Blake Strautins: How Lawyers Can Improve Time Management Delegation and Strategic Growth

In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Blake Strautins discuss:

• The importance of business development for lawyers
• How accountability and culture shape a law firm’s success
• Time management and delegation for legal professionals
• Personal and professional growth in legal leadership

Key Takeaways:

• Building connections early with strategic partners, attorneys, and clients creates long-term opportunities, referrals, and career growth.
• A workplace culture that holds team members accountable improves productivity, reduces inefficiencies, and strengthens collaboration.
• Leaders who delegate effectively gain more time for key decisions, enhance firm efficiency, and empower their teams.
• Keeping an inbox organized by addressing, delegating, or categorizing emails prevents overwhelm, streamlines tasks, and ensures nothing important is missed.

“You can learn the law, you can write great briefs, you can research out of something, but running a business is completely different; managing people is completely different. Being a good manager, a good leader—those are skills that, sadly, [law schools] just don’t teach you.” —  Blake Strautins

Got a challenge growing your law practice? Email me at steve@fretzin.com with your toughest question, and I’ll answer it live on the show—anonymously, just using your first name!

Thank you to our Sponsors!

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Rainmakers Roundtable: https://www.fretzin.com/lawyer-coaching-and-training/peer-advisory-groups/

Episode References: 

Multipliers by Liz Wiseman: https://www.amazon.com/Multipliers-Best-Leaders-Everyone-Smarter/dp/0061964395

About Blake Strautins: Blake A. Strautins is a co-owner and managing partner of Kluever Law Group, LLC, where he heads the firm’s litigation department. Blake has been practicing in the field of complex litigation his entire legal career, beginning with class action litigation in 2007 and transitioning to commercial and real estate litigation in 2014, where he continues to hone his legal skills to this day. Beyond helping clients solve problems through creative solutions, both before and during formal litigation, Blake is also an accomplished appellate lawyer with numerous published decisions under his belt. Blake takes great pride in charting the firm’s path forward into continued growth and success in partnership with its diverse client base.

Connect with Blake Strautins:

Website: http://www.klueverlawgroup.com/

Email: bstrautins@klueverlawgroup.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-a-strautins/

Connect with Steve Fretzin:

LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin

Twitter: @stevefretzin

Instagram: @fretzinsteve

Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.

Website: Fretzin.com

Email: Steve@Fretzin.com

Book: Legal Business Development Isn’t Rocket Science and more!

YouTube: Steve Fretzin

Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Steve Fretzin: [00:00:00] Hey everybody, before we get to the show, I want to take a moment for our Q and A of the show. It’s Maria from Ontario, Canada. And she’s asking me, Steve, I love your podcast. I appreciate that. Is this a good thing for lawyers to get into or is it too late? Oh, I think you’re asking is podcasting a good thing to get into?

I just did a show about that recently. Yeah, absolutely. If you are committed to creating content, you’re committed to building your brand. You need an angle or an avenue to meet new people. I think there’s nothing better than podcasting. I’ve met some of the most amazing people in the world. Lots and lots of content produced and lots of business that’s created by it and around it.

You just have to be consistent doing it. That’s really the key. Find a good production company that can help you. And if you need me more just ask and I’ll send you some names. But hopefully that’s helpful. If you love listening to podcasts and you’ve always wanted to be. On your own and running your own.

This may be the time to do it. That’s it, everybody. Thanks, Maria, for the question. Enjoy the show.

Narrator: You’re listening to Be That Lawyer. [00:01:00] Life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode, your host, author and lawyer coach, Steve Fretzin, will take a deeper dive, helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now, here’s your host, Steve Fretzin.

Steve Fretzin: Hey, everybody, welcome back. It’s Steve Fretzin. And you are listening to the, be that lawyer with Fretzin podcasts twice a week. We’re here. We’re up on above the law. If you check that site out and that’s pretty exciting stuff. And also we are writing for above the law and also attorney at law magazines.

You could check out some of our podcasts, blog casts on attorney at law magazine in that space. And so we’re here to help you be that lawyer, confident, organized, going to skilled Rainmaker. Blake, are you a confident, organized, skilled rainmaker?

Blake Strautins: I’d like to think so.

Steve Fretzin: Okay. You wouldn’t be on the show if you weren’t those three things.

So welcome to the show, man. It’s so good to see you. And I’m always so impressed by you and in particular that you [00:02:00] really, you know how to dress and you know how to go out and have a good time. I mentioned earlier, I’m stalking you on Facebook and hope that’s okay.

Blake Strautins: I don’t mind at all. I don’t mind.

I appreciate the kind words

Steve Fretzin: as long as I don’t do any like ridiculous comments on your posts. I think you’ll be all right. Nothing too embarrassing. I’m just so happy that you’re here. Blake is not only a friend, he’s part of my rainmaker round tables, which he’s been an unbelievable, wonderful part of.

And I want to get into that a little later, but let’s talk about our quote of the show. And I think you have a Gandhi quote that you changed up a bit, but let’s find out it’s be the change you want to see. So welcome to the show and talk to us a little bit about Gandhi.

Blake Strautins: Sure. First of all, I want to appreciate you taking the time to have me on here today.

It’s a pleasure to be here. Finally. I’ve seen some, so many wonderful podcasts you’ve done. So it’s a, it’s an honor to be here, but yeah, be the change you want to see. The actual quote from Gandhi is be the change you wish to see in the world. And I’ve always found it to be very inspiring. And it’s something I try to instill in my team.

I’ll give you a quick example. When I’ve got a team member of the firm [00:03:00] that says, I don’t like X, I don’t like Y I say, okay, you don’t that be the change you want to see act like the leader act, like the individual act, like the member of the team that you want to see in others.

And I try and adhere to that principle myself. I try and repeat it. It’s like my mantra, a lot of my team members be the change you want to see. If I want to see better communication at the firm. It starts with me. I need to make that change because if you start modeling good behavior, best behavior, other people, more than likely than not, they’re going to pick up on it.

They’re going to model it and they’re going to take after you, hopefully.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah, I totally get that. The other, and I think it also shows you not only as authentic, but also that you’re not just. Preaching but not practicing. I think if you’re someone that claims to be a great networker and a great giver and you’re not, you’re just talking like you are and but you’re not really demonstrating by example, then people are going to see through that.

I think fairly quickly.

Blake Strautins: Yeah. Lead by [00:04:00] example. That’s another great, principle. I tried it here too.

Steve Fretzin: What was that? Lead by example.

Blake Strautins: Oh,

Steve Fretzin: we don’t know.

Blake Strautins: You’re really, you’re putting me under the hot box. Come on.

Steve Fretzin: Listen, that’s part of my job is to, to give people a hard time.

Wait a second. That’s my teenager’s job. That’s not my job. So listen, Blake, I just so appreciate you being here and for everybody listening, Blake Stroudens is a friend and he’s a managing partner of a Clover law group. And give us a little bit of background because you didn’t always run this firm, but you’ve worked your way through as a top notch lawyer, and now you’re not only lawyering, but you’re also managing this great firm.

Blake Strautins: Yeah, I’ll give you the quickest summary I can. So I actually started my career working for a boutique class action litigation firm on the plaintiff’s side, and spent the first seven years of my practice doing nationwide class action litigation, focused on a lot of data breach litigation, consumer fraud.

So that was the first nine years, including two years clerking of my legal profession. And one day I just, I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. I was getting up every day. I’m like, man, I don’t love what I do. And so that’s when I made the switch to Kluver Law Group back in [00:05:00] 2014 as an associate and then slowly worked my way up to partner.

And then now lo and behold, it’s 2025 got time flies been with the firm for 11 years now. And now I’m going to be managing partners and co owners of the firm.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah. So let’s take another walk back on his back through history and were there things as you were coming up as a young lawyer, as an associate?

That you wish you had done differently. What are some of the, not regrets, but the things that you’ve identified and said, Oh, that was a dumb ass move. Or that was something I probably should have avoided anything. Jump out at you.

Blake Strautins: I, I, you can avoid calling them regrets. I’ll call them regrets.

Number one thing I wish I would have started doing sooner was networking and business development. I didn’t realize how important it was when I was doing class actions. Clients would be friends and family that had an issue with a large company or something like that, where they’ve been wronged somehow.

And I wasn’t really in the mindset of building relationships with business donors, with other attorneys, et cetera, outside of my focus [00:06:00] completely. And I didn’t start doing business development until I was probably 34 years old. I want to say. So I started really late in my career, but I hit the ground hard.

I decided one day, this is something that’s important, and I want to do it well. And I was out there pounding the pavement. I had, usually three meetings a week. I was going to every event I could, meeting everyone I could, and learning how to be a good relationship builder, a good developer of strategic relationships, strategic partnerships.

I had a lot of failures along the way. A lot of let’s just say meetings that, hi, nice to meet you. I don’t think this is ever going to produce anything for either of us, I’ve always been the relationship minded person, the pay it forward approach, and then everyone has that framework, that mindset, and you learn to quickly realize who fits that mold and who doesn’t.

But I tell you, it took years before I got there and look back at the journey and how long it took me. To start building a client base and bringing on business. And it’s man if I’d only started sooner and I tell every young attorney that [00:07:00] now that I need, start now, start building those relationships early and often, and it’s going to do nothing but pay off down the road.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah. I start off my second book is the attorney’s networking handbook. And I think I start off saying no one has wasted more time networking than I have. Like I, right out of the gate was like crapping all over myself because. I made so many mistakes and I was meeting with the Avon lady. I was meeting with the Amway salesman, getting pulled into multi tier marketing schemes.

I’m getting, I met with a guy for three hours who tried to sell me PR services at five or 10 grand a month. I just started my business. What am I doing? Like I wasn’t networking effectively. I started buying things from people. So like I’m buying, pens and hats and mugs and I’m buying insurance and just like anything to try to.

Make a relationship and help people out. But it was, I think the hard knocks is the way most people learn. My hope is that if I could have done it again, I should have spent more time reading books and watching things and paying attention to what best [00:08:00] practices are versus just hitting the ground running and just just sheer effort and force to try to get it done.

Just what it sounds like you and I both did.

Blake Strautins: I tell you what, there’s one thing that I also did that I don’t know if I ever told you this. It’s how I met you, actually. You were putting on a lot of programs for the CDA and other organizations, and I attended. Because I was interested. I wanted to learn how to be, a better networker, a better business developer.

And I learned a lot from you early on. You know it or not, you were out there, and we’ve come full circle now with the relationship we’ve developed over the years. And it’s like when I was just getting started, though, I was listening to your tips and tricks.

Steve Fretzin: All right. Okay. Listen, everybody.

Now we’re talking. Ego effectively stroked at this. All right. Appreciate it. That’s, but again, that’s, there’s so many different ways to build business. Networking is one getting out there and providing CLEs and providing presentations on your expertise writing. There’s just a lot of different ways to go.

But I think networking for young lawyers is the easiest entry point. And what I try to do is say, Hey, go into it [00:09:00] with a plan, go into it, not to just go out like you and I did where we meet everybody and exhaust a tremendous amount of time and energy. Let’s think about it strategically, right? Who are the best strategic partners and where are they?

Who are the clients we can work with directly in our practice or where are they? How am I going to approach them? What questions am I going to ask? There’s all these things that I’m. Now teaching that I didn’t know 22 years ago or whatever that I think make people a lot more efficient with their time, which is a pretty important to young lawyers who are hustling to just learn to be lawyers.

Blake Strautins: But, I would qualify that with, because don’t be too discerning on who you meet, but yeah,

Steve Fretzin: I think when you’re starting out, that’s a fair, that’s something fair to say.

Blake Strautins: Yeah. I was scheduled to meet, somebody connected me with Eric Lazar, which is a fantastic guy. He owns a printing business on the, in the South Loop.

And I said to myself, why am I meeting with a guy who runs a sign company? What’s the point of this? This is going to go nowhere. This is going to be absolutely worthless. And it was one of the best meetings I’ve ever had in [00:10:00] my entire career. He was warm. He was welcoming. We had a ton in common and he knew so many people and was so warm and generous with making introductions for me.

And I said, I’ve told him many times over the years, I thought it was crazy meeting with him. And it turned out you were one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and you just never know. You never know until you sit down and talk with someone. So you might have a lot of those stumbles, but you also might make a lot of good friends and good connections and build relationships that had you not gone and sat down and had that cup of coffee, you would have never known.

Steve Fretzin: I think that’s fair. And let’s not also, take for granted that there are people who, what we would consider to be centers of influence that just know everybody and can really move you around in different circles. And I think what happens is, initially you want to try to go out and network and build a wide network, right?

Because you need to know a lot of people and you need to be well known. And I think that while you’re doing that, the effort would be to also try to build something deep with people that are specifically in a position to refer you business. Because while everybody can think of you, [00:11:00] not everybody’s like personal injury.

How often am I running into A personal injury, situation where I can refer a lawyer directly, right? It’s probably once a year, once every two years. Okay. However, if I meet with someone that can refer a person like a chiropractor that I can refer to a personal injury attorney and they refer 10 a year.

Then that was a pretty good meeting to take because that now I’ve connected someone with an individual who has the ability to produce a lot more for that personal injury attorney. So I think there’s that play. Let me ask you this. There’s building the business, right? The rainmaking and the networking things we have to do.

And how are you transitioning from really diving into that to then, build continuing to do that while you’re also then in a management role? Because that’s the trick is we talk about this in our roundtable groups, like how difficult it is to wear. Too many hats.

Blake Strautins: It’s a work in progress, getting better every day.

It’s nobody really teaches you, especially lawyers, how to run a business. And that’s the one critical [00:12:00] skill that I wish more law schools would teach young students is how do you actually run a business? Because you can learn the law, you can write great briefs, you can research out of something.

But running a business, completely different, managing people, completely different, being a good manager, a good leader, those are skills that sadly, they just don’t teach it. I wish there was more classes, more courses on that because they are critical to being a successful attorney and a successful leader down the road.

But thankfully, I’ve had a lot of great mentors over the years. I’ve learned. A lot of things to do to be a better manager of the firm. I’ve also learned a lot of things not to do, probably more things not to do than to do. Bad management practices from various individuals across your career, et cetera.

And you say to yourself, I often said to myself, I’m never going to do that. If I’m ever in that position, I’ll never treat that person that way. I’ll never act like that. And that’s helped me become a better manager for law firm as well. We’ve when I took over the firm in 2020, so going on [00:13:00] four and a half years now, we said we want to change the culture and boy, was it hard.

Cause we had to start from the ground up. You got to think, okay, we’ve got all these people that are stuck in this mindset, what do we want to see, two, three years from now? How do we get there? What do we have to change? What are, what people do we need to replace? More often than not, you’re going to have toxic people in firm.

That you’re going to see, and you’re going to identify and realize, you know what, they’re just not a good fit for our culture, for who we want to be, and it’s taken years, and we’ve got a fantastic team now, because we’ve taken the steps, and some of them are really hard and challenging to build a team of people that have, they’re on the same page.

It’s the teamwork mindset, and it’s not always easy to do that, and I’m very fortunate to be in the position I am to be able to shape that culture, but not everyone is. And I’m sure a lot of attorneys out there wish they had better managing partners that wish leadership was better. They had better mentors, et cetera.

And I go back to the quote we started with, be the change you want to see. I cannot [00:14:00] encourage people enough act the way you would if you were running the firm, no matter what your role is, just be that person, be that leader, be that individual. And I think, more often than not, You’re going to rub off on others, whether it’s, above the chain, below the chain, whatever people that want to change are going to see that and be like, Hey, maybe, maybe that’s a better way to act, but a way to handle a situation.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah. It’s there’s a piece of paper on the floor in the hallway and lawyers are just walking by it there. Nobody’s taking the time to pick it up and throw it out or see what it is.

Blake Strautins: My, one of my old bosses called that the steaming pile,

Steve Fretzin: the steaming pile. Okay. All

Blake Strautins: the people that walk past the steaming pile, be the person that picks it up.

Yeah.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah. I take my dog for a walk and there’s sometimes some stuff and I go, come on. And I just, I add it to my existing pile.

Blake Strautins: Good for you. Yeah. I’m

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Lawyers have been What’s the Rainmakers Roundtable? I tell them this is a special place created exclusively for rainmaking lawyers to continue their journey of prosperity. Our program is unique as every member has a significant book of business and is motivated to grow it year after year. Where else does this exist?

If you’re a managing partner who’s looking to get off your lonely island and talk shop, With America’s top rainmakers, please go to my website, bretson. com and apply for membership today. Cause you mentioned culture and how you really worked to try to develop a positive culture. Do you have an example of something that you did that really worked to help build that culture that you’re happy about now?

Blake Strautins: Accountability. That was probably the [00:16:00] one thing that was lacking most when we took over the firm was a lack of accountability. Where people got to do whatever they wanted, however they wanted to do it. Not everyone, but a lot of people. And we said, no more. We’re going to make people help. We’re going to hold them accountable.

And if that means we’ve got to let some people go because they’re not making a cut, they’re not being a team player, so be it. And the moment we stand, and look, it was again, not overnight. This took probably two or three years of holding people accountable, learning to hold people accountable. You go so long that.

It’s almost second nature to act the way you’ve always acted to go with the flow and to change that you’re basically changing the cruise ships course. Okay. It’s not a sailboat. You can’t just pivot on a dime. You got to slowly move it over time. It’s not going to be overnight, but accountability was really the one thing.

Okay. Yeah. And

Steve Fretzin: then now when you look to add someone to your team and bring in that new member. What are the attributes that you’re looking for? [00:17:00] How are you recruiting and interviewing and onboarding someone that allows them to fit into that culture? Or maybe to either ensure that they’re going to be a good fit or to help them fit in once they’re there?

Blake Strautins: Yeah. Some of the things we look for, are you a team player first and foremost, because that is the one, that’s one attribute we’ve identified that like a

Steve Fretzin: core value of the firm is be a team player. Yeah.

Blake Strautins: Be a team player. Be a good person. Be someone who is, willing to get along with everyone. And if you can do that, tolerate everyone’s nuances and quirks and whatnot, we’ve all got it, right?

Yeah. Nobody’s perfect. But if you can be that team player, that’s priority one for us. Next would be people that are independent thinkers. I’ve always strived to hire people that are smart and can learn to get the job done. If I can teach you to do A and B and you use A and B to learn how to do C.

That’s fantastic. Those are the people I want in my team. People that are capable of learning, people that are capable of seeing trends and learning how to work through problem [00:18:00] solving. I think that’s a fantastic skill set that is underrated and we’ll hire people that aren’t, we’ll look for paralegals.

I’ll tell you a great paralegal we had. I won’t say her name because she’ll be embarrassed. But she was a editor for she was editing books as a side gig and was working for a paint store, Sherwin Williams, came to interview with us for a paralegal position, just got a paralegal degree. And I looked at her skill set, editor, attention to detail, fantastic.

She had a great mentality, a great mindset. And I said, let’s give it a shot. What do we got to lose? And she’s fantastic. She’s wonderful. And, sometimes it’s thinking outside the box. Don’t necessarily look at the work history. They have the work experience. They have think about their skillset and how you can use that skillset to fill the need you have on your team.

And it’s been invaluable in terms of hiring, because we found some real diamonds in the rough. My, my assistant that we hired came into interview for a parallel position. And her personality [00:19:00] and her intelligence and the way she presented herself. She was so organized and so well spoken. And one of my other team leaders was messaging me while they’re interviewing her.

And I said, you got to meet this girl. You got to meet this woman. I think she would be a great executive assistant, which we happen to be looking for at that time. Interviewed her instantaneous. I’m like. Yeah, she’d be awesome. And this was, I want to say two and a half years ago, and she’s turned out to be one of the best hires we’ve made.

She makes my life so much easier. She’s wonderful. She’s great. She’s changed the firm in positive ways that I honestly, I lose track of. So it’s, you never know it, but just look for those quality traits and you’re going to find some real diamonds in the rough.

Steve Fretzin: And it sounds over the course of this sort of adventure, you’ve been on as managing partner that you’ve developed quite a bit of leadership skills.

Is there a particular Leadership. Other than what we’ve shared, which is, be the change you want to see and developing culture. Is there something that you’ve learned that you would share with other leaders or future leaders?

Blake Strautins: [00:20:00] Honestly, learning to let go and delegation,

Steve Fretzin: you

Blake Strautins: know, I’ll give you a quick story.

As we were talking about it before we started, I had about a pneumonia to start the year, happy new year to me. I was out, I was down for the count. I could look at emails on my phone, maybe send a quick reply and that was the extent of the energy I had to do anything. And this is something I’ve been trying to do for years is I’ve been able to give away maybe 20, 80 percent of my work, but that last 20%, I just couldn’t let go.

I was hanging on to it. It’s I got to be the one to do it. No one else can do it. Oh, but anyways, I got hit with pneumonia and I’m out for the count and I gave away all my work. I gave away delegated every responsibility I had. And guess what? Everything was fine. It worked out perfect. And it’s the number one thing that you’ve said that lawyers cannot handle is letting go.

And it was so liberating. And since then I’ve had one of the best years I’ve been so happy.

Steve Fretzin: Everybody should get pneumonia, I think is what you’re saying, right? There’s a lost all my

Blake Strautins: holiday. That was a great [00:21:00] bonus too, but no, it’s allowed me to spend this year really focusing on things I want to focus on as a manager of the firm.

And developing business and growing the firm and improving the culture. The time I have for that now, because I’ve learned to let go. I’ve learned to delegate to the fantastic team I have. It’s freed up so much time that I didn’t have before. And I know you and I have talked about it over the years, that struggle I’ve had finding that balance.

And I feel like I’m finally, it’s, I’m clicking right now. It’s a great feeling.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah. It’s very liberating to know that you’ve got specific roles that you can play or tasks that you can accomplish without being dragged into the minutia of administrative. Stuff or collections or, marketing or, just the day to day of, Hey, I need to talk to you about this, particular case or whatever we’re no, other people can handle it.

You just got to let go. I love it. So let’s wrap up because that’s, delegation. Is one of the most important skills a lawyer could can use leverage, [00:22:00] whether you’re a solo bringing in your first VA or you’re developing a team executive assistant, what would be some one or two other time management sort of tips or tricks that you’ve found to be really useful for yourself?

Blake Strautins: So the number one tip I have, and I can give you a couple is inbox management, email management. I’ve always been very good about doing that. And and when I realized I was really good at it was when you had it was Walt Hampton came in and gave us a talk and he talked about how to really effectively manage your inbox.

And I’m like, holy crap, I do that. Every email I got, I looked at my inbox, I got 15 emails. That’s it. I try and keep it as tight as possible because I live and breathe from my inbox and every email that comes in, I say, does this require my attention? Is it something that I need to pay attention to?

Or is it some, junk email, unsubscribed junk, whatever? Get out of the way. Is this something I can delegate? It’s the next question I ask. Can someone else do it? Do I need to be the one to handle it? If it’s no, boom, [00:23:00] off my radar. Is it something I can handle now? Sometimes it’s just a quick email you can send where you can resolve this email within two minutes.

Quick answer, whatever. Gone. Out of your inbox. Or is it something I need to follow up on at a later date? And that’s why I’ve got 15 emails in my inbox right now. Those are things that didn’t have time when it came in. I can’t delegate to someone else. It is important. I do need to work on it. But I’ll get to it.

And the important part is not letting that I’ll get to it get too long because we always do that and that’s how a lot of people get thousands of emails in their inbox because they’re like, I’ll get to it later. And they never get it requires a lot of discipline. But I’d say the other aspect is just building a strong team.

If you’ve got a trusted team of associates and paralegals and, directors and administrative staff that you can rely on and trust to help you get your job done, that’s invaluable. And it takes years to build them up. It takes years to train them. But once, they’re on the same page as you, you can give them just about anything.

And I’m [00:24:00] always trying to give new challenges to my paralegals, for instance. I’ll give them documents. It’s here, do the initial draft of this brief for me. And sometimes they look at me like, wait, what are you crazy? No, I trust you. You’re great. This, you’ve got this, you can do it. And guess what?

They do a great job.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah.

Blake Strautins: One less thing I got to do.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah. That’s the big. Aha moment, I think for most lawyers is once you start realizing that your value in the practice of law, running a firm, whatever it might be is way, way up here, 500 to 1, 000 plus an hour. And then you realize that you’re doing stuff that other people could do for.

22 50 or a hundred dollars an hour. And yet you’re still wrapped up in all that stuff. It’s hard though.

Blake Strautins: It’s really hard to let go. I find myself, even now I’ll be looking at y’all and I’m going over my caseload with my paralegal and she’s Oh, we got to get this done. And the old me is like, Oh, okay.

When can I work on that? And then all of a sudden I’m like, wait a second. The newbie is [00:25:00] saying, I know someone, I don’t need to do this. This is something else that someone else can more that they’re more than capable of handling. I shouldn’t be involved. I try and take myself out of it again. Old habits die hard.

It takes, a lot of discipline to learn to say, no, I’m not going to work on this. No, I’m not going to draft this brief because I know someone else on my team is more than capable.

Steve Fretzin: Trust the new you, Blake.

Blake Strautins: I’m trying.

Steve Fretzin: There you go. Hey, let’s wrap up. So many great examples of how to be effective at developing business and running a firm and growing a firm and getting into a position of leadership where you can really take things to the next level.

So I appreciate you sharing all that and let’s go on to our, and maybe this fits in right there is the book of the game changing book multipliers. I think that fits in perfectly, right?

Blake Strautins: Yeah. And it was recommended to me by a mutual colleague of ours Mike Kurzak, the rest of these great personal injury attorney recommended this book called multipliers by Liz Weissman.

And he’s Oh, you got to read it. So I read it [00:26:00] and it was thoroughly life changing for me. And the premise of the book is unlocking and unleashing the potential of those around you of your team to allow them to be better, more effective team members and conversely, making sure you’re not a diminisher.

What’s a diminisher? Diminisher is someone who says, oh, I alone have to do this or they see a problem. They say, I’m just going to fix it. Or someone asked them a question and they just give them the answer. A multiplier, on the other hand, is someone who, when you get asked a tough question by one of your team members, an associate, a paralegal, don’t just give them the answer.

Walk them through it. They’re like listen, okay, that’s a good question. Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? And try and get them to come to the answer on their own. Because the next time they’ve got a question like that, you’re giving them critical thinking skills to solve the problem without needing to come to you.

And thinking that only you can fix it, you’ve got to be the only one speaking at a meeting. One of the great things, one of the great tips they give you is try to attend a [00:27:00] meeting and not say a single word. Just listen. You know how challenging that is?

Steve Fretzin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Blake Strautins: That’s just who I am. I’m not a big, I don’t need to hear myself talk.

I hate it. I chime in when I feel it’s necessary. So that was an easy one. But it’s amazing when you just listen to other people talk and don’t give input. Just ask questions. And you’ll learn so much and people learn from you when you’re asking tough, challenging questions, you’re almost, helping them put the light bulb goes on for him.

Sometimes it’s oh yeah, now that I’ve answered that out loud, that’s really the best way to handle it. So I highly recommend the book. Honestly, it was it was eye opening for me. I had my entire management team read it. And every month when we meet, we talk about one way we’ve been a multiplier in the last month, right?

And one way we’ve been a diminisher and even now, I’ve been, we’ve been doing that for two years now. I’m still finding ways that I’m being a diminisher and I’m still trying to work out a way to do that. So being a better, more effective attorney and leader and manager, it’s a never ending battle.

You’ve always got to strive to do better.

Steve Fretzin: All right. Awesome. [00:28:00] 30 second drill. We’re going to nerd out together for 30 seconds. You ready?

Blake Strautins: I’m ready.

Steve Fretzin: All right. Favorite Marvel character.

Blake Strautins: Wolverine.

Steve Fretzin: Wolverine. Why?

Blake Strautins: He’s right behind me.

Steve Fretzin: He’s got his claws out. If you don’t say him, he’s going to

Blake Strautins: eat dust.

I’ve always been fascinated with him since I was a kid. Yeah. I, he’s just, I’ve always loved the costume. He’s been a gruff guy who just does whatever he wants. And for whatever reason that resonated with me as a kid. And to this day, I still love him.

Steve Fretzin: All right, Bob. Anybody that knows that.

Okay. Yeah. He’s fantastic. You must’ve loved the last Deadpool movie. Holy mackerel. You got a whole lot of Wolverine in there.

Blake Strautins: Oh, it was it gave me goose bumps. I was smiling the whole time and I said to myself, this is the Wolverine I’ve wanted to see on screen as nerdy as it is. I love that kind of stuff and gave me a lot of trouble.

Steve Fretzin: I grew up with it as well in the Marvel and DC and comic books and stuff and still continue to enjoy that stuff. It’s just easy and light

Blake Strautins: and

Steve Fretzin: fun. Hey man, thank you so much for coming on. Let’s take a second. Just thank our [00:29:00] wonderful sponsors. Of course, PymCon. Coming up in October for those personal injury attorneys that want a first class experience and the law, her podcast with Sonia Palmer doing a great job, continue to produce great content, especially for women who are looking to get ahead in the legal space.

So that might be for some of you to check out in Blake. If people want to reach out to you, they want to come work for you and be a part of that culture and all that. What’s the best way for them to reach you.

Blake Strautins: Sure. Just shoot me an email, be Stratton’s at Kluver law group. com. Check out our website.

Find my contact info there, Kluver law group. com. Always willing to chat with folks and even people that have questions about anything I’ve talked about when I touch base, happy to be a sounding board as well.

Steve Fretzin: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you, man. I appreciate you. And I, look, I apologize for not having you on the show earlier.

I guess it just, you sometimes my brain doesn’t function properly, but you’re definitely, I’m so happy that you. Accepted my invitation and we’re able to come on, share your wisdom. And it’s just, I appreciate our relationship more than, and it’s been an absolute pleasure.

Blake Strautins: Likewise. It’s been a pleasure to be here and appreciate it a lot. So

Steve Fretzin: Yeah, great. And Hey, everybody, thank you for spending time with Blake [00:30:00] today. Tons and tons of takeaways again, whether you’re at a firm and you’re still in a form of leadership, networking, time management, whatever it is you need to accomplish.

You want to go and open up your own thing, or you’re currently in that role. Lots and lots of things you can take away from today’s show and every show. We’re coming up on 500 pretty soon. And we’re already past five years doing this. That’s it, man. All good stuff, everybody. Hey, be that lawyer confident, organized, and a skilled rainmaker.

Take care. Be safe. Be well. Talk again soon.

Narrator: Thanks for listening to Be That Lawyer. Life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve’s website, Fretzin. com. Transcripts provided by Transcription Outsourcing, LLC.