Do you ever completely unplug? Me neither.

July 26, 2012 by
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I confess, I’m one of those people who is never completely unplugged.

When I’m not in front of my computer, I have my iPhone with me and it is never off.

I check email every hour, often several times an hour. In fact, in the middle of writing this paragraph, I clicked over to my always open gmail tab to have a quick look.

I can be reached by email or phone or text or instant message at any time of day (or night, if I’m up).

You may think I’m weird. Or you may say, “Me too,” or “That’s nothing. . .”.

In the Woody Allen movie, “Play it Again, Sam,” Tony Roberts plays a character who is obsessed with work and always being connected. Each time we see him he calls into his office to give a phone number of how to contact him and for how long, and then the next contact number.

That’s not me.

I am not a social media junkie. I get on when I can (perhaps once or twice a day), and get off.

I don’t get nearly the number of calls I used to get.

And even though I can receive information at any time, that doesn’t mean I respond to it. Sometimes I do, often I don’t, at least until I’m ready.

I like being connected. If I didn’t, if I was feeling overwhelmed by incoming communications or the need to respond, I would change something.

How about you? Are you always connected? Is it a problem for you? How about for your family?

How about vacations? Do you completely unplug?

I admit I don’t. I’ll shut things off for several hours, but I’m never completely “offline”. When we were in Europe years ago, before I had a smart phone, I made sure there was an Internet cafe within walking distance so I could log on at least once a day.

Michael Hyatt is a very busy and very accomplished individual who recently returned from a 100% unplugged vacation. I don’t think he needed to do it. He seems to lead a very orderly life. He wanted to unplug, and he did.

He wrote about everything he did to prepare for that trip, and it was extensive. He says it was worth it. He came home truly rested, and more in touch with the important things in his life. And because of his preparations, everything at work was just fine without him.

Reading his posts on the subject made me think he is onto something. Taking a vacation without my phone or the Internet, completely unplugged, intrigues me.

If I can just get used to the idea that everything at work will be fine without me.

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Law office management, Personal development, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Marketing insights for sole practitioners

June 25, 2012 by
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My post on going solo brought emails from lawyers who appreciated that I didn’t varnish the truth about how hard it is.

If you are a solo or thinking of opening your own office, I recommend you read Philly attorney Jordan Rushie’s candid post about his experiences in staring his own practice. It’s interesting reading if you want to compare notes, required reading if you’re about to open that office and need to make a shopping list.

Rushie agrees that going solo is almost a crazy idea–a lot harder and more costly than some would have you believe, far more work and far less income than you can imagine. Although he acknowledges that it’s never the “right time” to go solo, if you have a choice, wait until you have the experience, money, and contacts to be able to do it right.

Rushie’s has some interesting comments about marketing for the new solo. Actually, his advice rings true for just about any attorney. He says you don’t need:

  • An expensive, fancy web site. I agree. You need a place to send people to get information about your practice and how to contact you. You can add more content and make things look nicer later on, after you’re making money.
  • A logo. Right again. Although you can get a decent one designed for a few dollars to a few hundred dollars, you’ll waste too much time deciding on the right look. You don’t need a logo, you need clients.
  • “SEO Optimization”. Rushie suggests that more traffic won’t necessarily bring you good clients but that it will certainly bring you tire kickers. You can set up mechanisms to screen and filter out the low-quality inquiries and, therefore, get some decent clients, but the time (and money) you will spend are probably better spent elsewhere. Put this on the list for later.
  • A marketing/PR firm. I agree with this, too. Even if you could afford the cost and could find a firm that really knows what they’re doing (many don’t), you’re better off building relationships. Rushie says, “take potential clients to a ball game,” family, friends, and other lawyers out to dinner. No question about it, you will get far more business by leveraging your existing relationships for business and referrals than you will get hiring a marketing firm. I’m not saying you don’t need marketing information and advice. You do. But you’re better off learning it yourself so you can do it yourself.
  • Social Media or a social media consultant. Rushie says he doesn’t rely on social media to build his practice. He gets about 5% of his work from Facebook friends, “but they are usually people I knew from high school who would have called me anyway.” I know there are exceptions, but I hear something similar from a lot of attorneys. Don’t ignore social media but don’t depend on it, either. Use it as an excuse to connect or re-connect with real people because the magic happens when you talk to people or meet with people in the real world.

Rushie says not having a plan on how to grow your practice is a big mistake and of course, I concur. The good news is that the plan is a lot easier, less technically challenging, and less costly than you might think. Build your practice by building relationships.

Unfortunately, unless you know a lot of (the right) people, building relationships may take up a lot of time. Fortunately, as a new solo without a lot of clients or work keeping you busy, you have time to go meet some new people. Unless you’re too busy learning how to practice law.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Inspiration, Legal industry, Marketing legal services, Relationship marketing, Social media, Social media marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

The economy sucks. What are you doing about it?

June 22, 2012 by
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Okay, I’m not going to go all save-the-world on you but yes, if you can do something to make things better, you should. Get involved in local politics, volunteer at a charity, help someone in need.

The best thing you can do is to grow your practice. A bigger income would mean you could do more to help others. And you know what they say about the best way to help the poor: don’t become one of them.

I saw this photo on Facebook yesterday and it touched me. In case you can’t see it, it’s the window of a dry cleaner’s with a sign that says, “If you are unemployed and need an outfit clean for an interview, we will clean it for FREE”.

Nice.

Do you think the owner will get some business from this, beyond what he does for free? Publicity? Positive word of mouth? Do you think anyone who takes him up on his offer will continue to patronize his store in the future? Do you think he will tell everyone he knows about the business owner who helped him when he really needed a break?

No question about it. Doing good is good for business.

Could you do something similar for your clients and prospects? For your community?

A discount, a free service, even some non-legal advice. Offer a free financial literacy seminar to help people get a handle on their debts. Get someone a job interview at one of your client’s companies. Offer struggling entrepreneurs two hours of free advice.

Lots of people need help right now. Unemployed, struggling military families, people losing their homes.

What can you do?

Don’t do it solely because it might bring you some business. Do it because it makes you feel good to help a fellow human being.

If we all do that, even a little, everyone will be better off. Including us.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Image, Inspiration, Marketing legal services, Publicity, Social media Tagged With: , , , ,

Thinking of going solo? You must be crazy.

June 20, 2012 by
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I was reading an article that had questions you should ask yourself before you go solo. Questions like, are you self-disciplined, can you financially and emotionally handle not having a steady income, and do you like wearing many hats because in the beginning, you’ll be doing everything yourself.

If you are a sole practitioner, you may have asked yourself these types of questions before you took the plunge. If you’re thinking about going solo, you may be going through this process right now. But if you’re like a lot of attorneys today, you may not bother asking these types of questions, you’re going solo because you have no choice.

Maybe you’re fresh out of law school and you can’t find a job. Maybe you got laid off and know that the odds of replacing the job you just lost are very slim. Or maybe you just can’t stand what you’re doing and you need to be on your own.

Solo practice sounds exciting. No one to report to, make your own hours, do your own thing. In reality, sole practitioners put in longer hours and have far more pressure on them than their employed counterparts.

You have to bring in the clients and do all the work, and since most newly minted sole practitioners don’t have employees, you have to do all the ancillary chores as well. There are no benefits, paid vacations, or sick days. And when you’re the only one who shows up for work every day, it can get lonely.

A solo practice is actually a very poor business model.

And yet, many attorneys make it work.

I wasn’t one of those who was ideally suited to being a sole practitioner. I just knew I couldn’t work for anyone else.

I had worked for my father for a year out of law school and then opened my own office. I must have been crazy to do it. I had no clients, no money in the bank, and very little experience as an attorney. On top of that, I was 24 and looked 20.

From day one it was a constant struggle to survive and it was five years before I actually had anything resembling a successful practice.

I went solo because I had to. I survived because I had to.

If you’re thinking of going solo, do it because you have the experience, the clients, the financial staying power, and the temperament to run your own show. Or do it because you have no choice.

When you have no other options, you keep going. You figure it out. You do what you have to do.

One more thing. When everyone says you’re crazy for doing it, just keep thinking about how good it will feel when you prove them wrong.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Inspiration, Legal industry Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The magic of practicing law

June 6, 2012 by
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I live in a gated community and this week the streets are being re-paved. Our community is a labyrinth of cul-de-sacs and there is only one way in and out. Our street is partially blocked right now and we have to take a circuitous detour to get to and from the front gate.

The contractor has had to coordinate the closing of alternating streets to allow egress and ingress. There was a resident meeting explaining the schedule and a color coordinated street map and the schedule for paving them is posted on our community’s web site.

One street is finished and it is beautiful. The worn pavement and faded markings have been replaced with a smooth, deep black finish and crisply drawn lane lines and cross walks. Everything is new and pristine, a first class job through and through.

I enjoy watching the work being done almost more than the finished job. I grew up in a newly developed community and as a kid, loved watching the construction workers and their machines. Part of it was knowing that the workers were doing things I couldn’t do. I marveled at how they took truckloads of raw materials and out of chaos created finished buildings. As an outsider, I could only watch and appreciate the magic.

I had some of the same feelings as I watched the workers and machines paving our street. They poured the asphalt, rolled and smoothed it, and painted the white and yellow lines. I have tremendous respect for the professionals who planned and are executing this job. It is as much art as engineering. And yet to them, it’s just another job. It’s what they do every single day and there’s nothing artistic or magical about it.

I couldn’t help thinking that most people don’t know what attorneys do or how we do it, and that while few want to watch us at work, what we do is indeed magical. We are artists, engineers, and builders. With our words and ideas, we change minds, we help people prosper, we fight for freedom. Without us, the wheels of civilization would stop turning.

Never take your skills for granted. Most people don’t know what we do or how we do it, but what we do is magical.

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Legal industry Tagged With: ,

What are you focused on right now?

March 7, 2012 by
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We all have problems. Some people dwell on their problems, some focus on solutions. Guess what? We get what we focus on.

Focus on the mess you’re in and you get more mess. Focus on what you can do, how you want things to turn out, and you can work your way out of that mess.

I have a mantra, something I say to myself every day. It keeps me focused on solutions, not problems. It helps me move forward with a positive expectancy, instead of being held back by concerns and regret. I don’t know about you, but I don’t do my best work when I’m worried about something. I’m at my best when I’m hopeful and excited and looking forward to a positive outcome.

What do I say to myself? I remind myself to, “Think about what you want, not what you don’t want.”

When I do this, I feel better about the situation. Instead of worrying and shutting down, I stimulate my creativity and attract the resources, people, and ideas I need. Thinking about what I want brings me closer to getting it.

Why does this work? I’m not sure. Some say it’s the “Law of Attraction” or quantum physics doing it’s thing. Others say it’s your subconscious mind which understands your thoughts as a command which it then executes. Some say it’s the hand of God.

Whatever the reason, it does work. Try it and see for yourself.

When you think about what you want, you feel better, more in control, more creative. Your mind comes up with ideas instead of being mired in negative emotion. You are inspired to take action, guided to the next step and the step after that.

Because we get what we focus on.

I do have a caveat. Sometimes, when you think about what you want you’re really thinking about the absence of what you want–why you don’t have it, why things went wrong, why you’re not able to find a solution. All that does is attract more negative outcomes. When you focus on “not having” you get more “not having”.

I know, crazy, right?

How can you tell you’re doing it right? If you think about what you want and that thought doesn’t feel better than your previous thought, you know you are focused on “not having”. If the thought feels better, if there’s an emotional uptick, however small, it means you’re moving in the right direction.

Think about something you want but don’t have. How does it feel? If you feel frustrated or angry or disappointed, change the thought to something that feels a little bit better. From there, you can reach for an even better feeling thought.

The better you feel, the closer you are to getting what you want. When you feel excited and joyous and positive about what you want, what you want is just around the corner.

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Filed Under: Dealing with stress, Inspiration, Personal development, success Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

When you’re not the best lawyer in town

January 16, 2012 by
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So you’re not the best attorney in your field. You didn’t finish first in your class. You’re not the best presenter, writer, or negotiator.

You’re just you, someone who loves being a lawyer and helping people.

And you know what? That’s enough.

You don’t have to be the best to have a very satisfying and rewarding career. In the long run, your passion for what you do will attract everything you need. You can learn what you need to know and get better at what you do.

But you must be willing to grow.

Unfortunately, many lawyers stop growing the day they receive their license. The got school “out of the way” and then switched gears to focus on building a career.

Oh they go through the motions of continuing their education but mostly because they have to, not because they want to. Soon they find themselves in a rut, a career rut where billable hours and overhead and moving up the ladder are job one. In time, many such lawyers find themselves dissatisfied with their careers, but often they don’t know why.

It’s because they’ve stopped growing.

Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Lawyers who stop learning stop adapting to the changes around them. If they’re not careful, they’ll find themselves on the endangered species list.

Learning and growth aren’t limited to the law, however. There is much more to being a lawyer. You need to learn marketing. You need to understand human psychology. You should be able to read a balance sheet. And much more.

I heard someone say (on LinkedIn, I think) that it’s no longer acceptable for an attorney to say they are “computer illiterate”. Yet many attorneys are functionally so. Yes, you can hire people to do what you don’t want to do, but in the wired world we live in today, someone who refuses to learn some basic computer skills might as well waive a white flag and call it a day.

Never stop learning. Never stop growing. Never stop adapting to the changes around you. That’s how you will survive in this jungle.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Continuing Legal Education, Inspiration, Personal development Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A habit that will make you rich (hint: it’s all in your mind)

January 12, 2012 by
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One of the “Eight Secrets to Getting More Done in 2012,” in this Forbes magazine article struck a nerve with me because it is something I have struggled with. If you have ever been accused of being “overly analytical,” “a perfectionist,” a “procrastinator,” or just somebody who has trouble making up their mind, we’re bred from the same stock.

Yes, being an attorney means being careful, not jumping to conclusions, and not making rash decisions. We carefully weigh the options and we go out of our way to avoid risk. It goes with the job description.

It’s also why attorneys usually make poor business people. Entrepreneurs see a vision of success and act on it; lawyers see what could wrong and either say no or mull it over so long the opportunity passes them by.

But according to Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, the ability to make quick decisions is the hallmark of rich people:

Analysis of several hundred people who had accumulated fortunes well beyond the million dollar mark, disclosed the fact that every one of them had the habit of reaching decisions promptly, and changing these decisions slowly, if and when they were changed at all. People who fail to accumulate money, without exception, have the habit of reaching decisions, if at all, very slowly, and of changing these decisions quickly and often.

Marty Zwilling, founder and CEO of Startup Professionals understands this. It was his contribution to the Forbes article that caught my eye:

My key to productivity is simply “make a decision.” Even a bad decision is recoverable, and better than no decision, since it gets the issue off your plate and moving. Making no decision bottlenecks your work, and causes things to happen to you, rather than by you.

But if the ability to make decisions quickly is a habit of the rich and attorneys are prone to doing the opposite, why are there so many rich attorneys?

Two reasons, I think. First, we’re around a lot of successful people and get in front of a lot of good opportunities. The odds are in our favor that we will be “in the right place at the right time”. Second, attorneys are intelligent people and tend to make “good decisions,” albeit not quickly. If we could combine the two and make “good decisions quickly,” I think there would be many more rich lawyers.

Fortunately, making decisions quickly is a habit and habits can be developed. You do it once, the world doesn’t end, you do it again.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Start with little decisions, “which movie to see,” or “which topic to write about today.” Give yourself five minutes to decide. Use a timer. Use a screen saver message or post-it to remind you to “Decide Now!” And do it every day.

If you mindfully make quick decisions every day, making quick decisions will soon become a habit. Eventually, you’ll be able to make quick decisions about important matters and that’s when you will see more significant results.

But don’t forget the other side of the equation. Once you’ve decided, you must stick with your decision. Practice not changing your mind. Yes, you’ll make mistakes, but as Zwilling says, “even a bad decision is recoverable”. Isn’t that why God invented E and O coverage?

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Personal development, success, Wealth Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Designing the perfect legal career

January 2, 2012 by
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In Steven Covey’s, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” habit 2 is, “Begin with the end in mind“. Determine your destination before you begin so you wind up where you want to go. Covey says, “If your ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take gets you to the wrong place faster.”

So, where do you want to go in your career?

I assume you want to be successful. Well, what does success look like for you?

Take some time today to answer this question:

“If my practice/career/job were perfect in every way, what would it look like?”

Write down your answer. Here are some additional questions to help you clarify your “destination”:

  • Where would you be living?
  • Who would you work for?
  • What kind of office would you have or would you work from home?
  • How many hours would you work?
  • What services would you offer?
  • How much would you charge?
  • How much would you earn per month or per year?
  • What kinds of clients would you work with?
  • How many people would you employ?
  • What systems or tools would you use?
  • What makes you different from other attorneys?

Once you’ve got something on paper, take a step back and look at what you wrote. Did you write what you think you should be doing based on where you are right now or did you turn on your dream machine and “go for it”?

Forget logic for a few minutes. Quiet the adult in you and let the little kid speak. Ask your inner genie to grant you three wishes.

No rules. No restrictions. No responsibilities. What does your perfect career (or life) look like?

It’s your career, after all, your journey. Where do you want to wind up?

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Goal Setting, Inspiration, Personal development Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Attorneys: Don’t let your competition do this to you

December 23, 2011 by
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competition There are a lot of attorneys who do what you do, right there in your market. Many of them have more experience than you do. They have a bigger marketing budget, a better blog, and more traffic to their web site. They have better-paying clients and get more referrals. They earn more than you do. Hell, they’re even better looking.

But no matter what advantages your competition have over you, you can keep them from beating you.

How do you stop a stronger opponent, or worse, an army of them? By ignoring them.

Stop looking at what other attorneys are doing. Forget about what they have. Don’t compare yourself to others. It’s the worst thing you can do for your career or your self-esteem.

Stay focused on what you do, on your clients, on your work. Build your practice, and don’t worry about what anyone else is doing. Or as a friend of mine says, “keep your eyes on your own paper.”

No matter what advantages your competition may have, they can’t beat you unless you let them.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Inspiration, Marketing Plan, Personal development Tagged With: , , , ,
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