This One Shift Turns Average Employees Into Standouts

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Are you a law firm owner looking to create a better atmosphere for both your employees and clients? In this episode of Maximum Lawyer Live, host Tyson Mutrux shares insights on the difference between what you do and how you do it, inspired by a Disney cast member who brought creativity and joy to his work. Tyson discusses the power of employee autonomy, mindset, and workplace culture.

Tyson shares how to implement employee freedom within a firm. Nordstrom is a retailer that is notorious for having amazing customer service, in which their employees are able to go above and beyond for their customers. This is seen in their generous return policy. For Tyson, a great firm is one that gives their employees the opportunity to be the best person for their client. This could be providing them with a gift at the end of the case or being proactive and setting up recurring meetings to keep clients updated. At the end of the day, it is all about making sure the client is taken care of.

Building a culture that fosters magic is extremely important for any firm. It is important to create an environment where people can have the right mindset to thrive. Think about areas you can improve. What areas are you micromanaging? When do you need to step back and let staff have more creative freedom? This will ultimately allow for your firm to function in a healthy way, where people will be excited to work and clients will be excited to trust you with their livelihoods.

Take a listen!

6:55 Implementing Employee Freedom 
9:01 Finding Employees with the Right Mindset
14:42 The Trade-Offs of Law Firm Ownership
16:57 Teaching Mindset and Enjoyment of Work
19:57 Building a Culture that Fosters Magic

Tune in to today’s episode and checkout the full show notes here. 

Creators and Guests

Host

Tyson Mutrux

Tyson is the founder of Mutrux Firm Injury Lawyers and the co-founder of Maximum Lawyer.

What is Maximum Lawyer?

Maximum Lawyer is the podcast for law firm owners who want to scale with intention and build a business that works for their life.

Hosted by Tyson Mutrux, each weekly episode features candid conversations with law firm owners, business experts, and industry leaders sharing real strategies and lessons learned in the trenches.

If you're ready to grow your firm with less stress and more support, this is your next must listen. Subscribe today.

Tyson Mutrux 00:00:01 Welcome back to Maximum Lawyer Live. I'm Tyson Matrix and today I'm going to be talking about what you do versus how you do it. This is something that I posted about in circle in the Association a couple weeks ago. It's just a really interesting observation, I guess. and so I, I had so many thoughts about this, this was something that, from a mindset standpoint, from an employee standpoint, there are lots of different angles on this. I almost struggled writing the post because it was there were so many things that I wanted to talk about inside of it. So that's why I wanted to talk about this here, because I couldn't really talk about all of them. I, I had enough trouble trying to narrow down what I wanted to talk to. It could have been I could have written forever on this, but This was what we were walking. I was actually going to go the bathroom at Tron is what it was. And, by the way, at Disney World, we were Disney World.

Tyson Mutrux 00:01:14 Tron. The line is ridiculously long. So if you can get a Fastpass, pay for the Fastpass, it makes a lot of sense. But, so we're walking up to the restrooms and pass this massive line and there's this. Like, it was just interesting. Like, people were sort of in the circle and they were stopping to look at something happening. I was like, what? What's going on? And there was they had all these, all these cast members that go around the entire park because we're we're Magic Kingdom. And what they do is they just clean up trash. That's all they do. That's. It's their entire job is cleaning up trash. And I'm looking and I'm like, what is this guy doing? And he it's really interesting because he is he has taken the end of his broom. And I'll put this on the screen for people that are, actual actually watching. But, he is he is taking the end of his broom and he is creating designs. So this is Mike.

Tyson Mutrux 00:02:31 So, those of you that are watching this right here is Mike, and I've got this. So I took a picture with him, so I took a picture of me, Mike, and then Hudson. Hudson is there too. And what he is doing is drawing these really cool drawings. He has taken the end of his broom and got new wet. And he has made these designs. And this one, it's it's Mickey and Minnie and he starts where you don't know what he's going to draw. And he's just. He's just dipping it in water. He's making these designs on the sidewalk, and in a few minutes, they evaporate and, you know, he'll come back and do another one. Really interesting thing. He's not paid to do this, right. He is not paid to create, these designs is not a part of his job description. And I found this really fascinating, and I and I, I talked to him about it because I was very curious. So that's why I took a picture with him.

Tyson Mutrux 00:03:32 I mean, he is the only cast member that I took a picture with. It's not I don't think that's a really typical thing where you're going to take a picture with employees on a theme park, you're just typically going to do that. But he was smiling the entire time. He was so happy about his job. And he was he was playing with the kids. And, he said that what Disney does is they whatever their job is done basically with it. So let's say they're, you know, cleaning up stuff. And there's really they've kind of covered their area and there's nothing else going on. Disney has said go make magic. That's it. And I think that that freedom that they have given their cast members is really, really cool. There are many things with Disney that I think that they have gotten wrong. I, I this is one of those. It was one of those other things that was going on these other threads that was kind of going through my mind. Because if you've been to if you were ever at Disney ten years ago and you compared to to now, you know, there's a massive difference.

Tyson Mutrux 00:04:43 There's a massive decline in the experience. Okay. And I and I do wonder how many people actually agree or disagree with that. But that's not the point of this. I, I can tell you from my experience with our kids ten years ago versus today, Night and day. Night and day. Experience. That being said, I think Mike, because Mike has been there, he told me the number of years. It's it's a really long time. Mike's been there for a very long time. I think he might be one of those people that's a holdover from from yesteryear. And that might be why he still has the spirit he does. I don't know, I can tell you from personal experience while you're there, not all of the cast members have that same mindset that that Mike does. We're gonna set that aside for now. I thought that the fact that Disney gave him that freedom to do that, that opportunity, the space, there were a lot of lessons in that. There are a lot of lessons.

Tyson Mutrux 00:05:44 They didn't there might might be very specific things that, Disney tells them to do when it comes to his actual job. But, you know, making the magic, I guess part of it partly is part of his job, but it kind of makes me think of of Nordstrom. Like Nordstrom, ever since its origination was known for, customer service. And, so at Mizzou, whenever you know, because my undergrad is in marketing, I think most people know that by now. But I like that was like one of the case studies like the the major case studies was always new. Nordstrom. and one of the great examples is, is that, there was a, a lady that had come in and she had bought a tire from Nordstrom. I think that's the story. She bought a tire from Nordstrom. And it went at some point they made they had actually sold tires. And by the point by the time that she came in they were no longer selling tires. But what they did was they honored that return.

Tyson Mutrux 00:06:55 And it was I mean, who returned the tire, right? That's the point is like they bent over backwards for that customer and that's that's something that they do. They're very well known for these days. Not so much you don't really hear about it. But historically Nordstrom really known for customer service. And a big part of it was the freedom that was given to them by by Nordstrom. I'm pretty sure they had there's some sort of up to a certain dollar amount they were able to refund or pay to do something for for people. And it's one of those things where we actually I like that so much that we implemented years ago where up to a certain dollar amount, we at first we didn't we didn't put a cap on it. And people kind of people started to go overboard a little bit. And so what we did is I think we have a $50 cap where if you want to do this, you know, spend $50 for, to do something for. And there's exceptions to this, by the way.

Tyson Mutrux 00:08:02 this isn't like some hard the general general rules, you know, spend about $50 or less on the person. But, a very, very common one is, hey, such and such is not they've not been doing well. There's something rough going on left. Can I send them a gift? And a lot of times, what the gift is, the gift is they'll go and they they've spoken to the client so much, they have a pretty good idea as to what they like and, you know, will send them some sort of gift from it could be from Amazon. It could be it could be flowers, it could be lots of different things. But they do have that freedom to do that. But it really got me thinking, okay, what else can we do? What other kind of freedom can we give our employees a space to really go and and make the experience better for, for our clients? And so that was that was one part of it, right? That was one part of it, One of the many things that was crossing through my mind.

Tyson Mutrux 00:09:01 Another one, though, and this was this was from like, I guess, my own personal perspective on this is that how do we find employees that really, really get it and they really enjoy their jobs? Because there is and that's the whenever I started to write that article, that's what it was about. It was what you do versus how you do it. You know, his job was essentially glorified janitor. I'll just say it right. That's if you're if you're really going to break it down, that's pretty much. But that's not at all what Mike is. Mike is way more than that because of how he does it. And so how do we find those people? And it kind of makes it made me think back to whenever I was at State Farm. They had this big seminar and was about ownership, and they brought in a big speaker to have that. Ownership mindset. And Mike really does take on that ownership mindset. Where he owns his position, he owns his job and he really loves it.

Tyson Mutrux 00:10:13 He was so clear that he loves his job. There were other people. This was one of the things where I saw Mike and had the experience of Mike, and then I started to pay more attention to other people like that, and not all of the people that worked there that do the exact same job had that same mindset. You know, they were just kind of they were in the shadows almost. And maybe that's part of what they're taught to do. But none of them were making magic that I saw. None of them were. And so how do you find those people, and do we have an expectation? Should we have an expectation from the people that we hired to go out and make magic, right? Or do we have that? Should we have that Expectation of them to to kind of go above and beyond. And I do and it's it's not that we're expecting extra work out of the out of the person. because I kind of think I, I kind of do have that expectations where, I think we have a really good track record of hiring those type of people, and I don't know how.

Tyson Mutrux 00:11:19 I think Kristen just does a really amazing job, and Amy does a really amazing job at finding those people. But there there is a difference between there's a major difference between the two types, the ones that just come in and do their jobs, and the ones that will will go above and beyond and really care. And maybe that's part of it is we're looking for peeps. So we're looking for passion, for passion for what we do. And that could be a big part of it is that we're looking for passionate people about personal law and the people that we hire that they generally do not all of them, not all of them. Some people come from other industries, but they have a very keen interest when it comes to to personhood or law. So that was another part of this. so there there's there's lizard, there's many things. But they also got me thinking about myself when it comes to what do you do versus how you do it. And I was I'll be brutally honest with you a couple of days ago, I feel like I was in a rut.

Tyson Mutrux 00:12:20 I was just coming off a long vacation. and then went straight into it this year where it's already January 14th. So if you're listening to this, it's not January 14th. It's. I think it's January 20th. If my math is right on the date. So, you know, smells on Saturday but it's beginning it's January. Right. And I feel like this this month has come on so freaking strong. It has been one of those ones where. Holy hell. Like it is. I mean, I'm talking about depositions. I'm supposed to have a trial next week. Luckily, that case resolved, so. But just I was like, I was just kind of in a row like, oh my gosh. Like exhausted. We're renovating a bathroom. So just all this stuff, my house, my house is a freaking wreck because of the renovation. because you like the master bedroom. Like you got to go through the master bath to get to the closet, and just. It's just one of those things where, like, I, I was like, golly, it just.

Tyson Mutrux 00:13:25 I felt like it was in this rut. And I was like, you know, why is you maybe thinking like, no, that this is what we get paid to do? Like, this is this is why people hire us, right? They hire us for, for, for times like this. And it was like an instant flip. Flip a switch. It was it was just a simple just telling myself, hey. This is what this is. This is what you want. This is exactly what you want. You want these types of situations and it's all just a mindset thing. And I think a lot of what a lot of what this post was about was mindset, the what you do versus how you do it. You it's really where you put your mind. And and I'm not the only one I know that that if you're listening to this or you're watching this, that you have these times where, you know, you're sort of in this rut or things are kind of tough and you just have to sort of buckle down, say, you know what? This is why we get paid the big bucks.

Tyson Mutrux 00:14:42 and obviously if it's something super serious or and if you're down, I would encourage you to reach out to somebody. But I'm not really talking about those situations. I'm talking about one of the situations where, you know, just kind of in this, you know, you've had a really rough week or a really busy week, or maybe some late nights and some early mornings. Or maybe you've got some. Maybe a newborn at home and all these different things. It could be a lot of different things, or life is just sort of catching up with you. But I think you just kind of have to remind yourself, this is why I'm here. I've got the freedom, I've got the time. So part of the law firm ownership is, is like, I've got I have these amazing times. It's a it's a mix of emotions and it's a mix. It's kind of like a roller coaster. Times where you've got these times you've got the freedom to do the things you want to do. But part of that part of the trade off is that you've got the times where the beginning of the year can be sort of rough, because you just spent a week away or eight days away and, you know, you're you're having to spend some time, you know, catching up a little bit or maybe, maybe a, shouldn't have scheduled so many things at the beginning of the year.

Tyson Mutrux 00:15:55 Yeah. Then that happens. That's part of. That's part of the trade offs of love from ownership. And I wouldn't trade it at all. Not for a million bucks. Not at all. because you make a lot more than $1 million. You know, some of the things were, but it's not to me. It's not about that. It's the freedom to be able to. I can leave whenever the heck I want. I can come back whenever the heck I want. I can work whatever hours I want. And so these are some of the trade offs, right? It's part of it's part of the trades. But it's a lot of it comes down to mindset. And just just telling yourself, listen, I this is this is why I chose what I chose as why I'm running the law firm that I'm running. So, there's a lot to it. But I really wanted to talk about Mike. And because it was, he was creating art, it was interesting. Just when you kind of lift your eyes up away from the phone and what you sort of will notice, it's kind of a cool little thing.

Tyson Mutrux 00:16:57 so. But if I come back to that because I want to, I want I want to come back, kind of do a circle. the rest of what I want to talk about when it comes to that is if you, you kind of want, you want to be able to pass it on to your people. Right. And you might have that mindset, but like, you can teach this mindset. This isn't something that you're born with and you're not born with. This is something you can teach as well. And I think we do tend to sell a lie a little bit. And I'm not talking about I'm just talking about the industry in general where, you know, if maybe things will get better when your title improves or, you know, things get better whenever you, you get a pay raise. And I think that that I think focusing too much on those types of things does a massive disservice to your people, and it does a massive disservice to you and your firm. I think the more important thing is to be focusing more on, okay, how are you doing things, the enjoyment of the work.

Tyson Mutrux 00:18:01 Because ultimately that's what if you look back, you know, 20 years from now, those are the things that you're you're going to remember the most. Those are the things that they're going to remember the most is is the enjoyment from the work or, or the lack of enjoyment from the work. it really depends on how you approach it. So if you can pass it on to your people about, enjoying the work that you do, even in the tough times, you have to kind of build a step away a little bit and laugh a little bit at what's at the situation. We all, we all have those situations. You we all have a crazy client or two, right. And you have to be able to to laugh at it. You got to be able to laugh at it a little bit and approach those situations, not just there are definitely serious situations that come up, but once, once that Emotion passes, you got to be able to step back a little bit and you got to laugh about it.

Tyson Mutrux 00:19:01 But I guess the main thing I just want to pass on about, you know, the mindset, it's a it's a decision. It really is. it's something that you can choose to do. As I was talking about that light switch moment where I was like, you know what this is? This is what I'm here for, right? This is what I was I was put here on this planet to do. Once you take once you just change your mind on it. It's it's just a simple thing. And everything else becomes much easier once you just if you sort of identify that moment the it. So all you have to do is recognize it. And then one of the key key tricks that I've learned is just labeling it. So hey, you're really a funk. You know, you're just really in a funk. You need to you need to snap out of it. Once you label it, that is your that's your indicator. Hey, let's flip that switch. Let's flip that switch because you can easily change your mind.

Tyson Mutrux 00:19:57 It's not always easy, but usually it's a pretty easy thing. it's your decision. What mindset you want to be in. You don't have to be in that funk. You don't have to stay in that funk. Everyone gets in a funk, but you don't have to stay there. You can change your mind whenever you want. So and then the last thing I want to talk about when it comes to this is, culture. Because, if we kind of go back to, you know, make and the culture of Disney. because, like, you can't force someone to care. Like, if you just look at it like an individual team member like you, you can't force them to care. But what what you can do is you can create this environment of that space, and you can create this environment that allows the people that do have the right mindset to thrive. So it it's not really about, like from your standpoint. Like, you can control what you can control, but you can't control any specific person on one person.

Tyson Mutrux 00:21:09 But when you can control is the environment that you create for your team members. And I think that's something that you can really focus on. Okay. What are the things that we're micromanaging? Where can we step back a little bit and let them have that creative freedom? Where are the areas where we can give them the freedom to better, better take care of our clients? That's another thing too. And so like, really be thinking about different areas of your firm that you can step back from a little bit and give your team a little bit more freedom so they can have that space to create that magic. So the culture is within your control. Your mindset is within your your control. So control those things. Control the things you can control. And I think that you'll be far, far better off for it. All right. That is all we have for this week. Remember to check out Becca's list. Becky, Cisco, where you can rate vendors. And that way, we have that collective knowledge for all of us to help you find the best people that we need to help take care of our farms.

Tyson Mutrux 00:22:21 Also, just keep an eye out in the next few months for the next release of for tickets for Max log con. Maxwell con 2026, it's going to be in Atlanta. So just over the next few months. Keep your eye out and then go to Maxwell Comm for tickets to our Phoenix Mastermind that's coming up in February. So make sure you get those tickets. Those are on sale, so go out and get those. Have a great week, everybody. Enjoy your weekend if you're listening to this on the weekend. Have a great week if you are watching this live. But we'll see you bye bye.