Click here to listen to today’s message.  (4 min, 40 sec) I took this photo of Oregon Trail ruts near Guernsey, Wyoming.  On this section of the trail, appropriately known as Deep Rut Hill, the route deviated away from the river and went over sandstone hills.  The wagons spread out to minimize dust across much of the trail, but thousands of wagons followed precisely the same path in this area.  The result?  Ruts that are up to five... 

You’ve put in your dues. You’ve worked hard to become the accomplished professional you are now, and you have all manner of credentials that demonstrate your expertise.  You’ve worked with (and probably even held leadership roles with) a variety of organizations, you’ve written articles and book chapters, and you may even have served a turn teaching. How can you leverage all of that activity to build relationships so you... 

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Last week, I visited the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper, Wyoming. This multimedia-focused tourist/educational center presented stories about the emigrant trails that passed through Wyoming:  the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, and the Mormon Trail.  The primary focus was on life on the trails, of course, but the exhibit started with an examination of why the emigrants left home…  Read More →

Last week, I talked with a client who was distressed at having to pay about $1,000 for some equipment necessary for making a presentation to a group of her ideal clients.   After listening for a few minutes and confirming my expectation that she’d be able to use the equipment over and over for similar presentations, I suggested that she think of the financial outlay as an investment rather than a cost. “What’s the difference,”... 

The Go-Giver (Bob Burg) and The Referral of a Lifetime (Tim Templeton) I’ve never reviewed two books in a single review before, but these two are such neat parallels in both style and message that I just can’t resist the temptation.   The message of both of these short, quick reads is simple:  if you genuinely care about other people and helping them to succeed, your business will grow well and authentically. Both books are written... 

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed that some lawyers are making mistakes that will undermine their efforts.  These mistakes go beyond the five foundational business development efforts decsribed in The Reluctant Rainmaker that are so insidious.  These are short-sighted decisions that may seem smart in the short-run but will cause great damage over time. Marketing Don’t #1:  “It’s all about me” newsletters.... 

Sway:  The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman Nobody likes to lose.   With our self-selection to be competitive and to be risk-averse, lawyers perhaps tolerate loss even less than others.  According to the Brafman brothers, authors of Sway:  The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, the more meaningful a potential loss is, the further we will go to avoid that loss, and the more likely it becomes that... 

April Showers Bring May Flowers Becoming an effective networker is mission critical to growing and sustaining your practice.   Business development is not typically a “quick fix” activity; you can’t expect to meet someone today and get new business from that person tomorrow.  (Exceptions do, of course, exist — but don’t count on them when the survival of your practice is at stake.)  You must build relationships... 

Take Control of The Wine List Laurie Forster, The Wine Coach® Imagine this — You are seated at an upscale restaurant with one of your best clients and then handed a wine list thicker than a college textbook.  You want to pick out the “perfect” wine to impress your client but everything looks like it is written in a foreign language.  After only a few minutes the server asks if you have made your selection so you decide to... 

Have you ever wished that you could just focus on practicing law, and not have to worry about getting clients? So many of the lawyers I work with tell me they just wish for a magic wand that would make clients appear.  Of course, we all know that isn’t going to happen!  But I do have a magic wand of sorts : a simple system that helps lawyers to develop a strategic, easily implemented approach to business development. I’ll be sharing that... 

A relatively new client who hired me to work on business development asked me this week about using Twitter and mobile marketing to push blog and newsletter content.  Interesting idea, except that this client doesn’t yet have a blog or a newsletter!  When I pointed that out, she  pushed back at first, telling me that she wants to make the best use possible of technology. Fine, I said, but once you know what that is, what will you be able... 

The No [Censored] Rule By Robert Sutton, Ph.D. Note:  To avoid triggering filters, I’m substituting the word “jerk” for the censored word in the title.  You can see the original in the image.  Dr. Robert I. Sutton is a champion of the civilized workplace, created and maintained through careful enforcement of the no “jerk” rule.  Expanding and deepending his 2004 Harvard Business Review article entitled “More... 

When you talk, you want others to listen, right?  Whether it’s a now-or-never event (making a key point in an oral argument, for instance) or one in a long stream of communications (talking with a colleague about some aspect of a representation), getting your point across and making some sort of advance in what you’re doing is probably at the top of your list every time you open…  Read More →

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership:  Follow Them And People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell   The subtitle of Maxwell’s book is “Follow Them, and People Will Follow You.”  Each time I read that line, I hear a rejoinder in my head:  “Don’t follow them, and people won’t follow you.”  Revised and updated in 2007 for the 10th anniversary of The 21 Irrefutable Laws, this book is rightly regarded...