Loading summary
Tyson Mutrix
Are you tired of the marketing guessing game? Does your website feel more like a digital billboard than a client magnet? If you're nodding along, you're not alone. And it's time to stop the uncertainty and start getting real results. Let's talk about your marketing spend. Are you just shelling out money every month and crossing your fingers? Do you ever wonder what impact your marketing is really having on your revenue? Well, it's time to take the guesswork out of the equation with Rise Up Media. We've been working with them for over a year and, and the feedback from our fellow members has been fantastic. Rise Up Media is here to take your marketing to the next level. They'll even perform a full audit of your online presence, giving you the good, the bad, and even let you in on what your competition is up to that you're missing out on. And the best part, there's no obligation, no catch, no pressure. If you decide to work with them, their contracts are month to month. That's right. No long term commitments tying you down.
So what are you waiting for?
To learn more about how Rise Up Media can transform your firms, visit riseup media.com max law and rise is spelled with a Z. Riseupmedia.com maxlaw.
Alexis Austin
This is.
Tyson Mutrix
Maximum Lawyer with your host, Tyson Mutrix. Alexis, I'm pretty sure this is the first time you've been on since being married, so it's been a while. And I want to know how is running a law firm different now that you're married?
Alexis Austin
I don't know if it has to do with being married or just how we've done it. How it's different is I've been really don't run a law firm anymore. Because essentially what we did is Jimmy, my husband and I, we separated out our silos and he is the, he calls himself the Coloma, the chief operating legal officer, managing attorney. So it's Coloma. So Coloma runs everything from the firm side of things and I just run the financials and the marketing. So I do all the high level work. But the only time I really see anybody in the firm is my C suite team, which is my husband and our chief technical officer. I haven't seen anyone in my firm in probably seven or eight months. I'll pop in now and then and like congratulate them on something, but that's how it works. And it took years for us to get there because Jimmy and I had a lot of tension at the beginning. Stepping on each other's toes and having to figure out who's Responsible for what? And I think once we figured it out and then redid it, and then redid it again and got very clear on what roles we were each responsible for, it's really, it's really good. And ironically, it's made us better family members too because we can say, well, that's in your bucket, you're handling that. Or this child thing is your thing, you're handling that.
Tyson Mutrix
So that sounds like it's such an odd, it's got to be such an odd feeling. I wonder what it feels like now that you're not, you're not in the day to day as much.
Alexis Austin
It's interesting because I feel like I'm still in it because I live with my husband and I'm always hearing about how the firm's doing. I always know what's going on because he's always telling me. But I think what's interesting is my firm doesn't see me as much. And so it's, it's more impacting the relationships with the employees in the firm rather than because I feel still very deeply connected. And I've got a couple other businesses that I'm running and I somehow let myself get talked into being the president of our local bar association. So I'm definitely busy all the time. I just. With having a pulse on the firm. It may sound weird, but it's finally what I always wanted because I like the business side of things. I like running the business, I like doing high level business work. And I really don't care about the war stories of, well, this DA did this and this thing happened. In this case. I'll talk with them if I see them, but I like being pulled out. But I do think it's interesting from the perspective of the employees. It's made them feel. From what I can tell and what I gather from talking to my C suite team, it's made them feel much more of a team and a unit. And it, it's essentially the company is its own thing now. It operates completely outside of me. And I think that's made possible because it's a brand name, you know? Right. Law Group has nothing to do with my name. But they've become their own organization, which is really cool to see. And they have their own SOPs, they have their own systems for things. And some of it I don't even know. But I think it brought them closer. It definitely removed me, which is an interesting feeling.
Tyson Mutrix
So that firm was like your baby. And I gotta imagine there's times where you disagree with things. How Things are being done. And so how do you prevent. Because I just think that's just a natural thing. Right. So how do you prevent yourself from stepping in to guide them in a different direction?
Alexis Austin
It has become easier. I think the issue that I had to come to terms with was I realized pretty early on in my firm, and I think we talked about this on a prior podcast, that I don't love being a lawyer. That's not what I'm here to do. I have a law degree, but the law degree is more just the stepping stone that I got to bring me to where I am. And so when I decided to pull back, I had to recognize that the way that I operate and the way that I ran my baby for so long was just like pedal to the metal. Let's go hard all the way. Let's grow by 10 times every year. And we grew very quickly. I mean, you saw it. It was go, go, go all the time. And that works really well in the startup phase. But to have the stability that the firm needed, to have the level of assurance that the team needed, I think it needed that stabilizing force that Jimmy brought to the team. And. And it just became something where I realized that my goals were bigger than just the firm. And so I have to recognize where the firm fits into all of my goals. And part of what I want for the firm, the people who put their trust in me, is to make them feel comfortable, to make them feel safe, to make sure that they are well taken care of. And that means not always doing things the way I want to do, which is, let's blow the whole thing up and redo it in a week. I like to operate that way, but most normal humans do not like that. So it's more looking at what's best for the firm, what's best for the clients, what's best for the employees, versus what I want.
Tyson Mutrix
It's a perfect segue. Because I wonder, the vision that you originally had for the firm, you said you had these goals for the firm. Is the firm being guided by your vision? Is it being guided by Jimmy's vision? Is it? What vision is it being guided by? And how do you make sure that that vision is being followed?
Alexis Austin
A couple of years ago, we sat down and we did the Gino Wickman Traction book. We went through and built out our Vision Traction Organizer. And at that time, I want to say that was. It was before COVID So the vision then was. We called it Colorado Domination. That was the vision for the firm, is we want to Be the best, biggest, most well respected, best service, criminal defense only firm in Colorado. And that's the vision we laid out. That's the one that we said, this is what we're going to build our goal off of. And it's interesting because I was just looking at this the other day, the financial marks that we set the. In Colorado, we have the front range of the mountains. And so our first goal was to go up the Front range with our offices and then expand west. And then if we want to go over east to where Kansas is, we can. But no one really cares about the east side because it's basically Kansas. But looking at it, that was our goal. And what I realized is for me personally as an entrepreneur, it wasn't a big enough goal. One state wasn't enough for me, one company wasn't enough for me. And I kept pushing for the firm. It was a fantastic goal. So what we've had to do is my husband and I have had to balance personal goals with firm goals and separate them out. The firm is actually still well on its way to Colorado domination trajectory, where from what we can tell, we're the largest, fastest growing criminal defense only firm in Colorado. We have four offices. It's a perfect line right along the Front Range. It's going really well, but it's. I think it's not growing as fast as my original goal had been because I recognized that the firm, that the people in the firm needed it to be, was different than what I wanted. Not even what I wanted. It's interesting, I think, looking back, because I've looked back at my written vision that I've done a couple of times, and the feeling that I had for the firm, like when I say the feeling, I mean what the employees feel. I had written down, I think it was 2019. I'd written down that we had two to three offices in 2025, and attorneys were always asking if we had openings because it was known to be such a great place to work. And that is true. People are always asking if we have openings. And we're very selective in the attorneys we bring on. But that feeling that I wanted didn't match the aggressive revenue goals that I'd set. And so I had to look at it and decide what was more important, the feeling of the firm, the cohesiveness of the group, or just cranking out gross revenue goals to crank them out. And what I found is that once you cross that seven figure threshold, it's just a number. It doesn't mean anything. What matters is Profitability, stability, a solid trajectory forward. So it's, yes, the goals are still there, but my goals personally have expanded and grown and become much bigger. And I think that that pushes the firm to do well in its goals, but also have its own goals separate from me.
Tyson Mutrix
So I actually think it's really easy to get to seven figures. It's, it's about whether or not it is really what you're talking about, that, that's sustainable growth. Getting to seven figures is actually really, really easy. But, but a lot of people do it in a really reckless way and they get to that point and they either stagnate or they start to decline because it's not, it's, it's not this steady growth that is sustainable. You hit this point where what I call the gridlock where you, you brought on all these cases and then they're not moving because you brought on all these cases and you don't have the people. And it's, it creates a really, really bad environment. So I think that that's really smart in hindsight. So you've, you know, if you think back to 2019, do you feel like your, your revenue goals were, were realistic?
Alexis Austin
The, the long term vision Revenue goals?
Tyson Mutrix
Right.
Alexis Austin
I mean, based on what we've seen, they were realistic. We, our firm experienced somewhere between 25 to 150% growth every year up until a year or two ago. But we made the conscious decision a year or two ago to slow it down and really get solid on our systems. And so I think because we did that consciously and we said we're not going to push, not, not that we're not wanting to grow, but we're not going to push for the sake of growth. We're going to make sure we're really solid. We've now reached this place where we can grow without adding anyone else on. And so before when we were growing, we would grow by bringing on a new attorney and opening up a new office and expanding there and you'd have to bring on new staff. And so even though your revenue line grew, your expenses grew, so you were growing for the sake of growing, which, I mean, sure, you can do that if you want a vanity number, but it doesn't actually increase profitability for us. Now what we're doing is we're growing deep instead of wide. So we're growing deep in our processes, deep in the team. I don't think we have a single person in our firm who's been with us less than two and a half years at this point. Everyone is Deeply committed to the mission. Everything is rooted and grounded. We have really, really great systems in place. And now we're to the point where we're looking at, okay, Q4 and Q1 of 2026. What can we do to just flood our firm with cases? Because we're ready for it and we know that we're ready for it because the systems that we've built.
Tyson Mutrix
It seems to me that criminal defense is very ego driven and not necessarily from the attorney standpoint. It can be, as you know, there's. But it's, that's with any practice area, right? It's a lot of times it's very ego driven from the client standpoint where they want the criminal defense attorney. Right. And I really curious, how did you crack the code? Because scaling. That's why it's been so hard for many criminal defense firms to scale, because of that fact. How have you cracked that code? Like, what's the secret to it?
Alexis Austin
I think it starts with the owner, actually. And I've talked to a number of criminal defense attorneys on this and I always ask them, I said, well, what is your goal, right? Is it to be the face? Is it to be the best criminal defense attorney? Do you want your name on the wall? Because if so, yeah, you can reach seven figures, but you're never going to really get past that because it has to be about you and you're always going to be pulled back in. And it's interesting because so many law firms that I've talked with, the owner says they want freedom of flexibility. They want to just take the cases that they want to take. They want to go to court. When they want to go to court, and especially for criminal defense, then I challenge them and say, well, do you really? Because if that's what you want, your name can't be anywhere on it. It needs to be almost impossible for any client to know who you are because otherwise, yes, they are going to reach for the top. What we've done, and we did this very early on, we decided to be a brand and we decided to make the focus of our practice about the team of legal support that you're hiring. Not even the lawyer. We don't let any, any potential client even talk to a lawyer until they've paid us, until they've signed a retainer agreement and until they've had their first call with the firm, not with a lawyer. Because the idea is we brand ourselves as the right criminal defense team, right law group. So when we're talking all of our ads, our TV ads, Say hire the right defense. It's never the right defense, law lawyer. It's the right defense team. So when we come at it and we're talking to people in our sales and our intake, we never mentioned the attorneys. We mentioned the exceptional results our firm gets. We mentioned the customer service we provide. But the clients, and it's interesting because basically what you're doing is you're just coaching them on what to be thinking about, and you steer them away from thinking about the lawyer. When someone calls into our firm, we completely focus on that one client. We focus on their problems, their specific pain points, their personal concerns, and we make it all about the client so they don't even think about the lawyer. And then once we say yes, we can solve that problem for you. We're never going to make a guarantee on how we solve it. But if the problem is, I want to know what's going on in my case all the time, great. That's what we're here for. So we've built these multiple, kind of like a dam structure, these multiple locks that you have to get through before you even access the attorney so that the person feels invested in the firm rather than the attorney. And from a business perspective, it also helps me a great deal because then if an attorney ever leaves, we don't have them leaving with a huge client base because the client was never really connected to that attorney anyway. They were connected to the team and the firm. If anything, losing one of our paralegals would be more detrimental than an attorney because the paralegals are talking to them. We have a requirement that every contact, every client gets contacted every two weeks without, without fail. So, so even if we have no update, we call them to say, hey, we have nothing for you, but we're just checking in. And it's that the non attorney that's contacting them and reaching out, so they always get multiple contacts from multiple people instead of just a lawyer.
Tyson Mutrix
Do you ever get any pushback from the attorneys because they want to have that contact more of that contact with and have more, a little more control? I, I, you're laughing, and I know why you're laughing, but I, I wonder if you do get pushback.
Alexis Austin
The only pushback I get is, why do I have to talk to this person?
Tyson Mutrix
Really? Okay. Interesting.
Alexis Austin
Yes. They would like less contact. So what I pitch to attorneys who join our firm is I say, look, you became a lawyer to do legal work. You join our firm, you never have to touch billing, you never have to touch sales, you never have to touch Regular updates. All you have to do is be an exceptional attorney. And our attorneys love it. The only time they ever talk to clients is to discuss a specific legal issue, to discuss a plea, or to go over, like the. We have a strategy session where they review all the evidence that. But our attorneys never ask for more client contact because, number one, they trust the team that we have in place to do a good job. They know that our systems tell them exactly how. But I don't know. I don't know if other attorneys are different, but we usually hire client attorneys who either leave the PD's office or the DA's office, usually the DA's office. And they're not used to client contact anyway. All the contact they had was with victims, and it was very draining. So they prefer to have their time protected. They prefer to do exceptional work and then give updates. But I honestly, I would fall off my chair laughing if someone said, I don't have enough contact with my client because it's never come up. They love having that separation.
Tyson Mutrix
It's interesting, okay, because it just, I think with, with PI, at least we, I mean, we. The, the attorneys seem to want to have a little bit more control over the clients, and they would have a little bit more. And I think that's because, especially whenever it's a case like that, they bring in, they want to have a little more control. And we definitely want to shift it more towards, like, the way you do things. And that's, that's why we do things the way we do is where, you know, it's. A lot of, it's being done by non attorneys when it, when it comes to the client communication, everything. So it is, it is definitely interesting when it comes to attracting talent. What do you think, what do you think is like the most important thing to the attorney that would make them want to join your firm? Because, I mean, it could be culture, it could be money and all that, but there's, there's a lot of different things that they consider. And I wonder what, what you think is the key to attracting top talent.
Alexis Austin
So I think it differs somewhat in criminal defense because our attorneys are always in court and because we have a policy. It's not really a written policy, but we need people who already have litigation experience. We are not trying to train people how to actually review a case or learn the rules of evidence. So we're always trying to poach from government agencies where people already have trial experience. And I think what's, what's been really helpful in the past is other Attorneys that we're interested in. They see how our attorneys hold themselves in court. They see how they are not complete jerks like some attorneys. They like the attitudes of the attorneys. They like the. The way that they seem not to be completely stressed out of their minds like some other law firms. They can see it on the attorneys, how the firm treats them. Then we also have a very regimented process for basically wooing an attorney in our firm. So we've set it up where if we identify, we're always looking for the next hire. We're always trying to see who's that next person that really shines that we would like to see if they're interested. And it's kind of like dating. We then say, okay, well, this person looks cool. Let's invite them out for a drink. Then we. So we start with. We start with lunch. We invite them out for lunch just to talk to them, see how they're doing. Then we invite them out for a drink with the firm or the other lawyers just to see how they get along. And for me personally, I really like to see. See, because you know how lawyers are with drinking. I want to see how they handle themselves in a social setting to see if they're going to go violating client confidentiality or anything. And so we get them familiar with the team, and then we come back and we talk about, what did you think of that person? What did you think of their answers? And if we enjoyed hanging out with them socially, then we will actually offer them a formal interview. And then we have an interview with me and Jimmy, and then we have an interview with our C suite team. So it's four very specific stages that the first two, the attorney may or may not even know that they're being considered. And by the end, we've already decided that we like them as a personality fit. Then we see if they're going to be a good fit for our systems.
Tyson Mutrix
All right, so I have a question. I'm going to ask you a question that was asked to me a year or two ago, and you made me think of it with some of the things you said. What is more important, in your opinion? Having really good people or having really good systems and processes?
Alexis Austin
When you say what's more important, my first question is to what?
Tyson Mutrix
To the firm, to the business.
Alexis Austin
I think it's more important to have.
Tyson Mutrix
It's tough, isn't it? This is very tough. Yes.
Alexis Austin
Yeah, I was gonna say the right people in the right systems. I think that if you have the right systems, you will very clearly See if you have the right person. So I think systems are more important because with the right systems you can find that diamond in the rough, even if the person. So I see this all the time when I do private coaching with clients and I see their firms and they say, well, this person is not performing correctly. And I say, well, what did you do to set them up for success? What is the system that they're following? Because from what I see, like I'm thinking of one client in particular, there's this new person, and I think that the person is doing really well, taking on these new tasks, showing proactivity. But the, the owner is saying, no, they're not doing a good job because they're not doing these things. And I said, well, you don't have a single system in place that says those are the things they're supposed to do. So how would this person know? So I think if you have the correct systems and then the right people rise and shine to those systems. So I think systems.
Tyson Mutrix
It's a great answer because it was funny. My initial reaction was people. Obviously it's your people, your people. But the bad systems can, can make an A player into a C player because they don't have the right tools. And so that's, it's one of those things where you want to initially say it's obviously the people, obviously the people. But it's, I think it's because you have to look and I think the way you, you put it's great too, because you, you can help the better systems you have, the more you can help the people that you currently have. Because I, I think that that's, I think the way you put it was really good. But then the opposite is also true though, because if you have really bad systems, you can just, you can, you can kill the morale of your team. You can turn a really good employee into a bad employee. And so that's why it makes it a really tough question to answer because you, you just initially want to say, obviously you know people, but. So that's me.
Alexis Austin
But I think from a business perspective, it's easier to, to have good systems because then you can manage the system instead of the person because then there's no personality conflict. What I always tell everybody in our firm is we manage systems, not people. From a management level, when someone isn't doing well, we don't say you are a bad employee or you are doing a poor job. We're saying, what about the system do you not understand? How does the system need to be tweaked. To give you what you need. Is there something that's going wrong? And it helps kind of put that separation too because then the employee doesn't feel attacked. They can actually give feedback on the system. And if it is the system, then, then we can fix it and make everyone better. If it's not the system, it becomes very obvious that that person is not working well within the system. And then we can say it appears that you're not able to work within our systems. It's nothing on you personally as a human, but you just don't have the skill set necessary, which makes it much easier to separate amicably instead of causing all kinds of drama.
Tyson Mutrix
Absolutely agree. What do you do with your week and what is your job title now.
Alexis Austin
In the law firm? I think I'm still listed on the website as CEO, but that's really just an honorary thing. I think the better term for me would be cvo, Chief Visionary Officer. Jimmy, my husband, he is our coo. He's the one managing everything. We have our Chief Technical Officer running all the tech. So in the company I'm more of the high level. I guess if we looked at it from a true business perspective. I'm CEO because I still have everyone answering to me and I still do the final approvals on major decisions. But when I look at myself personally, I see my title as entrepreneur. That's what I do because I'm building out other companies. I've been coaching other law firms and now I'm building out a new tech platform where I'm helping law firms do everything that with sales and intake specifically because that's my favorite thing, building out the sales and intake platform to help law firms really step into that position for themselves. And hopefully this doesn't come back and bite me. But eliminate the need for coaching on sales and intake and just have them start taking control of their systems themselves. So for me, I think it's my ultimate title is just entrepreneur. I like to always build and create and grow.
Tyson Mutrix
Let me ask you about something that I kind of struggle with because to me we have a very. Not to me like we actually, we have a very specific way and strategy that we handle cases and it may be different whenever it's, you know, the way you, you handle cases in your firm. But we have a very specific strategy and to me it's very, very important to have quite a bit of interaction with frontlines people to, to make sure that the, that we're handling cases the right way because that leads to the best results. How were you able to do that with the way that you're currently running your firm? And maybe you don't think that it's that important to do it that way. So I. Do you think it's important? That's important. And then if so, how do you, how do you make sure that you maintain those channels with the frontline people?
Alexis Austin
When you say, do you think that's important, can you be a little bit more specific?
Tyson Mutrix
Yeah. So having, having that contact with the frontline people to, to understand, to make sure that they are implementing the right strategies when it comes to working through their cases.
Alexis Austin
Frontline people being intake and salespeople or, and attorneys.
Tyson Mutrix
I'm talking to anyone that's got that it's actually putting hands on the case.
Alexis Austin
Okay, maybe I'm being thick. I'm not sure I understand the question. How do I make sure that the firm and the team members in the firm are actually serving clients in the way that we want them served?
Tyson Mutrix
No, no, no, no. So, so I'll give you a sort of an example. Like, we, the way we negotiate a case is we have a very specific way we negotiate a case. We have a, and I'm not going to talk about it here because I don't want everyone to know what it is, but we have a very specific way that we do it right. And we want to make sure that that is always followed because it's, it's gotten very good results for us. That's one example. Right. But how do you make sure. And, and I don't know, maybe you don't have like a specific strategy as to how you all handle cases, but I'm sure you have a, some sort of general framework for a case goes here and then it goes here, then it goes here and goes there. So how do you make sure that all of that is being followed and that you, that you are employing best strategies all the time? Because things, things will change. Like, that's why I think it's so important to have, make sure that we, I am tied in so, so heavily into the, the front lines because strategies will have to change. Case law changes like the, the statutes change. So we have to, have to, you know, different strategies on the other sides because we had, you know, reptile was really big. And so the defense came up with, with strategies to counter reptile. And so we have to, we have to really understand how those work because that affects all the systems and processes. So I, how are, how are you able to stay tapped into that to make sure that you are Evolving it the right way.
Alexis Austin
I see, I see. Well, for. From the attorney legal product perspective, I hire people who are smarter than me. I hire attorneys who are more tapped in. When I look at it, I'm looking for attorneys who are either have more experience or have more relevant experience or close in time experience. Like I haven't stepped foot in a courtroom in three years. So I don't know. I don't know what's going on.
Tyson Mutrix
Congratulations.
Alexis Austin
Oh, thank you, thank you. But I want to know what's going on in the courtroom all the time. Now for my specific setup. It's not my job to know what's going on legally. It's Jimmy's job because he's the head of legal. The way that he manages this is he has, first of all, we build systems so that no one can deviate. There's no opportunity to deviate from the right law way of doing things. And then in order to change those systems, we're doing continual feedback loops. So every single week, Jimmy is meeting with our case managers individually, talking with them, seeing how the systems are going, see what the clients are going through. He has those high level meetings. Every single week. We're having meetings with our attorneys. It's a one staffing meeting that we have where it's about an hour and a half. We work through all of the cases, we talk about the case law we're building up. And in each of these meetings, our chief technical officer, Brandon, also sits in so that if he hears anything that comes up, even though he may not understand the legal ramifications, he can tweak the system to adjust to what we need. And then Jimmy meets with our legal assistants every week. So we have compartmentalized meetings each week, and they're not meant to be pro forma meetings where it's just sitting there checking off a list. We're going over specific case issues. So it's really more case staffing. And that's how our, our C suite team stays involved in the cases themselves and make sure that we understand what's going on. And then we have, you know, we operate on slack. So if there's ever any emergency kind of issue come up or if there's something that the DA start doing that's just crazy sauce, we can put it in a, in a, in a fire channel and say, hey, this is something we need to address. And then we all just hop on and brainstorm together. Does that answer your question?
Tyson Mutrix
Yeah. No, absolutely does. Yeah. I think that's the reason why to ask you is because, you know, every firm's different, and there's. There's different viewpoints on that specific thing. And so that's why. That's why I want to ask you about it, because you are in. You are in a pretty unique position where I think Brett Tremblay calls it the owner's box. Right. Where you're sort of like in the owner's box. And Jim and I, we've talked about this quite a bit about the owner's box and how we don't think it's truly possible to just be in the owner's box. And because. And I actually. I don't think you're truly in the owner's box either. I think because you do. You are tapped in. I think if you were truly in the owner's box, you'd have zero contact with anybody in the firm, and you'd just be sitting there collecting profits. That's why we think that the whole idea of it is a little bit. It's not possible for the most part when it comes to running a law firm.
Alexis Austin
I think it's possible if you don't care to be involved, but then you don't have as much control over what's going on. And I don't. I guess for me, I don't need control. I just want to make sure that we are presenting ourselves in the correct way to our community. We're serving our clients in the best way. So I come at it more from a. Just doing a little check. But I think it also goes back to that people conversation of hiring the best people, because when you have a good team, you can trust that 95% of the time, they're going to be able to run it for you. But I also. I think you're right. I think if I didn't. If I wasn't married to the person running the firm, it would be a very different feeling and I would feel much more disconnected. But that just means you got to marry well.
Tyson Mutrix
That's. That's so true. Very true. That's a really good point, though, because you. I can't imagine. I. My. My guess is that. Is that you, if you were not married to the person that's running the firm, basically, that you wouldn't do it. You would. You would not. You would still be more tapped in, is my guess.
Alexis Austin
Probably. Probably. It's interesting because there are some weeks that we don't discuss much of the firm except for. Well, we've also done a good job because when we first started, you know how it goes. You've got everything going on in the firm, and then you bring it all home, and then you're never getting away from it. You never have time to just be married. And it's exhausting. So we've also had its. Of. Kind, kind of separated out, where the firm actually hired my law firm consulting company as a consultant. So we have specific meetings where. That's where our time is spent, where I'm talking with Jimmy and Brandon about what's going on in the firm. And we try to keep it boxed in there and treat it. I mean, it helps for tax purposes too. So we have a clean delineation, but we try to keep it pretty compartmentalized so that we're not blurring those lines. But I do think. I do think the being married and tapped into the person running it is essential for what I'm doing.
Tyson Mutrix
How do you make sure that you set a time, set aside time for the marriage?
Alexis Austin
So that's an interesting question because right now we've got our little guy. He's turning 11 months today. So that's been. It's been a challenge. It's been a challenge. We try to schedule at least one date night a month with our little guy. It's been a little different. It sounds very unromantic, but it's been incredibly helpful for us. We actually schedule out our week on Sundays. And we schedule because we both, we work from home as much as we can. I only work from home. But we don't have our kiddo in daycare. We both watch him. We want him to grow up with family around him. So we go and we look at our schedule and we look at all of our calendars and we say, well, this is when you've got little guy and this is when you've got him. And so then we schedule in, hey, this is date night. When he goes to bed, this is when we're having date night. So it's, it's. It sounds unromantic, but it's scheduling. It's using the calendar because you schedule what matters. Right? So if it matters to you, you make sure it's on the calendar.
Tyson Mutrix
Yeah, that's why we. We have date night on the calendar every single week. It's on the. The kids know about it. Everybody knows about it. I mean, our parents know about date night. It's just one of those things. Like, it's just. That's date night. So there's nothing gets scheduled on a date night. That's just how. It's how it works. I Am super curious based on what you said. Are you all going to homeschool? And if so, how the hell are you going to do that with running a law firm?
Alexis Austin
I think my husband wants to know the answer to that question, too. Do you know that I was homeschooled?
Tyson Mutrix
No. I'm. I'm, you know. Okay. So please. I'm gonna get hate mail for this. I'm shocked by that because you interact so well. I think homeschooling, the idea is such a great thing. I do, I do, I do, I do. So please don't get. Send me any hate mail, but I'm not a weirdo.
Alexis Austin
Right.
Tyson Mutrix
You're the most normal homeschool person I've ever met that I know was homeschooled. So that I'm. I'm very, very surprised by that fact.
Alexis Austin
So the way I was homeschooled, I was homeschooled from second to eighth grade. And maybe I was at a slight disadvantage because is actually a college professor. She wasn't at the time, but she is now. But I think. I think it's the way in which it's done. So I credit a lot of my ability to run a law firm to the fact that I was homeschooled because my mother just set out a curriculum for me and said, study this, do this. And I was just. I've always been a driven person. So my goal was to get done with all my schooling by noon so I could go do whatever I wanted, and I would grade my own test and I wouldn't cheat because I really wanted to know how good I was. And that's the type. If I was to homeschool my son, that's the type of environment I'd want him to be in, where it's all about being driven to be the best version that you can be. And I personally, having been through this entrepreneur journey a little bit here, and I'm looking at what's going on in the world. I think the greatest skill that you can teach a child is how to think. And so if I'm able to teach my son how to think outside of the traditional school system, great. If there's a school system that is focused on teaching someone how to think. I heard about a school in Boston where they teach children how to fail, which is fantastic. They're working with them. Yeah. On robotics and different things, where the whole goal is to fail as much as possible so that you're learning and improving. So it may not have to be homeschooling, but that is My goal for him, little guy's only, you know, less than a year old, so we've got some time. But the goal is to teach him how to fail and how to think so that he can be the best version of a human in the world. Whether that's homeschooling or not, I don't know. And if it. If it is homeschooling, I won't be doing it. I outsource everything. That's what we do. I'll get my mom to teach him, or I'll hire a private tutor. We'll go Vanderbilt style. We'll see there.
Tyson Mutrix
I mean, the reason why I asked about it is because I'm one. I'm curious about it ourselves because we've talked about it when it comes to me and Amy with our kids. And because there's massive benefits. The test scores, I mean, it's just. They're off the charts. Way better than people that are going to public schools and private schools. So there's that. There's also. You have. I mean, you have that connection with your kids. They do learn that more independent learning. They learn the time management part of it because they realize, oh, I can do. I could spend three hours a day and I could. I mean, you could probably actually get. Graduate early doing three hours a day, or you could do six hours a day and graduate really early. You can. You get to control your. You're learning a lot of different things. And nowadays I've noticed, like our jiu jitsu, so I go to jiu jitsu, and they've got homeschool classes so kids can come in during. During certain hours. For homeschool kids, Taekwondo has it. There are soccer teams. Like, there's all these different resources nowadays that probably weren't. Didn't exist back whenever you were homeschooled. Maybe they did exist, but, oh, no.
Alexis Austin
When I was homeschooled, I did taekwondo, we did soccer, I did softball. Because the key is, if you're going to homeschool you, and this is just my opinion, but if you're going to homeschool, you have to embed social activities. And I think having more social activities is helpful because you want to have that group collective that you have them a part of. So we would do all kinds of different camps and things, but I also think it's helpful to follow adults around. So when I was homeschooled, we would have a week each semester where I would follow an adult around to learn what they did. And basically, like, they get a free little intern for A while, like I would do it where I'd follow. When I was younger, it was my grandparents and I would learn how to cook and clean and stuff from my grandmothers. But later on I would follow my, my grandmother around her job. She worked at a furniture store. So I learned how to set things up and you have to get permission from the companies. But it was really helpful because I would get embedded in these adult environments and I grew up being able to talk to people of any age because I wasn't, you know, surrounded only by my peers. It was a wide range of people. We also were really active in theater, so we had a really active theater life and did a lot of musical theater as homeschoolers. So. And we had the time to. And we were really good because we could practice. So I think if you do it, you have to do it in a way that the schooling is just a tiny portion of your day. The purpose, in my opinion, for homeschooling is to give your child much more experiential learning than a normal kid gets.
Tyson Mutrix
I can't wait to find out what you all are going to do whenever you make the decision. So stay tuned for that. Let's transition about the coaching and is the coaching different from consulting? Because what's interesting about this is I think that the way you learned as a kid probably helps you with the way you probably coach. And so can you talk a little bit about the coaching? And is the con. It's consulting the same or is that something different?
Alexis Austin
So I have branded myself as a consultant, not a coach. I think, I think coaches just as a very blanket statement for me, coaching seems to be this. Here's my system of doing things. Go watch these courses, do these things and you'll be successful. When I work privately with a law firm, I consult. So what we're doing is I'm sitting in and I'm basically acting either as a CEO with them or a CEO, whatever they need. And we're building out together what they need in their firm. So I'm a lot more hands on. I'm a lot more in the firm. Their team knows me, I communicate with their firm. I'm a consultant. When I'm doing sales coaching, that is coaching more. It's I teach. So I've actually, like I was telling you earlier, I'm rolling out. I call it my chief Virtual Sales Officer program where I teach the law firms intake and sales teams how to appropriately qualify leads, how to actually sell from the perspective of customer service selling, not my lawyer's the best because they know all this stuff. Egotistical sailing. I keep saying sailing. My southern is coming in. But for that perspective, it's coaching because it's. Here are the general ways that you need to understand sales from the, the psychological perspective. Here's what you need to be looking for in sales calls. And then we do a lot more hands on. I call them hot seats where we get them up. We pull sales calls and we dig into them and say, this is where you did this. This is what the client's feeling here. And we do it over and over and we do it with lots of different sales calls. So that's more coaching. The private work I do is more consulting because it's more deeply embedded in their individual firms. And you know, every single law firm owner has a slightly different version on what they want in their firm. I do tend to work only with flat fee firms on the consulting side, just because that's what I know. But the goal I have for people is to build what they want. Not to say do it my way. Who cares if, if my way worked for me, it may not work for you. My goal is to figure out what that person wants and help them build what they want. And then, spoiler alert, in sales, that's exactly what you do with clients too. You figure out what they want and you sell them what they want ethically and within reason.
Tyson Mutrix
I'm going to ask you a question that may seem weird to you, but I'm asking it for a reason. Why do you use the word sales.
Alexis Austin
As opposed to consults?
Tyson Mutrix
So. Yeah, yeah. Well, all of the different terminology that are used by a bunch of other people in the legal space, I think sales is the right way of putting it, but they call it, you know, insane entei. They call it conversion. There's, there's all these different terms that they use and it's freaking sales is what it is.
Alexis Austin
So it is.
Tyson Mutrix
Does it, does it frustrate you that we use that in the legal industry? That sales is like a dirty word and then all these other words are used in place of sales.
Alexis Austin
So you hit the nail on the head. The reason that people don't use sales is because it has a negative connotation. It's because people think that sales is something that you do to someone, but selling is something you do for someone. When you're selling someone, you're trying to help them get what they want. You're trying to help them achieve. Achieve what they want. Even car salesmen, which have a terrible reputation generally Car salesmen are trying to get you into a vehicle that makes you happy. Now, whether you have buyers or mortise after it is based on how they actually conduct the sale, I don't get upset with it. What I try to do is reclaim the truth. The reason I call it sales is because that's what it is. And honestly, if you look at any kind of human interaction, every human interaction is a form of sell. One person in the conversation is selling, the other person, generally it's the person speaking less who's selling, because the person speaking less is the one that has more control. Just like in this conversation, you have more control over the conversation by speaking less and by asking questions. So I think, personally, I think almost every human interaction is a sale in some form or another. One person's trying to get something and one person's trying to give it, or both are trying to get and both are trying to give. But I think calling it sales is helpful for two reasons. Number one, it's calling truth. Truth. That's what it is. That's what we do. And two, by calling it sales, what I found is it helps law firm owners get out of this notion that lawyers have to do the initial client contact. If you're calling it a consultation, that has more of a legal connotation. And so then you bring in all these ideas that you need to be providing some kind of legal advice. I personally think that providing legal advice on an initial call with a client is unethical. I think it's dangerous and I think it risks your license. Because if you're providing legal advice, you're not unless you're actually doing a paid consultation where you gather information up front. So if you're actually going through, like for PI, if you actually had medical records and had police reports, then you could do it. If you're in estate planning and you actually had their documents and you did some kind of strategy session, or if you're in criminal and you actually pulled their record, sure, you could do a legal consultation, but short of that, you're talking in generalities. And I think that talking in generalities one is a huge disservice to the client because you're just telling them, well, this is what I generally do and I'm going to fit you into this bucket. It's the exact same idea with consulting. No one wants to feel like just a number. No one wants to feel like, well, I'm going to do for you. I'm going to get a DUI plea, because I always get dui. Please. They want to know that you're going to put time and attention into their case and actually be their attorney and actually be their law firm. And so if you speak in generalities, you water down your expertise because it makes you sound like you just do this every single day and it's just something that you do. And then they start price shopping as opposed to actually purchasing the result that you can get them. But I also think from an ethical perspective, if you're going to comment on what you can get for them and make promises to them or even something that could be misconstrued as a promise on the call, you're risking your license because you haven't looked at anything. You've just looked at their case type. And even that may be incorrect because our clients don't know they're normal human. So I call sales sales because it is and should be a sale. And if it's not, not a sale, I think you're risking a lot by not doing it as a sale.
Tyson Mutrix
We tell clients that if we, if we were to give them that they sort of guidance, we'd be lying to them, because we would be lying to them, because, I don't know, I just tell them. I listen, I, I believe in what you're telling me, right? But I've had several clients that they've, you know, fudged the truth a little bit. And then whenever I get the actual evidence, it's not the same. And so the, the. Any advice I would be giving you right now would not be the truth. So they usually, they, they tend to latch on that. It's also a nice sales technique because then if they go to someone that's. They gave them some advice, they're like, no, they're, they're a liar because they are. Let's just call them what they are. Like, if. Because we see this a lot in the PI space where, you know, they're giving, well, your case is worth $50,000. How the frick do you know that? You know what I mean? Like, you don't know that. You don't know what the policy limits are. You don't know what all the injuries are. You don't know anything other than they were in a crash. So it drives me freaking crazy, as you might tell. But, so there's. We had Theophan McKenzie in the guild the other day doing a sales training, and he talked about from a sales technique alone. You set aside everything else you said just from a sales technique alone. Don't ever give it. He said, don't ever give advice. And I even said, well, are you even, are you talking about information or advice or both? And he said both. So you, like, for example, like, what's the statute of limitations on a personal injury case in Missouri? You don't, well, why is that important to you? So you turn around, you ask questions about it, you know, well, why is that important to you? And you, you don't answer those questions in there. You. Because you want to. The reason why is you want to get to the. Get more information, basically is what you want to do. And then you answer those during the actual intake and all that. But that's, you know, we don't get all that. So. But I think that just from a sales standpoint, I think that's smart. But also you're. Everything else you said is right is right too. I mean, you're setting yourself up for failure by giving, giving them that guidance. I do wonder why consulting. I, My guess is that when you were a little kid, you weren't like, I can't wait to be a consultant, you know, So I, I do wonder.
Alexis Austin
Why consulting for me personally, or why anybody would.
Tyson Mutrix
Why you want. No, no. Why you personally?
Alexis Austin
So for me personally, it's a stepping stone. I will not always be a consultant. The reason I got into it is because I want to help other law firm owners and other business owners achieve success. And I want to be of service to them, to help them reach that goal. So right now, for me, consulting helps people actually achieve their goals faster. It's the same idea of, you know, coaching with a basketball player. Why does Michael Jordan have a coach? Because he needs someone to help him. Well, he did. Obviously he's retired now, but he needed someone to continually make him better and to reach that next level. I like helping lawyers. I love lawyers. The clients that we have. I'm okay helping clients, but I love helping lawyers. I love the way lawyers think. I love the way they interact with. And so what I can do to be of service of lawyers right now is consult and help them build and grow. The next phase is helping them get more money in their firm through the sales techniques. And I love what Theophan said. He's completely correct. Because the whole issue for everything, for consulting, for sales, it all boils down to what does the person across from me actually want? What are they actually looking for? That's the hardest, biggest question you can ask anybody. What do you want? And if you can get them to really tap into that. If it's a client hiring a firm or if it's someone that I'm working with consulting, if they can really be honest with themselves about what they want, getting that clear picture of it means it's already attainable. What I think I see the most happen with law firms is they have something that they think that they want. They say, I want to have a seven figure firm, or I don't want to go to court. But that's, that's just a surface level idea. It has nothing to do with what they actually want. What most people actually want is deep human connection, meaning in their life. And what that looks like is different for every person. So for me, consulting with law firm owners right now is just a way to exercise helping people truly get what they want and allowing themselves to actually admit what they want and making themselves much more happy in the long term. It's sometimes a little like pulling teeth to ask someone what they really want because it's, it's tough for people to allow themselves to want what they want because sometimes it doesn't seem big enough or it doesn't seem cool enough or flashy enough. But giving people that space to actually experience, hey, this is what I want. This is what I want to go for, this is who I want to be. And then helping them achieve that, it's so incredibly rewarding. I absolutely love it.
Tyson Mutrix
Yeah, that is something I've found too, because it's influenced by so many external things where they're thinking like, well, some such and such said this and such and such said that, and I heard this on the podcast or I saw this on video and it very much is guided by that. And I think that that's, that's really wise of you to try to try to look past that. I do wonder what is the most frustrating thing law firm owners do when you're consulting them? Because I can ask you, like, the best things, yada, yada, what's your favorite part? I don't, People don't care about that. I'm very curious about, like, what is it that they do that. So you're, you're working with them, you're consulting with them, and then they do accidentally frustrates the hell out of you.
Alexis Austin
They do what I used to do. When I see them making the same mistakes I made, it drives me crazy because I'm like, you're, I'm here to not let you do that. I'm here to try to prevent you from making the mistakes I made. And the number one thing is creating chaos. I created so much chaos in my firm in My mind, in my life, I think that people. So shiny object syndrome, you know, is a huge thing that law firm owners and any business owner suffers from. But with the rise of AI and the amount. The sheer amount of information you can access now, I think the single most important thing you can do is get very clear on what you're working on and just drill into that one thing. If you want to change and you want to switch over, make a conscious decision to change and switch over. But what. What I see them doing is they let themselves be pulled in all these different directions, and they won't allow themselves to focus on what's most important to them. They. They do things where they will. And again, it's. It's what I did. That's why I can recognize it. They will build things for other people, not for themselves, because I think people worry about being selfish or worrying about coming off as an egotistical jerk, when, in truth, if you actually built from what you truly want, then everything would flow much more smoothly because you can get people on board with your vision. But I think creating unnecessary chaos is the biggest pet peeve of mine, because we think that overcoming something difficult makes us more valuable. So if it's not difficult enough, we make it more difficult so that we feel more value in ourselves by overcoming it. When really the simplest, elegant solution is usually the best and the cleanest way to go. But people say, well, that's too easy. Yeah, of course. That's why just going forward and having success would be much easier if you just let it be easy.
Tyson Mutrix
How do you reel them in? Because I think that that can be really difficult, especially whenever. Sometimes it's like their entire world is chaos. Right. It's their. It's not just the firm. Like, in their personal life, it's chaos. And so that's. That's kind of rolling into the firm. So how are you able to. To help guide them to a point where the seas are a little bit more steady? And I'm using. Since you said sails and sailing, I want to make sure you make a Jim Aspel reference, because he would love the fact that we're talking about sailing. But how do you. How do you make sure that. How do you help the seas become calm when you're dealing with someone that has a pretty chaotic life?
Alexis Austin
I mean, the truth is, Tyson, I don't. No coach can do that. No coach can calm anything down for any person. The question is, does the person you're working with actually want that solution? And my job is to get them to really take personal responsibility of what's going on. Which, again, personal responsibility isn't a favorite topic that people have, but it gives you so much control and power in your life if you actually take personal responsibility of what's going on. Because once you say, yes, I paused this, then you have the ability to say, well, do I actually want to continue doing this? So I don't help them get control. I shine a light on what they're doing and ask, do you want to continue in this path? And that's up to you. Like I tell all my clients, you can choose to listen to me or not. I don't have a personal preference, like, I'm going to be here and be happy no matter what, But I'll shine this light on what you're doing. And then if you tell me you want to fix it, I ask them what you are going to do. I ask every client, what is your number one sabotage pattern? What do you do when you start tearing yourself down? How do you deviate from what you say you're going to do? And then I ask them for permission to remind them of their habit. I'm not calling them out on it. They've identified it themselves. I'm just here to serve as that mirror and reflection. Say, hey, remember how you told me that you'll go off and do something else when you're worried about your ability to do this thing? I see you doing that. Can we please come back to what you said you want? Or have you changed your mind? So it's really being able to get them to identify it, which that can take a couple sessions just to get someone to identify their habits. But once we identifying it, getting their permission to call them out on it. Because the thing is, humans are humans. If they're not open to hearing it, they're never going to hear you anyway. So you can't fix anything unless someone wants to fix it themselves. And if someone wants to fix it themselves, I am all for it. We're going to get them moving much faster.
Tyson Mutrix
I'm gl. I'm so glad you said what you just said, because I want to. I want to ask you about this James Joyce quote. Mistakes are the portals of discovery. And it's so. It's so perfect for what you just said, you know, because. And you. You'd mentioned accountability. I. I love. Whenever there's a dog barking. What kind of. What kind of dogs you got?
Alexis Austin
Guard dogs. Can you tell I love it.
Tyson Mutrix
Yeah. So. But I. I did want to get your thoughts. Although on that quote. So mistakes are the portals of discovery.
Alexis Austin
I mean, that's just another way of saying mistakes are opportunities in disguise. And I think that's exactly right. I don't think there are mistakes. I think that making a mistake, quote, unquote, is just you learning something that didn't work because then you now know how to make it work. That's all a mistake is, is an opportunity to see what isn't working and change it. And I always challenge people, when you call something mistake, if you reframe it and say, this is an opportunity, it's incredible, because instead of saying, oh, look at this mistake we made with intake, what opportunity is there here? And if you just do that simple reframe, what's the benefit? What's the good thing about this? You open yourself up to exponential improvement instead of beating yourself up about it.
Tyson Mutrix
Love it. I want to ask you about something else. So it's. The quote is from Robin Sharma. Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It's about impact, influence, and inspiration. So when it comes to the firm, who would you say provides that impact, influencing inspiration? Is that you? Is that Jimmy? Is it somebody else?
Alexis Austin
Number one? I think that that's an ideal for inspiration. I think some people actually embody that leadership. I think some people think leadership is dictatorship. And I think that a lot of law firms fall into that second category without meaning to. For. For us, I think true leadership is developing other people into leaders. So for me, my goal with the firm has been to teach those around me how to become their own leaders and to step into it, because I. I pulled out after having already had people in there. I was fortunate to have some of our attorneys who've been with us a long time. They are stepping up as leaders and they're leading. So it's not just Jimmy. Jimmy does a fantastic job of leading everyone in the right direction, but he empowers them to be leaders as well. Because if you're truly building a culture and a movement that you want to have happen with your company, it's not just one leader. It's developing everyone else into leaders. So helping them say, well, this is what I see. This is the issue that I'm seeing, the opportunity that I see. How do I fix it? They're taking that leadership role. I'll step in and say a few things here and there. But what I tried to do was I tried to build a culture of leadership through. Through the group before I left. And now it's a continuation. It's. It's the brand, it's who we are. Everyone does things the right way, the right law group way, because that's who we are. I don't know. I don't know if that answers your question, but the goal is to instill leadership in others, not to have a leader.
Tyson Mutrix
Listen, it's your view on the quote. So it's, it's, it's whatever, it's whatever you think. I, There is no right or wrong answer. I, I do think you're right about. Other law firm owners do. Sometimes they do view it as a dictatorship. Sometimes they're, they're too lax. It's somewhere in between because you got to have some sort of like, you know, this is the way you got. Have someone that's kind of, that's still leading. Because the, the element that a lot of owners, they don't, they, they, they neglect is the leadership part of it. And leading people, they, you still have to lead. It's not. There are many studies on this, and this whole idea where you flatten the leadership, it doesn't work work. It's not a successful way of doing things. You still have to have someone that's at the top. That's why you have a lot of, A lot of companies in general, they've got one leader. The most successfuls have one leader. Yeah, you have a committee, you have a board, whatever you want to call it, you got a leadership team, but you still have the one leader that ultimately is guiding the way. So I think that, that, that part's really, really important.
Alexis Austin
Well, I think too, as a leader, my goal as an actual leader in everything I do is to be the dumbest person in the room because you can lead and create direction, but it doesn't mean you have to be the smart one. So for me, I think leadership is more like the rudder on a ship. If we're going back to Captain Jim, as analogies, the leader is the rudder. They're not the main thing. They're supposed to be the one that guides the ship the way it needs to go, but every other expertise is needed. So I think wanting to be the smartest person is the fatal flaw that a lot of law firm owners have. It's not about how smart you are, how good you are, it's what are you doing to move things forward. And to do that, you don't need to be the smartest because then you're going to cap out. You're never going to be greater than you are.
Tyson Mutrix
Totally agree. I don't know that I don't Remember the story about Henry Ford? But there's that whole story about Henry Ford, about someone, you know, saying that they're. That he's just an idiot or whatever, but. And he talks about all the smart people he has around him. I don't. I don't know the full story, but it's. It's. It always. Because that makes me think of that. I think that you're right. So here I have a. I have a fun little question, and then we'll start to wrap things up. But. So you're. You're at a dinner party. You and I meet for the first time. Okay? And I say, you know, hey, Alexis, my name is Tyson. I. I run a personal injury firm. How do you. How do you introduce yourself? Because you've got the firm, you've got the consulting. What do you. What do you say?
Alexis Austin
I asked you about you.
Tyson Mutrix
Well, no, I asked you. I was. Here's the. I would. Listen, I know this game, and I would play this game with you and you. I would get an answer from you, because I know this game. I know how you. I know when people try to turn it around, because I'm doing the same shit right back to you. So this is. It's exactly what I do. I try to. I try to make it about them because. Okay, so I know. Is it. Because whenever you're asking them questions and they're talking the most, how the person feels, it makes them feel special. Is that. Is that why you do it? Yep, that's. It's. But you're also being. You're genuinely curious.
Alexis Austin
I love learning.
Tyson Mutrix
Yes, but I'm genuinely curious. What. Like, what do you say in that situation? How do you introduce yourself?
Alexis Austin
My mission in life is to teach people how to utilize faith to live the best life possible. And what I do is I teach people faith in business. I teach people faith in their personal lives. And I don't mean it from an uber Christian religious perspective. I mean, exercising faith, that's what I do. And it shows up in lots of different ways, but that's who I am and what I do.
Tyson Mutrix
You know, I did notice that you started, like, a Facebook group or something like that. Right? So tell me about that.
Alexis Austin
So my whole thing, what I've learned is I think that entrepreneurship and business ownership is the most gigantic leap of faith a person can take. And I think that if you truly embrace it, and I don't care if you come from a religious background or more of a metaphysical background, the exercise of faith is, you know, the Hebrews quote, In the Bible is the evidence of things not seen. You have faith that this thing exists, and faith is an action towards an expectation. It's a confident expectation that something's going to occur. So when you're looking at utilizing faith in a business, you have to come from the approach of having a confident expectation that your goal is actually happening, not that it will happen, not that it's going to happen at some future point, it's actually happening. And a confident expectation is continually taking action in that forward progression. So what I teach people to do in anything that I'm doing is how do you recognize, number one, what that that outcome is that you're wanting? And then how do you operate from the perspective of continually taking action towards that? Because as you take action, it shows up. Now, if you think, oh, it's coming in the future, it'll always be in the future and you'll never realize it. But if you take that consistent action towards your goal, your goal shows up a lot sooner than you think. It's crazy how quickly things come in. If you actually exercise faith, which is an action, it's a verb, not an idea.
Tyson Mutrix
I like it. Let me end with this. So when you look back years from now, so near the end of your career, what do you hope will be the lasting legacy of your work?
Alexis Austin
Looking back, I want to be able to say that I made the world a better place for the people that were in it by helping them improve their lives, improve the lives of their family, and get more connected to their purpose in life.
Tyson Mutrix
Alexis Austin, thank you.
Alexis Austin
Yes, sir. Thank you very much.
Max Law Host
Hey, I've got a question for you. When was the last time you drove over to another law firm near you, sat down over lunch and traded every business tip you've got, talked about what's working, what's not, and what to do next? No, see, that's what Maxl Khan is for. It's real conversations with law firm owners who are actually doing this building, leading, scaling, and willing to share what's working right now. You could keep doing it alone, but let's be honest, it's slower, harder, and way more expensive than getting in the room and shortcutting the learning curve. As of this recording, we've got 2020 seats left to this year's event. Skip the guesswork, go to maxlacon.com and grab your ticket before they're gone.
Host: Tyson Mutrux | Guest: Alexis Austin, Right Law Group
Date: October 7, 2025
In this episode, Tyson Mutrux welcomes Alexis Austin, co-founder of Right Law Group, for a candid discussion on intentional, sustainable growth in law firm ownership. Alexis shares the evolution of her leadership role, transitioning from hands-on “firm owner” to a high-level visionary and entrepreneur. The episode throws light on Right Law Group’s journey scaling a criminal defense firm, building strong systems and teams, and redefining leadership, purpose, and success in the legal landscape.
Separation of Duties at Right Law Group
"It took years for us to get there, because Jimmy and I had a lot of tension at the beginning. Stepping on each other's toes and having to figure out who's responsible for what... Now, it's really good, and ironically, it's made us better family members too." – Alexis Austin (02:05)
The Impact of Stepping Back
Original Vision vs. Evolved Priorities
"I had to look at it and decide what was more important, the feeling of the firm, the cohesiveness of the group, or just cranking out gross revenue goals... What matters is profitability, stability, and a solid trajectory forward." – Alexis Austin (08:09)
Intentional Slowdown to Build Foundations
Brand Over Individual Attorney
"We decided to be a brand and make the focus about the team...when we're talking in sales and intake, we never mention the attorneys. We mention the exceptional results our firm gets." – Alexis Austin (12:40)
Anticipating and Defusing Attorney Pushback
"The only pushback I get is 'Why do I have to talk to this person?'...Our attorneys love it. They never ask for more client contact because they trust the team." – Alexis Austin (15:38)
Targeted Recruitment & Culture Building
Systems Over Individual Superstars
"We manage systems, not people...If it's not the system, it becomes very obvious that that person is not working well within the system." – Alexis Austin (21:33)
Delegating Legal Quality Oversight
"We build systems so no one can deviate...in order to change those systems, we're doing continual feedback loops." – Alexis Austin (26:32)
Reconsidering the ‘Owner’s Box’ Myth
"I think if I wasn't married to the person running the firm, it would be a very different feeling, and I would feel much more disconnected. But that just means you gotta marry well." – Alexis Austin (29:28)
Consulting vs. Coaching
"Selling is something you do for someone. When you're selling someone, you're trying to help them get what they want." – Alexis Austin (39:41)
Refocusing on Client-Centered ‘Sales’
Common Law Firm Owner Pitfalls
"I created so much chaos... They build things for other people, not themselves... The simplest, elegant solution is usually the best." – Alexis Austin (48:00)
Personal Responsibility and Helping Clients Change
Leadership as Multiplication of Leaders
"I think leadership is more like the rudder on a ship... The fatal flaw is wanting to be the smartest person. It’s about moving things forward." – Alexis Austin (55:54)
Entrepreneurship as an Act of Faith
"My mission in life is to teach people how to utilize faith to live the best life possible... The exercise of faith is taking action towards an expectation." – Alexis Austin (57:54)
On Letting Go of Control:
"What mattered was not always doing things the way I want... but what’s best for the firm, best for the clients, best for the employees." (05:10) – Alexis Austin
On Sustainable Scaling:
“Getting to seven figures is actually really, really easy. But a lot of people do it in a really reckless way… it’s about sustainable growth.” (09:47) – Tyson Mutrux
On Systems vs. People:
"If you have the correct systems, then the right people rise and shine to those systems. So I think systems." (19:51) – Alexis Austin
On Sales in Law Firms:
"Selling is something you do for someone...I call sales 'sales' because it is and should be a sale." (39:41) – Alexis Austin
On Avoiding Legal Advice in Sales Calls:
"Providing legal advice on an initial call with a client is unethical. I think it’s dangerous, and I think it risks your license." (41:08) – Alexis Austin
On Leadership:
“True leadership is developing other people into leaders. It’s not just one leader; it’s developing everyone else into leaders.” (54:03) – Alexis Austin
On Chaotic Owners:
"We think that overcoming something difficult makes us more valuable... The simplest, elegant solution is usually the best." (48:00) – Alexis Austin
On Mistakes:
"I don’t think there are mistakes. Making a mistake is just you learning something that didn’t work because now you know how to make it work." (52:27) – Alexis Austin
On Faith in Business:
"Entrepreneurship and business ownership is the most gigantic leap of faith a person can take... Faith is an action towards an expectation." (58:20) – Alexis Austin
For law firm owners aiming to scale deliberately, Alexis Austin’s playbook is clear: Set your vision, build purposeful systems, let your team and brand flourish, and lead with both humility and faith.