The new world of Web 2.0 has made things a bit like the Wild Wild West in terms of law firm marketing.  Everything’s new, there’s no guidelines and quite frankly, it can be a bit scary at times.  I understand.  I was once boggled by the myriad of opportunities too.

But, you must take the time to understand your options.

In today’s world, with more choices than ever, your law firm will never have a steady stream of prospects calling if you are not marketing.  And let’s be honest, marketing can be extremely time consuming, has a steep learning curve and typically requires a lot of expensive trial and error.

Fortunately, once you figure it out, business (and life) becomes much easier.  And when you have the one-two punch of attracting the right prospects and engaging over 80% of the ones that call your office, now you’ve got a real business. [ed note: if you aren't engaging over 80% of the prospects who call your office, you are wasting a whole lot of your time & most of the money you spend on your marketing.]

I can definitely understand the desire to outsource a substantial part of your lead flow.  Who wouldn’t want someone else to handle what is for many of you the most difficult part of your business – getting the phone to ring?

In response, companies have sprung up that claim they will get your phone to ring by leveraging the power of the internet. Not all companies are the same though.  Here’s what you should look for when you are engaging any outside legal marketing company to help with your marketing:
1.  Pay for results only.

Pay-for-results or (pay-per-performance) means you only pay if you get results.  But, not all results are the same.

Beware of the companies promising to get your website to the top of the google or other search engines. That’s not necessarily the results you want or care about.  Sure, they can get you to the top of google for certain keywords, but are those the keywords your prospects are searching for?  What about all the other searches?  And, what happens when people get to your website?  Is your website primed to convert looky-loos into your clients?  If your site is like most lawyer sites I’ve seen, no.

If you are not prepared to make the time and money investment in building a website that converts (we can cover that another day), you may want to look for a company that is going to deliver you qualified contacts.

2.  No long-term contracts.

Look for a provider that doesn’t require you to sign a long-term contract.  If it’s pay-for-results or pay-per-performance, why require a long-term contract?  Either you are getting the contacts or you aren’t.

3.  Screening that benefits you and not the provider.

I’ve heard a rumor that some pay-for-performance companies screen the inquiries and cherry pick the best cases for themselves or their buddies. I understand this is most common in the personal injury arena and can’t confirm it, but watch out for it if you are 1 of 5 or 6 attorneys getting contacts in a specific area.  Look for a company that delivers you ALL of the contacts that come in for your specified area without room for discretion about which of the contacts you get and which you don’t get.

If you use these guidelines before you choose a company to outsource your marketing to, you’ll have very little, if any, risk.

And, while you know I’m a big fan of outsourcing so you can be the lawyer you’ve always wanted to be, don’t rely on outsourced marketing as your only source of leads.  Make pay-per-performance online marketing part of your mix, but be sure you’ve got your own internal systems for becoming THE go to lawyer in your local community as well.

This week’s Law Business Revolution Weekly Briefing Memorandum is going to re-set your expectations about what should happen when you speak at a seminar or meet with a prospective client in your office. If your objectives are too low, you are wasting time, money and energy. Let’s maximize your resources – you can be making a whole lot more impact and money in a whole lot less time when you up your conversion rates.

This past weekend at my Personal Family Lawyer® training conference, as I was discussing how Personal Family Lawyers in our program should be making appointments with 60-70% of seminar attendees and engaging nearly 100% of prospects who make it in for appointments,along-time lawyer, but short-term Personal Family Lawyer®, expressed concern that I was setting “unrealistic expectations” for our lawyers based on typical marketing stats.

He felt that a 30% appointment rate and 60-70% engagement rate was “more accurate” for attorneys.

But I’m here to tell you that those numbers stink and if that’s what you are shooting for, you are setting your bar way too low.

Here are three things to consider if you are satisfied with those numbers:

1. You aren’t confident enough in the value of the services you provide:

When my appointment and engagement numbers were low, it was because I didn’t really believe in and understand the value of my services and it came through.

You must be 150% confident that you are the absolute best at what you do. If you don’t feel that way, determine what must change within your practice so that you do feel that way.

You must be so confident in your skills and services that it permeates every aspect of the conversation so that whoever is talking with you and needs your service walks away feeling as if they must have you as their lawyer.

2. You don’t follow a script that is designed to get to yes:

Whether you are speaking to a group or one on one to a potential client, you cannot wing it. You’ve got to be following a script. Period.

Now that you own your own firm, every conversation you have is an opportunity to sell yourself and your services, especially if you are speaking to a group of people or in a prospective client meeting.

Your script should include your firm story, which in an engaging story-based manner explains who you are, how you work and why people should listen to or hire you. And, it should always include a strong close designed to result in the outcome you desire – an appointment, an engagement or even simply an exchange of information.

Your close does not have to be salesy or pushy at all – if done right, you’ll be simply helping the people in front of you make the right decision for themselves and for the vast majority that right decision will be you.

3. You’re satisfied with less than you deserve:

Maybe you think 30% appointment rates and 60% engagement rates are just fine. If you are satisfied with that—great—that’s what you’re going to get. But if you want more and believe you can have more in your business, you’ll see that you deserve better.

Look at it this way, if you are spending marketing $$ to get people to attend a seminar or come in to meet with you and more than half the people leave without making appointment and more than a 1/3 leave your office without saying yes, you are wasting a huge amount of your marketing dollars. Even small increases in these numbers can have a big impact.

The good news is that this is not rocket science, but it does take practice. That’s why large corporations pay MILLIONS of dollars to hire sales trainers to come in and train their staff and create script books (which are kept under lock and key).

Fortunately, you don’t have to spend millions on this. But, you do need to be confident in your services, follow a script and not settle for less than you deserve.

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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 .

This week’s Briefing Memorandum covers why the economy excuse doesn’t fly with me and it shouldn’t with you either.  

If you find yourself playing the economy card, recognize it as the cop out it is because if your prospect wants what you are offering badly enough, they’ll find a way to pay for it.  

It’s your job to make them want it bad.

Day after day, struggling lawyers contact me complaining about how the economy is affecting their business. 

When I ask them to describe their business to me, I’m not surprised they are struggling.

They are surprised though when I tell them it’s not the economy. It’s them.  

How do I know this?

Because I’m standing in an arena full of 15,000 people who despite the economy found the money to get to this concert.  

Parking alone was as much as $50. A beer, $12. Tacos, $10. Tickets at face value $100 each. Many people pulled up in limos. Dave wanted to be here so badly, he paid $350 a ticket and so did the people sitting next to us.  

These people can afford your services, you just have to make em want it.  

So what are you doing to do that? How are you differentiating yourself from the online, do it yourself,virtual legal service providers?

What kind of an EXPERIENCE are you creating for your clients?

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ve got a gift for you that will clear up your confusion and SHOW you exactly how to create a totally unique experience for your prospects that will make them excited to come and see you and want to find a way to pay for your services.  

All you have to do to get this video gift that will show you just what to do in your office is sign up for my Personal Family Lawyer call. Do it here: http://budurl.com/cuvg

On the call, you’ll hear how to make your prospects want you and only you.  

It’s not the economy.

 

 

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 .

Nearly 8 years ago, I was an associate in a big law firm and very unhappy. I told myself there must be something wrong with me to be so unhappy.

The firm was the best in Los Angeles. I was representing people like Warren Buffet and companies like Universal Studios.

I was making a nice 6-figure paycheck. More than I had ever made in my life.

I was 27 years old. How could I not be overjoyed?

But, I wasn’t.

One day, I heard a woman speak at a networking event. She spoke about branding, but that’s not what I heard.

I heard her talk about how she had created life on her terms. A life she loved. Her work was aligned with her purpose. She got to spend as much time as she wanted to with her children. And, she was making a great living.

I wanted that life. Yet, I felt so far from it.

Driving downtown everyday pushing paper for people who barely appreciated what I was doing. Leaving my daughter and husband. Not really feeling as if I was making a difference in anyone’s life.

I got her book, combing it for her secrets. Inside, I saw she referenced a coach she worked with.

I had considered coaching before, but had poo-poo’d it. “I don’t need a coach, I’m a lawyer.” “I’m too smart for a coach.” “I can’t afford it anyway.”

These were the thoughts that ran through my head whenever I thought of working with a coach.

Until it hit me that I had to do something. I may have been smarter than the girl who was speaking from the stage that day, but she was a heck of a lot happier. I wanted what she had.

So, I hired this coach despite all the mind chatter saying I was nuts.

And the first things she asked me was “when’s the last time you went to the dentist?” “What about getting a haircut?”  “When’s the last time you did that?”  “A pedicure?” “When’s the last time you had one of those?”

To each one of her questions, my answer was “it’s been a really long time. Why are you asking me this? I thought you were supposed to be getting me happy in my work.”

What I didn’t realize then, but I do now is that it’s all connected. If you aren’t taking care of yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually, you’re likely to be unhappy in your work no matter what you are doing. And of course that’ll be reflected in your bank account and your family relationships.

So, start there. In next week’s Law Business Revolution Briefing Memorandum, I’ll share with you how taking care of myself actually tangibly and literally saved my life.

 

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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 .

One of the biggest mistakes I made in my business right from the beginning was settling for less than I deserve and as a result of that settling, guess what I got?

Frustration. Burn-out. Overwhelm.

I bet you can relate.  But, what you might not know is that there is something you can do about it.

This Law Business Revolution weekly briefing memorandum will show you exactly how to experience the life and business of your dreams, by not settling!

The first place for you to start is to honestly look at WHERE you are settling for less.

The likely places for you to start looking are with your clients and your team.  It might be your office space. 

Take an honest, good hard look.

Are you taking on clients that are not your ideal clients? For that matter, do you even know who your ideal clients are? What about team members?  Does every person on your team feel like they are the best fit? Or are you creating jobs to fit your team members?

While you are at it, look around your office space.  Your work space.  Is it all you want it to be or do you see things that are not the way you want them to be?  Is your space the way you want your clients to experience you?

It’s very, very likely that you’ve now identified some places that you are settling for less in your business. (By the way, this exact same process works in your life too!)

So now what?

Now that you are aware of where you have been settling,  write down the areas where you have been settling and what exactly and specifically it would look like if you were NOT settling.

For example, you might write:

I’ve been settling with my receptionist. If I wasn’t settling, my receptionist would answer my phone with a smile on her face every single time and she would say “welcome to [name of law firm] this is [name] how can I assist you?” When clients walk in the door, she would immediately greet them
with a smile, an offer of a beverage and guide them to a comfortable space.

Great!  Do this as many times as are necessary.

What this process will do for you is give you clarity and focus about what you DO want.  That’s the first step to receiving what you want in your life and no longer settling.

Now, your job is to begin to let go of what you’ve been settling for in favor of what you want and deserve in your life and your business.

This, of course, is the difficult part.  All sorts of fear will come up that makes you believe that you can’t really get what you want and it’s better to settle for something than end up with nothing.

This thought/fear is blocking the life/business you deserve.

Now that you are aware of it, you can breakthrough it.  I’d love to hear how it goes for you!

 

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 .

In this week’s Law Business Revolution weekly briefing memorandum, I’m kicking off a series of messages about how you can leverage your business into multiple streams of revenue, some of them even passive.

Back in the boom time of a few years ago, there was a lot of talk about using real estate to build multiple, passive streams of revenue.

It was pretty easy to get caught up in the hype as real estate prices were going up-up-up.

I decided to invest in some real estate and I nearly lost my shirt. We were fortunate in that we were able to sell at break even right before the big crash in the market.

It could have been really ugly.

I was lured in by the idea of a no-effort return on my dollars.

The reality was not so much like that.

I didn’t know anything about real estate. And while I invested with a real estate agent who was successfully flipping and fixing properties all over town, I was not focused enough to keep an eye on what he was doing and there was a lot he did that I would have done differently.

It probably would have been a-ok if the market kept going up, but in a bear market, you cannot make sloppy mistakes!

It’s the same for your business.

What worked out okay over the past few years, may not work anymore. You’ve got to get into overdrive if you want to survive in a recession economy!

The good news is that if you do, you’ll be in the minority and will do far more than just survive, you’ll thrive.

So, what does that mean? And, how do you do it?

One way is to build multiple streams of revenue into your law business. Not by investing in risky real estate ventures or uncertain stock speculation, but by leveraging your existing core business assets.

We’ll talk a lot more about this over the next several weeks because there are some right ways to do it and some wrong ways to do it.

For now, know this, understand that there are basically three models for leveraging your core business into multiple streams of revenue:

1. Provide a broad range of services to bring in new clients.

2. Offer your existing clients additional services that are complimentary with other services you’ve already provided.

3. Teach other business owners how to do something you do that is specialized or unique.

Most lawyers are doing #1, but not only doing it the wrong way, but doing it in such a way that it actually dilutes their effectiveness.

Very few lawyers are doing #2 and even fewer are doing #3.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing how you can do all three of these things effectively to create multiple streams of revenue in your law firm.

Power to the People (and Your Dream Law Business!)

Alexis

 

Image courtesy of Flickr

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 .

This week’s Law Business Revolution weekly briefing memorandum is about something far too few service professionals do a very good job of and that’s asking for feedback.

I suspect, for the most part, it’s because they are afraid of what they might hear.

But, asking for feedback is the best way to learn what is working and what’s not.

You can guess and you can test, but the least expensive and fastest way is to ask your prospects and your clients.

At my law firm, we always sent a survey out to our clients within two weeks of the completion of their planning.

Most of the time we got back very kind responses.

Sometimes, I heard complaints. And, thank goodness I did because had I not asked, those unhappy people would have kept their thoughts to their own inner circle of friendship, which would have meant I couldn’t course correct and my reputation in the community would have been chipped away.

Each time you ask and get any sort of feedback at all, be grateful because it’s a great opportunity for you to do what you need to do to keep serving your clients in the best way possible.

So, I can’t write a briefing memorandum like this and then not ask, right?!?

How are we doing? What would you love to see more of? What would you love to see less of?

I’m all ears. Simply comment and I’ll get your message. I won’t be able to respond to each message I receive personally, but I will read each one of them.

 

Image courtesy of Flickr

The Law Business Secrets e-newsletter is getting out to you a day late because I was traveling yesterday to Scottsdale and I’m at the Phoenician Resort where I’m meeting with my new mentor, Alexandria Brown.

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.

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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 .

How would you like to pick up 20 new clients in 2009 with no legal marketing cost whatsoever?

Sounds pretty good, huh?

Well, it’s possible.  All you have to do is leverage the power of social media.

And, in this week’s Law Business Secrets e-newsletter, I’m walking you step by step down the road to doing just that. Take the first step today.

What is social media?

For the purpose of bringing you business, think of it as an online chamber of commerce that has 24/7 networking meetings where you can meet your perfect clients.

My entertainment lawyer picked up 20 new clients, including me, last year from Twitter.

Would you like to do that too?

You can!

The first step is to get on Twitter.

If you aren’t there already, it’s super easy.

Just go to: Twitter and sign up for an account.

Once you are signed up (or if you already are), be sure to follow me and let me know you are following me.

You do that by going to Twitter/AlexisNeely and clicking the button that says Follow.

Once you are following me, drop me a note by typing “@alexisneely I’m on Twitter from your Law Business Secrets newsletter” into the What Are You Doing window.

Now what?

I’ll send you further instructions about how to get the most out of your Twitter experience through Twitter once I know you are there.

*Here’s one major tip* – when you sign up for Twitter,use your full name, first and last, if it’s not taken.

That will make it WAY easier for people to find you, which is what you want.

Ok, that’s all you have to do to get started.

It’s easy, it’s free, there’s no excuses.

Go do it.

PS – what are you waiting for? Go sign up for Twitter now and if you are already signed up, let me know you are there so I can be sure to send you personal TweetTips and help you build your influence in the Twittersphere.

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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 .

I recently closed my million dollar law firm so I could focus my attention on coaching and a fellow attorney on Twitter (@scottgreenfield) asked why.

I figured if one person had this question, many others might as well. And the answer is instructive on many levels.

So, rather than try to fit the answer into a 140 character Tweet, I thought I’d give it the length the answer deserves.

Was I Crazy to Close My Law Firm?

And believe me, this is a question that I have gone over and over in my mind for quite some time now. I did not make the decision to close my law firm lightly. My boyfriend (@davedee) repeatedly questioned my decision.

He would say to me “Alexis, are you sure you don’t want to just keep being a lawyer and focus on the growth of your firm? You could easily have a $2mm per year firm working 2-3 days per week. Are you really sure?”

He was right. I could have stayed a lawyer, had a great name in my community, been working a few days per week and had a nice, easy life.

Over the last few weeks, as I’ve actually been going through the process of closing my firm, I’ve questioned my sanity more than a few times in making the decision I did. Especially as the Universe has thrown some pretty major tests my way.

The week after I announced my firm closing I spoke at an event I had agreed to speak at months ago and 23 people requested appointments and several begged me to be their lawyer. With my engagement history and average fee, I was easily turning down $100,000 by saying no.

So, why? Well, here’s the long answer …

I Almost Got Trapped By the Golden Handcuffs Once

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to represent the underdog. I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to help families.

Then, I got to law school at Georgetown, racked up close to $100,000 of law school debt, graduated first in my law school class, got married and pregnant and starting salaries were $135,000 per year.

The lure of the 6-figure salary was just too much to pass up and I convinced myself that I could join a big law firm and still make a difference and help families by going into estate planning.

Pretty quickly, I could tell I wasn’t going to stay long-term. I didn’t feel as if I was really helping anyone. Everything was so transactional.

Billing my time in 6 minute increments, working on estate plans for people who didn’t really seem to care what we were doing for them. And worst of all, I knew the plans we were putting in place were likely to fail by the time our clients needed them to work because we weren’t proactively keeping them up to date and we weren’t ensuring the assets were titled in the right way.

I Swore I Would Never Be THAT Kind of Lawyer

When I was in law school, my father-in-law had died. He’d spent a few thousand dollars on an estate plan and at the end of his life, that plan failed because his assets were not owned in the right way and the plan had never been updated. I thought for sure his lawyer must have committed malpractice. Then, I got to the big law firm and found out it wasn’t malpractice, it was common practice.

Despite the big paycheck and the great people I worked with, I decided to leave after only three years in practice and open up my own law firm.

That was August of 2003. I had just given birth to my second child that March, my husband was a stay at home dad and while I was scared to death, I decided to risk it all because in my heart I knew it would never get any easier to leave the security of the big law firm and the big paycheck.

So, I left.

I Started My Own Firm And Discovered the Traditional Business Model Was Broken

Very quickly, I discovered the traditional business model of the solo and small firm lawyer was broken. To begin with, there was no system for me to follow. I had to reinvent the wheel, making everything up as I went along.

I hired a well known law practice management coach to guide me through the transition and he was insistent that I set things up under the traditional/old school model that I knew was flawed. When I told him some of my radical ideas, he told me I’d fail. I fired him. (I gave this same coach a second chance a few years later and hired him to advise me on the sale of my practice when I held a contest to sell my law firm and suddenly had 25 potential buyers.  His guidance actually jettisonsed the sale.)

I was struggling along and learning from the leaders in the estate planning industry about how to be successful, but when I looked behind the scenes at their successful businesses what I saw was shocking. They were trapped in their businesses with no way out. Most of the time, they were working 10-12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. They had no recurring revenue, no exit strategies, huge overhead and in many cases they were churning out documents that would very likely fail when their clients needed them. More often than not, they were secretly miserable. This was not the life for me.

I knew there had to be a better way.

I Finally Realized I’d Have to Look Outside the Legal Industry For Answers

So, I looked outside the legal industry for answers. Over a two year period, I gave myself a masters in entrepreneurship by studying teachers like Dan Kennedy, Michael Gerber, Richard Branson, and Mark Cuban. Through them, I learned some very important lessons about marketing and systems and mindset and motivation.

I learned how to attract my ideal clients, how to engage them nearly 100% of the time, how to create a predictable system to service the clients and how to keep them clients for life. And, I learned how to run my office in a streamlined fashion.

With What I Learned, I Built a Million Dollar Law Business

In 2006, my law business generated just over $1,000,000 of revenue. In 2007, we did it again, but that year I did it while only going into my law office two (2) days per week and I began teaching other lawyers how to do what I had done. In 2008, I sold my law firm.

Unfortunately, the man I sold it to was trying to run both my law firm and his and ultimately, he wasn’t able to keep up with the demands of two busy firms. When he began to fall behind on the processes, systems and marketing that I had set up to keep the firm successful, we jointly made the difficult decision to close the firm.

I could have jumped right back in to seeing clients. Those 23 people who requested appointments when I presented in early January would have resulted in a $100,000 month to start off the year, putting me right back on track without missing a beat.

But, I made a different choice because my purpose in life is not congruent with continuing to own and operate a solo/small firm shop no matter how lucrative or easy it was.

In fact, the entire time I was a practicing lawyer, first at the big firm and then in my own firm, in the back of my mind there was always a piece of me that wondered how being a lawyer fit in with my life purpose.

I felt called to impact the lives of millions of people. I felt an inner calling to help other lawyers in a tremendous way and while I loved serving my clients, it felt like something integral was missing.

Now, With What I Learned, I Am Revolutionizing the Legal World

Today, I am aware that I became a lawyer and built my law firm and had so much success so rapidly so that I could effect change on a massive scale by changing the way lawyers think, act and operate and by changing the way the American public thinks about lawyers.

I feel this is a gift from God and to do anything less than I am doing now would be doing a disservice to the world.

I thought long and hard about whether I could carry out my calling and operate my law firm. It was hard to give up all that money. And I loved my clients tremendously.

But, what I know is that I will be able to make a much bigger difference if I focus my attention on teaching other lawyers what I’ve learned over the past 5 years. Ultimately, the money I’ve given up by closing the law firm will return to me one-hundred fold in terms of what I am able to create for lawyers and the American people who deserve to have affordable access to a lawyer who cares about them, will guide them throughout every aspect of their life and be there for their family when they can’t be.

My New Business Model For the Practice of Law is Creating a
Making a Huge Difference For Lawyers and Their Clients

Today, we have 60 lawyers across the United States who have stepped forward and said YES, I am choosing a different way for my life, my business and my clients.

What’s exciting is this is only the beginning.

They are experiencing tremendous success. In the middle of one of the worst economic crises in history, their businesses are thriving. Just one example is Nicole Newman who engaged 11 brand new clients at an average fee of $4,000 in February of 2009. And that was only one of the sources of revenue in her law business. She’s got recurring revenue from an ongoing membership program, follow on work from existing clients and a sideline revenue stream helping clients with loan modifications. She’ll be adding additional revenue streams in as we provide her with more and more plug and play systems for her law firm.

We are constantly in development of new opportunities and joint venture relationships for our Personal Family Lawyers.

One of the things I learned from Dan Kennedy is 1 is the unluckiest number for any business owner. 1 revenue stream, 1 source of clients, 1 main client. Bad news. Especially in an economy like this.

Recurring Revenue, Multiple Revenue Streams, & Building Thriving Businesses

I feel so badly for those lawyers who bet their whole business on focusing on the uber-rich families who need estate tax planning. Sure, the fees from a case like that can range from $25,000 to $100,000, but very few people need estate tax planning today.

My heart breaks for the lawyers who never learned how to generate new business on their own, instead relying on insurance agents and financial advisors for their bread and butter. Many of those lawyers are going hungry today. Referrals are drying up as the bottom falls out of the stock market.

Clients want and deserve more than document-centric lawyers who offer little more than Legal Zoom.  They want a lawyer who will help them make legal and financial decisions at every life stge and give them the tools to pass on more than just their money.  They want a lawyer for life.

Sure, I could continue to run my law firm and thrive in my community. But, to do that would be to fail my fellow lawyers who deserve to know the system for thriving too without having to reinvent the wheel on their own. And it would be to fail the American public that deserves more than is available to them right now.

Our Proven Systems Give Lawyers Tools To Reach and Serve Clients Who Need Them

Over the next several months, we are showing the Personal Family Lawyers how to add even more sideline revenue streams to their businesses  by giving them systems for reaching and serving families with special needs, elderly clients who may qualify for unclaimed VA benefits, parents whose children need to qualify for financial aid and a system reaching and for serving business owners who are more than ever seeking out asset protection strategies. Each one of these sideline sources of business and revenue for them have been tested and proven by other Personal Family Lawyers in our network.

Every single one of these demographics – parents of children with special needs, veterans, parents with college age kids, and business owners – each one of these families, deserves affordable access to lawyers who will do things the right way with systems in place to make sure that the planning gets completed, the questions get answered, the assets get owned properly, the benefits get qualified for, the businesses get protected.

Clients Want Deserve Affordable Access to a Lawyer for Life

These families do not want Pre-Paid Legal Services. They want their own personal lawyer who knows them, cares about them, communicates with them regularly and will be there for them so they never have to sign a legal document (contract, deed, loan documents, prenuptial agreement) without it being reviewed again. They want a lawyer who is going to be there for their family when they can’t be. They don’t want to pay hourly fees.

They want a Personal Family Lawyer®.

So, that’s why I gave up my million dollar law firm.

I wrote a 36-page manifesto about the lessons I learned during the 5 years I built my law firm into a million dollar law business. You can join the revolution and get the Manifesto here: http://budurl.com/LawRev