Maximum Lawyer

Tyson Mutrux 00:00:00 Get ready because here's your host, Tyson Matrix.

Tyson Mutrux 00:00:06 Don't be used as easy as a layup. Stay up all the way up.

Tyson Mutrux 00:00:12 Good morning everybody to the Guild live show. And I've got a really good one today. We're talking about Reddit a little bit. We're going to be talking about demotivated employees, which you know we all face from time to time. Solving problems for your team is another one we're going to cover. That's an interesting thing from Harvard Business Review 25 AI hacks that it's an article we're going to go through. And then a couple things about happiness, which I found to be pretty interesting when it comes to what it takes to achieve a happier state. I wouldn't say achieve happiness in general, but just happier state of mind. So we're going to cover those very, very interesting things coming up for us. The first thing we have is, is Reddit and this is an article. It's the 2025 Business Guide to using Reddit effectively. this is definitely interesting. Reddit isn't new, but its influence is exploding, and this is something we have played with a little bit in the firm when it comes to like posting things and all that, and we we have looked into it.

Tyson Mutrux 00:01:20 We've we've posted more and more there. I know that Haseeb who's on our team, he's, he's, I think one of those in the camp that thinks it's really more, more important than what I think it is to be honest with you. But there is some research to show that it is. It is a trusted search engine for Gen Z and younger millennials. So the senior millennials like like myself, not really my thing, but younger millennials, Gen Z, it is something that quote unquote is a trusted search engine. The article talks about best results come from comment based thought leadership okay. And not self-promotion. That is something I can tell you just from Max lore. We've kind of found the same thing where we talk a lot about whether people are on the show or they're posting things in the Facebook group. We found that it's a very similar where if you if you lead with self-promotion, people tend to not like it as much, whatever, whatever it is. So whether you're being interviewed, whether you're putting out a video, whether you are making a comment, when you lead with self-promotion, it typically does not work.

Tyson Mutrux 00:02:34 And I think that that's something that may not seem super obvious because you think, oh, you want to you want to promote, promote, promote. Because that's kind of how advertising works. And that's not really how this works. And when it comes to Reddit or really any sort of online form in general, it just doesn't work that way. Hosting AMA threads or asking anything threads in niche subreddits is something that is pretty effective. So it it gives you a visibility boost. So that's something else that the article talks about. And there's also a new ad tool. There are new ad tools that is going to give Facebook a run for its money, which is interesting thing too. So it's also it's cheaper. That's the other thing too with this is that it's a cheaper cost per click. And that's what's pretty interesting. So what is Reddit and why is it becoming an influential channel? Reddit user generated content platform UGC divided into thousands of subreddits which are topic specific communities moderated by users. These are highly active contributors, critics, and vocal fans.

Tyson Mutrux 00:03:38 As of 2025, Reddit sees more than 97 million daily active users, 365 million weekly and 1.2 billion monthly, which is so interesting numbers for sure. Now, I don't think that those those pale in comparison to many of the other social networks, but this is just a little bit different because it is a lot more interactive. You know, when it comes to, like, TikTok and all that you've got. You know, the video that goes out and people can comment it, but the back and forth is not, not there as much as what you might see in something like that. So I find that kind of interesting too. So something to kind of consider. I mean, you're going to treat it it's like a live forum, okay? And it's not a billboard. That's what's really you've got to remember with things like this. This is not a billboard, so don't use it as a billboard. It is a live form. You're going to engage back and forth. So either, you know, go all in with something like that or don't do it because it's just not going to it's not going to be effective unless you go that route, unless you go the route of you're going to have someone and it may not be you, someone in your office that is going to actively engage with with people.

Tyson Mutrux 00:04:50 If you're not going to do that, then it's not worth doing. Okay. All right. So let's get into our second article of the day. And this is a, this one comes to, it's a, it's about demotivated employees. This one's from Harvard Business Review. I actually think I've got I have two from Harvard Business Review today and I, I picked both of these because I think they're going to be they're pretty interesting, when it comes to helping out the team. And so this one's six steps to reset a demotivated team. And on this one. So they go through and they give you just really the the six steps. And so I'm going to I'm going to cut to the chase with these and just get straight to them because they're they're highlighted really well in the article. That's why I'm just going to go straight to them. So number one reassess diagnose before you act. So before we get to that though kind of give you a summary. Because what's great about Harvard Business Review if you're not if you don't have a membership, you should.

Tyson Mutrux 00:05:58 Or at least I'm not signing in here. so I'm not going to see everything. But like any living systems, teams need regular care, attention and intentional renewal to thrive. Whether driven by restructuring relationships, tensions, deep motivations, or strategic pivots, there comes a moment when a team needs it's, basically it needs to be re motivated. So, first one is reassess, diagnose before you act. Leaders often rush to make changes without first diagnosing the underlying issues, only to find the problems worsen before jumping into action. Jumping into action. Consider these questions. Is the team aligned on purpose? Goals, priorities. And it's got it's got these other questions here too. I'm not going to go through all of them. But you're essentially, you know, reassessing the team okay. And then once you get to number two you're going to reconnect. All right. So build trust and psychological safety. What it says here is your if your team has been through turbulence chances are trust has taken a hit. For example, we recently worked with a senior leader at a pharmaceutical company who dismissed a team composition change as just one person, and that it was more or less the same team.

Tyson Mutrux 00:07:05 I'm sure that that probably rings true with many of you that you would say the same thing, but the reality was different. While only one team member was replaced, the new person was dismissive and made sarcastic comments, which fundamentally distorted the whole team's power dynamics and diminished psychological safety. Relaunching starts with rebuilding psychological safety by creating an environment where people feel safe to speak up, share their experience, challenge ideas, and even engage in a good fight. Now then, here's how to begin. And I think this one is really, really important. And I the the part I want to highlight is engage in a good fight now and then we like in our team where I tell people all the time, it's hard to offend me. And so you got to just give it to me straight. And we want to encourage in our team you if you disagree with something, let us know about it. Let's have a discussion about let's talk about it. And there's some times where I just have a line in the sand.

Tyson Mutrux 00:08:00 I will not cross over and I'm not. I will not agree to something or. And I think that that's fine. But for the most part I'm pretty open to, to changing things if I need to. And I think that that is all around the team. The entire team needs to be that way. So here it talks about lead with vulnerability by conducting a team check in. Encourage open dialogue. Allow for constructive feedback. Having those regular feedback loops really really important. Number three re-envision what's our job to be done. So what's our job to be done? What is your team's purpose. What does the future hold? What is at stake? Teams rally around clear, inspiring visions, especially during periods of change. Frame the relaunch as an opportunity to realign on the what, not just to react to problems. I like that a lot. So to get to to get the realignment, you need be transparent about challenges while focusing on the future, clarify the overall vision, reaffirm the team's purpose and value, and then set a forward looking tone.

Tyson Mutrux 00:09:00 Number four here is re contract. Clarify the team's ways of working. Okay. Re contract misalignment often stems from confusion about roles, priorities and how teams and team members will actually collaborate during a relaunch. Renew and redefine key elements of what McKinsey refers to as the team operating system. For those of you that don't follow McKinsey on X or Twitter, whatever you will call it, I highly recommend that you do there, probably on blue Sky, wherever you are. They put out a lot of really good statistics and quotes and they're fantastic. But McKinsey says team operating system, the building blocks for the way team members collaborate, create, change and support one another. Consider roles and responsibilities, decisions, decision making processes, team norms and expectations. So it says here we worked with the leadership team of a fast moving consumer goods companies EMEA region on realigning their meeting practices. They were suffering from meeting Proliferation, where the their entire days were spent sitting in meetings, leaving little time to get actual work done. We challenge them to be as specific as possible, considering questions like who must really be in the room and who can receive the minutes afterwards, yada yada yada.

Tyson Mutrux 00:10:12 So re contract and then number five re-energize. Build on successes. It's easy to fall back into old patterns to make the relearn shtick. Focus on quick wins that demonstrate positive movement and reinforce the new behaviors. That's something that Jason Selke would definitely preach. Celebrating those wins, even if you think that they're small. It's got that snowball snowball effect. It also gives some ideas here biweekly check ins wins and learning reviews one on one coaching. So and then number six readjust sustain momentum. A relaunch is not a one time event. It's an ongoing process that's key. And the steps aren't always linear. Keep the momentum by tracking progress, providing micro feedback frequently, and then regularly reassessing and adjusting. So if you find that your team is demotivated. That's why I wanted to grab this one. Because if you find that your team is demotivated, this could be, you know, a nice little outline for you to to try to re motivate your team, get them back on track because sometimes it's just small little tweaks you got to do.

Tyson Mutrux 00:11:16 So let's get into solving problems. This I really I really like this article. This is another one. This is my second. This is the last one from Harvard Business Review, but one I like the name of the article, but the message is is great too. So they talk about stop solving your team's problems for them. Stop solving your team's problems for them. And this is a, just a really fun one, in my opinion, because many of you, I'm sure, have this problem where, you know, the problem, it's the problem about problems. Problem comes up, and then you just solve it, right? You just think it's, oh, this is the easy thing to do, and I'm just going to solve the problem for the team. And that is not something that they recommend that you do. And it's for a variety of reasons. And they give. So a four question coaching method. What have you tried. What happened. Thoughts. What's next. you want to promote ownership.

Tyson Mutrux 00:12:21 So you want to empower your staff, build judgment and then free your bandwidth. That's another one. And then it's also a big culture boost. So regular use encourages growth mindset across the team. So let's show you a little bit of this article. So you know what I'm talking about here. Summary. Many leaders today are struggling to balance the aspiration of being supportive with the reality of feeling overwhelmed by their own to do list. But when a well-meaning leader becomes a default problem solver so it affects the entire team, what they talk about. So it starts with a sales leader received a call from a major customer who was furious their order arrived late, the product was damaged, and to top it off, their invoice didn't reflect the volume discount promised in the quarterly newsletter. All right. So to to sort of translate this into law firm ownership terms. So Sven, a case manager, received a call from a huge client with a massive case who was furious. They didn't get a return phone call. Like they were told they were going to get.

Tyson Mutrux 00:13:27 the offer they received was low. And to top it off, let's see the pleadings that were filed by the, with the court, did not reflect the client's goals that were discussed in the initial meeting. I see it's something very, very similar, but I think many of you can see how this could relate to the work that we do. And so here, Sven wasn't quite sure what to do. He'd need to involve other departments to resolve the problems. But there was a lot of organizational red tape, plus recent layoffs and economic uncertainty had him paranoid about making a mistake. So then decided to bring the problem to my client, Laura, his manager, and the organization's chief revenue officer. All right, so she asked, and this one, they, what happened was she listened, and then she said, what support do you need from me? Could you reach the reach out to the customers, then asked. Laura knew that was capable of managing the problem, but she didn't want him to feel unsupported or dismissed.

Tyson Mutrux 00:14:25 So she agreed, adding item number 143 to her daily to do list. And so ultimately, what it does is that she solved the problem for him and it doesn't really help him. Right? So here's some questions that they've asked. Right. Go through and ask these questions. Said what have you tried. So asking this question doesn't suggest you're not available to support. Instead, it signals what that you expect initial effort okay. Or at a minimum, some brainstorming to have occurred prior to looping you in. And I really like that part. So what have you tried? Then you get to what or who is getting in the way of tackling this. So if your employee hasn't been able to tackle a problem, they should at least be able to identify why, whether it's budget time or sign off. Get to the root of what's stopping them from solving it. Okay, removing the obstacle is typically more efficient for you, the leader, than than taking ownership of the entire problem, which is I think that's pretty good.

Tyson Mutrux 00:15:21 What support do you need? And she she started with that. But she maybe maybe should have asked this a little bit a few steps down the road. So the traditional question of what support do you need for me as my client? Laura asks. Sven is a well-intended leadership sentiment, but it can unintentionally limit the number of potential support avenues. Support is general. It doesn't have to come from you, the leader. It also it can could also come from another leader, a fellow teammate, an adjacent department, or an external resource. Okay. Next question. What would you do if you were in my seat when you solve problems for your team? They often don't need see the effort you put in staying late, sending follow up emails, navigating politics and weighing trade offs. This results in no appreciation for the person doing the solving, and then no skill building for the person who handed it off. So another way of putting this. What would you do if you were in my seat? I asked the question I think I got this from Christopher Nicholson is what do you want to do about it? I find that to be something that it has them think about it and then it gives them the confidence, especially once you've affirmed that they're making the right decisions.

Tyson Mutrux 00:16:29 I love that idea. Go, go with it that it builds a lot of confidence in their next question. They have it in here. Is there anything else I should know? Sometimes the only reason a problem is on your desk is because your employee didn't want you to be surprised by it. So in the end, with there isn't a self-care checklist, meditation, or brain hack that's going to make an inroad at chronic managerial overwhelm to bring your best self to the most important moments, the volume of task must decrease. So ultimately, what you're doing is you are putting more on your plate. Whenever you take on the problems of your team and you are also demotivating them, which relates to the previous article that we just talked about. So I thought that that one was an interesting one. Let's get to these 25 AI hacks. And these are from there from CEO type people is what they're from. I've got several articles that I was considering doing today, and so I'm trying to get those out of the way.

Tyson Mutrux 00:17:28 But so the 25 AI hacks high growth founders swear by to transform your business. And this is from Inc CEOs reveal how they are using generative AI to solve problems, save time, make more money, and get an edge on their competition. This is one where you might want to take some notes. And because I'm going to go through these pretty quickly, you might have to pause, rewind, all that kind of stuff. But this is a good one. Here we go. Number one train AI to handle your hardest conversations. I think that's an interesting one. When you had to have a difficult conversation with a client. We'll train these guys to handle it. We're Kirkwood says these. She applies the same thinking to most tasks rather than train an employee directly. Kirkwood will train a GPT and tell employees to use it. I just think that's kind of interesting. So instead of saying use the GPT, I'm like, use olive rejection. Overcomer. That's a pretty good idea. Number two, turn Claud into your smartest new hire.

Tyson Mutrux 00:18:25 Okay. We have an internal saying onboard Claude, like a coworker. Meyer says the more Claude knows about inner workings of the company, the more useful it gets. Number three go viral on LinkedIn. So that's something that they use. I went on a three month posting binge, says I think I had over 7 million views on LinkedIn. Cloud's work wasn't perfect. In some cases, it took hours to clean up the text, but the chat bot helped Stefania quickly generate many different ideas to test out a number for researcher VIP customers. Fast. I find perplexity really, really good for for things like this. So we're trying to understand our guests before they check in so we can create great experiences for them. So we'll I'll use perplexity quite a bit to research, I guess we have on the podcast. It's, it's a very, very effective at doing that. Get the pro version if you don't have it, it's really good. Number five anticipate your cash flow needs. So that's I think it's kind of self explanatory.

Tyson Mutrux 00:19:20 But that's that's a good one. They do talk in here. I usually ask it to find patterns outliers and working capital financing needs. So I've been able to start working on our short financing needs way ahead of time. Six develop new branding concepts. Number seven put AI agents to work in customer service. We do allow a customer to prompt out and immediately get a human at any time because we don't want to frustrate people, but I would say like 75% of the time it's gone really well and we've gotten the results we wanted. So there you go. Eight cold email prospects with a personalized pitch. Okay, there you go. That is something I've talked about on the podcast recently about dealing with hot leads, but I like that. So this is one I guess I thought I meant cold prospects. No. So your cold emailing is essentially what I was talking about, where you can take the intake data and then transform it and then shoot them an email that's more personalized based on what they had submitted.

Tyson Mutrux 00:20:18 I think it's an interesting idea. Number nine, treat your zoom a companion to read The Room. This is an interesting one. When I saw it earlier, it can tell how people are engaging with you, says company president Grimshaw. Not just how you sounded, but whether the person, not just how you sounded, but whether the person you were speaking to took that information. Well, that's an interesting one. Number two, build AI characters who will give you straight talk. That's really good. That's, I'm not going to give too much away, but something very similar to what Jeremy Danielson is doing and what he's going to talk about at Maxwell. So really interesting when it comes to that. So let me give you what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give ten because I want to make sure we don't go too far over time. And we're I'm already pushing it. And there's 2 or 2 more articles I want to do, but check that out. It's done. Inc 25 I hacks high growth founders swear by to transform your business.

Tyson Mutrux 00:21:15 All right, let's get into happiness. Let's talk about happiness. And there's so like I said there's two articles that I want to talk about when it comes to this. The first one is let's see I'm trying to decide which one I want to do first because let's do we're going to do the one proven brain hack is what we're going to do. And this one's also from Inc. So I'll do the Inc back to back. And then there's another one we're going to get to. So one proven brain hack that boosts happiness and drives results. Here's a simple mindset shift that leader that leads to better outcomes. All right. Positive psychology is no longer a fringe field of study. It's a well researched area. This is another Jason Silk reference okay by me, not by the article, but he's talked about this a lot. But it's a well researched area that's changing how we think about success, performance and well-being. One of its most powerful insights your mindset, not just your circumstances, is what shapes your experience.

Tyson Mutrux 00:22:11 Research shows it's not the reality around us that drives happiness. It's the lens through which we view that reality. When we shift that lens, we can not. We can improve not only our personal outlook, but also our business outcomes. So here is so hack your brain to optimism. When your brain is trained to focus on problems or threats, it reinforces. This is the part. It's definitely Jason heavy. So basically it's natural to focus on problems and threats. Okay. That's what Jason always talks about. What happens when you do that. You you reinforce that stress. But when it's trained, when your brain is trained to recognize moments of meaning, progress and connection, it creates a more resilient and optimistic mindset, which improves how you lead and how your team performs. So here's one simple exercise to do right in detail about one positive experience you've had during the past 24 hours. Make sure to bullet point each detail you can remember. List two was involved what happened and why it mattered. So that's that is the, that's this article and I'm going to move on to the next one.

Tyson Mutrux 00:23:16 I want to make sure I have enough time, but this is what the stuff that Jason stuff talks about, right? This is the exact same stuff. And he's I mean, it's just spot on. I it is a massive thing to do. Just this little bitty thing. I promise you, if you were to do this, it makes a massive, massive difference. So check that one out. And then now there is there's one more. You know there's I'm going to say one of these. There's another one I want to cover today. But I'm not going to I'll save it for next week. But this next one is another one about happiness. And science says there's only one thing you can buy guaranteed to make you happier. I and I love this one so much. So this is the third one for me magazine. I didn't realize I did so many because I looked at so many different articles for this week that I didn't realize I did three from Inc and then two from Harvard Business Review, but I've got some good ones from entrepreneur that I'm going to cover, and some fast one from Fast Company, which is really good, which I'll probably cover those next week.

Tyson Mutrux 00:24:18 Depends on what comes up, because there's I'm always having to get rid of stories, and there were several, several that I went through this week that I really did not want to get rid of, but I did. So let's get to the the the one thing I wonder how many of you guess what it is at this point, but we'll see. Especially, it says especially research shows when making when make a conscious. I think it's a typo when making a conscious decision about the best way to use what you just purchased. So money rarely buys happiness. So and this is I'm going to get through the bullet points and then I'm going to get to the to the punch line essentially says. More specifically, a study published in Academy of Management Review found that people who value material possessions over relationships or personal growth report greater anxiety and lower life satisfaction. And I'm just going to kind of cut to the chase with all this. Basically people buy things that and you're more focused on materialistic things or what they put into retail therapy.

Tyson Mutrux 00:25:23 It makes you less happy. Okay. It's what it comes down to. And they talk about people who buy time. So, you know, paying people to do, you know, cleaning the house, do your your lawn mowing. All that kind of stuff are happier. So in a 2017 study published. So this is not a new study. It's a new article but not a new study. In a 2017 study published in proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers surveyed thousands of people who sometimes paid other people to perform tasks they didn't enjoy or didn't want to do think cutting their grass, cleaning their house, running errands. Things the participants needed to do but didn't particularly want to do. It should come as no surprise that people who spend a little money to buy a little time were happier and left greater overall life satisfaction than people who did not. It says, I know what you're thinking. Maybe people who spent a little money to buy a little time were happier simply because they had the money to buy time.

Tyson Mutrux 00:26:19 Actually, no. It says, well, relatively wealthy people who spent money to buy a little time were happier than relatively wealthy people who did not. People at the bottom end of the economic spectrum who spent money to buy a little time, were happier than those at the bottom of the end of the economic spectrum, who did not so have a lot of money and use a little of it to buy back some time. You'll be happier, have a lot less money, and use a little of it to buy back some time. You'll also be happier. So I found that to be a really interesting thing. Not I guess it's not super surprising, but I'd say it's a little surprising that that that leads to happiness. That's that's something that I found to be interesting is that that's what that leads to. Happiness. Buying time. So anyways, that's all I have for us this week. Hopefully you enjoy this one. I know I packed a bunch into this one, but hopefully you got something from it.

Tyson Mutrux 00:27:08 If you did or you didn't, let me know. I would love to hear from you. So comment and give us some feedback. So appreciate it. Have a great week everybody.

Tyson Mutrux 00:27:18 Our next mastermind in New York City is sold out. But don't worry, there's still time to get your tickets to the mastermind and Max Lawson in Nashville in October. Max Lorcan is two days of immersive learning, powerful insights, and meaningful connections, all designed to provide actionable strategies you'll take back to your firm and implement right away. No fluff, just real talk and tangible takeaways you can implement immediately. Go to Max events for more details.