Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / Why Solos Aren’t 7-Figure Law Firm Owners

Transcript

Why Solos Aren’t 7-Figure Law Firm Owners · Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love

• 0:03
  Davina Frederick: In today's episode of the wealthy woman
• 0:05
  lawyer podcast, I want to discuss something that most law
• 0:08
  firm coaches are afraid to tell you. It is highly unlikely to
• 0:12
  achieve seven figures in a law firm business, if you are still
• 0:16
  operating as a solo. Yes, even if you have one or two staffers
• 0:22
  working for you, it's a hot topic. And we're gonna get into
• 0:25
  it today. If you are a solo and you're listening to this
• 0:28
  thinking, Davina, that's not true, don't crush my dreams, I
• 0:32
  hear you. And I encourage you to please hear me out because after
• 0:36
  nine years, almost 10 of helping women law firm owners scale
• 0:39
  their law firm businesses, I would never want to crush
• 0:43
  someone's dream or tell them about quote unquote, reality. If
• 0:47
  you have listened to me for any length of time, you know, I
• 0:50
  believe we create our own realities. What that means to me
• 0:54
  is that we have the ability to create what we want to see in
• 0:58
  the world. But the journey to get there may not be the one we
• 1:02
  envisioned. Sometimes the universe has other ideas. So
• 1:06
  certainly that's been my experience, you may have
• 1:09
  something very a goal clearly mapped out in your mind and the
• 1:13
  plan of how you want to get there. And sometimes oftentimes,
• 1:20
  we don't get to follow our plan exactly, because the world has
• 1:25
  other ideas for us. And the journey is a little bit messier
• 1:29
  than we anticipate. But before we get into it, I want to tell
• 1:32
  you that I'm devoting all of October to this concept of
• 1:37
  expansion. That's expanding your mental and emotional capacity
• 1:41
  for more of what you want. But more specifically, expanding
• 1:45
  your capacity to shift from being a doer and implementer
• 1:50
  working your butt off in your law firm business to being a
• 1:54
  CEO, a visionary, and a leader of a high impact law firm
• 1:59
  business. I'm seeing far too many women law firm owners still
• 2:03
  playing small, because they are worried about the how, how can I
• 2:08
  afford to hire another attorney? How will I find time to train my
• 2:12
  staff? How will I lead when I'm still trying to figure it all
• 2:16
  out myself? More than 50% of the women law firm owners in a
• 2:20
  recent poll I conducted told me that they are still solos, many
• 2:25
  of them true solos, doing everything themselves. I
• 2:29
  understand starting out that way, because that's what I did.
• 2:32
  And that's how a lot of people start out. But within the first
• 2:35
  year, it's time to begin to hire help. Even if you need to hire a
• 2:39
  virtual remote or independent contractor, getting someone to
• 2:42
  answer your phones, hiring a part time assistant. Those are
• 2:47
  the kinds of things we can expect to be doing in the first
• 2:50
  year. But what I'm really talking about are women who have
• 2:54
  been doing this for a while. And maybe two, three years, five to
• 2:58
  seven years, some might not have gotten close to 10 years, being
• 3:03
  so close with one or two assistants. And these really are
• 3:06
  the groups that I'm talking to here. Those folks who, who are
• 3:11
  still functioning without the fully realized team that they
• 3:15
  need to have. I've known women law firm owners who've gotten
• 3:18
  all the way up to a half million dollars in gross annual revenue
• 3:22
  with only one or two staffers. But they were so burned out at
• 3:27
  that point that they couldn't see strain. One client of mine
• 3:31
  who was in her 30s while they're in the hospital thinking she was
• 3:35
  having a heart attack by doing this very thing. When she hired
• 3:38
  me, the first homework assignment I gave her was to
• 3:42
  completely unplug for about four or five days. And she had to do
• 3:47
  that because before she could begin to even start thinking
• 3:52
  strategically about her business, she had to really rest
• 3:55
  that brain and rest her body and calm down her nervous system so
• 4:01
  that we could actually have clear thought, clear thought and
• 4:05
  clarity around what she wanted. So here's the thing, what got
• 4:10
  you here, going to college passing the LSAT going to law
• 4:13
  school, passing the bar, becoming a lawyer hanging out
• 4:17
  your shingle, it's not the same thing that's going to get you to
• 4:20
  the next level. If you are like most middle class Americans like
• 4:24
  me, you have been taught to believe that hard work or a
• 4:28
  strong work ethic is the key to success. And while that that has
• 4:35
  that has a role, it has a place. The unvarnished truth of the
• 4:39
  matter is that there are many, many people who work their
• 4:42
  fingers to the bone every day and never become wealthy. These
• 4:48
  are good, honest, hardworking people. I know very many, and
• 4:53
  I'm sure you do too.
• 4:55
  The journey to wealth requires something different. It requires
• 4:59
  trust. transforming the way you think about how you get things
• 5:02
  done. It requires you to develop your mental and emotional
• 5:06
  capacity for wealth, and leverage and connections and
• 5:10
  other things. It requires you to shift from being a dreamer to
• 5:15
  being a visionary, from being an implementer, to being a leader
• 5:20
  from being a solo to being a CEO. Now, I know that there will
• 5:26
  be people who may point to and say, well, she's a solo. And
• 5:30
  she's also a millionaire, there are certainly people out there
• 5:33
  that it appears that that is how they function, it may appear
• 5:37
  that way from the outside looking in. But I can assure you
• 5:40
  based on the hundreds and hundreds of conversations I have
• 5:43
  had over the past decade, with many women, business owners, if
• 5:47
  they are millionaires, they have had some kind of help getting
• 5:51
  there. Even if they didn't hire employees, they have a team of
• 5:55
  some kind, people who support them, people who do for them,
• 5:58
  maybe their vas, independent contractors. There are all kinds
• 6:04
  of support systems available to people in this modern age with
• 6:10
  technology and automation, where you you don't need the full
• 6:14
  staff that maybe you did a decade ago or two decades ago.
• 6:20
  Before we wrap up today, though, I want to help you identify
• 6:24
  whether you need to work on expanding your mental emotional
• 6:28
  capacity for wealth. So you can expand your law firm business.
• 6:32
  So I want you to take a minute now and answer these questions.
• 6:36
  If you are where you can, you're listening to this someplace
• 6:39
  where you're seated, and you can write down your answers. That
• 6:44
  would be great. But if you are in the car, most of these are
• 6:47
  sort of yes or no questions. You're in the car, or you're out
• 6:51
  walking, you can also answer these mentally in your mind. And
• 6:57
  that will work as well. Okay, so number one, do you feel like you
• 7:01
  never get everything done on your to do list? Even if you
• 7:05
  were to work? 24 hours, seven days a week? Do you want to hire
• 7:11
  help? But you worry that they will do it right? And you'll
• 7:16
  have to either do it over? Or have your reputation ruined? If
• 7:20
  they do it wrong? Perhaps you've hired somebody before and had
• 7:24
  that experience? Do you fear losing control over the details
• 7:29
  of clients cases and being out of the loop? Are you afraid
• 7:34
  others will screw up? And you'll have to pay the price? Do you
• 7:39
  think you are the only person who can serve your clients
• 7:42
  adequately? Do you ever feel like you're just faking it and
• 7:47
  hoping others don't find out? Even though there's no evidence
• 7:50
  that this will occur? Are you intimidated by setting up
• 7:55
  systems and automation? Are you intimidated by technology? And
• 7:59
  is that keep you from embracing some of the tools out there? Do
• 8:04
  you think you have to know all the answers to everything in
• 8:08
  your business? Especially before you start making changes or
• 8:13
  growing? Do you worry about money all the time? Whether it's
• 8:18
  in your bank account or not? So whether you're flush at the
• 8:22
  moment, or you're not flushed at the moment? Are you always
• 8:25
  thinking worrying about money? Do you fear making investments
• 8:28
  in your business because you're worried you'll make an unwise
• 8:31
  decision and look foolish? Do you want a team in theory but
• 8:36
  feel overwhelmed by the idea of hiring them and then training
• 8:40
  them? And perhaps one day having to terminate someone? Are you
• 8:45
  delegating everything but those activities that are the highest
• 8:48
  and best use of your time? Do you even know what activities
• 8:53
  are the highest and best use of your time? Do you know how much
• 8:56
  revenue you've made in the last year in your law firms business
• 8:59
  without saying I'll have to check with my accountant on
• 9:03
  that. How much did you make in profit, your monthly average
• 9:08
  revenue expenses and profit or the cost to acquire a new
• 9:12
  client? If these questions as I'm reading them out, and are
• 9:17
  making you feel sweaty, your palms sweaty, nervous, like
• 9:23
  you're gonna have a panic attack. Don't the reason I'm
• 9:27
  asking them is not to freak you out. The reason I'm asking him
• 9:32
  is because I want to help you open your eyes to why you don't
• 9:39
  have the capacity yet for to grow, own and operate a million
• 9:43
  dollar or more law firm business. Because there is a lot
• 9:47
  to learn and a lot of foundations that you need to
• 9:50
  have in place for you to scale to that
• 9:53
  if I handed you most solos actually the key to a million
• 9:58
  dollar law firm today. As I said, Here you go run it, you've
• 10:02
  got a team of, you know, 1020 people. It's a multimillion
• 10:07
  dollar firm, you will probably freak out. Why because you
• 10:11
  haven't allowed yourself time to develop the skills that you need
• 10:17
  to be a CEO of our high revenue generating business. We grow
• 10:23
  into being the CEO of a business, it is not something
• 10:28
  that we flip a switch, and automatically you are a CEO. Not
• 10:34
  not working day in and day out in your business. If I added 100
• 10:41
  new clients to your docket in 90 days, you probably freak out.
• 10:44
  Why? Because your firm does not yet have the capacity. And you
• 10:48
  very quickly be in over your head and you'd be absolutely
• 10:51
  normal, you'd be absolutely normal. This is a step by step
• 10:55
  process. And so what we want to do is learn to fall in love, and
• 11:00
  embrace the growth process to get where we want. What I want
• 11:05
  you to take away from this episode is that just because
• 11:08
  you're not ready yet to own and operate a million dollar law
• 11:11
  firm does not mean you can't and won't get there. The next step
• 11:16
  is to work on your mindset and be honest with yourself about
• 11:19
  where you are. And the second step is to ask for help getting
• 11:25
  there. Ask for help, can I get the tools that I need? Right?
• 11:33
  What tools or resources are available to me to help me get
• 11:37
  there? If you'd like to join the wealthy woman lawyer community,
• 11:40
  I invite you to sign up for our email list. Join our Facebook
• 11:44
  community or follow us on Instagram at wealthy woman
• 11:47
  lawyer you can also connect with me on LinkedIn. You also may
• 11:51
  visit our website at WWW dot wealthy woman lawyer.com To
• 11:55
  learn more about us and how we help women law firm owners
• 11:58
  become wealthy women lawyers. If you've enjoyed this episode,
• 12:02
  please leave us a review on our pot on your podcast app. Every
• 12:06
  five star review helps us get more women lawyers tuning in.
• 12:11
  And we so so appreciate it. All month long. I will be sharing
• 12:16
  new resources to help you learn to be a better manager, a leader
• 12:22
  good at hiring and cultivating curating a top performing team
• 12:28
  and this becoming the CEO of a profitable sustainable law firm
• 12:32
  business. So be sure to stay tuned and get connected. And I
• 12:38
  thank you so much for being here.