Why Did You Become An Attorney Marketing Specialist?

Interviewer: You were focused on chemical engineering early in your professional career. What made you move to marketing, specifically marketing for attorneys?

Richard: There is a lot in between the chemical engineering and the marketing. Originally, I wanted to work in environmental engineering and I went to school for engineering. I got my degrees and I started working for British Petroleum, then Intel, and then Motorola. I did that for two and a half years and then I got away from that.

It just wasn’t the dream I thought it would be. You’re in a cubicle. You’re under fluorescent lights and it feels like it’s four in the morning all the time. You’re just kind of a small cog in a huge machine. You work on stuff, but you’re not really part of what’s going on.

There is a disconnect between engineering and sales, and management and all that. You would work on something and have no clue what it is for; what it’s used for.

I did that for a while. Then about two years in, there was a big lay-off. It was 2000, and the semi-conductor industry was having big lay-offs. A lot of people got laid off, and I ended up being one of them. At the time I was 24, single, no kids, nothing. So it was no big deal to me.

When I got laid off, right next to me was Joe. He was 55 and had worked there for 30 years. Joe was screwed because he had all this skill in this one very narrow area. Now what was he supposed to do? Who is going to hire him? He was booted out without any regard; just like I was. For me, it was not a big thing. But for some guys, their lives were ruined.

I realized companies are not going to take care of you. You have to take care of yourself. So I’ll make this a short story. There’s a lot of detail in between. I went into a number of entrepreneurial things. I had a vending route for little candy machines. You put a quarter in, and you get a gumball out. I did that for a while.

I did real estate. I did a whole bunch of things. Then I ended up going online and began to learn marketing on the web. I had a website that sold baby items. I just picked that. I figured I would do that for a while.

One night I was on the computer and wondered what the most expensive pay-per-click keywords are. I looked and saw that DUI lawyers are $50 to $80 a click; as well as mesothelioma lawyers and things like that. I thought if I am going to really make a go of this I want to go into something that is really hard to do, but you can make good money.

I figured I never had a DUI, thank God. Also, it doesn’t seem like a really ugly area of law like divorce, murder or things like that. So I decided I would go for it. I was nervous about working with attorneys because I figured they may be mean old bastards. However, it looked like there was money there. That is kind of how I got here. That was my first foray into the whole field.