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The 3 Vision Statements Your Law Firm NEEDS to Have
•Anthony Karls
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Are you struggling to craft a compelling law firm vision that genuinely unifies your team and drives results?
Join Tyler Dolph, Anthony Karls, and JP VanderLinden of Rocket Clicks as they reveal how three vision statements—Impact, People, and Finance—can energize your purpose and keep your family law practice profitable.
By the end of this video, you’ll understand how to inspire your staff with a big-picture mission, boost accountability and morale, and sustain long-term financial growth.
If your team doesn't know why they're coming to work. Don't expect them to care about how it's going. Lack of clear vision kills momentum. In this episode, we'll show you how to fix that with three powerful vision statements that align your team, drive your purpose, and keep your family law firm profitable. welcome to the Revenue Roadmap Podcast, the show for family law professionals Who want to drive real revenue. Increase long term profitability, whether you're building your first office or your 50th. We deliver strategies and insights to build sustainable, purpose driven firms. I am your host, fired off the CEO of Rocket Clicks, our digital marketing agency focused exclusively on helping family law firms grow. Today I have, Anthony Carls and JP Vander Linden with me. Anthony is the president of our agency and also the co-founder of our family law firm, Sterling Lawyers, which has grown to over 32 attorneys across 25 offices. JP leads our operations at the agency. Helps us develop our vision and build law firms across the country. So very excited to have them. Today we are going to talk about how to craft and apply three essential vision statements impact people and financial that will help guide your firm towards sustainable success. You'll learn how to write them, how to use them, and we even have a download for you, to make sure that you check them against the rubric. Hope you enjoy it. All right, gentlemen, we are continuing on on our, our law firm Vision Development series that we're going to talk about the actual vision, the the why behind why we need three different visions, which, you know, we brought this up to our own agency here in firm. I kind of was like, well, don't you just need a single vision? And, And you both opened my eyes to the why behind the three different visions. So, JP, I'm hoping to start with you to talk through, the why segment. Why? Why does a company need three different vision statements? And, what should they do about Yeah. So the core thing to remember is that your vision needs to be big enough that all your team members, individual visions can fit inside it. And so when you're describing a future state, which is what a vision is, it's like it's the it's the mission is why we exist. And the vision is like what it looks like. We're getting there. When you're describing it in detail, you need to do it in such a way that your team members can attach themselves to the things that motivate them and drive them. And newsflash, your team is not all motivated by the same thing. And so by having these different buckets that you kind of you put it into, you're able to reach different members of your team and tap into their inner motivation to get the best results for your firm. I love it. Why don't we start with. What are the three visions? And then we can dive into each one. Yeah. So the three are impact people and finance. And so, another way for for impact is also maybe like legacy, but impact people and finances the way we talk about it internally here. But let's start with the first. Oh, so the impact is, the bigger the bigger, result you're going to have on the world, on your community, on those around you. And so, one way to think about this is if you flip it around is to say, like, if we didn't do the things that we say we're going to do if we didn't exist, why would the world be worse off? Like, what's the thing we're going to do that's going to make it, like, beneficial for others that we exist? Because the majority is most of us don't get up every day just to go to work to push the buttons, and to bring home the paycheck. Like there's a small portion that that's, that's the only thing they want to do, and that's fine. But like, most of us are like, I want to actually, like, do something meaningful with my life. I don't just want to dig a ditch and fill it back in. I want to, like, do something beyond myself. And this is the place to capture that. For your team, to help them get excited for those purpose driven 100% right and easy. If you're curing cancer or, saving lives across an ocean. But for a family law firm, what do you think? I think it's kind of easy. I think it's amazing, actually. I think if you're missing this in your family law firm, you're probably missing the thing that's going to most. Connect your attorneys to why they went to law school. So, you know, most people go to law school so that they can have an impact on the world. Like, okay. So, like, this is exactly what we're talking about. So if you're missing this, and we're working in such a deeply personal space in family law, because we're really shepherding people in a family law firm through one of the most stressful seasons of of their life. So, you know, death and divorce are two of the most stressful things that people can go through. And as a family law firm, having a really good vision statement on how you want to support your clients through that, that season, I think is definitely important to not a not an insignificant chunk of your team. Hundred percent. Yeah. I think we hear that from the interview series that we do to to other law firm owners that we know the opportunity to add value and care during a difficult season is all about legacy and impact, or any type. I think the other thing, too, is like your your team, when they're working, especially in a in a family law firm. Your team is, to some extent, experiencing what the clients are experiencing, like, on an intake team, you're going to hear about domestic violence. You're going to hear about, you know, people being unfaithful, doing things that are, you know, you know, there's a saying in family law, family law is good. People at their worst and criminal the criminal law is bad, people at their best. So, that's what you're dealing with internally is good people, but they're basically in one of the worst seasons of their life. So. And you're going to experience that. And if you don't have a if you're not connected or you don't have a purpose vision, it's we it's it's harder to go through those things because there's nothing you're relating back to. There's no like deeper purpose to why you're doing what you're doing. It just feels like another phone call. It's like, I really don't want to deal with this person today versus like, no, this person needs me to be here today because I know I've had a bunch of these conversations. I know, to handle their, their stress. I know how to calm them down. I know how to get them to the next step and how to make them feel safe and like that's that can be really rewarding, even though it's a difficult conversation. So I think it's really important to have have a, have a purpose driven vision statement, that talks about impact and that does that feels like the easy one. That's the layup. Here is, family law firm owners. What about the. What about the people vision type? Yeah. So if you're. If your purpose vision is kind of how you're going to impact your clients, how you're going to impact the world, how you're going to make a positive difference. The people vision is turning that lens internally to your team. And so, you know, think really heavily about the recruiting aspects of this is when someone's considering joining your firm forces, you know, any of the other options that they have on the table. You want to set yourself apart? Not necessarily in. Hey, we we pay the best or we have the best hours. Are you? We're really close to where you live. You want it to be like, what is in it for me? From a belonging, a support, feeling, seeing, feeling cared for perspective. And so how are you going to positively impact your team as your, firm grows and develops and becomes all the things that you envision? Because if your team feels like you're for them in those tense moments that Tony was talking about as they're going through those stressful things with their clients and they feel like you've got their back, you're going to have way better morale, way better turnover. The loyalty is going to be there. People are going to be excited to show up even when things are hard, because they're going to go, yeah, it's hard, but at least it's hard with people. I care about doing something I care about. And I feel cared for myself. And so very much it's creating a belonging around Great point. And it's not as easy as just saying. Hey, you get to do all that, you know, life changing legacy work. Isn't that enough? you know, what we do here at here at Rocket Clicks is we have, we have a number of PPF goals, personal professional, financial goals that we would like to support our team in achieving. So we believe that there, highly integrated, successful person is someone that is not only an a player at work professionally, but they're any player in their personal life, whatever that looks like. They're in a player in their financial life. So. And there that will help them be more of an A player in their professional life. So, you know, when you think about people vision, what what is what are the underlying factors that are going to help your team achieve their best versions of themselves? And like, how do you quantify that and how do you measure it and how does that turn into action in the day to day? I think you're important things to consider because all of these can be very interconnected pieces, from mission vision values to your every other week coaching process. How do those all interconnect? I think it's something to be Kind of. Any examples that you, remember from throwing? I mean over so over at the the law firm we really wanted to create a highly collaborative culture that was built for family lawyers that had families. So, you know, one of the things that was an often so unique, how unique it is, it felt unique working, working with the firm for so long, for so many years, we had so many what we call sterling children, because there was so many babies that were had over the ten years that I was there. I think it was north of 50. It was crazy how many children were part of the the Sterling family that showed up after people were after people started? So that was cool. And we were able to like, help, help our team continue to be great at what they were doing while having a family and having the space to do everything in their life. So, you know, we that integrated directly with our recruiting, some of our top performers, they interviewed, well, pregnant technically you can't you can't look at that. But I can tell you the marketplace looks at that and they're like, why don't we talk after you have the baby so that I don't have to pay for this thing, and then I don't have to pay for your maternity leave. And all of those things. It's not it's not good. It's not healthy. But we use that to our advantage because we've had we had several, probably close to five, 5 or 6. People apply while they were pregnant and they got maternity leave very shortly after they started. They never beat us in the butt. And I think it's because we created that culture. We created. So we're very supportive of that stuff. Okay. Now, one that is, You know, financial vision's difficult, I think, on on a couple different levels, because sometimes it can be perceived as like. Oh, well, that's what the owner wants to make, or. Oh, that's just the money side of things, when in reality. And I apologize if I'm still on the thunder here, but it is more along the lines of this is this is what it will take in order to achieve the other two vision components. things is so important. There's a reason you start with the impact and the people and you. And you ended the financial. Because the financial is probably the easiest one. And also probably the one that resonates the least with your team. Because very few people get excited to get up in the morning to go make somebody else money. It's just it's just not there, right? So it's not gonna be something you tap into. And so the only reason that finance is here again, go back to the idea of like people seeing their vision inside of yours is like, hey, whatever you want to be. The way that becomes reality is if we become this. And so if you want to move up and take on new positions, we have to be creating new positions, which means we have to be growing. If you want to make more money, there has to be money flowing into the firm, and there has to be profitability so that we can make that happen for you if you want to, you know, title I one of the things we've talked about before is, is when I was evaluating all my options of where to go with my next move, and I chose to control. Part of that was because you talked about how excited you were to see the team, buy new vehicles, buy new cars, take vacations, have kids, and how fulfilling it was for you as the leader to see the team growing. All that stuff only happens if there's money. And so the finance vision has to be positioned in a way where it's shown as a vehicle for helping your team achieve their financial goals as that, synergistic thing rather than like, oh, this is helping some other guy who I don't care about or some other gal I don't care about. And so it doesn't happen to me. In fact, it may even be a turn off for me, depending on my my worldview. So how do you position this in connection with the other two is extremely important. I think to having it. And having a part of your, you know, recruiting process, is important because, you know, when we. Our final interview, somebody hear rocket clicks, they have to give a presentation on why they're going to be a good fit. And they get to see our mission, vision values and our core and our. And they have to present on why they'd be a good fit for that. If this is going to be a turn off for them and like they don't want the business to be successful, great. You're probably not going to show up very well to the interview, I don't care. It's like I'm happy that you didn't show up well for the interview, because you're clearly not going to be a good culture fit. It's a good way to to screen people all three of these, because if you can't find yourself in them, all of them. You're probably going to struggle, integrating into the, into the business. So I think from a integration perspective, I think it's important. And I mentioned three, three different ways for each one. For each of these where you can pull these in, I think it's important not just have them but leverage them in different areas of your operation. Yeah, absolutely. It's, It's really interesting how the finance vision has evolved over time. At our firm and at the agency to tie it more to bringing everything together as the opportunity for us to help our team achieve those big goals and, and and truly build something that they're proud of. Well, we have a special kind of a bonus section here. A JP came armed with a few vision statements, from from some big companies that that he's going to allow us to beat up a little bit based on this ideology. So I'm excited to hear what you have. Yeah. I think one of the. The things that we haven't talked about is, like, ways to do this wrong. Right? And so, you know, there's a couple of things that I think we'll call out as we go through these. But, you know, it's easy to talk about this in concept, right? This idea of a vision statement. But like, let's pull some real ones out. Let's look at them. So I'm very to see how you guys think about these because I was I was intrigued. But I will start with, Amazon's Kindle brand. And so their vision statement at Kindle is every book ever printed in any language, all available in 60s. So what do you guys think? How does that how does that land? I don't get the impact part yet. I didn't hear any impact. Like, if they would have said. Because this will save 1 billion trees, that would have added some value for me from an impact standpoint. It was very tangible. Like I could run towards that, like, okay, there's this many books printed every year. more like a mission Yeah. Good point. If we went in. If you went reviewed our last podcast. Nice plug. and you compared the that Amazon Kindle brand statement, to that, you're probably like, yeah, that's a pretty good mission statement. mistakes, right? Is mixing your mission and your vision. Not being clear on the difference between them. One of the things about the vision is it has to be tangible, right? It has to be clear. It has to be specific. If it's to like, big and an amorphous like it's gonna be hard for people to like, be like, yeah, I can see how like I'm a part of that. And that's part of yeah, get excited. All right. So the next one, maybe a little more familiar brand, for, for this podcast, Tesla, they want to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. How do we how do we think about that one? All impact. Tangible. Maybe not so much. I get to measure it. Did we accelerate it like I don't know how much like, I only know when we're done. Are we on Mars? That's the that's the space X. What can I say on brand for that? Tony, what do you think? Actually, I actually like. Like it. Generally, I think there could be some sort of measurement there. Time frame. There might be, like. So the ones that we have are, as are all ten year targets. They're also measurable within that ten years. So that would be my critique, but it doesn't feel overly off. Plus, I like the. I like the, the nomenclature keeping it in the vehicle realm with accelerate. So All right. Yeah. Yeah. That to. short and pithy. You're not gonna you're not going to Yeah. There's no esoteric terms. okay we're going to flip it then given that we're going to go something that's several, several syllables So. A way. believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun. It should leave you happy and good looking with money in your pocket. We also believe that everyone has the right to see. believe a lot of things. I'd like to know how they're going to gauge good looking. you should be Heavy on the I feel like it's heavy on the impact Yeah. It is not tangible. That is a consistent theme we're seeing. There's a lot of fuzziness to these. It can be like we need some specificity. So something for our, our listeners to keep in mind. I think that the reason for that is, like, If you think about personality assessments, the, like, your influencer types and your relational types, if you're looking at a, at a disc assessment, it's probably going to feel okay about the like these general purpose driven statements. But you're analytical folks and me like what what what are we doing? When are we doing it? How many times are we doing this? What's what are we doing? So like the the reason for kind of the feedback here is you're writing this for your whole team, not just you. And so, you know, a lot of business owners have super high driving. They're going to be more charismatic and they're going to probably write statements that look more like this. But that doesn't mean they're for everybody. How to make them accessible. got a food brand here for you. Want to see? So, one of the biggest brands in the world. I'm not going to tell you who it is. Let's see if you can figure out who it is. The vision. I mean, to be the world's best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness and value. So we make every customer in the restaurant smile. That's got to be McDonald's. So, boy. Same owner. Yeah. The measurement is off. I don't know if that's how I describe Yeah, yeah. We're going to hold cleanliness thing. But, you know, on a scale of the scale of, you know, five star review, most McDonald's are probably going to get, like a 2.5 to 3, like it's it's good. It's fine. It's like it's like it's like. Bill Burr's, assessment of a man. We have two feelings. It's matter. Fine. If you ask me why, I'm fine, between mad and fun. Tyler, do we want to invite our listeners to send their vision statements, and we'll roast them on Hundred percent. Absolutely happy to have you to comment and take a look at these. in the to download, so that you can do your own assessment with, 10.10 point assessment with ten point scale for each one. That way you can get on the right track. give you the answer key Yeah, I love it, gents. Awesome. I appreciate the time. Love going through the vision. Looking forward to continuing down our, our leadership and law firm growth series. And, to that we will see you next time. I really hope you enjoyed this episode on developing a three part vision. If you did, you will love our next episode, which which goes into the next step, which is developing your mission statement. Make sure to check it out here and continue on this journey with us.
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