Most lawyers think “brand” means a logo, a slogan, or some clever line about fighting for justice.

Kia Arian has a different take. In this GLM Summit talk, she starts with a story about being jealous of a squirrel and ends by showing you why your best marketing is not a gimmick. It is the part of you that has been there the whole time. Your story. 

Kia breaks down why legal marketing keeps sounding the same, why reviews are not a brand, and why “experienced and compassionate” is basically invisible at this point. Then she walks through real examples of how lawyers uncovered a message that made the right people say, “Yep. That’s my lawyer.” 

You will also hear how to stop trying to manufacture momentum in your marketing and instead build a message that feels true, clear, and easy to repeat. The kind that attracts the right-fit clients and quietly repels the tire kickers. 

If you want the GLM Summit notes Brian mentions, you can grab them at glmsummitnotes.com

Connect with Kia:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kiaarian
Company: www.zinemarketing.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/zinegraphics
X (Twitter): twitter.com/kiaarian_

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Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

Want to connect with Brian?

Follow Brian on Instagram: @thebrianglass
Connect on LinkedIn

Most lawyers say they want to “scale.”

Ryan McKeen has actually done it. The real kind. The kind where you build a firm that can take the punch of an eight year case, fund experts and animations, and still keep the lights on. The kind where a $100 million verdict is not a lottery ticket. It is the result of building the machine behind the scenes. 

In this conversation, Ryan tells the story of chasing an eight figure goal when he did not even have a case worth six figures. He talks about what had to change to make that goal even possible, from the team, to the systems, to the way he approached learning trial work. Then he shares the part nobody tells you. Even after the verdict, the case is not “done.” He is still waiting on the appellate ruling, and the clock is ticking at about $9,000 a day in interest. 

But the episode is not just a victory lap. It is a behind the scenes look at what it takes to build a firm that can handle big work without falling apart. We talk about why you cannot skip the reps, why “gut feel” is a terrible hiring plan, and why investing in your team is the highest leverage move most law firm owners refuse to make. 

Then it gets spicy. Ryan breaks down what private equity is doing in legal, why the middle is going to get squeezed, and what smaller firms need to do to stay strong and stay different. Think local pizza place versus Domino’s, but with your clients and your career on the line. 

If you want a clearer path to building a firm that can handle real cases, and still leave room for a real life, this one will hit.

Connect with Ryan

• Best Era: bestera.com
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmckeen

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Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

Want to connect with Brian?

Follow Brian on Instagram: @thebrianglass
Connect on LinkedIn

Hiring is one of those things most law firm owners do just often enough to get burned.

You are growing, the phones are ringing, the cases are coming in, and suddenly you are thinking, “We need help. Like yesterday.” And that is usually the exact moment you start making decisions based on vibes, a decent resume, and one solid interview. Brian says it best. Most of us are not great at hiring because we do it so rarely. 

This episode is basically a reset button for the way lawyers hire.

Jay Henderson walks you through a simple lens that makes everything clearer: your firm is made of people, tasks, and systems. You can build great systems all day long, but the people are the ones doing the work. So if the people part is off, everything gets harder than it needs to be. 

From there, Jay gets practical. He breaks down how to create a “superstar profile” for each role so you know what good actually looks like before you post the job. Then he shows you how to write a job ad that attracts the right candidate instead of everyone with a pulse. He talks score sheets, structured interviews, and how to stop defaulting into selling the job because you ran out of questions. 

He also gives a gut check on gut checks. Pay attention when your instincts are warning you something is off, but do not let intuition be the whole strategy. Tools, testing, and a consistent process help you go in with your eyes open and avoid the bad hire tax. 

If you are building a firm you actually want to show up to on Mondays, this is the episode that helps you stop hiring problems from becoming your whole personality.

Connect with Jay:

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaysrealtalent
• Company: www.RealTalentHiring.com
• Email: [email protected]

____________________________________
Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

Want to connect with Brian?

Follow Brian on Instagram: @thebrianglass
Connect on LinkedIn

If you have ever tried to take a long weekend and caught yourself “just checking Slack” from the hotel lobby… this one will feel personal.

In this episode, Brian sits down with Conrad Saam (Mockingbird Marketing) for a simple gut-check: The 4-Day Test. Can your business run without you? And if the honest answer is “not really,” Conrad doesn’t shame you. He just lays out what changed inside his own company so he could step away for a few days and not come back to chaos. Spoiler: it was not more hustle. It was better structure, real ownership, and getting comfortable with 80% done their way instead of 100% done your way. 

You will also get a refreshingly grounded take on legal marketing right now. Conrad talks about why AI is still speculative, why most firms should not chase every new thing, and how he decides what is worth testing versus what is just shiny-object drama. 

And yes, they go there on directories too. The conversation gets practical fast: what actually matters today, what Google “tells you” if you pay attention, and why citations and profiles can matter more than you think in an AI-shaped search world. 

If you want a firm that supports your life instead of consuming it, hit play. Then ask yourself one question: would you pass the 4-day test?

Connect with Conrad:
Mockingbird Marketing: https://mockingbirdmarketing.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conradsaam/

____________________________________
Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

Want to connect with Brian?

Follow Brian on Instagram: @thebrianglass
Connect on LinkedIn

Recorded live at the GLM Summit, this episode of Life Beyond the Briefs brings together Michael Delon and Jonathan Hawkins to answer a simple question with big upside: how do you turn the expertise you already have into a book that actually brings in clients?

Michael walks through how busy professionals can create a book without locking themselves in a room to write for months, and how that book becomes a trust-building tool you can use in referrals, intake, and follow up. Jonathan shares the lawyer’s side of the story: what it is really like to go through the process, what changed in his practice once the book was in hand, and how he uses it with real clients instead of letting it collect dust on a shelf.

You’ll hear them dig into:

• How to position your book so it speaks to the right clients
• Simple ways to get your ideas out of your head and into a usable manuscript
• Practical scripts and use cases for giving your book to prospects and referral partners
• Common myths that keep law firm owners from ever getting started
• Audience Q&A on niches like PI, bankruptcy, and tax resolution

If “write a book” has been on your someday list, this live GLM session will show you how to finally move it into the “this year” column and make it work for your firm.

____________________________________
Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

Want to connect with Brian?

Follow Brian on Instagram: @thebrianglass
Connect on LinkedIn

Most lawyers talk about leaving. Nana Knight actually did it.

In this episode, Nana walks through what it really looked like to leave the DA’s office, hang a shingle, and build a criminal defense firm from scratch. No big safety net. No waiting around for the “perfect time.” Just a clear bet on herself.

We talk about how her background as a prosecutor and JAG officer shaped the way she runs her firm, why confidence matters more than people admit, and what she focused on in the first year to get real traction fast. You’ll also hear how she built authority early with YouTube, referral relationships, and a book—while still doing the work and serving clients at a high level.

If you’re a lawyer thinking about going out on your own (or already did and feel a little stuck), this is one of those episodes that makes things feel possible again.

No hype. No buzzwords. Just a real conversation about building a practice you actually want to run.

Connect with Nana

Website: https://www.knightjustice.com

YouTube: Search Nana Knight Criminal Defense
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nana-knight-19a9a2293

Want a copy of Nana’s book The Knight Advantage?
Visit her website and reach out through the contact page to request a copy.

____________________________________
Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

Want to connect with Brian?

Follow Brian on Instagram: @thebrianglass
Connect on LinkedIn

This episode of Life Beyond the Briefs is a breakout session from the GLM Summit with Leah Miller, founder of Firmly Profits and fractional CFO for law firm owners. Leah started as a paralegal, worked her way up to firm administrator and CFO at a PI firm, and now helps firms around the country actually understand their numbers and build real profit on purpose.

If you have ever opened a profit and loss statement, stared at it, and quietly closed it again, this one is for you. Leah walks through the basics of law firm finances in plain language. She shows you how to read your financial statements, set a realistic budget, and use a few key benchmarks so you know if your expenses, wages, and marketing spend are in a healthy range. Then she connects it all back to something practical. How much you bring home, what it really costs just to keep the lights on, and how to build predictable profit instead of just taking money when it happens to be in the bank.

In this session, you will learn:

• The three financial statements every firm owner should review each month and what numbers to focus on first
• How to break your expenses into revenue driving, profit driving, and personnel so you can see where the money is actually going
• Simple benchmarks for marketing, operations, and wages that help you spot when something is off
• A straightforward way to build a budget using your real historical numbers and adjust it for your goals
• How to plan for bonuses and growth hires so they are baked into the budget instead of last minute stress decisions

Leah’s goal is not to turn you into an accountant. It is to help you feel confident with your numbers so you can make better decisions, spot problems early, and pay yourself what you actually want to earn.

Connect with Leah Miller

• Firm: firmlyprofits.com
• Social: www.linkedin.com/in/leahlnmfinancial

____________________________________
Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

Want to connect with Brian?

Follow Brian on Instagram: @thebrianglass
Connect on LinkedIn

The rush to “do more” is loud, but the quiet work of designing a year you actually want to live is louder. We break the high achiever cycle—always chasing 2x—by starting with gratitude, then building a plan that respects seasons of life, family, and the reality of running a law practice without becoming its prisoner.

First, we look back. Pull up your photos and calendar to build a 2025 highlight reel and remind yourself how much good you already lived. From that steadier place, we map the core “gardens” of life—business, finances, health, relationships, growth, adventure, and environment—and define what a true 10 out of 10 looks like in each. You’ll hear practical examples for setting clear metrics and feelings that prove progress, plus simple ways to capture weekly wins so momentum doesn’t get lost.

Then we choose a Masogi: one bold, year-defining challenge with a real chance of failure. Whether it’s your fastest marathon in a decade, that first million in revenue, or coaching your kid’s team, we show how to pick it, put it on the calendar, and make it public so accountability does its job. From there, we swap outcome obsession for activity excellence. You’ll get an easy growth cadence—one referral lunch, three handwritten notes, five thoughtful posts each week—and a health and relationship rhythm you can actually sustain. We focus on quarterly lifts for the lowest-scoring areas rather than trying to fix everything at once.

Finally, we talk time. Big rocks go on the calendar first—vacations, family events, races, retreats—so trials and tasks don’t swallow your life. If you run your firm, teach your team to guard their time, too. The law doesn’t have to be a pie-eating contest where the prize is more pie; the real prize is a rich life shared with people you love. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a lawyer who needs permission to plan boldly, and leave a review with your 2026 Masogi.

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Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

Want to connect with Brian?

Follow Brian on Instagram: @thebrianglass
Connect on LinkedIn

This episode of Life Beyond the Briefs is a breakout session from the GLM Summit featuring Michelle Pippin (founder of Women Who Wow / WoWX) and Johnine Clark, a Maryland family law and estate planning attorney who has built a busy, referral driven practice by getting very clear on who she serves and how she wants to work.

This is not a “do all the things” marketing talk. It is two women being straight with you about what actually brings in good cases and a sane schedule. Michelle shares how she turned about fifty bucks and a big idea into a seven figure business. Johnine walks through how she niched her practice, tightened her brand, and became the obvious choice for a specific kind of client without living on social media.

You will hear them get into:

• How to build a real referral ecosystem instead of just hoping people remember you
• Getting honest about your best clients and being okay that not everyone is a fit
• Using micro niches so your ideal clients feel like you are talking directly to them
• Creating “surround sound” visibility so your name comes up in rooms you are not in
• Reusing and reshaping content you already have so marketing feels sustainable

It is candid, funny, and very real about money, motherhood, and being a woman who is serious about growing a law firm on her own terms.

Connect with Michelle Pippin

• Website and visibility resources: www.womenwhowow.com
• Social: www.linkedin.com/in/michellepippin

Connect with Johnine Clark

• Law firm website: www.jnclarklaw.com
• Social: www.linkedin.com/in/johnine-clark-86461178

____________________________________
Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

Want to connect with Brian?

Follow Brian on Instagram: @thebrianglass
Connect on LinkedIn

What if the biggest threat to your law firm is not your competition, but the noise you let into your life and calendar?

In this live Q&A from the GLM Summit 2025, Brian and Ben reflect on what it really means to pursue growth and “the good life” as a lawyer. This is not a tactics-only conversation. It is about how you think, what you allow into your head, and how you design a practice that serves your life instead of swallowing it.

You will hear Brian and Ben talk about conferences, community, and why most of us go home with notebooks full of ideas and then change almost nothing. From there, he gets very practical about the next 90 days, how to close out the year strong, and how to plan for the future without lighting yourself on fire.

Inside this episode, we get into:

• Turning conference inspiration into actual calendar commitments
• Separating “noise” from inputs that really move your firm forward
• Using 90 day plans to make 2026 less chaotic and more intentional
• Blocking real thinking time so your firm is not run out of your inbox
• Improving the velocity of money in an injury practice so you are not waiting forever to get paid

If you are a lawyer or law firm owner who wants both a profitable practice and a life you actually like waking up to, this one will hit home.

Hit play and use this as your own private debrief from the GLM Summit.

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Brian Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury lawyer in Fairfax, Virginia. He is passionate about living a life of his own design and looking for answers to solutions outside of the legal field. This podcast is his effort to share that passion with others.

Want to connect with Brian?

Follow Brian on Instagram: @thebrianglass
Connect on LinkedIn