#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards
Are you feeling stuck in life, wanting to grow, improve your income, or build a stronger community? Join performance coach Jordan Edwards as he interviews world-class achievers—including the Founder of Reebok and the Co-Founder of Priceline—who share their success stories and actionable strategies. Each episode provides practical tips on how to boost your personal and professional growth, helping you implement changes that can make a real difference in your life.
This podcast is designed for anyone looking to make progress—whether you're aiming to improve your mindset, relationships, health, or income. Jordan distills the wisdom of top performers into easy-to-follow steps you can take immediately. Whether you're stuck in your career or personal life, you’ll find new ways to get unstuck and start moving forward with confidence.
How to get unstuck? It’s a question many face, and in each episode, you’ll hear stories of how successful individuals broke through barriers, found purpose, and created systems to overcome obstacles. From building resilience to developing a success mindset, you'll gain insights into how high achievers continue to evolve and grow.
Looking to improve your income? This podcast also dives into financial strategies, offering advice from entrepreneurs and business leaders who have built wealth, created multiple revenue streams, and mastered the art of financial growth. Learn how to increase your income, find opportunities for advancement, and create value in both your personal and professional life.
Jordan also emphasizes the importance of building community. You'll learn how to expand your network, foster meaningful connections, and create supportive environments that contribute to personal and professional success. From philanthropists to community leaders, guests share their experiences in building impactful, values-driven communities.
At the core of the podcast are the 5 Pillars of Edwards Consulting—Mental Health, Physical Health, Community Service/Philanthropy, Relationships, and Spirituality. Each episode integrates these elements, ensuring a holistic approach to self-improvement. Whether it's enhancing your mental and physical well-being, giving back to your community, or strengthening your relationships, you'll receive actionable advice that’s grounded in real-world success.
This podcast is for everyone—whether you're an entrepreneur, a professional looking to advance, or simply someone seeking personal growth. You’ll gain actionable steps from every conversation, whether it’s about increasing your productivity, improving your health, or finding more purpose in your life.
Jordan’s interviews are designed to be perspective-shifting, giving you the tools and inspiration to transform your life. From overcoming obstacles to building stronger habits, these episodes are packed with practical insights you can use today. Whether you're looking to grow in your career, improve your income, or enhance your personal life, you’ll find value in every conversation.
Join Jordan Edwards and a lineup of incredible guests for thought-provoking conversations that will inspire you to take action, improve your performance, and unlock your full potential. No matter where you are on your journey, this podcast will help you get unstuck, grow, and build a life filled with purpose and success.
#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards
#245 - Mastering Trial Law and Life: Lessons from 400 Cases
What does someone learn after 30 years as a trial attorney and 400 cases? Criminal defense lawyer Tad Nelson reveals it's not the victories that shape exceptional attorneys—it's the losses and what comes after.
Sitting down with the #ClockedIn podcast, Nelson shares his surprising practice of inviting jurors for coffee after trials to understand their perspectives. "You learn so much by spending time with the jury," he explains. "They tell you what they liked, what pissed them off, what they didn't buy from the government." This feedback loop has transformed his approach to representation and cultivated relationships that span decades—including one with an astronaut-turned-senator who served on his jury.
Beyond trial tactics, Nelson offers profound insights about balancing the intense demands of criminal and family law with personal wellbeing. Recognizing that poor client communication is the legal profession's greatest weakness, he pioneered a dedicated Client Success Manager position to ensure clients feel supported through their darkest moments. "These are the worst times of their lives," Nelson reflects, "and we're there to bridge that gap."
The conversation expands into Nelson's philosophy on handling stress, maintaining physical health as a 60-year-old father to a young daughter, and building meaningful community through service. His approach to independent thinking proves particularly compelling—approaching disagreements with genuine curiosity rather than defensiveness. "If I think X and you think Y, help me understand how you got there," he suggests, modeling how to bridge divides in an increasingly fractured world.
Whether you're facing legal challenges or simply navigating life's complexities, Nelson's wisdom transcends the courtroom. His "relentless" commitment to preparation, communication, and understanding offers a blueprint for approaching any high-stakes situation with confidence and humanity. Connect with Tad Nelson at TadLaw.com or across social media platforms to learn more about his approach to law and life.
To Learn more about Tad:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tad-nelson-03492334
To Reach Jordan:
Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/
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Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-555/intro-call
Hey, what's going on, guys? I've got a special guest here today. We have Tad Nelson. He's over 30 years in law. He's completed over 400 trials. Tad, we're excited to have you on the hashtag ClockedIn podcast. What does someone learn from having over 400 trials? That's incredible.
Speaker 2:Well, one, you just start getting. It's just like anything you do for several years, no matter what it is, I mean, it can be anything. You learn just by doing and ultimately, hopefully, it's like any other craft the more you do it, you get better at it. But I'll tell you the one thing that's really interesting about jury trials, and I'm a criminal defense lawyer, so in theory, the government should win the trials they file. You know, they know what they have, they know their evidence, you know the government has endless resources and by and large. So, to be honest, I've won my share. I've won more than my share. But I can tell you the one thing that's really interesting you learn so much more by actually losing. You know, really do. And you know, as a criminal offense lawyer, every one of us has lost because we're representing, you know clients that are unfortunately, more of them are guilty than not. But but you do. You do you see the things and this is what people don't realize after every loss. You know, I mean we always. You know we see on TV like Gotti and everybody walking out of the. You know the. You know the, the courthouse celebrating when they win.
Speaker 2:But the important stuff that happens after a case is the conversation. Usually you wait around the halls and you have a conversation with the jury If they want to talk to you. Sometimes they don't, but you can learn so much by spending some time with the jury and they tell you the stuff that they like. They tell you the stuff that pissed them off, you know. They tell you the stuff that they like. They tell you the stuff that pissed them off, you know. They tell you the stuff that was they that the government did, that they didn't buy into.
Speaker 2:I always send letters out and this is kind of the thing I think I'm, you know, most proud of by those 400 jury trials, at least small by miles, and I always invite them to come by the office, you know, if they have the time, or, you know, have a cup of coffee and have a chat. You know, the more I can learn about what they thought of my craft, because what I think of it, you know, doesn't mean anything if I can't sell it. You know what I mean. So I've done that, god, I bet I've done it 40 times where they've taken me up on it to Ted. I'd love to come talk to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the thing I want everyone to realize during this podcast is we're going to talk about law, but law is going to be relevant to your life. So if you're sitting here thinking about this going wait a second is that basically like someone not getting a deal and asking their customers how they can improve? Yes, is someone sitting there thinking, wait, I've I failed at like maybe I wasn't able to run a marathon. I failed at that Cool. How can I train and get better? Talk to other runners that have done it before, like we're. It's all the same framework. So, even though Tad's talking about law, we're going to be relating it to life so much more. So I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's funny. You know you talk about one of the relationships I've developed. Do you know the senator from Arizona, the junior senator, mark Kelly? Okay, so, like I was telling you where I was sitting at the window, I'm across the water from NASA. Well, mark lived around the street. Mark was on one of my juries when he lived here, when he was an astronaut. Remember, him and his brother were the twins, the identical twins that both capped in the space shuttle. Oh, wow. So Mark was on one of my juries on an aggravated sexual assault case. They found my guy not guilty. Me and Mark developed a little bit of a relationship.
Speaker 1:He invited me to, uh, to florida to watch him take off in the space shuttle really yeah, and that's that just shows like you never know where relationships are going to bleed. And that's why I love the podcast, because it forces me to constantly meet new people, and if you're listening to this, you could just be talking to your people around you. You know what I mean. Talk could just be talking to your people around you. You know what I mean. Talk to your customers, talk to your clients, talk to your coworkers, talk to the people in the Starbucks line. The more people you talk to, the more arms you rub, the more shoulders you get in touch with, the more people you're going to be able to get connected with and they're going to think of you as someone who they want in their corner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and as long as you're authentic, true to your beliefs and follow up on what do, what you say you're going to do, most of these relationships are going to be positive relationships.
Speaker 1:Dad, the follow-up thing. I see that so often where people say they're going to do all this stuff and no one does any of it. It's comical. It really is when people say they're going to do all this stuff and no one does any of it. It's comical. It really is where people say they're going to do these things and then just don't even deliver. And it happens all the time and it's like why do they do it? We make ourselves overly busy. So I established and I'm going to ask you in a second if you have any rules, because one rule I made is if it takes less than five minutes. I learned this from David Meltzer, who came on. He said if it takes less than five minutes, he's not, he's going to do it immediately, which I started doing. So any task I get where I can handle it in less than five minutes, like take out the trash Cool, I'm not going to wait till later the trash takes a minute. Like just take the trash out and go.
Speaker 2:So it's these little things, like you get an email you can respond in less than five minutes, go for it. That's how I started thinking about things. That's a great idea. I'm going to write that one down.
Speaker 1:That's good. It really is, because you start piling up these things and the activities you have don't have the same value, which is comical.
Speaker 2:Well, you talk about rules that people have taught you. My very first boss when I was a prosecutor in 90, one of his major rules when I first I can remember my first day on the job and he said you know you're going to get a lot of calls. He goes when you get back to the office and you get your calls, pick out the three worst ones and do those first. Oh really yeah ones and do those first. Oh really yeah. So I still, to this day, will come back and I'll have stuff to do when I get back to the office after morning courts and I'll go right to the worst thing to do and just try to get it done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's a great one, because you start to realize you're like, hey, if I can get this one done, then we can get the rest of it done.
Speaker 1:Rest of it's downhill, exactly, exactly. I love that. I love that. So what you do, tad, is you're in crime and family law, which we talked about, can be very, very stressful areas for the defendants, for the people in the courthouse. How do you seem to stay calm in those situations and how have you seen like your clients stay calm and this is more relating for the audience to realize, hey, when you have a stressful situation, maybe this is some tips and tricks you can use to react in a more positive way.
Speaker 2:From my perspective, like I was talking with you earlier, you know, the biggest thing that we try to provide at our office is, you know, a little bit of handholding. You know people come to us. They come to us with a problem, you know they either need to get divorced, you know, or have a child custody issue, or they have a criminal case against them. Ultimately, those are things that just really stress people out Absolutely. I mean, for one, thinking that you're not going to be with your children, you know, are you going to be moving from your house, losing your house, or are you going to be spending some jail time or whatever. That may be? No, so one of the things we try to really pride ourself on is not just worried about the result which the result's important and that's why people ultimately come to us but why it's at least a tolerable experience. You know, these are the worst times of their lives and we're there to bridge that gap, to give them reassurance, to constantly be people. They need updates, I mean. Granted, some of them need too much and some of them are way needier than they need to be, but at the end of the day, that's what we pride ourselves on, that's how we try to separate ourselves from other firms.
Speaker 2:The number one problem with lawyers in the country is communication with their clients. If you looked up Really oh, absolutely Not even close. I mean, if you looked up the number one complaint that citizens have with their lawyer that they've hired, it's communications. So we've actually realizing that we have somebody on staff that their title is called client success manager and their only job is to keep the clients in the loop, keep the clients coming to get their information, keep them updated on their you know, their court dates, anything that a client may need to feel better about the situation. Now it's also. Sometimes we need information from the client to work on their deal, but more times than not, our client success manager is just trying to make the road a little bit smoother for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and people get really nervous, especially when it's a high pressure situation. Yeah, and people get really nervous especially when it's a high-pressure situation. And the other thing that we don't realize is the better we get at stuff, the more like it's tough. But when you're a top lawyer, like your time is precious. That means everyone's bagging at your time. So, but like that's a good thing. But that's also a challenging thing because you want to get clients and you want to do that.
Speaker 1:But it's important for us to realize that, hey, there does make sense when it's times that, hey, operations need to pick up if we really want to maintain these people. So we're going to have to reinvest in them, and that's by bringing on a client success manager, by having those knowing where your flaws are and finding openings in them. Because, I guarantee you, all of us in our day-to-day lives have issues that we see on a daily basis that we know we could proactively fix. But sometimes we don't want to allocate the money to it. Sometimes we think it might be too much, it's not worth it. That's really where you got to think around it. But, tad, how do you handle a lot of these people? How do you think they handle high-stress situations. If someone's listening right now and they're in a high stress situation, it may not be like a divorce or a criminal case, but like how do you think they should handle that in a much better capacity?
Speaker 2:what I'm, the way I approach. That is the best way you can handle any high stress situation. This goes to any, everything from a, a case, a game seven in the NBA finals. The reason it's less stressful is because you're prepared for it. You know what I'm saying. So, like those guys that are in the NBA finals, they've been preparing their whole life and and even though I'm not athletic by any stretch, but I do prepare and if you're prepared and you've done everything you can, you as the participant, you know that will lower your stress.
Speaker 2:You know, hey, I might go into that courtroom at any time. I may win, I may lose, but I know I'm prepared. I know I know my stuff, I know I've dotted every, I crossed every T Now and that's all I can do. So I can't, I can't lose sleep about that. But and then you've got to let your client know. That's then you've got to start worrying about their stress. You know, making sure they're ready. What questions do they have? You know cause some clients, you know, when they go into a hearing, they might not even know where to sit or where the judge sits or anything. So and those things may be causing anxiety.
Speaker 1:You know, I and those things may be causing anxiety, you know. Yes, so it's really. It's really this unknown variable where we just don't know in which case, the more we prepare, the less stress we will be, which I I've never, I'd never really thought about that way, but it makes total sense that the more we prepare for things, the less stress we'll have.
Speaker 2:Which is which is a big deal because you're ready for it, no other reason. I mean I think the the biggest stress for most people have, I mean, is the unanticipated, you know. Yes, I mean everybody has. You know, are my children going to go to college? Stress, do I have enough money to go for vacation? You know, or can I all those things we all have financial stress and family stress, you know you just got to do the best you can with that and hope that you can deal with it.
Speaker 2:But as far as your work environment, you know that is something we can control a little more, like how your children behave at school. You know you can again, you teach them how to act and you hope they follow through on it. But it's still tough with children. But with your work environment you can set it up. You know to have some, you know, you know proficiencies and then you know if, obviously, the more anal you get like we have redundancy set into a lot of things, you know to make sure that we're always you know that because things can get when you've got things moving fast. You know things, can you know Slide.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that when you've got things moving fast, things can slide. Yeah, and that comes to the level of excellence that you want to keep and that you want to hold around, because it's not that we're always. Just because we have more clients doesn't mean we don't have that same level of excellence, which I think is important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and making another sports analogy. This is what I tell all the people in my office. We're not perfect. Again, it's like the best running back in the nfl, he's gonna fumble. Well, when you fumble, jump on the ball as fast as you can, you know pick it up you know we're all gonna fumble yeah, I don't, I don't stop.
Speaker 1:I really enjoy the, the sports references, because the other thing that I've realized is that a lot of people show up with very low energy when they go to work and when they just like enter their lives, like like everywhere they go, they're like and it's like just low energy. And you have to realize, like some of the things I do is I literally pump myself up. Let's go like you know what I mean, I'll do some push-ups, jump up and it's like why would you get pumped up for the day? And it's like you do that in sports, you do that in the weight room, you do it in these different areas. Why don't you do it in the office? Why don't you do it?
Speaker 2:Being. You are in lockstep, man. I mean I'm telling you, I wake up. It usually attitude, and you know, obviously people can wear you down, especially negative people like you're talking about, and sometimes it's a challenge to deal with them, you know, and usually I'm perfect. I mean, you know, until somebody really lets me down, you know, and it's going to be a client, a DA, anybody, but you know I'm flying high as a kite. You know, until I just you know it's funny, chitin. You know, until I just you know it's funny. I consider myself I love humanity, but by you know, once you start individualizing the people, like that's where I started having some problems, you know well it comes down to and the tough part there is that it comes down to start start.
Speaker 1:It starts becoming your framework of like what a good day is and what a bad day, and then it goes even deeper where it's what's my expectation of that person? Do I expect them to do something? And like, when we have yeah, and then when we have these expectations, like I expect you to do this, and then when you go, oh, you didn't do that big surprise. Wow, the words you say hold no meaning like, and it's then probably like oh, I just forgot, it's not a big deal. You know it's probably like oh, I just forgot it's not a big deal. No, it's a huge deal, it's a massive deal, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, if you don't have expectations of somebody, they can never let you down. Yeah, you know, and that's it's so true, and that's why it really helps.
Speaker 1:And that's I like to think I'm okay with that in the sense of I do know how to basically curb my expectations of people.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. You know, especially in a, in a, in any profession like what you and I do. You know like you deal with. You know the podcasting I mean.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you, you, you talk to some people that have no clue what's going on and your expectation is lower so the way to curb the expectation for me, if you're talking about that, so like if you're going to protect something right, so like, for me, I'm trying to protect the podcast. So the way I do that is I have an intro call. Why do I have an intro call? To see if I like the person and see if there's actually some camaraderie here and this could work out right. But that that's just by testing people. So when you test people you can kind of move them along and that's what I do. I do little, do little little tests with people. If you ever want someone to be a better friend of yours, just ask them to do like a very small task, like hey, can you like anything? Like something so small, like send me a picture of your coffee tomorrow. Like it's not even an ask, but it's like as you ask for more, then they start to become receptive and that's how you build the communication. And like that's how you start to build trust with people by doing little tasks for each other. You know what I mean. Or it's like you saw someone, like I see you have the longhorns thing. Now, if I was trying to build trust with you, if I was just going to sit there. Longhorn season comes around in august, I go oh, what do you think along? Like? That's a little way of building trust with people, because it's these ways of staying connected and it's important for us to do that. But it's super, it's. It's not easy, because then we have to be intentional and then we not. Oh wait, wait, wait, I have to wait three months to remember about. Oh cool, I have a send later button that I can send out an email, like I can send you an email in three months. What do you think about them? Longhorns? You know what I mean? It's these little things where you can figure it out, and technology has helped us a lot.
Speaker 1:Now, tad, with the consulting I run, edwards Consulting, and I have five pillars. It's mental health, physical health, community service, philanthropy, spirituality and relationships. With each of these pillars, I always meet with my clients and I say hey, on your mental health, on a one to 10, where do you think you're at today? And I say that regarding mental health, physical health, community service, philanthropy, spirituality and relationships. And in reality, this is just for today. So if you could give me your score and then we could see what a 10 might look like or if you're really flying high, then maybe you're flying high and then you give some tips.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, to be honest, I was thinking about that from our prior conversation and literally today. You know, I have, by and like most, most days go really smoothly, but a little bit of an issue. Today we had a guy who was unhappy. We're doing a great job for him. We've got us all ready as felony DWI reduced to a misdemeanor. But there's been some confusion because he has a license out of state. We're trying to get him back driving in Texas and there's been just some issues and there might have been some communication issues.
Speaker 2:The one thing that will always challenge my mental health is when I feel like we're letting somebody down, and so I would say I'm at a five and that's as low as I'm going to ever go. Yeah, large. You know I wake up ready to go every day and I'm, by and large, a happy person. You know so. But I don't, you know I this was probably an hour ago. You know that that, that all this kind of blew up and we've been trying to fix it again. Like I said, there was a fumble. Jump on it. Don't stand around and just look at each other. Get it fixed.
Speaker 2:You know, everybody makes mistakes. So I know in a couple hours I'll be back to a seven or eight because by and large I'm always riding high. It's just how you know. I'm high, I'm high fuel, I'm high octane, but yeah, you know, it's it, you know you and it's a double, it's two things kind of going on. I was I'm glad it kind of happened to me because I could. I I really don't experience it that often, but for one I feel like I let somebody down and that's the biggest thing that that bothers me. And then um, and then obviously, like, like probably you would be doing, you know the little the wheel, the the little hamsters up there running the wheel, and I'm thinking what could I have done different? What could I have done different? What could I have done better? How can I be?
Speaker 1:better tomorrow? Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and it's important for us to realize that some of this happens. But also, tad, if you weren't the type of person to take full accountability, you probably would have just ignored it and been like dude, we blessed you. We blessed you from going from a felony to misdemeanor. We literally blessed you. But you're someone who's always in the self-improvement game, which becomes very challenging, especially you talked about in the legal field. Mental health can be very drawing because you constantly, like they, carry a lot of the burdens, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you know, and you know, as judges you're seeing this a lot nationally now. But but you know you start dealing with, you know, hang them judges. They get that gets tough and you you see a client that you, you, you know, you've worked with for a year and a half and you become to, you know, like them and then they get sent to the penitentiary. I mean it just breaks your heart. Penitentiary. I mean it just breaks your heart, and that's the thing that you know.
Speaker 2:I don't think we're all looking to be given, you know, gold medals. You know every day, but you know it just, and that's why you'll see a lot of criminal, especially the criminal lawyers. They really do hang in a pack because you know when you see your clients that you've learned to really care about, get punished and it just tears their family apart. You have to have been in that situation as a lawyer to understand what the other lawyers are going through. Yeah, you know, because I can tell you one thing as high as the highs are, the highs aren't nearly as low as the lows are. Yeah, and that's why criminal law is so challenging.
Speaker 1:So how do you think people on just a just a human level can really combat those lows? Because it sounds like some of these. The next day you're like dude, I don't want to go out to do this again. This is a tough day.
Speaker 2:We actually have a seminar here in Houston that's named after a guy who was trying a lot of capital murder cases, death penalty cases and he ultimately I'm not going to say his name, but he ultimately took his life.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:Because of the stress and it really did wake us up down here, we're well aware of it because of this seminar and, ultimately, the things we go at the seminar. A lot of what you talk about, I mean basically, you know, if you're hurting, talk to somebody.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, that's the number one thing. Don't get in the fetal position in your bedroom, you know, and lay on the floor or anything. You know. Turn the air condition down. Don't do that, you know. Let somebody know if it's your wife, your, you know, your spouse, your oldest daughter, I mean, whoever it is, reach out to your best friend, your golf buddy, another person at the firm, but, you know, talk about it, try to talk through it, you know. Don't go into a hole.
Speaker 1:That's the toughest thing and that's what people don't do a lot of times, yeah, and it's really got to be opening up those conversations, because it's not even the conversation.
Speaker 1:Even if you don't want to do that, like that's totally fine.
Speaker 1:One of the ones I use too is we'll dive into physical health next, but I'll resort into like, like, if I'm really having like a like what is going on, I might just go on a five mile run. Why? Because I'm I'm gonna feel better, I'm gonna bring my body in motion, I'm gonna see the sun and, like you just start to realize, hey, was I really upset about maybe, but am I upset now? Maybe a little less? And you just start to realize like, hey, it's not that big of a deal, like life goes on, like, like some things, life doesn't go on. But, like in those cases, like you have to realize, like you're here for a, like you have a responsibility, yes, but you can't control everything and because of that, you can't give yourself the pressure of feeling like you have to be perfect every single time yeah, and I'm, I think I'm like you, I like going outside does help, yes, the sunshine, taking a walk, or I'm I live on a little island walk around the island or, you know, I don't jog as much I used to.
Speaker 2:I got two, two new knees, but uh, but a little walk around the island is nice, you know. Or sitting by the pool and just thinking, listening to music, I mean anything you know, to change the mood? Yeah, no, absolutely you have to, you have a little solitude, little alone times always I find that refresh.
Speaker 1:I mean that can kind of build me back up a little bit of alone time well, I think it's when you're truly able to think through the issue and get to the actual hey, was this me? Could I've done better? Where does this improve? Where do I carry this next? You start asking yourself better questions instead of like why did this have to happen? Like you know what I mean like these are things that we can't control. And again, audience, I want everyone to realize that we're talking about the law, but we're talking about life here at the same time too. So your physical health, Tad. How do you think about that on like a zero to 10? Where do you think you're at on that? And I appreciate the vulnerability about the mental health.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like you were talking, we were talking. You know I'm a 15, I turned 60 in June, yeah, so, uh, I have one child. I have a seven year old daughter who turns eight in July, so I was late to the party, you know, as far as children, um, and since, since my daughter, uh, you know, you kinda, you kinda see that way at a second, I'm 50 years older than her. I need to figure out a way to live longer so I can enjoy more of her life. So, since my daughter's been born, you know some of the bad habits.
Speaker 2:You know, I think my diet's immensely better. I exercise more, you know, swim a lot, walk when I play golf. Now, don't get in a cart, you know, just anything, I've, you know, lost some weight, gotten healthier, and it's funny, every all these things we're talking about, they kind of, they're kind of like a snowball effect. You know, as you start feeling better, you want to feel even better. As you start weight, you want to lose more weight, you know, and then, and then, when they start bleeding into all the different sectors of your life, when you become when your health gets better of your life yeah, when you become, when your health gets better, that you become a better lawyer or become a father.
Speaker 2:Yes, it really is fun to to get on the right path I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because there was a thing. There was like a post I saw the other day on social media where it basically said the the path to heaven is hell, like it's basically very challenging, hard challenging, like you're talking about running, swimming, all that kind of stuff. He's like the path to hell is heaven where it's just you're overeating, overindulging, over it's very short term versus long term and you do start to realize the compounding effect all around is insane and it's incredible. And the fact that you have more energy, higher and like maybe a result relates a little bit to the light, the light you have up there, relentless, for those that are listening, and that's how we, I, approach my practice.
Speaker 2:I, I, I'm relentless, and it doesn't mean that I study relentless. What I mean by relentless is I am relentless in trying to get my clients what they want or what they need. You know, that is what you know. I really think I have a good understanding of what I do for a living. I provide a service to a person. I try to make their life better, and it's rewarding and it's good. I'm fortunate, I'm very lucky I'm not selling some unnecessary gadget. You know, uh, that people don't need. You know, I really do. I have people come to me when they are in a bad way and hopefully I can. You know, we can't all fix the world, you know that, but but we can add our light to the sum of light yes, or even the light to their darkness, which will be all the light, yes, even bigger.
Speaker 1:So for you, I mean, it sounds like your job is already kind of encompassing it. But community service, philanthropy, how do you think about that? Because obviously you had your small town kind of nearby, but it's big town like, how do you think about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, back in the day when I was a little younger, before I had my child, I served six years on the city council. Oh wow, I was very active in politics. Through that I got into some service organizations that I stayed with. I was president of Big Brothers Big Sisters in Galveston County oh wow, yeah, I've always been very active. I was president of Big Brothers Big Sisters in Galveston County oh wow, cheers yeah, so I've always been very active.
Speaker 1:What do you think about that in regard to someone who might be like? I've never really volunteered before. Don't I have to have a lot of money to volunteer, because most people I talk to they go. Yeah, I might write a check, but I'm not sure that I'm doing time.
Speaker 2:You know, and I'm never going to, because, believe me, as the president, part of what I was doing was trying to get those people to write those checks. Yeah, I'm never going to down people that just write checks. But I will say something to you it's a heck of a lot easier to write a check than it is to, you know, invest your time. Yeah, these people that don't have money, make a phone call, ask them how I can give my time. See, there's two ways to help big brothers, big sisters, and this is what you know. I didn't. I've never, I was never in the program, so I was never a big brother to somebody. That is, the people that do that. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:I had some of my lawyer friends I got into it that were big brothering and big sistering. They loved it. I was always on the administrative side. I was always helping with the organization and the getting money and things like, and I loved it. And I got kind of into that because of politics. When I started getting politics, different things opened up and then, you know, so I was more than the administrative, but but but, yeah, I think it's so rewarding. Obviously I love doing it, um, but it is so. So the people that don't have money, don't let that slow you down, get involved. I mean, like I said, the people with money are going to write the checks big deal. That's great, and some of those are very, very involved too, like the people that were on my board were very wealthy and they were a couple of more, but they were the hardest couple. The ladies were some of the hardest working women that I'd ever been around and, yeah, and it takes. It takes money and stuff to get those programs to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and but I think the best thing that you kind of shared there is like and you didn't directly share it, but it's share your skills. You know what I mean. So your skills, you might have been more valuable going. Hey, I know everyone in the community.
Speaker 1:I can raise more money than other people and instead of just mentoring one child you know what I mean instead of being one big. So I'm not saying one's right or wrong, but it's always hey if you have a skill set like see how you can help around you know what. But it's always hey if you have a skillset like see how you can help around you know what I mean. It's not always so much let me do this, but it's see how you can help. So I think that's absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that's. That's a perfect way to say it If you can't do something, don't do it, do something else.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I think I think I found my niche was kind of in the administrative side of it and, like I said, I did it, you know, for four years and, uh, as, as the president, I was in the, I was on the board for like 15 years, yeah, but yeah it was very rewarding, and that's awesome, and so now the next pillar is relationships.
Speaker 1:This can be personal, professional, however you want to interpret it, but how do you think about your relationships?
Speaker 2:Well, that that's changed a lot too since having the little girl. You know, and you know, I still to this day, uh, I, my three best friends, uh, that I run around with, um, I've known one since 1970 and the other two since 1972. Oh, wow, yeah, I mean, we've been, you know, best friends for over 50 years, you know, and still the main three people I run around with how were you able to do that.
Speaker 1:I feel like most people.
Speaker 2:It's small town. Galveston, texas, is small town.
Speaker 2:And you know, and granted a lot of people that you would know would never have that opportunity, would never have stayed in roughly the same place, and we all went to different schools. Like I went to UT, one went to U of H, one went to Rice. You know, we and the guy at Rice played baseball at Rice and you know, kind of went through his baseball thing, I went through my law school thing and then you know, the minute we got back to reality we were all hooked back up and you know, once we had our jobs, you know, then you know that you know, yeah, just kind of works out. I guess you know it's like you talk about your pillars. You know it's with something a pillar is going to stand up straighter with a better foundation. And I think that's what sometimes, when you have friends that go that far back with you, I mean you, you can't, I mean that's the best foundation you're going to have.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. I mean that's why I literally have so I have friends that I have. But like even my parents, like they've tried to uh over the past few years, cause I'm in Florida and they're in Jersey, so we'll literally it's like a quarterly trip. It's kind of a lot like once a quarter we'll go somewhere for the weekend and we see them, and then we see my best friends and his family. So it's like every quarter everyone's linking up and getting to see each other, because it's this fun, hey, like how's everything going, what's new, what's exciting, and it's this cool way of building community. And then the second thing I do is I have different groups, that I have a Monday night group and a Thursday morning group where people meet. They don't really know each other, but they come on the call every single week and we have deep conversation. Why? Because a lot of us are struggling with community and if you have strong community, it's a great foundation, like Tad just said, like it really makes a huge difference.
Speaker 2:That is so cool about the quarterly thing, because that takes some effort, and that's exactly what you're preaching. I mean put in the effort because you don't get rewarded for doing nothing.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly, and I mean the reason they're doing the quarterly thing is because I like experiences. So I'm like and like if you want to see me, like, let's schedule, see me, like, let's schedule a trip, or let's do a thing, or let's do it this, and so I've helped them with their, their planning skills I've helped them.
Speaker 1:They're gonna listen to this, so I have to. I have to say something good. But yeah, no, they. It's been really fun and it's cool to stay connected with them and it's like a second group that like a quarter, three months is enough time. You know what I mean. And it's like a second group that like a quarter three months is enough time. You know what I mean. And it's not always three months on the dot, but it's like you try your best, you do what you can yeah, you know it's funny, you are, you're, you're.
Speaker 2:Your ideology of the way you do things is very similar. How I do it, like I, I tell people every day, um, I can another sports analogy for you, uh, but I consider, I consider my office and the way we practice law. We're like the Mike Trout of law practice. You know what? When Mike Trout, he gets paid his money If he hits a one hopper to the pitcher, the average major league baseball player puts his head down and walks to the dugout. Mike Trout is running as fast as he can to first base. Yeah, when there is a 99.99999% chance that he has no chance. But he will hustle every time. Yeah, that's the way I approach practicing law. You know I'm here. Why wouldn't I hustle? Why would I ever do anything that would indicate I was lazy or I didn't care?
Speaker 1:yeah, and the funny thing is it doesn't cost anything. Like like you literally don't waste any time. It literally costs nothing. And it's like you're just, you're inherently tired. But the funny thing is, as you practice more and as you build out that muscle, you get stronger and stronger and stronger, to the point where you can take adversity and you're like let's go, like you. Look at some of the days you've had. You're like dude, if this was the beginning, I wouldn't even know what to do with myself. But now it's easy and I can handle this and I love it. So for you, spirituality is the final pillar. What do you think about spirituality? Some people treat this as religion, some people say it's meditation, some people say it's yoga, some people are like not for me, some people are involved in it. What do you think about spirituality?
Speaker 2:You know I grew up Catholic and I was an altar boy. You know I literally lived 200 yards from the church.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:So my dad was very, very, you know, religious during my years of when the other altar boys didn't show up, father Kellick would call my house and say, sonny, I need Tad there. I mean I could be outside dirty in shorts and a t-shirt. You know you put the robe on, tad, get your butt to church, father Kellick needs you. I mean, I felt like, you know I was doing three shows. You know I felt like there was three shows during the weekend and a two drink minimum. You know, by the time, you know, I mean it was crazy. I was down there so much from my bed. You know, from that and just life in general, I'm not as religious as I used to be as I grew, as my parents wanted me to be. I guess I never took to it the way they did. So mine is more just, my spirituality is just, is to, you know, is to be nice to everybody. You know just to always. You know, share your light. You know it's. You know this is the best way to think of it. It's.
Speaker 2:You know, when I work downtown Houston, a lot and there's a lot of homeless people on my, on my deal, you know. And you know you see some people walk by them and they're you know. They look away and you know they're like. You know, don't, don't panhandle me, and you know that it's when I take that walk. All I can think about is I'm blessed to not be there. You know what I'm saying and usually I'm trying to be helpful. You know they give two or or $3 or $5, you know, whatever that's not important, but it's the feeling inside you that I'm not better than them. I'm fortunate to be where I am, you know wearing, you know, a nice pair of shoes and not being cold and not having holes in my shoes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, that's you know and it just helps from being a positive people, positive person, loving all people you know and treating everybody like we're all part of. You know.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I've heard this a few times, but it seems like the real big thing for you is gratitude. You're grateful for where you're at, which, which a lot of us need to do, because it brings you back to reality. And then the other thing is the connectedness how we're all one. We're all connected, like, like, like we're all coming from the same thing and that's okay and that's why. Why else would you spend, uh, 40 minutes on a podcast trying to stare knowledge, you know what I mean. Like you do it because you want to be realized. Like, hey, if one person can listen to one thing and learn one portion, that'd be awesome. Like, like you know yeah, you're, you're.
Speaker 2:It's like what's going on in the world today. You know there's I don't want to get political, but there's so much going it just hurts your heart, I mean.
Speaker 1:I literally stopped watching the news because it's so so much tragedy Like you don't even know how to you can't comprehend it. It's hard to like truly understand it. So I mean for you I know you are in an area of like true independent thinking and like in society we're bombarded by the news, by social media, by all these different channels telling us to think this way, believe this about this person, do this about this, telling us to think this way, believe this about this person, do this about this. How do you? How important do you think it is to think independently? And then, how do you do it Like, how do you think without attaching, and maybe give a like an explanation on why you're such a good independent thinker, just through your legal life?
Speaker 2:You know my parents always told me stories, like you know, when I was five or six. You know they, you know they punished me. Like I'm out there playing, I do something wrong, they punish. Send me to my room. You know I was supposed to be there for 10 minutes. They come looking for me in six hours. You know I would.
Speaker 2:I've always been fine by myself so I've never felt the need. Like you know, I do have groups. I've got golf groups and groups that I travel with but at the end of the day I've never found my identity from being in, and I guess you know, for just being the independent thinker you go through, you know, and I've always seen the world through my own, you know my own view. But then once you start working, you know, as a prosecutor, you saw some of that and this is, I kind of think, what you know, I'm down here in Texas very conservative, and this is, I kind of think I'm down here in Texas, very conservative.
Speaker 2:But when I was a prosecutor I was on the government side and I saw some of the tricks and some of the shortcuts that some of the detectives were willing to take. And I can tell you as a prosecutor. There's just some incidents that I remember explicitly that really bothered me and they stayed with me. So then once I got out on the defense side, you know, then you're fighting that and that's why I went and got the master's in toxicology from Florida, you know, and did all the learning of the science. All it took was one or two experts coming to court lying and taking shortcuts that I had. I told myself I can't let this happen. I've got to go get educated so I can stop that in its tracks. And that's why I got that extra master's degree, because you know, at the end of the day, you know, just because somebody thinks it's right, you know it doesn't make it right. And I've always fallen back. Most of my independent thinking is because I want to see people treated fairly.
Speaker 1:So that's a different frame. So, instead of looking for what is right or what is wrong, whatever story you want to tell yourself, it's how can everyone be treated fairly? And if everyone's treated fairly in this scenario, then we'll get to the right result.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, you know, you know pretty much, you know 70% of the movies out there. Most of the songs ever written are ultimately about getting to a place where everybody's happy. You know, yes, you know, they sing these love songs where they're hurt, but the point is to get to happiness. And then you know, yeah, it's just, I've just seen so many people treated poorly and, yes, that's, that's pretty much where I go and that's how my independent thinking and my spirituality are very intertwined.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's the cool thing about it is that you start to realize like you can share, like it's quite interesting because with the independent thinking, you start to realize it's okay, like, like the experts not always the expert like they might be, they don't get me wrong, everybody can be their expert. Yes, they might be smarter than you in that one area, but they might've had an off day Like that's completely okay. That's why I started double verifying things, cause it's like you might hear something and you're like is that right? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know. You know, and the thing that once you truly start getting okay and really know you're an independent thinker, is when you start hearing other people's positions and they don't offend you. You want, you want to learn more about why that person might think that you know, why.
Speaker 2:You know, if I think X and you think Y and I respect you, or even if I don't respect you, um, how did you get to Y? Teach me, tell me. You know, help me understand. You know why, why my thought might not be right on this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for the audience listening, I don't know if you caught what Tad did there. He brought the idea on him as a learning moment instead of going like a lot of us do, as Tad, you're wrong. No, jordan, you're wrong. No, you're wrong. No, he literally goes. I hear what you're saying, I, I, you're wrong. No, you're wrong. No, he literally goes. I hear what you're saying. I'm not sure if I agree at the moment. Can you explain why you think that Right? And that is such a vulnerability of like, hey, I'd love to learn more because I'm curious how did you get there? And then it allows you to revalidate what you like or what you don't like, because independent thinking is not an easy thing to do in this society, mostly, I think, because we have to make decisions so quickly, so it doesn't allow us to fully understand things. So people are constantly making decisions quicker and quicker and quicker and they're like if I can make the decision fast, then I'm a successful person, but you might not agree with the decision, so it becomes very challenging.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, that's perfect. I mean, you're so correct on that.
Speaker 1:I mean that yeah it's crazy as you start looking at it and you start to realize there's a lot of things. So I mean, Tad, we're winding down, but what are some of the big flaws that people have about protecting themselves in business and life and all of it Like, how can people be more protected In?
Speaker 2:what way?
Speaker 1:Just I mean, let's start off with business. We'll go in business front Like where are people under lawyering, or where are they not thinking about the law in the correct way, or even like it's really whatever you think's best.
Speaker 2:You know the one thing that I think you know.
Speaker 2:You know, with all the animus going on, you know, I think that's where a lot of people, you know, 20, 30 years ago there was there could be more of a conversation about litigation. We have, we have become a crazy, you know, litigation country. I mean, it just gotten, you know. I think the best way that we could avoid some of these is if people took a step back and again it goes just what I was saying. If people would take more time to understand the other side, maybe we wouldn't have to litigate it and what have you. What's gotten crazy is how everything has been. There is no conversation, there is no more trying to bridge a gap between once we, you know, and it could be any kind of difference, it can be, some of it is, you know, some of it is cultural, some of it could be ethnic, some of it could be religious, but once there's a divide with anybody, some people have no desire to bridge that gap whatsoever. You know.
Speaker 2:You know my one of the things I'm proud of. So I've never seen color in my life. You know, never. Once I went to a predominantly not predominantly, but had more black kids than white kids when I was in the basketball program. There were 70 kids in the basketball program. Two of them were white, 68 of them were black. Oh wow, when I got married, two of those guys stood up with me. You know I love that and yeah, I mean I think a lot of that. You know there's still so many issues and you know, I know this is we didn't want to get into like a big comment on this, but but it's just like you know when, when, when Obama won in 2008,. You know I can remember sitting there crying, thinking, god, we've turned the corner.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We'll never. You know, you're a young dude, I mean, you were barely a baby. Then I'm thinking like this is behind us, problems are behind us. No, all I mean I at the time. But what it turned out to be is that was just a guy banging the gong to get everybody out. It was like when they turned on the lights, the cockroaches scrammed all over the place. I mean, you know, and but I know we're not getting into race here, but but that that's a bad situation.
Speaker 2:You know, and you know that's. We have a lot of problems in our country, still the best place in the world. You know I'm not going anywhere. I'm not one of those I'm leaving. You know this this is my home. I love it here, but just like your children, you know when one of your children you're not going to love many less but you're going to get them back there and you're going to tell them, hey, you got to do better. Yeah, and that's what I think we as a country have to do better. And I think that's a lot of the problem you know with when you say the litigation that's going on, that I deal with. There's even in criminal law, which you think is just the government charging. You know crimes against the, you know the penal code.
Speaker 1:So many of this just starts. That shouldn't have. You know, just you know, we just just people taking a bad position. That getting from this is like, if you want to avoid big legal issues, have the difficult conversations, like, have the real conversations with the people and see if you can come to, uh, an agreement of sorts in some sort of capacity that doesn't have to go down the system because it system will take a toll on everyone and it can be very challenging exactly a lot of my divorce clients.
Speaker 2:It's funny that you can, you know, you know, just like the, you know, uh, it's, it's attributed to shakespeare, but it's actually william concrete where it says you know, there's nothing worse than love turned to hate, and hell has no fury like a woman scorn. But you know, I see it with the divorce clients. You know, despite them being together and in love and having children, when it gets to the end of a relationship and the fighting is so bad, you know, they can't even have enough respect for each other or enough ability to communicate. That's like, hey, this is bad, maybe we should call it quits. No, it gets to where it's horrible, where they hate each other. They, you know, attack each other, they beat each other.
Speaker 1:I mean a lot. Yeah, I mean a lot of that stuff comes from you know. I mean maybe it's good, maybe it's bad, I don't know where they're at, but everyone's got a different situation.
Speaker 2:But you, start to realize it's many, many unhad conversations, exactly.
Speaker 1:It's all it's all because of communication without, yeah, no, it's hard. It's hard to have conversations because you feel like you're confronting. But every time you do that and you literally go like this and you bend a little bit, then you come back and you're even stronger. So, like bingo, yeah, no, absolutely. I think you have to, because when you think about it, like, our bodies are anti fragile. So what that means is like when we lift weights or we run or we do hard things, we actually get stronger.
Speaker 1:The relationship you have should not be fragile. It should be anti fragile, meaning that whenever you talk about a subject like, hey, what do you think about that? We've already discussed that, we already know the answer to that. We can share that with somebody else. But, like we already know, and that's where you need to be at, but a lot of the time you don't force those hard conversations because it's like this is so boring. I just want to have fun, I just want to enjoy and it's like where the hard conversations are, that's where the growth is. So, yeah, so I challenge everyone go have a hard conversation. I don't know what that one you're holding in, but that's definitely something you should do, tad, you are incredible.
Speaker 2:Where can people learn more about you and learn more about your firm? And yeah, we're online at Tadlawcom. And then we're all over social, tad Nelson and Associates. We're TikTok, instagram, facebook. Go look us up, go follow us. Please follow us. Yeah, absolutely, reach out to us about any questions you have. You know we will answer whatever Easy to find, easy to talk to. Absolutely, I like to talk to people.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:We'll throw that all in the show notes and we'll put out the content anyway with it. Well, you said you're 29.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You're half my age, yes, and you know I wish I had my shit together like you did at 29. I was a lawyer and working, but I mean you really do have your shit together. Very impressive, and it's nice to be around you.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that.
