Are you investing in yourself?

June 15, 2015 by
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Among other things, The 80/20 Principle, one of my favorite books on the subject, tells us to “pursue those few things where you are amazingly better than others and that you enjoy most.” Do them to the exclusion of other things you’re not as good at.

Another author puts it this way: “Do very few things, but be awesome at them.”

To do this, you must work on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Figure out what you do best and find ways to do it even better.

I do a lot of writing. It’s one of my strengths. I invest in getting better at it by reading books and blogs about writing, watching videos, listening to podcasts, and making sure I work at it every day.

I also invest in tools that help me write better and faster. I’ve mentioned Scrivener before and told you that I now do all my long-form writing in it.

I got a new chair recently that helps me sit longer. It helps me get more writing done because I don’t need to take as many breaks.

Yesterday, I went out and looked at mechanical keyboards. (They’re in the “gaming” section.) I’ve been reading about these for awhile and I’m about ready to order one. I’m told they help you type faster and with fewer typos. They also last longer than the rubber membrane keyboards found on most laptops and computer desktops. I like the tactile feel of these keyboards, and the clicky sound they make. (You can get ones that don’t make that sound, if you prefer.)

After that, I’ll probably look at external monitors. A bigger screen will allow me to look at two documents at one time, instead of having to switch back and forth. Maybe dual monitors is the thing.

For a long time now, I’ve been using the track pad on my laptop. I might start using a mouse again.

It’s all about getting that edge. Making a good thing even better.

How about you? What do you do best? How are you investing in yourself to get better?

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

Marketing is NOT just a numbers game

June 12, 2015 by
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Attorney Bruce Stachenfeld writes that marketing is unpredictable and random. You don’t know who will respond to anything you do so the best thing to do is to have more interactions with more people.

Spend more time “out and about,” he says, interacting with more people, and let the results come as they may.

He’s right, but only to a point. You don’t know who will hire you, provide referrals or introductions, or otherwise help you, so the more interactions you have, the more chances you have to “make rain”.

He doesn’t mention interactions with people via other methods–social media, speaking, articles, blogging, advertising, direct mail, and so on, but I assume he would agree that those count. Get yourself and your message in front of more people and you’ll get more business.

But it’s not that simple. It’s not just a numbers game. Not even close. Who you interact with, either personally or via another medium, is often more important than how many.

Dance with the wrong people and you’ll forever spin your wheels. Dance with the right people and you not only increase the odds of something happening, you increase the odds that when it does, it can happen on a much bigger scale.

If you are an estate planning lawyer and you want high income clients, doesn’t it make more sense to network with financial advisers who have well-to-do clients, rather than school teachers?

And then there is your methodology. The strength of your marketing materials, how your offer is packaged, how well your message is articulated and delivered, your follow-up sequence, your salesmanship, and many other factors, all affect your outcomes.

When you meet people, your interpersonal skills, grooming, likability, and other factors, are also key.

Stachenfeld, who has a math background, says,

“Mathematically, spending twenty-four working hours writing an article may not be as useful as spending those twenty-four hours doing other things, like contacting people to talk about ideas, getting together with them, calling others or even playing a round of golf.”

Maybe. Maybe not.

Maybe you aren’t that good at networking. Maybe you hate golf. And maybe the article you spent extra time crafting hits all the right buttons and you get ten new clients from it within a few days.

Marketing is a numbers game. Math is a part of it. But so is art.

How to get better results from your marketing

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services, Networking, Referrals

Want to sell more legal services? Stop trying so hard.

June 11, 2015 by
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According to a study by Twitter, tweets that don’t include a #hashtag or @ mention generate 23% more clicks than tweets that do.

Read that again. It’s important. Even if you don’t use Twitter for marketing.

“After missing Wall Street revenue estimates, Twitter released a study advising people on how to use one of its new ad units — direct response ads. While this study is geared towards advertisers, it may also prove to be good practical advice when posting any kind of tweet that’s designed to drive a specific result, such as clicking on a link to your website or sales page.”

The theory is that other clickable parts of a tweet are distracting users from clicking on the link you want them to click. Twitter’s Anne Mercogliano says this doesn’t mean you should avoid using hashtags completely, however:

“If you’re trying to join a conversation, you should absolutely use a hashtag… But for driving for a specific click that you’re looking for off Twitter, the less noise that you put in between [the better].”

Why is this an important lesson even if you don’t use Twitter? Two reasons.

First, I agree that giving people too many choices can lower overall click-through rate–in your tweets, ads, emails, on your web pages, or any other form of marketing. If you give prospective clients in your office too many options for hiring you, for example, you may increase the odds of them choosing not to hire you at all.

(Or they might make a poor choice due to “decision fatigue”.)

The other reason for lower click-throughs is that prospects respond better to advertising that doesn’t look like advertising. If your tweet looks like an ad, a commercial effort rather than a friendly sharing of information, people are more likely to ignore it or see it as less trustworthy.

In other words, you’ll get fewer click-throughs if it looks like you’re trying too hard to get people to do something.

I’m not suggesting you avoid a call to action in your content. Not at all. You need to tell people what to do. But be aware that if you try too hard, especially on social media which has been traditionally been ad-free, you may get fewer people doing what you want them to do.

Sell more legal services online. Go here

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Filed Under: Advertising, Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Social media marketing

How I beat the clock and became more productive

June 10, 2015 by
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I was a clock watcher in school. I watched the clock and waited for it to tell me I could go to recess or lunch or to another class I hated less. When it got close to the end of the school day, I watched the seconds tick by until the bell rang out and I was set free.

I was bored and frustrated that I had to be somewhere I didn’t want to be, doing things I didn’t want to do.

Maybe you can relate.

Today, I make my own schedule and do the work I want to do. But I am still haunted by that clock.

I’m working on a big project right now. Even though I enjoy the work, as I see the end of the day approaching, as my stomach tells me it’s getting close to dinner time, I mentally start winding down and find myself going into evening mode.

I’m not making as much progress on the project as I want to. I know I could do much more.

It’s the clock, damn it. I worshiped it in school and now it owns my soul. It knows that I don’t have a deadline for this project and it plays with my mind. Sometimes I can hear it laughing at me.

I listen to music, to drown out distractions and keep me from looking at the clock. But my inner clock seems to have synchronized with the external clock-god and as the end of the day approaches, I know it and I start losing steam.

The clock-god wants to control me, but I refuse to bow down to it’s evil ways. Thankfully, I’ve found a way to banish the clock-god from my life.

I found a new clock.

It’s just as tough and demanding on me, but I obey this new clock because it is benevolent and wants me to succeed.

The new clock-god has a name. It’s called a countdown timer.

I decide in advance how much work I want to do each day on the project. Right now, that’s four hours. Before, I probably worked no more than a couple of hours a day on it, and not every day, either.

I know that if I put in four hours a day, I will reach my goal.

I found a site with a simple countdown timer on it. When I start work, I set the timer for four hours and click the start button.

Now, it doesn’t matter if I get distracted. It doesn’t matter what my inner clock tells me. I’ve got four hours to do and I’m not going to call it a day until I’ve put in my time.

When I take a break, I pause the timer. When I get back to work, I start it again. I enjoy watching the timer count down and seeing how much time is left before I’ve hit my daily goal.

Sometimes, if it’s time for dinner and I haven’t put in the full four hours, I go back to work after dinner. Before the countdown timer, I usually didn’t do that. I’d tell myself I was tired and that I would pick things up tomorrow.

Not anymore. The day isn’t over until I’ve put in my time.

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management

The number one factor in marketing legal services

June 9, 2015 by
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When we talk about marketing legal services we say that clients hire and make referrals to lawyers they “know, like, and trust”. Of the three, “know” is the most important.

Trust is essential of course, but not that difficult to obtain. Most people give you the benefit of the doubt regarding your competency and trustworthiness, until you do something to show them why that trust is misplaced.

The biggest factor in your success is familiarity. The more people who know you, or at least recognize your name, the more fruitful will be your marketing and successful will be your career.

In fact, familiarity is what causes most people to give you the benefit of the doubt. Familiarity builds trust. That’s why incumbents are almost always re-elected.

Studies show that the number one factor in email open rates isn’t the subject; that’s number two. The number one factor is the sender’s name. Make sure your emails come from you, not your firm.

Familiarity also means keeping in touch with subscribers and followers on a frequent basis. A short email once a week is much better than a detailed white paper once a year.

Does your firm have a website? That’s fine. Make sure you also have one for yourself (and promote that one).

Your primary objective in marketing your legal services is to get as many people in your target market to know your name.

It’s not about how many people you know; it’s about how many people know you.

How to get more clients online

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Filed Under: Email, Image, Marketing legal services, Publicity

Why you should recommend products and services to your clients

June 8, 2015 by
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Your clients want more from you than your legal advice. They want to know what you recommend in other areas of their life–banking, insurance, cars, and real estate, for example, and the vendors who market them. They may not ask for your advice on these matters but if you offer it, it will surely be welcome.

You’re advice and recommendations save them time and money and help them avoid the risk of making a bad choice. They will appreciate you for providing this information, remember you, come back to you, and tell their friends and colleagues about you.

So when lawyers ask me, “What should I write about on my blog or in my newsletter or on social media?” I tell them to think about what interests them as a consumer and as a business professional.

You don’t always have to write about legal matters. In fact, most people don’t want you to. Mix it up with a smattering of other subjects. Do you like movies? Write some reviews. Do you know something about re-financing a mortgage? Share your tips.

One topic that has legs right now is identity theft, especially in the wake of the recent theft of the personal information of more than 4 million Federal employees. Most people assume this will never happen to them but they’re living in a false paradise. They need to know the truth about their exposure to this pernicious crime, and how to protect themselves. You could supply that information.

I have experience in this field and I can tell you that you can’t “stop” or “prevent” identity theft. All you can do is protect yourself so that when it does occur, you are notified and have experts who repair the damage for you. You need to have that protection in place before the theft occurs, however, or your loss may be excluded as pre-existing.

Following my own advice, I recommend the identity theft plan I have had for the last 12 years. It offers better protection than any other plan I’ve looked at. It’s cheaper, too. But I am biased. I am an affiliate for this company and it’s other services. So are many other attorneys who market these plans to their clients and contacts.

Look at the products and services you use in your practice and in your personal life. Tell people about the ones you recommend, and why.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Increase your income, News, Newsletters Tagged With:

Get more work done by doing it in batches

June 5, 2015 by
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I just saw a video by a very successful Internet marketer who says he works an average of four to eight hours per week. Mondays is work day. He writes his blog posts, records and edits his videos, and does everything else he needs to do for the week. Then he takes the rest of the week off.

This might not work for everyone, he acknowledges, but it works for him. It allows him to finish things more quickly because he gets into the flow of whatever he’s doing, and keeps at it until it’s done.

Could a lawyer do something like this? Probably not, at least to this extent. For one thing, most attorneys put in many more hours than this fellow. We couldn’t get everything done in a day. In addition, much of our work is dictated by other people’s schedules and agendas.

We could use the concept of “batching” our tasks, however, to get certain things done in less time.

For example, we could dedicate a day (or a half day) for all of our writing. We could write a week’s or a month’s worth of blog posts and articles in one stretch of time and have the rest of the week or month for other things.

I haven’t tried this. I typically write a new post each week day and I don’t know what I’m going to write about until I sit down to do it. But I like the idea of cranking out a week’s worth of work in a few contiguous hours. I might give this a try.

I found another Internet marketer who works a full week. He is prodigious, producing tens of thousands of words each week, and claims batching as a key to getting so much done.

How about you? Do you think you might get more done if you designate two afternoons a week for client meetings instead of spreading them throughout the week? Could you block out Tuesday mornings for file review and get most of your week’s dictation done in one or session?

Something to think about?

Now if I can just figure out how to get a year’s worth of work done in a week. . . let me get back to you on that.

Need more clients? Get this

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With:

To dream the impossible dream

June 4, 2015 by
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One of my favorite musical recordings is Richard Kiley singing The Impossible Dream in the original cast performance of “The Man of La Mancha”. Don Quixote sings about his impossible dream and the resolve he brings to attaining it:

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

What is your impossible dream? The one that defines you and your purpose but eludes you?

Perhaps you have dismissed your dream as truly impossible, or banished it to a faraway land called someday.

At some point in your life, your impossible dream filled your thoughts as you fell asleep each night. Perhaps no longer. Perhaps too much has happened and those days are long gone.

Never give up on your dreams. Your dreams are what make life worth living.

It’s time to begin your journey. It’s time, right now, to set forth towards your unreachable star so that when you are laid to rest, your heart will be peaceful and calm.

Go back in your mind to the place where your dream was exciting and real. Remember how exciting that felt and feel that way again. Sing about it. Affirm that nothing will stop you. This is your quest, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far.

To reach your impossible dream, you need that kind of unassailable determination because without it, you won’t get out of your comfort zone and do the things you need to do. You won’t risk rejection and ridicule and you won’t keep going when pain and frustration make you want to give up.

Don Quixote was thought to be crazy. You need to be a little crazy to accomplish your impossible dream.

Then, prepare for the journey. Research, study, practice. Find your Sancho to travel with you.

Or just start. Put one foot in front of the other, and then do it again.

Work on your dream every day until it becomes a part of your routine. John Grisham developed the writing habit by committing to writing every day, even if only 5 minutes, no matter how busy he was with his law practice.

Some days you’ll do a lot. Some days not so much. But if you work on it every day, you will make progress. You’ll get better, and faster. Eventually, your efforts will compound and you will see meaningful progress towards your destination.

Keep going and the pace of your progress will accelerate. Before you know it, what was once an impossible dream will be a foreseeable reality.

You might tilt at windmills along the way, but that’s how you will find your unreachable star.

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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Inspiration Tagged With: ,

Marketing metrics for attorneys

June 3, 2015 by
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When it comes to marketing, I don’t obsess over the numbers. But I don’t ignore them, either. Neither should you.

Tracking numbers allows you to see trends in the growth of your practice. If you’re not growing, you’re dying.

Tracking also allows you to test new ideas and make better decisions about where to spend your time and money. If something isn’t working, you can take steps to fix it. Or abandon it in favor of something else. If something is working, you can look for ways to make it work better.

Every practice is different, of course, but here are the types of marketing metrics you should consider tracking:

  • Traffic to your website(s)–unique visitors, page views, bounce rate,
  • Traffic sources (social, search, keywords, page referrers)
  • Email subscribers-new, total
  • Leads–inquiries, requests for consultation, questions
  • New clients (quantity, fees, source)
  • Source of new clients (ads, referrals, website, individuals)
  • Revenue–first time clients, repeat clients, total
  • Revenue–compared to previous month/quarter/year
  • Revenue per practice area, service
  • Expenses–overhead, variable (e.g., advertising, etc.)
  • Net profit (after draw)
  • Retention–how many clients return/hire you for something else
  • Referrals–quantity, source (from clients, from lawyers, from others)

Some things you track daily. Some weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Some you look at once in awhile.

You probably don’t need to track all of these. You also don’t need to get into the minutia of things like open rates and click through rates. I know I don’t.

I mostly pay attention to two things: the number of new subscribers to my email list and monthly revenue. As long as both are growing, I know I’m doing okay.

How about you? Which of these metrics do you track? What else do you track and why?

Marketing online for attorneys: go here

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Filed Under: Law office management, Legal industry, Leverage, List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing

How to find the time to grow your law practice

June 2, 2015 by
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On my walk yesterday, I listened to an interview with Michael Hyatt on The Smart Passive Income podcast (episode 163). One thing he talked about was how he hired his first outside assistant after he had resisted doing so for a long time.

He told a story about an entrepreneur he knows who had also resisted hiring help. A friend showed him the light.

First, his friend asked how much his time was worth. He estimated $250 an hour. Then the friend asked him to name a task he did in his business that he wasn’t particularly good at. “Updating my website,” he said. The friend asked, “If you did hire someone to update your website for you, would you pay them $250 an hour?”

The entrepreneur said no, of course not. “But that’s exactly what you’re paying now,” his friend said.

Hyatt said that when he realized that a virtual assistant  could free up his time to do the work that he does best, he decided to give it a try. He started slowly and hired someone for just five hours a week.

He quickly realized how much more high-value work this allowed him to do and increased it to ten hours a week. Because he was doing more of what he does best, his business really took off. He now has a stable of employees and virtual assistants who do the work that they do best, allowing him to focus on his strengths.

I thought about that and realized that all of us could find enough tasks in our week to keep a virtual assistant busy for five hours. If the assistant costs $10 an hour, that’s only $50 a week.

Who wouldn’t pay $50 to free up five hours?

What if that allowed you to bill an additional five hours a week? What if you used that time to bring in more clients?

If you want to grow your law practice, this is a place to start. Make a list of things you do that you’re not good at or don’t enjoy and find an assistant who can do them for you.

What will you do with all that extra time?

Learn more ways to leverage your time. Click here

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Productivity Tagged With: ,
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