The Law Firm Owner Podcast

There tends to be a lack of confidence around the finance side of running a law firm, and many lawyers often find themselves floundering when it comes to their books. Whether you feel like you "should" know certain things about your numbers, find yourself spinning in emotional baggage around money, or have just never found the right fit when it comes to your accountant, listen in.   Jessica Gonifa...

Friday Wrap is the most critical component of The Playbook for your growth and development as a law firm owner. It's what offers you the opportunity to evaluate your progress, hold yourself accountable, and learn from the experiences you've had.   This week, hear why Friday Wrap is a rich process that should never be skipped. You'll hear Melissa's tips for setting yourself up to win at this game,...

The Playbook is set up to help you stay intentional so you don't fall into the trap of wishful thinking about how you spend your time. On this episode, Melissa is walking you through the brain dump process that makes your schedule work effectively and brings the Monday Map tool to life.   Discover how to discern where your tasks and projects should fall on your calendar, and where to start as you...

There are four preparation steps involved in the Monday Map process that will tee you up to have a more seamless experience. These activities were born out of questions people had as they were implementing Monday Map, so if you're unsure about specifics as they relate to your calendar, Melissa's got you covered.    Discover the four activities you need to consider before starting the Monday Map pr...

When you consistently honor your plan, momentum builds and you make steady progress towards your goals. On the other hand, when you fail to honor your plan, you risk losing momentum and miss out on valuable opportunities for growth and success. And the key factor at play here? Your brain.   Discover how your brain is the ultimate productivity tool when it comes to honoring your plan. You'll learn...

The Monday Map/Friday Wrap process is one of the most fruitful pieces of work Melissa does with her members and clients. It's what gets them dialed in with intention and discipline to make their plans come to life.    Listen in this week as Melissa gives you a rundown of the Monday Map/Friday Wrap process and what is required to utilize this tool effectively. She's showing you what it means to str...

Are you clear on what you are going to get accomplished this quarter? If you don't, this episode is a must-listen. And if you do, but find yourself starting out strong and then flaming out in busyness, this is for you too.   Monday Map/Friday Wrap is a weekly process that Melissa and her clients use to take action every single week with intention and purpose. To fly further faster, you need to kno...

How do you rate yourself when it comes to the results you're trying to create? You might rate how well you did something or the level of success you managed to achieve. There's absolutely a time and place for that, however, there's also a more fruitful way to get better results.   This week, Melissa introduces you to a concept she uses called the Engagement Scale. Discover what the engagement scal...

Average revenue per case is an equation that's used often in Mastery Group. It's a fulcrum number that is vital in strategic planning because it allows you to project forward the number of cases or matters that need to come through the door in order for you to hit the revenue goal you've set for your firm.   However, too many owners aren't factoring in the discrepancy that often happens between wh...

As an owner, you've probably felt as if you're the only one catching problems in your company. You might approach your team and ask them what went wrong or how to avoid similar obstacles in the future. Sometimes they have an answer, sometimes they don't, but they've likely left the conversation feeling personally attacked, even if that wasn't your intention.   Melissa offers prompts for identifyin...

If you value your company and those under your leadership, cultivating trust and emotional maturity are non-negotiable.   Melissa is back this week with CEO of Align, Tara Gronhovd and her Align leadership coach and counsellor, Pamela Nelson. They're here to share how emotional maturity plays a part in deepening trust within your team, and the opportunity it provides you as a leader to enhance the...

Trust is foundational for any team to be effective, and if you lack trust, you'll waste a lot of time and energy with miscommunication, conflict, and tension. Being unable to trust beyond your own capacity is the reason a lot of business owners keep their businesses small. To help you with this, Tara Gronhovd is back this week, and she's giving you some things to think about when it comes to trust...

Hear Melissa's conversation with Mastery Group member Ben Hudson of Hudson Law and John Grant of Agile Attorney Consulting. Ben shares what it's like being facilitated through Monday Map, his work focusing on the Kanban methodology with John, and why they're complementary.   Discover the value of getting expert help to help you accomplish your goals, and how Melissa and John are essentially cracki...

Did you know that you might be unwittingly skewing the true numbers in your business? Whether it's client costs, case costs, court filing fees, or other items you might be tacking on to your client's bill and categorizing as income, what you're seeing isn't your real revenue.   Melissa is speaking to expert in this field, Claudia Revermann. Claudia is an attorney and the owner of Revermann Law whe...

Jim Hart is a trademark lawyer and founder of The Hart Law Firm where he works exclusively with online business owners, coaches, freelancers, and other entrepreneurs to help them take legal ownership of their brand by securing Federal Trademark protection.   Melissa is taking the opportunity to touch base with Jim on his quarterly Rocks. Examining your goals sounds easy and straightforward, but is...

Melissa is sitting down with founder of Agile Attorney Consulting, John Grant. John has a proven record as a legal innovator who helps legal teams optimize their workflows, strategies, and systems. The tools he learned during his decade in the tech industry have shaped his mission of helping lawyers improve what they do, and he's here to share his insights on how we can apply those principles in t...

If you're a longtime listener of the show, you'll understand the importance of rest and the bigger-picture impact prioritizing rest can have on your business. However, on top of all the other concerns you might have about being absent, actually taking time away from your practice feels challenging and selfish, even if you know a lot of good can come from it. Melissa is sitting down with founder an...

To close out this series, Melissa is sharing more common obstacles that you might face as you work towards the things you care about so you can overcome or even eliminate them ahead of time. She lays out the common barriers to consistency that you want to anticipate. From external circumstances that stray you from progress, to emotional discomfort, burnout, and general chaos you might feel, she's...

When you're working towards a goal, consistency matters. However, something many people get tripped up on is the idea of perfect consistency and executing a plan perfectly. Perfectionism is a spectrum, and most of us fall somewhere on it, including Melissa. It's learning to value progress over perfection that really moves the needle.   In part three of her four-part series on consistency, Melissa...

If you find yourself trying to reach three rungs ahead of yourself on the ladder of building your business instead of taking everything step by step this episode is for you. Today's show is all about setting the foundation so you are clear on the move that will bridge you to the next level of success. This is a vital part of consistency that often gets overlooked.   This week, Melissa shares how t...

Melissa is kicking off a brand new series on the topic of consistency. Whether you're working on the growth of your business, or you want to begin making headway on something in your personal life, consistency is key. She's laying the groundwork for what really goes into showing up consistently.   Join Melissa for the first of a four-part series on the power of consistency. You'll hear all the way...

This week, Melissa walks you through Mastery Group's strategic planning retreat framework. Melissa's training for facilitating business planning meetings was rigorous, and this was the foundation that she built Mastery Group's framework upon, plus lots of new research, experimentation, and skills developed over time.    You'll hear why this framework is the perfect starting point for getting compr...

Elizabeth King said, "Process saves us from the poverty of our intentions." Getting sidelined, busy, or otherwise forgetting about the things you said you were committed to is something everyone falls prey to at some point in the pursuit of a goal.    Making a great plan is about remaining as intentional as possible towards the goal you've set, and figuring out how to measure progress against that...

Team dynamics and leadership expert Tara Gronhovd is back to dig into even more aspects of leadership and the challenges you might be facing. Melissa and Tara are specifically diving into the idea that leaders often feel the need to have it all figured out before leading and making decisions, which begs the question: what is a leader supposed to be?    Hear how most leaders unintentionally operate...

Melissa hears from many clients who say, "I switched to flat-fee packages because I got sick of tracking time." If the notion of tracking time for a case or matter is bringing up a lot of drama and you find yourself dragging your feet, you're in the right place.   This week, Melissa walks you through the process of tracking time to make sure your fees align with the amount of time and resources be...