#23 - If Lawyers Can Change, So Can You

In this episode, Chelsea Williams reflects on key lessons from a recent legal industry event, featuring insights from keynote speaker James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. Drawing connections between personal finance, business ownership, and the power of small daily habits, Chelsea emphasizes how law firm owners—and anyone—can transform their financial story. 

Whether you’re a business owner, a parent, or just trying to get a handle on your finances, this episode offers advice for building the future you want.

Key Highlights:

1. How the science of habits can fuel financial success for the long term.
2. The power of small, consistent steps toward achieving your "big, hairy, audacious goals" (BHAG).
3. Why AI is an opportunity—not a threat—for law firm owners.
4. The critical shift law firms made during COVID and what it means for the future of legal services.
5. Embracing motivation as a daily practice to stay on track financially and professionally.

Dive into the conversation and learn how to use intentional habits to shape your future!

Always and Never About Money Episode Links:
Video Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@MoneyMasteryWithChelsea
Socials: https://linktr.ee/the_money_whisper
Money Mastery Website: www.moneymastery.work
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlwaysandNeverMoney/

Transcript

  Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of always and never about the money. So the first business that I built caters to law firm owners. So look, if you don't own a business, if you're not an attorney, just keep listening because it's the principles of what I'm about to share with you that I want you to hear. 

So me and my client success coordinator just got back from a four day trip to Austin, Texas, where we went to one of the legal industry's biggest events put on by one of the legal industry's biggest software platforms.  And so events like this are not only where we go to learn about the industry and the new and best technology and service providers, because we want to be a valuable resource for our clients.

It's not just about what we can offer them. It's where we can point them to benefit in other areas of their business. So we provide value above and beyond the things that we do. We consider ourselves a  hub for law firm owners. But the other reason why we go to these events is just simply for the inspiration and motivation.

Um, motivation is like a bath. Just because you're super motivated today doesn't mean that you're going to be super motivated tomorrow. And so we left and came into work today feeling recharged, Revived. Uh, we got to see the keynote speaker at the event was James Clear. Now, James Clear wrote the book Atomic Habits.

And if you've never heard of that book, never read it, I absolutely hope that you go do, um, because he is, has been studying the science behind habits, how to break them, how to make them. How to keep them going for a lifetime and so he was so well spoken And delivered such a great message because whether you're a law firm owner You own a different type of business.

You're a single mom. You're a wife. You're a husband. You don't own a business. Habits are the foundation of our lives. And the habits are the things that we do every single day. And so one of the things that he talked about was setting, yes, setting big, hairy, audacious goals, BHAG, which is a term derived from the book Good to Great by Tim Collins.

Those are like your 10 year long term goals. But here's the thing, when you think about 10 years from now, most of us get completely overwhelmed and we don't do anything.  And so by focusing in on your habits, that gives you something to work on every morning, every afternoon, every evening, once a day. It breaks it up into completely attainable, non overwhelming things that we can incorporate into our lives.

And so  it was very motivating and motivation doesn't last. So we have to be so intentional about cultivating motivation in our everyday lives. And one of the struggles in working with people and money, business owners and individuals alike, is that most of the time we don't hurt enough to look at our money And do the things that need to be done to change our money story around.

And by the time you do hurt enough, you're so much in pain or in debt or about to lose your house that you just feel defeated. And the thought of changing your money story around and the fact that There is no overnight cure for money problems makes it even harder to take action sometimes. And so if I can give you something today, just a little bath of motivation, I want you to hear that even if you make decent money and maybe things aren't perfect, but they're not hurting enough for you to make a change, I want you to start looking because the fact of the matter is, is that most Americans, more than half, are in a place where one paycheck goes awry, or they lose their job, or one big expense comes up in their house, and all of a sudden we are in emergency mode.

And most of us are spending for today, this week, this month, this year. And not thinking about what our BHAG is, what our 10 year goals are. And look, you can keep your head down for 10 years  and imagine that for yourself right now. If you continue to manage money the way that you're managing it in 10 years, where is that going to get you?

And one of the visuals that James Clear pulled up was a chart, a graph, and it showed this exact idea of if you continue to ignore  What it is that you already know is coming, but you continue to choose not to address it and to spend for today. Over a long period of time, you are sinking and it's only inevitable that you're going to find yourself in a place of huge pain.

And I need you to understand that when you are there, there is no quick fix. So if you allow yourself to get so far into debt,  Or  spend all of your money and save and invest nothing. You will find your place eventually in a spot of so much pain and there's no quick fix for you.  And so what I want you to do is think about just taking small steps.

Just once a day, once a week, once a month towards moving your money story. Even if it doesn't hurt that much right now. Into a place that you really do want to be in 10 years And when we talk to people about what is it that you want in five seven ten years? Most people don't even think about that. They have no idea or they say what they think they're supposed to say, like going on vacations, living in a huge house, but they haven't actually thought about what they want their next 10 years to look like, what they want to do at the end of the road, at the end of 10 years and then 10 years after that.

It's so far out and we're so caught up in the day to day that we don't stop and think about that. And so if that's you, I want you to stop and think about that. How, how much have you considered your 10 year BHAG, big, hairy, audacious skull? If you haven't, something that you can do every single day, even if it's just five minutes.

Is to start thinking about that start thinking about do I really want to take a bunch of vacations or Is that just what I think a rich life looks like so i'm just going to say that because hey, it sounds good Everybody else says that's the thing to do, right? but start to draw that picture of what you want 10 years from now to look like down the road because Especially if you have kids, think about a lot of us in the next 10 years are going to be paying for one or more college degrees.

That changes your money plan. And it only takes five minutes a day to start building out that picture because once we've built out that picture and we think about from now to 10 years what all needs to happen with our money, things like college for our kids, now we can start to put price tags on it slowly over time.

We don't have to sit down for four hours and hammer out this BHAG, this big hairy audacious goal and pin numbers to it. Just take it one step at a time. And now we didn't just get motivation from this event. One of the things that I love about this event is that they acknowledge some extraordinary things that are happening and that have happened in the legal space.

So when I first started my, my business core solutions group, it was in 2017. And back then, Law firms had this assumption that they had to have a brick and mortar office, that they had to have people working inside of that office and that remote business operations weren't ethical, weren't possible. They couldn't hire somebody who didn't live in their town.

They couldn't offer services remotely. It was, it was very clear to me when I first got in this market that that was just not possible according to all of these law firm owners.  And when COVID hit,  the legal industry was forced to face the fact that they have been making excuses this entire time. If you look at law firms post pre COVID and post COVID, Pre COVID, that was the accepted truth.

We cannot hire remote team members and we cannot provide remote legal services. COVID shattered that belief. And nowadays you see law firms doing exactly what they said could not be done. And it's serving not only their businesses. But clients too clients love having a virtual meeting with their attorney instead of traveling down to the office  Law firms love having remote people because they can go beyond their local zone And find somebody who may be mediocre at a job They can look for a paralegal and instead of having a mediocre person because of their options locally they can get a phenomenal paralegal on the other side of the country or on the other side of the world, which means that they're producing better work and giving clients better results. 

Another topic that came up in the legal industry was AI, artificial intelligence. Now AI, we've been hearing about for a really long time. The fact that it's taking over the way it is right now should not be a surprise to you if you've been staying in tune with the evolution of technology that we've all been going through.

And I remember during the opening keynote, the founder of the software that was hosting the event, put out a statistic that said,  AI could eliminate 73 percent of attorney and paralegal hours. And there was a bit, a law firm owner sitting behind me who said, Oh, well, I guess that means we're out of a job. 

And so there's two ways that you can look at fear. Only ever two ways and only ever one of the two. You can view change. From a place of fear  or from a place of hope. This attorney was viewing it from a place of fear. He was fearful that AI was going to take his job. Now that statement alone told me so much.

about how he likely operates as an entrepreneur. Because AI, no matter how you feel about it, it's here. It doesn't care if you don't like it. The powers that be don't care if you don't like it. So you can continue to resist evolution or you can learn how to embrace it and use it in a way that serves you.

Because in my mind, being the entrepreneur that I am,  AI creates opportunity for efficiency. Not only that, but in the legal space, AI has the potential to minimize human error, which again is better for the client. So as a business owner, coming from a place of fear,  AI is going to intimidate you. Coming from a place of hope, AI is a way to increase profit margins, increase accuracy, and free up a business owner and their team's time and attention to be able to give that time and attention back to the clients instead of into the work.

And  customer business AI  Can take care of ai is never going to be able Well, let me not say that because who knows but as of right now Ai is not able to sit across the table or sit on the phone and Make you feel peace of mind help you understand what's about to happen and help prepare you for Whatever it is.

And now look, of course, there are things that people use AI for that you may disagree with. For example, college students writing an essay or having AI do their work for them. But here's the thing. That is detrimental to them, not to you. If a student is going through college and using AI to write their essays, that means that they're robbing themselves. 

of the education and experience. And who's going to pay for that in the end? Them. So recognize what's your problem. And what's somebody else's problem.  Because AI can be used for good as well. If you open chat GPT right now, and Let's say that you don't like the job that you're in. You can literally have a conversation with AI, tell it about yourself, what you're doing, what you like, what you don't like, and ask it, what are some other career paths that I should consider?

And it will tell it to you. If you want to write a book, you can have a conversation with AI on how to write a book. If you're having a issues, parenting, and you're struggling, you know,  building a strong relationship with your child, your team, whatever age they are, you can have a conversation with AI about that.

And no, AI is not going to solve that. But AI is certainly going to help give you some inspiration and point you into the right direction of how you can continue to help yourself in these areas. And so what we witnessed at the event is  people breaking the mold, things that they thought were not possible or think they need to fear being possible and actually creating more opportunity and justifying hope instead of fear.

And so what I want you to get from this is that You are the only person holding you back. If you have accepted that you are broke, that you can't make more, that you have to settle for a job that you don't like, that you can never have a nice place to live, that you can never travel. If there are things in your mind that you're like, that just, that's, that could never be me.

I want you to know that you thinking those things are only reinforcing and guaranteeing. that it will never be you. And so what I want you to do  is I want you to feed yourself motivation. So go to YouTube, go to your favorite podcast and look for motivational speeches. You need to intentionally bathe yourself with motivation.

And I want you to start thinking five minutes a morning about what your be hag, your big, hairy, audacious goal is. in life. I don't care where you're at now. I don't care how much money you make or have now. I want you to think about, even if it feels like it's not possible, where you want to go, what you want to do.

Don't even think about the money right now, but do pay attention to what I want you to pay attention to what your, your mind is telling you while you're thinking about these things, because here's what's going to happen. You're going to go and start to create this 10 year vision that should make you scared and give you goosebumps, by the way, because it seems so impossible.

But I want you to pay attention because while you are thinking about all of the opportunity, that voice in your head is going to tell you all of the reasons why you can't.  And take those reasons and write them down too. And then go look for all of the reasons why you can. Because I guarantee you, I guarantee you, without a shadow of a doubt, one million percent, you can.

And whether believe, whether you believe you can or you can't, you are right.  And the best way to start changing your money story, to start changing your mindset and your habits is to start acknowledging that you are the biggest thing holding you back. And by slowly identifying the things and the thoughts that you have that are perpetuating where you are at so that you can start to unravel and just day by day, Five minutes by five minutes.

Change your story.