In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Molly McGrath discuss:
- Approaching hiring from a different perspective.
- Training your employees to be intrapreneurs and take control of their jobs.
- How recruiting and communication are changing in the legal industry.
- Making it about steps in the process, not dollars and hours.
Key Takeaways:
- Before strategy, you have to have the courage to take the first step and move forward.
- Hiring changes your ROI for yourself and for the new hire. Hiring doesn’t mean paying their yearly salary upfront. Look at the ROIs and see how things will change.
- The days of putting up an ad and waiting for people to interview are over – you need to be recruiting.
- When you hire, it’s not just the attorney. Everybody’s KPIs shift.
- Follow the model of: teach, show, do, go, grow. If you do it right, you can on board and be hands-off within 30 days.
“If you’re doing it yourself, you’re better off not even doing it at all. It is shark-infested waters out there, and by and large, my most successful plate placements are all poaching.” — Molly McGrath
Read more from Steve at Above the Law: AboveTheLaw.com/tag/Steve-Fretzin/
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Episode References:
- 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less by Dan Sullivan: https://www.amazon.com/10x-Easier-Than-World-Class-Entrepreneurs/dp/140196995X
About Molly McGrath: Molly McGrath, founder of Hiring & Empowering Solutions, LLC committed to serving the legal community in, Staffing, Employee Engagement, intrapreneurship, and employee retention initiatives. Proudly delivering results for 5K+ law firms over the past 27 years across the country.
Podcaster, blogger, #1 Amazon Best Seller Author; “Fix My Boss: The Simple Plan to Cultivate Respect, Risk Courageous Conversations, and Increase the Bottom Line,” “Intrapreneurs in an Entrepreneur’s World – How to Empower Your Employees to Step Up and Lead,” and “Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Spirit in the Process.”
Connect with Molly McGrath:
Website: https://hiringandempowering.com/
Books: https://hiringandempowering.com/business-development-books/
Show: https://hiringandempowering.com/podcast/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-hallmcgrath/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HireAndEmpower
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hiringandempowering/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hiringandempowering/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/molly_mcgrath_co/
Connect with Steve Fretzin:
LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin
Twitter: @stevefretzin
Instagram: @fretzinsteve
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: Fretzin.com
Email: [email protected]
Book: Legal Business Development Isn’t Rocket Science and more!
YouTube: Steve Fretzin
Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Steve Fretzin: Hey everybody, before we get to the show, I just want to share that I’m now writing for Above the Law. If you enjoy this podcast, you might also enjoy my monthly columns. You can go to Above the Law and type my name into the magnifying glass in the top right corner to read my latest articles. Thanks and enjoy the show.
[00:00:21] Narrator: You’re listening to be that lawyer life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice each episode, your host, author, and lawyer coach, Steve Fretzin. We’ll take a deeper dive, helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now here’s your host, Steve Fretzin.
[00:00:43] Steve Fretzin: Hey everybody. Welcome to the be that lawyer with Brettson podcast. We are. Super, super happy to be with you and have you with us and we’re going to crank out two episodes a week every week to make sure that you are being that lawyer, someone who’s confident, organized, and a skilled rainmaker. And I’m just continually hearing from my Rainmaker roundtables and the peer advisor groups that I’m running the difficulty in hiring good people and just, just generally just try, they’re overloaded with work, everybody’s cranking out their hours and not able to delegate to the degree they’d like to.
[00:01:14] Steve Fretzin: So I’ve had, Molly, how many times have you been on the show? Is it, is it once or twice? I think once. I think, okay. So second time. Okay. Well, they say second time’s a charm. You are, you were wonderful the first time, but I want to bring you, I want to bring you back because you’re just the tip of the spear in this specific subject that I want to knock out today because attorneys need to delegate.
[00:01:34] Steve Fretzin: They need to get out and do business development and market, and they need to continue to bring in good people. So we’re going to hit that in a few minutes, have to of course do the start of the show with the quote of the show. Okay. And here we go. It is, you know, sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage.
[00:01:51] Steve Fretzin: Just literally 20 seconds of just embarrassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it. It sounds like me at a bar. Anyway, when I was in my twenties, but Benjamin and me that we bought a zoo guy. So welcome to the show, Molly, thanks for coming back and talk to us about that quote.
[00:02:07] Steve Fretzin: I love that
[00:02:08] Molly McGrath: quote. I’ll never forget. It was it was on Easter and my kids were little, I bought them that movie for their Easter basket and we watched it and it was probably 10, 15 minutes into the movie and it just hit me like a cinder block. Being an entrepreneur, being a business owner. Yeah, you know that scary feeling of when you need to hire that scary feeling when you’re going to let go of control and what have you and it hit me and I’ve lived by that every single time that I hit a ceiling in my business or my clients do I’m like just anchor to that because guess what if it doesn’t work out just take the lead and if you track and measure it.
[00:02:47] Molly McGrath: And it’s not working out, you can stop it, but seeing stock and fear, you’re never going to be able to elevate and grow.
[00:02:56] Steve Fretzin: And I think, I think there’s ways to make educated decisions without having to take such great risk. Right. So like, if I’m gonna, like I was just here, so one of my, one of my clients is is here across the bar, another client of mine, Ariana Taylor.
[00:03:11] Steve Fretzin: These are amazing people put them together. You know, Eric is, is, he’s going to come back on the show, but he, he’s gotten to the point where as a managing partner, he’s really just doing marketing and rainmaking, right? So he’s not managing the people, the day to day, he’s not out building, you know, 2000 hours a year.
[00:03:26] Steve Fretzin: And that’s, that’s not something he just like said, I’m going to do today. Like he had to work his way and figure out how to do that. And, and I’m, I’m trying to get other lawyers that want to be in that same place, how to do that. Yeah.
[00:03:37] Molly McGrath: Yeah. They all want it. And you know, you see on Facebook and all these groups and what have you like, how did you do it?
[00:03:43] Molly McGrath: How’d you do it? How’d you do it? And they’re always chasing strategy, right? And yes, there’s a bit of strategy, but before strategy, it becomes that courage. And I heard this quote once it said. You know, I just need to get confident. I just need to get the knowledge and what have you. You don’t get that without courage.
[00:04:03] Molly McGrath: And it’s just taking, so Eric, I love that, that just, bravo to him. But at some point, He had to take the leap of faith and now when it’s a rainmaker and doing marketing, what have you, he could get an invitation to speak on a stage, be on a podcast, what have you. It’s like, let’s go because he has proof of concept and he’s like, I’ll figure it out, you know, preparation, of course.
[00:04:26] Molly McGrath: But I just, it, it, once you do that over and over and over again, it becomes gamification. It becomes really, really fun because it’s never, what if I make the wrong decision? Because you’re in it, you’re paying attention, you’re aware, you’re tracking it, what have you. And I tell attorneys that all the time when it comes to hiring, I can’t afford an attorney for 125, 000.
[00:04:48] Molly McGrath: You’re not writing a 125, 000 check up front. Let’s take the monthly not and let’s gamify it because it’s not just the ROI on the new hire. If you’re delegating and you’re being replaced, now you have a new ROI. What’s your ROI? What are you doing with your new found time so you can elevate like Eric did?
[00:05:10] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. Yeah, you know, it’s just ways to scale and getting your mind wrapped around and I know we’re going to come back and hit it hard today. Let’s take a step back though. Give everybody your background because you, you seem to know quite a bit and I want to make sure everyone knows where you’re coming from.
[00:05:25] Molly McGrath: Yeah, I entered the legal space in 1997. I started out with the organization Initial Network of Estate Planning Attorneys, which I am forever grateful for. I started out as a project manager there, never worked with an attorney. Thank God, never dealt with an attorney in my personal life. So, you know, there’s these stories on.
[00:05:47] Molly McGrath: The shows and all the lawyer jokes and what have you. So I’m like, Oh boy, what am I getting into? And I remember I went to a first conference and I was like, wow, I’d be at the breakfast table at the cocktail hour. And I’d hear them just with so much. You know, heavy weight on them about employees, about payroll, about running a business scaling would have you tremendous amount of fear, but also determination to figure this out.
[00:06:15] Molly McGrath: And they, I’d hear over and over again, business would be great, but for the employees, you know, employees are expensive. They don’t want to work. They don’t want to have you. And I get deeply curious. I was an employee at that time. Mike. That’s, that’s not the truth. I know that because I, then I turned to the other side and they thankfully brought their employees to the conference and they would say, you know, my job would be great if my attorney would just let go of control and stop being a control freak and trust us that we got their back.
[00:06:47] Molly McGrath: I’m like, there’s a massive disconnect here. So that’s my why that’s my mission that’s my passion is to really create employees into what I call entrepreneurs and really train them into becoming legal leaders leading legal leaders that’s a tagline of my business and i’m just so passionate about the employees showing proof of concept to the attorneys i’m like they’re never going to let go of control unless you can walk talk and act like a ceo even if you’re quote unquote just a receptionist.
[00:07:20] Molly McGrath: You have to give them proof of concept that this won’t be a one and done, that you have their back, that you understand their world. And so one of the things I would do is I’m like shadow your attorney for one week. And when I hire and go through onboarding, that’s the first week. I want you to just shadow your attorney for one week.
[00:07:39] Molly McGrath: Let’s start on Monday. Let’s meet on Friday. I cannot tell you how many employees, attorneys, marketing coordinators, receptionist, paralegals, Friday, we come together, do debrief, they’re literally in tears. They’re like, they didn’t even get time to go to the bathroom, have a glass of water. I didn’t see them eat all week.
[00:07:59] Molly McGrath: They would come out of back to back meetings and there’s a line of people waiting to delegate back up to them. And so they’re like I’m protecting my attorney. And it’s really wonderful. I’d like to get them on the same playing field, speaking the same language. Operating by the same rule book. And then once you can demonstrate that over and over again, it’s sky’s the limit.
[00:08:21] Molly McGrath: I start seeing attorneys delegating like crazy because they have the tracking, they have the measurement, they have the reporting and people are coming to them a proposed solutions, not buckets of problems. Let’s
[00:08:34] Steve Fretzin: I want to keep, keep, keep on line with where you’re going with this, but I also, I’m a big take a step back guy.
[00:08:39] Steve Fretzin: And, and, and I’ve got two questions for you that I want to roll out before we kind of go into start. Like talking about solutions and talking about how we can, how we can advise the people listening on how to, how to best delegate and find good people and all that. What are you seeing as the current state of the legal marketplace right now?
[00:08:57] Steve Fretzin: Related to like number of, you know, there’s, there’s a very low, I think unemployment rate with attorneys. It’s, I don’t know, like 0. 03 or some insane number, very, very low. All attorneys are kind of working at this stage if they want to. But what are you, what are you seeing as kind of the current state of, of, of the legal, of the legal market right now?
[00:09:16] Molly McGrath: Your statistics are right on that’s for attorneys or paralegals. It’s about 1. 2 was the last number unemployment rate that I’ve seen. So legal stopping and recruiting has changed. And I think recruiting in general has changed forever. It has shifted from you’re lucky to have my job to sales. Selling your firm, selling your culture, things to that nature.
[00:09:43] Molly McGrath: The good news, people are not balking about billable hours. They’re not balking about doing the work. I see the people really want to, they’re interviewing law firms. By and large owner operator, whoever they’re going to be working with more than ever, and it’s not about what are the benefits, what are the bonuses?
[00:10:03] Molly McGrath: What are, no, it’s not about that because they don’t want a job hop. They don’t have to job hop. And if they’re making a move to a new law firm, it has to be a better. Culture, and I know that we’re so fuzzy right now people are treating it like a, you know, a, a teaching max home sign hanging on a background.
[00:10:24] Molly McGrath: They really want you to show them the math, if you will walk them through their day, what it’s going to look like. And I hear over and over and over again, it’s about communication.
[00:10:35] Steve Fretzin: Okay.
[00:10:36] Molly McGrath: When am I, when are we going to meet? What are the communication standards within the firm? Things to that nature. So recruitings change, the days of throwing it out up and waiting for people to apply it is over.
[00:10:49] Molly McGrath: If there is anybody unemployed in this market right now, it’s a red flag. Step one. It must be a very compelling story that applying for a job there by and large, transitioning, moving back home spouses job got changed things to that nature and they’re not on the market very long. So these very old school traditional legal staffing structures have to change.
[00:11:13] Molly McGrath: There’s no more. Okay. I get a resume. Let me wait until next Tuesday to reply. They’ll be gone and they’ll have 5 offers on the table.
[00:11:23] Steve Fretzin: Then, then that all being said, what are the top challenges that law firms are having to actually then get, is it that they don’t have a solid recruiter or is it that they don’t, they don’t openly market their culture and why it’s a great place to work?
[00:11:40] Steve Fretzin: Like, what are you seeing them kind of miss the boat on?
[00:11:43] Molly McGrath: I love that. There’s three things I would say. Number one, the job ad that you’re putting out there. The old school job ads of qualifications, requirements, where it’s very, very much a long page. Anymore does not work. It needs to be written like a match.
[00:11:59] Molly McGrath: com ad. Like you’re trying to land your wife. It needs to be very heavy, heavy SEO rich. And it very much has to communicate their culture. So where they can, the shorter, the better, the key, more keywords in there, the better. Again, people aren’t applying, but when you go to recruiting and finding passive candidates, they always have to go back to the ad.
[00:12:22] Molly McGrath: And I cannot tell you how many people will say to us, the only reason I’m talking to you is because of that ad. It’s different than any other ad that I see out there. So, it’s written very much in their perspective, like a sales, like you would for a Facebook lead generation ad in some regards. Why you should come work with us.
[00:12:42] Molly McGrath: Why we’re the best in, in our, in our area of law and in our marketplace, it’s number one, number two is that attorneys are trying to either do the recruiting on their own, or they’ll have somebody on their team, HR, office manager, paralegal do it in between a heavy workload. So in this day and age, I would say fine.
[00:13:02] Molly McGrath: If you’re going to grow out in the marketplace and start. Hiring have somebody dedicated to 24 seven until the position is filled because time kills all deals and in this day and age you, I mean, recruiters in the Philippines are, I have four recruiters in the Philippines are phenomenal and they are better than any other recruiters.
[00:13:27] Molly McGrath: So. You know, I have a recruiting agency, but I’ll tell you, you don’t even have to necessarily go, you can go to overseas, find a full time person to do all of your recruiting for you, sourcing staff and interviewing and handling that. So you have to have somebody full time on this. Doesn’t mean you have to pay a recruiter, get somebody either in house, and if they, you don’t have the luxury of that because they have to get work out, go and get somebody overseas.
[00:13:55] Steve Fretzin: So maybe, maybe real quick, before you go to number three, so, so that might be the middle ground between doing it yourself and paying whatever, 20, 30 percent of, A salary to a recruiter is trying to find that overseas organization that can do it for you.
[00:14:09] Molly McGrath: Yeah. I’d say if you’re doing it yourself, you’re better off not even doing it at all.
[00:14:14] Molly McGrath: Okay. It is, it is, it is shark infested waters out there. Okay. Got it. It really is. And, and by and large, my most successful place placements are all poaching. And so I’ll add number three, which is. Coaching is the way that’s really working and I, it, you can’t do it yourself as a law firm because there’s some, I don’t know, unspoken rule out there that if a law firm reaches out to you, don’t talk to them because they’re afraid that, you know, they’re being set up or what have you, but they’ll talk to a recruiter so you can even have somebody overseas as your recruiter.
[00:14:55] Molly McGrath: And then I did one other thing video is working like crazy. So when you have your recruiter or in house employee, that’s going to do this for you have a video. And for anyone listened to this, I’d be happy to share the script that we use and it’s working. Because it’s beating out, it’s being a disruptor with all the other lazy recruiters out there.
[00:15:18] Molly McGrath: You have a video of you saying, you know, here’s the deal, here’s our culture, here’s why we’re the best firm to work for, etc. That, hands down, is why we’re able to place attorneys, paralegals, non attorney salespeople, all the positions.
[00:15:34] Steve Fretzin: So that video is being emailed out by the firm or by the, by the overseas recruiter as a way of saying, hey, this is, this is me, this is who we are.
[00:15:41] Steve Fretzin: And trying to get people to then say, yeah, this sounds interesting. I’ll respond. Yes. It’s a thing.
[00:15:47] Molly McGrath: So they’re inboxing however, for either on LinkedIn or, you know, my recruiters are, they’ll find them on Facebook. They’ll find, they’ll search them down. We buy lists, things of that nature. We’ll inbox it to them.
[00:16:01] Molly McGrath: And our response to the video is extraordinary because they already see your office in the background. They already see your tonality. They see your energy. And we all know that it’s the energy that you bring in the room and leave in the room that matters.
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[00:18:04] Steve Fretzin: At Fretzin, we use GetStaffedUp for marketing person and you know how good our marketing is. Learn more at getstaffedup. com slash be that lawyer. Well, and then how important then is a backup is to then also have a decent website or some LinkedIn profile or something, because I think they see your video, then they go to your and it’s from the eighties or nineties or whatever, you know, just forever old.
[00:18:26] Steve Fretzin: And it’s, you know, three white guys sitting on the cover with the skyline in the background. I mean, so I think it’s got it right. There’s probably going to be some research done too.
[00:18:33] Molly McGrath: There’s a ton of research and I love that you brought that up because sometimes I’ll have law firms that have bad reviews on Glassdoor from past employees.
[00:18:43] Molly McGrath: And, or to your point, they don’t have a social media presence or their website is very outdated. I’m like, name it right there. So in the video, I will, I will have people say, you know, I know our website’s outdated, what have you. We are so busy. This is why I need you associated me because we haven’t had time then.
[00:19:02] Molly McGrath: So once I can get freed up, I’m going to, I’m working with my marketing team, just hired someone like Steve. I’m working with the business consultant. And things of that nature, and they love it, or even when they have bad reviews, they’ll literally say that, they’re like, listen, you’re going to find bad reviews about us on Glassdoors, our past employees, I get it, when I was started out early, I didn’t have a business consultant, I didn’t have, what have you, I was running the firm, it was a dumpster fire, but now?
[00:19:30] Molly McGrath: I know better, and I’m investing this, this is why we’re growing, this is why we have more clients, and we are on a rebuild.
[00:19:37] Steve Fretzin: So you’re addressing the elephant in the room versus ignoring it and hoping that people don’t see it, but they are. And they love
[00:19:43] Molly McGrath: it, because guess what? You’re vulnerable, and it shows that you take responsibility for when you make mistakes, and that one statement alone sells.
[00:19:53] Steve Fretzin: Wow. That’s great. I love it. I love it. So when, I know another concern that lawyers and law firms have right now is how high, high the salaries have been driven up over the last, through the pandemic and everything. And I want to touch on that. And I also want to touch on the, the virtual versus, you know, the the zoom versus or the, what’s it called?
[00:20:13] Steve Fretzin: Virtual? What is it called? Virtual versus in person
[00:20:16] Molly McGrath: in-house. Yeah.
[00:20:17] Steve Fretzin: Virtual. Yeah, but in, yeah. Virtual versus in-house. In, in, in, in, in the hybrid and all that. So, but let’s start with, with the numbers, because is it, is it just me or does it seem like lawyers have never made more?
[00:20:28] Molly McGrath: It’s every position, quite honestly.
[00:20:30] Molly McGrath: It’s legal, I mean, you hire a client service coordinator, the average fee that they want is 60, 000 a year. You know, when we were used to paying just a receptionist, 15 bucks an hour or what have you. It’s everyone. It’s inflation. It’s people that have invested in personal and professional development, so they’re finally owning their value and things of that nature.
[00:20:51] Molly McGrath: It’s not going down. So just so you have to swallow that pill. I do too with my own business. But again, it goes back to gamification. So if you were hoping to get an attorney for 100, 000 and now you’re seeing 125 or 150, whatever it might be. You have to break it down into weeks and months and quarters and not look at the annuals, what I do, and then figuring out how you’re going to get that ROI on them, plus whoever they’re replacing, because you’re freed up to do other initiatives, rainmaking, marketing, what have you.
[00:21:27] Molly McGrath: And so it’s not that they’re entitled. It is not that it’s what the market’s bearing number one. And then number two is because if they’re really truly a rockstar, now people are so aware about KPIs and ROIs and the average case value and things to that nature, they’re understanding how they’re going to make money for the firm.
[00:21:51] Steve Fretzin: So is it, but is there, is there a, not apologize, interrupting you, but this is, you know, where I want to go is exactly where you are with what is the ROI? If I’m, if I’m bringing in 150, 000 associate, all right, how much based on hours should, should I actually make as an owner? If I’m paying out 150, what should come into the firm?
[00:22:13] Molly McGrath: You know, I like to say that you’re at least doubling it within 60 days. So if you’re paying them 150, that they’re generating 300 by within 60 days. Because you have to remember, at least this is what I teach, it’s not just the attorney, everybody’s KPIs shift. So right down to the client service coordinator, now they can make follow up calls, more follow up calls on those leads.
[00:22:39] Molly McGrath: Because your calendar is not jam packed. So now you’ve got two calendars that are open for consultations, what have you. So things like that. And then also, what are you doing as the attorney now that they’re taking over? And I always tell people don’t make it about dollars and hours, make it about what step in the process are they taking over?
[00:23:00] Molly McGrath: I just had a meeting with the family law attorney this morning. She’s like, I don’t really like going to court anymore, unless it’s high, high net worth cases or what have you. I’m like, all right, great. How many of those do you want a month? She’s like five. I’m like, great. So your associates taking over locate where you’re freed up now with all just taking on the high net worth cases, they can take on the rest of them.
[00:23:23] Molly McGrath: You’re only taken highly contested. What have you now? Let’s look on the ROI. Now you’re freed up 17 hours a week. They’re taking over the initial consultation. They’re taking over this step. And then we hired overseas for the things that do not require an attorney or an in house paralegal. Got it.
[00:23:44] Steve Fretzin: Got it.
[00:23:45] Steve Fretzin: And then what’s the, what’s the training regimen for a new hire? Because you could, you know, bring someone on and say, here’s your desk. Here’s your, there’s your phone. Like we’ll start throwing work your way to third, you know, second, third, fourth year associate, whatever is there’s
[00:23:59] Molly McGrath: got, there’s a better way.
[00:24:01] Molly McGrath: There’s a better way. I’m my model is always teach, show, do go grow. So the way Wait, wait, slow down and say that again. That was really good. Teach. Teach. Show. Do. Go. Grow. So you teach them. So often attorneys will be like, all right, go look at Clio or Lawmatics or whatever it might be. You have all the moving pieces that they need.
[00:24:27] Molly McGrath: They need CRM for entering time, for following the workflow, the steps in the process, but then they also have to be in the conference room. And understand the role, I always say shadow, shadow each step of the process. So shadow three depositions, shadow three mediation and follow the attorney that you’re replacing in there and your job is to do a pre, during and post huddle.
[00:24:56] Molly McGrath: So we’re walking into this mediation. My guess is it’ll take three hours or half a day or a full day. Here’s what I’m expecting. I want you to pay attention to this for the con, for, you know, the, my role as the attorney, which will be your role, then the attorney, the role of the client, and then also the role of the paralegal, what happens with that file when we walk out of here.
[00:25:18] Molly McGrath: So, it’s almost like an assembly line where they can see it, you teach them it, you show them that, and then they’re able to model it, and then you watch them and, and witness it, and then they’re off to the races and go. I believe you can onboard any position within your law firm within 30 days and be hands off in 30 days if you do that right.
[00:25:40] Molly McGrath: If you have the SOPs done. But it’s also in motion in your CRM as a workflow, and they actually physically sit in every step of the process, and it’s clear. Here’s step one. Now we’re in step 17. And then keep asking yourself over and over again. And I tell them your job coming in the best person to test a system and or a process to see if we have it, give it to somebody who’s never been here before the new kid on the block, because they’re the goal is there to be like a five year old and keep asking, why are we doing it this way?
[00:26:16] Molly McGrath: And nine out of 10 times, it’s like, Great question, because that’s how we’ve always done it. Well, what if, and then really, and then doing a daily huddle every single day, where you treat it like a locker room huddle before you go on the Super Bowl playing field. What did you witness? What’d you take away?
[00:26:33] Molly McGrath: What do you believe your next step is?
[00:26:35] Steve Fretzin: Hmm. Yeah, really, really good. Let’s go the other way. What happens when you hire someone at 150? And in that first 30 days, you’ve done some good things, right? Like you’re suggesting, and there’s all these warning signs that say, this may not have been the best decision.
[00:26:53] Steve Fretzin: They’re not showing up. They’ve got excuses. There’s what you bought is not what
[00:26:58] Molly McGrath: you got. I love that question. First of all, it should not take 30 days. If you will be training and onboarding them, it, you will see that within probably week two, you’re like, huh, maybe they’re new, but a lot of times we’re like, well, they don’t know enough.
[00:27:17] Molly McGrath: They haven’t been here long enough. No. How people do one thing is how they do everything. So, you know, when you’re training someone, and if you do this teach show, do go grow model and you walk out of the step in the process of meeting the hearing, whatever it might be. And you’re like, all right, give me your debrief.
[00:27:36] Molly McGrath: You know, they should be giving you a presentation. If they’re like, it went great. I don’t have anything. And I’m not even talking right down to the receptionist. I have receptionists do this. If they’re you’re, you’re not getting that feedback. And you’re not getting that they were present in the room, you know, if they’re not saying, okay, great.
[00:27:54] Molly McGrath: In meeting one, you did this, but it’s same type of meeting. You did it differently the second time. And I think the reason you did it was because of blah, blah, blah, then you’re like, great. But if you were getting deer in the headlights, I have no questions, things to that nature. And there is not collaboration and banter with it.
[00:28:13] Molly McGrath: From my perspective, they’re not present. They’re not engaged. And as EOS says, do they GWC, get it, want it, and have the capacity for it. You can’t train that.
[00:28:24] Steve Fretzin: And you can’t fix stupid is something I heard a long time ago too, but that’s what they’re, that, that. But you know, bad attitudes, negative people people that just don’t have the capacity that, that you needed to get this done and to make a decision I think quick and early better than letting it drag out because you’re a nice person and, and it’s at the, at the, at the cost of your firm and your money.
[00:28:44] Steve Fretzin: So whatever. Man, so many, I mean, I’m having Molly speak at my Rainmaker Roundtable in about an hour. But I wanted to wrap up, I mean, just so many great things that you’re sharing that lawyers need to hear this. They’re, they’re on an island figuring it out and they need to hear what you’re saying, Molly, because it’s really, really important.
[00:29:02] Steve Fretzin: Your game changing book ten times is easier than two times or 2x, whatever. Yeah, 10x is better than two or is easier than 2x, sorry, I screwed that up. What talk, talk about that book. Why is that your, your, your game changing book?
[00:29:16] Molly McGrath: It almost goes hand in hand with the quote, abolish you need is 20 seconds of insane courage.
[00:29:21] Molly McGrath: Because when you do very slow and methodical, it’s painful, it’s exhausting, what have you. And for you to go from whether it’s a million to five million or what have you, it’s how you get to five million is about the speed. Of how you’re able to let go, how you’re able to delegate, how you’re able to take risk.
[00:29:43] Molly McGrath: I, it’s a phenomenal book by Dan Sullivan founder of strategic coach and it does, you know, I can always anchor to this word. I do this when I make decisions in my business. It’s about gamification. Let’s have fun with this because I will know in two weeks, not 30 days, if it was a bad hire, and I will rip the bandaid off sooner.
[00:30:04] Molly McGrath: Is it working to come back to me? Yes, but I will do it smarter, better, faster, wiser the next time. And so you, then you refine your process and everything when you’re interviewing, whether it’s a marketing agency or it’s a It’s a associate attorney or whatever position. So it’s so much easier when you, when you kind of get, take the backpack, the heavy, heavy war backpack off your back and have fun with it.
[00:30:30] Molly McGrath: But again, have all of your metrics in place. Be certain that you’re making time hardwired in your calendar every single week to be able to look and track and measure it and ask yourself the question. Is this a hell? Yes. Or is this a hell? No. If it’s a maybe you’re trying to convince yourself. Then they’re done
[00:30:50] Steve Fretzin: that.
[00:30:50] Steve Fretzin: I like everybody. So that’s, that’s why I try to stay out of the stay out of hiring. I love everybody, but that’s, that’s not, that’s my problem. And. So, as we wrap up, I want to of course thank our wonderful sponsors, Lawmatics, Get Staffed Up, and of course, PymCon, coming up for the personal injury attorneys in September.
[00:31:07] Steve Fretzin: Check that out. And make sure you use the Be That Lawyer discount code to get a deal. Molly, thank you so much. If people want to get in touch with you to hear more about your services, to engage you, to just learn more, what, what’s the best way for them to reach you?
[00:31:21] Molly McGrath: LinkedIn, of course, and you go to hiring and empowering.
[00:31:24] Molly McGrath: com, my website, I try to really put a tremendous amount of value in there, drop a podcast every Tuesday, drop a blog every Thursday and a pocket coaching every Saturday. So you can opt in and get a tremendous amount of tips and techniques like we talked about today.
[00:31:43] Steve Fretzin: Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much.
[00:31:44] Steve Fretzin: I appreciate you coming back on the show, sharing your wisdom. Again, I think a lot of attorneys are in a position where they want to delegate and want to hire, and there’s just, again, that fear and that angst and that anxiety about it. So you’ve really resolved a lot of that today. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
[00:31:59] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, absolutely. Let’s have you back soon too. And I’m going to see you like in an hour, but For everybody listening listen, hopefully you got some great ideas and tips. Even if you’re not in a position to hire right now, it’s, it’s all about delegating, whether it’s an admin whether it’s a marketing person.
[00:32:14] Steve Fretzin: I mean, you work your way out of jobs that are not what you should be doing. And that’s what you’re getting on this show, the Be That Lawyer podcast with Fretzin. Take care, everybody. Be safe. Be well. We’ll talk again soon.
[00:32:29] Narrator: Thanks for listening to Be That Lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve’s website, Fretzin. com, for additional information and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today’s episode, check out today’s show notes.