Protecting the West with Sean Olson

FINAL e4s48SeanOlson

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: [00:00:00] Welcome to Business As Unusual.

bau--she-they-_2_11-05-2025_153316: Today I'm chatting with Sean Olson, founder of Olson Personal Injury Lawyers. Sean's journey from Emmy winning journalist to top rated trial lawyer is all about storytelling with impact, using his voice to fight for justice and help people rebuild after life-changing injuries through his firm's mission, and his team serve clients across Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Securing, not justs, but real outcomes that change lives. Welcome to.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Thanks for having me. It's nice to be here.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: I am. I am. I. I, you know, I'm sure that, you know, we, we talked about it a little bit in the, in the back and forth before the show that, you know, but it's, there's a really prejudice against lawyers and, uh, I so,

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: plenty.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: so, so, I, I feel like it's kind of neat that, that you're, you're using the law.

It sounds like it, service of a purpose. I mean, it feels like the idea I had of the law before I. A little [00:01:00] older was that, that was sort of the point of it, but, um, I don't know. It's How did that happen? You went from journalist to trial? Lawyer.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: It, it happened back in the early two thousands. Uh, I, I was looking for a career change. I'd always promised myself when being a journalist stopped being fun. Then I would find something else to do. And we just got to that point. It stopped being fun. So I, I took a couple of years to to kinda walk the proverbial earth and figure out what I wanted to do next. And I decided on law school,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: you know, gave me a chance to still, still tell stories, uh, but tell stories with an impact. And, uh, so that's what I've been doing ever since.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah. Well and that, um, that makes a lot of sense to me. 'cause journalism you have to pay attention to a lot of details and I know you know such thing as non-bias, but you have to try and be aware of your bias so that you can actually see what's happening effectively, otherwise.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: now I get to throw that right out the window and I get to be as biased as I want.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: So you have to be, [00:02:00] I didn't know that. So you get to be biased as a lawyer.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Oh, I think so. I mean, you have to be

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: yeah, we're, we're biased in favor of our clients in everything that we do. So it's, yeah, it, and which is a lot different obviously, than what I was before, which is, you know, a, a third person observer of all things and never getting involved and, uh, and now I get to be involved and be biased and, you know, fight for somebody.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah. Yeah, I can see that being a, a nice, uh, change of pace. So,

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: It's.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: something you talked about is that a challenge that you're faced with is you have clients who are really intimidated by the legal system. And I mean, I, I definitely have that feeling of it. It does seem sort of like a black box, uh, with a, with a bit of a gambling situation going on there.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah, I mean we, yeah, it's nobody knows what the legal system is until they're thrust into it,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: involuntarily, you know, and so, and that, that makes people vulnerable and, you know, [00:03:00] it's why, it's why you see so much predatory practice out there. You know, it's, it's 'cause people don't.

They don't know the system, they don't know what to look for. And so then they see a phone number, you know, at three o'clock in the morning, you know, when they're awake, dealing with injuries and they think, okay, I'll just call that guy. you know, and then they get taken advantage again all over,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: so. So, yeah, it's, it's a, you know, it's a system and it's opaque and it's complicated. It uses words that nobody else in the world uses but us, you know, and I think a lot of it's probably intentional. It goes back centuries, you know, to make us, you know, better than everybody else. And so it, it's a problem for our clients because it's scary, it's, and, uh, and it forces people into bad situations and make bad decisions as a result.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah. No, that I, that makes a lot of sense. You know, you said something that I hadn't really considered that most people are thrust into it [00:04:00] without intention. Like, if you choose to be aware of a, a, you know, a law officer or something like that, it's different. But for most of us, we actually try to avoid it at all costs.

Right? Like, that's our,

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: right.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: the goal.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah. Nobody wants to be in this world.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: No one, no one wants to, to be in that space. And so similar to like a, a, a, you know, a medical diagnosis where you're suddenly shut, you know, you get, you get diagnosed with suddenly cancer and you suddenly are learning all sorts of things about oncology that you never really cared about before.

It's this, and it's very complicated and there's lots of different perspectives or people who are asserting this is the way, but, but you, how do you even vet that? You don't know because you don't have any experience with that.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Right. And you don't, you don't know what questions to ask, to even get you to a point where, you know,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah,

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: and so you have to rely on somebody else to help you to answer those questions and uh, and that's a scary proposition.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: it is, it's really scary to rely on people when you, when you feel completely ignorant of what's going on. So

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: absolutely.[00:05:00]

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: that, that makes me think part of your job is almost therapy like it's that

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: All the time. All the time. Yes,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: you gotta.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: we are. We are part-time counselors for sure.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Interesting. Wow. Um, one of the things that you do is when you take on a case, you finance everything for your clients, and that's.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: we do.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: And that says you put up thou sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars so that they're able to afford justice. Which I think is an interesting equalizer because a lot of justice really is about what you can afford in our current system.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Right?

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: So how does that work?

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: It's just the nature of the business and the nature of the clientele we work with. Uh, and who they're up against, right? I mean, most of the time when we take on a case, the, the other side of the, of the V is, is either an insurance company or a corporation of some kind,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Hmm.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: you know, and those folks have all the assets in the world.

Uh, to bring to bear and they bring 'em, you know, they hire [00:06:00] teams of lawyers. They spend thousands and thousands of dollars. And, you know, most of our clients are just people, you

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: they're your neighbor. They're the blue collar worker down the street. You know, they don't have a hundred thousand dollars to drop and gamble on some litigation, you know, and hope that they have a recovery. so the burden, you know, that falls on us. And I was gonna say the burden, but it's not a burden, you know, it's what we do, it's what we've chosen to do. Uh, you know, and that's how we. That's how we equalize things. We balance out the scales and, uh, and bring those kinds of things to bear. You know, it, it forces us to, to act sometimes more like a bank than a law firm, you know, because

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Hmm.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: we're fronting this money.

We're fronting, you know, the, the help and, and the costs of litigation and the salaries for everybody who's involved in it. uh, you know, we front that with the goal that down the road, you know, maybe two, three years down the road, we're gonna get paid back.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Right.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: normally it works out that way. Sometimes it doesn't.[00:07:00]

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: That makes sense. I worked in the, um, L-G-B-T-Q community for a long time, and I, uh, used to work on with the, um, contacts around hate crimes. And one of the things that was really interesting to me as a lay person is, you know, we see all these things on TV law and order and stuff like that, and they have this way that you do it.

And I was never forget when one of the police chief was explaining to me, he said that we don't ever try to figure out motive. The only time we ever do is in a hate crime because we try to figure out if it was possible. We look for the facts. And, and it just changed, it's something for me in understanding, oh, you don't really care about any of that.

You just have to prove A, B, and C. Which is both easier, but also not always satisfying. Right. Like that's why they tell the story the way they do it.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah. Right. Well, right, but, and people want a motive, right? We wanna know the why. And uh, and so even when we bring cases to trial, you know, jurors, we don't have a burden of proving, you know, why something [00:08:00] happened. You know, what was going on in someone's mind, but jurors wanna know it.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: The end.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: and so we always try to provide it in some way, shape, or form. Uh, it is just one of those, those human needs that we have. You know, when we hear a story, we wanna know why something happened.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah, so, and you can do that. You're allowed to, to bring that in, even though it's not technically part of the process. The face

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: We find a

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: right away.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: a way to, to, yeah. You know? And. You know, we, we find a way to help the jurors out with

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: You know? 'cause oftentimes we don't, uh, you know, they're not gonna see the story the way we see it. So

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: That makes sense.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: necessary. Yeah.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Well, I imagine probably makes your clients feel more seen to a certain extent if they, if there's that sense of you looking beyond that maybe.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: I think so. Yeah. I mean, it, it helps them too. I mean, it helps them to understand why something happened to

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: you know? And you know, and so we do those root cause analyses, you know? What is it? [00:09:00] Was it Toyota? I think, you know, we ask why 13 times or seven times or whatever it was, you know, and you get down to the actual, why did this thing happen in the first place, you know?

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: And usually it's because someone was being careless with money, uh, or time, you know, they didn't wanna spend the money on proper training, uh, or spend the money pro, you know, properly hiring somebody or something like that. So it, you know, it takes some work to get there, but that's always our goal is to figure that out.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah, that makes sense. That sounds satisfying too actually. Um,

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: all, it's interesting. It makes the job fun.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: yeah, it's a puzzle like journalism probably.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: 100%. Yeah.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: What does success look like for you? Not just in one case, but in sort of what you're doing. Obviously you're talking about it on a podcast and you want people to know what you're up to, but I also feel like from what you shared prior to the the our chat, there's also a commitment to maybe helping people understand more.

I can't, I can't. Um, [00:10:00] I feel like there's something else there. If I'm wrong, correct me please. But.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: No, I think, yeah, I think success for us, you know, what's the expression? No one's, no one's gonna remember what you told 'em, but they're gonna remember how you made 'em feel.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: so at the end of the day, success for us, I think, is having clients who walk away. Feeling as though they were seen, they were heard that they found some, some level of justice along the way. you know, that's really my goal. I mean, and sometimes, you know, that justice comes in the form of, of a lot of money to compensate for what has happened, and sometimes it doesn't, you know? But, know, success for me is when clients, even those clients who walk away with very little, at least believe that. Some justice has been done. Something right has been done. That's, that's success for me.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah, that sounds like a success. What advice would you give your 18-year-old self.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: self, [00:11:00] 18-year-old self, uh, I would say, well, you know, I, I think. The advice I would give my 18-year-old self is to listen to some advice that was given to me about 10 years before that, maybe not 10 years, but sometime before that, my, my soccer coach, my youth soccer coach that I had, he told us and he told the whole team this, uh, he said, you know, there are three rules to success in life, and that is build others up. Build others up, build others up.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Hmm.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: those were the rules. And I don't think I really listened to that or really understood what he meant until much later in life. You know, I think my 18-year-old self was probably a selfish, typical teenager and I didn't really understand the value of that, the importance of that.

And uh, so I think, you know, if I went back [00:12:00] and had to tell my 18-year-old self something, I would say, listen to that dang advice, and start living that advice.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah, that is great advice. World is better. We all rise together, right?

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: I think so. I mean, it's really, it's, it's the, it's the, we're a community, you know, when it comes down to it, and if we're all focused on building each other up, good grief. There's nothing we can't do.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah, I really believe that I'm right there with you. How do you respond? You, you talked about it a little bit and you know, the, the Looney Tunes lawyers, uh, perceptions that people have, but how, how do you respond to the prejudice that people have about what legal lawyering stuff.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah. You know, we've, we've got a reputation that is sometimes well earned. You know, it's, you know, there's, there's money in what we do and anytime there's money in something. People are gonna focus on that and make that their [00:13:00] why, and you know, and so that's why you, you know, you see these lawyers, you know, wielding hammers and saws and boxing gloves and things like that. And, uh, you know, I think the way we try to make other people understand that that's not necessarily the way it has to be. Right? There's a dignified way to go about this, um, because it's an, it's a dignified thing, right? Seeking justice,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: there's, there are a few things more virtuous than that and, uh, you know, so we. I, I try to do that through education. You know, I've, I've written a book about the, the legal process or the process of writing another one,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Hmm.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: of our marketing that we do is to help people understand what we do through, through the stories of our clients and how we've, you know, how we've helped them and how we've built them back up. so it's, you know, I think it's, it's talking to people. It's. Just having conversations [00:14:00] about what we do and getting them to understand that, you know, what they've seen on, you know, Fox News or whatever it is that's, you know, informed them of what it is that we do isn't necessarily the whole picture.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: That's a hard job.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah, it sounds like it. Well, you know, it's definitely. There's a lot of things that reinforce the prejudice in, in, in story and, and not, not always accurate reporting if, if, we'll be fair about that. And, and I think some of it's also that disconnect between the, the idea of what you can prove versus what you believe versus what you feel like versus what feels fair because like what, what can

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: what can

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: in a day to day and what the law says are not.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: of, oftentimes they're in direct conflict with one another. Yeah,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: And that can be really confusing to people or even just, you know, sometimes we have laws that are passed to address, something that, that if you don't [00:15:00] have, if you're not on the other side of it, you don't get it. Like, I think about like tenants and, and landlords, you know, that both think the other one has a lot more rights, but the reality is that it's complicated.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: right, right. And oftentimes those, those le, those legal structures, you know, they're created over decades or, you know, centuries even,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yep.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: know, and, uh, everything, every change comes about because something happened

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: uh, that someone saw as unfair or unjust. And so they changed it.

And,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yep.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: a million ways that happens.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: When, and no matter how well you try to construct it, there's always gonna be another loophole. Like I think about, we used to, um, the state legislative bodies used to elect senators.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Mm-hmm.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: They changed that. They worked really hard to change that, to get big money outta politics a little over a hundred years ago.

That didn't work. For those of you listening that are unsure so that now we, and you know, I grew up always directly electing. I didn't [00:16:00] know that that was the way it used to be, and then I was reading the history of it and I was like, oh, no matter what you do. There's gonna be another, there's gonna be another workaround.

Someone's gonna find it. It always has to be a constant rebuilding to to get there. You're not gonna set it and forget it, unfortunately.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: right. Despite everybody wanting to set it and forget it,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Oh my gosh.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: right. It just, it just does not work that

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: It doesn't work that way. So means you always have a new problem to solve. Yay for you. Uh, good choice of that.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Depends. Depends on the day. Yeah.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Is there anything that you guys are doing in your business that you're excited about? Any like education programs that you're writing? A book that, that we could share with people?

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah, well, a few of those things.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Okay.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: you know, I think the thing that excites me most these days is creating a client experience that people remember.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Hmm.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Uh, you know, I think a lot of law firms don't do that, uh, to their client's detriment. you know, because as lawyers we think, you know, we're here to practice law, right?

I mean, we're [00:17:00] here to just get results. And, uh, you know, you call us, you hire us, and we'll give you a call when we need

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Uh. I think that, you know, a lot of that leaves clients in the dark and it's a lot of that is what leaves a bad taste in clients' mouths about lawyers and the legal system in general because they, you know, they end the day without knowing anything more than what they knew at the beginning of the day.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Hmm.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: And so we set out to create an amazing client experience, and that includes a lot of education for our clients going forward. Uh, because I think a lot of things are less scary people are informed,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yep.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: know? And so whether that's, you know, from the very get go, we're, we're flooding our clients with information.

We, you know, give 'em our cell phone numbers so they can call and ask questions. Uh, I wrote one book, gosh, it's been. About seven years ago, sort of a lay person's guide to, you know, what happens in, in a personal [00:18:00] injury lawsuit. And now I'm working on another one because I don't think my first one was good enough any longer.

And so now it's, you know, it it, the second one is geared toward clients as well. And you know how it. Sort of a, a how to for them, how to show up, uh, to their own case so that, you know, they come in standing 10 feet tall, you know, that they can't get beaten down. 'cause that's what makes for a good client.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: know, someone who is informed and someone who's not scared of things anymore and is just there to tell their story. those are some of the kinds of things we do. Uh, it's sort of my, and I'm, I'm constantly, you know, it's one of those things I'm constantly revamping our program, trying to make it better, trying to make it work better for our clients.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Uh, that's really awesome. I feel like a lot of over the years, I've, I talked to people in a lot of different industries and one of the things that I, I see consistently, and it doesn't matter whether you're, whatever, what professional service you are, doctor, lawyer, psychiatry, whatever it is, auto mechanic.

It's that [00:19:00] feeling of partnership like you're, you are bringing the expertise that you have that you spend a long time developing and they're bringing their situation and their expertise of their experience or their own, you know, what, what's the, and the together you can really create a, a powerful combination and a solution if you've got both people participating at that level.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Absolutely. Yeah. And it, and, and we, we work to our own detriment, you know, when we have clients who don't come in with that attitude, you know, who wanna just shove everything our way and, you know, and wave off of the whole process, you know, call me when it's done. you know, those are the cases that, you know, I don't, I don't know that we do have a lot of success with, you know, we need clients who show up,

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: you know, who are ready to fight with us.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: Yeah. Yeah, that's, I mean, that makes a lot of sense and it sounds like a really powerful combination. Well, thank you for talking me today, um, talking to me today. Uh, for folks who are listening, how do they learn more? Follow you, get in touch.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Easiest way is through our website, uh, olson law firm.com [00:20:00] or protecting the west.com. Uh, they'll both

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: I.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: to the same place and, uh, you know, we've got a lot of information on our website and particularly our contact information, emails, phone numbers, and that kind of thing, depending on where you are.

bau--she-they-_1_11-05-2025_150224: All right. Well thank you so much. I appreciate you joining me today.

squadcaster-3d66_1_11-05-2025_150224: Thanks for having me.

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