The Practice Playbook Podcast with Susan Guthrie

Growth is not always the next right move. Sometimes more clients or more visibility are not what you are actually looking for. In fact, perhaps you'd actually want less of them.

When a practice feels off, the instinct is often to reach for more marketing, more referrals, or more revenue. But growth is not automatically repair. If what a practice needs is some repair, growth only multiplies what is already there, and more clients will not fix an unclear scope, underpricing, or a practice that runs on reaction instead of design.

In this episode of The Practice Playbook Podcast, Susan Guthrie asks listeners to imagine their current practice with twice as much demand, and to notice whether that feels like energy or dread. Drawing on her own years in a litigation practice and her work with colleagues, she explores why so many professionals who ask for marketing help really need a practice assessment and redesign first, why marketing can open the door but cannot change what happens after it opens, and why AI can speed up pieces of a workflow but will never fix its design.

In This Episode
Susan discusses:

What a feeling of heaviness or dread around more demand may be telling you

Why more clients will not fix an unclear scope, underpricing, a reactive or an over-customized practice

Why marketing can bring more people to the door but can't fix what happens when you meet

How practitioners in the early days of practice should think differently about taking on more work

The subtle signs your practice needs redesign, from exhaustion and wrong-fit referrals to workflows

Why redesign before growth does not mean tearing everything down to the studs

How come implementation, not planning, is the hard part

Practical Question from This Episode
What would happen if your current practice got twice as much demand?

Picture twice as many inquiries, referrals, consultations, and clients, each expecting the same level of access you give right now. Does that feel like energy or tension? Excitement or dread? If the thought of more feels heavy, not hopeful, it is not resistance to success. It is wisdom waving a red flag.

Free Listener Resource
Growth Readiness Check

This free resource helps you apply the central question from this episode to your own practice. Use it to explore what kind of growth would feel exciting, what would feel heavy, what more demand might amplify, and what may need redesign before you pursue more clients, visibility, referrals, or revenue.

Download the free resource from the episode page on the website at susaneguthrie.com/podcasts

Practice Accelerator Resource
Redesign Before You Grow Map

Inside the Practice Accelerator, members receive the deeper companion resource for this episode: The Redesign Before You Grow Map.

This implementation tool helps you move beyond noticing and make the first decision about what needs to be redesigned. When more than one thing needs attention, it helps you decide which one is the best place to start, and it is not always the biggest one.

The free resource helps you see the issue. The Accelerator resource helps you work through the redesign.

The Business Plan Playbook, Second Edition
The Business Plan Playbook, Second Edition launches September 29.

This new edition introduces the Living Practice Plan™ and helps lawyers, mediators, dispute resolution professionals, consultants, coaches, and other service-based professionals examine the practice they have inherited, reacted into, or intentionally designed.

Pricing is one part of that larger design. Your fees connect to your services, client experience, delivery model, visibility, systems, technology, revenue goals, and capacity. The Second Edition helps you look at those pieces together so you can build a practice by design, not by default.

Learn more at intentionalpracticedesign.com.

Join the Practice Accelerator
The Practice Accelerator is the place to work through the ideas from The Practice Playbook Podcast and The Practice Playbook Series in a supportive online community.

For $99/month, members receive:

→Three live working sessions every month
 
→Coaching from me in the community board and in every group session
 
→The Business Plan Playbook, Second Edition, as a printable PDF
 
→An Accelerator-only implementation guide with every new Practice Playbook Podcast episode
 
It is designed for lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, dispute resolution professionals, consultants, and other service-based professionals who want practical tools, accountability, and support as they build by design, not by default.

Learn more at susaneguthrie.com/accelerator.

Take the Practice Design Assessment
Not sure where to begin?

Take the Practice Design Assessment to see where your practice may be inherited, reactive, or intentionally designed, and where one intentional redesign could create the greatest relief, clarity, or momentum.

Start the assessment at intentionalpracticedesign.com/assessment.

Meet Our Creator and Host: Susan Guthrie
Susan E. Guthrie is one of the most respected voices in law, mediation and conflict resolution today. A nationally recognized family law attorney and mediator for 35 years, she is now a top professional coach and consultant helping dispute resolution and legal professionals build thriving, modern practices.

Susan recently appeared on The Oprah Podcast, expanding her reach to an even broader audience and highlighting her role as a trusted expert in divorce, communication, and modern conflict resolution. She is also the creator and host of The Divorce & Beyond Podcast, ranked in the top 1% worldwide, with millions of listeners and a global following.

As Past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Susan continues to shape the future of the profession while training and mentoring practitioners around the world.

Connect with Susan E. Guthrie

Website: https://susaneguthrie.com

Books: https://susaneguthrie.com/books

Practice Playbook Series: https://intentionalpracticedesign.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/susaneguthrie

Instagram: @susaneguthrie and @practiceplaybookpodcast 

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe to The Practice Playbook Podcast on your favorite platform, leave a 5-star review, and share the episode with a colleague or professional friend who would benefit from this conversation. Your support helps us continue bringing practical insights, forward-thinking strategies, and meaningful conversations to lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, and entrepreneurial professionals looking to build stronger, smarter, and more sustainable practices.

And as always, please remember that this podcast is presented for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice, business advice, or professional advice of any kind, and listening to this podcast does not create any attorney-client or professional relationship.

Your fees are not just how you get paid. They may be quietly building the practice you are trying to escape.

Every fee structure creates consequences. Hourly billing, flat fees, subscriptions, packages, phased fees, and hybrid models do more than determine revenue. They shape client expectations, boundaries, scope, workload, value perception, risk, and sustainability.

That means the real pricing question is not simply, “What should I charge?”

The better question is:

What kind of practice does this pricing model create?

In this episode of The Practice Playbook Podcast, Susan Guthrie looks at pricing as one of the most powerful design choices in a professional practice. She explores what underpricing may be building, why hourly billing can reward inefficiency and punish expertise, how AI is weakening the link between time and value, and why alternative fee models only work when the service design underneath them is clear.

This episode draws from Susan’s work in The Flat Fee Playbook, The Business Plan Playbook, Second Edition, and her upcoming ABA book, FUTURE PROOF: Designing a Legal or ADR Practice for the AI Era. Together, they point to one essential truth: pricing is never just pricing. It is part of the practice you are building.

In This Episode
Susan discusses:

Why fees are practice design choices, not just financial decisions

What underpricing may reveal about scope, value, confidence, and sustainability

How hourly billing can reward time instead of expertise

Why AI is changing the relationship between time, work, and value

What flat fees, subscriptions, packages, and hybrid models require in order to work well

Why clearer pricing requires clearer service design

How to ask whether your current pricing still belongs in the practice you want to build

Practical Question from This Episode
What kind of practice does this pricing model create?

Choose one fee, one service, one offering, or one engagement type and look at it with curiosity. Is it building clarity or confusion? Good boundaries or scope creep? Sustainability or resentment? A better client experience or a more reactive practice?

Free Listener Resource
What Is This Fee Building? Mini-Audit
This free worksheet helps you look at one fee or pricing model and identify what it may be creating inside your practice. Use it to explore what the fee promises, what it requires, what it makes easier, what it makes harder, and where one small design change may create more clarity.

Download the free resource from the episode page on the website at susaneguthrie.com/podcasts

Practice Accelerator Resource
Pricing Model Redesign Map
Inside the Practice Accelerator, members receive the deeper companion resource for this episode: the Pricing Model Redesign Map.

This implementation tool helps you move beyond noticing what a fee is building and begin redesigning one pricing model around value, scope, boundaries, client expectations, delivery, AI impact, and sustainability.

The free resource helps you see the issue. The Accelerator resource helps you work through the redesign.

The Business Plan Playbook, Second Edition
The Business Plan Playbook, Second Edition launches September 29.

This new edition introduces the Living Practice Plan™ and helps lawyers, mediators, dispute resolution professionals, consultants, coaches, and other service-based professionals examine the practice they have inherited, reacted into, or intentionally designed.

Pricing is one part of that larger design. Your fees connect to your services, client experience, delivery model, visibility, systems, technology, revenue goals, and capacity. The Second Edition helps you look at those pieces together so you can build a practice by design, not by default.

Learn more at intentionalpracticedesign.com.

Join the Practice Accelerator
The Practice Accelerator is the place to work through the ideas from The Practice Playbook Podcast and The Practice Playbook Series in a supportive online community.

For $99/month, members receive:

→Three live working sessions every month
 
→Coaching from me in the community board and in every group session
 
→The Business Plan Playbook, Second Edition, as a printable PDF
 
→An Accelerator-only implementation guide with every new Practice Playbook Podcast episode
 
It is designed for lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, dispute resolution professionals, consultants, and other service-based professionals who want practical tools, accountability, and support as they build by design, not by default.

Learn more at susaneguthrie.com/accelerator.

Take the Practice Design Assessment
Not sure where to begin?

Take the Practice Design Assessment to see where your practice may be inherited, reactive, or intentionally designed, and where one intentional redesign could create the greatest relief, clarity, or momentum.

Start the assessment at intentionalpracticedesign.com/assessment.

Meet Our Creator and Host: Susan Guthrie
Susan E. Guthrie is one of the most respected voices in law, mediation and conflict resolution today. A nationally recognized family law attorney and mediator for 35 years, she is now a top professional coach and consultant helping dispute resolution and legal professionals build thriving, modern practices.

Susan recently appeared on The Oprah Podcast, expanding her reach to an even broader audience and highlighting her role as a trusted expert in divorce, communication, and modern conflict resolution. She is also the creator and host of The Divorce & Beyond Podcast, ranked in the top 1% worldwide, with millions of listeners and a global following.

As Past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Susan continues to shape the future of the profession while training and mentoring practitioners around the world.

Connect with Susan E. Guthrie

Website: https://susaneguthrie.com

Books: https://susaneguthrie.com/books

Practice Playbook Series: https://intentionalpracticedesign.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/susaneguthrie

Instagram: @susaneguthrie and @practiceplaybookpodcast 

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe to The Practice Playbook Podcast on your favorite platform, leave a 5-star review, and share the episode with a colleague or professional friend who would benefit from this conversation. Your support helps us continue bringing practical insights, forward-thinking strategies, and meaningful conversations to lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, and entrepreneurial professionals looking to build stronger, smarter, and more sustainable practices.

And as always, please remember that this podcast is presented for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice, business advice, or professional advice of any kind, and listening to this podcast does not create any attorney-client or professional relationship.

"That's the way we've always done it" might be the most expensive phrase in your practice, even when you never say it out loud. Susan Guthrie explores the practice rules professionals follow without ever consciously choosing them, from availability and referrals to pricing, customization, and the very definition of success.

The last two episodes of The Practice Playbook Podcast explored whether your practice is working for everyone but you and what your calendar reveals about your business model. This week, Susan goes one layer deeper into the patterns shaping practices that were never consciously chosen, but simply inherited.

Using a relatable (and timely) suitcase story as the through line, Susan walks through five areas where inherited rules quietly take over: availability, referrals, pricing, customization, and success. The message isn't that inherited rules are wrong. It's that they deserve to be examined, kept, revised, or released, so the practice you're building is the one you actually intended.

What You'll Learn

How invisible rules decide what you say yes to, what you charge, and how available you feel you have to be

Why constant availability isn't the same thing as excellent client service

How a referral-based practice can quietly shift from intentional to passive

Why most pricing decisions are inherited rules dressed up as choices

The difference between client-centered service and over-customization that exhausts you

Why your definition of success may belong to someone else's practice, not yours

A simple one-sentence exercise to start identifying your own inherited rules

Free Episode Companion Resource:

This week's companion resource will help you work through all five areas from this episode: availability, referral sources, pricing, customization, and success and identify the inherited rules behind each one.

Download the worksheet at susaneguthrie.com/podcasts

Join The Practice Accelerator 
Susan's Practice Accelerator is now open as a monthly membership subscription!  Designed for professionals who want more than just ideas, the Accelerator delivers structure, strategy, accountability, and a community of forward-thinking professionals who are serious about building sustainable, successful practices.

If you have ever wondered if you would benefit from professional coaching, this is your opportunity to test the waters with Susan at an accessible price point.  

Members receive:

One monthly live Implementation Hour webinar with Susan in her signature practical and easily implemented insights and strategies for building your practice.

Two live monthly group Practice Lab sessions with Susan.  A place to bring your questions to receive expert advice and insights from colleagues on the same journey.

Bi-Weekly Premium Resource that accompanies the latest Practice Playbook Podcast episode that supports you in implementing the golden nuggets in the episode.

And much more for only $99/month.  Use code "PPP" for $10 off your monthly subscription!

Visit https://susaneguthrie.com/accelerator to join now.

Meet Our Creator and Host: Susan Guthrie
Susan E. Guthrie is one of the most respected voices in mediation and conflict resolution today. A nationally recognized family law attorney and mediator for 35 years, she is now a top professional coach and consultant helping dispute resolution and legal professionals build thriving, modern practices.

Susan recently appeared on The Oprah Podcast, expanding her reach to an even broader audience and highlighting her role as a trusted expert in divorce, communication, and modern conflict resolution. She is also the creator and host of The Divorce & Beyond Podcast, ranked in the top 1% worldwide, with millions of listeners and a global following.

As Past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Susan continues to shape the future of the profession while training and mentoring practitioners around the world.

Connect with Susan E. Guthrie

Website: https://susaneguthrie.com

Books: https://susaneguthrie.com/books

 

Practice Playbook Series: https://intentionalpracticedesign.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/susaneguthrie

Instagram: @susaneguthrie and @practiceplaybookpodcast 

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe to The Practice Playbook Podcast on your favorite platform, leave a 5-star review, and share the episode with a colleague or professional friend who would benefit from this conversation. Your support helps us continue bringing practical insights, forward-thinking strategies, and meaningful conversations to lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, and entrepreneurial professionals looking to build stronger, smarter, and more sustainable practices.

And as always, please remember that this podcast is presented for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice, business advice, or professional advice of any kind, and listening to this podcast does not create any attorney-client or professional relationship.

A full calendar can feel like proof that a practice is working. The phone rings, the referrals come in, the consultation requests land in the inbox, and from the outside, that looks like success. But inside the practice, a full calendar can hide a lot. In fact, a full calendar is not the same as a healthy practice.

In this solo episode, Susan Guthrie continues the lead-up to the launch of The Business Plan Playbook, Second Edition, by turning to one of the clearest places a practice tells the truth: the calendar. She breaks down what a full calendar can actually be hiding, why revenue alone does not tell the whole story, and why the real question is not whether the calendar is full, but what it is full of.

Susan walks through a practical 30-day calendar audit designed to help identify what the calendar is rewarding, what it is ignoring, and where one pattern might be ready for redesign.

What You'll Learn

What a full calendar can actually be hiding, from underpricing to wrong-fit clients to weak systems

Why traditional business planning can miss the point when it only looks at revenue goals

How to figure out what your calendar is really rewarding, and whether that matches the practice you want to build

How to study your last 30 days and identify one calendar pattern that's ready for redesign

Free Episode Companion Resource:

The First Redesign Priority Worksheet

This week's free companion resource walks you through mapping the last 30 days of your calendar, scoring each block of time with a simple plus, equals, or minus, and identifying the one pattern taking the most and returning the least. It takes about fifteen minutes with your actual calendar in front of you, and it ends with a decision, not just a reflection.

Download the worksheet at susaneguthrie.com/podcasts

Join The Practice Accelerator 
Susan's Practice Accelerator is now open as a monthly membership subscription!  Designed for professionals who want more than just ideas, the Accelerator delivers structure, strategy, accountability, and a community of forward-thinking professionals who are serious about building sustainable, successful practices.

If you have ever wondered if you would benefit from professional coaching, this is your opportunity to test the waters with Susan at an accessible price point.  

Members receive:

One monthly live webinar with Susan in her signature practical and easily implemented insights and strategies for building your practice.

Two live monthly group Office Hours sessions with Susan.  A place to bring your questions to receive expert advice and insights from colleagues on the same journey.

Weekly Premium Resource that accompanies the latest Practice Playbook Podcast episode that supports you in implementing the golden nuggets in the episode.

And much more for only $99/month.  Use code "PPP" for $10 off your monthly subscription!

Visit https://susaneguthrie.com/accelerator to join now.

Meet Our Creator and Host: Susan Guthrie
Susan E. Guthrie is one of the most respected voices in mediation and conflict resolution today. A nationally recognized family law attorney and mediator for 35 years, she is now a top professional coach and consultant helping dispute resolution and legal professionals build thriving, modern practices.

Susan recently appeared on The Oprah Podcast, expanding her reach to an even broader audience and highlighting her role as a trusted expert in divorce, communication, and modern conflict resolution. She is also the creator and host of The Divorce & Beyond Podcast, ranked in the top 1% worldwide, with millions of listeners and a global following.

As Immediate Past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Susan continues to shape the future of the profession while training and mentoring practitioners around the world.

Connect with Susan E. Guthrie

Website: https://susaneguthrie.com
Books: https://susaneguthrie.com/books
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/susaneguthrie
Instagram: @susaneguthrie and @practiceplaybookpodcast 

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe to The Practice Playbook Podcast on your favorite platform, leave a 5-star review, and share the episode with a colleague or professional friend who would benefit from this conversation. Your support helps us continue bringing practical insights, forward-thinking strategies, and meaningful conversations to lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, and entrepreneurial professionals looking to build stronger, smarter, and more sustainable practices.

And as always, please remember that this podcast is presented for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice, business advice, or professional advice of any kind, and listening to this podcast does not create any attorney-client or professional relationship.

Have you ever looked at your practice and thought, this should feel better than it does? Not because you hate the work. Not because you're bad at it. In fact, the opposite is often true: you may be very good at the work, you may care deeply about your clients, and you may have every outward sign of success, and still feel like something is off. That's the question we tackle in a special series about intentional practice design, kicking off with this episode.

Intentional practice design is built on the idea that a thriving practice is not inherited, improvised, or assembled one urgent decision at a time. It is intentionally designed. Drawing on 20-plus years running a family law litigation practice, Susan Guthrie breaks down the three forces shaping every practice, inherited patterns, reactive patterns, and intentional choices, and walks through the signs that a practice is asking for redesign.

A practice that feels off does not mean you chose the wrong work. It may mean you've outgrown an inherited model, or that reactive decisions have quietly piled up, or that the practice still reflects a former version of you. That is not failure. It is growth, it is information, and it is leadership, because the practice you lead should be something you build by design, not something you simply end up inside.

What You'll Learn:

Why a practice can look successful on the outside and still feel wrong on the inside

The difference between inherited patterns, reactive patterns, and intentional choices

The central clarity question: would you build your practice the same way if you started today?

Common signs your practice is asking for redesign

A simple three question exercise to find where your practice needs to change

Free Episode Companion Resource: The Practice Design Assessment
This week's free companion resource is the Practice Design Assessment, a seven minute interactive tool at intentionalpracticedesign.com that looks at five dimensions of a practice, including pricing, delivery, client experience, positioning, and AI governance.

Take the assessment at IntentionalPracticeDesign.com

Join The Practice Accelerator 
Susan's Practice Accelerator is now open as a monthly membership subscription!  Designed for professionals who want more than just ideas, the Accelerator delivers structure, strategy, accountability, and a community of forward-thinking professionals who are serious about building sustainable, successful practices.

If you have ever wondered if you would benefit from professional coaching, this is your opportunity to test the waters with Susan at an accessible price point.  

Members receive:

One monthly live webinar with Susan in her signature practical and easily implemented insights and strategies for building your practice.

Two live monthly group Office Hours sessions with Susan.  A place to bring your questions to receive expert advice and insights from colleagues on the same journey.

Weekly Premium Resource that accompanies the latest Practice Playbook Podcast episode that supports you in implementing the golden nuggets in the episode.

And much more for only $99/month.  Use code "PPP" for $10 off your monthly subscription!

Visit https://susaneguthrie.com/accelerator to join now.

Meet Our Creator and Host: Susan Guthrie
Susan E. Guthrie is one of the most respected voices in mediation and conflict resolution today. A nationally recognized family law attorney and mediator for 35 years, she is now a top professional coach and consultant helping dispute resolution and legal professionals build thriving, modern practices.

Susan recently appeared on The Oprah Podcast, expanding her reach to an even broader audience and highlighting her role as a trusted expert in divorce, communication, and modern conflict resolution. She is also the creator and host of The Divorce & Beyond Podcast, ranked in the top 1% worldwide, with millions of listeners and a global following.

As Immediate Past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Susan continues to shape the future of the profession while training and mentoring practitioners around the world.

Connect with Susan E. Guthrie

Website: https://susaneguthrie.com
Books: https://susaneguthrie.com/books
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/susaneguthrie
Instagram: @susaneguthrie and @practiceplaybookpodcast 

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe to The Practice Playbook Podcast on your favorite platform, leave a 5-star review, and share the episode with a colleague or professional friend who would benefit from this conversation. Your support helps us continue bringing practical insights, forward-thinking strategies, and meaningful conversations to lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, and entrepreneurial professionals looking to build stronger, smarter, and more sustainable practices.

And as always, please remember that this podcast is presented for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as legal advice, business advice, or professional advice of any kind, and listening to this podcast does not create any attorney-client or professional relationship.