Archives for May 2013

What do you do when you have too much to do?

May 31, 2013 by
Share

I’ve got lists. Lots of tasks and projects. Things I’m working on and things I plan to work on. Everything is organized in Evernote. I follow my own version of GTD. Every task or project has at least one tag to identify it as something I plan to do Now, Next, or Someday.

But while everything is organized and tagged, I still have too much to do. It’s overwhelming. So I find myself avoiding my lists and doing what is nagging at my brain, which defeats the entire purpose of having a task management system.

Currently I have 54 Now tasks, 531 tagged for Next. I’m supposed to look at everything during my weekly review, but with that many tasks on my list, I find myself procrastinating.

What do you do when you have too much to do and your weekly review isn’t working?

You declare task bankruptcy.

You get rid of everything and start over. A fresh start with your tasks.

While I had never heard the term “task bankruptcy” before, I’ve done it before. I did it to achieve inbox zero with my email. I did it when I stopped using one online task management app and started using another and there was no way to export/import my tasks. I can attest to how good it feels to wipe the slate clean and start over.

Starting over doesn’t mean throwing out everything. I will refer to my lists in the process of creating new ones. But every task will be scrutinized and will have to earn it’s way back onto my lists.

First, I will move all of my tasks and projects into a temporary notebook. My main notebook, where I keep all of my tasks and projects will then be empty.

(NB: In Evernote, I use one notebook for all of my notes. I use tags to identify when I will do something (Now, Next, etc.) and for reference purposes. Multiple notebooks leads to confusion–Which notebook should I file this note in? Which notebook DID I file that note in?)

Next, I will go through all of my tasks and projects in the temporary notebook. Anything I know I want to do (or have to do) will get moved back into my main notebook. Anything I’m not sure of, that doesn’t call out to me and inspire me, will go.

The objective is to have a lean and mean Now and Next list. I will still have my Someday/Maybe list, but I will be ruthless in paring this as well.

I guess you could describe this as a periodic review. You go through everything and make decisions about whether you still want to do something and if so, when. That’s what should be done during the weekly review. But when the whole system gets bloated, it makes sense to periodically re-boot.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by everything you have to do, if you find yourself procrastinating on your weekly review, you might want to declare task bankruptcy and get a fresh start.

But be careful. Once you have zeroed out your task obligations and created new lists, those tasks might start accumulating again. Fortunately, you won’t have to wait seven years before declaring task bankruptcy again. You can do it any time you want.

If you want to see how I organize everything, check out my Evernote for Lawyers ebook.

Share
Filed Under: Dealing with stress, Productivity Tagged With: , , , ,

The secret to success in the courtroom, boardroom, and new car showroom

May 30, 2013 by
Share

If you want to win more trials, negotiate better deals, and make lots of money so you can buy new cars, the secret has just been revealed.

According to a study of over a billion Tweets during sporting events, being confident makes you more popular than being right. “The more opinionated [the tweeters] were, the more influential and trustworthy they were perceived to be,” the study found.

I’m not surprised. People are attracted to confident people. They listen to them and want to follow them.

I am a little surprised, however, by the researcher’s correlation of “loud” and “confident”. “Despite professional pundits and amateur fans making a similar amount of correct and incorrect predictions, the tweeters who ‘yelled’ louder were seen as more trustworthy and had more followers,” they said.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear people “shouting,” I see it as a lack of confidence. When you have the facts on your side, you don’t need to shout. But maybe that’s not true on Twitter where you have to make noise so you can be heard above the incessant chatter.

In the real world, I have occasionally raised my voice slightly to emphasize a point in a negotiation or in oral argument. It is done sparingly and it is very brief, no more than a word or two. Mostly, I rely on a calm and sober recitation of the facts. I’ll bet you do, too.

Maybe that’s why many attorneys aren’t loving social media. We’re too self-conscious. We want to win friends and influence people but we don’t want to shout to do it.

Fortunately, there is another way to be popular on social media. According to another study, referenced on the same page, “Twitter users who posted positive, easy-to-read messages that contained news and other factual information, gained 30 times more followers than grumpy, self-centred [sic] tweeters.”

So, if you want more friends and followers, and you want to win more arguments and more trials, be confident, stay positive, and share valuable information. And if you are inclined to shout, make sure it’s not about you.

Want to attract more good clients? Click here to learn how.

Share
Filed Under: Communication, Image, Personal development, Presentations, Public Speaking, Social media Tagged With:

The most important second opinion a lawyer can get

May 29, 2013 by
Share

Every day lawyers make lots of decisions. Big ones and little ones. And we’re pretty good at it. We usually make them quickly and we’re right most of the time.

But what do you do when you don’t know what to do?

You’ve weighed the pros and cons, you’ve IRAC’d the facts and reasoned out all the “on the other hand”s and you still can’t decide. What then?

You can do more research. More information often helps. But sometimes, it does just the opposite. More information makes it harder to decide because there’s too much to evaluate, too many things that can go wrong.

So, you get a second opinion. You ask your partner or a colleague. You talk to your mentor or bring it to your mastermind group. You ask your wife.

Sometimes I ask people like Aristotle or Albert Einstein what they see about the situation and what they would advise me to do. “What would Abraham Lincoln do in this situation?”

Hearing what other intelligent, informed people say on the subject often helps us to know the best course of action. But just as too much information sometimes makes it harder to decide, too many opinions can do the same thing. Too many cooks often do spoil the broth.

When you have collected enough information, sought out second and third and fourth opinions, and still don’t know what to do, the only thing you can do is to ask yourself for a second opinion.

Put away everything you know and have learned about the subject, all of the information and opinions of others, and after a reasonable period of time, come back to the subject with fresh eyes. Just like editing a paper, the passage of time will allow you to see things you could not see before and give you clarity about what to do.

It is your decision, after all. The most important second opinion a lawyer can get is his or her own.

Share
Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With: ,

Yep, size does matter

May 28, 2013 by
Share

We used to say, “you can judge the success of a man by the size of his Rolodex.” Of course today we would say, “you can judge the success of a person by the size of his or her list”.

It’s true. The more people you know, the more conduits you have to clients, referrals, introductions, and information. As the currently running ATT commercial says, “more is better”.

However, while the size of your list is important, even more important is the quality of that list.

You may do pro bono work at a legal clinic and know 1000 indigent people. From a networking standpoint, the five people you know on the clinic’s board are probably more valuable to you.

Who you know is more important than how many.

A small list of high quality contacts will almost always beat a much bigger list of weaker contacts.

What is a high quality contact? Someone who needs your services, has the authority to hire you and the ability to pay is a high quality contact. So is someone who is influential in your target market. They might not need your services themselves but if they can refer a lot of people who do (or who know people who do) they are a high quality contact.

But there is another equally important factor: your relationship with the people on that list.

You may know a lot of people who have the ability to hire you or the ability to refer clients to you but if they don’t yet know you well enough to hire you or send you referrals, their value to you is limited.

It’s not just who you know, it’s who knows you.

So you want a list of high quality contacts, people with the ability to hire you or refer lots of others and who know, like, and trust you enough to do so. Where do you find them?

You find them on your list of low quality and average quality contacts. Quantity leads to quality. The bigger your list of low quality and average quality contacts, the bigger will be your list of high quality contacts.

The man or woman with a big Rolodex or email list has lots of high quality contacts but they also have lots of low quality contacts.

So yes, size still does matter.

Want to grow your list online? Click here to learn how.

Share
Filed Under: Leverage, List building, Networking, Online Marketing, Referrals, Relationship marketing

Holy shitakes, Evernote adds reminders!

May 23, 2013 by
Share

Evernote announced today the addition of reminders on Mac, iOS, and their webapp, and promises to soon roll out the feature to Windows, Android, and other platforms.

This is big!

This long awaited feature is the missing piece of the puzzle for those of us who use Evernote for tracking our tasks and projects. We can now add a reminder to any note, include a date and time, and receive notifications via the app and email. For the first time, we can schedule future due dates (or “start dates”), without having to use a funky workaround.

If you have a document due in 60 days but don’t want to work on it right now, for example, you can set a reminder for, say, 45 days and forget about it. On the 45th day, you will be notified that it’s time to work on that document.

Which means you won’t have to put a reminder on your calendar or in any other reminder applications.

We are told they are working on many more features. I hope that includes multiple reminders. If so, then you can schedule the due date for 60 days hence, and a start date for 45 days. Recurring reminders would also be welcome.

I’ve just started using this feature but I can already say this is a very exciting addition to my number one productivity app. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Want to see my Evernote set up? Get my Evernote for Lawyers ebook.

Share
Filed Under: News, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: ,

Why you should never tell your child, “Don’t run across the street”

May 22, 2013 by
Share

Yesterday, I talked about Yahoo’s misguided promise to not screw up their acquisition of Tumblr. I said it was a bad idea because it calls attention to their prior screw ups and because it doesn’t tell the world where they want to take the company.

The language of the brain is pictures, sounds, and feelings. Saying, “we promise to not screw it up” is a poor choice of words because people “see” you doing the very thing you promise not to do.

If I tell you I saw a pink turtle, your mind will process my statement by creating a mental picture of a pink turtle. However, if I tell you that I did NOT see a pink turtle, you will still see a pink turtle. The brain can only process positive information. You can’t make a mental picture of NOT seeing something because the brain can’t process negative pictures, sounds, or feelings.

If you tell your child, “Don’t run across the street,” the message their brain sees is “run across the street.” You have planted the visual image of them doing the very thing you don’t want them to do. Instead, tell them to “stay on this side of the street” or “look both ways twice before you walk across the street.”

Sure, as adults we have the facility to translate the negation of a thought to its positive form, but the additional step involved in doing so means there is a lesser chance that the information you want to communicate will get through.

If you want to communicate more clearly, be conscious not to plant negative suggestions in others’ minds. Speak in the positive. Say “It’s a pleasure” instead of “no problem”. Use the words “Call me” instead of “Don’t hesitate to call.” Tell clients, “The trial will go smoothly,” and not, “Don’t worry about the trial.”

Tell people what to do rather than what not to do. And please, tell them what you will do, not that you “won’t screw it up.”

The Attorney Marketing Formula: How to Earn More Than You Ever Thought Possible. Click here.

Share
Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting Tagged With: ,

Yahoo buys Tumblr, promises “not to screw it up”

May 21, 2013 by
Share

So Yahoo buys Tumblr, the micro blogging platform for 1.1 billion and then announce that they “promise not to screw it up“.

That’s inspiring, isn’t it?

It says, “yeah, we know we’ve messed up before, but we’re going to try real hard not to do that again.”

I know, they want to assuage the fears of some 100 million customers they seem to know won’t be happy about the acquisition. But from a marketing standpoint, “we won’t screw it up” is not a good message.

Why call attention to your past screw ups? Why tell the world what you won’t do?

Can you imagine an attorney getting a big case and issuing a press release that says, “I won’t lose this one”.

Tell the world what you will do, not what you won’t. Tell the world where you are going, so they can see why they should follow.

Apparently, more than a few Tumblr customers don’t believe the promise and have migrated their blogs from Tumblr to WordPress.com. But while WordPress.com might have a track record of “not screwing up,” customers who depend on their blogs for business purposes should avoid the hosted WordPress.com and opt for WordPress.org, the self-hosted, open-source version that I and millions of other websites use.

With the recent demise of Posterous, millions of people found out the hard way what happens when your hosted website shuts down.

But shutting down the service that hosts your business website is only one of the ways a host can “screw up”. If Yahoo/Tumblr, WordPress.com, Blogger, or any of the other hosted platforms change something, customers have to live with those changes, even if they don’t like them. If they want to do something that isn’t allowed, they’re also out of luck.

I use WordPress.org because it is the best software for the job. I host it myself because I want complete control over what I can and can’t do.

And I promised myself I won’t screw it up.

Share
Filed Under: Image, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

What to do when your clients don’t follow your advice

May 17, 2013 by
Share

A few months ago, I did a “one time” consultation with the partners in a law firm. They asked questions about getting traffic to their website and signing up more clients. I looked at their site and told them what I recommended.

At the end of the call, I had a feeling they didn’t like what I told them and would not be following my advice. But hey, I told them what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear.

That’s what we’re paid for, you and I. To tell people what they need to hear, even if they don’t want to hear it. Hey, this ain’t politics.

But what do you do when your clients don’t follow your advice?

You try again. And, if this had been an ongoing consulting arrangement, that’s exactly what I would have done.

When a client doesn’t follow your advice, you bring up the subject again and tell them why you recommend the course you do. You ask them why they don’t want to do what you suggest, or why they prefer to do something else. You have a frank discussion. And you supply them with third party documentation (articles from other experts, studies, and testimonials), proving you know what you’re doing and that your way is best.

But whether it’s legal advice, or marketing advice, sometimes you can’t prove that your advice is the best advice. It’s a matter of judgment, instinct, and experience, not something you can look up in a book.

What then?

Well, aside from documenting your advice in writing (hey, gotta cover the backside), you have two choices. You can either go with what the client wants or you can withdraw. If you’ve done your best to convince the client to follow a course of conduct and they choose not to, there’s nothing else you can do.

If you go with what they want and it doesn’t work out, some clients will admit that you were right and change course. That is if it’s not too late. If the decision turns out to be fatal but you did your best to persuade them not to go that way, they lose. Too bad, so sad.

True, some clients will never see the light. They’ll find a way to blame you. And you will lose them as a client. Too bad, so sad. For them.

Clients. You can’t live without ’em, you can’t bury them in the backyard.

Share
Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations Tagged With: , , ,

What does your law firm voicemail message say about you?

May 16, 2013 by
Share

When someone gets your law firm voicemail, what they hear (or don’t hear) can be the difference between them leaving a message and dialing the next attorney on the list. First impressions are sometimes last impressions.

I returned a call from an attorney the other day and got his voicemail. Did I hear a business-like message for his law office? No. I heard an electronic voice telling me the person I was calling was unavailable, meaning he had not recorded a personal voicemail message. I wasn’t sure I had reached the right person and had to double check the number. I left a message, but had that uneasy feeling you get when you’re not sure if you’re speaking to the right person.

Granted, I may have been calling his personal cell, not his office, but still, it didn’t make a good impression.

If someone gets your law firm voicemail, it should tell them the name of your firm, so the caller knows they have reached the right number, your office hours, and invite them to leave a message. If appropriate for your practice, it should also state what to do after hours or in an emergency.

The message should be recorded by someone other than you and should be warm and business like. The caller should come away with the impression that you are professionals who pay attention to detail.

If someone calls your direct line, or cell, you should record a similar message. At least state your name, so the caller knows they have reached the right person.

One more thing. Listen to your message after you record it. Make sure there are no background noises. Messages that were obviously recorded in your car are not professional. And make sure you sound like you care. If you sound bored, distracted, or rushed, you’re telling callers they aren’t important.

My best tip: stand up and smile when you record your message.

Now, excuse me while I go listen to my voicemail.

Marketing legal services made simple: The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Share
Filed Under: Image, Law office management Tagged With: ,

Is building a law practice a sprint or a marathon?

May 15, 2013 by
Share

If marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients (and it is), then you would assume that building a law practice is a marathon, and you would be right.

It’s all of the little things you do, over time, not big things you do once or twice.

It is your daily habit of sending thank you notes or birthday cards. It is the way you always see clients on time and never make them wait. It is writing a blog or newsletter and consistently delivering valuable information in an interesting way. Any one of these “little things” might not make a difference by itself, but over time, your daily habits compound. One day, you find your practice has doubled and you don’t really know how.

But building a law practice can also be a sprint.

Let me explain.

Let’s say you are looking at your calendar for the next 90 days and mapping out what you’re going to do to get your name and face in front of your target market. You plan to line up some speaking engagements, publish some articles, and go to lunch with centers of influence you have identified.

Every week, you book something. You have two speaking engagement each month, a new article coming out once a month, and every Friday, you’re having lunch with another prospective referral source.

This is good.

But there’s another way you could approach this. Instead of spreading everything out over 90 days, what if you did everything over the next two weeks?

You speak every day. You have lunch with someone every day. All of your articles appear this week.

You cram in as much activity as possible over a short period of time.

Why? Because now, your target market sees you “everywhere”. In a two week period, they hear you speak, see your article, and hear your name mentioned by two people they know and respect.

You get noticed. People talk about you. And remember you.

This is why advertisers spend $20,000 to run a bunch of ads this week, rather than $1000 a week for twenty weeks. And why they will run those ads on TV, radio, in print, and online at the same time, rather than TV this week, radio next week, and print the week after that.

Whether you’re spending time or money, concentrating your expenditure in a short period of time allows you to make a bigger impact on your market.

A marathon is you dripping on your target market. A sprint is you opening a fire hose. Never stop running the marathon, but consider getting in a few sprints along the way.

You can build a big practice if you know The Formula. Go here.

Share
Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan Tagged With: , ,
Next Page »