NUMB

 I’M NUMB. HOW ABOUT YOU?

Sorry, I couldn’t even POST last week.  My nature is not be depressed or numb but that is what I still am.

I am in fear for our country, for our children and grandchildren and for ourselves.  I know I will find a way to fight aggressively against the prejudice and craziness but it will take some time.

If I can find a way to join those who are willing to advocate strongly against any abridgment of our civil and moral rights, I will.  I will keep you posted so you can join the struggle.

 STAY TUNED…….

WHY ATTORNEYS DON’T ASK FOR HELP: Or ask for the wrong help

One of the hardest things attorneys find to do is ask for the right help.

Why is that:

  • Many attorneys have big egos and don’t want to admit they need help. They are afraid they will look weak and not competent.
  • Many attorneys don’t want to admit that they actually had lots of help just graduating from Law School, passing the Bar and finding work.  They actually feel they did it all on their own when in fact, family, teachers and others provided much needed help along the way.
  • They don’t believe there is good, effective help available to them.
  • They don’t know where to look or find the appropriate help.
  • Many would rather self medicate than admit they need help.  Oh, boy does this cause more problems!
  • Many attorneys can’t identify what kind of help they need.  Or exactly what the problems may be.
  • Some attorneys will ask another attorney/friend for help but get the wrong advice and give up.
  • Attorneys are skeptics.  They have been taught to doubt the validity of many things, including help.
  • Some attorneys are in deep denial and don’t admit they need help
  • And most important, many attorneys don’t want to go through the changes they need to resolve their problems. They would rather stay in denial.

DO YOU KNOW A COLLEAGUE WHO NEEDS HELP BUT WON’T REACH OUT?  OR ARE YOU THAT PERSON?

The starting place is to admit it. Then take some ACTION STEPS to first:

  • Grind the problem down to its elements. Is it money? Is it time? Is it burnout? etc.
  • Once you have flushed out the elements, develop a plan to attack the gap between the problem you see it  today and the vision of what it will look like when it is solved.
  • Get some professional help such as a coach to help identify the gap, help you with the steps and hold you to the commitment to overcome the problem.

 NOW IS THE TIME TO HAVE THE CAREER THAT YOU WANT!

WHY ISN’T YOUR SOLO PRACTICE MARKETING WORKING?

AS A SOLO YOU ARE DOING ALL THE TASKS SHOWN ABOVE. YOU ARE  NOT  MAKING ALL THE INCOME YOU WANT AND YOU ARE PUZZLED WHY YOUR MARKETING DOESN’T SEEM TO BE WORKING.

Read on.  This might just be the answer. 

You probably already know the elements of a good marketing plan.  Most of it is broken down in the illustration above.  Yes, you need to strategize your plan to access your target market. Wait, stop right there.

  • Do you really know your target market or are you reaching people who don’t want nor need your services?
  • Are you reaching too broad a market and are confusing the people you do reach because they have no use for your service?
  • Have you “niched” your services so that your market is identified accurately.

Let’s use an example so you will begin to see what I mean.

You are budding Probate, Wills, Trust Solo Attorney.  By the way, this is one of the most difficult areas to market because many people don’t want to think about their death let alone do something about it!

So your plan is to center your marketing around reaching people of a particular age group. That is to say older people. Maybe 60 to 80 years old.  So you spend big bucks advertising in AARP literature because you feel you are reaching the right age range. STOP.  WHAT WRONG WITH THAT PICTURE?

First, it costs a lot of your marketing budget and may preclude using those funds for more lucrative avenues of marketing.

Second, you will be reaching millions of people who already have a will or who feel they have no need of a will or any after death planning.

Third, you probably have no credibility with these readers…..YET.

If, however, you wrote a brilliant article and AARP published it, you will have at least made a small dent in your credibility gap and it didn’t cost you a dime. It will be the first step in building a ladder of dynamic branding and can go on your website and be a base for further speaking engagements directed to exactly the people who might hire you.

Now you need to question your first assumption also.  Is the 60-80 the correct group to target? Maybe not.  It is known that new parents of babies have the revelation that they need to provide for these little humans for a very long time.  What if they when they still have parenting duties after they are gone? Don’t they need some long range planning to secure their wishes for their kids?  These may be a group you have overlooked because you haven’t been thinking outside the box.  How about a brilliant article in Parent Magazine?

Are you beginning to see why the simple area of identifying your target market (s) correctly is vitally important to your entire marketing plan.

If you’d like to discuss your approach to marketing with me, give me a call and we can connect.  I’ll be writing several more blogs on this highly misunderstood area that solos foul up….so stay tuned.

THE TOOLS YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

Last blog we asked if you were afraid to negotiate. Hopefully we convinced you that life would be easier as an attorney if you added negotiation to your skills.

So this week, let me give you a few ways of looking at negotiation that might be helpful.

  • Always negotiate from strength. That means you have to do your homework so you have identified what benefit the other party has for negotiating with you.  This doesn’t mean that you walk in and lay all your cards on the table.
  • Evaluate worse loss you can have by not settling.  This frequently gives you some way of shaping expectations with the person whom you are negotiating for as well as setting a boundary for your worse case.
  • Evaluate best deal you can make.  Here is getting everything you want.  Make it reasonable. Don’t set a million dollar threshold when you only have $1,500 in damages.
  • Identify the type of negotiator(s) who might be on the other side (if you can).  Are you expecting a great deal of aggression? passive hostility? or something else?
  • Decide what might be your best strategy with the types of negotiator(s) you will be dealing with.
  • Thoroughly brief your client (or person who you are negotiating for) prior to the actual negotiation session. Make sure the expectations are realistic.  Explain what their “job” is in the negotiation.
  • If possible, have a conversation with the person (people) on the other side prior to the actual negotiation. You don’t need to discuss the actual negotiation but you can find out a lot by touching base about who will attend, anticipated time to spend and such things. This will give a feeling about what kind of people you will be dealing with.
  • Be sure to build up your confidence meter before the actual negotiation.  You want to convey  quiet confidence in your view, but not with threats or bullying.  You want to settle but not give away the farm and that can be conveyed with how you phrase your demands and receive the offers.

SO HERE’S SOME REALLY GOOD TIPS TO GET YOU STARTED.  WE DON’T USUALLY GET EVERYTHING WE WANT IN NEGOTIATION, BUT WE USUALLY GET MORE THAN WE WOULD HAVE, HAD WE NOT NEGOTIATED. AND IT’S  A WHOLE LOT LESS STRESS!

THE MAGIC THIRD KEY TO OVERCOMING CHALLENGE!

So you have identified your challenge and made certain that the description is accurate.  Then you decided on some goals and tasks to start working on overcoming that challenge.  The last piece is to do those action tasks until you have the desired results.

SOUNDS ALL TOO SIMPLE?  Actually this third step is the hardest.  Usually you start out relieved to have finally pinpointed exactly what the problem is.  Then you have taken precious time to decided what steps you need to take. Now you can start worrying that these may not be the right actions and/or that you can really do them.

NOW THE HONEYMOON IS OVER.  The last step is to pull out all stops and devise a method to actually do the actions tasks and to stick with them, revising along the way until you are rewarded with the right results.

This takes ACCOUNTABILITY.  Who are you going to be accountable to?  I always say that if you at least go out to the nearest tree and tell it your action tasks, that is on the right path to becoming accountable.  Actually having a live person to hold your feet to the fire is even better!

What about FOLLOW THROUGH?  Is there something that you must do to make sure that your action task actually got done?  Simply giving someone a call but never reaching them, is not enough.  Here you need to develop your “stick to”brain cells and write these further actions down!

TENACITY is the overall talent that makes all the other steps fall in place.  This may take some support as you begin to lose your will to push forward.  Some challenges take ten minutes to overcome and some take ten days, ten months or ten years.  You need the tenacity to stick with your goals no matter what.

AND THAT HOW YOU OVERCOME ANY CAREER CHALLENGE YOU FACE.

THE SECOND KEY TO OVERCOMING ANY CHALLENGE

Last blog I promised you that I would add the second key this week and next week will give you the third key.  Are you on the edge of your seat?

Second key is to TAKE ACTION.  What are your action choices you ask?

  • Therapy/counseling
  • coaching
  • find mentor
  • talk to your CPA
  • talk to your friends
  • talk to your family
  • google
  • find publications to help

These are a only few of the obviously choices to look for help.  Again, if you have specifically identified the correct challenge, then the action becomes simpler. For instance, if you believe that you are not making your monthly nut, and you have paperwork to show that, your best next step may be to sit down with your CPA and find out what part of your financial picture is suffering.  You may assume that it is lack of income but the real problem may be too much unneeded expense or something you never thought of.   A good CPA who is on your side and aware of your business can be a big help here.

After you have gathered as much information as you can from your CPA, then you  plan the next step.  You may need now to involve your family to see how to cut expenses or talk with your office staff.   If you are lost as how to proceed then it is time to get a coach involved to pinpoint your next action steps.

Do you see how it is so vitally important to properly identify not only the correct challenge but to whittle that challenge down to be able to see what action can be taken to overcome it? Insight is the first step to any challenge.

When you are sure you have gotten the challenge not only properly identified but also narrowed the needed action down, then you need to start developing action tasks to get to your goal of overcoming your challenge.  Again, a coach is very useful for this step because they are aware of how to focus you on the important goals as well as take into account your entire situation.  A good coach will make your goals due able so that you can have the greatest chance of success.

Stay tuned for next blog to find out the Third and Final Key to Overcoming Any Challenge!

WHY CAN’T I WORK MY GOALS?

Sorry, I missed yesterday.  I know you are all waiting with bated breath (that’s holding your breath in fear. I just looked it up) for my new blog.  So here goes:

I asked myself as I coach more and more attorneys, what holds back attorneys from working their goals.  You have to understand that as a collaboration, the client and I set goals that are derived from what he or she wants to accomplish.  That is the client’s decision in coaching.  So if he or she and I have an agreement that working those goals will make the client richer, happier, more successful, have more leisure time, or whatever else they want, why doesn’t the attorney work them?

What happens time after time, that many clients have some reason that the goals are not even started.  Not to instill guilt because that is not healthy, but I ask myself what the heck is going on?

Now, we do know that some people don’t really like to set goals. The Myers/Briggs Temperament system can spot those people and we can work with them a little differently.  However, still if a person is scattered and not focused , it is extremely difficult to be successful.  For example if a solo is trying to practice in too many areas of the law, this can be not only unsuccessful but very anxiety producing.   Think of all the different target markets to solicit and all the different laws to learn.  It is a disaster waiting to happen.

Good time management needs to be leaned and used.  The discipline to plan a calendar out the week before seems overwhelming to some but is the bedrock of getting a lot done without a great deal of anxiety. Everyone who is a lawyer found a way to get through law school and pass the bar.  This took the same kind of time management. So why are many attorneys so resistant to learning and using time management on a consistent basis?

Probably the answer comes in very personal ways, such as:

  • To be held accountable for accomplishing something in a given time produces anxiety when its not done. Better to never start at all.
  • Better not to start something that they might not finish.
  • Better to keep putting goals off to do when there is a “better time”.
  • Better to fail so that people can’t expect more.

These are just a few of the answers I’ve come up with.  I’m sure there are plenty more.  Do you see yourself in any of this?  If so, let me know.  I can help. 

LOOK MA, I DID IT!

Last week we talked about work/life balance and the draw that lawyering has on your time. This week let’s talk about expectations of other folks that may also put that work/life balance out of wack.

How many people go to law school because Mom or Dad thinks its a good idea?  Quite a few.  Mom and Dad would be proud to have a lawyer in their family to brag about, even if it is not the ideal job for the son or daughter.  Many times its the line of least resistance to just accept the support they would get from your family in going to law school instead of insisting on their own choices of career.

Think about how work/life balance can really get upset when the work part is something that you hate to do. Yet, we all know many attorneys who really don’t like their work life.  In my coaching, I find that sometimes it is not actually the lawyering part they hate but the area of the law that they are practicing.  This is fairly easy to fix.  The real problem comes when one day the attorney wakes up and says, I want to be an artist, plumber, surgeon or anything but an attorney.

Usually by this time, the attorney has a student loan to pay off, maybe a mortgage and children to raise.  To make a dynamic shift in career is really taking a chance and involves great risk. This is the time that we as coaches suggest that the attorney explore his or her support system and find out what kind of back up there might be for drastic changes.  Many people have been surprised when the spouse has said “I would love to go back to work.  You can take care of the kids and save day care costs. Then you can go to school at night or explore the alternative careers you might like to pursue.”  Or they may find that there really is no support for this change other than their close friends.

Then this is the time to seek out attorneys who have made drastic changes in their professional life and find out how they did it.  These are the people that are going to give them support and ideas about how to go about a change.  They may even find groups of people who have done this and have really good advice for them.

This is also the time for brainstorming.  We, in America, have so many different opportunities that sometimes just uncovering what might be available (even from crazy advice) is a clue to how to solve our problems.  Keeping an open mind and a resolution that they deserve a happy work life is tantamount to truly having work/life balance.

So, we can all celebrate with Ma, I Did It!  I gave myself permission to make myself happy by doing whatever it takes to follow my own path!   

IF YOU NEED MORE MONEY

After last week’s analysis, you have found you need more money. This is not just money to take a trip to Paris but a real need to up your income so you can lead a reasonable and comfortable life. It’s OK to want money to go to Paris but that’s not what we are talking about here.  This is a necessity task because you are not covering your basic needs.

1. First question:   HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED?

You can answer this quickly by looking at the accounts that you did last week.  How much more a month are you running short? Say it is $1,000.  That means that you have to generate $250 a week more. If it is a much larger amount then you need to allow yourself to know that. No whining here.  This is an important life situation.

2.  LOOK AT THE PLACES THAT YOU SPEND.

Again, you will be doing this from the accounts that you got together last week.  Can you cut out lattes? Can you decrease your spending on food? Can you bring your lunch to work? Can you change child care arrangements? Only you can know what you might be able to do without.  It is very possible that you can get that $1,000 down at least 25% just by decreasing your spending.

3. LOOK AT WHERE MORE INCOME COULD COME FROM.

I know this seem so simple but most people are so stressed by this situation that they fail to see the easy way to determine what steps to take.  Could you raise your fee?  If you presently charge $200 an hour and if you are billing 30 hours a week, raising your fee to $215 an hour will increase your income by $450 a week!

If you are an employee on a fixed salary, you can ask for a raise.  Even a 5% raise can sometimes make the difference.  If you haven’t been getting an annual cost of living increase, now is the time to bring that up.  Hit your boss with figures from reliable sources and give information on any increased work you are performing.

If you are in real trouble, you can find a second job to bring in income.  This may be on the weekend or as an UBER driver but you will need to do whatever is necessary to get back in the black.

Can your partner earn some income? Many stay at home mothers can find ways to increase revenue.  Some who have bachelors degrees  can take the test to become substitute teachers so that their hours are the same as their children. Or how about working at a store on weekends while the partner is home with the kids.

Once you first find out how much more money you need each month, there are infinite ways to make that happen.

SO THIS WEEK YOUR JOB IS TO TAKE THESE FEW BASIC STEPS AND ACKNOWLEDGE IF YOU ARE LIVING IN DENIAL ABOUT MONEY, AND DECIDE HOW YOU CAN TAKE BETTER CONTROL OF YOUR MONEY SITUATION TODAY. Let me know if I can help.

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

How many times have you heard that?  Bottom line is that you need income to live.  The manner of living is different for everyone but bottom line, it still takes money to fiance eating, housing, clothing, and other basic needs.

Let’s first find out if you presently are making enough money to fund a reasonable lifestyle.  Again, we get into questions as to what is a reasonable life style?  Studies have shown us that $75,000 a year presently can provide a suitable life style in today’s world that will provide security and less worry.  I’m not sure if that is for only one person or covers a family.  Kids in college and having a  retirement plan doesn’t seem likely to be available  with only $6,250 before taxes a month to spend. Do you buy the $75,000 idea? It doesn’t really matter for our analysis as we are going to be looking at you as an individual with certain needs.

So let’s go about this a old fashioned way.  Get out your friendly bank statements (personal and business) and take a look at your expenditures.  Look to the basics first.  How much is the mortgage? How much for food? Day care? etc.  Be brutal and honest about how much you spent on those items and more in the last 6 months.  Now add how much debt you have and what the monthly payments are. Are you saving any money each month? Then using this information come up with a monthly budget of what you need to sustain your present lifestyle.

Big Question:  IS YOUR PRESENT LIFESTYLE REASONABLE AND SATISFYING TO YOU?

If the answer is yes, then go on to next hurdle and find out exactly how much income you are getting each month.  And then the major question:  ARE YOU MAKING ENOUGH INCOME TO COVER YOUR MONTHLY EXPENSES?  If your debt ratio to income is more than 15% then something is wrong(unless big items like cars and houses are involved).

By this time, you should be seeing some interesting developments.

  • If you are not satisfied  because you want your lifestyle to be different, then in what ways would you change it?
  • If you are not satisfied because you don’t have enough income, then the only way to change it is to earn more money.

Seems like a no brainer?  You can’t imagine how many people get hung up here!  Even Attorneys!

NOW YOUR TASK THIS WEEK IS TO TAKE A HARD LOOK AT THESE QUESTIONS AND ANALYZE EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOUR “MONEY LIFE”.  If you need some help, call me.  Next week we will get into increasing your earning and what might be holding you back if that is what you need to do.