From a lawyer’s perspective, the pervasiveness of social media is great news. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and a host of other social media sites are proving to be excellent resources for professionals who want to connect with current and prospective clients. But jumping into the fray can be a little daunting at first.

One of the biggest challenges when you’re first venturing into the world of social media, particularly in your capacity as a professional, is to figure out what to talk about. Here are three tips to get you started:

1. Social Media is Not the Place for Shameless Self Promotion. This isn’t a replacement for a yellow pages ad, nor is it a virtual billboard. Social media is about interacting with people – you’re stepping into an ongoing conversation. So, talk a little about yourself. Offer useful information. And then, listen to what other people are saying and respond to them. Remember, Social Media is much like a cocktail party where people interact on topics interesting to the small group. You would never intrude in one of those gatherings with an advertisement about yourself or your firm. Provide interesting information and they will naturally gravitate to you and be interested to learn more about what you do.
2. Let People Know You Have a Life Outside the Office. You do have a life outside the office, don’t you? Good! Tell your clients a little about yourself, and let them get to know you as the well-rounded person you are. Are you an avid runner? Do you love to volunteer at your local animal shelter? Talk about it. Better still, go a step further and post pictures or video of yourself doing the things you love to do.
3. Don’t Forget to Link. If you find an interesting article from someone else’s website, post the link. Remember, the purpose of social media is to start and maintain conversations. Similarly, when you talk about your law firm, be sure to post a link to your latest blog post or to an interesting article or video on your website.

If you’ve been a little shy about mixing social media with your professional life, maybe now is the time to try these tips and join the conversation.

Robert Armstrong
President and Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

That’s why, every once in a while, it’s good to have a reminder of what’s really important. This week, my reminder came when a friend e-mailed me a link to an article entitled Top Five Regrets of the Dying. The article profiles a book written by Bronnie Ware, a former palliative care nurse.

In her book, Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, Ware talks about the observations she made as she worked with people in the final weeks of their lives. She says that when her patients talked about their regrets, a number of common themes surfaced again and again:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

The entire article is well worth reading for the additional insights it gives into each of these common regrets.

If you were on your deathbed right now, what would your regrets be? What changes can you make today to ensure that when the time comes, you’re not left wishing for  a second chance to do all the truly important things you neglected?

Robert Armstrong
President and Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

Even though it’s still in its infancy, social media is proving to be a powerful tool in the adult world. The Arab Spring uprisings were fueled by Twitter and YouTube. Closer to home, social media is affecting the legislative process, not to mention the way businesses relate to their customers.

If you’re not making full use of social media in your practice, you could be alienating your clients and your community. Here are three social media myths you might have bought into, along with the truth you need to know.

1. My Clients Don’t Use Social Media. The truth is, more than half of all social media users are over age 30, and many are significantly older. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that, between 2009 and 2010, social media usage by 55- to 65-year-olds increased by 88 percent. And usage among adults over age 65 doubled. Your clients and prospective clients do use social media, and more of them are logging on every day.
2. Social Media is Unprofessional, Not to Mention a Waste of Time. No social media site, in and of itself, is inherently professional or unprofessional. Social media is simply a means of communication. It’s what you and your staff do with a Facebook page, a Twitter account, or a LinkedIn profile that can make it a valuable tool for showcasing your firm’s professionalism, unique personality, and value to the community. And while you may view social media as kids’ stuff, your clients likely do not. The tide is turning, and people are beginning to look online to verify the legitimacy of the businesses they deal with. Before long, the lackof an online presence might make you appear unprofessional to a prospective client.
3. What’s the Point? Keeping Up With the Options is Too Hard, Anyway. If you try to maintain a presence on every new site that crops up, you’ll spread yourself too thin and fail to accomplish anything. The point is not to jump on every new social media fad the moment it comes out. There are a few tried and true sites. I’ve already mentioned them.

Establish a presence there, and start building relationships with your current clients, as well as with prospective clients. This means offering useful, meaningful content and soliciting feedback. In other words, have a conversation. Your online presence can’t be static or stagnant.

That’s the point of social media – building relationships.

Robert Armstrong
President and Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

The Good News
It’s always good to have excellent employees. They do good work, they’re a pleasure to be around, and they tend to increase your bottom line. It’s every boss’s dream, and every boss wishes for an office full of excellent employees.

The Bad News
But here’s the problem with excellent employees: if you’re dependent on a person to run your business, you’re vulnerable. Great employees get sick. They move away. They make lifestyle changes. All these things can result in job changes that leave bosses in a bind, so your firm is what we call “people dependent.”

The Solution
Happily, you can have great employees without making your firm’s success dependent on those employees’ life choices. You do this by making your business dependent on systems rather than on people.

You accomplish this by establishing a firm-wide organizational chart, which Sandy discussed in one of his recent blogs. You also implement what we call position contracts for each function within your law firm. A position contract is a detailed description of what each person does in the firm. This is an ongoing, updated process so that if one of your employees leaves, there’s a system to follow.

Even with an organizational chart and position contracts in place, hiring excellent employees is still top priority. However, when your law firm is systems-dependent rather than people-dependent, there’s order and predictability, even when you lose a great employee.

Robert Armstrong
President and Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

Two Ears, One Mouth
It’s at this point that we as estate planning attorneys might want to heed the words of Greek philosopher Epictetus, who said, “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

Perhaps more than other people, lawyers like to hear themselves talk and it’s a problem when the lawyer talks more than the client in an initial consult. Yet that’s what usually happens. We’re so used to being the “answer man or woman” that it requires a whole new skill to stifle ourselves long enough to really hear about the client’s needs. 

The Secret
The secret to converting a prospect into a client is to use the initial consult to show off your skills as a great counselor. You cannot – I repeat cannot– effectively counsel someone until you understand what their problems, concerns, and issues are.

We’ve found that attorneys tend to have trouble converting prospects to clients because of how they handle client meetings. Doing things like talking too much, talking about things that are really of no interest to the clients, and not asking great questions are ways to guarantee your first meeting will also be your last.

Know What to Listen For
Just as important as asking great questions is listening carefully to the answers. That’s how you find out where the problems and issues are and delve into them. Learn what the impact is if those issues aren’t handled in a timely manner. What are your clients’ fears and concerns? How important is it for them to handle their issues right now? Where do these issues rank on their priority list?

Your job is to help families make decisions that are in their best interests. Discussing things in this manner gets results because it leaves clients feeling like you really heard them and like you really understand what matters to them.

Try this approach and you’ll become a trusted advisor, and you’ll have a client for life.

Robert Armstrong
President & Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

If your firm is to be your unique creation, it has to have a unique way of doing things – one that sets it apart from all the other estate planning law firms in town. This is one area where so many law firms are lacking, and systems are the key to fixing the problem.

Having systems in every area of your practice is central to your success. A system is really a roadmap that lets your employees know how your firm does things. So, what kinds of systems do you need, and what do you use them for?

Simply put, if you do something more than once, you should have a written system in place for it. You take every single area of your practice, break it down into its component tasks, and spell out the specific way it is done in your firm. Not only does this ensure that your clients are served consistently and effectively, it also ensures that your firm’s unique personality is injected into every client interaction.

Putting systems in place – and using them effectively – benefits you, your employees, and your clients. It ensures that your employees are clear on your expectations, and it gives them the chance to meet and exceed those expectations. It allows your clients to get to know the stellar experience they can expect every time they interact with someone from your firm. And it allows you to be confident in the work your firm produces, the office environment you’re cultivating, and the reputation you’re creating in your community.

Robert Armstrong
President & Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

The next step is finding your firm’s strategic objective; in other words, creating a picture of the business you want to have that will generate the net revenue to support your ideal life. Not a daydream or a pipe dream – a detailed picture complete with milestones for accomplishing clearly defined goals. Where to begin?

Decide on your practice area. Will you focus on estate planning? What types of estate planning – basic, intermediate, or advanced? Will you include elder law, asset protection planning, pet planning, or lgbt planning? What about the myriad other areas of focus now in demand by estate planning clients?

Assign a number to the amount of revenue you want to generate. Think about what geographic area you’ll cover. Will you have one office? Will you have a satellite office? What will your offices look like, inside and out? How many employees will you have?

How will clients find out about your practice? How will they feel when they walk into your office? When they interact with you and your employees? What will your law firm’s relationship be with the people and other businesses in your community?

Take time to think in detailed terms about what your firm will look and feel like. By the time you’re finished, you should have a rich and detailed portrait of the law firm you want to bring to life. Then, you’ll be ready for the next step – mapping out an organizational strategy for your business. We’ll cover that in a future blog!

Robert Armstrong
President and Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com 

Time is the most valuable resource we possess. We like to say that time is money. In reality, though, time is life. In order to be sure your time – and therefore your life – is being spent the way you want it to be spent, you need to be the one in charge of this precious resource.

Giving all people the same level of access to you is not a smart use of your time. Why not? Because not everyone is on the same page as you when it comes to how your time should be spent. Everyone has their own agenda, and people can waste your time.

Use your assistant or your receptionist as a gatekeeper. Don’t take unscheduled phone calls. Don’t allow just anyone – clients, salespeople, or even employees – to walk into your office unannounced and use your time on their terms. You know the phrase, “Have you got a minute? Perhaps, more importantly if, like many people, you’re guilty of obsessively checking your email from the moment you walk into the office –stop!

Instead, make your time available to clients, employees and others on your terms, in the way that best meets your needs and furthers your goals for your law firm. This means designating certain times of day for returning phone calls, checking and responding to e-mail, meeting with clients, and yes, even addressing employee needs and concerns. It also means prioritizing which people get what level of access to you.

Sound impossible? It may not be easy at first. However, when you start this process you’re training yourself and those around you to respect your time for the precious resource it is, and this is a necessary step toward gaining control of your business and your life.

Robert Armstrong
President & Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

1. What amount of money would you like to see in your firm’s bank account – or even in your personal bank account – next Friday so that you’d know your law firm is working the way it should? This should be congruent with the dream you had on the day you welcomed your first client?
2. How many days would you work in an ideal week?
3. How many hours would you work in an ideal day?

When you’re answering questions two and three, keep in mind that ideal means ideal. Don’t be a wimp and go from seven 12-hour days to six 10-hour days. Dare to dream!

What is the point of this little exercise? You can make the answers to these three questions your reality. If you’re an Academy Member and you’re reading this, you already know what I mean. Many Academy Members make their financial goals and have four-day workweeks. One Member works a three-day week and earns as much today as he ever has in his long career.

If the numbers you’ve just written down aren’t yet your reality, keep watching the Academy blog. Sanford Fisch and I will have some practical strategies in the coming weeks to move you closer to your goals. We believe that having a successful law practice doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice balance in your life. The answer, as you’ll find out, is having a clear proven template to show you the way.

Robert Armstrong
President & Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com

The old marketing paradigm was based on outbound campaigns that bombarded consumers with sales information hoping it would lead to a sale, or in the legal setting, getting retained. However, the internet has completely changed the consumer’s shopping habits. When the prospect is interested in retaining legal counsel today, the odds are that he is going online to a search engine, like Google to find out about his options. Surprisingly, more than 91% never leave the first page of Google in their pursuit of information. That’s why being visible or highly ranked on the search engines is essential if your law firm is going to harness this new marketing platform.

Studies show that consumers look on average at 4.8 attorney websites online BEFORE they contact a firm. 89% of people who use the internet go online to find an attorney and 65% begin their search for an attorney on the internet. When you combine those statistics with the research out of the University of Southern California showing that consumers trust the information on the internet more than referrals or recommendations from friends and family, you know that this internet thing is here to stay.

Failing to optimize your website and make it search engine friendly is a huge mistake most law firms make. The purpose of your online presence must be to be visible, drive traffic to your site and capture contact information from interested prospects. Dominating your market online should be at the top of every law firm’s marketing efforts. Otherwise, you stand the very real chance of extinction in this new digital age.

Robert Armstrong
President & Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com