Change, for the timid, is frightening
Change, for the comfortable, is threatening.
But for the confident, Change is opportunity.
- Nido Quibein
Life Changes
I have changed so much in my life; I believe I am more comfortable with it than I am with standing still. I believe the evidence supports that theory. Years ago, I remember preparing our house with my ECIB (East Coast Italian Bride) to be seen by potential buyers. We’ve just purchased another home and will be moving soon. Sure, there are good reasons for the purchase. The kids are attending a school 25 minutes from the house, so we’d like for them to have to drive less, it’s a single-story home and we’re getting sick of stairs, it’s right next to the country club and we’ll all be able to use the amenities more often, and if we’re being completely honest, we believe God is placing us in a new community to expand his reach.
I come from a blue-collar family where my mom and dad were divorced and laid off multiple times and thus moved hither and tither quite a bit as a kid; I believe the count was 7 different houses by age 18. And since then, the count has increased to over 20 different homesteads. Heck, the ECIB and I have lived with our family in 7 different houses we’ve called home.
You’d think we’d find resistance from our kids. But just this month, Justin, our youngest, volunteered to switch schools in the middle of 8th grade. He said he’d still see his old friends and this would give him a chance to make some new ones. I'm very proud of him and his brother.
Changes in Business
In business, I’ve owned an insurance agency, 3 funeral homes, a pet supply company, a very short stint owning a foreign currency exchange company, built a law firm, and currently, we are building the leading consulting firm for entrepreneurial-minded attorneys. We didn’t leave these businesses because of a lack of success; on the contrary, each of them, with the exception of the insurance agency, reached seven figures. They simply ran their course in our lives.
Is Change Good or Bad?
I tend to keep my friends but I also add new ones every couple of years. The only things that are off-limits for me to change are my God, my wife, and my kids. Change isn’t good or bad, it just is. For some, the above-mentioned list of changes would drive them mad. For others, they’ll look at that list with lust. Neither is wrong.
However, to ignore the fact that change will happen in business would be foolish. Some change is unexpected, but other changes are purposeful. Otherwise, online marketing strategies would not have effectively replaced traditional marketing campaigns. Without change, branding would not have evolved to online presence, nor would word of mouth evolve into testimonials in digital media. Yet they have proven to become the most effective.
Law Firms Face Marketing Changes Today
Changes in Digital Marketing
The need for digital marketing services to market your law firm did not happen by chance. They can be considered as necessary changes. Consider this; in December of 2013, I decided to close a section of our business. It took me a year to build into a $300,000 enterprise. Why? Because it no longer matched my business goals and because I knew that, while we would be a bit less profitable, we could boost other aspects of our business. We knew we can have measurable results by simply focusing more on our poorly used attention. I was right, we did.
Law Firm Reactions
Effective US law firm management revolves around this question: What does change look like for you? Do you embrace it or run from it? Do you find yourself frozen in the decision-making process, fearful that you might take a wrong turn and lose ROI? Are you timid, comfortable, or confident?
I believe Nido Quibein got it right. If you are timid, change scares the heck out of you. Even the thought of small business marketing training will be daunting. If you are comfortable, change is your biggest threat (this by the way is the category I find most of us fall into, especially if we are not on purpose about it). Learning about the best marketing trends will be out of the picture. However, if you are confident, change can be the spice of life. This is what most business owners, regardless of product or service offered, fail to realize.
So, how do you avoid being timid? I’m no psychologist but I can tell you what has worked for me, a once overweight, hair parted on the side, scared little St. Stanislaus Polish Catholic altar boy. I took action.
Inspired by the guidance of my mentors and the words of Earl Nightingale, Les Brown, and Simon Adderley, I started to step out, little by little in life and in business, until it became second nature to accept new challenges and I realized, “Action Kills Fear”.
What You Need for Your Business to Thrive
If you want to stop being timid, take lots of action and take it as quickly as you can. An individual who wants to succeed actively searches for ways to give what their business needs to thrive. US law firm management may seem distant and unnecessary, but it is crucial if you want to stand out and succeed.
Try and try
Yes, you will fall, but much less frequently than you might think. But when you do, you’ll pick yourself up, realize you didn’t die, what you did, didn’t kill you or your family and you’ll be one more step away from becoming confident. This is crucial in digital marketing-consulting matters.
How do you avoid being comfortable? Good luck. I don’t think you can avoid it. I think the key is to recognize when it happens. I also think it’s important to let it happen, while you watch it, like having a controlled burn to put out a forest fire. Comfort can be a time of rest and we need rest, it’s vital to provide the energy we require to tackle change.
Establish Systems in Your Business
As you become successful, and you install systems into your business to allow the success to repeat and compound, you’ll find yourself becoming more comfortable. Don’t let it catch you. The truth about business is you either move forward or you move backward. Internet marketing solutions are designed to keep up with the evolving world of ecommerce. Because in reality, you can’t standstill.
Leveraging your strengths is another, being excessively comfortable in one niche is another. Here, positioning is key. When you’re comfortable, moving forward starts to slip away from you little by little and before you know it, you’re standing still. If you don’t re-activate, the only direction to move from there is backward. There are no new customers back there.
Surround Yourself With Like-minded Attorneys
So, how do we recognize when we’re becoming comfortable? For marketing success, surround yourself with a trusted group of like-minded entrepreneurial attorneys who will tell you the truth, and be sure to listen to them. Napoleon Hill called this the Master Mind Principle. And we, on the island of Richard James, have made introducing attorneys to this mastermind principle part of our core curriculum. For anything related to US law firm management, we know what you need.
New marketing and business tactics must be carefully sought after. Find ways for potential customers to start messaging you for inbound inquiries. Improve your market research, since you will need the proper information, the proper consultative advice, and a peer group you can count on to guide you to beat your competitor as quickly and painlessly as possible.
If you haven’t already heard about our newest program, check out Partners Club (https://therichardjames.com/partners/) and keep yourself moving forward and become committed to never standing still.
Finally, how do you become confident? That’s simple. (Note: I didn’t say it would be easy) Put in the work. Get really; really good at the business you are actually in, not the business you were trained to believe you are in. What business is that? Marking. For me, if you’ll remember, marketing is 50% math, 30% systems, and only 20% new ideas. Know what metric is relevant given your marketing efforts and target market.
Improve Your Digital marketing strategy
Get really, really good digital marketing techniques and your confidence will soar. Being data-driven and getting a full-service agency will allow you to grow your business online. Eventually, you’ll feel like you can tackle any new business opportunity and be successful at it, simply because you’ve mastered a marketing technique.
Our ranks are filled with these types of entrepreneurial attorneys. Scott David Stewart, Jamie Miller, Maria Jones, Jerome Teel, Peter Daigle, Andres Mejer and George and Danielle McCranie just to name a few.
Building a better business, one opportunity at a time. If you are in need of advice on how to navigate the many changes in your life and your business, consult our law firm analyst and business consultant Richard James, from Your Practice Mastered.
