Becoming The Best Version Of Yourself In 2025 - Personal Injury Attorney Dallas Texas with Byron Bailey

This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Rusk Byron, welcome to the show, man.

Sebastian Rusk

Man, happy to be here, man. Thanks for having me, for sure.

Byron Bailey

Hey, I'm happy to have you here. You and I connected, I think, definitely at some point last year, because it wasn't this year, because we were only seven days into the new year here. So it's good to see you again. We were in Nashville with our friends over at Sphere Rocket for a couple days. Always a good time. Nashville is never a bad idea. You're based in Dallas that I get to spend a lot of time in too. So look forward to, uh, being able to reconnect offline again, uh, this week here, but thanks for being on the show. I love telling people's story on this show. So, uh, for some context purposes for our listeners, let let's back up to the beginning of the story, whatever the beginning of the story is for you. Sometimes that's after high school. Sometimes that's after college, sometimes whatever that looks like, but let's go back to the beginning of the story and it's unpacked out of what really brought you to present day with with what you do with your law firm?

Sebastian Rusk

Yes, sir. So, I'm born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Now, you know, living in Dallas, Texas. Tell people I actually never really left. I went to undergraduate at Texas Christian University, TCU, which is in Fort Worth. Came back, worked a few years in business consulting, then went back to law school, which is also in Fort Worth. So, I am a DFW baby. I know the mix reflects in and out. The journey really starts, you know, I mean, kind of like a lot of folks, you know, meager humble beginnings. And I know, but the irony is I always saw that my grandmother was a maid for a famous family in Highland Park growing up. And so, you know, going to pick her up late nights, you know, I would see the vast transition from, you know, how I'm living, where I'm from, versus, you know, I guess what the potential possibilities and what they could be. And also growing up the way that I grew up, I knew I had to, you know, work a little bit. My very first job actually was with a law firm, which is a very weird first job. But I don't know, I've always been corporate per se, because I've always been like, you know, the AP kid and doing all that stuff. So, the Dallas Bar Foundation, had a program in which they partnered with a lot of the inner city public schools to give them internships with law firms. And I just so happened to land with, which is now, ironically, one of the biggest, you know, personal injury law firms in Dallas, which personal injuries have a law that I practice now. So I interned with them, but back then, you know, it was just a small three lawyer shop, you know, five, So help employees. Now it's transitioned to, again, one of the biggest personal injury law firms in Dallas, headed by one of the biggest personal injury lawyers in Dallas. And so even when I did that internship, again, it was just for money. I didn't really have interest in law. But I've always been a strategic thinker. I've always been a person that wanted to help folks and I've always had an interest in business. And so being able to be a personal injury attorney allow, especially starting my own law firm allows me to, you know, help people to strategize and game plan and have my own business. So that's kind of why I'm here now.

Love it. So that's always a unique, vertical law because people need really, really do need you. In fact, because something happened, they got hurt, they got injured, something actually took place on there and they have rights and of course, you know, expenses that they come along, you know, with all of those things. I think that out of all of the type of attorneys or law, you can practice PI attorneys probably get the worst rap and like ambulance chasers and it's like, but, over the past few years, specifically in traditional networking spaces, I found some very, very, um, quite the opposite actually of that, you know, highly scrutinized. I have a lot like very professional actually want to deeply help people. And I think the tide has changed. Have you seen that as, as you become continued in, in, in this field of, of personal injury? Cause before, you know, back in the day, they ran ambulance chasers, right?

Yeah, yeah. So, I think you know that that that narrative or whatever that image or whatever still is still kind of pervades a little bit from the lay people and so one of my journey and part of my duty is to, you know, get people out of that, that mindset. So, and the way I do it, the way I think the way we do it is by lawyers being great lawyers and really, you know, taking care of their clients. Because I do still see against some of the larger PR firms who treat their client like another number in and out rotating them like a wheel. But I think, you know, I think we have a duty to really care for our clients. And my whole mission and mantra is to first treat the body, treat the body and mind because, you know, an accident is a very traumatizing experience, traumatic experience. And so it messes with your mental and messing with your body. I tell the story of myself when I was, you know, before I became a personal injury attorney, I was rear-ended. like three or four times, and I had my car totaled. And because I was less sophisticated and really didn't know how this process works, and I was an avid flag football player, very active person. So I would always be like, you know, I want to call an attorney, like I don't really, and then the money was like, you know, I didn't even think about how much money it would have been, but I was like, I want to do the chiropractic care and do all this blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, which would have been good for my body. and pockets but since I didn't do that right now I'm you know I'm 34 years old and I literally have to wake up and stretch every morning and throughout the day because I have lower back pain that was never treated because I didn't have sophisticated and the sophistication at the time and you know had I done had I you know called an attorney and do that does exactly what I do and pretty much, hopefully a good one, they would have taken me, you know, to the treatment and held my hand like, you know what, I remember just driving, you know, 10 and two, looking at my rear view mirror for like, you know, for months because of the trauma of being rear-ended. And now I'm dealing with this trauma, traumatic pain, and now it's dang near turned chronic pain, all because I didn't get my back worked out when I could have. And so I missed out on potentially, I missed out on particularly being healed. And you know, who knows how much money I could have gotten for that. I mean, these are, these were bad, bad accidents and cars being total. So that could have been an extra, you know, a hundred thousand dollars in my pocket that could have boosted this business. But I just never, I just never did it. And so another thing I like to talk about this aspect, and I hate that this is a long winded answer.

No please, long winded way. It's all about you.

Perfect, perfect. But PR lawyers also, they provide rule changes, right? Like they help govern a society. So our goal as PI attorneys is that, you know, our message is that someone wronged, right? And, you know, 12 people of a jury How would you feel if this person had wrong view right so you got, you know, big multimillion dollar companies who have these, you know, they're making millions of dollars and have you set a rule that they're supposed to follow. But, but, and they don't follow me cause you know catastrophic injuries to everyday lay people, and all you have to do is check a box. And you were too lazy or worse, too greedy to slow down and check a box just for the next dollar on top of that million dollars. So then I like to ask any potential client or any client that I do have, how much is your pain worth? And how much is your negligence worth? How much is your loss worth? And being able to present that before a jury of your peers to kind of put a dollar amount on that pain or a dollar amount on that punishment is something that is very, very needed in this society.

Yeah, absolutely. These cases take a long time to to settle, don't they?

Yeah, I really, I mean, every case is different. You know, there are those such things as a run of the mill accident, you know, and I've been right at, you know, but for doing this for six years, you know, it can be two people, cars hitting the same way, but you know, you don't know what was in someone's system. You don't know what was, you know, you know, where they were coming from, where they were going, the insurance, you know, the insurance companies are different. There are a lot of different things. And so this has always been a tough, tough question for I'm pretty sure a lot of attorneys. You know how long will my case take you know but you don't really want to put yourself put a number out there because now you beholden to that number. And, you know, it's my job as the more experienced and the professional in this to kind of temporarily client expectation. But, I mean, you're looking at anywhere, you know, earliest. you know, again, eight months and then, you know, depending on the type of case and whether it has to go to litigation and the number of parties involved, the amount involved, you're talking about years. You know, I had a friend who had a case that may not have been him, but his company has been working on for like 10 years, right? And so obviously that's very few, but you know, it could range depending on the level of injuries that there are.

It's not always car accidents either. I have a guy in my networking group. uh, my B and I chapter, um, him and his wife have a PI, um, from here in Miami. And he's, he always, his commercial every week is always a story. So a guy was on a ladder this week and the ladder was here and this it's, so it's like workers comp. It's all, it is very articulate and just to just to consummate professional. And that's where my thought process really started to change that. And then my sister fell in a grocery store and a buddy of mine, whose PI attorney years ago helped her out and was able to get a settlement on that as well. That really shifted my mindset of this whole like ambulance chaser. They're just out to get a check and really don't care about people. You start to meet individuals like yourself too that actually care about the human being and that everyone's going to win. if the case is executed properly and justice is served the way that it should for the party that was wronged or that was in an accident or had the accident or whatever it may be. So it's not always car accidents. Do you find that you have a mixed bag of injuries?

Yes, I do. I have several slip and fall cases as well. And again, it's about, you know, creating the world, the society in which you want to live. Right. I mean, we have these multimillion dollar companies um, that, that, that we, you know, we pay with, with our attention, with our services. So we, we, we hope that they would be more caring in the everyday person. Um, and a lot of these, a lot of these slip and fall injuries, a lot of these car accidents, a lot of all these personal injury cases, uh, could be resolved. It's just something simple was taken care of. And oftentimes, uh, it is our job as, you know, counselors, attorneys, and advocates to ensure that everyone's upholding their standard of care. in society and not being too lazy or not just being too greedy or just not just uncaring as well. We're here to keep the balance in check. And so that's why I don't like the whole ambulance chasing deal. And I'm even often, I'm still trying to break out of, I'll be on Instagram or Facebook or something and I'll see a car accident happen. And I feel like message that I don't want to feel like an ambulance chaser. You know, but this person really needs help right now, you know, this person really needs help right now so again I think now the onus is on me though, to not have to. feel bad for asking or not even having to add just to get my marketing up to a point to where, hey, like if you're injured in an accident, call Byron. If you don't know any other attorney, you know Byron. Byron does great work. He has the pedigree. He cares about you. Just call Byron and he'll take care of it. So that's what I'm kind of working on right now. And just now starting so you know the whole SEO and all that stuff it takes a while and marketing the brand takes a while but that's kind of that's kind of been my focus lately because I got the skill set, and I truly want to help, but it's my job right to kind of like, you know, John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul, it's like, you gotta go share that good news. And that's where I am with it.

Yeah, yeah. I think the more annoying ones are the attorney referral services, not the actual attorney firms on there. You know, the pain call, you know, one, two, three pain, you know, whenever that's, and then there's always like non-attorneys always like, if you get an accident, call me type. That's the ones that are usually in your face. And I heard someone say, actually I quote this morning at a meeting, a breakfast meeting I was at, He said, no one likes to be sold, everyone likes to buy. And I never thought about it that way. And that's a very interesting way to look at it. That's just in general, that's kind of human nature.

And even with that, man, I tell people I've never been a salesman. In any aspect of anything, I truly am not a salesman. All I know is I have a service to offer, right? And I'm here to serve. And so, you know, the age old, you know, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. I mean, I'm fine with leading to water and I don't want to make you drink. I just know that this is good H2O, right? And it's nourishing for your body. And I would, you know, For a long time in my life, you know, I would, I would feel a way you know if they didn't drink like I know it's good for you right like and I'm a very good person I want what's best for you. But, you know, in the space that I'm in in the level of arena where I'm trying to get to, you know, All of those mental stresses of, you know, being rejected, you know, I gotta get used to a whole lot of rejection, even if I know you know I'm pretty sure, and I go real biblical as well like I'm pretty sure, you know, everyone in the Bible and talk to talk to folks about Jesus never rejected. It's like, you know, but this is the best But you got to go just cling to the positivity, cling to those who become a part of your community. And that's what I've been focused on in life is not worry about the lack of or being grateful for what I do have. And so I love that well. So yeah.

Yeah. Like, you know, it's Tony Robbins says, what's wrong is always available. So is what is right. And that is so true. Switching gears a little bit, speaking about life, you and I were chatting a little bit offline before we started the interview here. And you said that, you know, you're just, you're really, 2024 was a year of revelation and really understanding in different aspects and areas of life, both personally and professionally. And 2025 is like really, you're really nose to the grindstone focused on really going in the paint, for yourself in becoming that next version of Byron. Let's talk about that for a minute.

Yes. Like I said, 2024 was a year of revelation for me. And kind of also what we talked about briefly was just how much entrepreneurship works on the person. It makes the person better. It makes the person focused. It requires you to be focused. It requires you to have time management. It requires you to really set goals and really a pinpoint where you're going to spend your time. I'm also a father, full-time father, and I have a five-year-old son who I have to plan out time to spend with him. I have friends that I have to plan out time to spend with. I have networking events after work that I got to plan on time to go to, but also provide child care or babysitting for my son. So with so many responsibilities, it requires you focus up and do that. But what it also requires is like, you know, you have people who don't understand it, you know, don't understand the amount of grit and time and focus and all those things. All those virtues and traits require and because I am transitioning in a space that has very few of my peer peers have experienced a transition to and I mean I do a lot of work that very few of my peers do as well, and I tell you all the time I'm a full time father. entrepreneur. Oh, yeah. And I'm a lawyer, too. Right. Three, probably the hardest job you can kind of think of in the world. And so, of course, it's going to require a little bit more folks and a little bit more planning than a lot of folks. So that was my year of revelation, 2024. I was fighting against that in 2024, still trying to be the same person that I've always been. But, you know, you say what got you here won't get you there. That's correct. And so I got to focus if I want to, you know, really be to where I want to go. So that's my year revelation. 2024, 2025 is again, now that I've acknowledged that it's more about eliminating, I won't say distractions, but it's short neck distractions. I have a lot of people who pull for me from a lot of different places. And not necessarily destruction in a bad way, but you know, I believe that my life is lived and seasoned and life can be lived in seasons. So this season may just have to be a focus on your business season. Maybe next season could be a, you know, be a super duper dad season. Maybe next season could be a super duper friend, super duper community partner, et cetera. But, you know, it's all about having that discipline and diligence to know that I have a very, you know, a specific goal for a season. And, you know, focusing on that kind of eliminating all the other options and in that I could be choosing just again is focusing on that so the whole goal again, even with you know I'm thinking about small things right and I just think everything applies, you know, like my phone. First, my cell phone was for Byron Bailey, you know, just the individual, but now my cell phone is business, right? It's talking with clients, it's seeking out potential clients, it's looking for mentors, you know, it's all of these different things. But it's also, you know, now I've got multiple notifications. So I had all these personal social media pages. Guess what? I just doubled that, you know, because I got to do the same thing for my business and I got to continue to learn business. And so that figure out how to channel all these notifications, but also retain all the information needed. And, you know, and again, I think I am very diligent in this aspect because I want to, I want to grow and be something massive. And I don't want to just, you know, I don't want to, I don't want another job, right. I want to, I want to build a law firm, a company that could help, you know, hundreds of thousands of millions of people. So it requires a level of focus.

Sure does. Doing work that matters and meaningful work as well, too. I love all that, man. Well, dude, it's been so great to reconnect with you again and to share your story and learn what you're up to and what you're focused on. I think we share a lot of the same sentiments about life and constantly being able to refine who we are as human beings and continually stepping into that next version of whatever it is that God has for us, right?

Yeah, man, and I agree. We kind of hit it off immediately at the Nashville retreat. So I guess I'm going to flip it on you. What are some of your 2025? What's your mantra goal? What are you kind of focusing on this year?

You know, seven figures has always been the goal every year. I've fallen short by several hundred thousand dollars every year, but that's still the goal. And I'm also just got done rebranding my speaking business outside of the world of podcasting so that I can actually keynote and do my comedy and stuff for corporate corporations and associations and. things in that area, not just in the world of podcasting, because before it was events, and I still do that stuff where you and I first met and I'll do events where I'll go and speak because I know my customers are probably in the audience there, but really scaling my business and then just going all in and being impeccable with my word, the fourth agreement, right? Be impeccable with your word. Did you say you're going to do it? do it, the end. And I, cause I think we were always looking for an out, um, and, and, and somewhere along the line, whether it's an event or somewhere to go or something to do or to back up. And, you know, when we, when we don't stick to our word, it unravels a whole bunch of other shit that we didn't even see, like that would be unraveled. And we started it. So if we can just stick to our word and just follow through and do what we do, we're also going to attract other people that are committed to doing exactly what they said they're going to do. One of my favorite analogies and stories that I learned is from Michelangelo when he created the statue of David, um, and people were in awe of this statute, like this, how could you create something so beautiful? And Michelangelo replied, I didn't create David. I, every day I simply removed everything that was not David and David appeared. And I thought, Holy cow, what does it look like for us every day to peel back another layer that is not us and what becomes when we're willing to go do that? And it's uncomfortable. and it's new and it's unfamiliar and it's different and it's anxious and it's, but that is where the growth happens. Constantly leaning in and realizing I don't know anything. All I know is what I know. That's it. And we're all students of life here. So yeah, man, just continuing to peel back those layers as much as possible, continuing to step in to a completely different version of myself. And as I do that, empowering other individuals to do the same thing, to the vehicle that is a podcast, which we're doing right now. I believe podcasting can radically change people's life and business if they let it. And I help empower that through the work I do. So yeah, man, I'm equally excited for 2025.

Yeah, and I get it. I'm glad we're doing this. Well, one, to go to your point, yeah, 2025 is my year of eliminating distractions, man. And I think, again, trying to remove all these things that other people have put on me over the years and now chiseling out my biome, you know? Yes. And so, yeah, that's a beautiful way to put it. And, you know, I'm using 2025 to intentionally focus on that. Going back to the podcast and saying, you know, obviously we've got to continue this conversation because I'm thinking about doing something along those lines. And I'm, you're the, I got, probably got every excuse in the book of why not to do it. And so I'm going to need you to tell me, you know, why all those excuses are very limiting because I know they are anyway.

Well, we're going to get together this week in Dallas, and I'm going to help you better understand what you don't know that you don't know. You know, a lot of my air quote secrets already because you heard me talk in Nashville. But, you know, I'm going to give you like the basis on the once you really understand the the meat and potatoes of podcasts, you're like, OK, cool. I got it now because you're already a networker. You're a connector. You're out there shaking hands, kissing babies, making and making moves. That's what a podcast does at scale. which is great. So I look forward to being able to connect with you. Of course, weather pending out there in Texas. My goodness. I never thought I'd be going into a snowstorm in Texas, but here we are.

I'll tell you what, if anybody in your Apex class gets into an accident, slip and slide in the street, you know.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Any final thoughts for our listeners, Byron?

Um, My only final thought that I'd like to impart on people is I love entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship does not necessarily, in my opinion, does not necessarily mean starting your own business. I look at entrepreneurship more so as lifestyle design. So you could be working for someone else, but you're working to live the life that you want to live. So whenever you want to take that break, or whenever you want to just relax, or you're just doing what you want to do, I think that's the most important thing about happiness. So one of the main reasons why I started my own law firm is I wanted to be able to take my son to school every morning, pick him up every afternoon, And if something happens throughout the day, I can go pick them up during the day, you know, taking the doctor's appointments and things of that nature. And I know, you know, being a lawyer is so demanding and being an associate is even more demanding. And I just didn't want that life. I wanted to be able to build a life. that I can enjoy and do what I want to do. And so far, you know, I don't have a million, you know, I don't have the six, seven, I mean, the seven, eight figures now, but I live a very comfortable life doing the things that I want to do. So I just encourage people to really choose their own lifestyle design and go after it.

Amen to that. Well, I'm wishing you nothing but the best. I'm rooting for you. Look forward to seeing you this weekend in Dallas and furthering our conversation. We're going to turn you into a podcast and PI attorney machine, my brother.

I love it, man. I appreciate it. Looking forward to it.

Likewise, my brother. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.