Skip to main content
TranscriptsArticles

Christian Contreras – Personal Injury Show – EP. 05 [Transcript]

By February 11, 2022No Comments

About This Video

In this week’s episode, We interviewed Christian Contreras of The Christian Contreras Firm and. Christian Contreras is a young litigator in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. He is involved in personal injury and activism in Los Angeles through Justice-X.  The Doctors For Accidents Team was humbled to have such an ambitious and impactful litigator at our studios that took the time to let us and you the audience to get to him and what he is doing in the community. We hope you, The audience, enjoy this interview and get something out of it. Let us know in comments below what kind of guests and questions you want to ask so you get the most out of each episode.

Legal Disclaimer: This is not legal advice or medical advice, seek a licensed attorney for legal advice. Only to be used as educational information and entertainment.

Would You Like To Be Our Next Guest On The Show. Register Today!

If you need help finding doctors on a lien – Contact Us

Call: (833) 999-9362
Email: info@doctorsforaccidents.com

Watch On Youtube

Video Transcription

0:20


Jean Paul: Hello, guys. So, this is John Paul with the Defray Personal Injury show. And today we have our guest speaker here, who’s Christian Contreras, from the Christian Law Firm. And here also my co-host, Nicole Anderson.
Nicole: Hi guys. How’s it going?
Jean Paul: Awesome. Awesome. And we’re going to be asking Christian a couple of questions regarding his career and himself as a professional. I’ll let Nicky start with the first one.

0:47


Nicole: Yes. So, you’re very young looking. You’ve just graduated. You just took the bar in 2020 if I’m correct,

0:56


Christian: Well, I took it in 2018. Okay, right after passing through law school, you know, graduating to law school. And I passed the bar my first time, but you know, there was a delay in my admission. The bar, it’s a bureaucracy, and notorious in what they do. But, you know, I do want to introduce myself before we get into those questions.
Nicole: Yeah.
Christian: Christian Contreras. You know, I do have my own law firm Christian Contreras Law Firm. I’m part of Justice Acts. And I’m also a partner in Gizarre Henderson Carrasco, which is a civil rights law firm.
Jean Paul: Wonderful.
Nicole: Wonderful.
Christian: That’s just what I do during the day and night. You know, I moonlight as an activist, community leader just out there with the community, ingrained with their needs, and just helping people in terms of what they need, particularly in the east, Los Angeles, South Los Angeles areas. In that capacity I serve on the board of the East Los Angeles College Foundation. I was also recently appointed as the legal advisor for the statewide legal advisor for LULAC, which is the oldest civil rights organization in California and the United States. I’m also general counsel to Latino Coalition, Los Angeles, and different organizations.

2:08


Nicole: How do you achieve so much by just passing the bar? You’ve really excelled yourself so quickly. Is there a mentor that you’ve worked with, even a law firm or someone in the industry that you worked with before you passed the bar like while you are attending school?

2:26


Christian: Well, you know, sometimes I do get conscious about, I guess my age, I’m not even old. I’m not even young. I mean, I’m old. I’m 30. Okay, so by 30, you know, many entrepreneurs and many founders already were established. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in his dorm room.
Jean Paul: That’s right.
Christian: No, that’s right. So, I think, yes, in the profession, age may be a factor in terms of whether you’re trustworthy or reliable. But at the same time results speak for themselves. So exactly. I do get caught. I am cognizant of that, that age thing, but I don’t really think about it that much. I do think about it, in terms of, sometimes big cases. So, I will bring in, a partner or someone who seems old, but they’re just older. Just to give me that sense of credibility. But at the same time, I’ve been practicing law for almost two years. So how do I accomplish all that? I mean, I don’t really think I’ve accomplished that much, frankly, my capacity, I think, and my potential is much more exponential in my current capacity. The things that I’m doing now are just an extension of passion.

3:38


Nicole: We can definitely tell your passion, especially with everything that you’re involved with. So, I see that you have a kind of a fundraiser, what’s your involvement with the East Los Angeles College?

3:49


Christian: Well, the East Los Angeles College, it’s actually the biggest one of the biggest community colleges in the entire country. It’s number one in serving Latino students in the country. So, it’s a fairly big community college. It enrolls approximately 60,000 students per year. And it’s a big community college. It has a board which is the East Los Angeles College Foundation Board. And I am one of the board members. So actually, that’s one of the things that I’m very proud of, because I went to ELACC. I went to the East Los Angeles Community College, and it was a stage in my life where I didn’t even know what I was going to do. Well, that’s why community college is the best place to start because not a lot of students know what they’re going to do. Even recently, I spoke at a business class at Glendale Community College. The professor brought me on as a guest speaker, talking about business and entrepreneurship because I’m also a business litigator. So, business litigation is something I also practice. Yeah, and I was telling them “Look, you need to be passionate, you need to love what you do”. And then once an says, “What if I don’t know what I’m passionate about?”
Jean Paul: Shit.

5:05


Christian: That’s a good question. Because, you know, a lot of people don’t care about things, and especially the new generation, the Gen-Zers since I’m a millennial. The Gen-Zers. All care about a social media that said, “I want to be an influencer.” Well, not everyone can be an influencer, even though everyone tries, right. So, you need to find something that you’re passionate about, which also gives you fulfillment. I knew when I was 18. I had just graduated from high school; I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But I knew I wanted to help people. And I know I like being challenged. So, I went to ELACC, and eventually transferred and eventually went to law school and all that stuff. But there, that’s really where I believe was a breeding ground for the person that I was today, or that I am today. So, I think serving on that board is very fulfilling for me because I was there and I’m serving students who are a reflection of me when I was in that stage. And it’s very needed, especially because it’s a more inexpensive alternative rather than going to a four-year institution. And even when you think about people who have billion-dollar companies, right now, Steve Madden, I was listening to his memoir and he went to University of Miami, and he dropped out after a year and a half. And then he was just saying, “Well, I was just messing around. I don’t know what I was doing.” Because when you really think about it 18 and 19. It’s a young age, and you don’t really know what you want to do. But at the same time, it’s funny humans were the only one to really keep our children for such a long time. All the other mammals that once they are toddlers are going to do what you got to do. Yeah, the animal kingdom. Humans, we keep our kids for such a long time. And we baby them for such a long time. Even the Mexican kids. See with the strollers you have fiver year olds in a stroller? I’m looking at mom. What are you doing? Get him out of the stroller.
Jean Paul: Yeah.
Christian: It’s a good thing. Because you know, we care about family, humans, we’re family oriented, and even attachment as a form of love you have, which is attachment. That’s a form of love, you know, you’re attached to someone. So, yes, it’s a young age, but at the same time, humans, we just keep the kids around too long. So, it’s such a young age to think about what should I do? Or, you know, what, why am I even going to school? So, it’s a good way to do that introduction into higher learning and finding yourself.

7:40


Jean Paul: Super important.
Christian: That’s pretty much what I do at the East Los Angeles College Board. I’m the only lawyer on the board right now. So of course, I do other contracts and general council work. The executive director loves me and loves me for that, because he just calls me at random times asking me these legal questions.

7:59


Nicole: Do any pro bono work? It is just a question. Some people do.

8:07


Jean Paul: I’m sure you have a following. I mean, I’m sure you’re like a mentor to a lot of those young adults who are trying to figure out their passion and stuff like that.

8:15


Christian: Right. So, to answer the first question, yes, I do pro bono work. But I pause because pro bono, it’s, I guess it’s a loaded term. Yeah, you know, because some people just do it to say, “I’m doing pro bono work”. But when you really live in your community, when you really live for the people. When you do work, that is I guess, free, free and in the way that you’re not getting compensated, I guess it is pro bono, but at the same time, you’re serving the community. You’re being a community leader. So yes, I do pro bono work. But at the same time, I don’t really see it as something when it’s a bad thing. Even though a lot of people don’t really see it as a bad thing.

But yeah, the second question, there’s actually a program called “pathway to law school”, which didn’t exist when I was there. So, that’s actually how I first was introduced back to ELACC. Because I had no connection to the school. And then I realized that this program was there, which was composed of judges and lawyers. And the students are enrolled in the program, there’s different requirements, and they’re able to connect with lawyers and judges, and they are able to go to law offices and courtrooms to get a feel and a taste of what it means to be a lawyer because a lot of people don’t even know what it means. And I think the good thing about the profession though, is that it’s not monolithic. You know, there’s so many things you could do and it’s good to understand what different capacities you could fill in the legal profession. So yeah, that’s what I do at the East Los Angeles College Foundation.

9:48


Jean Paul: That’s really great.

9:51

Nicole: That’s great.

9:52


Jean Paul: Me and Nicole, we do a lot of different types of things. We do a lot of charity and you know, we’re involved with like the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers chair I try to, we try to do as much as we can in as far as like the involvement with them.

10:05


Nicole: Thanksgiving coming up, we always kind of run the area’s dropping off gift bags and stuff of either food or cleaning materials or something that we can help we try to.

10:18


Jean Paul: Absolutely. Yeah. All right. So, let’s see…

10:23


Nicole: If you could go back in time. And give yourself advice on starting your own law firm? Would there be something that you would, you know, tell yourself to, to maybe speed up to where you are now? Or are you happy with how everything has been going and flowing?

10:42


Christian: What would I tell myself, I guess, you know, be more business savvy with balancing it with your values, and my values and my principles is giving back, of course, and helping people that are truly in need, and then people within the community, because my current area is definitely in the Latino community, as a Spanish speaker, as Mexican American, I see that a lot of people are just ignorant, not in a bad way, you know, just, they don’t understand the process. So, at the very least, what I do is, I tell them, “Look, I’ll give you a free consultation, you not to worry about paying me now informed me of the process”. And that happens fairly frequently. So, I do try to balance informing people who may not be super informed about the process, and then giving them useful tips in terms of what could help them in their current situation, and then giving them resources. So, they could also learn for themselves. So, you know, definitely being more business savvy, but also balancing it with my core values and my core principles. And also, I think another thing that I would probably tell myself is just be more involved in things.

11:54


Jean Paul: It sounds like you’re definitely you know, you’re in a path that you’re really being involved with, not only your community, but you know, with a lot of the colleges, you’re mentoring, you’re teaching people like, you know, how to how to do certain things that you know, are not really taught in school. And I think with the experience that you bring in with working with, like someone like Humberto you’re on a path to success. I mean, I could just see it from just looking at you that you’re confident about what you’re doing. And you’re confident about, you know, what you say, and I think that eventually, people are going to either refer, you know, cases to you, or they’re going to recommend you to other people that need that help. So, in a way, you know, that 10, 15, 20, 30-minute console that’s free, it’s going to pay off, because it’s all word of mouth, right? So, people are going to be able to send you cases and or recommend you because you sound like you know what you’re doing.

12:49


Nicole: Definitely sounds like you have a really good heart. And I feel like if I were to be watching you, I would want to go up to someone with a good heart who wants to help the community.

12:57


Christian: It shows you care. Thanks. I’m going to tell Bertha that next time when I go into his office. “Hey JP and Nicole they said this, you know. I was at their show and they said, “Look, you know, it’s going to pay off eventually. Yeah, I could take on this case in the pay off. I do tell them that though”. And he says, “No, go away”.

13:19


Nicole: I have seen you on the news quite a bit. So, you’re out there. Is this with Justice X involvement.

13:27


Christian: So, we do a number of things. But I will say the godfather of the media is definitely Berto, because he’s the one who pretty much taught me how to work the media. And it’s a fairly simple process, when you think about it, getting on the news, and getting out your press releases, and then recording when you’re on the news, so you can then publish it and stuff like that, because actually, I put them on to that, because he would just say, “I’m coming out on the news. And it’s going to be at 6pm. You got to make sure you’re watching at 6pm.” And I said, “What? I’m not going to stick around for the news they posted online.” At least now on my day, because he’s a bit older, of course, they wouldn’t do that back in the day.
Nicole: I remember that back in the day.
Christian: I told him, “All you have to do is just get the video from the website, and then save it and just post it.” He’s like, “Yeah, okay”. You know, so we were a team, of course. It’s like Jordan, Pippen, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. So, he’s the one who really taught me all that in terms of how to do the groundwork, and everything in doing it. So, it’s through him, of course, we do some cases together. And then we have Justice X, which is a coalition of black and brown lawyers advancing black or brown interest, and also the interests of marginalized communities. And then just other cases, working with community activists and community leaders who also understand the power of the media.
Jean Paul: Absolutely.

14:58


Nicole: So where do you see yourself five or 10 years from now?

15:03


Jean Paul: Have you thought about it?
Christian: Yeah.

15:07


Nicole: It just happened. He just thought about it.

15:11


Christian: I thought about it. So, recently, I’ve been listening to the stories of Steve Madden, who I mentioned earlier, which is interesting, because he’s a shoe designer, and he designs primarily women’s shoes.

15:29


Nicole: Are you getting into women’s shoes?

15:34


Jean Paul: I understand what he’s trying to say, from an entrepreneurial point you have to have, you know- I mean, listening to like Steve Madden or Steve Jobs, or one of the or even who’s the guy from Amazon.
Christian: Jeff Bezos.
Jean Paul: Thank you, even Jeff Bezos his story motivates. It’s inspiring. Like all the things that he’s done. I mean, he’s literally from rags to riches. Right.
Christian: Yeah.
Jean Paul: So, it’s like, you know, hearing what these people have done is, it just gets you out of bed early. And, you know, especially if you’re an entrepreneur, your own law firm or your own company. Like those are super important things. And it’s kind of like, what drives you.

16:10


Christian: What I want to do in five years. Okay, so of course, I’m always practicing law. There are so many hours in a day to do so much. And especially now, the system that I have, I’m able to systemize and automate a lot of the things that I do, and I have a system in terms of how I approach cases and how I’m able to do things so expediently. And especially because I’m tech savvy, I’m able to do things so quickly, whereas a boomer lawyer will take them an hour to format, something that took me two minutes, right, so that that expediency allows you to get more done. So, I’m always going to be practicing law. But what I want to do is I want to start a business, a different business. I think it’s going to be tech related in terms of software. And I don’t want to give out the idea. Yeah. But the end goal is, I want to make it a billion-dollar company. And then I want to give away billions of dollars.
Jean Paul: Wonderful. Yeah.
Nicole: Awesome.
Christian: That’s what I want to do.
Nicole: Yeah, that’s kind of our mindset too.

17:14


Jean Paul: Yeah, that’s great, man.

17:17


Nicole: You have enough drive; you are definitely going to get it done.

17:19


Jean Paul: Yeah, hopefully, you know, you guys see me on the news. Oh, yeah. Founder of a billion-dollar company decides to give away a billion dollars.

17:29


Nicole: I can totally see it.
Christian: That would be cool.
Jean Paul: Yeah, for sure.

17:31


Nicole: So another big question. Do you have a hero or a mentor in this work? In the work field that you’re in right now?

17:41


Christian: Yeah. So, this is one of the things that I wanted to talk about, you know, I appreciate you guys. This is such a reflection of the work that we do, the plaintiffs bar, what’s the best part of it is the community. So, one of the best parts about it? And of course, that, you know, we’re giving and we care about justice, and so forth. But the community so people like yourselves and other organizations and people who are part of the plaintiffs bar, yeah, it’s a camaraderie, we care about each other, we help each other and that’s unlike any other bar, I’m part of the criminal defense bar, and I’m part of the Civil Rights bar. And they’re great bars, but just it’s not really a community such as the plaintiffs bar. So, this community is so giving, and so helpful towards even young lovers like myself, that there’s a lot of people who I look up to in the community, of course. The people that I could think of off the top of my head were heroes and mentors and Berto. Stephen King, I remember my first trial. It was a tough one. And I cried every day, not because it was hard, but just because of a lot of emotions. And it was a criminal trial. So, my client was facing nine years in prison. And she had two kids, and she was pregnant. And every day, the consequence for going to prison was daunting. So, it was tough. But I remember one day, I was I was, I had done volunteer work, and the judge hated me. And he would fight with the judge outside of the presence of the jury. Of course, I was super respectful in front of the jury, because everything matters every single second, every single action in the presence of the jury matters because they see everything you guys probably know.
Nicole: Yeah.
Christian: So, it was tough, because the judge hated me. I was up against an overzealous prosecutor, tough jurisdiction. So, I had finished [inaudible]. And then on the third day, it was eye opening. And I remember driving to court and I said, “King, I’m doing opening, what should I do?” He was like, “What do you mean?” We’ve been talking about the case and the trial. He said, “You know, just do what we talked about, you know what you’re doing and you know, just go in there”. But the fact that I could just call him up on my way to court and say, “Hey, King what do I do?”

19:55


Jean Paul: Give you some advice.
Christian: Yeah, King does jury consulting and he was part of the Trojan Horse method. And I know he uses the Jerry Spence method now and trial lawyer’s college and all that good stuff. So, being able to call someone up like that, and I’m sure there’s other lawyers who are able to call in this community and say, “Hey, I’m doing opening, like what I do?” So, he’s been very helpful and Austin Duff to who he’s now getting more in the plaintiffs bar, but he’s more part of the criminal defense bar. And he’s also a pillar of the community. He’s been very helpful in that respect as well. And he was there for the first day of trial as well helping me. And he actually helped me with my closing. I remember being in his house, the day before closing, we were up late, and I did my closing in front of him. I didn’t even finish it. He said, “What are you doing?” I said, “What do you mean? I’m doing my closing. He said, “It’s boring”. And I said, “You need to tell a story”. He’s like, “Tell a story”. And I said, fine. So, you know, we worked on it, but I was at his house for hours.

21:03


Jean Paul: Are you good at storytelling?

21:07


Nicole: I would think you would have to be.
Jean Paul: Yeah, I think it sounds like you are. I mean, yeah.

21:11


Christian: I don’t really think so. Frankly, I don’t think so. But that’s the beauty of our profession, it’s a practice. I’m working at it.
Jean Paul: Yeah. You know, every day.
Christian: Well, the thing too, about myself, and I guess people like myself is our standards are just ridiculously high. I don’t really ever see myself meeting my expectations, so I don’t really think I’m a good storyteller. Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not, but I’m definitely working at becoming better at it.

21:39


Jean Paul: Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s all it really takes. We were never very good, at least I wasn’t with cameras and being in front of a camera.
Nicole: I was the shyest person on this planet.
Jean Paul: Yeah, Nikki had a really hard time speaking in front of people.

21:54


Christian: I actually feel I’ve told the story before I failed speech class in high school, because I couldn’t speak in front of 12 students in front of the class. That’s how bad I was.

22:02


Jean Paul: Yeah. So, she’s gone a long way. And it’s like, anything that you practice day, and you know, day and night, you become better at it, right? So, it’s like, don’t give up, keep going, keep doing what you’re doing. And it’s, whoever’s watching this is obviously going to see that and, listen to podcasts, read books, practice every single day, and you just become better and better at it. And it sounds like that’s what you’ve been doing. I mean, to have people like that around you to help you, you know, identify, you know, key points that are going to help you close your case. Amazing. I mean, that’s incredible. And that’s what people should do look for mentors at the same time.

22:41


Christian: Yeah. So I think you had to find partnerships that worked for you. I don’t really like talking about the good things that I’ve done. But one of the good things that I have done is definitely being around people who are supportive and putting people around me who are willing to help me and I can learn from so I’m grateful for those people. And I’m sure there’s tons of other people who have been helping me, you know, including a former professor whose name is Carol Sobel. She’s a trailblazing civil rights lawyer. So sometimes I call up too and just say I need help with this, or I need help with that. And with civil rights law, that’s also a very sensitive area. Because if you get to the appellate level, you have to be careful what arguments you make. Because if it gets in front of the Ninth Circuit, and they’re able to publish the opinion, that creates law. So, if it creates bad law for your area; it’s not good for everyone. So, yeah, those types of people in the community, this community itself, also is something that helps people like myself, even young lawyers like myself. But going back to your point of growth mindset, I think that’s what changes everything, and even mindset. Now, I think your mindset really shows and paints how you see the world.

Interviewers: Yeah.
Christian: If you wake up hating your life, oh, gosh, you’re going to be toxic. You’re going to be negative. But if you wake up as a ray of sunshine or with, you know, emanating good energy, then you know, people around you’re going to pick up around it, and then you’re just going to attract Goodness, goodness.

24:13


Jean Paul: All right, Christian, so please, share with us what inspired you to be where you’re at right now, as far as your career?
Nicole: What shaped you?
Jean Paul: What shaped you? Yeah.

24:25


Christian: Well, this applies to everyone. Of course, in our life experiences shape us our childhood shape us.
Jean Paul: Yeah.
Christian: And our parents shape us, everyone around us. They shape us and we learn from people. The defining moment for me was definitely something that I didn’t see coming. I don’t think anyone could see this coming. And it’s something that I was not shy, but just kind of embarrassed to talk about. Mm hmm. So, it all stems from when I was around 1212 years old. You know, I was living a perfectly regular life, I had a Gameboy I had, you know, Pokémon or whatever I was playing.
Jean Paul: I love that game.
Christian: I didn’t see my mom for a few weeks. And then I was asking, I’m an only child, okay? I mean, I’m an only child of a single mom. And, I’m Mexican. So, it’s kind of odd to be a single child with these big families, right? So, I didn’t see my mom for a few weeks, and I knew something was wrong. And my, my mom’s boyfriend at the time, pulls me aside after a few weeks, and he says, something happened to your mom. And I was like, okay, so I was told, I don’t know what’s going on, right. So we go to the hospital, and she’s there. She’s been there for weeks. And she was involved in a car accident, and on the five freeway, and she was hit from behind, and, she was hit twice, and she became paralyzed, permanently paralyzed, she had a spinal cord injury. And it’s tough because she had me when she was 16. And at the time, she was still in her 20s. So being permanently paralyzed, in your 20s from the waist down is traumatizing. It’s devastating. It’s life altering, of course.
Nicole: Oh my gosh.
Christian: But the chain of events that happened next, I think were even more devastating. So, she, she was working at the time, and she would be the provider of the home. So, because she couldn’t work anymore, and she never really applied for benefits. And then more devastatingly, she never even sued. She never sued anyone, for anything, no insurance company for the injury because she was literally stranded on the freeway, and she was rear ended twice as high rate of speed. We had nowhere to go. So we ended up being homeless.
Nicole: Wow.
Christian: And we’re homeless in Skid Row for a year or two. And that’s where, you know, I saw the extreme need, I saw people who were at their lowest. So, it was tough being there, because it feels like it’s the area of the forgotten people. No one cares about anyone down there. So, I set out to change that. To change the dire need for advocates dire need for people who represent the needs of people who are forgotten. And I didn’t know how I would do it. But I knew that I needed to do it. So, I don’t come from a family of lawyers. I didn’t I didn’t know any lawyers. The first lawyer I met was Burto when I was 18 at the gym. So, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer, but I didn’t know if I could. And that’s why it was hard for me because I was never on that trajectory to be a lawyer. But I knew I needed to be one, or at least do something where I could help others be an advocate. Because I saw the need and I experienced it firsthand.

So, first of all, when I was 18, then maybe when I was 20 or 21- I don’t know the exact time but it was a number of years because like I said, I didn’t know I was going to law school. I was in college and then I was graduating from college and I said “okay, I guess I’m going to law school, or at least I’m going to try to law school”. So, it’s sometime in college, ask him, “Okay, so you think I could be a lawyer? And he said, “Hell yeah, we need more Latino lawyers in the field, you know, you would be an asset to the profession.” And I said, “Wow”.
Jean Paul: That’s powerful words. Really motivating.
Christian: Yeah. So, I said, “Okay, well, I applied and now eventually went to law school and passed the bar. Those life experiences definitely motivate me now and are the reasons why I do the things that I do. Because, as you see, there’s such a high need for advocates, there’s such a high need for people who understand the struggle, and there’s such a need for people who are really, really there to give back for two reasons.

29:00


Nicole: Your experience, story and everything is just amazing. And a lot of people who are watching, even if they’re in tough times, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. With everything, you just have to work really hard and stay focused and run into Humberto at the basketball court.

29:21


Jean Paul: You know, that’s a great story. I think, you know, for some reason, I and I, a lot of people go to the gym, without realizing the friendships you make without even trying to make them and they do end up becoming life changing sometimes, like your story. And it’s really amazing how just by going to you know, do something positive like playing sports or going to the gym, you not only get advice from people that are older than you but you made your life to what it is now just by going to the LA Fitness and all those little things like played such a role. I mean, that’s an amazing story.

30:02


Christian: Yeah, I don’t think we’re here by coincidence. I don’t think things happen by coincidence. Everything happens for a reason. And the chain of events is set off by different things is something that I think we should be cognizant of. Because oftentimes, people want to give up, and they say, “This is hard”, or “What did I do to deserve this?” And you really have to think about why you’re in that moment or why you’re in that experience. And I see everything as a learning experience. I see every failure as a growing experience. And I was just with Alder Talk, Mike Alder who, another great guy who I see as a mentor and as a hero of the community; him and Gina. Gina Soponti and Michael Alder they’re amazing. They are super supportive. He said, “Obstacles are not in your way. They are the way.” So, these experiences are here for a reason. You’re going through a struggle for a reason. And at the end of the day, it’s going to make you a better person. So, like I said, back to mindset, like you said, back to mindset, just think about it that way now. And then that’s another reason why I also like sharing my story, even though I didn’t like to before because I was somewhat embarrassed. But it’s because it instills hope in others.

31:24


Nicole: You should never be embarrassed. I bet you your mother is extremely proud.

31:30


Jean Paul: Yeah,

31:31


Christian: I think so. Yeah, she’s very religious. I think she would be prouder if I was more religious. But yeah, you know.

31:39


Nicole: You can never make moms completely happy.
Jean Paul: I make mine completely happy.
Nicole: Moms are never completely happy.

31:46


Jean Paul: Hey, that’s great, man. What a wonderful story. I really appreciate you coming today and, and being a guest here and, explaining your story and sharing it with us in our audience. We definitely would love to have you back again sometime in the future.
Nicole: In those five years.
Jean Paul: Yeah, definitely.

32:05


Christian: Yeah. So, thank you so much for having me on. It was fun. I don’t know what to expect because you guys were talking about personal injury. I mean, I practice personal injury. Not only personal injury, but I also do other things too.
Nicole: A lot. You’re definitely an inspiration for a lot of people.
Jean Paul: For sure.
Nicole: Awesome. All right, guys. Thank you so much, Christian for coming on. If you guys are watching this, don’t forget to like, share and follow our channel below.