Good Reads Q&A: Lawyer and Social Media Sensation Writes First Book

With his gentle Beaumont accent and earnest expression, Jefferson Fisher, BBA ’10, has become a rising star on the video platforms of TikTok and Instagram Reels, amassing tens of millions of views on his most popular video shorts that teach people how to be better communicators. With more than a decade of experience as a board-certified attorney, Fisher winces a bit at the term “content creator,” but he’s about to add yet another surprising title to his resume: published author.  

Fisher’s The Next Conversation was published by TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House, on March 18, 2025. In the book, Fisher offers practical strategies and phrases for handling your next big conversation, from de-escalating a difficult family member to succeeding at a meeting. Ahead of its release and the international book tour, Fisher sat down with the Alcalde to chart his rise from McCombs student to one of the leading voices on real-world communication.  

How did you go from the courtroom to content creation?  

I was at a law firm for a little over 10 years. I had made partner, which is great, but it was just not doing it for me. I couldn’t get creative or do things that I wanted to do to gain business. I was full of energy ... so I thought, I want to start my own law firm. I broke off and started my own firm [in Beaumont, Texas,] in January 2022.  

I made my very first Reel [that month], and it was just to my 800 followers who were all from law school and college, saying, “Hey, y’all, I’m about to start my own firm. I’m going to figure out what Reels is about. Love you.” I made a few videos about my law firm, and of course, nobody liked them. Nobody saw them ... I thought, What’s something that I can share with people for free that I know better than anyone else? Well, I’ll tell them how to communicate. I’m an attorney. People think attorneys argue a lot. I’ll give them some tips.  

I made my first “How to Argue Like a Lawyer” video in [April] of ’22, but I wasn’t consistent [with posting] ... And then in February ’23, I had four videos that just started going bananas. I was gaining 100,000 to 150,000 followers a day. I thought Instagram was broken. All of my analytics froze. Notifications? I couldn’t see them, couldn’t see anything. So I was like, “Well, that was fun. It’s done. I broke it.” And then on the other side of it, I came back to 2 million followers. It just kept going from there, and it hasn’t really stopped.  

Have you always had a creative instinct?  

I actually thought I was going to study music in college. While I was at UT, I played in bands and worked for a studio. I mean, even doing Mock Trial [as a student] was very creative. You’re putting on a show. I’ve always been a ham.  

I do a lot of songwriting, but I never thought of writing a book. It never, ever, ever crossed my mind. It wasn’t until maybe the fall of ’22 when every other comment was, “Please write a book.” And I thought, Well, I guess I need to learn how to write a book. It felt like my community was asking for it, so I needed to deliver it to them.  

It’s like, if someone came up to you or knocked on your door and said, “Hey, by the way, you’re going to be doing something in a year that is nowhere on your radar right now—you can’t even imagine what it would be—and a whole lot of people are going to watch you do it.” Every day is just—what is this? It’s wild.  

So many of your videos are just you and the camera, so why did you decide to focus on dialogue between people for your book?  

The idea for the book was, let me teach you how I think about communication so that, once you read this book, you don’t need me anymore. What you see on social media is the very top level of communication. Let me teach you what’s underneath and pull back the curtain. Here’s a framework that, if you use this, you don’t have to study every video.  

That’s how I came up with my rule of three: Say it with control, say it with confidence, and say it to connect. I want people to know that, for the vast majority of their lives, people experience them only by what they say. Their reputations are solely based on what comes out of their mouths and how it comes out of their mouths.  

I wrote it all myself. I wanted to make sure my audience heard my voice in it—that was really important to me.  

What is next for you after the book launch and tour?  

I started a membership program in January [called the Jefferson Fisher School of Communication, in partnership with Texas Executive Education at UT’s McCombs School of Business]. I’m starting out small and still feeling through where I want to take it.  

This has been such a beast of a project, and it’s been so humbling to have so many people behind it who want it, and the opportunities it’s led to. It’s really just jaw-dropping for me here in small-town Texas ... They have advertisements of my book in subways and buses in Australia. I’ve never been to some of these places! I mean, you’re looking at somebody who didn’t think I’d ever be doing any of this, so Lord knows I’m not going to try to forecast what I’m going to be doing two years from now.

This interview has been edited and condensed. 

CREDIT: Angi Lewis