Lindsey Corbin: Delegation Solutions for Your Law Firm

In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Lindsey Corbin discuss:

  • What lawyers struggle with when delegating.
  • Why writing processes will change your firm.
  • The challenge of letting go.
  • The top 5 things lawyers need to delegate.

Key Takeaways:

  • If you are a lawyer and are doing work that someone can be doing at a fraction of the cost, you should not be doing those things.
  • You need to track a day (or three) to find what is delegatable. There is more than you think.
  • We always want to do the things we love, and, especially for control freaks, giving up those things can be hard. But once you trust the process, it works.
  • Be smart about your delegation. You do not need to hire a bunch of different people at top prices and break the bank.

“If you track everything that you’re doing, you can start to figure out where some of your pain points are. Most of those pain points can likely be solved with technology, or another workflow management system.” —  Lindsey Corbin

Connect with Lindsey Corbin:  

Website: https://delegate.legal/

Email: lindsey@delegate.legal

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-corbin/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/delegate.legal/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/delegatelegal

Thank you to our Sponsors!

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Connect with Steve Fretzin:

LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin

Twitter: @stevefretzin

Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.

Website: Fretzin.com

Email: Steve@Fretzin.com

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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

 

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

delegate, lawyer, paralegal, people, clients, legalese, attorney, firm, business, lindsey, legal, automated, marketing, easy, billing, virtual assistant, helping, calendar, oversaw, stephen covey

SPEAKERS

Narrator, Lindsay Corbin, Steve Fretzin, Jordan Ostroff

 

Lindsay Corbin  [00:01]

If you track everything that you’re doing, you can start to figure out where some of your pain points are. Most of those pain points can likely be solved with technology or another workflow management system.

 

Narrator  [00:19]

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.

 

Steve Fretzin  [00:41]

Hey, everybody, welcome to be that lawyer. So good to have you back with me. This show has been so much fun to do. But more importantly, you know, episodes of great interviews, great takeaways, great laughs great time, and hopefully helping you to be that lawyer, someone who’s competent, organized and a skilled Rainmaker. One of the things I just mentioned is organized. And I think that’s going to be a great lead into our guest today, Lindsey, who I’m going to talk about in a minute and introduce her in a minute. But Hi, Lindsay, how are you?

 

Lindsay Corbin  [01:10]

Hi, good. How are you? Thanks for having me.

 

Steve Fretzin  [01:12]

Yeah, good. Good to have you. Good to be here with you. Wouldn’t be the same show without our sponsors, legalese marketing and money, Penny, thank them for being awesome. And check them out, go to money, Penny and check them out online, go to legalese. Check them out, see what they’re up to. Lots of lots of great places to go there and people to talk to the quote that Lindsey gave me and thank you so much for that it’s begin with the end in mind. And that’s an old one from Stephen Covey. And and that goes back to maybe like my 20, so 100 years ago. But why? First of all, why did you submit that quote? What does that quote mean to you?

 

Lindsay Corbin  [01:47]

So what I say it is an old quote, when I was in grade school in high school, my dad was a successful entrepreneur. And he really believed in Stephen Covey philosophies. And he actually sent me to Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People training, when I was in college, and I was I had to read, there’s a teenage book for it, I had to go to the training for it. I mean, this is the world that I grew up in. And that, in particular, has really resonated with me, as I, you know, went on my own entrepreneurial journey, and really think if you don’t begin something with the end in mind, then how do you know what your end goal is? Why are you doing it if you don’t know what your desired outcome is?

 

Steve Fretzin  [02:29]

Yeah, I think we all sort of are winging it these days, when in reality, having a plan, having a goal working towards the goal. And I think all of the newest, like books on habits and time management, and all the different, it’s all talking about, you can have a goal, but it’s all about incremental steps and process, instruct and structure to get to that goal. I can say a million dollars and put that up here. But if I don’t have a way of getting there, or if I don’t have that really planned and charted out, then it’s just a number. It’s a number I made up and it’s sitting out there. And it’s just hanging over my head and not necessarily in a good way. So I think that the end in mind is important. And then we can maybe work backwards from there, and try to then work through how we’re going to actually make that happen, right?

 

Lindsay Corbin  [03:15]

That’s exactly right. So when I started, that was my end goal is I came out of the gate, knowing what I wanted to do with my life, knowing how I wanted to change it, and working backwards. So when I’m making decisions, I’m backing into that same goal. So if it’s a decision that I need to generate more revenue, or I need to look at my team or you know, do something differently, spend $1, that maybe I wasn’t otherwise going to spend or the reverse of that all to get to that end goal. Yeah.

 

Steve Fretzin  [03:45]

I think if I tried to give my 15 year old little Stephen Covey information, I think I have to have a significant bribe to go along with that with reading something that would be educational, helpful to him in his life. But anyway, work in progress. The teenagers are a work in progress. So Lindsay, you’re the CEO of delegate legal? Would you mind giving us a little background? Because I believe you’re also a you were a lawyer for many years. Correct.

 

Lindsay Corbin  [04:11]

So I was not a lawyer. I know, that’s okay. I have been apparently go for 16 years, specializing in IP specifically. So trademark is my niche. And I’ve been in big law. I’ve been in corporations. I actually spent four and a half years in private equity, which was a really fascinating sort of part of my career and doing a ton of deals, managing, you know, I oversaw our contracts and our franchising, and so that I gained a ton of experience from there, but then that also gave me the real energy to go start my own thing. Being the private equity world being in those deals, knowing what was going on was a great springboard for me to start delegate legal.

 

Steve Fretzin  [04:53]

Yeah. So you know, here, you’re probably the one that people were delegating to. Right and then To some degree,

 

Lindsay Corbin  [05:01]

yeah, so I was number two on a legal team. And I thankfully had an amazing general counsel who really trusted me to run the show. So I actually oversaw about 500, domestic and international franchisees, like all of our litigation, our IP portfolio, so I was actually delegating out, I was doing some of the work myself, but I also had a bench of 34, outside counsel that I worked with on a semi regular basis to try and manage all the work. And the team has since grown. But when I was there, it was the two of us. Well, you’re making all the lawyers look bad

 

Steve Fretzin  [05:35]

now. They’re all they’re all complaining about having to you know, having a delegate to a couple associates, you’re doing it. So then what was the impetus for starting delegate legal like, what what was the mindset that the brainchild I should say behind that?

 

Lindsay Corbin  [05:50]

Right, the pandemic, I mean, as you’d expect, so, you know, we all got sent home in March of 2020. And I started working from home and was really sort of watching what my firm was doing, seeing how my role was changing. And also knew that going back to Office, life wasn’t something that interested me, I have two kids, I’m a single parent now. And I needed to be available, I needed to manage all of that, while still making money. And so the idea for delegate was really, it came to me overnight. Obviously, I’m one of those people that lays in bed and just comes up with things. But I received a phone call from a colleague who said, Hey, we have an attorney that needs some paralegal help. Do you have any bandwidth? And I went? Sure. And so I just started sort of helping on the side and realizing, at the same time doing my research to figure out if there was a market for this, was it just one person that needed help? Or were there a ton of attorneys that can really use an outsourced senior paralegal. And I discovered this whole market. And so I worked really diligently to build the business. And so we started to grow my team. And it’s just continued to evolve. Yeah.

 

Steve Fretzin  [07:04]

So then, what are the things that you identify? Being in the legal space and dealing with delegation? What a lawyer struggle with mostly around delegation, I’ll throw my two cents in, but I want to hear yours first.

 

Lindsay Corbin  [07:18]

Sure. So it’s really things that you don’t think about until you realize it right correspondents, think about sending that cover letter to your client, think about sending them about an upcoming deadline. You know, that’s just really easy, basic things. But then you can get a little bit more high level and think about drafting just every document. Right? So if you you know, and of course, the attorney is overseeing their paralegal or their staff the whole time. But that’s really easy. So you know, drafting, setup, discovery, initial disclosures, you know, things that are likely templates, or otherwise formulaic, I understand in the bankruptcy space, there’s a lot of just fill in the blank form. So when you really break it down, do the things that the attorney is handling and take it step by step, there are probably 50% or more of those things that a paralegal can easily do with Attorney oversight.

 

Steve Fretzin  [08:17]

Yeah, and I don’t want to necessarily put a specific number to it. But the general rule of thumb is if you’re a lawyer, and you’re charging, let’s say, on the low end, 300, on the high end, 1000. And you’re doing work that someone else can be doing at 2040 60 $100 an hour, that’s like a signal, that’s a signal saying, you’re doing stuff that you should not be doing, right. And then the lawyers gonna say, Well, wait a second. And by the time I bring someone in and train them and teach them and all that, I wouldn’t just do it myself. That sounds like a lawyer. I did like, like my lawyer voice. I don’t know if that’s a lawyer voice or not. But anyway, I tried.

 

Lindsay Corbin  [08:52]

Yeah, that’s exactly right. You know, it’s the training and, you know, getting them up to speed. But what I would say is seasoned, especially seasoned small firms, and solo practitioners will tell you that the first time you write those processes will change your firm, right? And you don’t actually I say you in the royal sense, but it doesn’t have to be you, you can hire an assistant, where if you want to dictate how you want things done, they’ll type that up for you. That’s a much more efficient use of your time than sitting there and doing it yourself. And so the first thing that we like to do is we really like for one of our clients, or any attorney general, write down everything you work on in about three or four days, right? Because one day might not be reflective of everything, but a few days will be and look at that list. And that list is probably pretty dramatic and pretty overhead intensive when you really sit down and get to the nuts and bolts. And so then you start to look at what’s on that list. Why don’t those thing could you have done at your $300 An hour rate that’s way more useful to your bottom line. And then something else that can easily be done by it can be delegated.

 

Steve Fretzin  [10:04]

Yeah. So I think that we don’t want to take the time. And I don’t know if it’s because we’re not thinking about it or because we’re inherently lazy or whatever. We don’t want to deal with it. But the reality is, if we don’t track our day, or two or three, we’re really not going to be able to isolate the things that are delegated. Well, we’re just, we’re just going to have another day and another day and another day, right. Once we do that, and I’ve had a number of clients do that, and it’s eye opening, it’s absolutely eye opening, I’ll just give you two quick stories. Okay. One was an estate planner, who we identified over the course of a day, two hours of copies, making copies working on the machine, working the copier back and forth, back and forth, two hours a day. So if we do the math on just that alone, it’s basically an extra week, a month, he would have every month if he just stopped doing copies. By the way, first thing we did Adam, stop making copies. You have an assistant, that’s what she should be doing. You’re done with cat, you’re no longer Mr. Cat. And then the other one was really interesting. I had a client who was staying up till about two in the morning, and then sleeping till like 830 or nine, then going, he had something else to do in the morning, spiritually, and then would get to the office at 10 3011. And that’s when he would start his day. And he’s wondering, Geez, why am I always behind? Now, that isn’t necessarily a delegate thing. That’s like, you need to go to sleep thing. Yeah, but it’s still tracking the time isolated, that there’s a shift that needed to happen for this person to get his life in order. And of course, he didn’t listen to me. And it all went. You know, people, people in their habits. Very tough. Very tough to break. Yep. So let me ask you, before we get into my next question, which is going to really relate to solutions for how to better delegate? Is there anything that you found that was as crazy or weird is what I’ve kind of shared? Do you have a like your own story of like, this happened?

 

Lindsay Corbin  [11:59]

So I don’t know that I have any one specific situation. But the common theme is that they don’t teach lawyers how to be business owners. And I’m sure you see that a lot. Oh, yeah. And so yep. So they teach you how to practice law? Well, I would even argue, they teach you how to think they don’t necessarily teach you how to practice, which you then develop with experience, but the theme is always, you know, one person for themselves. And so it’s thinking about, I have to do all the things I have to, you know, running my practice is really second to doing all the things. And I see that every firm we talked to struggles with that. They’re just they’re

 

Steve Fretzin  [12:43]

just doers, like their lawyers are doers. Yeah, just get it done maca. You know? Yeah, I sometimes feel that way too. Like, I just, I want to knock it out, I could ask someone to do it, or I could, you know, bother my teenager to help me or whatever, and just do it. I think that’s sort of what’s happening in the law practice. Right. And

 

Lindsay Corbin  [13:01]

I think there’s a time and place for that. I mean, even as a business owner, there are definitely things that I just get done, that somebody on my team can easily handle, but I’m just gonna do it. And I think that’s okay. But I think the balance is remembering that that might be okay, one time, it’s not, okay. 10 times, because those other nine times, you’re probably not using your energy and your you know, brainpower or whatever it is to actually generate business to actually create the business, not just get the task done. Yeah,

 

Steve Fretzin  [13:31]

yeah, it’s a real challenge to let go to, I think we’re just we just hold on to things, especially things that we know, and things that we’ve always done. If you know, if there’s something you’ve always done to let go of it is really, really hard. For me, it’s I love letting go of things that I just that I just put, I hate them. So that’s easy, like delegating my lawn work or delegating, you know, who’s going to drive my son. So I love delegating that. Something that I’m just used to doing, because I’ve done it for so long, that makes it really tricky. And I’m a bit of a control freak, too. Right? So when you’re a control freak, and you just do it yourself, that makes it really tough. And I’ve had to really break a lot of habits to get organized, to get rid of paper to delegate my marketing delegate, you know, my administrative tasks, but I know it’s the only way to go like without that I’m just not going to be doing what I love, which is working with my clients. That’s my passion and doing these shows. I love doing the shows, I love working with clients and other stuff. You know, it’s it’s negligible to me if I if I never saw it again, I’d be thrilled. So

 

Lindsay Corbin  [14:34]

yeah, and I think that’s normal. I think that that is completely normal. You know, I

 

Steve Fretzin  [14:38]

was worried I wasn’t I think no, I think

 

Jordan Ostroff  [14:41]

that’s completely normal. Right? We want to do the things we love. You know, when I come in one of the things I love to do is just take over which can be overwhelming for control freaks, I get that. I’m also a control freak, but and that’s part of why I come in and can take over, but once you can trust the process It works. legalese marketing is not your traditional marketing vendor. Instead, we’re a true fractional cmo that helps you save time and spend your money the right way to build the practice of your dreams. We help through the entire process from customizing your intake system to driving leads, and even getting more reviews afterwards, schedule your free call at legalese marketing.com.

 

Steve Fretzin  [15:24]

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[15:28]

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Steve Fretzin  [15:41]

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[15:48]

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Steve Fretzin  [16:02]

Thanks. Yeah, so we’ve got I’ve got you sort of laid up with a question that I prepared you for like, just to let you know, like, you know, this is really what I wanted to cover today. And you were 100% on board with it. What are the top five things that lawyers need to delegate? Let’s get into that. So what would not what’s number one? Number one is

 

Lindsay Corbin  [16:21]

drafting your correspondence but doing it yourself? Yeah, you don’t need to draft that letter. And you probably have unless it’s a, you know, particular settlement letters, something that’s very nuanced, that doesn’t count. But you do not need to be the one to stick that cover letter in your clients, you know, hard copies that you’re sending them or, you know, in the trademark sense, reporting, letters, due date reminders, to stop doing that, just just stop. The second thing I would say is delegate your process management, right. So we briefly touched on this idea that if you track everything that you’re doing, you can start to figure out where some of your pain points are. Most of those pain points can likely be solved with technology, or another workflow management system. You know, project management, you know, billing automation, there are these great systems that will connect all of your software’s together. So if you click a button here, that happens in three other spots, right, that’s a time saver. And so getting some of that technology building out a good tech stack, which is never finished, by the way people get caught up in this idea that they have the perfect system, perfect group of technology, and then a new software, I’ll come out and they’ll blow it up, which is totally normal and fine. So it’s just continuing to build that and develop that.

 

Steve Fretzin  [17:40]

Now. Now, let me ask you, though, before we move on, is it okay to delegate to an assistant or paralegal or even an associate that might be more tech savvy than you to delegate? either researching and finding that automation researching and actually installing or working to get trained up on that automation on that case management that time management or software? Is that okay to do? Or is that is that not good for a lawyer to do?

 

Lindsay Corbin  [18:08]

I think it’s ideal for a lawyer to do, because they’re always there’s always somebody that’s smarter than you at something. So in this case, there are let’s not get carried away. But there are always consultants, they’re always you know, people who specialize in just doing this. And what’s likely can happen is, if you’ve got an assistant that you really enjoy working with, make them your subject matter expert, go to them and say, Hey, this is what I want to do. Can you know, I think there’s a consultant you can work with. But can you also look at the software, because ideally, I want you to drive this project. But this is what we need to do to evolve the firm. So totally normal.

 

Steve Fretzin  [18:47]

But at some point that does at some point, though, the lawyer needs to get trained on it just so he or she knows how it’s working, when it’s we don’t want to just completely ignore it, that you need to get trained on it. But maybe you’re not the one that’s going to take it from the beginning, if you can hand it off to someone you trust,

 

Lindsay Corbin  [19:02]

right. So by the time it gets to the lawyer, it will likely be set up and the lawyer will just need to know hey, here’s what it is. Here’s what it does. And when you click these three buttons, it’ll work. Okay, that’s easy way to do on that one. And then the next to kind of go hand in hand, which are quit entering your own time. Just stop that is the biggest time suck that so many lawyers do because they typically will come out of law school, they’ll go to a firm whatever they’re going to do, and they know they have to go into their system and and put in their time entry stop, put it into an Excel folder handwrite it somewhere put it dictate it. You know, I think this artists dictation has really gone away. But I used to transcribe for all of my attorneys when I first started working for them, and I think it’s genius. Voice Memos are so easy to do. So stop putting your time in your system. Let somebody else do that. And then the second follow up to that is your billing. If you are sending out your own bill, you are probably losing three to four hours a month just on sending out your bills. And I’ll just say, I’m completely guilty of this right when I started my company, I was doing all of my own billing. And I couldn’t figure out why I was losing so much time. And I dreaded the end of the month, the first of the month, like that was such a pain point. So what did I do get a better system? Now we’ve got a workflow that helps us with our billing makes it way more efficient. So stop doing your billing. Yeah,

 

Steve Fretzin  [20:31]

let me let me just add that if you’re a small, firm or solo and you don’t have a bookkeeper, you don’t have someone that’s handling your invoicing your bookkeeping, or have that automated in some way, shape, or form, if you’re, you know, taking in cheques and depositing them and actually going to the bank, which I don’t even think that’s a thing anymore, but occasionally I get a cheque and I think I just take a picture of it and throw it in my phone, and it’s done. But I’m getting all my payments, I would say 95% of all of the checks I get, or all of the payments I get are automated through Ach, they’re automated through credit card. And so being like is paper free as possible not having to worry about loss checks or loss, or not depositing them and then then I gotta send it to my bookkeeper and all that rigmarole. It’s all automated now. So I think we really want to get on that bandwagon is especially around billing and collections and things like that.

 

Lindsay Corbin  [21:23]

Definitely, definitely. And I think that the amount of time that that will free up will probably be mind blowing to some people that are listening.

 

Steve Fretzin  [21:31]

So so as you’re tracking it, and you realize it’s it’s, you know, three hours a week here and four hours a week there, and it adds up and you realize, yeah, I got 20 hours a week, all wrapped up in these administrative tasks. Well, that’s all that’s all billable hours. That’s all business development time, in my opinion. But so so yeah, we got to look at that stuff really good. So far. Let’s keep the train rolling.

 

Lindsay Corbin  [21:54]

Yep. And so then, the last one is a kind of a lot, which would really be your scheduling or your calendaring, right, which has a couple of components to it, you know, a virtual assistant could be on the frontlines for you calendar software. This is the one that I think is the most genius thing we’ve had in recent years when it comes to managing things. And I can’t get a lot of attorneys on board with it. And I’m not sure why. And then

 

Steve Fretzin  [22:20]

having an answering service. God, it’s crazy. So I get I get like if you’re at a big firm, if you’re a big firm attorney, or even at a mid market firm, and they’ve got all kinds of privacy and security and web issues and stuff, like it’s gonna be tough to do. But if you’re a solo or small, firm, lawyer, and you’re not automating your calendar, I’m telling you, that’s insane. Because I will tell you, from my perspective, it has been an absolute game changer for me. So I’m working through Calendly, which then connects to law Maddix. So I have now custom links that people click, it’s 50 minutes, it’s 30 minutes goes right into my calendar, they only see times that I want them to see they book it get a notice. I have people filling out forms like you have to fill out a form Lindsey to get into this broadcast, right? Nobody gets to my podcast and get scheduled with me until they fill out a form that gives me what I need to be a decent interview, I guess. So this I’m so on in agreement with you on number five about these calendar automations have been amazing.

 

Lindsay Corbin  [23:23]

Yeah, they have it Yeah, I also have several events. And keeping with our theme, your virtual assistant can actually set it up for you. So you can delegate out how you want your calendar set up. So when you do want unique links, or forms or payment, you can actually accept payments before the client book, which shouldn’t be lost if you aren’t charging. And I’m sure you already tell your clients this anyway, if you’re not charging for that initial consultation, you need to start because that you can do that through Calendly. Right. So all of these things can really just free up, you know, nothing grinds my gears more than when somebody says, Well, I have these three dates. And these three times if any of this work for you know, send me your calendar link. And I will tell you what works for me. And if none of those work, then I’m happy to offer alternatives. But let’s start with the basics.

 

Steve Fretzin  [24:14]

Yeah. And just to clarify to, you know, when you’re charging for initial consultation, that’s going to be for certain people in certain practice areas in certain situations, right. So if I’m meeting somebody, let’s say for a divorce consultation, and I’m incredibly busy, you know, and I want to get that to make sure they show up and to make sure that you know this meeting happens. You can do something like that through the system. But if you’re meeting with a general counsel at a big company, right now, you know, and it’s the meeting that you want to have to get that business you’re not going to obviously charge for that. Correct, but if you do it if you do, that’s impressive. Just put it out there if you could pull that off. I would love to hear how it happened and maybe we can build it into the sales pre sales selling model. Yeah. So, really interesting. So a number of really solid parts of a lawyer’s day that can be delegated should be delegated no questions about it, what are some of the soft, non lawyer things that that also either can be delegated or need to be sort of, like, routed out, because there’s a lot of things that happen during a day that maybe aren’t about, you know, billing, they’re not about the process. They’re not about, you know, a time, you know, in billing and all that what what would be what would be some things that you would also like them to delegate?

 

Lindsay Corbin  [25:34]

Well, for a long time, I delegated my laundry, which isn’t necessarily a work thing, but there are services now. They’ll pick it up, back, same day, super easy, like 50 bucks a week, right? So think about paying that 50 bucks, but if it got you your time back from doing your laundry, how much more money you could be making. And that’s just delete, and something that’s easy. You know, I know a lot of people, you know, they will delegate out sort of clients get, right, if you are working on your business development, and you want to send out a card for a cup of coffee, right? Your Virtual Assistant can do that you can go to her and say, Hey, here’s my client roster, can you please send everybody a $10 coffee card with a polite, no, you know, give her the template, text, whatever, that’s easy. And that’s actually, you know, leading on business development. You know, we really want attorneys to think about the things that make them the most happy. So if they love doing business development, if that’s their jam, if they want to be every networking event, or you know, board meeting or whatever, they can, but then think about what you can delegate out for everything else. And it’s totally doable.

 

Steve Fretzin  [26:46]

Yeah. And I’ll add a big one to the list two, and that’s marketing, and just a shout out to legalese marketing. So I have a limited bandwidth of my time, just like every lawyer does. So the idea that I have to get my newsletter put together and get it out, I have to get my social media together, get it out, I have to get my website updated, I need to create a graphic, I need to get my podcast information in this so that it comes it goes out at certain times. So all of these things are relying upon me. But if I have a company like legalese marketing, or a virtual assistant, or someone in house or not, to handle that stuff, that’s going to be so such a relief. Even writers, there are legal writers that, you know, you give them the topic and give them kind of what you want out of it, they write it for you. And you know, maybe all you have to do is proof it Alright, well, that took 10 minutes. And now you’ve got a great article that you can put on your website or your blog. So it’s like, it’s really an endless number of things that can be delegated. It’s just a matter of identifying again, what you’re doing what you really should be doing. And then how do we delegate and get rid of that stuff? That to someone else that can handle it?

 

Lindsay Corbin  [27:57]

That’s right, right. That’s right. Yeah, marketing is a big one, for sure. You know, social media is such a time suck. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, what’s the point, so you want to look for subject matter experts, as well. And they don’t all have to break the bank, I want to be a little mindful that we’re sort of saying go hire all these people to do all these things. And maybe that’s true, but also be smart about it. And it doesn’t have you don’t have to have the $3,000 a month social media consultant, you can likely find and what I did for a long time was I had a fresh college grad who knew social media really well. And she helped me and my team, which was a lot less expensive. So So work smarter, not harder.

 

Steve Fretzin  [28:38]

You know, a good idea too, is talk to people that either seem organized or are organized that are your friends, ask them what are they doing? How are they managing that and get that kind of get some some ideas there? But I think we’re giving lots of ideas, that there are virtual assistants there are you No paralegals, there are marketing agencies, there are writers there are people just just about anything for anyone that can be delegated these days and or automated, right? So the idea that you’re just sitting like in your cave, you know, banging rocks together trying to you know, make fire like, right, that’s that we have to look to the to what’s happening now, in real time that that the times have changed, and there’s opportunities to really make more money than you ever have, have more free time than you’ve ever had. But you have to get the right support in place. That’s right. 100%. So let me ask you real quick about your game changing book and it already goes to what your father put you through, which was the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Yep. Is this sort of like a lost art? Like efficiency, like our kids aren’t learning this? Are they?

 

Lindsay Corbin  [29:43]

My kids aren’t? Well, maybe they are through me, but no, I think it is a lost art. I think that, you know, we’re really getting hung up on time management and you know how we can make things more efficient but we’re losing this art of So, how to collaborate successfully, how to work with other people how to, you know, manage relationships. And so, you know, the first. So that’s obviously the seven habits and we’re not going to go to all seven. But the other one that I really love is be proactive, which sounds really simplistic. But when you look at it from a business sense, you’re you’re being proactive, you’re putting yourself out there you are controlling what you can control. You know, I grew up in a house where my mom would always say, you know, what’s your circle of influence? What can you control? And what’s outside of that circle that you just have to let go? And as an adult, I still work through that, you know, as a business owner, as a mom, you know, what’s within my control and what’s not?

 

Steve Fretzin  [30:45]

Yeah, and that’s a great, great way to kind of end our segment if people want to reach out to Lindsey and hear more about delegate legal first of all, what is delegate legal Second of all, how they get in touch with you,

 

Lindsay Corbin  [30:55]

sir? So delegate legal is a virtual paralegal firm. We specialize in trademarks and IP in general but we also work with contracts in corporate work. So in corporations entity formation, things like that. My email is Lindsey at delegate dot legal, it’s really easy. One of those, you know, you know, fun new top gTLDs look that got legal there. But yeah, Lindsey, a delegate got legal.

 

Steve Fretzin  [31:19]

Awesome. And we’ll have all that information in the show notes. Thanks so much for being my guest and for sharing your wisdom. I think we got a number of really well pinpointed areas of delegation that I think came out of our conversation today. And I hope that people listening, maybe found one or two that they can take when Oh my God, that’s when I’m, you know, I’m still doing my own, you know, time or I’m still, you know, not automating my schedule or whatever. And, you know, just so you guys know, Calendly and acuity are two of the top ones for getting your your calendar scheduled. So, but thanks again for being on the show and taking your time to kind of educate us on delegation best practices.

 

Lindsay Corbin  [31:58]

Thank you for having me.

 

Steve Fretzin  [31:59]

If you’re enjoying the show you enjoy the guests. You’re getting good value out of it. Don’t keep it a secret go on your little apple phone, say hey, I liked the show. Tell us why put a five star rating do something to help me help you and help other lawyers to be that lawyer. Someone who’s competent organized the skilled Rainmaker. That’s a pretty good segue. Have a great day everybody be well be safe. We’ll talk again soon.

 

Narrator  [32:26]

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