My wife doesn’t make to-do lists. And yet she gets a ton of stuff every day. She seems to know what to do and she gets it done.
How? You’re asking the wrong guy. I’m the guy who loves to make lists, try out different apps and different systems for managing my lists.
How about you? Are you a list maker? Or are you more like my wife and usually know what to do?
You know what? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we get our most important things done.
There seems to be a growing trend against the primacy of the to-list. I see articles that say “to-do lists don’t work” or to-do lists cause us to emphasize quantity over quality, or we should use our calendar to schedule our entire day.
I say, do what works for you (and quit spending so much time reading articles about lists).
Let’s say this is to-do list for today:
–Call Max to schedule lunch for next week.
–Review/respond to email.
–Pick up dry cleaning.
–Review lease for Smith.
–Meet with Sally about changes to website.
–Prep for Anderson trial.
–Order new desk lamp.
–Review/edit Blackthorne amendments.
–Finish laundry.
It should be clear that prepping for the upcoming Anderson trial is the most important thing on this list.
It’s the “one thing” that has to be done today. Everything else is number two.
And nobody needs an app to tell them that.
Are you the one?
How do you get clients to see you as their one and only?
The one they always turn to when they need help?
The one who’s content they regularly consume and regularly share. The one they provide with positive reviews and testimonials. The one they talk about to everyone they know.Â
By doing good work? Providing great “customer service”? Delivering more value than they expect?
Yes, you need to do these things. But doing them isn’t enough.
Maybe for some, but not for others.
No, if you want to get a preponderance of your clients to see you as “the one” and become life-long clients and fans, you need to do something else.
You need to show them that they are “the one” for you.
In every way you can, show them that you are dedicated to your client and others like him. Show him that you focus on attracting and working with clients like him and you are committed to that cause.
In other words, once you have identified a profile of your “ideal client,” let your clients who fit that profile know it.
“You’re the type of client I like to work with. You’re the type of client I’m dedicated to serving. Here’s why.”
And then, with everything you do, show your ideal clients why they are “the one” for you.
This shows you how to identify your ideal client
I don’t know, stop asking me
I’m playing around with a “time management” app I used many years ago. It was updated recently and so far I like what I see.
This, after many years of trying more apps than I can count and always coming back to Evernote.
Who knows, I may finally make a “permanent” switch.
But that’s not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about something I’ve been thinking as I transfer tasks from Evernote to the other app.
As I re-create the projects and underlying tasks in the old/new app, I have to make decisions about them.
Lots of decisions–about which projects should be front and center, which tasks should be “next actions,” which tasks should get a due date and what that date should be.
You have to decide what you want to accomplish.
You have to decide what to do next.
You have to decide when you will do it.
You know the routine.
Because you do, you know how easy it is to get overwhelmed with all those decisions.
It’s why we tend to drift away from what we’re doing and look for a better system.
Indecision causes stress and drains energy. In GTD parlance, unmade decisions (or rashly made ones, I suppose), are called “open loops”.
Open loops nag you and call you names. So you keep giving them attention when you should be doing other things.
If this sounds painfully familiar, I have a suggestion: Decide not to decide.
Decide that you don’t have to make a decision right now and schedule a future “review” date, where you will review the task or project and decide what to do about it.
Until then, you won’t think about it.
Assign a “start date” instead of a “due date”. When the start date arrives, do your review.
When you decide not to make a decision you are actually making a decision. When you become comfortable postponing decisions, you close open loops, gain clarity, and reduce your stress level.
Don’t let your tasks push you around. Tell them to go away–for now.
Have you seen my free referral course? Check it out
I don’t wanna
I don’t want to do it. I’m tired. Not feeling it. I’ve got other things to do.
Yeah, me too.
We tell ourselves we’d rather be at the movies or get a few more zzzzz’s or we pine for the good old days, but since we’re adults, we suck it up and do what we have to do.
We’ve got bills to pay and people to please. So we do it. Whether we feel like it or not.
Snap, crackle, pop, the day is over and we’re glad we didn’t give up and let our pouting inner child have their way.
What happened?
I saw this quote today that suggests an answer:
“Motivation follows action. Get started, and you’ll find your motivation follows…â€
Sounds good but I don’t think it’s true.
We get started because we have bills to pay and people to please. That’s our motivation.
It’s not about the pleasure of a good day’s work. It’s all about pain.
The pain of not paying the bills and the consequences thereof outweighs the pain of doing things we don’t feel like doing.
When our inner child is having a tantrum and doesn’t want to do their homework, promising them an extra hour of TV if they finish might work, but in my experience, what works better is the threat of NO TV if they don’t.
Here’s how to get more lawyer-to-lawyer referrals
How much is my case worth?
I watch a lot of Evernote videos. Even when you know as much as (I think) I know, you can always learn something new.
In one video, a young woman starts out by telling her Evernote story–how she got started in 2013, how she has “so many” notes and how “it takes a lot of effort to keep everything organized”.
I’m closing in on 11,000 notes. I’m always interested in what others do to organize their notes.
Anyway, about midway through the video, the woman says that she has around 240 notes.
For her, that’s “so many”. That’s “a lot to keep organized”.
I got to thinking. I do that sometimes. I thought about how one person’s “so many” is another person’s “so what?”
I thought about how when we’re speaking to a client or witness and they tell us they’re in a lot of pain or they missed a lot of time from work or someone owes them a lot of money, we don’t write down “a lot” on our legal pads, do we?
We ask questions.
We are in the clarity and precision business. We assume nothing, ask lots of questions, and nail things down. Then, just to make sure, we go back and ask the same questions again.
A lot of people think we’re a big pain in the ass.
It’s ironic. Attorneys value clarity and precision and yet are often unclear and imprecise in their marketing and in answering a client’s questions, such as when the work will be done or how much their case is worth.
Because we don’t want to be pinned down.
Hey, we may be a pain in the ass but we’re not stupid.
How to get “a lot” of referrals
Too much business, not enough revenue
A lawyer tells me, “I have too much business and not enough revenue. I feel that I am working myself to death.”
Ah, yes. Overworked and underpaid. I haven’t talked to every lawyer in the world, so I can’t be sure, but I suspect this is a common problem.Â
He continued:
“Everything I take on seems to expand in complexity and it is hard to get the work done. I have hired assistants in the past but they don’t seem to work out very well.”
Okay, class. What would you suggest to this fellow traveler?
Mike?
“He needs to keep hiring assistants until he finds someone who works out.”
Yes!
I know finding and training people can be a frustrating experience, but it’s not impossible. You have to keep looking.
Use an agency to screen people. Be willing to pay more to get top talent. Hire temps until you do.
You can’t do all the work yourself or you will always be overworked and underpaid.
However, before our friend does this, he needs to do something else. Anyone?
Mary: “He needs to increase his fees.”
Bingo! Gold star, Mary. We’ve got some very smart people in this class.
Increasing his fees will simultaneously increase his revenue and decrease his workload. That’s what they call a twofer.Â
Unless. . . well, sometimes, when you charge more you get more work, not less. You get better clients who are willing to pay more and they give you lots of work.
How about we put that aside for now. Any other ideas?
Jerry?
“What kind of practice does he have? If he doesn’t specialize, he should. It will simplify his work and attract better-paying clients because clients prefer specialists.”
That’s right. Good advice.
Well, I see our time is up for today. Excellent ideas for our friend. I’ll pass them along.
Okay, no homework tonight, guys. See you tomorrow.
How to earn more without working more
Spinning your wheels
Did you ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere? You’re putting in time and effort but not making progress towards your goals?
Of course. We’ve all been there at some point in our life. Probably more than once.
What happened? What did you do to move forward?
Did you improve your knowledge or skills? Get some advice or help from someone with more experience? Work harder or invest more capital?
Maybe you did. Or maybe you just gave it more time and eventually figured things out.
Some would say that continuing to do the same things over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.
I don’t buy it.
For one thing, the more you work–let’s say at your legal career–the more opportunities you have to “get lucky”.
To meet the one client or business connection that becomes a turning point for you. Or to win that one case that provides you with enough capital and confidence to take you to a higher level.
These things happen. Hang around long enough and they can happen for you.
But there’s something else going on.
As you continue to work, whether you see it happening or not, you continue to learn and improve your skills. Every time you do what you do you get feedback that allows you to make small changes.
Those changes might be as minuscule as using a few different words when meeting someone or changing the order in which you deliver a presentation or a closing argument.
Tiny things that don’t seem to matter. Tiny things you don’t know you’re doing.
Those tiny things combine with other tiny things, compound, and eventually change you. As you change, so do your results.
So, take some classes or get some help if you want to. Or, keep riding the painted pony and let those
Either way, you can get where you want to go.
How to get more referrals
No ideas? No problem
You want more business but you’re fresh out of ideas. You don’t know what to do.Â
Don’t worry. The fact is, you don’t need any ideas.
Nothing original, anyway. Find something that’s working for someone else and copy it.
Ideas are free. And (usually) non-proprietary. Find a lawyer who is bringing in business and do what they’re doing.
Your best bet? Your direct competition. They’ve proven that what they’re doing is working for their (your) practice area and your market.
Second best, a lawyer in a similar practice area or market.
Original ideas are rare. And unnecessary. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel.
Find something someone else is doing that aligns with what you’re doing, or want to do, and feels like a good fit. Something that fits your personality, budget, and work style.
Don’t try to improve the idea, however. You might mess it up. Copy it exactly. Later, when it’s working for you, too, you can tinker with it and make it better.
Right now, go talk to some lawyers. Observe them. Study them. Read their blogs, their ads, their websites.
You don’t need ideas. U
Just in case, here are some great ideas
Give it away, give it away, give it away, now
Some lawyers are concerned that if they give away too much information–through a blog or newsletter or other means–the people who consume that information won’t need to hire them.
“I’m paid for my knowledge and experience and I’m not going to give that away,” they say. “If they want information, they need to hire me.”
But here’s the thing.
It’s true that some people will take your information and never hire you. They’ll use that information and do the job themselves. But that’s a very small percentage of the whole and those people are unlikely to ever hire you anyway so you lose nothing.
Some people will do the job themselves, mess up–because they can’t do what you do even if you tell them how to do it, and hire you to fix their mess. You’ll get more business this way, not less.
And some people will see that it would be too difficult or time-consuming or risky to do the job themselves and hire you. They might not have done that had they not seen your information.
In other words, giving away information helps you get more clients because:
It educates prospective clients about the scope of their problem, the risks of ignoring it or trying to handle it themselves,
It demonstrates your knowledge, experience, and ability to help them solve their problem,
It distinguishes you from other lawyers who say, “If you want information, hire me,”
It attracts people who find your information through search or sharing, thus increasing the pool of prospective clients for your services, and
It sells them on choosing you because they get to hear your “voice” in that information and see what it would be like to have you represent them.
If you’re smart, and I know you are, you’ll give away lots of information, and let that information do most of your marketing for you.
What information you should put on your website





