Episode 260 You Are Checking the Wrong Boxes
Welcome to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers? Ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team, and systems, mastering money issues, and more. Then take an insight or 2 to help you build a wealth generating law firm. Each week, your host, Davina Frederick, takes an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve and will pay you on time, and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love.
Intro:Davina is founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer, and her goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund and still have time to enjoy the lifestyle of your dreams. Now here's Divina.
Davina:Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the wealthy woman lawyer podcast. I'm your host, Dena Frederick. And today's topic was inspired by a recent conversation I had with a fellow high achieving woman who is super productive in her business and loves to check off boxes on her to do list. In fact, she loves it so much that sometimes she will write something down on her to do list after she's done it just to have the pleasure of checking it off. And, boy, can I relate?
Davina:Can you? My dad has always used a yellow legal pad to write his to do list, and he does the same thing. Even now that he's in his mid eighties and his to do list includes things like picking up his prescriptions from the pharmacy and taking the trash out to the road, he still keeps off running list, and he takes pleasure in striking off things once they are done. And sometimes he adds things after he's done it just so he can strike it off. So I guess I learned that habit from him because I do it too.
Davina:Apparently, it's human nature to make list and really love striking things off our list. According to Psychology Today, there are ten reasons why we like making lists. One is it helps us externalize what we need to remember so we don't forget it. 2, it helps us give context, which also helps us to remember. Number 3, the linear layout of a list helps us with processing information in an organized fashion.
Davina:Our brain loves that linear layout. Number 4, it's easy to add to. Unlike an outline, which may require reorganization, if we add to it a list, we just tack it on the bottom. Number 5, it acts as a reminder to add new items by providing retrieval clues to our brain. So as we were making the list, it occurs to us that we need to add other things to it.
Davina:Number 6, the conscious, the conciseness of a list helps us to organize large amounts of information quickly. So we have all this stuff on our mind of all these things we need to do. We can organize it very quickly by writing it on a list. And lists make us number 7, lists make us feel accomplished, especially once we cross something off. And number 8, it helps us to make decisions easily.
Davina:Number 9, it helps us break habits. We don't need list for what we do habitually because to do what we need to do. We don't need complete sentences and paragraph. We can, to do what we need to do. We don't need complete sentences or paragraph.
Davina:We can, quickly jot down a few words on a list and it helps us. And if you're like me, you probably make lists and then when they get a little messy from crossing them off or doodling on them, you create a fresh list even before everything is completely crossed off on your old list. Because so many detail oriented, high achieving people love list, it could feel a bit threatening if someone, like, say, coach like me, comes in and says something like, you're not delegating enough or you don't have the right things on your list or you're still trying to control all the details, or you need to delegate more of the items on your list. It can feel especially daunting if you wonder what you will do if you delegate most of the items on your list to someone else to do. What will you do without your list?
Davina:And, consequently, what will you do with your free time now that you've delegated those things? Will you still be a valuable person to your organization if you're not stuck in the doing of all the details? And I used to think my value was in the amount of paperwork I could complete in a given day. I've always, been a doer. So this was the case way back when I was a writer.
Davina:It was the case when I became an attorney and then when I ran my law office until one day, I had an epiphany. The epiphany was that my value, much like your value, is not in the number of items we cross off our to do list or the amount of paperwork we can process in a period of time or or in the number of hearings we can attend in a week, for example. No. Our value to others comes from what lies between our ears. It is in how we think, not what we do.
Davina:And that's what people are willing to pay the most money for is how you think. And until you understand this, really understand it, you will always struggle with articulating your value. So let me give you an example. Let's consider LegalZoom, which at first glance appears to be the nemesis of every estate planning lawyer out there. So have you had someone say to you, well, why do you charge so much for a will when I can get one on LegalZoom for, let's say, $79?
Davina:If you have, then this is for you. Your value is in not is not in filling out forms or even writing documents from scratch. Your value is the way you look at someone's situation, you analyze the problem, and then you prescribe the best solution for them. The paperwork is just the next step. So do you see the difference?
Davina:Until you understand and internalize this mindset, you will always sort of bristle at that question when somebody says, well, why do you charge as much money? Because all you have to do is x. It's the same with your list. As long as you have on all the things you have on your list are the minutia that needs to get done on every case or personal matter, then you will limit your ability to grow. The issue is not with the list itself.
Davina:The issue, and I want you to hear me on this, is with what you have put on your list. If your list is not focused on the highest and best use of your time, then your list is a problem. And if you're the one drafting all the documents, writing captions for your social media, booking all your flights for your upcoming family vacation, meeting with all the clients, attending all the hearings, scheduling a good time to meet with a copier company to repair your copier, getting quotes from 3 website design companies, I can go on and on, then your list is causing you more harm than good and causing your business more harm than good. As the owner of the law firm, the highest and best use of your time are things that are visionary in leadership activities or maybe rainmaking activities or until you have more managers working for you, management and quality assurance type activities. So you need to be thinking where your law firm is headed.
Davina:And unless you create some headspace for that and some room on your list and your calendar, you will never get it. Your to do list should be made up of these types of activities. Maybe you can't get there overnight because you don't have enough people on your team yet, but I challenge you to set aside at least one day a week for working only on your law firm business, not in it. So no meetings unless they are your law firm growth strategy meetings, and just you butt in chair, crossing off all the items you've had in your mind for a while, but have never written down that will help you get your law firm to the next level. If you don't intentionally make time on your schedule and space on your list for higher priority activities like strategic thinking and planning, then you will never get to where you want to go in growing your law firm business.
Davina:The problem is not your to do list. It's what you have written on your to do list for you to do. So I hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of the Wealthy Woman Layer podcast, and then it gets you thinking about your beloved to do list. And I'll be back next week with more content created just for women law firm owners like
Intro:you. If you're ready to create more of what you truly desire in your business and your life, then you'll want to visit us atwealthylomanlawyer.com to learn more about how we help our clients create wealth generating law firms with ease.
