Introducing MaxLawCon 2021 speaker Christopher Nicolaysen, a founding member of Springs Law Group. Christopher focuses primarily on helping those injured in car accidents due to no fault of their own. The personal injury matters include auto accidents, bicycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, and trucking accidents.
Join us in St. Charles, MO at the Ameristar Casino, Resort, and Spa to hear his presentation: Smashing the Middle Class Mindset
Watch the sneak peek.
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Transcript: MaxLawCon 2021 Speaker Christopher Nicolaysen
Speaker 1
Run your law firm the right way. This is the maximum lawyer podcast, podcast, your hosts, Jim hacking and Tyson metrics. Let’s partner up and maximize your firm. Welcome to the show.
Tyson Mutrux
Welcome back to the maximum lawyer Podcast. I’m Tyson nutrix. And today I am with Christopher nicolaysen. One of my favorite human beings in the entire world with
Christopher Nicolaysen
not Chris, not too much Dyson. Thanks for having me on.
Tyson Mutrux
You bet. So today we’re gonna talk about Max law con 2021. And we’re going to talk a little bit about your topic, which is smashing the middle class mindset. And as you mentioned, right before we went on, like, this is a topic that we gave you however, it’s it’s a spin off of what you’ve already presented to the guild, which we were just floored by. It was amazing. So you want to talk a little bit about the topic in general?
Christopher Nicolaysen
Yeah, so the topic in general is interesting, because my, my talk from last year at the virtual Max law, due to the pandemic was kind of just a history on failure. And what I call kind of like failing my way to success, you know, are finding success one failure at a time. And it’s, uh, for me, I grew up a lot of it’s just personal history. I mean, I grew up in a house, I wouldn’t even say it’s middle class, I think that’s given us a lot of credit, we were dirt poor. You know, my dad talked to us about the one time that we, we had all we had to eat for a week was a bag of chips. And he’s like, you remember that I’m like, I have no idea what you’re talking about. And I mean, it’s probably something hidden deep back in here. You know what I mean? Both my father went through a little bit of vO tech, after high school, my mom went through 11th grade, both have their own addictions, they had health issues and things like that. And they’re all both of them are my mom’s 18 years older than I am my dad’s 20. So my mom’s one big piece of advice, when she kicked me out of the house was I don’t care what you do with your life, just be happy. And so to me, that was, you know, what I’ve talked to a therapist about and other things where she’s just like, it’s kind of guide lists. It’s that essentialism picture, you know what I mean? Where you’re just like, trying to figure it out that way. And so luckily, I met a lady who grounded me, and helped really set everything in center. And we had kids really young. So for us, that middle class mindset piece is actually just survival in the beginning, we were just purely having kids at 21 or 23, in survival mode. And I think a lot of firms are like that, as well, when they start out, right, you’re in survival mode, you’re just trying to figure stuff out. But you and I have talked about it too, or there’s just something inside me where I just think it’s gonna happen, man, like, it’s, um, and I think there’s a couple pieces that I was thinking about earlier that I’ll touch on that you have to be in order to kind of get past it. And in order to, you know, you smash it. But I, the first thing for me is you have to be comfortable in your own skin. In high school, I just wanted to hang out with the popular kids, we were so poor, I just wanted a pair of Jordans all of these things, right? At this point, I don’t give a leave what anybody thinks about me, I really don’t care. You know, I mean, I got my first tattoo in my mid 40s. Now I’ve got more than any of my kids. I’ve got another one scheduled for mid July. You know what I mean? I’m a late blooming attorney that came on that actually doesn’t really do a lot of law myself anymore. And so I’m trading a firm that, you know, kind of gives me the lifestyle that I want to have. So I think you’ve got to be comfortable with who you are over anything else, you know, and I’m the first one to make fun of myself. And I’m okay with, you know, other people talking about me. I don’t know, like, it’s to me in that sense. So that’s one of the first things
Tyson Mutrux
so and let’s not give away too much of it. But that’s a good one. i It’s funny, you mentioned votec The first thing is like, how many people do you think actually that are watching this? They’re lawyers know what that means? Maybe it’s a common term, but like, I feel like it like growing up. I know what a med like.
Christopher Nicolaysen
I think it’s bigger in the Midwest. I mean, I grew up in Ohio, so it was a big deal. I mean, so you could do as your junior and senior year at the two year tech school my middle brother did it for carpentry but you get you know, girls going to do like hair salon stuff or what have you things like that. So it’s kind of the the associate’s degree in a sense during that time,
Tyson Mutrux
in a sense is Yeah, yeah.
Christopher Nicolaysen
Oh, definitely. Yeah,
Tyson Mutrux
there was a really like, at least for me growing up like okay, you either you don’t do anything you go to attack or you go to college. Like that’s your three paths. Yeah, one of those. Oh, yeah, sure. So okay, so it it took you a while to get past that, like so. What like, was there an event in your life that led to that was it just over time you finally just smashed through like what like what was it that led you because I’ll be honest, we like I feel like the first time you and I met you’ve you had not quite gone through it yet.
Christopher Nicolaysen
So I would tell you, it’s interesting. I had a conversation with Chuck boy, like, I want to John Fisher’s masterminds and he we were talking about my teaching, so I taught for a few years. And then both Greg and I were like all at the same A time, and we had just bought a house and we’re freaking out. And I’m like, Man, I’m like that was one of the worst moments I’ve ever had. He’s and Chuck stops me and he goes, honestly, he’s like, sometimes those worst moments are the best things that ever happened to you. And you need those things, right? It’s those back against the wall moments, which that forced me to step back and think at 35. I’ve got to do something. But a lot of my friends at that time were doctors, anesthesiologist, dentists, gynecologist you know, orthodontists, high end producers, where I’m like, but I need something like that. But I’m at an age where I need to, I need to be on a faster track than most. And so Law School worked in that sense, because I already had a four year degree, only three years out. So that was really kind of that catalyst that pushed me to take that jump. And, and I mean, I was talking to somebody actually, about you yesterday. And one of the things he said is it’s ready fire aim, right. And that’s what I did, right? That I did not take a lot of, I’m just like, I need to act now. And move. And then the law school has its own thing of like, really humbling me in a lot of ways, but also showing me that I can do that thing. I mean, we all sat there at orientation, and it’s look to your left, look to your right, one of these other people will not be here, by the end of it all. Well, the thing is, is I shouldn’t be here based upon the way everything was done, right. And so that’s kind of it’s those kinds of things that got it. And then from the I think it’s been me meeting other people that have been successful and done things that have empowered me not to be them, but to actually get to a spot where I can level up and kind of create what I want.
Tyson Mutrux
I mean, so I’ve thought about this quite a bit. And it’s funny, that comment you made about the ready fire aim, or the was it ready? Yeah. Yeah. So it’s like, if you really dissect all the people that Jim and I have spoken to over the last five years, and like all the successful trainers, we talked to the ones that really the ones that are effective and are good, and they’re doing well. There’s these take action. I mean, that’s one of the number one things is just make action. Yes. So do you feel like some of your fears that were holding you back that were preventing you from doing that?
Christopher Nicolaysen
I think it was the lack of knowing what to do, right? Having any direction had in the beginning? Because I didn’t know I’m like, how does one know how to become a lawyer or how to become a doctor or what have you to get to that next level. I thought when I got my bachelor’s, that it was the whole world was going to open up, I’d have this communications degree in life is just grand. And then I got a job at an ABC, ABC affiliate in Vegas, I was making nine bucks, and now we’re doing their nighttime audio. I’m like, I made more in retail than I did at that at my dream job. And so it’s, it’s lack of direction for me in that sense. And then I don’t think I’ve ever been stuck. But then once I found that I’m willing to try different things and take different risks. And so because I’m always a believer, too, that if it doesn’t work, it’s not a failure, it’s not the end of the world, we’re gonna try something else out. And I think you’ve got to be able to, you know, kind of shrug things off and move on to the next thing. So just reset
Tyson Mutrux
and keep going. Alright, last question might ask you. So what are you excited about when it comes to the conference?
Christopher Nicolaysen
I was thinking about that, because I remember you talking a lot about that. So for me actually don’t want people to think about this. I don’t actually remember a lot of talk specifically. But what I do remember, and I want you to think about the nuggets that you’re gonna get, and it’s like, you know, it’s the Yoda thing, the chicken nuggets. But the reality is that nugget that I get in having a conversation with you at the file Biden conference, right? So to me, it’s those nuggets of talking to Romanski for a few minutes or talking that talk with Chuck, it was a couple minutes, but it’s vital. Because if you can get those little nuggets, those are going to be the things that stick with people. So if you’re new to max law, the you know, the conference, I say get up out of your seat and go talk to people. This is stuff that people want to talk about all of us like Jones out about this stuff. So we want to talk to you about it for people that are just starting out, we want you to get better. And we want you to try new stuff. So that’s for me, it’s always the little nuggets that I can kind of just pick out of you know, from people
Tyson Mutrux
love it. Speaking that you’re 100% True, and there’s gonna be a lot of opportunities for that. Yeah, I’m
