Why "Fake It Till You Make It" Fails — and What Actually Builds Confidence with Andriana Daly

In this episode of Unconventional Wisdom About Conventional Wisdom, Kim Miller-Hershon sits down with Andriana Shultz Daly, a partner at McGuireWoods in Richmond with more than a decade of experience handling complex commercial and intellectual property litigation across telecommunications, medical devices, finance, transportation, and higher education. Andriana has first-chair jury trial experience and routinely leads matters from pre-litigation strategy through trial. She also brings a rare dual perspective: nearly four years in-house as associate general counsel for a global pharmaceutical company, where she managed a global litigation portfolio that included antitrust class actions, securities class actions, multiple MDLs, and nationwide opioid and products liability matters. That in-house stretch shapes how she leads, how she advises, and how she thinks about complex problem-solving under pressure. And when asked what she'd do without her law license, she lights up: physical therapist, or the owner of a little cafe making banana chocolate chip muffins for her regulars. In this conversation, Andriana challenges two pieces of conventional wisdom she never bought into for a second. The first is "fake it till you make it." She understands it in principle, being confident in your ability to figure out something new, but in practice she's watched people use it to fake experience they don't have, and that's a non-starter for someone who was always curious to learn what she didn't know. The second is checking your personal life at the door. A self-described oversharer, Andriana doesn't want to work with robots, and she doesn't think you can support your team through the good and the bad if everyone pretends their lives vanish the moment they walk in. Andriana and Kim also dig into the rule she'd throw out of the legal profession first: that more time and more billing is always better. It doesn't serve the client paying for it or your own sanity. The real goal is efficiency plus genuine quality. They get practical about billing in real time (living life in six-minute increments, because you can never accurately reconstruct it later and attorneys who wait tend to under-bill), and Andriana shares the piece of advice that shaped her whole approach: don't line up projects like boxcars. Get curious about the client's actual objective, which often isn't the obvious one, and you move from resolving a single issue to being the trusted advisor they call when anything comes up. This episode explores: Why "fake it till you make it" fails when it becomes faking experience Not checking your personal life at the door, and leading by example Boundaries as a two-way street that protects your team's time Why work-life balance is a daily process, not a fixed state Asking "what do I need to make today great?" instead of just reading the calendar Finding peace in the downtime between big cases Why more billing isn't better, and how to bill accurately in real time Don't line up projects like boxcars: understand the client's real objective Moving from task-doer to trusted advisor by grasping the full context Developing associates when the pandemic and AI have changed the apprenticeship Teaching the "why" AI can't provide, and keeping a human in the lead Reframing imposter syndrome by reading your own bio as a stranger would Turning time away into experience gained, and exercise as mental reset Andriana's perspective is a powerful reminder that the best leaders don't demand their teams already know everything, they teach the why, protect people's time, and stay curious about what actually matters to the client in front of them. Her path from private practice to in-house and back shows that the detours aren't lost time, they're perspective you couldn't have gained any other way. If you're a lawyer, leader, or anyone navigating how to grow people in a rapidly shifting profession, this conversation offers practical insight, honest talk about imposter syndrome, and a refreshing case that curiosity and authenticity beat faking it every time. Connect with me here: Website: https://www.kimmillerhershon.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmillerhershon Newsletter: https://link.kimmillerhershon.com/widget/form/aEdmdA1W5MhoMCMfy5O8 Webinar: https://webinar.kimmillerhershon.com/?utm_source=Podcast Guest Details: Guest: Andriana Shultz Daly, Partner, McGuireWoods (Richmond) Focus: Complex commercial and intellectual property litigation (patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret); former associate general counsel for a global pharmaceutical company Firm bio: https://www.mcguirewoods.com/people/d/andriana-shultz-daly/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.