Jeffery Lamont on Building Wealth Strategies for Lawyers and Scaling to 8 Figures

Speaker A: Welcome to Founders Future, a podcast powered by Closers IO, where we explore the journeys of innovative entrepreneurs and the road ahead for their companies. I'm your host, Natalie Borowska, and in each episode we uncover the stories behind impactful, the challenges faced, the lessons learned, and the strategies fueling today. I'm thrilled to be joined by Jeff Lamont, who is the founder and president of Lemont and Wealth Strategies, where he has spent over 25 years helping lawyers and their families build, preserve and transition wealth for life after law. Known as the advisor who helps lawyers build wealth, he focuses on cash flow management, retirement and estate planning, and long term strategy tailored specifically to the realities of legal careers. I'm so happy to have you on the podcast today.

Speaker B: Thanks, Natalia. It's great to be here. Thank you for the opportunity to chat.

Speaker A: Awesome. I'm super excited for the conversation that we're going to have. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and then so let's dive into the past. So what I like to do at the start of every podcast episode is I like to journey back in time. So take us back to before you started your business, what were you doing at the time and uh, what motivated you to start your company?

Speaker B: So that's a good question because I came into the industry, Natalie, uh, uh, through my father. My father was in the financial services industry. And this will kind of all kind of comes full circle. And so when I was in university, my intent was to become a lawyer. I went in with the idea that I was going to come out a lawyer, go through law school. And in my last year of university, I had an opportunity to go away and play baseball professionally in Europe. So I set aside the idea of becoming a lawyer, went out and played baseball. And when I came back after a year, I realized I didn't want to go back to school. And so I joined my dad, as I kind of always thought that I might, and immediately started working for him, not with him, but for him. And he had a, had a firm that basically tailored to a lot of, or worked with a lot of business owners and as it happens, a lot of lawyers. So, funny enough, I wanted to be in law school. He had lawyers, uh, that he was dealing with, but he didn't like dealing with them. And so I started working with these lawyers as a 23 year old. I started helping lawyers with their financial affairs and we kind of got along and so I started working with them a little bit. Not as a focus, but just, uh, you know, as a grouping of people. That I dealt with. But the real transition for me, Natalie, happened in 2013, when my dad passed away. So he was my business partner, but also my dad. And working with him for roughly 15 years, I had a firm that did something the way he wanted it to. And so what I did is I turned around and pivoted in 2013. And that's when I started to lean right into dealing with almost specifically just lawyers. And so, as you said in the. In the intro, I help lawyers across all times in their. In their, um, in their career spectrum and help them get control of their financial lives. These are people that make great money, but are extremely busy people, and they just need help. And so that was the transition. Taking it from a financial, uh, services firm to. For basically anybody to a financial services firm geared directly to lawyers. And here we are some 12 years, 13 years later, and dealing with hundreds of lawyers.

Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah. First of all, I want to say sorry for your loss. Um, thank you. Nice. But I feel like it's an excellent way to, like, pivot. And, like, I'm curious, like, what did your dad not like about, like, dealing with lawyers? And why do you think you guys got on it more?

Speaker B: It's actually quite funny because, um, my dad was, um. He was an A type. So you put two A types together, which most lawyers are, and it doesn't really make for a great conversation. So he didn't. He thought they asked too many questions. He thought they just got, you know, they. They were always questioning him. Not just asking questions, but questioning him.

Speaker A: And.

Speaker B: And he didn't like that. Me, um, I like the methodical thinking. I like, you know, I don't mind asking a lot of questions in advance of, um, making decisions. I like due diligence. I like all that. I'm. It's the way I run my life. And so here I was, Natalie, dealing with, you know, as I said, at 23, 24, dealing with people that were in their 50s and 60s in some cases. And it was a radical change for. For them because they weren't used to dealing with somebody so young. They were used to dealing with my father. Um, but I just gave him a different outlook. But it was funny because, yeah, my dad just couldn't stand them. He found them to be a pain in the ass. And so I was able to help out lawyers.

Speaker A: They love to do their research, so they need to ask their questions. Of course.

Speaker B: And listen, let's be honest. When you're talking about your money, you want to make sure that you know who you're dealing with and that you understand what you're doing. Right. So. And I've got all the time in the world for that. So I'm, that's why most of my clients, Natalie, I've had that. I started with 20 almost 29 years ago. Most of them I still deal with today because, uh, they asked all the questions at the beginning and they, um. You build a lot of trust over 29 years of working together.

Speaker A: Of course. I love that so much. So you're the guy when it comes to lawyers wanting help with financial planning. So let's dive into the business today. So I know of course, like your ideal customer is lawyer lawyers. So let's dive into like your dream clients, like who do you love to work with?

Speaker B: So I've got two groups that I like to deal with and I'll tell you the why. My average client, Natalie, is 68 years old. I'm 50 to give you some context. So I'm not quite that old, but I'm not quite a 30 year old anymore. I'm right in the middle. And for me, I love dealing with sort of senior partners. So people that are, that are not late in their career, but more mature in their career. Um, because that's where I am in my career. Right. I've got three kids that are in university now. Um, my wife and I are basically empty nesters. And so I tend to deal well with that type of person. So basically the same life stage that I'm in. But at the same time, what I'm finding though is that a lot of the lawyers just aren't taught this stuff in school, right? They're not taught how to deal with personal finance. So what I'm doing is taking all the collective wisdom of dealing with all the older clients that I've got and now imparting some of that wisdom on the younger, more early career lawyers. So I enjoyed dealing with both, but for entirely different reasons. So right now, uh, as an example, in the last couple of months, I've brought on a half dozen new clients that are all sort of 35 and under, which, like I said, is radically different than my normal clientele. Part of that, you know, part of the reason for doing that was hearing from my older clients that they wish that they'd met me when they were 30, not 40 or 50. And so I thought, well, let's, let's try this. And so I, uh, deal with the two groups now, younger, younger people, just to get their energy and help them get on the right path. And then the Older people that I meet, it's helping them stay and get

Speaker A: on a better path, but still always a lawyer. So yeah, awesome, you're the guy.

Speaker B: They've got the same problems, Natalie, whether they're young or old. It's just a matter of the zeros behind the dollar figures, the values, right. Um, so it's really not that difficult and different to deal with a 35 or 55 year old. The problems are the same.

Speaker A: And the great thing with working with like 35 year olds is, as you said, like you can really make sure, I guess like that you can instill that knowledge in them much earlier and then once they like are going through their career, they just have like, they're just set up much better in the long run. So it's great that you'll be working

Speaker B: well, I mean, think about it, right? If you're, as they say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, can. It's just easier to teach them when they're younger. And so if you can have good money habits when you're making maybe $100,000 a year or you know, £100,000 a year, say, um, you're much better shape for when you are 10 years, 12 years, 15 years in your career making 10 times that. Right. If you wait until then to create the good habits, you're going to have an uphill battle. So you're much, much better set for success if you can get started early

Speaker A: just making that, making sure that the habits are in place much earlier. Uh, I love that so much. So when it comes to client acquisition, like what are you currently doing in terms of lead generation to really speak to those two groups.

Speaker B: So funny enough, I've never done any marketing until fair and most of my work has been, you know, I've been very fortunate, Natalie, to have basically word of mouth. When you do good work for good people, they tend to share your name. But um, during COVID which seems like a long time ago now in Canada, we were locked down quite, quite badly and for quite a long time, an extended period of time. And so I needed to come up with a way of doing business development a little bit different. Um, you know, it's easy to get referrals, but at the same time I wasn't going to social events and things of that sort where you get to actually meet people. And so I leaned into LinkedIn became my, my driving force. And so now, um, I'd say 50% of my new clients come directly as a result of my efforts on LinkedIn, which is radically different than say, 10 years ago or even five years ago, 100%.

Speaker A: And LinkedIn is such a great like lead generation tool if you're really using it strategically. So do you have like an organic content approach or are you doing more outreach with.

Speaker B: No, you know, that's a great question because it's something that I've, that I, I didn't do well, I won't lie. I didn't do it very well. At the very beginning when I got on LinkedIn, um, I was reaching out to people, but what I realized was that they didn't know who the heck they were, was reaching out to them. And so what I've decided to do over the last two years is I've, I basically post every day, um, a lot of personal stories, a lot of, uh, just learned lessons along the way. And it's mostly inbound, um, you know, because at the end of the day I think, Natalie, a lot of people are starting to understand who I am, um, not just from a financial standpoint or financial advice standpoint, but, you know, they get a good sense of who I am as a, as a person, as a father, as a, as a husband, as I, you know, just as a person. So, um, I let that kind of do the selling itself.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's that no like trust factor. So it sounds like up, over uh, doing daily content. I love that so much. And have you ever dived into like paid ads yourself in the past or is that something you're considering?

Speaker B: It is something that I would, I would consider in the future. Um, because we'll probably talk about this in a bit, but you know, right now, um, I don't need to do that. You know, it's not, it's not a driving force. Um, as I said, one of the, one of the things that at my age and my stage in my career, I could just keep going the way I'm doing it. But I'm looking ahead now. I've got, uh, as I said, three kids. I've got one son who wants to come in and join me. I've got a couple young advisors working with me. So now I'm, I'm looking beyond me. And so that is changing the way that I'm looking at marketing at the same time and looking at lead generation. So things like ads, um, and other online sources, uh, and resources I will start looking at. I just haven't looked at it right yet.

Speaker A: Of course. Yeah, and it's, it's because like, you're breaking into like that younger generation, like you're really thinking about like the future. So that leads me to ask like, what's your vision for the next like 6 to 12 months? Like what are your goals? What are your targets? What milestones are you looking to hit in the.

Speaker B: Well, for me it's a matter of just reaching more people, more of the right people. I think. Natalie, I think one of the mistakes that a lot of, a lot of people make in any career in any professional services firm is they don't work with enough of the right people. I think that's a huge key. And in fact I was just on a call right before we, we got together here and we were talking about that very issue. I was talking to a business coach that you know, kind of serves a massive, uh, breadth of, of of clientele and it's, it's really difficult to, to serve them. Well. I'm looking at a very small group of people and, and probably make that even tighter over the next, you know, 12 to 18 months. Um, in terms of the type of lawyer that we deal with, um, for me I think the big thing is just to you know, again it's sales and marketing. Right. Um, I want to continue to get our name out. I've got um, a uh, podcast, um, that is out there, the wealthy lawyer, um, doing a few things differently and just looking to expand on, on the digital presence is a big part of the next 12 to 18 months.

Speaker A: And the beauty of what you do is that you work with a specific niche of person so you really can have that depth when it comes to fulfillment and really just have that greater understanding because when you go too wide you are ah, just, it just can be more shallow. So it's great that you have that depth. And then I'm curious to know like, what do you feel like are going to be the biggest challenges to making your goals happen?

Speaker B: Well, I think for me the, I'm my biggest challenge. Right. I think you're limited by whatever you think and however you feel. I think I really do firmly believe that, Natalie. Um, I think the gut, the gut answer that you'd probably get from a lot of people is AI, right? That AI will be the big disruptor in our industry, um, between robo advisors and things of that sort. But unfortunately, um, I don't think that or fortunately for me, I don't think that's the case because I think that at the end of the day people want to deal with people still and so I don't really see many, many challenges other than my any self limiting beliefs that I might have, um, you know, the world of AI to me has just enhanced what I do. Um, I don't look at it as a disruptor. I look at it as an opportunity to do, to do better, to be more effective and efficient for my clients. So, you know, I think the big, um, the big roadblock that a lot of people see I look as an opportunity. So, um, there's nothing really standing in my way right now.

Speaker A: I love that, I love that so much. So it's just kind of like making sure that your like self limiting beliefs don't get in the way and just really making sure that like you have that vision. And after that so much I think

Speaker B: there's so many people that, and you probably talk to many of them that, that I mean people have ideas but they're not willing to implement them. Not willing to take a chance to. For fear of failing. You know, at this point in my career, I don't have that. You know, I've got a growth mindset that, that in the. And one that I'm, I'm okay with failing along the way. That means you're trying something different. Right. And so I think, I think in general, not to get all philosophical, but I think really at the end of the day we're our biggest, we're our biggest hindrance. Right. And try, uh, not to be that way.

Speaker A: Of course, that's the best mindset to have. And so, yeah, it's been lovely talking with you today and chatting with you. If our listeners want to find out more about what you do, I would. Best place to find out, certainly the

Speaker B: best would be on LinkedIn. It's Jeffrey, uh, Lamont. Um, they can find me on there. Uh, the wealthy lawyer on YouTube. You can see that, uh, on there as well. And um, yeah, that's probably the best two places.

Speaker A: So thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It's been such a pleasure.

Speaker B: Thank you Natalie. Appreciate it.

Speaker A: And if you are a business owner and you're looking, and you're looking to scale your business and you really want to enhance yourself. Marketing goods. Visit Closers IO to hop on a call with our team and discover how we went from 0 to 30 million per year until then, keep on climbing.