Former Assistant DA Turned Successful Business Owner & Criminal Defense Attorney With Derk Wadas

Today we have special guest and founding partner Derk Wadas of Rosenthal & Wadas, the largest criminal defense law firm in Collin County. 

Derk has been successfully practicing criminal law and procedure exclusively since 1998. Derk is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

From 2014-2019 Derk was selected to the Texas Super Lawyers list. This recognition is given to less than 5% of the attorneys in the state. He has been board certified in criminal law by the Texas Board of legal specialization since 2011.

In this episode we cover: 

• The CoronaVirus 
• Will Texas outlaw marijuana
• Why you should never commit theft from Kohls
• The most common questions people ask attorneys on the streets
• What Derk attributes their firm success to
• The future for Rosenthal & Wadas
• And what Derk would be doing if he was not an attorney 

To Find out more about Derk Wadas:

Rosenthal and Wadas Website

Rosenthal and Wadas Facebook

Rosenthal and Wadas Twitter

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Our Company Website

BitBranding on Facebook

BitBranding on Instagram

Aaron [00:00:00]  Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of The Marketing Natives. Today we have a special guest, Derk Wadas of Rosenthal, and what is a local law firm here in Collin County. We're gonna cover the Corona virus, long Collin County running and growing your business. Enjoy. 

[00:00:15] This is the marketing natives providing actionable ways to grow, improve and succeed in your business. 

[00:00:23] And now your host, Christian and Aaron. 

Aaron [00:00:29] So we are back and this is going to be one of those special episodes, and actually Derk may or may not know this, but we're doing something new with our podcasts where we're doing it more as a video. So there's gonna be hopefully some cool, some cool content from this. But Derk, welcome to the show. Thank you. Great to be here. Awesome. So just generally starting off because there's going to be a little bit of intro. We're gonna people are gonna know a little bit about you, but in your own words, tell us a little bit about your business and your law office. 

Derk [00:00:56] Sure. Rosenthal and Wadas has been in McKinney for about 10 years now. 

Derk [00:01:01] We've grown from. Three lawyers and a receptionist. We now have up to eight lawyers and five full time staff and two more part time staff. And I think we are the largest law firm in Collin County that are doing mostly defense work, criminal defense work. 

Derk [00:01:20] Also, that's us. We're in we're in McKinney. 

Aaron [00:01:23] And I was gonna say I did do some research. And that's what that's what the Google says, too, is that you guys are the largest for a criminal defense anyway. And I have some some interesting questions in here for us for a second, but. I guess whenever we're talking about criminal defense, can you. Let's just assume that some of these people don't understand what all that would entail or what that looks like for people. So criminal defense to me is like is a law and order or like, you know, not law and order. Like what? Explain this to us and not the theatrical or Hollywood version. 

Derk [00:01:56] Sure. You mean in terms of the type of things we're seeing and dealing with on a day to day basis? I mean, it largely in, you know, we're here in the suburbs. I would say to you that what we are seeing is it ranges from, you know, an 18 year old gets a citation for having a bottle of beer or, you know, and then on the far other end of the spectrum, at any given time, we have a we will have a pending murder case, complex federal conspiracies. But I would say what I might call the food groups in the four food groups here in the suburbs, which is largely our client base, you're going to see retail types, thefts, driving while intoxicated, cases, assaults of all manner and variety and to a lesser extent, any more possession of marijuana cases or possession of a controlled substance cases. Possession of marijuana cases are almost on their way out. 

Derk [00:02:57] Really? Yeah, they really are. Now, it's it's it's obviously still legal in the state of Texas, but I don't believe the d.a.'s office in Collin County is filing those cases right now, though. I think people are still getting arrested. But I don't know that the cases are being filed anyway. So that's now that's a summary. Interesting. 

Aaron [00:03:16] And you had something for that. 

Aaron [00:03:18] But so you can basically where you're telling me is that you could go round and you'll get arrested for smoke. I think I just think it's very interesting at this point because you could go around in Colorado and have Wieden, you can be completely fine, but here you could drive around, get arrested. But it's you still have a criminal like you aren't tried to, basically. 

Derk [00:03:37] I mean, I'm not I certainly wouldn't encourage it if anybody's watching and listening because you are going to have a very unpleasant evening. 

Derk [00:03:43] But yeah, largely given an amendment to the law that took place in June of 2019, which now requires that there be a specified THC level proven in court. A lot of large district attorney's offices in the big counties are simply not filing the cases. Dallas, Terrence, certainly, you know, Houston, Austin, these places, they're just they're not filing the marijuana cases anymore. 

Derk [00:04:13] So they just sort of, you know, unless the D.A. formally charges you, you you just never get charged, really. 

Aaron [00:04:20] So I guess we'll not go on the marijuana route because anything that gets into more of like legislation. But you feel like that's a like since you've been doing law for ten years. Obviously, more than 10 years, just, you know, an offer from 10 years. But you've seen I don't know. How many years have you been practicing? 

Derk [00:04:35] I just have since 98. OK. You know, it's twenty two years. Twenty two. 

Aaron [00:04:40] You know, just a few years. So it's gone quick. That being said. Has that legislature like has this changed or do you feel like legislation would potentially change in Texas? Like have we seen anything like this before where people just weren't being tried? 

Derk [00:04:55] Yeah, you are. You sort of aren't asking me to anticipate will marijuana become legal in Texas? 

Derk [00:05:01] If that's the question. 

Aaron [00:05:02] Well, I don't think that you would know, because just because it's like legislation, like it seems like a law usually are like maybe it's not tried as much and then something would pass through it. I don't know. We have to wait for the voters, but I don't know. 

Derk [00:05:14] Yeah, well, I feel like the the practical outcomes in misdemeanor marijuana cases and let me be clear, I'm talking about misdemeanor cases. If you get arrested with a felony amount or any sort of of of a THC oil, well, those are felonies. And they're going to figure a way to get it in front of a lab to to test it. But misdemeanor marijuana cases, I would say to you that the practical outcomes in these cases, at least in the larger counties, is actually ahead of the law, in my view. Meaning? Meaning? People aren't suffering a legal consequence. 

Derk [00:05:52] Often anymore. And even though it is on the books as illegal and you will be arrested on the spot. It's, you know, I feel like the the trend is toward legalization nationwide. And what we're seeing is it's still illegal, but people aren't getting convicted as much as they used to for it. 

Aaron [00:06:09] OK, so you without me asking a good question, you answered what I was trying to. Leaning towards, which was like your is the is the law or is this ahead of the law? Basically, like are humans trending towards that cause? It takes a while to make something. A law or not a law. Sure. 

Derk [00:06:23] I mean, in my view, on the state level, that's where this is headed. I think Texas honestly will be one of the last places to to to legalize it. But I mean, once you reach more than 50 percent of the population, that feels that it should be recreationally legal. I mean, I feel like it's a matter of time. I think in my lifetime, in your lifetime, it's going to be for most states, the federal. Law as it is a totally different kettle of fish. But as as a state law matter, you're seeing this patchwork around the country of outright league, outright legalization to outright Klint criminalization. I think ultimately we're going to see all states do that eventually. 

Christian [00:07:04] But when I go back to where you started, right. Sure. You say back in 98 when we actually started, how and why did you get involved with, you know, wanting to become a lawyer? Sure. 

Derk [00:07:17] I didn't think about it at all until college. I mean, I was probably 20, 21 years old. And just and it just sparked an interest, took a constitutional law class in college. And so this is fascinating and told my parents and they just couldn't even believe it. 

Derk [00:07:33] And they were so happy to hear I probably wouldn't be living in the basement if I became a lawyer and so know it. And it's it has even even to this day. 

Derk [00:07:42] Twenty two years later, I'm still interested in the law itself. Not so much the facts, but the law is has been always been very interesting to me. So, yeah, just I guess it just sort of came to me in college that one class. 

Derk [00:07:57] That's the one that's better. Oh, absolutely. 

Derk [00:07:59] Professor Auerbach, that's what I was gonna ask you. Do you remember the teacher, too? 

Aaron [00:08:03] Because that's usually like the thing that sparks is like, oh, yeah, I remember that teacher in that class. Yeah. Absolutely. Interesting. And so you're not from around here just so you're from like the northeast area, right? Yeah. I grew up in p.a. OK. And for those who don't know, a P.A. is Pennsylvania. And now he see move down to Dallas. Where did you. You obviously didn't start your law firm, right? He's moved here. So what do you do when you got to Dallas? So. 

Derk [00:08:28] Well, we moved here in 2004. I spent five years as a criminal prosecutor in Vermont. On the other side of the bar, OK. Prosecuting the crimes and then two more. 

Derk [00:08:38] Here I was a Colin County assistant district attorney and then started a law firm, you know, started a solo practice here, 2005 or 2006. 

Aaron [00:08:46] Awesome. 

Aaron [00:08:47] So how did you meet your now business partner? 

Derk [00:08:50] Jeremy and I were Jeremy Rosenthal's my business partner, my law partner. He and I were both assistant district attorneys in Collin County at the same time. 

Derk [00:08:57] And then both members of the defense bar at the same time. 

Aaron [00:08:59] So interesting. And so you like you said you were on the other side here and now you're out. You jump into that, you're like, hey, this some of these cases like that, we're trying these people seem unjust. So that's why you did it or what's. 

Derk [00:09:10] It's it's really the same law. OK. And it's just, you know, as a lawyer, I'm advocating for a position. And, you know, depending on who the client is, is what the position is. I think for me, you know, I'm a third generation person who's a small business owner going back to my granddad in the 50s. And so it always felt like the arc of my life in the arc of my career would be doing business for myself. I never envisioned myself as a career government lawyer. 

Aaron [00:09:37] OK. So that is you. That's actually a question that I. I'm curious. So what was your granddad doing then? 

Derk [00:09:42] So my grandfather was, I guess, back in the day. You know, right after World War Two, he was a hearing aid salesman. OK. And then his son, my dad became an audiologist. You know, phd audiologist. 

Derk [00:09:54] And and so is my sister. And so they that's that's all I've ever known growing up was. Was ears and hearing and and that sort of thing. But. You know, the science just didn't didn't really appeal to me, so I took another route. 

Aaron [00:10:10] So my class. Different. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know that. So yeah, I think it's. Well I think probably half the people that we talk to you, it's some kind of like family. Like they grew up with it like their parents or something. So you seen it. I would say like half of our guests. Otherwise it's more of like they were forced into it, not forced into it. But like we were like, yeah. Had to leave her for. I didn't want to do that. Yeah. And the other half are like my parents kind of put me down this path or I've just seen them over and over again like doing their business. 

Derk [00:10:41] Yeah. Now I could, I could see that. Now nobody nothing like that. Neither kid, neither my kids has expressed an interest in being a lawyer so. Well, not a lawyer yet. But I mean I like owning their own business. I'm not sure where that will head. You mentioned. I'm a senior in high school right now. 

Aaron [00:10:59] So yeah, I was gonna say he seems very entrepreneurial with a lot of issues. Yeah, you should tell them whatever story you'd like. I mean, he has a couple of entrepreneurial ventures, but I was just curious. 

Derk [00:11:12] Well, he works so well and he's been and has been privy to many of them. Let's see, he was only about 10. He wanted to extract scorpion venom. Yeah. Which apparently as there is, there's a market for that. Yeah. And he will end. It's it's quite lucrative. Yeah. Because it's dangerous I suppose. 

Derk [00:11:30] So know his mother vetoed the idea of having live scorpions up in his bedroom. He's a he's a well-known. He's a world renowned. What setting he built, he would build over and over a flame thing, a flame thrower. Bill? Yeah, yeah. 

Aaron [00:11:46] I have a video somewhere on my phone of like 15 or 20 foot flame, like crazy. Like so much so that it caught on fire. We had a third in the pool to make sure that it is an urn, something his middle school years. 

Derk [00:11:58] He spent most of his time in the garage building things, all of which could harm someone. So he's kind of grown up and moved on from that, thankfully. Especially for his mom's sake. Yeah. Stress. How? That's right. Aaron was there the day. It it didn't really exactly work out. We threw in the pool. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. 

Aaron [00:12:18] Okay. So sweet. Just kind of think it's talking about the family side. You well, your wife is also a lawyer as well. And she is part of the business with you. 

Derk [00:12:27] So she's always she works for the Social Security Administration. Okay. Before that, she was an assistant attorney general for the state of Texas. 

Derk [00:12:34] So, yeah, she's always you know, she's she's never been in private practice like me. Yeah. Yeah. 

Aaron [00:12:40] Is she the person you want to see in the Social Security part or Nazi? 

Derk [00:12:43] You would never see her. She writes legal opinions all day so that her paper. It's entirely reading and writing. 

Derk [00:12:51] Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's it. So not the trials. Not no. Nothing. No courts. Nothing like that. Just just legal opinions. 

Christian [00:12:58] It was a typical day for you. 

Derk [00:13:01] Court in the morning, meeting with existing clients or potential new clients in the afternoon. Unless I am in some sort of a contested hearing or a jury trial or a bench trial, in which case it just it just depends. 

Derk [00:13:15] I mean, I have been in trials that have taken three weeks or more because of the complexity of the case and the and the evidence and. You know, if something like that happens, then everything else just kind of gets gets shuffled along with the average day is just going to court in the morning and then afternoon in the office. 

Aaron [00:13:36] You know what time is caught. So what time is court then? 

Derk [00:13:39] Well, it's it's supposed to start at 8:30 and usually does it. But I'm glad you asked me that in case anybody's listening to you. Everything is set at 8:30. OK. If you're going to court on the criminal docket and you have eight clients. Well, guess what? They're all set at 8:30. There's only one of me. 

Derk [00:13:56] And so what we have is a rolling docket. And meaning it's not a situation. Obviously, a lawyer cannot be in eight places at once. It's you just sort of make the rounds and get it to everyone as quick as you can and try to let everybody know in advance. The way it works. So, yes, it's not like a. You know, calling your name or something like that. 

Aaron [00:14:19] So you guys you guys mainly practice. I mean, you're your offices in McKinney, Texas, but that's Collin County. Yeah. 

Derk [00:14:26] You ever take cases for Dallas County or how does Dallas and Denton occasionally Tarrant County. I would say most of my work here, 90 percent of my cases are in or in Collin County. So people are doing bad stuff and count on it. 

Derk [00:14:40] Yeah, they said there's enough. Well, I'll put it this way. There's eight of us. Yeah. You know, we're full time lawyers doing this work. 

Derk [00:14:51] And then and then a big chunk of it is also federal. The federal stuff. The federal stuff can be very interesting. It's a different it's a different type of practices. It usually the very different type of client than you might get. 

Derk [00:15:01] You know, here in the in the suburbs, what does it what does that mean? It's meaning, you know, the state, the state courts, the district attorney's office. They file cases that are brought to them by the local police agencies. The federal government picks and chooses what it wants to prosecute. It will only do so in very large significant cases, cases that they feel are very strong. 

Derk [00:15:24] And so those are the situations where you have usually multi defendant, mostly conspiracies, either, you know, White-Collar financial fraud or or or drug conspiracies or some other sort of situation where there's multiple people, lots of evidence, lengthy investigations, as opposed to just, you know, someone took shoes from coal or something like that. 

Aaron [00:15:50] Yeah, it's they can choose from calls just not for me, but for those who are listening. If you are a Christian, I don't know. 

Aaron [00:15:56] But if you go on with this, if you take some calls. Is that considered a misdemeanor or a felony? 

Derk [00:16:02] Well, I mean, unless they are extremely expensive, they should be it should be a misdemeanor. 

Derk [00:16:07] So it's by the price. It's by the price. A hundred of them, an alleged value between a hundred and 750 is a class B misdemeanor, 750 to twenty five hundred is a class a misdemeanor if they're ever in their shoes. A coal's worth more than that. I don't I don't I don't know. 

Derk [00:16:22] I don't know how you can. I mean, you can probably steal a felony amount of things from cold very quickly. 

Derk [00:16:28] But it's it's got to another one pair of shoes, you know? 

Aaron [00:16:31] Yeah. Interesting. 

Christian [00:16:34] So the funny thing is, like Kohl's is like one of those places where they actually have security, where their products don't equate to having security first. 

Derk [00:16:43] Christian. Right. I mean, I agree. 

Derk [00:16:45] And frankly, I think every third person in there is actually works for the store and is looking at you. 

Derk [00:16:50] Whether or not it is almost in it is almost an inside joke in in our office anyway in our business like that is Kohl's constantly. I don't know why Kohl's. 

Derk [00:17:02] Every every almost not everyone or almost every one, but I see a lot of theft cases from Coles. 

Aaron [00:17:09] Not maybe the guys at holes. Maybe that's why they have those guys there. It's because they're like, hey, look, we lost half a billion dollars last year because people steal it. 

Derk [00:17:19] It is really change the way I view other customers and Coles. So you walk around, looks like maybe you should sue if somebody is in the same aisle as me twice. That's gotta be that's gotta be an employee of goal. 

Aaron [00:17:32] They got it. We should call a lawyer, which actually is a good question. Like when should somebody call a defense attorney? 

Derk [00:17:39] I would. The obvious one is, you know, if you get arrested. Right. You know, you have a actual problem. Another time is if you if if you get the police calling you on the phone to come in for an interview or they want to talk to you or any situation like that should be a pretty glaring yellow light that you may have a legal problem. 

Aaron [00:18:00] So is the the stuff that they show. See, I'm going back to the only thing that I've never been into a courtroom or luckily behind the other side of the table where somebody is insured. 

Derk [00:18:09] Well, you're young. Yeah. 

Aaron [00:18:11] So give me five years. You know something? Make him up. 

Aaron [00:18:13] I want to do. Yes and no. Well, I don't know, but I like it. So if I say they're in, you're you're investigating me at this point. And I'm like, nope, I need to see my lawyer. They just have to stop everything as legitimate. Can they really. 

Derk [00:18:26] Yeah. If if you two different things. If you say. You know, I invoke my right to remain silent. OK. They are entitled. 

Derk [00:18:36] This isn't legal advice, but we're talking law. Yeah. The police are entitled to. I mean, they've got to respect that. 

Derk [00:18:42] But then they're entitled to come back to you and say, OK, look, let's you know, let's talk what they can. They can they can come back and try to get you to talk again. That's perfectly ethical. It's perfectly law. If, on the other hand, if you invoke the right to counsel and you say, I don't want to talk to you, I want to talk to my lawyer or I am not speaking to you to have a lawyer present, you've seen that on TV. If you watch any that it that is if you know, if you make an unequivocal, unequivocal request for a lawyer that is supposed to shut the process down. 

Derk [00:19:10] In other words, the end, the police understand they're trained in, you know, in the academy, that is you can't enter you can't go back at that point and try to talk the talk the suspect out of it. 

Derk [00:19:22] That just stops it real. That what you're saying? Well, it's good to know, but it can't be ambiguous. Well, do I need a lawyer? That won't do. 

Aaron [00:19:31] You've got to be firm statement that. Yes, exam. Ask them and say like, hey, is it better for me to ask for a lawyer now or not? Yeah, they can keep right on going in that situation. OK. So if since you can't necessarily give legal advice, I was just kind of was stating the law at that point. So. If I is we're on podcast. I'm curious. Now if I gave you a dollar, would you take it? Is it like $5? 

Aaron [00:19:51] I think somebody will hear whatever it is. 

Derk [00:19:53] Always we agree that I'm your lawyer and I'm your lawyer. I didn't take any money at all. Oh, yeah. Hey, see what a situation like that. I'm just like I'm Erin Pierson's lawyer forever. 

Aaron [00:20:05] How do you tell a JAG? Make sure to cut this clear. I need this for the future in Texas. There's always going to be. Call me anytime. The phones are answered 24/7. 

Aaron [00:20:14] Well, you know. Are you gonna give out your cell phone line or not? 

Aaron [00:20:18] I did give me five years. Do I do say. I said let me find years, in fact. Yes. 

Aaron [00:20:27] What's the. 

Aaron [00:20:29] Like the whenever somebody finds out you're a lawyer. Because I guess whenever somebody finds out, like where a marketer, like a marketing agency, they first go into like, hey, so how do I get these Facebook ads to work? 

Aaron [00:20:38] Or if we find out somebody is like something else or like the very first question is something that's related to the industry. When somebody finds out you're a lawyer and just happened to tell them, like wherever I am at Target or something. What's the first question there? 

Derk [00:20:51] The most common question that people ask you, one or two things not and it's fine. You know, it's no big deal. We're all like you said in your business, they ask you certain things right away that, you know. 

Derk [00:21:01] I often have someone who will present me with a complex factual scenario and what they want a legal opinion. And I'm. 

Derk [00:21:15] I'm very polite about it, I think I am, but it you know, sometimes it's like, well, that would take me I would have to sit and think that through for about three hours and then research the law and then give you a written opinion about the applicability of the law to the facts here. 

Derk [00:21:28] So, I mean, I just you know, I can't I can't do that. The other thing is that they'll ask me to, like, tell them some crazy story or something like that. Anyway, it's fine. It's human nature. I'm sure I do the same thing to people that are not lawyers. I'm sure I do the same thing when I when I bump into somebody who has a different job than me. So I'm not I'm not criticizing, but. Yeah, said you ask. That's exactly what happened down time, especially at the courthouse. Oh, really? 

Aaron [00:21:53] You like bumpiness? I mean. Hey. Oh, so you're a lawyer that's going to court forever. Zipless, Alphonsus, seriously? What am I on here? 

Derk [00:22:00] Yeah, that happens all the time. Stuff like. Oh my God. It's just it's impossible to answer that question. You know, like, well, you got a 50 50 shot. Especially since lawyers are liable for their legal advice. I can't just kind of give it on the fly to a stranger, you know? Yeah, but that guy's wrong, you know? 

Aaron [00:22:18] Yeah. I was gonna say, I don't want to know how much your liability insurance is because I'm sure it's quite a bit. Yeah, we just switched insurance. I was on top of my mind. Right now I'm like, oh, there's like like a roofing company. This is a complete side tangent. I was like, oh, yeah, ours is. I can't remember exactly what it was, but there was like on a hundred thousand dollars or something like that per year. I'm like, oh that's that's a lot of money to make sure that you don't destroy somebody's roof. And to me that's a lot of money for insurance. Yeah. Is is professional. So it's like a whole different level too. 

Derk [00:22:51] Right. Yeah. It's it's up there. At least I'm not an anesthesiologist or something. 

Aaron [00:22:56] Yeah. They make a lot of money but they get sued like crazy. Right. 

Christian [00:23:01] You talked about research in the law is usually, you know, when you watch shows and stuff, they always have all these tons and tons of books and. 

Christian [00:23:10] Sure. Guessing cases and things like that. Yeah. Do you still use that or is it more online where it's online? 

Derk [00:23:17] I mean, it's the same thing. Like usually you're looking at, you know, like, for example, you know, in Texas, you'd be looking at those long looking books at the Southwest reporter and all it is is a comic compilation of written appeals court decisions, one after the other after the other, and then they move on to the next volume. Now it's all it's all online. It's all at our fingertips. It's the same product, but you do not need giant libraries of books anymore. So if you're seeing those now, they're mostly for show. 

Aaron [00:23:46] So they get surge and literally say, like, what's what was this case in like? Well, it's like kind of like a on a Google, but like you can actually search within a document of Saydia. 

Derk [00:23:55] Yeah, it's that's actually not a bad way to put it. It's like it's like Google. And you can you can have it at your fingertips now instead of having to go to the library and look. Yeah. 

Aaron [00:24:04] And you're in 98. Obviously there was not that. You did have to use the book. So has that what do you prefer? 

Derk [00:24:10] Oh, it's so much better now. It is. It's incredible because. Because in the old days you would have to read the case and you'd say, OK, this is a statement of law. But is it still a valid statement of law? And then you would have to go to other books to find out if if a subsequent case overruled the case, you read and you'd have, you know, ninety two books on the table. 

Derk [00:24:28] Now, you would you'd read the case and you can click on a little button to see what new cases said about it. 

Derk [00:24:35] So it's you know, it what used to take hours and hours and hours doesn't take nearly as much time anymore. 

Christian [00:24:41] So, yeah. Oh, how has I guess that's one power technology that has changed your business. Is there anything else technology wise has changed anything? 

Derk [00:24:53] That's the big one, to be honest with you, because in this, you know, I don't know what it's like for you for free all in your business. But I mean, mine is always going to be I'm never going to be able to work from Montana. Right. I've got to be at the courthouse. I've got to I've got to visit clients. I've got to meet with human beings face to face. So, you know, other than the speed up of the technology with with regard to legal research, I think everything else is just like they did it in the 70s. You just you know, you need a conference room. You need you need face to face contact. You need to be here. 

Aaron [00:25:24] So it's like, yeah, I've seen it where or like heard of it anyway out of business. So I. True. But like like where a judge will come in and he'll literally be like virtual and can hear us hear a case or be presented a case and then make a ruling from that like that's is that happened it in here in Collin County. 

Derk [00:25:41] The the magistrate even as we call it, if you're arrested, you know, they bring you before a judge on video years, what you've been charged with. I'm setting the bond at $X. You know, these sorts of things. But. But I haven't seen judges on video here in the Collin County district or county courts at law. They've they're all sitting there in person. Now in the federal district courts, which, you know, the Eastern District of Texas goes from Sherman to the border of Louisiana to Beaumont. So occasionally one of, you know, the eastern district of Texas, the federal judges will appear by video. But that's that's the only thing I've seen there. 

Aaron [00:26:16] Right. Just logistically almost impossible. It's impossible. Wow. There was a question I was going to ask you. There was more focus on like that. The questions that you would get asked, but more so I want to get all of these these trivial questions that people are probably thinking of. I wanted to ask them. I'm sure that's one of the questions people ask and you can get back to other stuff. But so of the law shows online. I'm assuming that well, I'm assuming you've probably seen somebody you probably don't watch because you're like, I want to I want to do something else with my life besides just talk about law. Yeah. But are there any shows out there that are actually somewhat accurate? Because we all know that t._v.'s obviously I don't know. They make it so that they can sell it. So is there anything that's out there that you like us suits is close to our law and orders close to it like the desert. Anything that's somewhat accurate too. 

Derk [00:27:09] I would need to think on that one. I'd really. 

Derk [00:27:13] I don't know if I've ever mentioned this to you before, but I really hate those lawyers. I can't even I can't watch it. I don't like any shows that are about anybody's job. 

Derk [00:27:22] I don't care what doctors, you know. 

Derk [00:27:26] I don't like the office. I don't. Well, I mean, they're in an office. They have a job. I have a job. 

Derk [00:27:35] So, no, I. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any because I pretty much just I mean, if I see some guy in a courtroom, I'm like, turn on the channel as fast as I can. 

Aaron [00:27:46] Rebecca, the same might see your wife issue the same way, too. 

Derk [00:27:49] She, uh. Yeah. She kind of goes like we know neither of us watch any kind of legal dramas or movie. You know, I've never seen any of these Grisham movies or, you know. 

Christian [00:27:59] You know. What about documentaries, though? Yeah, I'm not really a documentary guy. 

Aaron [00:28:07] What about? Well, we talked about this before the Ted Bundy stuff. So like, that's it. I did watch that one. That was great. Yeah. I was just curious, like all of the there's one on Netflix is like how to catch a murder or something like that or what we want. Part of it was of it like a murder. But it was kind of interesting. So, yeah, maybe that's a maybe that's a question for everybody who's out here, who is a lawyer listening to this. Do you watch Law and Order? Do you watch those shows or do you try to stay away from them as much as possible? Yeah, that's kind of curious because with what I guess for us in our industry, it's like it's kind of the it's pretty accurate, I guess, for a lot of it could be accurate or any extent. 

Aaron [00:28:49] Like there's a there's a show called Silicon Valley that's kind of like executives thinking startups and stuff like that. It's like that's real. Like everywhere, like. Is it? Yeah. I mean, I mean some of this is faces bigger than others. 

Aaron [00:29:01] Obviously some of it was. 

Aaron [00:29:03] Yeah. Definitely out there. But it's like venture capitalists and people working at one desk and you know, getting enough food and staying up too late and working and just literally in front of computers for 24 hours and trying not to break something and building known servers like all that's like I other than their own ex- experience, it's pretty accurate. So I was curious. 

Derk [00:29:25] That's cool. 

Aaron [00:29:25] I have you see, I've seen silicon. I've seen some of that. Yeah, it's pretty good. We start watching. Is that all? That's why you named your dog Piper. So everybody, just so you know, question has a person has a dog named Piper and I think he did it from Pied Piper. A caveat. 

Christian [00:29:40] I forgot about that. The name of that. And then, um, at the start of Silicon Valley, it was Pied Piper. Interesting. 

Christian [00:29:46] I want to ask you said you guys have eight lawyers in your team and company. Sure. What do you think you attribute that success, growth of your business? 

Derk [00:29:57] Huh? 

Derk [00:29:58] Good question. I'd like to think that it is delivering good results for people day in and day out. I mean, I guess I'm just you know, I'm, you know, talking up the praises of our business. 

Derk [00:30:10] But I mean, that I mean, we've been we've been in business for 10 years doing this as Rosenthal and WADA's. 

Derk [00:30:15] And and I'd like to think we've been able to generate more and more clients that have justified bringing on more and more lawyers, because everybody there cares about clients, cares about what we're doing. And, you know, and just gets it done. I think a lot of our business comes from referrals. And that's really the best the best source. I mean, you can you can advertise all day. But but but a personal referral is really what gets it done. So I'd like to think that's why know. 

Aaron [00:30:47] So I guess in your case, it's a little bit different. So if somebody is referring, it's because like people who may have stolen from Kohl's are also friends who have stolen from Kohl's and they refer you to everybody seems to know somebody who knows somebody that's got some kind of a problem at some point. 

Derk [00:31:03] Yeah. Yeah. 

Derk [00:31:04] I get referrals from from every man or a friend in person that you'd be you'd be surprised because people talk I guess people do talk about like, hey, I got this coming up. 

Aaron [00:31:14] And he knows anybody who's, you know, which is more of, I guess like heard through the grapevine because not a lot of people wanted to go out and ask on Facebook like, hey, I just got pulled over for a DWI or whatever. 

Aaron [00:31:24] And, you know. Can you recommend it? I've never really said like, hey, can you recommend a good defense attorney? 

Derk [00:31:30] Yeah, I know. If you're a you know, if you're a surgeon, you're you're not going to want to you know, you're going to quiet want to quietly get a referral for that. People don't like to advertise that kind of problem. Yeah, sure. 

Aaron [00:31:40] So for for you in the courtroom, I guess, what how would you. 

Aaron [00:31:43] So I'm I know you personally, but I'm curious, what kind of personality would you say you have in the courtroom? Like what would people say about you in a courtroom? Because obviously, like you said, it's a way you guys take care of business. But also, like, how would your clients or other people from the outside like describe you in the courtroom? 

Derk [00:31:59] I'd like to think dogged persistence, but home, I am not a yeller. I'm not someone who gets angry in the courtroom. But I think. You know, after 22 years, there's almost no legal issue that's going to arise or type of case or something. I'm just I'm not surprised in the courtroom very often anymore. And so, you know, I'd like to think after all these years, I kind of know what I'm doing. And so, yeah, those that's the way I see myself. And I think I'd like to think others would see me the same way. I don't like the style of practice where people are hold themselves out, as, you know, sort of bomb throwers. And I just don't really think that gets anything done for your clients. I think you need to maintain credibility with with the judges, the court staff, the other lawyers. And, you know, in the long term, I think that gets things done better than than someone who's, you know, practicing a scorched earth type of practice. 

Aaron [00:33:03] So being in I guess there's two parts to this being in practice for that long. I mean, practicing law for that long anyway. You've obviously made friends or you've become really close acquaintances to a lot of people in the court system. So obviously, they can't necessarily help you. But it's good to know that, like there's a mutual respect on both sides that kind of plays in your favor. I don't know, obviously, that at all the law. 

Derk [00:33:24] But yeah, I think that's true. I think that's one misperception the general public has and maybe it's based on movies and TV. You know, we're you know, we all in the defense bar the prosecutors, the judges, the court staff, the people that work at the courthouse. We see each other five days a week, 365 days a year. And so we we do we have personal relationships based on friendship and respect that go back decades. And I think people envision lawyers as just sort of constantly fighting with each other in the courtroom. 

Derk [00:33:58] And that has to happen at times. But for the most part, we set it aside right afterward. 

Aaron [00:34:02] So, you know, like, yeah, we're we're a competing job now. We'll respect each other. Exactly. 

Christian [00:34:10] What do you enjoy most about what you do? 

Derk [00:34:14] You know, I think that you can really help some people out and and fix some problems in their lives. And I know we do. And I still to this day, that's been the most surprising thing to me since coming over as a prosecutor is how much I really enjoy helping somebody out of a situation. 

Derk [00:34:35] Yeah, I mean, I'm a guy, that's really what it boils down to. And to to know that you're bringing value to them and you're really helping them out. There's. I don't think that's ever going to get old to me. 

Derk [00:34:46] So, yeah. 

Aaron [00:34:47] Right. I think they made a bad decision and they're like, please, I just need a second chance and you're allowed like able to give that to. 

Derk [00:34:53] Sure. Yeah. Because there's I mean, there's situations, as you well know. I mean, you can get your life ruined. 

Aaron [00:34:59] Some of the stuff is actually very young. I don't know what the what the what the law is like. You know, sometimes you get tried as an adult and you're not an adult. So it's like, OK. Some of these kids could do something very bad. And it's like they try me as I'm 18, I'm 16 and now I'm in jail for 20 years. It's like, oh, I just oh, it's tough. 

Derk [00:35:17] It and everybody knows now that your years, you know, your brain isn't fully baked, so to speak, until you're like your early 20s, really. And, you know, not to say that people shouldn't be held accountable for their decisions, but you simply can't compare the 18 year old version of yourself to the 38 year old version of yourself. You know, some dumb things when they're young. Everybody knows that if even if you look at the statistics. People age out. I mean, there's very few people after their late 40s getting involved in any sort of of criminality. Really? Really. They kind of age out of it. 

Aaron [00:35:51] It's interesting. Yeah, I was going to say I'm just judging myself from like 20 in college too now. 

Christian [00:35:57] Yeah, it's a huge contrast. Yeah. 

Aaron [00:36:01] Right. 

Aaron [00:36:01] Like we would have you know, if we were on spring break this weekend, it's like we would have probably made a stupid decision. It's like now it's like should we not jump off this ledge or should we like. I don't know. Well you probably know. 

Derk [00:36:14] It's like there's a bit of what's that old saying there? 

Derk [00:36:17] But for the grace of God, go I in this business for sure. Some of these some of these things, I'm like. 

Aaron [00:36:25] Is there any particular so not to go to the to the people who ask the question. But is there a particular case that, like comes to mind, like just throughout your tenure? Doesn't matter on each side or one side or the other. It just kind of still sticks with you, whether it's good or bad or just a particular situation that you're like, wow, I wish that this would have happened or I wish it didn't happen to this kind of person. 

Derk [00:36:50] To many, I think well, I think my mind was going somewhere else with that. But what did. I'm sorry, could you say it again? Because I thought you were going one way and then you won another. Yeah. 

Aaron [00:36:58] I'm just thinking. Probably the easiest way to ask that is what is like your most memorable case? 

Derk [00:37:05] Well. There's a lot. 

Derk [00:37:12] I'll give me just a couple of examples. Yeah. 

Derk [00:37:17] You know, I back in the day back in Vermont as as a prosecutor, feeling really happy, too. You know, I'm this very difficult person. I prosecuted for for five years in a county with maybe 50000 thousand people total. 

Derk [00:37:34] And so this particular person was just a well-known if I'm calling him a difficult guy, guy sexually assaulted a child and then threatened the child. And putting him in prison was was made me happy. I. Because even during the trial, he was he was in trying to intimidate the child, trying to intimidate me, trying to intimidate everybody. It was a tough to you. I won't forget that guy. And I don't know why that one sticks out for me, because that describes a lot of people that I prosecuted over the years, that that one in particular sticks with me. I know that early on, too. Right. And I was probably in my late 20s at the time. And then another murder case I prosecuted at that time. I don't know why that wouldn't stick with me so much because it's so inexplicable. A man and a woman, they're married and wonderful marriage. By all accounts. Kids loved them. And he just he just there's really, you know, I'm going to go to my grave never knowing what happened. But he just shot her. He shot her with a shotgun and then lit the house on fire. 

Derk [00:38:31] And I'll never understand that. That's just another one that sticks with me. Maybe those stick with me because. I was you know, I was all like twenty seven, twenty eight getting involved in the business, prosecuting these cases. 

Derk [00:38:48] Yeah, those those those who leap out at me. So. And it's funny because they're both from like 20 years ago at this point. 

Aaron [00:38:53] Yeah, well that's I was wondering if there was a connection from that because like it was a URL like if you'd like you said you've seen a bunch since then, but it was like those first ones kind of like formed your. 

Derk [00:39:02] Maybe that's what it was. Yeah, that could be it. I mean I just recall being early on with I would hear the things people would say to me about what went on. I would just about fall on the floor. 

Derk [00:39:12] And now I mean I could I could eat my Weese and listen to that story, you know? 

Aaron [00:39:17] Yeah. I won't tell the story that happened last week, but we were all to are we were all together. I even told our story to Christian about a friend of ours was telling something that was going on here in Dallas. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, I almost had to stop running. The story was like, so sad and so bad. And Dirk's like, unfortunately, I've heard this, you know, an hour ago or like, you know, yesterday, like this happens so often. Yeah. It's kind of like you just don't know if you can become immune to it. It's just more of like a for your job. You have to be able to be even keel for it because I would be way too emotional like higher ed. I can't take this case. I can't do this. 

Derk [00:39:52] Yeah, I could. I respect that. I mean, I could see it's not this isn't for everybody for sure. It's you know, but it's about the process for me. So but yeah. Anyway those those are those are two that leap to mind. I'll come up with like ten more later and jump in please. 

Aaron [00:40:06] Please stop us at any point I feel like oh this one you should I should I should I elevons that up with a fun one or something. Oh sorry to bring you down guys. So this can be fun. If you couldn't be a lawyer anymore, what would you be doing. 

Aaron [00:40:17] I mean you have to make money. So let's just assume you're not independently wealthy. What would you what would you be doing? Well, what I'd be doing. 

Derk [00:40:26] Lord, I can I just can I run in mountain bike all day and we'll make a living. 

Derk [00:40:33] I know. 

Derk [00:40:34] Yeah. What would I be doing if I wasn't? You know, honestly, I think that I would be. I'd love. 

Derk [00:40:41] Government and politics and current events in history and I and I could just be I'd be so happy, I think, if I was like the high school history teacher and then every day after school I put my whistle on. I became the track coach and I can totally see any kind of teaching in government, class or history class and coaching some kind of high school sport like track and cross-country. I'd be a blast, maybe a second career. 

Aaron [00:41:06] Yeah. Yeah. Is your kids are online a couple of years when I have to pay for all this. Yeah. 

Derk [00:41:11] Yeah. 

Aaron [00:41:13] I think I have a history teacher. Probably doesn't make as much. So are you. Well, I guess I don't know what the law is here in Texas, but like since you already have a degree, obviously you have masters at that point. You just have to take like a another course and you could be a history teacher pretty easily. 

Aaron [00:41:28] I would assume I would think I could get. 

Derk [00:41:31] Switched over like a sort of certification. 

Aaron [00:41:35] That's cool. And, you know, one or two things about running so you could probably coach. 

Derk [00:41:39] I could fake my way through it. I'll get the couch to 5K, guys tracking your calories, which you just had us run. 

Aaron [00:41:49] Three hundred meters sprints for these five KS and that's all we've done all week. 

Aaron [00:41:53] I don't feel like I'm prepared some of the volumes. Not quite there coach. Yeah. 

Aaron [00:41:57] Yeah. Not cool. I assumed that that would probably be something around the route that you would go, but that's. That's interesting. Yeah. History teacher. 

Derk [00:42:08] Yes. Like history, government, politics. Where anything up there, as long as you keep me out of the math classroom, I ought to be all right. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I don't you know either. No, no, no. 

Aaron [00:42:20] That just doesn't sound very fun to me. No. Seating sounds great. I think teaching sounds fine, but going up and be like. And plus, there's like you have kids now who are like in the school or the like the level school where they teach you like this is how you do multiplication now. It's like, oh, this is not the same way I did multiplication or division. Maybe there's a different but I know that they're teaching kids like. All right. And I don't even know how to do it that you do it. But it's like, oh, right. Multiply these four numbers. You just leapfrog this one and you add this one and then you divide and that gives you the number. So they just do more steps than what they need to use. Oh, yeah. I just don't understand their new way of math. So, Mike. Okay. Plus, they always told us like, oh, yeah, you won't be able to have this at your fingertips. So I'm like I collaterally. Yeah. 

Aaron [00:43:02] Oh yeah. No problem. I got a calculator right here, so I don't need to figure that. 

Aaron [00:43:07] Yeah. They're not math in your head as you do though. So what is it? Well actually I guess there's two questions to this because there are this out of the question because we're kind of we're recording this in March of twenty twenty. And as most people know, there's a virus going around. And so that's kind of affecting some businesses. So my first question is how how is or have you felt any effects from the virus and like the coronavirus or what is it covered 19 or whatever. You know, the disease. The disease. Yeah. So has that affected your time, years, your business at all? 

Derk [00:43:47] The business? Not yet. But it may very soon into the courts as of Friday afternoon in Collin County are revamping how things are gonna be done going forward. They are not going to begin conducting anything that's not a quote unquote, non essential event. And in my business, the only event that's going to be deemed essential right now is going to be a trial for someone who is in jail because they have no bond or can't make bond. 

Derk [00:44:16] So in other words, an incarcerated defendant who's waiting a trial that would be considered essential event and that will take place any sort of a bond reduction hearing or, you know, basically anything that's going to resolve a case for a person who is who is detained because they can't make bail. 

Derk [00:44:34] Otherwise, you know, the courts are trying to keep as few people from coming up there as possible. So I'm anticipating that that could start to influence and trickle down into the the new cases coming in. If people don't feel a particular urgency or nothing is set or nothing's happening, then they may not want to come in the other way. It may affect it is that, you know, the Collin County sheriff has is really asked a lot of the local police agencies to really consider not arresting, making a custodial arrest and a lot of cases and just considering issuing a citation to come to court instead. And so that that may in turn influence things as well. Up until now. The instinct has been just to do a custodial arrest for almost everything above a classy take them to the county jail. Get on set. Let the bond out. I'll be curious to see how this corona virus. 

Derk [00:45:36] Issue for lack of a better term. 

Derk [00:45:38] You know, if it has any lasting consequences for the for our business, like will we see going forward that that becomes a permanent feature of the system where less people are asked to come to court, less people are arrested as opposed to citations? I don't know yet, but that. But but a long answer to a short question right now. Those are the ways it's going to affect the business. 

Derk [00:45:59] I would I would think very soon if there's anything that could influence the way that the system works as a whole. It's kind of talking about like I've seen this on Facebook. 

Christian [00:46:09] So it's where? Where? 

Christian [00:46:12] Yeah. Companies are telling people to work from home and all the sudden. Yeah. It's actually working. So it's like. Yeah the probally asking their sons like OK do we actually need these buildings in these offices and all this stuff. Right when we can actually do the same work or even better even better work. 

Derk [00:46:27] I agree. No, that's that's exactly what I'm saying. I think that six months, if this goes on for six months and everybody gets used to doing it this way and then we go, we'll wait. 

Derk [00:46:36] So why do you why do we have to go back to do it the other way? I mean, I don't know. I'm not in charge of these things, but it's certainly crossed my mind that it may that it may have had lasting effects for sure. 

Aaron [00:46:46] I was gonna say one of the most popular articles I got on the Internet right now is like how to make the best user, like how to get yourself in that quote unquote zone to be productive at work at home, because there's just tons of articles out there. And people like the distraction of a huge distraction over here and they don't know how to work from home. So it's like those are blogs are just blowing. 

Derk [00:47:05] You have a mini basketball hoop or nose at home. 

Aaron [00:47:08] I hope I hope that you. Yeah, it does help you pray. You talked to the Zen zone. 

Aaron [00:47:14] Yeah. It's like every time you mark something off of your list, you're able to show. 

Aaron [00:47:18] I say shoot. Yeah. You get a chance. It's an opportunity. You have the opportunity to shoot. 

Christian [00:47:23] I talked to my brother yesterday and he works for Goldman Sachs in Manhattan. And he said that they divided the whole company into two pods. And it's basically 50 percent of the people go this week. And the other 50 percent were from home. And then they interchange on every other week. Interesting. So they're doing the social distancing by just kind of having the whole building and having employees, you know? Yeah. Go to the office and the other half work from home. So he was asking me about these desk because he wants to get one for him for that. 

Derk [00:47:56] I like this. I can stand up at what we're at our business. We're set up to where we have a contingency plan we've developed. We haven't triggered it yet, but we're set up to start doing. 

Derk [00:48:06] There's thirteen people in that work there and we're set up to do work from home. We may start doing phone consultations for four new potential clients and existing clients. So we haven't pulled the trigger on that yet. 

Derk [00:48:19] But depending on who knows what's gonna happen. Yeah, know there's going to be a parallel. 

Aaron [00:48:24] Hopefully everybody keeps saying like two weeks because this is like whatever is going on. So they kind of address it then. But we'll see. So hopefully when people are listening to this are like, ha, I mean, skip forward on the podcast. I'm done here about the coronavirus because it was a nothing. Let's hope that. Yes. Let's hope so. Pinning this doesn't last another six months. What's on the horizon for for the law firm. For twenty. Twenty four. 

Derk [00:48:48] Twenty, twenty. 

Derk [00:48:55] We may. 

Derk [00:48:57] Moving into larger digs at some point, which we need. We keep growing and growing. I don't know if that'll be twenty, twenty or twenty, twenty one, but we're moving into larger digs and otherwise said I think we're going to we're we're pretty happy with it with with the size and growth of the firm right now. 

Derk [00:49:12] I don't think we're looking to expand any lawyers right now or any additional staff. 

Derk [00:49:18] But so yeah, the part apart from who I guess just kind of keep keep doing. 

Aaron [00:49:21] We're doing nice and currently is. Well you start out with just you and your partner. Are you guys do you guys have any other partners now or. 

Derk [00:49:30] We do. Jeremy, Jeremy and I started it. Then another partner is Bo Calaboose and and the other partner is Kyle Terrian. So there's four of us at the office that are that are partners that work. 

Aaron [00:49:42] Yeah. I was going to say, like, how does one become? How does one become partner? 

Derk [00:49:45] It's cool. I mean, you'd sort of get down and Neil and other side of you advantage. Yes. And then you're stuck forever. So kind of like the mafia. So. Yeah, makes sense. 

Derk [00:49:59] Yeah. Now we just said after after a number years we just decide their partners and that's that. 

Aaron [00:50:04] What's the what's the benefit of becoming a partner like your name goes. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Okay. 

Aaron [00:50:09] And it's like Prestes basic we're sure within. Yeah. With it within the organization I suppose. And and you know and some people to for some clients I suppose that's probably an important thing. Now that I'm old I've noticed people ask me now and they didn't used to ask me this 15 years ago. They will now ask me. Will you personally represent me or are you going to give the file to a younger guy? 

Aaron [00:50:29] Yeah. So, you know, that's. Yeah, that's very true. I mean, you have to I saw among, you know, twenty two years of experience this eh. It looks like he just. Uriel join your firm. Am I getting my guy or my getting you. It's I mean it's. Valid question. Yeah, I mean, like you said, so. 

Derk [00:50:45] So clearly that sort of thing crosses people's mind. So I think being a partner in the firm, as you know, is helpful in that in that respect. 

Aaron [00:50:52] So doing some research before we jump into some some different questions, what is and I know you've been us like part of this super lawyer. Like they they vote a certain percentage of people, which is very small. What do they say? Less than 5 percent of people become a super lawyer. And even that since 2014 through 2019 at this point. Yep. What is that? And why did you like. What's the how do you become one or what? 

Derk [00:51:17] I'd say it's it's a it's a peer review system. And somebody's somebody's got to you know, there's a certain number. I get the questionnaire every year and it asks for names and why and what style of practice and what practice they're involved in. And so there's got to be a preponderance of your peers that think it's worthwhile to to vote for you. That's that's pretty much it. 

Derk [00:51:38] And then there isn't. I mean, and that's apart from that. It's just it's the distinction of saying that. 

Derk [00:51:45] But there's nothing like that in a unique it's no obligations or you're not like it doesn't add anything like board certification. I'm board certified. That adds obligations going forward to my life, like additional continuing education and so forth. But but but a super lawyer doesn't do that. It's just a distinction based on pure voting. 

Aaron [00:52:05] Okay. So what is so someways don't have to be board certified and some do. 

Derk [00:52:08] Yeah, you don't have to be at all. It's just it's just in 2011 I made the decision to sit for the exam and the exam is like a it's like another bar exam, but it's just in your area, like the bar exam covers property and contracts. 

Derk [00:52:24] And this is this was I took the criminal law exam in two thousand eleven. 

Aaron [00:52:29] So once you ask once you're you're good, you're good at continuing and you continue the education and you have to have you know, you have to demonstrate that you're actually still a lawyer in that field. So you've got to demonstrate that you have a certain number of hearings and trials and so forth like that. 

Derk [00:52:44] Yeah. And pay and pay the fee. 

Aaron [00:52:47] Yeah. Somebody's gonna get this, by the way. 

Aaron [00:52:51] We're gonna pay annually for this forever. And then the last thing I saw too, I did not realize this because I didn't see I saw through the chamber. But I know you guys were part of the McKinney Chamber. You are part of the McKinney Chamber. But you guys also got voted off firm in McKinney. 

Derk [00:53:09] Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. Like, I get I get informed of these things. You've met Heidi who are. Yeah, she is. 

Derk [00:53:16] She she keeps me up on these things. So. Yeah. Now we were we were so honored for that because McKinney is our home so. Right. Yeah. I mean Jeremy both lived there and you know, kids go to school. So anyway, we're we're thrilled that people thought enough of us to to vote for us. 

Aaron [00:53:32] That's very cool. And it's yeah it has to come from the public. So, you know, the people who are voting are like, hey, this guy helped me out on a boat ramp. 

Derk [00:53:40] And because it's anonymous, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. 

Derk [00:53:48] Cause I don't know what it's like for you guys. Like you guys probably get a lot of good Google reviews. People are less inclined you might imagine to they could be thrilled with you but. Yeah, but you're getting a review. But you know, the whole point is to get the case dismissed and expunge. They don't really want to put their name out there to say something. So some people don't mind, though. 

Aaron [00:54:07] Yeah. And like, well, he got me out of a ticket and I'm like, oh, thanks for him, you know? Well, I was on trial for, you know, six months and I saved my life. Like, well, okay. Now, when the first thing comes up, when we Google your name is that you were contacting a defense attorney and you try to get this half-Irish, because if I get a six month trial, I will become a history teacher. 

Derk [00:54:27] Three weeks is the longest I've ever been in. Really have a six month trial. Yeah. 

Aaron [00:54:31] So that's like giving you the of or or even not even that. 

Derk [00:54:35] Yeah. No, that's. Yeah. The longest trials ever in was it was a three week federal drug conspiracy and there were nine co-defendants on trial at once and that's every day meeting in court. 

Derk [00:54:45] Eight to six every day. And you know I just now I can see it just like hundreds of exhibits and dozens of witnesses. 

Derk [00:54:55] Wow. Keep me on my toes because I have to pay attention. Sitting still, paying attention. You know, like an eight year old again. 

Aaron [00:55:02] Yeah. For three weeks. Every day. Oh, man. I don't know if you had any other questions specific to the offer. I want to ask some more. We're gonna get you out of the light now. This is just more of a this is just more some fun, some fun stuff that we're just curious. All right. So we need it now so you can let us know. We'll edit this part out of out if you're if you're not able to answer these questions. 

Christian [00:55:30] He has three weeks of stashes of limitations, has run on most of my time. 

Aaron [00:55:37] So we ask this question and it's interesting because everybody. Very. It's actually it's kind of a hard question. But everyone has different answers and they're always pretty. I know they're very. Each spectrum, I guess there's that. There's a wide range, a spectrum, so. All right. Let me read verbatim here. What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months or recent memory? Doesn't have to be related to. 

Derk [00:56:09] What purchase of something less than 100 bucks is made the most impact in my life? 

Aaron [00:56:19] This is usually the response we can. Don't worry, we played you up and you file your. 

Derk [00:56:27] So my wife bought this man and we we went to a place called the Chicken Kohl's with the chicken babes. 

Christian [00:56:36] Now Chick-Fil-A or its Newell's length. Now it's it's like above that. 

Derk [00:56:45] Anyway, it's nothing but chicken waffles. I tell you, I like you. I think you get there. On the tollway, Tolin Frankfort. 

Aaron [00:56:52] Oh, no. You take whistle breeches. Whistle breeches. Oh, my gosh. It's so good. 

Derk [00:56:55] We're serving this IPA called Lone Star Rose. OK. And I had one and I said, oh, wow, this is great. This is delicious. Only when, you know, if you see this out where you get one. And so she bought one of these Lone Star Rose six packs for me. 

Derk [00:57:09] And I think it probably was close to a hundred dollars and it was life-altering. You know, it's I I will never I will never be satisfied with a different kind of beer. Now, that was so wonderful. Lonestar Rose. 

Derk [00:57:19] They you know, they owe you something. I'm not a paid into good stuff. I am joking because I can't. I cannot take it. Don't. You know, the new fosset that we got for the kitchen. But that was a whole lot more than that. Now it's leaking inside. Oh, it was brutal. 

Derk [00:57:38] Yeah. I'm sorry. Because, you know, shoes. You know, she was right, exactly. That's 100 bucks. I'll would be that. We may go, too. I was gonna say running warehouses like even then, like it's still gonna be like this. Well, I fell flat on that line. Sorry. It's okay. Now we know that a good IPA. Yeah, I do love Whistler, which is just as a side note. Did you go? Yeah. Oh, it's so good. 

Derk [00:58:00] There's nothing. I mean shops like the one shops that legacy too. I think there is. I don't know. It's so element. I will. And that's it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. 

Derk [00:58:09] So. Yeah. Christian you load they get the whole pain. You. 

Derk [00:58:13] Maple sirup. If you want. They get all kinds of sources. I didn't know. I got my new maple sirup. They bring out a bunch of sources. 

Aaron [00:58:21] Yeah, so Manchus doesn't use I've been hearing this like waffles I get, you know. 

Aaron [00:58:29] All right. Well, we're gonna give you some time. Maybe you come back to that one because it's a tough question for a reason. All right. All right. Know, that's a reason why I didn't prepare. 

Derk [00:58:36] I look at my bank statement. It's like, well, I just paid for my kids college tuition. Thankfully. Hopefully there'll be some money there. We see. Yeah. It's tough timing. Not a good time to be looking at the bank. 

Aaron [00:58:54] All right. So I guess in the last five years, what's a new belief, behavior or habit that's improved your life? You're meant to be tough questions. 

Derk [00:59:10] I don't think I've changed my beliefs at all in the last five years, which, you know, what is is is is a new behavior in the last five years that I feel at times when I'm incorporating it, property has been very helpful. Is the mountain biking really enough? Yeah. Nothing fancy. But I mean, I feel like that's just a totally different robock power system. It's if it's just anybody watching this. I'm a runner. I met Erin through running. So this is kind of like. 

Derk [00:59:35] And so it it has really, I think, enhanced. And at times it goes months without doing it. But when I'm doing that regularly, I feel like it really enhances the running. So that's probably about it. And it's is it more fun for you? I like I mean, I will always be a runner. That is that is my love. That is my first thing. But but this is a nice. 

Derk [00:59:59] Ancillary things that supplement the running. I'll never be a mountain bike guy, a gear guy. You know, tools and grease and that stuff, but I'd really I really do enjoy it. And it it works a whole different system. But I'll tell you what, if you're you know, I don't know who else you have on the show or whatever, but. I make a joke like when you're in your late forties, like a decade can go by and absolutely nothing changes in your life. So in the last five years, I mean, I'm sitting in the same spot on the couch. 

Derk [01:00:27] So I don't have anything new behavior or belief. You know, I go I got a bike, you know? Yeah. 

Derk [01:00:36] Now there's what. Yeah. Well you need to get. Yeah, you should. 

Aaron [01:00:40] And. Yeah. Are you talking about that. Wow. I know. Well I was actually talking to one of our project manager here Daniel. He saying that like duration bike Martin. They're just like, hey look, there's a bunch people buying bikes right now and then they don't do anything with them and they just leave them their house and they put them on Facebook marketplace and they sell them for, you know, two or three hundred dollars when they're a hundred thousand dollar bikes because they're like, I want to get a mountain bike. And then they're like, this is work so they don't do anything. So he's been wanting to get a bike for a while and he told me about that last week. Like maybe a good place to go to check it out. 

Derk [01:01:09] That's right. I'm on my way. There were no I was at Gitari Richardson. Yeah. 

Derk [01:01:14] They well they treat him so well up there. Yeah. No. Absolutely. And they have one kid, you know, probably just a couple of miles from my house. 

Aaron [01:01:24] So you get around bike. Do you have a team. Yeah. There, you know there's a lot of trails, short showers, great. Erwin's great. Erwin's up in McKinney and Nocera's like grapevine or was that. 

Derk [01:01:38] It's yeah it's basically the north side of Grapevine Lake and there's like you could do like 20. 

Derk [01:01:42] Yeah. 

Derk [01:01:42] They're easy. You can probably go you could probably do a marathon there, you know if you were running the full the full thing. Yeah. But yeah I mean as we're talking I started I you know, just like trying to sit here and think, well, you know, behavior belief changes. No, there really is a man. I'm sorry to let you down in these questions. I mean, literally like every day after dinner, I turn on the light, the hallway, and then, you know, this is my routine. 

Derk [01:02:05] Foods for lunch every day. Nothing changes. So. Well, how did how did you get started with running? I guess that's. So I was I ran when I was a young person and fine young. Like high school. Yeah. I mean, I was a high school cross-country runner and then just kind of got away from it for years. 

Derk [01:02:23] And then I probably didn't get back into racing. So I was in my mid thirties and I think it was just I mean, you know, guys know how it is. You know, the college jobs, the wife, the kids, babies, the mortgage, you know. And then next thing you know, you're 35 and in. Well, I'm not quite as quick as I used to be. And I'm really, you know, like to kind of get back into something. I think that was part one. Part two is we lived for ten years in Vermont before we moved here. And the lifestyle there kept me moving. I mean, it was hiking and skiing and cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter. 

Derk [01:02:56] And I just felt like I was constantly active. And then three years after moving here, it was like I didn't have any of that stuff. I mean, I was just like, kind of. 

Derk [01:03:08] Looking. Looking for something to do, really to kind of get get moving again. So. 

Aaron [01:03:14] Was there a particular was there a particular, I guess, this going a little bit deeper? Was there a particular moment? They were like, all right. I saw this running club because I know you were part of Luke's was that wakes up from that which is a local running company or kind of vish still kinda around the area. Like, did you do see them one day or night? Let me look them up and let me go join them. Or do you just like. All right. I need you something. I'm gonna go buy some shoes and go up by myself. 

Derk [01:03:37] Yeah. It was the latter. I just started running by myself. And then I started I started running with these guys, the trails of Frisco over and over in Frisco. 

Derk [01:03:46] I don't know how and if you know any of those guys and then and then kind of started hanging around. Looks like 2000, 2010, 2011, so. Okay. Yeah. No, it started as. Well, let's just go. 

Derk [01:03:57] Kind of start moving the body again and then you know how I'm always gonna need something to kind of like compete. And so it very quickly. I just wanted a race. And that's really what keeps. I don't about you, but that really is what keeps me in it. 

Aaron [01:04:08] Yeah. Right. Well, Dirk is very modest, but he's a very quick runner. 

Aaron [01:04:13] But as I say, I'll go for an old asterisks next year. 

Aaron [01:04:19] No, I think that's that's like I mean, we just had to go out and we're like, oh, let's run this amount of miles per week just for fun. Like some people are like, oh, you just go out. And it's like to a to a certain extent, yes. But like there's a purpose behind it to do something, right? 

Derk [01:04:33] Exactly. It's all just training for something. Some people that the plane or running club that we cannot convince to race. So. Which I don't understand. Yes. 

Aaron [01:04:39] That are also very quick. Very quick. Yeah. I like not. I think I'll just run my five miles and just go back home. 

Aaron [01:04:46] But you're you're kind of fat like you should you should see where you're talking about you. 

Aaron [01:04:53] We're talking about those other people. This is your bike. Here it is, Zerkin. 

Aaron [01:05:01] Hey, so Christian mainly goes to the gym now, too. So I'm curious kind of to keep looking like your bodyguard over there. 

Aaron [01:05:07] I can tell you. Yeah. You can see. 22's. 

Aaron [01:05:11] Is that the same thing for you to like you want compete or you're just as your goal for like lifting. And I still lift, but not to the extent like you do. But are you trying to think of like like I'm trying to lose a certain amount of weight. I'm trying to gain a certain amount of muscle. And that's what keeps you motivated, I think, for right now. 

Christian [01:05:28] Yeah. But I do feel that a lot of people fall into that. Oh, you need to compete or do something with it. Right now, it's like you you get to a certain point and you're like, oh, yeah, I have this great body and what do I do with it, you know? So I think to some extent, yeah. I think down the road I could see myself on like CrossFit games or something. Yeah. I don't think I've ever done TV stuff. I don't think I'll ever do that. 

Christian [01:05:50] But because I mean, just like you like I'm highly competitive. I want to be able to do that and prove myself. 

Derk [01:05:57] I guess there's like a Spartan type things appeal to you at all with the fire and the mode and the things you're hearing things. Yeah. Old moderate without us. Yeah. Yeah. 

Aaron [01:06:09] I mean, I've thought about doing it. Have you ever done a Tough Mudder? I've never done anything like that. I'm always afraid. I'm like, I'm I'm I go do this stupid thing and I'm like, I'm gonna hurt myself to actually do something that I like. Like, always afraid of that. 

Aaron [01:06:21] Like, I think would be cool to do something like that. But I'm just like, oh, yeah, I can be me jumping over this wall here is like breaking ankle and it's like now I run like it. I don't know. I can't say that a 20 minute mile. Let's just go. Extreme, extreme. It's like basically walking because my ankles now, you know. Oh yeah. No, that would be that would be bad. Devastating at that point. Like yay, we all did it. But I mean I kind of want to do it just to see if it's fine. But I think it's cool. You can like do it as a team or whatever kind of competitive that way. 

Derk [01:06:52] We didn't just for those of you that don't know. And he can probably run for miles in 20 minutes. 

Derk [01:06:55] So, you know, he's always called me modest. He's the one modest. 

Aaron [01:07:01] That's cool bike. All right. So right now, it's raining outside of you guys. Can't tell from the cameras. So we need to get the trails to dry up a little bit before we can actually take a bike out there. And I've got a few things for a baby now that could equal a very nice sound bike, so. 

Aaron [01:07:18] Well, I'm up for that. This is true. Yeah. You may have missed your window. 

Aaron [01:07:22] Yeah, well, more so. I just need stored at your house because Brianna told me, like, what are you going to store this bike? 

Derk [01:07:27] Oh yeah. There's plenty of room. My garage. There we go. Yeah. You know, you seriously could. But I mean, interview I guess it be hard to get to even really think, hey, give me a kidney or something. 

Aaron [01:07:36] All right. You guys here, I heard you hear him parking in his house. All right. So. I don't know. This is the answer, the question is. I will preface it all. Let's just say what's something that you think that you've failed at? 

Aaron [01:07:54] It doesn't have to be law does not mean thing was something. 

Derk [01:08:02] I feel maybe I've just let me think, maybe you have just abandoned everything too quickly. That wasn't I wasn't any good. You see, I feel. 

Aaron [01:08:15] Another way to ask it is like what you've learned the most from. Because you didn't succeed right away to so. 

Derk [01:08:22] I was in I was a terrible soldier. I was. I hated that. I guess I maybe if there's a failure. Did you know I served in the heat in the uniform and these guys. 

Derk [01:08:32] Yeah, I was. I was horrible. I was terrible. I'm trying to say that wasn't really a failure. I mean, you really have to do much except show up and do what you're told. What I feel at Aaron, these are hard. I don't know. Maybe. What do I feel that it is our question. 

Christian [01:08:46] You probably like this are going to be fun questions. I can't. We'll get to some more fun ones. Yeah. Is this supposed to be. Yeah. Thought provoking. That's good. 

Derk [01:08:54] But I can't cook. Got to leave on a lighter note. 

Derk [01:08:56] Yeah. I mean, I don't think you do. Well, I wasn't. And I feel like he cooks for us. I like I'm. Yeah. It's fine. That's true. I did it cooks. I ruined your pant like you and showed us to your pants. I ran your parents pain and I still need to pay you. You did. Remember that nonstick pan guarino was over? Yeah. I forgot I was having like three in the morning trying to clean that pan. 

Derk [01:09:14] Oh, my God, that's funny. 

Derk [01:09:16] Yeah, I think I think I've forgiven forgotten you play surfaces. All right. Well, I guess we'll never see. 

Aaron [01:09:27] Interesting wasn't to say I think that's a that the appellate. Now, anyway, a narrow I have a feeling, yeah, I probably wasn't the best at that. 

Derk [01:09:36] I just didn't enjoy it. I got to choose. My enlistment expired. I got twenty three years right out of here. Four years. You've got to do six in the Army Reserve. 

Derk [01:09:45] About a year was spent of that on active duty. But then. Yeah. So I was like almost 17 or almost 18. Almost 24. 

Aaron [01:09:52] And you you were like, you're not drafted. Obviously, the irrelevant a draft that you elected to go, right? Yeah. What made you do that? 

Derk [01:09:59] Oh, man. Just when you went to your parents. I was a young. No, no, no. It wasn't like that. You know, us as a young man had I want to go in. 

Derk [01:10:09] That's testosterone or I want to jump over walls and shoot the M-16, throw grenades. And I got to do all that. 

Aaron [01:10:16] I didn't tell you was about the extent of my thought process there. You know, it's like when I got to wake up early and listen to some guy yell at me, but later I got to shoot an M-16. 

Aaron [01:10:26] So, yeah, this is it. 

Aaron [01:10:28] Anyway, all right. So real question, we always say, are we ask what's your current Netflix binge? But there's other things out there. So what's your current binge right now? Should you be Amazon some? 

Derk [01:10:38] So yet it just finished. And it is one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life. And I'm so sad that it's over. And I even alluded to it this morning on the run. Mr. Robot, I just finished watching all of Mr. Robot, and I thought that was just one of the best shows I've ever seen in terms of the, you know, the fullness of the characters and the complexity of the plot and the number of characters and the writing, everything. It was brilliant. Go. Go. Geez. Do such a favor, all of you. Well, and watch. Watch, Mr. Robot. Where did you watch it on? I've been watching it on when I watched it when it first came out and then got back into it and watched it on Amazon. 

Derk [01:11:17] Yeah. 

Christian [01:11:17] Yeah. I mean, I started watching it and then I stopped. But I remember being really good. It's so good that some of those characters just that that Elliot Alderson character mean that that's going to stick with me forever. So give us an idea of the premise here. What's the what's the whole point of the show? 

Derk [01:11:32] The point of the show, at least what the viewer I'm not going to give away how this ends, but what the viewer is understanding of the situation in season one is that it's set in New York City. And a guy by the name of Elliot Alderson is a huge brain, brilliant guy who can hack any system. And he is basically a vigilante who's determined to bring down the world financial system and has a real hatred of something called E Core, which to me represents like I mean, even the logo looks like Bank of America. And and he does. And he CCRI, he crashes the world economy and causes like basically a depression and. 

Derk [01:12:13] Yeah. That's how it's enough to get you started. Yeah. Yeah. 

Aaron [01:12:17] I think she'll become more popular as we're talking about this and when we're recording it. Yeah. It was good stuff. Yeah. Okay. That sounds really again. And that's that. And yet the financial industry is already super complex anyway. So it's like adding that whole. And I guess the part of it, just like it's technically possible I guess if somebody really. 

Derk [01:12:39] I suppose. Yeah. I mean it would be there's a lot of hopefully there's a lot of things you have to kind of like any show. You have to say that boy I'd be they'd be a tough call order. But the guy who plays Elliot went on to he's really the only person I think that came out of that show. Then he degree of fame. 

Derk [01:12:53] You went to play the singer Freddie Mercury effort, right? Quinn Yeah. Remy Low Yeah. 

Aaron [01:13:00] Okay. Yeah. So he wasn't Mr. Roba. Yeah. I said before interest. 

Derk [01:13:05] So I'm sorry. That's the one question I could actually drive home and think I'm going to come back. 

Derk [01:13:12] And if I can think of ways to send us some audio, the obvious failure, you know. 

Aaron [01:13:18] No, no, no. That's. I mean, I guess whenever I said fine. It's Morva. Yeah. Thought provoking my Netflix question. That's a good question. 

Aaron [01:13:25] Yeah. It's not to take his. Easy is an easy question. I guess there anymore. Ha ha. 

Aaron [01:13:32] I was skipping over some hard ones because I don't think there was any way we did ask this, which was also a good one. Now, we ask that because I feel like every question, you know, the your business is like you do that every single day. You know, like without him, without a doubt. I guess my only question is not really like a fun question, but it's kind of interesting for your businesses. Like how has the landscape in McKinney changed from when you started the business 10 years ago? Cause you guys were in McKinney and McKinney is like one of the fastest growing areas in the country. 

Aaron [01:14:08] So how does that affect your your business at this point? 

Derk [01:14:11] I mean, I think it has been a part of the reason or maybe maybe I should've thought of this earlier when you asked me that directly. I think it's part of the reason that the business continues to grow. I mean, there's you know, in 2004, there were about four hundred thousand people in the county. There's almost a million now. And so I think I think that's the case. And, you know. 

Derk [01:14:32] I think by the standards of Collin County, where there are people moving in from all over all the time, I mean, we're we're almost you know, we've been around for a while and in so I think we've we've kind of established ourselves there. 

Derk [01:14:48] But, you know, I don't. Not not necessarily that that's your last question. But I did want to end on a fun note about a case, please, because I gave you the doom and gloom earlier. 

Aaron [01:14:58] Yeah, but I don't want to interrupt the flow of things if I'm going on that. So because I'm a defense lawyer, I want to end on a defense. 

Derk [01:15:06] And you guys were asking about some some cases. And the only reason that this is a fun one is because nobody got hurt. OK. 

Derk [01:15:13] I want to be clear. Somebody's got nobody got hurt. OK. 

Derk [01:15:16] But but sometimes people ask me for stories and things like this. And I've represented a guy who who will remain nameless, obviously big brain, slightly strange. He drove his car right through the parking lot of a Texaco and clipped the gas state, clipped the tanks, didn't cause a fire, anything like that, and then plowed straight into the Texaco. You know, he's just there with the in the potato chip aisle in his car and gets out of the car and has a conversation with the stunned clerk who calls the police, who come down and they talk to this gentleman and do some field sobriety tests on him and take him into custody and arrest him for DWI. And we elect to proceed to jury trial and leading up to this trial ahead. Every D.A. and I was talking to making fun of me. I had the bailiff making fun of me. Are you just. Why? Why are you bothering to try this case? I mean, look. Look what he did. And the jury found him not guilty. So that's one of those fun things that that you can't you can't win if you don't try. Kind of thing. So, yeah. How is he? 

Derk [01:16:26] How how how did I defend the case is your question. You show me that I defended it on the grounds that just not a lot of evidence that he was intoxicated, that he was just a really weird do. 

Derk [01:16:38] And he and I and I stand by that to this day. And the jury agreed. So because we have heard him when he would see. 

Derk [01:16:48] And I think I know there's very few reasons to put a client on the stand ever. But. But yeah, I just I think the jury was. You know, I think they were scratching their heads. What the heck was that? But I don't think they were they were definitely clearly not persuaded that intoxication was the problem. There were some other problems, but intoxication may not have been one of them. 

Aaron [01:17:08] So because they were going in trying him for intoxication, nothing else happened to him because it was driving while intoxicated. 

Derk [01:17:15] Yes. 

Derk [01:17:16] Now, he may have surprised. Somebody may want their bricks repaired. I don't know. He's saying he's got something they're going to. 

Derk [01:17:22] But the criminal problem work itself out anyway. 

Derk [01:17:27] I don't know. I just I felt like after the doom and gloom, I wanted to tell you something there. No, I wouldn't have shared that story had some poor person been shopping for potato chips would be a different a different story. 

Aaron [01:17:36] Oh, yes. I just can't believe it is that we're. 

Derk [01:17:40] I've got a kettle full of stories like that for a year and some day. 

Aaron [01:17:46] So now I was going to ask you and I was going to ask a question to just before we wrap up if there is anything specific that you should be sharing with us. We didn't ask is that. I mean, I think it gets can go into a rabbit hole here and then a criminal defense. But is there anything you want to know? This is your chance to ask? 

Derk [01:18:03] Sure. Tell me about your brother in law. It's very complex. Yeah. 

Aaron [01:18:10] You know, it was a Thursday. Does that matter on the app? OK. 

Aaron [01:18:15] Awesome. Anything there? You got anything that we need to know? What are these people need to know? 

Christian [01:18:19] Or just a tough question for Erin. Well, I know that, you know, you don't hide your you know, hide your garment in your struggle from anybody. So. No, I know. I know. 

Aaron [01:18:28] Oh, that's a that's a.. That's an ad that's a poke or one of our running people now, because it's completely. 

Aaron [01:18:35] They're going to question or want to know now as it listening. We're all very competitive. You admitted to being competitive. Well, in the rank media, obviously, people are competitive to one particular guy. So competitive that he will see everybody else's garment and strava. But he will not share with anybody else because he wants to see his competition. But not not for them to see him. Right. So much so that. That Derrick did rental. But Dirk he ranch well this morning, too. And this particular runner, which will go nameless, will share it with him. 

Aaron [01:19:05] I'm still your friend. Yeah, we are still your friend. He he I was like, I'm gonna go run another mile. He's like, almost no one running. So, you know, he's like, how much are you going to run? And I said, I'm gonna run twelve. And he's like, OK. What dirt did that? So we got to at least French. And I was like, really? Okay. And then as we were finishing up, like another girl we ran with named Emily. She was like, yeah, I just knocked out fourteen. I don't know why. And Dirk is like, well, our deck this guy this guy having to say is like, well, I guess you beat us today. Like it was like a competition between always like, okay, well you want to say like, oh, well I got to go run tomorrow. I'll think. Well, two weeks ago that did happen. We all ran a distance. 

Aaron [01:19:47] And we met up at the store. And then we stopped in eight bagels and were about to head out. And then he went and ran like six more so that he could run three or four more miles than us. 

Derk [01:19:56] Oh, he'll do it. Yeah. You choose on at work or whatever. It has to be done. Whatever, you guys. Very good guy. Yeah. He's a good friend, but yeah. It's very. That's it. Yeah. 

Aaron [01:20:07] It's a different level of competitive. So anyway I think that's it. I think that this was very entertaining for the in the sense that I got some cool, cool things answered and now I know what to ask you after this as well. Like my criminal questions. Well, thanks for having me on. Yeah. Nobody ever asked me questions. Nobody asked you a question. Oh, yeah, nothing like that, anyway. So now you have these tough questions. We want a text review later. Tax review. Yeah. You know, you as a text like I like your answers and text for the world that you didn't answer. 

Derk [01:20:42] I'll think about it. I need more gloom and doom in my life today or this corona virus. Hey, it could be something that you learned. Right. Right. 

Aaron [01:20:50] But not to be that. All right. Awesome. All right, guys, thank you so much for listening to this. And a huge shout out to Dirk for coming back on coming on the episode, rather. 

Aaron [01:21:00] And if you guys are listening for the first time, please make sure that you go over to subscribe so that you don't miss out on any episode. We're going to be doing more of these video. Cassey, you'll see the video, y'all, for some of you are listening to it on audio. We will be continuing to roll these out. So make sure that you hit subscribe or if you're over on YouTube, make sure that you hit the subscribe button as well and ring that bell so you get notified every time we put out content. And if you've been listening for a while, whether you are just a listener, three months or even rent listening for two years, if you could go over to Apple podcasts and leave us an honest rating in review. That is how we grow the podcast and also allows us to figure out how we should be catering this content and how we should be doing more things, which is why we're doing this now is more of you guys have been listening to interviews with with our guests and like the ones with the video. So that's what we're doing this. We want to listen to you. So. All right, that's all we have for this week. We'll talk to you guys next time. 

[01:21:52] The marketing native's podcast is a production of BitBranding.