Black Bridge Mindset

Inspiring Entrepreneurial Journey of Attorney Keith Lamar Jr. | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast

• Black Bridge Mindset • Season 1 • Episode 10

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In this episode of the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast, hosts Mike, Ken, and CJ sit down with Keith Lamar Jr., founder and managing attorney of the Law Offices of Keith Lamar Jr. Keith shares his journey from a DA to owning his successful law firm, offering insights on entrepreneurship, community engagement, and the importance of having a strong mindset. From tackling his LSAT fears to landing an unexpected sponsorship with the Money Team, Keith’s story is filled with inspiration and practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and attorneys alike. Tune in to hear about his game-changing approach to personal injury law and how he stands out in a saturated market. Don’t miss his tips on team management, marketing yourself, and maintaining a strong community presence.

 

00:00 Welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast

03:03 Weekend Adventures and Rising Costs

05:11 Introducing Our Esteemed Guest: Keith Lamar, Jr.

08:05 Keith Lamar's Journey to Becoming an Attorney

11:46 Building and Expanding a Successful Law Firm

15:16 The Importance of Mentorship and Team Building

30:26 Advice for Aspiring Attorneys and Entrepreneurs

32:13 Building Momentum: Early Wins and Challenges

32:33 Taking the Leap: Starting from Scratch

32:58 Hustling for Clients: Creative Strategies

34:27 Pandemic Impact: Adapting to New Realities

34:52 Faith and Endurance: Staying Motivated

39:05 Marketing and Community Involvement

43:54 The Realities of Being a Lawyer

51:24 Speed Round and Final Thoughts

Guest's Socials:

WEBSITE: HTTPS://WWW.LAMARLAWOFFICES.COM/

Facebook: @lawofficeofkeithlamarjr

Instagram @simplykeith

Thank you for listening!

Follow our socials!

Contact us:

Hosts:

CJ:

Hello and welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast where culture, entrepreneurship, and business intersect to fuel inspiration. This podcast celebrates the power of diverse voices shaping the future of business. So whether you're building a business, breaking barriers, or just looking for some serious inspiration, you're in the right place. The Black Bridge Mindset. Podcast is hosted by your three favorite best friends, Mike, Ken, and CJ. So now sit back, relax, and absorb the gems being dropped on you by today's special guest.

Mike:

I got good news.

Ken:

yes.

Mike:

Ken, I don't know if I've said anything to you, but, so I partnered with some folks and I think we're gonna buy a house in Atlanta next week. It near you.

Ken:

Where in Atlanta?

Mike:

Well, it's not Atlanta proper, it's like 45 minutes. West of Atlanta. I forget the name of the city. McCoon is that. Is that a county or a city?

Ken:

Keith. Because I wouldn't know. He's laughing. So the answer,

Mike:

it wrong. It's okay. But anyway, I'm 45 minutes

Ken:

oh, Macon.

Mike:

Macon. Uh, listen, I could, I could buy the property there. I don't need to know the name of the city. Macon Bacon. Got it. Macon. Macon.

CJ:

got it. Yeah.

Mike:

Macon. me and my partners just bought a house in Macon. I'll, I'll show you pictures and things of it. He's there today and he walked the property and, we're pretty excited. We're gonna close at the end of the the month, so, yeah. So that, that's my good news for the week.

CJ:

you said you saw here?

Mike:

Say it one more time.

CJ:

Was that in addition to, is that in place of the one you said you saw here, or

Mike:

The one that we, yeah, the one we saw in Columbus wasn't gonna work out, so we, we nixed that one.

CJ:

Hmm.

Mike:

But, the one, so I'm pretty excited. I don't know. Yeah, We're gonna have our first, rental property as a joint venture, together here in your neck of the woods. So when I come visit, I'm gonna have to go do a drive by and check it out.

Ken:

All right. It'll be, it'll be six o'clock in the morning, but we'll do it.

Mike:

Oh, trust me. I don't wanna be in traffic either, so whatever it is, whatever it is. it's co-living, so I can't, I can't necessarily, I mean, I could go into the house anytime, but I can't necessarily, like, you know, I don't, I can't go into the rooms and stuff if they're rented, but, so yeah. That's, that's, I

CJ:

currently rented already. You just

Mike:

it is there, there are five rooms to the house and, we can actually add one more room and another bathroom at some point. each room is individually rented. Yep. It's a co-living, situation.

CJ:

It sounds like something you get into in New York or la.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. It, I mean, those are, those are pretty expensive places. But, yeah, so that, that's my excitement for a week.

Ken:

I'm trying to think if there's anything crazy going on. So, Bruce was in town the, this past weekend. My friend from Miami, for those of you who don't know but are nosy, and this was one of the first weekends. I was out from like Thursday to Sunday, and by Sunday at three o'clock, I was like, I'm going home. Like I was, I was done. I can't do it. Just cannot do it. That and I will tell you, things are not cheap anymore. You know, just going out, hanging out.

CJ:

when been in.

Ken:

Things were cheap in Atlanta whenever I first got here. Yeah. Things were cheap in Atlanta. Not anymore though. But it's, you know, it's all good.

Mike:

Yeah. I, I tell people now, when they ask me to go out on the weekend, I'm like, you get one night,

Ken:

That's it.

Mike:

you get Friday, or Saturday or Sunday, you don't get two. You get one

CJ:

Oh,

Mike:

because it takes me, it takes me two or three days to recover.

CJ:

Oh, I can recall the times where you called me old and wanted me to say.

Mike:

Oh, I still will call you old now if I'm around y'all. Exactly. If I'm around y'all, I'll, I, I can make it a couple of nights, but nowadays I'm like, eh, I, I'm not here to see anybody or do anything.

CJ:

to tell us, keep, just keep living.

Mike:

That's the plan. That's the plan anyway.

CJ:

Nothing really going on here except for, oh, next weekend is derby and. Before we were always playing softball on Sundays and you know, Saturdays with stuff going on, is the first year that I'm actually going to a Derby party. So I get a little bit of here in Ohio. Some friends of ours that we've met, late last year, of'em is actually from Louisville, they're one a Debbie party. So I get to get all up and have some, mint jus next Saturday.

Ken:

Those are the nastiest drinks. I'm not trying to get on. I'm not trying to get on,

CJ:

of

Ken:

but

CJ:

but

Ken:

Right.

CJ:

I'm not a big fan either, but I'm sure I can to or take away from or something to make it palatable.

Mike:

Let's, let's get started. Let you go ahead and introductions.

Ken:

Today I. On the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast, we would love to welcome our guest attorney Keith Lamar, Jr. Who is the founder and managing attorney of the Law Offices of Keith Lamar, Jr. Keith received his BA in political science from Morehouse College and his JD from the Third Good Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. He has handled, handled over 1000 criminal and civil matters, and has worked as a Deputy District Attorney in Fulton County, Georgia in that role. Keith was given the privilege to supervise the communication prosecution division and was recognized as the non-complex attorney of the year, Fulton County Employee of the Year, and earned the Fulton County Public Service Award. He has served as a board member for the National District Attorney Association and served as the National President of the National Black Prosecutor Association. Keith also serves on the advisory board for the American University School of Public Affairs, where he is helping work on criminal justice reform and case management. Keith has consulted and spoken to countless audiences across the nation about the practice of law, criminal justice, reform, motivation, and overcoming obstacles, and, and a host of other topics. Keith is a proud member of five Beta Sigma fraternity, emerging, 100 Atlanta Resource Fellows, American Bar Association, and the Gate City Bar Association. He takes pride in making sure that he makes a positive impact on everyone he encounters in life. Everybody puts your hands together for my workout group partner, Mr. Keith Lamar, also known as the Shark

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Sharp. Appreciate it, man.

Ken:

of course. Welcome to the show.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Hey man, it's honor to

CJ:

with those accolades, I don't know if we're worthy.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Oh

Ken:

We are not.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

out.

Ken:

me.

Mike:

I know I. I, I literally told them, I read your bio and I was like, man, I'm have to think of some big words to use during this interview. We'll start with McKoon.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

I was born down there in Macon. Down in Macon.

Mike:

Oh yeah. Nice.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

That's.

Mike:

well, I'm doing the speed round later and number one was gonna be Macon or McKoon, but I think we beat that one to death. I'm gonna scratch that one off the list.

CJ:

I thought that.

Mike:

Well, nice. Well, I, I'm excited to hear about your story and your journey and everything else. So, the thing that I always ask at the beginning is just, let us, let us know, you know, what makes Keith tick, the shark tick. And how did you, what made you want to become an attorney?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

All right. Well, you know, you know, when I was in in college, I wasn't really sure what I would really wanted to do. You know, I know I wanted to make some money. I saw people driving around in nice cars. I'm like, man, I would like to have a nice car one day, especially coming from a coon. so I was like, this is what I need to do, man. So I, I would go to a, a, a law school fair, and, I had took the lsat. My score wasn't that great. And so I was thinking about, you know, taking a skip year. But then the dean of the school was like, Hey man, I think your score is okay. What's your GPA? I told him, he was like, man, why don't you just apply? And so I was like, okay, then why not? And then boom, I got accepted to Thurgood. And, probably the best decision I ever made in my life, changed the whole way of thinking. As far as once I started, like, I don't even remember what I was learning beforehand, man, it's, there's that much going on in law school and, but great people, great experience and love Houston. That's my second home. So I had a great time out there. Then came on back and, started working at the DA's office, man. So never thought I'd be a da, but I graduated law school in 2010 and the market market was pretty bad. So that's, if everybody remembers that, but, you know, oh 8, 0 9, it was a slide. And so graduated in 2010. It was like, okay, y'all got any money to pay anybody or every, everybody, oh wait. But, but I did that man. And so when I got into it, I actually started to enjoy my job. I started to look at it and see where there's things that needed to change, in the system. so that's why I did the community prosecution. I. I looked at it where it's like, what can we do to actually change it to make it a better community for us? And it was working. So I was doing that for a couple years, got promoted pretty quickly, enjoyed it. but I felt like I wanted to do something bigger. And so I remember one time I used to talk to these kids and this one guy, little kid was like, man, you keep talking about college man, who gonna pay for it? I kind of stumped me because I was like, it ain't gonna be me. I'm a government employee. What y'all talking about? You know, I just said you need to go. But, then I thought to myself, I'm like, man, know what? Every time a little kid ask me that, man, I wanna be in a position to be like, I can if you, you know, and do this. And so I decided, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna open up this firm. Cultural service, service for humanity is kind like the little theme behind it, man. And so basically when I do this firm is every time you have a really big case or something really big, I give back to the community. And so that's the whole goal for doing the firm. Man. I wanted to be able to do something big, leave like a legacy. I've always had a lot of interns, so we got two, three interns right now that are doing really well. Try to get them into law school. And my main goal is, man, just to inspire. Like I said, it's, it's a blessing to do this. I never thought I'd be able to own my own firm. But now I'm out here doing it and it was a leap of faith to start, I tell you that.'cause my parents were like, why are you leaving the DA's office? You a deputy district attorney. You're 30 years old. You the national president, you gonna leave president? Like, look man, I would tell everybody, but yeah. Like, I feel like I got to it. Just something inside of me said, you know what? You gotta do something, you gotta do something bigger. I wasn't, I wasn't gonna stay in that little space and it's a big space, but I felt small, you know, I just, I was like, I wanna do something different. I wanna be me. I wanna jump out there and you know, I don't wanna go through all the red lines and doing this and doing that, man, let's just do something big, do something great for somebody immediately. So if I got the money they need some, like computers or anything at the school, I ain't gotta beg everybody in the county, Hey, can y'all gimme a penny? Because that's what they giving you. And I would say, nah, let's go get the schools right now. I mean, let's go get the computers right now. So that's why I started the firm. It's going well. And man, I'm looking forward to the questions y'all have, man. But I definitely, I think law school was definitely a change in my life. And, overcoming the fear because it was fearful. I always, now, I always wanted to do something, but overcoming the fear of saying, you know what, I'm finna just do this. And I jumped out. You

Mike:

Yeah.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

out. And, when you jump out that window, man, you just gotta, there's no looking back, man. So just, just know that if you prepare hard, you work hard, you do what you're supposed to do, you'll never fail out here.

Ken:

So let, let's take a step back and let's talk about, what you had mentioned earlier about your LSAT scores and you thinking that they weren't, you know, really that great,

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Mm-hmm.

Ken:

right?'cause I know sometimes, a lot of people who are talking about starting their own business, starting a, you know, a new career, that kind of thing. It's small things that they kind of get caught up on. So tell the audience about what your mindset was. The, you know, if you can talk about how the conversation with the dean kind of changed that and made you kind of push forward into, you know, making that decision to get to, to go, to apply to law school.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Well, you know, now see I talk to a lot of kids now that still have that same fear I had, but it's like, oh man, I didn't score in the one sixties. I didn't do this. I didn't do that. I, I can't get into Harvard and Yale. So what? Can you get into law school? you get into, a good school? Have you done good in your regular, curriculum? Right? So if you have a decent GPA, you don't have to score a 1 60, 1 70. That helps to get scholarships. Yes. But if you can score a decent above 1 40, 1 45, you can get in with a good GPA. And see, when I was talking to the dean, the dean was just like, man, look, you got a phenomenal GPA. You've been, doing a lot of extracurricular things. You've been doing this, this, and this. I was in all kinds of different groups and he was like, I think we can, that's enough, man. So I would tell the people that out here are concerned about their scores.'cause I see people taking it two, three times. I'm like, why you taking it so many times? Okay, you taking it, that's who, that's what your score is. If you did your best, that's what your score is, don't trip. You can get into a law school and guess what, if you do really well your first year of law school, you get on scholarship then, or you can transfer to the school you want to go to. Why don't you just kill your first year? Right? So sometimes you gotta be, you know, might have to ride the bench for a season. okay. It's okay, but you need to come out here and swing for the fences every single time because I think that, you know, if I didn't do that, if I didn't talk to him, who knows what I'd be doing today, but I can't even imagine it. So I'm just glad he gave me the courage to say, you know what, you can still go to law school. And I really enjoyed myself.

CJ:

Would you

Mike:

Yeah.

CJ:

that that Dean one of your mentors?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

I don't know if I call him a mentor all the way. Would say he's probably a very big influence, because he has so many people that he was influencing at that time, you know, being an intake and, doing all that. But I would say that he, he definitely has a very big inspiration on my life. I wouldn't call him a mentor, but he knows man, I love him to death. As far as like a mentor, I would say for me mentor is more like my dad, maybe.'Cause he is just there every day, right? You talking about somebody that's going like you really messing up on a daily basis. Maybe you like, man, I just made a bad decision. Let me call somebody real quick. Hey man, I just stepped to some, you know what man? Let me, let me fix that. But, but nah man, great guy. I met also some great teachers there, great professors, and then some really close friends that I talk to on a daily basis from law school. So anybody that's listening that's in law school or thinking about going to law school, the people you meet in law school, man, those are your peers, man. Those are your colleagues for life. Like, for life. Like, these are the same people you're gonna be calling. I've been outta law school now, how many years, man? That's, not, not even like that old guys, but I've been outta law school, 15 years, 15, 16 years now. And I talk to these people all the time, it doesn't even feel like it's been that long. And then, you know, you just look up and like, wait a minute, I got a question.'cause you don't know the entire scope of the law, right? So if you got a real estate issue, you might have to call somebody else. got a commercial, issue, you gotta call this person. So you wanna have networks of people and your network is starting and your law school. Then from there, join a different organizations like bsa, black Law Student Association, and get to know people in other law schools, man.'cause guess what? When it's out here in this world, man, you gotta go get it.

Mike:

You hit on a couple of things that, we, we try to talk about a lot whenever, we have people on that. One is, you know, imperfect action is what I always talk about. And you sort of hit on that by just, just taking the leap and going, it was, shoot, I can't think of his name. Steve Harvey, who made the famous video that said, you just gotta jump and, you know, as you jump you're building your, your parachute on your way down. You may not know what you're doing. You may, you may do it scared, but at least you took that, that leap and before you hit the ground, you're gonna have it all figured out. So, I think that's awesome that you, you took that leap and you realized that you didn't have it all figured out,

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Not definitely.

Mike:

to hear that, that you were scared is, I mean, that's real, right? Because a lot of people think like, oh, I'm gonna go into this profession. I need to know everything. And then as soon as they take two steps, they're like, oh, there's so much stuff. I don't know that I'm gonna take two steps back and just not do it.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Oh yeah. And that's, that's easy to fall into that man, you missing that.'cause I, when I jumped out, I did a personal injury law firm. And so remember I was a da. you talking personal injury life, this is a different life than the DA life. Now of course I did some criminal defense to start only'cause you know, you gotta eat. the personal injury, I was like, you know what? That is how I'm going to change this game because it's way more lucrative. And so jumping out, like you said, is, it is nervousness, but you gotta, you know, I was like, you know what? I've done well so far, I'm gonna put up my 110% into it and whatever happens, happens. And the, honestly, the taking the leap is, that's the hardest thing. It's not even about keeping, it is like the leap, the first thing. And to get the engine going, it is gonna be your hardest thing once you start. If you can get outta that, great. Okay.'cause once you know you can do it once, guess what? You can do it again and again and again.

Mike:

Right. Exactly.

Ken:

Tell us about how you expanded the practice, right? You said that you started out with criminal defense, went into personal injury, like talk about what kind of the, the decision or the triggers were for you to expand your practice.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

So I, I knew I wanted to do the personal injury. I wanted to make sure that I did the best job for people though, because I, I'm really big on that. I wanna make sure reputation, you know, that's one thing I've always been on when I was a kid. So I wanted make sure I had a good reputation. So only way to have a good reputation as a personal injury lawyer is to get big money for people, right? Because they be like, he a good guy, but if he get me paid or not, right?

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

know what, I gotta do the right thing because these people want to get paid. So, you know, talking to a lot of different attorneys that was already in the space and they were very helpful by the way. You know, telling me about what I need to do here. You know, I remember I got my first case and I was like, okay, I got it. Somebody trust me. Cool. Okay. I immediately went, go talk to a different attorney, say, okay, what I need to do, man? All right. Because you gotta make sure, I mean, my thing was I'm always trying to give them the best product. And my thing is, even if I don't get the most outta the case, I want them to get the most outta the case. So certain cases, if I don't know what it is, I'm definitely gonna go to the top tier person.'cause I gotta bless and actually know some of these people. And I'm like, you finna get the most money possible. So even if I got the split it or not, my client will be the richest. And so that's what I was trying to go after, man. And so I wanted to make sure that when I, when I changed over. To the personal injury that I can do it and I can do it so well that if we build a real engine, it can run itself eventually as I scale up with different people. And that way that's how you can really make a real change into the community. So hopefully, you know, we getting there, we crank it up right now, but man, you know, if we do it right, we can take over and do a lot of things.

Ken:

For those of you who don't know, the state of Georgia is probably one of the better places in the country to be, if you are a personal injury attorney, and there are a lot of personal injury attorneys. And so the next time you guys come visit, you'll notice all the billboards whenever you come from the to and from the airport, right? You'll see them. So, so talk to people. Tell us what it is that you did to figure out what lane you're supposed to be in, because there are some very big national type personal injury firms here, right? So, so talk to the people about how you figured out where your niche is.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

You know, for me it's, it's funny, man, I got, you know, real big dreams. I was like, man, I'm gonna be just as big as Morgan. Morgan and that bigger, all right? And how we gonna do that? I don't care if I got the knock on every single door, I let them know I exist. I will do that. Because Morgan, Morgan might have a billion dollars a day, but hey, I, I'm shark, everybody swim, swim my phone. You real quick. You know what I mean? But really that's how I did it, man, was really just going back to where I'm from. You know, letting people know, Hey, I'm Keith, I'm out here. I exist. just hitting people up saying, Hey, just gimme a chance. You heard know anybody in the accident? Gimme a chance to do it. I guarantee you. I got you. You know, and it started with one client at a time. And so the very first client I got, I was like, great, let's do it. That person might refer somebody, then I might get a friend to refer somebody and I'm like, boom, let's do a good job every time. And then you look up after a year or two, it's like, okay, now it's consistent. Like how's this working? And it's really about word of mouth and doing the right thing. That's my biggest thing for us to grow our firm right now is if you do right with one person, that can create 10 more people. But you gotta do right with one person. Don't try to take advantage of that one person. Say, oh, I'm gonna squeeze this person for every penny, man. No, you better stop it. You treat that person right, because you never know your next referral comes from. And even though I know we got billboards all over the world out here, but. All in all honesty, people talk and I think if you have good, reputation amongst people, when they're talking about lawyers, that's how you get a good client. That's how you get people to say, you know what? I'm gonna go with Keith. Versus well I seen his billboard. It's cool, but who, who is he? Right? Because if somebody tell you like, oh, I actually don't, I know this guy. He'll do right by you. I promise you, he'll tell you everything. He's transparent. If you can build that reputation and it keeps going and growing, that's how you come a long lasting, big time firm. So that's the goal over here.

CJ:

How has your philosophy for your firm evolved over time? I know you wanted to, to be that personal industry, excuse me, personal injury attorney. You said that you, you go about, using word of mouth to get your reputation down, to gain your clients, but how has, your business evolved over, you know, the time that you've been, been open?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Well, you know, having, uh, when it started out, it was just me in my little briefcase and we gonna do this thing to, get in the office, get in the office space, get in employees, and knowing how that's, you know, when you're doing it yourself, you can, you can go a hundred, a hundred miles an hour where you can change things up randomly. But when you have a team, you gotta be consistent. I'm, I'm real big on that. I don't want them to be like, man, I don't know he gonna have a good or bad day today. He's like, no, I'm, I'm the same every day. finna come in here, we finna do this. All right. And this are a clear set goals. And it is really, it seems like more work for me, right? Because it is like, Hey, I wanna make sure I'm, I'm leading the right way.'cause I really believe that, you know, I don't wanna just say, y'all do this, y'all do this. I'm showing you how to do it. You're seeing how I work. And hopefully if you're paying attention, you can follow that lead, right? Where it's like, okay, this man doesn't mind working. He'll do, he's not gonna ask me to do something that he wouldn't do. And so I wanna build a culture of like, Hey, if you want to be great, let's be great. If you don't want to be great, on you. But I'm trying to be great because

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

don't wanna be great but me. I wanna be great, and if you wanna be great with me, then let's do these steps. And so I've had to learn how to make sure to, talk to people the right way, make sure that I motivate them the right way too, right? Because everybody's motivated differently. So, you know, some people might come in and you just gotta say, what's up? Let's do it. And they ready. Other people, they might be grumpy, but it is okay. They can still be motivated, they can still be, get the best out of'em. So just learning how to talk to people, learning how to build up that way to make sure that they're still doing the same thing that I would do if I talked to a client, right? So I like to build a personal relationship with clients where they, you know, know who they're talking to. So talking to my team and trying to say, Hey, when you talk to'em, ask'em how their day was. Come on. Don't just say, Hey, what's up? This is from the law office. You did that. Okay. Don't do that. Give'em something, you know, let'em know you care a little bit, please. Right? But you gotta, but it starts with me talking to them, right? So how do I talk to my team? How do I, communicate with them? And so it's, hopefully it's a trick down effect. And so that's how I look at everything as I build, the firm up as we grow is if you do everything like you're supposed to and they say things trickle down, then we should have a really good firm. So that's why I gotta work hard now so that we have the right people there. They see the work ethic, and hopefully man, things will go well to the future.

Mike:

And you say you have a team now. So you know, you, you mentioned earlier it was just you and your briefcase.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Yeah.

Mike:

when did you realize like, oh, I need to, I need help. Like what was that trigger for you? Because, you know, some, some people try to be, be solo CEOs and you can't do that.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Period. Nah, you can't do it. So I real, yeah, got got like my first kind of good little settlement from a personal injury case and I was like, okay, this is, that's, that's some pretty good money there because you know, beforehand, boom, little case here, little case here with a criminal. But I was like, whoa, what's okay? So I could sit down for a moment. Then I realized if I sit down now, I might mess up the momentum because I started to get a little bit more traction. So I was like, well dang, I definitely want more of this money. Ain't no doubt about it. I know people gonna think about that, like, what's up with this? I'm like, I want the money, trust me. But I want to make sure that the product that I'm still giving is still the same, right? Because if I didn't hire any help, the people that would get service today, they'd be cheated out of our product. If I'm trying to be greedy and keep it all myself, you gotta have a team, right? You gotta have somebody to help you. And so for me, I'm like, you know what? I'm finna invest in this business. So whoever starts the business, whoever's listening to this podcast, no matter what business it is, not just a law firm, but you gotta invest in your business. so that's what I did. I was like, okay, I'm not gonna go on a trip. I'm gonna just save up this money to hire my first person. Boom, did that save up this money to hire the next two people? Boom. Did that. All right, call'em in. Okay, I'm taking a chance, Lord, have mercy. Please don't blow my money, but we finna do this, y'all. All right. And so we doing it. so, but it's been a blessing, man. I've had great teams, great people that work with me. End it to the end, man. People have been really good. And like I said, I keep a lot of interns. And those interns, man, they're, they're brilliant. They're really smart kids they really just keep us on our toes, man. I'm like, oh, okay. I didn't even realize that. So my thing is just learning, you know, have to keep scaling up like that.'cause when you grow, you hit a big case. I just gotta keep investing to the business. Investing to what made us get here, right? And not get too comfortable.'cause at the end of the day, I said, I wanna be like Morgan, Morgan. I ain't nowhere near them right now. So we got to go ahead and keep going, man. We just, we cranking it. We living, you know, we are okay. But hey, if you want to be that guy that, that doesn't, does something that's generational like that. You gotta keep

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

and get a good team around you.'cause it won't be by myself. It has to be with a whole bunch of sharks. There won't be no solo pack.

Mike:

Exactly. And just for any type of business, right? People have to, I'm sorry. People have to understand like you can't wear all the hats. So by you hiring a team, underneath you or to work with you or underneath you, you're able to focus on the bigger ticket items while they're handling the day-to-day And this is rinse and repeat for any business that's out there.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

man. And, and you gotta, you gotta have faith in your team for your entrepreneurs that are a little scared. All right, because I know when you, when you out here doing your own thing, man, you, you be like, man, y'all been there. Mess my money up, man. You know, because that's how I'm like, please don't mess the up. But you have to trust your team. All right? So you just gotta, you gotta have that faith fall again, right? Because you have the faith to leave your job and do your own things. Entrepreneur. Now you gotta have faith to have a team to do what you envision, right? And so that's got, that's, that's faith too, because it's like, Hey, I'm saying this, I'm thinking about this. Are y'all gonna do this? And then when they do it, man, you gotta app praise'em and let people know that you really appreciate'em. So, you know, as an entrepreneur, don't, don't be stingy and people doing that thing, they giving you some money, man, you better bonus your team up, okay? Because your team is everything. And I tell my team that. So we got big goals and I'm like, man, we hit this number here. I'm gonna give it to you the same day. Okay? You ain't have to worry about it. And you let people know that I'm really, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm happy that y'all are here and it is a blessing'cause you don't have to be here with me, but you here. So let's do it together and let's be great. So that's all it's about.

Ken:

talk about, talk about how that motivates people.'cause I don't think this is something that we've talked about yet. On the show about incentivizing the people who are working for you and kind of what that impact is, right? Or what the impact could be for your business. So can you kind of talk about that a little bit?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Yeah, man, I can even talk about it, from how I left, right? So when I was at the DA's

Ken:

I.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

I enjoyed the job, but what, you know, what are we doing to continue to make it fun for the people? What are we doing to continue to elevate? Is there, is there an elevation? Is there a cap? And so when you have a business, especially if you're trying to grow your business, you have to do something where your team can see that there's a brighter future for them. The person, right? A lot of people are still stuck on, oh, it's my business, it's my, this, my that. It ain't your nothing now, all right, you got a team, all right? And so you're organizing things, you're trying to make sure things work, but you want them to feel like it's their business. just, I would recommend it. Right? I want y'all to buy into the business too. Like, Hey man, this is a, this is part of you, Because that's how bad I want it. I want you to want it the same way. And so therefore what I do is I like to make sure that I tell'em like, Hey man, we get a case and let's say we close this much money this month, or this much money, this quarter. Well, guess what? If this is your case and you worked on that case, we finna give you some money, man, okay? Because I can't do it without you, right? I can't read a million pages of medical records without somebody else helping me, can I? And so I think that's important, and I think about treating people like how I want to be treated. So I know it's a blessing to be a owner, but not everybody is an owner. And so I wouldn't want, I would wanna work for somebody that's to say that would treat me the way I'm trying to treat these people, man. Where it's like, Hey, if I'm doing this much work, should I get paid for it? Yes. If I'm making your company a billion dollars, like some of these other companies we know in the world. Shouldn't I get paid a little bit more than$50,000 today? I mean, I did make y'all, you know, 250 million last quarter. I mean, is it okay to ask for a five,$5,000 raise? You know? And so my thing is I wanna be able to have that type of environment where we're doing something that big, where people work over here, they're gonna see the money in their pocket, and they won't leave because it'd be a good environment if they do leave, it's okay. But I wouldn't. Right. And that's why I want to sit it like that, where it's like, Hey, if we're gonna take care of you, hey, it is a good business. But definitely do that. Entrepreneurs, I I, if y'all don't, if y'all want to really grow your business the right way, treat your, your team, right? Right. And the reason I call'em a team don't, that's, don't beat the people. How high? That's my team. That's my teammates. I can't do nothing without'em. All right. And if you, and if you treat your team right, man, your business can grow. And if somebody's tripping on the team, you gotta be able to talk to'em. You can't trip too. All right. So you gotta have a little maturity out here. Somebody might trip one day. It's okay. Okay, man, people have trippy days, but if you gonna be the leader, you say you going to be, right? You gotta be able to handle a trippy day. You gotta be able to handle it because ain't nobody a hundred percent perfect man, you know, not even you leader. You know what I mean? So make sure that you able to understand that from all aspects. So when somebody's having a bad day, you don't push they button, you help them guide them all the way through the process. You know what I mean?

CJ:

Listen, I don't have a law degree, but, I get on? I mean, you handing out bonuses right, and sideways,

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

We

Mike:

I know.

CJ:

right? No. Say I, excuse me. I am, you know, I'm a graduate.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

mm-hmm.

CJ:

about to graduate from, you know, Ohio State Law School Right now

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Okay.

CJ:

I'm thinking about, starting my own firm. What would be your advice? One for my, my firm off the ground, and then two, how did you go about financing your, you know, your firm in the very beginning? What, what would you tell someone just starting out what they should do, you know, how, how should they go about proceeding?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Great question, man. So the first thing for the person that's just graduating, wait a couple years before you start the firm, go work with somebody, go learn how to practice law, please.'cause going to law school, yes, you have a good memory, but you don't know what you doing in that courtroom and you don't know how to really practice this law. All right? It ain't black and white. I can promise y'all that. This thing is not, oh, well, the book says if I say this, I should win. Judge, I just said that lose every day, right? So you need to go on out, how, actually learn how to practice law. Work with somebody, get a mentor for a few years, okay? I know a lot of people jump out like, man, I ain't work for nobody. I can do this myself. Which you can. Not saying you can't, but would I recommend it? No. And waiting a couple years, learning additional skills that nobody's gonna give you once you start your own business. I think you should do it. All right. As far as the funding goes, so I'm a madman. A lot of people are different than me. I will say that, but I just jumped out there, bro. I said, you know what? I'm finna do this and they ain't finna stop me. All right? And so I had my first criminal case. I think I charged'em$5,000. I said, well, there goes the rent for the month. One case, all right, we in, and then I'm working that. Boom, we got another one going. Boom, we got another one going. Boom. We got another one going. Okay, cool. Oh, got a personal injury settlement. Okay, now we getting some money in here. So I was like, I said, I'm a little different. I want y'all to understand that. And I just went out there and I said, I ain't finna make this happen. Okay. did I work at the DA's office? Did I have a, a retirement thing that I could have jumped into? Yes. And I was ready to do it, ready to do it, but I said, I'm finna jump out here first and see if I can just make this money on my own and build this from scratch, literally. And, that's what I did. I was like, we gotta save it. So I, make the money on the case, have enough for the pay, the real, rent the bills, put it to the side, sit there and say, okay, can't do nothing else. Boom. Get another case. Do it again. I was out here saying real law for food. I'll go to the courtroom. I say, y'all about to go to jail. Y'all might want somebody to help you. It's on y'all. know, I found some clients that way. I was just like, Hey, I, I do it, but I gotta pay me something. I mean, I'm here. anything? All right. And I did that for a couple times, man. But it's funny'cause some of those clients I met, we kept in contact and they gave me some of my personal injury cases, right? So you just never know where your cases are gonna come from. But when you out here and you start doing business, don't be afraid to get dirty. Man. I was going to the courthouse and I'll sit, they be like, why is Keith over there sitting? Keith, you good? I'm good, bro. Waiting on a client to walk in. I know somebody about to walk in here. right. I know some of y'all, you about to go to jail, my man. You really don't need no help. Alright, see. And so, so I got outta jail. They was, they was like, yeah, he, okay. So it to work out, but. Don't be ashamed to do it. Step outside the box, bro. Because I was way outside. I was like, man, I gotta get to this. My family was already judging, so I was like, nah, ain't I finna show y'all? We finna go crazy. And you just gotta, believe me, you gotta have a crazy belief too. So that's one thing I'll tell you as an entrepreneur, man, you, but other people are saying, Hey man, what's that about? You got to believe in your dream, all right? Because they gonna question you. And there gonna be days you might question yourself, but you better write a note down or something to get yourself back up, all right?

CJ:

Right.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

er can't stop dreaming, so you gotta continue to dream. All right? And

CJ:

Nobody's gonna do it for you.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

ain't anybody gonna do it. So it's like, get up. And I was like, okay, shoot. It is another day I'm able to live because I'm like, this is this. And the pandemic has started to hit. And I was like, wow. Nobody told me that was gonna start. I was like, I'm supposed to be throwing a business. What is this? So the world shut down. Oh wow. But I see that the courts never did shut down, thank goodness. And y'all boys kept on driving in Georgia. So I was like, okay, so ain't nobody gonna get out the road. All right then. Great. Found everybody gonna chill, but ain't nobody wanna chill. So, we still was living out here and so, so I looked at it, man, I was like, man, this is a blessing and we gonna do everything we can, man, but you gotta have some real, real, tough faith endurance because you gonna have some down days. You gonna have some up days. Don't get too high on the up ones. Don't get too down on the down ones, man. Just know you blessed to be able to do your own thing and, wake up and, you know, set your own schedule. That's a blessing. So I don't take, I take every day, man, this is a blessing. Every day I'm out here dog. So

CJ:

man.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

on the show with y'all. Right? This is cool. I ain't gotta go and, you know, sign off on a waiver with, somebody saying, Hey man, can I talk to them? Nah, rather talk, you know, and that, and that's a blessing.

Mike:

I love it. th this is just the way I think. So as you were telling that story and you said that, you know, you're, you're going into, to the courthouse and you say, Hey, you need some help. You need some help, you need some help. How, let's say, let's say I got into some trouble. I walk in the courthouse, you come to me as a newbie, and you're like, Hey, you need some help. And my, my first thought is, I can't afford you.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Yeah.

Mike:

how would someone like me compensate you representing me? Because you gotta get fed.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

I'm, I'm gonna get paid, but you'd be surprised. Right. So this is how you do it, right? It depends on what kind of case. Now I'm not gonna jump in here if you a murdered person. Nah, I ain't finna help you out, bro. but if, but if you got, you know, if you got, got some, a marijuana charge, a DUI, you know, you, you a common man crime. Not, not, you know, you ain't out here on no Rambo stuff and nah, I can't really help you, brother. You tripping. But marijuana charge, right? So it's like, man, what happened? You got this marijuana charge? Not going, I'm not finna hit you up over the head. Do you have$500 dog? I'm finna just help you out today. Why am I doing this for so cheap for you? Because first of all, I want you to tell people about me and then understand that I wanna do this personal injury. So guess what? I just helped you out. All right? Didn't charge you number$500. Have a good day. He was like, that's it. That's it. All right. Have a good day. And so I did that, man. But you gotta, don't be afraid to go out there and do that kind of stuff randomly. I got a sponsorship with the money team when I, by my second year to the firm. How did that happen? I helped somebody, that I didn't know was a part of the money team that helped them out, right? And I didn't even charge'em at all. They was like, he was like, what's the fee? I was like, man, all good. Don't worry about it. All good. Let me get your card. I was like, all, all right. I like, that's not normal, but here you go. And, he hit me up and he was like, makes you plow out to Vegas. And, you know, I'm gonna show you around. I want you to meet Floyd. I was like, man, I ain't, I ain't really know this guy, you know? So I was like. I'm kind of skeptical, but I do like Vegas. I'm coming out there. But if you, if you faking it, I don't care. I'm gonna enjoy Vegas. That's all I was thinking to myself I got out there, that man was not faking it. He was legit. And I was like, oh my God. And so you just never know how things could happen in life, man. Because that's how I got that first, sponsorship with the money 10. They wore it in the fight, had the KL on the shorts. I was really excited. I was like, oh my god, my, my stuff is on they shorts. But

CJ:

Mm.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

know, that happened just randomly because I just helped this guy out. Right. And so, I thought, think about stuff like that all the time because if you able to do things like that for people, that's how you get blessings, man. You gotta be a blessing to get a blessing. Right. So you gotta do something right. Do something for somebody. You can't just sit back and say, the world ain't giving me nothing. What you giving the world? So, you know, give something to the world. You know what I'm saying? And then you'll get something outta it.

CJ:

Yeah. I had to think for a second when you said the money team, I'm thinking you talking about somebody local in Atlanta, and then when you said Vegas, it hit me.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Oh yeah, yeah, Man. It was a blessing man. Met the man,

CJ:

So that was a true blessing. I.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Yeah, outta nowhere. And he was like, you the guy that got my guy help my guy out? I was like, yeah, that was me. He's like, man, you ain't want nothing. I was like, nah. He's like, he told me he ain't pay yet. I was like, and I didn't ask him to, you know? And but that's how he was so cool about it. He's like, really? And so, I just look at it, man, where you gotta keep doing that stuff, man. It is. You keep going forward, you know, do things, the right intention, right? So some people do things that might look right, but they ain't got the right intention. Do things with the right intention, especially as an entrepreneur, because all you have is just society, right? All your people around you, y'all are my community, right? So you gotta do things with the right intention because as you start tripping out here, a bad person, that kinda spread, I promise you, you do. All right? If people see you doing bad business, they gonna be like, do not mess with that dude down there. All right? Bad business. So you gotta make sure keep doing the right thing, the right intention dog, so that you can grow your business. It's real simple, but you gotta grow your business.

CJ:

I'm curious, and I know, Ken touched on, on a minute ago, you know, me visiting Atlanta as many times as I have, I have noticed all of the billboards and the, you know,

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Yeah.

CJ:

the attorney billboards and the, the ads on the radio and, you know, you're in an Uber, you hear ads for an attorney in Atlanta, probably every other commercial the market, I guess in, in Atlanta being so saturated with personal injury lawyers, do you do and how do you stand apart from the rest? How do you, I know you market yourself by being, you know, a common man and, and doing good things for good people, but how do you, yourself to stand out above all of these other sharks that are out there?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Oh, so basically, man, it is, I just wake up every day and I, and I repeat what I, what I know, right? So I just know that I wanna be the best. I wanna be the, I, I'm a fun guy. I like to have fun. I know that when it kind get serious, I get serious, but at the end of the day, I like laughing and joking. So I just be myself and every day. But I try to be the best version of myself every day. So I wake up and I'm like, man, what I'm feeling like doing today on Instagram. You know what? I'm finna do this and just do it, you know? And, so for me, marketing is really about consistently doing what you got, how you got here, consistently doing it though, not falling off, talking to people when you're going out to a little club or something. Let people know that this is what I do. I ain't gonna talk your year off, but about it. But I do do this. All right? And, just going out and doing stuff like this, for instance, right? This is, you know, indirect marketing man coming out, talking to you all, let people know that I exist.'cause some people might not know who I am. So it's like, all right, well I exist, hit me up. And then when they talk to me on the phone, when you call the firm, it's gonna be the same kind of energy. It's like, Hey, you getting hit? Oh my God. First of all, you okay? You good, but then you ain't good. Just go ahead and get you to the hospital. So you gotta go out and, and, and have some fun with it. You gotta, at the end of the day, man, you really just, I think for me, that keeps me going and how to motivate and how to keep marketing myself to get bigger and bigger is understanding who I am, the person, and embracing, you know, things that I think make me great and just embracing who I am and showing the world unapologetically. Like, Hey, this is who I am, man. So I'm trying to get it for you all. I'm gonna give y'all my best, but I, I'm, I may tell some jokes along the way, if you don't mind. And that's it. But nah, we gotta make sure, man, that at the end of the day that we gonna do the right thing with the marketing. So marketing, it changes every day. We gotta just make sure that you just own it, man. And then I like, I like TikTok and the different trends, so, you know, you see something that's cool, jump on it. But then it also is expensive for marketing. So bills have gone up as you get bigger. So when you wanna do those billboards and that free, they do cost. But it depends on what you wanna do, whether it's, whether it's Google searching, whether it's Facebook, whether it is, you know, newspaper ads, whatever it is, you just gotta make sure that you're target in and, you know, kinda like Phish, hopefully somebody bite.

Ken:

Talk about your community involvement. I'm piggybacking off of what, what CJ was talking about. Like talk about your community involvement and how important that is to your business. Right. Because I think that a lot of times, you know, especially like new entrepreneurs or you know, folks who are just starting out, don't realize how important that can be to, helping the success of your business.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Oh man. So I think that honestly me doing that with the DA's office, being a community prosecutor, has. It's a very pivotal part because that's how people know who you are, right? So that's why people even, you know, I felt a little bit more confident jumping out and doing my own business.'cause it wasn't like I just jumping out and didn't nobody know who I was. It was like, well, I've been in the community for the last eight years in this DA's office doing everything I can. You know, it's changing as much as I can. So community kinda supported me on the way out was, you know, I was very blessed and thankful for that. They was like, you're doing what? I'm like, I'm jumping out. And they was like, okay then how can we help you? So, I think when you get into the community, you get out of it what you put into it. So if you've never put anything into your community, if they don't know who you are, you ain't never done anything for no children in your community. You don't wanna go back to the school and talk nobody. You don't wanna do, you know, no nice little marathon run or walk to help somebody out. If you don't wanna do nothing for nobody, I don't recommend you become an entrepreneur. Okay? Because. You gonna be pissed at home. All right? Because they gonna be looking at you like, I can't believe this person want me to do what with them. I ain't, who, who are they? know? So you gotta make sure that you do that. You, get outside of yourself and enjoy these people, man. Because at the end of the day, man, what makes the world beautiful, man is people, you know, and get a chance to see everybody.'cause everybody's very different. And so get a chance to know these people. And that's why I see Joy as a da. I was like, man, I'm getting meet so many different people. People I never would've thought like, whoa, okay, this is cool. Oh, he ended that too. Okay, cool. So, you know, just get a chance to know as many people as possible. Be yourself. Learn, learn from these people. Learn what you not, who you are. And at the end of the day, man, just treat people right. It's real simple, but you know, people be tripping, But it is so simple. Treat people right, man.

CJ:

I'm just curious, and this is just a general question. What's something about being a lawyer or a firm owner that people often misunderstand and you've been in this game long enough to have seen and and done a lot?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Some people, I guess it is a stressful job, right? So I know that I like to go out and you see a lot of attorneys, they seem like they have a lot of money or they just, they're always happy celebrating. It's a very stressful job with a lot of hours. Right? But, my thing is I'm embracing those hours'cause those are my hours. I decided to put these hours in. So that's how I'm able to go through it versus working somebody else's hours, if that makes sense. Right. It's like I've decided I wanna open up my business and somebody wants me to work, and if I want to eat, then I'm gonna have to work these hours. Okay. There are, there is no, I know the sign may say nine to five, I'm 24 hours a day out here.'cause I, you are on my mind. Okay. And so I, I would say that people just need to understand that being a lawyer. It. It can be a stressful job. They do have different types of lawyers that are not as stressful, right? But doesn't pay the same. Understand that. So if you want a job that's not gonna be a little stressful, a little high intensity, understand that you're gonna make a little less. I ain't saying you gonna be broke, but you gonna make less. So don't trip, right? And you saying, I hear a lot of young folks saying, oh, I need to make one 50 coming out. I'm like, man, what world? What? Are you smoking the best tree ever? I can I one 50 coming out. Doing what? What you gonna do? I'm like, they change the scales. I didn't know. I didn't know they were doing that. I see people talking about this and I'm like, calm down. If you come out, you have a job and you're successful and you're learning something, you'll get to the bag, I promise you. Right? But learn something on that journey, all right? Because if you come out and you never heard, you might get success too early sometimes. And people like success too early. What does that mean? You gotta be able to understand what's going on around you. Be able to appreciate it, right? Because if you're making a hundred thousand dollars, I say bless them. Don't look at it as like, man, I need to make more. That is a blessing. Big one, up a good one, right? And so you got let these people know that Instagram has people thinking that, oh, everybody's making all this and all that. It's not like that. Okay? It's not like that. In reality, if you got a job and you are able to support yourself and you're able to do what you wanna do on a daily basis, may not be stunting, but you're able to do what you want. Do you living a great life? All right?

CJ:

Message.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

to understand. Yeah, it is like, you gotta understand like that. And so I look at it where as an entrepreneur, you go, you gotta, as a lawyer as well, you gotta gotta think, okay, this is a blessing that I'm able to go out here and charge people this amount of money. But then what do I need to do? Be a good steward with it. So I need to put something to the side here. I need to do this so I can survive it. Because guess what? One day there might be somebody else that's like, oh man, I'm gonna mess with a dolphin. that's messing up my little shirt thing. I don't know why you call yourself a dolphin, okay? But you gotta be prepared for. Man, but you gotta be on journey. This, this a rollercoaster out here, the entrepreneur, man. So I'm all about it though, man. So I'm, I'm up, I'm up for the thrills and the downs, man. But at the end of the day, I'm glad to be on the ride.

CJ:

I was just curious about that.'cause I know, as a kid and as a young adult, I always thought, you know, lawyers, doctors. Those are the, the, the big, big money jobs that you, you automatically coming out six figures, seven figures, regardless, but uh,

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

thought too. I learned the hard way. I was like, I'm about to be rich. I'm gonna law school. I came outta school. I was like, they gave me, I think I started off at the DA's office. I shoot, I think they started off at 55,000, 58,000. I was like, and I'll take it. All right, I'll,

Mike:

I mean, that was the same thing for me coming outta college as an engineer. You know, I got 50 k, I was so excited. I. I was like, yes, let's go.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

just gimme a house. I'm here. I have arrived, right?

Mike:

Right?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

now it up. But now everybody's like, oh, I need this. So I try to tell, I'm like, look man, whatever you get me, be humble with it, man. Be happy with it. You'll get the way you need to get to. Just make sure you put in the work all right. And

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

you know, especially as entrepreneur, but anything you're doing out here, it ain't no shortcuts. I know everybody wanna say, oh man, it ain't no shortcuts. All right. You gotta put in the work. All right? Even in talking about community work, you have to actually put in the work in the community. You can't go out there one day, take a picture, say, Hey, I was that guy. know you. Yeah, you got a picture. Nobody know. You need to come

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

every day and really be a part of the community. Alright? And then ain't about the pictures, man.'cause like at the end of the day, what I've noticed is that if you really out there, nobody need to even see no picture of you. They going to know you. You know what I mean? And so that's how you know you really, in the community, it's like, are you doing this for a fake? Are you really just out here? Just, I'm gonna take a picture real quick. Gimme inside of this car, this country town, that dude, right? Are you, are you that guy where it's like, this country town is killing me? Or you gonna go out there and really enjoy the country town, embrace it, and be a part of that city, and actually make that city better? So that's my whole goal. And as a marketing standpoint, every time I'm out, every time as an entrepreneur in general, every time I step outside this house, you marketing yourself. Just remember that entrepreneurs, I know y'all wanna go to the store, flip flops, you know, bonded on whatever it is y'all wanna rock. If y'all, y'all better look on point Every time I see you, okay? Every time

CJ:

Look, I need you to look in the camera and say that.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

you gotta get yourself together out here because when you out, you, your face everywhere, every time I see you, you sell your product. There's know that as an entrepreneur. So every time I see you. That's the product. You are the product. So if I see you in Publix and you look toe up, I'm like, that product must be toe up too. All right? Because she looks horrible. Alright. He looks horrible. You gotta fix that. Alright? So you gotta make sure that every time you step outside, you put on your best foot forward. And I ain't saying you gotta put on all makeup or nothing, but just look presentable. Right? Let people know you out here trying to get to it, that you're a business person and that's what's on your mind it business. So, you know, just embrace the job and ride. Man. I'm, I'm living it. And I think that anybody that's out here listening to our podcast, man, to your podcast, you gotta live it all right? Live the dream. But you gotta really live it though. Okay?

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

gonna just so, so sell. You got to really live it.

Mike:

Has all been great. We definitely gonna have to have you on again. Love your energy, love the, the knowledge that you're giving everybody. And, when I go visit the house, I'm about to buy in McCoon. I will, definitely make sure

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Yeah,

Mike:

that can, that can reaches out to you.

CJ:

Listen, I'm gonna need you to practice that name several times before you go.

Mike:

Nah,

CJ:

You would

Mike:

it's like one of my favorite.

CJ:

embarrassing. The Black Bridge mindset.

Mike:

It's okay. It's all right. I, I know y'all looked all crazy. Like, what, what, what? Like, y'all live in Atlanta. Y'all should know Macon.

CJ:

Listen, all I heard was coon.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

I'm like, where? I'm like the cool

CJ:

That's all I heard.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

like, it might be one, lemme think about it. You

CJ:

I know it's Georgia and all, but come on.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

it Houston County, but it's actually Houston, you know, but they call it Houston County down here. So you know you're from here or not. down here like, yeah, I went down to Houston earlier. They're like, Houston, you talking about Houston? So you gotta make sure you know your areas out here in Georgia. And when you said Columbus, I thought you were talking about Columbus, Georgia. That's why I was like Columbus. Okay. Okay. Down the street.

CJ:

Nah, a little, little bit further than that.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

No. I did a circle, tower area, huh.

CJ:

Way up north.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Hell yeah. But definitely, man, it's a pleasure, man. I'm glad you, y'all had me on the show.

CJ:

Yeah.

Mike:

Well, we're not done with the Yeah, we got two more little things to do, with you. So the first, the first thing we're gonna do, is called a speed round.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Okay.

Mike:

I'm gonna ask you, I have six or seven questions written down, but we'll see how many we get to, the, the one minute timer that I'm about to put up here. what I'm gonna do, yep, I got, I got a timer for you.

CJ:

when you I have one. One additional.

Mike:

okay. So, what we're gonna do, don't think too much about it, it's just gonna be a quick, you know, answer the first thing that comes to the top of your mind. All right. So, c CJ teased us earlier with his sound machine, but I'm still the sound machine. This is what episode? Like nine or something like that. So here we go. Getting into the speed round. So I'm gonna ask you, I. I, I could fix this, you know, in editing and actually add that sound, but my sound better, we're just, we're gonna stick with it.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Sound?

Mike:

I'm gonna do my sound. I'm gonna be me. So I'll start the timer after I ask the first question, and then I'm just gonna go through them until we get to the end. If we still have time, to answer the last couple, which I think we will, then we'll answer those. I'll ask those two. All right. We good? All right, here we go. First question, what's your favorite car?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Car, you said car?

Mike:

Car? I'm sorry. Yeah. What's your favorite car?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

unfortunately it is Tesla still. I know the man tripping. I get it. I get it. But the Tesla kind of All right.

Mike:

Yeah, I used to work for him and, and he's crazy, but the cars are great, so he didn't make it. We'll, we'll give the engineers the credit for that. well this answers this question, EV or gas,

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

EV.

Mike:

Um, weights or cable.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Freeway weights,

Mike:

All right. You call yourself shark. What's your favorite? Shark?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

The great black shark. That's me.

Mike:

All right. park or beach.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Beach

Mike:

All right. All expense. Paid trip. Where you, where you heading?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

spade. I'm probably going to go All expenses paid. Oh Lord. Dubai.

Mike:

Dubai. All right. after working out, where does Ken want to eat for lunch, subway, or KFC.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

I'm gonna get Subway. I'm be nice. I'm be nice Subway, though I know you like Popeyes than.

CJ:

Hold up. I got one for you as well. Maxine Shaw or Annalise? Keating.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Maxine Shaw more real life.

CJ:

Okay. Okay.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

I mean, saying, I've seen so many people like Maxine Shaw on a everyday basis. Ooh, real life.

Mike:

Well, you, you killed that. So, so the last thing that we do is I ask everybody to do what we call the Wakanda Peace Pause. it's just some point I'm gonna post these pictures of everybody doing it is, is our marketing that I haven't used for marketing yet. What we're gonna do is we're just gonna do like the little Wakanda cross little piece and then you're just gonna sit there for a minute and smile at the camera. And then, that's it. then I'm gonna use it later. I'll take a screen grab of it, of us all doing the Wakanda Peace. Two.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

All. That's it. All

Mike:

Easy enough.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

ready for it.

Mike:

Just gonna count to three and we're all gonna do it. Ready? One, two. I saw CJ got a light start, so I had to hold it a little bit longer. We good?

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

All day. All day, man.

Mike:

Yeah. But no, I appreciate you. Like I said, this has been great. I, I learned quite a bit and you hit on some nuggets that, or some gems that, that people should use no matter what, what of entrepreneur they're trying to be. So hopefully they, they were listening and they caught'em, and if you didn't catch them, watch it again or listen again wherever you're

Ken:

Right,

Mike:

this. So,

Ken:

right.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

All

Ken:

An immense thank you for this. This is this Fanta this. This is great. Honestly, you were great.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Appreciate it, man. Oh, lemme tell

CJ:

Yeah,

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

at. So if you're on that Instagram. Simply Keith, like the orange juice. Really bro. Simply Keith. All right. K-E-I-T-H. All right, that's my Instagram. Then if you get in an accident, the injury sharks.com. I got a jingle coming one day for y'all. It'll be pretty funny. I can't think of it yet, but it's coming. so we're gonna have it out there and y'all can replay this and let'em know that I told y'all the jingle was going to be a hit. Okay, one the most downloaded jingles, I promise you.

Mike:

Well, you have to let us know when it's out there. I mean, I'll be following you, but,

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

y'all dunno. Y'all gonna know we

CJ:

yeah,

Mike:

okay.

CJ:

reach out to Jamie Fox. He can get you a jingle together.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

Need to come outside. Shoot. Let's do it

Mike:

Y'all crazy.

CJ:

Yeah,

Mike:

right. Well, once again,

CJ:

We appreciate you.

Keith Lamar Jr. AKA "SHARK":

all

Mike:

we, we appreciate you.

CJ:

Thanks for tuning in to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast. If today's conversation resonated with you, don't forget to subscribe, share, drop a comment, and leave a review. We're building bridges, one story, one mindset, one move at a time. Show our guest some love by checking out their socials too. Until next time, keep pushing, keep growing and keep walking in your purpose.

People on this episode

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Mike Lovett

Host
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Chris Johnson

Co-host
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Ken Peak

Co-host