The Attorney Marketing Center--Earn More. Work Less

“Of course, the old foot-in-the-door technique” (Maxwell Smart, circa 1968)

December 5, 2022 by David M. Ward

If you want people to do something, start by asking for something easier.

Asking followers on social media to Like and share your blog post, for example, makes it more likely they will eventually be willing to sign up for your newsletter. When they subscribe, it makes it more likely that they will eventually watch a replay of your webinar. When they do that, it makes it more likely that they will contact you for a consultation.

Not just because they learned something from your post or newsletter or webinar, but because they’ve become acclimated to complying with your requests.

Start small and eventually, you can ask for—and get—something big.

The thing is, while it’s better if they actually do what you ask, it isn’t always necessary. Just asking makes it more likely that they will eventually do that or something else you request or offer.

Give your clients some of your cards and ask them to hand them out when they talk to someone with a legal question. If you want a colleague to recommend you to their clients, start out by asking them to share the link to your latest blog post.

Whether or not they do that, when you later ask them to introduce you to their accountant, they should be more open to doing that.

You can start by asking for anything. Ask people to recommend a restaurant or a good book, to tell you which of two headlines or titles they prefer, or to fill out your survey.

The more you ask, the more you (eventually) get.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services

A penny for your thoughts

December 2, 2022 by David M. Ward

Lawyers are paid to think. We solve problems, come up with ideas, figure out strategies, and put these to use for our clients and for ourselves.

We often get some of our best ideas while we’re doing other things. When we’re working on another case, driving, playing a game, listening to a (boring) lecture, or mindlessly washing dishes, our minds are busy working on other things.

But we don’t have to wait for serendipity to solve problems and generate ideas. We can make it a habit to schedule thinking time each day. I do that every day and think you should, too.

Once a day, for 5 minutes or 15 minutes, sit quietly, close your eyes, do some breathing exercises if you want to, relax and think.

Think about your life, your work, your family, your problems, your dreams.

I do this in the morning, first thing. Before coffee, when my mind isn’t terribly engaged, I sit in my comfy chair, listen to meditation music, and let my mind wander.

My thinking time helps me discover new ideas, find solutions, clarify my thoughts, remember things I need to do or fix, and when I’m done, I feel calm and centered and ready for the day.

Sometimes, I start out thinking about a specific situation. A problem I’d like to solve or avoid, a goal I’m working towards, or things I’m planning to do that day. Other times, I just sit quietly and let my mind take me where it wants me to go.

I keep paper and my phone nearby and record my thoughts and ideas. Sometimes, those ideas feel so “right,“ I stop thinking and start working on them. These often turn out to be some of my best ideas.

I’ve also found that by having regular thinking time, I’ve conditioned my mind to bring me more ideas and solutions throughout the day, while I’m doing other things.

I got the idea for this post when I was making coffee.

You’re a professional thinker. Schedule thinking time each day. Try it for a week, see what happens, and what you think about that.

I think. . . you’ll be glad you did.

Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity

Simple dimple

December 1, 2022 by David M. Ward

Let’s face it, marketing can be a pain in the behind. There’s a lot to learn (and keep up with), a lot to do (and/or supervise people who do them), expenses, compliance issues, and the cost of our precious time.

Which is why a lot of people hate marketing. Including me.

But we do it because of the results it delivers and the lifestyle this affords.

But there’s marketing and there’s marketing. It’s not all the same. I don’t do anything I really detest and you shouldn’t either.

Because when you force yourself to do something you hate, you resent doing it, cut corners, and get poor results. Not to mention the ill effects of constant stress.

When it comes to marketing (or anything else), it’s always better to do things you enjoy or are at least comfortable enough to continue doing. And if you can’t find strategies out of the tin that fit that description, choose something and find easier ways to do it.

For me, easy means simple. Certain methods may be more profitable, but if it’s not simple, I don’t do them. I’m not willing to pay the price for complexity.

In my practice, as a young (starving) lawyer, that meant focusing on referrals. It was simple. It meant doing good work, treating people right, and staying in touch with everyone.

I could do that. And I did.

Later, I gave my clients handouts (reports, referral cards, etc.) they could share with people, and did some other things to generate even more referrals.

But I always kept it simple.

We have more options for marketing today, but referrals should always be at the top of every lawyer’s list. Your clients and business contacts can send you all the business you can handle, and/or introduce you to people who can.

Once you’ve got referrals squared away, you can add other strategies. A content-rich website or blog and/or a newsletter are also relatively simple.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather write something once a week than go to a weekly meeting.

More good news.

You can build a very successful practice using just one or two effective strategies. Find something that’s simple and appropriate for your practice, temperament, and resources, and once you’ve chosen them, stop looking. At least for now.

Instead, get better at implementing those strategies. They may be all you need.

How to get more referrals from your clients

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Referrals

PARA 2.0: How I organize my notes and documents (for now)

November 29, 2022 by David M. Ward

I’ve been using the PARA method to organize my notes and documents since I first heard about it a couple of years ago. It’s simple and works well for me but a couple of weeks ago I made a small change and while it’s too early to tell, I think it might turn out to work even better.

PARA was conceived by Tiago Forte and was featured in his course, “Building a Second Brain,” which was recently released as a book.

PARA, is an acronym for 4 top-level categories or folders in a filing system, with folders for (P) Projects, (A) Areas, (R) Resources, and (A) Archives.

Projects are groups of activities you’re working on with a specific goal and deadline. Getting this year’s tax returns ready for filing, buying a new home, hiring a new clerk, for example.

Areas are distinct ongoing segments of your life, such as your practice, finances and investments, family, and health.

Resources are subjects that interest you but may not be immediately useful for one of your projects or areas. This might include general information on marketing or writing, templates and forms, or ideas for your blog or newsletter.

Archives is a catch all folder for storing completed projects or anything else that doesn’t fit into one of the other categories.

Like many people, I added two additional folders to my setup: an Inbox and a Journal (for daily notes and ideas).

So, what did I change? And why?

Instead of using PARA as my top level folders, I now use folders for each Area of my life: Personal, my business, and two additional businesses; I kept the Inbox, Archives, and Journal folders.

Each Area has 3 sub-folders: FILES, PROJECTS, and RESOURCES.

FILES are letters, receipts, contracts, pdfs, notes, and other documents related to that Area.

PROJECTS and RESOURCES for each area are the same as before, but specific to each Area.

Before, all projects were in a Projects folder. Now, each Area has its own Projects folder, as well as Files and Resources folders.

A small change, but I did it for a good reason (for me). When I’m working on a business project or digging through resources I might use for one of my businesses or in my personal life, I only want to look at Projects or Resources specific to that Area.

Separating things this way helps me focus and makes it easier to find things. I might spend most of the day in one Area and not look at any of the others. I might work on personal matters on Saturday and not look at work until the Monday.

I like this new way of organizing, but I also liked the “regular PARA setup. I don’t know which way I’ll finally settle on, or if I might find something I like even better.

Do you use PARA? Have you changed anything? What do you think about my modification?

Filed Under: Productivity

A better way to prioritize your day

November 28, 2022 by David M. Ward

If you’re like most people, you plan your day by first looking at your calendar. You note upcoming meetings, appearances, and appointments and see how much time you have between these to do everything else.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? The problems is, when you prioritize your time this way, you might not have enough time or energy to do other things you need to do.

I’m talking about highly leveraged tasks and projects that help you achieve your most important goals. The kinds of things that often require your complete focus but don’t get it because you’re too busy in meetings and taking care of what the day puts in front of you, and too tired afterwards.

So I want to suggest a slight change regarding how you prioritize your time. As you make your schedule, schedule your most valuable tasks first.

This is the philosophy behind “time blocking”. Scheduling blocks of time on your calendar for your most important tasks, to make sure you don’t use that time for anything else.

It’s a philosophy that says, “I’m going to schedule (and do) my most valuable tasks first, and if I have time left, I’ll schedule appointments and meetings.“

But you don’t have to time-block or work off a strict schedule to do this. You can accomplish the same thing by working from a list with your most important tasks at the top or flagged or tagged to show their priority.

Wouldn’t it be nice to show up at meetings knowing you’ve already completed your top priorities for the day?

The first step is to decide what is most important to you. What you want to be, do, or have.

The second step is to figure out what you need to do to be, do, or have that and put that on your calendar or list.

If your top priority is to bring in more clients and more income, work on that first. This will help.

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Productivity, success

Is it worth ‘getting to know’ your clients?

November 22, 2022 by David M. Ward

They hire you. They pay you. They’re happy with your work. But they don’t talk to you again until they have another legal issue.

They have no reason to contact you, but you have a reason to contact them.

Building relationships with your clients is one of the best ways to bring in more clients and cases, increase your income, and expand your network, with less effort or expense than anything else you could do.

Want more referrals? Stay in touch with your clients. Want to know who they know (and could introduce you to)? Stay in touch with your clients.

Have you ever signed up a client, asked them who represented them on their previous case, but they couldn’t remember? They couldn’t remember because their previous attorney didn’t stay in touch with them after they completed their case.

I’ve signed up a lot of clients who would have gone back to their previous attorney if they had remembered their name.

But don’t just stay in touch with your clients, get to know them personally. Find out about their business and personal life. They’ll tell you what you can do to help them.

If you someone needs help with a tax matter, for example, you can send them information and refer them to a tax professional they can trust. If a client tells you their business is struggling, you could introduce them to people (customers, advisors, vendors) who can help.

Things you might not know if you just did the legal work and called it a day.

Is it worth taking your valuable time to do this? As someone who built a big practice primarily through repeat business and referrals, I would say it is.

No matter what kind of practice you have, you’re in the people business. If you want to get to know more people, get to know the ones you already know a little better.

The Attorney Marketing Formula

Filed Under: Marketing legal services

When you want to do it but don’t want to do it

November 21, 2022 by David M. Ward

Have you ever had a project you want to do but you can’t seem to get started because it’s “nice to have” but not that important?

All the time?!

Yeah, me too.

I’ve been meaning to clean up my office for a long time but haven’t started for no better reason than it will take me a lot of time and I’m not sure it’s worth it.

I have a lot of papers and files left over from my pre-digital days. I’ll probably never use most of it, but I can’t be sure unless I go through everything.

Nice to have, but not that important.

I saw a video that suggested a good way to get started. The presenter suggested we take everything out of its “regular home” (cabinets, drawers, etc.) and move it temporally to some other place. Pile it up in a corner of the room, for example.

Things look different when they’re not in their usual home. And there’s something about seeing empty drawers and shelves that makes it easier to decide what you want to keep.

I like it, but it would take hours of tedious sorting and I can think of other things I’d rather do.

So I procrastinated. For months. And would probably still be procrastinating if I hadn’t found another solution.

I scheduled a 15-minute recurring task for every Saturday, dedicated to cleaning one drawer or shelf.

It’s only 15 minutes. It’s only one drawer. I can do this.

And I’ve been doing this for several Saturdays and made a lot of progress. Enjoying it, actually.

If you want to do something but resist starting, figure out a way to make the project easier. . . and it will be easier to start.

Filed Under: Productivity

The end is nigh

November 18, 2022 by David M. Ward

Relax, I’m talking about the end of the day, not the end of the world. (That’s for another post.)

Here are a few thoughts about what to do to close out your day to make the following day, and the days after that, as productive as possible.

C’mon, you can’t just close the laptop and call it a day. Well, you can, but your brain will nag you about unfinished business rather than allowing you to have a relaxing evening.

Besides, I recommend reviewing “tomorrow” the night before, rather than the day of, so you don’t have to figure it out in the morning and can get to work.

My “closing down” routine is a lot simpler today than earlier in my life because my life is much simpler.

Yay me.

Okay, here is my evening shut down routine.

The first thing I do before hanging up my stirrups is to wrap up any unfinished business, or at least outline and make notes about what else I need to do.

Next, I review my upcoming schedule and task lists, and update tomorrow’s list and my list for the upcoming week.

Here is the actual “closing down” list I work from at the end of each day:

Choose a topic for tomorrow’s blog
Check my calendar re upcoming appointments, commitments
Review tomorrow’s task list
Review tasks for the following week
Inbox zero (email, voicemail, and notes)
Clean up (File documents, close browser tabs, put away tools, toss the trash)

I do a fair amount of pushing tasks to other days, to make my schedule more inviting and manageable.

And that’s about it.

Your list will depend, of course, on the type of work you do, whether you work from an office, have employees or a team, or have hearings or meetings to prepare for.

Do you have a shutting down routine? If you do, what’s on your list?

Filed Under: Productivity

Your life’s purpose

November 17, 2022 by David M. Ward

According to Wikipedia, Ikigai (ee-key-guy) is a Japanese word that roughly translates as ‘a reason for being’ or ‘life’s purpose’. It’s similar to the French term “raison d’être” or “reason for being.”

It’s also been described as the secret to a long and happy life.

According to this article, you can find your Ikigai by answering 4 questions and seeing where the answers intersect:

1. What are you good at?

2. What do you love?

3. What does the world need?

4. What can you get paid for?

I thought this was an interesting exercise for someone starting out in life or thinking about a career change, but find it also helpful for those of us who have been around a while and have found our path.

Answer these questions and see what you think.

You might find that you’re right where you need to be, doing work you love and are well paid to do, or realize there’s something else you’re good at and would enjoy even better.

You also might give yourself permission to spend more time on a project or side business that ticks all the boxes, until you can make it the next chapter in your life.

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, success

“Of course, the old foot-in-the-door technique” (Maxwell Smart, circa 1968)

A penny for your thoughts

Simple dimple

PARA 2.0: How I organize my notes and documents (for now)

A better way to prioritize your day

Is it worth ‘getting to know’ your clients?

When you want to do it but don’t want to do it

The end is nigh

Your life’s purpose

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