Speaker 2: 0:15

Welcome back to Market it with Atma, where we share the tips, tools and strategies to help your business be successful. I'm your host Story, and we have a special guest on the show today, Matthew Loftus, with LegalShield. Legalshield's been around for over 50 years providing legal services for small business owners and families like yourself. So, Matthew, thank you for joining us today.

Speaker 1: 0:39

Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to sharing my story and what we do.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Wonderful. Well, let's jump right in. So can you tell me a little bit more about your story and how you navigated into the entrepreneurial life of LegalShield, leaving a nine to five job?

Speaker 1: 0:54

Yes, so seven years ago November of 2017, I was introduced to this concept of LegalShield. I saw the opportunity, the information made sense and, you know, anytime something makes sense, it can also make you dollars. And the reason why I decided to do it is because, as an accountant at that time, I either couldn't make more money and spend more time with my family. I couldn't have both, but I wanted both, and this opportunity presented it to me. It showed that opportunity to be able to do that.

Speaker 1: 1:29

So, I got in, I dove headfirst and my first 30 days in the business I made $1,638.20. Didn't even really know what I was doing, but the system that I got got into it made me to just really just dive into it, really focus in on it and learn more about how to really make it work for me. So fast forward. Today I'm still. I'm still around still going strong.

Speaker 2: 1:58

What would you say is your highest achievement since you've been legal with LegalShield?

Speaker 1: 2:02

Yes, my first month I mean my highest month income-wise has been over $19,000 in opportunity.

Speaker 2: 2:09

Wow, that is incredible, and so you're providing services to small business owners specifically, and families. It seems like those specific groups seem to kind of wait until they get into BIND before they reach out to get legal services. Can you explain to us what the importance is of having proactive legal services?

Speaker 1: 2:31

Yes. So it's something that you would rather have than not need it, than need it and not have it. And here's what I mean by that. If you have car insurance, you know that if you had a wreck prior to you know, basically, if you had a accident the day before you got the car insurance, you're going to find out that State Farm is not such a great neighbor.

Speaker 1: 2:54

Just saying that right, but it's just the same thing with legal services. If you get the legal services and something happened the day before, well, the great thing about what we do is we're going to give you at least a 25% discount.

Speaker 2: 3:09

Oh, wow.

Speaker 1: 3:12

So, even if it's a pre-existing situation, we're going to give you 25% off of the lawyer's hourly fees. So that's the great thing about it. But if you are proactive, it allows you to be able to have this service and use the service and be covered at 100% for some of the matters, like you know. Let's just say, someone's trying to sue your business for example, you would be able to have 100 hours of a civil trial defense attorney's time.

Speaker 2: 3:37

Wow. And what if say we have maybe business owners that come in to one of our networking events and ask you know, I really need somebody to read this contract for me. Would you be able to provide that service to?

Speaker 1: 3:53

them? Yes, so once a person gets a membership with us, they're immediately offered the opportunity to call the law firm. So Monday through Friday they keep their regular business hours 8 to 5.30 or whatever, and if it's outside of business hours, if it's something like an emergency, we do cover covered emergencies. So it just depends on the matter of the situation. If you're, like, seriously injured or you're being threatened or something like that, where you're being arrested, detained or questioned by law enforcement, we do have 24-7 emergency access to an attorney.

Speaker 1: 4:29

But, the great thing about the service, like I said, is you'll be able to call that law firm immediately and say, hey, I need legal advice on and it could be something like you said, like a contract or a document that needs to be reviewed, and as that document because sometimes we read things and it means one way, literally to us, right, but legally it means something completely different- Wow.

Speaker 1: 4:54

And if that happens, what you want to do is you don't ever want to sign anything without having a lawyer review it. So with our services, when you get the membership, that same exact day, you have access to a contract attorney, for example, and all of our lawyers have at least 22 years of experience in their field.

Speaker 2: 5:13

Wow, and that's guaranteed that they're going to have over a decade of experience. Correct, and that makes me feel better, just myself. To come to you guys yes, so you got into this about seven years ago. Did you have mentors or do you guys have a mentor program that you kind of work through, and how is mentorship appealing to you or important to you and how do you go about?

Speaker 1: 5:36

Yeah, great question. So mentorship is definitely available to every single associate. That's a part of a legal shield whenever you first get started. There is what we call millionaire club members, meaning people who have made over a million dollars in the opportunity in their tenure with legal shield. Most of the time when people make that type of money, you have to probably make a little bit close to what they're making in order to kind of like rub shoulders with them and, you know, shake hands with them. But in this it's a very unique opportunity because you'll find that people that make that amount of money they're actually willing to shake your hands, they're willing to mentor you, they're willing to sit down with you because they want to see other people succeed.

Speaker 2: 6:25

Right.

Speaker 1: 6:25

And so we have mentorship. We have a lot of different trainings in specific fields, and if I did not have the mentorship, I would not have been able to had the success that I've had so far.

Speaker 2: 6:39

You are 100% with LegalShield now, right.

Speaker 1: 6:42

Yes, and I also have other businesses as well. So, you know you want to have multiple streams of income.

Speaker 2: 6:48

Absolutely, absolutely. So can you tell me maybe one of your biggest challenges with a small business owner and how you're able to strategize and help them overcome their legal challenge?

Speaker 1: 7:00

I would say one of the challenges they might have would probably be, just like you said, reviewing those documents and contracts and then also the advice and consultation. So, for example, if you were to have a lawyer, you're going to pay the average around $300 an hour.

Speaker 2: 7:21

At least yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:22

And when you call in to LegalShield, you'll be able to get unlimited advice and consultation with no bill. At the end of that conversation with the lawyer, you can call in about a situation. Maybe it'd be landlord-tenant issue one day, and maybe it's a contract or document review the next day. Or maybe the next day you were being sued by someone. That's three different situations. So in all three situations you can call in and get legal advice on all three matters and at the end of the day of talking to each lawyer who specializes in those areas of law, you won't get footed a bill because most, most of the time, if you have a lawyer, you're going to first of all have to pay that retainer fee and then the second part of that is they're going to charge you the hourly fee. Even if you talk to them for 30 minutes, they're going to charge you that hourly fee.

Speaker 2: 8:14

They will, they will. I've experienced that myself.

Speaker 1: 8:17

So the difference between them and us is we're going to allow you to participate in collective buying power so that you're paying by the month and not by the hour.

Speaker 2: 8:27

Wow, that's incredible. So do you use the services yourself? Yes, ma'am, I do. So that's a testimonial itself. If you're using it and helping to help others, then it might work right.

Speaker 1: 8:41

It will work. It's just a matter of you understanding the membership and how it works, because there are some things that might not be covered at a full 100%, but the best thing about it is you'll never pay 100% for a lawyer again. I was telling you earlier about how it's a pre-existing situation, for example it's a 25% discount for the lawyer's hourly fees.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Wow. So either way, whether they have to go to trial or not, you'll have someone there. That's going to be a lot less than a $3,000 retainer, is what you're saying.

Speaker 1: 9:14

Correct, Because you'll get the discount.

Speaker 2: 9:16

Man that's wonderful. So what would you say is your biggest source of inspiration and how has that helped you in your approach to business and helped you be able to lead so?

Speaker 1: 9:28

my biggest source of inspiration has been my two daughters. So I have a 12 year old, I have a 10 year old to. Both of them are girls and so you know, just leaving the house this this morning, I made sure I made breakfast for them, right, so that they would sleep. But, um, whenever they wake up, it's it's just they, they know daddy taking care of them, so that anytime I have a bad day, I'm reminded on my uh, on my, my screensaver, on my phone. Uh, because I have those rotating pictures of my inspiration, which is them two.

Speaker 1: 10:03

My dream is just to be able to travel the world with them, to be able to say all right, baby girls, let's get up, let's go. We're going to Bali, we're going to Africa or we're going to Asia, wherever we're going to go and pack for seven days. You know something like that, to just be spontaneous, like that. You know those vacations that every kid dreams of, and one of the things that I was able to do just this last summer is I was able to take them to Montego Bay, jamaica, all expense paid, trip by the company.

Speaker 2: 10:33

Wow, that is incredible. So the perks to being a part of some business like this is just astronomical, correct and does your inspiration help you lead others that have come into the industry?

Speaker 1: 10:48

Yes, and you know, when you're able to cast out that vision with people like it's not about my why but it's about what do you want, and then helping them to attain and achieve those goals, that's where I really get a lot of inspiration, as well as being able to not only lift people up but, you know, reach back and see who else can we help lift up, and that's how you're going to have success in anything you do. Is the people that help the most people make the most money to have the most success.

Speaker 2: 11:19

Absolutely. I agree with that 100%. So what advice would you give someone hesitant to invest in the LegalShield services, small business owners or families?

Speaker 1: 11:30

What I would recommend is give the services, give us the opportunity to earn your business. So get the membership, even if you got the plus plan. Our plus plan is about $99 a month and if you add on the trial defense, where you get the 100 hours of trial defense, that's an additional $14.95. So you're looking at $113.95 to protect your business and have 100 hours of trial defense. You'll get unlimited advice and consultation. You'll get collection letters because you know sometimes people owe you money and you know you just calling them or sending a letter on your behalf, like if you sent your own letter, more weight is given from an attorney actually writing that letter. And then also you know you have employee handbook drafting. You have custom contract drafting and then those just reviews and you know there's so many things.

Speaker 1: 12:28

If you're ever audited by the IRS Schedule C and Schedule E you'll be able to have a tax attorney to give you advice. There's certain things, for example, if you're ever audited by the IRS, that you will want to bring to an audit. There's certain things you don't want to bring to an audit. There's certain things you want to say. There's certain things you don't want to say. How would you know you need to have an attorney to be able to walk you through and navigate you. So there's pre-trial hours, there's trial hours. All of that is embedded in your membership. So that's what I would recommend is at least give the membership opportunity or chance, and allow us to earn your business, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 13:10

And that's less than $5 a day to protect your entire business. That's right, and maybe your family even a part of it, that's right. That's wonderful so you have an event coming up.

Speaker 1: 13:20

I've heard.

Speaker 2: 13:20

Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Speaker 1: 13:22

Yes, on December the 7th, if we're talking about the same event yes, we are so.

Speaker 1: 13:27

December the 7th, we have a live event. It will be at the Arlington Courtyard Marriott. We will be from 11 am to 3 pm on December the 7th. That's the first Saturday in December. We have two people that we're flying in One gentleman. His name is Mr Eddie Bells Jr. He's made well over $50,000 in the opportunity he's going to be sharing how to make social media and monetize social media with, even if you don't do legal shield, and so it's really industry specific to like if you're an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 14:08

So, it's going to be great. And then the other young lady that we're flying in she's coming from Arizona. Her name is Miss Bonita Jenkins, very lively, very bubbly. She's very knowledgeable in what she does, and she's going to also be combining her knowledge with Mr Eddie Bills Jr and sharing how you can monetize social media. They are experts in being able to use your Facebook, your Instagram, your LinkedIn, your TikTok, wherever you're marketing yourself and your business. How to use that social media platform to marketing yourself and your business. How to use that social media platform to bring income into your business.

Speaker 2: 14:44

Man, that's wonderful. I'm probably going to attend that event. I mean, the digital world, as we know, is ever-changing and you've got to stay on top of those things. Yes, so how would they do? They need to register for that event.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Yeah, I'll definitely make sure you get that event right so that they can be able to register anybody that you know in your network of people. I'll send that event bright out to you. And if anybody just wants to follow me on social media, it's my name M-A-T-T-H-E-W. Loftus is my last name, l-o-f-t-i-s. Loftus, so you could find me on LinkedIn, instagram or what's the other one LinkedIn, instagram or Facebook.

Speaker 2: 15:27

Facebook. That's right, I was waiting for it. So what's one piece of advice you would leave with our viewers, whether it be business, personal that you feel is valuable in personal growth or achieving success?

Speaker 1: 15:43

One piece of advice I would leave with the audience is to work on yourself more than you do your own business, because, if you like for example I was taught this a long time ago you need to be able to at least read 10 pages of a good book every day and listen to 30 minutes of a good audio every day, and whatever it is. Sometimes people love Jim Rohn, some people might like Steve Harvey right.

Speaker 1: 16:12

But, whatever your thing is, find whoever that person is, so that you can be able to grow. You can develop yourself personally, and the more you work on yourself, the more people find you attractive and want to join you, because it's not the business that people are joining, it's you that they're joining Absolutely. So that's what I would leave as a piece of advice is just to focus more on building yourself as an individual, more than you do your own business, and, as you work on yourself, more that brings you more business.

Speaker 2: 16:44

Absolutely Well. We will definitely be referring all our small business owners to you and I appreciate you coming on the show today. Some of the information you shared is so valuable and some people have no idea exactly what you do, so if anyone's interested in learning more about Matthew and what he does or how to be a part of it, feel free to reach out. And to all of our listeners, thank you again for joining us. I'm Story and we'll see you next time on Market it With Alma.