Thanks to his high school dual credit courses from Missouri Western and a tremendous drive, Kevin
Kevin Puckett ’15, right, and Justin Turner ’18. Puckett is president and CEO of On the Top Search, and Turner is vice president.
Puckett ’15 graduated from Missouri Western in May 2015, went on to law school, graduated in December 2017, passed his Missouri Bar exam in April 2018 and became one of the youngest lawyers in the state at age 23. He is currently a partner at Puckett Law Firm, P.C. in Cameron, Mo. where he practices with his mother and his brother.
“I arrived at Missouri Western with an outrageous goal – I wanted to graduate in two years,” Puckett said. “The great thing about my advisor, Suzanne Kissock, is that she never treated my goal as outrageous.” In fact, she encouraged Puckett to consider an even more outrageous goal – with Missouri Western’s early acceptance program to University of Missouri-Kansas City’s law school, why not push for one-and-a-half years?
Despite being raised in a family of attorneys, he did think about other careers for several years, but his thoughts kept leading him back to law.
Puckett, who practices criminal and family law, says he loves almost every aspect of his job and he wants to help as many people as he can. He believes the United States has a “substantial access-to-justice issue,” and often, an attorney is a person’s last (or only) line of defense.
But apparently, one career isn’t enough for him. When Puckett was in his first year of law school, he started a full-service digital marketing firm, On The Top Search, and today serves as its president and CEO. On The Top Search currently has 10 employees and offices in Kansas City, Missouri; Cameron, Missouri; and Omaha, Nebraska.
He said growing a business while in law school put him a step ahead of his cohort, because business skills aren’t taught in law school, and many of his law-school classmates didn’t realize the amount of business skills needed to run a private practice.
And how does he keep up with both his law practice and marketing business? The attorney/president and CEO keeps a meticulous schedule that includes everything from appointments to meditation to workouts. If it isn’t on the schedule, it won’t get done.
Puckett says he “exercises his brain” every day by listening to podcasts. His go-to list includes The Model Health Show, The GaryVee Audio Experience, Tim Ferriss Show (also his favorite author) and the Waking Up Podcast. His secret to having time to listen to so many podcasts? Sort out the episodes that are irrelevant, and play the relevant ones at two-times speed.
Puckett, always goal-driven, plans to grow On The Top Search while he continues to practice law, and political aspirations aren’t out of the question.
But he has another goal, maybe his most outrageous goal of all – breaking the stereotype that millennials are lazy and don’t care about anything. He says millennials just don’t care about things that are without purpose. Once they find their purpose, they pour their heart and soul into it.
Pretty sure Puckett would know.