Congratulations To Michael Cohen, LWP Member Of The Month

June 3, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Legal Marketing Systems & Processes Team Building

What is the greatest success you’ve had since joining LWP?

I have been able shift my practice from being primarily “crisis” planning to planning that is more encompassing with more options than I what I previously was aware. We now tell potential clients that we are “Baskin-Robbins” – you just tell us what flavor you like, and we will design your plan to meet your flavor. I also see LWP as a way to approach the practice more like a business (i.e. with focusers, steadier cash flow, etc.).

What is your favorite LWP tool?

Although I mentioned the focusers in my answer above, my favorite tool (if you can call it a” tool” ) is having monthly workshops. As LWP members know, the “stories” in the workshop simplify the complex area of planning and allow us to help so many more people (and I can leverage my time even if an attendee doesn’t become a client) in addition to an increase in bottom line. In addition, the workshop design allows us to have fun (with my personal stamp or story) with prospective clients while showing them our knowledge and their need to take care of the ones they love.

How has being part of LWP impacted your team and your practice?

First, LWP has increased communications in our office. Second, although we are small, our “team” has grown as a result of LWP. Third, the focus of our practice has changed as indicated in my answer to no. 1 above. Fourth, I have expanded my horizon in legal-technical knowledge. Finally, I see a roadmap for a journey that (although I am not sure where it will end or what weather lies before me) I expect to have a rainbow at the end. A special thanks to Molly for keeping us on the right path.

Bigstock-Hands-Holding-Pieces-Of-A-Puzz-64546993

The Rules of Engagement

May 23, 2014

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

At Lawyers with Purpose we feel very passionately about our unrelenting standards around consistently operating by our Rules of Engagement. On our weekly CCI call this week, we discussed how easily the expectations set within the Rules of Engagement can be pushed aside in the day-to-day of our “busy” world. How we give each other permission to let each other off the hook with no operation by set standard.

It's those times that we allow The Rules of Engagement to be part of our consistent daily practice that there is very rarely ever a need for sporadic reactive “sit downs” about to what's going on with X (team, projects, cash flow etc.). And in our experience the work that has to go into repairing, redirecting and/or retooling doesn’t have to occur this way. If you make it part of your standards, the consistency in all facets of your business begin to happen.

Your Rules of Engagement should, in essence, say that as a team we agree to operate under the following rules – day in and day out – to allow us to grow and eliminate any unnecessary dividedness.

SAMPLE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

1. To refrain from holding on to “stories and stuff” – always clarify and verify what is being ask of you and always operate with honest while respectful mentality; (A) If you ask me, I will tell you; (B) If I ask you – it’s because I “need” to know to be sure my needs are being met

2. Lead and operate every meeting with:

Declaration of the purpose and intended outcome
Printed Agenda with the team leader running
Next specific actions and deadlinesEvery person is absolutely required to hold each other accountable and be accountable for their our own actions

3. Every person is absolutely required to hold each other accountable and to be accountable for their own actions.

4. EVERYTHING is ALWAYS “on the table” with a “CAN DO” approach

5. We agree to always engage in Healthy Conflict to solve real problems quickly and to put critical topics on the table for discussion. If there is something that someone is doing and behavior that is a constant roadblock YOU need to conduct a STOP and identify the behavior that is occurring in that moment so we can identify and breakthrough.

6. We agree to refrain from gossip. Do not say something out loud that you would not say if you knew it was to be repeated. If a statement starts with “Don’t tell….” It’s gossip

7. We agree as a team to always be willing to FAIL FORWARD. United we stand, divided we fall.

If you're interested in learning more about how Lawyers With Purpose could support your estate planning / elder law practice, please join us in Chicago June 9th – 11th for our Asset Protection, Medicaid & VA Practice With Purpose Program. Register today as we are filling fast. The hotel is almost sold out so grab your seat today!

Molly 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

Making Medicaid Qualification Easy – A Quick 10 Minute Demonstration

May 22, 2014

by David Zumpano with No Comment Asset Protection Estate Planning Drafting Software Legal Technical Medicaid Systems & Processes

With the proliferation of those online will factories, some believe traditional estate planning is dead. But that is not the experience of Lawyers With Purpose members. With nursing home costs rising more and more out of reach of most people, clients are looking for ways to protect what they have scraped and saved and worked so hard to build.

And those clients are turning to Lawyers With Purpose attorneys to help them do it. Lawyers With Purpose can help you quickly get up to speed to effectively and competently work with your clients in the Medicaid area. We provide our members many tools to help them do that. One of those tools is the Medicaid Qualification Worksheet. The Medicaid Qualification Worksheet can help you immediately determine whether or not a client is currently qualified for Medicaid if they go into a nursing home, what you might need to do to help them get qualified if they are not already, and show them that they may not have to wait five years after they do planning with you before they could qualify for the benefit.

You will never forget the feeling you get as you watch the wave of relief that washes over the face of the first client you are able to tell that to! Watch this video to see how the worksheet works.

If your interested in learning more about this and other ways Lawyers With Purpose can help enhanse your estate planning practice, join us at our Practice With Purpose Program in June. If your at all interested click the link and register today! The hotel is close to selling out and seats are filling quickly!

Aaron Miller, Legal/Technical Trainer – Lawyers With Purpose.

Making Your Strengths Work For You

May 15, 2014

by David Zumpano with No Comment Coaching & Implementation Systems & Processes Team Building

You’re probably familiar with the concept of IQ…maybe you’ve even taken a quick IQ test online or in the back of an in-flight magazine.

Many years ago, it was believed that IQ and intelligence were synonymous — that there is some sort of magic number that everyone has that can be determined by the right test, and that that number is a reflection of how intelligent they are. Even today, if you ask the average person on the street what intelligence is, the term “IQ” is going to come up more often than not.

Fortunately, these days we know better…as far back as 1983, a psychologist at Harvard named Howard Gardner proposed his theory of “multiple intelligences.” The idea behind Gardner’s framework is simple — namely that intelligence takes many different forms, and that everyone’s “intelligence” is actually a unique combination of their strengths across many different categories. Currently, Gardner has advocated for nine different forms of intelligence:

● Musical – Rhythmic and Harmonic

● Visual – Spatial

● Verbal – Linguistic

● Logical – Mathematical

● Bodily – Kinesthetic

● Interpersonal

● Intrapersonal

● Naturalistic

● Existential

When you look at the list above, it’s not difficult to come up with examples of what Gardner was talking about — history is full of people who achieved at the highest levels in their field, independent of what they may have scored on a traditional IQ test.

IQ wasn’t related to Beethoven’s successes…it was his musical intelligence. Michael Jordan’s IQ had nothing to do with his ability to drive the lane or hit a jump shot — but he absolutely is gifted in the realm of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. Margaret Thatcher would likely have scored well on a traditional IQ test, but you can also make the case that it was her inter- and intra-personal intelligence that helped her ascend to the top of her field.

So by now you might be wondering why I’m talking about intelligence here. It’s a fair question, and the answer is actually pretty simple…

When you think about the examples I’ve given above, and the others that surely came to your mind as you read through Gardner’s list, what do they have in common? They all benefited from an extraordinary fit between their gifts and the endeavors they chose to pursue.

In my law firm, we’ve taken this philosophy to heart – working in our strengths (ie., whose doing what to reach goal).

So often you’ve heard me discuss the idea of systems, and how having the right system in place makes all the difference in your practice. Well, an important component in that is making sure that the people — the most important part of any business system — are a good fit with the responsibilities they have.

Take a minute now and think about your team — who is particularly gifted verbally? They have a way with words — are they getting the opportunity to leverage that talent for the benefit of your whole firm? What about your analytical thinkers? Are they getting the opportunity to solve problems and help things run more smoothly on a day-to-day basis?

Next month, LWP is hosting a three day event in Chicago where we’ll be talking systems automation and how you can leverage the right tools, systems, and the natural talents of your staff to exceed your revenue goals! And the beauty is your freed up to focus on the people (i.e. meeting with clients and power partners).

The next Practice with Purpose Program is June 9-11. There will not be another one until October. Yikes, that’s closer to “year end” than “New Year”.

We’ll provide you with the road map — we’ll teach you how you can use your natural gifts (and those of your team) to get more done at the office and get more time at home as well!

That doesn’t meant that it’s going to be easy, though…one of the benefits of attending an event like this with some of your most successful and forward-thinking peers from around the country is that we're going to challenge you to break through the roadblocks you’re currently facing…to focus on what's really important in your practice…and to eliminate the distractions that take away from your time and focus.

That's our promise to you…that you'll return home with a clear vision for taking your practice to the next level. Taking the all-important first step is up to you – click here to register now. We fully expect that the program will sell out, and you don't want to be left without a seat!

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

Bigstock-Blue-Door--Very-High-Definiti-1429912

How To Get In The Door With Nursing Homes

May 5, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with No Comment Legal Marketing Systems & Processes

Say you're either a solo practitioner or a Relationship Management Services coordinator and you want to start working the "LWP – RMS" and begin marketing to nursing homes. How do you get started?

Your first step is to go to Medicare.gov and check out their Nursing Home Compare search engine. Enter in your ZIP code and you'll get a list of the nursing homes in your area. It’ll give you a breakdown on which ones are in Medicare/Medicaid, and which ones have VA. It’ll give you the total number of beds in the facility. You can even see the ownership, whether it’s individual or a corporation or who is involved in it. Then, see if that same name or that same corporation pops up in other homes in the area; if they own multiple chains or multiple units in the area, that’s good to know.

Once you pinpoint some facilities to target, then it gets a little scary. Most of the time, you will want to start by just visiting the facility to see what’s going on, and to make sure they don’t have some type of deal worked out with somebody else. You don’t want to step on any toes with existing financial planners or the like, so make sure you know what’s happening there.

Touring the facility will also let you know if they have deficiencies or strengths in any particular area. They might have really good staffing numbers, or they might have no complaints or other issues, putting them above average in these certain categories. Set that in your memory banks and database for sure, so when you’re trying to develop this relationship, you already have some background on the facility. You kind of know what they’re going through. You don’t want to look like you’re investigating them, you just want to be able to talk their language. You need to be able to communicate their sense of what their enroll numbers are. How many rehab numbers do they have? How many readmits? Can they pick up any pending? Are they having any issues with billing Medicare for rehab? Try to create some type of common ground in communication. That opens up everybody else, from the business office to the director of nursing and up to the administrator.

Now that you've done some preliminary research, it's time to make your approach. You can start with the administrator, which is good – but to be honest, it’s hard to get to them. They’re probably not going to take your call immediately, but don’t let that hinder you, because you're really trying to get to the person who will actually interact with you more in your role, and that’s the business office manager. If you can get into that office, that’ll open the key to all the other positions that you’re trying to make a relationship with, including the administrator and the director of nursing, who will see your value. That person knows what you can bring to the situation, and might even advocate for you with the other players in the nursing home.

A good approach is to tell the receptionist you have some new information on Medicaid numbers that would help them, and that you'd like to present them to the business office manager if that person is available. Bring a fact sheet with your contact info on it; it can just show the numbers for this year, and if there have been any updates. The new information is often enough to get their attention, and it can help you create that conversation on how things are going with their nursing home, if they’ve seen any changes or if they are running into low numbers. Have they seen anything as far as having to deal with the readmits back to the hospital? They start wanting to explain things to you and tell you how things are going. So now you’re listening instead of talking, and you’re coming at them from a place of, “We’re here to help you.” You have to let them know that that’s what you’re there to do, not just to get referrals. You want to ask them, “How can we support you in any way? What is it that you see us helping you with?” We like to use the term, “We want it to be your back office.”

Starting your conversations with this approach will bring you success in building your nursing home client base. But what happens if they won't let you in at all? Check back for more conversations about marketing your elder law / estate planning practice to nursing homes.

If you are interested in learning more on this topic of marketing and what Lawyers With Purpose has to offer in legal technical support, join us at the most important event that will change your estate planning, asset protection and elder law practice. The Asset Protection, Medicaid and VA Benefits Practice with Purpose Program is happening June 9th – 11th in Chicago, IL. But register today to make sure you reserve your seat!

Roslyn Drotar, Coaching Consulting & Implementation – Lawyers With Purpose

Lessons from LA Part 2 – Be Prepared, Persistent & Flexible

April 15, 2014

by Lawyers With Purpose with One Comment Legal Marketing Systems & Processes VA

A few weeks ago, I discussed my trip to Los Angeles to interview a big name – Betty White – for my TV show, Senior Salute. The topic of choice was how pets enhance the quality of seniors as they age. Betty White is a huge animal advocate. A date was set, then reset, then canceled.

Was I frustrated, upset and discouraged? YES! But, I decided to take the valuable lessons I learned and celebrate the courage it took to put myself out there and be vulnerable. How many times a day do you or your employees put yourselves out there? Each time you meet with a prospective client, meet with a new referral source, learn and implement a new practice area, like Veterans Benefits, have a difficult discussion about office policies with team members, and the list goes on. The fact of the matter is that we do it all day after day. But, we don’t recognize it or celebrate it. Often we only feel the pain of it.

Oh, I felt pain. I spent about $2,000 to fly to LA and stay in a hotel three time zones away. Leaving my children and out of the office not working for three days. Waiting for the call and the opportunity. Planning in advance, I purchased tickets to attend the live audience taping of Hot in Cleveland, the award winning show that Betty White stars in weekly. I didn’t want the entire week to be a loss. Because entrance is on a first come first seat basis, I wanted to ensure I got a seat so I showed up to the studio 3 hours early (in full stage make up, still with hopes of interviewing Betty). I was third in line, certain to get a seat. I was told to speak with the floor manager about getting VIP status so I could do a “meet and greet” with the cast after the filming. She turned me down, twice. Yes, twice. I was persistent. But, I was also polite. After all, I had a gift to give to Betty that I had carefully selected and purchased in Atlanta.

Once I realized I was not getting access, I felt sorry for myself for a moment and let the hurt and embarrassment set in. Then, I looked around and thought, “I can and will have a great night and enjoy the good of it all.”

What I learned, that we can all practice in our offices, is that:

1. When you want something, go for it. Make all preparations to succeed.

2. Put yourself out there and be persistent but polite. Know when to sit down and enjoy the show.

3. Be ready for anything, but also be ready to accept nothing in exchange of your efforts except the gratification that you took action. Not every at-bat is a home run. Sitting on the sidelines (once in a while) is enjoyable too.

4. Congratulate yourself for the courage it takes to make the decisions you make and take the actions you take. Many people only dream of things they want, but never take the first step toward achieving them.

5. Recognize that failure is sometimes the thrust you need to move forward. John C. Maxwell wrote the book, Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones, that is worth a read.

If your marketing efforts or the implementation of Veterans Benefits into your estate planning or elder care law firm are not going as you expected, stop and praise yourself for the efforts you have made so far. Then, review and make some changes toward the result you want.

Victoria L. Collier is a Veteran and Certified Elder Law Attorney, Fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Co-Founder of Lawyers With Purpose LLC, and author of “47 Secret Veterans’ Benefits for Seniors—Benefits You Have Earned … but Don’t Know About.”

P.S. I plan to write Betty White a personal letter, sending her the gift I got for her, and asking for an interview directly. Let’s see what happens!

If you want to come see what Lawyers With Purpose has to offer your estate and elder law practice, please join us in June for 2.5 days full of training on Asset Protection, Medicaid & VA Practice With Purpose program.