Episodes

In this episode, Alay and Joan discuss: The importance of building a team. Determining if someone is going to be a good fit for your team. Understanding your company culture. Employee engagement and your law firm’s vision. Key Takeaways: The team is the foundation of your business. If you don’t have the right people in the right roles, you will not be best serving your clients. Understanding your team deeply will allow you to hire for the gaps you have in your team. Part of building a culture...

In this episode, Alay and Stacie discuss: The power of habits and incremental improvement. Changing the voice in your head. The myth of work-life balance. Creating systems and hiring before you’re ready. Key Takeaways: Showing up consistently every single day and making improvements gives you exponential improvements by the end of the year. You take different actions based on the beliefs that you have and the stories that you’re telling yourself. Those actions are what ultimately deliver you ...

In this episode, Alay and Austin discuss: Identifying your niche (and taking it deeper than the surface level). Stepping out of the day-to-day doing and the process of discovery. Breaking through the noise. Staying top of mind in your narrow niche area.  Key Takeaways: Be dedicated to your niche. Stand by it and share with other attorneys your expertise. Lawyers need to find a way to stay top of mind so that when their potential client has a need, their client remembers them and reaches out. ...

In this episode, Alay and Stacie discuss: Practicing law can be more than just being a technician. Getting clear and looking at structure and process. Creating a training plan for the success of your team. Key Takeaways: Building a training plan can be overwhelming, but it will make it easier to bring on other attorneys and allow them to serve your clients according to your expectations. Break down each case type that you handle, step by step, and analyze how you actually tackle one. Hiri...

In this episode, Alay and Austin discuss: What your elevator pitch is and what sets you apart from the thousands of other lawyers. The power of focusing on a niche. Understanding what you’re good at AND what you like to do. Being open to possibilities and building relationships. Key Takeaways: Be able to describee your niche and why you selected that niche. Your clients want to work with experts. “Niching down” allows you to be the expert of an area of law that you enjoy. If you are strugglin...

In this episode, Alay and Lydia discuss: Getting clients strategically for new firms Encouraging work-life balance in your firm Hiring the right fit and attracting talent Keeping people in your firm Staffing Up: The Attorney’s Guide to Hiring Top Talent Key Takeaways: Starting a new firm is easier if you have a strong professional network. Identify your ideal client and refer to those people or refer to the people that know those people. Work-life balance varies from one person to another. Wh...

In this episode, Alay and Deborah discuss: Fitting your firm within the fabric of your community. Focusing on where you are and where you want your firm to be in the future. Bringing others with you to fulfill your vision. The bright future for up-and-coming lawyers and law firms. Key Takeaways: Keep your ears open, listen to what people say, and be ready to share information to help. It is a way to sell without selling. The best way to grow your firm is to deeply understand your values. Even...

In this episode, Alay and Chris discuss: Concept of Pique-Performance. The programmable nature of people through language. Maximizing our own resources – time, energy, emotional state, and focus. Creating high productivity across your team with incredible frequency. Key Takeaways: Words matter. Changing a phrase from “I’m sorry about…” to “thank you for…” creates a completely different response in the audience. Sustainable changes require long term engagement and continued maintenance. Skills...

In this episode, Alay and Tim discuss: The unique nature of appellate cases and working with an appellate counsel. What clients want to know about you before they hire you. Unique and creative marketing strategies. Repurposing content for the greatest impact. Key Takeaways: If the client feels that you understand the case and you want to play a role in helping get justice for them, that’s going to be more important to them than just the analysis of how much it is going to cost. Trial repr...

In this episode, Alay and Joan discuss: Focusing on balance in work and in life. The culture of a firm. Creating a “unicorn” law firm. Tips on identifying culture. Key Takeaways: Be a sponge for knowledge – never stop learning and growing and understanding yourself. Hire diversely – you do not want all of your employees to be exactly like you. Employees want to be part of the vision and decision-making process. They want to feel like they have a stake in the firm. You need trust from your cli...

In this episode, Alay and Brittny discuss: Adjusting to leaving a larger firm for a solo or small firm. Finding partners and resources to assist with specific tasks. The benefits and challenges of partnering in your firm. Finding the balance of bringing in and redirecting work. Key Takeaways: The bar association has a solo/small firm section which is a great resource for you as a small or solo organization. When starting your own firm, there are two roles we suggest you fill right away: a boo...

In this episode, Alay and Terry discuss: The benefits of taking a sabbatical. Building your career on your terms with freedom, independence, and pursuit of your passion. Benefits of owning your own firm. The 3 M’s of Aligned Marketing. Growing and evolving your practice. Key Takeaways: Be fearless. Even if it makes you nervous, be willing to try a new type of marketing that can get your name and your firm out into the world. The 3 Ms of marketing are: Message, Market, and Marketing. Put your ...

In this episode, Alay and Michelle discuss: Keeping focused on the people factor. Creating a culture of trust, flexibility, and productivity. Talent retention, leading and growing your team. Key Takeaways: Create a culture where you can trust your employees – give people the ability to do their job with the expectations of what is required and the freedom to do that job when, how, and where they want. Part of creating a flexible culture is to ensure that you can measure productivity. If you t...

In this episode, Alay and Patricia discuss: Automation in your law firm. Being present and part of your community on social media. When to start building a team and building systems. The importance of saying “no.” Key Takeaways: Make every touch you send out to potential and current clients worthwhile and substantive. Have a dedicated team member that is dedicated to streamlining and growing your business with you. Nobody will ever discourage you from being an estate planner. There is plenty ...

In this episode, Alay and Stacie discuss: Ongoing education as a business development tactic. Being involved in the community to build your book of business. Mindsets that prevent lawyers from participating in their organizations. The relationship between serving and leading. Key Takeaways: It is not just enough to be a member in an organization, you need to show up, be active, and participate. Speaking is a way to give you visibility and credibility quickly. Don’t allow your own introversion...

In this episode, Alay and Gary discuss: Having more money, more time, and more confidence through building your book of business. Having someone to hold you accountable. LinkedIn to start conversations (not to sell). Engaging with your network. Key Takeaways: Having a strategy is worthless if you do not execute on that strategy. There are so many things that you can do on LinkedIn. Most people haven’t even begun to tap into it. Automated bots in LinkedIn are not that effective. If your busine...

In this episode, Alay and Liel discuss: Effectively targeting the Hispanic market in your area. The revenue opportunity law firms are missing by not targeting their Hispanic market, Changes to your firm’s client experience, not just the lawyer, to welcome Spanish (or any other non-English language) speakers. Liel’s upcoming book as a primer for law firms who are considering the Hispanic market. Key Takeaways: The Spanish language is used by the Hispanic community to build trust with their ser...

In this episode, Alay and Austin discuss: Leveraging personal and professional networks. Being a master listener. Identifying your network. What to say and do after you’ve made your network list. Key Takeaways: There are 3 levels of listening, and we want to be at that third level to become a master listener. Make deposits into your ecosystem without expecting something in return every time. Small asks can be a great introduction to strong resources and relationships. Have a lot of easy conve...

In this episode, Alay and Renee discuss: Renee’s professional leap to creating her own law firm after discovering her love of family law. Growing the firm beyond the practice of law. Creating a business that is greater than you and driven by passion. The intersection between personal and professional challenges in small businesses and firms.   Key Takeaways: The scary part is the unknown, but the exciting part is watching it all unfold and grow and evolve. What matters is mindset and how you ...

In this episode, Alay and Sami discuss: Being an authority in your practice area. Pursuing a way of practicing law that fits with your personal style. The competitive landscape of white-collar federal criminal cases. Squeezing business development into your day. Key Takeaways: The pandemic has given us the opportunity to connect digitally with people in ways we previously weren’t able to before. Federal court cases are harder to come by compared with state court cases. Invest in preparing for...

In this episode, Alay and Lana discuss: Defining how you want to be known in the marketplace using social media. Creating relationships that matter and are interesting. How law firms are changing after the pandemic. Maximizing and cross-selling opportunities. Key Takeaways: Attorneys need to be building and maintaining relationships from early on in their careers. Since you have to put energy into growing your practice, do it in a way that creates opportunities that you find interesting. Law ...

In this episode, Alay and Miranda discuss: The flexibility and freedom that comes with running your firm as a business. A day in the life of Miranda as the founder and owner of Unlock Legal. How to grow a great team. Learning to run a business even when you don’t feel skilled at it. Key Takeaways: Many lawyers don’t run their firms like businesses because it was not how they were trained and it is not part of their mindset. Invest in the people that you have to help you run your firm. If you’...

In this episode, Alay Yajnik and Ken Levinson, Founding Partner at Levinson Stefani Injury Lawyers, discuss how his Level 3 niche marketing strategy contributed to his firm's growth: Ken's P.I. firm specializes in trucking crashes in Chicago. Alay and Ken also discuss cash flow management for contingency-based law firms. And pizza! Tweetable Moments: "You have to pick an area that you're good at, that you can solve a client's problem, and differentiate yourself." - Ken Levinson "If I talk to a l...

In this episode, Alay Yajnik and Jacqueline Newman, Managing Partner at Berkman Bottger Newman & Schein, discuss how she has grown her firm from 3 attorneys to 17, and growing! Tweetable Moments: "For me, culture is really important." - Jacqueline Newman "If you're only doing two things at once, you're wasting time." - Jacqueline Newman "Most successful attorneys build their business upon the relationships they have built." - Alay Yajnik "The best law firms grow through talent, not marketing." -...