Reflection for the New Year: 4 Anchors for Clarity and Growth

Alright, everybody. This is the last episode being recorded for 2025. So when this airs, it'll be the week of New Year's, which is why I'm wearing a very sparkly shirt as a form of celebration. If you can't see this, you should go to YouTube. We're on YouTube now, and check it out.

So, listen, as we close out this year, this episode is about how you enter the next year intentionally, not with pressure or resolutions, but with clarity and space. It is so easy to roll straight from the holidays into January and get swept up in motion before you've really even thought.

And today is about slowing down long enough to think forward to 2026. I am going to share four anchors, four areas to reflect on, and each comes with one simple question. So take a little quiet time with each one of these. Journal, sit with it, talk it through. All right, let's begin.

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. 

Welcome back to The Law Firm Owner Podcast. I am Melissa Shanahan. I'm so glad you're here with us today. I am going to walk through four anchors that you should give some space to so that you're not slamming into the new year. My hope is that this is a useful reflection in this gift of space we have as we turn the corner into 2026. Let's start with the first anchor. 

The first anchor is clarity, reconnecting with the future you're building. Ask yourself, what is the future you're building? What do you want? Spend real time with that question. Normally, we don't have the space to sit with that question, but even if you've answered it before, revisit it, because clarity evolves as you evolve. As time goes on, things change.

Now, when you are determining and you're getting clear about the future you're building, you should, in my opinion, oftentimes include revenue goals because those are lagging indicators of the success that you are creating. But if you write down a revenue number, also write down the profit margin range. And I want you to write any other conditions that must be true for that future to feel healthy and truly successful for you.

What else must be true? Because it's not about hitting a number for the sake of hitting a number. Maybe you picture, with the future you're building, a two-million-dollar firm, but with a profit margin that's 30 to 35 percent, and with a steady team, and with you spending most of your time on strategy and leadership rather than production, legal work. Those qualifiers matter.

So when you're talking about the future you're building, sitting with this anchor point, and this is why I want you to spend time here with reflection, is important because you want to really paint the picture for yourself. It's not just about a number, but probably a number is involved with the future you're creating. So don't be afraid to name it.

But you have to put conditions there as well because it's going to be different for you than it is to the firm down the street. They're going to care about something a little bit differently, or they'll be thinking about the future they're building differently than you are. So get in tune with what matters to you.

So the qualifiers matter. They define the quality of success that you are describing. Also, as a note, you want to avoid, when you're painting the picture of your future, getting lost in the mechanics of how that revenue or that future will be exactly created. You just want to paint the picture of the destination.

For instance, you're thinking that it's going to take five attorneys to in order to paint this vision of the future. Okay, maybe you might not be right about that, though. Most of the time, we're not right with the elements that are going to have to be in place in order for us to see the things that we really care about. So focus on just what you really care about. The rest, you'll be able to figure out during strategic planning.

Now, when you're thinking about this future that you're building, I want you to ask, why does that revenue and profit matter? What will it allow? What kind of experience will it create if that revenue is hit, if that profit margin is hit, if you have the steady team, if you have all the things that you already connected with for the future you're building? What experience will it create for you, for your team, for your clients, for your family?

If you believe that you need very specific elements in order to reach that level, don't indulge too much in that. You can make your brain answer why do you think you would need those. This is going back to the five attorneys thing that I was just mentioning. But more instead, what result do you think that would create by having those? There's a reason that your brain is trying to figure out all the elements that'll be in place in order to make that possible. That's not what you're doing. In this, you're just connecting to the destination and what makes that a success in your mind, getting connected to that.

This reflection isn't about predicting your org chart or your accountability chart. It's about defining the conditions of success, the future you actually want to live inside. That's what gives your vision its pull and its direction. So reconnect to that vision.

The second anchor is data. And this is about truth and clarity inside your firm. Whether you're deeply dialed in with data and you're really great with tracking and measuring, or you tend to go off of instinct, this question will still apply.

From where you are sitting right now, what is one thing you will do in 2026 from a data perspective to create clarity in a way you never have before? That could mean you're going to decide on one new metric that you'll track monthly that you've never tracked before. That could mean that you're getting curious about a number you've ignored or misunderstood. So you're going to start looking at it and digging in with it. That could mean always knowing your monthly revenue and your monthly profit without guessing.

And when I say that, the reason I use this as an example is because when I ask owners, What's your monthly revenue, and What's your monthly profit margin, or yearly or whatever, they don't know. They can't answer it. They have hunches, but they don't know.

What if you knew? What if you knew with certainty every month? There was no guessing. You knew exactly where it was sitting. You don't need a complex system. You don't need a big new project. That's not what this anchor is trying to get you to engage with. You do need visibility, and you need to make progress on visibility.

So data is power, and clarity through data is power. And when you know what's true about revenue, profit, other metrics that you are saying matters to you right now that you want to dig into, that feel smart to dig into, when you start doing that, you can lead from facts and not feelings. It gives you confidence in your decisions and peace of mind that what you're doing is actually working.

Inside our partnerships at Velocity Work, that is often one of the biggest shifts. Owners move from hoping they're doing well to knowing that they are because they finally have the right visibility. And that's what I want for you in 2026: clear eyes on what matters the most.

The third anchor is capacity, how you create more space for higher-level work. So reflect on this. What is one thing you can do to increase your capacity so that more of your time is spent on higher-leverage activities? What is one thing you could do to increase your capacity? Not the capacity of your firm. This question is for you, so that more of your time is spent on higher-leverage activities.

Now, we've talked about this on previous episodes, but you want to start from the bottom up, not top down. Don't jump to hiring an expensive, high-level person to take something off of your plate. Look for the lowest cost replacement that frees up time. Delegate what's easiest to hand off first. The goal is to move up the ladder of value, and that means freeing yourself to focus on only what you can do over time.

So capacity isn't just about people, it's about the structure of your time. It's about your attention, it's about your energy. And every time you delegate, you simplify, you systematize something, you increase your ability to think, to lead, and to execute. We could all use more of that. That is how you create leverage, not through more effort, but through smarter allocation.

The fourth anchor is stewardship. This one is probably my favorite because it's about treating your firm like the valuable asset that it truly is. Ask yourself, what is one thing you can do this year to be a better steward of your firm? What is one thing you can do this year to handle your firm like the asset that it is? This could be getting more intentional with how you plan for your business. This could be beefing up your cash reserves. This could be tightening up systems or playbooks. It could be investing in better infrastructure, improving your own leadership, how you communicate, prepare, follow through.

Stewardship means caring for your business in a way that preserves and grows its value. And when you treat your firm like an asset, it begins to behave like an asset. And that's the difference between ownership and stewardship. Ownership is possession. Stewardship is responsibility.

You may not have complete answers to all of the questions I posed. That's not the point. The point is to sit with these questions. Let them guide your thinking before the year turns over. Carve out even an hour to reflect and to write. You don't need a plan today. You just need clarity today. And the right next steps will surface naturally.

When I say sit with these questions, I really mean sit with these questions. So one thing that I often do is I will go on a walk with a question. I will “sit with the question,” is how I think of it a lot. I will just let it roll around in my brain. I often will put a voice memo on, and I'll just answer the question. And a lot of times it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. I'm kind of dancing around things. I'm trying to figure things out, and then something will start to make sense.

So you can take one of these questions that stood out the strongest to you and just let that question roll around in your mind as you go for a walk, as you're on the Peloton for a ride, as you're driving somewhere. Allow these questions to roll around in your brain and entertain them. And if you want to break it up and do one per activity and just see what comes of it, that could be a really great way to sit with these questions and have your brain produce what's needed in order for you to take the right kind of action following your realizations.

The transition into a new year is always full of possibility. But once January hits, it's easy to just get swept back right into the motion of things. So I like to ask myself, and I'm going to give this to you, when it's March of the year that you're entering, in this case it's 2026, when it's March 2026, what will you wish you would have just handled by then? When you get there, and you ask yourself, What do I wish I would have just handled by now? And I didn't. Chances are your answer ties back to one of these four anchors: clarity about where you're headed, data, capacity, or stewardship. And whatever that thing is, give it attention now. It will serve you all year long if you do.

If you want help doing this work, getting clear on the future you're building, putting structure around your data, expanding your capacity, and truly stewarding your firm like an asset, that's what we do in Velocity Work. We begin with Foundation, a deep dive into your firm's metrics, structure, and vision. And from there, we partner with you to execute the plan quarter after quarter. You can learn more or schedule a consult at velocitywork.com/calendar.

Well, cheers, everyone, to a clear mind, a strong foundation, and a firm that's fully aligned with the future you are building. Happy New Year.

Hey, want to watch the video of this episode? Head over to Velocity Work’s YouTube channel. You’ll find the link in the show notes.

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.