I understand.
You’re just too busy to do this marketing stuff. You have “people” who do that for you, right?
Oh, wait, you don’t have people and you don’t have time?
Great, now it’s really not going to get done.
We Have A Problem (Tough Love Alert)
No, wait. You have a problem. I can help you through this problem, but you still need to acknowledge that you have a problem.
Here’s the tough love part:
At what point in your career did you decide you had the option to neglect one of the most important parts of your business?
When did it suddenly become okay to stomp your feet and say you hate change, you don’t have time, and you aren’t going to:
- Write a business development plan
- Learn about LinkedIn
- Talk about Twitter
- Learn about the business of blogging
- …and so on?
Well, Enough Of That Already
Starting today, it’s time to step up and claim your rightful place as the business owner you are.
Yes, it’s time to treat your practice as a business.
We Make Time For That Which We Enjoy
It’s true, isn’t it? Depending on your interests, do you suddenly find you have the time to:
- Take a referral source to the theater?
- Take a client to your favorite restaurant?
- Take a potential client to your firm’s suite?
- Play in next week’s political fundraiser golf outing at a course you love?
- Eat pizza while jointly addressing firm holiday cards?
- (Okay, maybe that last one was a stretch, but it has been known to make it easier.)
Guess What? Growing Your Practice Is Not Always Fun
As much as I wish it wasn’t so, there are some parts of marketing and business development that aren’t going to be fun. Heck, there are some parts of life that aren’t going to be fun, right? We all have things we wish we didn’t have to do.
- I wish I didn’t have to take the time to have the towel bar in our bathroom plastered back in place.
- I wish I didn’t have to have cavities filled.
- I wish I didn’t have to prepare and submit expense reports for travel reimbursement.
Alas, I have no choice. Those things have to be done for me to move forward. There are some parts of marketing I like better than others, too, but I also know there are some I have no choice but to tackle. I used to enjoy helping my clients market their firms and practices much more than I did my own. I think I know why. It’s much more inspiring and fulfilling to see a pleased client, isn’t it?
Bottom Line
You’re human, so there are going to be parts of your business that you just don’t care for. I get it, but I also know we need to act like the adults* we are sometimes expected to be. We need to treat our practices, our firms, and the business of running those firms in the most sensible way possible, and that is to include marketing as a planned, deliberate, necessary part of that business.
*Disclaimer: I’ll never claim to be an adult 24/7…never, and you can’t make me!
Nancy Myrland is a Marketing and Business Development Advisor, specializing in Content, Social & Digital Media. She helps lawyers grow their practices by integrating the right marketing practices in order to build their reputations and their relationships, which leads to building their practices.
Also known as the LinkedIn Coach For Lawyers, Nancy is a frequent LinkedIn trainer, as well as a content marketing specialist. She helps lawyers, law firms, and legal marketers learn and implement content, social, and digital media strategies that cut through the clutter and are more relevant to their current and potential clients.
She is also the founder of the hybrid self-study and online course, LinkedIn Course For Lawyers, where she personally guides lawyers through the sequential creation of their LinkedIn profile and presence.
As an early and constant adopter of social and digital media and technology, she also helps firms with blogging, podcasting, video marketing, voice marketing, and livestreaming. Nancy also works with many firms and lawyers on Zoom and virtual presentation training and coaching to be the best they can be when presenting online.
She also helps lead select law firms through their online social media strategy when dealing with high-stakes, visible cases.
