#365: A Law Firm Growth Diagram: Intentionally Change Your Trajectory

Melissa Shanahan: When things are messy and chaotic, it's harder to be client centric because you're putting out fires a lot, you're cleaning up messes a lot. But steering to the right and being very intentional, there's still progress being made that allows for the business to continue to thrive and grow in a more sustainable way. Welcome to the Law Firm Owner Podcast, powered by Velocity. Work for owners who want to grow a firm that gives them the life they want. Get crystal clear on where you're going, take planning seriously, and honor your plan like a pro. This is the work that creates Velocity. Hello, lawyers. Welcome to this episode. We're going to dive right in today to the topic that I have for you. It's. I have this episode titled A Diagram of Growth for Every Law Firm. This diagram that I'm going to explain to you. It also really allows you to know when to intentionally shift your trajectory. And, uh, what I'm sharing with you today applies to any business. But of course, I have my clients in mind. And I'm sharing this because I think it really helps to paint a picture of a firm's inevitable growth journey. And by explaining it, it allows you to find yourself in it and to find where you are on that growth path. Because once you have an awareness of where you are, it allows you to make smarter business decisions suited for where you are. And when you're on any sort of journey building a business, it can feel really messy. And I'm hoping that today's episode helps provide an anchor so you understand where you are and understand how to move forward as intentionally as possible. Now, when I explain this diagram, wherever you find yourself on it, don't judge it. That's the last thing that's just not helpful. So what I want you to do is just look at it as information that will help you figure out the next best step or the things that need to take priority at this moment. So it's just, this is all just information. I think it's really easy. We get caught up and it does feel messy. And so then if someone shows us something that helps provide some clarity and we don't, like, love what we see, then, uh, our emotions get tied up in it, we beat ourselves up, we feel like we should have been doing better, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So what I want to say is just use today's episode as information to inform how you want to move forward very intentionally. I will also say that by providing this diagram for you today, I think it will help the journey feel a less amorphous so that it does provide some context and provide some clarity about exactly where you are, where you want to go. So I want to help break this down and maybe paint a better picture for you today. Now, today, to be clear, is there is no blueprint for your journey. That's not what I'm providing. This is not a how to guide for your growth journey. If anyone tells you that they have one of those for you, you should turn around and walk briskly in the other direction. There is blueprint. There is no clear, perfect path to get your firm off the ground and become this beautiful vision of a firm. And to be clear, some of you are probably thinking, well, then what do you do? Because I thought that's what you do. I don't tell my clients what to do. I facilitate a process and a framework that helps them figure out their next steps and their best trajectory, where do they want to go? And it's unique to every firm, has a different plan based on what they ultimately want to create. And we work backwards from there. And it's complex, but it's. It's incredible. I'll tell you that. Especially, gosh, coming off the last week, and we have more coming this month that I'm just so pumped to help people do this. Okay, so let's paint this diagram for you. Mentally, I want you to be able to visualize it. And then we'll go into the different points on that diagram and you can kind of find yourself. So the diagram is essentially a Y. And I want you to think of this Y as, you know, there's one base stick of the Y. And then, you know, as you move up that base, then you get to the neck of the Y and it forks off to two stems, right? Well, the stem on the left doesn't veer very hard to the left. So it's sticking up a little, like, not quite straight, but just veers a little bit to the left. The stem to the right on that Y really goes to the right. Just how you would imagine you would actually draw a Y. So it is, ah, a Y. And there is a reason that it's not a perfect Y. And you will see what that is. Now, the. From the very base of the Y all the way up to the neck of the Y. So that bottom stem that the Y is standing on, I call that the hustle phase. The stem that is slightly veering to the left above the neck of the Y, I call that the struggle bus. The stem that is veering to the right from the neck of the Y I call that the high road. So we've got hustle till you get to the neck. Then you either go right or left. If you go a little bit to the left, then it's called the struggle bus. If you veer to the right, it's called the high road. So that kind of paints a picture of the diagram. And now I'm going to talk about what each of those phases of the diagram are, and you can find yourself in it. Let's start with the inception of your firm. The very beginning. So that's the very, very, very bottom of the base of the Y. There is a lot to do when you're setting up a business. There's so many little things to get the business sorted and set up. But there's also, like, once you have stuff in place, then the main focus is just getting clients. You need to have money coming into the business so that the business can survive. So the whole focus is really just get clients through the door. Get clients through the door. Usually the person who started the firm is taking on a lot more than ultimately than what they will. There's, it's, it's just this hustle phase that is chaotic, really, because what comes with hustle tends to be a bit of chaos. Anytime you find yourself hustling for something that it's not totally organized, it's not. There isn't this perfect path. It's just you are doing what you know how to do and you are throwing things against the wall sometimes to see what sticks in order to get that business off the ground. So this phase is. And when I say hustle and chaos, there's a time and a place for this, and this is the time and the place. That's why I said earlier there's no perfect path for this inception point of a firm. All the way up until you've proven that you've got a good business, there's no blueprint for that. And so that's why, you know, I think it drives me batty when I see people selling any business owner this, you know, buy my blueprint to start your business. Oh, my gosh, that just makes me want to vomit because I know that they're full of it. What worked for them is not probably not going to work for someone else. There may be tips and hints in there, but those tips and hints are pretty expensive. If you're. You're paying for blueprint and you're not actually getting a blueprint that's going to work for your business, because that's literally impossible. Every Business is different. Every firm is different. So getting from that, like, inception point all the way up to the neck of the why, and the neck of the why, that marker there before it splits off to the right and to the left, is that you have a business that works. And by the way, this phase typically takes anywhere from six to 18 months, maybe two years. It really depends on who is behind it, right? Like the person and how much they've got in them in terms of hustle. And then also it depends on the capital. That's the resources that you have that you're throwing into it at the beginning. So that, uh, that stem at the bottom of the Y takes usually somewhere from six to 18 months, maybe two years. And of course, there's exceptions to that. It's really that length of time of hustle until the business gets to a place where you, where you've proved that this business can work. And when you get there, congrats. That is huge. So much hard work goes into lifting a firm off the ground. And you did it. You got yourself through it. And looking at the diagram, you got yourself up to the neck of the why. How awesome is that? Now, again, before we move on, just looking at this base of the why, which is the inception of your firm to the point that you've proven you've got a business that works. There's a lot of chaos in the business during this phase. That's just inevitable because when a business is just getting going, it's really too early to be putting a bunch of systems and processes into place. You could do a few, sure, but, you know, once you have experience with real clients in this business, that is what informs the necessary systems and processes. So you don't really have that information right out of the gates then. Not only that, but because the majority of your focus is on getting clients so that you and your business can work and function properly. Your bandwidth is limited, and there's not much focus time for implementing systems and processes. This really is a phase of true hustle. And an element of hustle is chaos. So, okay, you're at the neck of the why you have a business that works. A decision is made here, even if it is unconsciously made. You go in one of two directions. You either keep operating the way you have been up to this point, the hustle mentality, chaos, just going at it, and your business continues to grow that way. And I want you to picture this part of the why that I'm talking about now as the struggle bus. So this is where it's the extension or the stem of the why that goes from the neck up and just slightly to the left. And the reason I say slightly to the left is because you're still kind of operating with that same path, that same mentality. And so, yes, you do have a business that works. And yes, it's, it's probably gonna keep growing, but you're keeping on keeping on with how you've always been operating. And as you do push on and continue on just the way that you always have been, you might be inspired here and there to implement a new process or, you know, uh, hire someone. Like, I think there's things that you do to help yourself in the best ways that you know how, but you're just this, it's still full speed ahead. It's essentially more of the same of what you've been doing to lift the firm off the ground. So tend to stay and to be disorganized, messy. Your house is not in order, so to speak. And somewhere along this path you start to run out of steam. Burnout sets in in a big way. And I call this stem of the why that veers just a little bit to the left, the struggle bus. Because even though you're growing, the chaos and disorganization that you're feeling, it does, it takes a lot out of you. And it's hard to find ways to sustainably grow with all of that going on. So it just becomes a struggle. And that's why burnout sets in. You can't really enjoy the pieces of work that you really enjoy because there's so much crap to move through and clean up and constantly stay on top of and make sure you're not missing anything. It is unnecessarily stressful. The other stem of the why, the alternative to the struggle bus. So if you're at the neck of the why, you've got a business that works and you've proven your business. Now instead of just keeping on, just to keep on and keep doing what you've been doing, you intentionally make a shift. You allocate resources to creating systems and processes, to delegating in a bigger way to plan for the short term and the long term future. You are consciously shifting how you as the owner operate. And in our diagram, that is the. This is where you veer up and to the right and, and that is called what I call the high road and not the high road. Like better than any other part of the Y road. It just is. It takes a lot to take the high road. It takes a Lot of forethought. It takes a lot of discipline. You have to kind of, you have to hold yourself back. You have to practice constraint, which we've talked about before on this podcast, in order to have the wherewithal to just, uh, slow down a little bit in order to speed up. And the reason people don't do that is because a lot of times they don't know how to do that. Getting on this high road does not happen overnight. It isn't easy, especially if you're navigating this alone. But if you are veering to the right, you are intentionally shifting how you operate. You're shifting the focus of your energy, you're shifting the focus of resources. Of course you're going to take care of your clients, but you're giving a lot of thought to the business, the behind the scenes of the business. And you can do that now because you have the clients in the business. You have, the business is working. You have clients that are paying for your services. So now you can determine what systems make sense for your business. You know now what people you need to invest in and hire for your business. There's more of a thoughtful approach.

Guest: I'm Jeff Wright, chief operating officer at Gideon Asin and like you, we're big fans of Melissa's podcast. I'm, um, Ben Gideon. If you're a law firm owner and you want to build a true financial powerhouse law firm, not just grind through the day to day, you should check out our podcast. It's called Elevate, build and grow your law firm. We break down what actually works for lawyers, from staffing to management to building systems to drive real profitability. Find Elevate on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Melissa Shanahan: Now, like I said, this isn't easy and especially if you're going at it alone, but you are focusing there and you aren't just keeping on the way you've always done things as you lifted it off the ground. And when you take a step back to evaluate that, take a step back, it's almost like slowing down to speed up, then that inevitably it results in less chaos, more organization, better morale on the team. It prevents burnout not just for your team, but also for you. And what you're building and putting into place allows you to be very client centric when things are messy and chaotic and you're on the struggle bus. Part of the why it's harder to be client centric because you're putting out fires a lot, you're cleaning up messes a lot. Behind the scenes and internally, but steering to the right and being really very intentional. Even if it's not perfect, there's still progress being made that allows for the business to continue to thrive and grow in a more sustainable way. So essentially veering to the left or the struggle bus, going that way is not sustainable for a number of different reasons. And actually, let's talk about that a little bit more. If you veer to the left, if you just keep on doing what you did to get that firm off the ground and you don't actually take a serious look and implement on a serious level systems, processes, institute a vision, a long term vision, and then short term goals, what needs to happen, having your team on board for all of that so that the ship can actually move in the direction you want it to move. So if you don't do that stuff for yourself and instead you've just kept on doing what you've always done, which sort of kind of puts you in that struggle bus portion of the why, Even if it doesn't feel miserable right now, you should be able to listen to this and figure out if that's the path you're on. Because if it is, that's, uh, a good. The sooner you can recognize it, the easier it is to clean up. If you are on the struggle bus, not only are you, is it, is it very difficult to be client centric, which means that your clients are probably going to have more complaints or be less satisfied than they were if you did, if you were able to be more client centric, where if you did have systems and processes in place, if you did have the organization that naturally fosters an amazing client experience. But when things fall through the cracks, clients feel it. And even if they don't complain, they certainly aren't raving about the experience that they had and referring other people to you. But going one step further, let's just say they're mad enough about their experience that they're just complaining to other people. So then it's giving your business a poor reputation. So the struggle bus, it's almost like, you know, struggle begets struggle. And if you're on the high road, success, even though it doesn't, it's not a cakewalk, it doesn't feel easy, but you're actually taking measures and slowing down to speed up. If you're on the high road, success begets success. And so you just being very aware of where are you right now and what do you want to do about it. So even if you're on the high road, how can you get better at that? How can you identify by listening to this podcast and saying, okay, so actually I have done a lot of that work. And, um, um, I've worked really hard to get systems and process my business. I've worked really hard to get my team on board and to have good morale and to prevent burnout and all of those things and to make sure the client experience is top notch. That's great. Now you're a business owner, so don't stop there. Think about what would it take to actually, like, really, really refine that journey and that path for yourself. How can you clean it up more? How can you get clearer? How can you more quickly implement? How can you provide a more wow experience for your clients so that they refer more and more and more people? So this is, it's so interesting to me. When I watch people, I talk to them, right? Like someone who's interested in velocity work and I talk to them about their business, I can immediately identify where they are and I know if I can help them and, or how I can help them. So if someone comes to me and they're on, um, in the hustle phase of their business, it is not the time to hire me. Because we work on strategic planning. And you really need to know that you have a business that works in order to put together a really solid strategic plan. And when I say strategic plan, I don't want to oversimplify it. I mean top to freaking bottom strategic plan from client experience all the way down to everyone who's working for you and the morale and the numbers and the goals and the long term vision and all of that. So if you're in the hustle phase of your business, it does not make sense to pay someone for that. You need to, you need to prove that you've got a business that works and then it makes sense to deliberately, once you get to the neck or that base of the Y, deliberately move up into the right and take the high road. Now if I have someone who comes to me and they are on the struggle bus, that's okay. I can still, we can still immensely help them and actually get them over to the high road and still. And do the things that you're supposed to be doing on the high road. You know, usually when someone comes to us and they're on the struggle bus, their finances are very disorganized. They don't know exactly how much they are bringing in. They don't know exactly what they take home every year. They don't know exactly their Operating expenses, they. It's just. It's kind of a mess. And sometimes more often than not, people are sort of closing their eyes and just hoping like they're pretty sure everything's going to be fine financially that month, month to month, but they're not. They don't know their numbers, right. They don't know their data. So that is a sign that there's some disorganization that needs to be dealt with. Other things, there are not systems and processes that are working well. It's like things are in the business, whether the clients feel it or not. Usually they do, even if it's indirectly. There's things falling through the cracks and the owner is having to pick up pieces or get, um, themselves involved more than what they should. So it just. You can just feel that things aren't clicking the way that they should be clicking for the business, and they're not clicking the way they should be clicking for the owner. So if I find someone in that, if I'm talking to someone and they're on the struggle bus, I know immediately that we've got more heavy lifting to do on the front end, which just means we need a little more prep time, a little more lead time before their first retreat that they have with us, because we have got to get some things in order. I, uh, just inevitably, the last, you know, or five months, I've been saying we've got to get their house in order because if they can't come with facts and data to the meetings and, or to our calls, then, then we can't form a strategic plan. So I just know that we need more time up front to get all of that sorted and organized and for them to, to get the numbers and get the statements and get the financials. And we create the tracking portal for them so they can start entering in some of their history and then we can figure out, out, okay, this has been your average revenue per case. This is how many cases you had last year. This is how many cases you have on average a month. This is how much revenue you've brought in. This is how much your operating expenses are. Like, all those things are important to know before we slap some decisions into place. So I just know if you're on the struggle bus, I need more lead time. If you aren't on the struggle bus and all that is very organized, then we can hit the ground running even sooner and really optimize, have a framework to go on in order to get themselves to the next level. But it's so fun. It's so fun. Anything that's worth doing is tough, but it's fun. So no matter which part of the why a client is on, I can help them. But if you're in the hustle phase, it's not the time. It's. I always tell if I'm talking to somebody and they're still in that phase, they're still building a business. It's just not totally evident that they for sure have a business that they know works, then it's a little early, and I would rather not waste their time or their money and. Or our time and resources if it's just not the right moment. So, uh, I say that to try to help you guys see where. When I am talking to someone, where I evaluate and determine if it's a good fit, if we can work together. And then if we do, if it is a good fit and we can work together, you can kind of see there's, like, one side of the coin is messy, and we've got some work to do to get organized, and then we can really take off with the strategic planning and with the framework. But if they are very organized, we'll make sure if anything needs to be tightened up, we can tighten it up. But then we can more hit the ground running in terms of their retreats and their framework and what they start actually going through with velocity work. So that is the diagram. I hope that helps. And I hope you have a hunch on where you sit, because like I said before, there's no reason to have judgment on it if you're on the struggle bus. Okay, okay. That is not a problem. Actually, when clients come to me and they are on the struggle bus, it's like I'm, like, rubbing my hands together, like, let's dig in. Because I know exactly what it takes to get on the high road. And it's fun to work with clients, to get them over to the right, get them over to the high road, and start to build something really sustainable for themselves. And watch the transformation of less burnout and of just more fulfillment, better client satisfaction, better morale, all of those things. Solid goals, motivating rocks and motivating projects for them to work on that's gonna help them hit their goals. It is all so rewarding and so fun. But if you take this information that I've just given you and you sit on it and you keep doing what you've been doing, and you. You know that there's a better way to do it, then, uh, I mean, come on, right? Like, what. What are we doing here? Do you just want to keep being a hamster on a hamster wheel, or do you really want to put some things into place that push things to the next level that blows your own mind? That is what I see people do all the time, is blow their own mind. And it is the coolest. It is the coolest experience for them more than for me. But it's such a privilege and an honor to witness it and be a part of it and to facilitate it.

Guest: It.

Melissa Shanahan: Okay, so just to recap, the growth track for any firm starts at the base of the Y, the very, very bottom. That's the inception of your firm. Then there's a hustle period. You hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle your way up to, you know, getting clients, getting clients, getting clients. That's the main focus. And then you get to the neck of the why, where you've got a business that works. Sweet. Let's keep going. You either veer up and just to the left because you just keep doing what you've always been doing. You keep growing, and it gets pretty chaotic. You keep building m that way, and you end up in burnout. There's disorganization. It's messy inside the firm. Or when you get to the neck of the Y, you veer to the right and you really consciously focus on what needs to happen for the business in order for it to grow sustainably. So no matter what track you're on above the the neck of the Y, either the struggle bus or the high road, velocity work can work with you. If you're in the hustle situation, the hustle portion of the why it's not the right time. It's not really suitable to pay someone like velocity work to work with you. But once you have a proven business, then it is suitable. And one other thing, I just want to make sure that you are not getting confused. I have zero judgment for whoever's on the struggle bus. If you feel like you're on the struggle bus and it's, I have clients, they seem kind of embarrassed by it. Like, they're embarrassed that they don't know their numbers. They're embarrassed that it's messy. That actually to even get that data is not straightforward or easy. And I just want you to know, I get that it's. It's. There's some vulnerability that it takes to really partner with someone to help you in those areas. But it. I have no judgment on it. No one. I mean, velocity work is not set up for judgment. Velocity work is Set up to create optimization and help be as effective as possible for, for clients. I am the, my clients number one freaking fan. So if somebody's signing on to work with me, it a partnership and I am locked in with them, that's the way I look at it. I am now sort of part of you and I'm going to help direct you, get you onto the high road. If you're on the high road, it's still vulnerable to open your business up and for to allow someone else to sort of see how you've been running things. Because there is no perfect journey. Uh, no matter how great you are at running your business, there's always things that you wish were better and tighter and all that. So whether you feel really proud about where you find yourself on this diagram or whether you feel, you know, uh, that's why I just say there's no room for emotion in this. Like, there's no reason to judge yourself because it wastes time bringing emotion into it just wastes time. Your precious time and energy. So if you find yourself there and you've ever wanted to work with Velocity work, just know that it's totally okay. Like, let's just get this puppy on track. That's it. And also, as a business owner, I know how easily that can happen. Uh, I get it. I totally get it. But I also know how to get you over to the high road and for us to be able to start to line you up with a more sustainable business and the results that you want to see. So no judgment. Now, if you've been listening today and you find yourself on the diagram above the neck of the. Yeah. So either the struggle bus or the high road, either one. And you would like to explore working with Velocity work, go to hello.velocitywork.com and there you can fill out a little bit of information and set up a call and let's chat and see if it's a good fit. Trust me, I'm not interested in signing anybody up where it's not a good fit. So let's just explore that and see if it is in fact. And if it is, I'll give you the information. You can just make a call from there. Got it. Okay. Well, hey, you have a great rest of your week. I will talk to you again very soon. Hey, you may not know this, but there's a free guide for a process I teach called Monday Map, Friday Wrap. If you go to velocitywork.com, it's all yours. It's about how to plan your time and honor your plans. So that week over week, more work that moves the needle is getting done in less time. Go to velocitywork.com to get your free copy. Thank you for listening to the Law Firm Owner Podcast. If you're ready to get clearer on your vision, data and mindset, then head over to velocitywork.com where you can plug in to quarterly strategic planning with accountability and coaching in between. This is the work that creates Velocity.