RJon Robins: From The Vault
RJon Robins: From The Vault
A Liberating Truth for Law Firm Owners
Welcome inside the vault. This is a collection of previously unreleased lessons from eight-figure entrepreneurial mastermind RJon Robins. And in case you didn't see the warning label – this content can be explicit and is for serious entrepreneurs only.
In this transformative lesson from July 2023, RJon reveals a liberating truth as he guides listeners through a powerful exercise in self-reflection and decision-making. He begins by asking you to take a look at your past, present, and future self. He continues with a vivid analogy about the space shuttle to illustrate how outdated decisions can impact current and future operations. And finally RJon highlights the presence of idiocy in decision-making at every stage.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
1. Free yourself from the burden of always trying to be right
2. Accept the inevitability of errors
3. Shed unrealistic expectations
4. Take continuous action despite failures
5. Be aware that luck plays a part in outcomes
Get ready to make decisions based on sound methodology, take action despite imperfect knowledge, and keep moving forward.
Let's go to the vault!
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Turn the lessons in this episode into an actionable growth plan for your business with the FREE 5-Week Business Plan Bootcamp. https://htm.live/bootcamp
A Liberating Truth for Law Firm Owners Ep 107 From The Vault
[00:00:00] Narrator: Welcome inside the vault. This is a collection of previously unreleased lessons from eight-figure entrepreneurial mastermind RJon Robins. And in case you didn't see the warning label, this content can be explicit, and it is for serious entrepreneurs only. In this lesson from July 2023, we join How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm members as RJon takes them through a reflective exercise to embrace past decisions.
Because progress comes from learning and adapting, not from striving for perfection. Let's go to the vault.
[00:00:46] Testimonials: Working with RJon is like having a shortcut to future you.
Every time I can have an opportunity to spend time with RJon, I try to take it and be a sponge.
I thought everyone was crazy. You know, they were running to the front of the stage to see this person. RJon's wearing his crazy shirt. You know, he drinks tiger blood in the morning just for fun and he's like breathing down my throat.
Sometimes it's terrifying to It's like he's looking into your soul, but it's, it's growth the whole way.
[00:01:26] RJon Robins: There's very little in your business that actually needs to be perfect. There's actually only one thing in a law firm that needs to be perfect. Does anyone know what that is? No, not trust account. Totally false. Doesn't need to be perfect. You're not going to get disbarred if your trust account isn't perfect.
You're allowed to fix it. People have to make adjustments and changes to their trust account all the time. You don't make like a one penny error and then lose your license. Not how it goes. You don't even get suspended most of the time unless you do it again and again and again and again and again.
Trust account doesn't have to be perfect. Should be, doesn't have to be. What actually does have to be perfect? There is one thing that has to be perfect. There's only one thing you can't fix if you fuck this up in a law firm. It's really important that you understand this because once you understand that there's actually only one thing you can't fix, then everything else you can just fucking relax.
Your marketing can suck. And you can make it better, right? Your sales can be all jacked up and you can learn how to sell legal services. You can learn how to hire a non-attorney salesperson, We call them dragons, to sell legal services and you can make that better. Your processes, your procedures, your systems are always going to suck.
They're never going to be great. Just get over the idea that you're going to have these amazing processes and systems and procedures, because they're never going to be amazing. Why? Because the minute you get them right, you're going to start outgrowing them. So they're never going to be perfect. Staffing.
Oh my God. Anyone who knows me knows that you can make a lot of mistakes on staffing and you can still keep growing and growing and growing and growing and growing your business. Financial controls. You can fix financial control. There's only one thing you can't fix. Anyone know what it is? You still don't know what it is.
Statute of limitations. It's the only thing you can't fix. Everything else you can fix. You could like show up to court drunk. You could argue the wrong case to the jury. You could throw up on the judge and you can fix all that. All of that can be fixed. The only thing you can't fix is a statute of limitations.
Like literally just. Relax. Okay. These are very simple businesses to run. All right.
Point being that we try to use our own mistakes in How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm to sort of shine a light on it, to make light of it and to make you understand and feel okay about making these kinds of mistakes too, because they're inevitable.
[00:04:24] RJon Robins: And here's why they're inevitable. They're inevitable because Your five year ago self was a fucking idiot. My five years ago self thought 'blank' was perfectly okay when it came to whatever. My five years ago self thought 'blank' was perfectly okay when it came to my car. My five years ago self thought 'blank' was perfectly okay when it came to domestic services.
My five years ago self thought it was perfectly okay to scrub my own toilets. My five years ago self thought it was perfectly okay to have a mountain of debt and not be chipping away at it. My five years ago self thought it was perfectly okay to go on a holiday, but be working eight hours a day while my family was at the beach.
My five years ago self thought it was perfectly okay to have staff who were openly undermining me and disrespectful and held me hostage. Are you getting where I'm going with this? Take inventory of what a fucking idiot your five years ago self was. How would your five years ago self judge you for how you live your life today?
Now, hopefully there's things about how you live your life today that your five years ago self would recognize and value and admire and respect. But chances are, there's probably a bunch of stuff about the way you live your life today that your five years ago self would be baffled by. Maybe offended by. Maybe accuse you of being a sellout. Maybe accuse you of having your priorities all mixed up.
How would your five years ago self had judged you for how you live your life today? So how would your five years ago self judge the amount you spend on a car payment or a mortgage payment or your last vacation or how you choose to travel or what you invest on domestic services? Notice I said, invest.
How would your five years ago self be judging you today? Where was your five year ago self coming from? Where was that person coming from? What was their criteria for their home? What was their criteria for their domestic services? Their holidays? What standards were they using? Where were they coming from?
Whatare their fears? What were their hopes? I remember Ale and I were talking about this in 2012, I think it was 2012. 2012-2013, somewhere around there. We went on a vacation to one of these all inclusive resorts in Mexico. We were in this giant soaking tub and had this really great kind of day, relaxing, dreaming, fantasizing, imagining our future.
And we remember we came up with the - "If we could just figure out how to accumulate…when we've got $300,000 cash in the bank. Man, that'll be great." I mean, now that's like way in the rear view mirror. And if I had $300,000 in the bank. I'd be up here selling the shit out of everything I could think of.
Are you getting the idea? Used to be 300K was up here. Now 300K is down here. It's a matter of perspective. What were their hopes? What were their biggest dreams? If you could travel back in time, what is that person still tolerating in their life? At the time, they might not have even realized it was a toleration, but looking back at it, you recognize, "Wow, that was a toleration."
Your five years ago self had some rules about how things had to be. What were some of those rules? What kind of bullshit is your five years ago self still talking about the kind of person you have become today? For example, maybe today you fly first class as a matter of course. And your five years ago self was one of these people who would go trudging through first class, grumbling about what a bunch of assholes everyone is in first class and how, what a waste of money the plane gets there at the same time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
That five years ago self still exists back here. That's what you got to get. We've got to take inventory of all this stuff. We can't deal with it if we don't know what we're dealing with. List a few things about how the world is today. That your five years ago self didn't expect, could not have imagined.
And if we're being really honest with ourselves, wouldn't have even believed possible, or at least not probable enough to have prepared for it. Or am I the only person who didn't have a warehouse full of personal protective devices and masks at the beginning of 2020? No? No one else anticipated the pandemic?
Y'all failed to prepare? You see? Because you didn't expect it, you couldn't have imagined it, or at least you didn't expect it realistically enough to have prepared for it.
So what are some things about how the world is today that five years ago, you just couldn't have even imagined it. You feeling a little humility there? You feeling a little lost? All right. List five things happening or not happening in your business today because of the rules that your idiotic five years ago self decided on.
That you haven't even bothered to investigate. You haven't gone back and reconsidered. You haven't re-evaluated. You haven't analyzed. You haven't thought through. You are just being held hostage by the decisions of a moron from 5 years ago who didn't anticipate a worldwide pandemic!
[00:12:04] Narrator: If this episode is resonating with you, click the link in the show notes below to learn more about the upcoming 5-Week Business Plan Bootcamp.
Yes, this is a free virtual bootcamp, which means seats are limited in order to provide personal attention and laser coaching. Click the link below and turn this podcast episode into an actionable business plan to grow your law firm. And now, back to the show.
[00:12:32] RJon Robins: I would say probably most of you are having a hard time with this because you keep wanting your five years ago self to be right.
You keep wanting to justify. You keep wanting to rationalize. You keep wanting to defend. You keep wanting to protect. You keep trying to make your five years ago self right. And the whole point of this entire exercise is to let go of that anchor, to let go of this need to make your five years ago self right.
Your five years ago self made a lot of bonehead decisions. Your five years ago self made a lot of mistakes. Your five years ago self had messed up criteria, low standards, lack of experience, lack of understanding. They did the best they could do, but they were an idiot. Embrace it. Once you embrace it, it will free you.
You will get liberated. I know you guys are struggling with this. This is why I designed this exercise. Once you learn to let it go, It frees you to do really amazing things in your business and in your life, but definitely in your business. Because when you feel this emotional need to always justify and always rationalize and always be right about things, then every single decision you make in your business is excruciating.
You have to analyze it and analyze it and analyze it and research it and research it and research it and figure it out and figure it out and figure it out and never ask a question that you don't know the answer to. Well, how the fuck are you supposed to run a business and figure shit out? If you won't ask questions, you don't know the answer to?
So much easier. So much easier. Just a better way to live your life. To just appreciate the idiocy of your past self. And accept and embrace and appreciate that your self today, will be the same bonehead and idiot making the best decisions you can make, And five years from now, you'll be looking back and be like, "Oh my God, I can't believe…” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Now, amongst those bonehead decisions. Will be some decisions that turned out pretty well. The problem is you're judging the decision by how it turned out. Everyone pay attention, write this down. You cannot judge the decision by how it turned out. It's unfair to your past self to do that. It's also completely unrealistic because every decision, the way things turn out always has something to do with luck, which is completely out of your control.
So you've got to make the best decision you can make in the moment, take action, take action, take action, hope luck goes your way, see how it turns out and then make another decision. Take action. Take action. Take action. Hope luck goes your way.
See how it turns out. Make another decision. Take action. Take action. Are you getting what I'm saying? Everyone who's ever built anything successful, if they're being honest with you, which many of them aren't, will tell you luck had a lot to do with it. The difference between people who build very successful businesses and people who don't build very successful businesses,
and I will be presumptuous enough to say, we, in the category of people who build very successful businesses, we keep making decisions. And you keep making decisions and you keep making decisions and you keep making decisions and you keep making decisions and then all of a sudden luck goes your way and BAM!
You make 10 million dollars out of nowhere. Because you kept making decisions, you kept making decisions, you kept making decisions, you kept making decisions. Luck is pounding you in the face and knocking you down and kicking the shit out of you and you keep making decisions, you keep making decisions, and you keep making decisions, and BAM!
You make an extra million bucks out of nowhere. And then you keep making decisions and you keep making decisions and you keep making decisions and luck is tripping you and teasing you and laughing at you and taunting with you and fucking with you and all of a sudden BAM! Some fucking purple unicorn wanders into your life and says "I'd like to come work with you." And now you can do things you couldn't do before and then you keep making decisions.
This is how winning gets done. But if you're looking back at your past self, and you won't embrace, and you can't accept, and you won't forgive, and you won't let go, and you won't give that person permission to have been the idiot they were. Then you're gonna find it excruciating to make any decisions, and then you won't get anything done.
And then luck is waiting for you to get to it, and you're stuck back here trying to be right, trying to not make any mistakes, and luck is over here saying, "Come on! Get over here! Take the steps! Get to me!" You understand the difference between not judging the decision by the decision versus how it turns out?
You judge a decision as being a good decision because the way the decision is made is a good methodology. You use a good methodology for making your decision. It's a good decision. You can't see how it turns out and then decide whether you made a good decision. You have to judge whether you made a good decision at the time you make the decision.
You make a decision based on evaluation. You make the decision based on analysis. You do…you make the decision based on research. You make the decision based on good advice and good counsel from people who know what the fuck they're talking about. You make the decision based on where you want to be, not based on where you don't want to be.
You make the decision the right way, And you take action on it. It's a good decision. Then we see what luck does with your 'good decision' and maybe it turns out the way you want it to. Maybe it turns out not the way you want it to, but you can't go back and second guess the decision. The decision was made.
Well, it was a good decision. Got it? If you got that, you got a lot. I promise you.
[00:19:56] RJon Robins: Quick story: The Space Shuttle, the rocket boosters on the space shuttle, the proportions of the rocket boosters on the space shuttle. were dictated by the width of two horses asses. The most sophisticated piece of technology on the planet today, arguably, one of they, was dictated by the width of two horses asses.
So here's how it goes. The Space Shuttle is built all over the country in different places. And the pieces are all brought together for assembly. Those pieces have to travel over roads, across bridges and through train tunnels. Yeah? The pieces can't be bigger than can fit through a train tunnel. And even if you want to take it apart, it still can't, the pieces can't be bigger than can fit through a train tunnel.
You got the idea? Why is a train tunnel the width that it is? Well, because that's the width of the train. Why is a train the width that a train is? Why aren't trains twice as wide? Why aren't trains half as wide? Trains are the width that they are because of the width of the track. Right? Because if the track is this wide and the train is twice as wide, it becomes unstable, right?
So the width of the track dictates the width of the train, which dictates the width of the train tunnel, which dictates the dimensions of the space shuttle, alright? So, I know what you're all thinking, "Why are the train tracks the width of the train tracks?" Well, train tracks are the width of the train tracks because the train tracks, when they were originally laid down, were laid down in the ruts that the wagon wheels used to make.
Yeah? So you put the, you put the train track in the rut of the wagon wheel because it's already worn in, right? So now the question is why is the wagon wheel the width of the wagon wheel? The width of the wagon wheel is the width of the wagon wheel because the wagon wheel goes to the ruts that are cut by the horse's feet.
As they pull the wagon side by side. So you get two horse asses, put them side by side in front of a wagon and the horses cut a rut in the ground, which makes a smooth track for the wagon wheels to go in, which makes a smooth track for the train tracks to go in, which means that's the width of the train, which means that's the width of the train tracks.
And now that's why the space shuttle has the proportions that it has. Got it? What kind of fucked up shit are you still doing in your business because of the decisions made by some fucking moron five years ago who didn't know shit from anything? That's the question. And the answer for many of you is, a lot.
You could just write the word "Alot" if you want to speed this up. Some of you will write "Everything." So, you ready for the next one? List 10 opportunities. 10 amazing opportunities, 10 problems, 10 changes that your five year from now self, five years from now, yourself, five years from now, list 10 opportunities, problems, changes, challenges, you currently can't imagine. And you don't expect.
And even if I told you, you wouldn't even believe me. If I told you it was possible. List 10 things that you don't know, can't expect, wouldn't imagine, and wouldn't believe me. Even if I told you it was possible.
Let's just say, for example, that we met when you were thinking about engaging the services, How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm.
And I told you, "In five years, you can have a million dollar law firm."
"You could have this amazing multimillion dollar home."
"You could take off for 30 days with emergency access only."
"You can have domestic services, your kids could be in private school, and you'll have a lot less stress."
And you know what a lot of people tell me?
"No, it's not true!" And we have to like convince them and convince them and convince them and convince them. So list 10 things that you can't imagine. I'll make this easy for you. Because you know, here's the thing, everyone. You are really smart. You're really smart people, you're highly educated, right? And, and your whole life you've been told how smart you are, and how capable you are, and how you should be able to figure anything out.
And then, to make it worse, you went to law school where they blew a whole bunch more smoke up your ass, and it went to your head. And so you are operating in this delusion, thinking that you can imagine shit that you can't possibly fucking imagine. And so instead of just making the best decision you can make with the information available to you today, you fucking freeze and say, "No, no, no, I can't make a decision!"
"Instead, I have to be able to anticipate and imagine the unimaginable, the unanticipatable.”
"I have to know the unknowable!"
"I'll do research, I'll investigate, I'll do analysis, I'll talk to everyone."
"I'll post a bunch of shit on Facebook so that I can figure out a bunch of stuff that no one could possibly know!"
"And once I've figured out what no one could possibly know then I'll make a decision!"
And your life is just fucking sitting there waiting for you to make a decision.And the whole point of this entire exercise is to break you free of this. To give yourself permission to look like an idiot when you look back at yourself five years from now. Make the best decisions you can make, make the mistake, let it unfold, make a new decision. Take action, make the best decision you can make, let it unfold, see how it turns out, make a decision.
Make the best decision you can make, take action, let it unfold, make a decision. And then you'll look back at this five years from now and you'll say,
"Wow! Some of those decisions were not the right decision."
“Some of those decisions were the right decision and luck just didn't go my way."
"Some of those decisions were just stupid."
"And some of those decisions, holy shit. What times does a private plane land in Miami on the way home?”
Because there's a few decisions that caused that outcome in my life. And it was a fuck ton of wrong decisions that didn't stop it from happening. You don't have to make that many right decisions to radically transform the way you live for the better.
You just have to keep making decisions and taking action and moving forward. And you can make a lot of wrong decisions along the way, and it'll still work out.
[00:27:28] Narrator: Thanks for listening. Tune in next week for more lessons From The Vault.
