Heads Down, Grinding It Out: When Working Harder Isn’t the Answer

The math says hire and then stabilize. With the configuration that they had, they could not grind their way to stable. There is no version of that math that works. Somehow they had set in their minds that was possible. But when you really look at it, when you really play this out to the end, you can't get out of that grind with the current configuration.

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Hey everyone, welcome to this week's episode of The Law Firm Owner Podcast. I am so glad you're here. This is a follow-up to two weeks ago. I did an episode about how tough it is to see the truth from inside of your own bubble, from inside of your own existence. There are times where that is true; we all have our own blind spots. I gave a couple of examples with two very different firms at very different points in their journey about how this manifested and the effects that it had on them, and how we get ourselves back to truth, right? 

Last week and this week, what I wanted to do was dig into each of those examples that I provided on that episode about truth, was to dig further into just the scenario that did come up because it was so meaningful, and I know so many owners have dealt with it or will deal with it. And it's not something that's talked about very often, and so I really wanted to highlight that because I know, my hope, is that it's helpful for listeners who either are going through it or plan to.

So, we did that episode last week, which was essentially about when you really create the success that you've been working so hard to create, and you get yourself out of the middle of everything, there is an identity shift, and it can feel like you're lost at sea. And what that feels like, what's important in those moments, and what's good to know. So that’s what we talked about last week.

Now, this week is the other example that I gave in that episode about how hard it is to see the truth from your own position. If I had to title this episode, it would be called "Heads Down, Grinding It Out." 

And so I think even more of you will be able to relate to what I am sharing today. But it’s just an example worth walking through because I think you guys will find yourself in here and check yourselves and catch yourselves, and maybe put a different foot forward because of what you contemplate after hearing today.

Alright, so let me paint the picture of where things started when we began working with them as a private client. This is actually someone I've known for many years because of the group work that we did in the past. Now we don't do group work anymore, but it felt like the right move for them to become private clients.

We got the opportunity to work with them in this capacity earlier this year. And so when we got in there, we're doing our thing, Velocity Work's doing their thing, and we end up having their strategic planning retreat, which is the end of that initial engagement with us. And there were real plans that were just strong plans. I was so proud of the plans that they made because, and this is what I want to share with you, you know, this is an owner and their spouse is running things in the firm as well, really doing everything and wearing all the hats. 

So the owner attorney is working, you know, when we met them, 12 to 14 hours every day, certainly at least one of those days on the weekend. Definitely would try to take space on the weekend, but you know, it just was in a position where they felt like they had to. And their spouse was working quite a bit as well, but has other responsibilities outside of the firm for their family, etc. And so maybe not quite as long, but maxing out. Both of them were absolutely maxing out. The owner is not only doing legal work, but also quite a bit of administrative work.

For those of you who are like, why they would be doing administrative work, well, there's a lot of you. If I could sit next to you and watch you work, there would be plenty of things that you could have an administrative assistant do that you are still doing. It's just what happens. As owners, as you grow up with your business, you end up handling certain things because you've always been the one to handle them, and you've never made the move to really get those things off your plate in a meaningful way. 

Maybe you've tried, and that failed, or the person didn't work out that you hired, and so then you take it all back on and let it sit with you. Whatever. But you know, the legal work is needing to happen, but also this administrative work is required to happen. Of course, the spouse has all kinds of administrative work, operational things, intake, there’s all kind of things going on.

Now, the plans that were made in that room, one of the things that they committed to doing over the next 90 days was to hire an experienced paralegal. This was outside of their comfort zone big time because they had never really paid the kind of salary that they were offering to an experienced paralegal candidate. 

And so there was a lot of anxiety that came with that, but they did it anyway, and they did a great job. And now they have an experienced paralegal working for them that's working out beautifully. So, that's a move that’s been positive and been made. And there were a lot of other changes. There were rate increases that needed to happen. There were other important moves that they made. It was a big quarter.

When we met for their next quarterly planning day session, what surfaced pretty early in the day were some of the things that were frustrating them. And I mentioned this might be time to go ahead and hire the administrative assistant, a strong one. Also, they had let someone go in that quarter before who they were going to elevate into taking more responsibility. That person didn't end up working out, so they did release that person back into the world. And so now they really did have a hole. There was no one to up-train 

And so I mentioned, hey, this is probably the time to hire a strong administrative assistant, knowing that it was the time. And not because it's just Melissa's opinion, it’s because I can already see the math ahead of them, because this is what I do all day, every day. So I knew that the writing was going to be on the wall, but the resistance when I said that was strong. They were not looking to make any major moves this quarter that we were planning for at the time. I mean, the owner looked at me in the room that day and said, "Not this quarter."

I was like, “What? Why?” And the mentality there was to get stable first. They had this new paralegal. They wanted to get the paralegal settled in, and then they wanted to be able to take the next step. They were really proud of the changes they had already made, and they should have been proud of the changes they already made.

And I think, you know, when you put your foot forward to make a bunch of changes that are really uncomfortable to make that you haven't done in the past. You could've, but you didn't, and for whatever reason. Right? But then you exert the energy and you push through the discomfort to make these things happen that you committed to during your retreat- these strategic priorities- then you execute on those. And I think there's a little bit of, like, a sigh of relief that they did it.

And then now we'll just focus on other things. We won't have to make as big of moves. Right? I responded with, “Okay. Well, let's just see what the math says.”

And there's a sense of humor in this room, which is great. It was like, “oh god,” by the owner. So, you know, we try to have fun together when we're starting to wake up to what the truth might really be. But, you know, it wasn't a refusal by them.

It was a deferral. And it's easy to make deferrals sometimes sound like discipline, but you have to look at all the facets, and you have to weigh out the cost-benefit analysis. So, of course, that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna look at it from every angle. Another thing I wanna say is that, you know, why do they wanna defer hiring?

You know, they've probably had 15 different employees over the last ten years. A lot of those did not work out. And their own words, at one point, they mentioned, like, sometimes it even feels like people are stealing from us. Meaning, like, they're just not putting in the work. They don't have the work ethics. They're getting paid. They're not really doing their job.

And, you know, so I get the what he's trying to say there. And I think the propensity to defer hiring people and hiring decisions and bringing people into the fold to be a part of the team, that is scar tissue from other real experiences that they've had. And that's fair.

I'm glad that they say it out loud so we can talk about that. You know, I remember them saying at some point, I think it's my turn. It's a legitimate feeling that was driving the decision. It's my turn to take home what I wanna take home. It's my turn to feel like I'm winning at this game here financially, is what they were speaking to.

Now, when it came time to really talk about this and sort it out, do the math, have conversations, you know, you've gotta work their through their barriers with them. And so I know better. I'm a partner. Velocity Work is a partner to our clients, so I know better than when it comes time for that part of the conversation for us to dig into this. I'm not gonna argue with them.

I'm not gonna tell them what they need to do and not hear their concerns. I have to help them get to facts, not feelings about some of this. And this is where that part where it's really hard to see the truth from where you're standing. In this instance, this is what I'm talking about. They had all kinds of fears, worries, anxieties, dreads about bringing someone into the firm.

And my job is to get to facts, not feelings, so then that they are making a decision from a really clean place. So when I step up to the whiteboard to run the numbers, these are real numbers pulled out of their own system with also what we would be offering that administrative assistant. And if the math when I'm done with the math on the board, if the math says don't hire, then don't hire, genuinely. I'm not trying to convince them to hire. I'm trying to get them to the truth of their own situation so it empowers them to make the right decision. I'm not advocating for anything other than the healthiest move for the owners.

Now let's talk about their math specifically. They were losing about three hours a day to administrative work. The attorney, opening new matters, printing file labels, setting up folders. There was one day when we looked back into their practice management software, and it was 8.2 hours of non-billable time.

Now that was probably a fourteen-hour day or a twelve-hour day. I don't know. But 8.2 hours of non-billable time. And this is an hourly firm for the most part, so there's some additional context there.

Now, the scenario we ran was an administrative assistant. We were going for a strong administrative assistant. For where they live, what we were gonna put out to the market was an admin at $72,000 a year plus employer taxes plus benefits. We added all that in. It totaled it cost the firm about $38 an hour for this role to be in place. Now, three hours of that is $114.

Now three billable hours at 400 an hour is $1,200. That is $1,086 a day, which is $5,000 a week. $20,000 a month is the opportunity cost, by not having an administrative assistant and just keeping the average of three administrative hours a day when you could be billing; that is $20,000 a month. $20,000 is the opportunity cost of not having an admin. Once you work out what that means per year, it's a no-brainer to have this admin on at the cost that we had projected and put into play.

So once I had it up on the whiteboard, I just let it sit. I smiled at him. I went and sat in my seat. It was quiet. They talked amongst one another for a minute. I gave him a minute.

I mean, the truth is they had been counting the salary. That's all they were thinking about was the salary going out. They had not been thinking about the other side of the ledger. They had not been thinking about what was possible for them if they got somebody through the door here to help them. So $20,000 a month they were choosing not to make in order to not spend $72,000 a year.

So, you know, walking into this, their plan was to stabilize and then hire. The math says hire and then stabilize. With the configuration that they had, they could not grind their way to stable. There is no version of that math that works.

Somehow, they had set in their minds that that was possible. But when you really look at it, when you really play this out to the end, you can't get out of that grind with the current configuration. You need to distribute the work in the right ways, which will allow for billables to go up, which will allow for more revenue, excess revenue, meaning there would be more in the net profit, a lot more in net profit. So, yes, your revenue can go up by $20,000 a month, but you will be spending about $6,500 a month all-in cost for this administrative assistant to be there, and that's over $13,000 of net profit there.

Now okay, maybe there'll be some additional cost, but that most of that goes to your bottom line. Most of that goes into your net profit unless you increase your spending for another reason. Right? But I would make that deal all day, every day. And it's not because Melissa would do that, because when you look at the math, everybody, everybody would look at that and say, “Uh-huh. Yep. We're doing that.”

So we just needed to play it all the way out on the whiteboard. Just needed to give them a chance to sit and marinate in the information that was in front of them. Now, in part of the discussion, you know, they're sitting, they're marinating, they're having thoughts bubble to the surface, and as they are, they're saying them, which is good.

But one of the things that surfaced was if they actually did bill three more hours a day than what they had been doing on average, and they had support at the firm, they had a strong administrative assistant, they have a strong paralegal, then they could take a full week off of work, and they would still land the exact month that they had been hitting all year, their average that they had been hitting previously.

So the reason this hit so hard, almost harder than the first round of math that we did, is because they'd already said and been talking through that the firm sucks all the oxygen out of their life. You know, they have a kid heading off to college next year, and that's weighing on them. This is their last year with their son. The money argument was never gonna be enough on its own.

Yes, they pointed a lot at the beginning to the money being like, it's my turn. I wanna take home what I wanna take home. And so they were just gonna suck it up and work more because they wanted more profit for themselves to be able to take his distributions. But it wasn't enough on its own because they were really feeling pressures and desires to be spending their time differently than they were currently spending their time, which is was working.

So they really got to see what this decision buys them. I mean, not only could they take, as an example, a week off, maybe they choose to take more than a week off, but they could take a week off. And in that same month, it would just mean that they were doing, on average, what they were doing prior, which wasn't bad. Right? It's not like their revenue was in the toilet. 2

They just were not even close to their potential because they were doing a bunch of things that didn't need to be them. So really, bringing in this administrative assistant, yes, it affects your bottom line. There is face value. There's your net positive $13,000 after you've been able to bill more, and you're paying the administrative assistant, which allows you to bill more. And because you could bill more, yes, you have to pay this administrative assistant.

But even with that, you're still winning by about $13,000 every single month. Like, that is crazy to think about. Like, think about that is that much extra. Pretty quickly, pretty quickly, you would be able to have access to that money if you wanted to, and you would have the ability to take more time off of work, which means that, sure, you aren't up by $13,000 when you take that week off of work, but you're still up. You are still up because you had this person present. You could take a week and not feel like you had to dip back, you know, into some unbearable level where the revenue is gonna be so low. Like, it's just not going to work out that way.

So when they really started to look at the opportunity here, yes, it was the money. It was also time with their family back and being able to have some anticipation, which is fun, around a trip with their family and time off with their family, making plans for that, not feeling like they can't do that. It really was about what is most important to them and how can they spend more time with what's most important to them. Now some of that is the firm, but it's not all the firm. And this would allow them to be a little more well-rounded in their existence with this firm. A lot more well-rounded in their existence of this firm.

So coming back to how tough it is to actually see the truth when you're inside of it. I hope this paints a picture, and I know you guys deal with this. I have other clients as well that their default stance is, we've already made a lot of changes this year. I just wanna stabilize, and then I'll be up for more changes. And what they don't realize is what they're doing to themselves by having that stance. They cannot see the truth of it. And the reason they take that stance is because it required a lot of energy for them to pull the levers on these things that they have done. It's required a lot. It's developing new things. It's making new hires. It's taking risks. And for some people, that's exhausting.

So we do need to make sure that we're taking care of ourselves, and I wanna make sure our clients are not that it's not damaging to them and to their nervous systems; that matters to me. But just because your default gets stressed out by the thought of instituting something that would be really healthy for the firm or could be really healthy for the firm. We do need to play it all the way to the end. We do need to look at the math. We do need to think about the implications of that decision, etcetera.

But when you do all that, and you get to the truth of it, you get to the facts, not feelings of it, it really does help calm your system in a way that allows you to take that next step that makes the most sense for your firm. If you don't look for the truth, if you don't get to the truth and you just sort of have your typical MO, you know, the way that you move forward, the way that you tend to look at things, your read on things, then you very well may be holding yourself back because it isn't comfortable to make these moves.

So people will find justifications to still. And it sounds sort of noble. It sounds like discipline, just like I said earlier in here. Like, deferring sounds like discipline if you position it correctly. But is it really? You have to have a look at that.

There's another firm that pops in my mind I'm thinking about. You know, they don't wanna make changes that would absolutely benefit them, and it would empower their team. If they did make these certain changes, it would give the owners time back. And they have a team that's capable, but there's all this fear in the way. They don't wanna put too much on their team. I don't want them to either. I would make sure that we're not doing that. Right? Like, we all need to make sure that that's not how this is gonna go.

So they don't wanna put too much on their team. And so for them, it's just a barrier. It's a roadblock. Instead of, it's a thing we need to look at and make sure we're not doing, we certainly don't want that to happen. Like, that's not the approach. That's not the thinking. It's just we don't wanna put too much on our team, so block.

There's also other concerns that they have, but it's the same way that they're approaching those concerns. It's like a concern pops up in their head. It's a block. There's another concern that pops up in their head. It's a block. It's almost like whack-a-mole. Because as soon as you start dismantling the perceived barriers, when you do that, then another reason that they have will pop up. So then you have to dismantle the barriers there.

Now sometimes it's legit. So they'll bring up a barrier. I wanna make this clear. Sometimes people bring up a barrier, and it's our job to try to dismantle that. Is there a way through this barrier, or is this for real a barrier? We need to stop until we have a different way we can approach this, or we have there's something else we need to do before we can actually execute on this idea that we have.

So there's times where you do see, okay, can we do these things? Are the worries that are popping up legitimate? And how do we navigate those things? And if we can't yet, if we need something else first, and then we can maybe pull this lever, okay. That's fine. But I will tell you so often of the time, you can dismantle the barrier and the discomfort. It's like there's something much deeper. The reason they gave is not the real reason. It's the surface reason.

So then you work through, oh, that actually didn't have to be the case because this person could handle x. This person could handle y. We can ease our way into this. This doesn't need to happen tomorrow. You know, we'll talk through how this really is okay, the evolution. We plan for it to be okay for the team. Okay. Then another barrier will pop up. I'm like, okay. So let's look at that one.

And eventually, what happens is people will start to, when they run out of things to say, then they get really quiet. And then I know we're about there. We're about to the deepest barrier that exists in them. And it's almost always fear of change and the risk that comes with it. Because let's be honest, there's risk in hiring people. Of course, there are. There's risk in trying something new, and the truth is they see you just dismantled the barriers in front of them, but the truth is they don't freaking want to.

They don't want to experience the risk. They don't want to move through the fear. And listen, that's, I can't help somebody be motivated to move through that. That's an internal journey.

I can talk about it. I have so much experience doing this now. I will tell you, it's good to share your experience with them, what you have seen time and time again, and give specific examples and help paint the picture of what's on the other side. And, yes, there may be fear, but they've got this. People have done it before.

They will make sure to do it with quality as they move forward. And they're just depending on the person, they will sit still. They will shut down. No matter how softly you approach it or how you try to meet them where they are, some people will just shut down. And when that happens, it's time to make sure that they have food for thought.

They're not gonna make the decision in this moment. It's obvious. This happens probably 10% of the time with the clients that hire us. Most of the clients that hire us are ready to make decisions, and they're kinda ready to push through some of that the anxiety that comes with some of these decisions. But about 10% of people, maybe even less, the fear grips them so tight that they need space and time to grapple with it.

And so as long as I know that they've got food for thought, I have backed them up with facts. I have done my job to get them to a place where they are being objective, and now they're just being honest. That they do see a way through these things, and they're not ready to because there is some deep-seated fear that they can't justify. But it is there and it exists there, then I need to leave them with information, and then we're gonna move on to the next topic. So I'm going down these different trails because I'm telling you, it just is so important to get to the truth.

And the only way you can get to the truth is just to peel back the layers of an onion. And the fastest way and the most effective way I know to do that is to get to facts, not feelings, and really test your own assumptions. Put them through the wringer.

Like, really think through, are you right about that, or is there an assumption there? How can we make sure that it doesn't go that way? What would that look like? You know, you really try to test things, and then you can get to the place where you can see, man, this is what is on the other side.

Yeah, I have fears about moving through this, and it might not be perfect on the first go. But I see that it's a worthy journey to go on to pull this lever, to up-train these people, or to make this hire or to fire someone. You know? Whatever takes guts in the firm, you can see why it's important to walk through that. And, really, the fastest way to get there is to make it facts, not feelings. So whatever your default position is when an opportunity comes up, you need to question it.

And I'm telling you guys, sometimes it's very difficult to do for yourself, but what I have learned for myself, we're all human.

We all have these things. I may not have the perfect questions. I may not know exactly what to dismantle or how to dismantle something or how to poke holes in it because I have just all this bias from my view, from my read on things, but I do know to sit still and just contemplate for a bit. Just sit still. Don't go do something. Don't have the fear and think, nope, we don't have time for that. No. Sit still. Get quiet.

Allow this question to circle in your mind. Is this the truth? Are we telling the truth here? Doesn't mean I have to do anything, but are we telling the truth?

And certain things will start to surface in your mind. And I don't mean you have to sit there for twenty minutes. I'm talking about, like, four minutes. Just sit there. Be with yourself, and you will notice that things pop up in your mind.

The barriers, the anxieties, the possibilities also will probably surface. You'll have all these thoughts that start to bubble up, and your job is just to, you know, jot those down or make note of those. Like, I usually for me, I jot those down because then, if they're on the page, I can work with them. Then I can go to whiteboard. But when it's all just a mess in my head, it's very difficult to get to the truth of anything.

So my job is to facilitate that for people and to help them move through in a way that feels right to them. But you can do it for yourself. It's just difficult, and it requires a patience to just stop and sit with yourself and be with yourself and observe what surfaces in your mind. Make notes of some of those things.

And then you will, you'll start to have ideas on how to run different scenarios or, you know, if this, then that, and to play with it. I think that's actually that's something I should say here, to play with it. This should feel playful in running different scenarios in attempt to dismantle certain assumptions that you do have. Like, it should feel like playing with it. You don't have to do anything.

Even if you discover that the truth is pointing in the direction you can see so clearly, you need to make this move, you don't have to. You are a sovereign human being, but the discovery phase is so important. Peeling back the layers of the onion is so important, and making sure you're doing that for yourself, or at least having an awareness when you need to do it for yourself, because that awareness is everything. That is where change can really come. That is where your perspective can start to shift. That is where play can come into your mind, and that is where really good fruitful conversations with others can happen because of some of the things that are surfacing. And then you can talk to others about that and see how they've thought through it. 

So there's all kinds of opportunity and possibility that opens up when you're committed to making sure you're not just running on your whim. You're, like, reacting sort of emotionally in a way where, for example, you have exerted a lot of energy. You've pushed through a lot of discomfort recently to make these certain calls, and so you just want a break.

But, honestly, the break is keeping you in a grind that you don't have to be in. So what story are you telling yourself about this other lever you could pull now that would make a big difference in your world? And it's so easy to be like, “Nope, nope. I've been doing that. I need a minute to rest.” Yeah, but that minute to rest costs you so much from an energetic perspective. So just make the move. Because the sooner you make the move, the sooner you change your own existence in the firm.

So I really wanna push you guys to you know, this this all comes back to being able to see the truth from where you stand, and that is difficult when you are inside of your own stuff and trying to suss out the truth. But as long as you have a commitment to that, you'll do a good job. Progress, not perfection. You'll do a good job.

And I think with this example that we talked through today, it's so clear because the math was there. You know, the example we talked through last week, there's no math. There's no math. You could do math, but in that situation, it's not gonna help the owner feel better. Right? But there still is truth to get to.

In that example, here, the truth can start with math, and then as you saw, so we surface truth with numbers, and then we surface truth using numbers, by the way. We did this with math as well. You start to see what's possible in terms of the time you could take off and, like, plan a trip with your family. What it would mean to your family to be able to take home more because this administrative assistant is here and what that would mean about how you feel about your days. I know this firm well enough to know that at this stage, with where they are, they're in a really crunchy period.

Likely, he won't work a lot less hours than what he's working right now, but he'll be getting paid for more of them. And that's a move in the right direction. Now, as I continue to work with firms like this, then naturally, we need to keep seeing progress from the owner's perspective. So at some point, we will want those hours to come down, and that's part of the evolution. Right?

But this isn't a light switch that you flip where all of a sudden you see the truth, and you put all these puzzle pieces into place over one quarter, and then all of a sudden, you don't have to work as many hours, and you're making more money. No, no, no. Those shifts take time because it requires a deep level of intentionality.

And to be intentional with those moving pieces that need to be put into place so that there's stability and sustainability. Those things happen over time. And your job is to put one foot in front of the other in the best ways for the health of that firm and for you as the owner. And when you do that, it will start to stack. And there will be a day in the not too distant future you look back and say, “Goddamn. I am so glad that I did that work. I'm so glad I pushed through the discomfort because now I'm starting to see the other side.” You don't get to the other side unless you keep putting one foot in front of the other.

And so, again, I'm sort of making the case for if you're feeling like, no. I just need a quarter where we don't do anything. Maybe you still decide to do that. Right? But looking at playing both scenarios out where you don't make a move, what is your life like in three months, and what is the truth for the numbers of the firm? And if you do make a move, what is your life like at the end of three months, and what is your ability to be fulfilled differently by this company?

So all good food for thought. I hope this gives you guys something to chew on in your own situation. I do think that if there's anything you're waiting on, I would take a look at it and see what you're actually waiting for and make yourself articulate it. What are you waiting for before you pull the trigger? And then that thing that you're waiting for, is it coming, or is it not coming? Because just like I said before, they were gonna wait for stabilization before they hired this admin assistant. But with the configuration they had, the stabilization wasn't coming. It wasn't coming.

So just check yourself. Alright, everyone. Have a wonderful week. I will see you here next Tuesday.

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