Post-election advice

November 9, 2016 by
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You won. Or lost. You’re thrilled. Or miserable. My advice? If you need it, take a day off to have a pity party, or to celebrate, and then, get back to work.

Don’t get caught up in what someone else might do to you or for you. You are the captain of your own ship and you can sail it anywhere you choose.

Don’t wish for things to be different, make them different. Don’t focus on what you don’t have or don’t want, focus on how good you have it and what you can do to make it even better.

Dive into your work and create your own future. Your days are numbered so make the best of them. Starting today. Or tomorrow.

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Filed Under: Inspiration

I promise I will get you ten new clients

November 8, 2016 by
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When I was a nine or ten-year-old punk, I went to a summer day camp. The guy who owned the camp picked us up in a yellow school bus and took us to parks to play games and do other outdoorsy things. Sometimes, he took us to do indoorsy things like bowling.

One day, I had a particularly good bowling outing but I had bowled ten frames and was done for the day. I didn’t want to be done, I wanted to keep bowling, so I got creative.

The camp owner’s five-year-old son was with us and he had not had a good game. C’mon, he was five. He could barely roll the ball all the way to the pins. His name was Scotty (and no, I don’t know how I remember that) and I asked Scotty to let me bowl a frame for him. “I promise I’ll get you a strike,” I said.

Scotty resisted my offer but finally relented. I’ll tell you what happened in a minute.

I thought about this story this morning as I was thinking about the election. Bowling promises and campaign promises? Why not?

Anyway, as lawyers, we would love to be able to promise results to our clients, but we can’t do it. Aside from the fact that it’s ethically verboten, and the fact that we lose all credibility when we can’t deliver on our promise, it’s bad marketing because most people won’t believe you.

Better to say you’ll try. Give it your best. Or point your finger at the camera and proclaim, “I’ll fight for you!”

Your marketing messages should demonstrate your prowess by showing what you have done for other clients and making the case for hiring you. But then edit them and back off on the chest pounding a bit and inject a dose of humility into the picture. Let people can see that you’re not just saying what you think they want to hear.

It’s called verisimilitude–the appearance of truth. Because sometimes, the truth sounds too good to be true.

Unfortunately, had I told Scotty that I would do my best to get him a strike, he probably would have turned me down. I had to promise a strike. But hey, we were kids and kids will say anything to get what they want. Just like politicians.

So, what happened? I bowled a strike. Scotty was happy, I was happy (relieved), and the other campers who had heard my boast were impressed.

But I wonder if there might have been a better lesson for us kids had I not rolled that strike. Perhaps we would have learned that we can’t always trust things that are promised to us or that we shouldn’t look to others to make us successful, we have to learn how to do it ourselves.

Nah, screw that. We were kids having fun and there’s nothing wrong with that. I promise.

Get this and you might get a lot more referrals

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

What to do when you find out your friend is a moron

November 7, 2016 by
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What do you do when you find out your friend is a moron? You see their post on social media or a bumper sticker on their car or they simply tell you who they support for President in the upcoming election and. . . you think. . . they are out of their friggin mind.

You’re shocked. Angry. Your friend is a fool. A dummkopf. A dunderhead.

How could they be so ignorant? How can they turn a blind eye to the evil that is their candidate?

You want to talk some sense into them. Convince them to change their mind.

I recommend you don’t do it. You can’t fix stupid.

You can love them, pray for them, try to see the good in them, but God knows, you can’t fix them.

And if you want my advice, you shouldn’t even try. You’ll just make things worse.

Let it go. Or. . . let them go. They’re not who you thought they were so walk away and don’t look back.

Don’t get angry. Don’t be sad. Move on. One day they might see the light.

Now, I know that a lot of people won’t follow this advice. They like to fix people. And they feel guilty if they don’t at least try.

I have some advice for the fixers of the world.

If you’re trying to convince someone that they’re wrong about their candidate (or about anything, actually), the first thing you have to do is realize that they’re probably not going to listen to you.

They know you, and while they may love you and respect you, they don’t necessarily see you as an expert on this topic. They’re not buying what you’re selling.

However, while you can’t convince them that your point of view is the correct one, you might help them to convince themselves.

How? By steering them towards information and opinions provided by someone your friend doesn’t know.

Your friend won’t listen to you but they might listen to a stranger.

It’s called “third party”. It’s what we use when we submit evidence in court. We present documented facts and expert opinions and let the evidence do the persuading for us.

But here’s the thing. When you present this evidence to your friend, you run the risk of exposing yourself and having your friend think that you’re the fool. As we are told, it is usually “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

So there you go. You’re all set for this election cycle. I’ll see you on the other side.

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Filed Under: Personal development

The best way to drive the growth of your law practice

November 4, 2016 by
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What is the best way to drive the growth of your law practice? To answer that question, you must first identify your most important marketing metric.

It might be the number of leads you get each week, that is, prospective clients who call your office or fill out a form on your website. It might be the number of appointments you book for a free consultation. Or the number of subscribers to your email list.

Whatever it is, once you have identified your most important metric, focus on it, track it, and take action each week to make that number grow.

Tracking your numbers is simple. If your metric is “leads,” for example, when people call you after you speak or do a presentation, ask them where they heard you. When you advertise or write articles and offer a free report, insert a code or tag to identify where those leads originated.

This allows you to not only track your leads but identify your best sources of those leads.

Record your numbers in a spreadsheet or on a form. Report your results to your partners and your accountant. Think about your numbers every day and program your subconscious mind to help you find ways to make them grow. When you read marketing information, zero in on methods that pertain to your most important metric.

You can also work on improving your “closing” skills so you sign up a higher percentage of prospective clients. That’s always a good thing to do. But if you don’t do it, or you aren’t good at it (yet), it won’t matter. As long as your most important metric is growing, your practice is growing.

The formula for growing your law practice

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: , ,

You can stop marketing if you do THIS

November 3, 2016 by
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You can forget about blogging. Speaking. Networking. You’ll never have to run another ad, write another article, or push out another post on social media. Unless you’re a brand new lawyer just starting your practice, you can stop all of your other marketing efforts if you want to, if you’re willing to do one thing.

It’s what I did when I was practicing and it allowed me to build a successful practice in a short period of time. It is the quintessential method of growing a professional practice and you’re already using it to some extent.

You may know this magic elixir by its generic name: referrals. You get them now, don’t you? If you’re like most lawyers, however, you could be getting more.

A lot more.

Your clients and business contacts know people who need your services, or who will need your services eventually, and they are willing to send them to you. They also know people who know people who need your services, aka, other professionals and business contacts, and they are willing to introduce them to you.

So, why not let the people you know do your marketing for you?

You can do that by making it easier for them to send you referrals, by creating forms and letters and a simple system for getting them into their hands.

You can get more referrals by mailing or emailing or handing out a letter that does everything for you. You don’t have to say anything more than, “here”.

If you do good work and treat your clients well, they want to help you. They also want to help the people they know who need your services.

Instead of merely waiting for them to figure out what to do, give them a letter that spells it out. Make it easier for them to refer and you will get more referrals.

You can read all about it here and here.

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Filed Under: Referrals

Torturing the cat before my first cup of coffee

November 2, 2016 by
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My cat is sick. We thought it was a cold he got when we boarded him recently when we were out of town. He’s never had a cold before and we figured he would get better on his own. When he didn’t, we took him to the vet and they said it was a good thing we did because what he had could kill him.

So now we’re in the middle of twice-daily doses of two antibiotics and an antihistamine. Unfortunately, our little guy won’t let us give him a pill and he won’t eat food that is adulterated with anything else so we are forced to deliver his meds by squirting them into his mouth with a hypodermic (minus the needle).

Seamus is a feisty Tuxedo and strong as hell. I hold him while my wife does the deed. I have to let him go each time while she re-loads because he fights me and claws me. I have the scars to prove it.

My wife and I hate doing this to him and he hates having it done. But we go through this routine, twice a day, because it has to be done.

I think that somehow, Seamus knows it has to be done. Yes, he tries to hide every time he sees me coming to grab him, but there’s a look of resignation in his eyes when I do.

Okay, so the point. The point is that whether it’s dosing the cat or marketing legal services, we all have to do things we don’t want to do. That’s life.

The other point is that when you put more of yourself into your emails–your personal life, client stories, observations about world or local events or about people you know–your emails are more interesting to your readers who would rather read about your sick cat than the rule against perpetuities.

It also makes your emails easier to write. And quicker. I shot this out in about five minutes while I waited for the coffee to brew.

Don’t know what to write about? Write about your world and the people (and animals) in it.

If you want more ideas about what to write about, get this

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Filed Under: Email, Writing

What?

November 1, 2016 by
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In college, I had a professor who mumbled. I sat in the front row and could usually figure out what he was saying but sometimes he also spoke at a low level and I couldn’t understand him at all.

One time, I raised my hand and said, “Could you mumble a little louder?” Everyone laughed, including my professor. (All was okay. He later wrote me a recommendation letter to law school).

Now, as you probably know, I get a lot of emails from lawyers. To my chagrin, many of these professional communicators (that’s who we are, after all), are just as difficult to understand as my mumbling professor.

Frankly, they can’t write their way out of a paper bag.

It’s one thing to send an informal email to someone you know. You don’t always have to format properly or use the King’s English. But you can’t send emails that make people think, “What the hell did they just say?”

Clarity is right up there at the top of the effective communication mountain. If people don’t understand you, you can’t expect to persuade them of anything. They’re not going to learn what you want them to learn. They’re not going to get your jokes.

If your legal documents are muddled, if your closing arguments are a mishmash of thoughts, if your marketing documents and presentations are as mushy and boring as a bowl of oatmeal, you’ve got some work to do.

How do you improve? Read more. Find models of clear writing and study them. Write more. Write something every day and re-write it as often as necessary. You can ask someone to read and critique your writing, and maybe edit it. You might take classes or read books about writing.

You don’t ever want someone to wonder what you just said. As Robert Louis Stevenson put it, “Don’t Write merely to be understood. Write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood.”

Clear instructions on marketing your practice

 

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Filed Under: Communication, Writing Tagged With:

Is this the key to success?

October 31, 2016 by
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Pastor, business owner, speaker, and author, the late Mark Yarnell, offered his recipe for productivity and success. He said, “Work on one thing at a time. Do it right. Finish it.”

Simple. But not always easy to follow.

Working on one thing at a time is difficult for a lot of people. But it’s easy to see the value of doing so. Numerous studies prove that multi-tasking is inefficient to the extreme. Fortunately, there are strategies and tools aplenty that can help us to curb this habit.

“Do it right” certainly makes sense, but we must recognize that the way we learn to do it right is usually by first doing it wrong.

This leads to the third piece of advice, to finish what we start. That’s the key to making everything work.

When we finish what we start, we can move onto something else. No chance for multi-tasking. We’ve also learned something so the next time we do it, we should do it better.

Finishing is the “Big Kahuna” of productivity. The more things you finish, the more you accomplish. The more you accomplish, the more likely you are to succeed.

Author Philip Roth said, “The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress”. What have you started but not finished?

Before you go looking for new ideas and new projects, you might want to dust off some of the half-finished projects lurking on your hard drive or in the recesses of your brain and finish them. Then go work on something else.

Dust off your marketing plan

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Filed Under: Productivity, success

Focus on your destination (with exceptions)

October 28, 2016 by
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I walked my daughter down the aisle a couple of weeks ago. It was an outdoor ceremony at a country club, with a panoramic view of rolling hills and lush gardens.

My daughter and I waited at the top of the hill overlooking the wedding party below. Everyone was seated except for the groom and minister. We received the cue to begin walking, my daughter took my arm, and we walked down a series of stone steps which led to the aisle at the bottom of the hill.

The steps were steep and uneven and I had to look down to make sure we didn’t trip. I knew we were being videotaped and that looking down would look awkward but it couldn’t be helped. All I could think about was that if I tripped on the steps or stepped on her gown, my daughter and I would go tumbling down the hill.

At the bottom of the steps was the aisle. We walked down it, I gave her away, took my seat next to my wife, and we watched our beautiful daughter and her groom exchange their vows.

It was a proud and happy day.

A marriage is a journey. The destination is a long and happy life. You get there by staying focused on the big picture and by not letting little problems stop you.

Your work is also a journey. The destination is a long and successful career. You also get there by focusing on the big picture and by not letting bumps in the road throw you off course.

Swedish diplomat and author, Dag Hammarskjold, said, “Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.”

Long term. Big picture. Stay focused on your destination.

Good advice for a marriage or a career. Glad I didn’t listen to it when we were walking down those steps.

A successful career starts with a plan

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Filed Under: success Tagged With:

You don’t have time? What if you did?

October 27, 2016 by
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Fill in the blank: “I don’t have time to do ___________ [something that would be good for you. How about writing a weekly newsletter?]

Okay, play a little game with me. You say you don’t have time to write a newsletter? Well, what if you did?

What could happen?

What if your newsletter brought you five new clients every month? Take a moment to imagine what that would be like.

Now, how long do you think it would take you to write a weekly email newsletter? 30 minutes a week? An hour?

Let’s say you get paid $500 an hour. And let’s say a new client is worth $3,000 to you. So you would invest $2,000 per month writing your newsletter and bring in $15,000 in new business. Would that be worth it? Could you find the time to write a newsletter if it would increase your income by $12,000 per month?

Numbers don’t work for you? Adjust them If you don’t think you could possibly bring in five new clients per month, how about two? You don’t earn $500 an hour? Okay, ratchet down the cost. An average client is worth $8,000 to you? Bump up the income side of the equation.

When you do this exercise, you may realize that you can’t afford to not write a newsletter.

Look at it another way–if you’re doing billable work instead of writing a newsletter, you’re losing money.

Make sense?

So cut out a few hours of billable work if you have to, to make time for your newsletter. Or work an extra hour per week. Or how about this–hire someone to do most of the newsletter for you. Or hire someone to do some of the billable work you say is keeping you so busy.

When you start with what’s possible (i.e., five new clients each month), it changes your perspective. Or at least it should. You don’t have time to do something? What if you did?

Earn more without working more by working smarter, not harder

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services
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