The Sterling Family Law Show

How Law Firm Coaching Doubled Firm Revenue in 18 Months - #157

• Jeff Sterling Hughes

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Law firm coaching transformed Richard West's practice from near-collapse to massive success - here's his exact system that doubled revenue in 18 months while achieving true work-life balance.

Richard West's journey from wanting to "put a gun in my mouth" doing insurance defense work to building a thriving boutique family law practice is the perfect example of why relationships matter more than grinding. His story shows how law firm coaching and strategic goal setting can completely transform your practice management approach.

Through Mark Powers' coaching program, Richard learned that attorney work-life balance isn't just possible - it's essential for sustainable boutique law firm success.


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📄 CHAPTERS
0:00 - Law Firm Coaching Success: From Burnout To Revenue Growth 

2:48 - How One Professor's Question Changed Everything

5:09 - The Goal Setting Exercise That Built A Million-Dollar Practice 

9:09 - Why Every Attorney Needs A Business Coach 

11:04 - The E-Myth: Technical Skills Don't Equal Business Success 

15:22 - Double Your Revenue Roadmap: The 18-Month Transformation 

16:04 - Attorney Work Life Balance: 180 Days Off Per Year

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the first program. I went into. Was. Called Double Year revenue. And the plan. Was to come up with a. Roadmap to double your revenue from whatever. It was when you. Came in. To some. Point in the. Future, whatever it is you set up. And. It was a very. Detailed roadmap I was able to. Double. My firm's revenue. in about 18 months. My name is Tyler Dolph. I am the CEO of Rocket Clicks, which is our law firm focused marketing agency. We also own and operate Sterling Lawyers, which has grown to over 30 attorneys across two different states. Today we have Richard West of West Family Law out of Orlando, Florida. Richard has an injury story. He has an amazing experience building a boutique firm that is focused on very complicated, high net worth divorces. He has a great story about how he got into building a family law firm. That all kind of started with one question from a professor way back in the day. Make sure to check it out. I think you will really enjoy this one. Richard, thank you so much for being with us today. I'm really excited to learn more about you and your firm. Could you give us a little overview of of your firm as it sits today? And then I'd obviously love to turn back the clock and learn more about how you came to be here. You bet. Thank you. Tyler. I. Practice in. Boutique family. Law firm, West. Family Law Group in Orlando, Florida. Including myself. We have. Three other lawyers, two of. Whom are board certified in the, the third. Has extensive experience. She's been a lawyer for over 20 years. We handle, for the most part, a, high end clientele, complicated litigation. We do, collaborative practice. And, because it's required in Florida. An awful lot of mediation as well. Yeah. That's, That seems to be the case. With the the AML family, you know, really successful law firms that handle more of those complex, divorce cases. Have you been in the AML for a long time? And are you really enjoying that experience? Yeah, I it helped build my practice. Well, we'll talk about that some more when I get. To it, but I think I'd have to go and look. But I'm going to say, I don't know, since the. Early. 90s. So however. Many years, you know. That is. I think more than 25 and. Less than 30 is the best I. Can do without going to look at the certificate. That's fair. I appreciate it. Well, yes. Let's, let's start from the beginning. Have you always had your own firm, or how did you get started in in the law space? I have always had my own firm. If we go way back, after. My first semester in law. School, I had finished number one in my class. So I was offered a clerkship with what was then the largest law firm in Houston. And, after. 4 or 5 weeks of that. I hated. It so. Much that I said, I will never. Work for anybody else. In the in the law. Business as an attorney. So from the day I got my license. I was on my own. And, you know, I'm. Sure it slowed down. The learning. But I would, Well, no, no, I mean, because, you know, I had I didn't have, in-house. Mentors to look. To, you know, if I had an issue that came up, I had to figure it out. Myself. So I think from that standpoint, it probably slowed. Me down a little. In any event. I spent the first five years of my practice in. Houston doing, criminal. Defense work. And then my father, who was an attorney. Asked me if I'd be. Interested in moving to Central Florida. And opening up. An office for him. Doing insurance, defense work. And I did. I came here in, late 85, I. Think December of. 85 got licensed in, sometime in. 86. And after a few months of doing. Insurance defense work. I wanted to put a gun in my mouth, I really did. And and so what happened? I became a family lawyer by accident. Totally by that. I'm sorry. And big pivot. Like totally different Yes. Yeah. So here's here's the story. My closest friend from law school days, he and I are still friends today. Had already moved back to Florida before I did, a couple of. Years. Before I did, and he called me up one day. And said. Hey. I go to this American. Academy of Matrimonial. Lawyers seminar in Tampa. Every year. It's a great seminar. Why don't you sign up? And, you know, we get to hang out in Tampa for the weekend and, and have a good time. So I did. And it was a great seminar. And and enjoyed it. Had a good weekend. Came back and within a week or two after that. I had already been signed up for a time management class. And during this time management class. The, Instructor said. Okay, we're going to do an. Exercise on goal setting. Please write down your major professional goal. Well, I didn't have one, so I raced, I raised my hand, I said, I don't have one, what should I do? He said, just make something up for purposes of the exercise. So having just come back from. This academy seminar. I said, okay, I want to be the best family lawyer in Orlando. And he said, okay, well write that down. Now. In order to be. Considered the best family. Law lawyer in Orlando, what would you have to do? I said, well, I'd have to be a fellow of the American Academy. All right, well, write that down now. In order to become a fellow of the Academy, what would you have to do? I said, well, I know I have to. Be board certified first. He says, okay. Write that down. And yeah, and he did. And he worked me all the way back through that. Process. To what I had to do on a daily. Basis in order. To achieve that particular goal. Well, as I said, I hated. Insurance defense work, so I was looking for something else to do. That would not require me taking a job. And working for somebody. Else. And I had this plan written out, so I just did it. And I just. Kind of went through the steps. That I had already had in writing. As part of a fictional exercise. And. moment that. Does that professor understand the future he gave you? You know, I don't even remember who it was. At this point to, to. Call him and thank him. But in any event, it took me, you know, in. Order to. Get board. Certified. You had to have practiced for at least five years. And had a significant. Number of trials. So it took. Me to about 1990 to get my. Board certification. And then I did the Academy application right on the heels of that. And almost immediately from the time I became a, academy fellow, I started getting high level referrals. From. Other. And in my first year, I think I or maybe it was second year, I got. The referral of two. Very prominent athletes who happen to. Live here in Central. Florida. And, I developed. This. Reputation for, Doing athletes. So I got a. Number of, of pro athletes or. Their significant others, depending. Upon the nature of the litigation. As well as other. Complicated. Things. And, one of my main marketing. Arms was, speaking and. Writing. So I did a lot of speaking for the local bar. And the State Bar's family law section. And I ultimately got into leadership. Positions with those, rose to be the chair of the Executive Council of the Family Law section of the Florida Bar. And, President of the. Florida chapter of the American Academy. So it was just a progression. As time went. On. That's a. That's incredible. Amazing that it all stemmed from that kind of one moment in a class where you didn't even have, Right, right. Totally by accident. If I, if I, if I ever write a book, it's going to be called the, unintended Life. a good title. As we go back and you're starting your firm. You know, you got to learn how to be an entrepreneur. You have to learn about expenses and payroll and, you know, doing all the things. What were some of those kind of early lessons that you learned? That maybe if I was starting a firm today, I could I could skip because you already you already pay the price for it. There's there's a real simple answer to that, too. I had the good fortune very early on after coming to Florida to get hooked up by a guy by the name of Mark powers. And if you know Mark, you probably know him. Through his. Now company called Atticus. But back, back, you know, and it's a. It's a law firm consulting practice. He he's a. Business coach for lawyers. But back at that time, when. It was Mark powers consulting, it was called MPC, Mark Powers Consulting. And he was. Mainly focused. On on marketing. And he he taught me how. To. Market myself. And then, you know, once you get the hang of marketing, you kind of go on your way. Well, some years later, as, I think I was chair. Elect at that point of the family. Law section, Atticus had offered the chair. And the chair elect, a spot in a program he was doing at the time. And by that. Time, it was Atticus. So I went into. Atticus and realized that a lot of the things. That were working really well for me in my practice, I'd gotten from Mark. And so I signed. Up for, His his new program, which was now Atticus. He realized that, they start you with a book called The E-Myth. I don't know if you're familiar with e-mail. So for the. For the. Audience who is not. The e-myth is that if. You understand the technical aspects of your business, you understand your business. And that's just not true. We're not taught. That in. Law school. We're taught how to research and. Write and torture the facts. And create issues and. And do. All those things that, lawyers are supposed to do. But we don't know anything about staffing or marketing or cash. Flow or or systems and production and things of that nature. So he realized that before lawyers. Could be effective. Marketers, they. Had to be taught time management. And, you know. As I said, I've. Already had a little bit of a time. Management background. So that was of interest to me. And so for many, many. Years I worked with with Mark and Atticus and, and just worked their program. So if. I had any advice to a young lawyer who. Wanted to start their own firm. Get a good. Business coach, get a good business consultant. And be diligent about it. It's kind of like having. A personal trainer there. You know? Personal trainer is not going to run the miles for you. Lift the weights, you know, do the push ups. They're going to there are compliance officers. They tell you what to do and make sure you do it. And that's what business consulting is. And they're not going to give. You the answers. So it is a lot of work. And it's not inexpensive. But Mark made. Three promises to me when I was considering doing it. He said. I'm going to promise you're going to. Make at least 20% more. Money. You're going to spend at least 20% less time in the office. And you're going to have fun running your practice. And I said, you know, Mark, you deliver on any one of. Those three and it's it's worth the cost of. Admission. And so that would be my major. Piece of advice. And then the second piece of advice is, is learn to market. And leverage. Yourself. By getting. An associate or a support staff as soon as you possibly. Can. The only way to really make more money, As an attorney. Is not by doing. It all yourself. If you're doing. It all yourself, you're just a high priced wood chopper. Well said. Richard, you come across to me as a guy who, when you hear something or you believe in something, you just. You just do the steps, right? You were talking about the goal and how professor broke it down to the day to day activities. And you mentioned like, well, I just I just did what I had to do each day. And that compound effect allowed you to, to reach success. And the same thing with Atticus, right? Like, you just follow the coaching. I think for some people it's hard because especially once they get out of law school, the confidence is high, right? They think, oh, you know, now I'm going to go conquer the world. But in reality, it's like taking that opportunity to step back and say, it's okay that I don't know this. I'm going to go all in and just, just do the thing so that I can build the raps. Yeah. I as as arrogant as. I am, I think at least I was smart enough to know that I don't know everything. And that there's no. I've always felt like work smarter, not harder. So why. Reinvent the wheel. When you have successful people. Ready to teach you what. It is you. Need to know? So it's definitely, definitely the case. The other problem that I'll mention when. You're just starting your firm. And I'm going to back to that wood chopper analogy, you know, The man was sitting out on his porch in. A cabin he'd rented up in the. Mountains, and he was watching his neighbor chop. Wood. And in the morning. This guy was chopping. Wood to beat the band. I mean, he was stacking up piles of of firewood. And he noticed that after lunch, his production had slowed way down. And he figured out. He said, you know, I just realized his ax was dollar wasn't working as well. So I walked over and I said, hey, man, why don't you. Sharpen your ax? And he said. Can't, I'm too busy chopping wood. And and so that's where we are, you know, at the outset, you're so busy. Doing the technical. Aspects to, you know, make sure a case is prepared properly and your witness is. Doing, doing these. Things that. You don't have time to. Step back and sharpen your ax. And so that's that's the other important thing I think I would say to somebody who wants to, run their own shop. That's such a powerful statement. And it's so hard when you're in the thick of it, right? Like when you're in the mess and you have a deadline or a client's upset. It's the natural indication for us as humans to just put our head down and keep grinding. Right. But if you can't look above the clouds for a minute and see all the pieces, you're never going to get out. Right. Yeah. You put your nose to. The grindstone. And, you're never going to do anything but grind off your nose. You know, step back. And is there a better. Is there a better way? Is there a better way that, I can and have goals? You know, that was, I don't know how much more time we have. On this. But, the other thing I would mention. That. Mark taught is the first program. I went into. Was. Called Double Year revenue. And the plan. Was to come up with a. Roadmap to double your revenue from whatever. It was when you. Came in. To some. Point in the. Future, whatever it is you set up. And. It was a very. Detailed roadmap that, again, I worked at what I had written down. I was able to. Double. My firm's revenue. In, in about 18 months. And, and, and part of. your own? No, no, no, it that made me. Realize because the other goal, you know, the first thing he does is, is. Make your. Practice serve your. Life, not your. Life. Serve your practice. You know, we talked about that work life balance, which has always been very important to me. And so he had you write down your lifetime. Goals first. Before we even got to. The business stuff. And one of my big lifetime. Goals was travel. I wanted to see the world. And I. Realized that in order. To do that, I had to. Have somebody. Back minding the shop. So I set out on a search for. A, a partner, in. The enterprise who, who might share the same goals. And help me reach it. And within, I think. 3 or 4 years of. Forming that arrangement. I was able to take six weeks off. And I didn't. Take a single phone call and replace a single. Phone call or email to. The office in that six. Weeks, and it, and you can do it. It's doable. Now. I strive for 180 days a year. Off and, I'm not I don't get it every. Year, but some years, some years I. Do. So. As we're kind of just wrapping up here, Richard, on the personal side, you know. What are you doing that time? What? What's the favorite place you've been able to see? How can, you know, as someone who's still very much in the grind and thinking about, you know, I want to get to that level one day where I can travel and see the things, give us a little preview of what the future looks like for, for us young entrepreneurs. Well, you know. Here's what I would say. Number one, don't wait for the future. Use the good shiny today. And and you just block it out. You just. You just say. Look, my life is important. I'm not going to live. It in six minute intervals. I'm going to take this time. Whatever it is you can, you feel like you can afford and reach a little bit. Again, that went back to Mark. He he challenged me to take. Four weeks. Off, and I had to write him a blank.$10,000 check. That he was going to donate to a charity if I didn't do it. And I said, you know, no, no worries. Here. I'm going to do it. So, but. Make yourself. Do it. That's when you have the time to. Decompress. And think and model your future and come up with a plan when you're not caught in the daily. Grind of this client. And that client and this deadline and that long deadline and and you can do it. I mean, it. Takes advanced planning. So I said it took me. You know, three or. Four years to. To do it. But don't. Wait for some unspecified time in the. Future. Make it a goal. I'm going to take whatever. It is two weeks, four weeks a summer. You know, I don't know if you have kids or people out there with young children. They grow up fast. You know? So that's that would be. My advice is, is make it a. Priority and not wait for it to happen. It's such a. It's so true. Richard, I really appreciate your time. I appreciate your insights. The learnings. I really hope that, you enjoyed it as well. And and we'd love to have you back on and continue this discussion. Thank you. Any time. Give me a call. got it. Thanks, everyone. Diese.

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