We were lucky to catch up with Brian Dixon recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back at the decisions you made early in your career, particularly whether to join a firm or start your own, do you feel you made the right choice for that stage of your career?

In 2019, I had given up on law. I know, not the start you were expecting in response to this question.

As a third-generation lawyer, I started working at the family firm and eight months in, I knew it wasn’t for me. So, I switched it up. I became a consultant and returned to school to get my tax LLM; the dream was to be a law school professor.

Then the pandemic hit and I turned to ghostwriting and doing e-discovery work so I could travel the world.

Two years in, I went to volunteer in Ukraine at an animal rescue and the founder asked me to help with setting up the charity and putting together partnership agreements.

I quickly fell in love with working alongside the founder and knew it was what I wanted.

When I returned home from Ukraine, I opened up my law firm, where I currently provide outside counsel to new businesses and startups.

Looking back on it, I know it was the right choice for me. I never would have fit into the traditional law firm and the politics of being a young associate.

I am at my best when I have full autonomy and the freedom to dictate how I work and how I live. Besides, all the travel I have done in the past four years has only made me a better lawyer.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

How I got into my current role is a winding road that includes many detours and stops along the way. As I mentioned in my previous answer, I was always destined for the law, given that I am a third-generation lawyer. However, how I got here, and the industry I ended up in was anything but seamless.

I don’t think I would be practicing law if I didn’t take time away from it, and in many ways, this is the biggest blessing for me. I started in litigation, and I am not a fighter, so fighting every day I went into work was draining. I knew I needed a change and moved to Denver where I did some business consulting and returned to school.

As the pandemic started, I discovered my wanderlust and my sole goal was to find a job that allowed me to travel the world and see as much as possible. So I settled on Ghoswriting and performing electronic discovery jobs. The next four years saw me travel to over 30 countries.

One of these travels took me to Ukraine, where I signed up for two weeks to work with dogs saved from the war. My plan was to stay two weeks and then continue my travels through Eastern Europe. But, the founder needed legal help and knew I was a lawyer.

I had never done charity or business law, but he trusted me and that was good enough for him. Over the next three months, we established a charity in several countries, put together partnership agreements, and built an animal shelter that housed over a couple hundred animals and had a staff of 20.

It was chaos and hectic. I was hooked.

I knew I wanted to work with founders and do it my way.

So I opened up Brian Dixon Law where I work with a simple philosophy of meeting founders and business owners where they are. After all, it is their dream and I am not the one who should be telling them no.

When I work with clients, I don’t approach them as a traditional lawyer.

Instead:

I meet clients as a person first, because your personal goals should always be first.

I meet clients as business owner second because your business is your dream and your desires here should always be met.

I meet clients as a legal client third. I work to create a legal solution that is tailored to protect your goals as a person and business owner.

I work by the motto of “I’m not here to tell you no, I’m here to show you how.”

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Listening.

One of the worst lessons I learned early on was that I needed to tell a potential client what they needed.

Too often, service providers get on calls and believe they need to tell the prospective client what they need when, in reality, they should be listening.

Only after the potential client has shared everything can a service provider truly understand what is needed on the project and/or role.

Now, I go into new client meetings with a curious mind and open ears. This often leads to my clients feeling seen and understood.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

My network and old/current clients.

In the age of social media, I believe nothing can replace the value of someone’s word and the weight a recommendation can carry.

1. Client.

When you provide good service to clients, they will likely repeat as clients and recommend their friends and acquaintances to you.

2. Networking

When I started networking with no agenda, I saw my business skyrocket. I love connecting with people and started finding people I wanted to connect with on LinkedIn. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was networking. What I thought I was doing was connecting with like-minded people for good conversations and potential friendships.

Without an agenda, we could connect on a human level.

People refer clients to other people they like. Without realizing it, I have built up a professional network of service providers that I can bring clients to and I receive clients from.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.briandixonlaw.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-dixon-362106148/