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What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers, ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team and systems, mastering money issues, and more; then take an insight or two to help you build a wealth-generating law firm? That’s what we do each week on the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. Hosted by Davina Frederick, founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer –– every episode is an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve (and will pay you on time), and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love. The goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund, and still have time to enjoy, the lifestyle of your dreams.
Welcome to the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. What if you could hang out with successful women lawyers? Ask them about growing their firms, managing resources like time, team, and systems, mastering money issues, and more. Then take an insight or 2 to help you build a wealth generating law firm. Each week, your host, Devina Frederick, takes an in-depth look at how to think like a CEO, attract clients who you love to serve and will pay you on time, and create a profitable, sustainable firm you love.
Intro:Devina is founder and CEO of Wealthy Woman Lawyer, and her goal is to give you the information you need to scale your law firm business from 6 to 7 figures in gross annual revenue so you can fully fund and still have time to enjoy the lifestyle of your dreams. Now here's Devina.
Davina:Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast. I'm your host, Devina Frederick, attorney, law firm growth strategist, and business coach for women lawyers who want to create and scale a 7 figure law firm business. If you recall a few weeks ago, I promised you a series called the dumbest thing I've heard lately. Part 1 was published back on June 27th. So if you haven't listened to that, you can go back after you've listened to this episode.
Davina:They're each stand alone and not in any particular order. Note that I will not be discussing dumb things I hear in the current political lands landscape because I hear a lot of them. But this podcast is focused on business and who has that kind of time. Anyway. So the reason I'm creating this series is because I'm tired of all the bad business advice that I keep seeing on these social media streets.
Davina:And, you know, little Instagram quotes or quips or TikTok videos that people are all too quick to buy into. My intention is to offer you a different perspective to help you decide if certain advice is right for you. So let's get into it. Last week, I read a post someone made that said something like, people at the bottom compete and people at the top collaborate. And this post got lots of likes and hell yes and especially from lawyers I know who've had a fair amount of material success.
Davina:And most of them were women, although there were a few men. And I think a lot of women would really like this statement because in general, women love to do things with other women. We'd like to collaborate. That's why you see many of us gathered in fitness classes and book clubs and game nights, AKA wine nights, is because we like hanging out with other women and working together. And on its face, it sounds nice.
Davina:Who wouldn't rather be in a collaborative situation than an adversarial one after all, especially lawyers who often are in adversarial situations all day long? It certainly sounds like a lot less stress. And I don't let me be clear. I don't think that people who are virtually high fiving each other over the statement are dumb. Okay?
Davina:I think that they just haven't given this much thought. And if they did, they might reconsider. I think many are thinking about how they've hired people who've helped them, like leadership team or a coach or a mentor, or they're thinking about referrals they've gotten from other attorneys in different practice areas, or they're thinking about people in their own practice area who referred business to them when they were just starting out, they most likely are not thinking about collaborating with their competitors, their direct competitors. They're thinking of collaborating with other people who are close and share the same audience or share the same mission or vision. So I could tell you for sure that what they weren't thinking about before they commented or high fived is that the richest people in the world, those who are on top financially, people like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, these are the top richest people in the US.
Davina:None of these people are collaborating with their competitors. They're just not. You don't hear of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos collaborating over their 2 space companies. Right? They're not collaborating, nor are they thinking of top US companies like Coke versus Pepsi, Meta versus TikTok versus x, Duke Energy versus ConocoPhillips, Target versus Walmart, Walmart versus Kroger or Costco in the grocery space, Microsoft versus Apple, Google versus Bing or Yahoo, Pfizer versus Johnson and Johnson.
Davina:You get the idea. Business is about competition. And none of those people or companies are collaborating unless they're collaborating via lobbying to Congress to get Congress off their backs in their attempts to build as much wealth as possible. Right? So they may be collaborating in that type of way, but when it comes to growing their business, they're not.
Davina:You may see some merging or buying other companies, like when Google bought YouTube and Facebook bought Instagram and Elon bought Twitter and turned it into eggs. But nobody here is collaborating with competitors. They are competing to be the market leaders in their industry and to gain the most market share. Free market capitalism is about competing in the marketplace. Whoever has the best offer wins the most customers.
Davina:And if you think professional services are different, then I want you to consider in the the top two accounting firms in the US or Deloitte versus, PwC. Latham and Watkins versus Kirkland and Ellis, they're the top two law firms in the US. The Mayo Clinic versus the Cleveland Clinic versus the UCA Medical Center, they're the top hospitals in the US. None of these folks are collaborating with each other. Now don't get me wrong.
Davina:I'm not saying that there is not a time and place for collaboration because there are people who would lead you to believe that they are collaborating with their top competitors, and they say things like a rising tide lifts all boats. Right? And that certainly is true in a lot of circumstances, but not in the marketplace of a free market. Furthermore, they'd have you believe if you do not think collaboration is superior to competition, it's because you, quote, don't believe there's enough to go around for everyone, or, quote, you have a lack mindset. Have you heard this before?
Davina:If you don't think collaboration is superior to competition, it's because you there's a problem with how you think. You don't believe there's enough to go around for everyone. But I call BS on that. You can believe that there is enough business to go around for everyone, which I do, and still believe you need to continually strive to stay ahead of your competition or to be innovative and come up with new ideas, right, to serve your clients. There's no shame in competing.
Davina:Take a look at the Olympics, Monday night football, even your kid's soccer game. Consider the US versus China, the world's largest economic competitors. Competition is all around us. I would say it's in our nature. There's no avoiding it, especially if you're fully vested in growing a successful law firm business.
Davina:Now some of us like to compete more than others. I understand that. I'm definitely not the most competitive person in my mindset, because, you know, so I would never push myself the way Olympic athletes to to be the top of their game. But there are some people who do. It doesn't mean you also also doesn't mean that you shouldn't collaborate with other businesses that share a similar audience, but who are not direct competitors.
Davina:It doesn't mean you shouldn't collaborate with coaches and mentors. It doesn't mean you shouldn't collaborate with other brilliant humans that you hired to grow your company. In fact, you need more heads, on your working on your business growth problems. Right? So it's important to have collaborators.
Davina:You can collaborate all day long with other lawyers in a variety of ways. One way that I have seen successful collaboration is through more senior lawyers mentoring younger lawyers. In fact, in fact, I think, Florida just came up with a formalized mentoring program to connect senior lawyers with younger lawyers to help them become better lawyers. Another is with law firms in complementary practice areas working together to attract better clients. So you might have a a family law attorney that refers business to an estate attorney or they may put on some sort of presentation together about how to protect yourself when you're going through a difficult life event or something.
Davina:Right? There are all kinds of ways that complimentary practice areas can work together. Another is with other types of professionals who share a similar audience, but they serve their audience in different ways. So for instance, you might connect if you're a state planning lawyer, you might connect with a a financial adviser. Right?
Davina:That's another way to collaborate. But remember, there's no shame in competition. And you are not low, you're not lowbrow or, going low if you are competing. Competition is part of business, and it drives innovation. It drives creative thinking, improved processes, better service, more affordable prices pricing, stronger teams, and much, much more.
Davina:As with all things, there are two ends of the stick. So there may be some bad things about competition and there may be some good things, but we can't forget those good things because they're necessary to grow our business. I go I'd even go so far as to say, you must consider your competition if you're growing your business. Because if you don't, how do you differentiate yourself from them? Right?
Davina:If you don't understand them or know what their pitch is or what with the way they comment something, you can't differentiate yourself. And trust me, your prospective clients are considering them. And they're considering whether they would be happier working with them than with you. And you can handle some of your clients going to your competitor. But I'm here to tell you that if they all go to your competitor, you're gonna be out of business fast.
Davina:Right? So if you don't believe me, then ask the founders of Kodak and RadioShack and Kmart and Blockbuster and Myspace, Pan Am, Imran, Chrysler, Tower Records. All of these companies were once very famous. And they were the top of the food chain in their industries. But now, they have all virtually disappeared.
Davina:We have a whole generation who's never heard of these companies. Right? More than one generation, probably. So collaborate all you want. And also don't let people shame you for your competitive spirit and your ambition, your drive to be better than your competition.
Davina:You don't have to be everybody's friend. But if you own your own law firm business, you owe it to yourself, your family, your clients, your employees, and their families to create a profitable, sustainable, wealth generating law firm because of all those people are counting on you. So you really, have an obligation to try to be the best you can be. And sometimes that means being competitive. Part of that involves being aware, but not obsessed with your competition.
Davina:So don't get obsessed with them. You need to, you know, focus on how you can be more creative and innovative and allow them to inspire you to do better, to reach for more, and bring your best. I know when I see my competitors in out in the world and and offering services similar to mine, I'm watching them. I know they're watching me because I've I've seen some reaction to some things that I've put out there, and I let that inspire me. I say, well, that's a cool idea.
Davina:If they can do that, then I can come up with another cool idea. And all of that help makes us better business owners. That healthy competition makes us better business owners, and it helps us to provide a higher level of service to the marketplace. So if you've ever found yourself in business with no competition, you might find you're in a business with no market either. So if you're looking around and there's no competition for what you do, there's probably not a market either.
Davina:So I hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of the Wealthy Woman Lawyer podcast as much as I've enjoyed making it for you. If so, please go now and leave us a review on Apple Podcast. We so appreciate each and every review. It means a lot because it helps, get promote us in the Apple algorithm so more people, more women law firm owners can, find out about the podcast. If you wanna share your thoughts on this episode with me about collaboration versus competition, feel free to email me atdavina@wealthywomanlawyer.com and just use collaboration versus competition as your subject line so that I will know what you're emailing me about.
Davina:I'll be back next week with more content created specifically for women law firm owners like you. So I'll see you then.
Intro:If you're ready to create more of what you truly desire in your business and your life, then you'll want to visit us at wealthywomanlawyer.com to learn more about how we help our clients create wealth generating law firms with ease.