We help creatives, business owners, drag artists, and anyone who wants a not-so-average approach to legal and tax services.

We’re here to help with…

  • Because the U.S. tax code is literally thousands of pages.

    It’s almost impossible to know which legal steps to take to protect your business.

    And, managing the number in your business is like its own whole job.

  • What’s with accountants who don’t respond to emails and lawyers who are just the worst? That seems to be the average, and it’s not the vibe.

    Also, why can’t they just explain things in like, normal people language? You shouldn’t leave a meeting with the expert you hired feeling more confused and less reassured.

We care about your business

and believe everyone should have access to approachable services. That means...

  • We all have industry lingo, but we gotta know when to use it and when to just talk like, you know, a human person. We pride ourselves on speaking your language and breaking down legal and tax topics which don’t leave you terrified and bored. You might even learn to love it. Who knows!?

  • The average law firm bills by the hour in 6 minute increments. A 4 minute phone call is rounded up to 6 minutes. That’s a $50 charge. You never know what they’re working on, and you don’t know when you’ll be done. We say goodbye to that and stick with predictable, transparent pricing.

  • At the end of the day, you are the CEO of your own business. You need to know what’s going on. Your legal, tax, and bookkeeping team is there to serve your business and help you meet your goals. That’s what we strive to do.

Some (Hypothetical) Client Horror-to-Success Stories

These are based on very real scenarios with some embellishments for confidentiality reasons.

  • Vanessa, is incredible. Her aesthetic is the stuff of Instagram feed dreams. She makes photography shoots fun, which is a hard thing to do if you’re nervous in front of the camera or about to throw up from wedding jitters.

    Anyway, despite Vanessa’s talent and warmth...life threw her a curveball.

    An old client of Vanessa’s contacted her out of the blue one day, asking her for a refund.

    What’s the problem, you ask? Well, this client — let’s just call her Karen — had received photos for her wedding that was over a year ago. And she waited until now to tell Vanessa that she wasn’t happy with her work because she didn’t get a few, very specific shots she asked for. Karen wanted a refund for half of the fees.

    Excuuuuuse me?

    Vanessa came to me for help. In our 1-on-1 consultation, I listened to her (very understandably) freak the f*ck out. She had a lot of questions, like:

    • “Am I contractually obligated to give her the refund?” No.

    • “Is Karen going to sue me?” Probably not.

    • “What the hell do I do?!” Let’s form a plan.

    The plan I created with Vanessa needed to do three things:

    • Create a new offer that made Karen feel satisfied

    • Get Karen to agree to stop shit-talking Vanessa in customer reviews (and just in case, agree not to file any legal claims)

    • Preserve the relationship between Vanessa and Karen

    Spoiler alert: we accomplished all of those goals. I helped Vanessa draft a professional, straightforward email that outlined a solution. This is what we do for our monthly legal clients.

    Karen accepted Vanessa’s offer. 🎉🎉🎉

    When you run your own business, you’re bound to come across tough situations like these. Your first thought may be to give the customer what they want. Or, your first thought may be that you hate everyone and people suck. Both totally normal reactions!

    The point is, these situations can be prevented and resolved.

    It starts with a great contract (of course) and a solid client onboarding process. Issues can then be diffused with clear communication, creative solutions, and knowing your legal rights. BUT, if shit really does hit the fan, we rely on our insurance and LLCs to protect us.

    Think of what we do like a sandwich.

    It’s bookended with bread, the stuff we do to legally set you up and protect you if big problems pop up. All the magic happens in the middle though. It’s the bookkeeping, navigating clients woes, paying the taxes, etc. That’s the PB&J so to speak.

  • Matt’s story is a familiar one. He got stuck on what I call the “ohh shit cycle of back taxes.” Here’s how it often goes.

    A bright eyed creative starts their business with only the best of intentions to serve their clients and stay on the IRS’s good side. But they only have experience getting a W-2 where the taxes are taken care of for them. They haven’t really heard much about the quarterly tax thing.

    The first tax season, it’s not a huge deal. They only profited about $10,000. They get a tax bill for $1,000. Luckily, they have a new client signing soon, so they figure they will pay the tax bill then. The client pays $5,000. $1,000 is directed towards the back tax, but $1,000 more is not set aside for future taxes. You see where this is going.

    The next year, revenue is multiplied by 5. Yay! But taxes have increased by a factor of 7. Not yay. Now our taxpayer has to set up an installment agreement with the IRS for the $7,000. They have a hard time saving for future taxes while making the installment payment, so the cycle continues, and the debt piles up.

    Luckily, Matt came to us before the cycle got too out of hand. We prioritized saving for the future taxes to get off this hamster wheel, and then created a game plan to tackle the back tax. If you’re in a tricky spot like Matt, we can help. But, if you’re trying to avoid those problems altogether, even better. We can plan for what you need to save to keep you on the up-and-up from the get.

  • Claire’s story is a positive one, and simple. We love positive and simple. She came to work with us before she got her first client. She wasn’t super stressed about all the legal stuff, but she knew it’d be worth the investment to do things right from the get go.

    She opted to start her LLC sooner rather than later. She booked an LLC in a Day consultation for $1,000. We formed that first. She then bought our Contract Club for $30 and our Bookkeeping Blueprint for $30 to get up and running with all her legal docs and a bookkeeping spreadsheet. About six months later, Claire joined our Profit Rx membership because she knew she’d want to work with us on her tax return during tax season and eventually move to Quickbooks.

    Her business grew, and a year later, she formed her S Corp in Profit Rx and joined our monthly legal subscription to get help with the occasional legal hiccup. [Luckily, those are few since she has a solid legal foundation].

    Claire is now feeling very confident knowing that she has a lawyer on speed dial and bookkeeping support in her membership, and she plans to run with those resources until her company hits $200,000 in revenue, a two year goal. Then, she plans to move over to our legal + tax subscription to outsource it all.

    Claire hasn’t received any IRS hate mail, and her biggest legal scares were a few clients who tried to skirt their final payments [it happens], and a competitor who thought they could just copy Claire’s website [how dare they]. We were able to help with both.

    Now, this is a hypothetical story, but it serves to demonstrate how we can scale with businesses owners offering varying levels of support as they need it.

Hi Bestie! I’m Braden, founder of Not AVG law and your gay best friend here to help you with the legal, tax, and money stuff.

On this page, you’ll learn more about me, the law firm, and our amazing team.

ABOUT BRADEN

ABOUT BRADEN

More about B. She’s an entrepreneur

15

Courses Created

100+

LLCs Formed

1000+

Contracts Sold

My Path to Entrepreneurship

I was born and raised in Indiana, and went to Indiana University where I majored in Russian language and political science. Random. I know. I also studied business, Ukrainian, and German.

I tried out a master’s in public health. She wasn’t for me, so pivoted and applied to law schools, which brought me to San Diego California.

I ended up loving my tax law class, a surprise even to me. After taking [and passing] the bar exam [insert hair toss], I thought “why not more school?” So I went to get my master’s in tax law. What fun!?

I was lucky enough to have a couple awesome legal internships. I hated both. It was then I decided I’d go solo and follow in the steps of my dad [a contractor], my grandpa [a truck driver], and my many uncles [all farmers].

It wasn’t until I started by business that I realized self-employment was modeled for me not only as an option, but as the primary option as a child, which was one of the many benefits of my midwestern upbringing. I’m also good at eating cheese and playing basketball.

She’s VERY popular

And talks a lot, and is not apologizing for that.

300+

Podcasts Recorded

I’ve recorded over 300 of my own episodes for Unf*ck your Biz with Braden in addition to being a guest on all these fabulous shows.

TEAM BESTIES -

TEAM BESTIES -

Our clients are our Besties, which makes our team “Team Besties.” That’s called branding baby. Meet our amazing team.

  • BREE (she/her) - TAX SPECIALIST

    Bree is our fabulous team tax specialist. She works with clients preparing tax returns doing monthly bookkeeping and facilitates weekly office hours with our course students and membership members.

    Bree is based out of Palm Coast, Florida.

  • CONNIE (she/her) - STUDENT SUCCESS COORDINATOR

    Connie’s #1 job is to support our students and members through our various programs. She runs co-working calls, answer questions, and troubleshoots any issues.

    Connie lives in Milford, Delaware.

  • MJ (they/them) - Associate Attorney

    MJ works primarily with clients in our monthly legal subscription, Legal Rx, drafting contracts, filing trademarks, doing legal research, and lots, lots more.

    MJ is based out of Greensboro, North Carolina.

  • EMILY (she/her) - MARKETING MANAGER

    Emily runs the marketing ship around here organizing our podcast, promotions, partnerships, and more.

    Emily works out of Budd Lake, New Jersey

  • SHANDRA (she/her) - Customer Support Specialist

    Shandra manages our customer support inbox in addition to assisting with tech support and community management.

    Shandra is based out of Miramar, Florida.

The Journey to NOT AVG LAW

My first business was Braden Drake Law. I started out offering 1-hour, $100 consultation. The price was low, but I was fresh out of school, and didn’t know exactly how much help I’d be able to give. After dozens of consults, I quickly assembled a list of the FAQs for our industry.

I used that as the basis for my first big course, Unf*ck Your Biz, a 10-week group coaching experience. About 75 folks went through that $2,000 program. It helped people tackle their back taxes, untangle their numbers, form their LLCs, and streamline their contracts.

I then pivoted the program into a membership now called Profit Rx, your prescription to build a healthy and wealthy business. We currently have about 170 members and counting.

I’d closed the law firm to focus on the education business and started referring my students and members out to other lawyers and tax pros. But there were some issues.

I couldn’t find a tax professional to whom I could give a glowing recommendation, and my luck referring lawyers was so-so. Additionally, I saw a big opportunity. Oftentimes, business owners don’t know if they need a lawyer, bookkeeper, or tax professional. Some tax professionals provide legal work they shouldn’t, and some lawyers give terrible tax advice. And then sometimes, things just fall through the cracks because both sides say “that’s not my problem.”

For all these reasons, I figured it was time to bring the law firm back, but this time with a bang to address each of these issues.

She’s an educator

Whether it’s on stage, on TikTok, on a zoom call, in a classroom, I love to see (or read about) the light bulb moments.

75+

Speaking Engagements Spoken

many

social media impressions

Want me to speak to your people?

There are few things I love more than a captive audience, whether it’s a summit, online course, membership, or in person event, I’d love to talk to your people. If you think I’d be a good fit, email Emily, my marketing manager, at marketing@bradendrake.com with any key details.

She’s an athlete

If you ever messaged me on Instagram, my preferred form of communication, there’s a 25% chance you’ll get a voice memo from me while running.

If I’m not training for a marathon or triathlon, you might find me at the CrossFit box, rock climbing gym, tennis court, or pickle-ball place.

4

IRONMANS finished

5

Marathons Ran

500+

CrossFit Workouts Completed

1000s

Of Naps Taken