A friend recommended the book “The Reflective Counselor” to me.  It is a daily meditation for lawyers.  Often, a quote or line of wisdom from that book sets the tone for my day or inspires me to action or reflection in my own life. 

The readings over the last few days provided these gems: 

“Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him.” James Allen

We don’t think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.    

Awareness, acceptance, and action, in that order, can set us on a path to lasting transformation.

“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.  A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no one could have dreamed would come his way.” Goethe  

Don’t those words inspire you to do something great?  Or at least DO Something?  I’d love to hear what inspires you and what moves you to action.  I think in these times the more we can help one another with positive input, the better we will be individually and collectively.  So bring on your inspiration!

By Debra Talcott
Legal News

After spending 14 years of her career as a divorce lawyer, Lori Williams decided it was time to take her talents in a new direction that would bring people together rather than help them go their separate ways.

In June 2004 she launched “Your Legal Resource,” a unique referral service that connects clients with the best attorneys for their particular situations. “I enjoyed my work and my clients, and I generated a good income, but I decided to pursue something that would bring me joy, use all my gifts, and allow me to make a difference to others every day,” says Williams. “I’m a matchmaker at heart, a relationship builder — not a relationship ender.”

Williams says that research showed 75 percent of Americans chose an attorney by asking a friend or family member for a reference, with less than 35 percent being satisfied with the services they received.  That is why Your Legal Resource goes beyond the casual “I know an attorney” referral and takes the time to understand each case and each client’s financial situation and personality before recommending an attorney who will be a good “fit.”

Williams heads a network of reputable and dedicated lawyers who practice in a variety of disciplines in the Metro Detroit area. In addition to making referrals for individuals, the company acts as a resource partner for small business, providing strategies for networking and marketing to help small business owners succeed and expand.

A 1989 graduate of what was then Detroit College of Law (now MSU College of Law), Williams says she first became interested in law when a recruiter from James Madison College, the pre-law program at MSU, visited her high school in Trenton, where she was raised.  “At that time I was thinking of being a legal secretary. Then I went on to MSU and thought I’d be a paralegal, but as I gained more confidence, I saw no reason I couldn’t become a lawyer,” says Williams.

Williams was a full partner in the general practice law firm of Ahles & Tollefson, P.C. until 1994 when she began specializing in family law as a solo practitioner.  With the establishment of Your Legal Resource, her focus has shifted from the practice of law to the business of law.  “The most frustrating part of the practice of law, for me, was the inefficiency,” says Williams. “In divorce cases, as with most litigation, there’s a lot of waiting in court to have your turn with the judge. I felt bad that clients had to spend time and money waiting around and sometimes accomplishing very little. The best cases were resolved between both parties and counsel and merely formalized at court.”

Williams says her clients would sometimes joke as their cases ended, “You did a great job, but I hope to never need your services again.”  “If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t want another divorce or post-divorce litigation either,” says Williams, who left the practice of law in 2003. “I thought I had left for good,” says Williams.  “But in January 2004 I was in a small group at my church, and we were studying the book ‘The Purpose-Driven Life’ by Rick Warren. “It was very powerful and life changing for many people, myself included, because it revealed to us what our true purpose and passions were.”

That is when it became clear to Williams that she was put on this earth to connect people.  “At first I laughed because I had made a career out of ending relationships. But then I could see that even as a divorce attorney, I was connecting my clients with other resources they needed as they went through the painful divorce process.” 

Williams was fortunate to be taking the church course with a friend who was a coach, so together they started brainstorming what a career as a “connector” might look like.  “She guided me through the process of looking at everything I had liked about my legal career, and from that exercise I created Your Legal Resource.”

Initially, her core service was to help individuals and small businesses in need of legal advice or representation connect with the right legal specialist for them.   She drew upon the expertise of a team of attorneys she had known personally and professionally from her years of practice.  “I’d known them for 5 to 20 years either from working with them, working for them, arguing cases against them, or having successfully referred to them for years,” says Williams. “All of them had experience in their areas of law and had been in practice for 10-30 years. More importantly, they treated clients and other professionals well, provided valuable service out of their expertise, and provided that service at an affordable rate.”

All of Williams’ business comes to her by referral, mostly from people in her non-lawyer network who direct others to her.  “Most people know when they need a lawyer, and most people know a lawyer or two; however, they don’t know the right lawyer for all areas of law. That’s the resource I provide,” says Williams. “I connect the right client with the right lawyer in all areas of law in Michigan.”

Williams’ services have evolved to include legal consulting for solo and small-firm attorneys, making her a resource to both the clients in need of legal services and to the legal community itself.  “I guide solo and small-firm attorneys through the process of generating more business through effectively branding and marketing their services, becoming skilled at networking, and developing referral relationships and strategic partnerships,” explains Williams. 

Her own experience has helped Williams understand the many hats a solo attorney or someone practicing in a small firm must wear.  “Most attorneys would rather practice law and not have to be the networker, marketer, operations manager, finance department, biller, collector, etc. I can direct these attorneys to the other resources they need and work within their budgets,” says Williams, who also provides hands-on consulting to help fellow attorneys improve their networking and relationship-building skills. 

Williams is also a frequent public speaker on the topics of networking, relationship building, and finding your purpose and passion in your career.   In January, she was a key organizer for a workshop for attorneys called “Effective Strategies to Improve Your Law Firm’s Bottom Line” that was held at Troy’s Automation Alley.  “Lately, I’ve also been facilitating lunch-and-learn sessions for attorneys and other professionals. I’m bringing in speakers who can shed light on how to improve business through marketing, technology, and social media.”

Williams has fond memories of her growing-up years in Trenton and credits her parents, Bob and Lois Tollefson, for instilling core values in her and her sister’s lives.  “We were fortunate to not incur debt with our education. My parents paid for college for each of us, and I split the cost of law school with my parents,” says Williams. “They taught us work ethic, good Christian values, and how to handle money properly. I’m very grateful for the upbringing I had. I have two sons, ages 11 and 15, who I’m trying to pass on that education to. They attend Birmingham School, and I’ve been very pleased with their education so far.”

A typical day in the office for Williams means phone calls with clients and making referrals to one of the attorneys on her team.  She also provides consulting services to attorneys who are not on her team, designed to grow their practices.  Additionally, she attends networking events and fulfills responsibilities for her roles as Ambassador of the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce and as membership chair of the Women’s Bar Association – Oakland County Region of the Women’s Lawyers Association of Michigan.

“I also weave marketing into my days in the office, and I write a weekly blog as well as two monthly e-newsletters,” says Williams, who also makes time to mentor women law students through the Women’s Bar Association and to volunteer at her church and at City Mission in Detroit.

Williams admits she would not be able to accomplish all she does without taking care of herself, too.  “I’ve been a member of Beverly Hills Club for about 18 years and love working out four to five times a week. I also enjoy tennis in the summer and fall, and cooking becomes my creative outlet in my personal life.”

While every client is important to Williams, she admits that she especially enjoys helping someone disadvantaged in some way get the proper help to overcome a difficult situation. Last year a counselor referred a client with a medical malpractice claim, and the case settled for the maximum allowed by law, $600,000.  Another case, in which an elderly pedestrian was hit by a car, settled for $100,000.  But Williams says that even the small gestures mean a great deal to her clients, such as when an estate planning attorney goes to the home of an elderly client so the client doesn’t have to travel to the attorney’s office.

 “Frankly, my business wouldn’t exist without the awesome team who provides the legal services and the loyal professionals who refer the clients to me. It’s really a team effort, and I enjoy leading a winning team.”

_________________________________________________________________________

Link for Macomb Legal News: 

http://www.legalnews.com/macomb/1000232/

Link for Detroit Legal News:

http://www.legalnews.com/detroit/663243/

1)    Time and Money were the top 2 responses

Kim Scott of Schott Cultural Consulting shared with me her findings from a 2009 survey she conducted with small businesses.  She discovered that small businesses with 5-20 employees have a marketing challenge of seeking out and entering markets quickly and effectively. Her solution to that problem was to pull data from Scarborough, Nielsen and global economic research for her clients. This type of research shows a business how they can quickly monetize a product or service into a net profit. 

On the other hand, sole-practitioners that only have 1 fulltime employee responded by saying their biggest challenge was time and money. She was able to resolve this challenge for her clients, by coaching them how to outsource and delegate so that they’re not doing it all.  Once the workload was properly balanced, then she corrected their target market and marketing plan using research.

Kim often tells sole-practitioners: “if you don’t know the profitability of your ideal client based on research, then you will be spinning your wheels and burn through cash flow trying to re-position yourself. Want to know how many prospects were converted into paying customers based on a product or service offering? Not sure how much profit your idea will generate? Then ask a marketing consultant…the research is there”.

Other solutions to the time/money challenge:

Create a business plan or marketing plan regarding what you do, what clients you serve, who your referral partners are, how and where to network, what marketing tactics you will use, allocate dollars to it, measure results, and repeat cycle making adjustments based on what you learned.  There are books, coaches, programs, online tools, etc. to help hold you accountable to a plan, or to create a plan, and to measure the results of your plan.  Yes, these things take some money and money, but it isn’t cost prohibitive nor will it take time away from your business.  Some of the resources are as low as $20 or less for a book, or $20/month, or a 6 week program for $250.  I can get into specifics if you are interested.  Just contact me, or look at point #3 below for starters.

The tools also allow you to use your time efficiently so you are working on your business while working in your business.  You must do both to be successful!  Eventually you may be able to hire out some of the work with some added income.  Virtual assistants, contract attorneys, contract consultants can all help you on an ala carte basis as your budget allows.  This frees you up to do the things you are good at and which create income for you.

3)     Finding a target market or demographic to serve and then creating an effective marketing message that addresses their needs.

A friend of mine who is a coach mentioned how at one point he was exhausting himself with his marketing.    Eventually he learned how to design programs out of the expressed needs of his clients, rather than creating programs hoping his clients would need them.  That makes all the sense in the world.  I’ve heard for years, “find a need and fill it”, or “you’ll make all the money you want by helping others get what they want.”  It’s true.  I’ve experienced this myself.

If you have clients but feel you are spinning your wheels, buy this book:  Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port. He will help you create your ideal target market and be so busy serving them you’ll never have to work with the wrong client again.  You won’t be ‘crazy’ busy, like you have been.  You’ll be spending the right amount of time, with the right people, and be energized by your work.  So much so, that you’ll hardly believe you are getting paid to do what you love so much!

If you don’t yet have clients or want more clients, then buy this book:  Get Clients Now, by CJ Hayden.  It approaches marketing like a menu in a restaurant.  You won’t eat the whole menu in one sitting, nor can you take on all of marketing at once.  It breaks down marketing into manageable portions:  an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert that you select from the menu of marketing options.  You’ll create daily action steps for yourself all on a one page document and at the end of one month, you will achieve your goals if you stick to the program.  You can create a new program the next month with different marketing options, or use the same one and maybe ramp up your goals to the next level.  You’ll deal with all stages of the sales cycle systematically and with ease, including: filling the pipeline, getting appointments, making presentations, follow-up, and closing the sale.   I also have a resource who created a group course around Get Client Now, so you have built in accountability.  The book alone is a starting point, but creating a community of supportive partners will help you take the ideas to the next level.

Whether you hire someone to do research about your target market, or you hire a marketing consultant, or you use the ideas from Get Clients Now or Book Yourself Solid, just get into action and start doing what you were meant to do.  Often that’s the stumbling block for some.  They haven’t discovered their purpose and passion and are doing something they are good at, but which they don’t love doing.  And the many functions of the business ends up draining them rather than energizing them.   

If you do love your job or business, and love your clients, then they are the valuable source of information of how to serve them well.  Just ask them and in response design solutions that meet their needs.

4)  Financial advisors claim that their biggest marketing challenge is compliance.  They aren’t able to use a lot of the social media tools the way other professionals can, and anytime they write something it has to be approved by compliance which often makes it outdated by the time that happens.  Otherwise, they have to use the “vanilla, industry approved content” which is very generic and not likely to be read.

While financial advisors may have some restrictions when it comes to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook profiles, you can still meet prospects and clients face to face, network in person with referral partners, be active in your community, serve on boards at your favorite charitable organization, volunteer at your place of worship or in the community, etc.  Relationship building is critical for financial advisors and most professionals, because someone won’t hire you for your expertise until they know and trust you.  Serve first and collect a fee later, once you’ve earned someone’s trust and respect. 

These things all take time, and to build a long term successful practice one’s relationship building skills must be first rate.  I see branding as a critical issue for financial advisors and creating a niche clientele.  Otherwise they can’t distinguish themselves from the sea of advisors out there.    

5)    “Not knowing what to do next”.  They know what’s not working, but they are not sure what to do differently.  This challenge can occur when one is burnt out in their business, or they’ve simply run out of ideas.  Many successful entrepreneurs will tell you about the failed attempts at business before they made it big.  Persistence is the key and it is important to learn from the past attempts when creating something new. Sometimes our business runs its course, and the product service is no longer needed.  Other times the professional loses the passion they first had for the business.  It’s important to continually look at who you are and ask, “am I doing what I was created to do or am I just doing something I know how to do?”  Finding your purpose and passion and creating your profession out of it will fulfill both you and your clients.  There are also many successful coaches, consultants, research companies, marketing companies, etc. that you can turn to if you have passion but lack necessary skills or information about what to do next.  If ever you need to know, who to talk to about a given challenge, consider me a resource. I love matching people in need with those who fulfill that need.    

Can you relate to any of these marketing challenges or solutions?  How have you overcome these or other marketing challenges in your business? I’d love to hear your story. Where do you turn for answers or information, or who helps you when you get stuck?  Thanks for reading and commenting!

February 17, 4:09 PM

Michigan’s economy has led many law firms to downsize and attorneys to pursue their own practices. As a result, attorneys are seeking ways to network and create new business. A legal referral service in the Detroit metropolitan area, Your Legal Resource, has for the past five years helped lawyers connect with the right clients and generate more business. Attorney Lori T. Williams formed Your Legal Resource in June of 2004 to help people save time and money by directing them to the right attorney for the right situation. This legal matchmaker works with attorneys from solo and small firms who she’s known for 5-20 years and who have practiced for 10-30 years. Her consulting services and team of experts help attorneys establish themselves and generate business.

After 14 years of running a divorce law practice, Williams attended a workshop on The Purpose-Driven Life, where she experienced a “personal, professional and spiritual convergence, realizing I was meant to create relationships, instead of helping to end them in divorce,” she says. By forming Your Legal Resource, she was able to draw upon her legal background and her gifts of bringing people together. Throughout her legal career, Williams built teams of resources to help clients. She now utilizes that same ability of creating and recommending resources to bring people together with the right attorneys and other professionals.

“Lawyers acquire most of their business from referrals. When they identify their target audiences and partner with the right people within and outside of law, they increase their bottom line,” says Williams, adding that, “Lawyers are needed in good and bad times. Pockets of the law are always booming. As our economy improves, things will improve for the legal field in general,” she says.

Williams has become a frequent speaker and facilitator of events for attorneys. Last fall, Your Legal Resource began hosting well-attended lunch-and-learns for lawyers, with recent topics that include E-Discovery and Social Media Strategies for Attorneys. At a recent event, entitled Effective Law Firm Strategies to Improve Your Bottom Line, she presented on how to create effective referral partners and strategic partners.

Click to download this article (PDF).

Lately I’ve been having conversations with local professionals in various industries, regarding their challenges around marketing.  Here are the top 5 responses:

1)      Time:

 Trying to pace yourself, and get it all done.  Burning the candle at both ends is common. 

Spending time on marketing takes away from client service.

2)      Money:

When you are in the start-up phase of a new business or practice, every dollar counts.  It can be a challenge having enough financial resources to put into the business while also feeding your families.

Even experienced professionals encounter the money challenge in today’s economy.  What used to work doesn’t seem to work anymore (ads, waiting for the phone to ring).  It’s difficult pouring money into something when you don’t know what results you are going to get.  There are websites for professionals that claim to have so many visitors a day and imply or promise that if you pay to be on their site, you’ll get business.  It can be a “black hole” or money pit with no guarantee of return.   

3)       Finding a target market or demographic to serve and then creating an effective marketing message that addresses their needs.

4)      For financial advisors, the biggest challenge is compliance.  They aren’t able to use a lot of the social media tools the way other professionals can, and anytime they write something it has to be approved by compliance which often makes it outdated by the time that happens.  Otherwise, they have to use the “vanilla industry approved” content which is very generic and not likely to be read.

5)      Not knowing what to do next.  They know what’s not working, but they are not sure what to do differently. 

Can you relate to any of these issues?  Have you found a way to overcome them?  I’d love to hear your thoughts about challenges and successes. Have you found a unique niche to serve?  Do you have a clear brand that distinguishes you from others in your field or industry?  Tune in next week to read some ideas of how to overcome these marketing challenges.  Thanks for reading and commenting!