What do you want 2022 to look like for your life and your law firm business?
Maybe you had a different vision in your head when you started your firm—you thought if you struck out on your own you’d have more time with your loved ones, to travel, or pursue your other passions. But right now you’re working all the time and your dreams still seem out of reach.
Does that sound familiar? If so, this episode is especially for you. Today, I am sharing how you can make your dreams of working less, making more, and living the life you’ve dreamed of a reality for 2022—in just five steps.
Listen to discover…
- The disconnect that’s keeping you from reaching your long-term goals and how being honest with yourself about this one thing can change EVERYTHING
- The one word that will free up your time (and when to use it)
- Where to invest your time and resources NOW to transform your future (so at this time next year your wildest dreams could be coming true)
- And much more!
Listen now…
Would you like to be a part of a community of like-minded women law firm owners who want to work together to scale their businesses to $1M? The Wealthy Woman Lawyer® League is a coach-led, 12-week program where you’ll learn the exact skills you need to scale your systems-based law firm to a million dollars in annual gross revenue (or more!). Are you ready? Join us in the Wealthy Woman Lawyer® League.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Wealthy Woman Lawyer® League
- Wealthy Woman Lawyer® website
- Davina on Facebook
- Davina on Twitter
- Davina on Instagram
Transcript
Davina Frederick: Hello and welcome to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. We believe all women lawyers deserve to be wealthy women lawyers. Our mission is to provide thought provoking, powerful and practical information to help you in creating your own sustainable wealth generating law firm without overwork or overwhelm so you can live your best life. I’m your host, Davina Frederick, let’s get started.
Hi, everyone, this is Davina Frederick, of Wealthy Woman Lawyer. We help women law firm owners scale their law firm businesses to and through a million dollars in annual revenue with total ease. Of course, by now, if you followed me or Wealthy Woman Lawyer for any time, you know, I encourage women law firm owners to build wealth generating businesses, because I think that helps them create a lot more options for themselves in their lives. I helped to define that wealth generating business is by setting a goal of creating a million dollars or more in annual gross revenue. Just because I set that goal, though, does not mean it needs to be your goal.
In fact, for most women, law firm owners, I meet, the goals are something like I want to travel more next year. But I can’t be away from my business for long because if I’m not there, I’m not making money. Or, I don’t have much in my retirement account. And I really, my goal is to get more my retirement account, because I’d really like to retire in a few years. Or I want more time with my kids. But I also need to pay my bills. So very few consider what a difference it would be to go from making, let’s say $100,000 a year in personal income to making $500,000 a year in personal income, which is what I believe that you can do if you create a million dollar wealth generating law firm business.
Even fewer think that they can make that kind of income by working less by working fewer hours. Instead, they say things like that would be nice, but I don’t think I have the energy to do what it takes to get me there. I already work all the time. Does that sound like you? Can you relate to that? My question for you is, what would it be like if you could not only have more time to spend with your spouse, and your kids, to travel all the places you want to go to fulfill any other dreams, you might have like maybe investing in real estate, or starting another business venture, or just having more me time. And if you could have all of that and make enough personal income, so that you could cover the cost of it with total ease.
So if that sounds good, then I want you to keep listening, because I’m going to tell you how you can get there in just five steps. And these five steps are very important steps. And I find that a lot of people want to skip them and just jump right into oh, I need systems, I need to start hiring people without going through these five steps. But I think they’re critical to your success. If you want to transform your business, and create a business that will not only help you get some of your time back to do all the things you want to do but also fund those dreams for you.
So step number one is get 100% crystal clear on exactly what you want. Now what I mean by this is writing it down. And being very specific. If you want a certain amount of money, write down what amount of money that you need for your personal life. And write down how you’d use the money, where what you would spend it on and why. And then once you’ve done that, I want you to write down what you believe has been stopping you from getting it up until now. Let me repeat that. Write down what you believe has been stopping you from getting it right now. Is it your belief that you have to work more, and that you don’t have any more time to give? Is it your belief that you don’t truly deserve money on some level? Is it because you feel like other people would judge you if you had more money, you are wealthier and you lived a more wealthy lifestyle? Or is it that maybe you just don’t want it badly enough to do what it takes to get it?
And I know that’s controversial. People are going to say of course I want it badly. But if you keep encountering the same obstacles over and over again and you have not yet found your way to, through them, around them, over them, then you really need to begin to question how badly you want it. If that’s the case, if the it that you say you want is not what you truly desire then ow is a time to be really honest with yourself about that and say, you know, this is something I’ve been saying I’ve wanted for a really long time. But I always find an excuse for not getting it or for a story that I tell myself about why I can’t have it. And question whether or not it’s really something that you want or something that you should want, because other people want it for you.
Okay, step number two. Now you’ve gotten very specific about what it is you want. And you’ve thought about what obstacles that have kept you from getting it until now, I want you to ask yourself, what are you unwilling to do to get what it is you say you want? So people often say to me, I’ll do anything. But then when I ask them, will you work weekends, for a year? Or for some limited period of time? Or will you invest five figures to work with an experienced business coach? Or will you take 100% responsibility for your results, or lack thereof? You see, what we are unwilling to do, may be the very thing that’s keeping us from getting what it is that we say we want, because we set limits on well, I want it but I only wanted if I can get it this way. So when you understand what you’re unwilling to do, it will help you to get a lot more clarity about how important a goal is to you, and where you might be putting limitations on yourself.
Step number three. Now that you’re clear on exactly what it is you want, and what’s been holding you back until now from getting it, and what you were willing and unwilling to do to get it, you should have a deeper understanding of why you may not have it yet. Okay, now is the time to knock out those obstacles and limiting beliefs that have been holding you back from creating a plan and committing to the execution of the plan. So I’m going to give you an example, let’s say you want to make a million dollars a year in your law firm business so you can consistently bring home 400 to $500,000 a year in personal income. Up until now the thing you felt that’s been stopping you is a lack of time to work on growing your business instead of in your business.
You’ve been so busy working in your business, taking care of your family, and trying to maintain some form of social life with your spouse and friends that you really haven’t carved out that time to work on your business. And while you know, increasing your income from let’s say, 100,000 to 400,000 a year would make a significant difference in your life, you’ll be able to finally pay off your student loans, you and your family could travel more. You feel more secure about your financial future. You can’t seem to jump off the hamster wheel hamster wheel enough to make it happen. So what you do instead, is you continue to fantasize about it and think one day, perhaps when I’m less busy. Except one day hasn’t come yet.
The real reason one day hasn’t come is because you’re unwilling to tell other people no in the short term so you can get what you want in the long term. And something that may very well benefit not only you but them. So for instance, maybe you’re afraid to tell your spouse no, when he expects you to be the one to drive the kids around everywhere, in addition to running your business full time, or to make dinner or do the laundry or keep the house clean or whatever else it is. Perhaps you’re unwilling to tell your children no, when they interrupt you while you’re working during a period of time that you’ve set out and told everyone that you need to work. Perhaps you’re unwilling to tell your mother or your mother in law no when she wants to host holiday dinners at your house because your house is bigger.
Or perhaps you’re unwilling to tell your employees no when they want you to spoon feed them all the answers instead of trying to figure out solutions on their own first. Perhaps you’re unwilling to tell your girlfriends no when they want to meet for brunch yet again, even though you hate brunch, and you don’t want to spend two hours of your Sunday that way. You don’t want to hurt their feelings. When you stop functioning on automatic and putting others needs and desires before your own all the time. And you begin to be more intentional about how you invest your time and resources, you will begin to create the life you truly desire.
So step four. Now it’s time to create our plan. Create a plan to achieve your goals. Even if it’s just baby step by baby step if you need to. There doesn’t need to be some big declaration that change is coming and everyone needs to be on notice and get on board or get out. Okay? You can simply create your plan. Begin by writing down your goals, what it is exactly you want, exactly what it’s going to do for you. And then ask yourself, what is step one? What is the first step on the path of least resistance that I can take toward achieving that goal? If others have competing agendas, you may gently but firmly draw a boundary.
Okay, so you have permission to draw a boundary? Will they push back? Most likely yes, the first few times, because that’s what people do when they want their way. And when they’re used to getting their way with you and sort of having their agenda rise above your agenda. However, you get to choose your reaction to their reaction. Will you continue to hold your boundary for something that you say is important to you? Or will you give into their in the moment desires, and in some cases, your in the moment desires.
Step five, the final step is the most challenging one. I know you think all these steps probably seem a little challenging. But this is really the most challenging one. Because I found that this step, step five, requires the C word. The C word is commitment. And for any plan to work long term, we must be committed to its execution. Even on days, we aren’t feeling in the mood. Even when it doesn’t feel sexy anymore. Even after it’s been a few months, and we’re not seeing the results we thought we would. If you can commit to your financial security and your time freedom goals for at least one year, consistently, consistently committing and putting your plan in action, you can dramatically transform your future.
And how do I know this? I know this because I’ve been working with women law firm owners for the last eight years on setting some really lofty goals, and being a part of their journey and guiding them in the process of achieving those goals. So I know how powerful this five step process can be. By this time next year, what if your wildest dreams were coming true? What would that be like? What would it feel like? And isn’t that time you let yourself finally have it? Thank you so much for listening to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. As much as I’ve enjoyed creating it for you. If so, please leave us a review. We so appreciate it. If you are a woman law firm owner, and you are looking for support in implementing this five step plan, and transforming your law firm practice into a million dollar wealth generating law firm business then I invite you to join us in the Wealthy Woman Lawyer League.
In the League, I not only teach you the exact framework I’ve used to teach hundreds of women law firm owner clients how to grow their own million dollar law firms, but my team and I provide you with weekly live support. Interactive support, so you can get your questions answered and began creating your own fortune with total ease. So visit www.wealthywomanlawyer.com/league to enroll now. The link is in the show notes. It is www.wealthywomanlawyer.com/league. And I thank you so much for listening. I really hope to see you in the League. And I’m creating this podcast to be published in December 29. So I’m wishing you all a happy happy New Year and I’ll see you next year.
