#304: Design Your Vision for a Life & Law Practice You Love

Designing Your Vision for a Life and Law Practice You Love

Hello, how are you doing today? Today I wanna talk to you about creating a powerful, compelling vision for your life and your law practice. So few of us take the time to sit down and think about what we want. In fact, one of the reasons why I started ending every episode of this show with what You Want matters is because so often when I dig in with my clients, they start to realize that they haven't been making what they want matter. So when I talk to you about creating a vision, this might even bring up feelings like fear, discomfort, inadequacy, and that's okay. This is all normal, but I wanna share with you some things that are going to really help move you forward. And I've created a guide for you so that you can start putting it down on paper, start processing some of the emotions we're gonna be talking about in this episode today, so that you can really design a roadmap that matters to you, that compels you, that drives you.

So you can get that at dina cataldo.com/vision. It's called your step by step guide to designing a life and law practice you love. This is fundamental. Without a vision, we're gonna be lost. Because what a vision does is it creates milestones. It helps us calm, overwhelm, right? We think oftentimes that thinking about a vision is overwhelming, but what's really creating the overwhelm is that you haven't sat down and asked yourself what you want. Because when you do, everything opens up to you. You start saying no to the things that are not in alignment with your vision. You start saying yes to those things that are, and you begin really thinking critically about whether the actions you're taking right now are the ones that are going to get you closer to your vision in the timeline that you've envisioned. So when I talk to my clients around creating a vision, I like to talk to them about doing it three years out, right?

To really think about, okay, how do I wanna feel? What do I want in my life? What do I want to wear? I'm actually gonna go through these questions with you, and I'm gonna talk about what my vision is for my coaching practice. Because when I sat down to think about these things, it felt so amazing. It felt really freeing. But if I had done this when I first started out, it would've felt overwhelming. And I'm gonna tell you why it would've felt scary, and I'll tell you why about that too. So go to dina cataldo.com/vision and download that guide, because not only is it going to give you the questions I'm gonna be asking you in this episode to be begin really thinking through your practice, but it's also going to have some other questions that are gonna help coach you through some of the tough spots.

And we're gonna talk about that, the, some of those tough spots today. So when I sat down and really thought about my vision for my practice three years from now, I started asking myself questions, questions like, what do you want? Like, just, what do you want? Not even asking yourself whether or not it's possible, or whether or not it's realistic or reasonable. Those words have no place in this exercise. This is about what you want. What do you deeply desire? I have a firm belief that if we have a desire within us, it's because we are meant to go out and do something about it. We would not have been given that desire if we were not meant to follow it. Years ago, when I was in my law practice and my brain said, you need to start a business like this is something you need to do.

And I had this deep desire, I had no idea where it came from. It didn't make any sense to me whatsoever. I was in a very successful position at my law office. I was making plenty of money. There was no reason for me to think, oh yeah, you should start a business. No, it was scary. I needed to put myself out there in bigger ways. It was something that put me apart from the people that I was, you know, with every day. And I had a lot of mind management that I needed to do. Well, it turns out that that deep desire that I had led me down a path that helped me expand, that helped me evolve. And now I get to help more people in the world because I didn't shut that voice down. I didn't tell myself it. It was dumb, or that it wasn't realistic, or that people were gonna think it's stupid.

I didn't let that voice control me. It didn't mean I didn't have those thoughts, right? Didn't mean I didn't have thoughts that created some self-doubt. But what I did do was say, you know, I understand this is happening and I'm gonna do it anyway. And then I started down a path. I found coaching, and here I am, right? So just know that that voice inside of you, that that deep desire that you have is a seed. And it's up to us. It's our duty. I believe it's our duty to follow that voice. If it's a deep desire, go for it. But first, we have to allow ourselves to ask ourselves, what do we want? And not let that voice shut us down. Not let the voice that says, I don't know what I want. Shut us down to just sit with it. And I think that that is one of the things that so many lawyers really struggle with, is just sitting and being quiet with themselves.

I know that was a really big struggle I had, but once I committed to it and I said, well, I'm just gonna sit here for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and now I give myself hours in the morning. I just let myself be. And when we let ourselves be, our mind can start connecting things that we might never have connected before. That's why that time is so essential when I start working with my clients, we really work on time and creating that space for them to just be. So I have clients who are really thinking about three years out. What do they want? Well, they wanna be able to work remotely, and they wanna be able to serve even more people. They wanna hire people. They want to create a team that feels amazing to them, that feels easy to them. They wanna have more freedom.

They wanna speak on stages. They wanna have podcasts. They wanna do all the things. And when we sit down and design it, we can create a plan to help them get there. And that plan can include everything from, you know, getting photo shoots, photo shoots. I have clients who are getting photo shoots right now because they wanna play bigger in their practice, right? They want to start the podcast to help more people. They want to build their own practice and start doing it now while they're working within another office, right? They want to start doing these things that are really big because they're feeling called to do it, and they have no idea the why. It's because they are just being given a seed, and that has been planted in them. And all they know is that they would be filled with regret if they didn't follow that deep desire.

And I know I would've been filled with deep regret if I did not follow that desire. And it can be scary to sit down and do this work, but I wanna encourage you to do it because it will open up so many doors for you. So when I asked this question, I asked some other ones too. How do you wanna feel when you walk into your office? Right? And if you're not doing this for your practice, but you're doing this for your life, how do you wanna feel when you walk into your home? You know, what kind of people do you want to surround yourself? People on your team, people who you're friends with, people who are motivating you, people who are inspiring you, right? People who energize you. Like you know the difference when you're speaking with friends, who energize you and support you versus the ones who deplete you.

And who do you wanna spend more time with? And who are you currently spending more time with? And really sit with this, because oftentimes we will start recognizing that we are not being the person we want to be. One of the things that I've heard over and over again, I believe it was Jim Rohn who said it was that you are the sum total of the five people you spend the most time with. And I'll never forget, I had a friend in law school, he was answering a faux voir dire question. We were doing, we were doing a mock trial, and he was asked like, can you judge a person based on their friends? And he said, well, actually, yes, because the people that you spend the most time with are reflective of how you are in the world. And I just, I remember that like it was yesterday.

It's just such a, a beautiful sentiment for us to remind ourselves that the people we surround ourselves are reflective of who we are. It doesn't mean that they're bad people, it's just who do you wanna be in the world? And that's the question that you can ask yourself when you start sitting here with the vision, ask yourself things like, like, get really really specific about these things. So what color do you want your office to be? Right? When you step into it, what do you want it to feel like? Right? So I have this white background. If you're watching the video, and I imagine my office being mostly white and gold, right? That's where this is going. I can, I can feel it. It feels invigorating, it feels energized, energizing. And that's where I am creating from how I want to feel when I enter my workspace is calm.

I want to feel grounded. And those are feelings that I want to create based on my background. In fact, my background right now is floral, very nourishing, very nurturing, very grounded. I want that. And I want that balance, right? That balance between feeling grounded, but then also stretching myself outwards. And those are things that we can really start getting into when we start sitting with this vision. What kind of clothes do you wear in your office? And they're gonna generate a feeling because we're gonna be thinking about ourselves differently based upon what we're wearing. How do those clothes feel? What do they look like? Is there a a shimmer? Is there a sparkle? And where might you be settling in your life right now? For what? With what you wear with what's in your office? I read something recently and it really spoke to me, which is truly wealthy, abundant.

People do not settle for things, right? They don't buy something because they're like, eh, it's good enough. They're really thinking about, okay, what do I want? And then when you decide what you want, let's say you're, you're designing a living room, right? You're not just picking the first chair. You see, you're really thinking about, what do I want my home to, to feel like? Do I want the textures to feel very soft? Do I want them to feel rough? How do I wanna feel when I walk in? How do I want my guests to feel when they walk in? And so that really has challenged me to look at where I'm making buying decisions. Where am I buying things and settling versus why don't I just wait until I find what I really like? What really goes with what I want to create in my life?

And those are questions we can start asking ourselves. It helps us filter. 'cause Every time we imagine something for ourselves, we start to create a filter. We start to filter out those things that simply don't matter so much to us. You know, I know so many of us have tons of books on our nightstand, and, and I'm no exception, right? But what I've started to do is years ago I started going to the library and I started just saying, okay, well I'm, I'm seeing this book like three or four times, and then I'm gonna go ahead and check it out, right? Like, I don't just get every book anymore. Now it's like, okay, if I see it three or four times now, I'll get the book because I, I'm being told this is a book I, I need to read. And then I go and I check it out.

And if I like it, I'll, I'll buy it if I want it, if it's something I want to keep, or I'll flip through it and I start prioritizing, okay? As I'm flipping through it, like, what am I getting from this? I no longer require myself to read the whole thing, right? It's, I'm just gonna get something from the book. If I don't get anything from the book, then I don't buy it. So it's those things that allow us to filter for time and energy so that we begin getting closer to our vision. And one of the things that I notice so often is that prevents us from sitting down and even asking ourselves these kinds of questions, right? And there's some more that I'm gonna ask you. So stand by is really that fear that we're not gonna accomplish it. That we're not going to be able to do it, that we're not capable of doing it.

And that shows up in the way that we speak. When we, whenever we think about this topic, whenever we think about our, our dreams, and I wanna share with you even before that, that a vision is different from a goal and a mission statement. Okay? A vision is an overarching design, a feeling that you have for your practice, for your life. A mission statement within a business is something that you are stating and you're, you're helping your team get focused on and showing your clients what you, you're about. But a vision is much more all encompassing. It could be pages long because you're really just dreaming into something and you're designing it, and you're doing it in the present tense. You're telling yourself, this is what I have in the moment. And I'm gonna give you an example of that in a little bit. So some of the fears that come with creating a vision might be pretty self-evident, right?

Self-Doubt feeling, you know, incapable. But what I've noticed happens when I'm talking to clients who are resistant to creating a vision is that it shows up in things like, I don't have time, right? They tell themselves, I don't have time. That's just not a priority right now. I've got way too much stuff to do. But what they don't see is that not having a vision wastes their time. It prevents them from filtering the ential. Even when you have client work, you are not able to think about, am I doing the work that makes the most sense for me and what I want? Remember, we gotta return back to what you want because you may have clients right now that you do not want, and yet you are still doing the work for them. You may have systems in place that don't make sense and that you don't want, but you're settling for.

One of my clients recently told me that he had this billing structure that was basically different for all of his clients, <laugh>, right? And he had like four or five different billing structures. And I asked him why? And he said, well, they just told me what they wanted, and then I just did it. And I said, is that what you want? He said, well, no, that's, that's not what I want. Okay, what do you want? And then he told me, and we said, okay, well let's go from there. Let's start working from there. Why aren't you doing that? And then we could actually work through some of the fears that were coming up for him, fears like, they're going to leave. And I said, would that be okay with you? And he said, well, I mean, we might have to do some more coaching on that, but probably, right?

So knowing these things, knowing what we want helps us to filter help, helps us to create systems in our practice that feel good, helps us to say, okay, I don't want a client who doesn't pay upfront because then I'm unable to meet my obligations in my office. Knowing this about yourself, knowing what you want helps you filter. It is not a waste of time. It is going to give you back your time. That's what's so important to know about a vision. I saw that as I was working through my vision and could see where I was wasting my time in the non-essentials. And, and that's what's so important is where are you divvying out your time? Because our time is limited, and we've got to be able to have that vision of where we want to go and where we might be stymieing ourselves. Like for instance, I had a lawyer I was talking to and she said she made partner.

She was having sleepless nights. She really couldn't sleep at all. She was anxious all the time. And one of the things that she thought was going to make her feel more confident was to study the lawnmower. This is something I hear pretty often, and it's just such a, a sad state <laugh> of affairs, is that we think we need to study more in order to feel more confident. That's that old way of thinking, right? That old paradigm of, okay, when I'm in school, I, if I study the law more, then I'm gonna get an A. But in this case, we've taken that old paradigm and we've put it into our present day, and we say to ourselves, well, if I study more, then I will feel more confident. And that's the, the equivalent of saying, okay, then I know I'm gonna get the a, I'm gonna do really well.

The partners are really gonna like me. And that's not what creates quality work or saves you time. In fact, that is such a huge colossal waste of time to study the law more when the law's always gonna be there, okay? It's in a book. Like what law school taught us was how to find the relevant law for the particular case. Where the time would be spent. Most, most beneficially if you're a partner in this particular case, is to start building connections with people to begin breaking down those structures that told you, Hey, you should study more. And start saying, no, I need to back away. And instead, what I need to do is I need to start building connections and then ask myself, how do I want to do that? What feels really good? What's one step in the direction I can go? Now, one of the things that I do with my clients is I help take their thinking quantum.

So we don't just think about, okay, well what's, what's one thing you could do? What we're doing is if we think three years in advance and we think big and we really create a vision that you can step into, then we can start saying, okay, well what will absolutely guarantee that result? But let's 10 times it. Let's 10 times that result and start asking ourselves questions about how to get there based on that result. And that can kind of freak us out, right? When we tell ourselves that. But the only reason it might freak us out is because of what we will make it mean if we don't achieve that result. And that's the thing with coaching, is you've gotta understand your stories, you've gotta see your stories. And until you do, you can't make that kind of progress. But getting back to the vision and just sitting with the vision, a lot of lawyers don't do it because they think they don't have the time and the vision makes the time, or I'm fine with where I'm at.

That's something I hear sometimes. And I used to tell myself that, and it felt horrible, right? I felt so disappointed in myself. And the only reason I felt disappointed in myself is 'cause I was shutting down a desire because I hadn't been asking myself what I want. 'cause When we say I'm fine where I'm at, it doesn't mean that we don't appreciate where we are. Like, I love where I am right now, but my vision is much more expansive. And that vision drives me. It gives me energy, it helps me really think through problems and strategize in ways I wouldn't otherwise be able to do. That vision is a gift, as uncomfortable as it might be at first, to sit down with it, it then begins to drive your actions because it starts to feel more real, more palpable. That's what I want for you, is to sit down and really ask yourself, what do I want?

What do I want? And if you tell yourself, you know, I'm fine with where I'm at, it doesn't, then you are never gonna get a vision off the ground. You're never gonna be able to think about a vision. Now, I love where you're at right now because you are in a place where so many people aren't, which is you. You're a lawyer. You are making money. You are bettering yourself. You're listening to podcasts like this that are helping you improve yourself. So if your thought is, well, I'm fine with where I'm at, I want you to challenge yourself because you wouldn't be listening to this podcast or other podcasts about topics like this. If you didn't want something else that you didn't want something that was more expansive, I want you to challenge that question. If you, if that was the answer that came into your head.

And then another thing that I hear, and I address this in a podcast, I'll link to it in the show notes. But this was something I also thought, which was I should just be grateful. Like, why can't I just be grateful for what I have? It was another way my brain had of trying to shut things down, trying to tell me that, oh no, no, that's too scary. You don't wanna do that. You should just be grateful for what you have now. You're fine. Everything's fine. And I picture that dog in the office that's burning down <laugh> saying Everything's fine. So just if you're noticing that come up for you, it's like, oh, you know, I should just be grateful for what I have. You know, I I, I shouldn't, I shouldn't be doing anything more. I want you to challenge that question to, I want you to challenge it because you can be grateful for what you have, appreciative for everything and everyone in your life and still have a desire to create, to create a life, to create a practice where when you step into it, you feel so good.

And that's the business I'm in, which is helping people create that for themselves. And then another thing that I hear, and it's a a lot along the lines of what I was talking about earlier, was, is I'll just work harder. If I just work harder, or if I just stay later, I'll get there. I'll get there. What I wanna share with you on that is that because you don't have a vision, you're killing yourself. Because without that vision, you're just gonna work harder and longer. And how long can you keep that up? How many hours are there in a day for you? I have the same number of hours. My clients have the same number of hours as you do. But when with a vision, you're able to use those hours so much more effectively, you're able to really pare down what the non-essential is.

You could just get rid of all of that because all of these thoughts I've mentioned, right? I don't have time. I'm so busy, I'm, I'm fine where I'm at. I should be grateful, you know, that's not for me. Or I'll just work harder, longer hours. Those thoughts create unfocus overwhelm. You might feel defeated or disappointed. You might feel guilty for wanting more. All of those thoughts that I just walked you through, those create feelings that douse the flame of desire. <Laugh>, I, there's no other way to say it, because you are not gonna feel driven. You are not going to want from a place that feels good, you might feel driven from a place of insecurity and anxiety, but that, I've been there, so I get it. But that feels horrible, <laugh>. And it depletes your energy. You could just feel your battery run down when you feel anxiousness, when you feel stress, or when you feel unfocused, right?

You end up procrastinating. We put things off to the point where you're doing it the night before. I've been in all of those places, my friend, and it stinks. It, it is not a fun place to be. It wasn't until I learned how to create a vision for myself and what I wanted, like really just ask myself what do I want? And let it matter that I started to started eliminate, started to filter out those feelings and started to work from a better place. So these are the things to start asking yourself and if they're showing up in your life to really question them. Okay? So let me kind of walk you through some of what my vision has been and what I really picture. Because again, what I want matters, just like what you want matters. And to just have fun with this.

Again, don't be realistic. Don't let your brain say, oh, that's not, that's doesn't make sense, right? That that's, that's not even something within my, my reality, of course it's not. It's because we're dreaming, we're dreaming out three years. I mean, when you think about people who have New York Times bestsellers, do you think they just decided one morning that that's what they were gonna do? No, they had to design a vision for themselves and then they started putting it together piece by piece by piece, just a little bit at a time. And that's how we do things. Think back to when you were a kid. I mean, you may or may not have had law school in your sites, but you didn't just decide overnight, okay, I'm gonna go to law school, right? You might have seen something that inspired you. You might have logic through something and said, you know, like me, I, I thought, oh, you know, that's the best career for me if I wanna get into foreign policy.

You know, those kinds of things. Thinking about, okay, well what's the logical next step for me? So that's something that you have to do no matter what is, have that vision for your life. So even if you were like me and you just kind of thought, okay, what's the logical next step for me to get what I want? You had to ask yourself, what do I want? And then you had to say, okay, it might have just been something like, I want financial security and I see going to law school as a logical path towards financial security. That's fine, right? Or, I want to be in the foreign service and I see going to law school as the next logical step for me to go into foreign service. So those are the different things that you can just, you can already done. You've already in the past created visions for yourself.

So you're always gonna create something, whether it's unconsciously or consciously. What we're doing with a vision is starting from where you are right now and consciously creating your future. Really wanna sit with consciously creating your future. 'cause You're gonna create something, but are you doing it consciously or unconsciously? So when I sat down with this, I started asking myself, okay, what do I want? And I started crafting the vision, and I started doing it in present tense. This is three years out from now. I'm in very present tense mode here. So let me read a little bit of this to you. So three years from now, I'm living in Sedona. I ride horses and I commune with nature. I love it here. I feel whole grounded, calm. I surround myself with loving kind people who help each other without question. I'm a person who gives her time and attention to her loved ones without question.

When I walk into my office, I feel light and loving and calm. I have an open and appreciative heart. I'm surrounded by white and gold light. I wear beautiful clothing that feels good against my skin. They're natural fabrics. I don't settle for clothing that doesn't quite fit, right. My clothes are fitting and I have warm layers that don't show under my favorite sweaters, which is a problem that I currently have, which is why I wrote that down. I, you know, I have the furniture in my home is beautiful and well, well cared for. I take my time finding pieces that come together nicely. My business in three years generates $500,000 easily and is moving steadily towards a million dollars. I've set the foundation in years one and two by creating an extensive network of lawyers and non-lawyers who love the work I do and share it.

I've been on hundreds of podcasts that lawyers are drawn to. I've had articles published in 10 legal nationally published magazines. I've been on a dozen or more stages and charge $25,000 for a keynote speech. My podcast is one of the most popular podcasts for lawyers. And I regularly hear from people that it's changed their life for the better. So these are some of the things that I started out with, and I wanna talk about some other things. And so I make my why clear in this part. Okay? So one of the things that you'll wanna ask yourself as you're crafting your vision is, what is my why? And again, download the guide at dina cataldo.com/vision. You're gonna get more questions even that I'm covering here. But my why is clear, I do the work to bring the light to show lawyers it's possible to reconnect with themselves and create a business that provides for them.

I help bring them out of scarcity and begin trusting themselves to be a powerful creator in their lives. For my team, I attract a spiritually driven team of people who want to help bring light to the world too. To help calm the chaos they see. They help me with support and community building for my program. They help organize speaking engagements, respond to podcast guest and speaking requests. They help me manage my video content and social media posts. They help me brainstorm content ideas and publish my podcast. In years one and two, I created systems. Notice what I did there. I talked about in year one and two, what did I do right? So if I'm talking from today, let's say being day one and you know February 29th, which is when this is coming out, let's say four year, three years from now, which I guess a leap year or so, 28th, right?

So what's gonna happen is, is that in this year and next year, I'm creating systems for all of these to set me up for success. Notice how I can filter through exactly what needs to get done and strategize exactly what needs to get done so I can have that team running smoothly. This is the power of a vision to be able to see the vision and then start to take a step back and ask yourself, what are the things that need to happen within your one and two that set me up for success? I get to treat my team to retreats or spa weeks in Sedona. I get to give them bonuses based on company performance. I get to pay for their healthcare and contribute to their 401k should they desire. I ensure they feel appreciated because I remember their birthdays and, and big events in their lives.

I ensure they understand the importance in how they contribute to the company and helping people be more of who they truly are, because that's part of my why. I want people to connect with that. And I want my team to be connected with that vision too. And we can help our team perform at their highest levels if they don't feel committed to a vision. Now, when you have a vision, you're able to recognize problems and you're able to talk to your staff and you're able to say, Hey, so this, so what you're doing right now, let's check in on that. Is that really contributing to the vision? Right? Are you spending your time best in what's contributing to the vision, right? Doing a time audit on what's going on, not because you don't trust your employee, but because you wanna make sure that they're spending their time on the things that are going to get you to your vision.

So important. And when we neglect our vision, when we neglect asking ourselves these questions, we make our lives so much harder. And we make it harder for the people that we wanna help and we make it harder for our team. And I even asked myself that. I asked, you know, what kind of clients do I want? Who do I want in my world? And I said, I attract the most amazing clients who now have hope. Their lives can be different. They create lives where they can focus on their families at dinnertime and bedtime, and no longer feel like their phone has to be attached.

It has to be attached to them. The, they ask for what they want and they get it. They feel more powerful and in control of their lives. They love the work they do. And if they don't, they make powerful decisions in their lives and they create a workplace they do love where whether, where they are now or whether it's somewhere else, they love their lives. They feel more confident, financially secure, capable, open and loving. They become leaders who bring their teams with them to create their vision for their practice. Now, you heard <laugh>, I get a little emotional thinking through this, and that's where I want you to be for your vision. I want you to be somewhere that really touches you, that really lights up your passion and really helps you imagine why you're at your desk day after day. I think that so many of us get caught up in the day-to-Day client work, that we forget that there's a reason why we're doing it.

We don't even have that reason clear in our minds. So when we sit down and we start uncovering these things and we start, just start writing, right? Like that's what I just read to you, is I just started writing. And you just start tapping into something that you might not even have realized was really there for you. And now it's at the forefront of your brain, and now it's at the forefront of your business and you're able to articulate it to your team. You're able to articulate it to yourself when you're planning out your week, when you're planning out what's most important this year to accomplish, to grow your practice. And this is what I want for you. I want you to have this ability to drive yourself in a way that feels so good, because I feel amazing when I talk about my vision.

I feel open, I feel light, I feel grateful. And when we're feeling heavy and anxious and stressed out, we cannot lift ourselves to get to a vision. So I want to be able to help you with that. So one of the things that I've created is that vision, the vision guide for you. You can get that at dina cataldo.com/vision. And if you want to create a powerful vision for your practice and you want to begin taking those steps into creating that vision for yourself, I wanna invite you to book a strategy session with me. Go to dina cataldo.com/strategy session. And what we're gonna do in that strategy session are the beginning steps of creating your vision. We're gonna find out exactly where you are now, and we're gonna start finding out where you wanna be. And then what I do with you is I start showing you the pathway to that vision. It's just a rough draft, it's just a sketch of that vision. But even just having a sketch of that vision is powerful because you begin to see that you can change. You begin to open up doors for yourself and see what's possible for you. And if that's something that interests you, I highly encourage you to book that call with me. Alright my friend, I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day. And as always, what you want matters. And within your power to make it happen.