Latest Entries

What Would Improve Your Life as a Lawyer?

I have a new course titled The Inspired Lawyer: How to Lead, Win, and Enjoy Your Life as an Attorney. In this six hour course, lawyers explore ways to improve their law practice, success on behalf of clients, and the quality of life as a lawyer. Regardless of how good you currently have it, you will learn a comprehensive set of leadership skills that you will use over and over to more easily and smoothly achieve your goals for your clients and your practice. This program will guide you to clarify your vision and action plan to upgrade your life as a lawyer. You will also learn how to cultivate the support you need to succeed, and manage the obstacles on the path to outstanding results. There is no better time, if you are interested in a more successful life as a lawyer, this course is for you.

What would improve your life as a lawyer? Post a comment responding to this question, and I’ll send you a $25 off coupon good for The Inspired Lawyer.

The program has been pre-approved for CLE credit in over 30 states (including ethics, professionalism and other specialty credits). Visit The Likeable Lawyer website, for upcoming live and webinar dates and locations for The Inspired Lawyer.

Can You Improve Your Life as a Lawyer?

Yes! It’s merely a matter of taking a leadership role over doing so. What do leaders do?

1. They clarify and define an achievable vision.
2. They take consistent action toward achieving their vision.
3. They cultivate the support they need in order to accomplish their objectives.
4. They effectively manage the obstacles and challenges that come up on the path to living a better life as a lawyer.

Interested? I just developed a new CLE program that will teach lawyers how to take a leadership role over not only getting better results for their clients, but also towards improving life as a lawyer. And you get 6-8 hours of CLE credit, including ethics hours!

To learn more about The Inspired Lawyer visit The Likeable Lawyer website. The program is being offered live in over 50 cities this year, plus by Webinar on May 31, June 21, October 1, November 1, and December 20.

I hope you will join me for The Inspired Lawyer. I promise it will provoke you in surprising ways.

Just Stop It!

Would you like to be a happier lawyer? There is a lot in life that is outside of our control. And quite a bit that is within our control. I think it is safe to say that for most lawyers, the bulk of our suffering is internally caused. Unconscious thoughts, beliefs and behaviors that cause us pain and unnecessary suffering. As we become more conscious of the thoughts and behaviors that cause our suffering, we then have a choice: continue or stop it. If we stop, we would be a lot happier.

Bob Newhart has something to say on this topic: Bob Newhart – Stop It

Here is a list of some common habits that cause internal suffering. Perhaps it is worth stopping some of these, or at least doing them less.

  1. Stop complaining – it doesn’t help.
  2. Stop judging – yourself and others.
  3. Stop avoiding your fears.
  4. Stop being so hard on yourself
  5. Stop being negative.
  6. Stop caring about what other people think of you.
  7. Stop worrying about the small stuff.
  8. Stop needing to be right all the time.
  9. Stop blaming others.
  10. Stop living in the past or the future.

The Likeable Lawyer is interested in helping you become a more successful and fulfilled lawyers. Check out our new CLE program – The Inspired Lawyer – designed to help lawyers create a better life as a lawyer. This program is now offered by webinar and live in cities across The United States.

 

2 Tips to Increase Referral Business

If you are in private practice and you success partly depends on client development, then why not get your existing clients, colleagues and connections to help you? What I mean by “help you” is having your existing clients, colleagues and connections “want to” refer you to other potential clients. And refer you to the right potential clients. “Want to” is the key. Think about people that you refer — you refer them because you want to, right? And why do you want to?

Here are two tips to help you turn your existing clients, colleagues and connections into referral sources:

1. Exceed their relationship expectations. People tend to refer professionals that they like. And who do we like? We like people that we perceive care about us, including those that exceed our expectations. So here is your challenge for today: pick one client, colleague or connection that you feel has the potential to refer you to the right clients — what can you do today to demonstrate that you care about them? Pick one thing and do it — today. You might call a client and give them a unsolicited update; send a colleague an article they might be interested in. It doesn’t have to be anything big – simply something that says, “I was thinking about you.”

2. Dial into a one hour webinar that The Likeable Lawyer  is offering on February 22 – How to Increase Referral Business. This webinar runs from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm CST and is filled with concrete tips to increase referral business. It only costs $49 and the ideas you will learn will reward you handsomely over time.

For more information, please click here:

How to Increase Referral Business

It’s Friday. 3 Suggestions to Improve Your Weekend

Do you sometimes have a hard time relaxing over the weekend. Soren Kierkegaard described angst as being a base level of anxiety that never seems to go away, and no longer has an identifiable cause. Our brains get filled with commitments, to do items, and worry, and our unconscious brains misinterpret that we are in danger. To protect ourselves, we go into a mild version of the fight or flight response. It takes conscious effort to counter the effects of stress and worry-based anxiety. Here are three easy things you can do right now to help you lighten your mind, reduce your anxiety and allow for a more relaxing weekend:

1. If there is going to be a nag on your brain this weekend because you haven’t responded to someone that you feel that you should respond to. Send them an email or make a quick call, apologize for not getting back to them. Tell them you are looking forward to a relaxing weekend and that you will be in touch on Monday. Wish them a relaxing weekend too.

2. If there are a few things on your to do list that has been there for a few weeks, evaluate them. Unfinished to do items weigh on our minds. Maybe one or two you can declare not that important and therefore “complete.” Start with a shorter list on Monday.

3. Make a commitment to do one thing for yourself by the end of today. Even if it will only take 15 minutes, make a commitment to do something for yourself that will make you happy. Maybe it’s to take a walk, practice a musical instrument, go for a swim, sit still and breathe. Anything, but not work. Something for you. It’s a small commitment to make, but if you make it, there will be a part of you that will be grateful that you took the time.

… and one bonus tip …

4. Leave the office already, it’s time to relax and enjoy a little, don’t you think?!

Thriving As a Lawyer

Over the past 10 years of teaching CLE programs, I have discovered that attorney satisfaction is low for a lot of attorneys. Many lawyers feel that there is nothing they can do about it. They are wrong, there is almost always something that can be done in a free society to improve your quality of life. It means shifting from victim mentality to taking 100% responsibility for your practice and life.

I am in the process of designing a new full-day CLE program on improving life as a lawyer. This program will give lawyers the opportunity to clarify their values and goals for their practices and lives, as well as learn leadership, coaching and counseling skills to gain the support necessary to achieve those objectives. The goal for the program is to demonstrate that lawyers are quite capable of improving life by simultaneously increasing their professional success and their personal fulfillment. It isn’t that hard, though sometimes we need coaching and support.

Speaking of needing support, I am trying to come up with a name for this new program. Some of the current contenders include:

- Thriving as an Attorney
- Win
- Exceptional Skills for an Exceptional Practice

The tagline will be:

- Five Strategies that Will Significantly Improve Your Life and Success as an Attorney

I’m not sure about any of these. If you post a comment with your suggestion or vote, I’ll give you a $25 credit toward any Likeable Lawyer purchase. You can see a list of current offerings at www.likeablelawyer.com. Please include your email address with your comment so that I can send you a $25 COUPON CODE.

Thank you,
Brian Hammer

Looking to Increase Referral Business?

Incoming referrals are critical to the lifeblood of a law practice. And yet most lawyers do not know how to increase the number of referrals or the quality of the matters that are referred to them. They engage in sporadic networking endeavors in the hopes that they will be lead to their next file. But there are proven methods for increasing referral business and once you implement them, you will find your rainmaking efforts to be much more proactive and productive.

On November 29, The Likeable Lawyer is offering a one-hour webinar on the topic of increasing referral business. The name of the webinar is “How to Increase Referral Business” and it will be held from 12:00 CST until 1:00 CST.

This live webinar will show you:

How to quickly identify an effective referral source
How to capture more of the referral potential from your professional contacts
How to identify exactly which client development activities will yield the best referrals for your practice
How to proactively (and ethically) pursue referrals rather than waiting for them to come to you
This program is a business education program with practical advice for client development that can be immediately implemented to grow your practice. This class has not been pre-approved for CLE credit.

It only costs $39.00, and if you are interested in client development, you don’t want to miss it. For more information, please visit www.likeablelawyer.com.

Want to be a Happier Lawyer?

I hear lawyers complain about diminishing fulfillment in the practice. Reports of “overly-aggressive lawyers,” “needy clients,” and “stressful time pressures,” dominate the complaint list. A lot of lawyers tell me that they are burned out.

There are many outside causes for diminishing fulfillment. And much that any lawyer can do in order to simultaneously increase their professional success and personal fulfillment. It requires taking a leadership role over the quality of your life. You cannot be a victim to anyone or anything else, that will get you nowhere. Taking 100% responsibility over your mind’s interpretations of outside stresses, however, will take you far. I don’t say this lightly, though any lawyer is able to significantly improve the quality of their life if they have the tools.

For the past eight months, I have been writing a step-by-step program to coach lawyers to do just that. This program will be enlightening and meaningful and I am already proud of what it will offer. The program will be called Thrive, JD, and will not launch until early 2013. So I’ll hold off talking too much about it now. Though I want to introduce three categories of mental interpretation that manifest as significant obstacles to fulfillment and well-being.

1. Self-Judgment – Many lawyers judge themselves. We beat ourselves up for our mistakes. As opposed to accepting and forgiving the past, we accumulate our mistakes as evidence for pretty harsh self-judgment. For the most part, these judgments are irrational, overly-exaggerated and abusive. And we project these self-judgments onto others which compounds the problem for it harms our relationships. Give yourself a break, you probably lack the perspective for such harsh judgments.

2. Limiting Beliefs – A second category of mental self-abuse is what are called limiting beliefs. These are beliefs that we hold that tell us that we are limited in our abilities or opportunities. We tell ourselves that we are “too busy to enjoy life more,” or “not capable of having a great life as a lawyer.” We are making this stuff up. Though the very act of believing will cause them to become self-fulfilling prophesies. Go for it; don’t hold yourself back with the belief that you are limited.

3. Negative Future Fantasy – Speaking of making stuff up, a lot of us tend to make up negative futures. We don’t know what the future will bring, but we imagine all kinds of problems for ourselves. There may be a part of our lawyer training. Though if this becomes a fully ingrained habit, our brains believe danger is ahead, and we prepare ourselves for this imagined danger. This is called anxiety, the physiological response to a made up future danger. Most of us do it, and it is very harmful to our health and well-being. So if you are going to make up the future, you might as well win in your own fantasies. It feels a lot better and encourages creativity.

This is a small introduction to the types of topics that Thrive, JD will cover. The ultimate aim of the program will be to coach lawyers to define and take action to achieve a more successful and fulfilled life. Participants will also learn more than 35 leadership, counseling and coaching skills that will become a toolbox for a lifetime of success and fulfillment.

Stay tuned for more …

Prospero J.D. Has Launched

This week, The Likeable Lawyer has launched our new client development program. This program, titled Prospero, J.D., is, in my opinion, both better and different from everything else out there.

The program is built on an e-learning curriculum and delivers strategies and techniques for developing a profitable, long-term clientele at a minimum effort and cost. A new video lesson is released every week, with step-by-step instruction in developing new clients and generating new work from existing clients. Enrollees are instructed in how to grow their legal practice through a customized action plan, on their own schedule, in as little as 15 minutes a day. Client development tips and interviews with successful lawyers and client development experts round out the program.

Three levels of subscription provide as much or as little hands-on assistance as needed. The basic program consists of weekly e-learning videos, interviews with top rainmakers, tracking tools to monitor progress, and a step-by-step guide to build a personal business development plan. Level 2 includes twice-per-month small group teleconferences with a professional client development coach and monthly a Continuing Legal Education course. Level 3 includes one-on-one support in the form of a dedicated personal advisor.

Prospero J.D. is offered on a month-to-month basis, with a 30-day money-back guarantee and no long-term contracts. Plus, if you comment on this blog post I will give you 50% off your first month of membership.

Give it a try, I bet you will like the program.

Prospero J.D. Launches on August 13

Finally! Lawyers have been asking me for years to develop a client development program that will be as effective and interesting as our other CLE programs.

Prospero J.D. launches on August 13, and this program delivers. Unique, packed with great insights and strategies to develop a solid and profitable book of business, this program is unlike anything else that is out there.

This cutting-edge program gives strategies and techniques for developing a profitable, long-term clientele at a minimum effort and cost. Hundreds of tips and videos are delivered individually via email each week, with step-by-step instruction in how to win new clients and generate new work from existing clients. Enrollees are instructed in how to grow their legal practice through a customized action plan, on their own schedule, in as little as 15 minutes a day.

Three levels of service provide as much or as little hands-on assistance as needed. The basic program consists of weekly e-learning videos, interviews with top rainmakers, tracking tools to monitor progress, and step-by-step guidance for building a personal business development plan. Level 2 includes twice-per-month small group teleconferences with a professional client development coach; and monthly webinars for CLE. Level 3 offers a dedicated personal adviser in place of small group coaching.

For more information, please visit likeablelawyer.com/prosperojd



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