Never worry again about where your next client is coming from.

Are you spending more time chasing clients than actually serving them?

If you feel like you're stuck on the cash flow roller coaster, constantly worried, constantly wondering where your next client is coming from or when your current clients will actually pay you, you're not alone.

I've found that even lawyers who seem to have everything together on the outside are actually struggling behind closed doors, wondering if they will make enough revenue to cover their expenses and lifestyle.

But it doesn't have to be this way. In this article, I will reveal how you can become the type of lawyer that never has to worry about where their next client is coming from again.

If you want to be a sought-after, high-demand lawyer, you'll have to change how you show up in your community, and today I'll show you how.

Why you should become the go-to lawyer in your community

When you become the go-to lawyer in your community, your work becomes ten times easier.

As the go-to lawyer in your community, you'll enjoy security, stability, and freedom. You can grow your revenue to whatever level you want based on your unique lifestyle goals. Clients will appreciate you and are happy to pay you $4,000, $5,000, and even $6,000 to work with you. And they'll even recommend you to their friends and family.

You'll no longer be stuck wondering where you'll get the next client and the one after that. And best of all, you'll be confident and comfortable receiving larger fees because you're proud of the valuable service you know you're providing.

You'll be making a real difference in the lives of clients who look up to you. And because of all that, you'll love being a lawyer once again.

There are important nuances to this model that allow you to have this kind of freedom, collect these kinds of fees, and engage nearly every client who needs your services. 

Go-to lawyers do things differently than traditional lawyers. So if you want to become the go-to lawyer in your community, you'll have to change how you show up but making the changes will be worth it.

How to become the go-to lawyer in your community

Become a counselor and advisor that makes a real difference in clients' lives, not just someone who drafts documents.

Most traditional estate planning attorneys aren't actually helping their clients meet their wealth planning and legacy goals. They are instead drafting boilerplate documents that will be tossed into a drawer or forgotten on the shelf and do nothing to help keep their families out of court in the event of the client's death or incapacitation. 

When my father-in-law died, he had an estate plan drafted by a traditional lawyer. He did the right thing by being proactive and creating a plan to keep his family out of court with his ex-wife should something happen to him.

But the documents were never updated, and they weren't drafted in a way that actually protected his assets.

When he passed away, we were caught in a legal battle with his ex-wife for a long time, and some of his assets are still stuck in unclaimed property in Florida today.

He paid thousands of dollars to have those documents drafted, but they did not serve his intended purpose.

At first, I was sure his lawyer had committed malpractice, but then I discovered this was just how traditional estate planning lawyers did things.

And that’s why over the past 15+ years I’ve dedicated myself to helping lawyers practice a completely new model of law that allows them to become their community’s go-to lawyer and most trusted resource: their Personal Family Lawyer®. 

Our go-to Personal Family Lawyers do things differently.

The go-to lawyer in their community doesn't draft documents that just end up failing to protect clients. Instead, when you join NLBM as a Personal Family Lawyer, you counsel and advise clients to ensure they have a thorough and effective plan for what will happen to their assets and dependents in the event of the client's death or incapacitation.

When you become your clients' most trusted counselor and advisor who helps them make some of their most important financial and legal decisions, you will become the go-to lawyer in your community.

And once you start providing a service that makes a real difference in clients' lives, they will happily pay your premium fees because they genuinely want and need your service.  

Ditch the free initial consultation and replace it with a Family Wealth Planning Session®

Most traditional lawyers use free initial consultations to get clients in the door and try to sell them on working together.

The problem with the free consultation is that it's all about selling and making the deal instead of counseling clients and helping them solve their problems and meet their goals.

Also, clients don't typically value free initial consultations. Instead, they use it as a mechanism to shop around. So you end up spending hours with clients only to have them say 'Let me get back to you.' or "let me think about it." and in the end, never hire you.

This way of doing things wastes your time and theirs.

That's why our Personal Family Lawyers don't do free initial consultations.

They lead Family Wealth Planning Sessions.

Family Wealth Planning Sessions aren't free consultations. For an FWPS, clients have to pay a fee (we recommend around $750) if they want to schedule one. Or you can give them the option of waiving the fee in exchange for investing time to complete the pre-meeting homework.

The Family Wealth Planning Session is a working meeting that helps clients get clear on their goals and what kind of plan they need to accomplish those goals.

When I shifted from offering free initial consultations to leading Family Wealth Planning Sessions, it resulted in me getting hired by every single client I met with, and my fees were far higher than what most lawyers in my community were charging. And, my clients were more than happy to pay me for my services.

You, too, can become the go-to lawyer in your community just like I did (and just like the 350 member lawyers we’ve taught in the NLBM program) once you learn how to use the Family Wealth Session process in your own practice.

Stop quoting fees and help clients choose their own fee

Traditional lawyers tell clients what to do, and they tell them how much it will cost to do it. In these situations, clients don't understand why the lawyer is making the recommendations they're making and if they are being guided in the right direction.

They don't know if the fee is too high or too low. And they have no way of evaluating whether working with the lawyer will be a good experience or a bad experience. So the only thing they have to compare different lawyers on is their fees.

This way of trying to engage with clients is not good for you and it's not good for the client. It incentivizes them to shop around for the cheapest lawyer they can find.

But our Personal Family Lawyers don't quote fees. Instead, they help their clients choose their own fee. We've found that when clients choose what to pay, they pay more than when you quote a fee. 

In our experience, when clients are given the freedom to choose the fee that's at the intersection between their desires and their budget, on average, they choose a fee between $3,000 and $5,000. That's why we teach lawyers exactly how to help and advise clients on choosing their own fees based on what they want to accomplish for their loved ones.

Become a leader that educates the community on the importance of estate planning

Many traditional lawyers don't have a plan as to how they'll get their next client. Most of them are frantically and haphazardly investing in expensive marketing tactics but don't stick with any one tactic long enough to figure out how well it works. They're often stressed about how they'll make enough revenue to cover their marketing budget. And they end up taking whoever comes through the door, which results in taking on clients that are challenging to work with.

Our Personal Family Lawyers do things differently. Our go-to lawyers are leaders who educate their communities on the importance of proper estate planning. 

When I discovered holes in the old estate planning model, I became passionate about improving estate planning for families. This inspired my best-selling book Wear Clean Underwear: A Fast, Fun, Friendly – and Essential — Guide to Legal Planning for Busy Parents.

Releasing that book out into the world helped me to become a sought-after, in-demand estate planning lawyer. And it educated prospects on the importance of estate planning, so I ended up attracting an abundance of clients that were knowledgeable and easy to work with.

That's why we teach our lawyers how to become leaders in their community by leading educational events and webinars and developing resources that inform families about the problems with the traditional planning model and how the new model can help them meet their wealth planning goals while they're still alive and protect and provide for their loved ones long after they're gone.

Once you learn how to market your services by becoming a trusted counselor and respected leader in your community, you won't have to invest in inexpensive haphazard marketing that attracts difficult clients and has inconsistent results.

You will instead become the go-to lawyer in your community, attracting clients you love just by being yourself and sharing what you're passionate about.

Now you know the changes you need to make if you want to become the go-to lawyer in your community.

What I shared will get you started, but if you want more details on how to create a life and law practice you love, I encourage you to join our free Masterclass, Discover Personal Family Lawyer®. On this Masterclass, I'll share how you can triple your revenue and build a meaningful law practice that meets your lifestyle and business goals.

Also, If you have questions about how we can help you become a sought-after lawyer in your community and build a practice you love, consider scheduling a time to speak with one of our Law Business Advisors to see if our program is the right fit for you.