We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Olivia Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Olivia, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
My grandparents had the foresight to go to an attorney and get their estate planning done. This was a pretty big deal and definitely a step in the right direction. However, they went to the local attorney and he did not provide much counsel. Therefore my grandparents left their modest home that sat on 1.5 acres to all 13 of their children equally. And to complicate matters even more some children had predeceased my grandparents and so their children stepped into their shoes which means now we are dealing with a lot of children with some grandchildren sprinkled in. This situation went about as well as could have been expected. Eventually my family figured out what to do with my grandparent’s home and land. However, watching this play out had a profound impact on me. I think about my grandparents at least once everyday. I think about them when I am speaking with clients and when I and my law partner are making plans for our business. Educating our clients and the community and providing real counsel to our clients is what sets our law firm a part and is at the heart of the work we do. We do not sell documents. We solve problems. My grandparents received documents but their problem was not solved. I do for other people’s grandparents what I was unable to do for mine.
Olivia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a Georgia girl and a Spelman Woman. I received my law degree from Loyola New Orleans College of Law and have been practicing law for fourteen years. I am very active in my community and church. I love, sports, politics, and hiking. I am also very close to my family. My relationship with my grandparents and experience with their lack of planning is what brought me to the world of estate planning and probate.
I am passionate about educating and empowering families to make different decisions that can change the trajectory of their family through estate planning. I believe my work is not just a career but also a calling. I want to help as many people as I can protect their legacy and build generational wealth through their planning. This work is a labor of love for me and I hope each client feels that in every interaction they have with me from the initial consultation to the closure of their case.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I think COVID-19 provided unexpected challenges for most businesses that required them to pivot. For our firm this opened our eyes to the possibility of having a mostly virtual firm and we have not looked back. Before 2020 we were meeting with most if not all of our clients in person and then 2020 hit and since most of our clients were seniors we wanted to do all that we could to protect them which meant little to no personal contact. This turned out to be such a blessing. Now, most of our meetings with clients are done virtually. It provides so much more flexibility for both myself and my law partner as well as the client. The only time the client is required to come in office is to sign their documents. This has opened up so many more opportunities. We can meet with clients no matter where we are in the world and no matter where they are in the world.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
My firm’s biggest and best source of new clients is referral sources. We have spent so much time on marketing strategies, whether we should spend money on SEO, social media, Google ads, social media ads, and so on. But when we looked at our numbers what was obvious is the biggest source of new clients was contacts from our professional and personal networks. This is definitely not what I wanted to hear because the thought of networking gives me hives, but the numbers do not lie. So, we work to stay in constant communication with our referral sources and are always looking to expand our network. We send thank you gifts to referrals to let them know how much we appreciate them thinking of us. We also try to send them information about our firm. services, as well as the clients we enjoy working with to ensure that they are sending us the right clients. We schedule coffee meetings and lunches to hear about our referral source’s businesses and interest because we are always looking for ways we can add value to their business as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: srlawgrp.com
- Instagram: @srlawgrp
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/srlawgrp
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/srlawgrp/ or www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-smith-5908ba19