Listen everyone.

I can't remember what I said on this podcast - I recorded it about a week ago.

Here's what I know - it's amazing stuff.

Instead of wondering, hit the play button or read the transcript below.

Cheers,

Christopher Small

Are You Committed Transcript

Hey everybody welcome to episode one forty four of The Art Of Lawyering Podcast. I'm excited to be here. I'm sitting out on the deck of my office. You can hear so much ever growing by. Beautiful view of the island big mountains and the Lake Washington and I'm here to talk to you today about something kind of fun. Before I get there, I want to remind you about my coaching program. So I have decided to reopen the inner circle which is my coaching program to ten people and before I get there. You know I want to, so I'm going to go back, and so when I started you know, I started practicing law in two thousand and five. Opened my firm in two thousand and eight. I don't know anything about business. I didn't know anything about marketing. I didn't know anything about management or leadership. I didn't even know anything about practicing law in city. I had just moved to Washington. I didn't know anybody, it was two thousand eight. The economy had crashed and we thought life was going to be terrible. And I, in my infinite wisdom decided to open up a law firm. And I guess at that time though I knew I had a little bit of an interest in business because I started documenting my journey.

Literally from day one. I started documenting the things I was experiencing. The ups, the downs, the successes, the failures, the fears and how I overcame those fears and how I became successful. And I ended up building a multiple six figure firm before I sold it last year. It was we, are on pace to grow. Well I think we did gross almost right at six hundred thousand dollars last year and. You know, I started talking about how to do this and learning how to do this. I tell you, one of the things that really got me over the hump and got me to that place was coaching and I got some law firm owner coaching, I got some other business coaching. But the fact is I got someone to help me. And the beauty of coaching is that it gets you to where you want to be faster. It gets you there with proven systems and it also gives you some accountability and some push, some support. You know those things that you need that you may not be able to get from anywhere because it's just you or your business partner. You guys both have no idea what you're doing. Coaching can help you do that, right. And that's one of the reasons why I coach is because I love the opportunity to give back. I love seeing people grow. I love seeing people succeed.

It's extremely fulfilling and it's one of the joys I get from owning my law firm is that I get to teach other people what's working for me. So I have decided to, you know for a long time I've had Law Firm Confidential which is, it is coaching in its own way but it's not one on one there's no real specific interaction with me. There's no specific access to me other than the Facebook group email things like that. But nothing, no specific conversation to happen and I wanted to give some people the opportunity to really jumpstart their firm and reach that next level. Get over that plateau whatever it is that they're doing. So I open up ten spots for this coaching. I'm going to roll this out and really really really crush this for people. That's why I'm limiting it to ten because I want to be able to focus on them and them only. Also perfect the system, perfect that the processes, the way that everything runs and right now there are already five spots filled and I think I have three or four more conversation schedule with other people that are interested. So, but I want to let you know about it. And remind you that if you're interested even if you hear this a year from now y...

If you didn't know, I've opened up my Inner Circle again for one-on-one coaching.

There are only 10 spots open, and they are going to fill up fast.

In the spirit of this new opportunity, I thought I'd drop 5 ways a law firm coach can help you.

1. Accountabitlity

2. Support

3. Expertise

4. Experience

5. Tough Love

If any of these seem interesting to you, check out my coaching.

And, don't forget to listen to the podcast.

Cheers,

Christopher Small

Who am I? I am an expert on starting a law firm and law firm marketing. I've started two successful law firms (you can see my latest one here and love sharing what I've learned so you can do it too).

5 Ways a Law Firm Coach Can Help You Transcript

Hey everybody this is Christopher Small, this is episode one forty four of The Art of Lawyering podcast. I am super excited to be here with you as I always am. Excited to talk about this subject today I must admit I'm a little bit biased when it comes to this subject for a couple reasons. A) Coaching has helped me tremendously over the years and B) I'm coaching people just like you to help you build your law firm. Make it successful, to know you're profitable, to let you do the things that you want and not chain yourself to your law firm as an employee. Right now as of the recording of this episode, I have, I'm reopening sort of my coaching for ten people. It actually will probably be full by the time this is done but if you ever watch this in the future or are listening to right now and you think you might be interested go to theartoflawyering.com/coach and you can see what it's all about. You can apply, you can and we'll talk if there are openings. If there are not, you put your name on the list there and then as openings become available, I will let you know about them and if you're interested you can join up.

To learn more about the program, you got to go there, theartoflawyering.com/coach. Check it out. So, you know like I said before coaching is near my heart for many different reasons. Played sports when I was a kid. I, you know, was in a band. What else did I do. I was in debate. I wasn't in debate. I just wish I was because I'm a lawyer and I should have been. What else did I do. I did all kinds of stuff and typically you have a teacher, right? Or a coach. The person that helps you out. The person that teaches you. Who does all these things. And when you're a business owner, the most successful business owners have coaches themselves. Because they can give you insight. They can see your business from a perspective that you don't normally have and to make a big difference. So there are the five specific ways that a coach can help your business. Okay, number one is accountability and for some people this is the biggest reason they hire a coach in the first place for example with my coaching program, what we do is we meet individually every month for an hour.

Typically on the phone but we talk about the things that we're supposed to be done the month before. Things that are supposed to be done going into the future. The other thing with accountability is typically you pay a coach. So when there's money on the table. You're a lot more likely to actually take action and do the things that you know will help your business grow. When you have to answer to someone you're much more likely to do it just like you know people always say, if you want to go to the gym more often, if you want to do workout and work better, eat better, do all these things. It's best to have an accountability partner. Somebody that you're going to answer to and have to explain whether or not you did what you did. So having that person that you can have to account to makes a big difference. And those are some of the reasons why I've gotten a coach in the past.

I got my first law firm client from a farmer's market. I used to preach marketing a law firm in this way.

But now that I'm older and wiser I've changed my tune...

Cheers,

Christopher Small

P.S. - I've done it! I started my second six-figure law firm in under 4 months! Want to know my secret? Networking! And I'm sharing my tracking system with you for free. Click Here for Access.

Who am I? I am an expert on starting a law firm and law firm marketing. I've started two successful law firms (you can see my latest one here and love sharing what I've learned so you can do it too).

Law Firms and Farmer's Markets Don't Mix Transcript

Hey everybody this is Christopher Small. This is episode one forty three of The Art of Lawyering podcast. I am super pumped to be with you today. I was actually, we're on Facebook live but we're recording a day late. There's a lesson in there before I even get to the lesson of the day that is don't worry about being perfect just get your stuff done, right. That's the that's the word of the day. What we're going to talk about today is why farmer's market booths are not a good idea when you're trying to market a law firm. And if you have been following me for a long time, you know, way way back in the day when I'm first over my law firm, I did farmer's market booths. I would rent a booth, I would put a sign up that just said lawyer and I would just sit there and wait for people to come to me. And it actually worked a little bit. I got my first client from that booth but you know, now that some time have come by and I have become more sophisticated and more experienced and more educated when it comes to marketing and business. I think it's a bad idea. And I was reminded of that this weekend in Kirkland there's this event called Summerfest and it is a, it's like a summer festival as you know, believe it or not.

And there are, there were these booths, you know people are selling like paintings, people are selling like but I don't know, roasted corn on the cob you know whatever. Whatever you see at a normal sort of event like this but there was a financial planner tent there okay. And no offense to the financial planners that know the guys that are actually there. They do this all over the place and doing all the time and the way that it was set up was, they were giving away like a fifty dollar Amazon gift card if you come in sign up to put your name in the drawing. And then what they'll do is they'll call people off of that. And I was walking by and I'd seen them all the time and I've talked to them before about whether or not it actually resulted in business for them and it did a little bit. They get some, they do get some business from it but I think it's a bad idea for several reasons. And I want to talk to you about that today so that you don't get stuck doing that or at least you do correct analysis before you go out there and spend a whole day, you know, watching ringing people walk by and sign up to get a gift card from you. All right so, there are kind of five things that I came up with and let's talk about it right now. First of all, when it comes to marketing and business generation, what you really want to try to do is put yourself in the spot where your potential clients are going to be.

And a summer festival or farmer's market is just not that place. People from all walks of life come there, all demographics, all income areas, all ages. So to place yourself there hoping that you're going to catch a couple of people that actually fit your needs or your wants as an ideal client is a bad idea. You're not going to see those people there. And we'll get into this later but when you're giving away things too you're not going to attract the right people. So you know, farmer's markets are not conducive to legal services, right. Just think about it. Number two, there's no service.

On this episode I talk about the five reasons your law firm will fail (or, read another way - do the opposite of what I'm talking about to have a successful law firm).

I was sitting at my desk today thinking about what to talk to you about today and it dawned on me - I haven't done a motivational talk in a while!

And what better way to motivate you than to tell you why your law firm will fail.

Don't believe me?

I don't know what the statistic is on business failure as a whole, but I've talked to a lot of law firm owners and I can tell you a majority of them (over 80%) are struggling to just make ends meet.

Why is this?

Why is it so darn difficult to create a successful law firm?

Here are the five reasons your law firm will fail:

You will focus on the wrong things

You will build the wrong skills

You won't spend money

You won't work hard enough

You won't wait long enough

It's as simple and as complicated as that all at the same time.

Starting and building a successful law firm isn't difficult. There are certain fundamental actions that need to be undertaken.

But if you don't do those things your law firm will fail.

Listen to the podcast and find out how to start a law firm the right way, the first time.

I mentioned in the show my giving away my greatness tracker. CLICK HERE to get that.

Cheers,

Christopher Small

P.S. - I've done it! I started my second six-figure law firm in under 4 months! Want to know my secret? Networking! And I'm sharing my tracking system with you for free. Click Here for Access.

Who am I? I am an expert on starting a law firm and law firm marketing. I've started two successful law firms (you can see my latest one here and love sharing what I've learned so you can do it too).

Five Reasons Your Law Firm Will Fail Transcript

Hey everybody this is Christopher Small. This is episode one forty two of The Art of Lawyering podcast. I am super pumped to be here with you today. We're in the office, we're on Facebook live. If you do not have or have not liked the Facebook page at The Art of Lawyering. Go find it. We're gonna be live. People are coming in to ask questions at the end. I may turn this on and do like a Friday question thing on a regular. Maybe we'll do that on Facebook live only. Let me know if you want to do that. But in any event, we're here and we're going to talk about five reasons your law firm's going to fail. It's about time that we had to come to Jesus talk. Because I know a lot of you are out there thinking that you're running a successful law firm and it's not working for you, right. You wonder what's going on. So this is going to be a little bit of a kind of Jesus, a little bit of motivation, all revved up into one. And you know this is really sort of relevant for me right now because I'm, March, what I'm still on five months into this new firm basically and I see and feel these the same things every day.

And I've got a buddy that's starting a business from scratch and I see what he's doing and the mistakes that he's making and they're relevant to all of us. We all make the same mistakes. I find myself even doing it now so I want to talk to you about them so that you can not feel bad if you keep doing the same things and you fail or you can change your course and start to get some traction with your business. So let's just dive in. And have notes. So when you see me look over here, it's because I'm looking at my notes. Number one, you will focus on the wrong things. If you go way way back into my starting a law firm archives. You will see I think I wrote a series of like five posts on choosing a name for your firm and how long. It took me like three weeks or a month to pick a name.

Okay people, this is going to be a very very short post for one reason: it is 1:00 a.m. and I forgot my notes from this podcast at the office.

I don't know what the five reasons lawyers need Instagram are precisely, though I know these are some of the attributes:

1. Instagram is free for lawyers (and everyone else).

2. Instagram can help lawyers build your law firm brand.

3. Instagram can help lawyers get more clients.

4. Instagram can help lawyers increase awareness.

5. Instagram can help lawyers increase interaction.

To get the full story, listen to the podcast.

If, after you listen to the podcast (and not before) you want to learn more about how to make these things a reality for you, click the link below to get my free Instagram for lawyers report.

CLICK HERE to get your free Instagram for lawyers report.

Cheers,

Christopher Small

P.S. - I've done it! I started my second six-figure law firm in under 4 months! Want to know my secret? Networking! And I'm sharing my tracking system with you for free. Click Here for Access.

Who am I? I am an expert on starting a law firm and law firm marketing. I've started two successful law firms (you can see my latest one here and love sharing what I've learned so you can do it too).

Five Reasons Lawyers Need Instagram Transcript

Hey everybody, this is Christopher Small, this is episode one forty one of the Art of Lawyering Podcast. I'm super pumped and excited to be here with you. We are also on Facebook live. So, if you want to get this early and want to have a chance to ask some questions then head on over there mark your calendars for Mondays or Wednesdays between nine and ten Pacific Time. And I will jump on Facebook live and we can answer questions after the show. You can also get kind of sneak preview and see what's going on. So I want to talk about Instagram today. I've been on a little bit of an Instagram kick and I've been thinking about Instagram for a long time and even as little as a couple months ago, I said that I don't think that Instagram should be used really for lawyers. I think it was a good place to spend your time. Kind of changing my tune on that a little bit and I was actually called out on that by one of the Law Firm Confidential members a couple of days ago. She said, well I asked this question. She use Instagram and I said no and well things have changed and so I want to talk a little about that which we'll probably get to at the end of the show.

It'll be one of the five reasons why you should use Instagram now. But, things have changed and I think things have change for the better. I think Instagram is a good place to go to try to experiment a little bit, to try to get some new leads, to get some new clients, to do some other things and we're going talk about it right now. So, the first reason that you should use Instagram if you're a lawyer is because it's free. You don't have to do it. There's no start up cost. It's just your time, you want to put pictures on there of your self, of quotes, of whatever sort of relates to your business but it's free. There's no start up cost and there's no advertising. You can advertise there now but there's no true advertising vehicle. There's no real reason for you to advertise at this point. So you might as well get in and start using this platform. While there's still room, while the market is not saturated by the lawyers, and while you have the ability to get in there and get a lot of access. So, if you think back to Facebook, Facebook was the same way for a long time. You didn't need to advertise to get exposure. Now you do, right. If you want to, if you post something on your page. It's going to get sent to like three percent of the people who like your page.

You have to pay to play on Facebook.

Yesterday Instagram made a major change to their platform, and this change finally convinced me that it was time to start thinking about how Instagram for law firms can work.

In this episode I talk about a very specific methodology for increasing your Instagram followers, building your brand, generating leads, and having a fun time throughout the process.

Instagram for Law Firms Game Plan

First things first, it's important to remember what the point is of participating on a platform like Instagram.

It's the same point that you have for all of your marketing efforts: you want to get more clients.

And that can happen with Instagram. You just have to do it right.

Here's the step-by-step process for using Instagram for law firms, including getting more followers, creating brand awareness, and generating leads.

Step 1: Post at least 4-6 times per day.

Step 2: Make the posts interesting and relevant to what you do (think quotes, advice, stories, action shots, things that are important to your clients, etc.).

Step 3: The description of each post should have a call to action (double tap, comment, tag a friend, click the link in my bio, etc.).

Step 4: Create several different lead magnets that you can reference in your posts and link to in your bio.

Step 5: follow other influencers in your space (will likely be your geographic area) and comment on their posts with thoughtful ideas.

There's more - to get the complete game plan CLICK HERE and download my free Instagram for Law Firms guide.

Cheers,

Christopher Small

P.S. - I've done it! I started my second six-figure law firm in under 4 months! Want to know my secret? Networking! And I'm sharing my tracking system with you for free. Click Here for Access.

Who am I? I am an expert on starting a law firm and law firm marketing. I've started two successful law firms (you can see my latest one here and love sharing what I've learned so you can do it too).

Using Instagram For Law Firms Transcript

Hey everybody this is Christopher Small, this is episode 140 of the Art Of Lawyering podcast. I am super pumped to be here with you today. The plan if you'll notice, I am not on Facebook live right now. I'm actually driving in the car. Today was kind of a crazy day and my time for doing this show and recording it live sort of got away from me. So we're not going to do on Facebook live today. But in the future, I plan on doing all the shows recording them on Facebook live. Taking questions after I record the show. I want whatever you want to ask me anything. And you can ask your business questions, you can ask your lawyer questions, you can ask whatever you want and I'll answer them. And that's me giving to you. But today, today I want to talk about and by the way plan on that being around like nine thirty ish Pacific Time. So if you've got your Facebook. If you have Facebook open. You'll see a little pre-post from me that says, hey you know we're going to come on live in a couple minutes, be ready, and boom.

You'll see it. Watch it. Ask your questions. Live it. Love it. Also, one other thing I have decided and you'll probably hopefully, you'll be enticed to go check this out after you hear this episode but I have decided to put together a short little one sheet on Instagram. With some of these things that I'm talking about to help you build your Instagram followers. And I think you're going to be, you're gonna want to do that after this episode because of the ability you're going to have with Instagram stories to really make magic. All right so, to do that, just go to theartoflawyering.com/instagram and you'll be able to download that one sheet. It's going to be sort of a synopsis of what we're talking about here. Some extra tidbits. Some extra goodies,

Today I wanted to talk about something that we've all had to think about and deal with at some point in our law firm start-up career: pricing law firm services.

The tough part about pricing law firm services is that there is no set pricing schedule.

There is no industry standard.

And no one shares their prices.

For those reasons (and some other psychological factors I talk about in the podcast) pricing law firm services can seem extremely difficult.

But it doesn't have to be.

All it takes is a little thought, a little intention, a minor shift in perspective, and some guts.

Check out the podcast to get the whole scoop.

Cheers,

Christopher Small

P.S. - I've done it! I started my second six-figure law firm in under 4 months! Want to know my secret? Networking! And I'm sharing my tracking system with you for free. Click Here for Access.

Who am I? I am an expert on starting a law firm and law firm marketing. I've started two successful law firms (you can see my latest one here and love sharing what I've learned so you can do it too).

Pricing Law Firm Services Transcript

On this episode of the show we are going to talk about pricing. Hey everybody this is Christopher Small and this is episode one thirty nine of the Art Of Lawyering. I am outside on the deck in my office as you can probably hear that huge truck just go by. Cloudy day and I was planning on giving you an added boost. I'm going to, I think start filming all of these podcast episodes live via live stream on Facebook and then put them all off on Youtube as well. So if you want to be a first watcher or listener of this and get some questions asked. Because I think I'm gonna ask, answer some questions why. And probably put in here on Facebook or on here on the podcast. I'm going to do that a bit before the podcast. Do a bit after for everybody. For showing up and saying hello. So if you, if you want to be able to get in there and do that'd be awesome. I'd love to see you there. All you need to do is go and like my Facebook page. The Art Of Lawyering and what I'll probably do, I'm going to try to do these around nine thirty every morning and what you'll see is, you'll see the live stream of when I do these posts.

And oh, well and you need to go like my regular page of CMS Law Firm. If you want to see me live stream my Rich Life Lawyer shows. And you may want to do that just so you can see how I do it so that you can try to do it yourself. So go and do that I'll send that little nuggets, a little notes before I do each thing but thought that'd be cool to do the fun and easy way to interact with you guys and to really just talk directly to you. So we're going to do that. So do that. The talk about pricing. Pricing, this is something I talked about on my Rich Life Lawyer podcast. I have a podcast that I talk a lot about what's going on in the business and what we do to make our law from the best for clients. And then I have a Rich Life Lawyer Show which is a video show that, where we talk about estate planning stuff. You know like legal stuff. So I talked about why and how we value our prices and I wanted to talk to you guys about it today. So that you can really make sure you're pricing your services correctly. Now, to begin with the answer really when it comes to pricing or legal services is whatever you're comfortable with.

With the call you at that whatever you're comfortable with. And immediately need to increase it by at least ten percent because you are under valuing your services. Everybody does. Now, when it comes to picking a number for your services. I don't like to really think about the timing involved or the cost involved. That so, if you're thinking about, oh I have to print ten pages blah blah blah. Or it's going to take me three hours blah blah blah.

I've made a lot of networking mistakes in my career.

I started off owning my law firm thinking networking was a joke I did it so bad.

But then I started hanging out with some people who's entire businesses were built on networking. And they were putting a million dollars in their pockets every year.

That got my attention, so I took another look at networking and immediately realized the reason it wasn't working for me was that I was doing it all wrong.

So I fixed it, built my own six-figure law firm on the backbone of networking in under 4 months, and want to share with you my five biggest networking mistakes.

Here they are:

Not Looking for Value From Them

Poor Follow Up

Your Pool is Too Small

Not Clear On What You Do

No Plan

If that list resonates with you and you want some help correcting those networking mistakes, listen to the podcast.

Oh, and if you want a copy of my FREE greatness tracker, CLICK HERE.

Cheers,

Christopher Small

P.S. - I've done it! I started my second six-figure law firm in under 4 months! Want to know my secret? Networking! And I'm sharing my tracking system with you for free. Click Here for Access.

Who am I? I am an expert on starting a law firm and law firm marketing. I've started two successful law firms (you can see my latest one here and love sharing what I've learned so you can do it too).

Five Common Networking Mistakes Transcript

Hey everybody this is Christopher Small, this is episode 138 of The Art Of Lawyering Podcast. Welcome, thank you for being here. I am excited to be talking to you. I'm actually sitting in my car right now, it's 2:43 in the afternoon, just got my hair cut. Just had a meeting this morning with a financial planner and it was actually like his team. It wasn't the actual financial planner and it got me thinking a little bit about good and bad networking practices. We're talking a lot about networking lately. Networking has been a huge huge factor in the success of my new law firm so far and I wanted to take a little bit more time and talk about it with you today. Before I get there though, I wanted to remind you that I'm giving away my greatness tracker and I'll talk more about the greatness tracker as we go. But the way that you get ahead in networking or talk about this more as we kind of get through this episode but the way you get ahead in networking is by being structured, by following up, by talking to the right people, and by sticking to it. And getting the work done. And this greatness tracker is the way that I do that.

I want to give that to you and I want to give it to you by, you can go to theartoflawyering.com/greatness and I want to give you a little bit of extra added incentive to go, soon. And what you'll see is, the greenest tracker I'm giving away for free but once you sign up for that, raise your hand for that, and then you will see that there is a, I have put together a course on getting the most out of the greatness tracker based on how to network and how to create basically a six figure law firm just through networking which is what I've done. And for the next, this is we're in July right now but for the next probably I don't know 72 hours or so after you hear this, the price of the course is going to be significantly discounted. And we're talking about like a fifty percent discount. The reason for that is because I want to encourage you to go and take advantage of this. I mean, I literally and just use this to jump start my business and create a six figure law firm in three and a half months or so. And so I mean, I'm excited to get this in your hands and help you succeed. And so I really want to push you and provide some extra urgency to go and do that.

Again it's theartoflawyering.com/greatness.

Sometimes when I'm creating this podcast I try to look around and think about the things I would want to know as a fellow law firm owner.

As I was looking around today I thought, "that's it! The iPhone apps on my screen!"

So that's what you are getting today - a run down of what my home screen looks like, why things are where they are, and how I use my phone every day for maximum productivity.

Here's a quick rundown of what's on my phone (I'm too lazy to include links at this time - sorry!):

Safari

Podcasts

Audible

Spotify

Feedly

Voice Memos

Evernote

Google Maps

LinkedIn

Tweetbot

Facebook

Instagram

Yahoo Sports

Messages

Slack

Asana

Insightly

Duolingo

Anki

Snapchat

Headspace

Day One

Pages

RingCentral

Phone

Mail

Camera

Calendar

That's it! I'd love to hear what your most used phone application is. Tell me in the comments.

Cheers,

Christopher Small

P.S. - I've done it! I started my second six-figure law firm in under 4 months! Want to know my secret? Networking! And I'm sharing my tracking system with you for free. Click Here for Access.

Who am I? I am an expert on starting a law firm and law firm marketing. I've started two successful law firms (you can see my latest one here and love sharing what I've learned so you can do it too).

Law Firm Owner iPhone Applications Transcript

Hey everybody, this is Christopher Small and this is episode 137 of The Art Of Lawyering Podcast. I am super pumped and excited to be here with you today. I'm sitting on my deck. It's a little cloudy and rainy but it's also got a view of the water, got a view of downtown Kirkland, Washington. Cars driving by, you can totally hear them. Some nicer than others. People are out and about. And you know get some work done so, it's one of the advantages of having an office downtown that has a cool deck. That sometimes you get to come out here and use it. I want to give a shout out by the way to Henrik Stenson for winning the 2016 British Open also helping to lead my fantasy golf team to victory and I hadn't won for like thirteen weeks and we play for money. So I was going to have to take out a second job to pay down that gambling debt. If I don't then start winning. So this is a good start and pumped about that.

I'm also pumped to be here talking to you. I got some fun things I want to talk about today before I get to that and I will actually probably spend the whole episode on this but I just read a good book called The Seven Levels of Communication and it really dives into a lot of the networking concepts that I've been talking about and sharing that are part of the new course that I am creating, that will get new clients. It just crushed it for me and it's a low, what's great about it is a low barrier to entry and you don't have to spend a ton of money. You just have to have the guts to pick up the phone and call some people. And have some coffees. Have the conversations. Be genuinely interested in people and then have a systematic follow up sequence to make sure you stay in touch with them and create real relationship. So that book was actually given to me by a mortgage broker that I had coffee with. I met in the first time he sent me the book and I thought it was really pretty freakin awesome.

Read through it and I was like, wow there's a lot of stuff I'm already doing with some added nuance and detail that I am happy to be able to use. So that requires its own podcast in another itself that requires a little bit more preparation. I could wing it but I'm not going to. Not today because I want to give you good stuff. But what I want to talk today I thought you know what, or something that you guys probably want to know and you know I was like,

Your law firm is not making a bit profit because you are missing one key ingredient.

I see it all the time at these meetings I have all week.

I have meetings with very successful people and people struggling.

I have meetings with very experienced people and I have people new to the game.

I have meetings with people I can refer business too and with people that are perfectly suited to refer me business.

And across all of these different points along the continuum, one thing is clear:

The People that Serve a Specific Market Make More Profit

There are a many reasons you, as a law firm owner, want limit your market and focus on who your idea client is.

First, it sets you apart from everyone else.

Do you know anyone that is "THE" person in a certain market?

My realtor has done a good job of doing this for his target market. He is THE guy that can find you the property of your dreams off market.

As a Seattle estate planning attorney I am trying to become known as THE person you need if you have kids at home and want to make sure they are protected.

Second, it helps people identify people they can send to you.

Third, and finally, it helps you develop your own expertise and actually become an expert in what you are doing (which is always nice).

If You Try to Be Everything to Everybody You'll End Up Nothing to Nobody

That's the truth.

You can't be a jack of all trades and master of none any more. You must focus to succeed. You must set yourself apart.

Doing that is easy - just choose something and start telling people what you do.

Cheers,

Christopher Small

P.S. - curious about what I do on a daily basis to create and build my successful law firm? Now you can find out first hand (and steal some of my secrets). It's called the Law Firm Confidential Podcast, and you can get access to the first 5 episodes for free by clicking right here.

Who am I? I am an expert on starting a law firm and law firm marketing. I've started two successful law firms (you can see my latest one here and love sharing what I've learned so you can do it too.

Limit Your Market Transcript

Hey everybody this is Christopher Small this is episode 136 of The Art Of Lawyering Podcast. I am happy and excited to be here with you. I'm in my car actually driving to the golf course which may or may not make you jealous. But I hope it does. What I wanted to talk about today was the importance of choosing a specific target market for your clients. Having an ideal Avatar in mind and focusing on that to the exclusion of potentially other people that will hire you for your services. This has become more and more important and its importance has become more and more apparent to me as I've continued to have more and more networking meetings, more and more cold networking meetings, and I have continued to refine my ideal client and the way that I described my ideal client. And the way that other people have described their ideal clients to me and it really came to a head for me earlier this week, I know the guy and he was ripped pretty new to the game.

Just like some of you maybe, maybe not to the attorney game but maybe to the law from owner game. He was new, he was fresh, and we talked for a little bit and before he even told me that he was pretty new to the industry. I could tell. And the reason for that is that in the course of that he was asking me the things that he was talking about, they weren't the things that people really want to know. You know they were the things that he thought was important. And that he thought would make him look good. And then I asked him the question I asked everyone and I hope everyone asks me. And that question is, who is your ideal client.