438. AMMA — Lessons Learned From 5,000 Days of Crisp

"If I failed, I wanted it to be 100% my fault." In this special episode of The Game Changing Attorney Podcast, Michael and Jessica Mogill reflect on 5000 days of building Crisp. They walk through the dark ages of working out of a dental office with $500 and no idea what they were doing, the years of building real infrastructure and systems, the $8 million Game Changers Summit at Mercedes-Benz Stadium that became their moon landing, and the final evolution where Michael removed himself as the bottleneck entirely. This is an unfiltered look at what building a nine-figure company actually requires at each stage: pure grit when you know nothing, relentless focus on brand when everyone's watching, and the discipline to build systems that work without you. Here's what you'll learn: Why working 100 hours a week got them to seven figures but would have capped them there forever How the brand became the only competitive advantage that matters and why people who hated them still respected what they built What it means to go from hustler to manager to leader to CEO to owner, and why each evolution requires letting go of what got you there 5000 days. Zero debt. 100% ownership. Built by people who believed before there was anything to believe in. ---- 01:53 – Why 5000 days of Crisp is worth celebrating and the surprise party that almost didn't happen. 09:57 – Why "I can outwork anyone" is a badge of honor early on and a liability later. 14:19 – What Jessica found when she walked into Crisp and why she bulldozed everything she saw. 18:13 – What it actually feels like to cross a million dollars in revenue when you've been grinding for years. 20:01 – The milestone that finally made Crisp feel legitimate and what it meant to be able to offer it. 31:41 – Why the Game Changers Summit was designed to feel like a rock concert, not a legal conference. 43:03 – What it took to pull off a legal conference at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and whether Michael would do it again. 48:49 – What the transition from CEO to owner actually looks like in practice and why it takes so long to get there. 53:25 – Why the value of your business is inversely proportional to its dependency on you. ---- Links & Resources: Game Changers Summit Joey Diaz Armageddon ---- Learn what sustainable growth can look like for your firm at crispcoach.com. ---- Do you love this podcast and want to see more game changing content? Subscribe to our YouTube channel. ---- Past guests on The Game Changing Attorney Podcast include David Goggins, John Morgan, Alex Hormozi, Randi McGinn, Kim Scott, Chris Voss, Kevin O’Leary, Laura Wasser, John Maxwell, Mark Lanier, Robert Greene, and many more. ---- If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like 382. What It Takes to Build a $100M Legal Business 265. Jessica Mogill — Streamlined Operations: Relentless Execution 210. AMMA — Failure Isn’t Final: Lessons Learned From Setbacks and Struggles