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Erica Caviness is the founder and lead consultant at Thrive Concepts. In this episode, Erica discusses “How lawyers can leverage their operational strengths.”
In this discussion, we discuss how Thrive Concepts uses the Kolbe assessment to identify operational strengths, how the effective implementation of operational strengths leads to less stress, higher productivity, and better bottom-line results, and ongoing accountability and follow-up to sustain improved work performance.
Also, Erica tells us what she is looking forward to the most at PILMMA Super Summit 2025!
Erica will be speaking at PILMMA Super Summit 2025 again this year. This episode and the next several will feature PILMMA speakers in our “Spotlight on PILMMA” podcast series.
Visit Erica online here: https://thriveconcepts.org/about/.
We’ll be at PILMMA Super Summit 2025: https://optimizemyfirm.com/pilmma-2025/.
See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/.
Transcript:
Welcome to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute, where we quickly cover the hot topics in the legal marketing world.
I’m your host, Lindsey Busfield. Today we are kicking off our Spotlight on PILMA podcast series. Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be interviewing speakers for the upcoming PILMA conference that’s taking place in Denver and the end of April.
This year’s PILMA lineup is full of highly successful lawyers, marketing experts, and legal operational gurus, all sharing their insights on how to take your personal injury firm to the next level.
For many of these speakers, taking a law firm to the next level means lead to a generation. However, that will only lead to short-term growth if your business isn’t scaled appropriately and run efficiently.
Our guest today is Erica Caviness, the founder and lead consultant at Thrive Concepts. She’ll be focusing her PILMA presentation on leveraging your firm’s operational strengths.
Erica
Thank you so much for joining us today. Yes, Lindsey. So good to see you. Thank you.
Lindsey
Well, tell us a bit about yourself and about Thrive Concepts.
Erica
Yeah, so I am Erica, course, and Thrive Concepts is a coaching and training company that is focused on helping law firm owners and their leadership teams really leverage their unique strengths and build a firm that they love and can actually thrive in and not just eat by and survive.
So it’s actually the name Thrive Concepts is really a legacy to my late mother. And the biggest lesson she always taught me growing up was we really want to thrive in life and not just eat by and survive.
And so when I decided I wanted to start my own company, I knew I had to incorporate some of that.
And I love being able to work with law firm owners and their team members and really help them unlock their potential and really get to the next level, whatever that means to them in their growth journey.
Lindsey
Well, and that’s a beautiful mission. And when we think about growing our law firms, so many lawyers are focused on that survival mode and getting the next client and making sure the lights are staying on and making sure payroll has enough funds.
But really having the purpose to thrive in that. are pouring so much of your life and your resources into your law firm that you should be doing that efficiently enough that you’re not just in survival mode, but you’re actually growing, expanding, and thriving both personally and professionally as a part of that firm.
Erica
Right. Absolutely. And, you know, sometimes it will be easier than others. And there’s nothing wrong with being in survival mode.
Lindsey
You know, having seasons of that, that’s normal. That’s, you know, we’re all human. That’s life. That’s life.
Erica
That’s I think resources and someone on your side, a third party who can really give you that, you know, give a perspective, who’s not in the day-to-day weeds and really help you break out of that mode more often than not, I think that’s invaluable.
And it’s such an honor to be able to do that with my clients.
Lindsey
That’s fantastic. Yes, having that objective viewpoint and being able to look at things holistically so that you can kind of pull yourself out of that survival mode is a great resource to have.
And so you’re going to be focusing your presentation on leveraging operational strengths. So let’s dive into this a little bit and talk to me about what are some of the most important operational pillars to have in place as a law firm is growing.
Erica
Yes, so this is one of my favorite topics. And when I speak on this, you know, I feel like we unlock different levels with different firms as to what that really means for them.
But one tool that I consistently use in my coaching and training is the. Colby Assessment. And it is focused solely on our unique operational strengths.
It has nothing to do with intelligence, nothing to do with personality. And many other assessments do. And you want to use a mix of assessments.
I always say, you know, Colby is not the only one we want to be using. But it is a unique one in that it only focuses on operational strengths.
How do I get things done every day? How do I take action? How do I problem solve? Knowing this about ourselves and our team is invaluable because we can really then leverage those unique strengths towards the results we want to achieve, right?
And it’s really not only is it invaluable with your existing team, but I also consider it a non-negotiable in the hiring process.
So that the awareness of our operational strengths and those who we’re working with closely and or bringing on board, it’s worth its weight in gold and making decisions as to what that person’s role is really going to entail, especially aside.
From the things that are not necessarily, you know, part of the job description, but that person may take on over time, we really start to learn where that person is going to thrive and drive those bottom line results that increase, you know, ultimately our revenue and profitability.
Lindsey
So looking at the Colby assessment, what types of outcomes do you see from that? So specifically, what types of strengths is it measuring?
Erica
Yes. So Colby is looking at our action modes. So how we deal with facts and details and information. Are we heavy in the research mode most of the time, or do we just need the bare minimum, you know, bullet points about a situation to take action?
How we deal with process, systems, organization. That’s another action mode there. How we deal with risk and uncertainty and how we handle space and tangibles too.
So when we’re in the problem solving mode, when we’re going about our daily, you know, our daily roles. We are making decisions, solving problems, communicating, right?
All of these action modes are at play, and we don’t even realize it. So really diving into the cognitive side of our brain, that’s what Colby is measuring.
It really unlocks a whole new world of where am I going to achieve the best results? And what does that look like amongst my team members in the law firm owner?
You know, as well, how are these strengths playing together? Something that really lights me up and drives me in terms of, you my mental energy might be absolutely draining to someone else and vice versa, right?
So really understanding that it just, going back to your question about the outcomes, I see less stress. I see more fulfillment in, you know, their daily roles.
Bottom line results, it’s all about, you know, what are we really, at the end of the day, what are we achieving?
You know, higher productivity, that’s going to always be a win. Right. In any law firm owner’s book. And I just see people really that light bulb comes on.
like, oh, that’s why I do this. That’s why I approach this like this. Right. So it’s just I can talk, as you can see, I can talk on and on about it.
And I’m excited to dive into it more at the summit.
Lindsey
And that’s fantastic. mean, and looking at how people operate as well as how the system itself operates and to be able to streamline communication with someone in more effective way sounds like what this is kind of at the heart of.
And so we work with a bunch of different law firms and every lawyer that we work with has a different communication strategy and has a different decision making process and has a different appetite for risk.
And working with these different, I know it’s not a personality test, but these different workflow differences and communication differences and really understanding how people function can make things much more effective and can get things
Moving forward in a way that everybody is comfortable with.
Erica
Absolutely. Could not agree more. And as I mentioned earlier, you know, many, many firm owners that I work with, they’re using other assessments.
there are other amazing assessments I highly recommend. Most of them that I work with, most of the law firm owners I work with, they haven’t heard about Fulby yet because it’s the only assessment that covers that cognitive side.
So when they add that to their, you know, their repertoire of other assessments they’re using on the personality side, you on the intellect side, I really see the magic happen there.
So it just, you know, it gives us a more well-rounded view of ourselves, not only, but who we’re working with every day.
You know, we spend more time working and with the folks we work with sometimes in our own family, right?
Lindsey
So it’s so important to know these things. It is. And so definitely having a bit of self-reflection as individuals and then applying that to the law firm as a whole so that, you know, we can communicate.
So let’s take a look at how we use that information.
Erica
So when we’re looking at some of these strengths, how do you identify which of these strengths apply to the operation in a scalable way?
And what might be creating some bottlenecks for the firm as it grows? Yes, that’s a great question. And I love to start off by asking the law firm owner, and then eventually the team leader, as we dive a little bit deeper into the structure, what does great look like?
What does success look like here in this situation, in this role? Especially in operations, I feel like that’s a catch-all, right?
Almost everything can fall under operations, and depending on the firm, they may or may not have a dedicated director of ops or COO, someone who’s really owning that role.
So I think it’s so important to define what success or what What does great look like first? And then we look at the strengths that we have on the table, right?
And we look at, okay, who’s going to be the most effective at doing X or Y or Z, right?
So if I’m, you know, for example, if I’m a very high fact finder and I need a lot of information and I give a lot of information, I need to be aware of that.
If my teammate that I’m working with most closely is a bottom line person and only needs, you know, a few bullet points to get the job done or to get started, right?
We’re going to clash if we don’t know that about each other, right? So Colby is such a great tool to use in any operational situation because you are getting to the heart of your MO and that, you know, anything that falls under your job, once you’re aware of how you take action and how you actually get things done, you’re going to eliminate that, you know, that stress and potential bottlenecks that come along with that.
Yes.
Lindsey
And so clearly everybody is going to have a different way that they function. And so what are some of the best practices that you can use to train staff to work with each other and their different communication styles so that one person doesn’t feel like they’re constantly conceding to somebody else’s needs while still meeting their own?
Erica
Yeah, that’s such a great point, because if one person is applying these strategies and no one else is, it’s going to fall flat, right?
So first of all, being aware, make sure you know everyone’s MO. And like I said, obviously, Colby is my favorite assessment in that area.
It’s the only assessment that measures the conative. And first, just being aware is going to work wonders. And then, okay, let’s workshop it.
Let’s ask ourselves, in this situation, what are the three best possible outcomes and what are the three potential solutions, right, to overcome those?
Barriers that may pop up in some of that operational clashing, having everyone really committed to doing their part. You know, when I do these deep dive trainings and coaching sessions, I get everyone’s commitment and we have a personalized action plan for everyone walking away from these trainings.
So I’m a big fan of that and really, really getting the team to see the benefit for them. Not that this is just, you know, something we want to do for fun.
Right. And just for kicks and giggles. But we want to get them bought into the outcome of how is it going to positively impact them in their role.
Lindsey
Right. And these trainings, it seems like it’s not something that should necessarily just be kind of a one and done.
Here’s your test. Here’s your outcome. Now go forth and communicate and grow the business.
Erica
Yes.
Lindsey
So it seems like this isn’t something that should necessarily be a one-and-done, take-the-test-and-implement-it-and-go-forth-and-build-the-business-thing.
It sounds like there should probably be some more follow-up to make sure that you are meeting your operational objectives here.
Erica
So what does a roadmap look like for ongoing success with this type of communication? Yes, that’s a great question and a great point.
I’m a huge fan of – Ongoing accountability and implementation style follow-up meetings, depending on, you know, when I’m working with a firm, what our arrangement looks like, whether that’s in person or over Zoom.
I’m also having the team complete certain assignments and submit those back to me as to how they are really employing these strategies and these solutions.
And having someone that, you know, they know really cares and is, you know, is expecting something and is really, you know, kind of perched on their shoulder, if you will, really caring about the outcome and wanting to make sure that they’re not, you they don’t feel like they’ve just been left high and dry with this information.
I’ve seen that really, really work wonders in terms of a, you know, a success story of a firm who really takes off and accomplishes their goals or just kind of stay stagnant.
Lindsey
And I think that that follow-up piece is hugely important. And, you know, yes, to have somebody that cares about you and cares about your success, but also just to have some accountability with this.
Working with you, working with these assessments, getting this data is an investment. And it is a part of your operational strategy, and it needs to be used to its full potential.
So having that follow up and follow through can help everybody use this tool to move things forward. And I’ve seen other assessments in business development and personality tests where you have somebody come in and you have a fun day of testing, and here’s your personality type, like I’m yellow sunshine.
And then that’s like, oh, well, that’s kind of fun to know, but what am I supposed to do with this information?
And it sounds like this is something that actually has some solid bullet points, if you will, of here is how you can communicate better going forward, here is how you can work better with your team, and really have some tangibles here to help drive the overall objectives for the front.
Erica
Yes, yes. I’ve it better. My biggest goal with a team is for them to know this is never a one-and-done situation.
This is a journey, right? And it’s a resource that we can continue to reuse and recycle and build upon.
And that’s why after I do an initial team training session or a series of sessions, I really love incorporating it into the hiring process.
And when I can get a firm to really see that value and incorporate it sooner rather than later, I consider that a huge win.
And I’ve always, always seen positive results come from it. I’ve never once had a team say, gosh, I wish we didn’t do that.
They all say that they wish that they got started with it sooner.
Lindsey
I’m sure that sounds like a really interesting kind of soul-searching adventure, but also one that is going to be great for business development.
Erica
So let’s talk about PILMA for a second. What are you most excited about for the upcoming PILMA conference? Always just seeing that community.
I’m so blessed to have so many dear friends in that community. And this will be my second time speaking at the summit.
So it’s such a huge honor to take the stage alongside so many rock stars. I love how varied the content is as well.
And we’re really covering, looking at the agenda, I’m seeing pretty much every area of the law firm growth strategy subject being covered.
So I think that that’s one of my favorite parts is the diversity of the content and being around the community.
You’re bound to walk away with new friends in that community every single time.
Lindsey
Well, I am so looking forward to getting out there and meeting you in person. And can’t wait for Pilma to be here.
Erica
Yes, it’s going to be a great time.
Lindsey
Can’t wait. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today, Erica.
Erica
I really appreciate your time. My pleasure. Thanks, Lindsey.
