In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Monty Horn discuss:
Key Takeaways:
"There's a huge opportunity out there for firms who want to grasp it, to do the sorts of automation, knowledge management, and document management that large firms have been spending a fortune on, but to be able to do it at a scale that works for them." — Monty Horn
Connect with Monty Horn:
Website: transformitysolutions.com
Email: MHorn@transformitysolutions.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/monroe-monty-horn-bb940ab
Connect with Steve Fretzin:
LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin
Twitter: @stevefretzin
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: Fretzin.com
Email: Steve@Fretzin.com
Book: The Ambitious Attorney: Your Guide to Doubling or Even Tripling Your Book of Business and more!
YouTube: Steve Fretzin
Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
Monty Horn 0:00
What are you doing to run your business? That's taking up time that you could be spending, serving your clients and making money. And that's the second layer of sort of opportunity for technology and innovation, to make changes that make them more efficient. And either let them make more money or spend more time with their family or do whatever they want with that extra time and efficiency.
Narrator 0:33
You're listening to be that lawyer, 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 0:55
Hey, everybody, welcome to be that lawyer. I'm Steve Fretzin and I hope you're having a great day so far, as you know, frets and focuses on helping lawyers in two ways. Number one is we provide coaching training in some pretty heavy ways. We're looking for the most ambitious attorneys that want to grow their practice double or triple their size. We also offer business development peer advisory groups for individuals that are interested in working with other motivated lawyers to learn and, and then talk about, you know, issues that are facing them and work on their problems together as a as a group as a team. So if either of those sound interesting, please feel free to check out our website at frets and calm. And enough with that junk. Let's get on to the fun stuff. I have a tremendous guest today, the founder of transformative solutions. Monty Horn, Monty How's it going?
Monty Horn 1:45
I'm great today. How are you Steve?
Steve Fretzin 1:47
I'm doing fine. You're great today. Does that mean you weren't great yesterday, but today you're alright?
Monty Horn 1:52
pretty great. everyday. I think I'll be greater tomorrow since it's Saturday.
Steve Fretzin 1:56
Oh, okay. So we're waiting for a weekend. I get it.
Monty Horn 1:58
Yeah. Look into be crater on the weekends. All right. All
Steve Fretzin 2:02
Right. Me too. Me too. I enjoy. I enjoy what I do love what I do. But I I also have fun stuff playing the weekend. So listen, you know, I is my audience knows I do a terrible job making introductions. So I always prefer people to kind of share their backgrounds and introduce themselves. If so if you wouldn't mind, sir.
Monty Horn 2:19
Sure. My name is Monty Horn, my real name is Monroe. So I go by either Monroe or Monty, you'll see me out there in both ways. And a couple of months ago, I started a new company transformative solutions, that has as its goal, to help lawyers use technology to be more efficient, and to increase their revenue. So my background is that for the last 15 years, I was a CTO at an IP boutique firm in Boston. And for the last 21 years, I've been running it for law firms. And the goal of what I'm doing with transformative is to take that experience, take that business knowledge and bring it to the small and mid sized law firm space, there are so many opportunities out there these days for small and midsize firms to use technology in tremendously creative ways that will help them to be more efficient and to drive revenue.
Steve Fretzin 3:19
Got it? Got it. And so even though your business is on the newer side, the reality is you got 21 years of nothing but legal focus in technology and helping them improve their efficiencies, correct?
Monty Horn 3:31
Yes, and, and the other thing is, as a as a CTO at the IP boutique firm, one of the great things that I was able to do is to develop a really wide breadth of knowledge. So I was running the admin financial system, I was managing interaction for the firm, I was handling software development. So it's been a really great experience to have all of that breadth of knowledge across the entire scope of law firms, business practices.
Steve Fretzin 4:03
got it got it. This might seem a little out of place. But I we had talked a few minutes ago, just if there was something really unique or interesting about you and your background that most people don't know, what would that be?
Monty Horn 4:15
I think it's not a secret necessarily. But you have to read sort of far down on the resume to find it. I was a historian before I went into it. So I was doing a PhD in American history, and decided that I didn't want to do that anymore, didn't want to teach anymore and made the transition over into technology, which is sort of a strange story, but has worked out well for me. So I'm still really interested in history, spend a lot of time reading about the history of technology, which is a lot of fun and really something that I think a lot of technologists don't really know that well.
Steve Fretzin 4:59
In, so, is it also in addition to history technology? Are you also sort of a history buff? And in like History of the United States history of the world? I mean, is there a specific period that you that you enjoy more than others?
Monty Horn 5:13
Not really. I mean, I've always been really interested in all all areas of history. So I was just reading a book on ideological origins of the American Revolution. But before that I looked at I was reading about Greece, Grecian history. And then I finished a biography of Napoleon. So whatever sort of strikes my fancy is, is what I'm interested in.
Steve Fretzin 5:37
Gotcha, gotcha. So yeah, just just more general about it, but which is great. I..
Monty Horn 5:41
I enjoy these days. Yeah,
Steve Fretzin 5:43
These days? I mean, there's going to be a lot of a lot of talk about history from 2020. That's for sure. Well, let's keep going on that on the technology side. So when you think about technology for lawyers for law firms, what are some of the main challenges that you've seen occur over the last, you know, 10 years that law firms really struggle with?
Monty Horn 6:06
I think there are a few. The first is a proliferation of information, right? They have a massive amount of information coming in, in terms of emails, and and now a number of different pathways by which data is coming into their office. And that data is being stored in a lot of different places inside of law firms. And it can become very siloed, either at the at the system level, or at the lawyer level, depending on the nature of the firm. And so unlocking that data, I think has been a major challenge for law firms over the last five years. And not just unlocking it, but managing it so that it's not only a lack, but it's useful to them. It's actionable. And I think that's a huge, a huge challenge that firms face.
Steve Fretzin 6:59
Gotcha, gotcha. What are some other areas that, you know, you mentioned your past story. And I feel like sometimes the law firms are living in the past. And they're, they're antiquated with their technology. So what are some things that you're regularly running into that you just shake your head and go, I can't believe they're still on this system? Or I can't believe that they're still doing it this way?
Monty Horn 7:18
Yeah, to me, it's, it's actually less about the technology and the system as it is the the way that they're interacting with technology for the business, right, it's a lot of things that I that I find surprising is that firms haven't embraced automated workflow technology, and other forms of automation. And part of that is, is that in the past, you know, when I put those things in, at at at a firm, where I had staff and servers and all of that, they were tremendously expensive. But with the rise of cloud technologies, a lot of that software, and a lot of those services are available now at really reasonable prices. And so there's a huge opportunity out there for firms who want to grasp it, to do the sorts of automation and knowledge management and document management that large firms have been spending a fortune on, but to be able to do it at a scale that works for them.
Steve Fretzin 8:22
So is one of the things that you focus on not only efficiency, but also cost reduction to try to move them to a to a platform that's going to actually save them money.
Monty Horn 8:32
Absolutely. And again, it's not necessarily a platform, it's a it's a set of systems and business processes, as much as it is technology that's going to save them money in the long run. So when I look at a firm, the first question I ask is, what are you doing for clients that you can't charge them for? That's number one. That's the first and best place to save money with with technology and automation. After that, it's what are you doing to run your business that's taking up time that you could be spending, serving your clients and making money. And that's the second layer of sort of opportunity for technology and innovation, to make changes that make them more efficient. And either let them make more money or spend more time with their family or do whatever they want with that extra time and efficiency.
Steve Fretzin 9:30
Got it. Got it. And so at the end of the day, you're able to go in and really evaluate and explore what they're doing, find those gaps and then make make some, you know, positive suggestions and, and help them actually execute on those suggestions for change and improvements, right?
Monty Horn 9:46
Yeah, absolutely. So what I find is that because I've spent so long running it for law firms and been embedded in the business side, what I can bring to the table is an understanding of what's out there from a technology perspective, but also a really deep understanding of how law firms work and the business of law and the way that lawyers think about that business, and then to find the technology that works to solve their business problems. And then I can implement that technology, right myself or with the assistance of, of some of my colleagues, but a lot of it can be done without a lot of outside investment. It's really about configuring and understanding and bringing together the business problems in the technology.
Steve Fretzin 10:41
Gotcha. So let's get if you don't mind, let's get a little bit more specific and granular. So it could be in the form of a case study or or whatnot. But, you know, what are what are kind of like the three things that you would say, every firm between this size and that size, and you can give a range, if you'd like just to make it clear, because you're not going to be going into, you know, Kirkland or Sidley or something and reconfiguring their it. But you know, there might be a sweet spot for you. And then and then what are the top three things that you would, that you've seen that would really benefit of a firm of that size?
Monty Horn 11:19
Sure. So from a science perspective, I think that the things that I talked about, could be very useful for anything down even to solo practitioners or very small firms. That's more of a coaching type of arrangement, right? How can you, as a, as a solo practitioner, as a lawyer, in a very small, firm, be more pro proactive with technology. But I think the sweet spot for me are those firms that are large enough to be a firm, so they have processes they have staff that they need to manage, they have, they have a lot of data, they need to manage up to firms that really don't have anyone with my experience, helping guide them. So that could be even firms that are large that have IT staff, but don't have that CIO level type of person to help them move forward. And in terms of the the three things, I think there, there are, obviously, so many opportunities. But I'll give you a case study, for starting my company, I had to engage an attorney. And so I did some research, I found an attorney. And I talked with the attorney on the phone, and I said, I want to do these two things. And he said, Great, we can help you with those two things. And then he sent me via email, the fee agreement, and the scope of work. And that was that. And what I had to do then was printed out, sign it, write out a check for the retainer. And since it was a an attorney right here in town, walk that over to the attorney's office. And in the course of that, I rethought what I wanted the attorney to do for me, and decided that of those two things, I really only needed one thing right now. And so about 25% of the value of of my engagement was lost between the point at which he sent me the engagement letter, and I dropped off the signed engagement letter at the chuck. So what could have made that better? Well, first of all, he could have sent me the engagement letter and use the digital signature option like DocuSign, or there's a lot of them probably the best known as DocuSign. Second, he could have made it so that I could pay him the retainer online. Because research shows that if you allow people to pay with a credit card, you're probably going to get an immediate payment about 57% of the time. And in this particular case, he would have gotten more, because I wouldn't have thought about that second task, I would have just gone ahead. And then if I reconsidered later, I would have probably said, I already gave them the retainer, I might as well just go ahead and do it. I'm gonna have to do it at some point in the future. So those are two things that I think are really critical. And the third thing is actually even before that, right. I should have been able to schedule a call with him online at a time that worked for both of us, instead of having to go back and forth either on the phone or via email about when are you free, when am I free? I should have been able to go on to his website or get a link from him and pick a time that worked for me. Now that's that's three things and that's just the very basic stuff. I'm not talking here about getting into the right licensing programs so that you're saving money, right, that's another super important thing or evaluating any of the higher level things that we've talked about any of the, you know, workflow processes, unified communications, things like that, which are also super critical. But I think the point of the story is you can make relatively small changes, and I can help firms make those relatively small changes that are going to be impactful right away, and then work on going forward from there to sort of transform the way that they work so that they can be more efficient and make more money and serve their clients better to.
Steve Fretzin 15:44
Yeah, it's again, it's it's all about efficiency. And time, I mean, if lawyers are billable on their hour, and they're spending a lot of time emailing and working out schedules, and in, you know, putting out contracts, and then having to deal with depositing checks, and all the stuff that's going on, it's all changing to, you know, being super, super simple. My wife still writes checks, and I've been like, Hey, what do you want to sit down and let me show you how to use like online banking, so you can just basically push buttons and get your bills paid, and still hasn't happened, by the way. But I I can't remember the last time I've written a check, and I can't remember the last time I've had to even depositing a check. If I have one, it's all done through my phone. Right? So I'm, like, running around when there's just so much technology that we have to keep up with. And it's good to have someone like you in the corner that can, you know, just basically say, here's what you need to do. Don't, you don't have to figure it out. Just just hear it, I'll tell you.
Monty Horn 16:38
Yeah, and, and I'll do it, right, we'll do it together. And, and, and make it happen. And even in my example, I took up the time of their legal assistant to have to then take that document process that document, you know, automation would have allowed them to take that document in, put it into the right place in whatever document storage system they use, send an alert to the attorney that this was done, and save that assistant time to do more important things.
Steve Fretzin 17:12
Gotcha. Gotcha. Do you also, um, I don't know, if you work with, you know, marketing companies, because what they're doing is they're putting a lot of the the technology on the website, for example, my friend, Jared Korea's got a software where, you know, helps to really qualify people through the website, through their technology to, you know, make sure that that the intake, you know, is coming in, and it's coming in with qualified people. So do you work? Would you work well with those folks to make sure that the technology integrates with the software, and that all helps to improve processes?
Monty Horn 17:46
Absolutely. And I think there's two elements to that. And I've seen jarrods thing, it's really cool. There's two elements to that. The first is the marketing side, where you're making sure that you're getting qualified leads, and that goes beyond just putting a form on your website to say contact us, which everybody can do with any website builder. But it goes to that, taking that and doing something with it. That's not labor intensive, and helps you to qualify those leads. And the second piece of it comes after that, during the intake process, where you're saying, okay, there are things that I need to get from my client before I can start a file. Why are we why why do that via email? Why do that be over the phone, let the client go fill something out, have it come back automatically, and then put the data that the client put in where it needs to go. All of that is, you know, is is sort of table stakes for a lot of industries out there, but not so much for the legal industry. And that's the sort of thing that's easy to do. It's not expensive. And it really it really helps improve things. And it improves your, your client service, because you're getting good information from them. And you're starting off on a really solid basis. And you're doing it when it's can letting them do it when it's convenient for them, which is also really important.
Steve Fretzin 19:14
Write really good stuff. Really good stuff. So in thinking about the industry, I mean, there are a lot of people that not only focus on IT support and in IT, but also, there's a lot of companies that focus on it for lawyers, I mean, I'm sure that their apartments are getting hit up regularly, what makes you unique in this space, and why should people be maybe working with you versus some of the other companies out there?
Monty Horn 19:38
And there are some great companies out there. And I would say a couple of things. The first thing I would say is a lot of times people will talk to me and say well, we already have an IT company. They have a managed service provider. They have somebody who if they have servers is is running those servers who's who's taking, taking calls for them on Help Desk and things Like that. And to those people, I point out that the services that I'm offering are not competitive with that necessarily. They are potentially complimentary to that. Because having solid systems, making sure that things are patched, making sure that your users can get good support is a baseline, that's really important. But what I'm offering is that next step, that step of understanding the business, and the way the lawyers want to work with technology, and then finding and applying the technology to make that happen. And that's something that is different from what an average managed service provider is going to provide. But it's complimentary. Because what they do is tremendously important. Because you can't do more unless you have a base. But what I'm providing is that business knowledge, and the experience of knowing every element of how a law firm works, and the technology that's out there, and the ability to put those two things together in a way that more just technology oriented companies are not really equipped to do.
Steve Fretzin 21:18
Yeah, that sounds I mean, that's, that's really terrific. And again, you know, you've got this background of experience in depth knowledge that I think does make you unique in the in the space and the focus that you have. So if people want to reach out to you to learn more to engage you in some way to help them with their firm, how do people get in touch with you?
Monty Horn 21:37
Website is the best option. It's www.transformativesolutions.com. Or I'm at mhorn@transformativesolutions.com. And just to add one thing, I think one of the benefits of this horrible pandemic, for me and starting a company during this is that I can really work with anyone anywhere at this point, right? We have the remote technology. In the past, I might have been limited to just the area around Boston where I live. But now I really feel like wow, if there's a firm out in Chicago by you that needs help. I can help them. And so that's tremendously exciting to me. So I think the website at www.transformativesolutions.com is the best option or once you're there, feel free to give me a call or email me.
Steve Fretzin 22:39
Yeah. And all of Montes information is also in the show notes. If you're, if you're able to find that on my website, or through the podcast platform that you're that you're listening to this from. Monty, thanks so much for being a guest today. This was really insightful. And hopefully some of the lawyers heard this and it can take action to start improving their efficiency and how they're doing or working with their technology. So thanks. Thanks again for coming on the show. Oh, thank you so much, Steve. Yeah, absolutely. My pleasure. And hey, listen, everybody. Thank you for spending some time with us today. And hopefully you're one step closer to being that lawyer, someone who is confident organized in a skilled Rainmaker, take care and be safe.
Narrator 23:20
Thanks for listening to be that lawyer. Life Changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve's website Fretzin.com for additional information, and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today's episode, check out today's show notes.