Personal development Archives - The Attorney Marketing Center

The most important decision of your legal career

October 2, 2025 by David M. Ward

Ever notice that the most successful lawyers aren’t necessarily the best lawyers? If you’re smarter, work harder, and do a better job than those other lawyers, why do they earn more than you do?

It’s because being a better lawyer doesn’t mean prospective clients and the people who can refer them will notice you, trust you, and hire or refer you.

You may be a brilliant lawyer, dedicated, hard-working, and well-liked, but if you’re not good at the business side of your practice, you’ll always be a step behind.

The good news is that you can change that. It starts with a decision.

The most important decision of your career.

You have to decide to commit to the business side of your practice. That it is at least as important as the legal work and deserves your time and energy and money.

Decide to get serious about business and marketing. Study it, schedule time for it, and consistently and enthusiastically work at it.

Average lawyers don’t do that.

Average lawyers provide lip service to marketing and management, taking action only when something falls in their lap, there is a fire to put out, or they have a few extra minutes between appointments.

Unless driven by desperation, they don’t schedule anything, try anything new or otherwise work on improving the business side of their practice. They see it as a burden, an expense, at most a necessary evil, instead of embracing it as the path for achieving their biggest goals.

Why? Ego, mostly. They believe that to be successful, they shouldn’t “have to” do anything more than be a good lawyer. Or they don’t know what to do and aren’t willing to find out.

They might assume that the lawyers who earn more have the right connections, innate interpersonal skills, or just got lucky.

Excuses. And any excuse will do.

Don’t make excuses. If you want to achieve more, decide that you will do everything possible to make that happen. And do it.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Personal development, success

The real reason you’re not doing more marketing

September 11, 2025 by David M. Ward

You know you should do more marketing, but you don’t. Why?

It’s not because you don’t know what to do or how to do it. You’re smart; you can learn.

It’s not because you’re not good at it. You can hire people to help you or do most of it for you.

It’s not because you don’t have the time. If you’re bringing in a lot of new business, it’s worth it, and you’ll find the time.

How about this one: you don’t think you should have to? You’re a good lawyer, and good lawyers get all the business they can handle without doing a lot of (or any) marketing. Yeah, well, they might not do some things, but they do others.

No, there’s another reason you might not be doing more marketing.

Fear.

You’re afraid it won’t work and you’ll be embarrassed. Or that other lawyers will look down on you and you’ll be embarrassed. Or your clients will think less of you, and you’ll lose them. Or you don’t want to stand out from the crowd and do things other lawyers don’t do.

Or maybe all of the above.

It’s just fear. And it’s normal. But you don’t have to let it stop you from doing things you know you should. You can use fear to force yourself to do those things.

That’s what I’ve done over the years. I’ve used my fear to motivate myself.

When I was new and broke, I used my fear of failure and poverty to get to work.

When I was doing okay and got comfortable, I used my fear of mediocrity and failing to reach my potential to get myself to work harder.

And when I became successful, got a bigger office and hired more employees, I used my fear of over-extending myself to stay focused and try things I didn’t want to do.

At each stage, I used my fear to motivate myself and took my practice to the next level.

If you’re not doing what you know you know you should (and could), don’t let fear hold you back. Use your fear to pull you forward.

Fear protects us and helps us. We can use it this way. And we should.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Personal development, success

The number one reason your practice isn’t growing (and how to fix it)

August 7, 2025 by David M. Ward

If your practice isn’t growing, there’s a very simple reason. It’s not growing because you’re not growing.

You’re the same lawyer today as you were yesterday. You know more and can probably do more, but you don’t, and you won’t unless you change your philosophies and activities—what you think about and what you do.

Your practice is a reflection of the decisions you have made in the past and the decisions you are making today. To get better results, you have to make better decisions, and to do that, you need better information.

You have to read the books, take the classes, and seek the advice of experts. You have to use different strategies than you usually use, and do them in different ways. You have to take more risks with your marketing, learn from your mistakes, and double down on your successes.

Because marketing is a process, not an event. You have to work at it. And do something most attorneys don’t want to do—stand out.

Most attorneys choose to blend in and be just like most of their competitors. They offer the same types of services, offer similar promises, and charge similar fees. They go out of their way to avoid being different and effectively become invisible.

If you want to be more successful, you can’t do that. You have to stand out.

That means doing things that are different and uniquely valuable. Something your competition doesn’t do.

Most attorneys don’t, which is why most attorneys never enjoy the level of success enjoyed by the few who do.

It’s a profession, yes, but it’s also a business. If you want your business to grow, you need to grow. Or it won’t.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Personal development

Stop worrying about things you can’t control

May 15, 2025 by David M. Ward

You don’t have time to worry about the cases you lost, the mistakes you made, or the people who aren’t happy about something you did or didn’t do.

You can learn from them, and you should, but don’t dwell on them. You have other things to do.

Someone criticized you? Didn’t keep their promise? Dented your car?

Let it go.

Stop worrying about politics, traffic, and world events. Unless you’re getting paid to worry about something, let it go.

Let go of bad news. If it’s news, it’s already happened. Focus on the future.

Professionally, focus on your legal work, marketing, and managing your practice or career.

Personally, focus on what you can do and stop worrying about things you don’t control.

Filed Under: Dealing with stress, Law office management, Personal development

How was your day? No, really?

September 19, 2024 by David M. Ward

When it comes to productivity, I usually finish a task, tick the box or cross it off the list and move on to the next one.

Busy, busy, busy.

Sure, I take notes and update the file, but I do this as quickly as possible because there’s so much more to do.

It makes sense to spend a moment or two reflecting on what we’ve done, thinking about how we might do it better.

But I usually don’t.

I just saw a video that is making me reconsider.

Besides a “to do” list, the presenter suggests we keep a “did do” list. Write down what we did, our results, and our thoughts about how we can improve.

Most of us take on too much work each day, are often overwhelmed (and exhausted), and wind up doing our work mechanically and quickly so we can get it done. We focus on quantity rather than quality. We get a lot done, but the more we do, the less satisfied and productive we are.

Maybe it’s better to do fewer tasks, get better results, and feel better about ourselves.

Keeping a “did do” list, reflecting and not just doing, might be a way to accomplish that.

Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity

Your practice isn’t growing? Here’s why.

July 3, 2024 by David M. Ward

Uh oh, more homework. But essential if you want to get more clients and better clients, increase your income, and build a more successful career.

Here’s the thing. Your practice is a reflection of the decisions you make, and those are based on what you know, what you believe, and what you do.

Yep, it’s all about you.

Here’s the other thing. If your practice isn’t growing, it’s because you’re not growing.

Ouch.

Maybe it’s because you’re so busy doing client work you haven’t had time to do “inner work”.

Find the time. Your future depends on it.

Yes, you can get help. Your staff, outsourcing, ai, partners, consultants. But ultimately, it all comes down to you.

Because it’s your practice, your reputation, your future.

And while you can get help, you can’t outsource your life.

What’s your homework? Reading books and taking courses and talking to people who have achieved what you want to achieve. Brainstorming ideas, deciding which ones to work on, then working on them.

Not really that difficult. But necessary.

Because if you want your practice to grow, you have to grow.

Filed Under: Personal development

It’s okay to break the chain

June 28, 2024 by David M. Ward

Don’t break the chain is a mantra about building habits by steadfastly refusing to miss a day or week or whatever schedule you commit to. It was popularized by Jerry Seinfeld who, at the beginning of his career, committed to writing at least one new joke every day, followed by making a big X for his wall calendar. Those check marks formed a chain, giving rise to the statement, “Don’t break the chain”.

Good advice. We build habits by what we repeatedly do and being accountable to doing them makes it more likely we will.

The problem is, Seinfeld has denied saying this or even doing it. No matter, it’s still good advice. When we’re tired or busy and don’t feel like doing the task, reminding yourself to not break the chain can help you maintain the habit.

I do it with my writing. Every week day, I write and post an article. I’ve been doing that now for several years and I’m glad I do.

But I’ve also broken the chain.

When I do, sometimes, I re-post something I wrote and published in the past. Sometimes, I don’t. Because I know that if I miss a day (and break the chain), I can just start again (and I do).

You can, too.

If you miss a day or week of writing, hitting the gym, calling a prospect or client, or depositing money in your precious metals saving account, it’s not the end of the world.

Just start again.

What’s important isn’t having a perfect record. It’s that if you miss, you care enough to start again.

Your intention counts. If you regret missing a day, the habit still exists. If you don’t at least think about missing the day, you weren’t serious about making it a habit.

Don’t beat yourself up when you miss. Just start again.

New day, new chain.

Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: habits

Study success

April 5, 2024 by David M. Ward

Jim Rohn said, “If you want to become more successful, study success.”

How do you do that? By studying successful people. People who have accomplished what you want to accomplish. People who inspire you. People you would like to learn from and emulate.

Lawyers who have done what you want to do. Entrepreneurs. Business leaders. Great speakers and writers and philosophers.

You can find successful people in your city or on the Internet, in biographies and the pages of history, and even in fiction.

Read their books. And books about them. Listen to their presentations and interviews. Most of all, watch what they do because their actions will tell you more than their words.

Reflect on what you learn. Ask yourself, why are they successful? What are their philosophies? What are (or were) their daily habits? What advice would they give you if you spent an hour with them?

Think about them often. When you have a problem, ask yourself what they would do about it. If you have an important decision to make, ask yourself what they would advise you to consider.

But don’t just read and think about them, write about them, in articles or in your journal, and talk about them and their philosophies in your presentations. Tell others their story and why you admire them.

If you want to be more successful, study success. And successful people.

Filed Under: Inspiration, Personal development, success

Look for the pony

February 14, 2024 by David M. Ward

There’s an old joke about a boy who fell into a big stinky pile of dung. Instead of trying to escape, he dives headfirst into it and stays there, splashing around. When he finally extricates himself, he’s asked why he did that.

“With all that horse poop, I figured there had to be a pony.”

Dumb joke, but it illustrates an important point about maintaining a positive attitude in the face of a mess.

When you have a problem or crisis, you might want to ignore it, curl up in a ball, or run away, but no matter how bad the problem is, there’s always something you can do.

At least that’s how you should think about it.

You can’t control what happened. You can control your response.

Stay calm. You can’t panic yourself out of a crisis. Take 5 minutes for a pity party if you must and then take a deep breath and focus on what you can do.

Problems have solutions. Ask yourself “What happened?” “Why?” and “What can I do about it?” You might not enjoy revisiting the problem, but asking questions like these, and answering them, allows you to get clear about your situation and find a solution.

No matter what the solution, it will require action. You have to do something and it will almost always be something you haven’t been doing. That might mean getting out of your comfort zone and if that’s something you resist, consider that the discomfort it causes might be a lot less than what you will feel if you don’t fix the problem.

Take action, continue to do that, and fully expect that you “can fix this”. Because you are unlikely to fix it if you don’t believe you can.

While you’re at it, look for something good about what happened. Maybe you learned an important lesson. Maybe you explored some new ideas you can use in good times and bad. Maybe you lost something but gained something even better.

When you fall into a pile of dung, look for the pony.

Filed Under: Personal development, success Tagged With: problem solving

Why read books when we have so much other options?

October 27, 2023 by David M. Ward

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s important and worth mentioning again. I thought about the subject recently when I realized I wasn’t reading enough books.

I buy them. But don’t always read them. And I feel bad about that because I know I’m missing out.

Articles are fine. So are videos and podcasts and courses. Good information is good information. But there’s something special about books.

Books have room to provide the “why” behind the “how,” elaborate on the arguments and counter-arguments, tell us the background and history, and provide more examples and stories to illustrate the author’s points and make those points relatable and memorable.

That’s why.

One good book can change your worldview, persuade you to change your habits, and inspire you to do things you might never have considered possible.

They can also take you on adventures to faraway places like nothing you can see on a screen.

Yes, books take a long time to read. Which is why we don’t read as many. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe we wouldn’t feel the need to read as many articles and blog posts or watch as many videos if read more books.

Most of those articles say pretty much the same thing, don’t they? One good book can give us new ideas, because the authors of those books have spent a lot of time thinking and researching and interviewing other people who have spent a lot of time doing the same.

But that’s a good book and sadly, so many books don’t qualify.

So, we read reviews and talk to people who have read other books on the subject and point us towards the best options.

And we take speed-reading courses and learn how to get through more books and find the ones that are good enough to be read again.