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If your firm feels one good decision away from a breakthrough, then this is for you. We're hosting our first mastermind of 2026 in Phoenix on February 26th and 27th. And it's two days designed to actually move your firm forward and grow who you are as a leader. Day one is a full day of hot seats where you break into groups and work through the real problems in your business. Day two is our wellness workshop, featuring sessions that help you boost your energy, lower stress, and think more clearly. We have Jocelyn and Erin Freeman, host of a top 10 marriage podcast and masters in psychology, teaching relationship skills that you'll use at work and at home. A lunch and learn on habit formation with Tyson and more. View the full event details and grab your seat@maxflawevents.com.
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Get ready because here's your host, Tyson Mutrix. Good morning and welcome back to the Guild live show. Different schedule this week. We had Christmas on Thursday, so hopefully everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We are live in the Guild. If you're listening to this as a recording, you're probably gonna hear this after New Year. So happy New Year's to you. If you had a great Christmas and Happy New Year's. For those of you that are in the Guild that are listening to this live, hopefully you have a wonderful New Year. We are off next week. I'm going to be in Disney with the famous. So be taking some more time off, which is fantastic. That's always great. Which is actually somewhat of the topic of the show this week. So it's interesting this, it's been sitting with me for a little bit and I wanted to talk about it because I think it's something that most of you will probably relate to, maybe more than you might expect. But. So lately I've been spending a lot less time in the office. And it's, it's not some sort of like, hey, I cracked the code, like, here's how I work fewer hours a week. This is, it's not that type of an episode. This is more like that sort of like that real life thing, you know, that sort of uncomfortable, you know, being out of the office uncomfortable feeling. And it's, it's one of those things where I, I think that many people have probably been through something very similar. So this isn't like something where, like, I've been out of the office and, like, you know, I've been depressed or something. It's nothing like that. So. So we are, we are renovating our bathroom. Okay. And when I say renovating, we Are like, we stripped everything down to the studs. So I'm. And I'm not talking about just painting a wall or. Or anything like that. We. We have ripped the shower out. We ripped the bathtub, toilet, vanity, everything. We're doing. Doing a complete rehaul of our bathroom. And so I've been. I've actually been personally, you know, away from the office. I mean, I. I'm coming into the office. I'm working less hours. I'm. I'm actually spending a lot of time on that. And it's funny because I'm sure I. I know I hear some of you saying, you know, who. Not how kind of a thing. I. I'm not doing this because I have to. I'm not doing this because it's cheaper. So Amy and I, we're doing this. I mean, I really enjoy it. I like building things. I like working with my hands. I like seeing the progress from really start to finish. It's no different than whenever I'm building things with the firm. Like, I like to build things. That's what I like to do. So it, like, this is a hobby. Okay, so those. Those of you. Some of you like to go golfing, some of you like to play pickle ball, some of you like to knit. You know, I like to build things. That's what I like to do. Just happens to be that this habit is a little bit more. Or hobby. This is a little bit more expensive when it comes to bathroom renovation. But. And it does take, you know, quite a bit of time. However, it's something I get to do with Amy, and it's something that the kids have helped out a little bit with. Not a lot, but part of it. But I really enjoy it, really like it. But here's the weird part of it, and I don't know if it's weird, but the part that I've struggled with a little bit, it's that even though everything at the firm has been running really well, our profit is way up. Okay, I'm not. Not to brag. I'm just like, we're in a good spot. I really. It's one of the things where I really started feeling guilty, like, being away. Like. Like real guilt. You know what I mean? Like, man, should I. Should I be at the office right now? Kind of a thing? And, you know, I'd be sort of standing in the middle of this demolished bathroom with all these tools and sort of like, the. The thought would creep in, like, maybe I should head to the office. You know, like, maybe I should do this, or maybe I should get my laptop out. Like, there's times where, like, I would be. My laptop. I had the. Actually have the laptop in. In the bathroom with me as I was working on something. But, like, there's nothing. Nothing's on fire, no emergencies. Clients are being taken care of, the team is doing their job. You know, revenue is great, profits are great. And still, it's just interesting. Like, I felt like something just not. Not right. You know what I mean? And. And so that's sort of what I want to unpack today. That's. That's what we're going to be talking about a little bit. And so I think that a lot of law firm owners, a lot of legal entrepreneurs, as Becca likes to call them, they tie their value to their presence, right? So, like, if I'm not in the office, am I really working? You know, if I'm not responding instantly to some sort of message, you know, like, am I being irresponsible? Like, all these questions go through our heads, you know, and, you know, if I'm not exhausted all the time, did I really earn what I have? I think that's a really big one. Like, I've gotta. I've gotta wear myself out. And I. I am a true believer in working hard and. And really, really getting at it. That's why, like, I've got a. I'm like, I don't mess around when I go to the office, I get there, I do my job and I leave. That's why I, you know, I get to leave whenever I do. It's like, I'm firm believer. I don't. I mean, this is gonna sound kind of bad. I don't like to, like, sit around chitchat. I don't like to do all that. I like to just, boom, do the work. But I think thinking the way, like, you know, we're like, tying your presence to your value is really. I think it's a dangerous mindset to have. And so there's this Seneca quote that I. I kind of keep coming back to. And it's like we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. And I think that that's where a lot of my guilt has come from. This week is where I've been like, oh, like what? Like. Like all these scenarios going off in my head. And I think that that, that kind of hit me hard a little bit. I mean, because really, nothing bad was actually happening. The suffering was entirely in my head. That was entirely in my head, right? Like, nothing was going wrong. And that part is the struggle part, and there are several. It's one of the things where I went into, like, a sort of a rabbit hole with this. A little bit looked into. I was like, what are some. There's, like, studies on this and, like, what are the statistics and all that. And so there are. There's lots of studies on founders and business owners that. And one of the major trends that shows up is that it's not really delegations. One of the big, big things. It's like identity. And we tie up our identity so much into our presence, being at the office or being a trial lawyer. Like. Like, you're. That's your, like, identity. You know, we've sort of spent years being the hero. Like, that we're the firefighter and, like, so kind of transition. Not. Not everybody' attorney. Like, so, like, you're. You're the firefighter at the office. Like, you're the problem solver. You're the one that does all the things. And, like, I kind of joked for years, like, I'm like the IT guy, where people come to me, like, not anymore, because I got cautioned, but, like, for years, it was like, I'm the. I'm the IT guy, where people came to me for tech issues. And when those roles disappear as you grow, that's one of the things. Like, one of those roles that disappeared for me. We don't usually immediately replace them with something that's healthier. And what happens is instead, guilt starts to fill in that gap where, what do I do now? What am I going to do? I don't do that anymore. So what happens now? So it's interesting. So another thing that surprised me was working on the bathroom is like, satis. It's. It's satisfying in a way that running a business sometimes isn't. It's really kind of interesting. It really. It fills that. That void. It bothered me a little bit, if I'm being completely honest. It really kind of bothered me that I was, like, enjoying it. Almost like I was enjoying it too much. You know what I mean? Like, I was like, I really like doing this. Is this right? Is this. It felt wrong. It's one of the things that just felt wrong because, like, if you think, like, logically. Logically, the firm is more important than the bathroom. Okay. It really is. Okay. Completely. I would make more money, right? I could pay someone to do the bathroom. Although, Jesus, The. The. I'm sure some of the quotes I've heard other people in our neighborhood get, whoa, holy crap. But I would probably make more money if I was working at the office. Right. The firm by itself is obviously worth way more than a bathroom, but psychologically, the. The bathroom wins every time. The me building, working on the bathroom once every time. And I think the reason is that the. The progress, it's visible. I can see it. I can see it in progress. I can see in real time when I'm behind on something or I can see in real time that I'm ahead on something. You know, you put up the framing. You see the framing. You put up the drywall. You see the drywall in the shower. It's not drywall you put up, you know, go board or backer board or schluter board. Those are all things that are, like, waterproof, you know, that you can put up. But you finish a day knowing exactly what's changed. You can see it. Okay. You can see it. But business doesn't really work like that. It can to a certain extent with, like, dashboards and KPIs and all that, but you don't really see the full picture like you do when you're building something. And that's what's really kind of interesting. Like, you don't fully see the big picture. And if you don't see it, then your. Your employees don't probably see it either. And I think spending. That's maybe one of the lessons I learned is like, spending more time, like, building big picture for the team. Because, I mean, you can put in a week of leadership conversations, you know, system tweaks, some do some team coaching, and there's really, like, no immediate, like, after photo. There's just not the. That payoff doesn't show up, you know, for months. It really doesn't. And it really kind of comes back to, like, the whole idea of, like, I talk. I talked about this in a recent episode, like, like, how ideas are really a commodity, and execution of those ideas is not like, that's a Michael Dell quote. Like, we're, you know, ideas are a commodity. Execution is by far the most important part of it. Idea, Dime a dozen. It's the physical execution. That's what gives you the brain. Instant feedback running a firm is delayed gratification on hard mode. That's really what it is. And if you really don't understand that's a really core concept that you need to understand that if you don't understand that, you're going to mistake visible effort for meaningful effort. Okay? So when you're doing. When you're in the middle of things, working on the firm, you have to understand just being there, doing the thing, being busy doesn't really mean anything unless you're working on the right things. You gotta have that meaningful effort. So sort of the mindset that changed, I, I had to force myself to change my mind on this. And I really. It was more of like a, you know, instead of thinking, should I be working right now? To really. It's more of a what was all that work for in the past? All those long hours that I put in those late nights earlier in my career? Like, I didn't put in late nights, weekends and that. Years of stress, to be honest with you, just to stay stuck in the same grind forever. I didn't. I know you didn't either. I, I put in those long hours really as a down payment. They were supposed to buy freedom later. That freedom that I'm sort of taking advantage of now. Okay. It's, it was the, the preparation that I had early on was not accidental. Okay. It was intentional. And in the time that I'm taking off now, I had to, I had to convince myself of. This is one of those things where like I had to convince myself that time that I'm taking off right now to do these things that I'm enjoying doing it, that was, that's earned time. And I think that that's where a lot of law firm owners have gotten it wrong for so long that they try, they treat those early sacrifices like it's a permanent identity and sort of a. Instead of a temporary phase where they think that my whole career is going to be like this. We all know those burned out lawyers. We all know them right where they have spent decades during their like third or fourth decade and they are just a, just a stressed out ball and they're just a mess, but they really struggle. The, the struggle becomes who they are and what they did, not what they went through earlier in their career. We got from like struggle isn't the goal here, like leverages, right? We're going through some of these hard times to then get leverage later on. It's what we're doing. A big part of this though, is trusting the team you built. Okay. The, the uncomfortable question they're going to have to ask yourself at some point, if everything is going well, why don't I trust that it will continue without me watching it? That's, that's not a team problem. That's more of a leadership problem. I'm going to repeat that part is really important. That's not a team problem. That's a leadership problem. The Team is not the problem. You have to trust them more. Okay. You have to control issues, masquerade as a. As responsibility all the time. They really do. That's a control issue. You have to be able to delegate. And there's, There are numerous studies on this about, like, if you can give your team, instead of micromanaging them, you give them that. The effort. You're. You above 20% increases in profitability. Like, it's, it's a massive increase in profitability whenever you take that stranglehold off. And, and if your absence, if it causes anxiety, it usually means one of two things. Either your systems are not fully complete or they're wrong, or your trust isn't in your team. And those are very different problems. Those are, those are things that either you need to work on your systems or you need to work on your team, or maybe a combination of both. They're very different issues, but it's usually one of those two things. What we really have to get to so kind of start to wrap things up a little bit is we have to redefine what work actually means. Okay. And that's a big reframe. And, and that's. It's. It's helping me. Helping me. Not completely helped me, but it's helping me let go of some of that guilt. Working less doesn't mean that you care less. Okay? It often means that you've built something better. Okay? Remember that. Working less doesn't mean you care less. It does not mean that. It often means that you have built something better. And, and receiving that, understanding that, owning that, hey, I'm, I'm in a good spot, is really, really important. It's one of maybe my biggest struggles is, is sort of understanding that part. It's kind of like the end of the go giver, like the fifth step in the go giver, sort of like receiving. Understanding that part, that's, that's really important. So just remember, like, leadership isn't about location. It's about the outcomes. It really is. And this is something I think the legal industry is still catching up on. I think back at my, My, My first boss out of law school, how he really cared way more about us being in the office than so like that facetime, than really what we did, it was, it was so, so silly, so crazy. And, And I think as a legal industry, we got to let go of that. The, the presence being them being in the office, you being in the office, it's far less important than actually the outcomes that you get. So if you're It's. If you. If you like the office, you know, and Michael Scott is talking to Jan and who is his manager, and he. He's talking about. He said something like, you know, they do more work whenever I'm away. And she's like, he's like, no, no. They do more work when I'm here. And he's like, no, no, no. Because either way, it didn't sound right. Right. It shouldn't matter whether you're there or not. That's the reality. It should not matter whether you're there or you're away. If they're doing more work because you're there, that's a problem. If you're doing more work because you're away, that's a problem. That's a better problem, though. That's one of those things. It just means that you're the distraction. Your team should be able to run on its own. That's the point. That's the point. And with that freedom that you have in your way, it's not a reward you should feel guilty about. Not at all. Freedom is kind of the metric. Freedom should be the metric. How much time can you take away? When you start thinking about it that way, it's like, oh, that's a nice metric to live by. It really is. How about that for a KPI Having. Having more freedom? It's pretty good. So here's sort of what I want to leave you with. If you're feeling guilty for stepping away, pause before you beat yourself up. Ask yourself, is anything actually broken? Did I build this firm to escape burnout or to live in it forever? What would need to change for me to step away for 30 days without stress? That's a really good question. Where you. It'll really help you identify all those gaps. Guilt doesn't always mean you're doing something wrong. Remember that. It really doesn't. Sometimes it means you're. You've outgrown the version of yourself that had to struggle to survive. And that's not failure. That's progress. So that's all I have today. I appreciate you listening. Like I said, hopefully you had a wonderful Christmas. Hopefully, have a wonderful new year. For those of you in the guild, hopefully those of you that are listening to this, after the new year, hopefully you had a wonderful new year. Hopefully, your 2026 is your best year yet. Keep crushing it. Remember to check out Becca's list, or you can check out vendors that will help you see who's good, who's bad, who's in between, who's expensive. Who's not expensive? The best vendors for you then. If you're interested in the Guild, go to maxwellguild.com and we would love to have you and those of you that are going to be in Scottsdale in January or February, I can't wait to see you then. But hopefully this one hit home for you. And if it did, I'd love to hear about it inside the Guild or wherever you're listening. So leave a comment and I'd love to hear from you. Have a wonderful 2026 everyone. We will be seeing you. See everybody.