Hiring as a True Solo—What I Wish I Knew Sooner

💼 Making your first hire as a true solo isn’t just possible—it might be the smartest move you’ll ever make. In this episode, Brett Trembly of Get Staffed Up and Trembly Law shares how a $10/hour law student helped him double his revenue and triple his take-home pay. He and host Danny Decker unpack the mindset blocks solo lawyers face around hiring, and lay out a roadmap for turning overwhelmed solo practice into sustainable growth. If you're still stuck thinking you “can’t afford help,” this episode will change your mind—and your math.

📌 Key Takeaways:

• The real cost of waiting too long to hire.
• Why your first hire should free your time, not drain your bank account.
• The mindset shift that helped Brett scale faster—and stress less.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Facing the Fear of Hiring
• 0:37 First Hire Success Story
• 1:29 The Backwards Thinking Trap
• 2:19 Episode Preview Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

you know, at what point did you start saying to yourself I need to get some help. And like what was your, what was your thought process around actually building your team? Because you started as a true solo correct, yeah, yeah, up and up until that 2014. So my thought process around hiring was it was an expense that I wouldn't know how to pay for and I couldn't afford it. So it was like I'm only making this much, it's barely paying the bills. How can I afford to hire somebody which now I know and hopefully most people now know, but for anyone that that's in that situation, um, the right person doesn't cost you money. They make you money. So I was like finally convinced to hire someone, and the only reason I did is because it was a law student, 30 hours a week for a very cheap amount, like $10 an hour. And I'm like okay, I got to try this, you know, and I doubled my income, my top line revenue, probably tripled my take home immediately and I was like wow, I, you know, I guess this works, and so I will give myself credit.

Speaker 1: 1:05

At that point. I didn't do it A lot of people do, which is like hey, I was able to ride a bicycle and I got from point A to be faster, but it was just luck. It's just something that happened one time. Clearly, I can't replicate that and get a faster bike or or get people to ride with me, so I'm just going to stay where I am, you to ride with me, so I'm just going to stay where I am. You know most people and I talk a lot about this in my book because I think when we're, when we're speaking, we're projecting on our past selves, because we're pulling on our experience and I'm almost like trying to convince my past self to to get with it, to say that nicely.

Speaker 1: 1:38

But you know most people are like well, when I get X amount of dollars in my bank account, then I will be able to hire somebody, which is backwards because you'll never really get that money unless you get a windfall or you just suffer, suffer, suffer. Maybe you're in the PI world and then you finally get like a decent settlement. But you will get that money if you hire someone, because you will then free up your time to do more of the thing that pays you three, four $500 an hour, not do more of the thing that pays you $10, $15 an hour. And when you're working by yourself, like 95% of your day is all of the little things a business needs that is only going to yield you $10 to $15 an hour.

Speaker 2: 2:19

Thanks for listening to today's preview from this week's episode. If you had any thoughts on it, please leave us a review. We would greatly appreciate it. Don't forget if you love your lawyer friends, let them know about the Law Firm Marketing Minute. We'll see you tomorrow.