Starting a Law Firm | San Francisco MasterMind | Supplemental Income

It's been a whirlwind couple of days for me, in a good way. On Friday afternoon I hopped on a jet bound for San Francisco, ready to figure out how to take my practice to the next level. And I've got to tell you, it was a great experience. And it's exactly what I'm going to talk about today. In addition to that, I'm going to answer a reader's question about supplementing your income while opening your law practice. Here we go! Oh, and one last thing, after you get done reading I want your comments about MasterMinding. Do you think it's bogus? Would you do one? What's holding you back? Thanks in advance!

San Francisco MasterMind - Getting Out of Your Fuselage

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend a MasterMind session put on by my business coach, RJon Robbins. You all know who he is. I've talked about him a lot.

The idea of the MasterMind, from my perspective, is this: we've all got messed up stuff running around inside of our brains, and for must of us, the stuff is different. There is one common theme though, with this messed up stuff - it works to sabotage our efforts to start a successful law firm. Now, this stuff I'm talking about isn't big stuff. It's not like we're all crackheads running around out there. It's more subtle than that. But that's what makes it so powerful and so dangerous. The goal of the MasterMind is to figure out what that messed up stuff is, how to work past it, how to recognize it, and how to move forward without it.

I can't go into too many details about the actual experience in San Francisco, and there's a reason for that - it's confidential. When we are in that room together we are sharing our most intimate secrets. We talk about our law firms, what is working and what isn't. We talk about out lives, what is working and what isn't. And, for some people most importantly, we talk about our pasts and how our experiences have shaped the way we view the world. It's the feeling of safety that allows for so much sharing, so much self-inflection, and so much growth in such a short period of time.

And, by the way, the best thing about the MasterMind is that we all walk away with a plan to triple our law firm revenues. At least. My plan, for example, if executed, takes me over one million in revenue.

Now that I've told you about the results, let me tell you about the process. We met in San Francisco at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. I was there, my wife was there, RJon and his wife were there, and there were about 8 other attorneys there (some with spouses, some without - the spouse was optional, I just wanted to include mine because I knew it would give her a great window into the way I think about my law firm). After dinner we watched a movie to kind of set the scene for the weekend and give us all a firm analogy to work with when either explaining our problems or helping people with theirs. Once the movie was over we talked about it, setting some ideas in our minds for the next day, and went to bed. Our homework assignment was to come up with one or two things that we thought were holding our business back.

Let me digress here for a moment. There are many things that hold our business back, and they fall into two different categories; mechanical and intellectual. The mechanical stuff is easy to fix - it's the stuff that processes and procedures can help with. For example, the way the phones are answered, the way that potential clients experience you and your staff, and the forms you use are mechanical. It's the intellectual, or emotional stuff that's hard to fix. Examples of this include the way we feel about money (our relationship with money), the way we view ourselves (otherwise known as self-esteem), and the rules that we've created that hold us back (that in actuality aren't rules at all). This is what we try to become aware of at the MasterMind.

When we get back into the room on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. sharp, we each take a turn going around the room. We record our experience (just our turn, not anyone else's) so we can remember everything. It starts by giving a little bit of background about us, talking about where our law firm is at, and then laying out our one or two "intellectual" problems. Then everyone takes a turn going around the room giving constructive feedback on what can be done to become more aware of the problem (otherwise known as fix the problem).

The great thing about this MasterMind specifically is RJon's presence. We don't do these every day. Some of the problems people have I can't identify with and have no idea how to fix. And someone needs to be there to make sure no damaging advice is given. That's what RJon does. He's got both creative and practical solutions for everything, and more importantly, he's got the experience to know how to flesh out the underlying problems. What that results in is you learning something extremely valuable on everyone's turn in the hot seat. Everyone's experience provides you with helpful things to take away and implement.

So, on Saturday we went from 9:00 a.m to 9:00 p.m. only stopping for about an hour for lunch. And it didn't feel like a long time to me at all. On Sunday we went from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. - no lunch. And again, I wouldn't have traded it for anything in the world.

One last thing about the MasterMind before I move on. The one I attended last weekend was free. All I had to pay for was airfare, hotel, meals. Normally when RJon does these things he charges $5000 a seat (and that's what he's charging for his next one). While we were there he asked us for help describing what happens at these things so that people can understand the value they are getting out of attending. And I can see why he asked, because it is hard to describe without actually being there.

Why You Should Consider Attending a MasterMind

Before I go anywhere with this, I want to point out that I am not being paid anything by RJon for this post. Not a dime. If you sign up for a MasterMind with him I will not receive anything except a thank you from RJon and a thank you from you when you're done.

I've got two reasons why you should attend a MasterMind.

1. It Will Make You Money

I told you when I walked out there I had a plan for a million dollar criminal defense law practice. And I can guarantee you when you walk out you'll have the same. The people I was with practiced all different areas of law: estate planning; corporate law; family law; immigration law; and business law. They all walked out with ideas to dramatically expand their law practices in practical, real world ways.

Now, like any other ideas, these ideas require execution, which is all up to you. But the advice you get here will be like you'll get no where else. And the advice you get will make you back your $5000 and then some (which should be the way you evaluate spending money - look at what you get, not what you put out - if it's more than the cost, intrinsically or extrinsically, then it's worth the price).

2. You Will Grow as a Person

One of the great things about owning a business is that it becomes a reflection of you personally. That's also one of the bad things. The way to succeed in business is to also make sure you've got your stuff together personally. Much of that just requires understanding where you are coming from and why you have the perspective you have.

What the MasterMind session allows you to do is work on yourself while you are working on your business. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, in my session we discussed my relationship with money - it's an immature one. It's immature in the sense that I haven't yet fully grasped the potential and power of money for what it really is - a tool to get you the things that you want. In reading that last sentence that probably seems obvious, spending money to get what you want. If that were so, then RJons MasterMind sessions would be sold out. It's the concept of spending money to make money that is known as a maxim of business but is hard to execute in real life.

At our session in San Francisco I had the opportunity to see lights turn on in people's eyes as they made real personal breakthroughs. And if you don't think you're due for one of those then you are the best candidate to try this out and see just how many demons you're hiding inside your head.

Bottom line, think about it, find the money, and try something like this. I recommend RJon because I know he knows what he's doing. But there are others out there. If you aren't looking to grow in this way you and your business are suffering.

Supplemental Income and Starting a Law Firm

Here's a question I got http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giffrom a reader last week:

This is completely off-topic, but I have a question for you. I recently went to a seminar with RJon, and he said that in order to be successful, you should put all of your energy into your new firm. What is your take on doing contract work to supplement your income while trying to establish your new firm? Thanks!

The answer to this question is simple - it depends. I don't think it's wise for anyone to just jump out there and get started without any kind of support. There's a real chance you won't make much money the first few months you are open. Having a support system, whether it's by a contract position, covering for other attorneys, or a loan from friends and family, is something to think about and figure out before you get started.

As for contract positions specifically, I'll only say this - be wary of using that as a crutch not to pursue your law firm. Starting a law firm is scary. Our subconscious doesn't deal well with scary. Instead of just telling you you're scared, it will do devious things to distract you, like convincing you how great the contract position is. If it becomes a crutch it's bad, if you use it as a tool to move forward it's good.

As always, I'd love to hear your comments and questions, particularly when it comes to MasterMinds. What is your hesitation? Is it the price? Is it the process? I'm curious!!

Starting a Law Firm | Steve Jobs and the iPad

I didn't really know what I was going to write about today, as my starting a law firm material is pretty low, and then I looked at cnn.com and saw that Steve Jobs stepped down today as the CEO of Apple (don't worry folks, he's still going to be the chairman of the board, so his design aesthetic should at least linger). Then I remembered that pretty much all day I've been thinking about getting an iPad, even going to an Apple store today and walking around, and I thought that would make a great topic for today's post.

Why Would a Lawyer Want an iPad?

I don't know why any lawyer would want an iPad, but I can think of several reasons why I would want an iPad. Here are a couple.

1. I am wasting way to much time in court waiting around.

In the world of criminal defense, you waste about half of your life just standing around waiting for things to happen. They call 50 people in for an 8:30 court date and start knocking them out. That means there are significant amounts of time spent sitting in a chair in a courtroom.

Until now I'd just carried my iPhone with me and made due. I can check email, read some stuff, and otherwise keep myself occupied. But I know that I could be doing so much more. With the iPad I could not only read cases and briefs and emails, but I could actively read them, which is so much better. The iPad gives you the capability to edit documents, work with PDFs, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I can actually keep working while I'm sitting around in court!

2. If I take some time to learn how, it can be a powerful trial tool.

I keep up with technology for the most part, and I've seen some of the things the iPad can do. And I'd like to be able to take advantage of them when I'm in trial. As a criminal defense attorney I need all the help I can get (the deck is often intentionally stacked against you). If this can help to even the playing field even a little bit, then I'm for it.

What Kind of iPad am I Getting? 3G or Wifi Only?

This question alone is what has been holding me back the most. There are basically six options you have for an iPad - 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes and wifi or wifi and 3g enabled.

I'm thinking of getting the 32 gig model, just to make sure I have enough room (I don't think I'll ever be able to use that up), but I was wavering on whether or not to get the 3g or the wifi only model. The 3g is more expensive - $729 versus 599 and you have to pay a monthly fee for the 3g service, but, you have the added safety net of always being able to connect to the internet, even if there is no wifi around. This is important for me because our courtrooms, like I'm sure most of yours are, are still living in the 80's when it comes to technology. That means even if they've discovered the wonderful world of wifi the signal is often weak and crappy.

So I think I'm going with the 3g 32 gig model. And of course I'm going with black. That's just my style.

I'll keep you up to date periodically with how the iPad experience is, what is working well, what isn't, what added benefits I've discovered, what drawbacks there are, and what applications I'm using. Hopefully it will help you out.

As always, love to have comments and questions. Been a little quite lately. Don't you all have anything to say? :)

Starting a Law Firm | Update on Law Firm Marketing | Mailbag

Before I get too far, I wanted to tell you I answered a couple of questions and updated my pricing schedule for the new law firm internet marketing service I'm offering. Click on the link to go check it out. I've already got one person signed up, there's only room for one more, and I'm not joking about this when I say it could be a game changer for your practice. But enough about that. Let's get on to the good stuff.
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I got a couple of good questions from readers, so I thought I'd spend today answering them. I've found that this is a good way to talk about some thinks I might not have though about or to readdress an area I may not have been too clear on. If you've got a question, leave it as a comment and we'll talk about it on here. And, since these are reader questions, if you've got your own experiences, please share in the comments. The more the merrier!

Starting a Law Firm and the Phone System

Here's a comment from Anonymous, who says:

Great blog - enjoying the wealth of info.
One question - you have no physical phone lines in your office so is it safe for me to assume that you are using your cell service for Internet connectivity? What type of cell service plan do you have?

This comment came from the post on (link provided for quick reference), and I'll do my best to answer it, though I'm not precisely sure where the commenter wants me to go with it.

Yes, I don't have any physical phone lines in my office. I use a combination of Google Voice and Skype for my set up. Google Voice provides the phone number, Skype provides the feel of a physical telephone system (ability to forward, etc.).

As for internet connectivity, it is not safe to assume I am using my cell phone for internet connectivity. Where I live, we have internet delivered through cable, just like TV. I believe it's called DSL, or was called that. I have internet in my office, set up to a wireless router, that provides all of us with internet service. When a call comes in to Google Voice it is forwarded to my assistant's Skype number and she then answers it and deals with it as if it came directly to her. If I need to take the call she can forward it to my skype number or to my cell number (I typically have it forwarded to my cell in the office out of pure convenience to myself).

That's how it works.

To answer your specific question, I have an iPhone 4 through AT&T. I'm on the original data plan that has no limit for $30 a month, and my phone service I think is about $65 a month. That's it.

Starting a Law Firm and "Dressing for Success"

Another recent comment that I thought I'd talk about comes from Ian, who says:

Hi Jim,

I've been following your blog for awhile and I can honestly tell that you have a gift for it. Kudos to you!

Reading your latest post a question popped into my mind that you tangentially touched upon in the past when you talked about your buying an iphone when you started your firm in order to portray the right image with clients.

How important do you think the accoutrements of what people (and other lawyers) perceive as success in a lawyer (the Rolex, the BMW, the Gucci loafers, whatever) are in building up business? We all heard the adage "dress for success" but I'm curious to hear your take on things.

I'm coming to this issue as the driver of a Dodge Caravan (for me it doubles as family vacation vehicle), the wearer of an (admittedly Swiss) watch that cost about $250 and an occasional shopper at Jos A. Bank when they're running big sales, etc. I gotta admit that even in my mid size town (population 250,000) I sometimes feel a little put down at attorney meetings where the parking lot usually looks like an import car dealership, so I'm wondering what your thoughts were.

Cheers and thanks for all you advice,

Ian

This is a tough question to answer as it may apply differently to different people, depending on your practice area and things like that. But here's my take.

First things first, first impressions are everything. People are going to decide a lot of things about you, right or wrong, based on what they think of you the first time they meet you. The great thing about this is you have the opportunity to control pretty much all of the variables surrounding meetings. The bad thing is you have the opportunity to control pretty much all of the variable surrounding meetings.

When people meet an attorney for the first time they have a lot of stereotypical things built up in their minds. Some of these things are good, some of them are bad. The key is to sit down and think about what stereotypical things your clients will be thinking and accentuate the good and delete the bad.

For example, I'm in criminal defense. When people think of criminal defense lawyers they typically turn to what they've seen on television - well dressed, smooth talker, a "shark," untrustworthy, sneaky, and some things like that. So, when they first come to meet me they are immediately trying to size me up to see if I fit into their stereotypes - if I fit in the right way I get hired. If I don't, they'll "think about it."

So, I make sure when I meet with clients, almost all the time, I'm wearing a suit. And a suit that makes me look good. The idea is to present an aura of success, of confidence. That's what they need in their attorney, and that's one thing that will make them feel comfortable.

Second, I make sure my office is nice, not overly done, and inviting. I want them to feel at ease, feel like I have no problem paying the bills (which I don't) and feel like I'm sitting in my office slugging it out for my clients on a daily basis (I am). I don't want it to be over the top because I don't want them thinking about how I paid for all the stuff I've got in my office. I want them to listen to me.

Now, where first impressions aren't made - the type of car you drive; how much your suit costs (please, though, spend enough money on a suit so that it looks good on you - if you don't feel like taking on the world in that suit, move on to the next or get it tailored - there's no reason to look like a slob); and anything else you can think of.

I drive a 1997 Toyota 4Runner. It gets me from point A to point B. When I meet clients and potential clients, I don't typically show them my car. I also don't tell them the price or make of my suits. I don't own a watch. I have nice shoes, because nice shoes make for a nice suit, but I didn't spend over $200 for them.

I think at the end of the day, it all comes down to meeting client expectations. If you're worried about impressing other attorneys, I wouldn't worry about it (unless, of course, they fall into client expectations). Whenever I see some guy with a nice car I don't think he's better than me or more successful than me, I just think he's a car guy (they should see my golf clubs!).

When you're starting a law firm it's important to look established, like you're organized, but it's not important to throw off a fake air of success. Just put yourselves in your potential client's or current clients' shoes and go from there.

That's it for the mailbag today. What do you think about these two topics? Have a question about something else? Let me know!

Starting a Law Firm | Influencer: The Power to Change Anything | A Review

I was flying back from Kansas yesterday after visiting some family and I was reading a book that I thought would be relevant to discuss here. As the title of the post suggests, the name of the book was "Influencer: The Power to Change Anything." It is written by Kerry Patterson, among others, and was really quite an amazing book. Here's a review of it, and I hope you go out and buy it. (It's sad we have to put this here in today's world, but I'm not getting any payment for this - I didn't even get the book for free!).

Throughout our daily lives there are things going on that we'd like to influence the outcome of. We want our wife to let us go play golf (don't read anything into this honey!). We want our companies to be more efficient. We want to lose weight. We want to stop eating the things we know we should not be eating. But exerting this kind of influence over ourselves and others is difficult, and in some ways can seem to be impossible.

Well, it is possible, and this book, Influencer, gives you the tools to do just that. What the book does is break down influence into six different categories:

(1) Personal motivation (making the undesirable desirable);

(2) Personal ability (surpass your limits);

(3) Social motivation (harness peer pressure);

(4) Social Ability (find strength in numbers);

(5) Structural motivation (design rewards and demand accountability); and

(6) Structural ability (change the environment).

Then, step by step, the authors walk you through how you can use these categories to change the things you want to change (for the worse or for the better).

It's a great book because not only is it filled with a lot of theoretical information, it also provides a lot of great real world examples. The examples include changing corporate culture, losing weight, stopping debilitating diseases, harnessing the power of employees, and many others. It can be a great insight and provide great direction into improving any challenges you are currently facing in life and opening new doors that you thought might be closed to you.

It should be pretty clear to you how this book is relevant to starting a law firm. But just in case it isn't, I'll tell you personally how it's going to help me.

First, there are things that I have to do all the time that I don't necessarily like to do. It's not that they are bad things, I just don't personally find them enjoyable. What this book has allowed me to do is take a step back and reframe the way I look at things, in order to derive the satisfaction I should out of completing those tasks.

Second, there are personal goals that I want to reach that I know I am holding myself back from. This book has provided me with the tools to change bad habits into good, to make myself more productive, and enjoy every single bit of it.

Third, and finally, the book has provided a lot of insight from a managerial and entrepreneurial standpoint. There are ways to handle specific situations that are much better than others. There are specific steps to take in a specific order to garner the best results. And there are important things related to my business that I need to keep top of mind if I want it to continue going in the direction it is going.

Starting a law firm should be the best experience of your life. You should enjoy it. So take the time to think about why you are doing it, what it really means to you, and then get out there and do it. Oh, and read the book. I guarantee you'll get something from it.

Starting a Law Firm | A New Opportunity for You

UPDATE: Don't want to talk about this anymore here, though I've gotten several responses. For more information, go to lawfirmwebsiteseo.blogspot.com, my site that's more relevant to this.

I was at a DUI conference in Boston a couple of weeks ago and I had an interesting conversation with several people there. As we DUI lawyers are wont to do after we've had a couple of frosty beverages, we started talking about the respective strengths of our practices - how we're doing, where we are struggling, and what others might be doing that is working that we can use when we got back home.

A funny thing happened time and time again when I was having these conversations, everyone was paying a lot of money to try to take advantage of everything the web had to offer - and they weren't seeing great results from it. I would tell them about what I've done, how effective it has been for my practice, and I could just see their eyes light up as they asked me question after question about how to do what I did. And for pennies on the dollar.

One particular person I talked to said he wanted us to meet after the conference to talk about how what I knew could help their firm and their firm's business. I said sure, I'd meet with them, just like I've met with countless other people (and discussed on my blog) to talk about what I do from a search engine perspective. But he said something I hadn't heard before - he said "I want you to help us do this, and I want to make it right for you." That got the wheels turning. And here's why.

Anyone can do what I do to get higher rankings in the search engines. Literally anyone. But, it takes work. It takes grind it out work. It takes monotonous work. I'm just stupid enough and bull headed enough to do it - and over time I've gotten good at it. When I tell most people how to do it (the process will probably take you about an hour a day, every day, forever) they shy away from it, even though the rewards are huge.

So, I've decided to hire out my services to people that are interested in using them. What I will do, for a fee, is employ my strategies on your website to get them ranking at the top of the search engines for your desired keywords. I will do this and continue to do it as long as you see value in it, and I think you'll see value in it the moment we hit the top three results (which, depending on the competitiveness of your keyword could take a couple of weeks or a couple of months).

Since you all are my faithful readers I thought I'd give you the opportunity to sign up first. But here's the catch - I don't want to get overwhelmed with this, so I'm not going to just let everyone sign up. Right now I have no clients - none. Like I said, this literally was discussed three weeks ago with a DUI lawyer colleague of mine. I want to start slow and build over time, so right now I'm only going to take on two clients. That's it. So, after you read what I'm offering, if you're interested let me know quickly.

Here's what I'm going to do. When you sign up for me, whatever keywords you want, you have exclusive rights to those keywords with me. They have to be location specific, because that's all that matters anyway, so once you sign up, you'll get my full attention to your specific location based keywords. You get to pick two, and then as we grow, you can add more on for a nominal fee.

For example, let's say you practice divorce law in Kansas City. Two great keywords for you would be Kansas City divorce lawyer and Kansas City divorce attorney - that's what people type in when they are looking for you. You would have the exclusive rights to those keywords with me as long as you were a client - that means I would never sign anyone up in the Kansas City area for divorce law.

Don't know if anyone is still interested, but if you are, here is how the price structure is set up. I don't want to work for free, but I don't want to get paid for the premium value I'm giving you until you are getting it. So, the way I've set it up is a tiered fee structure. Every week I'll check your keywords and report to you the results. As long as you are not on the first page, the fee is $500 a month. Even if you get on the first page during a month, you don't owe any extra. Once you are on the first page, the price goes up to $1000 a month. That reflects the value you are getting - you should start to get more pageviews and hits on your website from being on the first page. Once you are in the top 3, the price goes up to $3000 a month, and it stays there forever.

I'm not sure if that sounds like a lot of money to you or not. If you are just starting out it may seem like a big commitment. But here's the thing, my guess is if I get you even one new client a month you have already paid your costs for the month (that's at the $3000 a month level). After that, everything is profit. To put it into perspective for you, the guy I talked to was paying at least $7000 a month for his search engine help!

This kind of search engine help probably isn't right for everyone. From my perspective, this service would be most valuable to people that have potential clients looking for their services on the internet - this means, for the most part, consumer based services. The one's I'm thinking of are criminal defense, bankruptcy (consumer), family law, personal injury, estate planning (maybe), employment law (from the employee side), and on and on.

I have no idea if anyone is going to be interested in this. I can tell you I could easily pay the price I've asked for with the business I've brought in using these techniques. I thought some of you might want some help from a reputable source that truly has your success in mind.

Remember, I'm only taking two spots for now, so let me know if you're interested and we'll talk further.

Starting a Law Firm | Spending Money to Make Money

I know I've talked about this before on here (at least I think I have) but there are decision you will be asked to make every day that require you to shell out money. And I'm not talking about paying for phone services or things like that. This money decision I'm talking about typically comes in the form of you paying someone to do something you could do yourself.

Now, if you are asking yourself "why pay someone to do something you could do yourself?" this post is specifically for you.

When you first start your law firm you won't even have to ask yourself this question - you probably won't have any choice in the matter because you won't have the money to spend. You'll have to do it yourself. But once the phone starts ringing and you start actually having to manage your time and resources, you're going to have to start spending some money - if you want to keep making more money that is.

What I'm talking about here is leverage - using what you've got to get even more. Leverage is an extremely powerful and effective tool if used right. And it's easy to learn how to use it right.

Here's a perfect example. When I started my law firm it was just me. I answered the phone, I did the paperwork, I folded the laundry, I mopped the floor, I went to court, I did it all. But eventually I found myself missing calls because I was in court so much. I found myself spending a lot of time doing paperwork and filing paperwork. All of that time I was losing to those activities was hindering me from going out and getting new work. So I hired Kelsey.

For the sake of this post let's say I pay Kelsey $10/hour (I don't, I pay her more than that, but it makes the math easier). Let's say she works 40 hours a week - that's $400 week or $1600 a month. For $1600 a month she has freed me from the responsibility of answering the phone, filing paperwork, following up with clients for documents, filling and mailing newsletters, and many other things. Do you think I can make more than $1600 with my new found 160 hours of free time? You betcha.

Yes, I know that seems like a lot of money, and I know it's a leap of faith to hire someone and let them help you. I mean, what if you hire them and then the phone mysteriously stops ringing, right? That would suck.

But here's the honest truth - it's not going to stop ringing. It's going to ring this month just like it did last month. Actually, that's a lie, it's not going to ring like it did last month - it's going to ring more because you're going to have the time to go after those marketing opportunities that you've just let slip away because you've been so busy drafting notices of appearance. You're going to schedule more meetings because you're not going to miss any more calls.

If you're not ready to spend some money to make some money I get it. I was there. And that's okay. Just know you are limiting your law firm's true earning potential by holding yourself back.

Go get em.