Welcome to another edition of the Inside BS show, I'm Dave Lorenzo and this is a special show. This is for, well it's for everybody, but at the beginning of our time together today, I'm especially talking to you professionals. And I talk till I'm blue in the face, I beat my head against the wall to get professionals to handle an issue, a mistake or a problem in a very specific way.

And I've done this for years, yet I can't seem to get through. So I've brought in an expert today for you to help you understand the value in correcting the mistake that you may have made. We're all human, we all may make mistakes.

In addition, my guest today is a litigator and he has a huge breadth of experience. He's got a lot of strategy to share with us and he's going to share with us his journey with the hopes that it can inform us as to how we can be successful in a professional practice. Please join me in welcoming Charles Franklin to the Inside BS show.

Charlie, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate you being here.

Thank you, David. Thanks for having me. I appreciate being here.

When you start giving these effusive compliments, I start looking over my shoulder. Who's he talking about? Well, we're talking about you and those of you who, if you didn't know, Charlie and I have something in common. Well, we have two things in common aside from being astonishingly good looking.

We also have Miami in common. I'm in Miami right now and Charlie is a graduate of the University of Miami Law School. So shout out to all my friends from the U. We have an alumnus in our midst and you can be certain that this is going to be a great show.

Now, Charlie, I want to start off by talking about you have a niche in your practice where you represent licensed professionals. And I want to start off with the three C's of handling an issue when a licensed professional gets into a little trouble. And you were generous and you wrote an article a number of years ago and you highlighted those three C's as candor, contrition, and cooperation.

Talk about what a professional should do the minute they get a letter from a governing body like a bar association or a licensing committee. And their heart skips a beat and as a professional, their first reaction is to be defensive. Why is that wrong and what should they do? Sure.

Those are a lot of questions right in there. The first thing, you get the letter and your stomach drops to the floor and you go into this panic. And, you know, I guess the first thing to tell everybody is don't panic.

Number one, and be open about it. Talk to somebody about it. Usually, you know, if you get it and there's all of them, virtually every government body that I've dealt with, they'll give you more time.

You know, because a lot of times they'll say you got to respond within five days or 10 days or something like that. You can get more time if you ask for it. But a lot of times people don't just forget to ask for it.

But as far as approaching goes, the situation when you get contacted by a licensing body or licensing authority is different and by regulators is different than a regular malpractice case. They all talk about complaints, but complaints have a lot of different meanings and a regular lawsuit. There's a formal complaint accusations have been made.

If someone files suit, it's a public document and you can see it. In a regulatory proceeding, a lot of times there's nothing that they can do. The regulators will say we received a complaint.

It can be a phone call. It can be just an inquiry. It can be anything.

And it doesn't have to come from a victim or anyone, frankly. So it's a lot more anonymous, a lot less responsibility. The biggest thing with it, though, and unfortunately, the more sophisticated the profession, the harder it is to work with.

But with regulators, it's OK, in my experience, to admit you've made a mistake. I mean, typically, most people when there's a malpractice issue, you want to deny it. It didn't happen.

There was no damage, no harm, no foul. And essentially with malpractice, if there is no harm, there's no foul. It doesn't matter how bad you were.

If there was no actual damage, it doesn't matter. Regulators don't care. They, by and large, know that broken clocks are right twice a day.

It doesn't matter if you came up with the right answer. It doesn't matter if you came up with the wrong answer. They want to know if you know what you're doing.

Can you explain why you did what you did? Not necessarily. It doesn't really matter whether it's right or wrong. Do you have a rational basis for why you did what you did? So that, you know, that goes to the, I guess, to the candor.

The biggest thing, you know, you have the three things that you said, the candor, contrition, cooperation. They all, regulators, by and large, since they understand mistakes happen, it's OK to show contrition. Contrition goes a really long, long way.

If you say you're sorry for the result, you know, you understand why these, you know, that somebody could view whatever you did differently, all those things. And that's why, you know, I talk about contrition. They are willing to forgive if you admit it could have been a different result or you could have done things differently.

Expediency is a reason why a lot of people do things. It's not a justification. It may be a reason why you did it, but it doesn't necessarily justify it.

Then you have cooperation, typically with regulators. If you cooperate with the investigation, you've got a lot better result. Bulls in China shops ordinarily in licensing cases don't really work.

They may be effective once. They may intimidate somebody once. But the regulator holds your license in your hand.

And without your license, you have no livelihood. And without your livelihood, you know, you have no money and your family starts starving. So it's, you know, you go with the candor.

Well, you go with the cooperation and the contrition. And the last one, the most important thing, frankly, is candor. If you lie to the investigators across the board, that's a problem.

That's what I say. It's okay as a professional to make a mistake. The approach that you take in a licensing or disciplinary hearing is different.

It can be different than in a malpractice. Now, sometimes, you know, you'll have three ongoing investigations at the same time. You'll have a licensing issue.

You'll have a civil litigation issue where the victim is pursuing you. And you have a criminal issue, you know, in fraud, in Desmond cases, or, you know, some sort of accounting issue. You'll have, you frequently have all three.

If there's a mortgage fraud case, you'll have all three, all those things. But the approach, at least that I take, and I have found I've been in practice for 42 years, I found it effective is, again, trying to get my clients to understand it's okay to admit a mistake and show some regrets, you know, show some contrition. You know, you don't want to deny, deny, deny.

And, you know, it's okay in the licensing, you know, in the licensing world. So one of the things that I think, between the lines and what you said there, and implied in your response that I think people miss, especially lawyers, Charlie, is you need representation. Oh, definitely.

If somebody has filed a complaint against you, you're not a good enough lawyer to represent yourself because you're emotionally involved, just like you wouldn't remove your own appendix. You need representation. And for no other reason than there's the attorney-client privilege that's attached.

And if Charlie's representing you, he can go to the regulating body and say, listen, this is probably going to raise a civil suit. We'd like to get the complaint portion settled with as little on the record as possible because we don't want that to be discoverable. I mean, Charlie, I can't tell you.

It's maddening to me how many people try, especially lawyers. Lawyers are the worst, in my opinion, because they try and handle it themselves. Explain why you need representation better than I just did.

Okay, number one, you know, a lawyer represents himself as a fool for a client. You know, that's the cliche. But it's really important in the regulatory arena to understand the nuances.

For example, at least here in Illinois where I'm licensed, a fine is considered a discipline. And if you have a license and you have to report that discipline, and if you have more than one license, and a lot of times you'll see real estate brokers who are lawyers, who are appraisers, who are inspectors, they have to report, if they have any discipline, if they receive a discipline or a complaint against any particular license, they have to report it, all of them. And if they don't, that's a problem.

What you're trying to do is sell empathy. And by having a person speaking on your behalf, you can insulate yourself, I guess, a little bit. You have somebody selling your program for you.

You're trying to get the regulators to understand why what was done was done and putting them in your shoes. You're not selling sympathy. You don't really care.

You want them to understand why you did what you did. Now, talk about the difference between, and I think this is across all professions, a grievous issue of your practice. And I'll explain what I mean for people who I kind of mealy mount that a little bit.

So a procedural error in the practice of law would be, hey, my attorney didn't return my calls. My attorney made a mistake and only returned a third of the escrow to me. I called him and he returned the rest six weeks later, or whatever.

That's a procedural error. Then there's a grievous error where, like, I had a case, I was the investigating member on a case, Charlie. You're going to love this.

A 30-year lawyer, a trust and estates attorney in a partnership, had a partner, and was named in an instrument he drafted. Okay? So he received, and it was no small amount. It was over $300,000.

The client had no other beneficiaries, left a third of her estate to some charities. The charities got aggravated and said, we should have received more. She told us she was going to give us more.

So I get the file, and I go in there, and it's black letter law that an attorney, here in Florida, an attorney cannot be named in an instrument he or she has drafted. So that is something that the attorney should have known. That's very different than failure to communicate.

That's very different than, you know, making a clerical error and transposing some numbers on a document. Explain how you approach both of those with a client and what a client should do. First of all, if a client makes an intentional, you know, if the client intentionally violates the canons of ethics, you got a huge problem.

A clerical error or a procedural error is a very different thing. Help us understand the difference. With a, you know, one goes to basically intent and, you know, you know, bad, you know, you know, bad behavior.

One as opposed to carelessness. Now, they can all be, they can all have the same sort of sanction against you, you know, which is, can be, it can be a suspension or a revocation or a censure or, you know, a rescission, whatever. All those, you know, it depends on your reaction to it.

But as far as the, you know, the undue influence, you know, in your situation or actually putting yourself into the instrument itself, I mean, there are other remedies involved that, you know, if there's either a criminal or a civil aspect involved, you have those remedies that are pursued in a different jurisdiction or a different venue, I should say, as opposed to the licensing thing. You know, with, if it's a pattern of behavior, the regulators look at that pattern of behavior. If it occurred once, the regulators look at it, you know, that it happened once.

But typically, in that situation where he's put himself into that particular will, it happens more than once. You know, you always say this is the first time it's, you know, this is the only time it's happened. It's the only time he's been caught, you know, that... So, Charlie, you are so smart.

Well, the first thing I did when I went in to interview him is I said, you are entitled to representation. You don't have... I'm an investigating member of the grievance committee. I'm not a lawyer.

And you are entitled to representation. And he said, you know, I'm fine. I don't, you know, I don't see the need for that.

And I said, we have these documents here. And I showed him the documents. He said, yeah, yeah, I drafted that.

And I said, and you named yourself in the instrument. And he said, yes, I did. And I said, I'm going to advise you once again.

You're entitled to representation. And he said, I know, you already said that. And I'm recording the whole interview.

He said, I'm fine. And I said, have you done this before? And he said, yes. And I said, how many times? And he said, three.

And then I said, do you have copies of those files? And Charlie, he handed me the files. He gave me the files, Charlie. At that point, because it's not good.

I'm going to go on the record here and say, it's not good for my business to get lawyers in trouble. So I stood up and I said, I'm going to leave these files here. You're not to destroy them.

You're not to do anything with them. I need you to get counsel. And we will continue this interview.

I'm going to call you at the end of the week and we will continue this interview. Now, this particular gentleman made restitution and his counsel advised him to do exactly what you said. He got hit pretty hard and he was toward the end of his career.

So he elected to turn in his license and retire. And the record didn't reflect everything that happened. So all things considered, it was a good result for him.

His career wasn't blemished by this. But my goodness, Charlie, this is why you need representation. A lot of times, one thing leads to the next.

They'll open their mouth and they'll just continue to dig the hole deeper and deeper. Now, we mentioned earlier, and I said a fine in Illinois is a discipline. A fee is not.

And they'll dangle a lot of times if they don't know. And to your point about knowing somebody who does this business, the prosecutors will say, listen, you pay a $500 fine, it all goes away. Again, it's a discipline.

So that means you've got to report it to everybody. If you pay a $500 fee, it's not a discipline. It doesn't get reported.

It's non-public. But you have to know that and the prosecutors won't tell you that. There are things called warning letters.

They won't tell you about warning letters. They won't tell you about consent for administrative supervision. They want the scalps.

They're like anybody else. The more convictions they get, the better. They're not there to serve you or to help you.

And unfortunately, a lot of people who think when they appear before the investigators, they're your friend because it's a friendly conversation, typically, just like what you had with this fellow. Many times, the investigator does not present himself as being adversarial. When it really is, he's looking to find out what happened.

And if you don't know when to be quiet, it's a problem. I've had situations where, unfortunately, the FBI is in the back of the room. It's a hearing.

And if my client testifies, he's going to be hanging himself. So he has to take the fifth. Well, if you take the fifth, you lose your license.

And the choice is, well, do I lose my license or do I lose my freedom? And that's the Hobson choice that you take. But again, he wants to defend himself and represent why he did what he did. And it's a mortgage fraud case.

If you're an appraiser and you were involved in some sort of bad activity, you're going to hang yourself. You may save your license, but you're going to hang yourself. All right, talk about the difference.

So one of the things that really strikes me, I'm sure... So talk about the difference across the professions, because I've only experienced this process with lawyers, and lack of candor is a huge... With lawyers, you will lose your license for lack of candor. If I'm an investigating member of a grievance committee, even though I'm just Dave and you see me outside cutting my grass on a Saturday or coaching Little League, if we're in a formal proceeding and I'm recording it and you have a lack of candor with me, you could be in real serious trouble. So is that the same across all professions, or is it just a practice of law? The candor, the honesty, is across all professions.

If you lie to the investigators, that's a bad thing. Either don't say anything, but don't lie. That's a cross profession, but different professions have different triggers.

Attorneys, you can do a lot of bad things. You can put yourself in wills. You can rip off your partners.

You can lie, steal, and cheat with other people. But if you take money from the trust account, that's the really bad thing. And whether you take $100 from the trust account or you take $1 million from the trust account, the punishment is going to be bad.

A year's suspension, three-year's suspension, revocation, whatever. It's going to be a bad punishment no matter how much is taken from the trust account, because theoretically the trust account money is not yours, and that's the worst thing for a lawyer. For a physician, or frankly, in any of the medical professions, you can be drunk, you can have all these other things.

They're all bad. But the worst thing is improper touching with the patient. However you want to do.

Even if you thought it was consensual or not, if it turns out you break up in the end and you get these accusations, if it's improper touching, bad. If you chopped off the wrong leg, that may be bad. It may be malpractice.

It may be a lot of other things. But the penalty is different, which is one of the hard things with physicians, and I have the hardest time with physicians, convincing them it's okay to admit that you made a mistake. You were intoxicated.

You cut the wrong leg or something because of what you were given. Those are bad, but it's not as bad as sex, at least here. It makes sense.

That's a betrayal of the trust, of the oath that they took to do no harm. With real estate, in my experience with real estate brokers, it's being involved in any kind of mortgage fraud. That's the bad situation.

Whether they had sex with their client, that's something else. It may not be ethical, but that's not the worst thing. If you want to have sex with your clients, don't be a doctor.

Be a realtor. If you're going to take money from the trust account, take a lot of money. Don't take a lot of money.

It's going to be just as bad. I want to hear about how you got into the representation of licensed professionals. My gut tells me it probably sprung from the insurance litigation work that you do.

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Download your free guide today. Okay, Charlie. I asked you right before we took that quick break how you got into working with licensed professionals and I guessed, maybe I'm wrong, that it had something to do with your handling of insurance cases.

Is that how you got into this? Sort of. I did work when I first got out of law school out of Miami. I was fortunate a firm up here in Chicago hired me so I never had to look for a job and they did a lot of insurance defense work.

So I was, you know, sort of trained and they did a lot of suspicious claims stuff Arson's, frauds, things like that where they represented the insurance companies who didn't want to pay the claim but they had to, with Arson, usually when an insurance company has to look at those things it's the insurance company's burden to prove why they take the position they're taking how to justify the declination of the claim and that's how I started. I worked, actually a lawyer in my office who worked with me his brother was a realtor and his brother got into trouble in a house in Evanston, frankly and on dealing with, had some issues about it and that was, I don't know, probably 35 years ago I bet, at least and I was a relatively young lawyer and he asked me if I could represent him and help him and do that it wasn't part of the firm that I was with or anything like that and I said sure, you know, I've never done it before I'll try, you know, and I got him off and that one thing by word of mouth led to another initially it was just brokers, then it became appraisers, then it became inspectors then it became massage therapists, then it became physicians and then attorneys and things like that and so that's how it is I have now, believe it or not, a hair braider in Illinois you have to be licensed to braid hair which is something I didn't know until this person was dinged for not having a license to braid hair so just let that be a warning or a lesson or something And what types of cases do you work on throughout the course of your regular workday? I mean, professional responsibility is a portion of your practice but talk about the types of cases you work on as a matter of, you know, just your day to day work I do a lot of insurance coverage work but I represent the policy holders so I'll have clients who either want to have their policy analyzed and say, you know, if this happens, will I be covered? and I'll provide them with an analysis of that and I do a lot of that I do a lot of, frankly, a lot of not only review of the policies but advocating for the policy holder against the insurance company if they deny the claim, if they have not honored their obligation at least in my field whether it's, you know, there are many policies there are many situations where you have additional insureds or lean holders who are entitled to either coverage or entitled to payments under policies and for a variety of reasons, they don't get paid or the obligation that the insurance company has to them is not honored and so I'll advocate for them so, you know, it sounds sort of muddled but, you know, a bank, for instance a bank is a mortgagee on a policy and the insured does something to void the policy well, the bank should still get paid you know, or the people, the lenders lost patience still get paid under those policies you'll have situations where there is a fire in the insurance company the insurance company is reluctant to pay everything they owe replacement costs, they only want to pay actual cash value they, in Illinois at least, you'll have situations where there's a hailstorm and two sides of the building are damaged but, you know, they only, so they only want to pay for those two sides but all four have to match, all four sides have to match and, you know, they can't repair just the two sides and keep it matching well, you're entitled to have it matched you know, it's, those sorts of things that's great you know, I joke all the time with my friends who are in the insurance business that insurance companies weren't built on a foundation of paid claims that's why it's such a good business is because they don't like to pay they used to say, deny, delay, don't pay and, you know, there are some sub standards that are like that but by and large, they know what they're supposed to do it's just, they all have so what is, we talk about, you know, just a digressment we always talk about bad faith there's a duty of good faith and everybody and you have to understand whether or not you have bad faith or not they have to, everyone has that duty it's a good faith you know, I really, I really admire your career path because you saw an opportunity and you jumped on it and I think so many people these opportunities, all of us, are presented with opportunities like you were where your friend said or the person said hey, will you represent my buddy or my brother or my friend who, you know, who's getting dinged here and you were like, sure, I'll give it a shot and this turned into a really fantastic niche for you what's your advice to young professionals who are just starting out and somebody wants to throw them in the deep end of the pool and they're concerned, they're worried that they're not up to the task I mean, you jumped in what's your advice to young professionals when this situation presents itself? You know, realize that everybody has performance anxiety everybody has, you know, so, and just do it you know, the first step, the first, you know, long march begins with the first step sometimes you just have to do it, you know, whether you, you know I have all these cliches and things, these things in my head you know, 90% is just showing up you know, just do it, you'd be surprised, you know, ask the question there will be times where you fall on your face and, you know, that's sort of understanding how it is I've done a lot of sports coaching and stuff in my, in, over I've had three boys and, you know, failure is part of the thing the experience, it builds your experience don't make the mistake more than once if you don't have to but, you know, everybody, again, it goes to my thing about candor contrition cooperation everybody makes mistakes, everybody and I acknowledge that, you know, it's a matter of why you made the mistakes and learning from the mistakes and again, it sounds cliche but it's really true so I say do it, I tell everybody who works with me, join I don't care what you join, but join and be active, you know, join something you like and be active and you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of it and experience, and you'll be surprised if it's not a fight you'll have a, you know, it's a growth experience so I say do it Yeah, you seem like a really good natured person so tell us, what is, give us an example of a case where you had a lot of fun, can you think of a case that comes to mind where you were just like, I don't want this to end, this is great, I'm really liking this Well, a couple come to mind, I was involved, I was fortunate I have been fortunate in my career to be in some cases where I was involved in the city of Dixon which is, in the city of Dixon case was the largest municipal embezzlement in US history where the Comptroller, Treasurer of the city of Dixon stole many, many millions of dollars over a few years and it was a case where I represented a bank and we were sort of on the sideline, we were a peripheral party, we were there but it was a case where that went on, the investigation and you just, it was peeling an onion as to why it happened, how it happened and who was actually involved and there were some accounting firms there was another bank, there was the city and all the city employees and it was just gratifying and my client in the end didn't have to pay anything which was terrific, you know, but it was one of those cases where you learn so much about municipal operations, you learn about how government functions, you learn about accounting and how these accounting, you know, some big accounting firms operate and small ones operate, it just, it was really a tremendously educational experience and how banks and how, you know, the importance of tellers frankly and what they recognize and what they don't see and how sophisticated things were and in the city of Dixon, the reader, she used to collect the mail for the city and would distribute it and which is just, it's mind-boggling it's like, you know, Lori Lightfoot taking the mail for the city of Chicago and, you know, collecting it and then distributing it, it's sort of mind-boggling because Dixon, while it's a small town, it's still, you know, 15, 20,000 people Yeah, yeah, that's great That was a case I didn't want to end What organizations, what groups do you belong to and how do you make the most, because you mentioned and I let it go, but I want to go back to that You mentioned, you know, joining groups, joining associations and making connections What groups and associations do you belong to and how do you make the most of those types of memberships because a lot of people listening will be, like us, they might be members of Provisors which is a fantastic group How do you make the most of those because, you know, you've seen a lot and there, you know, there are so many people in these organizations How do you pick the right people to connect with? It's an ongoing battle It's an ongoing struggle I'm always trying to do that Now, I do belong to Provisors I belong to some other organizations that are like Provisors and just, you know, I guess competitors They're relationship networking groups One's called TAC, one's called Pang Professional Executive Networking Group and others But we also belong to Chambers of Commerce Because with me, I never know where business is going to come I also, like I said, did a lot of coaching So youth sports was very important People knew you were a lawyer, they wanted to talk to you for two minutes Giving them the time to do that And then ultimately, they'll come back and then I belong to some advisory boards, some school boards And, you know, again, joining organizations I really don't care One of the lawyers in my office became very, very involved in fantasy sports Just a fantasy sports association And he ended up going to NBC Universal And now he's actually with MGM But from joining and pushing them to join And I pay, you know, the bar associations have various committees Again, there's a lot of Once you start joining and once you become Knowing and liking and trusting And have a relationship with people, they'll come to you And you can give them And if you start feeding them, it returns And so I try to give as much as I can But I get so much more in return It's very selfish because it's very gratifying You know, I like it, so it feels good And so that's why I like to do it So your philosophy, you know, I've heard you talk about empathy, understanding, discipline Does that come from sports, from coaching sports? Because it strikes me that those are the elements of a really great coach Empathy, understanding, and discipline Is that where that comes from? Some of it It's also, I had the benefit I grew up with loving parents who were, my parents were somewhat, were intellectuals I grew up overseas And I grew up until I went to college I lived overseas We lived in Southeast Asia And a little bit in Africa And so you learn to see different perspectives Of not only the U.S. but the world And different cultures and different groups So all those things And understanding, you know, appreciating why certain things are done So that's basically, that's how I learned empathy And coaching does come with that You know, I think I should have been a gym teacher Because, you know, I like team sports I like, you know, and it really, you can, to me, and with the exception of baseball, to a degree Coaching a team sport is coaching a team sport Whether it's soccer, whether it's basketball, whether it's football The practices are basically organized the same way, at least in my experience They're organized the same way And it's all with a common goal to do something And football may be to hit the person opposite you So that somebody can move the ball And soccer is sort of to avoid it So that you can move the ball And basketball is passing, you know, to move the ball to get the shot But basically, they're all sort of the same Individual sports are different And, you know, and just how it's treated One of my, just as an aside, one of my kids was a very good tennis player And the problem with tennis, though, as you progress through tournaments It's a lonely sport Adam loved the practices There was a big sports club downtown here in Chicago That had Saturdays would have a basically round robin open practice For all these kids were all great players That's what he liked the most He ended up quitting tennis And playing soccer And I remember his tennis coach saying This is the biggest mistake he's ever going to make You know, and my wife's reaction was the same as mine was We hope so He wasn't going to be Don McEnroe He's not going to be, you know, he wasn't going to be You know, he'll be a good tennis player He's still a good tennis player But it's not, you know, it's much more He liked the camaraderie And that may be the most valuable lesson that comes from this entire episode, Charlie Because I, as a dad of a 13 going on, 14-year-old right now He played, and I coached him in baseball for five years And then he got really into martial arts He was an excellent tournament-winning martial artist And he developed a passion for, like your son, tennis And, you know, I sat back and I said to my wife Look, they're not giving out college scholarships You know, every day when he practices Let him learn about life, let him understand You know, about being a part of something that's bigger than himself About hard work, about how to handle adversity And whatever he's passionate about when it comes to sports Let him do that because that's when those lessons will sink in And I think, Charlie, we as parents And, you know, maybe your experience with your other kids led you to this It took me getting hit in the head by watching my kids suffer Through things that I wanted him to do versus things that he wanted to do You know, when they find something they're passionate about That's when those life lessons are going to open up And, you know, they're not giving college scholarships to eight-year-olds Let them do what they want to do And that's where they're going to learn the most And speaking of learn the most, Charlie, I want you to think of three things That people should take away from our time together today Three big lessons in your mind that you want people to take away And as you're thinking of that I'm going to remind our friends who are listening, our friends who are watching That our show's brought to you by Cendrowski Corporate Advisors We wouldn't be here without them And they've worked for over 35 years to provide outstanding representation In the field of accounting and business financial advisory Now, I talked to you earlier in the show about how Cendrowski Corporate Advisors Works with litigators and they potentially could do some forensic accounting Now, I just want to mention they also work with high net worth individuals Now, there's a thing, it's a separate company, it's called a family office Which many high net worth individuals set up to manage their investments And sometimes families who are affluent choose to get together with other families And they have a multi-family office Now, this is a bit of a complex structure But the good news is Cendrowski can help you with that Because they wrote the book on family offices They literally wrote a textbook that's being used to teach people How to form family offices and about the proper accounting for family offices So, if you know someone that's thinking about managing their net worth Through the use of a family office Or someone who's thinking about joining a multi-family office Give Cendrowski a call 866-717-1607 866-717-1607 It doesn't matter where you are in the country They can help you, they understand these things inside and out They're a CPA firm with a different perspective Also, I want to remind you get your free gift revenueroadmapguide.com That's the website You can download a business development plan If you're a professional or if you're in a relationship business My gift to you for being a listener, for being a viewer revenueroadmapguide.com Download your free business development plan today Okay, Charlie, what are the three big things We're going to take away from our time together? Well, you know, you start with Cander Contrition Cooperation Remember that, remember that, that's one I'm counting that even though it's three words I'm counting that as one The next one is the general The three stages that you go through when anything happens to you Which I learned a long time ago React, regroup, refocus I didn't think of that, but that's, you know And I always think of Charles Barkley You know, when he gets a foul When he had a, a long time ago When he would get a foul called on him He'd always like, you know, turn around and What, you know And then he'd run down the court shaking his head And then he'd turn around and play defense You know, and those, you know, so those are all the things And then it's the, the three things that frankly I tell everybody who works with me And it's basically my employee handbook Which is, if you make a mistake or you get in trouble or do something Don't lie to me, you know That's one, don't, don't embarrass me Which means don't embarrass them Don't do something where you're going to regret Think about what it's going to look like as exhibit A You know, on a big three by five poster When they, when they used to be posters as opposed to being on the screen And, you know, don't take me for granted Which means don't take anybody for granted You know, say what you're going to do Be open about it And just, you know, nine percent of the time Everybody will say fine So those are the three things Great advice. Thank you so much, Charlie It was such an honor to have you with us today Thank you so much for joining us, my friends Charles Franklin is an attorney in Illinois And he's here for you if you're a licensed professional I want you to reach out to him You can connect with him by going to fgcclaw.com Or you can give him a call 847-701-2250 847-701-2250 I'm going to put all that as well as Charlie's bio In the show notes, it's impressive I want you to go there and take a look at it Reach out to him, give him a call Connect with him, he's a wealth of information And he can also help you, you know, if you get in trouble The first thing you need to do is call Call someone, call a lawyer If you're in Illinois, call Charlie You have attorney-client privilege So be open and honest with him Tell him everything that happened And he's going to give you good advice on how to proceed And he's going to do everything he can to keep you out of trouble You're not going to be able to do it yourself Charlie, thank you so much for joining us today I really appreciate it Thank you David, it really was my pleasure Thank you That'll do it for another episode of The Inside BS Show folks, thank you for joining us today We'll see you right back here again tomorrow We're here every day with a brand new interview for you Until then, here's hoping you make a great living And live a great life