Focusing is easier when you do this

June 24, 2020 by
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Focus is the operative word. Stick with what you know and are good at, and keep doing it. That’s the key to success, isn’t it?

P.T. Barnum thought so:

“Do not scatter your powers. Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it. A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last, so that it can be clinched. When a man’s undivided attention is centered on one object, his mind will constantly be suggesting improvements of value, which would escape him if his brain was occupied by a dozen different subjects at once.”

And yet, I encourage you to try lots of marketing ideas. I often talk about other things I’ve done, when I was practicing, and today.

You can do other things, just make sure you don’t do them all at once.

Do one thing at a time and do it as completely as possible before you start something else. Do it until you know it’s a go or a no, then move onto the next idea.

That doesn’t mean you can’t start doing something new while you’re also doing other things.

You can expand your network while you’re creating more content. You can build an email list while you’re working on a new presentation. You can build a side business, write books, or start other business projects while you’re growing your practice.

But don’t start something new until what you’re doing is on solid ground.

How do you’re there? When what you’re doing doesn’t depend completely on you.

You’ve got people working for you. You’ve got systems in place that allow you to get things done quickly and efficiently. You’ve got free time in your day to explore other ideas.

I’ve heard the word focus defined as, “Follow One Course Until Successful”. When what you’re doing is successful, then you can move on to something else.

How to build your practice with email

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Filed Under: Productivity, success Tagged With:

A better way to take notes

June 23, 2020 by
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In a recent webinar, author and memory expert Jim Kwik taught his audience a better way to take notes.

First, he recommends hand writing instead of typing. Why? “It’s because you can’t write everything down,” he said. Hand writing, “forces you to add a filter and ask yourself questions about how important something is and how you’ll use it,” he said. This aids understanding and retention.

I don’t know that I’m ready to hand write all my notes, but he makes a good point. In a live presentation or meeting, I do use paper. With recorded lectures, I pause a lot to write down my thoughts.

Kwik also recommends adding “notes to your notes” (my term). Adding your own examples and anecdotes, for example, helps you see the information in context and further improves understanding and retention.

I did that when I was studying for the bar exam and found it immensely helpful.

As you write your notes, Kwik also suggest asking yourself 3 questions about the material: “How will I use this? Why must I use this? When will I use this?” Answering these questions will make it more likely that you’ll actually use and benefit from the information.

What if you don’t know the answers to those questions? I guess that’s when you listen to the presentation again.

You’ll want to take lots of notes when you listen to my email marketing course

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Filed Under: Productivity

How to be successful when you’re not that good

June 22, 2020 by
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Look around you. Everywhere you look you see people earning a living, raising a family, and enjoying life. They have a job or own a business or practice, they buy cars and homes, they eat well, they travel, they have fun, and generally speaking, they’re happy.

They’re successful. And yet, most of these people aren’t doing anything spectacular. They’re average people doing average things.

How do average people become successful?

The answer is simple. They put one foot in front of the other and kept moving forward.

Consistency beats talent, luck, charisma, and hard work.

Most successful people became successful because they put in enough time.

They chose a career they liked and stuck with it. Their small, “average” efforts compounded over time.

How about you? You may not be exceptionally talented or hard working, but you can still build a successful practice and the life that goes with it.

Do the work. Stay the course. Eventually, people will notice. They’ll seek you out and tell others about you.

Now, if you ALSO have talent, or you’re willing to work hard (or smart), your odds are even better. You might get rich. You might be one of those overnight successes everyone talks about.

Keep moving. Your success is inevitable. Even if you’re not particularly good.

Marketing helps you get bigger, faster

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Filed Under: Inspiration, success

2 questions to help you prioritize your work

June 19, 2020 by
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You have legal work and admin work. You have urgent tasks and important projects. How do you figure out what to do, and what to do first?

Prioritizing your work doesn’t have to be difficult. You don’t need a complex formula or checklist. All you need to do is ask yourself 2 questions:

(1) “If I could only work 2 hours today, what would I do?”

Pretend you have a medical condition that only allows you to be at your desk for 2 hours a day. You have to choose what you must do and what can wait until tomorrow.

What’s urgent? What’s essential? What’s at the top of your list in terms of importance?

That’s what you should work on today.

But not before you ask yourself question no. 2. . .

(2) “If I could only work 2 hours this week, what would I do?”

This helps you to identify the tasks and projects that are likely to provide you with the most value and advance you towards your biggest goals.

This is where the majority of your time and energy should be invested this week, and also today.

Yes, you’ll have to do some juggling. You can’t fill your day with urgent tasks without taking time away from your most important work, but you can’t ignore things that have to get done today to work on your big projects.

You have to balance them. Get clear on what’s really important.

Which is what these questions help you to do.

The Quantum Leap Marketing System for Attorneys. Details here

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Filed Under: Productivity, success

It’s easier to keep your clients happy than to get new ones

June 18, 2020 by
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We hired a new gardener recently because our previous one didn’t show up, or call, or text. He’s missed days before, but always let us know, so we figured he’d flaked out and moved on to greener pastures.

Turns out he hadn’t.

We got a text from him yesterday, asking why we removed him from our gated community’s guest list. “Is there a problem? Did I do something wrong?”

We filled him in. He got angry. But didn’t explain why he didn’t show up, contact us, or respond to our numerous texts.

So, he lost our account, and the tree-trimming gig he was booked to do later this month. We know he needs the money because he continually nickled-and-dimed us about everything, and because he mentioned needing the money in his last text.

We have needs, too. We need to know that our yard is being taken care of by someone we can count on.

Maybe he’ll learn a lesson from this. Maybe he’ll realize how important it is to take care of your customers, and that it’s easier to do that than to find new ones.

Hey, I hear a lawnmower outside. Guess out new gardener is here. Right on time. Just like he promised.

Marketing is everything you do to get and keep good clients

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Marketing legal services

Maybe you should teach a class

June 17, 2020 by
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CLE presenters don’t teach classes for the money. Why do they do it? Why should you?

Here are 6 reasons you should consider teaching a continuing education course:

  1. It will make you a better lawyer. You’ll necessarily stay current with the cutting edge aspects of your subject.
  2. It will make you a better presenter. You’ll learn how to craft an interesting and persuasive presentation.
  3. It will expose you to other lawyers who take your class. This can lead to referrals, associating on cases, and other networking opportunities.
  4. It looks great on your bio. Just being able to say you teach other lawyers in your field gives you an edge over other lawyers who don’t.
  5. You’ll have more content for your blog, newsletter, guest posts, videos, podcasts, and seminars.
  6. It can lead to book deals, invitations to speak on panels or sit on committees, and other opportunities to get more exposure and elevate your reputation.

So, what are you waiting for? Sharpen your pencil, and your tongue, and outline your first CLE class.

Marketing is easier when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Content creation, Continuing Legal Education, Marketing legal services, Public Speaking

Is it time to get outside help with your marketing?

June 16, 2020 by
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The National Law Forum article, 13 Signs It Is Time to Hire an Outside Marketing Professional, offers a variety of reasons why a lawyer or firm might consider getting outside help with their marketing.

Basically, when you recognize the need, but lack the time or expertise to do the job in-house, go outside for help.

There’s some good advice here, but I’d like to differ with one of the “reasons” offered:

Marketing Takes Up More Than 15 Minutes of Your Billable Time

As an attorney, you should spend most of your time doing what you do best. If you spend more than 15 minutes per day writing and scheduling tweets, checking marketing metrics, or optimizing your blog posts, you are wasting time that should be spent researching, meeting with clients, or preparing for court. Outsource these tasks to a professional.

Of course you should have someone else handle marketing-related tasks like editing, checking stats, and the like. But that’s admin, not marketing.

Marketing means building relationships with prospective clients and referral sources, something you can’t (shouldn’t) delegate.

Marketing means strengthening relationships with existing clients, to foster repeat business and referrals. You can have your staff help you with this but you need to be at the helm.

Marketing means investing time with personal development, to improve your communication, sales and interpersonal relationship skills.

And marketing means familiarizing yourself with the elements of technical strategies, e.g., Internet, PPC ads, etc., so that if you hire someone, in-house or outside, you’ll know what you want from them and you can make sure they’re giving you what you want.

And, all of this takes time.

So, although I suggest dedicating 15 minutes a day to marketing, please understand this is just a start.

Many lawyers won’t do more more than that. But some lawyers, the ones who are good at marketing and are getting lots of new business as a result, may find it more profitable to continue doing what they’re doing and delegate more legal work.

Which is what I did in my practice. It allowed me to multiply my income and reduce my work to three days per week.

Learn more here

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

The first rule of productivity

June 15, 2020 by
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Productivity isn’t about how much you do, or how fast your do it. It’s about the quality of your work.

But it’s difficult to deliver the kind of quality your clients want and expect when your plate is overflowing.

The first rule of productivity is to eliminate most of what you could do, to free up resources to do your most valuable work.

High achievers say “no” to almost everything. You must, too. You might call this the ‘prime directive’ in the achievement universe.

Cut out most of the tasks and projects on your lists. Say no to most of the requests from others. Do less than you think you could do, so you’ll have time and energy to excel at the few things that matter most.

When you do less, you can do more of what you do best. You’ll have more time to improve your most valuable skills, develop key relationships, and work on your most promising projects.

Eliminate practice areas that don’t excite you. Let go of marginal clients and cases. Stop marketing to “everyone”.

When you do less, your days are less crowded. You may not crank out as much work or close as many cases, but you’ll earn more because the quality of your work will attract better clients and bigger cases.

Years ago, when I decided to do less, it was hard to let go. I thought I could do it gradually, but that didn’t work. What worked was doing it all at once.

I eliminated practice areas and stopped taking certain clients. For awhile, I had much less work to do.

It was frightening, but liberating. I was free to build the kind of practice I wanted. And I did, faster than I thought was possible.

My income multiplied, I had more time for other areas of my life, and I was happier.

If you want to be more productive and more successful, do less.

This will help you focus

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Productivity, success

One new client

June 12, 2020 by
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If marketing is on your mind, you’re probably thinking about ways to quickly bring in a metric ton of new clients.

We all do that. We want to go big and go fast, because we’re busy and we like to maximize our time and money.

But that kind of thinking can lead to frustration and poor results.

Because it’s not easy to do what you want to do, and it forces you to compete against some tough hombres who will show you no mercy.

I propose a different approach.

Instead of searching for the Holy Grail of marketing ideas, get quiet and think about what you can do to get just one.

Because one new client is all you really need.

How so?

If you find a way to bring in one new client, you can use that tactic over and over again, in different ways and in different markets, and get a steady stream of new clients.

If you write a blog post that brings in a new client, for example, you can re-use that post to bring in more.

You can update it and publish it again. You can re-write it and optimize the keywords for different markets. You can re-purpose it by turning it into a ebook or other lead magnet.

If you find a new client via a networking event or social media group, your own or someone else’s, you can put more effort into that event or group and get more clients.

Fish where there are fish and you’ll get more fish.

Of course, the other reason one new client is all you need is that the new client can lead you to others.

The new client can refer others. They can introduce you to professionals they know who might work with you and send you business. They can promote your event, share your content, and help you build your list by sending traffic to your site.

One new client can lead you to 100 new clients.

To get big, think small. Try lots of ideas and pay attention. When you find something that works, do it again.

You can build a big practice this way.

I built my business with email. You can, too.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

It’s like referrals but without the sweaty palms

June 11, 2020 by
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Do you know any attorneys who could send you referrals but don’t? How about accountants, financial planners, insurance or real estate brokers?

You could ask them for referrals but. . . it makes you nervous. Okay, forget about that (for now). There’s something else you can do.

You can talk to them about a marketing alliance, where both of you benefit.

It’s a simple way for two parties to increase the reach of their marketing, reduce their costs, or both.

The result: more clients. Probably better clients, because the client finds out about you from a trusted source, just like a referral.

A simple example:

You send an email to your list and recommend the other professional’s services, webinar, or free report. They do the same for you.

Another simple example:

You interview said professional for your newsletter or blog, podcast or video channel, mention their special offer or book, and provide a link thereto. They do the same for you.

Another simple example:

You invite the other professional to write a guest post for your blog or newsletter; yep, you do the same thing for theirs.

Can you see how simple this is? And how it could bring in a lot of new clients?

Start with professionals you know who have a practice that’s a good fit for yours.

But don’t stop there. There are thousands more where they came from.

You can learn how to find them (and exactly what to say) in my Lawyer-to-Lawyer Referrals course. Details here

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Filed Under: Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With: ,
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