LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Sam Aguiar has been a personal injury lawyer since 2008.

“It’s a tough field, but it’s a rewarding field,” Aguiar said.

In December 2024, he decided to go beyond the courtroom and put up billboards around town with motivational messages.

“I designed them myself,” Aguiar said. He sent them to his billboard representative and told them to get the billboards up before he changed his mind.

“I know it sounds a little crazy,” he said.

Simple messages for difficult times

Aguiar said the plan was to make the messages simple so they would resonate with people.

“I remember there was ‘Believe in yourself.’ There was ‘Good vibes only today.’ There was ‘Stay strong’—very short messages, you know—hoping to speak to different people who may be going through different times,” he said.

Since December, Aguiar has put up about 60 billboards in high-traffic areas around Louisville.

The response was immediate. More than 2,000 people have reached out through phone calls, emails, texts, and social media.

“I was getting messages from trauma nurses who said they saw some by the hospitals that really braced them for what they knew was going to be another tough shift. We’d gotten a great message from a cancer patient who was driving up from E-town a few days a week to go through chemo, and she said that when those messages popped up, it gave her a little bit of a boost. We had EMTs reach out. We had some teachers reach out. We had single moms reach out. It was awesome,” Aguiar said.

Aguiar has also had fun with the campaign. One billboard near the fairgrounds references a social media trend his 13-year-old would recognize.

“I figured if you can’t beat them, join them,” he said. “Maybe Mom and Dad up front will, you know, like being reminded that they’re a 10. And then maybe their kiddos in the back will see six, seven and start doing whatever that little motion is at six, seven.”

Not about business

Aguiar said the goal was never about generating business, though some new clients have come his way.

“It’s not hard to remind people that they’re important, that they’re loved, that they’re making a difference, um, and that they make the world a better place,” he said.

Aguiar has spent more than half a million dollars on the campaign and wants to continue it.