Faking it

October 26, 2017 by
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Do you remember the day you learned that you had passed the bar exam? Sure you do. We all do. We also remember how we felt when we got the news.

Me? I was relieved. Not excited. Okay, maybe a little excited but more relieved than anything else because I knew I would never have to go through that again.

I was also proud of myself. Passing the California Bar, arguably the toughest in the country, first time out–yeah, I was proud of that. All that hard work had paid off.

I boxed up the books and the notes, got sworn in, and got to work.

I had clerked throughout law school so the work was familiar. The moment I opened my own office, however, everything changed.

Having that license meant I was responsible. People depended on me. If I messed up, I had nobody to blame but myself.

Eventually, I got comfortable being in the captain’s chair. Okay, who am I kidding? I was scared to death. I was sure that my clients would see right through me and know I didn’t know what I was doing.

I would be unmasked as a fake. A fraud. A boy in his father’s three-piece suit.

But I did know what I was doing. Enough, at least, to get the job done.

As I gained experience, the work got easier. I became more confident. Case by case, client by client, I grew into the role of a trusted advisor and successful professional.

Building my practice was hard but worth it. I enjoyed the challenge and I enjoyed helping people and when the money was good, it was very good.

My practice eventually led me to other things. Other mountains to climb. I was (mostly) successful there, too, but I often wonder if I would have been happier doing those things instead of going to law school.

I don’t know. All I know is that things have worked out well. Probably the way they were supposed to. And that’s exciting.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction

When a herd of zombies is coming at you

October 25, 2017 by
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You hear it a lot in movies. The characters are having problems. Zombies are crashing through the gate. The bad guys are coming to take their stuff, and everything looks hopeless. Someone wants to give up and someone else says, “C’mon, we can do this. We’ll figure it out.”

And somehow, they almost always do. Although that might not happen until the next season.

There’s a lesson in less. No matter what you’re going through, whether you’re struggling to bring in business, your clients aren’t paying your bill, or a herd of zombies is coming at you, you just keep going.

Whatever the problem, action is the cure.

You can think. You can research. You can pray. You can ask others for help or advice. But at the end of the day, those zombies aren’t going to cut off their own heads.

Of course, building a law practice is very much like fighting zombies.

When I opened my own practice, I rented an office from an attorney who had an extra room in his suite in Beverly Hills. It was expensive but I had big plans and needed to look like I had something going on. Unfortunately, I didn’t. I had trouble paying the rent.

But I kept going.

After a while, I moved to another office closer to where my prospective clients lived. The rent was cheaper and gave me more breathing room. More time to keep going. And I did.

I continued to struggle and eat peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, but eventually I was doing better and got my own suite of offices.

It took years but I made it.

Some of my success came from improving my legal skills. Even more came from learning how to market my services. But most of my success came because I didn’t quit.

I had problems. I made mistakes. I lost money. Hell, in my first year I had to appear at a state bar hearing (without representation) to explain to a panel how I wasn’t violating ethical rules by running ads offering to pay referral fees to attorneys. (The law had just changed to allow this and when I pointed out that I was abiding by the rules, I won the case.)

No matter where you are right now, keep going. Nobody’s coming to rescue you. But you can get through this. Just keep moving and I promise, you’ll figure it out.

Need clients? Here you go

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Filed Under: Inspiration, success

How many people work for you?

October 24, 2017 by
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How many people work for you? I don’t just mean employees. Or freelancers. Or outside companies you hire from time to time. I mean everyone who helps you in some way and gets paid to do so.

One? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?

Not even close.

The answer is probably in the hundreds. Maybe a lot more.

Impossible? Not really. Not if you re-think the meaning of “work” and “paid”. See, you’re forgetting about all of your clients and former clients. They work for you, too, even if they don’t show up at your office every morning.

How’s that?

They work for you by keeping their eyes and ears open for people who need your services. They work for you by sharing the content on your blog or newsletter or your posts on social media. They work for you by inviting people to your events.

True, they may not be very good at their job. But that’s just as much your fault as their’s.

If you don’t talk to your clients about referrals and other ways they can help you, most won’t know what to do. Or if they do but they haven’t heard from you in months or years, they forget to do it.

It’s up to you to educate them so they can do their job.

You can do that by posting a “How you can help us” page on your website and putting a copy in your “New Client Welcome Kit.” You can do that by staying in touch with them so they see your name and think about you and what you do.

It’s also up to you to praise them when they do a good job and, if possible, to recognize them for their good work in front of others.

You do that with real employees, don’t you? Praise and recognition? (If you don’t, you might want to put that on your list).

Okay, you get it. You see how all of your clients and former clients and everyone else on your list of contacts can help your practice grow. You also know that with a little help from you, they will be more likely to do it.

So we’re good, right? You know what you need to do?

Hold on. I said they get paid and you want to call me out on that. You can’t pay clients for referrals, nor would you want to.

Ah, but there are other ways to get paid in this world besides cold cash.

Why do you suppose anyone ever gives you a referral? Or forwards your email or report to someone they know?

Because they know someone who needs your help and they want to help them. They feel good doing that, helping a friend or client avoid pain, achieve a goal, or solve a problem. They feel good when their friend thanks them for introducing them to you, sparing them the risk and time of trying to find someone on their own.

Your clients also enjoy helping you. Yes they do.

Sure, they paid you and they got what they paid for (or more). But they like you and want to see you succeed. It makes them feel good to know that they were a part of that success, especially when you express to them your appreciation.

You do that, right? Say thank you to your clients when they do something nice for you? You should. It’s part of their “compensation” and if you don’t pay them, if you take them for granted, they might not want to work for you anymore.

Yes, there’s a big workforce available to you. Help them do a good job for you and they’ll make you glad you did.

Here’s how your clients can help you

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Referrals

One day you might not need a website

October 23, 2017 by
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When I started practicing there was no Internet, few attorneys had computers or even fax machines, there was no social media, email, or instant messenger. We talked to people in person or on the phone. Or we mailed them a letter.

Marketing was done the old-fashioned way: networking, speaking, writing, and referrals. Oh yeah, we also had the Yellow Pages.

Yes, I’m an old fart.

By the time I retired from active practice, most of my business came from repeat business and referrals. It took a long time to get there but when I arrived, it was nice.

My father would tell you a similar story. So would my accountant, who is still practicing. To the best of my knowledge, neither have ever had a website or social media account.

The point?

If you’ve built your practice to a point that it sustains itself and continues to grow through repeat referrals and referrals, mazeltov. You can do whatever you want.

If you haven’t done that, if you are struggling, or if you still have big plans and a lot of gas in the tank, you need to consider doing some other things.

For starters, you need a decent website.

Today, when someone tells a friend about you, that friend goes online to check you out. If you don’t have a website where you can tell your story, show the world what you do and why someone should hire you, that friend may wind up in some other attorney’s waiting room.

If you have a website but it looks like something circa 1998, or you use AOL as your email provider, you’re not doing yourself any favors.

I’m not saying you need a great website. Just one that looks like it’s from the 21st century with some good content. Get your own domain name. And make it easy for visitors to call, email, follow you, share your content, and sign up for your newsletter.

This is not difficult to do. Or expensive. And if you do it right, your website can do a lot of your marketing for you.

When someone searches for a lawyer with your qualifications, or when someone (that includes you) sends them to your website, it can show them what they need to know, answer their questions, overcome their objections, and persuade them to take the next step.

Nice.

One day, you might not need a website. Until then, you might want to turn off the Starsky and Hutch reruns and get to work.

If your website needs an overall, get this

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Filed Under: Online Marketing

Start chopping, already!

October 20, 2017 by
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Abraham Lincoln famously said that if he has six hours to chop down a tree, he would spend four hours sharpening the ax. Or something like that. His point, of course, was that taking time to prepare before you do a job will make that job easier and the results better.

Okay, we all get that. But sometimes, we use “preparation” as an excuse to procrastinate.

“I’m not ready,” “I need to do more research,” “I need to think about it a bit longer,” we say. Too often, we never start.

Starting isn’t nearly as important as finishing but it’s a close second because you can’t complete a task you never start.

So start, before you’re ready. In the end, you’ll get more done.

If you make mistakes and have to fix them, if you mess up and have to start over, if you have to admit defeat and abandon the project, you’ll still get more done.

Now, I’m not saying don’t prepare. That would be silly. I’m saying don’t over-prepare. Wherever possible, do only as much preparation as you need to start.

Maybe you don’t need a week to do research before you begin. Maybe an hour will let you get rolling. If you find you need more, you can do more. But at that point, you’ll know more about the project and that might make the additional research go faster or be more useful.

Of course, you might find that one hour was all you needed.

If you have big, overwhelming projects, break them up into smaller parts, things you can do in a few minutes, an hour or two. Start those, and finish them, so you’ll be able to start and finish something else.

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Filed Under: Productivity

Step back and look at the big picture

October 19, 2017 by
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Yesterday, after my walk, I was cooling down in the park, and saw a bird perched near the top of a tree. I watched him move higher until he was sitting on the highest branch where he sat and actively looked around.

I wondered what he was looking at, or for. His mate? Scouting for predators? Searching for food? Or was he just enjoying the view, naturally climbing higher because his instincts told him that this was the safest place?

From his higher perch, he could survey the land and decide where to go and what to do next. I thought this was an apt paradigm for a human life, that is, the value of periodically stopping and looking at the big picture.

We need to get our nose out of books and away from our devices. We need to hang up our phones. We need some time and some distance from our routines so we can assess where we are and where we want to go.

I do a lot of thinking on my walks. But they aren’t long enough to explore much more than my day or my week–what I’m working on now or what I need to do next.

No time to asses what I’ve done this year, or contemplate what I want to do next year or in the years to come.

Maybe a longer walk would help. Maybe a retreat. Or a few days off at a resort (with room service) where I can think and plan.

I know some folks who take a couple of days off every year to decide on their goals for the coming year. It gives them clarity, they say, and allows them to focus, plan and manage their future.

“The Getting Things Done” methodology talks about the need to look at your life from the 50,000-foot level, and all the way down to the “runway” level where we work and live day-to-day. Other methodologies do something similar, having you first determine your long-term vision and then working backward to map out your yearly and then monthly goals, and finally your daily activities.

However you go about it, it comes down to stepping away from the minutia of daily living, to look at the horizon, asses the threats and the opportunities, and decide where to go next.

Make sure you also have a marketing plan

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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Personal development Tagged With: ,

Lawyers as clients

October 18, 2017 by
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They say that lawyers make the worst clients in the same way that physicians make the worst patients. They know too much and have their own ways of doing things. They second guess everything and often don’t follow your advice. And when something goes wrong, guess who they blame?

It’s all ego, and if you’ve ever had a lawyer for a client, there’s a good chance you swore you would never do that again.

As someone who consults with lawyers, I feel your pain. So why do I continue to target them (you)?

  • Because there’s a huge need, given that so many lawyers aren’t good at marketing but realize they need to do it
  • Because lawyers have money and can afford to hire me and buy my stuff
  • Because marketing to lawyers is easier, more effective, and less expensive/time-consuming than it would be if I offered my products and services to everyone who wants to get more clients or customers and increase their income.

For those reasons and others, I suggest you consider targeting lawyers in your marketing.

Think about it:

  • Lawyers have stressful lives. According to Bar studies, they have a higher incidence of problems with drugs and alcohol. I don’t know if that means they are statistically more likely to get charged with DUI (et. al.), file for divorce, or break up with their partners, but if they do, they have the money to hire you and much more at stake if they don’t.
  • In tort matters, a lawyer’s loss-of-earning claim and disability claim tends to be bigger.
  • Lawyers buy real estate and invest and understand the need for legal advice and representation in matters outside their area of competence.
  • They have clients they can refer to you. And what a powerful referral it is when a lawyer can tell their clients that they have hired you themselves.
  • They know other lawyers they can introduce to you.
  • They are influential in their target markets and communities, which means they can open doors for you, endorse you, and otherwise help your practice grow.
  • Marketing is easier because when they need a lawyer, a lawyer usually prefers to hire someone like you who is not only a lawyer yourself but specializes in representing lawyers.
  • Marketing is more effective because you don’t have to network everywhere, write for everyone, or advertise to every type of prospective client, you can focus your efforts on attracting lawyers.
  • Marketing is also more effective because your marketing message can be tailored to your specific target market. Testimonials, endorsements, are reviews from other lawyers are more compelling.

If you handle “delicate” matters, e.g., criminal, bankruptcy, legal ethics violations, etc., lawyers probably don’t want the world to know they have hired you themselves. But that’s where having lawyers for clients is a decided advantage for you over having non-lawyers as clients.

Think about it. Your lawyer-clients have a built-in excuse for “knowing” you. You’re a colleague. They don’t have to tell anyone they hired you themselves, and they know you are constrained by law not to let that particular cat out of the bag.

How to choose your ideal client and target market

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Specializing

Can I randomly email businesses promoting my firm?

October 17, 2017 by
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Attorney J. B. writes and asks, “Can I randomly email businesses promoting my firm?”

I respond, “I don’t know, can you?”

Okay, I didn’t say that. But I thought it. Blame my seventh grade English teacher.

Anyway, here’s what I have to say on the subject: Don’t do it.

Don’t randomly send email to prospective clients promoting your firm. If you do:

(a) you’ll be subject to penalties from the spam-gods, from your bar association or law society, and from ISP’s who designate your email as spam and relegate it (and other emails you send) to the Internet sub-basement;

(b) you’ll fall flat on your tush. You might get some business out of it but not as much as you want and it won’t be worth it. See “a” above.

Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t email prospective clients. But you’ve got to do it right.

(a) Don’t email “randomly”. Learn something about the prospective client and send them a “personalized” email.

Go through their website and learn something about the business and the people who own or run it and say something about this in your email. Say something nice about their business or about their website.

Find a connection between them and you or someone you know. You know one of their customers? Great! Say that. You know their accountant, broker, vendor, supplier, neighbor, landlord, competitor, a former employee. . . great! Say that.

Show them that your email is anything but random.

(b) Do NOT promote yourself or your firm. Resist the urge to say anything about yourself, what you do, or why you’re the best thing since sliced bread.

The moment you do something like that, you lose. They write you off as someone who just wants their business and is wasting their time.

If you’re lucky, they’ll delete your email. If you’re not, they’ll mark you as spam and remember you as that clueless lawyer who spammed them.

No bueno.

(Sign your email with “Esq.” or “Attorney at Law”. Put your website address in your email signature. Just a link. No promotional copy. If they’re interested in finding out about you, they’ll click and take a look.)

Clear?

So, what might you do instead? Lots of things. Here’s an easy one: Send them a link to an article you found online about their industry, about one of their customers, or a prospective customer for them.

(Send a link, don’t attach the article.)

What will this accomplish? Not much by itself. But it might open the door to future communication with them, and right now, that’s as good as it gets.

Over time, there are other things you can do to get to know the principals of the business and for them to get to know you.

Want to speed things up? Send them a referral. Introduce them to someone you think they need to know. Promote their merchandise or services or their content.

Now you’re talking.

Don’t subscribe them to your newsletter. Don’t (yet) ask if they want to subscribe. Don’t move too quickly. You don’t even know if they need a lawyer (or a new one) right now. That might not happen for a year or ten.

Take your time. Woo them. Don’t “Harvey” them.

Marketing online for attorneys

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Filed Under: Email

The three stages of a law career

October 16, 2017 by
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The way I see it there are three stages to a law career. Some lawyers go through all three stages. Some stay in one stage their entire career.

Stage one is where you love the work you’re doing or the challenge of learning and getting good at something new. Many new lawyers start out in stage one. Some skip over it right into stage two.

If you’re in stage one and you love what you do, congratulations. I wish you a long and happy career.

Stage two is where the work itself is no longer gratifying or challenging, or never was. You do the work because you have to but any joy or fulfillment you feel comes not from the work itself but from what your work allows you do.

You’re happy because your work allows you to get results for your clients, build a successful practice, or make the world a better place.

If you’re in stage two and the work no longer fulfills you, you might take on a new practice area or target a new type of client or market. You might look into teaching CLE classes or writing a book. You might find a charity or cause you care about and through it find new challenges and new ways to use your skills and training.

Stage three is where you don’t enjoy the work and the joy you feel from helping people or from personal success isn’t enough to make up for that, “Is that all there is” feeling that weighs on you.

If you’re in stage three and it’s just not working for you anymore (or it never did), you should probably do something else.

That doesn’t mean you have to leave the law. At least not right away. You can hire people and let them run the day-to-day of your practice while you explore and go find your plan b.

Of course, you may not fit squarely into any one of these stages. You may love some parts of your work and detest others. You may have good days, bad days, and days you feel like running away.

Those darn gray areas. They make your life complicated, don’t they? Hey, nobody said being a lawyer was easy.

You really can earn more and work less

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction

A lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client?

October 13, 2017 by
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Is it true? Does a lawyer who represents himself have a fool for a client?

Some people say that if you represent yourself in a proceeding or negotiation, it’s too easy to compromise your power and invite your emotions to get in the way.

I think they might be onto to something.

I can be tough as nails when it comes to representing a client’s interests but I’m not so good when it comes to representing my own.

If we have a contractor over to the house to bid on something, I’ll read the contracts but do my best to avoid talking to the contractor. I’m afraid I’ll either give away what I’m willing to accept or piss the guy off and have him take a walk.

My wife doesn’t have these issues. She’s nice to people. Level headed. So she talks to contractors and salespeople for us. I look at the bid and tell her what I think and she gets the deal done.

Okay, but you can’t hire an attorney or hide behind your wife for everything in life. And I don’t. I can and do ask for lots of things, like asking vendors to honor an expired coupon, for example.

The other day, I was looking at some software and reading some reviews. I saw a bunch of coupons offering discounts, including a few for 80% off, but all of the coupons were expired. I contacted the company and asked if they had any current coupons or promotions. A representative got back to me this morning and said they didn’t, that the ones I saw online were part of their ‘kickstarter’ phase.

So sad. Too bad. (Don’t tell her. I’ll probably buy anyway. At least I tried.)

And then she said, “But I can offer you 10% off; just use “.

What did I accomplish? I’ll save a few bucks and that’s nice but I gained something far more valuable. I imprinted on my brain a successful ‘negotiation’ on my behalf. I asked for something and I got something. Yay me.

I know, some lawyers are reading this and thinking, “What a wuss. I’d go back and ask for 80%, maybe settle for 50%. It’s not over until I win!”

Okay, settle down.

Anyway, if you’re like me and you are sometimes reluctant to negotiate on your behalf or ask people for favors, do what I did and get in some practice.

Practice asking your clients for referrals or to share your content. Practice asking website visitors to sign up for your newsletter. Practice asking seminar attendees to make an appointment. Practice asking prospective clients to sign up.

It never hurts to ask. And who knows, you might actually get good at it someday. If not, talk to my wife. Maybe she’ll help you out.

You can ask for referrals without talking to your clients. Here’s how

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Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With: , , ,
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