The Honda ATC 185 is a type of three-wheeled vehicle that you can ride on different types of land, like dirt or trails. It was popular in the 1980s and is known for being easy to handle.
Forged wheels are made from a single piece of metal, making them stronger and lighter than regular wheels. This helps improve the performance of the vehicle.
Custom brake calipers are parts of the braking system that help the car stop. They can be upgraded for better performance and safety.
Car
FXR chopper
The FXR chopper is a type of motorcycle made by Harley-Davidson that has been customized to look and perform differently. Choppers are known for their unique designs and often have longer front ends and custom features.
A V-Twin engine has two cylinders that are shaped like a V. This kind of engine is often found in motorcycles and gives a unique sound and strong power.
RWD means that the back wheels of the car get the power from the engine. This setup can help the car handle better, especially when going fast or taking turns.
The RS1 front cartridge system is a part of the car's front suspension that can be adjusted to make the ride feel softer or firmer. It helps improve how the car drives and feels on the road.
A fairing is a cover that helps reduce wind resistance on motorcycles. The FXRT style is a specific design that helps protect the rider from wind and improves the bike's look.
Harley is a popular motorcycle brand known for its big bikes and a strong community of riders. They have been making motorcycles for over a hundred years.
The Ford Maverick is a small truck that is easy to drive and park, designed for people who want the utility of a pickup without the bulk. It’s popular because it’s affordable and comes with a fuel-efficient hybrid engine option.
The Volkswagen Rabbit is a small car that is known for being fun to drive and very practical for everyday use. It's a good choice for people looking for a reliable car that’s easy to handle and has a lot of space inside.
The Volkswagen Eos is a small car that can turn into a convertible, meaning the roof can be taken off for an open-air experience. It’s stylish and fun to drive, especially on nice days.
The Tata Motors Aria is a type of SUV that offers more space and comfort than a regular car. It was one of the first fancy SUVs made by Tata Motors, designed for families and people who need more room.
LIVE
What is up, everyone, and welcome back to the Fast Life Podcast.
On today's episode, I'm sitting down with Ari, the man behind Law Tigers.
You've seen him all over the place, Sturgis, Born Free, Texas, many events.
If you're lucky enough to have a local guy running around your city, your state,
supporting events, these are the guys doing a lot for the motorcycle industry.
Both on the front end and the back end, keeping you safe.
We're talking all about that today.
I think it's a great podcast for you to listen to, get some information, some education, if
you will, on how this process works, how they can help you save a lot of money, or
get paid, or get just taken care of in the unfortunate event of an accident.
Before we get into it, let's shout out our sponsors real quick.
You already heard about Law Tigers, they're on here today.
We also got Arlen S Motorcycles.
If you need some cool parts of your bike, they are the ones to call.
Calgary Harley Davidson, if you need a newer used motorcycle, they are down in Austin,
Texas, ready to serve you guys.
Custom dynamics with all the badass lights, head to toe, front to back, however you want
to look at that, they got you dialed in.
My guys over at RWD Performance, V-Twin, they are getting you dialed in with some of
the best suspension on the market.
You got to check them out.
They got some good stuff, guys.
Don't sleep on them.
All right, let's get into this episode with Ari from Law Tigers.
Hey, guys.
You ready to let the dogs out?
All right, man.
We're doing this.
Give it to me.
All right.
First off, you know how to do a podcast.
So keep this mic close to you so that we can keep the audio on a good time.
Yeah.
My good?
Yeah.
They're good.
Okay.
Well, I do appreciate you coming out.
Actually, I appreciate lunch.
I appreciate the conversation we had.
That was good to get to know you a little bit before we actually sat down.
And I think that we still have a lot of meat on the bone to talk about and get to know
you and the brand and what not, you know, now.
So sure.
Law Tigers, how does how does that even like in all the things to do in the in the
world of law that you're a part of in the motorcycles?
Yeah, how does that come together and become this?
Well, that's a loaded question.
Yeah, I know.
I had one.
I know, I know.
We talked about that.
Not on my belly is full.
Yeah.
And that was a good lunch, by the way.
I enjoyed that.
So Law Tigers is really an idea that my father, Warren Levin, came up with 25 years ago.
In fact, we're 25 years next year.
And it really was born out of this partial necessity, partial passion to do
something different, not be like everyone else, just representing, you know,
general, you know, PI clients, you know, motorists, not dealing with divorce
and criminal, which is law from in Phoenix for, you know, 20 plus years was.
It was very general, right?
So you take that and the changing marketplace even 25 years ago with more
competition and something called the yellow page zone of your pre Internet
and it just more competition and greed on on advertised part couple that
with a passion for riding, which my dad and I did growing up at a 70
ATC 185 S 250 R 80 Excel 80.
So that passion for riding dirt and ultimately street and bring those together
and he creates this brand to essentially support riders in their time of need
when they're in a motorcycle accident.
And so that's that's how it started.
And my dad's always had kind of a entrepreneurial spirit.
He's had a bunch of failed businesses before Law Tigers, but he never gave
up and he took this passion created a brand.
And and was able to then, you know, see have a vision of replicating it
through kind of a membership model where we bring on like-minded law firms
and we we support the marketing, but they take care of the clients
and we vet the lawyers to make sure they do that right.
And that's really what it is.
And then I come on about a year later as a school teacher for eight years
teaching science and was in law school for one month at USC
and dropped out because I quite honestly didn't want to be a lawyer
and I was there for the wrong reason.
So got roped back in doing some marketing part time and teaching.
Yeah.
And then just kind of worked my way through and figured out what to do
to create a brand and and and and, you know, support a community.
And obviously I'm a rider and I love it.
And really it's become our my passion is riding helping riding community
and ultimately taking care of people.
Yeah.
And they get hurt.
Have you always been based out of Phoenix and just Arizona in general or what?
Yeah.
So we started my dad was born in Boston grew up pretty poor
in Dorchester, not too far from the Parwitz is and and was either Arizona
or California and him and my mom moved with basically very little of EW
and and that was in a U-Haul.
My mom flew with me and I cried the whole way on the plane is from what I
was told and haven't stopped since.
And then he drove out in the U-Haul in the little little car and works
kind of turning his office for a while and then opened up his own shop
and then again 25 years ago kind of with this idea this notion
to create a brand and and and represent injured motorcycle riders.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's been it's been a long journey.
But yeah, Arizona is where we're based.
It's where I live.
I love it.
Well, Arizona is literally one of the, you know, for lack of a veteran hot
bed for motorcycling, you know, being the hub of MMI all year
weather riding a little bit cheaper lifestyle than California.
Not much is catching up.
Yeah.
So it's just always been a place of a lot of the motorcycles.
I don't know, innovation structure, a lot of that a lot of big brands,
a lot of really well-known builders and parts manufacturers out of
there.
So yeah, it makes sense to be there.
It's like a it's a Mecca.
It was a coincidental though.
But honestly, like, you know, I was telling you earlier,
like when I first started working for the company and it's
before I, you know, bought in and now Cohen with my father
and run it as a CEO.
I was just a worker bee.
So I was going to events, going to shops, kind of like the
first market.
I was the first marketing manager.
Yeah.
Now we've got over 40 of them across the country, but my head was down
and I was just there to try to, you know, check the boxes,
but relationship building with like people in the industry,
identifying really who was and wasn't there in terms of manufacturers.
That wasn't even something I was aware of until probably
honestly, like eight or nine years ago when I could back off
and then start really looking out.
And then I realized, wow, I mean, this is truly the Mecca for
custom motorcycles for parts.
Yeah.
Trask, gaffy, you know, you've got so many, just to name a few,
but you know, Cruzy's there.
Obviously, you talked about 20 May, you know, even Nassie
who's recently retired now.
But yeah, I mean, it's just, I'm fortunate that I happen to
be in a market where it's popular and continues to innovate
and continues to, you know, drive a lot of opportunity
for our brand because of those partnerships with people in
the industry.
Yeah, I think that like from my outside perspective,
looking into the brand, I mean, I think law tires in general
has done a great job of like logo awareness brand.
You know, you know, you know the thing, right?
Um, I think that like it's at a point now or it has been
a point now where it's good to now start to fill in the
information behind it, like what, what you provide,
what you help solve, what you do.
And I mean, it's one of those weird things, right?
You're, you're, you're trying to help people, you're trying
to get ahead to help them in case.
Which they don't want to know anything about because they
don't want to think about getting in an accident.
Yeah, it's not, you don't plan that.
Do you want to plan to, you know, you want to design
your own coffin or you buy your own like burial site
or figure out where you're going to get cremated.
It's kind of morbid, but seriously, same thing.
Do you really want to think about, and that's one of
the questions I ask when we do these man on the street
interviews is, what would you do if you're in an accident?
And most people don't think about it because they
don't want to think about it.
And do we really want to push that on people when
they're not in an accident?
You got to still define what we do.
Yeah.
And people think we sell insurance because of the
logos and the mascots and the presence we have,
you know, like Geico does at big events, but we're
actually the other side.
We're, we're the good guys.
We're the guys that go against the insurance
companies when you as a rider gets hit and
either the other person's insurance doesn't want to
pay or doesn't have the ability to pay or your
own insurance that you have, which is uninsured
and uninsured motorist, which we'll talk about later,
doesn't want to pay.
So the lawyer, us has to get involved.
Yeah.
It's funny because at lunch we had talked about
how, you know, 20 years ago, the motorcycle
rallies and events were funded by beer and cigarettes.
Right.
And now it's, you know, like you guys and
insurance companies, which are kind of like the
Bloods and the Crips.
You know what I'm saying?
That's true.
Yeah.
Well, Bloods and the Crips are both.
Oh, the same.
Yeah.
I look at it as like Han Solo and Darth Vader.
There you go.
But I didn't know.
Actually, they're both necessary.
Like if there was no insurance, I wouldn't exist.
Yeah.
And insurance is important to have.
Like I don't think insurance is a bad thing.
What's a bad thing is when you have insurance
companies that are driven by profit motive,
driven by stockholders and dividends and people
that work for them that are bonus based on
what you save, not what you spend.
So unfortunately, you know, or fortunately,
depending on you look at it, you need an advocate
that you have to pay.
Yeah.
Big misnomer is you pay upfront or pay hourly.
We work off contingency basis.
So we get a percentage of whatever we collect
if we collect and it varies depending on whether
we have to go to trial and litigate or not.
But you need an advocate and the insurance
company is not going to give you what you want
or deserve or need without being pushed
and sometimes threatened in a legal way to pay up.
Yeah, it's funny.
I remember a long time ago, the first time I ever
heard about this or saw it actually, a girlfriend
at the time.
We're talking 20 years ago gets in a car accident
and then the insurance adjuster, you know,
comes over.
Are you okay?
Well, here's two grand.
Right.
And then we found out that if you sign that check,
if you take that money, then you pretty much
are signing away any ability to come back at them.
So they're trying to give you something.
They're, oh, shit, two grand or whatever this is helpful.
They're going to be there later on to help me more.
But that's kind of like the hush money to go away.
Yeah, it's like signing away your rights here.
You know, and here's the other thing you don't realize.
You get in a motorcycle, even in a car.
Sometimes those injuries take time to manifest.
And sometimes they don't even show up.
Like, you know, the big thing now is, you know,
getting an MRI when you get hit, which I recommend you do.
And, you know, because you can get concussed.
But there's still people that can suffer
from a traumatic brain injury without it showing up
in an MRI scan because of the severity of the impact.
And what does that mean?
It could eventually lead to memory loss.
It could lead to, you know, long term issues.
There's even like you can get PTSD from being in an accident.
So you really need an attorney
that can help you identify not only short term
but long term issues that may manifest themselves
as well as the accident.
Now, hopefully there's insurance,
and that's why I push uninsured and uninsured motorists
so that we can claim against that on your behalf
to get you the compensation deserved.
But yeah, there's people that get hit and, you know,
month later back pain, neck pain, you know,
being hit on a motorcycle is a pretty traumatic thing.
Yeah, yeah.
So that's why I want people
to make sure they have proper insurance, you know.
Yeah, I mean, it's crazy because if you think
about like the Harley side of the motorcycle world,
I mean, it's forever not really been a helmet based industry.
I mean, I have David Mann posters down there
with guys hitting a state line and throwing the helmets
and the lightnings hitting it, right?
Right.
Like people hate it.
You look at those easy riders.
It was like they did not like the fact that, you know,
there was helmet laws, right?
It was cool.
Yeah.
Or don't tread on my rights.
Yeah, yeah.
And so I mean, I do like the idea of like you having the right
to choose to wear one or not, right?
But it's awesome to see like as the performance side
of motorcycles has become now the more mainstream thing
that with that brought in helmets and that helps.
I think for sure helps save a lot more lives.
You know what I'm saying?
You're absolutely right.
So when I was coming up riding, you know, street bikes,
I got my first Harley 23 from Hossian already Davidson,
Rick Hatch.
It wasn't cool.
Arizona was not a helmet lost a still isn't yet.
So it wasn't cool to be wearing helmets.
We go to Acme bar and Grill.
We go to, you know, all these places, Billabar,
Myron's old place and we wouldn't wear helmets
because it just wasn't cool.
Yeah, but he did it.
So and you made excuses like I would impair your,
your visibility and your hearing, but, but I've been wearing
my wife obviously is a big, big proponent of it
and the business I'm in, I believe in it.
Again, I don't want to impose it on anybody,
but I think it's, it's for me beneficial.
But, you know, now with the new technology,
you know, talking about the carbon fiber lightweight,
they don't bother me.
And actually, I feel like I ride better
because I'm not like squinting or having the wind hit me
like I used to.
And you know, it has transformed most of the people
I ride with and a lot of them are Harley riders.
It's just normal, not aware it's accepted
and it's just something that's part of it.
But I think it's important that I can tell you this much
when you do get an accident without a helmet
and you do sustain injuries that are related to that,
they can use it against you insurance companies, juries.
So you got, you get hit.
We have to go to trial.
You have a head injury.
They can say, well, look, you weren't being responsible.
You didn't take the necessary precautions.
You have some culpability here.
You shouldn't get the same amount as if you're wearing a helmet.
Now, you could also then go back and argue,
well, you know, helmets, you can still get concussions.
You can still get rare.
I tell people, look, it helps prevent, you know,
the, the scrapes that helps prevent does absorb some impact.
So is it going to save your life?
Always. No, you can still die wearing a helmet.
Yeah, you can still get concussed,
but it's going to at least absorb a good amount of that impact
and the scraping and road debris
that can tear up your face, your head.
Yeah, I mean, we all, it seems like it happens a lot
whenever you put the visor up,
you get that grasshopper or a rock comes in there.
So you always think like, man,
like if I didn't have a helmet on
and that thing just when it hit the screen,
it knocked my head back, you know what I mean?
So I like the idea.
I'll be honest with you sometimes
when I'm on the chopper like Ramona and I,
we, we both rode the bikes around the lake over here
and we did throw helmets on, we just cruised.
We took that risk, but you know,
like riding here to Dallas,
like you guys just came from Dallas out here
to my side of town.
It's like, man, I'd rather just throw it on.
Well, I can tell you this,
we probably want to hear this,
but most accidents happen
within a five mile radius where you live.
Yeah. Yeah.
So you're not decreasing your chances
even if you keep it local.
But I get it.
Look, I've got a chopper.
I've got that Susie Q chopper that you have
he built for biker build off and no two or three
against Perowitz.
And I ride it and they're like,
look, I want to, I want to be like old school, man.
I want to ride it without a helmet.
Yeah.
And I may go around the block once in a while,
but, but you know,
I was with him going to going to the prowl
a couple of years ago on that bike.
And I got bucked on an overpass
with the road that sunk in
and threw me up in the air,
came up, thought I was going to die,
came down, foot shared off the peg.
For some reason, my foot didn't hit the ground,
but you know, that could have been a serious accident.
And I've had a bunch of close calls.
So to me, I just rather play it safe.
You know, obviously there's certain things
I probably should do that I don't do
like wearing more protective gear.
I wear jeans.
I wear, you know, boots or tennis shoes.
But you know, really, if you want to be safe,
you know, you should be wearing, you know,
something that gives you some protection on the arms.
If you do crash, it's going to absorb some of that
that impact and, but again, nobody's perfect.
You know, my big thing is make sure you have good insurance.
That's the best way to protect yourself.
Save it, save, you know, whether you're buying Chrome
or an extra, you know, a custom part on your bike
and you don't have the extra money.
Make the investment in good insurance.
It's a few hundred dollars more a year for you and you I am.
Yeah.
It's not, it's not a matter of if it's when
hopefully it's not severe.
But, but just invest in yourself and your own well-being
because no one else is going to.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Yeah.
Yeah, I got a little, little natter some over there.
Yeah, I do attract like mosquitoes.
I think I have that pheromone that insects like.
I get bit up all the time.
I don't know what's going on in Texas right now.
I think that they didn't they like dump like a bunch
of flies at the border to fight some kind of thing
that was coming from South America or some weird thing.
Yeah, it was like like they dumped a fly that's supposed
to eat at feast on some type of parasite
that I don't know they're going to say the dump flies
at the border to keep people from crossing or something.
No, no, no, it could shield them on the way in.
But one 800 law Tigers is a number you need to save
in your phone.
If you or anyone you know has been in a motorcycle accident,
the first call to make is to law Tigers.
Their job is to help you take the proper steps
in the unfortunate event of an accident.
They have helped many of my personal friends
over the years and they can do the same for you across
the nation law Tigers has been a major supporter
of our motorcycles culture and events.
And we are excited to have this new partnership here
on the fast life podcast.
Remember one 800 law Tigers also check them out.
Www dot law Tigers dot com.
Arlen s is a one stop shop for some of the baddest
custom motorcycle parts in the industry.
I have had the opportunity to ride with many
of their products, including their forged wheels,
plug and play bag or mid controls,
air cleaners and some of my favorites have been
their custom brake calipers.
From my bagger to low rider ST and now my FXR chopper.
Ness has me covered with high quality parts
and accessories to keep me performing
and looking badass.
If you head on over to Www dot Arlen s dot com
and enter the code fastlife 10.
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And that's family has pushed custom motorcycle
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So hit the link in the description and check
out their vast product catalog to start
building your dream motorcycle.
As you all know, off-road lighting has become
a huge deal in the motorcycle scene.
But as those trends rise, so has enforcement
of DOT regulations.
You don't want to be stuck out on hundreds
if not thousands of dollars in lighting
that will get you pulled over, find and possibly
have your motorcycle impounded.
Custom Dynamics has the solution
with their shark demon headlight,
which is designed for motorcycles
and is available for all current Harley-Davidson models
as well as various sizes for custom applications,
along with turn signals for the roguelite applications,
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that badass look and visibility you're after.
Custom Dynamics has been providing custom lighting
solutions to the motorcycle world for over 20 years,
a small company and team based out of North Carolina
offering some of the best customer service
in the industry.
So check out their website at www.customdynamics.com
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and hit up the Custom Dynamics team
with any questions regarding your bike's lighting upgrades.
But yeah, I don't know, man.
It's it's the thing.
I think the first time I I think I had Howie in here
when he used to be here because I didn't know
at the time I didn't know for sure
like the details of what Law Tyres was about and stuff.
And and I, you know, listen to them.
Tell me what y'all do.
I also immediately started thinking like, well,
man, I would just focus on exactly what you're doing now
talking about what people need to have,
right, preparing people for, you know,
the the unfortunate event, like you say, right?
Insurance is weird.
I mean, I mean, I I've done a lot of repair work on bikes
over the years and worked with insurance insurance
companies to get things solved and fixed.
And it seemed like around 10 years ago,
they were much more willing to be helpful.
Like, oh, yeah, we'll take care of that, too.
Or did you have a helmet on?
Do you have a riding jacket?
And now there's just there's they're really trying
to penny pinch every aspect of their side of their business,
right?
And it's it's a pain in the ass to even try to get things fixed
on your bike.
Yeah, I tell people that's a good point, Nick,
like to mention, so when you get insurance on your motorcycle,
like you've got FXRs, I've got FXRs, you know,
you can buy an FXR for two, three, four grand, right?
Like that's old and stock, but you know,
if you're going to put 20, 30 plus grand into it,
yeah, you've got to do what's called stated value,
not market value.
And people don't know that.
So again, if you want to get what is going to cost
to replace that bike, you got to pay the extra insurance
for it.
So if you have a custom bike, you have a bunch of
custom parts on your bike, call your insurance broker
and tell them you want stated value, not market value.
And it's going to cost you more money,
but it's worth it.
But your other point, so we used to be able to, on the whole,
when we make a claim on behalf of a client,
get about three times medical.
That was around the norm.
So you've got $30,000 in medical bills,
let's just say, between hospital bills, doctor bills,
and you have enough insurance that is available
from either the other party that hits you
or your own UMUAM.
On the whole, we could get about three,
maybe four times that amount, okay?
Nowadays, they fight you for like two, try to get two X.
That's where you have to have skill for lawyers.
Now, fortunately, we can get the medical bills
and liens reduced.
So it's not necessarily what you take home,
but what you save much like we did with Adam
and he talks about having like 100 grand medical bills
and not having the insurance medical insurance to cover it.
So we got that thing knocked down nothing.
So we can do that by negotiating with doctors
and hospitals.
But anyway, the insurance companies nowadays,
because of competition, because of their marketing expenses,
because of claims that happen,
because let's look at it, cars for example,
windshields are more expensive.
All the technology in cars, all the technology in bikes,
they get totaled more often now.
They do blame the lawyers whether they agree with or not
for taking them to trial and fighting more.
That drives up costs
because they have to pay more theoretically,
which is good for the consumer, right?
They also talk about natural disasters
because they underwrite homes and other stuff.
So as a result of all those factors,
they are not willing to pay out like they used to
because again, they're driven by profit.
People realize the insurance companies
do operate on small margins.
I'll acknowledge that because,
but they also spend a lot on marketing, right?
Yeah, they have other expenses.
So when they get hit with a big disaster,
natural disaster or they're seeing more expenses
from technology and bike
and cars bikes needing to be totaled
or the repair costs are much higher
because of the technology in cars and bikes.
That's what drives that.
So they're gonna argue about this repair
or is this necessary?
It's just sign of the times.
In fact, my auto insurance, my motorcycle insurance
and my homeowner's insurance went up second year in a row
and no claims.
My homeowner's went up 70%.
I remember being a kid, like the whole idea was like,
man, when you turn 40, like your rates go down
or when you turn 25, like these,
maybe they're just like myths now or urban legends,
but you used to think about all these like milestones
where like you become a more,
what do you call it, like a responsible driver, right?
But now since everything I believe is done
through algorithms on computers,
like it's just an average and a baseline.
So I don't think they see,
it's not as much of like, oh, well,
we see you've been with us for 10 years
and not had one claim.
So we're gonna drop it.
You're a part of this pool and this part of town
and there's an increase coming over here.
And you're in that pool.
Yeah, you have no choice.
The only option is you go somewhere else.
So I have a broker I use and she is awesome.
Coriano Insurance out of Phoenix
and I don't get paid to say that.
I just great service.
And every year she shops my rates
because I have homeowners.
I've got cars, bikes, business insurance.
And generally, you know,
she can find me an alternative that's a little less
but sometimes she's like, that's it.
She's like, you're gonna pay more with another cut.
We shopped it.
I mean, the prices are the prices.
That's just what it is.
But I did recently increase my uninsured
and uninsured motorists and my liability.
So people aren't aware.
Again, I'm not an insurance guy.
I'm just speaking on behalf of what I know I have
and what I recommend people should have
so that if you do get in a motorcycle accident,
we can take care of you, okay?
So I just rubbed mine.
So I have what's called, I have the max UMU I am
I can get, which for most policies
is either a half a million or a million dollars
and then I got an umbrella, which is over that
and I used to have it at like, I think a million to me
and I put a, I'm at 10 million.
So that's, so I have a million base UMU I am
and 10 million over it.
Same thing on liability.
So the liability is when I hit someone
and they come after me,
I have that that they can claim against.
It's really just protecting my economic interests
so that if someone comes after me,
I don't have to come out of pocket
and also if something happens to me, my wife,
my loved ones are taken care of
because I have all this extra insurance
and I'm not advocating to go out
and spend a ton of money
but you can get an umbrella for a million bucks
I think for five, six hundred a year.
That's not bad.
UMU I am coverage up to a million
is three, four hundred dollars a year.
It depends on your policy
but call your broker and increase it.
I'm telling you, I don't want to say you'll thank me
but you'll appreciate if it ever happens,
having that extra layer of coverage.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
You think you can turn the fans off?
I forgot to turn those off out there.
There's like one upstairs and downstairs.
My bad.
So fun thing about like camera stuff.
It's all good.
I'm like, I was listening and I was like,
I was like, fuck, I left the fans on.
The AC hum kind of comes through the podcast
every once in a while, but it'd be miserable in here.
No, no, that's great.
It's great in here.
It's nice.
I was sweating my balls off at that.
But that window behind me at the restaurant.
Yeah, yeah.
It was hot as hell.
Yeah, it's looking cool.
Thanks bud.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, man.
Yeah.
So what do you think was some of the challenges
that you've kind of faced?
Like, you know, you know, having your role
and like trying to keep up with the ever changing industry
that we're a part of, like how trends change,
scenes change, the culture changes.
Like how do you, I don't know if the question is how
or like how do you, how do you go about it?
Like saying, how do we fit into this still?
You know what I mean?
So, you know, it's always been a bit of a challenge
and fortunately because we put in, like you and I talked
about the time, you know, investing in community,
investing in culture and people hiring the right managers
that are part of the community, marketing managers.
It's, we've really seen a transformation.
Originally when we first came on the scene,
I think people were like, oh, it's another fucking layer.
Yeah.
You know, they're just trying to capitalize on people's,
you know, people's misfortunes.
And, you know, it wasn't cool to wear a lot tiger hat
or, you know, a lot tiger shirt.
And then I think about, you know, probably five
or six years ago, I saw this transformation where people
were like, hey, can I get a hat?
Can I get a shirt?
Where people were in the industry, builders, manufacturers,
shop owners were willing to, you know, see us as, you know,
a viable part of the industry.
Yeah, because they were scared at first.
Like manufacturers, shops.
Right.
They, I think that I heard this from their mouths over time,
like, well, I don't want to get involved with lawyers
because if I put that tire on that bike and that dude
Rex, he's going to sue me and it's going to be.
Right.
That's one of the first things I asked Gabriel
when I met him.
Right.
I was like, so what is that?
Like, what do you do?
It's like, we don't go after shops.
We don't do it or manufacturers or dealers or anybody
that is associated with the industry.
Our job is to go after the person that hits you on, you know,
in their vehicle.
Right.
So I have a policy signed letter by me goes with all the
managers that tells them, look, we won't take those cases.
But, you know, I think it's just, again, having the right
people on your team like Gabriel that are part of the
community that give, give more than they ask that show
that we're willing to do the heavy lifting and putting
putting others first in their interest first, sometimes
to a fault, but that's okay.
Yeah, yeah.
Is why we've been accepted and why we're looked at
differently, I think than others.
We're also when you think of the Law Tiger brand, you know,
I liked liking us to more like a lifestyle brand, right?
Now, no, we're not, you know, producing, you know,
coolers like Yeti or parts like Harley or, you know,
but we're contributing to the lifestyle in our way by
being present by supporting and covering the costs of
certain events by trying to educate people on, you know,
what to do, you know, if you are in an accident.
So that transformation has been comforting and rewarding
because it makes it a lot easier now to get into
dealerships to support events.
But on the other hand, we're not just about writing
a blank check either, you know, I have competitors
without naming names that are more about check writing
and buying us out or keeping us out of events.
And that's not part of our ethos, part of our philosophy.
To me, people should have a choice.
Just like you can have Harley and Indian and other brands
present at events or in shops.
We are the same thing.
There's not, you know, there's only so much business
one can handle.
I mean, Texas has like 10,000 accidents a year,
motorcycle accidents in Texas.
Yeah.
There's no way in hell my firm can, I have two law firms
here in Texas that are a lot tiger law firms.
They can't handle all that.
So it's okay to have competition and it's okay to have
choices and options.
That's good for the consumer and it's good for the industry
and quite honestly, it's good for us because, you know,
it shows people there is such a thing as motorcycle lawyers
and it is something you should consider versus
a general PI lawyer that's not in the community.
That's just trying to capitalize on your injuries,
which we're not doing.
So I've always kept the idea of like looking at the motorcycle
world as a small economy.
Yes.
And if I have a buddy, say if my buddy Ramon here has a dry
cleaners, he's a biker.
Well, I'm going to go to him because the money I spend there
I know through some form or fashion is going to come back
into this industry because he's a part of motorcycling.
Yes.
And I think that like that's one, you know, I'm a
painter, but I'm also like I don't paint cars.
Right.
I'm a biker painter.
Right.
So the money that I make painting your motorcycle goes
back into Sturgis and my trip there and and other products.
So the money stays within this this community or this economy.
It's when you mentioned that because I was talking to my
guys that are with me shooting all this stuff.
And it's like, you know how fortunate we are that we
have the ability to be able to have videographers take
this trip, showcase what not only we do, but what
Rick's doing and born freeze doing.
Yeah.
So a lot of the money we do bring in, you know, I'm not
going to I'm not going to lie.
I live a very comfortable life.
I'm you know, the legal industry, you know, can be
profitable, right?
I'm not ashamed to say that, but we put a lot of money
into sponsorships, education, team members and and and
to me it is recirculating those funds.
You have a bunch of brand ambassadors with whom we work
and pay, of course, they've got to get paid, but I agree
with you.
But one thing I think people need to be aware of is you
can't just and we were talking about this earlier lunch.
You can't just, you know, hang up a shingle like a guy
that wants to maybe be the real estate guy.
You can't just say I'm the real estate guy and I'm
a rider.
So come hire me.
Yeah.
Still got to you got to contribute.
You got to show up.
I mean, we've been doing this 25 years and again,
the first 15 plus it was an upward, you know, upward road
because uphill uphill road or battle because bias against
lawyers, you know, I'm so proud and happy to say now
that we work within this Kirk like every time you order
a package in his Kirk, you're getting one of my
cloths from you because Bob and Tammy are good friends.
We support them.
We promote them.
We work with them to me.
That's like, wow, we're a lot firm, you know,
a legal brand.
They're doing that for us.
Komodo, which is RevZilla, JP Cycle Cycle Gear.
We do co-brand sticker sheets.
I help them give them their half.
I have my half on the back as their RPM program on the back
is why you should call us if you need us.
800,000 sticker sheets.
They burn through them in like four months.
They want more.
But to me, that's because I have a good friendship
with the VP and we sponsor the Cycle Gear bike nights
and my guys show up to those and we promote it.
So those relationships are what I really enjoy
and thrive on.
You know, yeah, I'm the CEO and yeah, I have to look at P&L's
and sit behind a desk, which I don't always love.
But really why I do this is because of the relationships
because I can go out and ride and be part of the community
and because of the motorcycle bond and brotherhood,
not because we're in the personal injury business.
Yeah, I mean, to what you were saying,
it's like, you know, I've been in the industry
for a little over 20 years now.
And when you see, you see when the vultures come in,
you know, you see when something starts to get hot
or something starts to happen
and you see these things that never existed come in
and just start picking off the table.
They never put food back on it for anybody, right?
Every market we're in, I see that now with lawyers.
They all say, where are the motorcycle lawyers?
They put up a billboard or they show themselves on a bike
or they buy a tent and hire someone to show up.
They see, you're right, they're opportunists.
They see what we're doing.
I go, we're gonna do that because we want to make money.
Yeah, so it kind of, I mean, I wouldn't say it sucks,
but it's part of doing something on the right track
is that as you guys have put the right people
in the right places, sponsored the right events,
the right riders and things like that,
you change the idea of like people
are not scared of you anymore.
You're like now accepted into this culture
as like part of it and a great resource for it, right?
And so now that you've kind of done the work
and made the bridge across the moat,
now all the other people want to,
oh, I guess I'm gonna be a biker now
and go, we're gonna be law liens, you know what I mean?
Right, well, it's funny you mentioned that
because to me, the difference is the people
that we work with, part of our team,
all the managers, my regional directors
because it's really, it's the people that represent the brand,
the people behind the brand that really makes the difference,
but it doesn't bother me that much
because generally when someone does do that
and they kind of get an upper hand for the short term,
give you an example, there's a Colorado firm
and yeah, I'm not naming names,
but they've pushed us out of a couple shops
because they wrote a big check.
Same thing in LA, same thing in every market we're in almost.
So I kind of laugh and talk to my team members
like look, don't worry about it, it's short lived.
They're gonna write a check,
then they're not gonna show up,
they're not gonna contribute.
Finally, someone in that dealership,
hopefully it's the person that's in charge of marketing
is gonna realize that the dollars that they got
really don't help them as a dealership
and that doesn't even translate into business
as a law firm because you're paying the owner
and it's the staff that refers you to cases and shops,
not the owner who's either not there
or is doing other stuff for the business, right?
So it's short lived and generally speaking
within a year, sometimes two,
they come back to us and say, okay,
yeah, we need to have some sort of financial transaction
but it's minimal, but the real value is
in the co-branded doc holes we print for them
that go out to all their employees,
co-branded tents, social media promotions,
setting up at events, supporting and helping
to pay for the food for their hog chapters.
Stuff like that, leveraging our TV, radio, outdoor media
and social media to promote their events
and their interests, getting a radio station
that we have a deal with, show up and do a live broadcast,
giving away a bike at their dealership
or stuff like that that's more of a partnership
and not as much about money but more about partnership.
Yeah, because you're trying to bring people
into the dealership.
Right.
And so it's a mutually beneficial thing
for you guys to help, say, set Harley dealership,
do this event and whatnot
and you're, you know what I mean?
Right.
Yeah.
Well, I would ask this is like, you know,
when you run your own business,
like marketing becomes a hat that you wear, right?
Yes.
And it's kind of easy for me to market myself
and my one-man operation in this
but when you're thinking about a nationwide thing
that's got lots of different markets
and as someone like you that I know
has been all of this culture
or all of this country in the motorcycle scene
from your Laconia's to Sturgis to Daytona
and, you know, everything in between, right?
You know, it's, there's a commonality in motorcycles
but there's almost like a,
it's a different scene, a different vibe.
Yeah.
And I think that like I'm asking,
I think I'm asking a question.
I'm sorry.
Do you look at each one of those markets
and say, we have a, we have a structure.
We have an idea of how we,
we should go about what we can offer
but do we also embed ourselves into this community
and see how we could be of a better service
to like form fit into this world?
Does that make sense?
100%.
It's funny you mentioned that because it's so timely.
Like I recently formed a committee.
I had my man.
So I was talking to Gabe in fact about this
because I, my guys have access to me,
managers, regionals,
and, and, you know, we've grown so much
over the past four or five years
and we have a template.
We have a structure.
We have KPIs.
We have certain number of shop visits a day,
certain number of events,
but what's come to my,
came to my attention was
you can't have a one size fits all approach
in every market
because managers are in different stages
of their, of their relationship.
Relationship.
You know, Gabe has been there,
you know, I think four or five years.
You've got some guys
that have only been there a year, some 10.
You also have guys that have certain strengths
over others, certain skill sets.
Some guys are better social media than others.
You also have some markets
that are more competitive than others.
Yeah.
All these variables, right?
Yeah.
So when he and I spoke to that,
it kind of struck a quote,
not struck a quote,
a light bulb went off and I'm like,
you know, we need to do a better job
of listening to our managers
and the community,
especially the ones that are successful.
Yeah.
And, and figure out
where are the disconnects
between corporate,
if you want to call it that,
you know, the mothership,
whatever, you know,
headquarters and the individual markets
because I do have,
you know, a full time,
a full team at,
in Phoenix,
I have SEO,
I've got PPC specialist,
I've got a web developer,
I've got two media buyers,
I've got, you know,
you know, data person,
the list goes on.
And then we've got these managers
that really have their finger
on the pulse of their market.
And then I have,
you know, five regional directors,
each of whom oversees,
you know, eight managers in a region.
So what we decided to do
to address those potential differences
and also to make sure the manager being heard
is we formed this,
like, I kind of like Congress, right?
So there's five groups,
five territory regions.
Each one has a Lex, a manager.
They now meet with the regionals
and my VP once a month
to share things that they think
should be addressed
or changed or improved upon.
And so they have a whole list
of things they're working on.
Is it perfect?
No, we still have work to do
because this is recent, right?
Yeah.
But the premise is,
let's obviously we have a certain,
certain things you got to do.
But then beyond that,
let's give some latitude to the managers,
especially once they've proven
that they're good and know what they're doing
to maybe make some changes
or tweaks to how things are addressed.
Yeah.
Especially if what they're doing
is already working.
I've always felt like this
when I think about like,
for instance, this podcast, right?
Once I started it
and I learned how to,
you know, manage audio
and things like that.
I'm like, all right,
now this is a well old machine.
It's working.
Well, that means I have time to breathe
and look at what the next step is going to be.
Right.
And while this thing's working,
it's not going to work like this forever
because the industry is going to grow
and I have to start working
on the next iteration of this.
So then it's like,
okay, now we got to figure out
how to get video in here.
So I have the comfort
and I've,
I've,
you know,
built a little bit of a nest egg,
if you will,
in time to be able to work out
the next kinks for the next phase.
So I would say that like,
in the world of marketing,
once you have something that works,
times change so fast
that you have to start thinking about the next
way you're going to go about it.
You know,
an algorithm on a,
on a social media platform
can be completely changed tomorrow.
Right.
And one day it's like,
you're supposed to hashtag
and the next day you're supposed to collaborate
and the next day you're supposed to do this.
And so in real time,
you see marketing strategies
have to end up changing
so quickly
through the social media world.
Well,
it's a little,
it takes a little bit longer,
I think in like,
in physical world,
right?
Going to dealerships
and things like that.
But what's funny,
it's funny because
that's another thing
you just brought to my attention.
So,
obviously YouTube just changed
where you can do collabs now.
So we're trying to take advantage of that
with our partners.
But,
you know,
when this company,
my company started,
it was grounded in shops,
events,
and some traditional,
which is traditional as billboards,
TV.
We've done more radio now
because it's,
we found some efficiencies
and endorsers
that are,
that are jocks.
But,
I was very hesitant
because I didn't understand social media
to jump in now we have,
but,
when we hire these marketing managers
and my senior guys,
when they started weren't,
my senior guys,
were not really adept at social media
because that wasn't a job requirement.
Yeah, yeah.
Up until,
you know,
really five,
six years ago.
So a lot of our old guard managers,
you know,
that weren't really adept at it,
it's been a challenge for them
to figure it out.
Now bringing on all these younger guys,
20s, 30s,
that,
they grew up with it.
So it's super easy for them
and they've really utilized it,
well.
And so now I see that in certain markets
and I'm saying to my VP
and my regionals,
well guys,
look all the cool shit we're doing here.
Now this guy may not be as well-versed,
but we got to get him up to a certain level at least.
Yeah, yeah.
But now the job requirement
of these managers isn't just
visiting shops,
going to events
and setting up branding,
it's putting out content
and finding partnerships
to help leverage those,
those opportunities.
Do you do like,
sorry to interrupt you,
but do you offer like maybe,
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Like bring in your managers to like
I know y'all do like a yearly deal
where you bring together,
but I'm asking this,
would you put some kind of courses
or some kind of education
on social media
to help, you know,
build some of their skills?
Because some of those dudes
that don't know social media,
they have,
they're really good at talking
and walking in
and starting a conversation, right?
So they have a skill too
that's still valuable, right?
100%.
Because some of the dudes
that are really good at social media,
they suck at real
and like having a personality.
Absolutely right.
So you can't have one-size-fits-all approach.
You're right.
I can't,
I got a guy that's really good,
you know,
I mean,
my new Arizona manager,
I mean, he's a character.
He loves,
he's a natural.
So if you take Graff, right?
He fits into that market well, right?
But if you take Graff
and you drop him into Kansas City.
Right.
Does he,
I mean,
I know he'll do well
whatever he does,
but does he fit that market
the same way that,
you know,
somebody else might probably fit
that market better?
Probably not.
Especially you put him in like,
you put him into like a Midwestern market,
let's say like we're in,
you know,
let me give you an example like Iowa.
I don't know if you,
if he would associate real well in Iowa,
but you know,
but even,
my,
even with him,
like he's got a personality,
but then Jay,
my other manager,
even though he's great with shops,
great with staff,
he's not like as comfortable
on social media.
So luckily in Arizona,
I have two.
Yeah.
You think kind of
a plough to the strengths,
right?
But in many of my markets,
I only have one manager.
So to answer your earlier question,
so we do have an annual
marketing manager summit
in Arizona,
three days.
And every year,
we do have some social media
focus,
but we're in the process right now
of bringing in,
bring on a new social media coordinator
in Giselle's with us.
She was great,
but I want someone in the
in the Phoenix office
because I want to
interfacing with my videographers,
with my SEO people.
I'm really pushing to,
to bring as many,
with the exception of regionals
and market managers,
all my other staff in-house
under one roof,
collaborating working together
because we're a marketing company.
So when that person comes on board
in the process of hiring now,
there will be more structured
curriculum and instruction
that we develop
to help managers.
We also have a new program
we instituted
or reinstituted
where we have the managers
now go visit each other
once a year.
They swap.
So you're so there
with someone once a year,
then someone's with them once a year.
And we're perfect.
We're going to put the stronger social media people
with those that aren't
as well-developed.
But yeah, we still have some work to do
in that regard.
But at the end of the day,
you're still going to have certain people
that aren't good with technology
or they're not good
in front of the camera.
And they're never going to be
an A plus player.
But if they're a D now
and I can get them to a B minus
or a B.
Yeah.
It's always about progression
and growth, right?
Like, you know,
maybe the generation before me
I guess you maybe even older than you.
Like, you didn't have to completely change.
You can get a job
and kind of just ride this out
till you, you know,
crash into the deal.
Right.
But now it's like every 10 years
it's almost like you have to either pick up
a new skill,
add a new layer to like your
your whatever,
you know what I mean?
To be a valuable asset
to yourself or other brands
or a job, you know?
I would argue as a CEO,
I got to do the same thing nowadays
because, you know,
I spent years
kind of behind the scenes
you know,
growing the brand.
I have a whole B2B side
with the VP Biz Development
where we find law firms
and want to join our program.
Yeah.
And so I've focused on that a lot.
But now my next kind of evolution
is I'm going to be doing more
forward-facing stuff
on social media.
Like we talked about
I'm going to have a series
on YouTube where we take clients
on rides.
Yeah.
Share their story.
Surprising with an influencer
or a bike builder
that they look up to.
And that's going to be part of our
our strategy.
But it's put,
it's humanizing my brand
because again,
I have lawyers across the country
that are part of our organization.
But I don't have one individual
that kind of
is kind of the face of the brand.
So me and my VP
are going to go on the road.
Yeah.
We already started it.
We're doing it this weekend
and we're going to
we love riding.
So we're just going to basically
showcase what we love to do
and bring people along the way,
both clients
along with friends in the industry.
And that's a pivot
which I wouldn't have been able to do
because years ago,
number one,
I didn't think it was important or necessary.
Number two,
I was focused on
the fundamentals of growing our business.
So I think everyone
needs to grow and progress.
Otherwise things become stale
and look, I'm
I got competition too.
I'm not impervious
to people coming in
and taking market share from
from me.
If we don't stay
on top of our game
and evolve
and move with the times
you just have to have to.
So what do you think like
and I'm
you guys support a lot of events that exist?
Has the idea of creating an event
ever come to the mind of you guys
since you're already so involved
in all these markets?
Maybe,
you know,
I guess getting into the event coordination
thing can be another layer
of like a pain in the ass.
Yeah.
But it seems like sometimes,
you know,
like, why not?
Like,
is that a possibility
or a thought?
We,
my dad
is kind of a showman.
He can send herself the PT bar
and he's little eccentric.
You know,
he likes dressing up
and you know,
used to dress up
and,
you know,
like a PT Barnum at events
and had the Tiger Tamer
Tiger uniform on.
He's dressed up in military gear
for Veterans Day.
So we put on,
when we first started in Arizona,
we put on Motorcycle Mania.
And I think this was before
Jesse James Motorcycle Mania.
And we called to that
and we invited,
we worked with the
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office,
Sheriff Joe
and he supplied the
the escort ride
and we had,
we gave to their burn camp
for kids that had been,
you know,
was really burned
and we had a huge event
downtown Phoenix
and Sheriff Joe
bring his tanks
and we'd be doing things
during Halloween.
So we have a theme of ghost theme.
Michelle Smith came one time.
We had the guy from,
we had different celebrities come
and so we put on our own event
for about six,
seven years
as we were building the brand.
And,
and so that's something we did.
It was a lot of work.
We kind of outgrew it
and we're like,
okay,
we're trying to focus
and expand across the country.
So we kind of gave it up,
but we've,
we've,
we've toyed with it.
Like I,
we approached the guys
from the Laugh and River
on years ago
about maybe buying that event
and taking it over.
I've had people,
you know,
in Arizona approached me
about maybe doing some stuff with them.
It's just our business,
our core business
is not being an event promoter.
And let's be honest,
most people that don't know this
running,
running events
is not generally
a profitable endeavor.
It's just,
it's a thankless job.
Yeah.
Now it's great that it happens
and someone needs to do it
because it brings people together,
but,
but it's a lot of work
and it's a make or break.
And if you have a bad year,
whether it's a weather
or downturn in the economy
or whatever,
it can,
it can break yet.
So I'd rather just spread
our investment
and our support
across a bunch of events.
Yeah.
But we don't write
mega checks
for,
for events.
Like I used to be the title sponsor,
lawyer sponsor,
the surges,
a surges rally with the city.
And I walked away after the first year
because
my competitor came in
and offered a bunch more money
and I didn't think it was worth it.
And so now we deal with
a bunch of small businesses,
landowners,
farmers,
business owners
and we just kind of do
you know inflatable hair
or a sign there
or vending there.
And,
and to me,
it's a much more efficient way
to brand and market
across the Black Hills
and giving one entity
or two,
saving the buffalo chip.
Great people.
I like Rod.
He's on the surges board with me.
He's on board and Hall of Fame with me.
But I'm not in a position
based on our
strategy
to put
a lot of eggs
in one or two baskets.
We work with Glencoe.
They're great.
But my investment of them
is a fraction of what
my competitor pays.
Okay.
Pays
the buffalo chip.
Now there are events
where we will make an investment.
It may not be what they want
or what a competitor is willing to pay.
They may be willing to pay more.
But it's got to make sense.
You know, you can't just
write a check for
20, 30, 40, 50 grand
or whatever.
You know, some of these other lawyers
and insurance companies do.
In fact, some of the insurance companies
write checks for 100, 150 grand
to be the title sponsor of
either an event or a campground.
Yeah.
To me, the economics don't work.
Yeah.
Because you're putting
a lot of money into something
and how many people
you're really reaching.
Yeah.
I'd rather give a small amount
or just be a vendor
or a small sponsor.
But brand the hell out of the place.
Yeah.
And also use
lever social media or my radio TV.
So there's different ways to do it.
We were really, you know,
I don't necessarily pat myself
always pat myself on the back
but my team and I are very good
at field marketing
when we used to do
the Texas event in Galveston.
Long story.
Long story.
We were sponsored with that
for one year too.
Generally, I sponsored an event
for one year and then
my competitors come in
and pay way way more
than we want to pay.
Yeah.
But we still figure a way
to like band at the event
through branding
around the perimeter or whatever.
Yeah.
But I learned when Budweiser
was there
that's probably 20 years ago,
15, 20 years ago.
They came in with a van
signed the shit out of the place
and I'm like,
we're doing that.
And that's our
that's our process now
for events
where we're allowed to do it
is whether it's on property
or around the perimeter
is just to have a lot
of branding elements.
mascot, inflatable signs,
tents, promotional items,
promo models.
And that's how
we really reinforce brand.
Now to your point,
we're really trying
to explain to people
who we are not now.
Not just what is law Tigers?
Yeah.
What do we do?
How do we help community?
Because the branding is only
one part of it.
Yeah.
It's like you got the attention
now now you get it.
Now you get a, you know,
this is what we do.
Glad you came.
And this is why I do stuff
like this with you.
Obviously, I'm enjoying
our conversation.
But I need people
to really understand
that we're not insurance company.
You really need to hire
an attorney,
even if it's not me.
Yeah.
Hire somebody
that's going to help
advocate on your behalf
because the insurance company
is not 60% of all
people call an insurance company
before they call alone.
And I guarantee you
most of them are not getting
near the value they could get
if they had an advocate on their side.
We can't always help everybody.
Sometimes limited injuries,
limited insurance.
I'll say to them,
look, just call your insurance company
because you look,
you got 25 grand in coverage.
The person that hits you
has no assets
or your injuries aren't that severe.
So we're going to
the insurance company
will give you some tips
and deal with them.
But we're not always going to be able
to help someone
if there's limitations
generally because of injuries.
Yeah.
So at that point,
you can kind of consult them
on what's probably
their best plan of action.
Yeah.
When some people call us
and some, you know,
there are times
where we can help
and we'll give them a letter
or tips, you know,
so that they can
deal with the insurance company.
But I can't tell
how many disappointed people
we encounter
that are hurt bad
and there's nothing
we can do
or any law firm can do
for that matter
because the other person
didn't have
any or enough insurance
or the person that
called us
didn't have
uninsured insurance.
Yeah.
I know I keep coming back to that,
but it's important.
Yeah.
Our buddy,
our mutual friend,
he actually
is the
taco,
MotoLoco taco.
So he's the one
that partnered
with you guys
in 805
to do the industry dinner
at Born Free.
Last year on our
we, I was already
in Sturgis
and we had a group
leaving to go to Sturgis
and he left his restaurant
and got
what,
a mile from the restaurant
and got
smacked by a chick
on her phone
not paying attention.
Was he okay
or not?
He messed his knee up
a little bit,
totaled the bike
and at the time
we,
I hadn't met
Gabriel yet,
but,
you know,
AK's
are got here.
So I think
that he ended up calling him
and had law tires,
you know,
kind of represent him
to my knowledge.
I don't know the depth
of the whole situation.
Sure, sure, sure.
But yeah,
he was pretty,
he was pretty messed up
for a while.
I'm telling you,
it happens a lot.
There are a hundred thousand
motorcycle injuries
and fatalities every year.
Damn.
Nationally, right?
Yeah.
Texas,
10,000,
California,
10,000
is approximations
Florida,
about 10,000.
Those are the big three.
Yeah.
Arizona,
we're around 3,000.
So you're,
you're,
you're concentrated.
Like,
I mean,
Arizona is a lot of open land.
So,
right,
Phoenix in that area
is pretty concentrated.
It is.
Yeah,
it is.
I mean,
I hear of an accident.
You figure 3,000.
That's,
you know,
that's
10 a day.
Yeah,
that's crazy.
That's a 9,10 a day.
Fatality rates,
nationally,
about one,
one and a half percent.
So,
figure 100,000.
There's about 1,000 to 1,500 people that die a year,
unfortunately,
from motorcycle accidents.
So,
it's a real thing.
Like I told you earlier,
about 100,000 registered,
I'm sorry,
10 million registered motorcycle,
Yeah.
Motorcycle,
motorcycles
throughout the,
throughout the country.
So,
you know,
you need,
you need to,
you need to be careful
and be vigilant.
And that's the other thing
we want to,
focus more on is like,
how do you prevent accidents
from happening, right?
Yeah.
You know,
left turns,
big one,
intersections,
huge.
We just were able to
Stacy and Adam
in the rain.
You know,
there's a lot of things
that we,
we're about to release
a,
a new video
that,
we're putting to,
James,
my video ever put together
that shows,
you know,
what can,
you know,
discussing ways to minimize
chance of being,
being in an accident
while riding in the rain.
But,
we've got a lot of obstacles
as riders
that we have to deal with
that motorists
don't.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So,
kind of pivoting a little bit
like talking more
about,
I guess,
the culture.
You know what I mean?
What do you,
like you,
you're in Arizona.
Arizona Bike Week
has been a rally
that's been around
for quite a while.
You mentioned
Laughlin River Run,
which no longer exists
to my knowledge.
Long by the way.
Yeah.
That's one of my favorites.
But you have the rally,
there's some rallies
I think will never go away.
You're never going to
get rid of Sturgis.
I think Laconia is embedded
into the culture there.
I think Daytona
kind of is.
It seems like
the city's growing.
It's kind of wanting
to push a lot of the bikes
up a little bit
out of the city.
Sure.
But,
you know,
it's there.
Phoenix
is kind of like Westworld.
You know,
Phoenix grew
in Westworld's
a small spot
and that's where
the rally was.
And now
you're kind of like,
and then you got guys
like Cruzy
that are doing
their own thing.
And then
Cave Creek's
doing its thing.
And you know,
and then,
you know,
you got Prescott
around the corner.
It's like,
Right.
What do you think
the state
of
rallies are
in the future
in 10 years
in motorcycling?
Or does things like
the Born Freeze,
the prowl,
these kind of things,
these smaller events
start to take
more market share
of like,
you know,
doing things.
You know,
people's attention.
It's a good question.
I think by the whole time.
So,
first talk
airs in a bike week.
So,
I used to be
a major sponsor
of that event
in
at Westworld.
My friend Brad
who
passed away
was the
was the major owner
of that,
Brad Bennett.
And
it's,
you know,
I don't want to disparage
the event,
but it's not
what it used to be.
Well,
you could kind of say that
like we were talking
about the marketing strategy.
Yeah.
All the years
it was doing good.
They had the
they should have been
figuring out
how do we
what's it going to be?
Yeah,
and you're right.
And there was some
talk about it.
And when Brad was alive,
he's like,
okay,
I'm going to do up top
where it's,
where it's free
for,
you know,
the vending at least.
And I'm going to,
you know,
they talked about bringing
in some flat track racing
because there's
a little horse track there.
So they were thinking
about it,
but you're
somewhat hamstrung
at Westworld.
Yeah.
And so,
you know,
it really,
it's now a lot of concerts
at night.
And then
some vendors,
but I think
the good news is
because that
was so
stagnant.
Mm-hmm.
It's being honest.
And we're still a vendor there.
Yeah, yeah.
Just not a sponsor.
Others saw an opportunity
to really do something else.
So,
obviously Mark,
friend of mine,
that owns a hideaway in the
Roadhouse,
he's been doing his thing
for a while.
Yeah, he's,
it's always been a part of it.
Yeah,
it's always been a part of it.
And it's got his
whole thing there,
which I like
because it's
kind of
one area,
got that street there.
But Cave Creek also,
you know,
sometimes
the city,
like,
I can't put an inflatable up,
tear drops up.
Like,
they're super strict on that.
But we still support,
you know,
Mark's events.
And,
you know,
we do all three of his
big events every year.
We have,
yeah,
I give him barstools,
signs permanently there.
Like I said,
great guy.
We've got a really solid
friendship and partnership.
So that's consistent.
But he's always
wanted to work
with theirs
on a bike week people.
But,
you know,
there's not on the same page,
the people that own it now.
I think one gal now
owns it.
His,
his,
mother of his children,
Brad's,
mother of Brad's children.
So,
she's kind of running the show
now.
Cruisy approached us last year.
It's like,
look,
I want to do this new thing.
And so we did sponsor that.
And it's probably
the biggest,
one of the biggest sponsors
that we do in the country.
Yeah.
Well,
sponsoring like stunt riding,
it's,
it's,
it's expensive to put on.
Yes.
Stunt.
Yeah.
I mean,
there's a lot of insurance involved.
There's a lot of permitting
and things like that.
So,
yeah,
but the vibe,
I mean,
it was awesome.
I was there.
It was like,
energy and fun and youth.
And,
you know,
I got in the drift car with them
and drifted and there's low riders,
it was popping on.
That to me is what it should be,
not going to an event,
you know,
random vendors,
many of which aren't even motorcycle related
and concerts by second rate bands
that,
you know,
are halfway in the grave.
Nope.
Yeah.
No,
no,
not,
not to,
you know,
be an asshole,
but that's what that is.
I mean,
so
I think that's the future.
Incorporating stunts,
you know,
incorporating action sports with the motorcycle bike shows
and with even other culture,
low rider meets,
you know,
yeah,
American beat twin.
That's really what it is,
right?
Modern culture deserves a lot of props.
You know,
we sponsor stuff with them in Colorado too
and it's not cheap,
but it's the future.
So,
I like that.
Same,
the proud.
We sponsored the proud.
Now,
I know they're going to take a break because this
because Bisbee's given him a hard time.
Unfortunately,
but that to me is like born free back in the day,
right?
Yeah,
born free was until it grew and become more popular,
right?
Which happens.
It's just when something's a nature of something that
works well,
100%.
Yeah.
Yeah,
it's good.
Yeah.
Thanks.
So I like that.
And I think,
you know,
it's old,
it's new,
right?
We talked about that earlier with flames.
I think,
you know,
if you can go back to the what what these rallies
used to be simplicity,
simplicity,
cool bikes,
not everyone's got a 50,000 on motorcycle like guys
that are coming there on their shovels and,
you know,
put all their money into it.
And yeah,
and it's about the passion of the bike and the culture
and just having a good time.
I like that.
And I think that's why born free has become what it is
today.
But again,
it's just any anything that's that's cool and
people want to be at eventually will will become
commercialized to some degree.
It's unavoidable.
Yeah.
So I hopefully more of that stuff to answer your
question.
But,
you know,
that's why I'm doing more and more social media and
more and more stuff like this because
the audience at events is small.
It's like less than 1% of rider like,
yeah,
you know,
you literally look at it.
It kind of goes back to what we were talking about
like like you don't support the magazine because
you you think it's going to get you a lot of return
on investment.
You support the magazine because that supports
the culture.
100% right.
And without the YouTubers,
the magazines,
the photographers,
the events,
right?
And we don't have anything to do with these
bikes.
We don't have we don't have a reason to
customize it.
If there's no show to take it to
100% or no magazine to showcase it or a
YouTuber that wants to do a bike check walk around.
I agree.
I mean,
so all these things kind of work together to
create the culture.
Right.
And if you're only taking from the culture by
extracting the most financial gains out of it,
then you're kind of robbing the culture of
the ability to exist and therefore you're
going to dry it out.
It's just going to be a useless marker.
You know what I mean?
I agree.
And you know,
I give Jordan a lot of props.
He you know,
took over this magazine.
He's not making a ton of money.
I mean,
he's got core sponsors and advertisers like
me and there's Motul and,
you know,
Saddleman and Trask and,
you know,
and that because they're like minded.
They want to support what he's doing and
this Tory did.
I talked to him.
In fact,
we're friends and I'm like,
how much you're going to lose on this
hop bike tour?
He's like,
hopefully not too much.
He's like,
I'm super stressed.
But putting on a traveling motorcycle
event,
you know,
he's doing it because it promotes culture.
It's obviously good,
you know,
for his brand.
But the other day,
it's a lot of work and it's not like he's going to be
making a bunch of money by,
you know,
taking people on the road from,
but it's it was to me a great experience to ride,
hang out.
And so I think there needs to be more of that.
I mean,
even the easy rider tours,
those were great back in the day.
I missed those too.
Yeah,
those,
but I don't think what people realize is these are not
generally profitable endeavors.
So someone's going to have to be willing to do it.
And it's it's a lot of work.
You know,
you know how this,
but I guess I'm saying to the audience listening,
like it is fucking expensive to do an indoor anything.
Yeah,
insurance,
usage of the of the of the space,
advertising,
staffing,
security parking.
Oh,
it's like,
you know,
it's it's it's crazy the cost to put on events.
And unfortunately,
it's just,
you know,
I had a guy call me a month ago and they are two months
was like, Look, I need some help.
We do this thing where you kind of ride on your own and you
hit milestones.
It's like kind of an iron butt type thing on your own.
He's like,
we're nonprofit.
We don't do this to make money and and the insurance company
won't underwrite anymore.
If if we have people go across state lines because we get
an accident associated with our event,
even though it's self driven self guided,
we can get sued and he's like,
we don't know what to do.
And so ultimately they had to stop doing the event
because they couldn't afford the liability insurance.
It's like a bureaucratic kind of death of things.
You know,
I'm saying tape is it's it's but so have you been to mama tried
yet?
I haven't.
I have my guys in there,
but I haven't been there.
That's one of my favorite events and and I love it
because it's in the winter.
Yeah.
So I'm not thinking about my bike trip down like I cannot
wait to get to this amazing city.
Sure.
It's probably going to be covered in snow.
Sure.
And just be a part of it.
You know,
and but I to kind of go to what we're talking about,
they do it in a really,
really cool venue and it's everywhere you look.
If you're a photographer,
videographer,
you have the best backgrounds for your content you're
making,
right?
Oh,
nice.
But I feel like it's so busy.
It's so so many people come that it's busting at
the seams of like,
you know,
it's hard to kind of walk around there on Saturday
because it gets so packed that I'm the next level
up of a venue is going to be like a the same place
you know that they do the computer show as my buddy
from heavy talks about it.
Sure.
It's like what's cool about like the one moto show
or you know,
we Southern throw down is an event that they now do
at Yellow Rose were born Frias,
but it used to be in downtown Dallas at the bomb factory
and that was an experience.
Right.
But now a lot of things are getting moved to like,
you know,
fields and outside and it kind of it's still bad ass
and fun,
but there is something about that January like a
we would always have the international motorcycle show
would come to doubt.
That's IMS show and it was always in January and we
would piggyback off that event and host a party
every year.
Yeah,
because I'm like,
okay,
everybody's in town.
Right.
You know,
after you walk that show in 10 minutes,
let's go party.
Let's go get together and network and and community,
you know,
have conversations and stuff.
So I like Donnie Smith.
I want to go to that show.
Yeah,
we that's that's another one we do sponsor.
Neal is awesome and Donnie's awesome.
They're the partners they put on the show and we were
fortunate enough to knock out a competitor once we came
back into the market.
Yeah.
And it's all it's a great partnership like they give
us a great location line on my VP does radio spots
for them and TV.
We co-market together and people are excited because
they've been cooped up for the whole winter and
this cool bike builds and bike shows and you know,
I get to get hang out with.
Is it right before or right after Daytona?
I think it's it's March March.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I think it's before I think it's before Daytona.
Yeah.
It's right before it was on a bike week actually.
It's like the week where it's on a bike.
Yeah.
That's a challenge for some people that need to
get to both.
But yeah,
so we have our whole,
you know,
we do don't I'm a hamster.
So so I do we get to do like Donnie Smith's
birthday and we get to hang out with other,
you know,
with each other.
So that one to me,
when our nationals is always yeah,
kickoff to my season.
I really enjoy you know,
I sometimes do fall foliage.
They've enjoyed a pair which is event.
It's a hamster event.
I didn't make it this year,
but I've done it the past three years.
Yeah.
My challenge is,
you know,
I got a balance like running a company with trying to
attend events.
You know,
there's an event every weekend.
Yeah.
So I'd like to do Mama try.
I'd like to do the one show.
I haven't done those yet.
Like to go do the Harley Davidson annual thing.
They do a homecoming you know,
I've done most of the others,
but I also have to go to lawyer events,
which is a completely different thing.
You want to talk about like,
you know,
a complete opposite like dichotomy.
It's like you're talking about like,
you know,
lawyer event,
you know,
in Miami,
for example,
or Vegas,
where these are strip clubs.
You know,
no,
not quite.
But so I do those because that's where we try to
find like-minded lawyers.
Yeah.
We want to partner with us on our program.
So I got those to go do and then I'm a big
work-life balance guy.
So my wife and I travel,
go on vacations and stuff.
So I'm not all about just work to me.
Yeah.
Life's too short and and you know,
I don't,
I don't,
I work to live.
I don't live to work.
You know,
the way my wife and I do it now is like our vacation
is the places we stay on the way to the events.
That's cool.
Like we're on our way to Sturgis.
Well,
let's go to Colorado first.
They're on the way back,
you know.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It,
you know,
it's staying relevant in this industry
when you don't have an online store to sell anything.
Right.
You got to be at things.
You got to show up.
You have to,
you know,
you have to build things and take it and be seen in real life.
And you know,
I'm not complaining about that.
I enjoy the way my life is,
but you know,
it's not a profitable like,
right?
You know,
it's profitable enough to keep the machine oil.
Right.
But you're not like,
you're not making.
Yeah.
I'm not going to get a speedboat next week.
What's funny,
you mentioned that because I have this company,
Paul Yaffe all the time
and he used to set up at Sturgis.
And he's like,
man,
I got to bring like the traveling show.
I got to ring like all the stuff to set up.
I got to pay for a space generally.
Uh,
if he's in one of the areas where a lot of foot traffic is at,
he's got to,
you know,
bring a step either higher staff or bring staff
that would normally be working back at home base
plus hotel,
plus food.
He's like,
just to break even,
I got to do like a hundred grand in sales
and most transactions don't happen there
on this on site.
Unless you bring teams that can install
as an incentive,
you get free.
But so you got to ship product there.
So generally,
most of these companies that are there that are doing
that kind of work aren't making,
you know,
well,
for brands itself,
you know,
thrashing does a good job of this.
It's like most sales take place online,
right stage,
right?
And the thing is like with when you look at an event
like Sturgis that started in this city and is now got
a 300 mile radius of things going on.
Right.
Well,
it's the Sturgis mafia pushed everything out.
Right.
Right.
And so to be in the city,
like you got to be a major brand.
You got to be an Indian,
a Harley,
you know,
I wonder if Indians going to be able to afford it now
that they,
you know,
they got a new thing going on.
They had that Polaris money for a while.
So it's like,
we'll see what that new,
but that bottom is going to do.
Yeah.
What if if you push out all of the substance
from the rally?
Yeah.
And they now have to be at these gas stations in the
middle of,
you know,
on at the end of spearfish or,
you know,
in Deadwood or,
you know,
tucked deep into one of the campgrounds,
you know,
north of Sturgis.
Then what is this now?
Is this the knife in the LED show and and and the
400 pinstripers and not to talk shit about it.
I don't like that.
Right.
I'm not going to Sturgis to see the pinstriper.
I'm going to Sturgis to see Yaffe's new build.
Right.
And then ride these hills and then
you know,
I want to see that part of it.
You know,
Main streets,
mostly just t-shirt vendors.
Yeah.
I mean,
let's be honest in a few bars.
I mean,
that's up and down.
Yeah.
There's a few,
you know,
like Knight Rider and some other guys,
but yeah,
it's mostly just Chachkees,
you know.
Yeah.
But we actually identified,
I identified with my team years ago that
it has expanded.
So we have signage and branding with like a hundred
mile radius,
because riders don't just stick to Sturgis.
They go Deadwood League.
Devil's Tower.
Custer.
Yeah,
I have we have shit there.
Yeah.
Devil's Tower.
So so wherever riders are,
we try to have some visibility,
but but yeah,
I'm very fortunate.
We have like,
you know,
our members,
you know,
our team of lawyers pay a co-op budget and we are,
you know,
kind of they pool money and we use that for Sturgis.
But really,
it's heavily about branding and then we do put out like
we put out 60,000 multi tools.
I had a great team.
Yeah.
Distributing.
I mean,
I sponsor all the stuff at,
you know,
the Thunderdome with Cruzy.
Yeah,
it was awesome.
You know,
Dustin LFG and Taylor,
Shifter Crew.
And yeah,
and that's what we're more transitioning towards now is stuff
like that.
We partner with the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of
Fame,
of which I'm on the board.
So we have a vending spot there.
We do the industry breakfast.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we give away an award to someone that's had an
impact in the community and we have our inflatable on
the roof there.
And so to me,
those strategic partnerships are way more impactful and
fun.
You know,
I got to hang out and watch,
you know,
watch a stunt show and talk to a bunch of guys and at that,
at that,
and we help kind of facilitate that whole vending area and
that's helping other businesses.
Plus,
you know,
it's a great opportunity to showcase what we're doing.
To me,
you want to get people that aren't there to see what
you're doing so that you can entertain them and also
inform them and just kind of grow your,
your,
you know,
grow your audience,
if you will,
of people that are kind of just wanting to see what's
going on if they're not there.
You know,
that's,
that's more of the approach we're taking now.
So we're doing reels and instead of doing like recap
videos at the end,
we're doing more stuff real time.
Yeah.
Just so people can kind of get a sneak peek into what
they're missing out on and hopefully one of these days
they'll go themselves because they've seen all the cool
shit they missed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not being there.
So yeah.
Yeah.
It's like a long time ago.
We used to have to wait like three months to see
all the cool cars from SEMA.
Right.
And now it's like as soon you see them,
you see the Instagram stories and all the stuff
in real time.
Right.
So it's a it is cool.
Like I do enjoy that,
but it does kind of take away a little bit of a like a
man over here was shooting film earlier.
Right.
There's something about that.
It really is primal.
Sure.
When you shoot that you're like,
I don't know if I got anything good and then you
get developed and it's kind of nowhere near as good
as your digital camera.
You're like,
I fucking love this thing right now.
I love this,
this shot.
Yeah.
It's special to me.
And so there's some kind of appreciation that comes
with like,
Yeah.
Not the instant thing.
What's a two way street?
Right.
I mean you have that but then then you become your
brain becomes trained to want like instant gratification.
I get pissed when I go on Amazon and it's not next day.
I'm like,
what the fuck is this world we live in?
Right.
I know.
And I get and I get it tomorrow.
What the hell?
You know,
but that's the world we live in.
And then so and then as a marketer,
you got to you got to think yourself.
Okay.
Well,
how do I adapt to that so that I am,
you know,
like we were pretty good at covering day by day on
the HupAke tour,
but some of the stuff kind of missed the vote and
getting published.
So we publish it after and obviously kind of by that
point,
they've kind of everything's moved on.
So you really have to be mindful of timeliness and you
know,
striking while the iron's hot and but that's why like what
we do here and what we do back at our office with
podcasts to me.
This is like kind of old school.
It's like long form conversation.
Yeah.
It's not like your typical talk shows on TV where
you get five minutes and there's no substance and
it's,
you know,
there becomes more of an agenda based on the short
form stuff.
Like you have a message to get out and I mean,
you had you have a message to get out here,
but at the same time,
there's also like,
we got to talk about the main course meal here,
but let's have some appetizers.
Yeah.
Let's maybe a little dessert.
You want to drink?
Let's get a drink.
You know what I mean?
And that's the conversation, right?
Yeah,
a hundred percent.
And you know,
I think,
you know,
it's important for me to understand like,
yeah,
this is my business,
but I'm like,
you know,
a passionate writer.
I've got a bunch of motorcycles and I love to ride and
and you know,
it's not just about the business of law,
the business that we do.
It's,
it's,
you know,
I genuinely love riding motorcycles and hanging out with
my friends and just being part of this,
this culture that you know,
when I'm out of the office sitting on a ride and hop
by tour or riding like we're going to do in the next
couple of days with blockhead and you know,
going to born free like to me,
you know,
just I'm like,
I'm really lucky that I'm able to do this.
Yeah,
you know,
whether it's for,
you know,
work or just pleasure,
you know,
I go and ride with my hamster buddies to Laconia and
disturb just every year.
You know,
it's like,
yeah,
it's it's a little bit of work,
but it's a lot of fun too.
And where else can you do that where you can blend,
you know,
what you do for a living and what your passion is?
Well,
that many of the double-edged sword though,
right?
You know,
because what over the course of years of doing this
podcast when you would sit down with people that
have been in here for a long time or into the industry
a long time,
they built a lot of bikes.
Sometimes they you the industry will grind you down
and you won't enjoy motorcycles the same way
you you once did when you started your motorcycle
brand,
right?
Right.
So it is,
I think the commonality that I always found in all
these individuals when they would have that more
doom and gloom attitude towards attitude towards
motorcycling is because they stopped riding.
Sure.
They Sturgis became a place to sell something.
That's it.
The events was only I only went there because I
need to make money.
I don't go there because I enjoy motorcycles.
And so they doubled down on the part of it.
They don't like as much as doubling down as they
should have double down on what they loved.
Right.
Right.
So Yaffe,
I did a podcast with him early on and he,
you know,
after he told us that he designed the cowboy cheer
leaders boots he talks about like I try to ride
the Sturgis every year.
I can because it keeps me happy and loving these
things because when you're leading up to an event
and it's it's all hands on deck and there's every
problem can go wrong.
You hate these motherfuckers.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like they they bring you a lot of grief and it's
the ride.
Right.
The the the finishing of the project that gives
you that.
Oh man, I fucking did it.
You know, you're absolutely right.
Yeah.
You know a couple people have done it right.
Like Paul,
he and he and I have been together now like six,
seven years.
And he's not he's not as focused on like I guess
that even I think last year I don't think even had
a booth and he just said he just rode and enjoyed
himself but even Trask he's got he's he's got
a pretty dialed in like he's got a team and
they you know so he can still go ride and
enjoy himself.
So I think there is a way to do that where
either you just don't set up or you have a
good team that can kind of run run the for you
and that's fortunately my case.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But that wasn't always the case when I first set up
in Sturgis 15 years ago when I say 16 years
ago I had to be on the booth.
I had to pass it out.
I had to make sure things were working properly.
But as we've grown and evolved and brought
on more team members now I literally check
and stop by the booth maybe two or three times
for just to hang out with the guys a little
bit hang out you know just check things out
but generally I'm just going to you know we
sponsor charity rides and events I do
that you know I do a presentation of
Sturgis motors like I mean the Hall of Fame
and award.
So now I get to do I do some of the
hamsters and stuff but to me that's why
I enjoy it because I'm not yeah any longer
going there to work but I did it for a
while so I can appreciate both sides.
Yeah exactly.
But yeah once it becomes like a job
and that passion is gone then I think it's
time to move on either you know you got
to figure out some some other.
Yeah 100% otherwise you're just you're
just miserable and you're why do it if
it's not fun.
Yeah so what what was the inspiration
to kick off your own podcast and start
doing that was it you know or I'm
I don't know let me think I'm trying
to think so I'd seen a few of them
that I'd been on and I bought a
building about three years ago and we
had this one space in this building at
the Scottsley air park and the reason I'm
in the air park is because we sell
promotional items to my member firms
and the managers give them out chotch
keys all the stuff for the shops for
events so this building I bought had
this really cool curved section and
it was and it's a space in there and
I'm like you know this is kind of a
dead space it's kind of got a cool
vibe to it and so I said we got the
space I see that this is a thing I'm a
big Joe Rogan fan and I said maybe we
can do something where you know it gives
me up to meet new people and also get
to know those that I know even better
and I have the space for it and like
let's be honest it's it's also I think
a good way to you know keep your
brand out there right yeah in a not
in an overt way because look it's
called motorcycle Mavericks it's not a
it's not you know the law tiger podcast
now it is powered by law tigers and I
wear you know I do have motorcycle Mavericks
hats I'll wear but I'll wear a lot
tiger shirt once a while yeah but you
know we just recently in fact started
James recommendation running like a
30-second kind of thing every 30
minutes where I just talk about what we
do so that at least people understand
there's some association with it but
yeah but really it just gives me a
chance to to learn more about people in
the industry and and you know chill out
and have a good time and yeah it's been
fun I don't know if it's has any
commercial benefit to be honest with you
yeah it's tough I mean it's anything I
was definitely into Rogan I still am
and then basically I'm like man I you
know because when we started the
podcast the only other podcast that
was around was my buddy danger Dan yeah
and he's kind he helped me get it
started he just lives here in Dallas
too so he covered more the chopper world
and I kind of covered more of the you
know the motorcycle industry and more
modern stuff and I've kind of now I'm
all over the place now but um yeah it's
it's a I what I was getting at was like
at the time I felt like eventually
almost every brand's gonna have to
have some version of this the same
way almost every brand has to have
like a social media or whatever sure
yeah it not every brand obviously but
like if you're a part of a community or
you you provide a service or product or
something it's like you know it seems
like you kind of have to have it now
you know I would argue everyone I was
at a maybe it's a youtube channel now
more than a podcast but on the game
are on on that level but the but the
podcast we shoot is for you to long
form and then we take short segments
and we use it for social media on
Instagram and Facebook so it is part
of a marketing strategy yeah but you
know I was just at a lawyer convention
in Phoenix last week and a lawyer got up
and spoke just a general PI lawyer not
no niche like us and he's like we now
have a social media person director
marketing videographer photographer and
he says and I think it's the ones
that are progressive that are doing that
he's like we spend less money on
traditional marketing now because it's
a crowded space and he says we do
30 pieces of content a week and this is
just a general PI lawyer he's got a
full marketing team now we can afford it
because he's a successful lawyer but he
said we pivoted like five four five
years ago and now realized you know the
new currency the new which is which is
really it's the attention right yeah
is is on social media is online and so
I've realized that a long time ago I
just wasn't quite sure how to how to
deal that out but that's why now
I'm about to hire a data analyst and I'm
hiring a brand strategist and we have
two full-time video team members and
social media person because to me
that's where we need to go where the
people are at people are our audience
our potential clients who are writers
are there on YouTube and Instagram and
Facebook and Reddit and and several
others take talk now so it's such a
fragmented media market now but you have
to be where people are or they're not
going to see you yeah and for me TV
radio outdoors great but it's very broad
and I'm competing with every other
general PI lawyer in the space so you
need to do both yeah and that's where
okay well what do you spend then how
to allocate that's where measurement
and tracking and you know we're
getting better at that and the
technical side the back end of things
you know using HubSpot we have my
manager on Salesforce but we're going to
phase them into HubSpot so everyone's
using HubSpot but if you have the
ability to measure and look at insights
and trends and attribution as much as
possible that means directly
directly attributable right so now that's
the next thing I'm trying to work on
is is being more refining our
processes and measuring yeah and
figuring out kind of where are we
seeing the best having the most impact
but it's an ongoing process you know
yeah it's a it's a deep wormhole or
rabbit hole or whatever fucking animal
you want to have yeah I don't know what to call
and we only I mean look we have a
well-known brand but I don't have
unlimited budgets I mean I don't I mean
my members each have a marketing
budget locally and we are good stewards
of that budget and I have some co-op
dollars but because we're so niche
and because our volume is not what a
general personal injury lawyer is
accustomed to it's all relative to
budgets like so you know if I'm a big
you have like the hammer here I think
and the Texas hammer Texas hammer who's
the other big guy here I saw so you have
Jim Adler Jim Adler yeah which is the
Texas hammer there's I'm thinking of
all the jingles in my head over the
years
uh fuck yeah I see I see the billboards
all yeah I mean you have you're like
Phoenix there's a million here so the
top guys in Dallas are probably
spending be on on outdoor probably
I know in Phoenix the top guys are
spending 400,000 a month on outdoor a
month yeah so it's probably equivalent
here close
not just outdoor on television probably
another four or five hundred a month so
so double so you're looking at TV radio
I'm sorry radio TV outdoor probably
eight to ten million a year yeah the
top guys and then they probably spend
another million on radio
so maybe ask this question
and it's kind of weird because I'm on I'm
kind of in this category so if you were
to take a fraction of that yeah and
invest into say a podcast or a
YouTuber whatever and gave them the
opportunity to grow themselves to
another level yeah you could possibly
see more of a targeted return on
investment in that way right versus
like I mean I know what billboards
cost I mean right and I know that
shit ain't cheap and I know it does
work because I always get fucking
this advertising work just did I'm like
god damn it you know I mean yeah yeah
those billboards that like they get you
like that to want to do it but at the
end of the day like could what you
spend on radio which I haven't heard
a radio and I mean
since Pandora sure you know podcast
and YouTube and the fact that like I
can you know I pay for premium
stuff so I can turn my phone off and
sure I don't know I'm you listen to the
rate it's like when you watch a
commercial on TV like holy shit like
I'm kind of interested in these I haven't
seen one of these in years you know
saying well radio like we have you
know a lot of the shops will bring
we'll have like classic rock stations
yeah true yeah so we do some radio and
and there's some metrics behind it
but that's not our only strategy and
it depends on the market but
um tn she requires you yeah I mean
you can diversify and save money
because my point is our budgets are like
a fraction of those yeah so that's why
we have you know five or six brand
ambassadors that we work with and we
may expand that next year but they
still have to deliver and provide
value right but that's why we're
running more and more now YouTube ads
like but they're not going to be just
ads or testimonials or content we
capture in the community and then we
you know they they're they're an ad
but they don't look like an ad kind of
you know yeah yeah for subliminal yeah
but uh but to me that's the game changer
for us is now that you've got
targeting and all these tools that
YouTube offers and Instagram and reddit
and I mean we're just looking to reddit
today I think they got our motorcycles
got like four million people behind
it there's riders subscribers whatever
you want to call it but but to me
that's going to be where the big
push is with our localized budgets
is taking more from traditional and
shifting it into uh into that but
we have to change out the ads way more
often too so don't get stale
our our frequency caps are like three so
we don't want people seeing it on
average more than three times the same
ad yeah
so but again the good news is you know
there's like I went and looked at like
the top 200 YouTube motorcycle channels
and now we serve ads on those right
along with some behavioral stuff that
suggests they're into riding yeah
so we just started doing a couple
months ago and I have a new paid
paid ads digital guides guy
and we're really going to play that out
but my videographers my social media
person have to come up with new ideas
so that a new content so we're feeding
that every month we change out with
new yeah yeah
but that's I think what's going to
really lend itself to our long-term
success and growth is the fact that
it's way more like targeted um
than traditional traditional advertising
but I don't think we'll ever
gravitate completely away from
traditional because let's look billboard
I still run billboards and
and we've we're in a lot of markets
people see our billboards because you
have a tiger head we just redesigned them
and move the tiger over made it bigger
simplified the messaging even more
and that has impact compared to some
guy some middle-aged dudes head sitting
there yeah hammer so
you know but you have to be you know
mindful you can't just buy two or three
billboards you know
in most markets we've got to have at
least 10 sometimes 20 or 30
but the big boys are have like a
hundred or more yeah
so um it's just it's just you know
working with what we have in terms
of budgets
and then trying to squeeze as much
opportunity and value i've got some
my media buyer she's a grinder you know
gal from uh gal from new york and
and she's she used to buy from Mercedes
and
big brand Hyundai uh when she worked for
began you see
so she's taken her expertise and i've
gotten her some software that allows
her like drive down costs and
and really get more yeah for the
money
with our limited budgets so that's
back to having good people
people right seats uh and and you know
i'm going to implement eos next year
which is a whole operating system for
running
running a business just to refine my
systems and processes even more yeah
just so there's more structure and
and a little more accountability when
it comes to
all the team members since we keep
growing and getting more people but
it's
as you know my job is to is to be
the visionary and to make sure that
people feel appreciated and also
that we're
we're evolving and growing and
improving and ultimately serving the
needs not only of
the riding community but my member firms
that
yeah us to
to drive value and drive business to
them
so that they see
that's what yeah and like i said it
you know
getting to know gave is what opened me
up to really wanting to be a part of
working with you guys and stuff like
that
but i'm also always i've always been
a proponent of like the things that
i see
going back to what we said earlier
things people brands entities things
putting stuff back on the table for the
community to have
existence you know sure and it you know
it's important
it's very important to me because i
understand
that aspect of it i got to go to easy
rider shows right when it traveled i
see
and now it's gone
i i was a part of the biker build
off whenever i mean i was on camera
but when they did rick's thing back
in 2004 i'm right there
fucking
sure
you know right
so
i get i saw all these things that
existed that don't exist for
us now right right and so i'm way more
aware when i see
something
putting
money and energy back into this this
industry this community
and uh and i like well shit i got to
support that you know what i mean
yeah and
you know like uh i mean you guys have
been with adam for a very long time
right and i've known adam for a
long time
and
you know we did our camp out up there
like i my my policy was no vendors
ever yeah i didn't want i wanted
like you there sure but as our
re right you know right right you know
i wanted you know the brands that we
worked with to come and just be a part
of this thing sure because i felt like
you can build a cult like audience
or following by being the guy drinking
moonshine around the fire right the
guys
that now they go home the next day
like you know what i fuck with that
brand right you know that's true
that's true they didn't even sell me a
product we didn't talk about but i
like that person right humanized
right and that's why it's so
important for us to like bring on
the right managers which
i'm really i tell my my vp line on my
regionals look higher you know you could
guys can learn but if they don't have
the right personality or the right
mindset
but they're not here for the right
reasons then we we we got a pass on
yeah we brought on a lot you know
with friends of probably a couple of
games friends now work with us of
course
uh which is great because you know
obviously if he's going to vouch for
him
you know that that goes a long way
when you have a good guy that's
doing well and he tells
you know says i got another guy
guy from oregon we just hired he's with
friends with the group uh
like i said arizona san diego i think
this
florida
so a lot of the new guys that bring on
it's what excites me is they are so
like entrenched in the community
and they are progressive and they are
willing to embrace social media and
and do things that you know ultimately
and look it pays off i mean we're
crushing it in san diego right now
yeah crushing it uh and when i say
that you know i don't mean it in
a disrespectful way it's just
we're having it's
i've had some really good years there
where
where we've grown our business and
and game deserves a lot of credit for
that and yeah we have a number of
markets like that even here in dalis
we've done quite well so
you gotta have good good people
representing your brand and i'm i'm
this is why i'm you know i have like
this
after 25 years now i'm reinvigorated
i'm not doing new things i'm getting
to ride
and experience stuff like this with
you
and hang out and and and really be
come back to being you know just
ari not the lot tiger guy yeah you know
and uh and i'm looking forward to doing
more stuff like that um
where my passion and my hobby is kind of
intertwined with my business it's
it's literally a work-life balance
right yeah but your your hobby is your
you know your work yeah yeah it's gonna
be careful because my wife's not part
of it so
she's not into motorcycles like i am
so
can't go too far the other way yeah
i'll be divorced yeah that's the
other side of the balance you're
bouncing
five different things on your limbs
yeah but hey uh man i i really enjoyed
this we have to do today i know we do
we got something going on i think a
kickoff party or something kickoff
party we got to go to and then we got
born free and you got a lot of stuff
going on yeah
but you know uh i i'm glad that we
were able to do this and i think
it's it's important for you know as
law tires has been sponsoring this
podcast sure i wanted my audience to
hear
you it at least you thank you to
understand like why i you know not
saying i chose but why i wanted to be
part of this you know i'm saying and um
you know give people an understanding of
what what you do what it's about when
they need to you know just educate
them right of course yeah you know yeah
and so that's i think we've done that
and uh i'm ready to ready to start
this whole born free texas thing off
now i appreciate that and if anyone
ever does have questions and you see
me or my team out and about
don't hesitate to come up to us and
say hey can you explain that insurance
thing to me or
you know i have a question on a legal
quite whatever i mean we're here to be
a resource we're not just here to give
away free shit right yeah you know free
shit's great but we want people to be
like well insured and well informed
and and that's why my team does what
they do so you know whether it's me
and if you can call them call one
hundred law tires and you know if you
need to talk to me or my team
members uh and you have a question
on on something that we can be
helpful of please let us know yeah
same thing for the industry if you're
looking for you know my team is probably
going to shoot me for this but if you're
looking for some support i can't
guarantee we're going to give it to you
or we're going to give you what you
want but we'll consider it so if you
are you know somebody it's in this
industry that maybe wants us wants to
work with us there's no harm in asking
and yeah we we accept a lot of stuff
and not we don't accept everything but
because we only have so much money to
go around and time but but i want
people to understand that we are
open-minded to to new
opportunities as well to support
whatever they're doing cool well aria
appreciate it my yeah thank you for a
lunch yeah uh yeah i'm ready i'm ready
to do it let's let's go let's go hit it
and uh go celebrate and have some fun
with uh with rick and uh lina and the
whole crew over at uh strokers i want
to see my tie-dye inflatable i i got
for them on the roof i haven't seen it
yet it's pretty well this is cool
thanks man thanks for that
who i want to thank aria for that
good time on the podcast educating us
on how this all works with the
insurance companies the the way the
lawyers can help you and uh how this
all pretty much just goes down i want
to thank him i also want to thank law
tires in general just for all the
support they've gave they've given us
over this past year on the podcast
it helps us keep this show going along
with things like our patreon which if
you're not on go check it out there's
a link in the description uh five
dollars a month gets you access to
another podcast that we do only on
patreon the garage talk i'll be
honest we've been slack on that for the
last couple of months while i was
building these motorcycles getting
ready for born free texas but uh we got
a recent episode we just dropped um
it's there for you there's plenty
other ones there for you if you're a
new subscriber uh if you're an existing
subscriber we got some more stuff
coming so want to support us that is
a great way to do it to keep this
show going i also want to say thank
you to all of our sponsors please
guys if you need anything from them
go use that offer code and let them
know you got it from us that helps us
as well and lastly i know i'm asking you
guys to do a lot but wherever you're
listening to this please rate it review
it it helps us stay relevant in the
podcast sphere and helps us get new
listeners and helps us stay on the
board so thank you i am about to do a
very very big podcast run and i'm
going to need all the support from
you guys to make this happen uh
to so we can end this year i would
bang so yeah i'm gonna shut up now
thank you we'll see you on the next one
peace
About this episode
Ari Levenbaum, CEO of Law Tigers, shares insights into the motorcycle legal landscape and the importance of rider safety. He discusses how Law Tigers supports the motorcycle community, emphasizing their role in helping riders during accidents. The conversation touches on the evolution of motorcycle rallies, the challenges of marketing in the industry, and the need for effective communication with clients. Ari also highlights the significance of building relationships within the motorcycle community and the balance between work and passion in his life as a rider and business leader.
In today's episode, I chat with Ari, CEO of Law Tigers. Law Tigers is a national network of lawyers committed to assisting injured motorcyclists. We talk about his strategies for educating the motorcycle community and supporting events, rides, and all-around good times!
Cruise through the legendary Fort Worth Stockyards, soaking in the sights, sounds, and history of Texas's most iconic western district—then shift into high gear with a signature event by Derwood. Where grit meets style, this isn't just a ride—it's a full-throttle celebration of music, machines, and spirit.