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The Game Changing Attorney Podcast with Michael Mogill

442. AMMA — Why Being the Smartest Person in the Room is a Business Failure

The Game Changing Attorney Podcast with Michael Mogill

Michael Mogill

Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Business, Management

5.0539 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The room you're in either challenges you to grow or quietly lets you stay the same. In this episode of The Game Changing Attorney Podcast, Michael and Jessica Mogill answer three listener questions that expose a pattern most law firm owners won't say out loud: the peer groups they're loyal to have stopped challenging them, the leaders they hired aren't being allowed to lead, and the reason their team has gone quiet might be their own doing. This episode is a direct look at how necessary trust and delegation are for scaling your business. Here's what you'll learn: Why outgrowing your peer group is not a problem to fix but a signal to act on, and how to find the people who will actually push you forward How to tell whether a new leadership hire truly isn't the right fit, or whether you're undermining them before they ever get the chance Why the leaders who scale are the ones who get out of the way Stop surrounding yourself with people who tell you what you want to hear. This episode is your reminder that getting better requires truth, not comfort. ---- 09:03 — The first question kicks off a broader conversation about peer groups, truth-seeking, and why surrounding yourself with people who challenge you matters more than staying comfortable in the wrong room. 09:48 — Michael distinguishes love and support, and why the people who tell you what you want to hear are not the same as the people who help you grow. 12:48 — Why Michael's first question to any mentor is always "where am I wrong?" and what that mindset requires you to give up. 14:27 — The conversation turns to hiring and delegation, using a listener's managing partner situation to explore what it really means to bring a leader into your firm and then actually let them lead. 14:41 — Jessica raises the other side of the coin: what if the hire is actually capable and the owner is just getting in the way? 15:21 — Michael and Jessica tackle the "am I the asshole" question about a senior attorney who has gone quiet, and what it signals when talented people stop contributing. 17:38 — Michael reflects on his own evolution as a leader, from signing off on every decision to stepping back, and why the Summit ran better when he got out of the way. ---- Links & Resources: Entourage on HBO David Goggins John Maxwell ---- Learn what sustainable growth can look like for your firm at crispcoach.com. ---- Do you love this podcast and want to see more game changing content? Subscribe to our YouTube channel. ---- Past guests on The Game Changing Attorney Podcast include David Goggins, John Morgan, Alex Hormozi, Randi McGinn, Kim Scott, Chris Voss, Kevin O’Leary, Laura Wasser, John Maxwell, Mark Lanier, Robert Greene, and many more. ---- If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like: 349. AMMA — The Leadership Shift: Building a Firm That Doesn’t Depend on You 141. David Goggins — Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within 62. John Maxwell — Leadership is a Verb, Not a Noun

Transcript

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0:00.0

My goal is to come into a room with our leadership team and be the lowest IQ person in that room.

0:07.6

I don't need to tell everyone I'm the boss. Who cares? Let's just win.

0:17.2

I'm Michael Logel, founder and CEO of Crisp, the nation's number one law firm growth company.

0:21.6

I've built my business through practice, not theory.

0:24.6

Crisp started with just $500 to my name and has grown to over eight figures in revenue over the last few years,

0:29.6

earning a spot on the Inc 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in America.

0:34.6

Our approach has been to take everything we've learned about generating massive growth within our own organization and help the country's most ambitious and

0:41.1

committed law firm owners do the same for theirs. In each episode of this podcast, I sit down with

0:45.6

innovative market leaders from the legal industry and beyond to learn from those who thrive in

0:50.1

the face of adversity, challenge the status quo, and define what it means to be a true

0:54.3

game changer.

0:56.1

This is Jessica, Head of Coaching Strategy at Crisp, and today we're flipping the script

1:00.5

for another special edition episode to get Michael's take on, how to transition away from

1:05.2

networking commitments that lack applicable value, integrating new leadership into existing systems

1:10.6

without losing strategic control,

1:12.7

and how to exercise your authority as a firm owner without devaluing your team's input.

1:17.6

If you have immensely talented people and you start telling them what to do and you start micromanaging

1:21.8

them, I'm not going to be innovative, I'm not going to be creative, like, why, right? I'm not allowed

1:25.7

to be anyway. And you get a fraction of the value of what that person could provide.

1:30.2

That's coming up on the Game Changing Attorney podcast.

1:42.6

Hello, another AMMA.

1:44.5

Another AMMA.

...

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