Pathways with Amber Stitt

From Punk to Personal Injury Law: Building an Iron Mind & Navigating Risk with Joshua Brumley

• Amber Stitt

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🎙️ Welcome to another inspiring episode of Pathways with Amber Stitt! 

🚨 In this episode, Amber sits down with Seattle-based personal injury attorney Josh Brumley to dive deep into the realities of car accident claims, legal risk, and building a meaningful career in law.

🚔 Josh shares his unconventional and courageous journey toward becoming a lawyer, including poignant stories from his upbringing, forging a connection with his estranged father, and how a wild encounter with a red Ford Tempo and an overzealous police officer inspired his passion for helping others navigate the legal system. 

🎤 From growing his firm “Brumley Law Firm” to launching his podcast “Iron Mind,” Josh opens up about lessons learned in both business and law.

This episode is packed with actionable advice:

🗝️ What to do (and NOT do) after a car accident.

🗝️ The REAL dangers of posting on social media during a case.

🗝️ Why taking photos and calling the police is critical.

🗝️ The impact of hiring the right legal experts.

🗝️ Insights into personal accountability, business growth, and mentorship.

👀 Get an honest behind-the-scenes look at the legal world, personal growth, and how proactive planning can protect your future. 

🚁 Plus, learn about Josh’s mission to elevate industry standards and support victims when they need it most.

✨ Listen in for stories, legal wisdom, and tips you won’t hear anywhere else!

📽️ To watch this episode: https://youtu.be/pZABaT_icXI

🔗 For more information on Joshua Brumley, visit his website:

📲 Website: https://www.BrumleyLawFirm.com

📲 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrumley

📲 Iron Mind Podcast: https://www.ironmindpodcast.com

#pathwayswithamberstitt #joshuabrumley #amberstitt #brumleylawfirm #ironmindpodcast

📻 Thank you for tuning in to Pathways!

🔗 Connect with Amber on Social Media:

📲 Be sure to visit Amber's website:

www.AmberStitt.com

And remember, let's take action today!!!

Joshua Brumley [00:00:00]:
Don't post all your life on social media if you're engaged in a car accident case, even if it's not a lawsuit, yet. If it's just the claim, the insurance company can hire someone to just look up your significant other's social media to find the pictures and videos of you. It doesn't have to be just yours. Anything that's on the Internet of you is accessible to anyone who wants to go look it up. And everyone loves posting nowadays. It's just prevalent.

Amber Stitt [00:00:25]:
That's a whole other episode, right?

Joshua Brumley [00:00:28]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:00:29]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways. I am your host Amber Stitt and today we welcome Joshua Brumley to the show today. Welcome Joshua.

Joshua Brumley [00:00:37]:
Hello.

Amber Stitt [00:00:38]:
So excited to have you be here. I feel like we need some education on being smarter with focusing on risk, focusing on money, and why not bring an attorney on the show that can help us think more in advance, like proactively, as we go through certain situations. So thank you for being on the show. Can you explain to the audience what you do? A day in the life of Joshua Brumley and the practice of law?

Joshua Brumley [00:01:03]:
Absolutely. So, "Car crash? Call Josh" is the slogan. I'm a personal injury attorney out of Seattle, Washington. We focus specifically on car accident cases. But my background before my firm expanded into just this market was more of a general practice firm. So I've done family law trials, I've done criminal defense trials, I've done some business litigation. And my background, I have my master's in business and I had a undergrad degree from University of Washington in business, as well as my certificate in business law. So I really expected to be more in the business world with these degrees.

Joshua Brumley [00:01:42]:
But I was really drawn to representing victims of car accidents. And that level of practice is something that you can't start quickly. Some of these cases take a year, some of them take three years before you see any revenue from them. So. So my business brain had to think creatively on how to keep the lights on in the meantime. And now we're 100% car accident law firm.

Amber Stitt [00:02:05]:
Oh, that's awesome. So you mentioned the business side and then you're in what we would call a different niche out there in the business world, I suppose. How did you know that even law, the practice of law was going to be your main thing? Sounds like you like to learn, but how did this even come about for you?

Joshua Brumley [00:02:22]:
Well, I didn't grow up as someone who...I didn't expect to be a lawyer. That was not anything that I pre-planned out. I kind of was always just a business minded kid. I was the kid in the neighborhood selling candy to the other kids and using that money to buy my own candy. And my mom encouraged that kind of entrepreneurial behavior in me from a young age. So I always expected that's where I was going to end up is somewhere in the business world. And that's why I got my bachelor's degree in business management. But during my time in undergrad, I was raised by a single mom, and something kind of drew me at that time in my life to try to find my father.

Joshua Brumley [00:03:01]:
And I knew a bit about him. My mom knew more about him, obviously, and she kind of guided my search a little bit. And I ended up finding him. And he was a lawyer, and we started that relationship. And he encouraged me to not stop going to school at a time where I was really struggling to figure out what was next for me. And he encouraged me to continue undergrad. I finished undergrad. And I said, "Well, what if I want to go to law school?" And he said, "I'd love for you to go to law school."

Joshua Brumley [00:03:33]:
And that's what I ended up doing. So at a really pivotal time in my life, he kind of...I don't want to say he showed up because I showed up in his life. I searched him out. But, yeah, everything happens for a reason. And I think that's really what spurred me into the practice of law.

Amber Stitt [00:03:47]:
See, I thought maybe you were already an attorney when you found him, and so that is very interesting. So the JD was not there at that point in time?

Joshua Brumley [00:03:56]:
No, no. He encouraged and helped to pay for my law school acceptance tests. And then...

Amber Stitt [00:04:03]:
Oh, my gosh.

Joshua Brumley [00:04:04]:
Yeah, he was really encouraging with my undergrad and my law school acceptance tests. And then he lived in Florida. I flew out there and met him a few times and talked with him a lot. And then when I got accepted into law school in Jacksonville, Florida, I called him up and I said, "Hey, I got this great scholarship opportunity based on my scores on my tests." And he said, "Well, if you moved to Florida, what would you need from me?" And I said, "Well, you know, room and board is up to me. I'll find a job. I'm not trying to live with you or anything crazy like that, but I would love for...it's not a full ride scholarship if you could pay the difference for my tuition and pay for my books like you did in undergrad."

Joshua Brumley [00:04:39]:
And he said, "I don't remember saying I was gonna pay for your law school." And that was the beginning of the end of our relationship. So he was actually only in my life for a very brief moment. Just changed the trajectory of my life. And then it was back up to me to get through law school completely on my own without any support from him.

Amber Stitt [00:04:56]:
So interesting. So that took a lot of courage.

Joshua Brumley [00:04:58]:
Sad end to a happy middle story.

Amber Stitt [00:05:01]:
Yeah.

Joshua Brumley [00:05:02]:
But it was like I said, he's the catalyst for why I went to law school. And then when I was in law school for three years, I tried to reach out to him and he wasn't interested in that. And I just had to do it on my own.

Amber Stitt [00:05:15]:
Takes a lot of courage to do that. And like you mentioned the word catalyst, maybe that is the catalyst for you to then push beyond what you were feeling. Maybe it was an obstacle to find your own way. And that's where we try to really work on pathways of different journeys on this podcast to help people learn from others, to see what's your path to getting to the next level. And it could take a couple different routes until you really know where you're supposed to be. And it might not be a straight line. And I think that's the beauty of it. And so thank you for sharing that story.

Joshua Brumley [00:05:45]:
Absolutely.

Amber Stitt [00:05:45]:
And I like learning that you've gone in a few different routes in your practice of law to then wind up fighting what you ultimately love to show anybody listening today that it might take a little bit of time, but just keep working hard and going after it. And I feel like you have a lot of interesting fun stories, especially with just your practice in general. But I want to go back in time because I've picked up on something on one of your interviews that could have been part of the reason you do car crashes, personal injury, I don't know. You'll have to tell us. But there was something about a Ford Tempo and I'm picturing a red one. I don't know if it was...

Joshua Brumley [00:06:22]:
It was red. Wow!

Amber Stitt [00:06:24]:
Because I had the beat up Mercury Topaz and that was like the car that I got because I was such a jerk as a kid. I actually had a brand new car. My dad took it away. Not gonna share the story why. But I had a chance and I was a butthead and I got the Mercury Topaz after. And I mean, Nebraska winters, that thing would slush around in the snow. It was quite interesting, but it was a pretty trustworthy vehicle. So let's hear a little bit about the Ford Tempo.

Amber Stitt [00:06:52]:
The red Ford Tempo.

Joshua Brumley [00:06:54]:
So, I worked at Burger King when I was 16 years old and I was the first person in our friend group to buy a car. I bought my own first car, $600 bucks, or something outrageous. And it was the Ford Tempo, totally gutless. And I think the speedometer went to like 80 mph. It was like the slowest car known to man.

Joshua Brumley [00:07:17]:
But in our area, there's this town called Lakewood that there's this really steep, long hill and there were some woods that everyone would go and build bonfires at on the weekends and like kind of go party at. And I was the only one with a car. So my friends were like, "Come on, pick me up, come on, pick me up." So I'd always have like nine people crammed in this Ford Tempo and people would be sitting on laps. Some of my friends would want to sit in the trunk. Like it was outrageous, totally unsafe. Definitely don't recommend doing stuff like this, but times were different. I was like 17 at the time.

Joshua Brumley [00:07:47]:
I think, actually I just turned 18. I just turned 18 this evening when the Ford Tempo story occurred. So I'm driving up this really steep hill, taking everyone to where the party bonfire is, and I've got to get a running start for my car to get up this hill because it's weighed down more than normal with all my friends in it and it's gutless already. So I'm going like 50 mph to try to make it all the way up this hill because I know my car's going to start to like stop, stall out halfway through and there's a police officer driving down the hill opposite of me. And I was like, "Oh no, we're pulled over. I was definitely speeding." So I turn right in the middle of my hill drive and I say, "Everyone just jump out of the car.

Joshua Brumley [00:08:30]:
I don't want you guys to get 'no-seatbelt' tickets." There was just too many people in the car. I'm sure I'm going to get a speeding ticket. I get those all the time. Oh, well, I'm a young guy. I don't drive the speed limit. It's stupid. But that's kind of normal for young guys.

Joshua Brumley [00:08:43]:
So everyone jumps out of the car, the police officer does a U-turn and then turns into the same apartment complex as me. And when he turns into the apartment complex, I think he's expecting some high speed chase, or something, because he takes that turn way too fast and way too sharp and damages his police cruiser really badly on a curb. So he like crashes his own car. And he's furious with me about it, right?

Joshua Brumley [00:09:08]:
And so he drags me out of my car and he puts me in handcuffs. And my sister who was in the car is bawling, crying, "Please don't arrest my brother. Please don't arrest my brother." And he says, "Why'd you run?" And I said, "I don't know, man. I just pulled over into this apartment complex." And he said, "Well, why'd you turn your headlights off?" And I said, "I didn't turn my headlights off." And a bit about me, my background, I played punk music. I'm very dedicated in my punk music background to being a sober person.

Joshua Brumley [00:09:37]:
So no alcohol, no drugs. That's a big part of, in Seattle, the punk movement that we have veganism, vegetarians, not drinking, not doing drugs, that kind of thing. So that was a lifestyle that all my friends that were in this car all knew that I had subscribed to and is important for the purposes of the story. The police officer said, "Why'd you turn your headlights off?" And I said, "Sir, it's a Ford Tempo. They have daytime running lights. There's no way I could turn them off. You have my permission. Take my keys, go turn my car on.

Joshua Brumley [00:10:05]:
If you could teach me how to turn my headlights off, I would love to know, because I'm under the impression I can't turn them off." And so he did. He turned my car on and realized that he was wrong about me killing my headlights and was even more upset because now, in front of all nine of these witnesses, he looked like a liar.

Amber Stitt [00:10:21]:
He busted his car, and now he's looking like a bigger fool, even so.

Joshua Brumley [00:10:25]:
Yeah. And so he said, "You threw something out of your car. You threw something out." And I said, "I didn't throw anything out. What would I have thrown out?" In my head, I'm so naive as someone who doesn't even drink alcohol, "Like trash? What would I throw out of my car?" And he was like, "You threw something out of the car. Did you throw drugs into those woods?" And all my friends start laughing, and he's like, "What's so funny? Why are you laughing?" And they're like, "He's not the guy that would be throwing drugs out of his car, buddy.

Joshua Brumley [00:10:52]:
Like, you're just reaching now. You're just trying to entrap him. Or, pretend like you find drugs in the woods that you blame on him or something." So then they call the county sheriffs and they get drug dogs to look through the woods, and it's outrageous.

Amber Stitt [00:11:05]:
Oh, my gosh, that's an expensive day for them.

Joshua Brumley [00:11:09]:
Yeah. And so I half expected them to find drugs and then try to pin them on me, or something.

Amber Stitt [00:11:16]:
Sure, waiting for that.

Joshua Brumley [00:11:18]:
It was my first real encounter with a police officer. And my mom always taught me, just be honest. If you're going to be in trouble, you're going to be in trouble, but don't lie. And so that's what I was doing. I was respectful and I was honest with him, but I wasn't saying what he wanted to hear. And thank God I had a very weird car that had daytime running lights. I've never had a car like that since and don't know anyone else with a car with daytime running lights. But Ford Tempos had those.

Joshua Brumley [00:11:44]:
And so he didn't find any drugs in the woods. He charged me with obstruction of justice, which is a gross misdemeanor, one step below a felony. And that was my first encounter with the court system as well.

Amber Stitt [00:11:57]:
Yeah.

Joshua Brumley [00:11:58]:
So I had to go to court, and I talked with an attorney who offered me a probation agreement. And no one really explained the process to me. And I'm someone who just really enjoys learning and don't want to make decisions, especially in a court system, that are going to affect the rest of my life without learning. And so I was asking a lot of questions and wasn't getting enough information to really feel comfortable, but also didn't want to keep coming back to court, or know what the alternatives were. I didn't want to go to jail. You know, this seems like an okay deal from what I knew about it. So I did it, and it dropped off my record. It was dismissed after not getting in trouble for X amount of time.

Joshua Brumley [00:12:33]:
But the law school career that I later engaged in, I had to disclose this whole story to even get accepted to law school and then to sit for the bar exam, I had to disclose it again and talk about it. And if I ever want to be a sitting judge, I'll have to talk about it, again. And it was the first time, like I said, that I had an encounter with a police officer. And it was so glaring that this police officer was not the most honest person. Or maybe he thought that I did throw something out. Maybe he thought I did turn my headlights off, that don't turn off. But there was no possible way for me to do that. And as a young person, you kind of have this idea that police officers are there to protect you and that they can't do anything wrong and that they are honest and that they don't make mistakes.

Joshua Brumley [00:13:18]:
But people are people and it doesn't matter what your job is. You can be a good person, you can be a bad person. You can do your best to be honest and just have facts wrong.

Amber Stitt [00:13:27]:
I see. Yeah.

Joshua Brumley [00:13:29]:
So that was the first foray into, "Maybe I should be a lawyer. Maybe people need help from someone who's been through this process, who understands what it's like to be accused of something you didn't do and what that feels like." And I made a career out of it.

Amber Stitt [00:13:46]:
And thinking the original reason he was trying to pull you over was speeding, but you couldn't have been going...you said 50 mph maybe. So was it even an infraction that's even that...? I'm sure we all could be a little bit...

Joshua Brumley [00:13:57]:
I probably would have got a $100 ticket. Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:13:59]:
Yeah. So that's where that is bizarre. And the other thing in my weird little hamster brain is wondering, did you have a pager for all your friends, or were you too young for that?

Joshua Brumley [00:14:08]:
I had a pager before this era, but this was post-pager, pre-current cell phones. It was the brick phones, the Nokias that are like bright orange with the green screen where you just start texting.

Amber Stitt [00:14:21]:
"I will pick you up and I don't know where we're going...to the bonfire. We're going to find it."

Joshua Brumley [00:14:26]:
I had to MapQuest the directions. That was the era.

Amber Stitt [00:14:29]:
I didn't have that. All right, so, yeah, but I'm just setting the storyline here. You're listening to Pathways with Amber Stitt for more episodes like this, plus so much more, check out the podcast page at: www.AmberStitt.com Let's take action together! Now let's get back to our episode. Okay, so in real life, is there some tips that you want to provide? Like if you are in a situation, there is an accident. Is there any protocol that's just like a 1, 2, 3 that everyone should be aware of?

Joshua Brumley [00:15:00]:
Yeah, absolutely. And like I said, I've done a lot of different types of law, so I understand people with a criminal history, or immigration concerns potentially being really afraid of police involvement. But the first thing I always give as advice is to call the police, even if it's a minor accident, because you don't know this other person. And depending on the level of damage, there might be a requirement to file a police report. And if you don't call the police, then you have to file your own police report, otherwise you're violating that. The secondary issue is this person might say, "We don't need police. We'll work it out with insurance. It's all good."

Joshua Brumley [00:15:38]:
And then as soon as you drive away, they call police and say it was a hit and run and that you didn't stay on the scene. And there's no way to protect yourself from them doing that. So call the police 100% of the time, every time. If you have immigration consequences, they won't come into play for a personal injury case. No one's going to ask you in Washington about your immigration status as part of an investigation of who was at fault for a car accident. If you're driving under the influence, that might be an issue. That might be a part of the reason that the accident occurred. That might be a reason not to call the police because you'd be incriminating yourself.

Joshua Brumley [00:16:13]:
But my role is to protect victims of car accidents. And if you were the victim of a car accident, you didn't cause the car accident, then the police need to come.

Amber Stitt [00:16:22]:
Yeah, the immigration part is a little sad and tricky because I had that happen in Nebraska. My parents vehicle, I get hit by sitting at a stoplight and it was, "Please don't call." They were concerned about their, whether it was driver's license, or something. And I just was, I don't know what to do because I'm sure they're nice people. But she really hit someone at a red light, like going too fast. So it was very awkward. But luckily there was a police on scene at this campus, so they saw it and came over anyway. But yeah, your nerves are pumping and your heart's racing and it just feels awkward.

Amber Stitt [00:16:56]:
And you're right, it might not be safe, but then you have to look out for yourself on that.

Joshua Brumley [00:17:01]:
Yeah. And we've had cases where the person who rear ends our client gets aggressive too, like pulls out weapons or lots of other things. There might not be a safe way to exchange information with the other person. You might be so injured that you might not be able to have a normal conversation. So there's a lot of reasons why getting a police presence involved protects you. But that's the number one advice I have. And then the second advice that I give to every one of my clients, take pictures of everything, not just your car. Take pictures of their car, take pictures of the scene.

Joshua Brumley [00:17:38]:
If there's a way that you can get photos of the intersection, or the streets that you're on where the accident occurred, that's super beneficial for an accident reconstructionist later. You know, we think about car accidents as rear end accidents where you're stopped at a stoplight and someone hits you. That's clear cut liability. The person that wasn't paying attention hit you while you were stopped at a stoplight. But what about situations where you're sideswiped where you're both driving down the lane and they say, "You merged into my lane," and you say, "No, they merged into my lane." And so in issues where liability isn't as clear cut, those photos can make all the difference. And so you might have skid marks on the ground, you might have camera footage from a nearby house, like those Ring doorbells. I've had actual footage of a car accident on some neighbor's house

Joshua Brumley [00:18:25]:
Ring camera that I was able to use to make sure everyone knew my client stopped at the stop sign and the other person plowed right through and T-boned my guy. There's so much that we don't know until we have photos of the accident scene. And if you can't remember where exactly the accident occurred, that's tough. And so if you're taken away in an ambulance, you're not going to have the opportunity to take photos of where the accident occurred. But if you're well enough to take the photos, I always recommend there's never a problem having too many photos. There's always a problem having not enough.

Amber Stitt [00:19:00]:
I felt so awkward even trying to get the license plate and take some...because I think you naturally go, all right, I'm gonna go, just shoot the bumper, or the whatever's the problem. But you gotta kind of step back. But, man, you feel like a jerk doing it. It's just awkward. It's so important!

Joshua Brumley [00:19:16]:
Yeah, it's very uncomfortable. And it's uncomfortable because especially if the person is sweet and apologetic, then you feel like, maybe I shouldn't be doing all this, but it's really to protect yourself. That's why we have insurance. And if the person who hit you doesn't have insurance, you're going to be required to submit an insurance claim for your underinsured motorist coverage if you have it. In Washington, over a million drivers have no coverage. So if you don't have UIM coverage and you're driving and someone hits you without insurance, you're just out of luck. And that could be catastrophic for your life. You could lose your car, you could lose years of health.

Joshua Brumley [00:19:52]:
There's a lot of reasons to have that UIM coverage. So I'm a real big proponent of checking your policy, understanding what your coverages are, talking with insurance companies. Another thing that I have to tell people, in this current climate of posting everything on social media, I've gotten a lot of cases from friends of mine just posting their car accident photos on social media and saying, "Man, car got totaled today. I'm okay, though, thank God." You know, stuff like that. And I'm like, "Hey, you know, I do this for work, DM me." And then we start talking and then they sign up and they become a client and I'm like, "Okay, you posted photos. Please don't post everything."

Joshua Brumley [00:20:29]:
It's just what people do now, though. They love posting everything on social media. And I've had cases where people say they're too injured to go to the gym and then there's video footage of them at the gym. The gym has cameras. The defense counsel is going to get that footage. Don't lie. Don't say you're injured if you're not injured. And if you are injured, don't post about being at concerts with your shirt off and your body shredded and saying, "I worked out six times this week to keep this bod tight."

Joshua Brumley [00:21:00]:
It's going to come up.

Amber Stitt [00:21:02]:
Yeah, I mean, I think that we think, okay, your employer might look you up and fact check you to see what you're doing online. But you got to think beyond that because there could be a series of events before and after. Always tell the truth. But you need to watch what else you're doing out there.

Joshua Brumley [00:21:19]:
Don't post all your life on social media if you're engaged in a car accident case, even if it's not a lawsuit, yet. If it's just the claim, the insurance company can hire someone to just look up your significant other's social media to find the pictures and videos of you. It doesn't have to be just yours. Anything that's on the Internet of you is accessible to anyone who wants to go look it up. And everyone loves posting nowadays. It's just prevalent.

Amber Stitt [00:21:44]:
That's a whole other episode, right?

Joshua Brumley [00:21:47]:
Yeah, social media protection, I guess, is the third bit of advice. And then fourth, obviously everyone does this, but I always encourage it right away that you really want to see a medical professional right after the accident. Insurance companies will minimize the value of a claim based on how long it took you to go seek medical treatment.

Amber Stitt [00:22:07]:
Interesting.

Joshua Brumley [00:22:08]:
If you say, "I was hurt, but I had to go to work that day and, oh, well, then I didn't have a car, so it took me a while to get to the doctor. Two weeks later, I'm in my first doctor's appointment." They're going to say, "How do we know this was about the car accident and you didn't just pull your back mowing the lawn?"

Amber Stitt [00:22:23]:
Oh, sure.

Joshua Brumley [00:22:24]:
And there's no way for us to really defend against that other than, "I guess you're going to have to depose my client and this is going to go into litigation and it's going to get more serious than it needed to because the client took that time and didn't get right into the doctor." The gaps in medical treatment are something that insurance companies frequently will attack to try to disprove injury. And we're successful overcoming those issues. But I prefer to not have them. I prefer to have a clear, perfectly put together with a bow on it case that says, "Give me every penny you've got." And that's what my clients deserve. And if they can help me by doing their part, then I can get them every penny that they deserve.

Amber Stitt [00:23:02]:
We don't do the property, casualty, homeowners, or auto in our practice, but really we talk to them about, our clients, how important that is. You brought up a good point. There's a million people in the area. So really just trying to take that proactive approach and really think about that, but then also retaining the right experts like yourself. It's interesting that sometimes people want to wing it when it comes to the most important things, but you have to have your counsel, your tax advisor, different attorneys for different things. It's so important, but also doing some of the steps ourselves to make things happen and take some accountability there. But look at what you're doing to help, or not help the situation, that personal accountability too. So we're going to switch gears and talk about something new that's happened this year for you.

Amber Stitt [00:23:50]:
And let's talk about how people can find you, but also your podcast and what you're sharing with others so that you can provide more information as time goes on. You're collecting a lot of interviews that are so interesting. Can you share a little bit about that launch this year?

Joshua Brumley [00:24:05]:
Sure. So my podcast is called Iron Mind podcast and it's: IronMindPodcast.com if anyone's interested in checking it out. We're on all the major platforms, YouTube, Spotify, all that. And the podcast is really based on personal injury and different experts in that world that can give really, I think, beneficial advice to other lawyers. I think a lot of lawyers dip their toe in personal injury without knowing enough about it to be super successful. And the personal injury attorneys that run, we call them "Mills". It's a firm that isn't dedicated to actually going to court. They just want to get clients in-and-out and they settle cases for less than their value.

Joshua Brumley [00:24:48]:
Insurance companies actually really enjoy working with those firms because they pay less than what the claim is actually valued at. That's not good for the clients, that's not good for the business. And these companies only stay in business from churning out as quickly as possible the cases. And so I really want to encourage people in my industry to seek out experts to take cases to court, to take cases to trial, to file the lawsuit, to not minimize what their clients deserve, to just get the case out the door. That's not good for our clients, it's not good for our industry, it's not good for our reputations as lawyers. And so talking to experts about different pitfalls in the industry. And I think that people who are going through personal injury cases can also benefit from this information. It's really intricate. In some of the episodes we're talking about certain case law and when it applies and stuff like that.

Joshua Brumley [00:25:40]:
But if you're like me and when you're involved in something that could be the difference between $10,000 and $100,000, it might be worth a listen to understand what makes a mediation beneficial, when you should do a mediation, what's arbitration, what are my rights for attorneys fees, all sorts of different great stuff. When is a visual aid a good component of a demand letter? So I had tons of great experts talk on the show, experts that I use in my cases, experts that I've yet to use, but really excited to. And I think it's also got an entrepreneur benefit, as well. So there's going to be scheduled a lot of different business type guests, people who have had struggles just growing a business and how they've managed people and what having employees is like on a large scale and how you grow a business from zero employees to 500 employees. So really great information. And you really hit the nail on the head, Amber, when you said having your experts ready in your life, in your business, having that tax accountant, having a CPA, having your attorney for different things, it's so important. And building those relationships before you need people and understanding what insurance is there for, understanding what your CPA is supposed to do, understanding what your tax accountant does and so many people don't. And if you're running a business, it's got to stop with you.

Joshua Brumley [00:27:05]:
You're the person that's got to know how to wear all these hats, or find someone who's going to wear that hat for you.

Amber Stitt [00:27:11]:
Early you talked about how you ended up really focusing. It took some time to get to this point to be 100% in on this. That's where I think it's really important for people to work with those that specialize. And it sounds like these "Mills" are just...there's a vibe there that's not looking out for you. People that are working within their specialties and not doing all things. It's important because that's where that true expert advice is going to come from. To wrap this up and talking about just one more thing about this podcast, I feel that the name of your podcast is to share thought leadership and really be helping.

Amber Stitt [00:27:45]:
And there's a mentorship menteeship that's we can all be trading information to help each other and help the community. So on that note, can we talk about that before we wrap up today and what the vision was behind the name?

Joshua Brumley [00:27:57]:
Yeah. So I think you hit the nail on the head. The podcast has a bit of a tip of the hat to my background. Like I said, I'm this punk guy that decided one day he was going to go to law school. But I played in bands. I ran live music spaces in my time before going to law school. Like I said, I've always been an entrepreneur. I started my own clubs here in the area and promoted shows.

Joshua Brumley [00:28:22]:
And I think that that background helps a lot with doing what I do as an attorney, as a business owner. But Iron Mind is a song from a band from Boston that broke up years ago. But it's actually like it's only a tip of the hat for the people that know it. And I love that you still got the idea of what that podcast is from me talking about it and then mentioning the name. That thought leadership and mentor/mentee idea. This information is out there for anyone. And this information was hard for me to find when I needed it. And so by creating it in a very public way, to share it with anyone who wants to listen, I think is super important.

Joshua Brumley [00:29:02]:
And it's only going to attract other experts to be guests on the podcast, other clients, to see that this is just who I am. I want to share this information with anyone. I don't care if you're a client, or not. If you can benefit from it, I want you to have it. And then other attorneys to work with my firm, or to work in my firm.

Amber Stitt [00:29:20]:
You never know.

Joshua Brumley [00:29:21]:
You never know.

Amber Stitt [00:29:22]:
Well, thank you for sharing your pathway to success and the ongoing success, and it's just only going to help pave the way for others. So I really appreciate that. I know there's so many more stories that you can share, so we'll check it out on the podcast and other interviews, too. So thanks for being here, Joshua. I really appreciate it.

Joshua Brumley [00:29:37]:
Thank you for having me, Amber.

Amber Stitt [00:29:38]:
Thank you for joining us on this episode of Pathways. For more information about the podcast, books, articles, the blog and so much more, please visit my website at: www.AmberStitt.com. And remember, let's take action today! Thank you for listening!