Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / Episode 321: 7 Tiny Habits to Shift from Working "In" Your Law Firm to Working "On" Your Law Firm

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Episode 321: 7 Tiny Habits to Shift from Working "In" Your Law Firm to Working "On" Your Law Firm · Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love

• 0:01
  Intro: Welcome to the wealthy woman lawyer podcast. What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers, ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team, and systems, mastering money issues, and more? Then take an insight or two to help you build a wealth generating law firm. Each week, your host, Devina Frederick, takes an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve and will pay you on time, and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love. Devina is founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer, and her goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund and still have time to enjoy the lifestyle of your dreams.
• 0:47
  Now here's Davina.
• 1:01
  Davina: Welcome to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast where we help women law firm owners cultivate the mindset, strategies, and systems to scale their firms to and through $1,000,000 in gross annual revenue. I'm your host, Attorney Devina Frederick and founder of Wealthy Woman Lawyer. And today, we're talking about something that I know plagues so many of you listening right now. You opened your law firm because you wanted freedom, flexibility, and the ability to build something of your own. But instead, you find yourself buried in client work, drowning in emails, constantly putting out fires, and never, and I mean never finding time to actually work on growing your business.
• 1:41
  You're working in your firm all day, every day, and you know you should be working on your firm, building systems, developing your team, creating marketing strategies, planning for growth, but there's just no time. There's always another client email, another court deadline, another crisis that needs your immediate attention. And here's what happens. Months go by, then years go by, and your firm looks exactly the same. Same revenue, same problems, same exhaustion.
• 2:12
  You're stuck in a cycle that blunts your growth. Sound familiar? Well, today I'm going to share with you seven tiny habits that will help you make the shift from working in your firm to working on your firm. And I'm calling them tiny habits very intentionally because I know you don't have time for a massive overhaul. You need small, actionable changes that you can implement immediately and that will create significant results over time.
• 2:39
  These are the exact habits that my most successful clients use to transform from solo practitioners who do everything themselves to CEOs who lead thriving, profitable law firms. So, open your notes app, settle in, and let's dive into these seven game changing habits. Before we jump into the habits, I want to tell you why this matters so much. I want to be really honest with you about what's at stake. When you spend 100% of your time working in your firm, doing the legal work, responding to clients, managing cases, going to court, you are essentially trading time for money.
• 3:18
  You are a highly paid employee in your own business, and there's a very hard ceiling on how much you can earn and how much you can grow because there's only one of you and there are only so many hours in a day. But when you start working on your firm, when you're building systems, developing marketing strategies, hiring and training team members, creating scalable processes, you are building an actual business. You are creating leverage. You are multiplying your law firm's impact and revenue and your personal income. And here's the thing, it doesn't require a massive time commitment to start.
• 3:55
  You don't need to suddenly add forty more hours to your week. You need to reallocate how you're spending the hours you're already working. This is going to require you to also shift how you think not only about your law firm business, but also your role in it. Other people can collect discovery, file cases, order office supplies, even go to court. But there is only one person who can formulate and hold the vision for your law firm business and ensure that it gets executed, and that's you.
• 4:26
  If you can shift just 20% of your time, that's about eight hours a week, from working in your firm to working on your firm, you will see dramatic changes within ninety days, guaranteed. So let's talk about how to make that shift through seven tiny but powerful habits. Tiny habit number one, protect your CEO hour every morning. This is the foundational habit, and it's nonnegotiable for every successful law firm owner I work with. Here's what I want you to do every single morning before you check email, before you look at your phone, before you dive into client work, you're gonna spend one hour on CEO activities.
• 5:07
  I call this your CEO hour, and it is a sacred time. This is when you work on your business, not in it. When you implement it, it sends a signal to your brain that you are committed to growing a successful law firm business. During your CEO hour, you might review your financial dashboard and metrics, plan your marketing activities for the week, work on your hiring system, work on a new client process or system, prepare for a team meeting or training, develop a presentation or thought leadership content, strategize about a business development opportunity, map out your growth plan for the quarter. The specific activity will vary, but the principle is the same.
• 5:48
  You are doing CEO level work that moves your business forward strategically. Now I can already hear some of you saying, Devina, I don't have an extra hour in the morning. My schedule is packed. And here's what I want you to understand. You're not adding an hour to your day.
• 6:05
  You're protecting an hour that you're probably already wasting on low value activities. Think about what you typically do first thing in the morning. You probably check your email. Right? And then you spend the next hour or two or three responding to whatever's in there.
• 6:21
  You're letting other people's priorities dictate your day before you've even had coffee. Or maybe you're scrolling social media or reading the news or getting sucked into administrative tasks that could wait or be delegated. What if you took that same hour and invested it in your business instead? Here's how to make this habit stick. First, schedule it.
• 6:41
  Block 8AM to 9AM or whatever hour works for you on your calendar every single day. Treat it like a court appearance. It's not optional. It's not movable. Second, prepare the night before.
• 6:55
  Before you leave your office each day, write down what you're going to work on during your CEO hour the next morning. That way, you don't waste time deciding what to do. You show up and you execute. Third, eliminate distractions. Close your email.
• 7:10
  Put your phone on airplane mode. Shut your office door. Hang up a do not disturb sign. Wear noise canceling headphones if you need to. This hour is yours.
• 7:20
  I had a client who resisted this habit for weeks. She kept saying, I'll try it when things slow down. And I finally said to her, things are never gonna slow down. You have to create the space. She reluctantly committed to it.
• 7:33
  And within two weeks, she told me it was the most transformative change she'd made in her business. She was finally making progress on the strategic projects she'd been putting off for months. She felt more in control, more like a CEO and less like a frazzled lawyer. So that's tiny habit number one, protect your CEO hour every morning. Tiny habit number two, don't check email first thing in the morning.
• 7:57
  This one is related to habit number one, but it's important enough to call out separately. Email is one of the biggest productivity killers for law firm owners. And the worst thing you can do is check it first thing in the morning because it immediately puts you in reactive mode. You open your inbox, and suddenly you're responding to client emergencies, dealing with opposing counsel, putting out fires. Basically, you are letting other people hijack your top priorities.
• 8:25
  And before you know it, it's noon and you haven't done a single thing that moves your business forward. Email is other people's agenda for your life. And when you check it first thing in the morning, you're essentially saying, Everyone else's priorities are more important than mine. So here's the habit no email before your CEO hour, no email before 9AM or 10AM, whatever time works for your schedule. Personally, I recommend not checking your email until 11:30, and then only for a half an hour.
• 8:56
  You can check it again at 04:30. If you are worried you might miss something, you can have your assistant keep an eye out on anything critical or anything you're waiting for. I know this feels scary. You're worried you'll miss something urgent. But here's the truth, very few things are urgent.
• 9:13
  And the things that are truly urgent will find you through other channels. And if you're really worried about it, you can set up an autoresponder that says something like, Thank you for your email. I check and respond to emails twice daily at 11:30AM and 4PM. If you have an urgent matter, please call my office at phone number. This sets expectations and trains your clients and colleagues to respect your time.
• 9:40
  But here's what's even more powerful. When you're not constantly checking email, you batch your responses. You handle email twice a day for a focused block of time, rather than letting it interrupt you all day long. You'll be amazed at how much more productive you become when you're not constantly context switching between email and focused work. One of my clients implemented this habit and realized she was saving at least ninety minutes a day by not checking email first thing and by batching her responses.
• 10:11
  Ninety minutes. That's seven point five hours a week. That's almost an entire workday that she reclaimed just by changing when and how she dealt with email. So tiny habit number two, don't check email first thing in the morning. Protect your focus and your priorities.
• 10:29
  Tiny habit number three, hold a weekly business meeting with yourself. This is one of the most overlooked habits, and it's one of the most powerful. Most law firm owners are so busy working in the business that they never step back to look at the business. They never ask themselves what's working, what's not working, where are we headed, what needs my attention. Here's what I want you to do.
• 10:53
  Every single week, schedule a one hour business meeting with yourself. This is different from your daily CEO hour. Your CEO hour is for execution. You're working on specific projects and tasks. Your weekly business meeting is for reflection and planning.
• 11:09
  You're looking at the big picture. During this meeting, you're going to review your numbers. How much revenue did you bring in this week? How many new leads? How many consultations?
• 11:19
  How many new clients? What were your expenses? Are you on track to hit your monthly and quarterly goals? Your calendar. What does next week look like?
• 11:28
  Are you overbooked on client work? Do you have enough time blocked for business development and CEO activities? Are there any conflicts or scheduling issues you need to address? Your priorities. What are the top three things you need to accomplish next week to move your business forward?
• 11:45
  Not the top 10 things. The top three. Get laser focused. Your challenges. What obstacles came up this week?
• 11:52
  What's blocking your progress? What do you need to problem solve or get support on it? I recommend doing this meeting on Friday afternoon or Monday morning, whatever works better for your schedule. I personally like Friday afternoons because it allows me to close out the week mentally and start the weekend without carrying business stress with me. Here's what this habit does.
• 12:14
  It keeps you connected to your business metrics and trajectory. It prevents you from drifting through months without realizing you're off track. It forces you to be intentional about how you're spending your time. And here's a pro tip. Document these meetings.
• 12:29
  Keep a running journal or spreadsheet where you track your weekly numbers, priorities, insights. Over time, you'll start to see patterns. You'll see what strategies are working and what aren't. You'll have data to make better decisions. One of my clients started doing weekly business meetings and realized she was spending 30% of her time on a practice area that only generated 10% of her revenue.
• 12:53
  That insight led her to strategically phase out that practice area and double down on the services that were actually profitable. That one decision increased her revenue by $80,000 in six months. So tiny habit number three, hold a weekly business meeting with yourself. Tiny habit number four, implement the two minute decision rule. Okay, this habit is all about preventing yourself from becoming the bottleneck in your own business.
• 13:22
  Here's what typically happens. You have team members, or maybe you're starting to delegate some tasks, and every decision comes to you. Should I send this email to the client? Should I order more office supplies? Should I schedule this deposition for Tuesday or Wednesday?
• 13:38
  And you answer every single question because you want things done right. But what's really happening is that you're training your team to be dependent on you. You're creating a culture where nothing moves forward without your explicit approval. And that keeps you stuck working in the business instead of on it. Here's the two minute decision rule.
• 14:00
  If a decision would take you less than two minutes to make, empower someone else to make it. This means your paralegal can schedule routine depositions without asking you. Your assistant can order standard office supplies within a budget. Your associate can send standard correspondence to clients using your templates. These are not high stakes decisions.
• 14:22
  They're routine operational decisions that absolutely do not need to go through you. Now, I know what you're thinking, but what if they make the wrong decision? And here's what I want you to understand. They probably will sometimes, and that's okay. That's how people learn.
• 14:39
  And the cost of an occasional minor mistake is far less than the cost of you being the bottleneck on every single decision in your business. Plus, when you empower your team to make decisions, you build their confidence and capability. You develop leaders, not order takers. Here's the best way to implement this habit. First, identify the categories of decisions that you currently make that could be delegated.
• 15:06
  Write them down. Be specific. Second, create guidelines or criteria for each category. For example, you can order office supplies up to $200 per month without approval. Anything over that, check with me first.
• 15:20
  Third, communicate this clearly to your team. Tell them, I'm empowering you to make these decisions. I trust you. If you're not sure, make your best judgment call, and we'll learn together. Fourth, resist the urge to micromanage.
• 15:34
  When someone makes a decision you might have made differently, unless it's causing a real problem, let it go. Remember, different doesn't mean wrong. This habit is about creating space in your day and in your mental bandwidth. Every decision you're not making is time and energy. You can invest in CEO level work.
• 15:53
  This was a tiny habit that changed my life. A mentor once told me, Devina, you can control all the details or you can grow, but you cannot do both. Now, I empower others to make decisions, and before I take something back or make a revision or try to undo what they've done, I ask myself, Is this sufficient? Most of the times it is, even if it's not exactly how I would have done it, whatever it is. So Tiny Habit four: Implement the two minute decision rule and stop being the bottleneck.
• 16:25
  Tiny habit five: Time Block for Business Development Every Week Here's a pattern I see all the time. Law firm owners say they want to grow their business, but they never actually make time for business development. They're always too busy with client work and relying on whatever walks in the door or gets referred to them. It is critical if you want to grow a wildly or even mildly successful law firm business that you create and implement a client attraction system. I discussed that in last week's episode.
• 16:57
  If you want to go back and listen to what I shared about client attraction systems in more detail, ultimately, as you grow your law firm, you may hire outsource a lot of business development activities, and I highly recommend you do, but that does not mean you should ever lose sight of the vision of how you want your law firm to be perceived in the marketplace. Just remember this business development isn't something you do when you have time. It's something you schedule. Just like you schedule client meetings and court appearances, it's something you consistently make time for. That's the only way you'll ever get out of the feast or famine cycle and the only way you'll ever bust through the revenue ceiling.
• 17:41
  Here's the habit. Every single week, block at least three to five hours for business development activities. This might include meeting with referral sources, working with your team to create content for social media, speaking at events, or hosting webinars, networking strategically, following up with past clients, optimizing your online presence, developing strategic partnerships, meeting with your SEO or ads expert. The specific activities will depend on your practice area, where you are in your law firm growth journey. For instance, do you have more time than money right now?
• 18:19
  And your business model. But the principle is the same. You are proactively building your pipeline, not just waiting for the phone to ring. And here's what's critical. You schedule this time first before you schedule client work.
• 18:32
  You protect it the same way you would protect a court appearance. I recommend blocking this time in a recurring pattern. Maybe it's every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Maybe it's every Wednesday morning. Find what works for your schedule and stick to it.
• 18:48
  And when client work tries to encroach on this time and it will, you say no. You reschedule the client meeting. You have boundaries. Because here's the truth. If you don't proactively build your business, you will always be at the mercy of whatever comes in.
• 19:03
  You'll have no control over your revenue, your growth, or your future. But when you consistently invest time in business development, you create a steady pipeline. You're never desperate for the next client because you know more are coming. You can be selective about who you work with. You can raise your rates with confidence.
• 19:22
  One of my clients was terrified to block time for business development because she felt like she couldn't afford to turn down billable work. But I challenged her to try it for ninety days. She blocked four hours every week for business development. Within sixty days, her pipeline was so full that she began looking to hire more help. And within six months, she'd increased her revenue by 40% because she was attracting better clients at higher rates.
• 19:49
  Four hours a week, that's all it took to completely transform her business. Tiny habit number five. Recap. Time block for business development every single week. Make it nonnegotiable.
• 20:01
  Tiny habit number six. Use the delegation checklist before doing any task. This habit is simple but incredibly powerful. Before you do any task, I want you to ask yourself three questions. Question one, Does this task require my specific expertise and judgment, or could someone else do it?
• 20:22
  Be honest here. Most law firm owners greatly overestimate the number of tasks that require their specific expertise. Do you need to be the one scheduling appointments, drafting routine correspondence, filing documents, updating your case management system? No, you don't. Question two, what is the dollar per hour value of my time, and what is the dollar per hour cost of this task?
• 20:45
  Let's say you bill at $350 an hour, and let's say you're spending an hour doing administrative work that you could hire someone to do for $25 an hour. And that means you just lost $325 because you could have been doing $350 per hour work and paying someone $25 to do the administrative work, but instead you did the $25 work yourself. When you start thinking about tasks in terms of their dollar value, delegation becomes a no brainer. Question three: If I do this task myself, am I preventing someone on my team from developing this skill? This is the one that really gets my clients thinking because every time you do something yourself that someone else could do, you're not just wasting your time.
• 21:30
  You're preventing your team member from growing. You're keeping them dependent on you instead of building their capability. And that keeps you stuck. Here's the habit. Before you do any task, run through these three questions.
• 21:43
  And if the answer to question one is no, or if questions two and three reveal that delegation makes sense, then delegate it. Now I know some of you are thinking, but I don't have anyone to delegate to. And if that's true, that's your signal that it's time to hire. Even if it's just a virtual assistant for ten hours a week, or a part time paralegal, you must build the team that will allow you to focus on CEO work. But for many of you, you do have team members.
• 22:11
  You're just not fully utilizing them because you haven't built the habit of delegation. Start with this checklist. Make it a reflex. Before you dive into any task, pause and ask, Should I be doing this, or should someone else? Over time, you'll start to see patterns.
• 22:27
  You'll identify categories of work that should always be delegated, and you'll get better and better at leveraging your team. One of my clients used this checklist for just one week and identified twelve hours of work that she was doing that could easily be delegated to her paralegal. She delegated those tasks and suddenly she had twelve hours to work on her business instead of in it. She used that time to develop a new service offering that generated an additional $15,000 in revenue in the first month alone. Tiny Habit six: Use the delegation checklist before doing any task.
• 23:07
  Tiny Habit seven: Conduct a monthly metrics review. This final habit is all about staying connected to the numbers that drive your business. Most law firm owners operate on feelings rather than data. They feel like they're busy, so they assume the business is doing well. Or they feel stressed, so they assume something is wrong.
• 23:30
  But feelings are not reliable indicators of business health. Metrics are: Once a month, I recommend the first Monday of every month, you're going to spend thirty to sixty minutes reviewing your key business metrics. Here are the numbers you should be tracking. Revenue metrics, total revenue for the month, revenue by practice area, average case value, revenue per client, client acquisition metrics, number of leads, number of consultations, consultation to client conversion rate, number of new clients, cost per client acquisition, operational metrics, utilization rate how much of your time is billable, collection rate how much of your billed amount you actually collect, Average time to close a case Client satisfaction scores Financial health metrics Profit margin Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue Cash flow Accounts receivable Aging Now I know that sounds like a lot of numbers, but once you set up a simple dashboard, maybe in a spreadsheet or using practice management software, this review takes less than an hour. And here's what this habit does.
• 24:40
  It keeps you honest. It shows you what's really happening in your business, not what you think is happening. Maybe you think your marketing is working great, but the numbers show your lead volume is actually down 20% from last quarter. Now you know you need to address it. Or maybe you feel like you're working harder than ever, but your revenue is flat.
• 25:02
  The numbers might reveal that your average case value has decreased or your conversion rate has dropped. Now you can diagnose the problem. Or maybe you're worried that things aren't going well, but the numbers show you're ahead of your goals. Now you can relax a little and celebrate your progress. Numbers provide clarity.
• 25:20
  They remove emotion and assumption from the equation. They allow you to make strategic decisions based on facts. And when you review your numbers monthly, you catch problems early. You don't wait until December to realize you're off track. You see it in February, and you course correct.
• 25:38
  I had a client who avoided looking at her numbers because it stressed her out. But when we started doing monthly reviews together, she realized that knowing the numbers was less stressful than not knowing because knowledge gave her power to make changes. And within six months of tracking and reviewing her metrics monthly, she'd increased her revenue by 35% and her profit margin by 12%, all because she was making data driven decisions instead of flying blind. Tiny habit number seven, conduct a monthly metrics review. Know your numbers.
• 26:12
  Let them guide your strategy. Okay, let's recap these seven tiny habits that will shift you from working in your firm to working on your firm. Number one, protect your CEO hour every morning. Number two, don't check email first thing in the morning. Number three, hold a weekly business meeting with yourself.
• 26:32
  Number four, implement the two minute decision rule. Number five, time block for business development every week. Number six, use the delegation checklist before doing any task. Number seven, conduct a monthly metrics review. Now here's what I want you to understand.
• 26:48
  You don't have to implement all seven of these habits at once. That's not how behavior change works. Instead, pick one. Pick the one that resonates most with you or that you think will have the biggest impact on your business. Commit to it for thirty days, make it automatic, and then add another one.
• 27:05
  Because here's the beautiful thing about tiny habits. They compound. Each one seems small on its own, but when you stack them together, they create massive transformation. Imagine if six months from now, you've implemented all seven of these habits. You're spending an hour every day on CEO work, you've stopped letting email hijack your mornings, you're holding weekly business meetings and monthly metrics reviews, you're delegating effectively, you're consistently investing in business development.
• 27:36
  What would your business look like? What would your life look like? I can tell you what it looks like for my clients who've done this. They have more revenue, more profit, more freedom, and more joy in their work. They're no longer trapped in their businesses.
• 27:49
  They're leading them, And that's what I want for you. Now I know some of you are listening to this thinking, this all makes sense, Devina. I know I need to make these changes, but I don't know where to start. I don't know what my specific bottlenecks are. I don't know which habits would make the biggest difference for me specifically.
• 28:09
  And if that's you, I invite you to complete a practice growth assessment call with me or a member of my team. On this call, we'll look at where you are in your law firm growth journey now, where you want to go next, and the obstacles that are standing in your way. Then we'll present the next steps you can take immediately to begin your law firm transformation. No pressure, no hard sell, just real practical guidance to help you break through whatever's holding you back. But I want to be transparent with you.
• 28:39
  Spots for these Discover sessions are limited. I only open up a certain number each month because I want to make sure every person who schedules a call gets the time and attention they deserve. In my experience, these spots fill up quickly, especially at the beginning of the month when law firm owners are most motivated to make changes. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels, if you're ready to shift from working endless hours in your firm to actually building a business that works for you, up here and complete the Practice Growth Assessment right now. You also can get it by visiting our website at www.wealthywomanlawyer.com and clicking on the Apply Now button.
• 29:23
  I'll put the link in the show notes as well. All right, my friends, that's what I have for you today. Seven tiny habits to shift from working in your firm to working on your firm. I really hope this episode gave you some practical, actionable ideas that you can implement right away. Remember, you don't have to do everything at once.
• 29:43
  Just pick one habit. Start there, build momentum, and watch what happens. Before we wrap up, I wanna remind you, if you found value in this episode, I would be so grateful if you'd leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. It really does help other women law firm owners find this show and get the support they need. Thank you so much for spending this time with me today.
• 30:08
  I'm cheering for you. I believe in you, and I can't wait to see what you build. Until next time, here's to your success, your growth, and your transformation from overworked and overwhelmed lawyer to calm, confident CEO. I'll see you next week.
• 30:24
  Intro: If you're ready to create more of what you truly desire in your business and your life, then you'll want to visit us wealthywomanlawyer.com to learn more about how we help our clients create wealth generating law firms with ease.