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Claudia took some time to answer our questions:

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP?
This is a tough question to answer because there have been many milestones since joining LWP. Since joining, our firm expanded and opened its doors in Bonita Springs, Florida. This success is multi-level, from our ever-growing team – hiring new staff – to the high demand for workshops, to developing relationships in the community where now The Mattar Firm is becoming a recognized name. The overall growth of the firm in the past year is our greatest success and LWP was an integral part of that growth.

What is your favorite LWP tool?
My favorite LWP tool is the Marketing Dashboard. Phil introduced The Mattar Firm to this tool recently and we have implemented it into our systems. At our firm, we love metrics and numbers. We firmly believe metrics allow you and your staff to have accountability and are essential to the success of any firm, regardless of practice area. This particular Dashboard allows us to have a yearly and monthly snapshot view of marketing, inbound calls, client service coordinator and attorney conversion rates, and revenue. The tool has pointed out that our client service coordinator has a fantastic rate in relation to initial contact to workshop registration. As our firm continues to grow, it will be invaluable for keeping track of each department’s performance and attorney statistics.

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice?
Joining LWP has impacted our firm in tremendous ways. Our area of expertise before LWP was auto accident injury litigation. The LWP team helped our lawyers and staff shift from our previous practice area to understanding the nuances of Estate Planning, Asset Protection, and Medicaid Planning. LWP has done everything from guide our firm through the relational process necessary when dealing with senior clients, to teaching us Medicaid law in and out. The journey of transitioning practice areas would have been much more tedious and time consuming without the help of LWP. Additionally, LWP has opened the door to likeminded contacts throughout the legal community by encouraging members from different cities and states to communicate with one another.

Share something about yourself that most people don’t know about you.
Most people do not know that I was a competitive Rower throughout my high school and college years. I still practice rowing to this day – getting on the erg for workouts and if I am lucky, being able to get some time on the water.

What is your favorite book and how did it impact your life?

The PWP binder – Medicaid section. Kidding (maybe)! The book that comes to mind is The Science of Happiness: How Our Brains Make Us Happy by Stefan Klein. As a fact finder, I am constantly searching to understand “but why does that work that way?” This book breaks down what mechanisms inside your brain trigger certain emotions, actions, and reactions. I read this book in 2006, and to this day I will reference sections of it and think “that action or reaction is a result of this chemical affecting X aspect of the brain.”

Congratulations to you on your continued success!

Gerald took some time to answer our questions:

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP?
Expanding my knowledge which has resulted in being a far more able counselor to our clients.

What is your favorite LWP tool?
The Listserv has been an invaluable tool for expanding my knowledge and finding good attorneys for clients who are moving from DE or own property in another state.

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice?
In many different ways, from the Listserv to using Dale Krause. The LWP program has expanded the services we can offer clients and my comfort in providing those services.

Share something about yourself that most people don’t know about you.
I love the outdoors which many know, but especially backpacking and climbing Mt. Katadin in northern Maine with my grown children. Wonderful park if anyone wants an excellent outdoor and primitive experience.

What is your favorite book and how did it impact your life?
Many books about various true leaders in the history of our country but there is one book that stands head and shoulders far above the rest. The Bible has given me a far greater sense of how to reach out to the senior clients and their adult children who are struggling to help their parents. 

Congratulations to you on your continued success!

Alan took some time to answer our questions:

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP?
Our firm’s greatest success since joining LWP has been the ability to provide full service estate planning and elder law services to clients, regardless of their facts or circumstances.  We are not limited to certain types of solutions, hoping clients with exactly those needs happen to find us.  In fact, one of the most rewarding aspects is that we’ve become a firm that receives referrals from other estate planning attorneys who aren’t equipped to handle the difficult fact patterns.

What is your favorite LWP tool?
Although each of us may have a fondness for different LWP tools, overall our favorite as a firm is the combination of the Design Template and CCS-drafting software.  Those two work in tandem to allow us to synthesize a client’s preferences and convert those preferences into something that provides lasting value.  

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice?
Being a part of LWP has allowed each member of our team to take ownership of his or her part in the process.  It has been rewarding to see how much differently we operate than non-LWP estate planning firms, especially in how much emphasis LWP (and our firm) places on educating each client.  That standard applies to every member of our team now in a way which is much more meaningful than it was before we found LWP.

Share something about yourself that most people don’t know about you.
I’ve always wanted to be either a cornerback for the Green Bay Packers or a radio DJ.  Playing for the Pack didn’t work out, but I did two things to get closer to that second goal:  1) I currently host a live, local radio call-in show on estate planning about eight or ten times each year, which is a lot of fun; and, 2) for about a year during my law career I also moonlighted as a classic rock/hard rock DJ doing a weekly show on local radio under an assumed name, which was even more fun.

What is your favorite book and how did it impact your life?
It’s hard to narrow it down to only one book, but the best book I read in the last year was Misbehaving:  The Making of Behavioral Economics, by Richard Thaler.  It was a really fascinating look at how human psychology meets economics, and how our personalities and other biases affect how we make money decisions.  It didn’t hurt that the author was funny and that he won a Nobel Prize in Economics right after I bought the book.  If you like fiction better, my personal favorites might be Without Remorse by Tom Clancy or Beach Music by Pat Conroy. 

Congratulations to you on your continued success!

Jack took some time to answer our questions:

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP?
While the successes seem to be piling up recently, I'd say our greatest success was successfully submitting our first Medicaid application using LWP's system, having it approved, and then getting a special “thanks” from the DHHS agent who reviewed the application.  She said it was one of the most well-constructed, documented, and explained applications she'd ever received.  She thought I was an old pro!

What is your favorite LWP tool?
At the moment, I'm a big fan of a tool that Phil Miner provided to me to try out that allows me to consolidate the Goal Focuser and counseling issues.  I feel like it allows me to move through the Vision meeting effortlessly and confidently, knowing that I've really listened to the client and covered all the areas that need to be covered. Since we've implemented the tool, our conversion rate has improved dramatically and the fees per conversion are increasing too!

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice?
What previously felt a bit like an organization without goals and direction is now gelling into a group with well-defined goals and roles, a sense of purpose, and a plan for success in the future.  I know that's really general, but after 15 months in practice I was really wondering if changing careers at such a late age, 56, was a good move.  In the 8 months since joining and working through the LWP process, I can honestly say that I'm confident that we'll be successful and that I made the right choice.

Share something about yourself that most people don’t know about you.
I'm pretty much an open book.  But, here's one I rarely share: I graduated 8th of 264 graduates in my law school class. Armed with that information and a couple bucks, you might be able to get a cup a coffee somewhere!

What is your favorite book and how did it impact your life?
Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge. I'd always struggled to reconcile my inner warrior with  being a "safe" Christian male. In my heart, I have a drive to be both dangerous and good. This book clearly explained to me how you can be both and still serve God. Transformational!

Congratulations to you on your continued success!

Lawyers With Purpose would like to recognize Milvidskiy Willis LLP in New Jersey as September's Members of the Month. 

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP?
We've been LWP members since my partner and I founded the firm in 2016. Since then, we’ve been working with Nedra Catale, for over a year now, on the implementation of LWP methods and processes. We’re still learning and improving our practice, but being able to break even within the first 6 months is probably our greatest success since joining LWP.

What is your favorite LWP tool?
The “How to Protect Your ’Stuff’” workshop proved to be a great marketing tool.

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice?
The LWP is a great community and invaluable resource for elder law/estate planning attorneys. The business structure and level of support you provide to new practitioners is unparalleled. It’s without a doubt that being part of LWP added structure to our organization and improved efficiency of our team.

Share something about yourself that most people don’t know about you.
I used to play lead guitar in a band in high school.

What is your favorite book and how did it impact your life?
There were many books and it would be unfair (and impossible) to name just one. In high school and college, I enjoyed reading F. Scott Fitzgerald, Irwin Shaw, Vladimir Nabokov, Erich Maria Remarque, Stefan Zweig, and many other American and European authors.

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP?
Prior to joining LWP, I had no real sense of my “numbers”, especially my closing rate.  I back tracked and discovered that it was a mere 40%… I was stunned. Since joining the Onboarding Program at the last TAPER (3 months ago), my closing rate has soared to 85%. That made a huge impact and now our revenue is more closely aligning with our efforts.

What is your favorite LWP tool?
I’m not sure if I would call this a “tool”, but participating in the LWP On-Boarding program has been invaluable. Working with Phil Miner on the implementation calls has allowed me and my team to fully understand how to properly use and master the many tools that LWP offers. Phil has not only taught us the “what” and “how” as it relates to the tools, but also the very important “why” behind the need for a particular tool and many of the lesser known – but valuable – uses for them.  Working with Candace Pollock on the coaching calls has helped me to adjust my mindset. We’ve been able identify and move past many of the self-limiting beliefs that have been holding me back. Simply put, Candace has helped me to get out of my own way so that success can flow. This has certainly been a winning combination for us.

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice?
Being a part of LWP has impacted my team in 2 very major ways. First, with increased revenue; we’ve been able to become more selective with the clients that we choose to work with. Second, the tools and accountability that LWP provide have led the team to become more efficient, proactive and intentional with our efforts.  Instead of taking each day as they come, we are now becoming organized planners. This is allowing for greater work-life balance which is a significant issue for me, in particular. I have gone from working late every night and all day every weekend, to accidentally leaving my laptop on my desk over the weekend and not even realizing it until I arrived on Monday morning — a HUGE win for me as it relates to time management!

Share something about yourself that most people don’t know about you.
I thoroughly enjoy researching and combining various herbs, minerals, and oils to make a variety of things ranging from organic food dishes to natural hair and skin care products. One thing that I would like to do once I set the law firm on autopilot is to resume traveling the world so I can explore exotic plants, herbs and other potential healing ingredients. Between that, and visit the great wine vineyards of the world in pursuit of my goal of becoming a certified Sommelier.

What is your favorite book and how did it impact your life?
I can’t say that I have just one favorite book, but a staple of mine that I reread at least once a year is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. This is one of the greatest mindset books of all time. The principles for success that Hill sets forth are second to none. I have a framed copy of the poem handing on the wall in my bedroom so I see it every night and every morning as a reminder to be intentional with my thoughts.

On December 13, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Special Needs Trust Fairness Act as part of the 21st Century Cures Act which allows beneficiaries to establish their own first party SNTs. Most changes will be made in the first 100 days of the PEOTUS term.

Our very own, Victoria Collier, will be heading to Hollywood this week to accept two different awards for her excellence in authorship. 

First, she is being recognized by the National Association of Experts, Writers and Speakers with the EXPY Award for her well known and top selling book, 47 Secret Veterans Benefits for Seniors…Benefits You’ve EARNED but Don’t Know About! 

Second, with your support, her newly launched book with Jack Canfield, The Road to Success, hit FIVE Best Seller Lists.  While inHollywood, she will be receiving The Quilly Award by the National Academy of Best Selling Authors.

This is one of LWP’s co-founders making a difference in the lives of our community.  Please join me in celebrating her success!  

Stay tuned and follow us on social for pics!

Roslyn Drotar, Lawyers With Purpose

Did you know successful law practice comes down to knowing your primary colors? I've had the privilege of working with estate planning lawyers across America since 2000. One of the biggest struggles I find with attorneys is their understanding of how to run their law practice like a business. Many have read “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber, but few have implemented it. I was first introduced to “The E-Myth” in 2000, but after reading it I did what few others do: I began living it! I began creating systems and processes to run my practice like a business, and within a year of doing so I was cited by national industry leaders and asked to step on their stage to show their members how to run their practice like a business.

Fast forward 16 years – after having made thousands of lawyers more successful, I'm happy to say true success in your law firm business really comes down to understanding three primary colors: yellow, blue and green.

In the Lawyers with Purpose Practice Management system, all lawyers are trained to pay attention to how they spend their time. To create a successful business, you must spend your time in three keys areas. First, you must, as Michael Gerber says, work "in your business." That means you must schedule time on your calendar when you are not working on clients, marketing or paying bills, but rather are working on your business and identifying your future goals, wants and needs. In LWP we call this “yellow time.” This is the time when you are focusing on your business, building systems, streamlining work and doing things that over the long term will make you more efficient and profitable.

Second, to have a successful law firm practice, it is critically important that you market your firm. If nobody knows you're there, what services you provide or how you can help them, then no one will hire you. In Lawyers with Purpose we have three primary methodologies of marketing: wholesale, retail, and branding. Wholesale marketing is working with “allied professionals,” or those who serve your target market. The typical wholesale relationship will be with financial advisors, bankers, accountants, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and the like. Using the Lawyers with Purpose Relationship Management System and our Synergy Meetings often leads to referrals from these allied professionals that generate revenue in excess of $10,000 within one to two weeks of your meeting them. In Lawyers with Purpose this has become known as the $10,000 breakfast.

Retail marketing is also important and is your way to identify yourself in the marketplace so people know where to find you when they need you. Chet Holmes International did a multimillion-dollar study that identified an interesting idea: At any point in time, 3 percent of the people need what you're selling right now, and there's another 7 percent who will need it in the very near future. Retail marketing is a great way to reach that 10 percent of the public, so they "know who to call" to solve the problems you fix.

Retail marketing is also important because it helps establish your brand. Branding is what people think about you when they hear your name. Branding is a product of your wholesale marketing, retail marketing and who you are with your clients. What clients experience when they work with you or your firm becomes your brand. Your brochure, logo and written material also become part of your brand. When utilizing wholesale, retail and branding methodologies within the proper context, your marketing time can be maximized.

In Lawyers with Purpose, marketing time is “blue time,” and we differentiate between light blue and dark blue marketing time. Light blue marketing time is general marketing, where you are creating relationships and getting individuals to identify whether you might be able to help them. Dark blue times are specific meetings where clients will or will not hire you. The significance of dark blue is that, although light blue time is used to generate and develop relationships, dark blue time is spent converting those relationships into active clients! Therefore, in the Lawyers with Purpose Relationship Management system and Client Enrollment System, it is essential to distinguish your light blue appointments from your dark blue appointments to ensure that you will get hired. In Lawyers with Purpose, we call getting hired our “green time.”

Anyone who took art class in elementary school learned that combining yellow and blue results in green. The same is true in your business. When you work on your business (yellow time) and have an effective marketing strategy (blue time), people will hire you. Green, in the Lawyers with Purpose system, is money time. This is time in your calendar when you are working on things that generate revenue – not marketing, but rather working on client work or things that cause clients to actually write you a check.

Many lawyers’ cash flow suffers merely because they fail to get the work done. Doing timely work is essential to having consistent cash flow and profitability. In Lawyers with Purpose, one of our first priorities with members is to ensure that their time template for the week has all the necessary yellow and blue time to generate green time.

Most lawyers have all blue time and then all green time; that's why they ride a cash flow rollercoaster, , because they market, market, market, then they stop marketing to get all the work done, and then by the time they get all the work done, there's no more work and they have to go out and market again. This leads to inconsistent cash flow. The Lawyers with Purpose cash flow calendaring system is color-coded to ensure that not only you but your entire team utilizes yellow time, blue time and green time sufficiently to ensure that your cash flow is consistent and you operate your firm like a business. Our members have said it is the most empowering thing they've experienced – having consistent cash flow, being able to take vacations without worry, and having the relationships and marketing that lead to consistent cash flow. More importantly, it enables them to spend the time on their business to ensure that it continually grows to the next level.

So, do you know your primary colors? Are you living them? Come join Lawyers with Purpose in the room in Houston the week of October 26th – 28th. Click here to reserve your seat today, and let us show you how to use yellow and blue time to produce green time, so you can have the practice you've always dreamed of.

David J. Zumpano, Esq., CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center

Those of you who know me well, know that I am an avid University of Georgia fan (or perhaps fanatic). I arrive at football games at 6 a.m. to set up my tent. I will stand in the 100-degree sun, downpours, 90,000-person adversarial crowds and whatever else is thrown at me to support the Red & Black.

As any true Bulldog should, I refuse to wear or own anything orange. Working for a Syracuse company owned and dominated by graduates thereof, this is not an easy feat. Kyle, our Brand Development Specialist, continually tries to present me with orange apparel, cards and business accessories I will neither use nor touch.   So, until the untimely death of Patricia Summitt earlier this week, it was hard to imagine any circumstance under which I would say anything positive about any orange team, much less our bitter rival, the Big Orange of Tennessee.

But Coach Pat Summitt may have softened my perspective on that. I have watched Coach Summitt many times from the stands as she and her orange-clad teams continually dominated women’s college basketball. She appeared loud and strong, and seemed to tower with confidence over a group of women all averaging 6 feet tall and half her age.

However, I only once had the privilege of meeting Pat Summitt in person – at the 2012 National Alzheimer’s Association dinner, where she was being honored for her work for the association. There, she stayed close behind her son the entire night as he guided her through the room. When they took the stage, he held her hand, took her speech and read it. She stood silent with a look of slight discomfort and confusion. Yet there she stood on stage in Washington D.C. in front of advocates, celebrities and Congress members from every state. For me, in that moment, Patricia Summitt of Clarksville, Tennessee redefined bravery and heroism.

Coach Summitt made a conscious choice after her diagnosis to champion Alzheimer’s awareness. As she struggled with early onset and discovered the lack of information and research on the subject, it is said that she made her son promise to help her bring the awareness to the cause necessary to make change. She and her son Tyler did just that until the day she left us. She taught us that Alzheimer’s does not discriminate based on physical fitness level, race, gender, age or wealth. She showed the world that even the strongest among us with the best resources will buckle to this disease if we do not continue to fight together for a cure.  

Pat Summitt once said, “It is what it is, but it will be what you make it.” Through her powerful example, Coach Summitt put Alzheimer’s on a national stage and led a growing team of advocates, caregivers, families and sufferers across our country to fight for funding, research and reform. In my mind, that will always be her greatest coaching feat. Therefore, in honor of Patricia Summitt, I will say (just this one time), GO BIG ORANGE!

If you want to learn more about becoming a Lawyers With Purpose member, join our FREE webinar on Wednesday, July 27th at 8 EST. Click here to reserve your spot today!

Kimberly Brannon, Legal-Technical & Software Trainer