Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / 7 Law Firm Growth Myths BUSTED!

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7 Law Firm Growth Myths BUSTED! · Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love

• 0:00
  …Hi everyone
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  Welcome back to the wealth woman lawyer podcast I'm your host to being a Frederick.
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  And I'm so glad you're here with me today because today
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  I am going to bust some myths.
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  These are seven law firm growth, myths that just drive me my drive me nuts So today
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  I am going to share with you these myths these beliefs that I
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  hear people have and I'm going to bust these myths for you.
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  So. You get a pen and paper get ready to
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  write this down or listen up and see if this resonates with you.
• 0:39
  Myth Number one is you must conform to other people's idea of.
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  Being a lawyer. I when I started out in my career I have had so many,
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  uh, in my case all men I say things to me
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  about how I wanted to run my law firm business telling me that it would not work.
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  That it was not a. idea. And I want to tell you
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  that I have had not one but two law firms that I have.
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  Created and run my way and they work just fine.
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  So number one you must confirm to other people's idea of being a lawyer.
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  I had, um, a, um, man say to me that
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  when I when I opened my second law firm in 2011 it was a virtual law firm.
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  And I had a man say to me and other lawyer colleague.
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  That. My clients would not like that.
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  That that virtual would not work. He had a hidden
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  agenda His agenda leads me to myth Number two.
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  Myth number two his hidden agenda was he wanted me to rent.
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  Office space in his building that he had a.
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  I overhead on and he had this spare office space and that's why he was telling me.
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  What he was telling me So myth number one you must conform to other people's ideas of.
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  What it means to be a lawyer and how to run a law practice? No.
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  can't do it your way. You uh, You are as smart intelligent woman.
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  And…are there times that you may fail Yes You may fail along the way As a matter of fact, if
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  you have a long career as an entrepreneur you're probably going to fail a lot
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  but that doesn't mean that your way does not work And it's not a good idea.
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  So stick to your guns Myth Number two is you must rent an expensive office with a receptionist out front.
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  Someone said to me when I rented my first office space.
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  It was just a one room office in a in a historical landmark building.
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  So it was not fancy. Um, it was just me
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  in my office and that's where I met up with clients And at that time I did not have a receptionist.
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  And someone close to me said…who would want
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  to hire an attorney with a shabby little office?
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  I would expect to see a very nice expensive office with a receptionist out front.
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  Myth busted. Many many many many many lawyers start out.
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  In a small one room office nowadays we're living in a
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  virtual world There's a lot of them who are starting them at their dining room tables.
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  One of my mentors who was a very very successful adoption law attorney started
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  her adoption law business at her dining room table probably 30 years ago.
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  With her new adopted baby on her lap while she was working.
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  So do not buy into that You can work from your laptop anywhere if you choose.
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  People have been doing it How do you think, how do you think solos start out when they're bootstrapping.
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  And they don't have a lot of funding They don't have venture capital Right.
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  They have to start out, um the way they want to start out And these days with virtual.
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  Practice more and more people are just opting out of the expensive office altogether.
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  I have one client who has six attorneys. Three staff people uh three
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  paralegals and one staff person And they are all for.
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  and she makes multiple million dollars So you don't need to rent an expensive office if that's
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  not what you want to do I have other clients who love having a an office that they go to and all
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  their team is there I have some who want to buy office buildings and they do.
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  You remember we go back to number one, you do not have to conform to other people's ideas of
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  being a lawyer being a law firm owner You can do it the way you want to…Myth number three we're going to bust.
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  You must work Hundred hour weeks If you want to be a successful lawyer.
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  I'm going to bust that myth for you right now And just tell you it's unreasonable and it is not sustainable.
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  Yes There are people who have worked as lawyers working a hundred hour weeks billing.
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  Uh, big at big law firms billing billing billing.
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  There are solos who probably put in a hundred hour weeks along the way.
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  But it is not necessary for you to put in a hundred hour weeks If you find yourself doing that.
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  Then you need to take a good, hard look at your priorities
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  and, and also at your systems right?
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  And you need to ask for help You do not need to work a hundred hours.
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  A week to grow a successful multimillion dollar law firm business.
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  In fact my new mantra now is the less I do The more I make I got that from a mentor of mine.
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  Steve Gordon. Uh the less I do the more I make has become my new mantra.
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  So YouTube can do the same thing. Number four, you must learn to set up.
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  Your law firms technology. You must love technology and be able to use all
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  kinds of technology to be able to run your law firm.
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  I'm going to bust this myth. You do not need to be.
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  Great a technology I am not great at technology Fortunately I am married to someone who is
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  really good at technology managing technology and setting up automation for me.
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  And also I hire a lot of people too do.
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  Different types of automation for me. You can hire people to…work.
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  It work in areas that are your weakness Technology is a weakness of mine Automation is a
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  weakness of mine I don't have the patience to sit and try to figure out different automation
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  tools I do use automation all throughout my business My
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  clients use automation throughout their businesses, but they're not sitting there.
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  Uh, Doing Zapier and and connecting all their different automation tools together.
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  They hire people to help them do that. If you are a bit of a technophobe And I know a lot of
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  younger people really love technology but there are limited even younger people are limited in
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  their technology ability They only know how to use their favorite things.
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  Learning uh being able to, you know create Instagram reels on
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  your phone is one type of technology but being able to set up.
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  An intake system with all your automation and tech tools is a different type of technology.
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  And so you can hire people to help you do that.
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  Number five you must do your own billing and books People stop it If you're doing your own books.
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  You hire a bookkeeper immediately If you need a recommendation for
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  one reach out to me I'll be happy to give you a couple of recommendations.
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  You must realize that you are not the best person for every job in your business Even if you
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  have the skill and ability, I actually worked a lot of people don't know this about me, but
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  when I was in college and undergrad studying and getting my journalism degree, I took a year
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  off and I worked to make money to be able to help me to pay my way through college.
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  I worked as a bookkeeper for a.
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  Uh industrial park company that had several industrial parks and I managed the books for
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  multiple industrial parks you know where they go in and people rent storage units.
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  That's we had to keep track of all of that And I was the bookkeeper for this and they own
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  multiple industrial parks with storage facilities.
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  I hated bookkeeping This was the thing that got me back into
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  college, because this was not my wheelhouse, but I did it.
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  So I have the skills and ability to do. The bookkeeping but is bookkeeping the best thing for
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  me to do is that the highest and best use of my time in my business Absolutely not.
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  Let's talk about your billing. The salt that you must do your own billing.
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  The reason you're doing your own billing I'll bet you is because
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  you're not…putting your time in contemporaneously.
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  So you were sitting there once a month, once a once every once a quarter.
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  Trying to remember and recreate all the things that you did throughout the month.
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  And you're by doing so you're leaving money on the table and it's the reason you can't outsource
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  your billing to somebody else because you have to go back and recreate it You have all that
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  information in your head instead of billing contemporaneously tracking your time contemporaneously.
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  Even if you charge flat rates, track your time contemporaneously.
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  To see where you may be leaving money on the table and let someone else get a part-time billing clerk.
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  Get your bookkeeper to, to prepare pre-bills for you to review before they go out, you can cut
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  your billing time down from several hours a month to.
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  One hour a month for even a half an hour For some people as your billing clerk is trained.
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  If you think people. If you think partners in big law.
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  Are sitting there printing out their own bills You are mistaken.
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  They have helped to do their billing. Okay.
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  Number six myth number six you must practice law To own a law firm.
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  What you must practice law to own a law for myth busted If you don't like to practice law, you
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  can hire other attorneys and paralegals to do that part.
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  And you could focus on running your own business.
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  That's right. You do not have to go to court every day.
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  You do not have to do the consultations for, to say.
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  up new clients. There are all kinds of things that you can excuse
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  yourself from, by hiring the right team and filling in for you.
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  You have to be a lawyer in most states although
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  that is changing I think Arizona is one of those states that changed but.
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  You must be a lawyer to own a law firm in most states I know
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  that is the case in Florida but you do not need to practice law.
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  To own a law firm. There are many many many lawyers out there who do not practice law on a daily basis.
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  Um, And I won't name names here but I could, let me just tell you
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  that Number seven myth number seven This is my last myth for the day.
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  You must give up practicing law to run a law firm business.
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  All right So there's a flip side to that. If you love to practice law.
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  But you feel like you need to you spending all your time running the business and you never get to practice law.
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  You can change that Remember myth number one you do not have to conform to other people's ideas You can do it your way.
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  Myth busted You can pick and choose.
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  The exact cases you want to take…If you own your own law for business, and if you have
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  it set up to run properly, you can still practice law If that's what you wanted to you don't have to stop practicing.
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  Just to run the business you get to choose. All right I hope you've
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  enjoyed today's episode of the seven law firm growth myths.
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  Um the miss that people buy into
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  who have a solo law firm and they're trying to grow it and scale it.
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  These are kind of the myths that I find that hold people back.
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  From scaling is they hold onto these beliefs that no longer serve them.
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  Instead of thinking to yourself is this belief that I have.
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  Serving me. Or is something else possible?
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  If you want to discuss what else is possible for your law firm business?
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  Then I want you to go down to my website www wealthy woman lawyer.com.
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  And I want you to click on. One-on-one coaching.
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  Private coaching and go to that page and schedule an appointment with me to talk about your law firm business.
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  And how we can begin to turn things around for you and really cut out those limiting beliefs and
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  helped open up your eyes and your world to the possibility.
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  That you can run a multi-million dollar law firm business.
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  Without working yourself to death in the process.
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  All right. I hope you've enjoyed it If you have leave me a review you know I love those reviews.
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  We like to read them We like to make sure the algorithm is getting…this podcast out there so
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  it can help more and more women law firm owners just like you.
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  Grow and scale their law firm business. Thank you for being here and I'll see you soon.