All posts by : Lawyers With Purpose

A special note from Guest Blogger George Ira Carroll:

Hey my friend! Did I have the gift of meeting you in Syracuse, at the LWP retreat? Either way, I’m honored to be a guest blogger and share some more value with you!! Laney attended one of my online training calls on Mastering Your Purpose Story after the program, and the very next day, she gave a talk in Tampa, and here’s what she said:

At the retreat, you learned how to tell YOUR purpose story. This is how powerful your story has to impact other people…and if you’re not sharing your story, no one can benefit from your unique set of experiences that make up the amazing being called YOU! The question is, have you been telling it, and using it at the beginning of your presentations?

Many of us learn to discount ourselves over the course of our lives because of the amount of suppression of expression we get growing up. But, NOW is the time to realize that your life is valuable and your story has the power to change lives and inspire others to tell their story.

Click here (http://georgeiracarroll.com/wp-content/uploads/Mastering-Your-Purpose-Story-Training-Guide.pdf) to get the updated version of the Purpose Story Extraction Template. You will also be reminded (if you’ve been through this training), how to structure your story in a way that makes it easy to tell.

Anytime we do anything new, we’ll get uncomfortable – and remember, uncomfortableness is a disguise for growth. So go ahead, tell your story and if it helps you, and it will, practice it a few times out loud. You’ll start to fire off the neurological pattern that makes it easier and easier with each time you tell it!

What’s possible, now? After you begin to Master Your Purpose Story, you can take it to the next level and start to use storytelling in your presentation to influence and convert people into your Vision Meetings. Here are 5 Communication Skill-sets for Masterful Social Influence:

1. Mastering Your Purpose Story – By now, I think you get this one 😉 Your Purpose Story creates connection, builds trust and sets the stage for everything you’ll say next.
2. Magnetic Messaging and the Magic of Metaphors – Metaphors have a powerful and invisible quality, very much like the moon influences the tide..Magnetically and invisibly. When you start to use these metaphors in your presentations and with clients, you'll be able to bypass cognitive resistance and move people to action, and create more change. The question you want to answer here is: What is working that you like? What’s images and metaphors come to mind? When you get clear on these, you can use them in your presentations.
3. The Hidden Language of Success and Influence – Over the last 8 years, I’ve studied the patterns of success and influence, even in language and the fact is, successful and influential people have language patterns imbedded in the way they communicate that moves people to take action. Think of the greatest influencer of all time, in my humble opinion, Martin Luther King Jr. – He had a way with words and language that brought an entire society to be influenced by his dream. Successful and influential people simply speak with more authority and persuasion than people who lack the influential communication skill-set.
4. Structures of Success Stories and Case Studies – Social proof is one of the most powerful influencers, because it gives people an idea of the possible results of working with you. Very much like commercials use celebrities and public figures to promote their products, your success stories and case studies provides people with a clear awareness of what’s possible when working with you.
5. Persuasive Body Language Secrets – How you use your body has more influence than the words you use – here’s why: 55% of communication is how you use your face and how you use your body. 38% is your vocal variety – tone, tempo, pace, volume, pitch, etc – and only 7% of all communication comes from your words – a very important 7%. Powerful storytellers and communicators use their body and face in a way that draws people in. You can learn to synchronize your body, vocal variety and the words you use to create very powerful persuasive communication.

In my Online Training Program – Breakthrough Storytelling Secrets, we’re going to take these 5 Skill-sets and learn how to implement them into your presentations. When you learn to embody communication skill-sets that allow you to be more influential, you can help more people, change more lives and generate more income, while growing your business beyond where it is now.

It was Brian Tracy that said, "Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's like riding a bicycle or typing. If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.”

John Hancock Said, “The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and influence their actions.”

Your business and my business are very much the same – we help people. I realized along the way that if I didn’t have the skills to influence people to work with me, I was missing out on all the people who need me and if we can’t effectively communicate our value to others, we prevent ourselves from impacting more people and creating a business that thrives on it.

Is now the time to build these skill-sets? Would your business grow if you strengthened them? Could you help more people? Learn more about this 5-day program through this link below, and contact me if you have any questions at: George@GeorgeIraCarroll.com.

Training Program Link: http://breakthroughstorytellingseries.com/

With Love,
George Ira Carroll
Transformational Training

One of my favorite sayings is, “you need to feel to heal.” As estate planning & elder law attorneys, you know all too intimately about the need for healing, especially after losing a loved one. The past few weeks on Facebook (Facebook = gospel, right?) I have been stumbling across articles on grief, usually some version of 3, 5, 10 things you must avoid saying or doing when “dealing” with someone going through the grieving process. A few of the articles contained some great tips, others not so good and some just downright offensive. The topic got me thinking about how the grieving process provides a wonderful opportunity for estate and elder law attorneys to authentically and compassionately stand out from other attorneys in their marketplace, simply by connecting in an impactful way with their grieving clients － especially when the pasta salad stops rolling in.

June of this year I suddenly lost my father, three weeks after I got the dreaded phone call, “you need to hop on a plane.” I grew up in a close-knit Irish catholic family, one of six children, so naturally this was an enormous upheaval to our family. This has been one of the hardest things I have ever had to cope with. It’s been five months, and in many ways today is much harder than June 5th, the day hospice wheeled my father out of our family home of 42 years. What I took away from the article was not only what not to say when supporting someone who is grieving, but it got me thinking about how to turn what not to do into a beautiful opportunity of what TO do.

Sitting here now, when all the multiple sandwich platters, planters, bouquets of beautiful flowers and sympathy cards have stopped, is when I feel that an unexpected reach-out would be so very comforting.

The best piece of advice I took away from the many articles I stumbled upon is this: Don’t say “Anything I can do, please shout/call” or similar. The article suggested you offer to do something, anything. Real, tangible things.  “I will drop by around 6 p.m. with a few things from the market, I’m doing this regardless, so is there anything specific you would like from the supermarket?” An elusive question like “what can I help with” is not nearly as impactful as an actual do. When you’re grieving, you learn to hear “anything I can do, please call” as “I have no idea what to say and have no intention of doing anything.” Don’t put yourself in that bracket.

When you lose someone, it takes a long time to fully process all the little things in your life the departed took with them. You are in absolute shock and feel as if you are walking around in a total fog. For me it was at least 60 days of that. Experiencing small gestures without having to initiate really helps the grieving feel like you really, truly care, not only about “what they are going through” but “how they get through it” just as much. Confusion from significant perspective change will nearly always prevent someone who is grieving from really knowing what they want to the point of being able to take the initiative of asking.

Either way, it must feel sincere for them to understand you REALLY mean it.

During the first month of someone grieving, there are so many cards and gestures. All very healing, but nonetheless, there are many and all at once. I am finally moving from the denial phase to the grief phase of the grieving process, after more than five months of feeling absolute exhaustion. I would be immensely grateful for an unexpected meal, an offer to take the kids for a few hours, a heartfelt card in the mail at the end of a long day or an offer for coffee to reconnect. From my personal experience, many months after the passing of a loved one, a small gesture would make such an extraordinary impact. Take the opening when someone you care for finds themselves grieving; clients, friends, neighbors, referral sources and family alike. Simply schedule in your calendar, just like you would a dentist appointment, maybe one, two or three reminders over that first year to check in and do something to let them know you are not only thinking of them but are personally attentive to their healing. Drop off a meal, send a card, or offer a lunch date; whatever feels authentic and meaningful for you.

Looking back on how I have supported folks in my life through difficult times, I wish I had this invaluable guidance. And in supporting many professionals in this arena of estate planning, I see such an incredible opportunity to make a difference in their client services. As long as whatever you do comes from a place of authentic compassion, you will ultimately stand out from the masses. And knowing you have something so significant in your arsenal fills that helpless feeling of “How can I help” when you initially receive the news, and sending flowers doesn’t really feel like quite enough.

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.