Focus On What You Do Best ft. Todd Smith ML127

In this episode, Jim & Tyson interview Todd Smith, an appellate lawyer from Austin, Texas who runs his own law firm; Smith Nobles Appeals and is the president-elect of the Austin Bar Association. Listen as they go over Todd’s business and discuss about his mindset running his firm and helping lawyers with appeals, marketing strategies and systems, paying special attention to the importance of building personal relationships and networking. 

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Topics:

• Todd’s Journey to managing partner of a small law firm
  • Judicial clerkship with the Texas Supreme Court > Interest in Civil Appellate work
  • Big Law
  • Wanted to be a Texas Lawyer
  • Went Solo and hanged his own shingle
  • Formed a Law Corporation and took in Partners
• Lawyers can’t handle their own appeals?
  • Mindset
  • Persuade a trial lawyer to hire an appeal lawyer

“Look, you are really good in what you do, you are a successful trial lawyer, you get good results for your clients, and if you don’t get a good result you are smart enough to handle an appeal. But what you really ought to be able to do is focus on what you do best, and this is what we do… (...) We want to help you strategize... ”  

• • Marketing towards Attorneys or Clients
    • Best work comes from referrals
    • Lead magnets
    • Re-design of website
  • 2019’s first quarter goals
    • Intake process
    • Calls > System > Information > Engagement
  • Building Systems
    • Forethought and planning
    • Technician or entrepreneur
    • Executing
  • Time management
    • Michael Hyatt fan
    • Problem: execution of the plan
  • Logistics: Having an office in Austin and an office in Houston
    • Managing people
    • Working with his wife: firm administrator
    • Slack and Zoom
    • Technology
  • Advice bringing your spouse into your firm
    • Set up boundaries
    • Don’t let the office stuff spill into every aspect of your personal life

• Networking

• • Social media relationships
  • What really made a difference for Todd was real facetime and establishing personal relationships

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Jim’s hack: James Clear, sends out an email at the end of every year with a link to all of the book summaries that he’s read that year. Interesting, useful and shareable content.

Todd’s tip: A time management app based on the Pomodoro technique. Focus Keeper.

Tyson’s tip: A technology test website for when you are hiring employees. Employ Test.

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