Why I Started My Podcast, Great Practice, Great Life®.
As a very reserved, introverted person (with a speech impediment to boot), I’m not the likely candidate to start a podcast. I was questioned a lot as I began the journey of launching Great Practice.
However, I have a message I want to share with the world and, more specifically, with my fellow lawyers. This message gives me a driving passion that helps me overcome my limitations and get out into the public sphere to share it.
What is that message? If you’re focused on building a great practice but neglect your real life, you will never know true success.
We need to build a great practice and a great life at the same time–in other words, life in practice. That’s what my podcast is going to be all about.
My Background
How did I get my start in the legal field, anyway?
Let me tell you a little about my first experience as an attorney. I was fresh out of college and unemployed when a firm in Tampa, Florida hired me. They offered me a job which I gratefully took. My starting salary was less than the receptionist.
It was a chaotic first couple years of my career. They required me to work on Sundays for very little pay. The firm was extremely unorganized. After I finally passed the bar exam and was offered partnership, I took a long overdue vacation and read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
While reading that book, I realized that the whole time I had been in law school, I was focused on becoming a lawyer. When I got out, I was focused on becoming a partner. I hadn’t really thought beyond that. However, I now had an opportunity to really look at what I wanted my life to be. Once I did that, I decided to open up my own firm.
Owning a Law Firm
As I began to work on opening and growing my law firm, I had to shift my paradigm. Throughout law school, I operated with an academic paradigm. Now, I needed to learn how to run a business.
I realized that customers don’t know whether you’re a good lawyer or a bad lawyer. What they know is whether or not you return a phone call on time, how your office answers the phone, and how your customer service works. They have a different way of judging: not how smart you are but how you treat them.
Now I know that law firm growth is capped based on your leadership lid, not your marketing, website, or quality of work. Your growth will be capped based on how you manage other people inside your practice.
If you want to learn more about my podcast, check out https://atticusadvantage.com/episode001
Steve Riley
Certified Practice Advisor & Attorney
Steve Riley has coached attorneys for more than 20 years. His one-on-one coaching focuses on a limited number of top producing attorneys committed to taking their practices to new levels of excellence, profit, and personal success. He also presents at group coaching workshops around the country for individual law firms, state bar associations, and other legal organizations.