Growing Your Firm

Episode 914: Growing Your Firm, with Ken Hardison

Growing your firm is no easy journey. Let’s learn from expert Ken Hardison about smart ways of growing your firm.

Ken Hardison has fought for people’s rights as a trusted personal injury lawyer for over 35 years. His ethics, integrity, and passion for his clients helped to build one of North Carolina’s most successful firms, Hardison & Cochran, and a successful Social Security disability firm, Carolina Disability Lawyers, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Now, as owner and publisher of the law firm management website, Law Practice Advisor, and founder and president of PILMMA, the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing & Management Association, Ken devotes his time to helping attorneys build their own preeminent law practices with proven marketing strategies and management resources. There’s no doubt that growing your firm is not an impossible task as long as you have Ken around.

Ken has been recognized as one of the top 100 Trial Lawyers in North Carolina and is a member of the exclusive Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Systematic Marketing is his tenth book. Ken has authored 5 books on marketing and managing law firms. He is a sought-after speaker throughout the country on marketing and managing law firms.

Ken is known as the “Millionaire Maker” due to his coaching clients doubling and quadrupling their law practices and income following Ken’s practice growing advice and insights.

Ken lives in North Myrtle Beach, SC where he enjoys playing golf and fishing when he is not helping lawyers grow their practices.

What you will learn from this episode about growing your firm:

• Ken shares his career journey that ultimately led to founding the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing & Management Association (PILMMA)
• How Ken first recognized the importance of legal marketing, and why he chose to learn the intricacies of the business
• Why Ken decided to focus on personal injury clients and worker’s compensation and disability cases
• How Ken and his partners scaled their firm from one office to eight across North Carolina, and what sort of growing pains Ken experienced
• Why Ken’s decades of experience working in the trenches sets him apart from his competitors
• Why keeping a clear focus and managing your time are the keys to growing your firm, and what steps Ken takes to avoid “time vampires” throughout his day
• What important lesson Ken learned from his mentor Dan Kennedy about delegating work to others and accepting that “good is good enough”
• Why you should leverage your strengths and then hire the right people to complement your weaknesses
• Why Ken’s experience shows that law firms who focus on a defined mission, clear values, and a shared vision are the ones that are growing the fastest
• What key steps business leaders can take to clarify their goals and align others within their organizations to their vision
• How you can start growing your firm and take action on it today

Resources:

• Website: www.pilmma.org
• Email: [email protected]
• Grow Your Law Firm podcast: www.pilmma.org/grow-your-law-firm-podcast/
• Listen to this podcast on growing your firm from PILMMA

Additional Resources:

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Listen to this podcast on growing your firm through community and collaboration

 

 

Growing Your Firm: Full Episode Transcript

 

Get ready to find your recipe for success in growing your firm from America’s top business owners here at Onward Nation with your host, Stephen Woessner.

 

Good morning. I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation, where I interview today’s top business owners so we can learn their recipe for success, how they built and how they scaled their business. In fact, my team at Predictive ROI, while I’ve been talking about it now for several months because we continue to build, rebuild, add, and scale our free resources section on predictive roi.com so you can download free practical and tactical guides for everything from creating your ideal client avatar to how to land your dream clients and even our new business to business podcasting for Profit Secrets e-book, plus other success strategies that we’ve compiled from the brilliant insights shared by our very generous guests. 

 

So just go to PredictiveROI.com/Resources and whatever you request, we will send it right to your inbox. 

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Ken Hardison’s Introduction

 

Before we welcome today’s guest, Ken Hardison. Let me share some additional context around why, when Ken said yes to join me here, why I was so excited to have this conversation in front of you on Morning Issue, because I think that Ken is going to be extremely helpful as you think about how to build your thought leadership as you step into 2020, how you can get more intentional about building your thought leadership and then eventually monetizing that content.

 

So let me give you a little bit of insight here. And then I’m going to ask Ken to also go behind the curtain and share his story and journey. So Ken has fought for people’s rights as a personal injury attorney and lawyer for over 35 years now. Over those decades of being in the trenches, he and his team built one of North Carolina’s most successful law firms, Hardison and Cochran, as well as a successful Social Security disability firm entitled Carolina Disability Lawyers.

 

Well, while Ken was focused on building and scaling his firm, this really interesting thing happened in no doubt, this may have already happened to some of you out Onward Nation, some fellow personal injury lawyers in noncompetitive markets. Well, they started reaching out to Ken saying, hey, we see what you’re doing there and started asking him for his advice and details around what he was doing inside his firm that was fueling the fire of that growth.

 

I mean, it was amazing what they were doing in North Carolina. Well, that led to Ken writing ten books, speaking around the country, sharing his insights and wisdom around marketing and managing law firms. And then that led to Ken founding the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing and Management Association, or PILMMA, for short. Ken is also the host of the newly launched podcast entitled Grow Your Law Firm Onward Nation.

 

Because Ken got super intentional about building his thought leadership. He is now known in the industry as the Millionaire Maker because of how he helps clients double and quadruple their law practices. So without further ado, welcome to Onward Nation, Ken. 

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Ken’s Path and Journey

 

Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here, my friend. Well, it is a pleasure to have you here, my friend.

 

Thank you again for saying yes. And so before we dive into the litany of questions that I want to ask you around, marketing management, thought leadership and all of that in this progression, take us behind the curtain and from your point of view, your perspective, because obviously you’re the one that was in the trenches. Tell us more about your path and journey and then I’ll fire away.

 

Yeah, sure. So I was born and raised in North Carolina, in a small town of less than 10,000 people. Actually, I live in a town about the country, and my mother had an eighth grade education. My father had a fourth grade education. So, What? Pretty much I don’t, I wouldn’t call us poor. But we were definitely low middle income.

 

And I had a pretty good work ethic at a young age. And, worked my way through school, undergraduate and law school. Got out with work with another firm that lasted probably three months. I just really figured that I was not a good employee. You know, I want a good fit to be employed. So I started my own law firm.

 

And it’s just funny because I was married and had two kids. I got married and had two kids when I was in law school. And my wife was working full time. And we started a law firm. I had a firm there in town that asked me to come over after my first year and the firm was started in 1929.

 

They asked me to come over as a partner, which I thought was pretty neat, right? But, I think they saw, you know, that I was a hustler and that, and then the senior partner wanted to retire and they needed somebody there. So I went over and joined them and stayed with them from 83 to 96.

 

Wow. Yeah. And so build up a really good practice where like we were six times that law firm and that was over 14, 13 years. But what happened in 93. And we had a general practice back then, I mean I did a little bit of everything, but with the disability workers, you know, small businesses, you know, the government contract were pretty much a general practitioner.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Making Adjustments to the Firm

 

Okay. And, I went to court one day. I noticed that my fees are kind of 94. We kind of started plateauing, and 95, the amount dropped, maybe 2%. And I told my partners, I said, you know, we’ve got to do something. And I kind of knew what the problem was. But, you know, the TV ad marketing had started and it was getting very, you know, some of the lawyers had jumped out there after Bates’ decision in 87.

 

And we’re doing TV and, well, I go to the courtroom to make the long story short, and the guy sitting there and I said, Joe, what happened? He was walking in on crutches in a cast. Now, he said, I got T-boned by this Coca-Cola truck. I said, well, you know, I do that. I said, yeah, but I heard this guy off TV.

 

I figured if he’s on TV, he must be really good. Wow. And so I went to try this DWI, and I wanted, you know, and I went back to my partners. I said, we gotta have a meeting. And I said this. This is crazy. I said, this lawyer that he hired has never tried a case in his life.

 

I mean, you know, he would. I mean, you don’t know his way around the courtroom, and they. But evidently there’s a market. And my partner said, you know, it’s unprofessional. You know, we’re a profession. I’m just not going to do it. So we talked and we had our conversations for about a year, ‘96. I listened to one associate and three staff and didn’t know anything about marketing.

 

I knew I had to learn. And the competitors there were sure not going to share. So I went out and I read everything I could read. I went around to different states, law firms that were very successful. And ask them to, you know, shadow them and pick their brains and then I just went to just general marketing conferences.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Don’t Dwell On Your Mistakes

 

I read about as Dan Kennedy and Jay Abraham and Claude Hopkins and Russell Reeves and, just really kind of just immersed myself in it because, I mean, I really, I was a political science major and then went to law school, so I had no background in business or marketing, so everything was self-taught. And I kind of liked it.

 

I always liked numbers and and really, if you can think about it, it’s all about fraternal investment. And so I really like dealing with that. But anyway, we grew it from, the five years we went from two lawyers and three staff to 13 lawyers and 47 staff. Wow. And we have to do, like, a half a million, 8 million in gross revenues.

 

And but listen, a lot of mistakes along the way, too. I mean, we did a lot of things that were great. And a lot of things we did were terrible. You know, I don’t dwell on mistakes. I call them failures. I call them learning experiences. It absolutely cost me a lot more than others, but, you know, it was kind of the deal.

 

And then I woke up one morning, and I was looking forward to going to work. I said, I want to sell out. I sold out to my partner in 2010. I moved down to Myrtle Beach. I was gonna retire. Didn’t last long. Everybody’s calling me. And then, I said, well, I’m gonna start this organization because I didn’t have it when I was there if people needed it.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: The 7-Minute Deal

 

And so I started it, and then I started doing some selling, and then I had a lawyer say, because when I started mine, I went out hard. Everything I had and bought a half $1 million, do a lot of credit, went on TV. And so I just don’t have that budget. I said, well, you don’t have to be on TV.

 

You can still build a great law firm. He said, well, I just don’t believe you can do it. And so I kind of took that as a challenge. And I said, well, I’m not licensed in South Carolina and I’m not moving back to North Carolina because I love my golf and I love my fishing. And so I said, well, we’ll start a disability that you can be, you don’t have to be licensed in the state.

 

It’s federal. So we started a Social Security Disability firm for two years and eliminated my marketing budget to $6,000 a month. And we built it in like 700 cases, and I sold it for seven figures. And proved to the guy, I guess it was more like a dare, you know what I’m saying? I’m very competitive.

 

I’m somebody, you know, and I did it, you know, it was. I like building things, but I get bored with them. I say, maybe I’m a true entrepreneur. Although with PILMMA, it seemed like something so new. And there was a different challenge every day, a different law firm, and they got different sets of problems.

 

And it was kind of invigorating. So I kind of think this is a thing that I’ll probably stay with, but, but that’s the story. I mean, there’s a lot in between there, but that’s the, I guess, seven minute deal. Well, when did you make it when you’re out on your own.

 

When you’re still with the firm where you’re there for about 13 years. When did you make the decision to specialize in personal injury? Okay. Yeah. That was, it was already happening back in the 90s, with doctors. You were seeing it and one of my coaches. And I’m big on having coaches and masterminds, I believe, you know, and he said there’s riches in niches.

 

And I said, okay. And so I looked at what I like to do and where the most money was, and it was definitely on worker’s comp disability. And that’s one thing I liked about it was you didn’t have to send somebody a bill and chase them down to get the money. I’m terrible at collecting money.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Scaling The Business

 

To me, I feel like I shouldn’t be that way, but that’s just a personal hang up. I got about it. I don’t know if it’s because I was raised super and we had bill collectors after us. I don’t know if it’s from that or what, but it was like an idea was contingency. And I like that because I didn’t get paid.

 

They got paid. They were happy, I was happy, I didn’t have to send their bills. And it saved me a lot of bills. I mean, we just got our money with a check. Came in with the car percentage, whether it was 20%, 25 or 30 or whatever. And it was just so much easier for me from a mental standpoint.

 

And I don’t know, I just made it easier. And plus it was, be honest with you, it’s more lucrative. Well, and so what did that do for your business as far as, like, being able to build and scale like you were then hiring other attorneys. You said you had 13 and then 47 staff, but then you’re also hiring attorneys with that specialty.

 

What? And so did it make them just the building and scaling to the business. My assumption is that it made that much more efficient too. Oh, absolutely. You know, and I’m really big on processes and procedures and systems and you know, we had a few that I had had experience with. But I’ll be honest with you. And I teach this to my lawyer just to try to talk you out.

 

That lawyer should get 3 to 5 years experience, a lot easier on board, but I think the part they got the wrong way of doing things, and sometimes they don’t want to go your way. If you get right at law school, you can train them and hold them and shape them and mold them the way you want them.

 

And because they don’t know any other way to do it but your way. I had a mixture. But towards the end, I was really getting I was getting them out of law school, and, but I went through strenuous process where they had the court with me for summer, and well, I had to go interview them at law school, and then, you know, they had to take a test before I came home for the summer.

 

And then I had hired three. Hopefully we pick 1 or 2 out of the three, you know, to come work with us. But, yeah, I think it’s all about, I mean, the scaling was, as you know, we went from like one office that had eight offices in the state, and now we were spending lots of money on advertising.

 

And yeah, I mean, I had a CFO who had, well, from administrator to full time out to, I mean, we had a full time major. It was definitely different, once you get past about 25 people in your organization, it changes. The culture changes a little bit. You have to be real.

 

It had to get a little bit more corporate because you’re getting so big, you know? And, of course, it’s nothing like having, you know, 10,000 people working for you, but with a small business, I still considered myself a small business owner, even when we were doing, you know, eight figures. I mean, you know. Well, I guess it’s all relative, right?

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: The Trial And Error

 

Well, what I really love about your path and journey here is that you’re in the trenches, a practitioner, you went in niche down, as you said, riches in niches. Then you specialize. And that was like, you know, using some adjectives here that was like lighter fluid to your business. It just made the business more scalable, both operationally marketing wise, and so forth, made a lot of sense.

 

Now then on Palma or for Palma, you know, you’ve got this great model, but you can continually point back to how there were the riches in the niches, and you can provide this great blueprint because you’ve done it. And the reason why I’m calling that out for onward business owners is because, you know, we’re all on Facebook.

 

We all see the ads for that. Oh, just download my swipe file and you can have a seven figure business too. And it drives me bananas because their business is trying to show people how to be in business. And that’s not really a business. You’ve done it. You’ve been in the trenches for decades and that is so credible.

 

That is my uniqueness, my differentiator from competitors. For the most part. I have one competitor, the lawyer. But for the most part, or if they have their lawyers that are really practiced, I’ve been in the trenches. Drives me crazy, you know? But, yeah, I’ve been there. And I tell people I’ve been there, I’ve done that this year.

 

I said, let me help you, because I made every mistake I could make, so I could I could save you a lot of money because, I mean, I did mean, you know, like I said, that learning experiences, whatever you recall. But I mean, I did mean, because there was nobody I had to try. It was all trial and error.

 

I mean, I talked to different people. I got to learn how to market a law firm for people that are marketing, widgets and gadgets because, you know, there was nothing out there like what I got nailed for lawyers. I mean, there are and there’s several of them, but when I started my law practice in marketing in 96, 97, okay, they really wanted nothing out there for lawyers at all.

 

And, so we had to go try to figure it out and then trial and error because there was no internet when I started, you know, in 96, you know, it’s funny, I think about when I first started. Oh, well, it wasn’t even computers. There were no copiers. We used carbon paper to make copies, though, right there, like IBM Selectric.

 

And carbon paper was how we made copies for our court documents. It was so archaic. Carrier pigeons. Yes, it really was. I mean, but that was in 1982. I mean, you think about it, it’s a long time ago. It doesn’t seem like it, but it is. 

 

So let’s fast forward to today and, you know, Onward Nation business owners know that I love to learn about people’s habits. You know, successful business owners like you. So let’s think about your day from the context of daily habits. Is there a habit or two that you strongly believe has contributed to your success over the last several decades? Yeah, I mean, there’s several, but I think the number one for me is I really believe you got to be focused instead of talking about it.

 

I mean, nothing happens to you. Take action. So I’m a real big deal to do this, believe it or not. And time management gets real time by being passed and getting stuff done. So every day I created a system. I got a couple of time savers, but I really just we all got the same amount of time in the day.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Getting Laser-Focused with Your Tasks

 

So, a long time ago I asked myself how the hell some people get so much more done but so much more successful. What it came down to is they were very laser focused, and they really manage their time and their energy to get stuff done. And I still have fun. I mean, it’s not all work, but the deal is when I’m in work mode, I’m in work mode.

 

You can ask my wife, you know, she knows what the very telling because, I mean, I’m focused, I’m zeroed in. I mean, and because this multitasking is a force, there’s no such thing. Yeah, yeah, I like to work on one thing and just give it my all and, you know, stay with it. So I have a to-do list.

 

So I got to thinking that my list form says about to do list. And what I do is I’ve said some of this and I’m old school you know it probably got you to make an app or make some computer. It’s probably stuff that you can use on your computer. But I’m a dinosaur. I don’t know.

 

I don’t even know how to type and I’m not going to learn. I’m 63 years old, and I just try to get somebody else to do it and dictate. So, either write it out of pencil. So I write down things that I have to do, and then at the end of the day, and also a market, I get another list in front of me that I’m working through as I get stuff done.

 

And then at the end of the day when I cut it off, right, 5:00 or whatever time, whatever day it is, some days it’s 3:00, I go through and rank them, hey, I got to get it done the next day. There Is a need to get it done and so it can wait. And so and so and then I try to do it for at least two hours in the morning before everybody gets up and they go in like 6 to 8.

 

I try to tackle the thing I really frigging don’t want to do, the thing that I dread doing and get it out of the way. Then it doesn’t bother me any more. You know, it’s funny. It’s like, going to the dentist or something, you dread it and you dreaded or get in or whatever it is. And then when you get it done, it was, you know, it.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: How to Tackle Tasks

 

The problem was dreading it, what to do. And it was half as easy, you know, it’s half as hard as you thought it’s going to be. It’s just dreading it. And so I do that. And then, when I was running my law office, I just refused to answer. Got two minutes. And when I’m walking down the hallway and I made a call, I created a clipboard that said, God, I’ve been in pain all day.

 

I walk 40 minutes each day and I put it outside my door, make it sign up for it and I call it my God. A minute meeting and they would have seven minutes. They need to write their name and what the problem was and what if and when I did that. Most people who already knew the answer, they just needed the affirmation from me and I might get more.

 

To me, it means a day when I was in the office, even though I had 40 minutes to line up for it or sign up for it. And that’s a killer. That’s a time empire. That and it’s all about, you know, like just doing phone calls. I made a phone call with somebody. I say, you know, I let them know, I go ahead and I got like 20 minutes for this call now, so let’s get to it.

 

You know, and being nice about it, we can talk about pleasantries, but I want them to know that because some people will talk. It’s my uncle. James will say he talked to horns off a Billy goat, you know, and I just don’t have time. I mean, I want to know about you and all that, but when I’m in my work mode, I really want to get into what we gotta get done.

 

You know? But I’m focused. I mean, I think I have to do it. I mean, I’m really my wife. It’s my second marriage, by the way. That she never saw a man get more done and, you know, six, eight hours a day in her life. And she’s a lawyer, too, so her practice is what she did.

 

A lot smarter than I am for as long. And intellectually, me, she was a moot court went away for she was a lawyer. You, me, you know, and, you know, so she’s a brainiac. What what’s really good firms in North Carolina? But she just said she does. And I said, well, focus and I’ve got systems, you know, and I just, I think that’s the key.

 

I mean, these people waste so much time. Now, listen, when I kill it off, I kill it off, man. I go have a little karaoke, we go out karaoke, and then we go fishing, and, you know, and we have to go to movies, you know, take trips. 

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Most Influential Lesson from a Mentor

 

I like to have a good time when I’m in work mode. I’m in work mode. I mean, I’m laser focused, I guess is the key. Well, when you said, I mean, it’s a very real thing. We all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day. And the super productive, the ultra successful business owners, the top business owners in the country are the ones who are able to not just manage the 86,400 seconds, but they’re able to prioritize it.

 

They’re able to maximize it. They’re able to avoid the time vampires as you describe, which I, I love that term by the way. And be able to get more stuff done so that’s a great, great lesson for organization business owners. I think it’s been a game changer for me. I mean, I think that, for us to want to have it, you ask me about daily habits.

 

I said that was it. That’s my biggest one. That’s really great. So let’s think about mentorship here because you’re in this conversation. Can you be a great mentor to our audience? So let me flip that in and ask you to tell us the most influential lesson that you ever learned from one of your mentors. And then how did that lesson help you become the business owner that you are today?

 

I guess probably from Dan Kennedy? And probably a lot of our listeners, no matter who he is, he’s a genius marketer. And think about it, he really hated lawyers, but he liked me. But overall, he hated lawyers. He thought they got in the way of entrepreneurship. They found out, you know, he told you.

 

Oh, you guys try to figure out how something can’t work. He said, you know, which goes against everything that I believe in, you know, especially how to make a deal work. And you said if you go to a Laurie figured out how to make it not work. So he really hated lawyers and he said he talks too much, but he liked me for some reason.

 

And, maybe because I paid him so much money over the 20 years. Although, like, a lot of you pay him a lot of money. I mean, he probably had something to do with it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I remember my first day with him was $20,000. Yeah, probably 20 years ago. Yeah, yeah. But he told me good is good enough.

 

And I said, But I’m a lawyer. I got ta do they said, good is good. He said he committed malpractice. He said but people focus on it. It’s got to be perfect and you’ll never be perfect. And you can make it good and you can work on it, tweak it and increase the efficiency, the better it is, he said.

 

But it’s good enough, and I’ll never forget that because I was always one. As I remember my first secretary in 1982 when I left that firm, and I told her, I said, so there’s I have this office with my name on. It’s got to be perfect. I said, if it’s not worth doing it right, it’s not worth doing it all.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: It Takes a Good Leader to Grow a Business

 

So I had a mindset change there, you know, good as well about I still want things to be really good because I know it’s a personal reflection on you, but I don’t think that, say, I could draft up something better than one of my associates, but I can’t do so much. So it’s better to train an associate and they can do it 93% as good as I can, and I can get six of those people doing that every 3%, because I can.

 

Then that’s okay. That’s okay. You know what I mean? So yeah, I think it was a very valuable lesson. My mindset was that my name? I had to be perfect. And I still have to be really good. But you don’t have to be perfect anymore. Well, and because if by having the 93%, you know, just call that a rule, then if, unless you allowed yourself that grace there, you’re never going to hire the 12 additional attorneys.

 

You’re never going to hire 47 staffers. The business is never going to scale. If it has to be perfect. And if you’re the only one who can do it acceptably. Yeah, yeah. Are you still a part of the job? I think you have to be a good leader to grow business. And of course, I think this was that, you know, I tell my staff, I mean, you know, good is good enough.

 

I mean, you know, in the dahlia’s, I think part of my job was to mentor his lawyers. And I spent more time in 2000, 5 to 2010 for a solar equipped professional. And I was pretty much managing managers and managing attorneys. Wow. As I was mentoring them and and coaching them, because that you’ve got to have that, I mean, you know, and a really skill any business what what I found is you have to have a leader, you gotta have a manager, you gotta have a leader for for every 7 to 10 people, you know.

 

And that’s the hardest thing, I think in scaling a business is the middle management. You know, you can find really good people to be like, you know, your man, your manager, manager or whatever your or your CEO or your CFO or whatever, but it’s the, you like the generals. I mean, you got to have the, you know, the captains and the lieutenants and, you know, real sergeants to lead the, you know, the corporals and the privates.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Leveraging Expertise

 

You know, I really believe in that. Well, and in that, the structure stretches across any service business which which Onward Nation business owners are typically running a business to business service type business, whether we’re talking about a law firm, an accounting firm, a marketing agency, a real estate company, I mean, it’s typically a service provider of something.

 

And so when you just mentioned the 7 to 10 and in structuring everything from generals to lieutenants to captains to sergeants to corporals, I mean, that process is almost like a law of nature. You have to be able to have that structure in a service type business where we’re leveraging expertise. Right? Absolutely.

 

Great conversation, Ken. I knew that this would be. I knew that this would be really super insightful for Onward Nation business owners. I am grateful for that. I know that we’re quickly running out of time. I also know that we covered a lot. But before we go, before we close out and say goodbye, any final advice that you want to share, Ken? anything you think we might have missed? And then please tell us the best way to connect with you. 

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Learn How to Leverage Your Strengths

 

Okay. Yeah, I think, you know, talking about habits. That was. But I really think one of the biggest things there was me figuring out or being taught that you can’t be great at everything, so leverage your strengths instead of trying to be great at certain things, you know that you’re you’re not good at it.

 

You don’t like it. How people are people to complement your weaknesses and and you know, and and then I think the other big deal is you do not have to be the a proven that I mean, I was never the sharpest in my class. I always had to work for everything. And, we had a speaker, one of our best last year, and I saw her on Ted talks, but she couldn’t speak.

 

So she said, I want to relax. But the deal was he was very good. And the deal was they’ve done studies of school children, professional people. And the number one differentiator or the success factor is not IQ is not anything which you would think it’d be. You know, what it is is grit your barriers. And I think that’s been the key to my success.

 

I will never give up. We see the glass half empty. I don’t think like a lawyer. I mean, to be a lawyer, I don’t look at what can go wrong. I try to figure out how we can get over this high school? I don’t look at it. I look at it as well. Here’s another way we can learn how to get over something.

 

You know, challenge, you know, another victory. I never, never give up. I just refused to, I think, escalated to my competitiveness, probably, where I got that from. I have no idea, Mr. Jinx, but I think that is very important. And this is something else I think is very important. And people, I used to think it was a mock up hogwash, to be honest with you.

 

But I’ve been all over the country looking at law firms and consulting with them, and I can tell you, the ones that are growing the fastest are the ones that have very defined mission values. And the leader shares that vision with everybody, because how can those people help you reach your vision, or you want to be in 5 or 10 years?

 

And I’m not talking about just money, but what you’re going to be known for, right? You know, it was like, suppose everybody was in for the service and, you know, BMW driving experience. I mean, you know, Volvo safe car, but what are you going to be known for? You know, in 2 or 3 words and ten years from now, you know, my big deal was client service, you know, the ultimate client service with my law firm.

 

And we did it. We did everything we could, and we were very focused on it. Our base was that way. We had rules, you know, and hired people that have the same values you got, which would be the same values that your business has, because your business will reflect your values. Right? Yep. And I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned that’s really made a difference in film, I wish I’d known it when I was practicing law.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Enrolling Your People in Workshops

 

I probably could have scaled it a lot quicker. Is that I used to have annual goals and I kind of do, but not really anymore. Have big goals or aspirational goals, but everything we do now has is and we plan quarterly. We pick 2 or 3 projects for no more than three. If they’re big, then these two.

 

And then we lay out and we do a lot of workshopping with our people. And I get people buying in because that’s the problem. Now, people say it’s millennials. It’s everybody. People want to be part of something. They want to be recognized. They don’t want to see that they’re helping be a part of something bigger. And then if you can get that, I think this workshop and where you sit down and say, okay, we got this issue, what can we do to overcome this issue and then let you people, right, everybody rally on something and you put it on a board and then you see which ones agree on the most.

 

And you use a process. But I really believe in the workshop. And when we come up with it, okay, this is how we’re going. What tactics are going to implement this over the next 90 days. All right. Who’s going to do it and what are going to be the deadlines. And then we’re going to have weekly scorecard meetings where I got inspired by this.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm: Get Stuff Done Quarterly

 

There’s a book called A 12 Week Year. I got inspired by that. It goes all about the way athletes train. They really jump on one part of the body for 12 weeks or something, or a period of time, ten weeks. And we have got so much more done and doing it this way. And everybody, so much laser focus, I wish I had figured this out a long time ago because we just figured this out.

 

I mean, you know, I read that book about 2 or 3 years ago, and I’m trying to teach it to my law firm clients because it is a game changer. I mean, it’s just, and you can see success, you know, you get to see where you get stuff done. And some accomplishments. And you know, if you do annual goals, everybody waits until the last quarter and then they try to get it all done and it’s all a mess.

 

I don’t know, I just like the quarterly stuff. We just get so much more done. We get like three times as much stuff done every year than the last 2 or 3 years. It’s just been a PILMMA’s like, grown 50% in the last three years. I think it’s got a lot to do with some of this stuff, is that we’re getting and really got good people now.

 

I mean, I really took the deal with her slow for fast, mantra that I used to have, but I really do it. So, you know, I mean, I could talk, but I think there’s 2 or 3 things I said. They are, like, really important for any business. And I used to think the mission based vision stuff was a bunch of gobbledygook, but it really does matter.

 

I mean, it makes a difference. I mean, you’ve got to be you got to know. You have to be positive. Why? You know, the bigger the bigger purpose was to what? Why are you doing this? Things that make money. Yeah. Not really. Everybody likes to make money, but money just gives you freedom. There’s got to be something else.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way

 

Growing Your Firm:  How to Connect with Ken

 

If you’re in business just to make money, you probably don’t need to scope somebody because you’re not going to make it a really long way. That not long term anyway. In that short term, great, great conversation can. What is the best way for Onward Nation to get in touch with you? Okay, Ken, as Ken. Ken at Palma Pierce and Paul was and I love him as a man.

 

He was a man. As available to the org is the best way to get it with me. Okay. My email and, I love to talk about this stuff, but, it’s a lot easier to talk about. It is to do it. I probably should. Do that. But you obviously have some great experience in it, which is why I knew that you would be super helpful to Onward Nation.

 

So I am grateful that you were so generous and sharing your expertise and Onward Nation, no matter how many notes you took or how often you go back and relisten to Ken’s words of wisdom, which I sure hope that you do, you have to take what he so generously shared with you, take it and apply it into your business right away and accelerate your results.

 

And Ken, like we were talking about a few minutes ago, we all had the same 86,400 seconds in a day. So thank you again for saying yes. Thank you again for coming on to the show to be our mentor and guide to help us move our businesses onward to that next level. Thank you so much, my friend. Oh thank you.

 

It’s been a pleasure. This episode is complete, so head over to OnwardNation.com for show notes and more food to fuel your ambition. Continue to find your recipe for success here at Onward Nation.

 

Secrets to  growing your firm, the PILMMA way