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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@maxwell events.com.

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This is Maximum Lawyer with your host, Tyson Mutrix.

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Welcome back to Maximum Lawyer Live. I'm Tyson Mutrix, and today I'm going to be talking about what you do versus how you do it. This is something that I posted about in Circle in the association a couple weeks ago. It's just a really interesting observation, I guess. And so I had so many thoughts about this. This was something that, from a mindset standpoint, from an employee standpoint, there are lots of different angles on this. I almost struggled writing the post because it was. There were so many things that I wanted to talk about inside of it. So that's why I wanted to talk about this here, because I couldn't really talk about all of them. I want. I, I had enough trouble trying to narrow down what I wanted to talk to it. It could have been, I could have written for forever on this, but this was what we were walking. I was actually going, you know, go to the bathroom at Tron, is what it was. And by the way, at Disney World, we were at Disney World. Tron, the line is ridiculously long. So if you can get a fast pass, pay for the fast pass. It, it makes a lot of sense. But so we're walking up, up to the restrooms and pass this massive line. And it was just interesting. Like people were sort of in this circle and they were stopping to look at something happening. I was like, what, what's going on? And there was. They have all these, all these cast members that go around the entire park because we're, we're Magic Kingdom. And what they do is they just clean up trash. That's all they do. That's. It's. Their entire job is cleaning up trash. And I'm looking and I'm like, what is this guy doing. And it's really interesting because he has taken the end of his broom and I'll put this on screen for people that are actually watching, but he's taking the end of his broom and he is creating designs. So this is Mike. So those of you that are watching this, right here's Mike. And I've got. I took a picture with him. So I took a picture of me, Mike, and then Hudson. Hudson's there, too. And what he's doing, he's drawing these really cool drawings. He has taken the end of his broom and gotten it wet, and he has made these designs. In this one, it's. It's Mickey and Minnie. And he starts where you don't know what he's going to draw, and he's just. He's just dipping it in water. He's making these designs on the sidewalk, and in a few minutes they evaporate and he'll come back and do another one. Really interesting thing. He's not paid to do this, right? He is not paid to create these designs. It's not a part of his job description. And I found this really fascinating. And I talked to him about it because I was very curious. That's why I took a picture with them. I mean, he is the only cast member that I took a picture with. It's not. I don't think that's a really typical thing where you're going to take a picture with employees on the theme park. You're just typically going to do that. But he was smiling the entire time. He was so happy about his job. And he was. He was playing with the kids. And he said that what Disney does is they. Whatever, their job is done, basically. And so let's say they're cleaning up stuff and there's really. They've kind of covered their area and there's nothing else going on. Disney has said, go make magic. That's it. And I think that that freedom that they have given their cast members is really, really cool. There are many things with Disney that I think that they have gotten wrong. And this is one of those. It was one of those other things that was going. One of these other threads that was kind of going through my mind. Because if you've been to. If you were ever at Disney 10 years ago and you compare it to now, you know, there's a massive difference. There's a massive decline in the experience. And I do wonder how many people actually agree or disagree with that. But that's not the point of this. I can tell you from my experience with our kids 10 years ago versus today. Night and day. Night and day experience. That being said, I think Mike, because Mike has been there. He told me the number of years. It's a really long time. Mike's been there for a very long time. I think he might be one of those people that's a holdover from. From yesteryear, and that might be why he still has the spirit. He does. I don't know. I can tell you from personal experience, while we're there, not all of the cast members have that same mindset that. That Mike does. We're gonna set that aside for now. I thought that the fact that Disney gave him that freedom to do that, that opportunity, the space. There are a lot of lessons in that. There are a lot of lessons. They didn't. There might be very specific things that Disney tells him to do when it comes to his actual job. But, you know, making the magic. I guess part of it partly is part of his job, but it kind of makes me think of Nordstrom. Nordstrom, since its origination, was known for customer service. And so at Mizzou, whenever, you know, because my undergrad's in marketing, I think most people know that by now. But, like, that was, like, of the case studies, like the. The major case studies was always Nordstrom. And one of the great examples is. Is that there was a. A lady that had come in and she had bought a tire from Nordstrom. I think that's the story. She bought a tire from Nordstrom when at some point they made. They had actually sold tires. By the time that she came in, they were no longer selling tires. But what they did is they honored that return. And it was. I mean, who returns a tire, right? The point is, like, they bent over backwards for that customer. And that's. That's something that they do. They're very well known for these days. Not so much. You don't really hear about it. But historically, Nordstrom really known for customer service. And a big part of it was the freedom that was given to them by. By Nordstrom. I'm pretty sure they had. There's some sort of up to a certain dollar amount they. They were able to refund or pay to do something for. For people. It's one of those things where we actually. I like that so much that we implemented years ago where up to a certain dollar amount, we. At first, we didn't. We didn't put a cap on it. And people. People started to go overboard a little bit. And so what we did, I think we have a $50 cap. We're. If you want to do, you know, spend $50 for. To do something for. And there's exceptions to this, by the way. This isn't like some hard. The general. General rules, you know, spend about $50 or less on. On the person. But a very, very common one is, hey, such. And such is not. They've not been doing well. There's something rough going on. Can I send them a gift? And lots of what the gift is. The gift is they'll go and they. They've spoken to the client so much. They have pretty good ideas of what they like. And, you know, we'll send them some sort of gift from. Could be from Amazon. It could be. Could be flowers. It could be lots of different things. But they do have that freedom to do that. But it really got me thinking, okay, what else can we do? What other kind of freedom can we give our employees and space to really go and make the experience better for our clients? That was one part of it. That was one part of it. One of the many things that was crossing through my mind, another one, though. And this was. This was from, like, I guess my own personal perspective on this is that how do we find employees that really, really get it and they really enjoy their jobs? Because there is. That's the. The. Whenever I started to write that article, that's what it was about. It was what you do versus how you do it. You know, his job was essentially Glorify Chander. I'll just say it right? That's. If you're. If you're usually gonna break it down, that's pretty. But that's not at all what Mike is. Mike is way more than that because of how he does it. And so how do we find those people? And it kind of make. It made me think back to whenever I was at State Farm. They had this big seminar and was about ownership, and they brought in a big speaker to have that ownership mindset. And Mike really does take on that ownership mindset where he owns his position, he owns his job, and he really loves it. It was so clear that he loves his job. There were other people. This is one of those things where I saw Mike and had the experience with Mike, and then I started to pay more attention to other people like that. And not all of the people that work there that do the exact same job had that same mindset. You know, they were just kind of. They were in the shadows almost. And maybe that's part of what they're taught to do. But none of them were making magic that I saw. None of them were. And so how do you find those people? And do we have an expectation? Should we have an expectation from the people that we hired to go out and make magic? Right. Do we have that. Should we have that expectation of them to kind of go above and beyond? And I do. And it's. It's not that we're expecting extra work out of the. Out of the person, because I kind of think I kind of do have that expectations where I think we have a really good track record of hiring those type of people. And I don't know how. I think Kristen just does a really amazing job and Amy does a really amazing job at finding those people. But they're. There is a difference between. There's a major difference between the two types. The ones that just come in and do their jobs and the ones that will go above and beyond and really care. And maybe that's part of it, is we're looking for peeps. So we're looking for passion for passion for what we do. And that could be a big part of it, is that we're looking for passionate people about personal injury law. And the people that we hire that they generally do. Not all of them. Not all of them. Some people come from other industries, but they have a very keen interest when it comes to personal injury law. So that was another part of this. So there's many things. But then it also got me thinking about myself when it comes to what do you do versus how you do it? And I was. I'll be brutally honest with you, a couple days ago, I just felt like I was in a rut. I was just coming off a long vacation and then went straight into it. This year, it's already January 14th. So if you're listening to this, it's not January 14th. It's. I think it's January 20th, if my math is right on the date. So you'll be listening on Saturday. But it's beginning. It's January, right? And I feel like this. This month has come on so freaking strong. It has been one of those ones where holy hell. Like it is. I mean, I'm talking about depositions, I suppose I have a trial next week. Luckily, that case resolved. So. But just I was like, I was just kind of in a rut. Like, oh, my gosh. I'm, like, exhausted. We're renovating a bathroom. So just all this stuff. My house. My house is a freaking wreck. Because of the renovation. Because you like the master bedroom. Like, you got to go through the master bath, to get to the closet. And just. It's one of those things where, like, I was like, golly, just I felt like it was in this rut. Then it was like, you know, what made me think, like, no, that this is what we get paid to do. Like, this is. This is why people hire us, right? They hire us for. For times like this. And it was like an instant flip of a switch. It was. It was just a simple. Just telling myself, hey, this is what you want. This is exactly what you want. You want these types of situations. And it's all just a mindset thing. And I think a lot of what, A lot of what this post was about was mindset, the what you do versus how you do it. It's really where you put your mind. And I'm not the only one. I know that if you're listening to this or you're watching this, that you have these times where, you know, you're sort of in this rut or things are kind of tough and you just have to sort of buckle down, say, you know what? This is why we get paid the big bucks. And obviously, if it's something super serious or and you're down, I would encourage you to reach out to somebody. But I'm not really talking about those situations. I'm talking about one of the situations where, you know, just kind of in this, you know, you've had a really rough week or a really busy week, or maybe some late nights and some early mornings, or maybe you've got some. Maybe had a newborn at home and all these different things. It could be a lot of different things where life is just sort of catching up with you. But I think you just kind of have to remind yourself, this is why I'm here. I've got the freedom, I've got the time. So part of the law firm ownership is like, I've got. I have these amazing times. It's a mix of emotions and it's a mix. It's kind of like a roller coaster times where you've got these times, you've got the freedom to do the things you want to do. But part of that, part of the trade off is that you got the times where the beginning of the year can be sort of rough because you just spent a week away or eight days away and you know, you're having to spend some time, you know, catching up a little bit or maybe, maybe you shouldn't have scheduled so many things at the beginning of the year that happens. That's Part of that's part of the trade offs of law firm ownership. And I wouldn't trade it at all. Not for a million bucks. Not at all. Because you make a lot more than a million dollars. You just want to say, but it's not. To me, it's not about that. It's the freedom to be able to. I can leave whenever the heck I want. I can come back whenever the heck I want. I can work whatever hours I want. And so these are some of the trade offs, right? It's part of, it's part of the trade offs, but it's a lot of it comes down to mindset and just, just telling yourself, listen, I, this is, this is why I chose what I chose. This is why I'm running the law firm that I'm running. So there's a lot to it. But I really wanted to talk about Mike because it was, he was creating art. It was interesting. Just when you kind of lift your eyes up, away from the phone and what you sort of will notice, it's kind of a cool little thing. So. But if I come back to that, because I want to, I want to come back, kind of do a circle, the rest of what I want to talk about when it comes to that is if you, you kind of want, you want to be able to pass it on to your people, right? And you might have that mindset, but like, you can teach this mindset. This isn't something that you're born with or you're not born with. This is something you can teach as well. And I think we do tend to sell a lie a little bit. And I'm not talking about, I'm just talking about the industry in general, where things will get better when your title improves or, you know, things get better whenever you, you get a pay raise. And I think that, that, I think focusing too much on those types of things does a massive disservice to your people, and it does a massive disservice to you and your firm. I think the more important thing is to be focusing more on, okay, how are you doing things, the enjoyment of the work. Because ultimately that's what, if you look back, you know, 20 years from now, those are the things that you're, you're going to remember the most. Those are things that they're going to remember the most. Is, is the enjoyment from the work or, or the lack of enjoyment from the work. It really depends on how you approach it. So if you can pass it on to your people about enjoying the work that you Do. Even in the tough times, you have to kind of be able to step away a little bit and laugh a little bit at what's. At the situation. We all, we all have those situations. We all have a crazy client or two, right? And you have to be able to. To laugh at it. You got to be able to laugh at it a little bit and approach those situations. Not just. There are definitely serious situations that come up, but once. Once that emotion passes, you got to be able to step back a little bit and you gotta laugh about it. But I guess the. The main thing I just want to pass on about, you know, the mindset. It's a. It's a decision. It really is. It's something that you can choose to do is I almost talk about that light switch moment where I was like, you know what? This is, this is what I'm here for, right? This is what I was. I was put here on this planet to do. Once you take. Once you just change your mind on it, it's, It's. It's just a simple thing. And everything else becomes much easier once you just. If you. You sort of identify that moment. So all you have to do is recognize it. And then one of the key, key tricks that I've learned is just labeling it. So, hey, you're really in a funk. You know, you're just really in a funk. You need to. You need to snap out of it. Once you label it, that is your. That's your indicator. Hey, let's flip that switch. Let's flip that switch. Because you can easily change your mind. It's. It's not always easy, but usually it's a pretty easy thing. It's your decision what mindset you want to be in. You don't have to be in that funk. You don't have to stay in that funk. Everyone gets in a funk, but you don't have to stay there. You can change your mind whenever you want. And then the last thing I want to talk about when it comes to this is culture, because if we kind of go back to, you know, Mike and the culture of Disney because, like, you can't force someone to care. Like, if you just look at it like an individual team member, like, you just. You can't force them to care. But what, what you can do is you can create this environment. When I talk about space and everything, you can create this environment that allows the people that do have the right mindset to thrive. So it's not really about, like, from your standpoint, like, you can control what you can control. You can't control any specific person or one person, but when you can, control is the environment that you create for your team members. And I think that's something that you can really focus on. Okay, what are the things that we're micromanaging? Where can we step back a little bit and let them have that creative freedom? Where are the areas where we can give them the freedom to better, better take care of our clients? That's another thing too. And so, like, really be thinking about different areas of your firms that you can step back from a little bit and give your team a little bit more freedom so they can have that space to create that magic. The culture is within your control. Your mindset is within your control. So control those things. Control the things you can control. And I think that you'll be far, far better off for it. All right, that is all we have for this week. Remember to check out Becca's list, BeccaSlist co. Where you can rate vendors and that way we have that collective knowledge for all of us to help find the best people that we need to help take care of our firms. Also, just keep an eye out in the next few months for the next release of for of tickets for Max lock con Maxon 2026. It's going to be in Atlanta, so just over the next few months, keep your eye out and then go to maximware.com for tickets to our Phoenix Mastermind. That's coming up in February, so make sure you get those tickets. Those are on sale, so go out and get those. Have a great week, everybody. Enjoy your weekend. If you're listening to this on the weekend, have a great week. If you are watching this live, but we'll see you later. Bye.