In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Akeisha Johnson discuss:
- Releasing the people and things that need to be released in your life.
- Knowing when to charge for the amateur hobby that is getting in the way of your career.
- Why you should have a coach (and how to identify the right coach for you).
- Setting performance metrics and evaluating them regularly.
Key Takeaways:
- Cancel culture does not work, but you can give people a safe space to facilitate change with the real problems in the world.
- A life coach is different from a sales coach. All coaches are different and have specialties.
- Coaching is for everyone. It is not just for people who have more means or a bigger title or any other. Don’t eliminate opportunities for yourself based on incorrect perceptions.
- The more accountability you have, the more likely you will be to follow through – coaching is a great way to hold yourself accountable.
“Those metrics that you’re talking about is the difference between you actually steering the wheel and the wind blowing your boat.” — Akeisha Johnson
Thank you to our Sponsors!
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Episode References:
- Book: Atomic Habits by James Clear – https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299
- Video: Atomic Habits – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_nzqnXWvSo
- Book: The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks – https://www.amazon.com/Big-Leap-Conquer-Hidden-Level/dp/0061735361
About Akeisha Johnson: Akeisha Johnson of An Inspired Story aims to transform workplace relationships by empowering business leaders to become the kind of boss other people WANT to work for. Her SafeSTTAR (Safe Space to Talk About Race) Programs provide facilitated meetings/ workshops for professionals to practice confronting and addressing DEI-related issues for the creation of impactful workplace initiatives and programs.
Akeisha is a group coach/guide at Chief.com developing executive women in designing and scaling their careers. She is a featured speaker, a corporate trainer, and a program designer who creates interactive and innovatively engaging events with and for her clients.
Connect with Akeisha Johnson:
Website: https://aninspiredstory.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akeisha-johnson/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ais-coaching/about/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/an_inspired_story/
Connect with Steve Fretzin:
LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin
Twitter: @stevefretzin
Instagram: @fretzinsteve
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: Fretzin.com
Email: Steve@Fretzin.com
Book: Legal Business Development Isn’t Rocket Science and more!
YouTube: Steve Fretzin
Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Akeisha Johnson: It’s kind of like the attitude of having a financial planner or advisor. People think that’s not for me. That’s for people who have more mean. Or for people who are in a certain space.
[00:00:15] Narrator: You’re listening to Be That Lawyer. Life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode, your host, author, and lawyer coach, Steve Fretzin, will take a deeper dive, helping you grow your law practice in less time, with greater results. Now, here’s your host, Steve Fretzin.
[00:00:38] Steve Fretzin: Hey everybody, welcome to Be That Lawyer. I am Steve Fretzin. I hope you’re having a lovely day today. I’m very excited to be here in Chicago. I was talking to Akisha about the springtime in Chicago. We love our springtime. How you doing Akisha? Really
[00:00:51] Akeisha Johnson: good. Look, you’re making me want to take a visit.
[00:00:53] Akeisha Johnson: It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been in Chi Town. What’s the
[00:00:56] Steve Fretzin: best thing to do in Chicago as a visitor?
[00:00:59] Akeisha Johnson: Honestly, especially with this time of year, I think walk around, right? Like. I think about one of the last times it was springtime in Chicago, we were around the bean. Uh, there was this really cool exhibit that was out there, walked around.
[00:01:15] Akeisha Johnson: And for me, I absolutely adore going to the top of the Hancock building and having lunch up there. It’s gorgeous. The lunch is beautiful and it just feels like you’re really in Chicago when you do
[00:01:27] Steve Fretzin: it. That’s a great area. You know, they put like a mile. It’s Of walkway along the Chicago river. So they, I think they call it the river walk.
[00:01:33] Steve Fretzin: And so that’s also really nice. Like when I walk through the loop of Chicago, instead of just hanging out on the streets with the skyscrapers, you go down to the river and you can get a walk, you know, West, East or East to West along the river. And it’s just a wonderful way to kind of get somewhere like to a business meeting or just, just if you want to just have a beautiful walk and.
[00:01:51] Steve Fretzin: I know if I, I tell my son, sometimes I see people fishing and he gets all crazy. He’s like, we got to go down there and go fishing. I’m like, I don’t know about that, but, uh, it is gorgeous in the spring and, um, welcome to the show. I’m, I’m happy you’re here. We met through a provisors coaches and consultants group and we’re both coaches and consultants, I guess.
[00:02:07] Steve Fretzin: And, and, uh, and so I just was so happy that we got to meet him and that we had a great conversation that you were open to being on the show and kind of talking, talking things through. Now you submitted a quote to me cause I always start the show with a quote of the show. I immediately rejected it.
[00:02:22] Steve Fretzin: Because there’s another quote that I heard you say that I think you picked up from your coach. And by the way, all the best coaches have coaches. Is that a fact?
[00:02:30] Akeisha Johnson: Oh, I, you know, I actually say to people, if you’re working with a coach who doesn’t have a coach, I recommend you find another coach.
[00:02:37] Steve Fretzin: It’s like a therapist probably needs a therapist, right?
[00:02:39] Akeisha Johnson: I mean, how many doctors can treat their own injury? Not many. Right,
[00:02:43] Steve Fretzin: right, right, right. Or lawyers to handle their own matters.
[00:02:46] Akeisha Johnson: I know actually, I know if you didn’t try to do it and I always think it’s like an editor trying to edit their own work. It’s you’re just too close. Yeah,
[00:02:55] Steve Fretzin: now I’m going to absolutely destroy the quote of the show because I’m not, I don’t have a word for word the way that you’re going to lay it out once I screw it up, so here’s my messed up version, then you’ll give the actual better version.
[00:03:07] Steve Fretzin: So it’s something along the lines of when you have like a, a difficult client that’s not like following the coaching and just kind of like arguing every point or whatever you say, well, I’m just going to release you to your own destiny and, and just move away from the situation or move away from that, from that moment.
[00:03:23] Steve Fretzin: Now, how bad did I do? You did excellent. Oh, okay. All right. So what, give me, give the exact language though, cause I love it.
[00:03:31] Akeisha Johnson: Well, I mean, really this comes from one of my coaches who’s a part of the TSP, which stands for traffic sales of profit, a mastermind group. She’s one of the coaches, uh, within that mastermind group.
[00:03:43] Akeisha Johnson: And she talks about, you know, you have a difficult client, difficult business partners or whatnot, you know, at some point you just need to release them to their destiny. But the idea really is, is this, you have to know when to say when, right? It’s, it’s almost like if you are holding onto a tight rope, if you’re really holding on, that friction is going to start to make you bleed and cut into your hands and the best thing to be able to save yourself and your own wellbeing is to release.
[00:04:15] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. And I think that’s, that’s true in so many different realms and, um, you know, I’ve had some very tough conversations with, you know, family and clients and people over the years where you just realize like, doesn’t really matter what you say or how you, you know, you just do your best to try to support people and love them and take care of them.
[00:04:33] Steve Fretzin: And you know, they’re either going to go for that or they’re not. And at some point you have to cut bait because it’s just, it’s just, you can only put so much effort and time into people that are not going to. That are not open or willing to change.
[00:04:43] Akeisha Johnson: Yeah, I mean, Wayne Dyer used to say, you know, you want to send them off with love, right?
[00:04:50] Akeisha Johnson: It’s necessarily, you know, right now it’s still popular people are being cancelled. It’s not about cancelling people or cutting people off. It’s really about understanding the difference between being attached to making a difference or serving someone and really being committed. And you can still be really committed to someone and their well being and then actualizing themselves and realize that you need to release them so that they can discover what they need to along the journey to actually have whatever message coaching, whatever it is that you’re looking to provide, actually absorb and make impact.
[00:05:25] Akeisha Johnson: Sometimes, you know, I’m sure Steve, right? We all have parents who used to tell us things when we were teenagers and then you hit what your late twenties, early thirties and you go.
[00:05:35] Steve Fretzin: Oh, yeah, I, uh, I, I took, I took my wife out for her birthday and my teenager was with it and we ordered a fish at this, we ordered a lot of food, but we had a fish dish and it was clearly not good.
[00:05:48] Steve Fretzin: I mean, it was, it was rough and it was rubbery and it was, you know, and I was about to send it back and my son says, can I, now this is a kid who thought I was being a cheap, you know, SOB sending things back because, you know, I’m being difficult at the restaurant when in fact… You know, no, that’s just what you do.
[00:06:07] Steve Fretzin: That’s the proper thing to do when something is foul and not appropriate at a restaurant. So he said, can I send it back? And then he did it like I would do it. And I was like, wow. Like I, I mean, you know, it’s just a small, it’s a small thing, but at the end of the day, it’s like, he is listening. There, there are things, there are wheels turning, even though his face and his mouth are always saying dad or no, or I’m going to do my own thing.
[00:06:30] Steve Fretzin: But he is listening. And so I think, you know that sometimes it just takes people their own time.
[00:06:36] Akeisha Johnson: You know, I, I so love teenagers. Because they’re really at that stage in their lives where they’re still young and they’re like kind of overgrown smelly babies, right? Yeah. And they are trying on different ways of being and characters and whatnot.
[00:06:56] Akeisha Johnson: And they really challenge you as the adult in their lives to be really steady and give them guardrails for them just trying out what they’re trying out. And to me, and in my experience dealing with, um, and I have nieces and nephews and my, my nieces and actually my older nephew, they’re, they’re in their teenage years now.
[00:07:17] Akeisha Johnson: Um, what I’ve learned is really to see when there are moments where whatever it is that I’ve looked to guide them towards or teach them, it comes out and it goes. I know. Okay. It’s penetrating. It’s not going nowhere and it’s not, you know, all tick tock picking up all of who they are. Okay. Okay.
[00:07:38] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, it’s it’s crazy out there.
[00:07:41] Steve Fretzin: Akisha, thank you again for being on the show, everybody. It’s Akisha Johnson. She’s the founder of An Inspired Story Coaching. And I’d love for you to give a little, um, Reader’s Digest on your background, leading kind of up to kind of where you are in your career today, if you would.
[00:07:55] Akeisha Johnson: Sure. Quickly, right? I started coaching because I started to get into personal development.
[00:08:02] Akeisha Johnson: I got into personal development because I was. Working and frustrating. I had a lot of different ideas about what I could do and had no idea how or where to direct it. And I was in a program that charged me with coming up with what they called a community project. Well, that community project, uh, ended up turning into a nonprofit program.
[00:08:24] Akeisha Johnson: That I called the ocean project and the ocean project. Had a mission to implement sustainable technology in Haiti after the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Put together a team of volunteers, identified engineers, learned social media, found a fiscal sponsor for a non profit. Did all this work to put together that nonprofit program.
[00:08:50] Akeisha Johnson: And eventually I put myself in a management training program to help me kind of build this thing that I’d never done before. It was just like a bright idea that I had to deliver it. And that’s where I got a coach. And once I got a coach, I remember saying, I don’t know why everyone doesn’t have one of things.
[00:09:08] Akeisha Johnson: Why am I just now finding out about this? This is game changing. I can’t believe I’ve ever lived my life without it. It’s just like, what is this? This is some basic. And I’m, you know, I was able to deliver this really idea that I had about doing sustainable work in Haiti because I had a coach. So it was in 2013 where we install a solar generated water filtration system.
[00:09:36] Akeisha Johnson: In partnership with an organization called NP3K in an area of Haiti called San Juan. And, you know, putting in that water filtration system and traveling to Haiti, I just remember going, wow, if other people knew what it was like to have a small idea and bring it into fruition and see how it has impact on people, I think that’s how you change the world.
[00:10:00] Akeisha Johnson: And that was pretty much the first seed of thought that had me say, okay, maybe I don’t do this coaching thing. So. The program that I was in, I ended up becoming a coach in that program and supporting other people and developing projects and different things they were working on. Most people didn’t have the scale of project I had, right?
[00:10:19] Akeisha Johnson: They won’t work into the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and You know, uh, having an international team that they were managing, but because people saw I had success doing that, they came to me with, I want a job promotion. I have a project idea and I have success in coaching those people. I did that as an amateur for about three years and I started to be heavily recruited by executive coaches and I read somewhere or I heard somewhere if you’re doing something as an amateur and it’s getting in the way of your day job, that’s how you know it’s time to charge.
[00:10:52] Akeisha Johnson: And that’s what had me go pro. Yeah. So I went pro in 2014 and, you know, just started working with clients. And what I noticed was my sweet spot was really developing leaders and developing people who were managing teams. I almost every work environment I’ve ever been in, uh, people chose to stick around cause I was there and I would leave and there’d be a lot of attrition.
[00:11:23] Akeisha Johnson: And so I took a lot of those skills and developing my project and effectively leading my team to be able to support other people and doing the same. And that’s what had me develop into a. Leadership coach on and me developing my program, which is called the safe star program, which stands for safe space to talk about race.
[00:11:45] Akeisha Johnson: That was developed, uh, because I’m in the San Francisco Bay area where people think is a very liberal, woke area, but, you know, when you think about some major viral videos of, you know, what really were violations that look like racism, they happened here. And I thought, well, why don’t we have a forum where people can sit down and talk about what these things mean, how they impact us and how do we move forward from it?
[00:12:13] Akeisha Johnson: Right? Like I said, cancel culture. I don’t think works. Actually, I’ll, I’ll be bold. It doesn’t work at all. Right? Um, but there is something that we can do to empower people to actually deal with the social condition that we’re in. And so I created the safe space really, or the safe start program to give people some facility and talking about these related issues so that when they come up with programs and initiatives in the workplace, they actually have impact and they.
[00:12:40] Akeisha Johnson: Okay. Address the real things that people are dealing with, and it’s not just some feel good, you know, PR aspect of
[00:12:48] Steve Fretzin: DEI and, uh, kind of leading into your, I guess, be that lawyer tipping point of like moving into your, you know, from amateur to pro and getting into your own gig and all that and. Being a coach, you know, is, is an interesting thing.
[00:13:02] Steve Fretzin: And I think, you know, I don’t know if it was Tony Robbins that started it and kind of led the charge of, of calling it a coach and versus it being consulting or whatever. And there’s all these coaching, I don’t have degrees, but like certifications and all that type of thing. But regardless, what is a coach?
[00:13:20] Steve Fretzin: Like, what’s your definition of like, what is a coach? So I think it’s just so people understand it’s not a therapist, it’s not a consultant. It’s, it’s a very unique sort of definition that. You know, maybe we can work on together to, to
[00:13:31] Akeisha Johnson: pull out. I mean, well, there’s actually, so, you know, there’s a organization called the International Coaching Federation where they distinguish, right, the difference between coaching and therapy and basically therapist one are licensed, right?
[00:13:45] Akeisha Johnson: Coaches do not have to be licensed. Coaches typically are certified, but they don’t have to be certified. You know, we’ll see how that changes. I don’t know. There’s so many. I mean, like when I think about the. Pioneers of coaching. I think of people like Michael E. Gerber, right? From the E Myth, uh, I think about Marshall Goldsmith.
[00:14:08] Akeisha Johnson: I think about, oh gosh, he’s one of my favorites, but there’s some other people who may not be as well known as Tony Robbins who were, who came, they were. Right before Tony Robbins. And you know, you look at there are different kinds of programs and stuff. The human potential movement. That was something that started in the forties.
[00:14:27] Akeisha Johnson: So you think about people like Neville Goddard. Oh, who wrote a three magic words? Oh, I’m forgetting his name. U S Anderson, right? U S Anderson. So these are so many people that got us to where we are with coaching, but basically how just really defined as a person who takes an important person from where they are to where they want to be.
[00:14:51] Akeisha Johnson: That’s literally right because it comes, I believe the Bavarian folks, right? It was this big, fancy little dome of a carriage that would take royalty from where they were to where they wanted to be. That’s basically what coaching is. And the difference between a coach and a therapist is that therapists mostly are looking at pathology to understand where someone’s current statuses and coaches are assuming that someone is well at whole.
[00:15:19] Akeisha Johnson: And that, you know, psychologically, emotionally, they are well, and what we’re looking at is how to get them from where they are to where they want to get to and coaching does use psychology. As a resource, but it’s it’s not necessarily a psychological or psychiatric therapeutic practice.
[00:15:38] Steve Fretzin: Now, okay, let’s take a quick break to talk about how money penny is changing the game for lawyers who are losing business every day and may not even realize it.
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[00:17:16] Steve Fretzin: And then I think sometimes there’s a title in front of coach. So right, like a business development coach or leadership coach. And so you can kind of discern between the different types of coaches based on the name before the word coach. And that’s, that’s, that’s important because that, you know, life coach is very different than sales coach, right?
[00:17:33] Steve Fretzin: So You know, one’s helping you with your life and dreams and things that you need to work on. And then others are like, I’m helping people with their sales and helping them grow business. And, you know, I’m not, although there’s therapy and all of it, right. There’s like some level of my therapist mindset that we all have to have because we’re dealing with people and they’re all unique.
[00:17:51] Steve Fretzin: But I think that it’s important to recognize that all coaches are different and have specialties. But why do you think people? I mean, most people don’t have coaches. I mean, we know that the top, you know, executives, we know the top pro athletes. We know that, you know, the top, you know, people in business, you know, and all the people, a lot of the rainmakers I bring on the show, right, that, that are, that are building huge law firms, all have coaches.
[00:18:18] Steve Fretzin: So why do, why is it that most people tend to shy away from, from, from engaging a
[00:18:23] Akeisha Johnson: coach? Quickly, I want to kind of address something that you said, because I don’t actually agree that coaching is therapeutic. I do believe it has an aspect of counseling to it. Okay, that’s probably a
[00:18:32] Steve Fretzin: better word. Yeah.
[00:18:34] Akeisha Johnson: Um, you know, and for me, I’d like to be careful with my language, especially because, right, there are gray areas in them.
[00:18:41] Akeisha Johnson: And I always, you know, when I talk to clients, if I hear that they really need a therapist, I’m kind of like, are you seeing a therapist? Do you have that kind of support before I engage you? Because I am not a therapist, right? That’s a skill set. So I just wanted to say, I think coaching is more has an aspect of counseling than therapy, even though I have had clients say, you know, wow, this is better than therapy for them.
[00:19:06] Akeisha Johnson: But to your question, why do most people not have one? It’s like I said, with me, they don’t know that it exists. And a lot of people, I think it’s kind of like the attitude of having a financial planner or advisor. People think that’s not for me. That’s for people who have more mean or for people who are in a certain space.
[00:19:26] Akeisha Johnson: You know, it wasn’t until I had a coach that I really started to recognize how easily I eliminate opportunities for myself. And so I think people don’t seek out coaches because they are eliminating opportunities for themselves and not recognizing that that’s what they’re doing.
[00:19:43] Steve Fretzin: Okay. Yeah. And I, what I’m seeing, I think goes to your point of, of either they don’t know it exists.
[00:19:49] Steve Fretzin: Or maybe they question its validity or they question its value, right? Because if, if they haven’t done it before, you know, like you’re, you know, it’s, I’ve never had a financial planner. So what’s, you know, what’s that person going to do for me more than what I can do with my own money or however, you know, the mindset is, uh, so, so again, it’s maybe lack of experience in something is the, you know, it negates it
[00:20:11] Akeisha Johnson: essentially.
[00:20:13] Akeisha Johnson: You know, I just have this thought. I think also people do not like to feel like they need to be fixed. And I think that for some people, they relate to having a coach or a therapist as if, oh, there’s, I’m going to admit that there’s something that’s an adequate with me or missing or lacking and me reaching out to that as a confirmation of it.
[00:20:34] Akeisha Johnson: And they just don’t want to do that when the truth about it. Right. And I quote this all the time. This is Robert Kiyosaki. Amateurs do it alone. Professionals do it with the coach. That’s just the truth. Right. The difference between Serena Williams from Compton and Serena Williams, multi Wimbledon winner is a coach.
[00:20:56] Steve Fretzin: Yeah. Great movie, by the way. Yeah. Um, so then what are the, the attributes or the, the, the things that if, sorry, someone’s listening to this and they go, you know what, uh, I’ve been thinking about getting a coach for myself to help me in X, Y, Z area, but I’ve hesitated. And so somebody says, you know, but I want to start thinking more seriously about that.
[00:21:20] Steve Fretzin: What attributes should they be looking for? What types of. Is it somebody that’s recommended? Is it somebody that they, they find online? What, how do you, how does somebody identify the right coach?
[00:21:33] Akeisha Johnson: Honestly, you know, I, I am a fan of a recommendation and referrals. Uh, if someone is just seeking someone online, I would say talk to at least three or four different people and really have something that you know you want to address and go to work on, right?
[00:21:52] Akeisha Johnson: Really what a coach effectively does is work on your performance and your results, right? If you don’t have anything that you’re, you’re just kind of like, oh, I just want to coach If you have someone to talk to, you probably need to go talk to a therapist. Right? Yeah, coaches are there to really help you with direction and you moving forward on whatever it is that you want.
[00:22:15] Akeisha Johnson: So the first thing I’d recommend is really look at what is it that you’re looking to accomplish one identified people who talk about or specialize are niched in that area and then ask for referrals like talk to your friends. Do you know a coach? Do you know somebody? Because most people do. And if you don’t, there’s so many resources out there, you know, there’s BetterHelp, there’s BART, there’s so many, there’s Yelp, there’s Google, so all these different, uh, places that you can go to to identify people.
[00:22:46] Steve Fretzin: But I, and I agree with you wholeheartedly in the sense of I need a lawyer that’s an expert in criminal, you know, or an expert in estate planning or, or real estate. You want to have someone that’s highly recommended and regarded in that area to save you a lot of hassle, save you a lot of trouble than, you know, having to go and talk to four or five online that you find online through Google.
[00:23:08] Steve Fretzin: So… Well, I think there’s a place for Google when it’s something especially personal, like a doctor. Like, I don’t necessarily want to find a doctor to do a surgery on me, for example, online. I’d rather hear some really positive stories from a friend that had his hip replaced. And he’s, and I’ve got to have that done.
[00:23:24] Steve Fretzin: And he’s telling me about, you know, how easy it was. And the doctor was great. Now simply made it and fast. He was walking that. Yeah. Let me talk
[00:23:31] Akeisha Johnson: to that doctor. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, there’s nothing. It’s called social proof, right? Yeah, you, you want someone to be able to, especially right? If there’s some issue with the person you want to turn back and say, Hey, such and such, this is what’s going on because it just adds like a level of accountability.
[00:23:50] Akeisha Johnson: And really, that’s one of the things that makes coaching really effective for people is the accountability. So the more accountability that you have, I think the better for you to get the results that you want. And
[00:24:01] Steve Fretzin: so how, how do coaches, and I’ll share my, you know, what I do, but I’d love to hear what you do.
[00:24:06] Steve Fretzin: How do you hold your clients accountable? What are the things that you’re, that you’re including to make sure that they are seeing the progress and you’re seeing the progress in them?
[00:24:17] Akeisha Johnson: Well, typically when I start with a client, I have them fill out some kind of form and I use that form as a guidepost, right?
[00:24:25] Akeisha Johnson: So that we have certain metrics. Milestones outcomes that we’re really looking to have accomplished and that we check back in with those things. Another thing is, is, you know, I like to create with my clients accountability isn’t, Oh, there’s something wrong. I’m holding you accountable for something. It really is your opportunity to report back on your performance and your commitment to something right.
[00:24:49] Akeisha Johnson: Oh, for me with my clients, it’s not like I’m holding you accountable for what you said you’re going to do because you’re in trouble. I’m holding you accountable to what you’re committed to so that you remember, this is something that you get to do. This is your opportunity to actually step into the person who you say you want to be, or even better your authentic self, as opposed to the person who was afraid before you had someone to support you and moving towards your dreams
[00:25:14] Steve Fretzin: and your goals.
[00:25:16] Steve Fretzin: What I, uh, what I do is, is very detailed in the sense of actually we’ve created a, uh, what I call a success journal. And so what they’re doing is journaling their, for example, business development activity, how many emails they’re sending out, how many meetings they’re having, how are those meetings converting to next steps, et cetera.
[00:25:34] Steve Fretzin: And so we agree on the goal. It’s not my goal that I’m giving them. It’s the, it’s the goal that we believe is high, but achievable. And then we break it down into day to day, week to week action so that when we get together for a one on ones. I have the numbers right in front of me. And that way, not only can I see that they’re on track, but also, and more importantly, Is from, at least in my space, Akisha, it’s, it’s about learning and improving, learning and improving, learning, improving.
[00:25:59] Steve Fretzin: So the idea that I see someone is converting 10 meetings into four next steps when we agree that, that really you should be starting 10 meetings into six next steps, for example. So there’s maybe a deficit that we identify that we wouldn’t really be able to identify without having those numbers in front of us.
[00:26:17] Steve Fretzin: And so I think there’s a, from a standpoint of, of the amount of activity and how are we learning from that activity to get better and better so that when, because I’m not someone that holds onto people forever, I work with them for a short period of time. The idea being that they internalize how to do things and then they’re off to the races or they can float into another program I have that’s like a, you know, more of a peer advisory round table type of system.
[00:26:38] Steve Fretzin: That’s one way that I do it, but what are a couple other things that you, that you, that you do to, to get, make sure they’re staying on track and getting to the numbers, getting to the goals that they want to achieve? Yeah,
[00:26:49] Akeisha Johnson: those are great metrics. I mean, for me, what I have my clients do is usually set metrics every three months or so.
[00:26:54] Akeisha Johnson: Right, where because, you know, you might change your mind and especially looking at what’s happening in your life, you know, what’s going on in life personally, economically and whatnot will change some of your performance metrics. So, very similar to that, I’ll have them actually come up with their own performance metrics like you said.
[00:27:14] Akeisha Johnson: Okay, every week you’re going to do this amount of meetings. Let’s look at how they convert. What do you want them to do? And then we go ahead and we check back in every week. And then after a three month period, we looked at where they’re at. Is this working? Do we want to re promise? What is it that we’re doing moving forward?
[00:27:32] Akeisha Johnson: Uh, very similar to you. I get to a certain point with my clients. If we reach where they want to go. We disengage. And a lot of times, like you said, there’s another metric that comes afterwards. And then I support my clients through that. So a lot of it is, it’s just really sitting down and saying, what do you want to have to, what do you want to have happen in this quarter?
[00:27:54] Akeisha Johnson: Um, one of the resources I use is, uh, Brian Moran’s 12 week year. It added the 12 week year really is basically breaking down. What is it that you want to accomplish in a quarterly system? Where you have those kinds of metrics, right? What are the things you’re going to be doing this week? What is it that, you know, what things are missing, what needs to happen for you to be able to convert so that people actually have it right in front of them.
[00:28:21] Akeisha Johnson: And then it’s scheduled into daily tasks and even hourly tasks. Uh, so they’re really present to what is it that they want to accomplish? I would say this, and I’m sure you would agree. Most people kind of have nice ideas and they think that’s enough. It’s not, it’s not right. You, you don’t they’re freestyling.
[00:28:46] Akeisha Johnson: No, you want a blueprint, right? You want to pay attention to the ground and all that kind of stuff. It’s this one
[00:28:53] Steve Fretzin: and execution’s the beast. I mean, that’s, that’s the thing. Lots of ideas and lots of people can say lots of things, but if they’re not executing on their dream, if they’re not executing on where they want to go in their life, then they’re, they’re really stuck.
[00:29:05] Steve Fretzin: They just don’t, they’re just, they’re just kind of pretending. That things are okay when in fact they’re not really happy with where they are because they haven’t executed. That’s really the toughest part.
[00:29:14] Akeisha Johnson: Yeah, it’s kind of, I like to think of it as a personal GPS. Right. Like, okay, sometimes you do, especially I’m in California.
[00:29:22] Akeisha Johnson: Right. So this is a great place to just get in your car and drive. Right. Because the state is huge. Right. And getting in a car and just driving around, you can have some cool adventures. But if you actually know. I’m going from San Francisco to Napa and in between San Francisco and Napa, I’m going to stop off in, um, you know, uh, a bay and go have oysters and whatnot.
[00:29:45] Akeisha Johnson: It’s clear you actually know where you’re going. What I would say is exactly those metrics that you’re talking about is the difference between you actually steering the wheel and the wind blowing your boat.
[00:29:58] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, and I think that there’s a lot of boats being blown and not enough people with the right direction and, and the other part that they don’t realize.
[00:30:06] Steve Fretzin: And I see this, you know, in lawyers all the time is how much time they’re really wasting not being their best versions in the sense from my space. And you can say in yours. Um, they’re out networking, they’re out speaking, they’re out writing, they’re doing all these things to develop business, to develop, um, their brand, et cetera.
[00:30:26] Steve Fretzin: But it’s all that boat floating around. It’s not focused. It’s not centered. There’s no GPS. And they’re not doing things as, um, efficiently because there’s lack of process and structure and methodology that I provide, for example, and, and then, you know, and they come to me and they might already be doing well, but it’s, it’s like, and I’ve heard, you know, clients say just, just from, from just effort, just a lot of effort and a lot of time.
[00:30:51] Steve Fretzin: And that’s, that’s not necessarily the best for some people that works for others. I think. You know, figure it out early and figure it out by some with working with someone like me or you or a mentor that has done it before. And I’m continually trying to hook my clients up, not with coaches, but with other lawyers that have done it before they did it.
[00:31:10] Steve Fretzin: So, you know, you’re looking at your five people. You want to go to 10? Well, here’s a lawyer that has 10 people that’s already done it. So let’s talk with that. It’s in addition to me. Let’s talk with that lawyer. And, and get some advice, you know, about how do you scale like that? So there’s a lot of different ways to sort of skin the cat, but it’s, it’s, uh, it takes a village.
[00:31:26] Steve Fretzin: I don’t think people should be looking to do everything on their own.
[00:31:29] Akeisha Johnson: You know, there’s the African power, right? Alone, you can go fast together. You go far. Yeah. But I hear you talk and I, I love that you’re saying that, you know, one of the things that I think, especially right, cause I, I have, uh, I’ve worked with attorneys as clients is people don’t realize how important intention is.
[00:31:51] Akeisha Johnson: Right. And that intention isn’t just like a nice idea. It actually is something that you want to have applicable and you want to be able to gauge. Did this happen or did this not happen? Right. Like a lot of times when I start off with clients, I’ll ask them questions. You know, what do you want to accomplish in your business over the next three months?
[00:32:11] Akeisha Johnson: And they’ll say, oh, I want to be happy and, you know, able to pay my bills. Okay. That tells me nothing. Right. What does happiness look like as a demonstration, paying your bills? What’s the number that would have him pay your bills? What bills do you have that are outstanding? What, you know, what debts do you have that haven’t been, you know, attended to their life?
[00:32:34] Akeisha Johnson: Oh, right. It’s like, this is real life, right? Like, this to
[00:32:46] Akeisha Johnson: people all the time. You know, we spent all these years as young people and teenagers wanting to be adults. And now that we’re here, we’re just running away from it. But you know, what makes adulthood pretty cool is when you actually apply intention to it and actually put just a couple of structures in place.
[00:33:05] Akeisha Johnson: Right. I think, Oh, look, I have this on my wall, right? It’s for atomic habits. You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You rise to the level of your systems. Yeah,
[00:33:13] Steve Fretzin: that’s a wonderful atomic habits is fantastic. So, uh, and I lied, I, and there’s a video on YouTube I’ve mentioned before that’s like 35 minutes.
[00:33:22] Steve Fretzin: So if you aren’t going to ever buy the book, but you want to, you hack, like go to YouTube and type in atomic habits, right? Pretty good way to go.
[00:33:30] Akeisha Johnson: No, I’ve heard of that. You know, I, you know, probably because of what we both do, right? I’ve, I’ve had people say this to me, God, he sure did with quotes. And I was like, because I read all the time, right?
[00:33:42] Akeisha Johnson: Probably I’m going through about a book a week. Either, especially now with audio book is a whole nother game changer, right? But it’s really important to, for you to constantly bring in more information to give you more systems and tools, right? Like just because you hit 30 doesn’t mean adulthood is over, right?
[00:34:03] Akeisha Johnson: Like you constantly have to learn new ways to adult. Because the world is constantly changing around us and to be able to actually continue to navigate through this world means that we need more resources, more tools and what not to help us organize what this whole thing is. And I think that people discount that, especially people like attorneys, because it takes so much to even get a jurist doctorate, right?
[00:34:30] Akeisha Johnson: All that reading, all that education, all that studying. All that writing, right? It takes, so you feel like, Oh, there’s not more I have to apply, but there is more.
[00:34:41] Steve Fretzin: Yeah, it doesn’t end. It’s a never ending journey. So listen, I want to wrap things up. Uh, and again, thank you so much for, for coming on the show and sharing your wisdom.
[00:34:49] Steve Fretzin: And we’re going to get your digits in a minute, but the game changing book that you put forth that was, is called the big leap. And I’d love for you just to, to give us a quick little rundown on, on that.
[00:35:00] Akeisha Johnson: You know, the reason why I love this book is that he distinguishes basically what happens when it feels like as soon as you get close to where you want to get to, things just fall apart, and he calls it hitting your upper limit.
[00:35:14] Akeisha Johnson: And it basically is when you are being confronted with something that you don’t understand that tells you that you can’t get to that next level, right? It’s kind of like penetrating the atmosphere, right? When they talk about rockets leaving Earth, what happens, right? It gets hot, there’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of friction, right?
[00:35:35] Akeisha Johnson: Sometimes the spaceships start to, there’s parts of the spaceship that start to burn off and fall away. The same thing happens to people when they are elevating themselves and getting themselves to new levels, and most people don’t understand that that’s what’s happening, and that’s part of the process.
[00:35:53] Akeisha Johnson: There’s nothing wrong. It doesn’t mean to back off. It doesn’t mean to quit. It does mean that you need to surrender so that you can penetrate to that next level, and then once you’re up there, very similar to a rocket ship, they say it’s like being in heaven, right? All of a sudden, there’s this peace. And you have the spaciousness and then all of a sudden, so many things are available to you.
[00:36:15] Akeisha Johnson: Very similar. And that’s what he talks about in the book. And so I like to give that to my clients, especially when they start freaking out the next level. Yeah.
[00:36:26] Steve Fretzin: And, uh, before we wrap up, I just want to thank our wonderful sponsors of the show. We’ve got Practice Panther, LegalEase Marketing, and of course MoneyPenny all helping you to automate and grow business and save time.
[00:36:39] Steve Fretzin: Akisha, if people want to reach out to you and ask you about your coaching or they just want to connect with you on LinkedIn or anything like that, what’s the best way for them to reach out?
[00:36:47] Akeisha Johnson: Well, definitely you can directly hit me up on LinkedIn. I’m pretty responsive. So I’m a Keisha Johnson. A. K. E. I. S.
[00:36:56] Akeisha Johnson: H. A. Johnson J. O. H. and S. O. N. and then my website is an inspired story. So W. W. W. and A. N. I. N. S. P. I. R. E. D. S. T. O. Y. S. T. O. R. Y. Dot com and inspired story and yeah, I’d love to hear from you and let’s keep the conversation going. Yeah,
[00:37:17] Steve Fretzin: for sure. And again, I hope this was helpful to everybody listening and Not only, you know, considering what, what coaching is, how to select a coach, what coaching can do when it’s, you know, used properly.
[00:37:28] Steve Fretzin: And when you really go in with an open mind and a willingness to, to be not only vulnerable, but also willing to, you know, let go a little bit and, and be open to it and then good things can happen. That’s been my experience. Listen, everybody. As you know, it’s all about helping you to be that lawyer, someone who’s confident, organized and a skilled rainmaker.
[00:37:46] Steve Fretzin: Take care, everybody. Be safe. Be well. We’ll talk again soon.
[00:37:53] Narrator: Thanks for listening to Be That Lawyer. Life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve’s website Fretzin. com for additional information and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today’s episode, check out today’s show notes.
[00:38:16] Akeisha Johnson: It’s…