In this special 50th-episode celebration, Lauren shares her favorite tools, routines, and resources that have improved her solo practice and life. From a game-changing weekly case review system to using AI for future casting, Lauren opens up about what’s been working in her practice. She also discusses her morning routine, her favorite recent read on public speaking, and how her practice management software has streamlined her workflows. Hit play for practical strategies that can help you thrive.
Episode Resources
Subscribe to the Solo Success Lab
TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Andersen
Episode Transcript
LAUREN: [00:00:00] I was super skeptical when I first came across this. I thought there is no way that this is going to work, but I have to say the impact has been well, pretty magical.
Welcome to a different practice. I’m your host Lauren Lester, and I’m passionate about helping solo attorneys. Build thriving practices after starting my own solo firm straight out of law school and building it to a successful practice that earns well over six figures while working part time.
I’m here to share the tools and strategies that made it possible. Think of this as grabbing coffee with your work bestie while learning everything. They didn’t teach you about running a business in law school, pull up a seat and get ready to build a different practice.
Welcome back to a different practice.
I cannot believe I am saying this, but today marks the 50th episode. I remember recording the first few episodes and feeling so stupid and silly that I wanted to quit. There were. Definitely tears shed and I threw several takes in the trash thinking that [00:01:00] this would never come to fruition. Honestly, I thought no one will have to know that I tried and totally failed at this, but I pushed through and put myself out there despite all of my reservations and even a bit of embarrassment.
I put myself out there even when it was scary and here we are 50 episodes later. Wow. I cannot thank you, the listeners, enough for coming on this journey with me. Many of you have reached out and shared how a particular episode has directly impacted your practice or just how listening has made you feel less alone.
Every message and interaction that I get is my absolute favorite because that was always the goal. This was meant to be a place where you could get the inspiration and practical tips to know that you can do this, that you can run your own practice, and that you have someone rooting for you. So to celebrate this milestone, I wanted to do something special.
I’m going to share my current favorite things across different categories that have made a real impact on my [00:02:00] practice and quite frankly, in my life. So here are the tools, routines, and resources that I use every day and have absolutely loved this year. I want to start with something that has transformed my productivity, which is my weekly case review.
This might sound simple, but it’s been a game changer in my practice. So what I do is every week I sit down with my task manager, which has a list for every active client, and I go through every single case that’s open. And one by one in my head, I have to articulate to myself where that case stands. Is it waiting on me to draft something?
Am I waiting on a response from the client? Am I waiting on something from a third party? Whatever it is, I have to be able to say, okay, John Smith, he’s an estate planning client, and I have sent him the drafts and I’m waiting for his feedback. It takes just a few seconds, but it ensures that I know exactly where all of my cases are.
And if I need to, I identify any necessary next steps. And if [00:03:00] those steps aren’t already in my to do list, I immediately create a new one so that I don’t forget. What makes this process so powerful is its simplicity and effectiveness. It’s like having a weekly conversation with myself about everything.
Every single client matter, the magic happens when I have to state the status because it forces me to think critically about each case and where it’s at and what needs to be done. And here’s the best part. Since implementing this system, I haven’t had a single matter fall through the cracks. Not one. I have not had one of those.
Oh shit moments at three in the morning, because I realized I haven’t done something on a case that I said I was going to do three weeks ago. It just hasn’t happened because I have put this practice in place. I do it every Monday morning as my first thing before I start my work week, and it has paid off in dividends.
So for anyone managing multiple cases, which I would imagine is most of us, you know how valuable the peace of mind is to know that every single case is covered, and you are proactively addressing each one. Give it a try and let me know how it [00:04:00] works in your practice. All right. Next up in the celebration is something that might surprise you.
Using AI to create my perfect day. This has been one of my favorite discoveries of the year. So here’s what I do. I take time to reflect on what I want my ideal life to look like considering both my personal and professional goals. Then, I work with Claude, which is an AI assistant, to craft a detailed description of what a perfect day would look like and, crucially, what habits I would need to develop to make them happen.
I was super skeptical when I first came across this. I thought, there is no way that this is going to work, but I have to say the impact has been, well, big. pretty magical. It’s one thing to have a vague idea about what you want, but having AI actually help you articulate it in detail creates this incredibly clear vision.
It’s like having a blueprint for your future, but one that feels both aspirational and actually achievable. When you feed it the input, the AI [00:05:00] helps identify patterns and habits that might not be so obvious to us, making the path forward much clearer. Here is just a small part of what AI helped me create.
The sun hasn’t quite risen over the city skyline. When you slip out of bed, careful not to wake your husband. The hardwood floors are cool beneath your feet as you pad downstairs, wrapping yourself in the soft, oversized cardigan you keep draped over your reading chair. Through the kitchen windows, the first golden rays are beginning to illuminate your herb garden where lavender and sage sway gently in the morning breeze.
You start your morning ritual by brewing a cup of Buddha’s Dream tea in your favorite ceramic mug, a souvenir from last year’s summer stay in Tuscany. While the tea steeps, you step onto your back deck, inhaling deeply as the crisp morning air fills your lungs. The gentle humming of your beehive provides a soothing backdrop as you settle into your favorite meditation spot.
And it goes on from there, talking about my [00:06:00] morning routine, what my house sounds like, my interactions with my kids, what my work day looks like, and the type of work that I’m doing. And then it circles back and then it ends with the end of the day, kind of winding down that really important family time and an overall sense of having a really productive day.
Purposeful, fulfilling life. In addition to creating this narrative, which was just absolutely wonderful to read and made me go, yes, that sounds amazing. How do I get there? I also prompted the AI to give me the schedule and habits that I would need to implement to help me reach that vision of my life. So it gave me five key habits that I would need to start cultivating today to make that vision a reality.
It included things like fiercely protecting that morning time for myself, blocking off time each week to specifically build the coaching practice, making sure that I schedule and stick with my [00:07:00] workouts, making sure that I have one on one time with each of my kids every week, which I just loved, and even things like making sure that I am living below my means.
While building the stream so that I can invest in certain things that I want to and also be able to Have the life and retirement that my partner and I are hoping for again It was a really unexpected surprise what putting this prompt into the ai actually returned back to me And it’s one that I would encourage anyone to do if you’re really looking for a specific picture of what you Ultimately want your life to be To look like, and to help you, if you want the exact prompt that I used, be sure to subscribe to my new solo success lab newsletter at a different practice.
com slash subscribe. Next week’s issue is going to include the exact prompt that you can create your own perfect day. Again, you can subscribe to the solo success lab at a different practice. com slash subscribe.[00:08:00]
All right, if you’ve listened to the podcast for a while, you know that I am a big reader, and so of course one of my favorites that I had to share with y’all is my favorite recent read. So I have to highlight TED Talks, the official TED guide to public speaking by Chris Anderson. This book couldn’t have come at a better time because it’s one of my goals for 2025 to level up my public speaking game.
Now I should mention that I am fortunate to have done Toastmasters in my younger years, so I don’t struggle with the fear of public speaking, which I know is really common. Sure, I absolutely get butterflies, but what I learned from Toastmasters and others is that when I focus on delivering value to the audience, those nerves tend to settle down.
While tips for getting over that initial fear are certainly in the book, what made the book a highlight to me is how it breaks down the formula behind successful TED Talks. And let me tell you, it is packed with practical examples covering everything from structure to [00:09:00] the actual delivery. The author, uh, Pulls from actual TED talks and then explains why they were so powerful, really giving you a system for public speaking.
The insights it provides would be invaluable. Whether you’re speaking to a jury, presenting at a conference, or even just leading a client meeting, I’m already working on ways to implement these techniques in my upcoming speaking engagements and even new consultations. It’s a quick read, packed with a punch, so if you are looking for something to add to your to be read list, I would highly recommend TED Talks, the official TED guide to public speaking.
So of course, you know I had to come at you with something in the tech category, one of my favorite things overall, and I’m going to shed a spotlight on Lawmatics. This is a CRM and case management tool that has really changed how I handle both leads and active cases. Now, I will be totally honest. The transition from my old case management system to automatics was not exactly [00:10:00] smooth sailing.
There were definitely some headaches and some stress around data migration. But now that I am past that phase, I honestly wish I had made the switch sooner. What really sold me on Lawmatics was the automation capabilities, and those have been worth it alone. As a true solo, I don’t have any staff to be able to do some of that admin work for me.
And what Lawmatics does is allow me to set up an automation to have certain things happen at certain points in the case. For example. So, prior to implementing Lawmatics, when somebody would say that they were ready to get signed up for a prenup, let’s say, I would send the engagement agreement. Once they signed it, they would have to wait for me to then send the invoice to pay the fee up front.
Then they would have to wait for me to see that that had happened. And then I would send a email to get the process started where they would fill out a questionnaire so I could start to gather their data. Now, all of that happens [00:11:00] on its own. So I just send the engagement agreement. Once they sign it, Lawmatics automatically sends the invoice.
Once they pay it, Lawmatics automatically sends that first email. So it just takes some of those small steps out of the equation for me. So that I’m not having to worry about doing them. And then on the client side, it gives them a much more prompt and streamlined process because as soon as they do something, they get the next step.
Beyond the automation itself, the organizational capabilities have been really helpful. I can track not just my practice areas, but specific services within each area. Which gives me a really detailed insight into what services are most popular and then also most profitable. And then what lead sources are most effective.
It’s kind of like having a business intelligence dashboard for my practice. That gives me a lot more data than I had before to be able to make data driven decisions into the future. All right, finally, let’s talk about my morning routine, which has become my eating habit. [00:12:00] I have finally found a rhythm that works after a lot of trial and error, and it goes something like this.
I wake up before everyone else in my house, make tea, journal, meditate, and do a little bit of reading. On school days, when I take my kids to school, I make sure that they get ready, get them in the car, off to school, and then I go directly to the gym. On school days where I am not the one taking the kiddos to school, I use that extra hour for business development.
So I write newsletters, I schedule social media content, I work on new lead magnets, but then I always go to the gym before starting work. You probably heard some of this same routine in my perfect day example from the AI, and that’s because I put in there that I wanted to keep this routine up because it’s not just what I do in the morning, but what I Don’t do that has really made an impact.
The biggest thing that I do not do is check email until I have completed most of the [00:13:00] tasks on my to do list for the day. So before I get bogged down in the other requests or things that I need to do that come through email, I make sure that my client work is moving forward, so that it doesn’t keep getting pushed to the next day and the next day and the next day.
In addition to helping me be really productive with client work, the structure has also been really transformative in giving me the space to work on the bigger projects that drive me. So like on those days when I’m not the one taking my kids to school, having that dedicated one hour has allowed me to get more done than I would have if I tried to block off a whole day, which let’s be honest, doesn’t always happen.
Knowing that I have that time has let me plan for the future and I’m already planning on using those couple hours a week to refresh all of my templates and the new year. It’s not the most flashy routine. It certainly would be probably pretty boring if I posted it on social, but that is not what’s most important to me.
What is important to me is to have a slow morning [00:14:00] to give myself some time and to be able to ease into productivity so that I can really make the most of the day. And that’s it, my current favorites across five different categories. I hope that you found something in here that resonates with you, or maybe inspires you to try something new again.
Thank you so much for being a part of this journey to 50 episodes. I could not have done it without you. I’ve got some exciting episodes planned for the new year, and I am also partnering with a special guest host who is making his own waves in the legal industry with his approach to practicing, so be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss that special series.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who you think would also enjoy it and consider leaving a review. solos build practices that they love. Here’s to the next 50 episodes! Until next time, keep building a different practice. Thanks for joining me on another episode of a different practice.
If you found value in today’s conversation, subscribe to my [00:15:00] solo success lab newsletter, where each week I test and share what actually works in solo practice, sign up for free at a different practice. com slash subscribe. Want to help other lawyers transform their practices to follow the show. Leave a rating and share this episode with someone who might benefit.
And if you’re ready to take your practice to the next level, download my free guide to the six pillars of optimization at a different practice. com slash optimize. I’ve distilled nearly a decade of experience, including all the mistakes and victories into the essential elements, every successful law firm needs.
I’ll see you next time. And until then, keep building a different practice.
