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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. How are you? I am the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from a law school student into your professional career as an attorney, a fully ticketed attorney after having passed the bar, where we make the practice of law easy and fun.
[00:00:23] Scott Benton: And today we’re going to answer your question of how do you crush your fears as a new attorney? That is an excellent question, and I’m glad you asked it.
[00:00:33] Scott Benton: [00:01:00] And as we’ve explored on past classroom 2 courtroom episodes, we’ve taken a look at some of the things that tend to keep new employees up late at night before they begin their first job as an attorney.
[00:01:34] Scott Benton: And there are many of these worries. We narrowed it down to a few, but we could certainly produce many episodes about all of the fears and worries and concerns and anxieties that new attorneys. typically have before going into their new job. So for us to recap a few from other episodes. New attorneys generally worry about making that jump from law school [00:02:00] student and studying law to law professional or attorney who is an attorney who is practicing law.
[00:02:07] Scott Benton: And that, by the way, is the entire reason for the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. We’re going to help you successfully make that jump easily and with confidence. And like we say in our intro, we’re going to make the practice of law fun. Fine, problem solved. Now the only thing you really need to worry about here is actually finding some time to listen to these podcast episodes.
[00:02:31] Scott Benton: And that’s why we like to keep them short, as short as possible actually, while still maintaining their high value for you and their high level of quality because we know how busy you are and we know that we don’t want to waste your time. You have jobs to find, you have mindsets to shift around Then you’re going to have clients once you get into that new job as an attorney that you’re going to be working with so that you can make the world a better place one client [00:03:00] at a time.
[00:03:00] Scott Benton: So that’s one way to absolutely crush your fears by listening to this podcast. That’s one way for you to start turning pro, which by the way, that’s what you’re working towards and you’re working towards that. Whether this is going to be your first job that’s coming up or you’ve been maybe practicing law for two or three years, you’re still looking to turn pro.
[00:03:22] Scott Benton: You’re getting better and better every single day. So that whole mind shift thing, that’s actually going to take a lot of conscious effort on your behalf, which is just simply what’s going to happen anytime you’re moving from a more passive posture to an active posture. And you’re going to do that with any activity.
[00:03:43] Scott Benton: So there’s the learning part, in your case law school, or studying for the bar. And then there’s the doing part. And if you finish law school and you pass the bar, then you’ve probably spent the better part of, let’s say [00:04:00] four years, in a real sort of more passive posture or passive mode. Now, The entire secret is you’re gonna have to leave all of that behind.
[00:04:09] Scott Benton: You gotta move away from that sort of law school mindset and you have to be able to activate your career right now. You’re going to activate your professional career and that’s going to mean adopting what we talk about in this podcast and we talk about it over and over again, which is this tool that we keep mentioning for you to frame your work around.
[00:04:32] Scott Benton: As you are working as an attorney, and we call that tool the success cycle. Now, I know you’ve heard this many times if you’ve been joining us on the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast episodes. And you’re probably going to hear it a lot. This is quite literally all we’re going to talk about. And we know that there’s infinite variation when we’re looking at the success cycle.
[00:04:51] Scott Benton: It looks simple. Because there’s only three parts to it. But if you look deeper and deeper, which we’re doing all the time, you’re going to see how far down that [00:05:00] goes and that it’s really a fairly complex and fairly complete. So there’s a paradox tool for you to use and probably one of the most powerful tools that you’ll have in your toolbox and your arsenal as you begin your first job as an attorney.
[00:05:13] Scott Benton: And going into your first job as an attorney you’re really going to get very clear about the idea that you don’t actually know anything about practicing as an attorney. And for you, that’s simply going to bring up a lot of worry or fear or anxiety. And you’re going to need to crush all of that before you get to your job.
[00:05:37] Scott Benton: Because As much as you learned in law school, as much as you studied for the bar and sometimes people studying for the bar, they’re studying like 10 and 12 hours a day for every day for three months so that they can pass that thing. And they do all of that work and right now, let’s say you’ve passed the bar it’s finally dawning on you, if it hasn’t already, back when you were a law student, [00:06:00] that there’s an entire business side.
[00:06:03] Scott Benton: Of becoming a lawyer that you need to learn. Now, you’ve probably been focusing on the lawyer side of being a lawyer or the law side of being a lawyer, but you probably haven’t gotten a lot of instruction in the business side, and I’m not necessarily talking about starting your own firm. You might be doing that, but even if you’re a hired gun at a law firm, which is frankly going to be most of the new attorneys, then you need to get there and you need to get to work and you need to practice law efficiently.
[00:06:36] Scott Benton: And this thing, this model that we have called the success cycle, it’s going to absolutely help you crush your fears whenever you use it. So you want to keep that on the front of your mind. And as you listen to these podcast episodes, you want to incorporate those ideas more and more into way that you’re going to approach your workflow.
[00:06:54] Scott Benton: So really, the whole key to crushing your fears as a new attorney [00:07:00] is when you get to a case. So we’re going to talk about the success cycle here. The key is when you get a case, you’re going to make a to do list. You probably know if you’ve listened to this podcast, you probably guess what I’m about to say or just even recite it with me.
[00:07:14] Scott Benton: You’re going to make a to do list. You’re going to perform the legal services that you’ve put on that to do list. When you’re done, each time you’re done with a legal service, you’re going to bill the client for that service. You’re going to get paid for billing that client for that service. And you’re immediately, it’s called the success cycle for a reason, because you can just go around and around.
[00:07:35] Scott Benton: You’re immediately going to go right back to step one on the success cycle, which is go to your to do list and the work that you did, you just the legal services you’ve performed and you build for and got paid that is also there’s a, there’s a feedback loop that goes on because the work that you’re doing is anytime you push a case forward, it’s just going to generate more to do list items.
[00:07:58] Scott Benton: It’s gonna, you’re going to realize [00:08:00] as you’re going down that path that. Here’s the next thing I need to do or here’s the next thing or maybe you have a lot of stuff written on your to do list and so you think yourself, okay I have to get this thing done, but it’s going to be the 10th or 15th item on my to do list, but as you continue to work, it’s still going to bring up more and more items that you can put down on your to do list.
[00:08:18] Scott Benton: And that, of course, is going to feed your legal services and on the cycle goes. So we do the whole cycle. We go back to the to do list. This is an extremely easy process when you break it down the way we break it down, and it’s not remotely complicated. In fact, it’s almost boring.
[00:08:37] Scott Benton: Because it’s so simple, especially, and I know because you but you attorneys out there, you’re going to be looking for complexity and sophistication and, iPhone apps and all that, and you’ll figure out a way to make this more complicated. You don’t need to. It’s really simple and basic. Although it is complex, like I said, so it’s a little bit of a paradox.
[00:08:59] Scott Benton: It’s why we [00:09:00] talk about this subject over and over again on this podcast. But as far as complexity and sophistication goes, let me allay your fears now. You’re still going to have complexity and sophistication. for listening. As you’re working on your cases, because inside your cases, and for instance, putting your case strategy together, that’s going to start to get sophisticated.
[00:09:22] Scott Benton: That’s going to start to get a little bit more complex. And it’s not something that you need to focus on with the success cycle. Let the success cycle be the easy part that just keeps you in a state of constant flow and constant momentum. You never want to stop moving forward. You never want to stop moving your cases forward if you can help it.
[00:09:42] Scott Benton: And you’re going to be able to do that with the success cycle. So all the complexity, if you’re hungry for that complexity and that sophistication, you’re going to get that. It’s just not going to be with the success cycle. The success cycle is boring, but it’s the backbone of everything that you’re going to do as a [00:10:00] new attorney.
[00:10:01] Scott Benton: So you don’t want to forget to use the success cycle and you want to put that into place. And we’re here with this podcast, giving you the success cycle, essentially for free not even essentially, we’re giving it to you for free. And we’re bolstering the whole thing with the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast, so that if you’re listening to this, that you won’t forget.
[00:10:24] Scott Benton: This is going to get burned in your mind. So that when you go into your jobs, your first job, your second job, your third job, as an attorney, this framework is just, it’s going to be built in, it’s going to be almost second nature. Now, with the success cycle, you’re going to have crushed your fears and such a long time ago that you’re not going to really have any fear at all on your first day when you go to your new job.
[00:10:48] Scott Benton: And I can promise you that it’s going to make the whole process of getting up to speed incredibly fun and incredibly easy. And like I said, we’re not charging you anything for this. It’s [00:11:00] not like we’re asking you to pay for the success cycle. We’re not upselling you to the VIP workshop level or asking you to subscribe to our private members only area for a monthly fee.
[00:11:12] Scott Benton: We’re literally giving you everything we’ve got. And it’s why you need to figure out how for yourself, carve out some time to be able to listen to these relatively short podcast episodes. which we’re frankly, we’re so glad that you’ve decided to join us on. So I hope this has been helpful and I hope it’s been helpful in looking at ways to absolutely start crushing your fears about being a first time attorney.
[00:11:39] Scott Benton: And as you move towards becoming an attorney in your first law firm job. My name is Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If this is material that you like and you want to receive an alert every time we put out a new episode, you can go to our website, which is classroom2courtroom.
[00:11:57] Scott Benton: com. That’s classroom, the number two. Courtroom. [00:12:00] com. You can leave us your contact information. You’ll get an alert when we put out a new episode. So how cool is that? Additionally, if you like this material, don’t forget to share and subscribe. And by doing that, it’ll help you stay on top of our newest episodes as well.
[00:12:13] Scott Benton: Cause you’ll get an alert through the podcatcher that you’re on. So until next time, we hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time. Thank you so much.
