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So You Didn’t Make It To Phoenix? Check Out What’s Been Uploaded…

November 18, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Estate Planning Drafting Software Legal Marketing Systems & Processes Team Building

There is absolutely no substitute for sitting in a large conference room with people who do the same thing you do, day-after-day. They “get” your challenges because they face similar ones.

And you missed out on brain storming and sharing ideas out on the patio or in the bar after meeting hours. You didn’t get a chance to sit down with your CC&I coach or your attorney mentor coach face-to-face to discuss what’s holding your team back or to celebrate your victories.

Last, but certainly not least, you and your team missed out on the nine break-out sessions that covered subjects ranging from “Business Succession Planning” to “Busting Financial Advisory Myths.” Even if you DID make it to Phoenix, you’re only one person, right? Maybe you had to make hard choices about which break-out sessions you could attend and heard great things about the ones you missed.

Great news!

So far, three of the nine break-out sessions have been added to the member website, with another three scheduled to be uploaded later this week.

Posted …

Community Presentations & Relations, Presented by Jennifer Rozelle

A how-to guide to securing and presenting Community presentations; how to get them; topic ideas; how to organize and plan them; and how to use them to feed your workshops. Learn the distinctions among Public Workshops, Private Workshops, Professional Presentations and Community Presentations

Post-Death Trust Administration, Presented by Liz Evans

What to do when the 1^st spouse dies; what to do after the surviving spouse dies. A practical look at post-death administration issues.

How to Generate Facility Revenue: Getting & Staying in the Door with Nursing Homes, Presented by Roslyn Drotar & Meredith Glendenning

Walk away with a comprehensive nursing home/facility process, which you can go back and implement into your practice, immediately. Learn only what works (we’re saving you from the disastrous efforts) to not only get in the door to nursing homes, not only begin generating revenue, but quadrupling revenue & how to keep it going!

Coming later this week …

Busting Financial Advisor Myths, Presented by Jeff Bellomo & Lou Leyes

Respond with confidence to common myths surrounding asset protection, irrevocable trusts, qualified funds, etc. Get the advisor off of their “default” setting and into strategic, client-centered planning.

You’ve Defined Roles … Now What? Presented by Roslyn Drotar

It is important to provide clear definition and understanding of roles. You’ve defined roles, now what? Learn how to take the role definition to the next level. Learn the skills needed to go beyond just making certain nothing falls through the cracks. Learn different approaches, regardless of the circumstances to create accountability AND work together at your team best!

Business Succession Planning Presented by Dave Zumpano

An advanced level legal-technical session – what to do when the business planning client already has a corporation structure (LLCs, S-Corps, C-Corps) – creating a business succession plan.

10 Key Features of the Trust Drafting Software That You Need to Know, Presented by Aaron Miller

Learn the 10 key features of the LWP-CCS Trust Drafting software and how to make them a multiplier to distinguish you in your Estate Planning community.

Coming in December

What’s Happening in the Conference Room? – The Signing and Funding Meetings, Presented by Susan Hunter

The third of the “Conference Room” series – designed to give the team a look at what, exactly, occurs for the client during the key meetings. Team members will be better equipped to assist clients while they navigate the process, and can set expectations or answer questions directly. Attorneys who attend will learn how to delegate these meetings to their team.

Communication Skills, Presented by Susan Hunter

Take the next step in developing your communication skills; sharpen your saw with practical applications of MIFy™ and Power-in-Partnership™ including client meetings and team conversations.

While you’re at it, take a look around the member website. We’ve been making changes to follow LWP processes more closely in the web layout. This should make it much easier for members to find tools and materials to support their practices.

If you have comments or suggestions about the website layout, I’d love to hear them. Write me at ncatale@lawyerswithpurpose.com.

Nedra Catale – Coaching, Consulting & Implementation, Lawyers With Purpose

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The Art Of Surrender

November 13, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with One Comment Coaching & Implementation Systems & Processes

“Let go or be dragged.” ~ Zen proverb

Four weeks ago the LWP partners began our customary quarterly partners retreat at a Hyatt in Atlanta at 9 a.m. sharp. We began the day in customary fashion, after Dave ensured that we had a mealtime plan, by analyzing our quarterly goals. We carefully reviewed who is doing what to reach goal, our money plan from the previous quarter and then where we have nobody leading.

Like all businesses, marketing was where the spotlight shined loud and clear. What I appreciate about our collective skill sets is how quickly we are able to shift from driver mode right into solution mode. We revisited hiring outside consultants, as we have done in the past. It would take at least six months to get them up and running; plus, how do we find someone who understands the dynamic of an estate and elder law firm vs. a hunt and kill mindset at all cost?

At the end of the day we agreed that I would go full-time into marketing. I am naturally the best person to lead this, and the organization needs me to lead it, own it and nurture it.

I’m not going to lie – I resisted. Hard. My control freak showed up immediately: “I know (control freaks always know best) that X will happen,” “Who’s going to lead Y,” “Who’s going to coach Z,” “We have been making such great progress on Z, I can’t just abandon ’em now.”

I finally GOT IT. I have been working with team members for 17 years, hearing the exact same words when their attorneys ask them to step up and replace themselves. I never fully understood what the root of the resistance was. Now I get it.

The hesitation does not stem solely from fear and the unknown aspects of change. It’s not just fear of what’s next and whether the team member can actually pull it off. Sure, the uncertainty is a big piece, and fear of failure has a giant room at the inn as well. But in all honesty, the biggest piece comes down to leaving with a feeling of abandonment – abandoning the team, the clients and what you have taken personal pride in developing and perfecting. It’s the essence of, “I said I would do this and I gave it my all and now I’m leaving the baby. Do they have all they need to make certain this doesn’t nosedive?”

So we resist, we justify that “they need me” and we attempt to control the situation, instead of investing in how we are going to become the next, better version of ourselves and create a better version of the business. Dang it, there it is again, that 2mm shift.

But if we can detach from the logistics of how what we are currently doing will get done, and anchor to how we are going to step into our new role/world/life, the art of surrendering begins.

As soon as I got on the plane, I got to work. I looked at what I am doing non-marketing-related and to whom I can responsibly shift it over. I quickly came up with a suggested transition plan. I pulled out our marketing plan, the money plan, and realized not only that I can do this, but that I am very much the best person for the job. I can do this, and I will do this. I sat for the next two hours and 20 minutes while trapped on the plane and mentally surrendered to letting go of what was, to allow the new reality to permeate, and to embrace the sense of excitement, along with a healthy level of challenge.

But I couldn’t do it without detaching first and allowing for the possibility of what’s next to unfold. Yes, I know this is a skill and it must be practiced, daily. And it is never, ever mastered. But like my good friend Candee always says, “You must be willing to try it on.”

That honestly is the process for giving up control and the art of surrendering. It’s simply one small step (emotions, logistics and movement) at a time. And then you can course a realistic present and a future path and plan. Eventually you find your new normal. And that’s really the story of growth.

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.

Leadership

November 12, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with One Comment Systems & Processes Team Building

The term “leadership” is all the rage on social media these days – and it is definitely on most entrepreneurs’ wish lists. Yet when I ask people what leadership means to them, I often hear some multifaceted variation that’s equivalent to dismissing the need for relationship. In this day and age I have actually heard, “People today should be thankful they have a job in this economy.” I can assure you, in no way, shape or form is this leadership.

In my experience, leadership is charting or changing the course to take a stand for unity. It’s so much more about finding leadership within that will get the work out and the consistent cash flow in. And fast. It is Mindfulness + Self Awareness + Social Awareness + Self Management.

Self-Awareness is showing up on time with empowering energy, and general concern for everyone’s time and experience while they are with you. Social Awareness is supporting your team, showing up focused and present, keeping your word and taking full responsibility for how you show up in the world. Self-Management is showing up prepared, projecting onward motion, without an unstable tone combined with tension demands. Even though most leaders are active, you don’t want to come off harsh, with a self-serving need to push your own agenda. The minute you become disengaged and start pointing at them, you resign from being a leader.

Leadership is not strength or force. It is not based on “old school” thinking that smart is good enough and that great leaders are tough and can always muscle through – no one can sustain continuous strain. It is not survival of the fittest. Leadership does not manage from a place of control – team has to go along to get along and must stay in the box built. It is not from a place of personal position – sway whichever way, defer decisions or create fear based on authority.

Every great leader touches your head to make you think, touches your heart to make you feel and always gives you something to carry with you later, a walk-away message. The way I see leadership, here are some of the key tenets:

Never dehumanizes, but fills up, guides, includes and creates
Tend and befriend vs. command and control
- Willing to live the examined life, a spiritual seeker
- How we do what we do is just as important as what we do
- Emotional intelligence
- Power is used to bring wisdom and clarity for others
- Not forced, common practice
- In order to empower, you have to give up your power
- Of the people, for the people while honoring them for their conviction

Leaders have an ability to get people behind one another and bring out the best in each of them. They identify their own weaknesses, and provide solutions to increase efficiency and productivity. Never “Here’s what’s wrong, now solve it or we’ll be having a different conversation.” They are very much “part of.” They have the ability to be the manager and make sure that tasks are getting completed, with an empowering leadership element in that. It usually is very difficult to be manager/leader at the same time, but true leaders can accomplish this at all times. They can verbalize the “hard” things to say, even when it hurts, because they are accurate and necessary for the growth and success of the company and the individuals in the company – even when they can’t see it.

A leader is loyal and committed, with a reassuring way that permits people to let go of panic and trust in themselves to accomplish their goals. A leader has the ability to help individuals sort through a tremendous amount of information and put them on a path of clarity and direction, with specific short-term steps that lead to long-term success.

You know you have great leadership when you have engaged employees who are innovative and empowered to get the job done while never being afraid to use their voice!

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Building vs. Growing

October 30, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Coaching & Implementation Systems & Processes Team Building

“The tools that got you out of Egypt are not the same tools that will get you to the Promised Land.” ~ Dan Sullivan

There is an inherent difference between what it takes to build vs. grow a business. I see people buying into building when they need growing, and people buying into growing when they need building. In the law firm diagnostic calls I do, I see about 1% of entrepreneurs who need growth. I my personal opinion, those percentages should be more balanced, but buyers haven’t identified the status of the business prior to purchasing, so they just buy from everywhere. I can guarantee you when you call LWP, our sole commitment is to determine where attorneys stand, first and foremost, so we can determine what help they need.

When you’re in the infancy stage of your business, you need to build. Here’s what that looks like:

Building:

Time/focus management
Revenue Focuser
Goal-setting with SMRs
Project Focusers
Team development, training and implementation
Systems and processes
Weekly cash flow tracking and reporting
Lead generation and lead conversion systems
Lead generation and lead conversion tracking
Companywide communication skills that are consistent from initial contact to the closing of the file

Choosing just one of the above will not work long-term. Each piece is very much part of the global puzzle. In my experience, purchasing a lead-generation system is not going to be the magic bullet. Great, maybe it got your phone ringing, but if you don’t have a system to convert those leads into paying customers, you’ll be quickly saying, “I bought that marketing guru’s X that she was guaranteeing would do A, B and C. And it didn’t. I didn’t get one person to hire me. It was garbage. She’s a crook.” Well, that statement may not be accurate; the product probably did get your phone to ring. But it wouldn’t matter without a system to process, track, follow up with and measure the lead. Where did the initial contact come from? What did we guide the client to do next? (Clients are calling for your guidance on what to do next; you must always have something to enroll them in that will give them that guidance.)

If you’re like most solopreneurs, you need to get money in the door before you can even think of purchasing a system for your client services coordinator, or putting in a time management system. “I’ll look into that after I have cash flow,” you think. So you may purchase a killer “Generate $10,000 a day in 3 easy steps” system. You generate your first $10K, but you pulled a few later nights, not realizing that the extra work is actually the “system” that it’s going to take to make the $10K a day. Sure, this one piece of the puzzle that you purchased did produce what it promised, but at what cost? If you calculate your hourly rate, your team’s hourly rate and the possibility of shutting down other areas of your business to get this done, you would probably be horrified. (For the fun of it, email me if you would like our “what are you worth” exercise. Send me your completed exercise and I’ll lead a 30-minute analysis call to review your results. Consider it a gift.)

By now, you’re getting the picture. I have attorneys calling me daily saying, “I don’t need all that; I am just getting started and need to build my business first. I just need X.” Sadly, they come back a few months later (hopefully) or years later (more accurate) in a worse spot, with frustrated stories of how they bought this, did this program and “none of them produced what was promised.” This most often is not the complete picture.

What was missing for them was that they didn’t invest the time to lay out the big picture of what it takes to build a business. It is never one precise tool; it is very much an all-encompassing “and.” The “and” is a process that hits all areas of determining your monthly revenue goal and what it’s going to take to get there (how many appointments, what appointments are paying), time management (which days are money days, which are production days, which are project days), lead generation, relationship management, system, a team-centric approach to reach goal, etc. You get the point. In my experience, when your business is in the personal services industry, it is next to impossible to build a business without a widespread approach.

Building a business means implementing some or all of the items listed above. The pieces are up and running, on a consistent basis. There are not peaks and pits in your leads, referrals or paying clients. You’ve removed the revolving door at the entrance to your office for employees. Your business is systematized, with all areas automated and integrated. It is 80% team-led, freeing up the entrepreneur to spend 80% of their time in front of people (synergy referral meetings, existing and prospective client meetings and leveraged speaking events).

Once you’ve built your business, then you start to address the following growth components.

Growing

Actuary referral and client statistics to create target marketing
Elevation offerings for your existing clients
Professional and client advisory boards
Client and referral appreciation programs
Team empowerment and leadership programs
A three-pronged marketing approach to double your revenue, year after year (and it’s only dependent on you as the business owner)
Tri-annual practice enhancement retreats facilitated by professionals
An annual maintenance program that allows you to be your own bank
An internal lead system that relieves the business owner from operations, team training and law firm management
Operating all areas of your business from an automated knowledge, workflow and CRM program that allows your business to be dependent on reporting and tracking instead of human familiarity
A system for creating an exit strategy for a saleable practice (when you’re ready)

When you’re striving to generate monthly revenue – and that includes keeping the lights on and paying yourself each month, not taking what may be left over – you shouldn’t be in the market for a robust CRM program that will hand you leads that you can’t even follow up with. You need a building a business plan. You need such a plan when you’re striving to remove yourself from day-to-day operations because you have complete confidence that your business is systematized and generating consistent everything. You need it when you’re ready to move on to your next chapter of making certain the profit margin grows each year, but it’s not solely dependent on you to get the work done.

That is what I am most proud of with LWP: our members. So many of them had the presence to see the difference between the two; they had the patience to get through the building phase and the shrewdness to consciously move into the CONTROLLED growth phase (our motto is, do not blow everything up for the sake of growth). I am honored to be on this journey with them.

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.

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When It Comes To Medicaid, What Is The Break-even Point

October 29, 2014

by David Zumpano with No Comment Legal Technical Medicaid

The break-even point is the point at which it doesn’t matter whether the individual applies for Medicaid or continues to private pay. Either way, the individual is going to pay the same amount.

Let’s say that the minimum months to qualify is 20 months. The break-even point is 40 months. (60 minus 20). If at any time the individual goes into the nursing home and applies for Medicaid prior to 40 months, you will “flip the switch” and apply for Medicaid. The penalty period is 20 months, so the individual private will have to private pay for those 20 months. If that was done in month 10, then the individual will pay the penalty until the 30^th month from the date of the funding of the iPug. (10 months plus 20 months penalty = 30 months from funding). The individual will begin to receive Medicaid benefits the 31^st month. The individual does not have to wait until month 60 from the date of the funding to get their benefits in that scenario.

If the individual applies for Medicaid on the break-even point – month 40, they will still have a 20 month penalty, which will push them to 60 months from the funding date. If they don’t apply for Medicaid in month 40, then the individual would have to private pay for those 20 months until month 60. After which time, the individual will apply for Medicaid and Medicaid won’t see the transfer 61 months earlier. Either way it costs the same; it doesn’t matter whether you apply for Medicaid or not. (That said, know your local rules too – in Texas for example, there is a slight benefit for being on Medicaid and in the penalty period, so I would probably go ahead and apply at the break-even point for Texas residence).

Now, if the individual becomes ill in month 45 and goes to the nursing home and applies for Medicaid, then applying for Medicaid still triggers the 20 month penalty. This will push the Medicaid eligibility out past the 60 months to month 65 (45 months from funding plus 20 months of penalty). This is beyond the initial 60 months from funding, so you don’t want to apply for Medicaid after the break-even point. If the individual makes it past the break-even point before they need a nursing home, they will private pay the nursing home cost until month 60. After month 60 passes, the individual can apply for Medicaid and answer “no” to the question of have you given any money away in the last 60 months and avoid the 20 month penalty.

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

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Sometimes It Takes A Clear Vision Of Your Future To Prompt Change

October 28, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Coaching & Implementation Legal Marketing

I’ve been living in a construction zone for weeks, but tomorrow it will start to get better. Three weeks ago we ripped out our carpet and started moving furniture and painting. Tomorrow the flooring guys arrive with beautiful new carpet and we can finally move our furniture back in from the garage, the bathroom, the kitchen, the patio … wherever we’ve found a few inches to stash stuff. My office is the last to go.

Having my house upside down and walking on gritty concrete floors has made me just a little nuts. I’m one of those “my home is my castle” people.

Why would anyone choose to go through this?

Through Strengthfinders I’ve discovered that while I’m not overly fond of change, it’s uncertainty and not having a clear vision or plan that keeps me awake at night. Give me a clear vision of the desired outcome and I will make all kinds of sacrifices to get to that outcome.

Lately, I find myself working with an increasing number of teams interested in implementing an RMS process. I know what the future holds for them – I have such a clear vision of it – and am so excited about the direction in which they’ve chosen to go. What impresses me is that they trust the system enough to go through a transition period, a time of uncertainty, with faith that putting in hard work and carving out dedicated time will give them a breakthrough with their business.

A Relationship Management System is a systematized, dedicated, deliberate and painstaking approach to building professional relationships. Doing it “right” means being fully committed and unwilling to give up or become distracted and neglectful. It takes a clear vision of the desired outcome and an unfaltering commitment to reaching that goal.

Does your team have a clear vision of what the goal line looks like? If you’re the team leader, how clear is your own vision? How often do you, as a team, focus on your long-term goals? Or are you totally consumed with putting out the day-to-day fires in your office?

If you are an LWP Member and you and your team are ready to take the next step – to set long-term goals and form an action plan focused on developing an RMS process and would like some help, let your CCI coach know!

If you're not a member, reach out to Molly Hall at mhall@lawyerswithpurpose.com or 877-299-0326 x 102 and she can walk you through what we have to offer to get your phone ringing and filling your pipeline.

Nedra Catale, Coaching, Consulting & Implementation – Lawyers With Purpose

When You Wake Up Monday Morning

October 22, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Coaching & Implementation Estate Planning Drafting Software Legal Marketing

Real quick, I’m not certain if you saw my two other previous blog posts and I wanted to make sure I kept you in the loop. I KNOW how Monday mornings feel with the email barrage…especially after being away from the computer all weekend (hopefully).

I wanted to make sure you were aware LWP announced it has made a few changes to our membership levels specifically designed to serve solo and small sized firms based on their customized needs.

WHAT is changing you ask? Here are a few of the CHANGES in the membership levels.

LWP Silver Membership: This level of membership is currently $897/month which INCLUDES our 3 Day Technical/Legal training as well as the 3 hour VA accreditation program. Effective tomorrow this LIVE educational training program is no longer included in this level of membership. The tuition to attend this program will be an additional fee of $1,497 (A $1,497 SAVINGS if you enroll TODAY).
LWP Gold Membership: This level of membership is currently $1,497/month which INCLUDES everything that the SILVER Level of membership offers PLUS the hands on customized, personalized Coaching, Consulting & Implementation program for your entire Law Firm. Effective tomorrow the Coaching, Consulting and Implementation is no longer included in this level of membership. (A $997/a month SAVINGS if you enroll TODAY).
LWP PLATINUM Membership: NEW Additional LEVEL. This level of membership was never previously offered. It is $2,397/month which INCLUDES everything that the GOLD Level of membership offers PLUS a personal Attorney Mentor Coach. What this means is that you will have a successful LWP member that was sitting in the exact spot as you are now…nervous to commit to the monthly fee with an absolute need that this must work out. You will have a dedicated LWP attorney member, in addition to the CC & I program, to support you every step of the way on your journey to creating a salable, scalable business.

NOW really is the best time for you to take the leap of faith and join the LWP Community. Simply go to www.joinlwp.com to sign up TODAY.

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.

New Program Wins Heart Strings & Purse Strings

October 21, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Asset Protection

When it comes to binding the generations of the family, heartstrings are stronger than purse strings.

I had the opportunity to meet Dennis Stack, one of the co-founders of LegacyStories.Org at our Tri-Annual Retreat in Phoenix. Formed in 2008, Legacy Stories provides values-based legacy education to consumers and professionals.

Their expertise was developed from extensive field research in assisted living, memory care, home care, estate planning and hospice, having trained more than 5,000 volunteers to assist families in building a meaningful legacy for their elder loved ones.

A survey conducted by Allianz Insurance in 2005 and reprised in 2012 asked 2000 participants, 1000 ‘boomers’ and 1,000 ‘elders’, how they define their legacy. When asked to rank inheritance priorities, baby boomers and their parents decidedly prefer to leave their ‘values’ more so than their valuables.

Despite their overwhelming desire to pass on their values and life lessons, only a small fraction of these generations has made provisions for doing so. The primary reasons are a lack of awareness of how to build a legacy portfolio and the inability to find qualified legacy advisors to guide them.

This vacuum presents an opportunity for estate planners to differentiate themselves by caring as much about a family’s heartstrings as their purse strings.

To answer the call, LegacyStories.org has created an innovative turnkey legacy consulting program. The online system provides estate and financial planners the tools, best practices and marketing elements to successfully offer both the values and valuables sides of holistic estate plans.

The turnkey consulting program offers a full range of legacy consulting services from regularly scheduled session planning sessions to less intensive legacy asset discovery and guidance.

In the near future the company will be offering a free Legacy Advisor Starter Guide as an introduction to legacy planning.

The company is offering LWP members a 50% discount off the retail price of the Turnkey Legacy Planner Program. If interested, send a request for the discount code to support@legacystories.org.

To learn more, visit their webpage: https://www.legacystories.org/about/estate-planner

To receive a free Legacy Advisor Starter Guide, send a request to support@legacystories.org and they’ll send it as soon as the guide is ready.

In the meantime, Dennis Stack will be happy to meet you and explain more. Stop by his table at the conference. Ask him to show you their app!

Roslyn Drotar – Lawyers With Purpose, Coaching, Consulting & Implementation Coach, Marketing & Social Strategist.

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Dangerous Productivity

October 20, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Coaching & Implementation Systems & Processes

“In today’s culture – where self-worth is tied to our net worth, and we base our worthiness on our level of productivity – spending time doing purposeless activities is rare. In fact, for many of us it sounds like an anxiety attack waiting to happen. We’ve got to get ’er done! It doesn’t matter if our job is running a multimillion-dollar company, raising a family, creating art, or finishing school; we’ve got to keep our noses to the grindstone and work! Many of us still believe that exhaustion is a status symbol of hard work and sleep is a luxury. The result is that we are so very tired. Dangerously tired. But the truth is, we can’t handle it. We are a nation of exhausted and overstressed adults raising overscheduled children. We think accomplishments and acquisitions will bring joy and meaning, but that pursuit could be the very thing that’s keeping us so tired and afraid to slow down.”

The above passage is the wisdom of Brené Brown, one of, if not the, most highly referenced of today’s writers and researchers. Brené has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame, and her published work is business – and life-altering. I have been studying it for the past three years and working with my business coach on incorporating much of her work into our organization.

Brené calls her syndrome “dangerously tired”; I would like to add “dangerously productive” to that diagnosis. As a follow-through, I am guilty of this. “Just finish up this marketing campaign and then I will close down for the day,” I’ll tell myself. “Muscle through, you can handle it.” “I can catch up on sleep this weekend.” There is a cost for this dangerous productivity. I see it in law firms every day. The challenge is that we trick ourselves that “it’s just this week” when the truth is that this level of muscling through becomes our norm. And if this isn’t our way of being? Then it’s almost worse, because we repeatedly beat ourselves up for not being motivated enough or not working hard enough.

The following exercise Brené rolls out in her book, titled “The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are,” was a game changer for me personally. And yes, I will be sharing it with the team this week.

STEP ONE – Create a list of specific conditions that are in place when everything feels good in your life (here’s an example of mine):

Starting my day @ 5:00 a.m. with exercise
Being present for & connecting with kids in a.m. before they head off for school
Dedicated 1 hr. Sunday evenings for my “Rock Star Week” planning
Weekly partner meeting to connect on strategic opportunities vs. operations
A scheduled vacation on the horizon to keep me moving to know there is time carved out for play, rest and connection with my family & friends
Operating from my written Marketing Plan with deadlines for the week
Weekly accountability meeting in place for the beginning and end of the week to hold my feet to the fire to stay focused on my goals

STEP TWO – Create your To-Do List (here is one of mine):

Type up notes from partner meeting
Schedule calls with DH & VC
Follow up emails to MO and RD
Call with AM on L/T webinars
Call w/RD about covering for me while I am in China

STEP THREE – Create your To-Accomplish List (Here is a sample of mine right now):

Automated Enrollment Process in Infusionsoft with triggers and chains for each step of the enrollment process
Meet “100 Days to Year End” goal by December 19,2014
Generate 16 initial contacts per week consistently
Replace myself in Operations by October 1, 2014
PPT up & running and generating $22,500 in revenue by December 19, 2014

The most revolutionary part of this exercise was looking at the pieces that must be in place in order to create and traverse (not muscle through) my rock star week. The other “AH HA” was comparing my To-Do List and my To- Accomplish List. I loathe my To-Do List. It sucks the life out of me. It’s busy work that doesn’t challenge or inspire me. I quickly realized it’s time to delegate my To-Do’s for the week and put my To-Accomplish front and center. I am going to be incorporating this exercise every week in my Sunday planning time and I am going to immediately delegate my To-Do List to allow me to focus on my To-Accomplish List.

Dangerous productivity is not a long-term plan for success, whatever success means for your business. Dangerously productive is so “old school” and has been replaced with intentional laser focus, which in turns eliminates the exhaustion as a status symbol and replaces it with joy and meaning.

Welcome LWP Sponsor Asset Protection Strategies To Our Tri-Annual Retreat

October 16, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Asset Protection

As a busy attorney juggling multiple responsibilities, you know first hand it is smart to delegate what no longer serves you in order to provide your client with supreme service, up-to-date information, and most of all protect their assets.

The Medicaid application process can be grueling, uncertain, and ever-changing. Uncovering the meanings within the loopholes, clauses, and fine print is time consuming. Especially when time is of the essence for a successful Medicaid eligibility outcome for your client, your expertise and precision are called upon.

Cheryl and her team at Asset Protection Strategies offer a successful one-of-a-kind program – Medicaid Application Back Office. Some of the program’s features are:

Pre-planning for eligibility
Pre-application intake, review, and verification
Application preparation and submission
Application management prior to eligibility decision

Issue Resolution
Proof and Verification

Communications management

Financial Institutions
State Medicaid Offices
Clients and Families

Successful Medicaid eligibility outcomes require communications with a variety of entities for application monitoring, communication management, issue management, and verification request management. APS initiates and manages these communications so you don’t have to.

For over 22 years, Cheryl has been building trusted relationships with estate and elder law attorneys, multiple state Medicaid offices, and direct clients. APS has built its long-standing, highly regarded national reputation from experience, expertise, focus, and genuine care of its clients.

We look forward to seeing you in Phoenix! Come by the booth and say hello - Contact: cheryl@planningaps.com or 888-666-8578.

Cheryl Fletcher, Asset Protection Strategies