Grow your law practice by training your creative muscles

May 29, 2014 by
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If you’re like me, you don’t finish every project you start. Not even close.

On your hard drive or in a box in your closet lie countless half-written articles, outlines for seminars that have never seen the light of day, and volumes of clippings related to things you thought you might do someday.

It’s okay. You don’t have to do everything you think of, or finish everything you start.

At some point, though, you have to finish something. Not just because it might be useful to you in your work or another aspect of your life, but because finishing things is the cutting edge of growth.

I know you finish things every day. You settle cases, you draft documents, you produce. But most of what you do in your work is routine and unlikely to lead to anything more than incremental growth.

If we want to take a quantum gigantic leap in our personal and professional life, we need to do things we’ve never done before. We need to create.

Creating strengthens your creative muscles. The more you do, the more you will be able to do. In time, you’ll be able to take on bigger projects, the kind that can create fortunes.

You will also train your subconscious mind to find new ideas to tackle. The more you say “yes” to the ideas your mind serves up, the more ideas it will bring you.

Eventually, you will have an abundance of big ideas, and the capacity to bring them to life.

Go through your electronic notes and physical repositories and find something you can finish. Start with something small, something you can finish today. Then, do something bigger.

It doesn’t matter if what you create is any good, or even whether you use it. What’s important is that you get in the habit of taking on new creative tasks and finishing them.

If you want to grow your law practice, start by growing yourself.

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

20 hours a week marketing your law practice?

May 28, 2014 by
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Email provider Constant Contact conducted a survey of 1,300 small business owners. They found that, “A small business owner — along with another employee — will spend an average of 20 hours per week on marketing.”

Does this sound like a lot?

The business owners weren’t selected at random. They were part of the company’s “Small Biz Council,” which suggests they weren’t your average small business because (a) they use email marketing, and (b) they are part of a “Small Biz Council”.

Before you read further, how would you answer this question? How many hours per week do you spend marketing your law practice?

Your answer will depend on how you define marketing.

If you believe that “marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients,” as I do, you will realize that marketing is deeply baked into our daily activities. It’s not something we put on our calendars and “do” once a week, we do it all day long.

Take client relations, for example. If you spend ten hours a week speaking with, or writing to clients, all of the little things you say and do (and avoid saying and doing) count as marketing. How you greet them–your smile, your handshake, offering them something to drink, cleaning up your desk before escorting them into your private office–it all counts.

Now how about the time you spend writing blog posts, articles, and newsletters, and time spent speaking and networking (including on social media)? You can also count the time you spend reading things you can use in your writing or in conversation with clients and prospects and referral sources.

You’re reading this post right now, either in your email or on my blog.  In my book, time spent learning about marketing counts as marketing.

Are you adding this up?

Don’t forget the time you spend communicating with staff or outside vendors about your website, advertising, PR, or content creation.

Are you on any committees? Do you do any charitable work? The time you spend at meetings or playing in charity golf tournaments is at least partially marketing related since you are building relationships with people who can send you business or otherwise further your career.

So, you spend a lot more time on marketing than you thought. Now that you are aware of this, you can consciously improve your marketing.

The next time you meet with a client, think about how you can improve their experience. What else can you do or say? What can you give them?

Look at everything you do throughout your day and think about how you can do it better, faster, or more effectively. Because marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients.

Want to get better at marketing your law practice? Here’s what you need.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

How well do you know your clients and prospects?

May 27, 2014 by
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Peter Drucker said, “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

In other words, when there is a close match between what you offer and what your client wants and needs, you don’t need to persuade him to hire you, you need do little more than show up.

Do you know what your clients want? Do you know what keeps them up at night? Do you know what other options they have considered?

Do you know where they live and how much they earn? Do you know what they do for work and what they do on weekends?

You may not know these things if you are like most lawyers who define their target market merely in terms of legal problems. That is, anyone who has a certain legal issue is a potential client. That may be true in a literal sense, but if you stop there, you’ll never achieve the kind of synchronicity that draws clients to you and makes them immediately see you as the best solution.

You need to define your target market in terms of your ideal client. Who is an almost perfect match for you? You need to know your clients and prospects so you can focus your marketing efforts on attracting them.

If I tell you I know lots of clients I can refer to you but I need you to tell me what you are looking for, what would you say? When you can answer this question with specificity, marketing gets a lot easier.

I’ll be able to quickly identify clients who would be a good match for you and I will be able to tell them why they should contact you.

When your ideal client reads something on your website, they will know that they don’t need to look elsewhere, they’ve found the right lawyer.

When you are networking or on social media and someone asks you what you do, you’ll be able to tell them not only what you do but for whom you do it, making it more likely that they will self-identify.

Many lawyers are hesitant to define their ideal client, or publicize it, because they are afraid they won’t attract clients who don’t fit the profile. “If I say my ideal client is in the insurance industry, I won’t attract clients in the transportation field,” they say.

Yes, and that’s the point.

You don’t want to get the scraps in a variety of markets, you want the lion’s share in one market.

Big fish, small(er) pond?

Choose a target market. Define your ideal client. Get to know everything you can about them. And then offer them exactly what you know they want.

When you do, you won’t have to explain why anyone should choose you instead of any other lawyer. Everyone will know.

For help in defining your target market(s) and ideal client, get this.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Networking, Referrals Tagged With: , , ,

How to be more productive every day

May 23, 2014 by
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“We often assume that productivity means getting more things done each day. Wrong. Productivity is getting important things done consistently. And no matter what you are working on, there are only a few things that are truly important.” So says James Clear in his blog post, The Only Productivity Tip You’ll Ever Need.

His advice: “Do the most important thing first every day”.

It works because our energy is higher, our willpower is stronger, and because human nature compels us to finish what we start (so start something important). When you do the most important thing first, other things that come up during the day won’t keep you from doing what’s most important because, well, you’ve already done them.

If you are a night owl, if you aren’t at full throttle until some time after the morning, start there. Whenever you start working, work on the most important task first.

Clear acknowledges that most people don’t do this. We are conditioned from an early age to respond to the stimuli around us, and we do. We answer emails, return phone calls, and take care of whatever might be in front of us, even if it’s a low priority. We also have work assigned to us by others, or by our duties as parents, and we are conditioned to take care of these things first, even if they aren’t the most important tasks in our day.

Clear doesn’t suggest shirking our responsibilities, but to make room in our life for the things that best serve our agenda, not necessarily someone else’s.

I’m guilty of this myself. I write a daily blog post. I don’t do it first thing in the morning, but I do it before working on other projects which are more important. I write the blog post “first” to get it done, so I can spend the rest of the day working on other things. I get the post done every day but I don’t always get as much work done on my most important projects. In fact, some days, I don’t get anything done on them at all.

I like the idea of starting the day with my most important task which right now means finishing a new book. My fear is that I will get engrossed in working on the book and leave no time to write a blog post, or other things I need to get done during the day.

I think the answer might lie in time blocking. That is, starting the day committed to a block of time for the most important task(s). Give it an hour, or two, and then work on other things. If there’s time left over, I can go back to the most important tasks.

I’ll try it and let you know how it goes.

I use Evernote to be more productive. See how in my ebook, Evernote for Lawyers.

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , ,

How to tackle big projects

May 22, 2014 by
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I’ve done a lot of writing in my life but I’ve never written fiction. I want to. Writing novels has been a lifelong dream. It sounds like such an immense project, doesn’t it? How do you do it? Where do you start?

Like any big project, you start at the beginning. As Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.”

Novelist, E.L. Doctorow, when asked about the immensity of writing a novel put it this way: “It’s like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

Big projects are collections of smaller tasks. You don’t sit down and write a 100,000 word novel, you write 1,000 words, or 500, and you repeat this process until you are done.

But don’t you have to know the destination? You can’t just get in your car and drive and expect to get where you want to go, can you?

Some people do. Some people know they want to write a book or start a business or travel to foreign lands and they just do it. They begin the journey, with little more than a general idea of where they want to go, and eventually, they get there. They’ll probably tell you that not planning everything makes the journey that much more enjoyable.

In the world of fiction writing, they are called “pantsers”. They write by the seat of their pants. They start with an idea or a character and see where it takes them. The few times I’ve tried writing a story, I did it this way. I quickly found myself asking, “What happens next?” and I didn’t know, so I stopped writing.

At the other end of the spectrum are plotters. They plan out the entire story, from start to finish, deciding in advance “what happens next” before they begin the actual writing.

And then there are those who fall somewhere in the middle. They know the major plot points or beats they will use to advance their story, but they don’t know all the details. They are prepared to let their characters take them in different directions, but they keep their eye on the destination.

In the business world, I think the latter is the right model. A business plan that is loaded with specifics and details is impractical to follow in view of the vagaries of the real world where, unlike a novel, you aren’t omnipotent. On the other hand, starting with no plan whatsoever could find you wandering, if not foundering.

A business plan, or the plan for any big project, should address the big picture and general direction of the venture. You need to know where you are going and how you will start; you don’t need to know everything.

Do you have a big project you’ve been putting off because you don’t know how to do everything? Now you know you don’t have to. You need to know what you want to accomplish, have a basic understanding of the issues you will need to address, and then you need to start.

You don’t need turn-by-turn navigation helping you get to your destination. You can stop along the way and look at the map or ask for directions. But you’ll never get where you want to go unless you get in the car, turn on the engine, and drive.

The Attorney Marketing Formula comes with a simple marketing plan that really works.

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Filed Under: Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity

Writing a blog? Don’t forget the lighter fluid and matches

May 21, 2014 by
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Most attorney’s blogs are dull. They are a lifeless recitation of facts that few want to read. So says Kevin O’Keefe, CEO of LexBlog, and I agree.

He suggests adding stories, showing your personality, engaging readers and other bloggers (by citing them), and otherwise putting emotion into your writing.

Also agreed. You need to connect with people and stir things up.

A blog isn’t a law journal, it’s a letter to a friend, made public. It’s your knowledge and experience and personal style brought to life and shared with others in a way that helps them get to know, like, and trust you. It’s a first step towards building relationships with people who can hire you or send you business, and it cannot be done from an ivory tower.

O’Keefe says lawyers are afraid to come out from the shadows because their firm or ethical propriety doesn’t allow it. Or, they are afraid that if they are too transparent, it might be used against them. So they play it safe.

Yes they do.

But it doesn’t have to be that way and O’Keefe cites some examples of lawyers who have put life into their blogs.

But how? How do you surmount your natural tendency to hold back? How do you breathe life into your writing?

You do it in stages.

You write a first draft for your eyes only. You allow yourself to write freely, or badly, and you just let it rip. You write quickly and unabashedly, cursing, ranting, sharing your opinion, and saying whatever comes into your mind. You tell secrets and reveal embarrassing moments. You don’t hold back, you don’t edit, you don’t ponder, you just throw-up on the page.

You write the first draft for you. Anything goes because you are the only one who will ever see what you write.

When you are done, put aside your first draft for a day or three. Get some distance from it. Then, come back and write the second draft.

The second draft is for your reader.

In the second draft, you can put safeties back in place. As you edit, you remove or tone down or add balance to your most incendiary rhetoric. In the first draft, you put in the hot stuff. Now, you take some of it out.

You may find that much of what you wrote can stay, at least in some form. You may discover that what you thought would get you fired or pilloried is actually okay. It was far more dangerous in your imagination. Now, you can see that while it may raise a few eyebrows, nobody is getting hurt.

I can almost promise you that you will see this as some of your best writing, and so will your readers. By opening up this way, you do more than deliver information, you make it come alive. You touch people emotionally, draw them to you, and make them want to hear more.

For your third draft, ask someone to read it and offer feedback. Have them tell you if you went too far or you didn’t go far enough.

To put life in your writing, build a big fire. If you don’t want anyone to see it, let it die down, or go out. You can always start another.

Want more ideas for writing a blog? Get this.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Writing

How much are you willing to invest in your law practice?

May 20, 2014 by
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I read about a recent law school graduate who has $200,000 in student loans and can’t get a legal job. Not surprisingly, he questions the efficacy of taking on large loans for a spec legal career. But what if he did get the job he thought he would? Me thinks he might be playing a different tune.

We invest money in law school because we think we’ll be able to pay it back and make a handsome return on our investment. We do the same thing when we open a law office.

We also invest our time. We spend years getting our education, and more years working long hours for inadequate pay, with the knowledge that some day, it will be worth it.

When things go right, nobody blinks. When they don’t, that’s all anyone talks about.

The past is past. You either made a good investment or you didn’t. Don’t look back. Look forward.

Wherever you are right now, ask yourself what you are willing to invest in your future.

How much money? How much time? Especially time.

How many hours per week are you willing to invest in marketing and building your practice? How many networking events are you willing to go to without seeing an immediate return? How many blog posts or articles are you willing to write this week, this month, this year?

When I opened my first office, I spent the little funds I had on furniture, rent, and a typewriter. I needed the rest for living expenses. I didn’t have money but I had lots of time. Later, when my practice grew, I had money and no time. To continue to grow, I had to find the time because I couldn’t compete with the big budget advertisers in my market.

I found the time by delegating as much of my work as possible. I gave up personal time. And I invested this time in building my practice.

I talk to a lot of lawyers who tell me they don’t have time for marketing. Borrow the time. You’d borrow the money if you needed it, why can’t you borrow the time?

How much time are willing to invest in your law practice? The Formula will help you create a marketing plan.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services Tagged With: ,

The lifetime value of one-time clients

May 19, 2014 by
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I got an email from a marketing expert I follow who asked us if we would prefer to have a customer or a buyer on our list. What’s the difference? A customer is someone who buys something or hires you once and then goes on their merry way. They might come back, they might not. A customer, on the other hand, is someone who makes a custom of buying from you, “because of the trust, respect, and loyalty they have for you.”

So, customers are better than buyers.

Repeat clients are better than one-time clients.

Does this mean lawyers should only practice in areas where clients make a custom of hiring again and again? Should we choose business law, for example, with lots of repeat business, over consumer bankruptcy where the client might hire us once in a lifetime?

Not necessarily.

Someone who “buys” from you once and never again is potentially just as valuable as someone who hires you frequently. They should be courted and nurtured. We should build relationships with one-time clients, even if they never hire us again.

The lifetime value of a client is only partially measured by the fees they pay us. There are many other ways they can deliver value and help our practice grow. They can provide

  • Referrals
  • Website traffic
  • Recommendations and positive reviews
  • Introductions to other professionals, meeting holders, editors, bloggers, etc.
  • Invitations to networking events
  • Feedback about our services (so we can make improvements)
  • Information about our target market or community
  • Likes, re-tweets, and sharing of our content
  • Forwarding our emails to others in our target market

They can send us business, help us build our list, and otherwise help us bring in more business. In fact, what a client does for us outside of paying fees could easily be worth far more than the fees they pay. In terms of referrals alone, some clients who never hire you again could be worth many times the fees generated from clients who hire you again and again.

In fact, someone who never hires you could be worth far more to you than someone who hires you repeatedly.

The lesson? Treat everyone as though they are your biggest client. Provide extras. Help them every way you can. And stay in touch with them, before, during, and after the engagement or case.

You never know what someone can do to help you.

The Referral Blitz is one way to get clients and contacts to help you build your practice. Click here for details.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, List building, Referral sources, Referrals, Relationship marketing Tagged With:

Are we having fun yet?

May 13, 2014 by
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I have a theory. And a challenge for you.

My theory is that we are put here on earth to have fun. The purpose of our lives is to feel and express and share joy.

We work because we enjoy what we do or because it provides the funds that allow us to do what we enjoy. We learn things because we enjoy learning or because it makes us better at our work, which allows us to have more fun.

We raise kids because they give us joy (most of the time). We embrace our religion because it gives us inner peace, direction, purpose, and pleasure.

We watch TV and movies and play games because it’s fun. We buy new clothes and new cars and other things we may not need because we enjoy looking good.

Every sentient being acts to either avoid pain or achieve pleasure. We’re hard wired for this. We avoid danger and we seek comfort. Humans are defined by our self-interest, and as we pursue things that make us happy, we make the world a better place. We create, we contribute, we share.

I’m no philosopher, but this is what I choose to believe. And. . . I enjoy believing it, so don’t try to talk me out of it.

Are we having fun yet? Yes, we are. That’s what we’re supposed to do.

My challenge to you is to admit why you’re here. Confess that you are a pleasure-seeking creature and give yourself permission to freely express your love of life.

Make it a habit. At least once a day, do something completely fun. Play a game, read a comic book, watch a funny video. Do something creative, just for the fun of it. If you have to, schedule 5 minutes a day on your calendar and label it “fun”.

Imagine what it would be like having fun all day long. Getting up with a smile instead of a groan. Doing deeply satisfying work. Surrounding yourself with people and things that make you happy. Going to bed at night knowing you have a purpose and you have lived that purpose.

This is not a pipe dream. You’re on your way towards making this your reality. You may start with 5 minutes of scheduled fun, and if that’s too much for you, start with one minute. Then two. Eventually, most of your day will either be outright fun or something that supports it.

Life is supposed to be fun. If it’s not, you’re doing it wrong.

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Just for fun, Personal development

Make better decisions by making fewer decisions

May 12, 2014 by
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I’ve heard it said that successful people make decisions quickly and change their mind slowly, if at all. One advantage this confers is that it helps the decision-maker avoid “decision fatigue,” a phenomenon that refers to the “deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making.”

One study of judges reviewing parole applications found that judges were more lenient earlier in the day than they were after a long session of decision making:

What the researchers found was that at the beginning of the day, a judge was likely to give a favorable ruling about 65 percent of the time. However, as the morning wore on and the judge became drained from making more and more decisions, the likelihood of a criminal getting a favorable ruling steadily dropped to zero.

After taking a lunch break, however, the judge would return to the courtroom refreshed and the likelihood of a favorable ruling would immediately jump back up to 65 percent. And then, as the hours moved on, the percentage of favorable rulings would fall back down to zero by the end of the day.

Apparently, our willpower becomes weaker after we have made a lot of decisions or we are otherwise fatigued.

To make better decisions:

  • Make fewer decisions. Once you decide on something, stick with it, unless there is a very good reason to change your mind.
  • Make important decisions earlier in the day. Similarly, save less important decisions for later in the day, to avoid impulsive decisions.
  • If you have to make important decisions later in the day, eat something first.
  • Schedule important tasks for earlier in the day. When decisions come up, you will be more likely to make better ones.
  • Sleep on it. Before making important decisions, make sure you have had a good night’s sleep.
  • Take breaks throughout the day. Even a few minutes of rest can help you avoid making impulsive decisions.
  • When making important financial decisions, such as for a major purchase, decide as much as possible in advance. For example, when buying a car, decide on as many variables before going to the dealer and speaking to a sales person.
  • Turn off distractions (email, Internet, social media) when working. Constant decision making (e.g., should I check my email?) is wearing and inefficient.

Of the lot, making fewer decisions will probably give you the biggest bang for your decision-making buck. Lawyers have the most difficultly with this, don’t we, what with all that “one the one hand” and “one the other hand” conditioning? Life is easier, however, when you can get some things off your decision-making plate and be done with them.

For example, let’s say you are undecided about the use of social media in your marketing. You hear everyone and his brother saying “you must” and you hear me and a handful of others saying “not necessarily.” Then you hear about the different platforms you can use and how best to use them. Every day, you are bombarded with information and advice.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know what you will and won’t do?

Spend enough time researching the subject and make up your mind. Then, move on.

If you’re not going to do anything on Pinterest, you never have to read about Pinterest or think about it again. If you don’t like social media and don’t want to use it, don’t beat yourself up about it. Done. Next subject. If you are convinced that Facebook is essential for building traffic and engagement and meeting prospective clients and referral sources, then get busy with it.

The word “decide” comes from the Latin meaning “to kill the alternative”. Go forth and slay some alternative dragons, young warrior. You’ll sleep better knowing they are dead and buried.

How I use social media in my business. Click here.

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Filed Under: Dealing with stress, Personal development, Social media, Social media marketing Tagged With: ,
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