Lawyer Business Advantage Alay Yajnik
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This podcast is dedicated to helping attorneys earn more money, get better clients and spend more time with family. Your host, Alay Yajnik, is a law firm growth expert, author, and the founder of Law Firm Success Group. Get inspired, learn best practices, and get ready to grow your law firm faster and easier with this informative and inspiring podcast. Listen, learn, and remember: You CAN seize freedom. You CAN embrace happiness. You CAN build your Perfect Practice!
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Building Trust with Jennifer Novak
In this episode, Alay and Jennifer discuss:
Environmental law as a practice area.
Creating your perfect law firm and building a successful business.
Challenges to overcome in building a successful law firm.
Proactive and educational marketing.
Key Takeaways:
There are ways to communicate your value without it being only about the money.
Let people know what you do and why it is important. Many people may not realize how you can help them if they don’t understand what you do in your area of law.
If you work with an industry with environmental concerns, you should also work with an environmental lawyer to protect them as much as possible.
Think outside the box about issues that might affect your clients, even if they aren’t bringing those issues to you directly.
Tweetable Moments:
* “The trick really has been to explain to people what environmental law is, why people need to be thinking about it, why it’s good business to have some foresight, and how we can better serve our clients if we understand where the consequences might be of taking action or inaction today.” — Jennifer Novak
* “For lawyers, we need to get out of our silos. We need to be thinking about the fact that the advice we give our clients really could be of a higher quality and have more service to them if we’re making them aware of issues that they may not be thinking about.” — Jennifer Novak
* “Stories sell. Whether you’re a litigation or transaction attorney, stories sell.” — Alay Yajnik
About Jennifer Novak:
Jennifer F. Novak is a second-generation female California attorney, who has been practicing law for almost 30 years. Since 2013, she has been the principal of an all-female, all-environmental law firm, helping good people who find themselves in bad situations given the complexities of California law. She’s helped a wide variety of people, from international and Fortune 500 companies to developers, to farmers, to small family businesses, and everything in between. Whether people know it or not, we’re all affected by environmental regulation. And sometimes those regulations trap the unwary, especially with family businesses that may have problems with contamination and need help with investigations, remediation, government enforcement, or litigation.
In her spare time, Jennifer has served as the Chair of the California Lawyers Association’s Environmental Law Section, on numerous non-profit boards, including the California YMCA Youth & Government Program, and is an active community volunteer.
Connect with Jennifer Novak:
Website: https://www.jfnovaklaw.com/
Videos: https://www.jfnovaklaw.com/video-gallery
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NovakEnvironmentalLaw/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jfnovaklaw/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-novak-133a624b/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jfnovaklaw/
Connect with Alay Yajnik:
Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/
One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com -
Leadership Skills for Lawyers with Julie Entwistle
In this episode, Alay and Julie discuss:
Running your firm, not being run by your firm.
Working with a coach to make the changes you want with your life and business.
Understanding your DISC personality profile and how it relates to others around you.
Working through time management challenges and delegation.
Key Takeaways:
It is easier to throw yourself into your work 100% than to make changes in your practice to deliver to your clients and maintain the lifestyle you want.
Build your business with intentionality. If you didn’t from the beginning, you can start now.
Mirroring client or co-worker communication can help to strengthen relationships and retention.
Delegation is a skill and a craft. It can be learned, but most people have to learn it because it doesn’t often come naturally.
Tweetable Moments:
* “A lot of it is breaking the cycle of routine behavior by finding more efficient ways to manage yourself and your business.” — Julie Entwistle
* “We are habitual human beings. Breaking some of those cycles through awareness is usually the first step.” — Julie Entwistle
* “We all communicate in a certain way, and we expect other people to communicate with us in the same way. Being able to adapt our communication style and change it to intentionally create a better experience is a learned behavior.” — Alay Yajnik
* “We need people that work with us and on our team that have different skillsets, even if that means they work at a different pace, it still means that we’re freed up to do something at our pace.” — Julie Entwistle
* “Develop that self-awareness. Find a way to lift your head up and look around.” — Julie Entwistle
Connect with Julie Entwistle:
Website: https://entwistleleadership.com/
Email: julie@entwistleleadership.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EntwistleLeadershipSolutions/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julieentwistle/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/entwistleleadershipsolutions
Connect with Alay Yajnik:
Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/
One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com
Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik -
Law Firm Profits with Bo Yancey
In this episode, Alay and Bo discuss:
What profit is and why it is so important.
Understanding where you’re making money and how you can make more of it.
The concepts of realization and utilization, how well you price, and how well you maintain pricing.
Key Takeaways:
Many law firms look at cash in the door to understand if they were successful, but there are many ways of understanding profitability.
Understand the non-standard owner expenses that are being applied to your firm’s finances.
Watch your variable costs and make sure they don’t become fixed or sinking costs.
Real estate and tax law have been weak, but most other areas have seen at least modest growth.
Tweetable Moments:
* “When talking about profit, it comes down to two things: it is about we grow the pie, and how we divide the pie.” — Bo Yancey
* “All firms should be raising their rates every single year. Period. Full Stop.” — Bo Yancey
* “The best option, if you can execute on it, is business development – going out and figuring out ways to generate that work. There are two ways to do that. The easier and least expensive of the two is to grow your existing clients.” — Bo Yancey
* “You will find if you do raise your rates, oftentimes the customers that are a pain in your neck will tap out and it gives you more opportunity to work with clients whom you really enjoy and who you do your best work for.” — Alay Yajnik
Connect with Bo Yancey:
Website: https://boyancey.focalpointcoaching.com/
Email: byancey@focalpointcoaching.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boyancey/
Connect with Alay Yajnik:
Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/
One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com
Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik -
Thinking Like a CEO with Andrea Liebross
In this episode, Alay and Andrea discuss:
Differences in men and women in professional coaching and in running a law firm.
Embracing the discomfort to grow and evolve your organization.
What it means to think bigger using TRUST.
Two tips all attorney entrepreneurs should be thinking about.
Key Takeaways:
The real problem is not a problem, it’s a feeling that attorneys are trying to avoid experiencing.
Be okay with knowing and admitting that you don’t have all the answers.
Wearing too many hats often prevents growth because you don’t have the bandwidth to look at the things that need to be done to grow.
“I’m thinking about it” isn’t usually a good answer. There’s usually something deeper.
Tweetable Moments:
* “Being an entrepreneur is a journey in personal development disguised as an entrepreneurial adventure.” — Andrea Liebross
* “You have to be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking. That means making yourself vulnerable and admitting you don’t know everything.” — Alay Yajnik
* “As soon as you stop growing or looking at who you are as a person, your firm is going to stop growing too.” — Andrea Liebross
* “You get to choose what you’re going to think.” — Andrea Liebross
Connect with Andrea Liebross:
Website: https://andrealiebross.com/
Time to Level Up Podcast: https://andrealiebross.com/podcast/
She Thinks Big Book: https://shethinksbigthebook.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrealiebrosscoaching/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-liebross/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrea.liebross.coaching/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0-A88LuOgOREiyvauWSdQ
Connect with Alay Yajnik:
Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/
One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com
Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik -
Law Firm Growth with John Brennan
In this episode, Alay and John discuss:
Why service professions often benefit from business coaching.
Business coaching versus executive coaching.
Advice to law firm owners looking to grow in the next year.
Increasing your presence in the marketplace.
Key Takeaways:
Over time, your website should be bringing in business in the areas you want to focus on and the clients you want to have. You have to build it in a way that works for you, not against you.
A good coach is set apart from a seminar or book by explaining things in different ways for different clients creating a higher level of communication, and a higher level of action.
As a law firm owner, you must understand the numbers on your P&L and look at it regularly.
Use your time appropriately in managing client work and in managing your business.
Tweetable Moments:
* “Lawyers, doctors, and dentists are highly skilled, highly knowledgeable people in their fields, and they come to the business with a real passion for what they’re doing. But what I found is that many of them, after the first two or three years in business, realized that they don’t know enough, in their minds, about how to run a business.” — John Brennan
* “The website will ultimately be a tool that will help sort of winnow out the things that they’re not really interested in doing.” — John Brennan
* “IIt’s about creating financial stability in their business.” — John Brennan
* “Client acquisition is the lifeblood of the business.” — Alay Yajnik
About John Brennan:
John Brennan is a Certified FocalPoint Business and Executive Coach where he works with Business Owners and Professional Executives in the legal, health care, financial, and wealth management markets. John’s objective is to help those executives and business owners to evaluate their businesses’ current state, and then create a strategic business plan for growth. The final step is to help those executives and business owners then implement their plan and achieve the targeted goals and objectives for their business, their employees, and finally themselves and their families.
Prior to joining FocalPoint, John had a long and distinguished career as an accomplished sales leader and senior executive client relationship manager in the financial services industry. John was the SVP of Sales and Integrated Solutions at Visa Inc., for 14 years, where he led sales and marketing to three of Visa’s largest clients, Chase, Citibank, and Bank of America, while heading up Visa’s New York sales office. During his tenure with Visa, he drove business development and the strategic planning process for three top clients representing nearly 22% of Visa’s transaction volume in the United States.
A graduate of Rutgers University, John has visited 48 states and has lived in some major cities across America, including New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, and Omaha.
Connect with John Brennan:
Website: https://johnbrennan.focalpointcoaching.com/
Email: jbrennan@focalpointcoaching.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachjohnb/
Connect with Alay Yajnik:
Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/
One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com
Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com -
Goal Setting with Mike Edwards
In this episode, Alay and Mike discuss:
Taking time to recharge.
Why goals are so important.
Understanding the behaviors that need to happen to achieve certain goals.
Working with a coach to achieve your goals.
Key Takeaways:
Break your goals down into high-priority tasks.
You have to know the why and understand why it is important to you.
The most successful people have coaches in every aspect. Why? Accountability.
Tweetable Moments:
* “Before you get to the ‘who,’ the ‘what,’ the ‘where,’ and the ‘when,’ you’ve got to break the ‘how’ completely and ask it as many times as you can.” — Mike Edwards
* “It’s the goals, the ones that are really important to you and your firm and your life that you want to be setting. And sometimes it might be one thing, or two or three. But no more than that. You can only do so many top priorities.” — Alay Yajnik
* “I think people struggle with achieving goals if they don’t have great mentors communicating with them, collaborating with them, and talking about those goals.” — Mike Edwards
* “The top people in professions have coaches.” — Alay Yajnik
Connect with Mike Edwards:
Website: https://m3advisorsgroup.com/
Email: medwards@m3advisorsgroup.com
Phone: 772-486-5355
Connect with Alay Yajnik:
Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/
One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com
Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik
Customer Reviews
Awesome Podcast!
It was truly an honor to be a guest on Alay’s podcast. Such a blast! I was particularly impressed with Alay’s perceptive questions about my topic—applying critical thinking and mindfulness to the interpersonal dynamic. He was able to artfully draw out of me, his guest, salient thoughts/points that are relevant and useful to his target audience. Well done, Alay! Thanks for inviting me on. I’m very grateful for the opportunity!
Knowledgeable and Informative
This is a great podcast with actionable information. Glad I started listening to it.
Excellent and Practical Advice on Business Development
Alay does a great job at pointing out the gaps in lawyer business development. His practical tips for sales are just what many lawyers need to step up their practices.