00:00:06:17 – 00:00:45:06

Welcome to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. I’m your host, Mara Shorr. I’m a partner in the cosmetic and aesthetic medical practice management consulting company. Yes, Shorr Solutions. Listen up as I chat, converse, strategize and commiserate with special guests, influencers, friends and colleagues who are all in the cosmetic and aesthetic medical space too. It’s time to listen, learn, and get inspired. Welcome to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast

00:00:45:08 – 00:05:14:11

Mara Shorr

So welcome everybody to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. And today I love that we’re able to have not only a special guest, Brad Adatto, with the law firm ByrdAdatto, but also he is a colleague of ours and has become a friend over the years. We have lectured with Brad at industry conferences for years now and always love catching up and sharing what it’s like to both be business owners, what it’s like as far as the latest and greatest in the law.

And things tend to change at a very rapid rate right now. So I love that we’re able to have Brad on today’s episode of the podcast. And Brad actually decided he wanted to become a lawyer during sixth grade career day. And I love that story. It’s when you have a passion that you truly stick with it throughout your life.

And so started his law firm really focused on representing health care and corporate clients. And so that is really something shared. We have a lot of shared clients through our company, Shorr Solutions and ByrdAdatto and so with that, we love that we have somebody that we’re able to really go to and send our clients to on a regular basis.

When it comes to law, specifically in health care, which is one of the reasons that Brad makes an absolutely perfect guest. So Brad, thank you so much for joining me today on Shorr Solutions: The Podcast!

Brad Adatto

Thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be a part of it and looking forward to spending some time with you and visiting throughout this podcast.

Mara Shorr

Absolutely. And your non squeaky chair because you’ve just freshly switched out a squeaky chair for a silent one. So I appreciate that.

Brad Adatto

Absolutely. Squeaky chair is in the corner in trouble right now.

Mara Shorr

I hope it’s ready for some WD 40. What can we say?

Brad Adatto

Yes.

 

Mara Shorr

So tell me and tell our listeners a little bit more about ByrdAdatto, what you do specifically with the firm and how you guys got started, because obviously your name is right there as as a partner. So tell me a little bit more about the firm and what you do.

Brad Adatto

So ByrdAdatto is a US law firm. We are based in Dallas and Chicago and have a satellite office in North Carolina, but we’re 100%. What we do is business law. But as you had mentioned, more than 75% of our clients are in the health care industry. So very heavy in that piece. But then of those health care clients, more than 50% fall into the aesthetic space.

So very heavy with the plastics, the dermatologists, surgery centers and then medspa or medispa, however you reference it. And so that definitely is an area of law that we have been in. And in fact not we have, I have been in my entire life from the day one when I first started practicing, I actually worked for the management service organization, which they actually manage clinics and imaging centers and labs and doctor’s offices.

So something that I’ve been for 20 plus years now in this space working with medical providers is an area that I know pretty well. And my partner and Michael Byrd, who’s the byrd of the Adatto, he also comes from a similar background. Both of our dads are doctors, his being a plastic surgeon, mine being an orthopedic surgeon. And so we kind of grew up in that world where we kind of we were a part of it in some capacities, listening to what our dads are doing and watching their business deals.

And so for us, we like you said, I knew early on that the doctor life was not for me, but I also realized I really enjoyed learning about the business and how to help run businesses. And so it was a natural fit when we started ByrdAdatto, because ByrdAdatto really is all about working with businesses and obviously entrepreneurs.

And in this case, a lot of these entrepreneurs and businessmen happen to be doctors or happen to be medical providers or happen to be entrepreneurs in the medical space.

Mara Shorr

Businessmen and businesswomen, of course.

Brad Adatto

Yes, yes. Thank you.

Mara Shorr

I would be remiss if I didn’t pull that out. Right.

Brad Adatto

You know what Mara, my partner Rene would probably slap me because every time I do that, she’s always like, and hello? I’m like, Yes, Rene, you’re right, because she’s awesome.

Mara Shorr

Another reason I love Rene.

Brad Adatto

Yes, Yes. I’m about to say another person one day that she will outshine me any day on the stage or any day in a podcast. She’s a phenomenal partner, but even better attorney. So definitely she would have slapped me too. So thank you for the re refocusing.

00:05:14:13 – 00:10:29:05

Mara Shorr

and tell me a little bit more about how you decided to go ahead and start ByrdAdatto So instead of necessarily going to work for another firm somewhere else, you decided because you guys have really, it’s really interesting how ByrdAdatto works that you have a couple different business models within ByrdAdatto, and we have clients on different business models with you guys.

And so because we do have a lot of shared practices and so I’d love to find out what made you want to go ahead and start ByrdAdatto on on your own, slash with Michael.

Brad Adatto

Yeah, I know we had, Michael and I ran our own section at another firm and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We’re actually still very good friends with all the partners there, but both Michael and I had the opportunity. We both started speaking nationally and every single time we went on stage, people didn’t really know how to pronounce the name of the firm very well.

Often we were asked what the other other people do at a firm and we were trying to explain it. And what we learned was a lot of people, there’s a lot of confusion as to why they should hire us. And we felt like if we left and became a boutique practice and were very focused on that business and health care side of it, that that would help us grow.

And and it’s not that we don’t love our other partners at our old firm. I like I said, I actually emailed with one this morning. It just that we didn’t see a need… that our clients didn’t have that need that like a big firm, a need where you have all these other subsections and they were happy hiring us for doing what we need to do, which was helping them through, you know, business and health care transactions.

And once we started, it was really funny because our business exploded on an area we never anticipated, which a ton of other law firms started hiring us because they no longer saw us as competitors. They saw us as someone who could actually enhance their practice because they had a business practice or a litigation practice. They just use us as someone who could help enhance their piece on the health care portion.

So it ended up being a really nice piece. We started off with just five attorneys and two staff members, and as of two Wednesdays ago, we hired our 23rd employee. Like I said, I’m just originally started in Dallas and then opened a Chicago office about four years ago now, and then a North Carolina satellite office about a year and a year plus ago now.

Mara Shorr

So you and I know a lot of the different people that are with your firm and you guys have a wonderful team. You really do. You and I, I would I’ve seen and what I love is that you almost handpick the people based on this person would be a really great fit for the firm. And I know a lot of the people that work with your firm and it’s just everybody seems to be a really, really great fit together. So it’s incredibly knowledgeable and diverse as well.

Brad Adatto

No, thank you for saying that. There’s definitely something that we we work really hard about. We have an awesome team from the literally the person who answers the phone to, even to Michael Byrd. Everyone is hard working. They’re very competitive, which is great! Good communicators which is very important and they’re not afraid to ask questions and create something new.

And that’s and because of that, we do take our time hiring new people because we want to have someone who’s going to be great. We have a great culture and we don’t want to ruin that. So thank you for saying that. And we’re very proud of our team. And you and I were talking before this, which is, you know, there was no way we could be where we are right now without that team.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you because one of the things I learned a long time ago is hire someone much smarter than yourself. And I’ve been blessed to find lots of smarter people than me.

Mara Shorr

But we, you know, yes, we were we were talking about that right before we started hitting record on this particular podcast. And I was saying that with Shorr Solutions, we are really, really fortunate. We have fortunate and I like to think that it’s something we’ve done really right with our own company is that we have a great team.

We’ve handpicked our people and we give them the freedom to shine and we could not be where we are without them because they they help us and they help our clients be stronger every day. And you’re right. Anyone that says that they could do it without a really good team behind them is lying because a good team makes you all that much better.

And on the other side, a bad team will drag you down that much more. So I think you don’t realize how good you have it sometimes until you don’t. But we are very, very fortunate that Shorr Solutions and I know ByrdAdatto to you, we all have really good teams behind us. So I want to transition then into obviously we’re recording this podcast during, during a really stressful time economically and then the nation and the world because we’re dealing with the COVID 19 crisis and the pandemic.

And so we like we’ve said quite a few times, we share a lot of clients and we have the clients that we both have are very similar. And even if they they’re not a shared client, they’re very, very similar. And we work with so many medical practices and most of them have had to temporarily shut down because we both work with a lot of cosmetic aesthetic elective practices.

00:10:29:07 – 00:14:36:19

Mara Shorr

And so given that they’ve been deemed nonessential and therefore have to shut down. And so we were talking and I would love to continue the conversation about when it is time for our clients and for medical practices to reopen. Basically what is it that they are going to need to think of as far as the compliance issues? What is it the practices can be doing now so that they’re not stuck in the weeds and it doesn’t become this crazy mayhem when it’s time to finally reopen because we don’t know how much notice everyone’s going to have when it’s time to reopen.

It could be a few days, it could be a week, it could be a month. We don’t really know. And so talk to me a little bit about the advice you’re giving your clients who are medical practices and they’re their owners of practices, medical directors and doctors and surgeons, etc.. But talk to me about the advice you’re giving them in relation to what they’re going to need to know in regards to compliance when it’s time to reopen and what resources are you directing them to and what kind of guidance can you share?

Brad Adatto

Yeah, absolutely. A number one is this is the best time. You know, it is the best time and the worst time. Right? And you’re correct that a lot of my clients and this is touching everyone that’s not just those in the aesthetics I have orthopedics, and I have ENTs that are down to the small shops because of what’s going on these orders making meaning that they can’t even, they can’t operate, they can’t barely see patients unless it’s an emergency procedure.

So there’s a lot of things that are happening where you have a lot of medical providers with all this downtime. And so the first thing I’m telling them is do your homework right now. And what are the things they can think about from a homework perspective, which is what are all those projects that you always said you were to get to to help benefit your practice and you never got to because you were running so fast?

Mara Shorr

Exactly.

Brad Adatto

For the free get out of jail card moment where hopefully you.

Mara Shorr

This is your study hall.

Brad Adatto

Yes. That you can as much as that and I get I’ve had, I mean my days have been with call after call with clients saying I need get back open, I need to get back open. What is this What can I do? What can I do? And then and then some of them are just going stir crazy because their entire lives they’ve worked all the time and all of a sudden they can’t.

And so what, what are the things they should be thinking about? And so we’ve walked through lots of different options they have. But when it comes to the word clients and the things they consider from the compliance side, a lot of times they just hate that word because that sounds boring. And so I give a speech on compliance and afterwards everyone after the speech was like, Oh, this is great.

I 100% want to get my company to be compliant. I’m 100% going to go and do everything you just said, and then they don’t do anything. And then the reason they don’t, and I know this because later on when they call when something bad happens, it’s because they didn’t implement all the processes they said they’re going to do. And so this is a great opportunity for you to start pulling out those protocols and policies that you’ve had sitting on your shelf, that you had paid attorneys to put together or great consultants put together, and you’ve never actually figured out how to implement them.

And so the first thing I’m asking people to do is spend some time on their homework.

Mara Shorr

I think that a lot of times when people hear, like you said, they hear protocols, policies, procedures, compliance, they think blah, blah, blah, Right. It’s not necessarily the sexiest thing to talk about. And it’s not as really it’s not as interesting and fascinating and beautiful as a great before and after photos or seeing your name in a glossy magazine.

Mara Shorr

Right. It’s it’s just not as fun. You don’t have that instant gratification a lot of time. So that’s something that we see this all the time where we come into a practice and we say, Let’s talk about the protocols and policies and procedures you have in place. And they say, Well, I mean, this is how we manage this process.

Mara Shorr

This is how we track our inventory to make sure that there isn’t theft in the practice. And I said, So show me the protocol, show me the procedure in place. And they said, well, it’s it’s in Mary’s head because Mary’s been there for three years. Well, that’s great. But what happens if Mary decides she’s going to move and you don’t have time to train Mary’s replacement, for instance?

00:14:36:19 –  00:33:04:06

Mara Shorr

So what would you say? And we work with our clients on all sorts of of these things. But what would you say that you’re finding are the top three? So somebody had to say, I don’t know where to start as far as putting together policies, protocols, procedures. What are the top three things that you think somebody could get started on now while they’re home?

Brad Adatto

You know, I think the very first one, which is probably the one, if you’re trying to find something that’s fun and at least that is interesting, too. I’m getting a lot of calls on how do I do telemedicine correctly. And the reason I say that is obviously you can’t get out the door, right? You’re stuck in your place and you’re being asked not to treat a person to their face.

And what are the ways they can do that? Well, the catch is, is it seems really easy, right? You can face time me or Zoom or Skype or whatever it is, but if you don’t have a process built in how to protect the patient’s privacy and what risk assessment did you go through and what consent that you put through to make sure the patient understood what they were going to do?

The exposure gets really big. And so what’s happening right now is this would be a great opportunity to say, okay, I’m going to use telemedicine, but because I’m only having a client of mine who sees about a thousand patients, his group sees about 1000 patients a week and right now they’re seeing 20 because of everything that’s happening and with their ability to treat.

And so we talked about during their downtime, if they’re used to doing all this, let’s start building out that process of if I’m going to increase in my ability to reach out and touch people in this day and age at this time. So it was again, go with the month of April, what are the things they need to do to have telemedicine work?

Some of these electronic medical records have a telemedicine system built into it. Some of them don’t. I still have doctors that use paper.
Mara Shorr

So while it’s true, it’s not the common and probably aren’t necessarily the ones that are listening to podcasts, but I see that I see that a lot!

Brad Adatto

Yeah, I actually know a very young plastic surgeon who still uses paper. I was surprised by that because everything else about it is technology, advance events, events. And then when I found out everything he does on paper, I was shocked. But the point is that if you are going to do this is a great opportunity to say, okay, I definitely do telemedicine, I want to use it correct. I’ve never put anything in place to understand what I can and can’t do. So let’s understand what platform can I use? So again, if your EMR software doesn’t have it, Zoom Facetime, Skype are still types of softwares that you can use. You cannot use things like Facebook Live. And the reason why I know this is because what the government, the first of the federal government gives us guidance on this and many states are adopting these same types of levels.

But where the federal government is saying, look, we understand that telemedicine is on the rise right now. And if you’re using some type of video communication, that’s great. But they which is the Office of Civil Rights, which is controlling, which you may have heard of HIPAA.

Mara Shorr

Exactly. And knowing that it’s intended to be HIPAA-compliant, there needs to be a business associate agreement in place as well.

Brad Adatto

Correct. And you nailed it is the OCR said look we think Zoom and Facetime and Skype are softwares that can have technology in place to secure the inner communications between you and the patient. You need to make sure that if you are using it, that you’ve got the BAA from those particular vendors and those vendors have been signing business associate agreements.

But any application that is known as public facing, they say no. If anyone can see it and get it and there’s no security surrounding it like Facebook Live or Tik Tok or I think Twitch or others, there’s like, No, no, those are not sufficient. And those are actually you’re exposing the patient. They can’t it’s not something that you want them to waive.

The other piece of that is make sure that patients are entering the correct consents, understanding that even though you’ve gone through and increased the security levels or everything else you had to do from a telemedicine perspective, that they could still, you know, this is not the safest way of doing it. Obviously, face to face tends to be the safest, but that patient is consenting to that right now.

They can orally consent to it, but I already have clients are updating their medical records so that when a patient does try to do a telemedicine with a particular group, they automatically have to sign that before they can even see a physician. So there’s certain pieces that you put in place.

Mara Shorr

There are certain pieces of technology that integrate with your EMR or your EHR. And so I recommend looking at there are some out there that integrate beautifully so that it’s all done incredibly seamlessly. But just like you said, that’s not necessarily the case with every single EMR, and some of them don’t have a piece of their technology that integrates.

So I know some class does that. They’re one of them. Other pieces of technology are working incredibly fast to do that. Like you said, there’s zero, you know, I know Doxy is another one that that does it really well. We’ve had clients that have success with Doxy, which is the telemedicine software made specifically for for telemedicine. So that one, I think works works well too.

But just like you said, it’s making sure you have all the paperwork in place behind it and making sure that you’re signing consents and you’re having your patients sign consents and get them back to you in a HIPAA-compliant manner, that those consents, are being stored in your EMR. So or your paper chart, if that’s the case. But then you have to make sure that if you have any sort of paper charts that you have chosen to bring home, that you need to look at HIPAA-compliance if those are in your home.

Because what happens if somebody walks by your desk, i.e. a spouse, a roommate, a cousin that staying with you, a child, etc., and they see those patient records. So you need to make sure that if you are doing any of those things from home. We even had a worksheet that we sent to our clients that basically a checklist of what they need to do for their their own hardware and software that they brought home now that they’re working from home when they didn’t use to before.

So 2-step authorization and factor authentication. So things like that, that you make sure when you’re looking at different pieces of technology that if you share a computer or your home and your two small child goes in, bangs a couple of keys and all of a sudden they’ve created a new patient record or they’ve entered x, y, three exclamation point accidentally into an into an EMR document of an existing patient just because they were playing on the computer and you happen to have something up for any EMR.

So there’s all sorts of things that you need to make sure when you’re working from home you’re still HIPAA compliant.

Brad Adatto

And I have some of those horror stories where they weren’t HIPAA-compliant and their family members got a hold of their iPad or iPhone that had before and after pictures on the aesthetic side. And so and then they posted it to their friends. So, yeah, so you’re correct, it never changes as to whether or not you’re using telemedicine or not using telemedicine, how you protect the information in your home office is very important.

And again, simple things like having a lock on your computer that that your kids don’t have access to or encryption for them to not even get into your software system. So there are a lot of different pieces that you can put in place from that perspective while your home. And you definitely should be thinking about those things. Whenever there is a HIPAA breach that’s the first thing the OCR starts asking is what type of things that you investigate and determine where your risk score and how does you minimize those risk.

And so again, going back to downtime, these are perfect opportunities for you to start thinking about those things. One more quick thing on telemedicine before I get off that subject. Is that telemedicine is not nationally controlled. So if the federal government says something which if you hear all these emergency orders being issued just because the federal government says anybody can go to any state, that doesn’t mean that they can.

You have your state has to agree to that. So they’re asking, what these orders are saying is, hey, states, please let some doctor in Texas be able to help some doctor or some hospital in Florida via telemedicine to help offset that, even if that doctor is not licensed in Florida and many, many states are issuing emergency orders, their medical boards are allowing physicians to cross pilot pollinate by being able to work in different states, even if they’re not licensed there.

The part that I want to warn everyone, as I’ve already had entrepreneurs say, Oh, this is a great I’m going to build a business this way. I’m like, Well, you can’t build a business around emergency order because the moment the emergency order goes away, it has to go back to what the law was in that particular state. And telemedicine laws are different in every single state and your entire business is built around something that can’t sustain.

So that’s the piece to keep in mind, is that many, many states and so if you’re not familiar, obviously, check with your health care attorney as to what is my state allow. But again, the vast majority states that we’re following are quickly adopting orders, allowing physicians to be at a practice in multiple different states to take the burden off those regions that are in trouble where they need to get another doctor in to kind of review something.

But they don’t have to take the doctor who’s on the front line doing something else. So those are important pieces of the telemedicine for when they have opportunities to kind of spend extra time, if they can, to kind of get at. The reason why I like telemedicine is as I talk to one of my orthopedist, he said, Well, I’m not really sure if I can even charge for it.

And I said, Forget about charging for it. You’re just still trying to reach out to your patients.

Mara Shorr

Exactly.

Brad Adatto

Make a connection with them. So that when they do come back in on May 1st with their appointment, you’ve already spoken with them. And I said, it’s a great way of even if you’re calling them and you’re not video conferencing and you’re not charging for a consult, that you’re just being seen and letting them know that you are there.

Mara Shorr

It continues to build this relationship. So you stay front of mind, and it shows my doctor cares, my nurse is there. The practice really does care about me not just as a number but as a patient. And that’s going to help build patient loyalty.

Brad Adatto

Completely Agree, and the next area I was going to say that I think people will definitely be again, they have a lot of downtime on their hand and you kind of start off with what makes them excited is when they get to do advertisement, right? So they’re they are used to, as you said, you know, best doctors and, you know, in this magazine or best doctors in this or the top 100 doctors or whatever it is, and they get that promoted and use that and then they use their social media as another way of reaching out and touching their audience.

And so whether or not they’re a patient or not, just remember that even with your downtime and I’ve seen this already, where people are getting a little… exaggerating a little bit on their social media posts as to their skill sets or or how well respected they are or whatever it is. The medical world. They have certain rules and limitations as to how you can advertise those. At a federal level so that they can oversee those pieces.

And so already if you’re paying attention, you may have noticed that the FTC went after a couple of different websites that are promoting that this particular treatment or this particular product can help cure or prevent you from getting COVID 19. So they issued a warning letter saying, hey, remember that you can’t, that’s considered false and deceptive. So even from a federal side, that doesn’t change it.

So if you’re a group and you’re saying this happened to an I.V. bar about a year and a half ago was, hey, you know, we have these treatments that if you do this, it will help cure this or cure that. So everyone’s done it before. This is not anything new, but what’s happening is, is when you’re trying to bring new people in, when again, when the switch gets thrown back on and you’re advertising that you can do all these extra services, that all these services will do extra great things for the individual.

Be very careful and mindful that, number one, the FTC is watching. But number two, your local medical boards have tremendous authority over what you can do, or can promote, and if anything it’s considered false, deceptive or misleading, can get you in trouble with your medical and nursing boards. So as you promote yourself, make sure you’re being compliant with that and over a thousand different examples of what that can look like.

But it’s as simple as saying, you know, you are the best in the entire world at this particular procedure or you, you render something better than any other place except for certain universities. And the medical board learns about this. And by the way, the medical boards are overwhelmed with complaints. It’s not that they’re going to go to your website. 100% at the time It’s because there are angry patient who reported you or angry former employee.

Mara Shorr

Or competition.

Brad Adatto

Yeah, they’ll report you and they will. And that’s how we get involved in medical board investigations all the time. And every single one of them have brought up that somebody angry reported every one of them. And so what’ll happen is that if you have a technical violation now, you’re spending your time and effort fighting the medical board, trying to explain why you promoted yourself as the best group in the nation for this particular procedure.

And if you can’t prove it, that’s considered false, deceptive and misleading. So, again, be very careful as you’re trying to advertise yourself during this time. And I I get the urgency to be out there in posting and posting. But remember to be careful and not expose yourself so that once you open up someone reports you and says, Oh, go look at this social media post, go look at this website.

And now you’re spending your time and effort trying to not get in trouble with the medical board or nursing board.

Mara Shorr

And I always say to people, and I’m sure I think you and I have talked about this a little bit, too, is that we encourage, we encourage our clients, and I know you do as well if you have questions, I would so rather our clients come to us with a quick question. And we have even within Shorr Solutions, right?

That’s why we instituted something called a communication fee, so with our clients, it’s once a month fee that includes all the little side conversations that we have along the way, right? So it’s the five minute conversation. It’s the two minute text, it’s all those little emails and things like that, because we want our clients to come to us proactively and ask those questions.

I’m thinking of using this phrasing, but I know that I may not be able to because of this law. What is your thought? Can I say that I am the best? We say no, and here is why. And they say BUT, and we say NOPE, here is the legislature. And you guys do the same thing where you would rather your clients come to you proactively because it’s easier to have a five minute conversation upfront, learn that it’s not okay to do something because it could very well get you in trouble down the line than to have to take days, weeks, years cleaning it up on the back end.

So it’s better to have 5 minutes upfront, ask a question, and it’s not a pitch for ByrdAdatto, It’s on a pitch for Shorr Solutions. If you have your own health care law firm that you work with, if you have experts that you work with, I encourage you to go and just ask for that expert opinion. And we always say to put that have that opinion in writing so that if it were to ever be challenged, you can say, I saw the legal opinion and this is where I based my decision off of an often law firms will say, this is my decision and this is my recommendation based on this law.

And give you this is the specific verbiage in the specific law so that if you ever need to reference that you can go ahead and do so and feel that you have that legal opinion in your corner.

Brad Adatto

Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I always call it the 5-50 rule. You probably heard me say that before, but you’re going to pay someone, whether it’s an attorney or a consultant or someone upfront, five bucks to help you and do it right in the front end. Or are you going to pay someone 50 bucks in the back end because, dude, you messed up and now they get to spend, as you said, more time and effort fixing it.

And just like you said, you know, we have a program which, you know, the membership program where the vast majority of our clients can just email us or call us, and that’s all inclusive so that they can ask us those questions. And our entire concept is compliance is not stagnant and you have to be constantly on your toes.

And what was happening is clients were like, Oh, I don’t want to call Brad or Michael or anyone else at ByrdAdatto because they’ll charge me.

Mara Shorr

Exactly. I don’t want to get charged a nickel and dime. So that’s why people a lot of times won’t seek a legal opinion. I understand. Yeah.

Brad Adatto

And so I can’t tell you how many times we could have help prevent a catastrophic moment where they didn’t realize they were doing something wrong. Or we said, whoa, you know, you can’t do it that way. We have to do it this way or no worries. I understand what you’re asking your safe, keep moving forward. And so what we try to do is obviously keep them moving forward, more importantly.

But the few times I can tell you, I can start counting on my hand is right away. Every single time when things went bad and the person had said to me afterwards: well, I was to call you, but I thought it was okay. And so it’s that that moment in time where you’re like, whatever or everyone else was doing it so I thought it was okay.

Mara Shorr

We always say, just because everyone will run a stop sign, does that mean that it’s legal? Does that mean that it’s fake?, you know, the stop signs are for a reason. So we are here for a reason. And you have, you have people in your corner for a reason. So I, I agree with you. Right. Just because everyone’s doing it, doesn’t mean that it’s okay.

So I want to move on to a couple of questions now that I always like to ask of every podcast guest and you’re able to answer them in any order that you choose. So the questions are what is one thing that you learned along the way in your career? What is one thing you would do differently if you had to do it over again?

And then either personally or professionally? What is one that one thing you are most proud of?

00:33:04:06 – 00:43:43:09

Brad Adatto

Well, I mean, personally, I think anyone who has kids knows this is that watching your kids grow up and seeing them, I have basically two teenagers going from toddlers to having in-depth conversation. It’s just amazing to be around and anyone tells you parenting is easy. They’re lying to you, too. But I’m super proud of my kids. They’re great kids, and they’re just I won’t say they’re always a delight to be around since we’re spending a lot of time together right now with me.

But, you know, I’m just super proud of them and very proud of who they’ve become. And seeing them grow up has been delightful from a personal perspective. And I think a lot of that has to do with my wife and I have been together well, gosh, we’ve been married 22 years, but together, I think 27 years.

So she’s put up with me a long time. So very proud of this part of my life. But, you know, from a you know, from a professional, I mean, I’m super proud of our firm and our team. We have this is unfortunately not our first rodeo of dealing with when things get tough. And and one thing that I’ve been really proud is that my partners, Michael, this is where we just try to keep the grit and the diligence and the persistence comes through.

And that’s when you have to really compete harder than you’re used to. Yeah, and luckily all of us are very competitive, but these are the kind of moments I think, that you hopefully will look back and say, Yeah, I got through that and I got through it because I was able to grind through it. And yeah, no one says they liked, you know, when everything bad in your life’s happening, no one says the good time in their life, but they actually can get through it and be better on the other side.

Then they can look back and say, Well, you know, that’s an experience I had that I wish I didn’t have. But it made me a stronger, better person. So I can definitely say that about working with Michael and my entire team as far as, you know, what I’m proud of.

Mara Shorr

And one thing that I love that you and I have in common is that we both refer to we don’t say our staff or our employees. You and I always say our teams, and that’s how we refer to everyone. You know, who are technically staff or technically employees of Shorr Solutions. But people don’t ever hear me talk about my staff because I don’t have staff, I have a team, and we are all a team and we all support each other.

And I know you feel the same way and that’s why I always love as you use that term and that verbiage too, when you talk about your team.

Brad Adatto

And so the next question is a no order was what would be what would I change?

Mara Shorr

Yeah. One thing that you would do differently in your career and then one thing that you learned along the way that you would love to share with people.

Brad Adatto

Different. That’s a tough one. And I’ll tell you why it’s tough because every experience I’ve ever had in my life, I’ve, I believe I’ve learned something from it, whether it was great or terrible. And I can tell you there are certain things in my life that were just bad moments. But because of that bad moment, something great came from it.

Sure. So I can’t really I wish I could be more articulate in point to one. I would say, well, I would do that differently. I mean, there’s not going too far off the reservation here, but I lived in New Orleans after Katrina and lost everything. And so would it be different if my wife and I never lived there?

Well, sure. But then, you know, there are so many good experiences I had because of what Katrina did and what I learned from that, what happened through that, and moving to Dallas and starting over, all those are experiences. And so from what made it different or drawing my own firm and all the great experiences I had with those people, I think it’s hard to say what I would do differently.

There are certain emails or phone calls in my lifetime. I can look back and say, I wish I did a different. Sure. But again.

Mara Shorr

Yeah, yeah, we all have those. Of course. Somebody once told me that an email shouldn’t be sent if you wouldn’t want it really showing up on the front page of the New York Times. And this is when people were this is when people were really reading print a heck of a lot more. But they said, don’t even send an email if you wouldn’t be perfectly happy and content with it showing up on the front page of the paper and that is something that has stuck with me my entire career as well.

Brad Adatto

I’ve said something similar, and then we’ll answer your last question. I’ve said, Look, write whatever you want to write and then delete it and start over. Because some people, you know, I said, don’t write in the email that you were to send. Write it in a separate document. It’s a relief to say whatever you want to say. Yeah, then delete it and write the actual email that you want to send. And you’re completely correct about where you want to post it.

Mara Shorr

Yeah, I have a sticky note next to my next to my computer so that somebody, my step mom is just incredibly wise. She really is. And I adore her to a thousand pieces and she is just this incredible mentor in my world. And there’s two pieces of advice that she has given me over the years that I keep in sticky notes so that during a more frustrating moment, that one is just to do more listening.

And if I was that person, how would this situation make me feel? Which just helps me be more empathetic. And then is this a big deal? And if not, let it go? Because I think as strong people that I can often be a type-A and certainly a type-A personality, that it’s often I want to prove my point, but I want to prove my point for this.

And this is, you know, I have a fact over your opinion. And if it’s not a big deal and it’s not going to make or break a situation, let it go. Don’t try and prove a point. There’s no reason to. So I understand completely.

Brad Adatto

And I wish I could start taking all the wise advice I’ve got and put sticky notes, but I don’t know if I could narrow it down to two. That’s pretty good. Yeah.

Mara Shorr

They’re there’s still a work in progress as we all are. So yeah, I’ll send you a pack of sticky notes. You’ll get one in the mail so you’ll get a fresh pack of sticky notes.

Brad Adatto

So the last question is what is something that I’ve learned?

Mara Shorr

Yeah.

Brad Adatto

I would say the thing I have learned is, is learning never ends if you are. I’m a person who’s constantly reading and constantly trying to learn new aspects of anything. And I have good friends who hit certain peaks. They’re fine where they are and they stop where they are. But to me, I’m a constant learner, just like you.

You had a summary of that statement, which is I enjoy consistently learning new ways to improve my business, my team, my relationships with everyone. And then more importantly, you know, when new laws come out learning those new laws, I think that’s going back to the stagnant pieces that I enjoy that aspect of it. And so one of the things I guess I always talk about is, is being a good learner.

And that’s one of the reasons why I think we started something called ByrdAdatto University, where we teach courses to our teams, whether or not it’s the literally the person to answer the phone or how to do that in an excellent manner, or teaching our attorneys heavy regulations because we feel like that’s very important to be a learner.

I guess you could get to a spot where you feel comfortable that you’ve learned everything you need to learn, to do whatever you need to do. But I haven’t gotten there yet, so I’m still trying to figure out I’m still trying to master that aspect of life.

Mara Shorr

I don’t think that anyone wants to be just too comfortable, right? You never want to be that person that’s too comfortable and that’s really okay not learning anymore. And I think that’s where you and I, we see each other at industry conferences, not just necessarily when we’re speaking or when we are in the exhibit hall connecting with other people.

But we will sit sometimes next to each other as we’re listening to other people lecture because we want to hear what is it that everybody has to say. So we’ll sit there in and even sometimes like little kids in school pass notes back and forth. Oh, I never thought of that. That’s a really good point. I really love how they phrased that. So I know you and I both both are big on learning. So.

Brad Adatto

Yeah, sure. I would say on that note, there’s nothing better to being in a room and you hear something and you’re like, your head pops up. Like that is an excellent point. I hope everyone has heard that. Yeah, and I can tell you the multiple times I’ve sat in rooms and heard really good speakers say something and turn to you or anyone else, saying Excellent. That was amazing. Gosh, that was a really good point. Or whatever it is. I agree with you. That’s that’s a great explanation.

Mara Shorr

I love that. Well, thank you so much for being on today’s podcast. I absolutely appreciate it. Can you share with everybody how people that are listening to the podcast right now, how can they reach you? How can they find you via email, website on social media, Any platforms that you want to share? How can people reach you and how can they get a hold of you if they want to connect with you?

Get a piece of advice, learn more, all that good stuff.

Brad Adatto

Yeah, absolutely. So if you go to our website, which is Byrdadatto.com, you can see all our information. My beautiful pictures on the website, my email and all my contact information. We also have a way in which people want to reach out and ask questions.

We have some of my team members who can help answer questions and how to set up consults. So all those are things that are ways to reach out to us. We are absolutely on LinkedIn and Instagram and Facebook, so we post probably 3 to 5 things a week. And right now actually we’ve been shooting a video a day.

So if you go to our website, you’ll see that I think we’re on video number 17 or 18 now, just trying to keep it, keep people up to date as to what’s happening in the world as fast as we can, because laws are changing by the hour, it seems like right now. So those are the ways you can reach out.

Mara Shorr

I would say to for people that are listening, get on ByrdAdatto’s email list as well. Get on their e-newsletter list because they continue to put out really great pieces of information that our team reads, digests and we’re able to even help them and pass things along to our clients as well. We pass a lot of the e-newsletters that they put out along to our clients, and I think that’s just a great resource.

So I encourage you, if you want great legal opinions and suggestions along the way, go ahead, sign up for their e-newsletter. So thank you so much, Brad. It’s always a pleasure speaking with you and I look forward to seeing you again very soon, hopefully at an industry conference once everything clears up a bit.

Brad Adatto

Yes, you have a good one.

Mara Shorr

Thanks, you two. Have a great day. And thank you so much for listening to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast.

00:43:43:11 – 00:44:15:00

So that wraps up today’s episode of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. We hope that you’ve gotten as much out of the episode as we have, and if you have, I’d love for you to like it. Rate us and share this episode with your friends, colleagues and the rest of your team. If you aren’t yet on our e-newsletter, now’s the time to join at www.shorrsolutions.com and click on the E newsletter button at the top right hand corner. We’ll see you next time. And remember, subscribe and leave us a review.