Billionaire Lawyer spills his $250M side hustles (pick one)
About This Episode
John Morgan, founder of the nation's largest personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan, discusses his journey from a paperboy to a billionaire with diverse side businesses including amusement parks and museums. He reveals his strategies for aggressive branding, the importance of 'first principle thinking' in repurposing distressed assets, and how he uses high-margin referrals to scale his legal empire.
Episode Description
Show Notes
- 0:00Intro
- 2:08Wonderworks
- 7:00Alcatraz East ($5M/yr)
- 13:00John's earliest hustles
- 17:11Morgan & Morgan
- 29:48The John Morgan School of Branding
- 33:30Downtown Flavortown
- 37:55WWGD - What would Google do
- 47:30What John would chase today
- 48:58The winning formula
- 52:05Santa's Chocolate Factory
- 56:11Malls
- 1:01:36Bullets before bombs
- 1:02:13“fish first, fish fast”
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Key Takeaways
Align your branding and URL with a simple, memorable mission statement like 'For The People' to achieve market dominance and high recall.
Validate new markets or concepts using a 'bullets before bombs' approach, running small-scale tests before committing to massive capital expenditures.
Create a business flywheel by productizing internal solutions, such as software or ad agencies, and selling them to competitors to generate high-margin revenue and strategic referrals.