[00:00:00] Jonathan Hawkins: Did you go straight to practicing law or what did you do after that?
[00:00:04] Christian Simpson: Yeah. I went to a a medium sized firm in in the DC area. The firm actually had its principal office in in Baltimore. And I really liked the firm. I kind of liked the, you know, the culture that they had, you know, good lawyers, you know, well respected, but, you know, people seem to have lives, even though, you know, you had the billable hour thing going on and and so, I signed on with them after doing the summer associate deal and and said, all right, I’m going to go to the Baltimore office, even though my preference was actually to go to their Northern Virginia office in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia.
[00:00:42] Christian Simpson: As I’m studying for the bar, they reach out and say, hey the Maryland bar, mind you, hey, a position opened up in Virginia. Do you want to, do you want to take that position? And I was like. I do, but I’m studying for Maryland right now. So, they were gracious.
[00:00:59] [00:01:00]
[00:01:28] Jonathan Hawkins: All right. Welcome to Founding Partner Podcast. I’m Jonathan Hawkins, your host. We’re going to have some fun today. We’ve got a really cool guest with a cool background. We’ve got Christian Simpson with us today. He’s a personal injury lawyer out of, I believe, Virginia, DC area. And we’ll dive into this, but he used to be a professional basketball player.
[00:01:50] Jonathan Hawkins: So we’re gonna talk all about that. So, Christian, why don’t you introduce yourself? Tell us about where you are, your firm what areas you serve and all that.[00:02:00]
[00:02:00] Christian Simpson: Yeah, well, thanks for having me, Jonathan. It’s really good to be on your show and I’ve listened to some of your shows already. So I know that you go deep with your guests, but my deal is that I started Virginia Injury Law back in 2015. And since that time we’ve, you know, grown to five lawyers, a good number of staff over three locations in Virginia.
[00:02:22] Christian Simpson: We’re in Richmond, we’re in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. And and then I’m actually resident in Alexandria. So, I’ve been lucky enough to find, you know, good people that can manage those offices for me while I’m, you know, largely remote. So, I obviously go down to those places from time to time.
[00:02:41] Christian Simpson: And make sure that, you know, I have a presence, but but by and large, I I work out of my home and and, you know, go to see clients as needed or go to see the team members as needed.
[00:02:52] Jonathan Hawkins: Okay. We’re going to dig into all of that stuff. I’m really interested in how you manage the remote offices. I think that’s a challenge. And so [00:03:00] I want to hear how you do it, but before we get into all that, as I mentioned you know, you played basketball in college and then you were able to play professionally as well.
[00:03:08] Jonathan Hawkins: So tell us about your basketball career. I want to hear more about that. That’s
[00:03:12] Christian Simpson: Yeah. Yeah. I’m a hoop guy, man. A hoop fanatic still the bouncing ball is always attracting me. And yeah, I got recruited out of high school here in the DC area in Alexandria, Virginia. And you know, neat story there is that the coach that recruited me, his his niece was like, you know, Best friends and teammates with with one of my sisters.
[00:03:35] Christian Simpson: So, so they go up to basketball camp at Bucknell university, have a blast, you know, sleep away camp. They come back and, you know, so much fun. And they’re like, Hey, maybe we should let the little guy go, you know, next summer. Like he’s all into this basketball thing. So, so I go off to the camp. You know, have a great week, just had so much fun.
[00:03:54] Christian Simpson: And my older brother comes to pick me up at the end of it. And the head coach, a guy named [00:04:00] Charlie Woolum comes out and he goes yeah, you know, he had a great week and he’s really good player. If he keeps working at it, maybe one day he’ll play in college. And and sure as shooting, you know, that same coach is in my living room years later, he pulls out the camp photo, right?
[00:04:17] Christian Simpson: Of me as a little guy with my socks up to my knees and everything. And I’m like, Oh my goodness. So, so yes, I go to Bucknell. I was able to crack the starting lineup as a sophomore. The program was really in a good place already. They’d gone to the tournament. In both 1987 and 89 and and it just joined the Patriot League, which people probably know of now, but back then that thing was literally brand new.
[00:04:44] Christian Simpson: Like I was in the first year of the Patriot League. We had great teams there that couldn’t get into the tournament, right? Cause it’s a one bid league. Like you got to win that conference tournament at the end, no matter how good your regular season is. And my sophomore and junior years, we were either the [00:05:00] outright or co champions of the conference in the regular season.
[00:05:03] Christian Simpson: And lost in the final game to get to the NCAA tournament. So, so a little bitter taste there for me, but but I had, you know, I had a great career there was was fortunate to, you know, be inducted in the hall of fame there a number of years ago. And and I went off to to Europe after after playing at Bucknell and and played just a single year in Holland, I had a chance to do more.
[00:05:27] Christian Simpson: But but I was a little too serious. I think now looking back, I’m like, man, I should have played at least another, like, two or three years before I jumped into being a professional. But but at the time I’m like, ah, no, let me go back and, you know, sort of get back to, you know, the ultimate goal.
[00:05:42] Christian Simpson: I knew, I kind of knew I wanted to go to law school. You know, coming out of college. But but yeah, in hindsight, I should have just bounced that ball for as long as they let me and paid me.
[00:05:50] Jonathan Hawkins: so, so what’s it like, what’s the European league like? I mean, how does it compare? I mean, to us, is it pretty big over there? And, you know, are you traveling all [00:06:00] over Europe? Where all are you going?
[00:06:03] Christian Simpson: So, I mean, you, so you play in your individual country that you’re at, right. There’s like top division but there’s multiple divisions in each country. I was in the top division in Holland. Holland isn’t known as having, you know, one of the, you know, prestigious leagues or whatever, but but that’s some really good players there.
[00:06:22] Christian Simpson: There’s only they allow a couple of foreigners on each team. Right. And and the assumption for many years was like, okay, you bring in like Two Americans and and they score all the points for you and kind of carry you across the finish line. But but in truth, the Americans, and sometimes there’d be players from other countries, like Serbia had really good players.
[00:06:43] Christian Simpson: Which is no surprise. Now we see Nikola Jokic, right? Is the best player in the world, but players from that country usually were the ones who determined whether or not you’re going to win. Cause you know, the Americans, we just kind of canceled each other out, right? Like I get 20, you get 20, you know, the other guy gets 20.
[00:06:58] Christian Simpson: Like, so, [00:07:00] but if my Dutch guys are better than your Dutch guys, we’re going to win.
[00:07:05] Jonathan Hawkins: That makes sense.
[00:07:06] Christian Simpson: And if you’re to your question about traveling around you have to really be in the top tier of of the league. So if you’re one of the like top two or three teams in the top division, then you get to play Euroleague.
[00:07:18] Christian Simpson: And and that’s like. That’s some serious basketball being played there, right? You’ve got the top teams from each country. They play during the week. Like you have your your games for for the country that you’re in on the weekend. But but if you’re in Euroleague, you’ll actually play during the week and you’ll travel around and play these top teams.
[00:07:38] Christian Simpson: We never got there. The team that I was on brand new coach. I was a young guy. There’s a guy from from Georgia who who I played with a guy named, well, his nickname was Big Mo. But but, you know, we struggled most of the year and then played well at the end. So we never really had a shot to, you know, to travel around.
[00:07:55] Christian Simpson: We, we just kind of see all the, you know, all the top level teams talk about what they were [00:08:00] doing, playing in Spain or Germany or wherever.
[00:08:03] Jonathan Hawkins: So if you got to travel around, maybe you would have stuck around a little longer
[00:08:08] Christian Simpson: Yeah, I was. Yeah, I was there for the experience. I mean, I, you know, in all honesty, I thought to myself and I got offered by my club to play one more year in the same place. And I was like, ah, you know, I’m really trying to like see Europe kind of thing. So, you know, I don’t really want to stay in the same place.
[00:08:24] Christian Simpson: And so what ended up happening is when I came back to the U S that summer, after our season was over. I started, I had an agent, so he’s looking around and missed out on a job in Sweden, would have loved to go there and spend a year, you know, sort of checking out that country. And and then I took a job at my old school at Bucknell in the admissions office.
[00:08:48] Christian Simpson: And and literally like two days later, the agent calls up and he says, I got a job in Ireland. You know, you can go play there. It’s a great country. And you know, you can, you know, keep [00:09:00] playing. Right. Knew two guys who had played in Ireland. One of them, I had played against in in Holland that, that year.
[00:09:08] Christian Simpson: And they’re like, Hey, look, if you go there, you’re going to have a lot of fun. Like. They party, but if you’re trying to like have a basketball career over here in Europe, that’s not maybe the, like, you’re going to score 40 points a game. You’re going to, you know, all this stuff they’re going to, you know, they love to drink, you know, you’re gonna have a great time, but That’s kind of what it is.
[00:09:35] Christian Simpson: So the offer came in and I could have taken it, you know, I could have said, all right, you know what, let me postpone the real world for a little bit longer. But for some unknown reason, I said, no.
[00:09:46] Jonathan Hawkins: Well, you know, you’re serious. You wanted to get started. You said you knew you want to be a lawyer. We’ll get into that, but did you go straight into law or did you do something before law school or
[00:09:57] Christian Simpson: So I, I. Yeah, I end [00:10:00] up taking a job in the admissions office at at Bucknell. So, so I did that for a year, applied to law school got accepted to William Mary, which is where I, you know, eventually ended up going, but but I actually deferred the acceptance and worked a second year at Bucknell in that admissions office.
[00:10:18] Christian Simpson: I had a different position there as essentially the students of color, diversity recruiter. And and so that was interesting to me to be in that role. And and so I just, you know, deferred law school for a year.
[00:10:30] Jonathan Hawkins: Okay. So then you graduate law school. Did you go straight to practicing law or what did you do after that?
[00:10:37] Christian Simpson: Yeah. I went to a a medium sized firm in in the DC area. The firm actually had its principal office in in Baltimore. And I really liked the firm. I kind of liked the, you know, the culture that they had, you know, good lawyers, you know, well respected, but, you know, people seem to have lives, even though, you know, you had the billable hour thing [00:11:00] going on and and so, I signed on with them after doing the summer associate deal and and said, all right, I’m going to go to the Baltimore office, even though my preference was actually to go to their Northern Virginia office in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia.
[00:11:15] Christian Simpson: As I’m studying for the bar, they reach out and say, hey the Maryland bar, mind you, hey, a position opened up in Virginia. Do you want to, do you want to take that position? And I was like. I do, but I’m studying for Maryland right now. So, they were gracious. They said, go ahead, finish you know, finish studying for Maryland.
[00:11:36] Christian Simpson: You know, knock that out of the the park and and we’ll let you, you know, study for Virginia and get that under your belt once you’re you know, once you’re with us. So, so that’s what I ended up doing.
[00:11:46] Jonathan Hawkins: So you went to insurance defense. So, so let’s, you know, you said you knew you wanted to be a lawyer. Now you’re a, are you a third generation or more generation lawyer?
[00:11:57] Christian Simpson: It’s third generation. You know, my [00:12:00] grandfather was a lawyer and my father as well was a lawyer. Before that you know, I had. You know, family members that were in varying degrees of public service. And so, you know, even with you know, with just the two lawyers in front of me, which I think is, you know, probably enough by most people’s estimation there was definitely like a, you know, a real strong lineage there of, you know, public service and and that.
[00:12:28] Christian Simpson: You know, bore out because my grandfather was, you know, a lawyer, but he was, you know, the vice president of of Liberia, which it’s a country that I was born in and and didn’t move here to the U S until I was five years old or just shy of five.
[00:12:41] Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah. So what was that like having your grandfather be the vice president? of a country. Tell me about that. When you, I assume, you know, you came over here when you were five, but I assume you still visited, maybe still visit today. And did you get sort of special treatment or was [00:13:00] it some cool stuff?
[00:13:01] Christian Simpson: it, yeah, but it, you know, it’s a small country my grandfather passed away before I did, but my dad you know, was also, you know, he held very high position. So, my dad was the minister of justice for a period of time, which is essentially the attorney general there, but he also was like the youngest Supreme court justice in the history of the country.
[00:13:21] Christian Simpson: Right. So, So our family name, which is a big deal in Liberia, is just very well known. I mean, it’s to the point, to give you just a sense, like, we went back this past summer I took my family, I like to, you know, give them a chance to kind of see where we’re from, where they’re from, took my family in the summer.
[00:13:43] Christian Simpson: And I went to a grocery store to you know, to get some stuff. We were just kind of hanging out at my brother’s house. And this woman at the cash register looks at me and she says, do you have Simpson blood? You know, I mean, and I was like, wow, you know, I mean, I hadn’t [00:14:00] been back to this place in like six years.
[00:14:02] Christian Simpson: Right. But she just took one, one look at me, looked me up and down and you know, and had me had me figured out. So,
[00:14:08] Jonathan Hawkins: They got money. They got money with your picture on there, right?
[00:14:11] Christian Simpson: That’s right, right, right. So it’s a yeah, it’s a thing. I mean, it’s definitely a thing. I had a I had a teacher in high school who who went to Liberia. He was African as well.
[00:14:22] Christian Simpson: But he goes to Liberia for a trip, educational trip. And and he, you know, knew my family’s origin there, but he came back and he’s like, oh my God, he said, I told people that I was teaching the Simpson kids, and it was a whole different response.
[00:14:43] Jonathan Hawkins:That’s awesome. So it sounds like you were born to be a lawyer. I mean, it’s in your blood. It’s almost inevitable. Did your dad or your family sort of. Not necessarily pressure you, but sort of say that’s, this is what you’re going to do or did you feel pressure to do that?[00:15:00]
[00:15:00] Christian Simpson: No, I didn’t feel pressure to do it, which is, you know, it’s a good question for me because my older brother is, you know, Clarence Simpson, the third, right? So, so by all rights, he was supposed to, you know, jump in there and be a lawyer. And and he found himself, you know, dealing with that pressure of, oh man, this is what I’m supposed to do.
[00:15:21] Christian Simpson: So super smart. guy. He graduates high school early. He’s like 16 and goes to college does, you know, incredibly well. And and my dad had gone to Georgetown law school. So, so that’s where my brother goes. He ends up going to Georgetown law. He’s like one of the youngest kids there. And And he was done in a year and a half, not like his grades were bad or anything like he’s just like, what am I doing here?
[00:15:49] Christian Simpson: Like, what, why am I in this place? And and so for him, you know, that pressure was there. He felt it and it you know, it, it wasn’t his path, you know, [00:16:00] that, that wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing. Me, by contrast, I go to college. To college at Bucknell. And we got into a little bit of a situation when I was a freshman and unfortunately some buddies of mine on the basketball team weren’t behaving too well, and we find ourselves in front of a magistrate judge on some some alcohol charges, right?
[00:16:21] Christian Simpson: So the coach wanted to keep things really quiet. And so there’s a local lawyer that was really. You know, big support of the team. And he goes, all right, you guys, you three guys go talk to this lawyer. He’ll sort of tell you what to do. And and so we show up at his office you know, we didn’t know what was about to happen to us.
[00:16:39] Christian Simpson: And he starts telling us what we need to do to challenge the the charge. And then at the end of it, he goes, all right, well, one of you guys, we’re going to bifurcate this, like, you know, you’ll go separate to these 2 and all this stuff. And he said, but someone’s going to have to talk and who’s that going to be?
[00:16:56] Christian Simpson: And my friends just look at me and go, it’s going to be [00:17:00] him. So, you know, at that point, I think I started to get the sense that, all right, this is where I’m headed. Had fun with the with the police officer on the stand. At one point he said he had made an assumption about the alcohol and I shut him down. I’m 18 years old. And I say, Listen, sir, we don’t need you making any assumptions.
[00:17:21] Christian Simpson: What do you know? Please tell us what you know.
[00:17:26] Jonathan Hawkins: Oh yeah,
[00:17:28] Christian Simpson: judge has got his head like bared. He’s laughing, like, you know, in this courtroom, this 18 year old kid is dressing down a cop. So, so yeah, I was kind of headed there or headed here.
[00:17:37] Jonathan Hawkins: It was your calling. You got it. So, all right, well, cool. Let’s get back to sort of the law firm. So you ended up at an insurance defense firm for some period of time. How long did you stay there? And obviously you left at some point to, to start a firm.
[00:17:51] Christian Simpson: Yeah, I I was there for six years and I started out doing medical malpractice defense, but eventually slid over into the employment law [00:18:00] field and and had equal time in both spaces. So, you know, good experience, really good lawyers that that I was able to learn from. Some good mentors there.
[00:18:09] Christian Simpson: But I actually left the practice to, to try to be a sports agent. You know, had started restarted the sports and entertainment law society at William Mary with a buddy and and thought, you know, this seems more like what I should be doing. Just there’s an entrepreneurial component to it.
[00:18:24] Christian Simpson: And and so I tried to be a sports agent getting players overseas to play basketball, and then I also had a connection, a Liberian kid who was playing at Georgia tech who whose family we were close to and they knew my history and I thought, okay. You know, there’s a chance for me to nab a kid and be a sports agent.
[00:18:43] Christian Simpson: But I had a lot of fun, but I didn’t make a lot of money. Right. I had a lot of fun. So you’re down there you know, in in Atlanta and you’ll enjoy this story. So the kids at Georgia tech,
[00:18:56] Jonathan Hawkins: You know, that’s my school, right? You know, that’s where I went to undergrad. Yeah.
[00:18:59] Christian Simpson: [00:19:00] follow him for three years, right? Going to football games all across the country.
[00:19:04] Christian Simpson: I’m in LA. I’m, you know, I’m doing all this stuff. And and the dad is is like, Hey, you know, you’re our guy. Mom is on board, you know, your family, same country, you know, all this stuff. Right. And and he said, we’ve told him our preferences and, you know, on and on. So I’m feeling really good about it.
[00:19:24] Christian Simpson: And and then I get a call from the dad, Hey, you know, we we’ve made every decision for him up to this point. And we told him where to go to college. We told him, you know, all this stuff. He said, but. He’s a man now we’re going to let him make his own decision. Well, unbeknownst to me, and I should have known it, right.
[00:19:44] Christian Simpson: That’s why it wasn’t my business full time. He had a buddy who was also from the Atlanta area and had, you know, gone to school with him for three years. And that buddy was going to be the number two pick in the draft. He went about six foot, five inches tall, [00:20:00] played wide receiver. And had the nickname Megatron.
[00:20:03] Jonathan Hawkins: Oh yeah.
[00:20:04] Christian Simpson: So Calvin Johnson was getting recruited by all the top sports agents in the country to sign with them. And and my guy was like a third day guy, but they’re like, ah, he’s Calvin’s buddy. So he was getting recruited with Calvin Johnson. So I had no frigging shot of signing this kid.
[00:20:25] Jonathan Hawkins: You know, that’s a funny story. So I have a similar story. I’m not going to name names, but so my, where I grew up. There was this is years ago, football player. He was projected to be number one quarterback, number one draft pick. And there were a couple of lawyers in town that were friends with his family and his family was like, you’re the guy, you’re the guy.
[00:20:44] Jonathan Hawkins: So they went and got their NFL agent, what license, whatever it was. And they were doing everything and they were doing everything. And then one day. His uncle showed up in a new car with some gold chains on, and they said they knew so yeah, [00:21:00] he went elsewhere too. And it was, I think one of his buddies on his team was going with some other person say that where,
[00:21:06] Christian Simpson: It’s a nasty business. The agent business, I mean, to be blunt about it. And and so, you know, once that that dream sort of died on the vine. I started looking to where I was going to go next. I end up getting an opportunity with a with a plaintiff’s firm because the big firms at this point, they’re scared about, you know, bringing me on.
[00:21:25] Christian Simpson: They’re like, hold on a second. You left once you’ll leave again. And and so this little boutique firm that did key Tam work took me in and you know, and I started, you know, doing key TAM cases in the D. C. Area. The firm was over leveraged, right? And had tremendous success early and then got, you know, ahead of themselves.
[00:21:47] Christian Simpson: And and so, I found myself. A couple years in with them. And you know, they’re like I said, all sudden bills aren’t getting paid. You know, you’re seeing all these things happening and you know, new family just [00:22:00] had a daughter born, et cetera. And and sure enough, they say, Hey, you know, we gotta let you go.
[00:22:06] Christian Simpson: Right. This isn’t working out for us. So, yeah. The genesis of me starting my own firm it happened then, even though I had more journey to go talk to a friend, a lawyer who’s solo, and he said, you know, I feel your pain on this, but you need to, Figure out how to get out on your own and control your own destiny.
[00:22:26] Christian Simpson: So, so I always remembered those words from him. Even though I still had another detour, I worked for the federal government for, you know, 4 years after that through some contacts, I was doing really consulting work but then opening the firm began with me starting to do some personal injury work on the side of that and and seeing that was a space that I could potentially operate.
[00:22:48] Jonathan Hawkins: and so I guess that was in 2015. You eventually said, all right, going full time. What led you to say, all right, it’s time. I’m going I’m going out
[00:22:58] Christian Simpson: Yeah, I mean, [00:23:00] I’d always had an entrepreneurial bent. I mean, even in law school I started a women’s college basketball summer league that you know, ended up having legs you know, Carol Lawson, the coach at Duke now, the women’s coach at Duke, she played in my league. I mean, you know, so I always had this sort of, Hey, I can go whip something together and make it work sort of mentality.
[00:23:21] Christian Simpson: And and so. We’re there, I’m there in the Baltimore area at the time. And the guy that I’m working with says, you know, there’s a firm down here that’s doing, you know, 30 or 40 cases at this one clinic each month. And that’s a lot of, that’s a lot of cases for, you know, for one clinic from one firm.
[00:23:40] Christian Simpson: And I said, what’s the guy’s name? And he told me the name. I said, Oh yeah, he’s an advertiser. The guy, he advertises here and he advertises down in Atlanta. Cause I was down there for work and I heard the same advertisement. So. He’s like, Oh, wow, that’s crazy. Let me, you know, or let’s get ahold of this guy, kind of see what the deal is.
[00:23:57] Christian Simpson: So we talked to the guy [00:24:00] who was licensing his brand to these different law firms, and he starts throwing out some crazy numbers And I think it sounds pretty good. We hang up the phone and my buddy goes, man, he’s full of shit.
[00:24:18] Christian Simpson: He wasn’t buying it. So, I said, well, look, I gotta go back down to Atlanta. I need to, I have work down there. So I’ll reach out to the guy in Atlanta. Who’s using the licensing campaign and just, you know, You know, due diligence on it, and that’s what started it. I ended up figuring out that, okay, this is something that does work.
[00:24:39] Christian Simpson: And I want to try it. But the the fun part of my story, and I wouldn’t recommend this to anybody is that I did it the old fashioned way. With credit cards and loans. So, I’m sitting in sitting in my basement. I had a business plan. My wife was like, you better have a business plan.
[00:24:57] Christian Simpson: You better have all these people look at it. I had a buddy who [00:25:00] did come up with some money. He was a venture capital guy. He had. 30, 000 laying around, but my business plan said I needed 300, 000 to start. Right. And I already knew I wasn’t getting that money. I was hoping to get half and just roll the dice.
[00:25:14] Christian Simpson: So, so I start looking at stuff online and sure enough, I’m I’m on like lending tree, I think it is. And they say personal loans for business. So I started filling it out and next thing you know, boom, you’re approved for like 30 grand. Oh, wow. That was easy. But then I realized that. That 30 grand that they’re going to give me is going to show up on other applications.
[00:25:43] Christian Simpson: If I go to these other companies that do the same thing. And so, you know what happened after that? I just went from company to company that same night, four times, maybe five. And got a lot of money really quickly [00:26:00] and said, let’s go.
[00:26:01] Jonathan Hawkins: Nice.
[00:26:02]
[00:26:15] Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah, that was going to be my question. Did you have a nest egg? But obviously no. Okay. So you take out all these loans. What, you know, obviously you believed in yourself. And it sounds like your wife was behind you. I’m not sure she knew what you did that night, but
[00:26:30] Christian Simpson: She didn’t know. That, that, that was a source of concern.
[00:26:33] Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah. Well, you know, cause that’s, you know, a big You know, most lawyers are risk averse. I mean, that’s just by nature, I guess it’s beat into us. I don’t know. So, you know, obviously it’s worked out but yeah most people would not have done that. So you believed in yourself, you said, all right, we’re going to go.
[00:26:50] Jonathan Hawkins: So you took out the loans and you started going and we all know with PI cases, you know, best
[00:26:57] Christian Simpson: It takes time.
[00:26:57] Jonathan Hawkins: yeah, best case, maybe six months, but probably more [00:27:00] like 18, at least months for that really to start moving. And so. How did you make it work until they started paying out?
[00:27:09] Christian Simpson: Yeah. Well, you know, I was fortunate. We were able to get a little bit of a cushion, you know, with some of the things that that I had available. Before that but not at a level that, you know, could have supported us long, long term over time. So what I did was I just hung on, honestly, for those first, you know, I’d say 18 to 24 months, just hung on for dear life.
[00:27:36] Christian Simpson: And you know, I still remember my wife asking like, well, you know, I know what plan A is. What’s plan B? Like, if this doesn’t work, I said, well, plan B is plan A, right? Like, we’ve got to, we’ve got to make this thing work. So, so I ultimately, You know, I was in that debt game. I borrowed more, right? So I borrow against cases.
[00:27:56] Christian Simpson: If I had good cases I’d borrow against those. I think [00:28:00] the people that I borrowed from some of them were attorneys were shocked that I was paying them back quickly. I think they were used to seeing the lawyers who were doing what I was doing. You know, maybe not. Not be able to meet those obligations, but what the lever was for me to get out of that situation.
[00:28:17] Christian Simpson: So we started 2015 late 2016. I’m accumulating cases at a good rate, by the way, like I’ve got plenty of inventory, which is a tremendous blessing at the time. And and so. Late 2016, I brought in somebody who had run a firm before, run a PI firm before and knew what the hell he was doing. And and so, late 2016, we said, all right, we’re going to switch how we manage these cases and and do it through the needles platform at the time.
[00:28:47] Christian Simpson: So, he knew it. And and I knew that would help us overall, help my team overall in terms of moving cases more efficiently through our through our pipeline. And and so [00:29:00] 2017, the beginning was super rough. Clients were not happy. We were just. Telling them, Hey, bear with us. We’re drawing pains, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:29:10] Christian Simpson: And then right around the spring, you know, right around this time, actually of the year, it started to shift and the foundation that had been laid. Started to turn into real traction and we started to get it done. And and I did travel that summer to, to Liberia. My, my younger brother was getting married.
[00:29:34] Christian Simpson: My wife and I finally had a chance to like, cause I’d just been hustling for these, you know, two years, whatever she barely saw me. We finally had a chance to spend some time together. I came clean about the loans. And she wasn’t happy about that, but But I also told us like, hey, it’s working, you know, our trajectory is such that we’re there and I could see it and before I was just kind of one foot in front of the other, I didn’t have a big picture view to really be able to be [00:30:00] confident in that but now I had it and so that’s what happened.
[00:30:03] Christian Simpson: We, we finished the year strong. I literally paid off. I started off, I borrowed about 130, 000 over time I borrowed In total, but a quarter of a million dollars is to kind of keep it afloat. I had that all paid off in 2017 by September. And and so at that point, you know, we’re all systems go, 2018 was a great year.
[00:30:24] Christian Simpson: But then. I, I. Then the troubles happened because I said, Oh my God, I know what I’m doing now. And I’m going to grow this thing and and just, you know, blow up into the stratosphere. I’ve made the mistake of going to, to John Morgan’s conference down in Orlando. And I thought it, I had this great year, made all this money.
[00:30:43] Christian Simpson: And then I heard what these guys were doing. I’m like,
[00:30:45] Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah.
[00:30:46] Christian Simpson: all right, I think I need to recalibrate.
[00:30:48] Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah. Well, you know, a couple things you said, number one, you know, I think it’s hard to get your footing, but you know, once you know, you have the foundation, then you can launch off of that. So obviously it took [00:31:00] you a while, but you got it. But then the second part is, you know, they’re always levels and leveling up.
[00:31:05] Jonathan Hawkins: There’s more trouble ahead. You know, you figure out one level and then when you go to the next, you know, it’s a whole new ball game. So it sounds like you, you got to that point. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:31:15] Christian Simpson: I did. Yeah. So, so I came back just, you know, tons of piss and vinegar from that conference. Like, oh man I’m ready. We’re going to go on TV. We’re going to do this. We’re going to, you know, all this stuff. And I read exactly one. Book on scaling verne harnish’s book that i’m sure most of your listeners are very familiar with and it’s sitting right next to me here still Read that one book and said, all right.
[00:31:38] Christian Simpson: I’m good. You know, let’s get it going and and then did So many things wrong at the same time that I knew better Then to do right. Because I’d been a consultant, you know, even though it was with the government talking to people about change management and how you plan, you build [00:32:00] and you’ll want, you know, all these things I had been doing.
[00:32:02] Christian Simpson: But then with my own business and my own firm, I’m so gung ho that I just dive in and we start making all these large scale changes at the same time opening offices changing. Even though we were in the same building in Richmond, we moved to you know, to a bigger, you know, we moved and took over a floor and, you know, all these things and then open another office down in Norfolk and we’re hiring.
[00:32:28] Christian Simpson: I mean, there’s just we changed our case management system. I mean, I can go on and on. I mean, I cataloged it later as sort of a, you know, remember when you did this moment, but, you know,
[00:32:38] Jonathan Hawkins: It sounds familiar. It sounds a little familiar. I’ll tell you.
[00:32:42] Christian Simpson: So you know, you get excited about stuff and and then you forget like, you know, my employees, they were just dying.
[00:32:50] Christian Simpson: They were dying. And there were good people who we just had our best year ever. And so they believed in me. Right. I mean, they were like, Hey, thanks. Christian knows what he’s doing. I mean, I, you know, my [00:33:00] check and that bonus that came at Christmas, I’ve never seen anything like that, you know?
[00:33:03] Christian Simpson: So, so they were like, you know, whatever this guy says, we’re, you know, we’re gonna, you know, we’re going to try to do so. So yeah, so that was a really humbling time because all those changes the additional money being spent, et cetera. They led to problems, you know, particularly on the case management side.
[00:33:21] Christian Simpson: That’s where it started to show up first. We started getting, you know, more bar complaints more stuff coming down the line and and that you know, that was, you know, that was just taxing. I mean, my You know, home life wasn’t happy. I wasn’t happy at work. I mean, you know, none of the things that I expected when I said, Oh, I’m going to scale and, you know, go into the stratosphere, none of those things it was happening for me at that time.
[00:33:46] Jonathan Hawkins: So, so you went through the tough times, we’ll call it the leveling up times, but it sounds like you sort of eventually reached a, an equilibrium or you sort of figured it out and you’ve got. I think you said three, three locations that you’re [00:34:00] managing. It sounds like that’s you’ve got that sort of figured out at least.
[00:34:03] Jonathan Hawkins: And the other thing I want to hear about that, how you figured that out, but then also the other thing I want to have you touch on is the culture of your firm. I know that’s important to you from some of our prior conversations. I like your attitude about it and maybe you can talk about that a little bit.
[00:34:20] Christian Simpson: Yeah. So, you know, first of all the coming out of it was just a process of literally taking a step back and doing a deep dive on on what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, why we’re doing it. And then frankly, starting to listen to other people who had been there. I hired a business coach good on a number of fronts, but mindset was huge there cause I’d kind of lost my swagger after, you know, getting punched in the mouth.
[00:34:44] Christian Simpson: We had someone come in and assess the firm and say, all right, what do you want to do? Okay. All right, this is where we see you guys where we see you being strong, where you know, you need work. And then I was fortunate to come across the the Cameron Harreld [00:35:00] book, vivid vision.
[00:35:01] Christian Simpson: And and my coach and I both agreed, perfect timing. Take two or three days, figure out what you want to do and why you’re doing this you know, really take stock and figure out where you want to be best two and a half days I’ve spent, right. Just getting away, no calls, no nut and just going.
[00:35:25] Christian Simpson: All right, pen and a paper. And I just went to town for those two days, really hashing out where I wanted us to go and what I wanted us to be. And part of that was the core values piece. Ours are integrity, consistency and empathy. I was very clear in that document, and I just had some conversations with some new employees today that I wanted people who were serious about.
[00:35:47] Christian Simpson: What they do but didn’t take themselves too seriously. I mean, you’ve heard me laugh a ton already, you know, in this podcast, and it’s because I am super serious about what we do and and I get after it, you know, that athletic [00:36:00] background is, you know, it just never leaves, right. I’m competitive, but but that team sports aspect of it for me is that I like to see people do well.
[00:36:09] Christian Simpson: I like to see my people. You know, do well. And it excites me. It’s good. It gets me pumped up to see people grow and get better. And and so, so I want that energy in the firm. I want other people who are similarly situated in terms of that mindset and and can laugh as we’re, grinding it out.
[00:36:29] Christian Simpson: And and, but are still obviously, you know, very serious about the work that they do.
[00:36:34] Jonathan Hawkins: You know, I was gonna ask you about that sort of the parallels and the lessons learned from all the years of playing basketball, all the hard work in the team sport to get, you know, to be able to play a professional level. How does that or what lessons or what? You know, what does that bring to you as a leader and building your firm?
[00:36:52] Christian Simpson: I had some amazing mentors. My high school basketball coach was the very first one. And even today I sort of, [00:37:00] marvel at this guy because he was literally in his early twenties when he started coaching. Me and others, but he seemed to have it all figured out in terms of really living by your values.
[00:37:09] Christian Simpson: You know, just having that be foundational. And then, you know, a mindset of, you know, no shortcuts. I mean, you know, I mean, this guy you know, just sort of laid it out for us. Like, this is what you need to do to be great. This is what you need to do to be a good teammate. And we’re shooting for, you know, everything that’s out there for us.
[00:37:32] Christian Simpson: Right. But he never talked about winning, even though we won a crazy amount, he always talked about the process that got you there, right. And leaning into that. And and we’re in the middle of a process right now. My team and I, as we are in the 3rd year of the vivid vision, we’ve got some massive goals ahead of us.
[00:37:54] Christian Simpson: And and this coach of mine unfortunately passed away last September. But but I have [00:38:00] literally been preaching his gospel to my team about leaning into the things that I want us focused on in order to meet these massive goals that we’ve laid out. So, you know, the competitiveness and all of that is there, but but he was about doing it the right way.
[00:38:16] Christian Simpson: And being classy about it and and then just recognizing people, you know, he didn’t take a lot of credit, even though, you know, all of his former players he left, you know, he left the area that that I grew up in, and then he coached me in, and he coached in Pittsburgh, and coached, it was athletic director, and he won a ton of games up there, you know, I mean, it’s like, in all different sports, you know, just a quintessential teacher and motivator, and and so that’s what I’m hoping to bring to my team now, because I’m not as involved in the day to day case work, you know, I’m trying to set people up to succeed, as opposed to you know, all these cases that are coming in, I’m the one managing them.
[00:38:56] Jonathan Hawkins: you know, I like the team aspect in the [00:39:00] mindset, and it’s sort of, you know, to go back, which said earlier, when you’re in Europe and Holland, you know. It was all about the Holland teammates as to whether you were going to win or not, right? So, I mean, it’s really, you know, the weakest link, it’s, you’re as strong as the weakest link.
[00:39:13] Jonathan Hawkins: And you know, I think that’s pretty cool that you have that background that you can bring to this. And, you know, it sounds like you guys won a lot, but, you know, the other thing is when you lose, you got to go back out there the next day. You got to shake it off and you got to keep going, right?
[00:39:29] Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah.
[00:39:30] Christian Simpson: yeah, no doubt. And look, I as I said, I like to joke around. I’m, you know, definitely someone who enjoys life and and that’s probably coming across, but, you know, I get up early in the morning because I’m an early riser just by nature. My father was as well, and I definitely saw it from him.
[00:39:48] Christian Simpson: But But I love grinding. Like it’s, you know, it’s gotta be something I want to do. And this is something that, that I really enjoy doing. But but you know, 4am, 4. 30am, I, you know, my wife, [00:40:00] my, you know, the people that work for me, they think I’m crazy. Right. But but I love it. You know, I absolutely you know, wake up each morning.
[00:40:07] Christian Simpson: I don’t even drink coffee. I mean, I’m. I’m caffeinated on my own, right? Ready to go. And and what motivates me now, you know, we’re in a position where, you know, I certainly make enough money. I damn sure make more money than when I was with the federal government. You know, I make enough money that, you know, we’re comfortable and everything’s good.
[00:40:24] Christian Simpson: And and yet what motivates me now isn’t, Oh, I’m going to make more. It’s. No, like we’re building something that’s really cool. And I have a chance to impact these people that are working for me, these people that are trusting me with their cases, you know, that is what. Gets me, you know, just jacked in the morning.
[00:40:45] Christian Simpson: I I just love it. Had a client today. That I spoke with, she’s had like two cases with us and we’ve referred her out for a couple of poor things. She’s like pretty fragile, but you know, she just really paid me a high compliment in terms [00:41:00] of of our relationship. And I told her, I was like, you know, this is the stuff that gets me psyched for my day.
[00:41:06] Christian Simpson: Like I said, I appreciate you sharing that. And I was like it’s going to carry me for not just today, but a bunch of days. But but that’s what gets me really excited.
[00:41:15] Jonathan Hawkins: That’s cool. And you need it. I mean, if it’s just about the money, I just, I don’t think you can live off that. It’s like, you’d
[00:41:21] Christian Simpson: No way.
[00:41:22] Jonathan Hawkins: running on a fumes at some point, you know, you got to have something bigger. So, I want to get into your vision and I know you’ve got a good one. I want to get into that in a second, but before we get into that sort of, you know, let’s talk about, you know, some of the, you know, some of the the good parts and the bad parts of just running your firm and owning your firm.
[00:41:38] Jonathan Hawkins: So, you know, if you could pick, you know, one of the worst things or the things that perhaps frustrates you the most about being the boss and having to run the firm and then on the flip side, what do you think is sort of the best thing? Yeah.
[00:41:53] Christian Simpson: I think that the toughest thing is simply. You know, I want to forge, I’m [00:42:00] a believer in forging good relationships with, you know, with the people on my team. I think again, the basketball sports thing, you know, Krzyzewski, you know, that whole Olympic experience for him, where he said, you know, I spent most of my time just talking to these guys and getting to know them.
[00:42:17] Christian Simpson: Right. So I think that’s hugely important. And and yet when you form those relationships, You know, not every one of them is going to work out right. And so I’ve been in that position on a number of occasions where. You know, someone has really helped me and my team. And yet now we’re at a point where, you know, their skillset and whatever is going on with us is no longer a match.
[00:42:43] Christian Simpson: It’s no longer a fit. I know a lot of people that do EOS encounter this as they are building out leadership teams and seeing, do we have the right people in the, you know, in the right seats. And and that happened to us. And we’re just a recent adopter of EOS but the same sort of thing happened [00:43:00] even, you know, before that and and that’s a hard thing, you know, because, you know, is a good person they’ve helped you, right?
[00:43:07] Christian Simpson: They’ve helped you get to where you are. But it’s not, it’s, you know, my, you know, my responsibilities to the business and to the clients. And that’s not a relationship that can continue.
[00:43:19] Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah. That’s rough. So what’s the best part? What’s your favorite part? Not running the firm
[00:43:24] Christian Simpson: I like the vision stuff, you know, I like. I mean, I think back to when I was a kid playing playing baseball and you know, baseball ended up being too slow for me. I was pretty decent at the game, but I was like, I need more action going on. And I’d be sitting out there. I was in the outfield.
[00:43:41] Christian Simpson: Not because I wasn’t any good, but because they figured I could run to all the balls that were hit to the other kids who couldn’t get to them. And but I would just sit out there and be, Playing out scenarios in my head about, Oh, if this happened and that and I have a lot of fun you know, thinking about.
[00:43:57] Christian Simpson: You know, the things that I can do [00:44:00] with what, you know, I’ve been able to create with others over the course of the last eight, eight plus years. And and that’s a lot of fun for me. I love learning listening to podcasts and and listening and reading books and and just learning from people.
[00:44:13] Christian Simpson: I am a big believer in talking to other law firm owners and learning how they did it. I’ve gotten a tremendous amount of value out of that. And and so, yeah, when I’m in that space of kind of figuring out the path and and thinking about some things, you know, two, three steps ahead that’s really fun.
[00:44:32] Jonathan Hawkins: you know, it’s people talk about business is one of the infinite games. It never ends and you can, you know, the sort of the whole point of it is to keep playing. And so, you know,
[00:44:41] Christian Simpson: Yeah, just stay in, just, yep, just stay in it.
[00:44:43] Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah, and you’ve done that.
[00:44:45] Christian Simpson: stay in it.
[00:44:46] Jonathan Hawkins: I really like, you know, I like what you’re saying about the vision.
[00:44:49] Jonathan Hawkins: And I like Vivid Vision. That’s a really cool book. He’s got some good talks out there. Where he’s talking about the Vivid Vision. I like the one where he’s got that. [00:45:00] The music festival and the one guy’s dancing and everybody goes to it. So let’s talk about your vision for your firm, whatever you’re willing to share.
[00:45:08] Jonathan Hawkins: You know, you’ve got three offices, sky’s the limit. What’s the big time vision for you?
[00:45:15] Christian Simpson: Yeah, we again, have really leaned into, we, meaning me in particular, but I’ve really leaned into, to you know, getting good counsel from other good lawyers and law firms across the country. And I probably will, Talk to maybe one attorney a month or so. And sometimes it’s great to get confirmation that we’re doing things, you know, the right way.
[00:45:36] Christian Simpson: And other times it’s just a little thing tweak here or there, but I always come away with tremendous amount of value. And I’m super appreciative of those. Lawyers for sharing, you know, how they’ve done it. Basically for us right now, we’re on the cusp of getting to an eight figure, you know, being an eight figure firm.
[00:45:54] Christian Simpson: And so, so that’s the next step for us. And a big part of that is is [00:46:00] really just leaning into focus on The story of our clients and how that’s impacting their lives. I think we have been so fortunate that we’ve, you know, we get a lot of cases, right? And so people, you know, consider us a volume firm or worse a mill, but we get a lot of cases and and I’m of a mind that, you know, we’ve done okay in servicing the top end cases.
[00:46:24] Christian Simpson: The folks that we’ve talked to have said. You guys got a lot of room to grow right there. You know, you’re doing a good job. You’re growing at a good clip. But once you start servicing those high end cases, even better, you know, you’re going to be in a great place. Structurally, I am actually quite comfortable with the idea that the lawyers in my firm can build their own personal brands.
[00:46:44] Christian Simpson: I literally had a conversation about this just a few days ago with with the gentleman that that I licensed the brand from for the last eight years. We’re actually going away from his brand and in a in a few short weeks and and so, you know, He and I have a very comfortable relationship.
[00:46:59] Christian Simpson: [00:47:00] It’s an amicable parting. I felt like, Hey, we’re sort of graduating at this point. I’m graduating. I also know that I’ve got about 2 years of cases worth of inventory, so I’m okay for a little bit in case there’s a dip in case acquisition, but but as he and I were talking about this, he goes, why aren’t you scared?
[00:47:16] Christian Simpson: You know, you’re gonna have people leave and this and that. And I said, well, you know, I kind of, you know, At this point and thinking of it more so like a college basketball coach or a college football coach that has a coaching tree where, you know, you have these people that get to a certain point and it’s time for them to go.
[00:47:33] Christian Simpson: I’ve seen plenty of law firms that have people leave and go start their own law firms and both the original law firm. And the new one are successful, right? And and so I don’t have this scarcity mentality that I think a lot of. Lawyers and law firms you know, in our industry have, I, I just don’t you know, Alex Hormozy, who’s a big social media guy.
[00:47:59] Christian Simpson: I [00:48:00] wish I had found the guy sooner, even though he’s what, 20 years, my junior you know, he talked about opening his first gym in Baltimore and and a buddy of his who already had a gym when he said, Hey, yeah, I’m gonna open this gym. The guy’s like, You know, how could you screw me like that?
[00:48:14] Christian Simpson: You know, like you’re going to take all my business or something. And Hormozy was just like, what are you talking about? Like, you know, there’s plenty of space for me to open up this gym and for both of us to be successful. And so, so I’m experimenting with this. I, you know, I mean, if I’m broken 10 years and it didn’t work out, you know, maybe you have me back on the podcast and I could tell you what went wrong.
[00:48:35] Christian Simpson: But but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think I have an opportunity to bring in young lawyers who are really good. I’m a hundred percent owner of the firm, but but if I have a lawyer that is able to develop their own personal brand and go out on their own and they’re in my market I’m actually not too worried about that.
[00:48:51] Christian Simpson: You know, I’ve seen other firms and those lawyers survive and everybody seems to be able to eat. So, so I think that would be a neat legacy [00:49:00] to have. And you know, I’m going to explore that even more in the coming years, but but it’s. You know, we’re going to keep growing. I’m niched, you know, car accidents the, you know, African American and Spanish speaking communities are what I focus on and and I feel as though, you know, Big market advertisers to come and sort of flood the zone.
[00:49:22] Christian Simpson: They’re going to get their cases, but but being hyper local and hyper specific and niched is always going to advantage me.
[00:49:30] Jonathan Hawkins: I’ll tell you your attitude is really refreshing that you, you don’t hear that very much, sort of the coaching tree. Philosophy. I think that’s pretty cool. And you’re right. I mean, people come and go from firms all the time. And you can maintain relationships and, you know, people particularly in the PI world, they’re referring, you know, referring to, and you co counsel, you refer cases.
[00:49:53] Jonathan Hawkins: So it’s, you know, you can be short sighted or you can be long sighted. And I like your attitude. [00:50:00] I wish more people would have it.
[00:50:02] Christian Simpson: Yeah. Yeah. Well, like I said, I think it’ll be. You know, it will be proven out over time. And we have all levels in the firm right now because, you know, this is just something I started literally, you know, a year and a half ago, sort of encouraging the lawyers in my firm to build their own personal brands and and some have skyrocketed.
[00:50:20] Christian Simpson: Others are, you know, still trying to get off the ground. But in either instance, you know, we’ll accommodate and and if it is time for somebody to graduate, I’m going to say. Congratulations. You know, I mean, this is great. You know, we all started as employees somewhere, and if you have a chance to become an owner I’m happy for you.
[00:50:38] Jonathan Hawkins: Well, that’s cool. So I have to keep this podcast going for at least 10 years so I can have you back. You know, I’ve had a lot of fun today. This has been enlightening for me. I think you’ve got a lot of cool stuff that you’re doing. I can’t wait to see, you know, the more cool stuff you’re gonna do.
[00:50:54] Jonathan Hawkins: But for folks out there that may want to get in touch with you and hear more from you, how can they find you?[00:51:00]
[00:51:01] Christian Simpson: Yeah. If they want to reach out for a case, it’s 1 800 CRASH VA. If they want to just get me directly. It’s a Christian at crash VA com. And and then you can follow me on social at at call Christian VA. So, those are the three best ways to get ahold of me.
[00:51:16] Jonathan Hawkins: And you’re a really good player and you want a cool agent. Maybe he’ll come out of retirement.
[00:51:21] Christian Simpson: That’s right. That’s right. I’m all for it. I miss going to the game. That was the best part about being an Asian. I got to go to, you know, these football and basketball games all over the country. It was great. I just I couldn’t monetize that thing.
[00:51:33] Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah. Yeah. Well, cool, Christian. Thanks again. I’ve had a lot of fun and good luck, man. You’re going to do, you’re going to continue doing well.
[00:51:41] Christian Simpson: Thanks, Jonathan. Appreciate you.
[00:51:43] [00:52:00]
