198: Kristen Corpion (CORPLaw)

Kristen Corpion on Innovation City

“Grade A sales are really about killing your own ego and understanding what the person on the other side needs by asking questions.” -Kristen Corpion

Welcome to Season 6 of Innovation City (The Miami Edition), a podcast featuring innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency and Aīre Ventures, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community.

Welcome to Season 6 of Innovation City (The Miami Edition), a podcast featuring innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency and Aīre Ventures, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community.

Today’s guest is Kristen Corpion, founder of CORPLaw, an innovative firm providing a space for lawyers to focus on their happiness. Kristen is also a legal advocate, a law school professor, and a mentor. In this episode, Kristen sits down with the team to discuss the need for lawyers to work on their mental health, common challenges faced by startups in the legal realm, and her tactics for making her business stand out in a sea of law firms.

They discuss:

Kristen’s Superpower

Attention to detail
This attention has allowed Kristen to really see people and advise them accordingly.

Origin Story

Kristen wanted to be a lawyer since she was seven.
She was raised by a single mom who is an entrepreneur with grit.
“Get the degree and therefore your life will be good,” was a mantra that played a large part in her upbringing.

Can you be an innovative lawyer?

Yes. You cannot divorce business and law. They have to work together, and that’s where the legal profession has been failing.
Kristen has created her own innovative firm, CORPlaw.

CORPLaw and how it’s different

Kristen’s law firm represents small businesses and entrepreneurs who are just starting out who can’t afford the best lawyer in town.
There’s a focus on their value set and having happy lawyers at the firm. They also have a mentality of “giving a shit about their clients.”
They are a hybrid remote-friendly firm.

Common challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the legal realm

Many entrepreneurs are unsophisticated consumers of legal services. If you’ve never hired a lawyer, and you don’t speak the language, you don’t know how to make a legal purchase.
Education is key.

What are a couple of ways that the industry of law is ripe for disruption?

Lawyers have a lot of mental health issues and suffer from alcohol abuse. There needs to be a shift in changing the mindset and focusing on happiness.
There are opportunities to automate and keep costs down.
Industry trends go towards being more efficient and systematizing things

Web 3.0 – As we look towards digital experiences, what are some of the legal ramifications that are top of mind to you?

How do we build the infrastructure to build for speed?
How do we ensure that their data is safe and protected?

Competition in the legal field is fierce. How do you differentiate yourself?

At Kristen’s firm they focus on being cool lawyers and practicing a “giving a shit” mentality.
Kristen has built her firm on referrals.
Lawyers are a dime a dozen.
They’re a team of happy lawyers

Sources of Personal Happiness and Fulfillment

Teaching. Kristen works as an adjunct professor and a mentor which she loves.
It brings Kristen happiness knowing that she’s built a space where other lawyers can work and be happy.
In her spare time, Kristen also trains with a pro boxer.

Forming Deeper Connections with Customers as an Entrepreneur

After starting her own firm, Kristen now truly understands the vulnerability that comes with taking a risk. She invested all her time, money, and attention to her endeavor.
She now appreciates this when she sees it in her clients.

Challenges

She had tons of connections when she left her last firm, so when she started having meetings with connections she assumed they would just hire her. It turned out, she was terrible at sales.
Kristen was bombing all her sales meetings because her clients didn’t care. She didn’t care enough about her clients to shut up and figure out what they were trying to say.
Once she crushed her own ego and truly started listening, her sales improved.

Lightning Round:

What makes you lose track of time?
- Laughing, comedy, stand up, improv
What moves you to tears or gives you goosebumps?
- The entrepreneurial mindset, people who are willing to risk everything and go all in
What or who are you grateful for?
- A single mom rock star and a supportive husband
Defining moment in life
- In her first year of law school, Kristen’s dad passed away.
What can you do that you could not do a year ago?
- Being a great leader and manager
If your life was a movie, what would the title be?
- Game Changer