rewarding compensation structures can foster a dedicated and efficient team.

Passionate Missions Shaping Business Ethos

Dan Fulkerson is no ordinary law firm partner. His belief in ethical transparency and anti-greed practices sets the Botta Fulkerson Law Group apart. With a heartfelt commitment to giving back, Dan’s team supports 20 nonprofits and has woven the fiber of social responsibility into their firm’s identity.

Bulldog Tenacity Meets Grassroots Marketing

The Botta Fulkerson brand radiates uniqueness, with a bulldog symbolizing their tenacious approach to law and marketing. Rejecting the usual solicitation and mass marketing traps, the firm has found success in grassroots strategies that resonate with their audience.

Sustainable Success Through Ethical Growth

For 18 months, Botta Fulkerson did not take any distribution, instead saving six months of overhead before considering profits. This financial prudence reflects their dedication to ethical growth, which was further demonstrated when choosing to represent a young man who, due to a reckless driver, required their advocacy not for profit, but from genuine desire to help.

From Passion to Purpose in Law Practice

Fulkerson’s philosophy of long-term success over short-term balance has led to a vibrant team of ten attorneys. His passion extends beyond the courtroom to Save a Bully, a bulldog rescue nonprofit, and involvement with six different nonprofit boards, all rooted in community enrichment.

 Embracing Technology for a Digital Reach

Understanding the significance of digital presence, Dan Fulkerson is accessible on Instagram as Boda Fulkerson, where he shares his law insights and advocates for community causes. He extends a helping hand to aspiring lawyers and students through direct communication.

Systems for Scalability

On The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast, Dan and host Darren Wurz delve into the critical nature of systems and processes within a law firm. Every employee role has a manual, signifying the firm’s readiness for growth and adaptability.

Fostering Financial Stability

A focal point of our discussion is financial foresight. Fulkerson stresses the importance of liquidity, with six months of saved overhead to ensure the firm can withstand the unpredictability of personal injury law.

The Beauty of Giving Back

One of Fulkerson’s inspiring stories involves returning a settlement to a client in dire need. This selfless act, driven by an ethos of prioritizing people, has been catalystic in their firm’s growth and reputation.

Hiring and Compensation Strategies for Retention

By employing individuals more talented than himself in specific roles and establishing a rewarding compensation structure, Dan has built a culture of loyalty and commitment among his team.

Moving Forward with Family Values

Looking to the future, the balance between family life and professional involvement is Dan’s priority. He embraces a work ethic that upholds family values and top-tier legal service.

As we wrapped up Episode 38, Darren Wurz thanked our listeners and echoed the essence of this show: empowering law firm owners to craft a wealth pathway through savvy business practices and impactful community engagement.

Eager for more insights? Make sure to subscribe to The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast and leave a review. Explore how legal excellence can coexist with thriving business strategies, right here on our show.

Resources:

• Wurz Financial Services

Connect with Darren Wurz:

• dpw@wurzfinancialservices.com
• 30 Minute Chat With Darren
• Wurz Financial Services
• The Lawyer Millionaire: The Complete Guide for Attorneys on Maximizing Wealth, Minimizing Taxes, and Retiring with Confidence by Darren Wurz
• LinkedIn: Darren P. Wurz
• LinkedIn: The Lawyer Millionaire
• Twitter: Wurz Financial Services

Connect with Dan Fulkerson:

• Instagram: @bulldoglawyer
• Website: Batta Fulkerson

About our guest:

Dan Fulkerson is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Batta Fulkerson Law Group.

Dan completed his Juris Doctor degree at California Western School of Law in San Diego in conjunction with his Masters of Business Degree at San Diego State University. He is the only person to complete both degrees at the same time in only two and a half years.  He has successfully handled over 15,000 car accident cases and personally helped recover tens of millions of dollars for victims.

Dan’s personal experiences with serious injury car accidents, combined with his experience handling thousands of accident cases, make Dan a dynamic accident injury attorney who helps get his clients the results they deserve. In addition to Attorney Dan Fulkerson’s impressive success rate, it is evident to clients that Dan goes out of his way to treat you like family. Outside of work, Dan sits on 6 charity boards including Active Valor for Gold Star families, Roadogs dog rescue, and Positive Movement Foundation.  He also has his own Bulldog rescue that focuses on rescuing French and English bulldogs.  Dan loves spending time with friends, family, and his five bulldogs; Winston, Dolly, Teddy, Juan Carlos and Gigi.

Transcript:

Darren Wurz [00:00:00]:
Running a law firm is hard work enough. How about running a law firm and several other businesses and throwing a nonprofit while you’re at it? Our guest today does all of that with ease, and he’s here to tell us all about it. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Lawyer Millionaire podcast, the show dedicated to wealth building for law firm owners. I’m Darren Wurz, financial planner and your host, guiding you on this journey today, we’re delighted to be joined by a special guest who has brilliantly tread the line between law and business. He’s a master at navigating the financial terrain of running a law firm, and there’s a wealth of knowledge for each of us to draw from his experiences. I’m talking about none other than Dan Fulkerson, co founder and managing partner at Bata Fulkerson Law Group. Welcome to the show, Dan.

Dan Fulkerson [00:00:49]:
Thank you for having me.

Darren Wurz [00:00:51]:
All right. Yes. And you have a friend with you here. Those who are listening by audio can’t see. But tell us about our other guest who’s on the show today.

Dan Fulkerson [00:01:01]:
You’re missing out if you can’t see him. It’s Teddy. It’s one of the rescue frenchies. He’s been with me for about three and a half years. I have a bulldog rescue. That’s what I do when I’m not lawyering. And running a business is rescue bulldogs. And Teddy’s one of the products of the rescue. And he’s not going anywhere. He comes everywhere with me.

Darren Wurz [00:01:21]:
He is so cute. I love it. And I want to hear more about that. But before we dive into more of all the great things that you do, why don’t you just tell our audience a little bit about who you are and the law firm that you run?

Dan Fulkerson [00:01:35]:
Yeah. So I run Botta, Fulkerson Law group with my partner, Paul Botta. We started it in 2016. Just the two of us didn’t really have a ton of a plan. I have my background in business. I was lucky enough to be able to do my MBA at the same time I did my law degree. So I did both of them in two and a half years in San Diego. And that’s always been kind of the way that my mind works. So when I had the opportunity started, bought a Fulkerson and grew it from the two of us. Now there is 30 of us. We have a ten attorney team. We’re in San Diego, also in Idaho doing personal injury. That’s all my office does is personal injury. But we’ve built a powerhouse firm in seven years running against the grain doing it different than what I’ve seen any other personal injury firm do. And I think that’s been part of the secret of the success.

Darren Wurz [00:02:28]:
Yeah, that’s incredible. You’ve got a lot going on there. So one of the things I want to start off by asking you, with everything that you’re doing with your law firm and your businesses that you run, how do you find balance? How are you able to strike such a perfect balance and balance all of these various things in your life at the same time?

Dan Fulkerson [00:02:51]:
So probably unconventional. I just don’t believe in balance. I don’t think there is balance. I think that if you’re striving for balance, you’re going to frustrate yourself as a business owner. When you’re starting a new business, it eats your life. And I tell young business owners that all the time. I’m like, if I see on your instagram stories that you’re in Coachella and you’re one year into your business, I’m doubting whether you’re making it to the finish line, because you really do have to go all in. And the early part of bought a Fulkerson, we were working seven days a week. I mean, that was just the way that it, like, you have to put in the time. There has to be life sacrifice. That’s how my whole life has worked. When everyone in law school was out partying, I was at a valet stand valeting cars, because that’s what I needed to do to survive. And I think that you have to make choices in life on sacrificing on the short end for the long term, and that’s just business now in order to not have it eat your soul and burn you out. My trick is I surround myself with all the things that I love and all the people that I love. So I’ve built my firm around bulldogs. I’ve built my firm around my law partner, is one of my best friends in the world. Going to work every day doesn’t feel like work because we’re having a good time. And so when you build things around all the things you’re passionate about, you can work and run really hard and put in a lot of time, and you don’t burn out because you really enjoy the process, and that’s been part of the way that we’ve built it.

Darren Wurz [00:04:24]:
Yeah, that’s a great way to think about it, building the things you love into that routine and into what you do already. And one of the things you love is bulldogs. Tell us about the nonprofit that you have and the work you do with bulldogs.

Dan Fulkerson [00:04:42]:
Yeah. I sit on six different nonprofit boards right now. I’ve helped start two of them. Save a bully is the bulldog rescue. We rescue french and english bulldogs, try to find as many homes for as many dogs as we possibly can. San Diego, unfortunately, is a big breeder community, and when breeders get done breeding dogs, they ditch them on the streets. So Teddy was a product of that. Teddy got ditched in a box and left to fend for himself, and that’s how he came into my life. And my bullies are rescues. They’re amazing dogs. They just need good homes that are going to give them a better second half of their life than they had on the first half. And so that’s a big passion of mine. These dogs are amazing. They run my life, they run my firm. And so my give back is trying to find as many of them homes as possible, so that’s saveable. Also have five other nonprofits that are really close to my heart. I think that doing that is a really big part of life and community and perspective and giving back. So it’s something that I always try to find and make time for.

Darren Wurz [00:05:48]:
Yeah, absolutely. And how do you tie that work into your law practice, or how does that impact your work as an attorney and as a law firm owner?

Dan Fulkerson [00:05:59]:
I try to tie all the ancillary businesses and all the nonprofits back to the law firm. Like I said, it’s like building a life around the things you’re passionate about, and then you can really kind of stack things. When we started Botta Fulkerson, I saw in the personal injury space that there was very few firms that were community oriented. It was greedy, sleazy, slimy, ambulance chaser. And that was not a reputation I was okay with. And I understood it because I saw it and I had been in it, and I realized that that reputation was deserved. But in order to break that, you had to do things differently. One of the things we did from the start was we started a community fund. And when we would settle a case, we would put a percentage of that case into a fund that would grow as we grew, and that money would go to different community causes. Started with one cause, and then as we got bigger and the fund got bigger, we were able to expand on that mission. And it’s enabled us to. I mean, we’ve had such an impact that now, looking back, it’s one of those surreal things for me. We have a food pantry now that gives out over a million meals every single year to the community in San Diego. We have a nonprofit I sit on the board of that helps gold star families that usually have lost a father to combat or to suicide and matches their children with a veteran mentor. We help with Rady’s children’s hospital’s prom for terminal cancer and kids with terminal cancer that can’t make it to their own prom. I helped start a nonprofit called the positive movement that was adopting or is adopting local schools that have the highest homeless populations in San Diego. And our team helps us pick these missions and causes our team as we grow. When we have more funds, we kind of have a group meeting and go, what are you guys passionate about? What do you want to give back to? What do you want to give your time to? And that’s how we’ve picked up so many different nonprofits. There’s 20 different nonprofits that we help with on a very regular basis. And that’s a huge part of who we are. And it’s not just talk, it’s real. It’s really how the firm is built. And it has helped us in camaraderie and just positive energy and life perspective so much. And so that’s a really big part about a Fulkerson and it’s know similar way that I’ve pulled in these ancillary businesses as well.

Darren Wurz [00:08:21]:
That’s really cool. And I never really guess thought about that aspect of it having an impact your community efforts, not just in the broader community in terms of your reputation and your goodwill and what people think about you outside, but also internally and the camaraderie of your team. That’s a very interesting perspective. And I’m wondering, are there other guiding principles? That’s obviously one of them. You give back to the community. Are there other principles that you use that guide you in how you operate and run your practice?

Dan Fulkerson [00:08:56]:
So complete transparency. I’ve seen hide the ball games with personal injury firms. I just don’t think that that’s how it should work. So I work off blunt and complete transparency. I just think that people deserve that they shouldn’t be chasing their tail. I don’t like the greed that’s in my industry. I will never take a dollar more on our fees than what our clients put in their pocket. There’s just certain things that I’ve seen that I just don’t want to be a part of. I don’t like the solicitous model. I’m never going to be a soliciting attorney. You’re not going to see my face on a big billboard somewhere. I do brand advertising with the Bulldogs, that’s what’s always worked for me because I feel slimy doing something different than that. And I know that that’s a tea each their own, but I just don’t want to play that game. So we really have tried to run in the opposite direction of what I’ve seen other personal injury firms do, and it’s worked out really well, and I think that people really do respect it and appreciate it. And we don’t have a $100,000 marketing budget every single month, which is pretty normal for a lot of these bigger marketing firms, and we’re busier than they are. And it’s all word of mouth reputation.

Dan Fulkerson [00:10:10]:
It’s all community reputation. And that is so much better than having to get a client in that called you off a billboard. That, who knows? I guess, bluntly, what I’d like to say is, I want to represent nice people. I don’t have time for assholes, and that’s kind of where I’ve gotten. And when you do that mass marketing, unfortunately, you have a tendency to get a lot of assholes, and you’re also having to sell to them. And when they come in, you feel like you’re in the seat where you’re like, well, here’s why you should go with us. I haven’t been in that seat for a very long time. I’m in the seat of let me meet you to see if I want to take your case. And that is a totally different position to be in, and it’s very liberating, and it allows me to run a practice that I enjoy because I’m helping people that I want to help.

Darren Wurz [00:10:57]:
That’s incredible and very refreshing, because most of what you hear these days is not that you need to be on social media. You need to be doing all these different. And you’re big on social media, but you’re doing it in kind of a different way that’s more relatable, that’s more authentic. So, yeah, that’s an interesting approach. I feel like, did you always have this idea that you wanted to kind of build a different law firm that had a different reputation and that could make that community reputation, or did you have an aha moment at which you decided that this was the kind of thing you wanted to build?

Dan Fulkerson [00:11:42]:
I’d say a little bit of both. I mean, we knew from the day we started, because my partner and I had both seen the normal personal injury model and worked in it and didn’t like it. I left the place I was at because it was eating my soul. I was not a fan of that model where it seems like it’s money over people. And so we knew that we were going to build it different. There was no doubt about that. But there were certainly aha. Moments along the way. But our marketing approach has always been very different compared to other law firms. I mean, from day one, we came out with a bulldog mascot and a bulldog logo. That’s not a normal thing. Paul and I were texting back and forth at 12:00 at night, exchanging shields of justice and scales and all the normal law firm things. And I finally sent him a text and said, can we just go with a bulldog? And he’s like, why not? And so it’s always been a little different. One of our first guerrilla marketing moves was I got an artist to put two of my bulldogs faces together to create our logo. And we put it all on a black t shirt with glasses, looks like an attorney bulldog wearing a tie. It’s our logo. If you know us, you know it. And I gave out 1000 t shirts of that. And in an early day of an early law firm, 1000 t shirts probably cost us, I don’t know, ten grand to do it. My law partner is like, what are you doing? You’re spending ten grand on t shirts. Just have faith. Like, it’ll work. And we had 1000 walking billboards out in the community and people loving the shirts, posting the shirts, and it just spread. And so that was kind of the first where we were like, oh, this works.

Dan Fulkerson [00:13:27]:
And people like it, and people like the brand. And if they like the brand, you’re not forcing them to wear like a culligan water shirt, that they’re like, what am I going to do with this? It’s going to sit in my closet. People are grabbing this to wear it when they go to a Padres game, they enjoy it. And so that was definitely an aha moment to lean into the brand. And then I think just when it came to how we were going to build the firm and how we were going to practice, we had a moment 18 months in, and it’s a story I’ve told before where we didn’t take a dollar out of the business to start for 18 months, we didn’t make a dollar. There’s business principles that I will not go away from, and one of those is you better have six months of your overhead in an account before you start taking any sort of distribution. And I see too many business owners start taking money off the table way too early. And I watch them, they’ll hit a big case, and then they’ll drive up in a mercedes and I’m like, that could have gone to your next six. It’s just people are short sighted when it comes to those kind of investments and money, in my opinion. So my big push to Paul was, hey, we’re not going to take a dollar until we have six months. And we’re also going to grow during that time. Like, we’re going to hire a head litigation attorney, we’re going to hire staff, we’re going to have an office, we’re going to do these things. And so it took us 18 months to get green. And probably at month 17, we had a big case, not a big case, but it was a big injury case, where a young man, 30 years old, was driving up a mountain road and there was a car that had a GoPro. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Strapped on the front of his car and on the back of his car.

Dan Fulkerson [00:15:03]:
And he was filming himself drifting corners on this mountain road. And he drifted into my client’s lane and caught my client, who was on his ducati, and threw my client 15ft into the air and had him come down on his neck and his shoulders, severing every single nerve into his left arm, leaving his left arm paralyzed and dead. He’ll never be able to use his left arm again. This young man had just had his first son. His son was two months old at the time. He was an airplane mechanic that had come to the United States maybe three years before he lost his livelihood in that moment. And there was only a $250,000 policy there to recover from. Our take on that policy would have been 80. Some just knew that that was not something that we were going to be able to do. We weren’t going to be able to take that money, and that money would have got us green. Paul had come to me earlier that month and asked me if he could start driving Uber because he had no money left in his savings and reserves and was just depleted. And I begged him to hold on and that we would get where we needed to be very shortly. And then that case settlement came and I had to go to him and go, Paul, we can’t take this money. We got to give this money back to the client and we should just do this know for him and for God and for the right reasons. And Paul went with it. And that’s why I love Paul.

Dan Fulkerson [00:16:22]:
And I picked the best law partner on earth, and we donated that money back to the client so he could buy his house and so he could have a little bit more cushion. And in that moment, I realized that we weren’t going to run a normal firm and that we weren’t going to have normal business principles, if you will, where profit is what comes first. And from that moment going on, we started getting some of the biggest cases that I’ve ever had in my career. And I just think that there’s a life energy to that. And when you put people first and you do right for the right reasons, it comes back around. And so that’s just how we’ve built, and we’ve made sure that that is a big tenet of our business. If I need to waive fees on a case, I’m waiving fees on a case. If I need to work for free on a case, I’m working for free on a case. That’s part of what we should do as professionals. We are well compensated. We are lucky to live great lives. You better be paying that forward every day.

Darren Wurz [00:17:17]:
Yeah, amazing stuff. And an incredible story of how you got started. That hard work and that patience, and a little bit of faith in there, a little bit of belief that it was going to pay off and the dividends were going to come in. What was it like going through that process? Do you have some moments where you were questioning yourself?

Dan Fulkerson [00:17:42]:
I’m a big mind’s eye person. Whether you want to call it manifestation or whatever you want to label it, that’s how my life always works. I’ve had no doubt. When I was at the valet stand flipping through note cards, studying for law school, and everyone was like, oh, good luck. I knew I was going to be all like. I’ve always known that I had a brain to make money and that I’ve always had a business savvy to me, so I’ve never had any doubt that we were going to be successful. And I always knew bought a Fulkerson would be like, it’s just something that I’ve had utter faith in. And whether that’s blind faith or it’s confidence based on just the way that I see the world, I couldn’t tell you. But I’ve never had any doubts that we were going to be successful and get to where we are now. Are there moments like, we bought our building off the five freeway and it is the bulldog building in San Diego. I walked into that thing the first time after it was built out. It was the most surreal experience of my life. This is ours. We built this. And so there’s definitely moments that are like that, but I’m not surprised that we’ve built what we’ve built. I knew that we were going to do this. It’s been a ride.

Darren Wurz [00:18:58]:
Yeah. That’s one of the things I love about owning your own business, is you have that self determination, and that was kind of what it was like for me, getting started. There was no money for a while, but I just knew that it was going to start working. The gears were going to start turning, and things were going to start moving in a positive direction. Now, you scaled pretty quickly, it sounds like, because you were hiring and bringing people on quickly. Was there a particular organizational structure or methodology that you use or that you use now that you have found to be very effective?

Dan Fulkerson [00:19:39]:
Hire people that are better than me at the things that I don’t have the highest skill sets at. I’m very good at the things I’m very good at. And then there’s things where I’m lacking completely. Paul calls me an idiot savant. He’s like, you are a savant at a lot of things, and an idiot at a lot of it is. It’s very, like, there’s a lot of things that I shouldn’t be doing. And so we hired around those very quickly and spent good money. I’ve seen other firms, and they’re so greedy with keeping money to themselves and not sharing it with employees and with associates. And my payment structure is different than any other firm. And I have these other firm owners that are like, you’re crazy. You’re paying that much. And I’m like, my people don’t leave. They love me. They love the firm. They love the culture. It’s part of the family. And they go and get every last piece off of that bone on a case because their payment structure rewards them to do that. They’re not capped. They don’t have a ceiling on them. They don’t put in their time. And then, oh, I’ve done what I need to do. They go and they put in every little bit extra, and that comes back to the client, which then comes back to the firm, and referrals and reputation, and everyone wins. And I want to see my people be able to build their best lives and be able to go buy their first homes and be able to go build their families. I kick people out of the office at 530. I don’t want people that are there till 839 at night. That is not a life. We do not live to work. That’s not how it should be. And so we’ve just built a different type of environment, and I think that that’s been a big part of it. But it’s also been built around really high quality people. My litigation team, I put them up against anyone, and I’ve had to go out of my way to find really good litigators. And when you’re looking for people like that, they’re interviewing at ten different firms and they have their choice and they’ve gone with us because they see that the model we’ve built, one is going to reward them, two is family first, and three, it’s a really ethical law practice that’s built on morals and built on doing things the right way. And you get into certain practices and you see corners get cut.

Darren Wurz [00:22:00]:
Yeah, absolutely. Now, earlier you mentioned having six months of revenue before you were going to take anything from the business as one of your initial foundational principles. And you have a business degree in addition to your law degree. I’m curious, are there other business principles that have been really powerful for you, or how have you used your business acumen to help you in building and growing your law practice?

Dan Fulkerson [00:22:30]:
So my business background, you probably know this if you speak to a lot of legal professionals. Legal professionals are great at the law. They shy away from the business. A lot of them don’t know how to read a PNL. The basics of business just escape them. The basics of money and taxes and things of that nature. And you’ll see them lose a big case and come back and fire half their staff. And I just look at it and I’m like, this is not a sound business. This is not how a business is supposed to be run. You shouldn’t have those roller coaster rides. That’s just not what a stable business does. And so, yeah, there’s definitely principles like that. And then there’s also systems and processes. Most legal businesses just work. You’re making more money than you’re spending, so you keep rolling, but there’s no tracking, there’s no monitoring. My business is systems and processes. Everyone has a flowchart in my office for what they need to be doing. And that is from when someone rings the doorbell as a new client, who’s answering that door, what are you saying to them? Where are you putting them? What are you offering them? When the attorney meets with that person, what are they asking? Where that information go? Every single part of my office has a system and process to it. And when a new employee comes in, here’s your manual, here’s what you got to learn. This is this job. Here’s some videos that you need to watch, and they’re plugged in and it’s what I call an alien abduction manual, and everyone should have it, because if not, guess what? You are a slave to your business, and that is not being a business owner. You’re an employee now, again, to your business. And so there is an alien abduction manual for me. If I want to disappear for six weeks, someone could step in and go, this is what Dan does.

Dan Fulkerson [00:24:28]:
There’s some weird stuff on that manual for me because I’m not normal, but someone could figure it out and figure out how to pick up the slack if I was gone. And that’s for every employee in my business and every position in my business. And that has allowed us to scale. That, unfortunately, takes time. Breaking those things down, being self analytical, really. Spending time to flowchart out and soaps, whatever you want to call them, put them in place, takes a lot of time, and it’s monotonous. And I used to hate it. Now I don’t hate it as much. I see the value of it. And so I kind of have swallowed my pride on pushing back on it. And now I just embrace it and go, okay, this is what it is as we grow. But now that’s what allows us to move to a different state and have a multistate practice and multi office practice. And it’s very rewarding to know that the work that you put in early on does pay off.

Darren Wurz [00:25:27]:
Yeah, great stuff. Systems and processes and putting in the time to set those up. Now, these are things that people can do. These are steps that people can take. But you’re so right. So often, law firm owners neglect taking the time to set up those systems and those processes and procedures. I was talking with a law firm owner just the other day, and he was asking me how can I really want to take my law firm to the next level? I really want to increase my revenue scale. And I was like, okay, well, here are the basics. Here are the fundamentals, and these are things that you can do. You just have to execute on them. You just have to put them into place and put these practices into place. And I’m so glad you mentioned leaving money in your business, because what I see, and I don’t know if you see this with a lot of other law firm owners, but a lot of times, owners take all the profit out of the business, and there’s no liquidity left in the business at all. You got to leave some emergency funds over there. You have to have some liquidity, because financial stability is really critical, especially in personal injury. So I guess one more question. I would have for you. Are there any specific strategies or methods that you’ve used to really help you with that stability in the personal injury space? Because. And deal with those huge swings in revenue that you can often experience?

Dan Fulkerson [00:26:56]:
It’s pretty easy if you follow that basic principle of having six months of overhead. That’s never failed me. If you have six months of overhead sitting in your account. When Covid came, everyone looks at personal injury, and I always did, too. This is a recession proof business. As the economy gets worse and society starts to crack, guess what? There’s more accidents. There’s more people not paying attention. There’s more chaos. Personal injury firms usually get busier. That was true up until Covid. And then you wake up and you look at your freeway and there’s not a car on the road, and you go, oh, shit, this is different. Didn’t see this coming. What are you going to do when no one’s in the world and everyone’s sitting at home? There’s no injury cases, which is a good thing, by the way. That is a fantastic byproduct of the situation. But as a personal injury law firms, law firm owner, I saw firms panic. We’re not going to pay our rent. We’re not going to be able to survive. I just kind of laughed. I got six months in the bank. Like, I can outlast this. It’s not going to last for forever. And sure enough, you saw firms shutting down, firing people, laying off staff, doing all these things. We didn’t have to do anything. We just operated as normal.

Dan Fulkerson [00:28:11]:
And when it started to flow again, it started to flow faster than it ever had before. So it was not even a bump in the road to us. And I think that that six months allows me to sleep at night. And being able to sleep at night is well worth the money sacrifice to make sure that your business is always liquid and that you always have money to pay people and you always have money. For example, this last month we decided to buy a building in Boise because I was looking at rent prices and looking at signing a lease for our Boise office, and it just didn’t make sense to me. And so we’re making the move. We’re in escrow right now on building space in downtown Boise. Why can I do that on the fly? Because I got that six months sitting there.

Darren Wurz [00:29:26]:
And then that cash you have sitting aside can be sitting somewhere earning interest.

Dan Fulkerson [00:29:32]:
For you, which is times like.

Darren Wurz [00:28:55]:
Right. Right. For sure. Good stuff, Dan. Well, we’re coming to the end of our time here, unfortunately. I’ve got one more question for you. You’re opening up a new office. I want to hear more about some of your future plans. And I want to ask you, what is your definition of retirement?

Dan Fulkerson [00:29:55]:
The retirement question is a funny one to me because I’ve always told people at 45 years old, I’m out. Like, I’m gone. Come find me on a dog rescue ranch. And that’s what I’ll be doing is rescuing dogs. As I age and mature, I realize that I’m not built to sit around. I’d go crazy. I love what I do. But I am making major moves and pivots in my life where I’m going to have much more time in my life. I want to have a family. I want to be a good husband. I want to be a good dad. I want to be able to be there. I don’t want to work seven days a week. I want to be able to work when I want to work. So I’m moving towards that and I’m hiring towards that and I’m systematizing towards that. Do I think I’m ever going to just check out of the game? No, probably not. Probably not. The reality, I really enjoy doing what I do, but my priority will not be running and building a law firm. My priority will be my family. And that’s where I’m making moves towards. And so that’s my future. That’s what, quote unquote, retirement looks. I mean, I’ll probably be doing this for a long time.

Darren Wurz [00:31:07]:
I love it. Good stuff. All right, Dan. Well, would you please share with our audience how they can find you and learn more about you and your work?

Dan Fulkerson [00:31:16]:
Of course. So Batta Fulkerson. B-A-T-T-A. Fulkerson is F-U-L-K-E-R-S-O-N. Boda Fulkerson on Instagram. My handles are Dan Fulkerson and then also at the bulldog. Lawyers as well, can reach me anytime on my cell phone, 858-252-2222 I try to help as many young lawyers law students that reach out as possible, give straightforward guidance and answer questions and do whatever I can to give back there because that’s what you should do. And I wouldn’t be where I am at today without people helping me and giving me a hand and an ear and advice. And so you can reach out to me anytime. Also a big book giver. So if you need book recommendations, reach out to me and I’m happy to share those as well.

Darren Wurz [00:32:06]:
Awesome. Thanks so much, Dan. And thank you, the listener, for joining us today for another insightful episode of the Lawyer Millionaire podcast. Running a successful firm is a balance of legal expertise and business savvy. We hope this conversation has inspired you and fueled your resolve to build a thriving, profitable practice and make a positive impact in your community. Join us next time for more stories and tips and strategies from other successful law firm owners. To make sure you never miss an episode, hit the subscribe button and if you like what you hear, don’t forget to leave us a review. At the Lawyer Millionaire, we partner with ambitious law firm owners, enabling you to find clarity and gain control over your personal finances so that you can create wealth and achieve your lifelong dreams. Teams, learn more and schedule a time to chat with me@thelawyormillionaire.com. I’m Darren Wurz. Goodbye for now and take care.