success Archives - Page 20 of 34 - The Attorney Marketing Center

Are you overly analytical?

December 1, 2017 by David M. Ward

You’re a lawyer. Being analytical is part of your job. But if you’re overly analytical, you may want to consider a different modus operandi.

Continually weighing the “what ifs” and “on the other hands,” re-doing your research “just to make sure,” and scrupulously avoiding any and all risks, can easily do you more harm than good.

While you’re figuring out what to do, opportunities are passing you by.

What if instead of analyzing everything to the nth degree before taking action, you take action first and then analyze?

You’ll make some mistakes. Suffer some losses and embarrassments. Have some sleepless nights. That’s the downside. The risk.

What would you gain in return?

Opportunities for big breakthroughs. Amazing profits. And some wild adventures.

By accepting some risks you open doors to life-changing gains.

Now, I’m not saying you should “shoot first” in every situation. You have to use common sense. Look at the facts before you jump in. Gather enough information to know if what you’re considering is possible.

Has anyone done this (or something like it) before? If so, why can’t you?

It may be difficult. The odds might be against you. But if you believe something is possible, or at least not impossible, go ahead and take a leap of faith.

If you stumble, get up and try again.

Success always requires action. Always. Thinking is important but you can’t accomplish anything until you do something.

Once you do it, even a little, you will learn something. You’ll either be empowered to do it again (and better) or you will know it’s not going to work and you can do something else.

But you won’t have to guess or agonize about being right or wrong, you’ll know.

Act, then analyze.

Your plan for building a successful practice

Filed Under: Personal development, success

Stop writing a “to do” list and write this instead

November 30, 2017 by David M. Ward

We have lists. Lots and lots of lists. Things we need to do, things we want to do, things we’re not sure about but may do someday. How are we supposed to prioritize anything and decide what to do today?

I have a suggestion. Take your “to do” list, the one you wrote for today or this week, and change the name to a “to finish” list.

A to do list isn’t really a list of things we intend to accomplish, is it? It’s a list of things we plan to start. But creating value in our lives isn’t about what we start it’s about what we finish.

Changing the name to a “to finish” list forces you to write a better list. Instead of writing things you should do and hope you can finish, you make a list of things you know you have the skills, resources, and time to finish that day.

If you are planning to start a new project but realize you don’t have time to finish it today, you are forced to break up that project into smaller chunks you can get done today.

A “to finish” list forces you to think about what’s important. It makes you examine the many options available and organically prioritize your list. You not only get more done, you get the most important things done.

Shifting your focus from a long list of things you need to do to a short list of things you are committed to doing gives you clarity and peace of mind. As you finish the items on your list, you feel good, giving you the energy and desire to do more.

Starting is the hardest part of doing anything. But finishing is the most important. If you want to be, do, and have more in your life, stop starting so many things and start finishing what really matters.

Filed Under: Productivity, success, Time Management

Focus, yes, but on what?

November 27, 2017 by David M. Ward

Everyone tells you to focus. Be a master of one thing, not a jack-of-all-trades. I’m in that choir, singing that same hymn. You know we’re right and you want to focus. But on what?

Which practice area? Which target market? Which strategy?

Which project should you work on? Which task should you get done today?

Nobody has the answer for you. You have to decide for yourself. But how?

Should you use logic? Trust your gut?

Should you do what nobody else is doing?

Should you do what others do but do it better?

There’s really only one definitive way to figure out where you should focus and that is to try lots of things.

Look at 100 ideas. Get rid of 90 that don’t make sense or that don’t inspire you. Out of the ten that are left, run with the top three. That’s what Steve Jobs did and those three ideas became the company’s focus over the next year.

Experiment constantly. Test lots of variables. Don’t try one or two headlines or email subjects, try fifty. Don’t try five keywords, try 105.

Talk to more people, write more articles, give more talks.

When you find something that works well and feels right to you, make that your focus. At least for now. What works this year may not work next year. Something new may work even better.

Keep learning, keep trying new ideas and different ways of implementing them. And always, keep your eyes on the market. It will tell you what it wants and how much it will pay.

The formula for building a successful practiceÂ

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, success Tagged With: focus

Aim for the top dogs

November 22, 2017 by David M. Ward

You know a lot of people. You’d like to know more. Instead of meeting people randomly, you should meet and work with the biggest and the best.

The ones who influence the right people in your niche or local market. The ones who can send you business, introduce you to other influential people, and show you how to do the things that got them to the top.

They might be other professionals. They might be bloggers, authors, speakers, coaches, or trainers. They might be politicians, consultants, business owners, or industry leaders.

They all have one thing in common. They can help your career take a giant leap.

It may be harder to connect with them but it is worth the effort. One top dog can do for you what 100 other dogs cannot.

Don’t settle for building a network of ordinary people. Set your sites on the biggest and the best.

Start by asking yourself these two questions:

1. Who are the 10 leading people in my marketplace, and
2. How can I connect with them?

Answer these questions and get to work. One day, your name will appear on other people’s top dog list.

Building a successful practice starts with a plan

Filed Under: Networking, success

When a herd of zombies is coming at you

October 25, 2017 by David M. Ward

You hear it a lot in movies. The characters are having problems. Zombies are crashing through the gate. The bad guys are coming to take their stuff, and everything looks hopeless. Someone wants to give up and someone else says, “C’mon, we can do this. We’ll figure it out.”

And somehow, they almost always do. Although that might not happen until the next season.

There’s a lesson in less. No matter what you’re going through, whether you’re struggling to bring in business, your clients aren’t paying your bill, or a herd of zombies is coming at you, you just keep going.

Whatever the problem, action is the cure.

You can think. You can research. You can pray. You can ask others for help or advice. But at the end of the day, those zombies aren’t going to cut off their own heads.

Of course, building a law practice is very much like fighting zombies.

When I opened my own practice, I rented an office from an attorney who had an extra room in his suite in Beverly Hills. It was expensive but I had big plans and needed to look like I had something going on. Unfortunately, I didn’t. I had trouble paying the rent.

But I kept going.

After a while, I moved to another office closer to where my prospective clients lived. The rent was cheaper and gave me more breathing room. More time to keep going. And I did.

I continued to struggle and eat peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, but eventually I was doing better and got my own suite of offices.

It took years but I made it.

Some of my success came from improving my legal skills. Even more came from learning how to market my services. But most of my success came because I didn’t quit.

I had problems. I made mistakes. I lost money. Hell, in my first year I had to appear at a state bar hearing (without representation) to explain to a panel how I wasn’t violating ethical rules by running ads offering to pay referral fees to attorneys. (The law had just changed to allow this and when I pointed out that I was abiding by the rules, I won the case.)

No matter where you are right now, keep going. Nobody’s coming to rescue you. But you can get through this. Just keep moving and I promise, you’ll figure it out.

Need clients? Here you go

Filed Under: Inspiration, success

You’re smart enough but are you lazy enough?

October 10, 2017 by David M. Ward

You know I’m a fan of the book, “The 80/20 Principle” by Richard Koch. He wrote a sequel,Â â€œLiving the 80/20 Way: Work Less, Worry Less, Succeed More, Enjoy More. In it, Koch quotes General Erich von Manstein, an officer in the German army, speaking about leadership:

â€œThere are only four types of officers.

First, there are the lazy, stupid ones. Leave them alone, they do no harm.

Second, there are the hard-working intelligent ones. They make excellent staff officers, ensuring that every detail is properly considered.

Third, there are the hard-working, stupid ones. These people are a menace, and must be fired at once. They create irrelevant work for everybody.

Finally, there are the intelligent lazy ones. They are suited for the highest office.â€

Different versions of this citation have appeared, sometimes attributing the quote to others.Â In 1942 Viscount Swinton (Philip Lloyd-Greame) spoke in the House of Lords in London. He described the four classes of officers and credited an unnamed German General:

The clever and lazy you make Chief of Staff, because he will not try to do everybody elseâ€™s work, and will always have time to think.

What does this tell us? I think it tells us that maybe we are too industrious for our own good. Maybe we need to do less work and more thinking. Maybe we need to delegate more work to hard-working intelligent people who will take care of the details while we take care of the big picture.

I’m going to take some time to think about this. How about you?

Behold: an easier way to get more referrals from other professionals

Filed Under: Leverage, success Tagged With: delegation

The secret to my success

October 5, 2017 by David M. Ward

Want to know the secret to my success?Â The secret is simple. I do a few things well.

That’s it. A few things. The “precious few” in 80/20 parlance, that deliver the majority of my results.

I run three businesses. In each business, there are only a few things I focus on to keep the wheels turning. Well, actually, one business is nearly 100% passive income and requires almost none of my time anymore. The other two businesses are flexible enough that I can work at them when (and if) I choose. So for me, at this stage of my life, my precious few are “writing, learning, and marketing.”

How about you?

If you run a law practice, your precious few probably include, “marketing, management, personal development, and work product”. Am I right?

[Sidebar: Don’t be one of those lawyers who foolishly boasts that they don’t do any marketing. Everything you do is marketing.

Every time you speak to a client you’re showing them why they should remain your client and refer their friends. Every time you give someone your card or mention your website you’re inviting them to learn more about you do. Every time you talk to a prospective client or fellow professional you’re showing them why they should do business with you. It’s all marketing. All of it.

Okay, back on the record.]

Let’s start with “areas of focus”. You run a law practice, you have a personal life. That’s two. You might also do charitable work, be active in your church, or have a hobby or outside interest that’s important to you.

What are your precious few areas of focus?

Next, for each area of focus, think about the precious few things you focus on (or need to).

For your practice, what are the precious few things you do for marketing?

You may focus on a few types of clients, niche markets, or practice areas. Your strategies might include client referrals, professional referrals, and driving traffic to your website. If you advertise, your precious few might include a group of niche publications, keywords, or offers that deliver the majority of your results. You might create content, build a social media following, or speak or network in the “real world”.

What are they? What are precious few in your marketing?

For work product, you might derive most of your income from a certain type of case or client or a certain type of work. What are your precious few?

For management, you might focus on new client intake procedures (although that’s also marketing), billing, and document management. You might focus on hiring the best people, training, or building culture. What are your precious few?

For personal development, you might work on building a new habit, improving a particular skill, or acquiring a certain type of knowledge. What do you focus on? What are your precious few?

In the end, success comes from doing a few simple things. It can’t be any other way. You can’t do 100 things and expect to do them all well. You can’t focus on 100 things you can only focus on a few.

I built my practice with referrals. It was one of my precious few.

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Personal development, success Tagged With: 8020, areas of focus, focus

Most new things don’t work and that’s good

September 26, 2017 by David M. Ward

You tried something new but it didn’t work. You wasted time and wasted money. You’re disappointed. Embarrassed. Hesitant to try the next idea that comes along. You’d rather go back to doing what you know works instead of taking chances on something that might not.

Can we talk?

Most new ideas don’t work the first time you try them. Many things never work. That’sÂ good because if most things you tried worked right out of the box, it would mean you’re playing it safe, doing what’s easy and familiar and not taking enough risks.

No risks, no growth. No pain, no gain.

That doesn’t mean you should be reckless or jump into things with doing your homework. It means trying lots of new things and not worrying about the results. It means hoping for the best but expecting the worst and when the worst happens, learning from it and trying again or moving on to the next idea.

Think about it. What was the last new thing you tried that didn’t work? Maybe you sent an email to your clients, hoping to get some repeat business or referrals, but nothing happened.

Why? Figure it out. Review the email and see what you might have missed. Show it to someone who knows marketing. Ask a few clients for feedback.

Then, try a different approach. A different subject line. A different offer. You might find the right combination and open a treasure chest of new business.

If the email had worked the first time, you might have continued to use it “as is” and never found something that worked much better.

Try lots of new things and keep track of what works and what doesn’t. If most new things fail or get poor results, smile. You’re on the right track.

Marketing is easier when you know the formula

Filed Under: success

Is this a new definition of success?

September 18, 2017 by David M. Ward

How do you define success? Here’s the definition I’ve used for a long time: being able to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want.

Under this definition, success means having the freedom to choose how you want to live your life. You can use your time and your money as you see fit. You can be altruistic, self-indulgent, or anything in between.

Bottom line, you can spend your days on earth doing what you love all day, every day.

Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

How do you get there? Well, this morning I read a somewhat different definition of success that may give us a clue.

YouTuber Casey Neistat said, “What’s the ultimate quantification of success? For me, it’s not how much time you spend doing what you love. It’s how little time you spend doing what you hate.”

I like the sound of that. How about you?

If you hate traffic, changing your work situation to eliminate your daily commute would clearly be a measure of success. If you’re like me and you’ve had your fill of work travel, not having to do it anymore would also have to go in the success column.

Hmm, I think we have a plan.

Instead of looking for ways to get more of what we want and thus adding more work to our already busy schedules, we should first get rid of the things we don’t want.Â The things that make us uncomfortable, waste our time, distract us, enervate us.

Each time you do this, you score a double victory. You get rid of something that sucks the life out of you and simultaneously free up time and energy to do the things you love.

Don’t put more on your plate. Clear your plate to make room for more.

Yes, there will always be things you can’t eliminate. But maybe you can find ways to do them quicker or less often. Or make them less unpleasant.

So, yes, we have a plan. Make a “don’t do” list and start checking off the boxes.

What will you eliminate first?

Does your website regularly bring you new business? Here’s how to make it so

Filed Under: Personal development, success

If you want to be rich, do this

September 14, 2017 by David M. Ward

I’m sure you’ve heard this before: If want to be rich, look at what everyone else is doing and do the opposite. Or, conversely, find someone in your field who is rich and do what they do. Or did.

Since most people aren’t rich (or however you want to define success), doing what they are doing pretty much guarantees that you won’t achieve superior results.

If you do what the average person does, you are likely to achieve average results.

The five or ten percent at the top do things differently. Emulate them, not the masses.

Okay, why is this common sense so uncommon? Why do most lawyers continue the tradition of doing things the way everyone else does them? Why are they so adverse to change?

Fear. They’re afraid of looking different. Or messing up.

What will my colleagues think? What will my clients think? What if I try something different and it doesn’t work?

Remember in school how most kids slouched in their seats and hoped they wouldn’t be called on? Remember the kid who sat in the front and always raised their hand?

They don’t want to be that kid.

If you don’t want to be noticed, if you don’t want to take chances, if you like the idea of being like all the other kids in the courtroom or boardroom, fine. If you want to do better, you can do that, too. All you have to do is raise your hand.

Use this to learn how to earn more and work less