It’s been awhile but today on the podcast Jim and Tyson fly solo without a guest, and catch up on where they’re at in their firms currently, what big thing they’re working on, and how most people are holding themselves back in business and life.
4:10 publicity
9:10 resistance
10:25 opening your mind
13:50 the midwest mindset
14:15 imposter syndrome
14:40 your vision
19:00 the way you talk to yourself
Jim’s Hack: Listen to Tim Ferriss’s podcast with Steven Pressfield
Tyson’s Tip: G Suite Tip for repetitive tasks click on the three dots and ‘filter messages’ to enter in criteria and create a filter to have it automatically do what you want it to do.
Watch the recording here.
Info and tickets to MaxLawCon 2021
– – – –
Run your law firm the right way.
This is The Maximum Lawyer Podcast.
Your hosts, Jim Hacking and Tyson Mutrux.
Let’s partner up and maximize your firm.
Welcome to the show.
Jim: Welcome back to The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. I’m Jim Hacking.
Tyson: And I’m Tyson Mutrux. What’s up, Jimmy?
Jim: Good morning, Tyson. It’s another gray March morning. I haven’t seen the sun around here for a while. How are you?
Tyson: Doing well. So, the skies are just about as gray as your wall behind you. Like, this is just like a perfect example of what it looks like in Missouri right now.
Jim: Yeah, exactly.
So, this is sort of exciting. Today, we’re live in the big group, sort of like we do in The Guild, right? You push this into the big group?
Tyson: Mm-hmm. We’re in both right now.
Jim: Oh, both. I didn’t know you could do both.
Tyson: Oh, yeah. StreamYard’s awesome.
Jim: Well, it’s live without a net. That’s all I have to say.
Tyson: That’s right.
So, you and I have not done a solo podcast with just the two of us in I don’t know how many months. This has been a long time. This is the longest we’ve done in the last five years of a stretch without the two of us being on a podcast. We’ve had a guest on each episode for several months. We did, I guess, in December. I take that back. In December, we did some stuff talking about Maximum Lawyer in Minimum Time, I think.
Jim: Well, you know, it’s funny because we do this now every Saturday, just you and I sort of talking about what’s the latest and greatest news in law firm running, legal marketing, and all that stuff. So, it’s not like we don’t talk to each other. It’s just that we haven’t really had these one-on-one sessions. And I really like podcasts that have guests. But I also like it when podcasts that have guests, then take a pause, and just sort of check in with each other. So, I thought that’s what we could lead off with for today’s show.
Tyson: Cool. Works for me.
You did have a topic you wanted to talk about. So, are we going to wait on the topic?
Jim: Yeah, we’ll wait on the topic. For now, why don’t you just give everyone an update as to what’s going on in your firm? There’ve been a lot of interesting developments. And we can go from there.
Tyson: The shortest version is October– I didn’t know this question was coming but it’s good to think about. I think, since October, we’ve gone from one attorney to four attorneys which is cool. We’ve doubled our staff in the last year. We’ve had a nice influx of cases. I mean, a lot of it’s because we’ve had a nice influx of cases. We’ve been working on Blushark and those efforts are paying off. It’s kind of nice.
I mean, I feel like the structure of the firm is great. We were talking yesterday with a couple of other people in the firm and they were just talking about like what great people we have. We call them peeps. We have done a really good job of hiring over the last few years. I think that is what has propelled us is really the hiring because, if you get some good people and you’re stable, the rest sort of takes care of itself. It makes it pretty damn easy on you.
Jim: Yeah. Well, that’s great. I mean, I know that you’re really excited about the new attorneys. And I think that, you know, you’ve been having to do a lot of legal court stuff yourself for a while with just the one associate. And so, I think that this is really going to open up opportunity for you to really do non-lawyer things, non-legal things, and to be doing more in growing your firm.
Tyson: Yeah. Well, you know, we really got automated to the hilt which allowed me to do a lot of that stuff. But when you’re just in depositions all day or you’re in court appearances, there comes a time where automation just isn’t going to help you. You’ve got to add more people so. And you’ve been you’ve been doing that for a while. So, tell us, where are you and your firm?
Jim: Well, I’ve been waiting to tell you this because we’re supposed to keep something under wraps until today. But, last year, I guess around this time, I noticed that our friend Seth Price, and Price Benowitz, and Blushark had made some kind of list that Inc. Magazine has. So, Inc does the top 5000 fastest-growing companies and they break it up into four regions. So, it’s 20,000 companies, you know. So, I thought we would go ahead and apply for that for the Midwest region. And we applied, I think, back in December. Mackenzie and I put together a little package. It wasn’t that big a deal.
They’re going to announce it today that all the companies that made the list, which is going to be a nice backlink for us from Inc. It’s not Inc. Inc., but it’s like an Inc. subsidiary. That still gives us good Google juice. But we made the top 5000 which I thought was exciting. And then, we got word where we placed in the top 5000. And you won’t believe it. We’re number 118 out of 5000–
Tyson: Whoa!
Jim: –fastest growing companies, 2019 to 2020.
Tyson: That’s awesome.
Jim: Yeah.
Tyson: Greatly done.
Jim: Yeah.
I mean, it demonstrates– it was sort of an external validation of what we thought that, you know, things are growing pretty fast around here. You know, it’s like, you know, you get into the day-to-day stuff of growth and you don’t really stop and sort of look at the– I mean, you’ll get the numbers and everything but it’s hard to quantify. But when someone comes back–
You know, like 118 is now my new favorite number. Like, I go around the neighborhood looking for number 118 because– I mean, I was shocked. I thought we were going to be like 4092.
Tyson: What’s it based on? Is it based on revenue, people, all of the above?
Jim: I think it’s some combination of gross and net revenue, year-to-year, between ‘19 and ‘20.
Now, they try to sell you a bunch of stuff, too. So, it might just be a scam. But it’s certainly fun. And, you know, we’ll get some play out of it. And everyone around here’s pretty excited.
Tyson: Listen, man, don’t downgrade yourself. That’s awesome. That’s really cool. And I bet, almost every single person, if not every single person watching and listening to this right now, they’re like, “Oh, shit. I want to be on that list.”
Jim: Well, that’s why I did it because Seth was on there. I was like, “Man, if Seth’s on there, I want to be on there.” So, I just wanted to see how it goes, you know. So yeah, Mackenzie’s really excited. She’s our marketing director.
And, you know, we’ve doubled in size, firm-wise, each of the last two years. So, it’s pretty remarkable. And it’s also staggering. You know, it’s its own set of problems. It’s, obviously, good problems to have. But the opportunities to grow as a business owner and to grow as a person, as your firm grows, it’s just there’s no substitute for it. It’s really a chance to, you know, dig down.
And, you know, I keep asking myself, you know, “Jim, you did a great job of getting us to this stage. Are you the right person to get us to the next stage?” Because I don’t know what the next stage is. Like, you know, we’re at this thing now where, you know, we’re opening up 70 cases a month and things are rocking and rolling and I’m like, “Geez, what’s next?”
Tyson: It is the ultimate like founder/CEO problem that these startups see, right? So, just take the law firm out of it. And like that’s what startup’s have a problem with all the time.
And that podcast with Guy Raz, you know, How I Built This. That’s like one of the biggest questions is, “Is that CEO the one to get them to that next step?” And sometimes they are sometimes they’re not. My guess is you probably are. You’d have to bring in some rock star lawyer CEO to be better than you. And I just don’t know if that’s possible in your space but who knows. Maybe your place is sitting on the beach in San Diego and just relaxing.
Jim: Well, you know, I was there last week. And I’m like a different person out there. Obviously, you know, Amany’s dealing a lot more with the day-to-day stress of things, but I get very focused, I get clearheaded, I understand and see what’s going on with the firm and it sort of all fits together when you just sort of sit back and watch.
And, you know, we’ve been talking about that a lot in the Guild and in Maximum Law in Minimum Time is that we spent so much time doing, doing, doing, as Michael Gerber would say, that we don’t take enough time to do the “work” that only we can do. And I know that sounds like a pad line. But it really is true that, if we’re not sitting there thinking about what’s going right with the firm and what’s going wrong, if we’re not doing that, if we’re not leading those conversations, then nobody is. And it’s just, you know, very, very, very reactive.
Tyson: Yeah. And I’d say that that’s probably one of the biggest obstacles to growth is stepping aside and just taking that time. That’s why I talk about process goals and putting things on your calendar all the time because we tell ourselves that we’re just too busy, we can’t do it. But if you put it on your calendars and actually set aside the time to do it– and we give the example of, you know, just one hour a week. If you take one hour a week, it’s 52 hours out of your week. You can do a lot in 52 hours. So, it’s some of the things that we talk about.
And some people, “You know, I don’t have enough time.” You have plenty of time. You’re just pissing some of your time away. You’ve just got to find ways of allocating your time.
I want to get to your topic though. I’m sort of excited about talking about this. So, you just teased it with one word, but I’m curious to see where we’re going with it.
Jim: That’s great because you did ask me what are we talking about? And I did just say one word. And you said, “Okay, let’s go.”
So, the word is resistance. Resistance. I think this goes right along with what we were just talking about is that reflection time. Is that, when you’re doing your reflection, I think it’s really helpful to ask yourself, and to really sort of still your mind, and be quiet, and sit there for a minute. Take some deep breaths [inhales] and ask yourself, “What am I resisting today? What am I pushing back against? What do I think I need to crush? Or what do I need to put an end to?” And then delve into, you know, “Where’s that resistance coming from? What am I reluctant to look at? What’s that dirty thing over in the corner that I don’t want to think about or that I wake up in the morning, or in the middle of the night thinking about?”
Sometimes, Tyson, I’ll have these days where we get a little bit of bad news and a couple of clients’ cases, and I don’t necessarily tell them, you know, right away. It’s not big stuff, just little stuff. And then I’ll just wake up one morning and I’ll say, “Oh, I’m spending way too much time thinking about these little defeats or issues.” And then, I’ll just tell everybody, all at the same time, all the bad news, right? And it’s just sort of like a clearing of the decks so that your mind can then open up to other things.
Tyson: So, with you, Jim, whenever you have an idea like this it’s because something has happened. What is it that you’re going through that led to this this topic?
Jim: Oh, well– yeah. So, you know, with me always resistance is exercise and eating right, and those kinds of things. And I’ve really been in a nice space, lately, where I have an eating right and I have been exercising. So that was some resistance that I broke through that made this topic sort of interesting to me now.
But then, just in general, you know– as you know, I’m considering this opportunity of sort of possibly taking over another immigration lawyer’s practice and that has so many aspects to it that are positive’s and negative’s. There are just so many things. There are so many pieces of it to think about. And I’ve had, geez, probably 20 conversations over the course of the last four days about that. And there’s part of me that’s like, “Man, this is a lot of work. Do I really want to do all this extra work?” And, you know, I’ve come to the conclusion now that we could do it.
And so, now, I’m in the stage “Do we want to do it?” And that’s a great place to be. It’s right where you want to be. To understand that you could pull something big like that off. And then, to be in a space where you can ask yourself, “Do I want to do this?” That’s where sort of resistance comes in. That’s where I sort of–
You know, I have a pretty comfortable life, Tyson. You know, we definitely work hard. I work hard. Amany works real hard. And, you know, running a law firm with 22 people is nothing to sneeze at but, at the same time, you know, I’m pretty comfortable and I do get to sort of set my own schedule and do those kinds of things so, you know.
But, to me, you know, this is like, yeah, dude. Well, this is what’s next. This is what’s supposed to happen next. And this is the natural progression of an answer to a question that I asked a long time ago and that I ask myself all the time, which is, “How far can I go? How far can I go?” And that’s sort of the opposite of resistance. That’s sort of how I break through resistances. I sort of ask myself, you know, “What’s weighing me down, literally? What’s holding me down? What are the nets?” Like, I think of me like a bird or something. Like, what are the things that are actually holding me to the ground? And then, you know, when I think, “How far can I go?” Then, the possibilities just sort of open up.
Tyson: And whenever you do this, is it, you know, how far can I go, in general? Or is it how far can I go on a specific topic or a specific thing? What is it? All of the above?
Jim: Yes. It’s all those things.
Yeah, it’s what can we handle as a firm. I mean, what can I handle as a person. What skills am I going to develop in order to be a better boss, or be a better business owner, or to own a law firm in three different cities. You know, that’s a different skill set.
Tyson: So, this is interesting because you just sort of, you know, pushed a button for me where I think that we put these artificial limitations on ourselves all the time – all of the time. And we don’t dream big enough even though we’ve got the skill sets and everything and the resources to get to where we– like our potential’s just limitless, right? But we put these limitations on ourselves.
And was it Christopher Nicolaysen? He was talking about the Midwest mindset?
Jim: Mm-hmm.
Tyson: Yeah.
And I totally get that. It’s one of those things where we totally– we will put these limitations on ourselves and not give ourselves really enough credit.
Brix Derek, the other day. Man, he was talking about something. And I don’t even remember what the topic was. But he was just– oh, it was about some cases he settled. And he was just killing it, man. Just killing it. And I was telling him like, “Hey, man, like, pat yourself on the back. You’re kicking some ass.” And I don’t think he really thought about it like, “Oh my gosh, like, this is awesome. I’m doing really well.”
But we are hard on ourselves, right? We tend to be really hard on ourselves as business owners. And instead of stopping to just pat ourselves on the back for a second say, “Hey, good job.”
Jim: Yeah, it’s that imposter syndrome. Who are we to think that we’re this big or that we can pull this off? You know, how dare we have such an audacious goal?
And this, Tyson, you’re going to laugh because you know how much I fought you on having a vision but, you know, our vision as we fight for immigrants every day. And my big, hairy audacious goal is to naturalize 10,000 people, as a firm, by the end of 2030. And right now, Tyson, we’re at like 500. So, we have 9500 to go.
Tyson: It’s time to let her pick up, baby. You’ve got a decade though. You’re good.
Jim: Yeah, I know.
So, this opportunity that’s out there is completely in line with our vision. And that’s something that you can sort of fall back on, then. You know, it’s like, if you view it through the right prism, then you can help make good decisions.
Jim: Running your own practice can be scary. Whether you’re worried about where the next case will come from, feeling like you’re losing control of your growing firm, or frustrated from being out of touch with everyone working under your license, the stress can be overwhelming. We will show you how to turn that fear into a driving force of clarity, focus, stability, and confidence that eliminates the rollercoaster of guilt-ridden second guessing and mistake making to get you off that hamster wheel for good.
Tyson: Maximum Lawyer in Minimum Time is a step-by-step playbook that shows you how to identify what your firm needs and how to proactively get it at every stage of the game so you’re prepped and excited for the inevitable growth that will follow. Name the lifestyle that you want and we’ll show you how to become a maximum lawyer in minimum time. Find out more by going to maximumlawyer.com/course.
Jim: Let’s talk a little bit about some of the resistance that we see, when we talk with lawyers, when we talk with law firm owners, both inside and outside The Guild. I mean, I think there are some general categories of things that we see people resist or they want to fight us on, to fight. You know what I mean. They want to argue with us or downplay what we’re advising. Do you want to throw a couple of those out there and then I can throw in my two cents?
Tyson: Yeah. So, I’d say the number one is the one I just mentioned a little bit ago. It was time. People say, you know, I don’t have enough time. You know, I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough money.
Actually, you know what, this is the stop the bullshit speech a couple of years ago. Like, the number of excuses is insane, right? because we’ve been talking to lawyers for years now and you can tell them exactly how to do something and some of them will not do it because they come up with an excuse in their brain.
I’m not going to mention who it was. Someone just posted something in the Guild just the other day. It was a very thoughtful post. And I’m not even going to give any of the details at all. But, long story short, the attorney was basically thinking, you know, I’m the only one that can basically do this, right? And the reality is that, no, that’s not true. So, that’s another one is that the lawyer thinks that they’re the only person in the industry that can do a certain thing, right. So that means that they’re the only person in the firm that can do a specific thing. And, as lawyers, we tend to think that we are special in that way. And we are special. And I think that all the people that are in Maximum Lawyer are special. And I talked about this before, you’re here because you want to grow and that sets you apart from others. But you’re not special in the way that only you can do it. And that is one of the biggest limitations I see. And, actually, probably the biggest one is that people tell themselves that only they can do something and that prevents them from growing.
Jim: Yeah, that goes along with– the corollary of that is always, if only I could clone myself if. You know, it means I need to do everything. Yeah. I mean, that’s a big one. We get a lot of resistance on that.
And it can come up in different forms. It can be I need more time, or I need more money, or, you know, chicken and egg – do I hire someone first? And then, how am I going to pay for them? I mean, there are so many, as you would call them, BS excuses that we tell ourselves that really hold us back. So, I really hope that everyone who’s listening, you know, thinks about it and just keeps an ear out to themselves. And it can be outside talk or inside talk.
You know, I love that line. He said the inside part out loud. I love that. That you would say it about President Trump a lot that he said the inside part out loud. I really like that as a line, but I like it as a means of self-reflection. I mean, I think that we’re harder on ourselves than we ever would be on other people. I mean, we would never talk to our growing children the way that we talk to ourselves sometimes.
You know, I check in with some friends and things. And the way that people talk to themselves is harsh. And I think that it’s so unproductive
Tyson: I will say it is sort of some of the pressures of just the profession, too. We’ve sort of created this crushing environment. And I would like to sort of kind of break through that because just the way, when it comes to deadlines, with being a lawyer, and we’ve got all these different clients calling us on every single day, and we’ve got the fear of a bar complaint, get a fear of a Google review. And so, I am, sure, me, just saying those things right now it probably is making a few people cringe, you know, because it is one of those things. It’s a stressful profession but that’s the reason why we need to give ourselves a little bit of a break and not be so hard on ourselves. And it can be hard. I understand that.
It definitely can be tough but part of that, going back to the word resistance, is quit giving yourself so much resistance. Give yourself approval. You know what I mean? Like, get past that resistance and give yourself approval.
I can’t remember how you put it. You said like, basically, instead of what’s holding me down? It’s basically like how can I get better? Basically, ”How great can I be?” kind of a thing.
Jim: How far can I go?
Tyson: How far can I go? Yeah.
So, I think that’s the other way of just thinking about it. Okay, give yourself permission and just say, you know, “How far can I go?” I think that’s a great way of breaking that mold.
Jim: And I think, sometimes, that you have to affirmatively say to yourself, either out loud or inside, you need to say, “I’m not having that conversation today. I don’t feel like listening to my negative self-talk. I don’t feel like listening to my limiting beliefs. Today, I’m just going to choose not to go into that pool. I’m going to go into this other pool over here which is, you know, opportunity, growth. You know, things I can control, you know, versus the things that are out of my control. We can’t win that conversation so sometimes it’s better just to not even play that game.
Tyson: I’m actually looking up something that Jason Selk– you know, I talk about Jason Selk quite a bit. I like him quite a bit. And I’m trying to find his actual identity statement because he’s got this one and it’s really, really helpful. It’s kind of like a mantra. And I’ve got my own but I’m not going to share here.
But just google Jason Selk identity statement. He’s got his own. And it’s a good reset button where, if you are– and you kind of go through this process that takes a hundred seconds, you know. And it’s a nice little reset button, if you’re going through and you’re having a shitty day. Or, even if you’re having a great day, it’s a good way to kind of bring you back down. And, you know, you do your breathing exercises. You do your, you know, visualization exercises. And you do your identity statement. And it really does.
It’s a reset button, man. I can tell you, every single time I’ve done it, it has calmed me down because doing litigation is stressful, man. You know, someone files a motion to dismiss and you kind of doubt yourself, “Oh, my gosh, it might get granted. What do I do here?” Like, I’m going to have to explain this to my client if it gets dismissed.” I mean, it can be stressful at times. And so, having that reset button, it’s just a great way of just kind of bringing things back down to earth, you know.
Jay Ruane talks about looking at a picture of his family. You know, it’s another good way of doing it. You know, have plenty of pictures of your family laying around your office so you can look at it. “Okay, this is why I’m doing things. It’s not the end of the world. Everything’s going to be okay. Just breathe and move forward.”
Jim: Jay does that when he’s getting ready to let someone go. And he does it to remind himself why he’s letting them go. It’s because they’re a “threat” to his kids, you know. So, I get that.
And, you know, Amany, and I went to a– it was an online half-day webinar around late December. And it was through this group called Reboot that I really like. I read the book and I like the group and everything. And they had a picture of a long road, like a desert road, and, you know, there was a yellow line going down the middle.
And they talked about how sometimes you’re on the left side of the road and sometimes you’re on the right side of the road. When you’re on the left side of the road, you’re tight. You’re stressed. You’re playing small. It gets almost like your mind is clouded. Like you almost can’t even see that you’re on the left side of the road. And, to me, when I go to San Diego, that’s how I get to the right side of the road. The right side of the road is, you know, open roads. I’ve got the world by the tail. I’ve got a lot of opportunity.
You really can find yourself in one place or the other. And when you’re on the right side of the road, you’re like, “Boy, I’m going to stay here forever. I’m not ever going back to that left side of the road.” But then, you do, and, you know, it’s a trap. And, you know, you can get trapped on that left side of the road for months or people even for years, you know. And so, it’s such a gift when we get to the other side of the road, when we get to that open space.
And, as they say on headspace, that blue sky, you know, where the clouds have sort of parted and you sort of see things. And I know this sounds a little bit woowoo but– and if we had played this for ourselves, like on the third episode, I would say this is really woowoo. But this is real stuff. This is this is true.
I know that I get tight, and I get, you know, working 60 hours, and I get my head in the sand, and I’m just work, work, working. And then, you need something to break out of it. It could be going to church. It could be going for a walk. It could be taking a trip. You know, you’ve got to do something to sort of help yourself over to that other side of the road.
Tyson: And if you don’t think it’s real just I want you to think about the time where you sort of got a little short with your partner or your kids because you’re stressed out. You know, we all have it. If you don’t, you’re probably a robot. You need to check your pulse because we all go through it and I completely agree to that.
Jim: And use those interactions, like the kind you just mentioned, as a gauge. You know, as a gauge to, “Where am I at? Where am I tight? What am I fretting over? What do I wake up in the morning thinking about? What do I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about?” And then, that’s your resistance. And that’s what you’re fighting. And that’s what you either need to surrender to and say, “That’s current reality. And then, what am I going to do to change it?”
Tyson: Love it.
It’s a good ending point, Jimmy.
So, let’s wrap things up. Before I do, I want to remind everyone to go to the big group. So those of you watching here, you’re already here. But those of you that are listening, make sure you join us in the big group, Facebook group. And if you’re interested in the Guild, go to maxlawguild.com. We have a lot of high-level conversations going on there. And then, while you’re listening to the rest of this episode, if you don’t mind taking just a couple of minutes and giving us a five-star review, we will greatly appreciate it. Help spread the word so that other lawyers can learn just like you.
All right, Jimmy. What is your hack of the week?
Jim: I’m going to get to my hack of the week but, before I do, I’m going to do my own promo. And my promo is for MaxLawCon 2021. Tickets are on sale. We’re cooking and we’re rocking and rolling. We’ve got a great lineup. The tickets are on sale. We’ll put a link down below or in the show notes for anyone who wants to get tickets.
That’s right. We moved it from June to October. That’s what I meant to say.
Tyson: [inaudible 00:26:04] 14th and 15th. I could be wrong about that but October–
Jim: Yeah, it’s middle week – Monday for The Guild members. Tuesday and Wednesday for everybody else. It’s going to be in St. Charles, Missouri which is a just a 15-minute ride from the St. Louis airport. It’s really nice. Hotel, it’s going to be a nice setup. We’ve got great speakers. We’re really excited about it. I think we’re about half sold out, too.
And that’s amazing. You know, people, really, I think are looking for things to do after the coronavirus. And now that it seems like everyone and his brother is finally getting their vaccination that it’s going to be a great time to reconnect everybody. And we’re going to get back to basics at the conference. And I’m really excited about that. So, I wanted to mention that. And I think we should probably start mentioning that on each of the episodes.
Tyson: I agree. I’m just excited to see everybody that we haven’t seen in a couple of years. So, excited.
Jim: For sure.
Tyson: So, what’s your hack of the week?
Jim: So, one of the ways that I reset, one of the ways I get from the left side of the road to the right side of the road, and I really do mean this is, listening to Tim Ferriss. You know, he has such great guests on his podcast. That’s F-E-R-R-I-S-S, Tim Ferriss. We’ll put a link to this particular episode in the show notes. He had on Steven Pressfield, I think, about three weeks ago. And it was just a great, literally, two-hour interview. And it’s all about resistance.
You know, Steven wrote The War of Art. And art can be anything including practicing law. Art’s whenever you create something or build something. And The War of Art is sort of the internal battle that we have with ourselves when it comes to creating art, in whatever form that is.
And so, just hearing the two of them go back and forth. And Steven’s had a very interesting life. He’s lived in a shack in North Carolina and all kinds of crazy jobs and stuff that he’s had. And just to hear that episode and to remember how much I liked that book. That was one of the first books that I bought, when I opened up my firm, the War of Art.
I would start by listening to the episode and, if it resonates with you, pick up that book. He’s got other books out now. They are sort of fiction-y and like historical fiction. Those are all well and good but the stuff that he has about creating– he’s a screenwriter and an author. And so, any of that stuff is just world class.
Tyson: I love it. And it’s on my list. I know people have mentioned it several times now, so I need to I need to give it a read.
So, my tip is a little more nuts and bolts. And if you find yourself– and I’m going to pull up my email. I’m not going to show you my email but I’m going to pull up my email and kind of walk you through it.
If you find yourself, you know, basically labeling and archiving in GSuite or you find yourself forwarding a particular email that comes in to an employee or a couple employees. The easiest way of dealing with that is if you go into the actual email that you get on a regular basis from, let’s say it’s a company or a person, and you click on the three little dots on the right side. And then, you click on “filter messages like this,” you can then– it basically allows you to enter in some criteria. So, if you just want it from that specific email address, that’s fine. If it has a specific subject, you can do that as well. And then, if you create filter, you can then– it gives you a lot of different options. You can have it automatically archived. You can mark it as read. You can store it. You can apply a label to it. You can delete it. You can forward it to a forwarding address. There’s a lot of different options there. And it’s a really good way.
Jim and I have people that actually check our email for us. And it’s kind of like a receptionist for our email. And they do a really good job. But there are some other things that can just automatically be filtered. And so, we have those things automatically filtered. And setting up filters is a great way of getting rid of a lot of what’s in your inbox, so I highly recommend that you do that.
All right, Jimmy. That’s it.
Jim: Cool, dude. Yep
Tyson: I’ve not wrapped up the end of the show without a guest in a while, so I’m not even sure how we do it but it’s good talking to you, man.
Jim: Yep.
Tyson: See you, buddy.
Jim: Later.
Thanks for listening to The Maximum Lawyer Podcast.
To stay in contact with your hosts and to access more content, go to maximumlawyer.com.
Have a great week and catch you next time.
[music]
