The thrill is gone. You’ve lost the spark you had when you started practicing. You’re spinning your wheels and getting nowhere fast.
You’re doing okay, but you want to move on up, to an east side apartment in the sky.
Or maybe things aren’t so good. You’re struggling and falling behind.
What can you do? How do you get things moving?
You need to start over. Go back to the beginning and be “new” again. Forget what you have and what you know and begin from square one.
Before you can construct, you have to destruct.
I know, starting over might hold some bad memories for you. It does for me. I was scared to death. Everything was riding on my making a go of things and I didn’t have a clue about what to do.
But I was excited. The world was mine for the taking. Anything was possible.
And I was hungry. Determined. Open to anything. I had nothing, so I had nothing to lose.
You too? Good. Go back to those days in your mind. Be hungry again. Be open again. Be excited again.
Pretend you have nothing. No clients, no lists, no website, no ads. Chuck it all and start from scratch. You’ll add them back one at a time. Or maybe you won’t.
Yes, but what do you do? That’s not really important. If your head is on right and you are truly reborn, you’ll figure it out.
You’ll try lots of things, with no expectations. Some will work, most won’t. You want this thing to work and you’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.
Get out a legal pad and a pen. Time to start building. Start by taking inventory.
Who do you know? Write down the names of people who might be able to help you. Clients, prospects, referral sources, other lawyers who can give you advice, friends and family who can support your dreams.
What do you know? What are you good at? What are your skills (legal, marketing, management, leadership, speaking, writing, etc.)
What do you want? Write down one or two goals for the month. Forget next month for now; you’ve got a rent payment coming due.
Are you excited yet? Scared? Itching to do something? Good. Pick up the phone and call someone on your list.
Call a friend and tell him you’re re-launching your practice today and just wanted to share the good news.
Call a lawyer and tell her you’d like to meet for coffee and talk about how you can work together.
Call a former client and see how they’re doing. They might need you for something, or know someone they can refer.
Call a current client and tell them how much you appreciate them.
Spend the rest of the day talking to people. Tonight, write down some marketing ideas. Tomorrow, get up early and do it again.
Need a marketing plan? Get this
