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While RJon is away,
Team RJon's gonna play.

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We're here to bring you our
favorite actionable insights and

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content from RJon's newest

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book Profit First For Lawyers.

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Profit First For Lawyers is going
to accelerate your law firm's

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growth so that you can profit in
every area of your life, not just

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financially.

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Team RJon is also gonna

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be sharing what it's really like to

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work with RJon Robins behind

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the scenes.

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So put your BS aside for the next few
minutes and put yourself, your family,

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your firm, and your profit first.

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Welcome back to the Profit
First For Lawyers podcast.

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I'm

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your host, Karli, and today

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we're talking about, "Stop
getting paid in compliments."

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In other words, A.R., in other words,
holding firm to our boundaries.

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And what's happening

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here is that RJon is teaching

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another one of his coaching sessions.

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And we're talking about how sometimes
it can actually make our clients

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feel uncomfortable if we are giving
them what we promised, but if

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we're not expecting them to give
us what they promised in return.

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Or in other words, if our A.R.

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is getting a little bit out of control.

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So I'm gonna go ahead and give the

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floor to RJon.

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This is something

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that he's gonna talk about pretty in depth
in chapter 14 of the book, but I feel like

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this is a really good precursor to that.

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When we give a dog food, give
the dog a treat, we think

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we're showing the dog love.

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We think we're showing the dog generosity.

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We think we're showing
the dog an abundance.

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But in dog language, what the dog
interprets that as is weakness.

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Because no alpha dog

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gives a non-alpha dog food
except out of weakness.

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This is just dog language.

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When a lawyer doesn't
charge for a service.

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When a lawyer does work
and they are owed money.

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And they don't make sure that they
protect themselves to get their money.

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We, in lawyer language, might think this
is a sign of generosity and strength and

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abundance and all that kind of good stuff.

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And I'm not talking about pro bono
and I'm not talking about when you

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say to the client upfront, I will
do this for you for free because...

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I'm talking about when you had an
agreement that you were going to

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provide a service to the client.

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You provided the service and the
client was supposed to pay you for the

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service, and then you just don't make
sure you get paid for the service.

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You don't protect yourself.

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To the client, what the client
hears is not what you might

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think you're saying as a lawyer.

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What the client hears is weakness.

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The client doesn't think, "Oh, I
really appreciate this lawyer for not

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standing up for themself and looking
out for themself by walking away

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from the money that's owed to them."

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What the client perceives is,

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"Wow, this lawyer doesn't value themself.

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And this lawyer doesn't respect themself.

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And this lawyer doesn't have enough
courage and strength to protect themself."

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And then what the client perceives
is, "And so maybe they won't really

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be able to protect me either."

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And so you actually begin to lose
the respect and trust of your clients

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when you allow accounts receivables to
sit out there and you don't collect.

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First of all, if you allow
accounts receivables in the

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first place, because you should

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have zero accounts receivables.

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How much accounts receivables
should you have in a law firm?

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The answer is zero.

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If you know how to use your client
property trust account the right way, you

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should have zero accounts receivables.

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Now, as a practical matter, we all
make mistakes, myself included,

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and you wind up with some accounts
receivables here and there.

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But to the extent that you don't
take steps to protect yourself

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in the first place, to avoid the
accounts receivables, and to the

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extent that you don't take steps to
go after the accounts receivables,

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to protect yourself, to protect your
family, to protect your staff, and

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even to protect your other clients.

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That is perceived by the clients who owe
you the money as being a sign of weakness.

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Which is why they don't refer
the best business to you.

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Which is why they don't entrust you
with their most important matters.

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I really love this clip, and I'll
tell you why, because I think

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that I am definitely the kind of

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person that RJon was talking

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to here.

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As far as working for compliments
and not holding myself accountable

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and holding other people accountable
to the things that I asked of them.

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I think it is a

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mind-changing, game-changing

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thought process to

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think that by trying to be so
nice, for so many years, right?

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That I actually wasn't being very kind
to the people that I was interacting

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with or that I was trying to hold

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boundaries with.

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I love this mindset shift.

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You are actually

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doing the most kind thing, the
most valuable thing, to hold people

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accountable to the things that
they said that they'll do for you.

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That's actually very kind.

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That's something that people crave
even if they tell you that they don't.

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All right, we're gonna end the show
today with a little special clip.

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This is one of our

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members, Todd Wesche, who had

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an advanced reader copy
of Profit First For

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Lawyers, RJon's newest

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book that will be coming to
a bookstore near you in July.

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And this is what Todd had
to say when he was done

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reading.

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My name's Todd Wesche.

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I'm the

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managing

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member of Vetus Legal, LLC.

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We help

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veterans of the United States

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military and their dependents

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and survivors obtain benefits from the
Department of Veterans Affairs that

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they have earned and that they deserve.

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The reason why I want to do
these interviews is because the

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principles in Profit First are
life changing in many respects.

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And it's not gonna be like a religious
experience or anything like that,

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but it's amazing how some very simple
tools, some very simple changes

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of the way you approach money.

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How you approach your finances.

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How you approach the way
you keep records of things.

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And the way you allocate your resources
can make a huge difference in the way

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that you see the money on the other end.

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By that I mean, just a small change
of paying yourself first as a business

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owner and even in your personal life
can basically put you in a mindset of

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ensuring that you're being rewarded
for the work that you put into

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whatever you're trying to accomplish.

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Whether it be a small
business owner or just

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trying to take control of

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your own personal finances.

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The principals work the same either way.

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So ideas like ensuring that you
take X percent off of the top of

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your W2 income and making sure that
you put that aside for yourself and

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whatever special things that you want.

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Means that you're gonna live off
of the remaining percentages.

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And those numbers will

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ensure or

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help to ensure that you know, you are
able to live the life you want to live

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because you're making sure you put the
money aside first to allow that to happen.

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Thanks so much for
tuning into this episode.

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Be sure to tune in next week as we
talk about the difference between

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fixing a problem and solving a problem.

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I'm gonna be joined in
the studio by another

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member of Team RJon, and you're

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not gonna wanna miss this one.

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So please subscribe, tell your friends,
tell your family, tell your colleagues,

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and go to www.ProfitFirstForLawyers.com

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to order your copy of the book

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Profit First For Lawyers.

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Thanks so much you guys.

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My name is Karli and on behalf
of Team RJon, thanks for

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watching.

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We'll see you next time.