Jim: You've tuned into iWork4Him, the voice of collaboration for the faith and work movement.

Martha: We are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, and our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: You've heard a million one liners about lawyers, like, why did God make snakes before lawyers? To practice! Or God decided to take the devil to court and settle their differences once and for all and satan heard this and laughed It said where do you think you're gonna find a lawyer?

All joking aside, as Christ followers, we naturally think that Christians should not be lawyers or politicians because those are dirty businesses and if we keep up that kind of thinking, they're going to always be dirty kind of businesses. Where do we ever get the idea that certain professions are acceptable to God and others are not?

It's false theology. When God places a calling on your life, he intends to use it for his glory and for your provision. When God does this, he intends to use it in order to impact the community. We need a ton more lawyers who love and serve Jesus in their practice. But what does that even look like? Today we head off to Tampa Bay, Florida, our old stomping grounds, to the offices of Boltz Legal.

Brooke Boltz is a 20 year attorney with a story to tell and an example to share. We welcome her to iWork for Him. Brooke, do you know any good lawyer jokes?

Brooke Boltz: I've heard so many. Do I know any off the top of my head? I think I block them out.

Martha: And I don't blame you.

 (laughter)

Jim: I don't understand. All right, Brooke, what's your Jesus story?

Brooke Boltz: I am, I like to consider myself a lifelong Christian because when I try to think back to the first time that I ever believed in God or Jesus. I can't remember that very first time. My father was a pastor. And so I was in church hearing about the Lord weekly since I was born. And of course, I had moments in my life where I rededicated myself or times where I strayed away and came back. But my belief has been there in my heart for as long as I can remember.

Martha: That's so good. And, fast forward to today, or maybe, in that journey of life, how did you know that God was calling you to be an attorney for your career?

Brooke Boltz: Sure. When I graduated college, I majored in political science and I was burnt out on school. I just, I had no intention of going to law school or going to any further school because I just wanted to take a break. I did not want to attend school any longer. And so I got a job as a probation officer. It was my first job after college. And that led to a job as pre trial services is the name of it, but it's very similar to probation. It's still monitoring and supervising people with criminal cases.

And that was my first exposure to being in the courtroom where I got to see attorneys and judges in a criminal context making decisions. And in my role as the probation or the pretrial service officer, I was supposed to be neutral and wasn't supposed to take a side or really have any opinions on what came of the case.

And over the course of time, I realized that as much as I enjoyed working with the probationers, which I really did. That was my first time in my life where I got to meet people who were addicted to drugs and have that kind of conversation with them and hear their stories on how they got to the places that they are and really saw that even the professional businessman would test positive for cocaine in the same way that the stereotypical person would be testing positive for cocaine.

So it really opened my eyes to how widespread the drug epidemic was and I got to talk to people and hear how they got to their place in life and realized that everybody had a story. And who am I to say that had I not had those same circumstances in my life growing up, those same traumas ,that I may not have ended up in the same position?

So I very much wanted to try to help people in that role, but I was really limited. I had to be neutral. The only services we could offer to these probationers were the court approved services. And so it was just very limiting on what we could offer to people. And so through that experience, I decided that I wanted to go to law school because I wanted to have a voice. I wanted to be able to interact with these with clients on a deeper level and guide them in whatever, opportunities I'm aware of that may be of service to them.

So it was really that experience in the courtroom and being a probation officer that led me to bite the bullet and go back to school for two and a half more years.

Jim: Wow. We know it was intense. So have you ever been questioned about your calling, that it was from God? You're an attorney. Not many of them are God glorifying, are they? Sarcasm intended for the audience. Have you, has anybody ever said, how could you be a Christian and an attorney? Has anybody ever said that to you?

Brooke Boltz: I think you'd be surprised actually how many Christians are attorneys. In fact I just, I know several. So I think it's maybe misperception or misconception about attorneys that they're not Christians. I do think though that we tend to be quiet about it in our profession because it's not something that Is discussed openly in attorney circles, unless you are in an attorney group that is specifically designed for Christian attorneys.

It's probably not going to be much of a topic of discussion. And so I think there are more Christian attorneys than people may realize, but we just don't talk about it that much. I think it's not something that's super comfortable for us to talk about in the workplace.

Martha: I love that you're, the path that you were on, your work experience led you to become a lawyer because you saw that you could maybe do more. So let's talk about that for just a minute. What kind of law are you actually practicing at Boltz Legal?

Brooke Boltz: Sure. I practice injury and insurance cases. So the personal injury type cases where I represent injured parties and then homeowners insurance. For example, in Florida we have a lot of hurricanes. So if a hurricane damages your home and your insurance company denies you or underpays you, I help those homeowners to get paid correctly from their insurance company so they can make the repairs necessary to their homes.

Martha: So why is that where you ended up landing?

Brooke Boltz: So initially, when I graduated law school, my plan was to go into the criminal court, to become a state attorney or public defender. However, when I applied to the office of the state attorney and public defender in my hometown, there was a hiring freeze at that time. And so they weren't hiring anyone in those roles. And so I had to look alternative places and a friend of mine's sister happened to reach out to me and worked at a large firm in Tampa and asked me if I'd be interested in interviewing.

And It just turned out to be the best offer that I had available to me at the time I graduated. So the door, I think the Lord just opened that door for me. In fact, when I went in my first day of work, I did not understand what I was going to be doing. When I went to the website of such a large firm that it literally listed everything on it, there was probably a hundred practice areas listed on the website.

So I didn't know what in the world I was going to be doing. I just knew that I was going to have to start paying those student loans soon and that I'd been out of work for a while taking the bar exam and that I needed a paycheck. And so I showed up and found out the first day that, oh, it's car accidents. I understand that. I can do that.

So I was on the defense though at that point representing the insurance companies and their insureds. And so it wasn't until several years later, I think nine and a half years later that I switched sides, started my own law firm, and started representing the injured parties as opposed to the insurance companies.

Jim: I love that. I love your story, Brooke. We're so grateful for it. Many of us have a why it could be that our businesses started out of a need for our own family or to meet the needs of others in a certain way.

I'm grateful that Patriot Mobile has a why that is in response to faith, family, and freedom, providing cell phone service while keeping the dollars in line with the things we believe in. Check out patriotmobile.com/iwork4him. Make the switch today. Move your money. Stop supporting companies that support the other side of the argument, away from Christianity. Patriot mobile. com forward slash. iWork4Him.

Martha: So One of the things that I love is that, Brooke, your legal firm embraces family. And I understand that your mom actually works for you. So what does that dynamic look like, and how does that enhance you to be able to live out your calling?

Brooke Boltz: Sure. My mom has been instrumental in my practice. She was a legal assistant since before I was born. And so when I moved to Orlando, which is closer to where my mom lives, she started working with me at the firm that I was with at the time, which was that same large law firm that represented insurance companies.

So I started in their Tampa office, then transferred to Orlando, and my mom started working for me there as my legal assistant. And it's funny because they had an HR rule that moms and daughters were not supposed to work together, but they made an exception in our case and it worked for us.

There are people in my family that I probably could not work with in that relationship. My dad being one of them. He and I, our personalities are too similar. We would butt heads and that would not work, but my mom is just, has a servant's heart and she wants nothing more than to have my back and make sure all of the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted. And so having her in that role always gave me the peace of mind that I had someone I knew and trusted and loved who was supporting me in that supportive role.

And actually, we just scheduled her retirement party. It's going to be in July. So she's been with me since we started the firm and she's finally getting to the point where she's going to retire and probably help my sister who's a chiropractor, who's just starting out. My sister's 15 years younger than me she can't afford anything yet for her first help. So my mom's gonna switch roles, switch daughters, to going and being a support system for my sister.

Jim: I have to get your mom a copy of iRetire4Him. get it online. iRetire4Him.com.

All right. You're also married Brooke and you also have three kids. How do you balance being a wife, a mother, and a business owner? How do you protect all three from each other?

Brooke Boltz: People ask me this probably more than any other question just in my day to day life because they see my social media and they see all the things that I'm doing and they think how do you do it all? And I say, I just say yes. And then I figure it out.

 If I feel like it's something that I should be doing or that I want to do, then I say yes. And then I delegate other things so that I can make the time for it. I am blessed to be at the place in my career now where I have a team of 16 ish employees. And so they have been with me now, most of them for several years, and they know their role. They know their responsibilities. And so there's not much of a learning curve. In fact, they know their jobs really well, and they rarely make any mistakes because they've just become so accustomed to their position and their role.

And so that has really freed me up to be able to do other things in terms of building the business and even doing other family responsibilities by having a team who is just phenomenal. And every single member of the team is very self motivated and does their best every day. With regard to being a mom, I've also had to bring on some help. I have two daughters in middle school right now, so they each have a tutor who helps them with their schoolwork.

Jim: That just makes me laugh. Two daughters, middle school. Wow. That's a full time job just there, dealing with the drama.

Brooke Boltz: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes. Just figuring out who's going to sit in the front seat is World War Three sometimes. It is, the emotions are real. They're one year apart. They're one year apart. They're sixth, seventh grade. They're 12 and 13. And I like to say they are best frenemies.

Martha: There you go. Someday they will love each other to death.

Jim: Oh my, that is awesome. 12 and 13 year old girls. Oh yeah, it'll be good. 10 years from now they'll love you. They will. And you won't be near as dumb.

 (laughter)

Brooke Boltz: And then I have a four year old boy who is a ball of energy and just is so much fun. But he requires a lot of attention too. He's still at the age that he wants mommy with him. And so I try to spend as much of my free time with him as I can as well. That's another reason why I brought in the tutors because I was spending all my time after hours studying for their quizzes and tests with them. And I really, with two of them being in middle school now, it was just impossible. So I brought in the tutors to help, and now I can spend time with the four year old while they're tutoring, and then spend time with the girls when they finish.

Martha: So I'd like to talk about the faith aspect of your practice. Cause you've been, you've had your practice for how long now? How many years?

Brooke Boltz: Six years.

Martha: Six years. So has your faith always been an element in the practice and how, what does that look like?

Brooke Boltz: Sure. When I started my business, I incorporated a couple of things like a Bible verse into my website and onto, I have it on my conference room wall. And I did that intentionally because when I worked for the big firm, although no one ever told me not to share my faith, I just felt like it wasn't the right place and it wasn't comfortable for me to share that. And so when I started my own business, I thought this is my business and I need to be comfortable here being who I am.

And so I put the verse in those places as an accountability for me because I knew I might be tempted to go back into those same ways, which is basically keeping quiet about my faith and by putting that verse on my website and in my conference room, it just made me always have to remember who I am and have that as an outward sign of who I am.

And sometimes there are people in my conference room and I'm thinking to myself, they're looking at the verse behind me. Are they getting offended by it? Are they, what are they thinking about the verse? And so it does sometimes still make me uncomfortable, but that was the purpose. I put it there is because I didn't want to hide who I was. I wanted to be open about it. And so I did those things to hold myself accountable.

Jim: What verse do you actually have in your conference room that would offend people? Do you have the one that if you if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off?

 (laughter)

Brooke Boltz: It's a verse in Job and it says, it goes along with my brand. My last name is Boltz. And so it's a lightning bolt verse that says he closed his hands in lightning, commands it to strike its mark. And I also saw that it ministered to me that verse too, because as an attorney we, I feel like I'm an instrument of God's lightning. We are filing lawsuits. We are, in some ways, striking the mark. And I'm being an instrument of Him in the same way that lightning is in that verse.

Jim: And you live in Tampa. where there's lightning all the time, all summer long. And the lightning which have won many Stanley cup championships.

All right. So prayer, how does prayer play a part in Boltz legal?

Brooke Boltz: I pray for my staff. I pray for my clients. I pray for the guidance of the firm. I pray for the next steps. I pray for, I'm always in prayer. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. It's just become a natural part of my life.

And whatever I'm doing, whether it be work or otherwise, I am in prayer for those things. Also, I'll say, nowadays since COVID, all of our hearings and things are done, most of the hearings are done remotely through zoom. But back when I used to have to drive to the courthouse to do a hearing, it's like preparing for battle.

It's a win or lose. It's really not like many other professions where you're going to win or you're going to lose. And so I took it very seriously. And on my drive, I would rehearse my argument out loud, and then I would turn on worship music, intense, intense spiritual warfare type worship music to pump myself up and pray that God's will would be done in the outcome of that hearing.

And so then having done that preparation, whatever the outcome of the hearing was, win or lose, I had peace about it because I knew that I had done my part both in preparing legally, but also preparing spiritually for that battle.

Jim: So intense worship music. Come on, give a plug. Who's your favorite intense worship music group?

Brooke Boltz: So my favorites, I have more than one. I really like Crowder.

Jim: Ah, nice.

Brooke Boltz: Higher Power is one of my very favorite songs. It just gets me pumped up every time I hear it. I really even yesterday I pulled this up. It is Third Day Our God is a Consuming Fire is another one that is one of my go tos.

I really like even just, what's the name of that song? The King of My Heart is a different style of worship song, but it really speaks to me. And I like Toby Mac a lot. His music gets me, like, more energized, I think. And so those are some of my go to favorites.

Martha: Awesome. I love that. You can put together a playlist on Spotify to help people with that. That getting, preparing for battles.

Jim: Preparing for court list.

Martha: I love how our faith actually should play a part in everything that we do. And If our faith is real, it is part of every decision that we make in every conversation that we have. Our sponsors at iWork4Him are all companies that align with our faith and can help each one of us as we live out our calling in a more effective way.

So check out our sponsor page today at iWork4Him. com forward slash sponsor. Not only do they make it possible for us to share amazing stories like this one that we're hearing today with Brooke Boltz. But their services are also vetted by us and we know that it's something that you will want to take advantage of. So I just encourage you to go to, iWork4Him forward slash sponsors to learn more.

Jim: Brooke, when you're negotiating for clients, with the insurance companies, you're doing your job. How does your faith come into play in those negotiations in the actual day to day? What's that look like?

Brooke Boltz: Sure. When we are negotiating on the day to day, my first priority is my client, putting my client first. And that is a biblical principle to put others before yourself. But I think it's a temptation in our role not to do that. There are times where we may have a temptation that if we settle, if we need money in the bank now that maybe we settle a case for less money because we don't, because we need money now versus fighting longer to get more money for the client and because we as an attorney also get paid out of the settlement. And so we want to settle now versus later.

I've heard people who've been represented by attorneys before say that they felt pressured one way or the other by the attorney on what decision to make, and when they feel pressured that sometimes has to do with the attorney's interest is tied into the outcome of the case and so attorneys sometimes will do the opposite.

The offer that's being made won't put enough money in the attorney's pocket so they encourage the client to delay the case longer so that the attorney can get more money as well. So because our interests are intertwined with the client's interests, attorneys can influence the outcome of the case for their own best interest. And so I try very hard not to do that. I try to put my client's interest above my own and put myself in their shoes. If I was in their shoes, what would I want to do as the client? And not only that, but the client is the decision maker.

And so I say to them, here's the options. We can settle now, or we can settle later. We might get more money if we settle later. But if you need the money now, then we can settle now. I lay out the options for the client and let them make the choice, and I try to do it in a neutral way.

Sometimes they will ask me, what would you do? And so I will give them my honest opinion on what I would do, or they ask me for my recommendation and I will provide that. But generally speaking, I try always to be neutral in terms of not pressuring them to make a decision one way or the other, but also informing them of the pros and cons of either decision they may make.

Jim: Do you ever get a chance to pray with people about those decisions? Hey, we got a big decision to make. Hey, do you want to pray about this together? Do you get a chance to do that?

Brooke Boltz: I can't say that I've done that, but that is a good idea. I probably should do that, especially if I know that they are a believer. Occasionally clients will disclose that to me. Many times I don't know, cause it's not something that comes up in conversation all the time. But if they do disclose that, sometimes they do. I love that idea.

Jim: Something like, hey, listen, I'll be praying about this, the advice I'm going to give you. Do you want to pray about this together? That's one of those things you need to bring up. I've never had people tell me no. When people are at a desperate situation, I've never had people tell us no.

Martha: So Brooke, I am very curious if there's a ministry that has impacted your life, if something that is encouraging you or helping you to live out your faith in your work.

Brooke Boltz: Sure. I've been inspired by a number of ministries, even going back to my teen years. Crossroads Youth Camp, which is Clayton King's ministry, was really impactful to me as a young person. I went to the summer camp a few times in North Carolina, South Carolina, and I was a counselor, a camp counselor one year there, once I got a little older, and even sent my kids there last year for the first time.

They were finally of the age that they could go to camp there. And so I sent them last year and signed them up to go this year. So that's a ministry that very much impacted me as a young person. As an adult, there are many local ministries that have been impactful. Sean Feucht and his ministry has also, the Let Us Worship ministry, was also something that was very encouraging to me, how he stood out for his faith in the midst of COVID, when governors were saying you can't sing in church. And so he took worship outside and then started traveling the country with outdoor worship services. Sean Feucht really, I really admired his boldness for his faith and have participated in his ministry a little bit and got to know him a little bit.

Jim: All right. We only have a couple minutes left, but I want to make sure we plug your podcast. Ms. Biz podcast. Tell us about this. But you do this with your sister, right?

Brooke Boltz: Yes, my sister in law Rachel. She's my husband's sister. And Rachel's been working with me for a long time as a paralegal and she started her own business as well called Boltz media. And so we started Ms. Biz close to a year ago. And it was really just motivated by the fact that when I started Boltz Legal, I had no business experience and I was learning as I go and reaching out to different people and mentors and coaching programs and things like that to try to learn how this business stuff worked.

And over the course of time, I just developed a passion for helping other business owners, especially those who were newer in their business. And taking the things that I had learned that had worked or not worked for me and sharing my experiences with people. And so we turned that passion into a podcast and it has really turned into just one of the favorite things that I do each week is recording the podcast. And just using my experiences now to help others who may be in similar situations.

Martha: Let's talk about that because that's really where I wanted to go for this last question, is if you have any advice that you would be giving to a listener that might be either a newer lawyer or thinking about becoming a lawyer or starting their own firm, what would you say to them about making their faith center to what they're doing in that trajectory where that, like you said, it's not very common in that field?

Brooke Boltz: Sure. My advice would be to be who you are. It is, sometimes we feel like people of different faiths or different beliefs are, they are so comfortable being who they are. And sometimes as Christians, we feel like we're not comfortable and we need to hide it. But I think that, and I'm speaking to myself too because I struggle with this as well, that being who you are, being comfortable with who you are, is first and foremost and will be blessed by the Lord If you are true to him and you honor him in everything that you do.

So I would, the number one advice I would give is to read your Bible every day. I haven't always done this. It was my new year's resolution this year actually, in january, and i've been faithful to it since then. But for years before that, I was just, didn't read very much. I would read devotionals before I would read the word itself. And so since I've started doing that each day, it has really increased my faith. It has really allowed me to hear from the Lord more often to see, hear his direction. And so that would be my number one recommendation is just get in the word every day.

Jim: Brooke Boltz, thanks so much for being on iWork4Him today. Thanks for sharing your story. Appreciate you being here.

Brooke Boltz: Thank you.

Jim: You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers, our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately, iWork4Him.