Watch the YouTube version of this episode HERE
Watch the YouTube version of this episode HERE
Are you an attorney who is early in their entrepreneurial career? In this episode of the Maximum Lawyer podcast, host Tyson Mutrux chats with attorney and entrepreneur Shane Jasmine Young. Shane shares her inspiring journey, her law firm, and the challenges of balancing professional aspirations with motherhood.
Starting a law firm is not an easy feat and comes with a lot of fears and motivations. Shane delves into some of the fears and motivations that existed when she was starting her law firm journey. The uncertainty was a huge factor that initially led to her hesitation to start her firm. But, being laid off along with the support from her husband, it was the boost she needed to get started with 0 clients and no business experience. Shane also relied on the existing networks in the legal field to help get things off the ground and get those initial clients.
For Shane, owning a law firm involves having a lot of accountability, especially when it comes to processes the firm follows and the frameworks for hiring. Shane looked at what her goals were for the firm as a foundation for who she initially hired. Having the experience of hiring someone who wanted to control everything led to a huge wedge in the firm dynamics. Shane used it as a learning curve when it came to future hiring and began verifying information for those who are coming into the firm.
Listen in to learn more from Shane Young.
Tyson Mutrux 00:00:02 This is maximum lawyer with your host, Tyson Matrix.
Tyson Mutrux 00:00:12 Shane. Jasmine young, welcome to the show.
Shane Young 00:00:13 Thank you so much for having me.
Tyson Mutrux 00:00:15 Well, it's a pleasure. So, and especially on a Saturday. You came on. Let's see. It's almost 5:00 on a Saturday, so taking time out of your weekend.
Shane Young 00:00:24 Appreciate it. You know, you know how it is as an entrepreneur, as a business owner. You know, we we make time for the things that are important to us. And it's not work for me.
Tyson Mutrux 00:00:34 Absolutely. You know, you, it's interesting about all your social media posts. I went through a lot of stuff, and even in the the survey we had you fill out, it was just interesting how community minded you are. And I wonder where that comes from.
Shane Young 00:00:49 You know, growing up. So my parents are actually from South America, so they grew up as teenagers here in the States. And I just remember when I was, little? My mom always had us, you know, volunteering and community was just important.
Shane Young 00:01:05 And, you know, as I went through school, it was something that was expected, you know, in, in our household, but also, you know, through the different organizations that I was affiliated with. So I think starting out as a young person, it was already something that I was used to doing that I enjoyed doing. And I have just continued contributing and and participating in community service in a lot of different ways.
Tyson Mutrux 00:01:28 What is your favorite community activity to do right now?
Shane Young 00:01:30 Right now? I would have to say are women decision makers events. So we started this group called Women Decision Makers almost about the same time that I started my law firm.
Tyson Mutrux 00:01:41 So what year was that?
Shane Young 00:01:42 so I started the law firm in 2017, and I've been an attorney since 2005. So, but the firm we started in 2017, within that same year, I would say we started putting on these events for women specifically in in our community. And the reason why we started it was because we were seeing that in the work that I was doing, I primarily do estate planning.
Shane Young 00:02:07 We were seeing that women were the ones that were driving, you know, driving that mission for their families. And so it was actually my husband's idea. We worked together and he said, you know what? Like, you should start a group for women, you know, and just invite all women. You know, we had all these different ideas. So we invite women in the community. Every other month we host a breakfast or a brunch type of event. So it's usually the last Wednesday of every other month. And the next one will be, November 20th, which will be the end of the last one for this year. So then next year, 2025, we'll have we'll have them going.
Tyson Mutrux 00:02:44 Why do you think that women are the ones that drive the estate planning the most?
Shane Young 00:02:48 You know, I think because there's been a shift in family dynamics and because, you know, women do tend to live longer than our male counterparts. We are the ones that are kind of taking care of the older generation.
Shane Young 00:03:01 You know, we tend to be caretakers. We are taking care of the younger generation. And so I think there's just been more of a push and more of an awareness around the importance of planning and having our affairs in order. Because when we don't, you know, ending up in probate, getting taxed, you know, ending up in conflict, those are things that we all want to be able to avoid. And so I think we're now just more aware, more educated, and more empowered to be able to plan for ourselves and our families.
Tyson Mutrux 00:03:29 So you've been and you've been doing that event, those events since 2017? Yeah.
Shane Young 00:03:33 2018 I think for WDM, for women decision makers.
Tyson Mutrux 00:03:37 That's that's interesting. That's inconsistent. Have you been consistent with it? Yeah.
Shane Young 00:03:41 We've done even through the pandemic. We so we started out actually doing the events at my office. And the first few events we had about 40 or 50 women.
Tyson Mutrux 00:03:50 And that's that's a good turnout at the beginning. Nice.
Shane Young 00:03:53 And we didn't market it.
Shane Young 00:03:54 You know, this was just something kind of organic. And then it started gaining a lot more traction. And right before the pandemic, it was January of 2020. We had an event and we had over a hundred women show up for that event. Then, of course, the pandemic happened and then we shifted to doing the events virtually. So we did that for a few months and then we brought it back. We were doing like a hybrid. You know, of course we were wearing masks and the whole night. And so we were broadcasting it virtually for those who couldn't attend or didn't want to attend in person. And then people were attending in person as well. the last few years we've been back to pretty much all in-person events for this, and we've had it at different venues, but this year we've actually been hosting them at Villa Brazil. It's a Brazilian steakhouse here, so if you haven't been there, you should check it out. Anna Gomes is a client of ours, a friend of ours.
Shane Young 00:04:48 So we try to support, you know, other other business owners, other women in the community.
Tyson Mutrux 00:04:53 That's good. That's a great idea. I kind of think you're crazy that you would start a law firm, and then right after that, start this other organization. Right? That's. What was that like? You know.
Shane Young 00:05:04 It actually is one of the things that I love to do, because I love to be out in the community talking to people. And this event in particular is focused on different things that that we as, you know, women professionals, you know, kind of are facing in our personal and professional lives. So we have different topics, different themes. I'll bring in speakers. So it's educational. we of course, we sponsor the brunch afterwards at the restaurant. So, you know, it's just a fun event for us to be able to have and connect and collaborate. And of course, it brings awareness to what we do in the community, the work that my law firm does, but also it's a way for us to build our network of people that we can refer business to.
Shane Young 00:05:49 And, so there's a there's a lot of business that happens within that, within that group. It's almost like a good ecosystem.
Tyson Mutrux 00:05:55 I think it's really cool. Is the that you were able to sort of capitalize on. You have this passion for this thing. it fits in with your values, but you're also able to market the firm at the same time. And they they're really consistent with each other. And I think that that's, that's really cool.
Shane Young 00:06:11 Right. And it's it is something that just, you know, people know us for now. You know, doing these types of events in the community. we include our family in it as well. So it is focused. The majority of the attendees are women and very diverse, you know, from lawyers, doctors, you know, all types of business owners, some stay at home moms, some young professionals, you know, young women that are starting out. but, I, I try to include my parents and our family members. So our parents will come.
Shane Young 00:06:42 You know, my mom, Charles's mom, his dad, our siblings. And then we have, five daughters. And so I think that's another reason when you're going back to you asked, you know, why start this group? You know, as the mom of five daughters, I feel like I have, you know, a duty and obligation to show them that, you know, there is this community out there and we need to create, you know, create, help healthy relationships and, be there to support each other.
Tyson Mutrux 00:07:14 Yeah. When I saw that you had five daughters, I was like, oh, my gosh, that's, you know, we have three kids. It's boy, girl, boy. Okay. But you have to have five. And that's just so, so crazy. What are their ages?
Shane Young 00:07:25 So my youngest is 13 and, so some hours, 13. Cameron is 15. Caitlin is 16. And then Kyra and Kyra are twins and they're 24. So I had my twins when I was actually pregnant with them when I graduated from college.
Shane Young 00:07:42 You're kidding. I was five months pregnant with them, so they weren't planned. This was not a planned thing. but I graduated with, being pregnant with them from Pepperdine, and we moved back to Las Vegas, where our family was. So Charles and I were in California going to school. He was modeling, and we came back home. I had them in April or sorry, I graduated in April of 2000. I had them in August. And, and I was actually supposed to start law school that fall, but of course we had babies. So I took that year off. And on their first birthday, I started law school at Boyd.
Tyson Mutrux 00:08:20 So in Las Vegas, how did you overcome that? So there's you. I'm sure you've seen this with friends and family where like, they they take a break from college like they're. I'll go back, like I'm gonna go after my junior. After my junior year, I'm gonna take a break. I'm gonna go back, you know, or I'm gonna take a year off from law school.
Tyson Mutrux 00:08:38 You skipped your first year of law school, right? Is that right?
Shane Young 00:08:42 so what happened? Actually, I so I went to. I graduated from high school here in Las Vegas I. And then I. I was a valedictorian and I actually had some AP credits. So like for the young people out there, you know, like it's worth it to take these classes because I had basically a semester's worth of credits going into before I even started college. That's excellent. So I. And then I took, you know, just a full, full load. I took summer some summer classes. So I graduated from undergrad in three years. And so I was actually a year ahead. So when I got pregnant, I wasn't planning on taking that time off, but I was like, okay, well, like, let me just I'm going to have these babies. I'll take this year, you know, be home with them. And then. So I basically deferred my law school enrollment, for that year and then graduated in three three.
Shane Young 00:09:34 Actually, I started in the part time program, that first semester. So I graduated in three and a half years.
Tyson Mutrux 00:09:39 So. How how did you overcome that? Because a lot of times it's not necessarily the delay, it's the being away from it and getting back in the routine of school. It was tough. So how did you get around that?
Shane Young 00:09:49 You know, so I do understand why people will say, you know, just go just go straight through because it is difficult to make that shift. You know, like when you're in that mode of going to class and studying. And then my life completely changed. You know, I got married, I had babies.
Tyson Mutrux 00:10:07 Not just one kid, but two kids. Yes. Right off the bat. Yes.
Shane Young 00:10:10 And so that was a huge transition for me. You know, being like, basically a young college kid, I was 21 to, you know, having a husband, having, like, these babies and, you know, learning how to manage, you know, not sleeping.
Shane Young 00:10:25 You know, with having newborns. Thankfully, my twins were actually very good babies. And they good, good as far as you know, schedule wise, they, slept through the night at seven weeks, and that's very good. Yeah.
Tyson Mutrux 00:10:39 Impressive.
Shane Young 00:10:39 Yeah, but it was tough. You know, going back to school when they were still little. They were. It was. They were one. I started on their first birthday. So I really did have to kind of get back into the the flow of school and that type of schedule. And law school is so different than any other type of schooling, you know, that I've ever had. And, academics tended to come pretty easy to me. of course, you know, I needed to put effort in, but law school was something totally, totally different. And I remember getting my grades after that first semester, and thankfully, I only had three classes that first semester because they were the worst grades of my career ever. So yeah. But thankfully, I learned, you know, I was like, all right.
Shane Young 00:11:26 I was going in the nighttime program that first semester, and I was like, okay, no, I need to just go during the day. So my husband and I switched our schedules. I was able to go to school full time during the day, and I did much better, thankfully.
Tyson Mutrux 00:11:38 Yeah. Was there ever a point where you're like, okay, So you had that delay and then your grades came back, not what you wanted. Do you ever think I just can't do this?
Shane Young 00:11:47 You know, I. I don't think. No, I don't think I ever thought that. I just knew that I didn't really have a choice but to do better. And part of it was ignorance. You know, I started law school and I didn't really know any attorneys. I was the first attorney in my family on both sides and even on my husband's side, too. So I didn't really have anyone there to kind of guide me through it. Thankfully, we had really good resources. You know, the law school, the the administration here was phenomenal and is still phenomenal.
Shane Young 00:12:16 and so I just, you know, leaned on them to guide me through, through those next phases. And that's excellent. And, you know, they were very supportive. Thankfully we had a lot of support here with family too. And I just you know I was just grinding.
Tyson Mutrux 00:12:31 Yeah. What do you where do you think that drive comes from?
Shane Young 00:12:34 you know, I've always been a a go getter. I'm the first born also. And so it.
Tyson Mutrux 00:12:40 Makes sense that drives. Okay.
Shane Young 00:12:41 Yeah. You know like that independent kind of, you know, figure it out. And and that's what I found through my, my childhood to my adulthood and in my professional career. I've had these plans, and they don't always work out the way that we anticipate. But I know that even when things don't go according to plan, it'll end up working out the way that it's supposed to. And I just got to keep getting up. You know, we're not going to win every, every, every challenge.
Shane Young 00:13:11 But, you know, I just use the the lessons that come along the way and learn and and just get up and keep going. Yeah.
Tyson Mutrux 00:13:19 So I want to fast forward to 2017. And you were you were you had worked for a prestigious law firm. You had a really successful career. And I wonder what inspired you to take that leap and then, like, launch your firm?
Shane Young 00:13:33 Yeah. So I was scared, actually. It wasn't something that I set out to do when I went to law school. And one of the reasons was because my dad was an entrepreneur. And growing up, he actually started an airline here in Las Vegas.
Tyson Mutrux 00:13:46 You're kidding me.
Shane Young 00:13:46 Yeah. but unfortunately, he hired an attorney. and the attorney, with the help of some third parties, actually took advantage of my dad, and, kicked him out of control of his own airline. Ran it into bankruptcy. There was litigation. my dad, unfortunately ended up losing the case. And so it was tough growing up.
Shane Young 00:14:07 That happened while I was in middle school, and the case wasn't settled until I was in college. So there was a lot. Yeah, I went up to the Nevada Supreme Court. So it was tough, you know, growing up and seeing my family go through that, seeing the hardship that my dad had to endure and, you know, just the emotional side of it, not even the financial side, but of course, the financial part of it was hard. So when I decided to become an attorney, one of the reasons was because my dad was like, you've got to go to law school, so this doesn't happen to you, and you can make sure that people don't get taken advantage of in the same way. And you can help and, you know, do work that's important. And so that's that was my drive initially was like, okay, I'm going to do this. This is the path that I'm going to go, go on. And pursued the, you know, pursued that career.
Shane Young 00:14:56 Thankfully, I got a job at, you know, the big law firm. I was making really good money. And, the thing about that was I just wasn't feeling fulfilled with the work, you know, I felt like there was something else that I was being called to do, but I couldn't really put my finger on it. And there were times where I thought, you know what? I don't know? Like, should I even be a lawyer or should I go down a different career path? And thankfully, I stayed with it and I was in private practice with two national firms, for about ten years total. Then I went in-house and I was the general counsel for a financial services company, and I knew that the plan for the company was to basically get everything in order so that they could sell sell the business. So we're trying to maximize the value there. And they had said, you know, when we sell, most likely, you know, you won't have a job because they're going to come in, they're going to put in their own executive team and that sort of thing.
Shane Young 00:15:55 So I knew that it was coming, but it happened, probably 6 or 7 months before I was anticipating that.
Tyson Mutrux 00:16:03 So you were like, structuring your own demise, right?
Shane Young 00:16:06 Yeah.
Tyson Mutrux 00:16:07 That is that is a really. Did you was there any any time you're like, I'm, I'm not doing this. I'm leaving. I'm gonna go get another job.
Shane Young 00:16:14 You know, I, I think I thought about what direction I was going to go at, you know, at the point of knowing that that was kind of a short term position for me. And my husband, though, had said, all right, well, this is the opportunity now for your next step to be starting your own firm. And that was scary to me because I saw, as I mentioned, my dad and, you know, the hardships of, you know, having your own business and and just the uncertainty. And of course, we had five children at the time and it was like, okay, but we rely on this paycheck.
Shane Young 00:16:46 You know what? If it what if it doesn't work out? So I think the fear had kept me from taking that leap. But when I was actually laid off, you know, six months before we anticipated it happening, we had a decision to make. Like, okay, well, do I go and get another job or do we just go and start this firm? And I remember coming home that day and talking to my husband, and I was like looking through LinkedIn, you know, and seeing like, okay, should I post, you know, should I start looking for positions? And I thought, you know what? No, I think this is the time that we just go all in and we did it. I had I had zero clients. It wasn't even like I was coming from a law firm.
Tyson Mutrux 00:17:27 That's what's tough about it.
Shane Young 00:17:28 Yeah, I didn't have a book of business because I was coming from in-house, but thankfully, you know, whatever it was some guiding force. Faith, luck.
Shane Young 00:17:38 just opportunity. we made it happen. And, started off doing, you know, estate planning, business, personal injury, which are all three of our core services that we continue to offer. And, the position that I had in my previous job, I was the general counsel. they actually hired me. The new company hired me as their outside counsel. Very nice. So that was one of my first, you know, large business clients. So that helped with that transition. Definitely. And then they tried to rehire me as a, like their full time in-house counsel. And you're like, yeah, no way.
Tyson Mutrux 00:18:13 Not doing that again. Yeah.
Shane Young 00:18:14 I was like, no, I'm good. Thank you. Yeah.
Tyson Mutrux 00:18:16 Do you think if they hadn't abruptly closed the business that you would have actually pulled the trigger and started your firm?
Shane Young 00:18:24 I don't think I would have done it at that time. I think I would have continued to drag my feet. I was scared. Yeah, yeah, I think I was scared and, without, you know, my husband kind of pushing and supporting and saying, like, look, this is this is your opportunity, you know, let's take it now.
Shane Young 00:18:42 I don't think I would have done it on my own or otherwise. I think I needed that extra.
Tyson Mutrux 00:18:47 Just it's nice to have that champion. Yeah. You know, it's because. So you work with your spouse, right? I do, and I work with my spouse. And so it is nice having that person that, you know, is always in your corner, right?
Shane Young 00:18:57 That, that can that you can trust that you know, you know, has your best interests at heart. So it it's definitely a blessing.
Tyson Mutrux 00:19:03 I wonder if, if you all bring work home like so, because clearly your your father's work affected your childhood. It was a big issue. Yeah, not an issue. It was a it was a big impact. And do you have do you have any, safeguards in place because of that or how has that affected your parenting style? Yeah.
Shane Young 00:19:25 You know, I think the, the biggest thing for me, or the biggest impact was the I had this scarcity mindset growing up because I was like, oh gosh, you know, like I saw it happening.
Shane Young 00:19:37 Being the oldest, my, my younger brother and sister didn't really see what I, what I saw. And, you know, my dad would have conversations with me like, look, you know, this is why these things happen. This is these are the consequences, you know, so as a young, you know, young person, I was getting exposed to a lot of things that most of my peers, you know, weren't, you know, conversations like real life, real life things and business exposure and, and so as I got older and I had my own family and had my own responsibilities, I still had that fear. You know, that. Well, the fear of failure. Right? But also that scarcity mindset like, well, what if this doesn't work out? And what if I take this, this risk? And what if I fail and I've had to really shift that and be open to opportunities and and trying new things and going outside of my comfort zone and being okay with failing in certain things.
Shane Young 00:20:36 Because without that risk, there's you don't get the big reward. And what I've seen is when I take those risks and when I go out there and, and I don't have that fear, driving me, then I have the success and, and it just kind of comes. It flows more.
Tyson Mutrux 00:20:54 Naturally. How long did it take from the time you started the firm to like, actually, you starting to see success and starting to see the, the fruits of taking those risks. Like, how long did it take for you to kind of get past that? Because scarcity mindset is a very dangerous mindset to have. It can put a stranglehold on firms. You're operating out of fear. So you're not I mean, you're operating out of fear. You're in a really bad spot. So at what point did you start to see things take off to get past that hump?
Shane Young 00:21:19 You know, thankfully, incrementally, especially at the beginning. I was seeing doors opening and and I was opening doors myself. So I think I just I didn't have a choice.
Shane Young 00:21:33 I knew that, like, I had to make this work and we had to make it work or, you know, our, our family, you know, was at risk. And so I just really, organically, I relied on the relationships that I had. And so the because I've grown up here, I have a lot of friends, you know, I went to law school here. so kind of tapping into those different networks that I already had established and like, letting them know, like, hey, I started my firm. This is the work that I do, you know, like, how can I be of support to you? How can we work together? You know, so going out and meeting with people one on one, having coffee, being really active and engaging on social media, that was huge, huge, huge, huge. I tell people all the time like, do not underestimate the value of social media because that's how people know who you are. And you may not get a ton of business, like you might talk about something and you might offer a service and you might not get a direct response to that, you know, that particular post or that particular offer, but it will come, you know, when people understand what you do and what you can't, how you can serve them.
Shane Young 00:22:41 So that's why I stay active on social media. But I think it was just taking those steps, you know, and continuing to like, work and build upon each level. So starting with, you know, those first few clients that that hired me, and then I continued to just build from there and it worked.
Tyson Mutrux 00:22:59 Yeah. So I went through your social media, and I was kind of just because I was kind of curious to see, like the things you post about and all that. So it's it's very community minded. But I also noticed that it's it's very fitness minded. And I wonder where that part comes from. Yeah.
Shane Young 00:23:13 So that part started during the pandemic when I've always been very active. You know, I played sports growing up, I played basketball, I ran track, my husband and I actually met at a track meet.
Tyson Mutrux 00:23:24 Oh that's.
Shane Young 00:23:24 Interesting. When we were 16 and 17. So we've been we've been together since high school.
Tyson Mutrux 00:23:28 So I was interested I saw that that you that you two were high school sweethearts.
Tyson Mutrux 00:23:31 My wife and I are high school sweethearts. So. So I get I get how that goes. Absolutely. That's that's really cool. Yeah.
Shane Young 00:23:36 So, you know, sports has always been something that I've kept kind of in my. Even when I wasn't competing, I continued to stay active and work out. So at the time of the pandemic, I was, at at that time, I was going to the gym regularly. I was doing like, hot yoga, Pilates, you know, lifting things like that. And, when we had the shutdown, I was like, okay, well, you know, the first week or two, I think I just kind of like waiting to be able to go back to the gym because we thought that that's what was going to happen. And then when I realized like, oh, shoot, okay. Like, this is not happening. Yeah. Then I, I was like, all right, well, let me start doing, you know, stuff at home to just kind of maintain and stay active.
Shane Young 00:24:21 And so I picked up the jump rope and, I hadn't really jump rope since or been active with it since I was in elementary school. So in third grade, for one season, I was on the school's jump roping team.
Tyson Mutrux 00:24:36 There's a jump roping. I've never even been in Texas. Wow. Yeah. Okay.
Shane Young 00:24:39 So I don't think they have them anymore. But at the time we did, at least for that year. And so I, I did that for a season basically and and had gotten pretty good, you know. But I was in third grade. I was still young. Yeah. So, so I, during the pandemic basically was like, all right, well, let me just do this. This is good cardio. I don't have to, like, go anywhere. I only need a jump rope. It doesn't require equipment. So I started doing that. And then just doing, like, at home workouts, you know? Yeah. That didn't really require that much. And I would connect with people on social media.
Shane Young 00:25:13 So I had like do live, you know, social media, you know, broadcast while I was working out and I was I was having my kids involved too, because they were at home. And that just allowed me that opportunity to connect. And people would comment and tell me like, oh my gosh, well, that's such a great idea. I'm going to do that with my kids too. Or you know what, I'm going to start working out. And so it just became this thing where as a lawyer that practices in estate planning, which is focused on, you know, family, wealth, legacy, your health is part of that, too, right? And so it was just an easy thing to be able to incorporate into what I do, but something that I do on the personal side that just kind of connects there.
Tyson Mutrux 00:25:53 Working out is such an important like for me. Like, like so I had I had a shoulder surgery a couple of weeks ago, and so I've not been able to go to the gym for a couple weeks, and it's like driving me nuts.
Tyson Mutrux 00:26:03 Yeah. But it's it's a good demonstration of like, how it affects your work. You know what I mean? Like, because you're like, I get anxious, you know, and like, I guess what would you what would your message be to people that are maybe just getting out of law school and maybe because I don't know about you, but when I was in law school, I actually kind of let some of my health kind of go a little bit. I was focusing too much on studying and, you know, like I wasn't sleeping well. So I guess what would your advice be to some of those new, you know, lawyers and law students that are about to graduate? Yeah, that would like about like focusing on your health?
Shane Young 00:26:34 Well, I would encourage even law students that are currently in law school to stay active or do, you know, do something. And it doesn't have to be a two hour gym workout, right? It can be a 30 minute walk. It can be, you know, 20 minutes of, you know, on the bike, you know, ten minutes of jump rope, whatever it is that you can do, just like do something and be consistent with it.
Shane Young 00:26:56 That's what I found is key because it's easy to fall off totally, you know, like for for people that even have it as part of their routine when something happens, a surgery, you know, vacation, whatever it is, and they get out of that routine, it can be really difficult to get back on track. And so even when I have a lot of things happening, even if it's just a few minutes. I try to do something just to keep me in that flow. Because as you were saying, also, it has so many other benefits to not just physical but your mental. And when you're stressed out about school or work, it's just another outlet to be able to kind of clear some space and, you know, get those get get the juices flowing, the endorphins and, you know, all that good stuff. So my recommendation would be to like, do something even if you're not, if you're not an athlete, if you not really if you don't really have like a workout, you know, history or background, just doing something to be active will have so many benefits long term.
Tyson Mutrux 00:27:56 And I think most people think of it as like a cost where like you're going to be less productive, productive. But there's several studies on this that your actual productivity increases like a substantial percentage. It's like several times over. So you by you actually not working out, you decrease your productivity. So that time that you don't take. You're actually losing so much time, which is I find that part really interesting because the thought is if I go to the gym, I might have spent an hour there. I went to take a shower, all that. Yeah, but the net positive is you're you're healthier, you're going to live longer, you're going to look better. And guess what? You're going to get more work done right.
Shane Young 00:28:32 And you'll be more focused. That's what I've, you know, I found and I like to work out in the morning just because it's something that kind of jump start my day and it's an easy win. Yeah. You know, like when you get up and you like that's how you start your day.
Shane Young 00:28:46 It's easy to be more productive throughout the day because you've already done something that starts, you know, that momentum.
Tyson Mutrux 00:28:52 So I hate working out in the morning, but I still do it. I don't like doing it, but I do it because I know if I don't do it, I won't do it right. It's one of those things where like, I will, yeah, I have to go in the morning and if I don't then I'm, I'm, I'm done.
Shane Young 00:29:05 That happens with me too, because I actually prefer to work out in the evening. But I know that, you know, if I've had a long day or whatever happens. Something happened. Yeah. It's easy to just not do it. Yeah. So yeah, the consistency is key there.
Tyson Mutrux 00:29:17 So I want to I want to shift gears back over to the firm. And you you say you said something and I about the practice areas and what's interesting. So I went through your Google reviews and I because something that's really challenging is like whenever someone has multiple practice areas because it's really hard to market for it, it's hard to have the systems for it.
Tyson Mutrux 00:29:37 So I want to ask you, do you, do you think that the strategy you've had when it comes to the like the three practice areas? Because what actually what surprised me was the was the car crashes because there was a review that specifically said that you had represented them for like four years and like mentioned like three different things. I was like, well, that's odd. You know, like, so do you. I wonder if you think that that has been an effective strategy or if, if you had focus on one of those areas of the three that you'd be better off.
Shane Young 00:30:07 You know, that's a great question. I think we actually have really focused on one area in particular as far as the marketing aspect, which is estate planning. So that's what most people know us for, is the estate planning side. And that's what we've really put most of our effort and time and resources behind. Promoting the other kind of ancillary practice areas, business and personal injury are really there kind of in the background, but we get a lot of business just from, you know, referrals, people that know us in the community and just the relationships that we have with clients, because on the estate planning side, we have the opportunity to really talk about all of the things that are happening in their lives.
Shane Young 00:30:51 And we have an ongoing relationship. So when things happen and I tell clients all the time, you know, if anything happens and you need, you know, advice, legal counsel, even if it's not legal related, call because I'm happy to, you know, point you in the right direction, give you a referral. You know, even if it's outside.
Tyson Mutrux 00:31:10 You want to be the controller of the lead, right? Absolutely. I agree with that. Yeah.
Shane Young 00:31:13 And that's so powerful. I don't think enough of us do that because we're so focused on, you know, running our firms and like, you know, whatever particular practice area. But there's so much opportunity when people are coming to you because, for example, I don't do family law like divorce and custody, but we get a lot of those inquiries. And and I have people in our network, you know, really good firms, you know, good friends that are also clients that I say, you know what? This is not something that we do, but I'm happy to help you.
Shane Young 00:31:43 I'm happy to connect you with someone that will take care of you.
Tyson Mutrux 00:31:46 And you know that they will.
Shane Young 00:31:47 And I know, yeah, I have the confidence. So I'm very careful, though, about who I refer clients to. Right. Because it's a reflection on us and the clients have a bad, you know, experience. And they're going to come back to me and be like, Shane, you know, why did you send me that person?
Tyson Mutrux 00:31:59 Well, we'll give one if you screw up one time, right? You're off the list. Yeah. And unless it's something completely outrageous, it's like the clients being outrageous, but otherwise we're. You're gone. It's just you have to be very, very careful because it's your reputation. It's not their reputation. It's your reputation. And like, you're you're so dependent on the referrals and everything else, it's really important. But with that. So I it's what you said about the estate planning. Like everything I saw from a social media standpoint. Estate planning, website, estate planning for the most part.
Tyson Mutrux 00:32:32 but that was what was so almost startling to me. It was like I was going through the Google reviews, and I don't even know why. I don't normally go through the Google reviews, but I like that you did that. Go through the Google reviews. That's good research. Yeah, I was like and then I was like, car crashes. Yeah, that's odd. And I was like, so I wonder if I've got that impression, like, what do you think other potential clients and let's say it's not a referral. Let's say it's like an actual someone that's finding you on the internet. I just wonder what you think that they think.
Shane Young 00:32:55 by seeing a review related to.
Tyson Mutrux 00:32:58 Like, all these other practice areas.
Shane Young 00:32:59 Yeah, yeah. You know, I think that a lot of it has to do with what people here, you know, in the community. And so our reputation really is what people are, are really making their decisions on. And because we have so much out there, like there's so much social media, there's so many opportunities for them to go and see, you know, like and check out, you know, who we are, who I am.
Tyson Mutrux 00:33:23 You're all over.
Shane Young 00:33:24 Yeah. And I have, you know, videos on our website and on demand, a video that goes into like Estate Planning 101. So I try to make it like accessible so they can kind of do their, you know, their own assessment of what they, you know, believe as far as whether it's a good fit or not. But yeah.
Tyson Mutrux 00:33:42 I've got a funny one because I noticed there's a billboard right outside this studio and I, So you are is it 26 or 29 years in a row that you got? best of Las Vegas.
Shane Young 00:33:54 So it's 29 times. So 29.
Tyson Mutrux 00:33:57 Times?
Shane Young 00:33:57 Yeah, 29 times. We've been voted best of Las Vegas. So, we get voted best of Las Vegas, or we have been voted best Las Vegas in multiple categories. So we've got, for example, like. Best estate planning law firm we had. Best personal injury.
Tyson Mutrux 00:34:12 Firms. No way.
Shane Young 00:34:13 Customer service. Yeah. Asset protection. Kids protection. best woman owned business.
Shane Young 00:34:20 So there's several categories that we've won.
Tyson Mutrux 00:34:23 Yeah. It's 20, 21, 29, 29. And then.
Shane Young 00:34:26 For 2024, we, they're going to be announcing the winners in December. So we'll be able to add to that.
Tyson Mutrux 00:34:32 So here's the question. It's kind of funny, but the did you see the billboard. Yes. What are what are your thoughts. What do you like when you saw that. Because like there okay. So here's where this is coming from just for me. So we had in one of our cities, we had won Best of Columbia two years in a row for injury. And then this year we were it I it drove me so crazy that we got second this year. Yeah. So crazy. So I wonder like when you saw that did does it bother you at all.
Shane Young 00:35:00 It doesn't bother me because, you know, for me, I think that there's enough for all of us, right? There's so much opportunity. The thing that bothers me, I'll be honest with you, is sometimes people will just like, they'll try to copy what we do.
Shane Young 00:35:17 Yeah. And so there's a lot of imitation out there. But I also take it, you know, you know the saying, What is it? Imitation is the.
Tyson Mutrux 00:35:27 Yeah. That's for flattery.
Shane Young 00:35:29 Yeah. So I try to take it as a compliment. You know that people are looking at what we're doing, and, you know, they're liking, you know, they're seeing that it works, and, you know, they're trying to make it work. But my husband, a lot of times, you know, he's just like Shane. It's it's a copy of a copy. You know, it's never it's not the original. So, you know, it's in some ways it can be considered competing, but at the same time, you know, it is what it is and it's just part of it's just part of the business.
Tyson Mutrux 00:35:55 We had a law firm. They were copying our exact social media posts like they were taking it, taking the purse. And I don't know if they were. I can't remember if they actually just removed our logo and put their logo or if it.
Tyson Mutrux 00:36:04 But it was like it was identical. Oh, no. They just changed the logo. It was it was like, that's bad. That was it. Yeah. That was infuriating. That drove me nuts. Right. That was crazy. So I get that too. So when did your husband, what's his name? Charles. Charles? When did Charles join the firm?
Shane Young 00:36:19 He joined from the beginning. From the beginning? From the beginning. I mean, he's definitely become a lot more involved in the last, you know, several years. At the beginning when I was trying to, you know, just figure out really like, what we were going to do on the setup side of it. That was, you know, more so me trying to figure things out. But he's always been part of it. You know, even from the first website that we put together, he was the one that, you know, managed that. So on the marketing side, he's always been that key person.
Shane Young 00:36:48 and then he has, over the past several years, moved into more on the operational side of the SEO. Almost exactly.
Tyson Mutrux 00:36:58 Yeah. Is that his title or does it title? Yeah.
Shane Young 00:37:00 It's it's COO. And then really CEO also like but with respect to just running the business side of it. I'm the CEO on the, you know, the legal part of it. Of course as the lawyer. But yeah, we have a good partnership there and and we've got a really good executive team we have good relationships with. Regulus media is another business that we work with that does a lot of our marketing media. sets up has set up a lot of our operational systems.
Tyson Mutrux 00:37:32 Nice. So the the makeup of the firm, who's who, who do you have in your firm? Like like what's it made up of?
Shane Young 00:37:38 Sure. So, so Charles and I, as the owners, and of course, I'm an attorney. He's the co CEO. CEO. We also have another full time attorney in the office, also a Boyd, graduate from the law school here.
Shane Young 00:37:54 and then we have, right now. One, two. We have got another seven or so staff member. So paralegals, and, and then two, actually three law clerks, two of them are my daughters who are now in law school. Yeah. So the twins that I mentioned, they're in their second year of law school, and they work with the firm part time. And, during the summers, they're full time. And then we have another law clerk that works part time with us.
Tyson Mutrux 00:38:28 So I'm curious, how were you able to forward afford it, like, because that is a that's a really daring thing. Like you, you don't have a job to start the firm. He doesn't have a job to start the firm. So how are you able to afford life at that point?
Shane Young 00:38:42 You know, we really had to dip into our savings, our retirement, you know, any resources that we had to be able to build to the firm. And that was also scary, you know, because it's like, okay, well, we have no guarantees.
Shane Young 00:38:56 You know, on the other side of these investments that we're making. But I think when we just like failure was just not an option, you know, like an overall failure. We've had lots of small failures.
Tyson Mutrux 00:39:09 It's part of.
Shane Young 00:39:09 The unexpected, right. Yeah. But I think we were very intentional and strategic in the decisions that we were making and how we were going to spend our time, what we were going to be focusing on, how we were going to serve clients, the investments that we were making into into our business. And, it's a lot different, you know, working with your spouse, you know, on, on a business level versus, you know, being married. You know, husband and wife. There are a lot of different dynamics.
Tyson Mutrux 00:39:41 Talk about some of those challenges.
Shane Young 00:39:43 Yeah. it's it has been challenging, challenging in that, you know, I've been a lawyer for so long, and this was my first business that I started, but my husband has had several other small businesses, so, you know, he was coming from a different perspective.
Shane Young 00:40:00 And and because it was, you know, like a law firm and of course it ends up falling, you know, on me and my license and, you know, all of these things. ultimately, you know, to me, it was hard for me at first to let go of some of the control as far as how things were going to be done. You know, what decisions were going to be made with the firm. But as we continue to grow and and, you know, of course, I couldn't do everything on my own. And I had to make sure that we had the right people doing the right things. thankfully, because I trust him and I was able to see a different side of him on the professional side that we never really had the benefit of seeing before because we never really worked together. We always kind of did our separate things. So that has been such a great opportunity and a blessing, because I would have never been able to have that appreciation for him had it not been for the firm.
Tyson Mutrux 00:40:59 Was there any hesitation at the beginning to bring him on?
Shane Young 00:41:04 You know, I don't know that there was any hesitation. I think that I just didn't know what it was going to look like. You know, and I thought he might just be more kind of in the background and not really involved in the overall running of the firm. I think I thought I was probably going to be responsible for that. And he might have, you know, different parts or pieces to it, but thankfully he's stepped in and taken so much off of my plate. and not so much not necessarily work because I, I'm always going to have the legal work in that side of it. Right? But a lot of just the pressure and the stress of, you know, putting certain things in place, you know, whether it's marketing or whether it's a system or a process or procedure within the firm. You know, hiring that's one of the of the biggest things.
Tyson Mutrux 00:41:50 Is it's one of the hardest.
Shane Young 00:41:51 Parts. Yes.
Shane Young 00:41:51 You know, managing the people. So it doesn't all fall on my shoulders. And I have a lot of of my friends, colleagues, peers where they have their own firms and they don't really have that support. And I can't imagine there's.
Tyson Mutrux 00:42:06 No employee that works for a firm that is nearly as loyal, loyal and someone you can trust as much as your husband. Exactly. Yeah. So we have that same thing. I think my biggest fear was it wasn't a hesitation. It was a fear about it affecting the marriage. You know, like, did did you have any of those concerns?
Shane Young 00:42:21 I think I don't know that I had concerns about that, you know, early on, but I, I did know that if we didn't learn how to properly communicate or work on our communication on the business side, because a lot of it blurs together, you know, and you asked or you started asking, I think, a little bit earlier about, do I do things differently than my dad? you know, because I grew up seeing him and we don't really have any separation as far as work and our home life because we, you know, we go to the office and we're there and we're working, of course.
Shane Young 00:42:59 And sometimes family things come up and we have those conversations while we're there because, you know, we have the proximity. And then when we're at home. And I also do work from home sometimes too. So when we're at home, something comes up, you know, even if it's on the weekend, even if it's, you know, after working hours, it's a conversation that we have or, you know, it's something that we might, you know, sit down and, you know, map out or work on, even if it's not something that's planned. you know, for some people, I think that would be hard because there's no separation, there's no on and off. But for us, it just works. You know, we have a good flow to it and we we call it or or he says, you know, we're taking advantage of the advantage, you know, because when other people are, you know, asleep or they're not, they're doing other things. We are able to have the conversations that we don't have to wait for tomorrow.
Tyson Mutrux 00:43:47 Yeah, I like that. Taking advantage of the advantage. That's good, because it does. It's impossible for it to not blend in with each other. There is, We have to set some boundaries, you know, and a lot of it does come down to communication and how you communicate. So I like I like the way you put that. Yeah. That was really good. the what about your kids? Are any of your kids still at home? All of them. So all of them are still. Yes. All. Yeah. how do you prevent it from bleeding into those relationships?
Shane Young 00:44:13 Right. you know, part of it, because our oldest are also part of our firm. You know, they work at the firm. You know, they're kind of sucked into the conversation sometimes. And, you know, we might be having dinner and we'll be talking about something work related, but I think it's just because we're so passionate about our business and about the work that we do and ultimately our family and our family.
Shane Young 00:44:41 You know, our kids understand that the life that they get to live is because of the work that we do. And so sometimes, you know, we we might have to focus or dedicate time, you know, to work. And our daughters are old enough now to where they understand and, you know, but they'll, they'll have their time where they're like, okay, so when do we get to do this or when do we get to spend time doing, you know, whatever. So Charles and I have made more efforts towards carving out that time for family and doing things, you know, one on one with our girls. we've been doing more, family vacations. So we try to do, like, once a year. We do a family vacation. Charles and I actually just came back from Mexico. We were in Puerto Vallarta, and so we were there for a week, and we did have the opportunity to talk about some, you know, work things and strategy. But then we also had that downtime where it's just kind of balancing it and finding the right moments and the right time to time to do what we need to do.
Tyson Mutrux 00:45:44 Do you all ever set aside, like, weekly time for each other? Like date nights or anything like that?
Shane Young 00:45:48 We do. We don't have necessarily, like a specific day or like a structured, you know, time for that. But we are pretty good about, you know, saying like, hey, like even, Thursday, Thursday night, or Thursday during the day. I was like, hey, do you want to? I texted him, like, do you want to go on a date tonight? And he was like, yeah, sure. And so our dates usually consist of going out to eat.
Tyson Mutrux 00:46:12 That's that. Listen, that is like two hours or two. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But yeah, like.
Shane Young 00:46:17 Those moments are even, you know, something happens in our schedule, you know, we'll we'll be like, hey, do you have plans for lunch? Like, let's go grab something. So just finding those little pockets of time to to spend together, we call.
Tyson Mutrux 00:46:28 Them day dates. Those day dates are done, right? Yes. Like the little dates, like in the middle of the day are really cool. Yeah. Those are, like, really nice moments. Because you you because that's part of blending together. You know what I mean? Like, it's kind of hard to have them completely separate. I think it's unrealistic to say they're separate. I agree now. Okay, so whenever I picture you online in person, you've got a lot of energy. You present really well online. Same thing. But as you know there's not it's not all that. Yeah it's not like that all the time. There are some darker moments that like, you know, like we mentioned like things happen where like you'll fail. Like there's on small things, you'll fail. You have to get back up, dust yourself off and keep going. What are. And the reason why I ask these is because I think it does help whether law firm owners like, okay, what are some mistakes that other people have made? And how can I make sure that I don't make those mistakes? Can you think of anything where like some of those darker moments that you're like, oh gosh, this sucks.
Tyson Mutrux 00:47:26 Like what? Like what were some of those?
Shane Young 00:47:28 Yeah, I would say some of the hard points for me were, were one, we talked about having the right people. Right. And so even though I've had the support, you know, my husband and I are there to support each other when we've hired certain people that didn't work out and that I really had other hopes for. you know, there was one in particular where I made we made a lot of investments, you know, into this person. And they were with the firm for, for several years, but they just weren't in a position to be able to grow. You know, they wanted to kind of stay small. And so it just wasn't a good fit. And, because I'm a very loyal person, even when I knew it wasn't working, I still didn't I didn't want to see it, and I didn't want to see because it ended up becoming a not very good situation where that person started. You know, it kind of shifted.
Shane Young 00:48:25 Yeah. And, and I think I, I waited too long to make the break and because I was just like, oh, you know, I don't want to I don't want to do that. I want to see, like, how we can make it work. And, so that I would say that was really tough for me because when I have those, I build those relationships and I care about people. I cared about that person, not just as a professional, but, you know, like, as, you know, a close friend. And, it's that's that's tough for me to separate. so I would say that would that, that those kinds of examples are really difficult.
Tyson Mutrux 00:49:03 Those ones are tough, especially because you usually the red flag is like, I like the way things used to be. Yeah. I don't I don't like it like I don't, I don't like it this way. Like that's usually what is it. Was it kind of that. It was like that.
Shane Young 00:49:14 Yeah.
Shane Young 00:49:15 Yeah.
Tyson Mutrux 00:49:15 And strangling your growth.
Shane Young 00:49:16 Exactly. And as we were continuing to grow and you know, we were getting more clients and so being able to scale, we had to put new systems in place and new processes. And so it wasn't just like this mom and pop shop anymore. Exactly. You know, we we weren't just writing on a notebook or like putting things into a spreadsheet, like we need actual systems and accountability was a really big thing. And it's really easy to hide in certain structures.
Tyson Mutrux 00:49:43 So we went we implemented top grading. It's probably probably two years ago now, maybe 18 months. But I don't know if you ever. Have you ever read that book top grading. It's it's it's if you ever want to like redo your hiring and like, so it's like like we have an on point hiring process. It's good. And we had already had a process. But this put it over the top. It's fantastic. But I need to we it's interesting we started to do this. And whenever I told them I said, listen, some of you are not going to like this and some of you may want to leave and that's completely fine.
Tyson Mutrux 00:50:12 I was just very open about it and it was interesting. The accountability component of it, where people you figured out who was the right fit for the firm and who wasn't. And so that's interesting. Like what what were you basing your changes on? Because like, we we just we went off top grading. And so I wonder what changes you made and like kind of what were you basing it on.
Shane Young 00:50:34 So it was based on what our goals were. Yeah. You know, and it was funny because this, that person in particular. it was one of the first hires that we had made. Tough. Right. And so, like, you know, they had been with us the longest, you know, had been kind of in the trenches with like, okay, well, how do we structure these things? And had been really involved. And I think part of the reason why it was difficult was this person really felt like, you know, they had like, this ownership stake in it, even though, you know, they weren't.
Tyson Mutrux 00:51:06 Let me guess. Let me let me guess some some traits. So, he or she said, was it a she. Yeah. She said, told you how valuable she was to the firm and how she was part of building the firm to where it was that she works really hard. She works harder than everyone else. no one else is following the rules, but she probably wasn't following the rules herself. Right. Is that they are. These. Is all making sense?
Shane Young 00:51:28 Yes. Pretty much. And one of the things was it was like she wanted to control everything. And so she would be. She would overwhelm herself with work and say like, yeah, and I'm taking care of it, you know? And I trusted that she.
Tyson Mutrux 00:51:43 But I don't have time. Right. Yes.
Shane Young 00:51:44 Or or like, okay, I'm taking care of it. And, you know, I take people at their word until.
Tyson Mutrux 00:51:51 Until you. Until you.
Shane Young 00:51:52 Can't. Right. And, and so it was like she didn't want to delegate, even though we had other people to do other things, like she didn't want to delegate things.
Shane Young 00:52:03 And then we realized, okay, well, certain things weren't being done and things slip through the cracks. And, and so, you know, I learned some hard lessons on just, you know, I just can't like, trust, but verify is when an old boss had had told me he was like, okay, you know, you don't want to come off as someone that's, you know, necessarily like micromanaging or that you don't have confidence in, you know, the people that you've hired. But you always need to verify. And you know, there always needs to be that accountability piece. And I think accountability is huge. It's so huge.
Tyson Mutrux 00:52:40 I wouldn't say it's everything, but it's almost everything. It's a big part of it and.
Shane Young 00:52:43 A lot of people have trouble with.
Tyson Mutrux 00:52:45 It. You have to be able to take ownership over it and fess up whenever you're not getting things done, and you got to do the work. But it's. Yeah. That's something we noticed is like the the ones that were the right culture fit.
Tyson Mutrux 00:52:56 The were the ones that they weren't the ones saying, you know, give me another thing and not doing it, it's like they instead say, listen, I, I can't do that. I don't have enough time in my day. And here's why. Like and so and the, the big tell for us was like, if you're like hoarding information and as opposed to like being open like, listen, here's why I can't do these things. It's like I'm saying I can do this. And like hoarding the information, like that's where like and a lot of it does come down to accountability because they want to show that they are doing all these things and they're telling you they're doing all these things and really, they're not right. And they want to be held accountable for it.
Shane Young 00:53:30 But they want the pats on the back.
Tyson Mutrux 00:53:31 Exactly.
Shane Young 00:53:32 Yeah. The praise. But yeah. And those are difficult situations. They are. But I think it just also goes back to, in what we've learned through the course of the last several years, is it's worth it to take your time to hire the right people.
Shane Young 00:53:49 And when you hire someone and you realize that it's not a good fit, it's better to just have that break. Yeah. And, you know, I've had we've had people in positions longer than we should have just because we're trying to exhaust every opportunity. Like, okay, well, maybe they just need training. Maybe they just need the okay, let's give them some more support. but now we've gotten to the point where it's very clear and we know, you know, early on, and thankfully, we've been able to come up with a much better hiring process, you know, vetting and, you know, incorporating different types of assessments. You know.
Tyson Mutrux 00:54:25 What do you do? I was curious because we do we implement assessments like we do personally. Personality tests and all that kind of stuff. We use Colby for like assessments for like when it comes to scores and all that. Like, what are some things you do?
Shane Young 00:54:37 We've so we use similar types of, personality tests. there are certain assessments that are built into the, like some of the hiring platforms that we've used.
Shane Young 00:54:49 And then we just actually launched one and I'm forgetting the name of it. Monkey something. Does that sound familiar?
Tyson Mutrux 00:54:58 Is it for assessments? Yeah. Interesting.
Shane Young 00:55:01 Oh, now I'm gonna, I just I we just started I started going through it.
Tyson Mutrux 00:55:06 And are you are so are these like quizzes? Is that kind of like, like Survey monkey or using like some like, it's not a survey.
Shane Young 00:55:11 But it's an actual assessment. Oh my gosh. I'll have to get it to you later. But but yeah, we basically were able to build the assessment specific to a particular position that we wanted. And so it's like a timed assessment. And and you can have them come into the office to do it, or you can send them a link to do it. and they have to have, like, their camera on.
Tyson Mutrux 00:55:33 Oh. That's sweet. I like that element. So we do, we do the surveys and all that we like. Ours is like all this is automated, but the the camera element I like is.
Tyson Mutrux 00:55:42 And that's done through that monkey.
Shane Young 00:55:44 It's. Yeah. And if I I'll have to look it up. Oh my gosh it's going to drive me insane if.
Tyson Mutrux 00:55:48 I, if Because we do have them in their other rooms. So if they find it, maybe they can bring it in and tell us what it is. Yeah. The we don't have the ability on the screen to put it up otherwise that we could do that. But yeah, but.
Shane Young 00:55:58 You can basically build your own assessment through this tool and, you know, different things for different positions. But like one part of it is, is like a time management, a set of questions. And it's like problem solving basically to see like how people work through different scenarios. So it'll give you, you know, like this fact pattern and then, you know, multiple choice, you know, options for how to how to deal with that particular type of situation. So you get into kind of, you know, how how their mind works, the mindset to be able to see, okay, well, is this someone that would be aligned with, you know, how we how we do things that young law group do.
Tyson Mutrux 00:56:37 You ask for references? I do, yeah. References is so crucial because it's funny. Even when if they complimented a candidate, you can tell when it's not genuine. Genuine, you know. So there's like the or the way the compliment is given like the like the way they like to say the the because like a genuine compliment is is it. Listen Shane, she you can tell she always comes to work on time. Whenever she comes in here, she does this this, she they're very specific about the things that Shane does. Right. As opposed to like, you know what we would we would Shane's a great we would, we would hire a guy. Right. Like one of those things. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's that's not a generally helpful. Not really at all. But yeah. So the and that's where like so Kristen, she's our office administrator, she'll call and we have these list of questions we'll ask. And we get, we get. Okay. What's the best way of managing this person? All the way.
Tyson Mutrux 00:57:27 Which is really, really helpful. Like what are some ways what are some things that you've seen in Shane where she doesn't take feedback very well? Like, so you ask these questions where it helps us that even if we see some red flags and like they're small, it helps us manage the employee better too, which is the those those checks, those reference checks were so key. Yeah.
Shane Young 00:57:49 And you go into you go into this engagement already with information, you know, so that you know how to, you know, kind of guide, guide that information.
Tyson Mutrux 00:57:58 That's crucial. Yeah. Do you do anything like so like we do the, the Colby personality test, do you do anything like Disc or Colby like that to help you manage people? Exactly. With the scores.
Shane Young 00:58:10 At my prior job, where I was the general counsel, we did disc, but now I think disc is outdated. Yeah. Really?
Tyson Mutrux 00:58:17 It's funny, I had a we had someone on earlier that, he loves death. So it is interesting the people that like desc.
Tyson Mutrux 00:58:24 Right? Yeah, I could I can't reference if it's outdated or not, but yeah, so I don't, I don't think it's as popular as what it used to be.
Shane Young 00:58:30 Yeah. But now there are a lot of different things. So we do a combination of things. So like and I like to see kind of the different results based on the different tests. But like Colby's one a disc of course. there's oh my gosh. It'll come back to me. But another one is Human Design.
Tyson Mutrux 00:58:52 Oh I've not heard of that one. Okay.
Shane Young 00:58:54 So human design is interesting because it's based off of your birth date and birth place. So it's basically it's really like how you are designing.
Tyson Mutrux 00:59:03 No, no I'm I'm interested. Yeah. This is fascinating. It's.
Shane Young 00:59:07 Yeah. If you go to the website is I think Jovian Archive and I can send it to you later. Okay. At the bottom if you scroll down, and if you, if you Google like human design, Jovian human design, Sign.
Shane Young 00:59:19 Scroll down to the bottom. You can take your own, test your own assessment, and. But you just need to know the your your date of birth, the time of your birth and your location. The time of your birth. So it's like the cousin of astrology is how they describe it.
Tyson Mutrux 00:59:34 That's what it sounds like. Yes.
Shane Young 00:59:35 Yeah. But it's very interesting. So I've done it. My husband's done it. And then we also had, basically like a coach kind of do a, an assessment of the two of us. So, we yeah, we were able to, to, to do that. And I think the, there's different categories of people, that, like projectors, generators, manifestos, and there, there are like different subsets. It's very interesting.
Tyson Mutrux 01:00:04 You find it to be accurate.
Shane Young 01:00:05 I do, yeah, I do, I do, but I think there's no like one size fits all type of thing. So I think just like utilizing these different, ways of assessing personality and performance.
Shane Young 01:00:20 and, you know, like your human design. I think it kind of goes into being able to get a fuller picture.
Tyson Mutrux 01:00:26 Yeah. So we had Doctor Melvin King on. He's, he was the one talking about disc, and he. So he's here in Vegas with you as well. And, but he was talking about how, like, people think that your score is your score and it's not true. Like, it's really situational where, like, your score might change. Like, so if you're at, at home, you're just score might be one thing, but if you're at work it might be a different thing. So that's that's an interesting part of it too, where even though yeah, even if it's the what you call it, what was the human what.
Shane Young 01:00:52 Human design.
Tyson Mutrux 01:00:52 Human design, even if that is accurate in some situations it may not be accurate in others. Right? Yeah. Which is also an interesting part of it as well.
Shane Young 01:01:00 And it also goes into like decision making.
Shane Young 01:01:03 It'll tell you, like my, my natural disposition is to hold like hold off on making decisions and like trying to be very deliberate and taking time to process. But most times, if I just like made the decision based on my instinct, that's the best decision.
Tyson Mutrux 01:01:24 You know? And there's actually a lot of studies on that where the the best decision makers are actually the ones that make the ones right away. And it's actually not. It's not that you've made the right decision. It's that you've made a decision which, like the delay is what causes the harm. Yeah. Which I think that's the interesting part of it. Yeah. So you mentioned coaching. the what role has that played in your ability to scale?
Shane Young 01:01:48 You know, we've utilized different resources, throughout my, you know, our journey in having the law firm and being part of different groups, you know, different organizations, even things like the, you know, chambers, those are really good, entrepreneurs or organization. You know, EO is another, I think really just relying on the experiences and what people share with you, you know, from business owners.
Shane Young 01:02:15 So when I started my firm, I already had some friends that had their own law firms, and so I was just like, hey, I need your help. You know, like how what do you recommend for this and that? And, you know, different questions. And I can, you know, we continue to do that and help and support each other. So even if it's it doesn't necessarily I would say have to be like a formal like coaching experience. But when you do have, you know, the opportunity to really like tap into, you know, like a platform or a coaching program, like what you provide. Yeah, I, I highly recommend it because you'll, you'll save so much time and heartache and resources when you just make some of those investments. and so I think that that's something that I probably would have done earlier in, in my, my law firm journey.
Tyson Mutrux 01:03:04 Why do you think you hesitated?
Shane Young 01:03:06 you know, I think because I didn't really know at first the direction that I wanted to to to go.
Shane Young 01:03:15 And, you know, we were part of things like, you know, new law, business model. and so that was like that, that was helpful. Like for, you know, that stage of our of our growth and, you know, from there we've been able to just research and build and, and I think just being innovative is important, being open, you know.
Tyson Mutrux 01:03:35 Yeah, not getting stuck in your way is really important.
Shane Young 01:03:37 That is so important, especially as we've seen in the past few years, so much changes. You know, with the pandemic things have changed a lot as far as the dynamics of how services are provided and and how people decide to hire, you know, so so.
Tyson Mutrux 01:03:54 There's a couple of things that you've said over the last, you know, 30 minutes where you said you mentioned the goals that you all have when you're talking about hiring. And then you had just mentioned, though, is that you just didn't know about and I don't I don't know how you put it.
Tyson Mutrux 01:04:07 Basically, it sounds like you didn't know where you're headed. Right? So it sounds like though you might now have a vision in mind. And so I wonder, what was your original thought as to how you where you thought you might be at this point? Right. And like now, what's your vision for what the firm is?
Shane Young 01:04:21 It's interesting because I think about that sometimes, like when I first started the firm, like where did I see it going? Or what was my goal? And I don't even know that. I knew that at that time it was just, okay, this is what we're doing. This is what we're. We'll see how it goes. I think that vision came more so from my husband, where he was the one, you know, kind of behind the scenes and just, like, pushing me along. And I was just like, all right, okay. Yeah. No. All right. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm on board with that. Now, I think I see it a lot more clearly.
Shane Young 01:04:54 I've had the time to, you know, take it in and and understand. And of course, you know, we've had so many conversations, so much time that we've spent, really like charting this course and talking about what we want to be able to able to do moving forward. And, you know, part of that includes having, you know, this other set of lawyers that are coming in, you know, to their firm, you know, the existing, you know, lawyer and lawyers of counsel, our daughters, you know, being able to step into these roles.
Tyson Mutrux 01:05:27 Another massive advantage, you know, that you'll have. Yes.
Shane Young 01:05:29 Right. You know, so that frees me up to be able to go and do these other things. And, you know, other things that I'm interested in doing is, you know, of course, more speaking, I do a lot of speaking engagements now, but, you know, really like going into doing more of that, and stepping outside of doing, not as much on the lawyering side.
Tyson Mutrux 01:05:51 So are you hoping to maybe one day turn the the firm over to the girls? Yeah. How cool would that? Yeah.
Shane Young 01:05:56 Yeah. I think we'll still be involved. You know, we'll I'll. I'll always be involved until maybe I retire at some point. and even if I, you know, kind of retire, I would still be, you know, wanting to be involved. But I know with time and experience, you know, they'll be able to step in. And the leadership team that we have in place that we've continued to, you know, cultivate with, you know, training and coaching and, and we just we have it set up to be able to step out, you know, and stuff.
Tyson Mutrux 01:06:29 So you you've mentioned your leadership team a couple times. What effect does that had on the growth of the business.
Shane Young 01:06:34 It's huge because when you have good people in place, it allows me as a business owner to not worry about the things that I would worry about otherwise, you know, and not have to be doing all of the things you know and be involved in everything and all of the decisions.
Shane Young 01:06:55 So it's important, I think, that you make those hiring decisions carefully. And what I've done, you know, with our team, you know, including, you know, our like our senior paralegal is our office manager. And so she's she's an amazing paralegal. And, you know, she's in this leadership role now where it's, you know, it's a different skill set, completely.
Tyson Mutrux 01:07:18 Different skill set. So I wanted to ask you about that. Yeah. So do you. What we're. Because that is a that is a sometimes it's a mistake. Sometimes it's a brilliant idea where like they will promote a person or someone will, will promote a person to a position just because they feel like they've deserved, they've earned it, but they really not are not qualified for it. So what are your how have you adjusted to make sure that she's equipped to be in that role?
Shane Young 01:07:42 Yeah, really just providing her with the support and the authority to know that you don't have to do everything, and we don't want you to do everything.
Shane Young 01:07:52 We want you to know how to do these things. Yes, and to be involved. But in order to inspect for what we expect. Right, so that other people can be doing this work and you're managing it? Yeah. So I think it's hard. It can be a hard shift. You know, the same shift that I had to make where I wasn't the one that was doing everything. It's hard to let go of some of that. It's hard to delegate. It's hard to trust and have confidence sometimes. And so giving, you know, reminding her and giving her that, you know, that support, that coaching is important. And also hiring the right people to be on the team that she can have confidence in. You know, it's it's that cycle. You know, it has a major effect on our ability to grow, because when we didn't have the right people in in place, we had to kind of refocus our attention in our time.
Tyson Mutrux 01:08:48 Very distracting when you have the wrong people.
Tyson Mutrux 01:08:50 The what what do you think has been the maybe the most difficult thing to let go.
Shane Young 01:08:56 The most difficult thing to let go. In having my firm.
Tyson Mutrux 01:09:02 Yeah.
Shane Young 01:09:04 well, I think when we first started, the most difficult thing for me was just the stability, you know, of, like, having that, like, the prior, you know, prior position, prior title. you know, I had this identity, you know, the.
Tyson Mutrux 01:09:19 Prestige part of it. Yes. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Shane Young 01:09:21 You know, like being at the big firm, you know, making really good money and really having to kind of take a step back and just, like, build. that was probably the hardest thing, but also the great it's provided the greatest benefit because we've been able to grow so much and create so much more. Do you think.
Tyson Mutrux 01:09:39 Your colleagues out here thought you were crazy?
Shane Young 01:09:41 You know, I think they were probably I don't know that they would think I was crazy because I had been an attorney for a while, so I don't think it was that surprising.
Shane Young 01:09:52 But I've had a lot, you know, a lot of my, my colleagues, my friends that have been similar situations gone from, you know, that stability, good firms, you know, good positions to starting their own firms. And they have struggled. And then some of them have had to go back. You know, into working with a firm because things didn't work out. So I think it all just goes back to making the right investments, having the right mindset, you know, spending your resources, your time, your money in the right ways. And you're not always going to make the right decisions. And that's something that I've had to also learn to be better about is to not dwell on the things that don't work out. Yeah, because I tend to take the negative things, you know, or the failures or the disappointments a lot harder. Like my lows are a lot lower than like they're not equal to the highs.
Tyson Mutrux 01:10:43 What do you think that is?
Shane Young 01:10:44 I think it's just part of part of like, who I am as as a person.
Shane Young 01:10:48 And I think a lot of us have that same quality where we will just be really hard on ourselves when it doesn't happen the way that we, you know, want it to, or if we, you know, fail at something or we don't perform the way that we have the expectation. A lot of it's that self-imposed pressure and we don't really take the time to celebrate, you know, the big things as they should be celebrated, you know, equally. So I go back to when we talk about coaching, and playing sports. One of the things that we've taught, you know, our girls and our young athletes is, you know, next play, like, okay, you make a mistake. It's all right. You you got to you got to learn from it and refocus and focus on what's next. So you know you know Jason.
Tyson Mutrux 01:11:37 Self what's his name. His name is Jason Selig. He's a he's a sports psychologist I know. So he is I love how you said next play.
Tyson Mutrux 01:11:44 So he's actually my coach. He was the sports psychologist for the Cardinals when they won the last two World Series. He's he's the sports psychologist for SMU football now I think like he's really good. But he talks a lot about like the using the the analogy of like the baseball player that there he it's his contract year and he's at the plate and it's a full count. Do you know anything about baseball? A little. Okay.
Shane Young 01:12:06 Basketball is more in my sport. Okay. Okay.
Tyson Mutrux 01:12:08 So I'll use I'll continue down this round. But it's his analogy so I'll continue with it. But so he he takes third strike which is a no no. Right. So he strikes out. So then he goes out into left field and all he's thinking about is, oh my gosh, I'm gonna get cut. my wife's gonna get so mad at me. it's a contract year. This is awful. I'm gonna have to sell my house. And all of a sudden, another hit. A hit comes his way.
Tyson Mutrux 01:12:32 He misses it. There's an error. And so now he's thinking, oh, my gosh, I, I struck out. I just now had an error. He's in the process. Another one comes his way. So he's got another error. So he just snowballed. Right. And and what should happen is you strike out okay. It happens. You got to left field next play. Right. Same thing. So you focus on the process. So knees bent head up glove ready. Like that's what you focus on as opposed to what just happened. Right. But it's easy, though to get mired in that right in the day to day where maybe a client's not so happy. Right. You know, you get you get a review and it's not great. I take it to heart. I do.
Shane Young 01:13:10 Too. Oh, my gosh, I take it so personally. Yeah. So I try, but you know, it's. And actually it was funny. My, my I had this conversation with my oldest daughters who are twins and, and I said, you know, that this is something that I continue to work on.
Shane Young 01:13:24 And one of them had something come up. I don't know, they had an assignment. They didn't do as well as they anticipated or had hoped. And, you know, she came home and she was like, I'm just like feeling like, so down about this, like, what do you do? You know, like, we talked about this the other day and I said, you know, I just try to keep it in perspective, like, this is one little blip and, you know, look at all of the things that you've done. Well, look at all of the accomplishments that you've you know, that you've achieved. And look at where you're going. Look at the opportunities that you have. You know, look at the blessings that you have. You know, today, you know you're loved. You have all you know.
Tyson Mutrux 01:13:59 Gratitude is very.
Shane Young 01:14:00 Powerful. Yes. An attitude of gratitude is something. You know, so, so important.
Tyson Mutrux 01:14:06 Yeah. So Jason calls like you actually mentioned what you've done.
Tyson Mutrux 01:14:09 Well, he calls them done. Wells. So, like what? What are the things you've done well. So whenever time I'm talking to you, like, okay, he'll go and like, okay, what are you really proud of right now? What is what's something you're working on that you're like, really? Like you're so happy that you like. So we kind of focus on that stuff. And he always starts with that. And either he's got a whole like process every day, like focus on like the things you've done. Well, even the little things, even if you move things forward an inch. Right. And it does. It's a nice little reset where you okay.
Shane Young 01:14:33 And you're reframing. Yeah. You're you have to. I think that's important, especially as a, as a business owner, as a lawyer. You know, that we have that reset button and that we give ourselves that grace, you know, to make mistakes. But as long as we're learning from it and we're using it as an opportunity, you know, one of the things that we do or that we've done at home and in our, in our, office is we we used to call it, the pit and the peak.
Shane Young 01:15:04 So, like, what's the pit like, what was the pit of your week? so, like the low point, and what was the peak? So, like, let's, let's talk about, you know, something that, you know, was a low point, but then let's talk about something to celebrate. We actually changed the terms to highlight an opportunity because, you know, we don't want to focus on the negative. But like okay so where was what was the opportunity that we had. and so we when we have our team meetings, which we have a monthly team meeting, we all go around, you know, everyone goes around and shares their, you know, their opportunity for the, the month or the week. It doesn't have to be the whole month. But, you know, what was the opportunity? What did we learn from it? You know, how can we be better? How can we improve? And what was the highlight? You know, what is something that we can celebrate?
Tyson Mutrux 01:15:49 So we do something very similar with the firm about that Like with our leadership board, it's it we it's called we call it growth opportunities.
Tyson Mutrux 01:15:55 It used to our first iteration was because it's a Kanban board. It was issues. And we changed it from issues to growth opportunities. Because exactly. That's what it is like is your opportunity to grow. You know, and it it might not be great right now, but it's you know, it doesn't have to stay that way. Right. So it is they are opportunities. That's I think that's I think that's a good way of viewing it. Yeah.
Shane Young 01:16:16 Always always an opportunity for growth.
Tyson Mutrux 01:16:19 So I mean you seem like you've generally always been pretty positive. So like where do you think that comes from.
Shane Young 01:16:25 Yeah. You know that's a good question. I think that I've seen how a negative mindset can have an impact and like how your thoughts are so powerful. Yeah. And when I find myself, you know, kind of going into that space of negativity, I know it's not going to serve me. And so I just try to I just try to keep that as a as a reminder, you know.
Shane Young 01:16:51 And I have, you know, I have my bad days. And I think that that's something that people don't always acknowledge because, you know, other people that are looking, you know, they see they see what I post on social media, you know, they see all the the nice, happy, fun things. But, you know, there are days where I have, you know, I have tough times. I have, you know, I have my little breakdowns and frustrations and, you know, where I am not at my best, but I try to, you know, get past it. I try to do something that's going to, you know, like reframe or give me a different perspective. You know, I think like we were talking about earlier, just going back to that, you know, that gratitude, you know, something that you can appreciate. You know, what is a blessing that you, you know, you're grateful for today. And and, you know, things are not always going to go our way, but we just gotta focus on what we can do and what is positive.
Shane Young 01:17:47 And that's where we we end up being able to overcome those challenges.
Tyson Mutrux 01:17:52 How did do you remember, like whenever you were a kid, like your dad was going through all that? Like, do you like, how do you do you. How do you remember him handling it?
Shane Young 01:18:00 You know, my dad is a dreamer. Yeah, and he's always been.
Tyson Mutrux 01:18:05 That's where this is coming.
Shane Young 01:18:06 I think so, you know, like, he's always been very optimistic and always confident. You know, I never saw him waver in his heart. You know who he knew he was. And you know what the outcome was going to be now. It didn't always work out. You know, and and things did, you know, fall apart at different points. But even with things not working out for him, he's always had that mindset like, I can do it. You know, I can make this happen and I'm the person to do it. So I think that just, you know, seeing him be confident even in the face of not, you know, things not working out the way that he had planned.
Shane Young 01:18:51 I think that that kind of gave me gave me that perspective. Yeah.
Tyson Mutrux 01:18:55 So I want to I want to wrap up on this, because you were just talking about the dreamer part, and that's why. That's why I want to end with this, is that I want you to be able to come back and listen to this episode at your ten year mark, which is 2027. Right? Okay. So let's let's give you January 1st, 2028. Okay. What where do you want to see the firm on January 1st 2028. Like what what do you want to make sure you have accomplished? Like where do you want it to be at that point? Because I want you to come back and listen to this episode and be like, I did it. You know what I mean? So where like, where do you want it to be?
Shane Young 01:19:27 I want I would like to see the firm. So January 1st, 2028, that means that my daughters will be attorneys, licensed attorneys. So I will want to support their growth.
Shane Young 01:19:45 and have them in a place you know that has their path set to be able to ultimately take over the firm. I want to be in a new office space. I'd like to be in our own building that we get to build, that is able to accommodate capacity wise. You know, the growth that we're expecting. I'd like to be able to have. I think it ultimately boils down to, you know, like having that strong team in place where I know, you know, whether I'm in the office or not, that, you know, they're they're running the firm and things are being handled the way that they should, should be that we're continuing to serve clients. You know, in this community and, you know, expanding out, you know, doing other things, including expanding, you know, women decision makers, you know, to other, other cities. yeah. I think just continuing to grow the platform so that I can be out, you know, doing more things like this.
Tyson Mutrux 01:20:50 So what is your message to yourself on when you listen to this on January 1st of 2028? What's your message? So give a message to yourself. You're talking to yourself, your future self. What's your message?
Shane Young 01:21:00 Your future self? I would say, you know, keep, keep, keep at it. I think it's been a long road and there's been a lot of sacrifices. But take a moment to be grateful and celebrate where you are and continue to push those goals forward because you can do it.
Tyson Mutrux 01:21:24 Shane. Jasmine Young, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Shane Young 01:21:27 Thank you so much for having me. It's been a blast.
Speaker 4 01:21:35 Thank you.
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