How to build a successful appellate practice

October 21, 2015 by
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When I was a brand-new, wet-behind-the-ears attorney, I had a case that went up on appeal. I wrote the brief and argued it before the state appellate court. I lost, but I thoroughly enjoy the experience and remember thinking it would cool to have an appellate-only practice.

I never achieved that, but I recently interviewed an attorney who did.

Steve Emmert is a Virginia attorney who built an appellate-only practice when other lawyers told him he couldn’t. He went on to become one of the most successful appellate attorneys in the Virginia.

This morning, I published a short Kindle ebook with the complete transcript of that interview. You can download it for just .99 cents, or free if you have Kindle Unlimited.

And you should download it, even if you don’t do appeals or have no interest in doing so.

In the interview, Mr. Emmert shares advice for building a successful law practice that applies to any practice area. Go look at the sales page and you’ll see what I mean.

Please let me know that you downloaded the book, and please leave a review. And if you know any appellate lawyers or lawyers who would like to have an appellate practice, please tell them about the book.

But there’s another reason why you should grab this book. You will see how easy it is to turn an interview into an ebook, something every attorney should do.

A book like this can bring traffic to your website. It can bring you new clients and new referral sources. It can lead to new speaking and networking opportunities, and it can help you build your list.

In fact, I’m writing a book on how to that. (Stay tuned).

Get How to Build a Successful Appellate Practice

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Writing Tagged With: ,

Don’t be an Askhole

October 20, 2015 by
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I learned a new word today: Askhole. It means, “A person who continually asks for your advice and then always does the opposite of what you told them.”

You’ve got clients like that, right? So you know how frustrating it is to give them your expert (and expensive) advice only to see them ignore it.

Even lawyers do it. In fact, lawyers probably do it more than regular folks. I’ve done hundreds of consultations with lawyers who seek out my advice, pay for it, and then, I’m pretty sure, do nothing.

Oh well. As long as their check cleared.

Here’s what’s interesting. I can almost always tell that they’re not going to follow my advice at the very moment I’m giving it to them.

They’re only half listening. They’re not asking questions or writing anything down. They’re going through the motions of getting advice but their voice tells me they aren’t going to follow it.

Why? Because they don’t want to.

They don’t want to change what they’re doing. They don’t want to hear that they’ve been doing something wrong. In fact, I suspect that many lawyers hire me not because they want to learn something but because they want me to validate what they’re currently doing.

When I don’t, they stick their fingers in their ears and say, “la la la, I can’t hear you.”

Does it bother me? Hey, I’m not their mother. I can’t make them follow my advice.

Okay, it is frustrating. But when I talk to a lawyer who “gets it,” it makes it all worthwhile.

Last week, I did a consultation with a personal injury attorney who wanted my help with his advertising and his website. The ads he’s been running for a long time aren’t doing as well as before. Within 30 seconds, I knew what the problem was and told him what to do.

Problem diagnosed. Problem solved.

I don’t know if he’ll follow all of my advice, but I’m pretty sure he’ll do what I suggested about his ad and website. I could hear it in his voice. He got it. It made sense to him. I could almost hear his palm slapping his forehead.

While there’s no guarantee that it will work, at least he’s got something to try. Which is better than being an Askhole and doing nothing.

Fix your website and make the phone ring

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Mentors & Coaches, Personal development

Word of mouth referrals: How to get your clients talking about you

October 19, 2015 by
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How do you get your clients talking about you? The answer is simple. Give them something to talk about.

Most of the positive word of mouth you will receive about you and your services will come from providing your clients with a great client experience. I’m not just talking about the work you do. I’m talking about the way you make your clients feel.

Appreciated. Hopeful. Protected.

The same goes for your prospects and business contacts. They talk about you, too. Their referrals count.

Make people feel so good about themselves and their decision to hire you or associate with you that they feel compelled to tell someone about you.

But don’t stop there.

Make it easy for them to talk about you and send you referrals. Equip them to do a good job of spreading the gospel.

Tell them what to say. Give them “sound bites” they can use to describe you and what you do–the problems you solve, your ideal clients, why you are the best lawyer for the job.

Give them tools they can use to show people why you’re the one to choose:

  • A great website, with lots of helpful content
  • Reports and ebooks and videos they can hand out or share online.
  • Emails they can forward; social media posts they can like and share.
  • A stack of your business cards to hand out when they meet someone who might need your help.

Then, when someone does send you referrals or traffic or mentions you on social, say thank you. send them a thank you note, and if appropriate, thank them publicly, too. Showing appreciation for what they do is the best way to show them you appreciate them, and the best way to get them to do again.

What else?

Ask for referrals. This can be as simple as saying, “Here are some of my cards. When you talk to someone who needs X, please give them a card.” It can be as simple as asking them share your post, forward your email, or allow them to invite people they know to your free webinar.

Finally, stay in touch with them. Let them know when you add something to your website. Share other people’s content you find online. Update them about your interesting new case or client.

Keep your name in front of them, reminding them that you still exist and you’re still helping people solve legal problems.

Getting word of mouth referrals is really that simple. Can you do more? Yes. But if do these things, you probably won’t have to.

Here’s everything you need to get referrals from lawyers and other professionals

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Referrals

Are you too good at your job?

October 16, 2015 by
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Your clients want you to solve their problems. The quicker you can do that, the better, right?

Maybe not.

If you’re too good at your work, if you finish too quickly and display an apparent lack of effort, your clients may not appreciate your superior ability and may object to the amount you charge.

Psychologist Dan Ariely tells a story about a locksmith who told him that as he got better at his job, his customers didn’t value what he was able to do.

“He was tipped better when he was an apprentice and it took him longer to pick a lock,” he said. “Now that it takes him only a moment, his customers complain that he is overcharging and they don’t tip him.”

“What this reveals is that consumers don’t value goods and services solely by their utility, benefit from the service, but also a sense of fairness relating to how much effort was exerted,” Ariely explains.

So what should you do if you’re too good at your job?

Perform some magic. A little slight of hand.

Don’t let clients know that you did the work without breaking a sweat. If you can prepare a document in 30 minutes, because you have the forms and because you’ve done it 100 times before, consider holding onto it for a few days before sending it to the client. Let them think that you worked and re-worked the document to get it just right.

Caveat number one: Don’t lie. It’s okay if they think you took three days to do it, but don’t tell them you did. Also, if you bill by the hour, obviously you shouldn’t bill for more time than you actually took. (Yet another argument in favor of jettisoning the billable hour.)

Caveat number two: Don’t overdo it. Many clients do see a benefit to your ability to get the work done quickly. In fact, quick turnaround might be a marketing point of differentiation for you. So don’t drag things out.

The best course of action is to manage your clients’ expectations. Under-promise so you can over-deliver. If you can do it in 30 minutes, promise to deliver it in a week. Then, deliver it in three or four days.

Marketing legal services is easier when you have a plan

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing, Image, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Salesmanship

Stop trying to make everyone like you

October 15, 2015 by
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Believe it or not, some people don’t like me. Okay, maybe it’s not me they don’t like, they don’t like my writing.

They think my ideas “aren’t for them”. My writing style makes them uncomfortable. They don’t think I understand them or can help them.

You know what? I don’t care.

For one thing, I never hear from them. They quietly leave my email list or stop visiting my blog. They’re gone, like a fart in the wind, and will probably never return.

The other reason I don’t care is that they aren’t my target market. I don’t write to them, or for them. If they don’t “grok” me, they probably don’t trust me and my ideas and thus they aren’t going to hire me or recommend me.

If I cared about what they thought and tried to appeal to them, I would have to water down my style or homogenize my ideas. If I did that, I would be doing a disservice to the ones who do like me: my prospects and clients.

So, I ignore them and continue to do my thang. And the more I do that, the more I attract people who like what I say because they know I’m talking to them.

One of the reasons I pound on the idea of targeting niche markets instead of marketing to “everyone” is that it allows you to connect with the people in that niche on a deeper level. By your examples and stories and yes, even your style of writing, they think, “he gets me”. That synergy leads to more clients, more referrals, and more positive word of mouth.

That doesn’t happen when you try to please everyone.

Seth Godin put it this way recently:

When we hold back and dumb down, we are hurting the people who need to hear from us, often in a vain attempt to satisfy a few people who might never choose to actually listen.

It’s quite okay to say, “it’s not for you.”

Write to the people who get you. Ignore the ones who don’t.

Marketing is easier when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Communication, Marketing legal services, Presentations, Public Speaking, Referrals, Writing

Don’t say thank you unless you mean it

October 14, 2015 by
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I’m on an email list. The owner of the list is a successful entrepreneur who offers his own products and other products for which he is a commissioned affiliate.

Nothing wrong with that. But like many marketers, the only emails he sends me are sales pitches. Buy this, watch this video (and then buy this), last chance to buy this, and so on.

Again, nothing wrong with sales pitches. Sales make the world go round. The problem is that he never sends me anything else.

No information I could use in my business. No valuable content. No ideas. Not even anything interesting to read that might make a pleasant diversion.

Just pitches.

As a result, he’s always just a hair away from losing my subscription.

If he sent educational information in addition to the pitches, he would sell more products, and not just because more people would stay on his list.

More people would read his emails, and look forward to them, because they know they’re going to read something valuable or interesting. Now, I’m guessing that most people delete most of his emails, as I do.

More people would also trust his recommendations because he wouldn’t simply be the deliverer of advertising material, he would be a mentor or adviser.

Why don’t I leave his list? Because occasionally he recommends something that catches my eye and I do go and look at it. That may change, however, the next time I do an email subscription purge, or I’m in a bad mood.

One more thing. At the end of every email, before his signature, he closes by saying, “As always, thanks for supporting our site!”

Ugh.

What’s wrong with that? Isn’t he just being polite?

Well, when you say thank you to everyone every time you write to them, it makes “thank you” meaningless. It’s a throwaway line, a marketing gimmick, not a sincere expression of gratitude.

Say thanks when I buy something. Say thanks when I pay you a compliment or do something for you. Say thanks when you appreciate something I’ve done, and show me that you mean it.

Here’s another thing he doesn’t get. If I buy something from him, I am not doing it to support his site. I’m doing it because I see value in what’s being offered. Nothing more, nothing less. Like any consumer, I do what’s best for me and mine. I care about us, not you.

But here’s where it gets interesting.

If he was sending me valuable content instead of nothing but pitches, I would be grateful to him for that. If I was also interested in the product being offered, I would probably buy it from him instead of anyone else. (I’m on a lot of lists in this niche). I would “support” him because I appreciated the benefits I was getting from his content.

It works the same way for marketing legal services.

When you offer the same services as other lawyers, more clients will choose you if you give them value, not just sales pitches.

How to bring in more client via email: Click here

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Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing

Goals are a bitch

October 13, 2015 by
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Goals can be a demanding and unforgiving bitch. You do what you’re told, or rather what you said you would do, or there’s hell to pay.

Who needs that?

Yes, you want what you want, and yes, you’re willing to do the work to get it, but who needs an overseer? Who needs the pressure of “do or not do” when you might only want to try?

I write down my goals, but more and more I focus on something else. Something that helps me reach my goals without making my life miserable along the way.

Instead of focusing on the goal, I focus on the process. Instead of focusing on the results, I focus on the activity.

After all, it’s the activities that bring the results.

But to do the activities long enough (and get good at them) you have to find peace with the process. Or else you won’t stick with it. Or if you do, you might get the results but come to hate what you’re doing and burn out or get ulcers or ruin your marriage.

You can’t say, “Once I get what I want, I’ll be happy”. It doesn’t work that way. You have to be happy, first.

Author James Clear said,

“. . .if you look at the people who are consistently achieving their goals, you start to realize that it’s not the events or the results that make them different. It’s their commitment to the process. They fall in love with the daily practice, not the individual event. . . If you want to become significantly better at anything, you have to fall in love with the process of doing it. . . Fall in love with boredom. Fall in love with repetition and practice. Fall in love with the process of what you do and let the results take care of themselves.”

And they will take care of themselves. Or they won’t, but you’ll be happy nevertheless because you’re doing something you love.

Use this to create a simple plan (i.e., one that you will do)

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Goal Setting, Personal development, success

How do you know you’re making the right decision?

October 12, 2015 by
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Sometimes I get ideas and they work right from jump street. Everything falls into place and the finished project looks very much like what I envisioned when I first got the idea.

But that’s the exception, not the rule.

Usually, my first idea turns out very differently than I imagined. Once I start working on it, I realize that I’ve missed things or that the entire idea is defective.

I’m working on a new book and I’ve been struggling with how to slant it. There are two completely different markets I could write for and I didn’t know which to choose. (For the record, attorneys are one of them).

I thought about it and decided to write the book so that both markets could benefit from it. Problem solved. But it wasn’t. As I thought about it some more, I realized that one market was a much better choice than the other.

Then I thought, why not write two books? The two markets are different but I could easily take the material and adapt it for both.

I noodled about the problem for a few days but couldn’t decide. Back and forth I went, but nothing felt like the right choice.

Finally, I made (another) decision. I would write the book for the non-attorney market since that was the more logical choice.

Well, you can probably guess what happened. After a good night’s sleep, out of nowhere, another idea came to me. Strangely, this idea focuses on a completely different angle and market than what I had been considering. Even stranger, and better, is that the book can appeal to both of the two original markets and another completely different market that might be even better.

Weird, huh? But cool.

How do I know it’s the right decision? I just do. It feels right. When I think about it, I feel lighter, like a burden has been lifted. I can’t wait to work on it. Also, it feels like this book will be easier to write, that it will flow quickly and naturally because I’m not trying to make it do something, I’m letting it do what it wants to do.

Like I said, weird.

If you’ve ever struggled with making the right decision, the answer isn’t to try to think your way through it. The answer is to relax and let it go. Get away from the subject for a while and let your subconscious mind work on it.

In your heart and your gut, the right answer exists. Give it time and allow it to bubble to the surface. When it does, it will let you know that it has arrived.

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity, success Tagged With:

My secret obsession

October 9, 2015 by
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I’ve got a confession. I am obsessed with something right now and I can’t seem to let it go.

Every day, lately, I have been indulging my obsession. Watching videos, mostly. No, nothing kinky. I am obsessed with high-end voice dictation recorders. Especially the top-of-the-line units from Olympus and Philips.

See, I’d been thinking about buying a digital audio recorder, for notes and to dictate books and blog posts. I found that there is an entire universe of audio recording options–for recording music, for recording lectures and meetings and interviews, and for dictation.

Great. If you want to keep me busy, just give me lots of options.

Anyway, I studied what was available, and learned more about audio recording than I will ever need to know. I had dismissed the high-end units, because they are expensive ($500 and up) and have a lot of features I don’t need. But then I saw that they have a feature I really want and can’t get from (most) of the more modestly priced units.

The high-end recorders have a sliding switch on the side of the unit that allows you to use your thumb to rewind and fast forward, which means you don’t have to take the recorder away from your mouth when you are dictating. In addition, they allow you to “record over” and/or “insert” dictation anywhere in the audio file.

You can make corrections on the fly. Just like you can on many (most?) desktop dictation machines and microphones. Just like the one I used to own.

Without these functions, when you make a mistake or want to add something, you have to just keep recording.

Now, you may be thinking I’m a nutter for obsessing over this, but it’s important to me. Maybe because I cut my teeth on dictation and I know what a difference in productivity this capability delivers. Or maybe you’re thinking, yes, this makes sense, why don’t you just go ahead and pick up one of those high-end units and stop annoying me.

But here’s the thing. I realized that I don’t need to buy anything, I have an app on my iPhone that does what I want.

The app is called “Dictate + Connect” (formerly “Dictamus”) and it is heralded by legions of lawyers and other professionals. I’ve had it for years but used it only sporadically because I haven’t been dictating. Now that I’m using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for transcription, I can use the app when I’m away from my desk.

Dictate + Connect allows you to record over and insert into existing recordings. It also allows you to select a section of your recording and delete it or move it elsewhere. I can edit my dicatation on my phone before I send it to my desktop to be transcribed.

The app does everything I need it to do. I can live with the absence of a side switch. I’ve ordered a new headset microphone so I can hold the iPhone in my hand and work the controls while I continue to dictate.

So, I had the solution in my pocket all along. If you share my obsession, or you want to have another option available for notes and dictation, check it out in the app store (iOS and Android). You can download a free version with full capability but limited recording length and try it out.

Okay, that is all. I’ve got some dictation to do. And maybe a video or two to watch.

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Filed Under: Productivity, Technology, Writing

Everyone is an entrepreneur. Including you.

October 8, 2015 by
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It doesn’t matter whether you’re employed or self-employed, you are an entrepreneur.

Deal with it.

You are an entrepreneur because every day, you take risks with your career. You may get fired today. Your partnership may break up. Your biggest client may leave you.

You are in sales, too. You sell your services (and yourself) to an employer or to individual clients. Every day, you sell or re-sell yourself on getting and staying hired.

But every day you also have the opportunity for gain. You may get a raise. You may get a big case. You may start to embrace marketing and double your income.

Risk and reward. The yin and yang of the entrepreneur. The only question is, how much risk are you willing to take?

You do know that a job doesn’t mean safety or security? In fact, it means just the opposite. You don’t control your fate. Others do. Just ask people who lost their job two years ago and are still unemployed.

Starting your own practice or business isn’t risk free, of course, but if you fail, you will at least have a skill set that allows you to start over.

In fact, the very act of failing makes you more likely to succeed the next time. The greatest risks are often borne by those who have never failed.

Venture capitalist Ben Narasin says that he sometimes funds startups run by people who have never failed at anything. He says,

Sometimes these prove to be the founders most likely to fail. They’re likely to fail exactly because they are afraid of doing so. They’re so used to winning, so used to the orderly, structured, achievable goals… conquerable by brain power and effort alone, that they are ill-prepared for the entirely messy reality of entrepreneurship.

Being an entrepreneur is messy. You might fail. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Building a law practice is easier when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Salesmanship, success
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