How do you grow a law firm and make everyone love you, even if you're a lawyer? I'm not talking about Nikki G. Our guest today is a fantastic lawyer in California. Everybody loves her and she's going to share her secrets to growing a law firm and doing it while being a lovable real estate lawyer. You got to join us for this edition of the Inside BS Show.

Hey, now, I'm Dave Lorenzo. I'm the godfather of growth and I'm here with Nikki G, of course. Nicola, how are you today? I'm doing great, Dave.

Thanks. How are you? I'm great. Now, you thought I was talking about you when I said I had a lawyer.

I did not. Yeah, you did. I know you did.

I'm excited for our guest today, too. I don't have that kind of ego. Come on.

Listen, I got a really important question before we get to that. By the way, I moved my mic off the table so that now when I bang the table, it doesn't completely disrupt the show. I got a question for you before we get started.

You know how I love to ask. Every time you say that, Dave. Nicola, what is the worst smell you've ever smelled? That's a really good question.

There's a lot of pungent smells out there. Probably trash, wet trash. Wet trash.

I was on a plane yesterday on the jet bridge. It was a little warm on the jet bridge. There were some people who may or may not have been from a place where deodorant isn't as common.

It smelled like dead animals on that jet bridge yesterday. I was thinking to myself, is this the worst thing I've ever smelled? Then I remembered. Wet trash is bad, I'll give you that.

I worked in a butcher shop. When I was in high school, the year before I went to college, I went to culinary school, my first iteration of college. So that I could get a head start, I worked in a butcher shop.

Every three months in a butcher shop, a guy comes and has a tank truck. He brings this big hose and they open this sewer cover, which is in the floor of the butcher shop. He sticks the hose in and he sucks out what is like the fat that has collected over the last three months.

They call this guy the fat man. Literally, that's his job. He's the fat man.

So he's sucking the fat out of there. It is the worst smell. Rancid fat is got, I will tell you.

So years later, as a hotel manager, people die in hotels. I've smelled people who die, you know, decomposing bodies, not a great smell, bad smell, fat, worst, the worst. So I'm on this jet bridge yesterday, waiting to go home.

And I'm thinking to myself, this is not as bad as the fat from the butcher shop, but it's worse than the decomposing body. So in the ranking of bad smells, okay? Fat man, guy on the jet bridge yesterday and decomposing body, worst of three smells. That's why I wanted to ask you what the worst thing you've ever smelled was, wet trash.

Okay. I thought where we were going with this, Dave, is Dave sent me a picture when he was traveling the last few days. And there's a woman on the plane in the row across from him who has her bare feet propped up on the seat in front of her.

And I thought like, who does that? So I thought maybe that was the smell that you were going to introduce here. Folks, don't do that on a plane, especially when there's people around you. Oh my God.

And she had like gnarly pterodactyl toes. It was, oh, it was awful. It was so disgusting.

That was gross. That was, I got the willies just thinking about it. No.

And that, by the way, folks has nothing to do with our topic of conversation today. I wish I had a good segue. I just have had some horrific travels.

The woman with the feet was the flight going to New York and the guy on the jet bridge was a flight coming back from New York. So it has nothing to do with our guest today. So our guest today is Sarah Nahidi.

She's a real estate lawyer in orange County, California. And she is a fantastic person for us to talk to because the way she attracts her clients is just by being a great person, by being a relationship oriented person. Now I'm sure she does other things, but I know her because everybody that I'm friendly with in that area of the country absolutely loves this woman.

So I'm going to find something wrong with her. And we are, no, I'm just kidding. We will, we will welcome her in and have her tell us all about her secret for developing relationships and her secret for building her real estate practice.

She's also a very accomplished lawyer. She's written a book. We're going to talk all about that.

Nicola, if you can only get one thing from Sarah today, what's the one thing you want to get out of our time with Sarah today? Oh, there's not just one thing. I want to pick her brain on a number of topics because we have someone here who's not just a real estate attorney, but it's also a real estate broker. So I've got a few questions I really want to ask, but let us get started, Sarah.

First off, we need to bring Sarah on. All right. We'll bring, we'll bring her on.

I want to get two things. The I asked you that question is because I have something I want. I want to find out from her.

Number one, like empathy is her superpower. So I want to find out how she, as a lawyer who, you know, counsels people on how to avoid litigation, but also will handle some pretty rough stuff herself. I want to find out how she uses empathy.

I also want to, I'm fascinated and I want to talk to her about meditation because as you know, I meditate and that's what I am. I am the most chill person you'll ever meet. And I'm so chill because I meditate.

That's being facetious. All right. Let's bring her on.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Sarah Nahidi. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us. And thank you for putting up with me and my, I've had too much coffee today.

So thank you for putting up with me. Thank you so much, Dave and Nikki for having me on your podcast. I was really looking forward to doing this after mutual friends told me they were guests on, on your podcast and really appreciate you interviewing me today.

It's great to have you here. And Nicola, go ahead, kick us off. So Sarah, let's, let's start from the beginning.

I want to hear about your background because you and I have not explored that before. And I would love to do that with our audience presence. So tell us just a little bit about your background before we get into the real estate space.

So I was born in Boston, East coaster, who grew up most of my life in the Midwest. We moved to Chicago suburbs and then Cleveland. I went to school at the university of Michigan.

And then after college, I went straight to Southern California and never looked back. So I've officially now spent 22 years in the cold and 22 years in sunny California. So I feel like that makes me a native now.

And you know, when I go travel, people are like, Oh, you must be from California. So that makes me feel really cool. Like I was born to be a Californian.

I didn't appreciate, we had that in common. So I grew up in the Northeast and Pennsylvania, and now it's been over 20 years. So, but the same thing, I identify as being a Florida native, unless folks aren't from here, in which case I'll explore the conversation.

So I get that. And I appreciate that. Yeah.

So I, I went to law school in Orange County at Chapman university school of law and graduated during the worst legal economy the world has ever seen 2009. I was fortunate to get a job working in house at a property management company in the city of Orange, and then got the opportunity to work on a federal Rico, $80 million plus lawsuit out of LA. And that was really, really interesting.

And I learned a lot from defending a very high level real estate developer and owner of many apartment buildings all over Los Angeles and all over actually the entire United States. Wow. And what did that do to, how did that kind of stoke the, stoke your passion for law? How was that? Did that, was that engaging to you? Like the fact that, that, that there, that was so there was so much at stake.

It was super interesting to me for, for many reasons. What number one, this client, he was a former bankruptcy attorney. So he was a creditor rights attorney turned real estate developer.

So he knew all the ins and outs and all the tricks, so to speak of getting out of legal issues, if you will. And, you know, a lot of people thought of him as being a slumlord. I thought of him as being, you know, a very successful entrepreneur who knew how to leverage his background as an attorney to build a real estate empire.

But there were, there were some potentially moral issues that I didn't quite align with him on. And that made me realize that I really wanted to have the ability to work and choose the kinds of clients I wanted to help. So that was, that was critical and me launching my own law firm.

After that point, I started working for myself and building my own business. And what was really important to me was being able to pick and choose who I wanted to represent. Cause at that time, it was not a great legal economy.

And I was just getting experience and cutting my teeth and diving into the world of real estate litigation. So this was a eye-opening to me to make me realize that I would like to be able to choose who my clients are. And I think you have to go through that experience, Sarah, sometimes to realize like, and appreciate, you know, how great it is to start your own firm, to choose the clients that you want to work with.

I worked a large firm for over 10 years and I felt the same way. I really would like to choose the clients that I could best serve. And that's such a pleasure.

And when you get out on your own to do that, so tell us when you started, when you started your firm and then how it developed from there. So at that time I was freelancing. And so technically I did have my own firm.

That was in 2010 and you know, it slowly grew and developed and evolved into something that I realized I could, you know, I wasn't really sure that I was going to be able to do this. And so part of it was kind of a test for me to figure out, you know, can I do this on my own and can I build something? And once I started to get momentum and clients and business, I realized I could actually turn this into a business, make my own law firm and get this going. But it took me years of kind of hustling and realizing, you know, can I do this? And what does that look like? When did you realize what was the client that put you over the top when you were like, this is going to work, I can do this.

So I had one client back in 2013 and she hired me to handle three different real estate dispute issues that she had gotten into. And we were able to successfully resolve each one of those. And each one of those was a really important win for me personally, because it really helped build my confidence and made me realize that I could do this and that I was capable.

And it helped me launch my confidence and credibility to take on bigger cases and handle what I thought maybe I wasn't sure I could handle. And when you started, were you exclusively doing litigation or were you doing some transactional work too? I was doing both, but I was really trying to focus on litigation so that I could learn all the ins and outs of litigation. I felt like I wasn't going to be a real attorney unless I understood litigation.

And so I did litigation for over 10 years only to realize that I really didn't like it. And my goal and my vision was to keep people out of litigation, to be the advisor before shit hits the fan. And then when proverbial shit hits the fan, well, how do we get out of this? There's got to be a better way than litigation.

And so I started focusing the entire practice on mediation. Oh, Sarah, we are speaking the same language. I stayed longer than you, so 14 years handling trial work, and I thought the same thing.

We have got to find a way to keep these companies out of trouble because these cases, litigation, are largely preventable. If not, you can minimize the issues and resolve them well before they become a full-blown lawsuit. And I do think, so you had this experience as a trial lawyer.

I do really think that that makes transactional lawyers much more effective because you've seen where the deals can fall apart. And I have seen transactional attorneys who started their practice as that and have never gone into litigation and don't appreciate some of those pitfalls as they're drafting agreements. I think that makes you so much more effective.

And that's something where, because you mentioned, I want to raise and I want to ask you, is that something that you set out to do, or it just sort of, you've got that experience and then moved over to the transactional side after dealing with the painful side and stress of litigation? You know, it's interesting that you say that because I think I knew I wanted that experience so that I could be a better transactional and resolution-focused attorney. You know, because I've done the litigation side, I can anticipate what the issues are going to be and make sure that certain contingencies, certain language, certain issues are addressed in the contract to prevent them from getting to the point of potential litigation. So in California, too, with the California Association of Realtors Forums, which are the gold standard that pretty much all the residential real estate transactions use, they have a provision in the contract which forces you to attempt a mediation before any lawsuit is filed.

And if you go straight to litigation, then you don't have the ability to recoup your attorney's fees. So I really strongly believe in mediation as the most efficient way to resolve disputes because, Nicole, as you and I know, litigation is a very inefficient game that makes us the attorney's money but really hurts the clients. Yeah, I agree.

I like having the mediation provisions in there to at least see if there's an opportunity to resolve that dispute before it gets into a full-blown lawsuit, which you know is time-consuming and very expensive, and it could be such a long path, especially so real estate ends up in state court. That could be years before those matters are resolved. I know it's like that in California.

It's definitely like that here in Florida. Absolutely. On average, years.

How does your practice break down today? What's the breakdown of litigation, mediation, and transactions? How does your practice look today? I would say about half of my practice is real estate mediation matters, and then the other half is purely transactional and pre-litigation. It's a good mix, and I love what I do. I'm so passionate now that I'm doing what I really like, which is helping people resolve issues before they get into court.

So at what point, Sarah, in your journey did you end up getting a broker's license? Back in 2012, it was a point in time where any licensed attorney could sit down and take the real estate exam and get a broker's license. Now you actually have to take a certain amount of hours of classes or get experience, but at that time I sat and took it and was able to get it without the required classes and experience. I did that as a tool to add to my credibility and helping my clients, and it's been extremely valuable because I use it every single day.

Yeah. I imagine that's a huge competitive advantage for you, and I do not see that often as many real estate attorneys as I speak to about their practice. I think it's excellent that you saw that opportunity and seized it before.

Now, of course, it's much more difficult to get that. Now we can sit down and have an in-depth conversation about riparian rights, which only appears on the real estate exam. Nicole is going to do it now.

I actually got my real estate license last year. I remember reading some of those questions and asking a few friends who do what you do, and they're like, you're probably never going to talk about any of that. Well, remember, I worked in commercial real estate for three and a half years before I went to law school and graduated two years after you did, so same time.

The market was still awful in 2011 for getting jobs. I mean, schools were creating jobs. It was such a difficult climate.

Sarah, talk to us about the difference in how you would approach a client if they're coming to you a real estate dispute versus a client who's coming to you for a transactional matter because the people who are listening to the show are business owners. Their clients come to them, and most of their clients have one specific need or one specific problem, and they can solve that problem. People come to you.

You're almost like a vet, right? Somebody walks in with a dog. Somebody walks in with a cat. Somebody walks in with a parakeet.

You got to figure out how to fix them all up, right? So you could get a real estate dispute. You could have two litigators who are trying to hash something out, and they need a mediator. You could have somebody who's buying a property or selling a property, and they need you to represent them to look at the docs, negotiate the transaction.

So describe for us the different clients when they present to you and how you have to handle people who are in a dispute versus people who are perhaps having one of the happiest days of their lives while they're trying to negotiate buying their forever home. So that's a great question. I spend a lot of time listening to what the client wants and what they need and let them talk.

I think as attorneys, Nicola, the biggest part of our job is essentially to be a therapist. So I kind of sit back in my chair. I let them do the talking, take notes, and really get to understand what it is that they want.

And based on that, I'll do an analysis of the facts at hand and figure out a game plan and say, you know, these are the different options I see in your situation. Which one speaks to you and which one would you like for us to pursue? So I think every case is unique and letting people, letting our clients feel seen, making them feel heard, validating the stress or the issue that they're going through, you know, leading with empathy. I think, you know, empathy is the most important job as a business owner to put yourself in that person's shoes, realize what is their need, and give them what they're looking for, whether they might not completely realize what that it is that they're looking for.

Yeah, I agree. So I think that's such a powerful trait to have is to be able to really understand their situation because oftentimes like they don't, they can't see clearly because they're stuck in the problem. And that's where being a therapist comes in and being a problem solver comes in is we really got to help them get unstuck and see the clear path forward.

And if you care about them, they're going to end up being a longstanding client. There's so many lawyers that don't have your approach that are very transactional in nature, and that doesn't lend itself to having good long-term client relationships. And I know that you have those, I've seen you work, I've worked with you on a matter.

So it's really good to hear that because I know the clients certainly appreciate that. So tell us who are your ideal clients? Who do you most often work with in your practice? That's a great question. So a lot of my clients are real estate investors, they're people who own one or many investment properties, and they typically are landlords.

They need an attorney to help them with their leases. They need help with notices to clients. When tenants have issues, they call me for how best to approach those issues.

So I would say real estate investors, landlords, and people who are interested in buying or selling real estate. As a real estate investor, I wanted to ask you about this. I saw that you wrote a blog post on it, and it's about the pros and cons of having property in LLCs.

Because we always think as investors, oh, that's the gold standard, put it in an LLC. And I want to hear just some of the top pros and cons from you about that subject, because I do think the real estate investors will be interested in that. Yeah, that's a great question.

With LLCs, in California, for example, each entity requires an $800 annual fee. So for one of my clients, she's got 18 properties. 18 times 800, that can add up pretty quickly.

So in her situation, we talked about the pros and cons of having one major LLC versus 18, and then having each property in that one LLC or having 18 unique LLCs. And there are pros and cons to each one. One of the cons is the expense.

So if you own lots of different properties, my advice would be to put each one in its own LLC, have a separate bank account for each one, all of that. But that's not necessarily what every client wants to do. So if you have one LLC and lots of investment properties under that, and one of them gets named in a lawsuit, then all of the properties under that one LLC are exposed to liability.

So there's pros and cons, but I think it's potentially worth it to have each property in its own LLC if you only have one to several. Yeah, there's definitely a balance between liability and cost there that I want people to appreciate, and I appreciate the explanation. Sarah, let's talk about, since we're into the nuts and bolts of real estate now, let's talk a little bit about real estate in the sale of a business.

Because the people who are with us today, some of them have come to us specifically for strategy related to their exit planning purposes. And one of the things we always look at is trying to separate the real estate from the business. What's best practice from your standpoint? If a business owner comes to you and they have a building that they own that is part of the business, what do you advise them to do with the real estate generally? And obviously, you can give us the lawyer answer at the patents, blah, blah, blah.

But let's just say vanilla transaction. What should people do with real estate when they're selling their business? So in my personal opinion, the real estate transactions should be completely separate and independent from the business purchase. I had a client recently who owns the building and has a very successful marketing business.

He found me on Google because I was, I think, probably the closest attorney to his office at that time in Costa Mesa. We met several years ago. He's been a longstanding client.

I just helped him sell the building back at the end of 2024. And then he called me yesterday and he's super excited because now he's got a buyer for his business. And I said, Jonathan, I'm so excited for you.

And he wanted me to represent him. And I was like, I'm not the person. I'm the real estate person.

I'm happy to help you. And I've helped you sell your office building, but you need a person who's skilled at buying and selling businesses. And that's not me.

So I referred him to a great attorney in my networking group, in my home group that I lead. And he was very grateful. But they're totally separate, independent things and they should be as best practice.

Yeah. One of the things we constantly tell the business owners that we work with is treat them as two separate assets. If you can separate them, unless the real estate is all the value in your business, because there are a number of ways to capitalize on the real estate as the asset.

It sounds like in the case of your client, they sold the building first. Did they remain a tenant in that building or did they? Yeah. So they sold the building and they were like, oh, we got all this money and we don't even have to move.

And then they found somebody to buy their business afterwards. A lot of times it's the other way around. They find somebody to buy the business and the person who buys the business is like, well, what's going to happen with the building? And that person says, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's my retirement plan. You're going to lease this back from me. I'm going to own it forever.

And maybe they give them the option or they give them the right of first refusal if they get an offer to sell it at some point, or maybe they just own it and lease it to that person and hope they stay there forever. But two separate things, two separate assets. I think that's a good, absolutely a good philosophy.

We just worked with a business owner when he came to us. One of the things he was thinking of doing, he said, you know, I need some, I need to get some inventory. I need to get a line of credit and I'm going to use the building.

I'm going to take a home equity line on the art, not a home equity line, but an equity line, a line of credit on the building, secure it with the building. And I said, no, you're not going to do that. No, there's no way you're going to use the inventory to finance your line of credit.

They're going to take a lien on your inventory. That's what they're going to do. The building is not even going to come into the discussion.

That building is paid off. You're not going to do anything with that building. You're just going to have that building for a rainy day or for your retirement plan.

That is what that building is going to be all about. People think because their business is in the real estate or their business is associated with the real estate, that it's all mixed together, completely separate asset and valuable in its own right. I'm a huge proponent of that for sure.

Yeah. I agree with your philosophy. Sarah, another topic that comes up fairly often are 1031 exchanges.

I'm not sure why, but I think there's some perceived complexity or it's that folks just can't quite remember the qualifying criteria. So I just want you to touch on that high level. When can you use them? Because they are a powerful tool and you've got to make sure that you use them in the time frame that you're able to.

Otherwise, that's it. Yeah. They're a very powerful tool for our clients who are real estate investors and owners.

Essentially, it has to be an investment property or not your primary residence, and you have to purchase a like-kind investment property. The replacement property has to be of equal or greater value. You have to invest all of the proceeds from the sale.

You can't have any what they call boot. There can't be any delta that is kept or remains. It's got to be the same title holder and taxpayer, and you have to identify that new property within a certain time frame.

When somebody comes to you, do they often have that in mind or is that a solution that you tend to have to raise with them? I didn't learn about 1031 exchanges until I started working with people in real estate, to be candid with you. Is this something that only sophisticated people tend to bring to you or do you bring it up? How does 1031 exchange generally come up in conversation? Typically, if you're not a seasoned real estate investor, it's something that you're not completely aware of. I had a client recently who has one rental property, and she was looking to sell that property and buy something else.

I brought up a 1031 exchange, and she was like, oh, yeah, I've heard of those. She was like, that's a great idea. Let's do that.

She was able to identify a new piece of property that she wanted to buy as, again, a rental. It worked out really well, and that's closing at the end of next month. It was something she had heard of, but it wasn't something that was on her radar.

Because like you said, Dave, I'm the same. I didn't really realize what 1031s were until I started working with my real estate clients. It's a very powerful tool to avoid capital gains.

Sarah, is there a set hold period before you can have the exchange occur? There is. There is. I think it's 45 days.

I'm sorry. You have to hold onto the property for two years. Yes.

You have to have the first property for two years, and then you can qualify for the 1031. Then it has to be completed, and I think that's where the 45 days comes in, because I know it's a short fuse on it to get it done, and that's where a lot of people don't appreciate that quick deadline. If you're going to do it, you've got to move quickly.

You already have the other property identified. Make sure you can do the closing inside of that time period. I definitely need a seasoned real estate professional like Sarah to do those.

It is not something that you should be venturing into on your own, because you can lose out on a massive benefit if you don't know the rules and someone who can move quickly and efficiently through that process with you. It's very valuable to have someone who has that knowledge, so awesome to know that you do that, because not all real estate professionals, folks, do 1031 exchanges and advise on them. Sarah, what's the future of your law firm? Where do you want to be five years from now, 10 years from now? Talk to us about the Nahidi empire.

That's a great question. I've actually been spending a lot of time this year to sit down and focus and figure out what do I want. My plan for 2025 is to grow the firm's revenue by 50 percent and then see where things take me.

I hired my first full-time employee last year. She's been a great addition to our team. Included in that plan for growth would be to hire one to two more employees in the next 18 months.

Your first employee, what does she do? She is a legal assistant. She helps me with admin. She helps me with billing.

She helps me with my technology integrations. She helps me with social media. She wears a lot of hats.

She's young and capable and very motivated. It's been the best hire I have made. That's fantastic.

I follow you on LinkedIn. Those of you who want to follow Sarah on LinkedIn, we're going to put her LinkedIn in the show notes. She writes very interesting stuff on LinkedIn.

I want to get to one of those things that you wrote. I want to ask you about that. Yesterday or the day before, I can't remember when I saw it, you wrote something about Airbnb.

And you said that you have to get permits and you have to pay taxes. I made a snarky comment under that. It's like a real business now.

This is the question I have about this. I was saving this question. I was going to write it on LinkedIn.

I'm like, no, that's better when I see her. Do you find that people who get into Airbnb, because this is real estate, people who get into Airbnb don't realize it's a freaking business. If this is not guests in your house, this is a business.

Do they not realize? I honestly think they see the opportunity. They see the dollar signs. They say like, oh, this is going to be so easy.

Just list it and collect the check and all of that. People who I know who are really successful in Airbnb, they treat it as a business. I think it's very easy to just see all of the upside, but there is quite a bit of downside with Airbnb.

In California, certain areas, it's oversaturated. And so an area like Coachella, for example, where they just had the big music festival and they're having it again this weekend, a lot of people bought Airbnbs in that Palm Springs greater area thinking they'll make a lot of money with people flocking for Coachella and Stagecoach. And that market has just really been oversaturated and people are not getting the kinds of returns that they thought they would be getting listing with Airbnb.

Also something that's happening in a lot of cities in Southern California is they're capping short-term rental permits. So if I bought a property, for example, in Newport Beach and I didn't realize at the time I purchased it that Newport Beach is not giving out any more Airbnb or short-term rental permits, then you're in for a big disappointment. A lot of lawmakers in the local cities have really cracked down on short-term rental permits.

Another thing that I've seen recently is a client of mine had a short-term rental in Newport Beach on the water. Very lucrative. This was the client's entire retirement savings.

They hired a property management company to manage the short-term rentals. That property management company failed to renew the short-term rental permit and now it's gone forever. They'll never be able to get it back because the city is not offering any new short-term rental.

So that's a huge, colossal mistake that who you work with matters. The company they'd hired was negligent, didn't stay on top of it, and now has cost my client their entire monthly revenue source. Oh my gosh.

That's crazy. There's a lot. I'm so glad you asked this question, Dave, because there's so much tension over the Airbnb rentals, especially in our market.

We have all of these condo buildings here and townhomes, and there's a lot of folks who are renting those out and shouldn't be because here the associations are responsible for policing that. That would require them having people there full-time to make sure that that's not happening. So you have long-term residents who are getting frustrated with the traffic that is coming in and out of the buildings with the vacationers and the partiers who are coming to the city.

So lots of interesting issues to explore with Airbnb here. It's a nightmare. All right, Sarah, I want to get to how you get business because that's how you and I met.

That's how you, I, and Nicola met. In fact, you worked with Nicola because our mutual friend, Mike Galvez, who now, the folks who listen and watch the show know, they know the Galvez method for business development because I've beaten it to death because he taught me about it. He's a favorite of the fans of the show.

He introduced, well, I asked him on Nicola's behalf for a real estate attorney in your area, and then he connected with Nicola and introduced Nicola to you. We all met because we're part of a networking group. The listeners have heard us beat it to death provisors, but I find that people are fascinated by provisors because the collection of people that we introduce to the folks who listen to the show or the folks who watch the show are such high quality folks.

I get calls or questions in the chat or in emails all the time asking me, is everybody in provisors this good? The answer is most of them really are fantastic professionals, and that's how we met. You're in the upper 1% of folks in provisors because you lead a group, and it's really interesting that you lead a group in an area that is not the area where you live and work. Explain what that's all about.

Explain where your group is and explain the makeup of your group. I live and work in Newport Beach, and that's considered Orange County. The group that I lead is in the city of Long Beach, which is LA County, and a little bit outside of the distance that I would probably normally travel to check out and guest at other provisors groups.

There was an opportunity that came to be during the pandemic where the powers that be, the regional director at the time of our area, Richard Barrett, called me out of the blue and asked me if I would be interested in being a group leader and interested in a leadership opportunity. I was a bit caught off guard and excited and grateful for that opportunity, and I said, absolutely, I would be open to it. Within the same year, they said there was an opportunity to step in and take over an existing group.

They wanted new leadership. They wanted someone to come in and revamp it. There wasn't a ton of diversity in the group.

It was an older, more conservative, old-school kind of networking mentality, and they wanted me to come in and revamp it. It's been such a great experience. It wasn't what I volunteered and set out to do, and it's been incredible.

We've been able to bring in a lot of younger talent, a lot more diverse talent, and just shake things up. We do a lot of socials and a lot of community engagement, volunteering events. I think we've changed the dynamic and the way that the group operates.

It's become a very popular place for people to come and guest. So it's an experience that has been really fun, and it's been great. What would you say are the top benefits for you that you've taken out of this experience as a group leader? I love being able to mentor and help the newer members.

I just had a call yesterday with a gal who's newer to LA provisors, and I was asking her, how is it working out for you? What can I do to help you? So I really like telling people that it works, but you have to put the time in. I don't think people realize how time-intensive it is. When I told her that I spend 10 to 20 hours a week on provisors, her eyes just immediately shot open.

They were like, wow. She was like, wow. She's like, that's a lot of time.

I said, yeah. I said, I guess probably six times a month. The troikas and the socials, I easily spend.

It's a part-time job. Networking is a part-time job, and being a group leader is a part-time job too. We would both agree with that.

Dave and I are not shy about saying the amount of time that we put into this, but on the other side of that is it's building relationships. You have an incredible platform here, and we've developed relationships with people like you on the other side of the country, very good relationships through this organization. So we continue to bring it up.

Folks, that's why you're hearing about it again today, because Sarah is proof of that. It's amazing relationships with people we would have never come in contact with. Dave and I met through provisors.

We're walking ambassadors with provisors. We are preaching the gospel to people because it works. I've built my entire business from provisors.

80% of my business comes from provisors, so that's very powerful, but it doesn't come without spending the time to invest in those relationships and getting to know people and getting to know people across the country. If it wasn't for our great friend, Mike, I would have never met you, either one of you. I mean, I would eventually have met you.

Dave and I sat at the group leader summit at our table together, but it's an amazing way to connect with people, and I've always been a connector, and this gave me a really great way to continue that and help other people in the organization connect and expand their network. Let me ask you about how you make provisors work for you. I've completely changed my approach based on the Galvez model now.

The Galvez model, for those of you who don't remember, is you call one client, you call one prospect, and you call one center of influence every day. My center of influence, that's just provisors people, right? What I do now is I try to call an east coast provisors person in the morning, and then I try to call a central time zone or west coast provisors person like 5 o'clock, right? Because everybody here is sick of me. They don't want to hear me at 5 o'clock, but the west coast people, they still got some energy left, so I reach out to west coast people after 5. To me, I love connecting with group leaders because for me, that gives me access to, let's say you got 35 people in your group.

I know you. That means I know 35 people in your area, right? So I'm good to go. Now I'm covered in Long Beach.

Now I know everybody I need to know in Long Beach because I know you, right? I know Galvez. Basically, knowing Galvez, I don't need to know anybody else in Orange County, and when I said that to him, he's like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to give you a list.

You need to know all these other people. So that's what I do. How do you make the most out of provisors? How do you leverage provisors? That's a great question.

Like you said, Dave, I've developed key relationships with group leaders across the country. I'm sure both of you are familiar with Richard Wong, our favorite Mr. Networker. He's been great at creating those relationships with people all across the country.

And so he has a forum once a quarter where he gets group leaders together online and shares best practices like what are you doing for recruiting? What are the pain points? What's going on in provisors? Where are the new regions? So I think tapping into that has been helpful to meet new people and develop new relationships. And then at the group leader summit, going out of my way to meet new group leaders in different regions. So I feel like I have my COIs, my group leaders in Chicago and in Boston and in South Florida, in San Francisco and Denver.

So I'm trying to get to know group leaders across the country because it makes our community so much stronger and smaller. You know, when I see people, group leaders at other meetings, I ask them, like, when's your next meeting? You know, when is the next opportunity to check it out on Zoom? So yeah, I mean, the same things that you guys are doing. I try to do that and just push myself out of my comfort zone and get to know new people.

I've seen you do it and you're doing an amazing job at it, but you've got to put in the work. And Sarah, you've nailed it on the head. You've got to put in the work and the effort to build those kinds of relationships.

And Sarah certainly does that. Sarah, I don't want to lose this opportunity to ask, you are a published author. So tell us about your book.

Tell our audience the title of your book and tell us a little bit about it. And I know we're going to have a few questions. So yeah, I mean, one of my life goals from being a young adult was to write a book.

And this opportunity came to me about 10 years ago. Somebody actually found me online and reached out to me and said, would you like to co-author a book with me? And I need help on you writing certain chapters in the book. And so I thought, huh, that sounds a little too good to be true.

Let me check it out. You know, I met with him in person and he was legit. He was a real deal.

He's a guy from Boston, retired software engineer who came into contact with the legal system and had to learn the hard way, you know what it's like to be dragged into the system and how to navigate and fend for yourself. So I have, since I was in law school, I was very passionate about, passionate about access to justice. You know, Nicola, you and I know that as attorneys, you know, people who have money, they have a more high likelihood of succeeding in a legal battle.

You know, they can afford an attorney and those attorneys can advise them properly and minimize their liability and get them great results. But when you're pro-per, when you don't know anybody and you don't have money and you don't have opportunity, you know, where do you even begin? Where do you start? And so that was my inspiration to join, you know, my co-author on this journey and write a book. And so it's essentially a tool to empower the average person to learn about different topics in the law, like fighting a traffic ticket, you know, landlord tenant issues.

You know, what happens to you when you die? What happens to you if you get divorced? And this is a tool that is meant to help the average person understand the landscape of our legal system and to try to educate them on, okay, so I've got this problem, now what? That's such a great resource, Sarah. The resources that exist out there are, I would say, it's a little bit difficult to navigate because it's the ones that some of the courts have. It's, you know, the free published materials, but it doesn't really give you the practical advice about what that legal landscape looks like and dealing with the court system.

You know, especially having been an attorney who's spent time in court and understands that system and unfortunately the failures of the system at times, it really gives us good perspective to help others through that process. So this sounds like such a great resource for those who just need a foundation in the law who aren't lawyers. I am curious how your co-author found you.

Like, I have to ask that. So the person reaches out to you and, you know, you get those reach outs sometimes where, you know, it's, hey, let me interview for this or you'd be a great, you know, person to like be in our magazine. And I always think like, oh, this is always spam.

So tell me how that person find you and like what made you think like this is probably legitimate and not somebody telling me I'm going to be on the cover of the next magazine. So I asked, that was my first question. I was like, how did you find me and why are you reaching out to me? And he was like, you know, I did a search for attorneys in Southern California and, you know, your reviews were really, you know, well, well-written and it seems like you're actually a good person who is into doing the right thing and not just being, you know, I think the stereotypical view that many people have of attorneys.

And so, you know, through online reviews, my online presence and whatever he could gather and glean from my pictures, you know, thinking that I seem like a good person. So I was like, well, I was like, I mean, I think I am a good person. You know, I think I always try to do the right thing.

I am a good person. Damn it. Yes.

I try to live my life with integrity and doing what's best for other people. Um, so I wanted to make sure it wasn't just some weird stalker, like, you know, fan boy. So I met with him at a coffee shop and a public place, you know, cause I was like, I don't know.

I don't want to end up on dateline from some weird guy who contacted me from the internet. You know, I've watched way too many datelines. Like I know.

I'm the same way. I wish, I wish I was single these days. That's a great, listen, I wrote a book and I want to write a book with you.

Will you meet with me? That's the greatest line ever. Do you want to write a book together? And then you got to go through this whole charade of meeting and writing, making sure he wasn't, you know, a fake person from the internet. Like I wasn't getting catfished.

I was like, okay, he's a real person. He's very intelligent. He's educated.

He's an engineer. He has personal experience. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't write books with ugly people.

What a story, Sarah. You know what? Reviews matter. I'm a writer.

No, no, no, ma'am. Not you. How about you? What a great opportunity.

I mean, you can't make the, you can't make this shit up. No, you can't make this up, Sarah. What a great story.

And this is why we talk about reviews a lot. We talk about those in our business community. They matter.

People read them. They matter to people who want to do business with you. They matter to potential clients.

Like you must be doing an awesome job with your reviews for that person to specifically call those out. They are effective. So I really love that you mentioned that and had to jump on it.

Lesson to those kids out there. Always put your picture on your website. If you're good looking, if you're not good looking, put somebody else's picture.

Oh my gosh. Let me tell you, you are the guest of the year. That's the ultimate pickup line.

Let's write a book together. All right. So Sarah, I got to tell you.

So those of you who are wondering why I'm laughing so much, here's the thing. So one of the things that Nicola is constantly on me about, and I've been dying to bring this up the entire interview. One of the things that Nicola is constantly, she doesn't know what I'm going to say, that she's constantly on me about, and you and Sarah have this in common.

So I normally wear a jacket. I'm a jacket guy. I wear a jacket pretty much everywhere.

And I have a notebook that I write notes in. I take it with me everywhere. Nicola gives me a hard time about it, but I use.

Not because he has a notebook. So let me defend myself because I carry notebooks around as well. Dave has a detective notebook that looks like Columbo.

And I watched that as a kid. So it definitely reminds me of the detective notebook when he whips it open and he starts taking notes. Fair point.

Fair point. It does look like that, but I use colored pens. And because I use like four different colored pens at any given time, I keep the pens in my pocket.

So I'm at the group leader summit. All right. And I sit next to Sarah and I'm wearing, by the way, I'm wearing a very nice suit that I was very proud that I fit into, because like a year before I wouldn't have fit into that suit.

So I'm feeling pretty good about myself. And Sarah and I had just kind of met each other, exchanged pleasantries. And I, somebody said something smart and I go to write it down.

I opened my jacket and she goes, you got some pens there, huh? And I'm dying because freaking Nicola constantly is like, what do you got going on in there? Why you got so many pens? You need a pocket protector? What's that all about? And I'm like, oh, this is going to be like, I got to sit here for another 45 minutes. I'm like, this is going to be great. It's going to be fantastic.

It would have been great if I told you that, but you did it on your own, Sarah. And to me, I was like, this is my person. Like she's, we're good.

We're going to, this is going to work out just fine. I loved it. I love that because I like to carry around a notebook too.

And when I don't have my notebook, I'll take notes on my iPhone, right? And my notes tab, or I'll do a voice note, but I love pen to paper. It's very powerful for memory reinforcement. Absolutely.

Yeah. I definitely have my notebooks, just not the detective style ones. And then, so of course then, so later that night we go out to dinner with a bunch of group leaders and somebody says something smart and I'm the only person there not drinking.

So everybody's like slammed. And some, somebody uttered some comprehensible thing that was smart. And I go to write it down and she's like, oh, there he goes.

Officer, officer Doyle writing his notes. And I'm like, Jesus, I can't get a break. I like, come on.

You know, like I want this, I want to write that down so I don't forget it. It's great. It's great to lead by example.

Yeah. Yeah. There you go.

All right. So Sarah, if people want to get a hold of you, how can they find you? Where, where can, where can everybody have the Nahidi experience? So I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram and I have a website with a newsletter.

If you'd like to subscribe to the newsletter, you can click a button on the website. My website is sarahnahidilaw.com. Um, and yeah, I'm a, I'm all over social media, so would love to connect with anybody who's interested in connecting there. What do we, what do we got going on on Instagram? What are you putting up? Like, I like the LinkedIn content.

What do we got on Instagram? We got pictures of you and the dog, pictures of you at the beach. What's going on on Instagram? So Instagram has all of my LinkedIn stuff and then personal stuff too. You know, like what personal stuff? Give us a, give us, why should we go to Instagram if we're on LinkedIn? What do we got going on? I have the cutest dog in the world named Coco.

And you know, we have a lot of our adventures together. We go walking every day and in the, in the back Bay, um, a lot of travels on there, a lot of family and personal stuff. So if you want to get to know me, um, Instagram is more of a combined professional and personal.

So all of our, all of our pervy listeners and watchers are going to Instagram right now. The pervs are all flocking to Instagram. All of my future coauthors in the world are going to find me on there.

Future coauthors only, please. Future clients and coauthors only. All right.

Oh, folks, you can't, you're not allowed to have this much fun at work. Thank you so much to Sarah Nahidi for being a great sport, for joining us today. She's the best.

And she put up with all of our technological quirks. So thank you, Sarah. It's been, it's been an absolute pleasure having you.

We could have spent two hours talking to you. We could have, thank you. About the practice of law and all that entails.

So it's, it's wonderful to, to have you with us. Um, I was so, so excited to read your book. I had no idea that you wrote this book and thank you for sending it to me.

Um, I actually started reading it and I, I have to say, I love your distinction. You know, there's two kinds of people. The people who view sales as genuinely helping people.

And then the people who view it as some kind of pushy thing that you're trying to, to give somebody who, you know, I love that distinction because in the last 18 months, I've made that shift. I've made that, um, complete, complete reframing of what sales means, right? Sales means helping people. The more people that you can help, um, the better your sales is.

Um, so I really appreciate it. Um, I, you know, starting to delve into your book and I can't wait to read it. So thank you so much for sending that to me.

Thank you for being kind and saying that. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Sarah, it's been awesome being able to sit down and chat with you. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to get to know you. And again, thank you for putting up with us.

Folks, if you enjoyed this show, please share it with a friend, subscribe and get inside bs.com to our daily newsletter so that you can make sure to get all of the updates from our show. That's right. We provide daily segments and we provide weekly interviews.

So be sure to go to there. You will also find special LinkedIn live events available exclusively for our listeners who sign up for the newsletter. Thanks for, thanks for joining us here on the inside BS show.

I'm Dave Lorenzo, the godfather of growth. We'll see you back here again tomorrow at 6am for another great show. Until then I am, I just said that Dave Lorenzo and she is Nikki G. All right, folks, take it easy.

Get out of here. Goodbye.