Episodes

“If you implement what has been explained throughout this book, your law firm will definitely become more profitable. You will feel more confidence, and you will begin to experience the unique satisfaction that comes from being able to reliably put more of the revenue collected by your law firm into your own personal bank account.” – RJon Robins In this season finale, we come full circle with RJon’s bold promise from the conclusion of Profit First for Lawyers: no hedge words then, no hedge words...

“So there’s a mindset problem going on here. How the owners of law firms think about what they think about, the excuses they make, the excuses they accept, the unexamined stories that they accept as gospel.” – RJon Robins In this episode, we are joined by Erika Ferenczi, Director of Brand Promise at How To Manage Enterprises, to tackle the elephant in every law firm: the mindset blocks that keep lawyers from being profitable. With nearly two decades helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses, E...

“There are too many great lawyers with loads of potential, but not enough profits to invest in more consistent marketing and more professional sales systems. Too many of these great lawyers are frustrated and cannot live up to their full potential.” – RJon Robins In this episode we revisit the seven main parts of every successful law firm and explore what happens when one of these critical components falls out of alignment. RJon walks through five all-too-common nightmare scenarios that plague l...

”Those of us who embrace Profit First as a way of life, we force ourselves to get creative with the money we have left over in the account for operating expenses.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers In this episode, Joam Alisme shares why implementing Profit First was the right choice for his firm and why it’s time for fence-sitting law firm owners to take the leap. As RJon explains in the featured clip from the Profit First Summary chapter in the book (page 165), “We believe it’s...

“ So people who believe in the doctrine of sacrifice encourage sacrifice and take pride in sacrifice for its own sake. I believe that profit is good. That profit comes from the exchange of something of a lower value to gain something else that is of a higher value.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers The legal industry has a problem with glorifying suffering. In this final episode of our three-part series on escaping the doctrine of sacrifice, we flip the script on what sacrifice ...

“In addition to the typical financial statements… there are other key performance indicators and metrics that you’re going to want to keep track of on your dashboard so that you can look at a glance to see if everything’s working properly under the hood.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyer Inspect what you expect. That’s the mindset behind this episode. Law firm owner Josephia Rouse shares how transforming her approach to financial management helped her move from reactive to intent...

“It depends on what you mean by profit. This answer will set you free, and as a result, this way of thinking will make your law firm far more profitable.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers Defining Profit What does profit really mean to you? For estate planning attorney Ali Goff, the answer goes far beyond “revenue minus expenses.” In this episode, Ali shares how understanding total owner benefits (time freedom, lifestyle choices, and peace of mind) completely transformed how s...

“It is a sign of extreme entrepreneurial immaturity to discount or dismiss or ignore, or not even be aware that there’s some luck involved in your success.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers Welcome to our three-part series on The Doctrine of Sacrifice. This is RJon’s personal crusade to free entrepreneurs, especially lawyers from the long-held belief that sacrifice is noble and that focusing on profit is somehow morally wrong. In this first episode we explore how understanding ...

“When we implement Profit First Accounting Principles in your law firm, we begin by deciding ahead of time what percentage of every dollar of revenue we’re going to scoop off the top and protect for you and your family.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers In this episode, Profit First certified controller, Veronica Zambrano joins us to break down exactly how to implement Profit First in your law firm (even if you’re in a cash crunch). Using her ‘financial gym’ approach, Veronica s...

“While you may be a bold, independent thinker when it comes to the practice of law and in other areas of your life, there’s a very good chance that you’ve been thinking a lot like a lemming when it comes to the profitability of your law firm.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers In this episode we revisit a crucial topic from season one that deserves a fresh look, especially if your accountant or bookkeeper has been pushing back against Profit First. For deeper insights, take a loo...

“Everywhere you go, people are going to begin celebrating their gross revenue. And I don’t want you to let that mess with your head right? Because you need to understand total owner benefits.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers In this episode, Michigan appellate attorney Liisa Speaker shared her seven-year journey with Profit First. Liisa reveals how she started at just 1% profit allocation in 2018 and then paid off law firm debt, tackled law school loans, funded major home impr...

“So I may wind up sacrificing some precious time with my family to solve that potential new client’s problem and still have no financial profit to show for it. This simple misalignment explains more problems in the legal industry than I can address in this small book.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers In this episode, we dive into Chapter 6 of the Profit First for Lawyers book and explore a deceptively simple yet powerful concept: the definition of profit. RJon explains what a p...

“So you’re meeting with your prospective new client… And they’re about to sign the engagement agreement, and you say, ‘Hold on a second. I need to share some information with you.‘ ‘Oh, what’s that?‘ ‘Well, you need to know that my law firm is not very profitable.’ “ – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers This is part two of our series that challenges the belief that focusing on profit is selfish. If you’ve missed part one, “Why Profit Shouldn’t Be Optional”, pause here and listen to ...

“It’s a practical impossibility to practice law well in an unprofitable law firm. Why? Because you need money to pay for things.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers This is the first of a two-part series that challenges the belief among law firm owners, that focusing on profit is somehow selfish or unethical. If you’ve ever felt guilty about prioritizing your firm’s profitability, this episode will go a long way toward shifting your perspective on profit. RJon tackles the uncomfor...

“A much healthier approach. A much more rational approach is to begin by deciding what you want out of your business first… After all the business is supposed to be there to give you a better life too, isn’t it?” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers In this episode we hear about a common challenge among law firm owners: feast or famine finances. If this feels all too familiar then this episode is exactly what you need to hear because it is never too late to begin your Profit First j...

“Remember, your bookkeeper is a bookkeeper, not a mindreader, and it is the height of entrepreneurial immaturity for a law firm owner to criticize a bookkeeper for not knowing what is nearly impossible for a bookkeeper to know without speaking to the owner of the business.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers When law firm owners make these two critical choices, they wind up sabotaging their profitability: Nitpicking irrelevant bookkeeping details. Avoiding their bookkeeper altog...

“The mindset of so many lawyers in the legal industry is that if I’m having law firm management problems, it must be that I’m just not a good enough lawyer, which of course is nonsense.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers In this episode we are joined by Charlee Spilker, Profit First certified controller at How To Manage A Small Law Firm. She shares wisdom pulled from over 30 years in finance and accounting as well as her horse training experience and applies it to law firm profit...

“These are lawyers who have the potential to have such a huge positive impact on the world, and instead they keep struggling because their law firm isn’t successful enough.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers What do you want from your law firm and your life? Not what you need. Not what you will tolerate. What do you actually want? This episode will challenge you to think bigger as RJon exposes the “doctrine of sacrifice” which is the perverse pride lawyers take in suffering, wor...

”While every law firm owner wants their law firm to be successful,  very few out of the tens of thousands of small law firm owners who I’ve met over the years have been able to articulate an objective definition for what it actually means, at least to them, for a law firm to be worthy of being called a successful business.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers Most law firm owners want their firms to be successful, but very few can articulate what that actually means. This fundament...

“Everyone is better off when your law firm is more profitable. No one is better off when your law firm is less profitable.” – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers If you’ve ever caught yourself saying, “It’ll be faster if I just do it myself,” this episode is for you. That is a trap many lawyers and business professionals fall into without even knowing it. The reality is that every hour spent on tasks beneath your role, whether it’s admin, paralegal work, or chasing invoices, impacts ...

“The first reason so many small law firms struggle to become or remain profitable is a lack of education about the business of how to manage a successful small law firm.” – RJon Robins, author Profit First for Lawyers Working Smarter, Not Harder Have you been spinning on the hamster wheel working countless hours while profitability eludes you? Nequosha Anderson, founder of Anderson Law Firm, knows that feeling intimately. Despite her data science background, she found herself trapped in the cyc...

I know you don’t want to talk about your A/R, but you’ve got to talk about your A/R. – RJon Robins, author Profit First for Lawyers If you’ve ever looked at your accounts receivables (A/R) as simply delayed income, this episode will completely change how you understand what those unpaid invoices are really costing you. In segments pulled from the A/R section of Chapter 13 (pages 120-121) and the A/R section from Chapter 14 (curated from pages 133-138) in the Profit First for Lawyers book, you’ll...

”You don’t have to have a million dollar law firm to do the things that cause people to have million and multimillion dollar law firms.“ – RJon Robins, author of Profit First for Lawyers When is the right time to start Profit First? In this episode, we hear from Marie Drake who went from struggling solo practitioner to a profitable multi-attorney law firm owner following Profit First Accounting Principles. She reveals the subconscious sabotage that almost derailed her Profit First journey, a ch...

“I remember the owner of a multimillion dollar law firm who had positive cash flow. Yay! Unfortunately, the law firm was slowly going out of business because it was losing $100,000 each month and the owner didn’t even know it.” – RJon Robins If you’ve ever looked at cash coming into your firm and assumed that meant you were profitable, this episode is a wake-up call you can’t afford to miss. In a segment pulled from Chapter 13, page 118 in the Profit First for Lawyers book, you’ll hear about the...