Ep. 6 Financial Freedom for Lawyers by Mastering Delegation and Efficiency

Ever wondered how a lawyer can juggle the scales of justice and the books of business without dropping the ball on either? That's where the power of delegation shines, and in our latest episode, my co-host Ian Weiner and I, Todd Whatley, share the transformative strategies that can turn any legal practice into a beacon of financial success. With our combined experience coaching attorneys, we're revealing how building a rock-solid team and mastering the art of outsourcing can free you up to tackle those high-stakes legal maneuvers that truly matter.

Join us on a journey with a lawyer who turned the daunting task of meeting a $1.2 million annual budget into a 25-year career triumph. We'll discuss the game-changing decisions around hiring, the shift to flat fees for greater efficiency, and the delicate dance of balancing professional aspirations with personal joys. It's not just about growing a thriving law firm; it's about crafting a life that's rich in experiences without sacrificing the success of your practice. Tune in and unlock the secrets to protecting your time and elevating your firm's prestige.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Lawyer's Money Show with your hosts, todd Wattley and Ian Weiner, where finance meets the legal profession. Here we dive deep into the economics of law practice, from managing your firm's finances to optimizing personal wealth strategies for legal professionals. Every episode we bring you insights, strategies and stories from leading experts to help you navigate the financial landscape of the legal world. Stay tuned as we uncover the tools and tactics needed to help lawyers make the right money moves so they can grow their career, manage their practice and optimize their wealth so they can focus on enjoying the life they've worked so hard to build. For more resources, visit us at wwwlawyerstotalplancom.

Speaker 2: 0:46

Welcome to the Lawyer's Money Show. I am your host, ian Weiner, and I'm here with my co-host, todd Wattley. Hey, todd.

Speaker 3: 0:53

Hey man.

Speaker 2: 0:54

How are you? I'm doing well. I'm excited to talk about this today with you, because this is something that I think you do really well, and I think this episode will make a lot of people a lot of money, and that's kind of an interesting way to say this. But I want to talk about this today. I want to talk about this idea that growing well requires a team. Okay, and so we're going to talk a little bit about delegation, about building a team, about outsourcing some things, and this is a value that we have and this is a value that we promote to the folks that we talk to, and I think, at the same time, this is a challenging issue for some, and so I want to kind of dive into this a little bit.

Speaker 3: 1:43

Yeah, and this goes. I mean, it applies to me personally. But one of my other jobs is I am a coach. I help attorneys become elder law attorneys and, by the way, if you're interested in that, go to theyelderlawcoachcom and we can talk about that. But a lot of the people that come to coaching are solo private practice people and when they come to me, it's them by themselves. They've typically left a big firm or they've just graduated and they're like I want to do elder law. I'm like okay, let me help you do that. And when we meet and they are solo practice and they are the only one in the office, they have no employees, no one.

Speaker 3: 2:33

We have a talk and I say I know it's scary up front, and particularly if you're just out of law school and you have zero clients and probably zero money yeah, you probably should be by yourself for a little bit, but I'm telling you, the first thing that you do, above almost anything else in the office, is you have to hire someone, because one of my sayings is and I'm not sure that I came up with this, but I use it all the time that attorneys should only be doing what only attorneys can do. You should spend time in your office. If you spend time on something, it should be something that only you can do. Someone else can answer the phone. Someone else can put names, addresses and phone numbers into Software. Someone else can go get drinks at the store. You know you should only be doing what only you can do, and I know it's hard. I know it gets kind of scary when you still expensive.

Speaker 2: 3:37

Yeah, I can, but you can do that. I can do those things.

Speaker 3: 3:41

I can do those things, but you shouldn't be sure, yeah, number one, if you're answering the phone, it decreases your prestige. I'll just say it. You should not be answering the phone, because if you're there they're like oh, I can just call anytime. He's obviously not doing much. Yeah, if he can just pick up the phone, you, you want a sense of Rarity. You want people to think, oh, he's kind of hard to get in touch with because he's so good and he's, you know, very busy because he is so good. I'll I Went in on that. But if you can get to him just any time and if you're always available, you're not that precious.

Speaker 2: 4:24

I love that idea and I think it's challenging for some folks, especially folks that really like the idea of the kind of lifestyle practice, as we call it, and you know a lot of those folks that resonate with that, with that type of Practice, or folks who don't want to be big and stuffy right, and I understand that but at the same time, perception really does create the reality that your clients have, and so there's a part of the game that you've got to play a little bit.

Speaker 3: 4:52

Yeah, I mean, I am probably the least stuffy person that you would ever meet, but it Portains the money okay when it comes to money and you start charging the fees that you, you can charge and People not fuss about it, you need to have an air of Rarity. I can't just get to him anytime. I need him to do this for me. You know, please, you know, would you please work with me? It's like, yeah, how we glad to for this price and they pay it, and so if you're the one answering the phone, if you're always available, that's a problem.

Speaker 2: 5:33

Well, think about it. I mean, when you call the doctor, yeah, you know, you know, typically, unless that your personal friends with them get to the doctor.

Speaker 3: 5:42

Yeah right, I don't answer the phone.

Speaker 1: 5:44

No, I mean you, can't you gotta?

Speaker 2: 5:46

It's pulling teeth to get to the person who does answer the phone, you know, and they got felled the forms eight times and waiting no-transcript. That's. The idea, though, is and the doctor doesn't schedule appointments, you know, they don't handle that stuff. They come in and do what only the doctor can do, exactly.

Speaker 3: 6:04

And this frees you up to do things only you can do to do the research, to do the marketing. Sometimes I mean, I have a marketing person and everybody knows she is my face, but when I show up they're like oh, Todd's here, this must be a big deal, because Todd's here. And when I do show up, it's a big deal, and I don't particularly love to go to those things. But even if I did, I would still not go very often just to create that air of he's very busy, he's in demand, he doesn't have time for anything besides helping clients. And if you're always there, if you're always available, that doesn't coincide well and so it increases your value, which means you can charge more and you can make more money. But you should only be doing what only you can do, and that is a valuable resource that you cannot delegate.

Speaker 1: 7:07

Okay.

Speaker 3: 7:08

It's. You're doing what you can do to help increase the value of this, and I think clients appreciate that. If they see you all the time, if they're always able to get to you. What else are you doing? Are you increasing your skill level? Are you speaking or doing things If you're always available? No, you're just there and it just decreases your value, and I know that's a mindset. But hiring people truly does mean you can make more money.

Speaker 2: 7:41

It should free up your time. You know, the statistic that we kind of use in the advisor world which is in a lot of ways similar to small attorney practices because we do have some level of still knowledge-based time and effort is your first hire should free up about 60% of your time, is what that should be, and so it should be, and I think it's a lot easier for attorneys to do this, though, because of the things that they can only do For us. It's like okay, what are the things that I need to delegate? What are the things I need to keep? Well, I can do all of it, and they can do a lot of stuff that I can do still, but for attorneys, I think it's actually a fair bit easier.

Speaker 2: 8:28

Figuring out what you need to delegate, yeah, and you need to give yourself an effective hourly rate. This is something that is kind of tough too, but you've got to think about it this way what did you pay yourself last year? Okay, divide that by 2,000 hours. Okay, that is your effective hourly rate if you worked full time.

Speaker 3: 8:51

If you work full time, right.

Speaker 2: 8:53

And so if you worked less than that, divide that. But now let's say that's $400 an hour. Well, if the task does not require you to do it, it's a less than $400 an hour task, then you should delegate that to someone else for $20 an hour, and the math is very straightforward here. But it is simple, not easy, sure.

Speaker 3: 9:18

I was at a course one time in this consultant said you know, I was paying $400 an hour for someone to mow my yard and everybody's like what are you doing? I like that.

Speaker 3: 9:29

Yeah, he's like because I was doing it, yeah, and so you're like, oh okay, that makes sense. Would you pay someone $400 an hour to mow your? They better be really good, yeah, you better have a really good looking yard at $400 an hour. But if you're the one doing that and I do mow my yard because I enjoy doing it, that's the key. And I only work two days a week right now. So you know, I do it because I like to do it. But you know, think about it that way If you're doing something, would you pay someone your hourly rate to do that for you, if not delegate?

Speaker 2: 10:10

it and if you enjoy it. If not, do you enjoy it?

Speaker 3: 10:13

Do you?

Speaker 2: 10:13

enjoy it enough to pay Okay.

Speaker 3: 10:16

So if not, then delegate it Sure Sure. It's yeah, and it's a mindset thing.

Speaker 2: 10:22

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 10:24

I do. Okay, alright, your mindset to say, look, I want a business, and I think sometimes attorneys have hard time realizing that they are salespeople. That another good book is it's by Daniel Pink, I think sales and interesting book and we're kind of off the topic, but I think it applies. Everyone is in sales. A parent is in sales trying to get your kid to eat green beans. You're selling it.

Speaker 3: 10:59

Okay, your sales person always wins and in any interaction If you are in sales regardless of what you do in life, you are always, and so we, as attorneys, hate to think about oh, I'm an attorney and I don't sell stuff. Yeah, you do, it's you, it's you, you're selling you, you're selling your skills, and that's what's important is do what you can do. Let everybody else handle the other things. You focus, you, make yourself better, spend time studying, researching and let someone else handle those things around you. I just went through this.

Speaker 3: 11:36

So I've been doing this 25 years, started out by myself, and I slowly built up to in 2015, 2016,. I had three offices, four attorneys, including me, and six staff, I think, and I had a monthly bill that I had to cover of about $100,000 per month. And so I went from nothing part-time attorney, part-time physical therapist, working and slowly. So I've gone from the very beginning to a $1.2 million have to make every year firm, just a budget of 1.2. Yeah, just a budget of 1.2 million.

Speaker 3: 12:27

So I've done this, I've sold it, said I can't do this anymore, I'm done, and then started all over again. So I know what I'm talking about here. Okay, and first thing I did was hire people so I could do only what I was doing, and it is scary. Pretty much everyone that I've hired. I was like I know I need this person, but I don't think I can afford them. But you take the leap and you do it and pretty much every single time, a month or two months later, I'm like how did I get by without this person? How did I live without them?

Speaker 3: 13:05

And the money's better and I'm paying for them and okay, let's go, let's keep this thing going. And so I recently just hired an attorney. I thought I would be by myself the rest of my career. I didn't wanna get big, didn't wanna. But the business kept growing and she called me and we spoke. I wasn't looking for anyone particularly, but I thought, you know, it would be nice that I could do some more lifestyle things. I could spend more time. I was getting. My business was getting to the point where I was spending more time at it than I wanted, and so I brought her on.

Speaker 3: 13:43

Not real sure how I would pay for it. It's like, okay, this will be a cut in my pay and too much. Her third month here. We Tripled our budget. I mean I was like, thank God she's here and so far this month we're doing well again. And so it's like every time I hire someone I'm like I'm not sure I can do this. But two months later it's like I'm glad I did it and I'm honestly not sure how I Got by without them.

Speaker 2: 14:14

There's something that you said that I want to, I want to hone in on because I think it's so powerful you, you made the hire to protect your time. Mm-hmm, that that's your mindset, really, and I think that's something that people could miss. But I think you do that really well. But you have a lot of clarity about how much you want to work, how much you don't want to work. Now, you, you like. You know some other projects that we're working on, you know this yeah, but you know that's something that you do.

Speaker 2: 14:43

A really good job of protecting is your time and your time away, and that's something that I want folks to think about, because you know you got to find balance between enjoying life and, you know, building a practice for the future and retiring someday. You know, because I Think a lot of attorneys miss life along the way and you don't have to. You know, I think younger attorneys these days are getting better and better at that of going okay, yeah, no, I just want a lifestyle practice. You know I'll do a couple hundred thousand a year but not have a lot of stress and it's, it's worth it. But that key, that key principle is you understand the value of your time and you're willing to protect it. Yeah, because that is your most, that's your most precious resource. You, once you spend, you can't get it back. Yeah, yeah, and boy, that's tough.

Speaker 3: 15:32

It is hard. Yeah, I've started my firm in 1999, got it really up and going in 2000 and I hired my second attorney. I hired them, I think 2006 and we were at a event.

Speaker 3: 15:50

We did a speaking event in downtown Little Rock and it was after hours and so we started speaking about 530, spoke to up 630, answered questions till 7 and finally got out of a building it was after 730.

Speaker 3: 16:05

I think and we were just standing outside and he had just joined me, like two or three months ago, and we're standing outside and it's dark. You know, it's dark outside. I think it was in the winter and so it was dark and I looked up at this High-rise building and there was one floor that was still lit up and he saw me looking at it and he turned around, looked at and he said that's what you brought me from. And I said what he said yeah, that's So-and-so law firm, and those guys are up there just hitting it. He said that was me and I didn't want to do that anymore. And so I came to Work with you and on a very rare occasion we're doing an after-hour speaking event. I'm still working, but this is extremely rare. But those guys every night and you come, even on Saturday night, and that's them up there there Going after it and I was like man he said yeah, those, those guys spend a lot of time in that office.

Speaker 3: 17:10

And he said I just didn't want to do that anymore. And I never did do that. I've always worked for myself. But the way you keep from doing that is hire people to do things that you can't do. And the other thing is I never charge by the hour. Okay, those guys are our, the big firms. You have to get in your hours, hours, hours, hours. I don't charge by the hour, flat fees and that's a whole show right there.

Speaker 3: 17:37

Yeah is how we bill. But basically, you know I charge flat fees. Faster I get it done, the more I make, and you can delegate it to other people. So that again Beating this thing to death. But it's true, you only do what only you can do.

Speaker 2: 17:56

Like I said at the beginning, this is gonna make a lot of people a lot of money. Mm-hmm, if they listen, take the rest it's. It's simple, not easy, but when you do it, you're gonna you're gonna get to buy your time back. Yeah, I mean a lot of what we talk about on this show. One of the big principles is we want you to buy your time back and not do things that you shouldn't be doing. Like and Unless you just happen to be one of the the weird folks who also is a certified financial planner Like you don't do your own financial planning. Like have someone do that. You know, I don't do my own legal work. I mean, I could.

Speaker 2: 18:32

I could DIY it you know, there's a certain level of inefficiency that you just got to decide that you're not gonna deal with yeah well, in Courage our listeners.

Speaker 3: 18:44

I will talk to you. Okay, yes, we do a podcast, but we're not a loof and out there and it's like, oh, you know, we don't talk to people. If you need me, call me. I would love to talk through this with you, even if you don't do coaching. If you're doing any other field that I'm not really familiar with, I can talk to you about some of the ins and outs of just hiring and, particularly today, we've been talking the last week or so about virtual assistance, and a lot of them are on the other side of the world, yeah, and that's opened up tremendously. That was not available back in early 2000s and so that's something that's available now. That can really make a difference and you can dump a lot of stuff on them for not a lot of money.

Speaker 2: 19:32

Yeah, and there's great talent out there that is, you know, not not all the talent in the US is what it, what it was at one point. You know, and maybe some of you are thinking of your peers in law school, you know, as an example. But you know, I mean I'm not trying to beat anybody up, but I mean it's, it's true, we look and go, man, you know, there's a certain level of work, ethic and excellence that I think is uncommon anymore, and where it is growing in common is in other parts of the world. Yeah, and you know they're hungry to work.

Speaker 2: 20:07

Yes, and they will work in and they can be paid very well, you know, in their context for far less than what you would pay someone of a similar caliber here, yeah, so anyway, we don't sell that, that service.

Speaker 3: 20:20

But if you do have questions about that, if you want to talk to a real live attorney who's been there, done that, built it, now building it twice, I would love to talk to you and just walk you through that and let's just have a conversation and then, if it leads to other things, great. But if not, please feel free to call our number, email me, todd at Total Lawyer Plan.

Speaker 2: 20:48

Lawyer's Total Plan.

Speaker 3: 20:49

Lawyer's it's Monday LawyersTotalPlancom. Todd at LawyersTotalPlancom, I would love to have a conversation with you, no charge, let's just talk and I would love to help get you some help and you spend less time working and make more money.

Speaker 2: 21:08

You know it's going to be a sales conversation and what I mean is the, the fears that you have of hiring someone. They're going to have to go against Todd's experience of doing it and you know the best idea is going to win in that, you know. So you're going to have to try to sell your fears to Todd and he's going to. He's going to, he's going to sell you on why those things are a lot smaller than you think. Yeah, exactly. So that. Just begin to think about that. You know what are you? What are you afraid of happening? And Maybe some of it's.

Speaker 2: 21:40

You're afraid that you're not gonna have enough to do once. That, once that's time, that's a real thing, you know. So think about how how much More time you'll have to generate business and and interact with you, know your customers and even provide better service. I think it's good one win, great all around. So begin to think about that. But Give us a call, todd at the I Forget it too. Email Todd at lawyers, total plan calm, or you can call the office 479 485 1911. That's 479 485 1911 and love to share some ideas with you.

Speaker 3: 22:24

Okay, we'll see you next time.

Speaker 1: 22:30

Thank you for joining us on the lawyers money show. We hope today's episode has provided you with valuable insights and actionable advice to enhance your financial Well-being. For more information, to access show notes or to explore further, please visit our website at wwwlawyerstotalplancom. We look forward to guiding you through your financial journey. You can give us a call at 479 485 1911. Until next time, keep striving for excellence in both law and finance.