Because here’s the truth, I can give you all the legal marketing and practice management tips in the world, but if your head isn’t in the right place, you’ll find a way to sabotage your efforts.

Conversely, you can be the worst marketer or business person, but if you have the right mindset, you’ll eventually find success.

Today, I want to talk about DRIVE and how it relates to the success of your life/business right now.

Take a moment and consider the following:

1. What drives me?

2. What is my purpose for being a lawyer?

3. What is my purpose in life?

4. Am I happy?

5. Why did I go to law school?

6. Am I making a difference in the world?

These can be hard questions to look at….especially in times of economic hardship. You may feel driven on pure survival. And you may find yourself enduring gruesome hours and complete misery all in the name of making money.

You may even be compromising your time and sanity by taking legal work that you don’t WANT or LIKE to do-just to get by.

Ultimately though, these actions don’t lead to more money. They lead to burnout, bitterness, depression, addictions and in extreme cases, suicide (which is sadly on the rise for lawyers these days).

There comes a point at which if you’re going to succeed in the business of law….and in the business of life, you need to get very clear on what drives you, why you wanted to practice law in the first place and whether you are really living the life you want.

I recently had a call with Dan Pink, the New York Times best-selling author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, where we discussed this issue as it relates specifically to lawyers and the legal field.

What you may not know about Dan is that he’s got a JD from Yale. But, he never used his law degree to practice because he realized early on that his “drive” and motivation was not to be a lawyer.

Going to law school was, for him, just the next logical step for a bright kid with a top-notch college degree and a lack of clarity about what else to do.

And there’s many lawyers out there who went to law school for the same reason and are now incredibly unhappy in the actual practice of law…..not because they aren’t smart….but they aren’t aligned with that which drives them. (This may even be you.)

Dan also acknowledged there’s another group of lawyers….lawyers like me who went to law school with the DRIVE and purpose to really help people. If that’s you, you’re driven by the idea of making a real difference in the world and using the power of your law degree to some chief and definite aim.

And there’s many of us in this group who have lost sight of that drive. We take jobs in law firms that keep us stuck in the transactional rut or we get so desperate running a small or solo law firm that we take clients and cases that leave us miserable in practice.

If that’s you-I completely understand. I was there. It’s exactly what motivated me to leave the safety of my six-figure paycheck and set out to build my own law firm. And it’s also what motivated me to master the skills and create the systems I now teach in the Personal Family Lawyer Program.

I wanted to make a real difference in my client’s lives and I knew the old, broken business model just didn’t leave enough room for that. Not if I wanted to also enjoy my personal life.

Yes it was scary…..yes there were moments when I questioned my own sanity leaving the big check and investing hundreds of thousands of dollars reinventing the business model….but I had to get aligned with what drives me or face years of unhappiness and little quality time with my kids.

What I can tell you is that when I made the decision to get aligned with what was really important to me in life and my practice, the money, freedom and success ultimately followed.

So take a moment today and think about what drives you.

Why did you go to law school and are you living that desire?  A great start is downloading the call I did with Dan Pink and force yourself to identify any disconnect in your own life. I’ll show you how to work through it in the weeks to come.

Related posts:

1. Why Did You Go to Law School?

The first two ways focused around providing enhanced services to your existing law firm clients.

This third way is totally unique and has nothing to do with your existing clients.

The third way to add multiple streams of revenue to your business is to package the knowledge, expertise, systems, tools and other resources you’ve created as you’ve built your law firm into programs for other lawyers who would love to pay you to learn your shortcuts.

This is a model you’ve seen at least from the outside from anyone you are currently learning from about how to run your practice more effectively.

You might wonder why I’d mention this to you because it could put you in direct competition with me.

I just don’t view the world that way.

In fact, I help many of the lawyers I’m coaching cultivate there own unique talents and gifts by leveraging their expertise.

Kevin Roy, the probate genius. Evan Farr with his TrustPlus system. Kirsten Izatt with Special Needs Planning. Nancy Cavey with Social Securty Disability Planning. Rjon Robins in law firm management. And more …

Each of these lawyers is coaching with me to learn how to leverage their specialized knowledge into at least one additional stream of revenue for their law firm.

It’s my pleasure to guide them to their highest potential.

If you love to teach and you have specialized knowledge you’ve gained over the years of running your business, don’t be afraid to share it.

Package it, put a pricetag on it and offer it to the world. It could change your life!

Oh and speaking of guiding lawyers to pursue their passion, one of my Personal Family Lawyers Kimberley Fonner has decided to leave the law to pursue her passion. She wrote the email below to her colleagues at Wealth Counsel and I thought I’d share it here with you because it was just so kind:

Dear WealthCounsel Friends,

This was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make but my heart told me I had to do it and so I am: I’m closing my practice and getting out of the legal field, effective this month.

As much as I’ve enjoyed being a lawyer for the past 12 years, my passion really lies elsewhere and so, I am leaving the law to pursue the career of my dreams: working everyday with and in support of animals.

I’d like to thank Wealth Counsel and all of you wonderful WC members for your generous mentoring, support and advice over the last 2 years. You all have been quite wonderful and have contributed greatly to my ability to serve estate planning clients in very high-quality ways.

I would also like to publicly thank former Wealth Counsel Member, Alexis Martin Neely because I think she has been misunderstood by many other lawyers within our community.

She’s given me so much this past year and I want to pay that forward by expressing my review of her practice offerings.

I myself joined her Personal Family Lawyer Program at one of the worst times of my life – right after the sudden, unexpected death of my father.

Knowing of my personal loss and struggles with it, Alexis truly cared about me. She was always sensitive and supportive in our interactions, and also offered me a living example of how to make the practice of law more human, way more fun and therefore a lot more meaningful.

Alexis taught me to think outside the box and energized and inspired me. She has been a wonderful role model for me, and I can attest to the fact that she really does practice what she preaches.

What I have also appreciated a TON about the PFL program is it’s plug-and-play nature. That was perfect for me who was starting out as a true solo after more than a decade in the big -firm world. IMHO, it’s optimal for people who either want to re energize their existing practice, or for lawyers who are new to the estate planning field and want a blueprint to structure their practice the right way from the beginning.

All of the systems I received as a Personal Family Lawyer, from done-for-you marketing, to client engagement, to client retention to office management, were simply outstanding, I mean REALLY fantastic and value-adding stuff for my office.

Here is the bottom line from my experience as a PFL: Alexis Martin Neely and her PFL program deliver on all of her promises and then some. She is the real deal. And she really does care.

In fact, Alexis has actually encouraged me to follow my heart and live my passion…even though that meant leaving the law and her program in the process.

If your passion is being an estate planning attorney, Alexis’ PFL program will transform your practice (and therefore your life), and I can recommend it enthusiastically. Thank you all again so much, WC community, for all the support you’ve given me over the past years! It’s meant more than I can really say.

My very best wishes to all of you,
Kimberley.

About the Law Business Revolution

The Law Business Revolution is a legal marketing and training organization focused on helping attorneys attract quality clients, start and manage productive law firms, systematize their businesses and ultimately help lawyers attain more time and greater resources than ever before.

Training through the Law Business Revolution includes (but is not limited to), private and group coaching led by professionals that surpassed the 7-figure mark in their own firms and businesses, client engagement strategies, client attraction strategies, educational, relationship-based marketing techniques designed to get results, lead generation training, campaigns for consumers, referrals and prospects and systematizing a firm to run on autopilot.

Licensed attorneys are welcome to download over $22,500 of free practice building resources courtesy of the Law Business Revolution at http://www.lawbusinessrevolution.com .

Related posts:

1. More Streams of Revenue for Your Law Firm
2. Multiple streams of revenue possible in your law business?
3. 3 Sure-Fire Ways to Increase Revenue Without Increasing Overhead

This year I will invest more than 6 figures in business coaching. Yep, you read that right, more than $100,000 this year.

And this is not the first year.

I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on coaching over the past 8 years.

It all started with my first coach, Mariette.

I almost didn’t hire her because I couldn’t fathom spending the money on myself. Let alone the time I’d need to take each week to work with her.

This was back when I was still at the big law firm and very rarely spent money on myself.

My kids, yes. My husband, yes.

But, not me.

Thank goodness I did though because what Mariette helped me discover is that my unwillingness to invest in myself was keeping me trapped right where I was, unhappily working for someone else.

I might still be there had I not hired a coach to help me see where I was stuck.

I hired my next coach when I was ready to leave the big law firm and open my own office.

I wanted someone who would be there to guide me through the whole process of setting up my office and my systems.

So, I hired a well known coach whose name you would know if I said it, but I won’t because I don’t have great things to say about that experience.

He was a traditionalist in every sense of the word.

When I discussed some of my radical ideas for how I wanted to build and run my law firm, he told me I’d fail, that I should do things the traditional way, the way things were always done.

When I told him I didn’t want to continue coaching with him, he told me I was making a huge mistake, that I didn’t know what I was doing and needed his advice to do things the
right way.

Ick.

Since then, I’ve always had a coach or mentor, often more than one.

Each one has taken me to a new level of business and personal success and happiness.

If you are not working with a mentor or a coach, you should be.

Whether it’s me or someone else, if you want more out of your life and your business than you are experiencing right now, a mentor will help you get there.

If you aren’t sure how to choose in a mentor/coach, here’s what you should look for:

1. Someone who is positive and uplifting and inspires you to stretch outside your comfort zone and go beyond your limits.

2. Someone who has done what you want to do and gone where you want to go and can save you from expensive mistakes.

3. Someone who will encourage your independence by giving fully and not holding back the secrets so you are dependent on him or her forever.

Finding the right mentor will change everything for you. It sure did for me.

If you are nervous about finding the money to invest, consider that you are your very best investment and the investment you make will pay dividends every day for the rest of your life.

#####

About the Law Business Revolution

The Law Business Revolution is a law firm marketing and training organization focused on helping attorneys attract quality clients, start and grow productive law firms, systematize their businesses and ultimately help lawyers attain more time and greater resources than ever before.

Training through the Law Business Revolution includes (but is not limited to), private and group coaching led by professionals that surpassed the 7-figure mark in their own firms and businesses, client engagement strategies, client attraction strategies, educational, relationship-based marketing techniques designed to get results, lead generation training, campaigns for consumers, referrals and prospects and systematizing a firm to run on autopilot.

Licensed attorneys are welcome to download over $22,500 of free practice building resources courtesy of the Law Business Revolution at http://www.lawbusinessrevolution.com .

Related posts:

1. How I Began to Take Care of Myself and the Difference It Made in Everything
2. Looking to grow your law practice? This is your best investment in any economy
3. Want to Boost Business and Your Income Next Year? Say THANK YOU First