What are you reading?

March 1, 2016 by
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Aside from legal matters what do you usually read? What videos or audio content do you consume? What information or ideas do you regularly put into your brain?

I hope that you dedicate at least some of your time to reading about the lives of people who have done what you want to do. It doesn’t have to be a lawyer. You can learn a lot about building a successful law practice by reading biographies of people who built great businesses or led great armies. You can learn a lot about leading a successful life by reading about people in any field or calling.

No matter what you want to learn or accomplish, there is someone in the world who has already accomplished it. As Tony Robbins put it:

Many great leaders have proven that the fastest way to master any skill, strategy or goal in life is to model those who have already forged the path ahead. If you can find someone who is already getting the results that you want and take the same actions they are taking, you can get the same results.

As a young lawyer, I read biographies of successful lawyers and their remarkable careers. I also read novels and and watched TV shows about lawyers. (Earle Stanley Gardner, author of nearly 100 Perry Mason novels, was a lawyer before turning to fiction.) Aside from learning what they did and how they thought, their stories inspired me on my chosen path.

How about you?

Go find something written by or about a lawyer you would like to emulate. If they have written a “how to” book, even better. If you already do this regularly, go find books written by or about other accomplished people who can guide you towards becoming a better leader, speaker or writer, or leading a better life.

Learn from people who have done what you want to do. Let them show you, from the printed page, what they did and how they did it, and let them inspire you by showing you that you can do it too.

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Filed Under: Personal development

What are you working on?

February 24, 2016 by
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What are you working on right now? I’m not referring to your regular work–cases, client work, or the daily activities of running your practice–I’m talking about something else: a project or group of projects designed to take you or your practice to a higher level.

So tell me, what are you working on?

You might be updating your website or expanding your advertising. You might be working on a new office procedure manual, updating your forms or form letters, or writing a series of emails to former clients. You might be putting together a list of names of professionals in your market you plan to call and invite to lunch. You might be working on a new presentation, an ebook, or a video.

You should always have a project you’re working on, and when someone asks, you should immediately know what it is.

There’s always something you can do to improve your marketing or the operations in your office. You can always improve your speaking, writing, negotiation, and sales skills.

So, what are you working on?

Are you learning how to get more referrals? Are you watching training videos about software you bought but haven’t used? Are you planning a meeting with your staff or partners to discuss ways to streamline the workflow in the office, lower costs, or increase profits?

You should always be working on at least one project designed to advance your skills or improve your results. And you should always have time scheduled during the week to work on that project.

You are are a professional but you also run a business. That business has many facets, many moving parts that need to be coordinated and maintained. Your business competes with other firms who do what you do and you need to stay at least one step ahead of them.

Delivering quality legal services isn’t enough. Most lawyers do that. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you have to do more.

So tell me, what are you working on?

Are you working on your website? This is what you need

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Personal development

It’s easier to find the solution when you know there is one

February 17, 2016 by
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Let’s say you have a problem with your marketing. You’re running an ad, for example, but not getting any response. You’ve studied the ad and thought about how you could “fix” it, but you don’t have a clue. You’re not sure if fixing it is even possible.

You come to me for advice. I look at the ad and immediately spot the problem. I tell you the solution is simple, but instead of telling you what it is, I say, “keep looking at the ad and you’ll find it.

You go back to studying the ad, and guess what? You find the problem and fix it. “It was obvious,” you say. “I don’t know how I missed it!”

What just happened? What happened is that when you first looked at the ad, you didn’t know there was a solution. Sure enough, you didn’t find one. When I told you I saw the problem and it was an easy fix, you were able to find the solution. . . because you knew there was one.

There’s probably a psychological principle at play here, but we don’t need to know what it is to know that this kind of thing happens all the time.

The other day I was playing “Words with Friends” against the computer (“Solo Play”). I almost always beat the computer and I realized that it’s probably programmed that way because if it beat you all the time, you would probably stop playing. So the computer gives you the tiles you need and/or plays words that open up spots for you to enable you to make high-score plays.

The other day I had an opening to make a triple-word score. I looked at my tiles but couldn’t find any words to fill the spot. Against a human opponent, I might have given up and tried something else. But knowing that the computer had probably given me the tiles I needed to find a word for that spot, I kept looking.

And I found it. I don’t know how I missed it.

When you know there’s a solution to a problem, you keep looking for it. You expect to find it and you often do. Even though the problem may seem insurmountable at first, when you know there is a solution, you keep at it.

How can we use this in our everyday problem solving? Should we always assume there is a solution, even if there is no evidence that one exists?

Perhaps not. Life is complicated and not every problem has an accessible solution. An ad that’s not working may not have a simple fix, no matter how much we assume that it does.

What we can do, however, is ask ourselves, “What if?” “What if there were an easy fix? What might it be?” In other words, while you shouldn’t always assume that there is any easy solution, you shouldn’t always assume that there isn’t.

Put the problem aside for awhile and come back to it with fresh eyes. Assume that there is an solution and see if you can find it.

You might not find an easy solution, but you’ve got a better chance of finding one than if you assume one doesn’t exist.

Fix your referral marketing problems with this

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Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With:

Have you done your marketing workout today?

February 11, 2016 by
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You don’t have to fall in love with marketing any more than you have to fall in love with exercising. You keep doing it because you love the results.

Do it long enough, however, and you might fall in love with the marketing itself.

At some point, your brain will associate the positive results you’re getting with the activities you’re doing. You’ll get a chemical rush in much the way you do when you exercise. Eventually, you’ll do the activities as much for the enjoyment of doing them as for the results.

When that happens, you won’t have to force yourself to do the activities, they will be a natural part of who you are and what you do. When you wake up in the morning, you won’t think about legal work necessarily, you’ll think about writing a blog post or calling someone to invite them to lunch.

How do you get to that point? You keep at it, a few minutes every day, no matter what else is going on in your life. You get your marketing workout done, no matter what.

You do the laps. You do the reps. And you keep doing it, over and over again, until the day comes when you realize that you can’t keep up with all the new business you’re bringing in.

Like exercise. One day you look in the mirror, and you don’t recognize yourself.

Like exercise, the hardest part is getting started. After that, the hardest part is to keep going, to get through the pain and the desire to quit, until it’s a part of your daily routine.

Here’s how to do that:

MAKE A COMMITMENT  

Schedule marketing time on your calendar. Make an appointment with yourself and don’t miss your appointments. If someone wants to see you or talk to you during that time, they’ll have to wait until you finish your appointment.

START WITH EASY

If you’re completely out of shape, don’t start training for a marathon, start with a 15 minute walk. Keep a list of easy things you can do that are marketing related, things like writing down names of people you want to talk to or ideas for articles or blog posts or presentations.

GET A WORKOUT PARTNER

Like a trainer at the gym, find someone who will hold you accountable to getting in your workout, but also someone with whom you can share ideas and cheer each other on.

KEEP A JOURNAL 

Write about your tough days and your doubts, your victories and goals. Take notes about your execution. Write down ideas.

STUDY MARKETING 

Read, takes courses, and never stop learning. Associate with other professionals who value marketing and do it every day.

REWARD YOURSELF

Take pride in your progress. When you hit a milestone, treat yourself to a nice dinner or a weekend getaway, or buy yourself a new toy.

THINK LONG TERM

Don’t measure results in days or weeks, give yourself months or years. If you give yourself a year before you evaluate your progress, it won’t matter if you mess up today. You’ll shrug it off and get it right tomorrow.

Eventually, you’ll see a breakthrough and you will literally be a new person. Like many formerly out-of-shape people who start walking and eventually get into the best shape of their life, you’ll find yourself saying, “I’ll never go back”.

Marketing is easier when you have a formula and a plan 

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development

Solve problems by asking “why?”

January 28, 2016 by
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Toddlers are experts at asking “why?” Why do I have to go to bed? Why can’t I have ice cream? Why are you and daddy wrestling with your clothes off?

They ask why so they can better understand the world around them. When they get an answer they don’t like or don’t understand, they ask why again.

Adults also ask why. But unlike our little tykes, we often accept the first answer and fail to dig deeper.

If you realize that you’re not going to have enough money to pay all of your bills this month, for example, and you ask yourself why, you might look at your accounts receivable and solve your problem by sending out “late” notices to clients who owe you money.

That might be a good idea, and it might solve the immediate problem, but it doesn’t help you to get to the root problem.

So next month, you might again have a shortage of cash.

Asking “why” you have a problem helps you find the solution, but asking once may not be enough, as this post explains.

In Japanese, Kaizen roughly translates to “continuous improvement”. One of the discipline’s techniques for problem solving is to ask “why” 5 times. This helps you find the root problem.

Here’s how you might apply this to your money problem:

  1. Why don’t you have enough money to cover this month’s bills? Because I don’t have enough clients.
  2. Why don’t you have enough clients? Because I don’t do enough marketing.
  3. Why don’t you do enough marketing? Because I’m not good at it.
  4. Why aren’t you good at marketing? Because I haven’t found enough strategies that I am comfortable using.
  5. Why haven’t you found enough strategies? Because I haven’t spent enough time learning about the available options or how to use them.

The root of your money problem, and the solution thereto, is thus revealed.

If you stop asking “why” after your first answer (not enough clients), you may not discover a solution other than sending out late notices. If you stop after your answer to the third “why,” (you’re not good at marketing) you might conclude that things are hopeless for you in this department and give up.

Ask why 5 times and see where it takes you.

Why? Because I said so. Now go play with your toys. Mommy and Daddy are busy.

Avoid having to send out late notices with this

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Filed Under: Fees and Billing, Increase your income, Personal development, Productivity Tagged With:

I’m afraid you won’t like what I’m about to say

January 21, 2016 by
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Like anyone who puts his or her work out for the world to see, I have doubts about what people will think about it. I have fears that nobody will like it or that I will receive harsh criticism.

I have other fears, too, just like everyone does.

Most of these fears are fleeting. They don’t last long and they aren’t debilitating. Some are pretty silly when I think about them in the light of day. (Not so silly when they come in a dream, however.)

How do I manage fear?

What I don’t do is follow the advice that says, “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway,” detailed in a book by that name. Don’t get me wrong, I do it anyway, usually, I just don’t feel the fear.

Why feel the fear and infuse it with energy? Why give it more weight than it probably deserves?

So no, I don’t feel the fear. I look at it rationally and ask myself if there is anything I can learn from it or anything I must do about it. Usually, the answer is no.

I acknowledge the fear, and then I change the subject.

I think about something else that feels better when I think it. I think about a positive aspect of the subject at hand or I think about something completely unrelated.

Yes, you can distract yourself from negative thoughts and fears. That’s why God invented sports and movies, isn’t it?

So yeah, once I know that my fear doesn’t offer me anything I need, it’s not protecting me from harm,  I change the subject.

Usually that’s all I need to do. Sometimes, the fear is stubborn and I need to do more. If I’ve already decided to move forward, I put that fear in a mental lock box.

Actually, instead of a box, sometimes I put the fear in a mental balloon filled with helium and let the balloon float away. Images are powerful and I’ve found that when something is really bothering me, strong imagery helps me to regain control.

Sometimes fears return. I’ll do a quick double check, to see if they have anything worthwhile to tell me, and if not, back in the box or balloon they go.

I guess what I’m saying is that you have to get good at compartmentalizing things. If you’ve done your homework and you’re committed to doing something, put on blinders and do it. Don’t let your doubts or fears stop you.

Every so often, it’s good to take a look around you, just to make sure. But whatever you do. . . don’t open that box.

Afraid you won’t get more clients? Here’s the solution

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

Careful, don’t choke on that frog

January 20, 2016 by
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Brian Tracy’s best selling book, “Eat That Frog,” champions the well-known productivity principle of doing the most important task of your day first.

Tracy says we should swallow the frog whole. As nasty as that might be, if you do the biggest, most difficult and most important task first, you will make great progress towards your goals, even if the rest of the day you don’t accomplish that much.

So if you’ve got a trial coming up next week, prepare for it this morning. If you’ve got a lot of research to do on a file, do it first thing. This makes sense, of course, because if you wait until later in the day or put it off for a few days, you might not have enough time to do them. You might not start, let along finish, your most important tasks.

But you need to be flexible. At least I do. Apparently, some scientific types agree.

I’ve written about this before. I said that much as I would like to, I’m usually not ready to eat that frog first thing. If something takes a lot of time and energy, I usually need to sneak up on it, especially since I’m not a morning person.

I usually get other things out of the way first.

I sort through my blog reader and save articles to read later. I check email, delete most of them, respond to short messages, and star those that require more time. I write my blog post. And take care of other reasonably short tasks that need to get done.

Then I’ve got the rest of the day to work on my big project.

When I was practicing, if I had court in the morning, that’s what I focused on. When I got back to the office, appointments were next. Once those were taken care of, I dove into the files on my desk. I would usually go through them from top to bottom. Dictate, make notes, review.

In the afternoon, my staff would have letters for me to sign and more documents to review and bless. And then I had more appointments. Somewhere in between all that, I was on the phone.

Most days, I got the most important tasks done, or made progress on them, and I got a lot of other things done, too. My desk was usually clean before I left for the day.

And the only tool or “system” I used was a calendar.

In fact, when I was practicing, I can’t recall ever looking for a better system. I was busy doing work.

Besides, before computers, there weren’t a lot of options for getting organized and being more productive, other than trying out a new calendar or paper planner.

When we started using computers, they helped with a lot of basic functions but didn’t give us the multitude of options (and complexities) we have today.

I’m not pining for simpler days. I love and use technology all day, every day. And it does make me more productive. The point is we all have to find what works best for us.

Some depend on a complex workflow and a panoply of tools. Others use little more than a calendar and eat frogs when they get around to it.

The last time I wrote about this, I said as much. Do what works for you and don’t worry about finding the perfect system. Eat that frog first, or save it for later, maybe with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

Other than my calendar, Evernote is still my most valuable productivity tool

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity, Time Management

Apparently, I don’t know when to shut up

January 19, 2016 by
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I’d rather be sitting on the sofa all day, listening to the Eagles and thinking about the 70’s. But with so many music legends leaving us lately, I am reminded that I’m not getting any younger and I need to be grateful for every day I wake up and I’m still alive.

So instead, I’ll tell you about a conference call I did last night where I was interviewed about reaching a big milestone in my network marketing business.

As usual for these kinds of things, the host first asked about how I got started. And as usual with these kinds of things, before long I turned the call into a training.

My Spidey sense, and the fact that I’ve done a lot of these kind of calls before, told me a few things you might want to note for when you do an interview or presentation.

  • Although there were hundreds of people on the call, most were only half-listening. Trust me on this. Even though I am the most fascinating person I know and deliver many nuggets of gold, people get on these calls while they are doing other things, making dinner, putting the kids to bed, and probably also watching TV, and they don’t pay a lot of attention. On top of that. . .
  • Most people don’t care about me and my success. They may be inspired by my story, but only for a few seconds. They want to know how they can do what I did, and that’s what I told them, however. . .
  • Most people don’t take notes. Despite having been repeatedly told that a “short pencil is more valuable than a long memory” or however that goes, they don’t write anything down. Fascinating. On top of that. . .
  • Most people don’t want to hear about things like “hard work” and “long term”. They want shortcuts and immediate results, and they’re not going to have it any other way. That’s why some people are successful and others play the lottery. But. . .
  • Some people will take my advice and run with it. That’s cool. That makes it all worthwhile. Most won’t, some will, and that’s okay because I was only talking to the few. Finally. . .
  • Hells, bells I sure can talk up a storm. I had no idea how long I had been speaking until the host told me we were already over the scheduled time. Note to self: learn how to STFU.

Okay, well I hope that helps. Not so much? Not even the last point? C’mon, you’re a lawyer. You flap your lips for a living, just like me. And just like me, I’m guessing you have never been accused of not saying enough.

Yes or yes?

Now if we can just figure out a way to get paid by the word.

I take notes in Evernote, how about you?

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Filed Under: Communication, Inspiration, Personal development, Presentations

If I had a time machine. . .

January 15, 2016 by
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One of my favorite themes in science fiction is time travel. Last night, I re-watched an episode of Doctor Who where The Doctor and Amy visit Vincent Van Gogh. It seems that this is a favorite episode for many fans of the show, in particular because of the moving and brilliantly portrayed final scene.

No spoilers from me. It’s Season 5, Episode 10, Vincent and the Doctor (with Matt Smith as The Doctor). It’s on Netflix, but if you must, I think you can find the final scene on YouTube.

If I had access to a time machine, I wouldn’t visit the future. Now now, anyway. I’d be afraid of what I might see.

No, I would visit the past, including my childhood and days as a younger adult. No doubt I’d laugh at my younger world view, ideas, plans, and how I spent my time. I’m sure I would cringe at my feeble attempts at humor.

What would I tell my younger self? In truth, I wouldn’t talk to myself. That’s a time travel no no. Something about a paradox. Okay, revealing my inner nerd.

But I might leave myself a message.

What would I say? I would tell myself to think less and do more. To cherish every day of life and live it to the fullest.

I would tell myself that there will be many times when I will have a decision to make and I will choose to play it safe. Instead, I would counsel myself to take more risks. I would share Helen Keller’s observation that “Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing.”

And then, before I came back to the present, I would leave myself one more note: “1984 Apple. 1997 Amazon. You’re welcome.”

Hey, don’t look down on me. Time machines are expensive!

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Just for fun, Personal development

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

January 14, 2016 by
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One of my favorite quotes is from the late Dr. Robert Schuller, who, in his books and in his sermons often asked, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”

Asking yourself this question forces you to think about what you really want instead of what you think you’re supposed to do. It helps you to bypass your doubts and fears and speak the truth. It asks you to temporarily suspend your logical left brain and listen to your creative right side.

When I’ve mentioned this quote in the past, it has always been in the context of the big picture. Major career changes, for example.

If you asked me this question about my work right now, my answer would be completely illogical. It’s something creative, something I’ve never done before and, as far as I know, something I have no innate talent for. But if I knew I could not fail, it’s exactly what I would do.

Unfortunately, I know I could fail. So I’m not going to do it. Not now, anyway. I’ve got too much other stuff on my plate. They say, “trust your gut,” for a reason, and right now, my gut is telling me to wait.

Odd, isn’t it? My gut is telling me what to do if I knew I would not fail and also telling me to wait? I think God likes to mess with us.

Anyway, this morning, I was thinking about this question and I realized that we can also use it to make smaller decisions.

If you are scheduled to deliver a presentation, for example, and you’re not sure which topic to choose, asking the “cannot fail” question might guide you towards choosing the ideal, albeit not obvious (or logical) choice.

When I say ideal, I don’t just mean something you would prefer to do but are allowing other factors to stop you. I mean ideal in the sense that it might lead to superlative results.

One topic might get mild applause. Another topic, the one you would choose if you knew you could not fail, might attract someone in the audience who is so affected by your presentation that they invite you to deliver it again to a bigger and more influential group.

What if you’re wrong? Yes, that might happen. But what if you’re right?

How to get more referrals from other professionals: go here

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Personal development, success Tagged With: ,
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