New Modern Lawyer Podcast

In this episode, it is spring cleaning time. After a long winter of accumulating clutter, is it time to open up the windows of our law practice and see what we actually need and what we might get rid of; what is vital to our practices, and what is no longer serving us.

If you have stacks of paper on your desk, or if you spend precious minutes each day looking for particular files on your computer, your practice could use a good cleaning. Grab a broom, a trash bag, and your client list, and let’s get cleaning.

I have noticed more and more solo and small firm lawyers starting to use scheduling programs. You know, the link they send you that takes you to a webpage with their calendar, where you can pick a day and time to meet with them or have a phone call or whatever you are trying to connect with them about. My barber uses a scheduling program, and it works great for him.

While I think that using a scheduling program in your law practice can have benefits, it’s just not for me. Having a practice that works for me is important, and part of that is being able to control my calendar.

In this episode I talk about some of these benefits and explain why I won’t use a scheduling program myself. I would love to hear from you whether you use a scheduling program in your law practice and why or why not. You can send an email to brad@newmodernlawyer.com and let me know.

This episode is titled “Lessons from a broken website” because I want to talk about some of the things I am learning about myself right now, and things I personally need to work on internally. As I record this episode the website for my New Modern Lawyer is down. If you type in the address in your browser, you get some sort of ominous-looking error message. And while it is not a situation I would have chosen, I am actually very grateful it has happened, because of the lessons I am learning from it.

I am a believer that what is most personal is most general, meaning that if one person has a particular problem, then there are many others out there experiencing the same problem. So my hope with this episode is that the lessons I am learning from this experience are lessons that you will be able to take apply to your own life.

In this episode I want to talk about what it means for you to have a successful law practice. Because I think the term “success” and “successful” get banded about a lot, but we often don’t take a moment to consider just what that means, for our law practices to be successful.

The first thing that probably pops into your mind when you think of your practice being successful is making lots of money; maybe having a steady stream of clients, or closing a certain number of cases a month. And those things do go into and are part of a law practice being successful. But they are only one part of a truly successful law practice.

TAKEAWAY: there are three components to a successful law practice: business success, happy clients, and happy you. Unless you have all three in place, you will never feel that your law practice is successful.

When I started my law practice, I made a lot of mistakes. I mean, a LOT of mistakes. Things that I look back on now and wonder, what the hell was I thinking back then? Cases that I took on, clients I worked with, other lawyers I partnered with. And money that I spent. Many mistakes I made involved money.

This episode is centered around 3 mistakes I made involving money; things I spent money on and ultimately got little benefit out of.

Back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Apple Computers introduced the slogan: “Think different.” This slogan became iconic of Apple, inviting people to look beyond the beige Windows PC that most everyone associated with computers at the time.

If you look at most of the law firms out there today, a large majority of them all look the same. They have the same internal pyramid structure of partners, associates, and staff. They bill their clients the same way: by the hour. Pre-pandemic, they all had formal offices with conference tables and in-person meetings. Their lawyers work long hours, including evenings and weekends. They all make the same claims about being client-focused and doing things differently. But realistically, most law firms are the same.

In this episode I am going to talk about my law practice, which has been described by some lawyers as “different” than most.

TAKEAWAY: you can design your law practice however you want – the only thing holding you back is you and your imagination for what is possible

In this episode I want to talk about ways of thinking. And these are probably not terms you think of in relation to your law practice. You are more likely to find two of them in the context of computers or electronics. These terms are inputs and outputs, and benefits.

If one of your goals is for clients to enjoy working with you – in otherwards, for your practice to be client-centric, then how you think about your law practice is very important. Because your way of thinking impacts the decisions you make in important aspects of your practice such as pricing and marketing.

In this episode I am going to go through these three ways of thinking and help you decide which is going to make your clients happier and ultimately your practice more successful.

TAKEAWAY: to attract the clients you want and make them enjoy working with you, focus on benefits vs. inputs or outputs/deliverables

As lawyers, we never seem to have enough time. There is always something else that needs to be done. We are always busy. And typically, we think of being busy as a good thing. Having work to do is usually equated with making money and being successful. But what if that’s not the case? What if being “busy” is actually preventing your practice from growing and thriving? What if being “busy” is keeping you from being successful?

This episode is all about what it means to be “busy” and how being “busy” is actually being lazy. If you are constantly finding yourself “busy” and wondering why your firm isn’t as successful as you’d like it to be, I think you will find a lot of value in this short but powerful episode.

TAKEAWAY: stop being “busy”

What is the difference between a typical chain restaurant and a 5-star restaurant? One that you go to when you want something cheap, and one that you rave about to your friends and can’t wait to eat at again? Both serve food and can satisfy your hunger. But one focuses on serving food while the other focuses on the dining experience.

Most law firms are like the chain restaurant, focusing on solving their clients’ legal issues. And these firms can be fairly successful. But it is the 5-star firms that have raving fans, that get repeat clients and client referrals, and that are able to really grow and thrive.

TAKEAWAY: the little things matter when it comes having happy clients

This is part 2, talking about ditching hourly billing, and in this episode I am going to address some of the concerns that solo and small firm lawyers have about pricing that might cause them to hesitate to do so and switch to flat fees. All these concerns are built around one thing though: fear. The fear of pricing too low. The fear of pricing too high and scaring away prospective clients. The fear of unforeseen things coming up after the fee has been quoted and agreed to.

If you want to ditch hourly billing but are afraid of pricing your services, this episode is for you.

TAKEAWAY: the only way to get past the fear of pricing your legal services is to do it

This is part 1 on why some firms struggle when trying to ditch hourly billing. There can be various issues that can make changing difficult, but this episode focuses on one issue in particular that I see firms run into, and when they do it can completely derail their conversion program. This is also something that has kept many firms from even trying to ditch hourly billing for another method because they aren’t able to get past the issue within the firm.

If you are thinking about ditching hourly billing in your firm, stay tuned because this episode is definitely one you want to listen to.

TAKEAWAY: ditching hourly billing requires not just a change in how you bill your clients, it requires a business model shift to evaluate and compensate the lawyers in your firm based on something other than hours worked on a matter

Do you want to make more money in your law practice? There is a 99.9% chance that your answer to that question is “yes.” I mean, who wouldn’t want to make more money, right?

If you are part of the 99.9% of solo and small firm lawyers looking to increase the money you make in your practice, I can help. Because in this episode I am going to share with you not only an insanely simple way to make more money, but the two additional ways that every successful law firm out there increases their revenues.

TAKEAWAY: if you want to make more money in your law practice, simply raise your rates

If I asked you what criteria you use to determine which lawyer you would select from a list of lawyers to hire for a legal problem you had, you’d probably say that you would make your decision based on which lawyer was the best at solving that problem. That makes logical sense, right? You’d want to choose the best. And that how most lawyers market their practices too, as being the “best” in a particular practice area or “better” than the lawyer down the street.

The problem with this is that when people actually make decisions – such as which lawyer to hire – they don’t base their decision on which option is objectively best. Because decision-making isn’t driven by logic, it is driven by emotion. And being the “best” is a logical argument.

TAKEAWAY: will you keep marketing yourself as “better” or as different?

My 6-year old daughter experiences emotions very easily. One minute she will be happy playing, and then the next minute she will be angry and pouting. The next minute she will be crying about something, followed quickly by laughing. My wife and I are very careful to let her know that having these feelings is not a bad thing, and of the importance of allowing the emotions to happen.

Ironically, as lawyers we are typically pretty terrible at dealing with our own emotions. Rather than feeling and processing our emotions – whether they be anger, fear, frustration, anxiety, shame, or yes, even happiness and joy – we push them down, often with the help of alcohol. And when all those emotions finally erupt, and they will erupt, the result can be spectacular.

TAKEAWAY: it is important to feel your emotions.

You may have seen the title of this episode and are scratching your head. What in the world is Brad talking about? I need more feminine energy in my law practice? What is that?

Well, life is all about balance. For example, you can’t just eat candy and salty snacks and expect to be healthy. You need vegetables and fruits and protein. You can still have some of the candy and snacks, but you need the other things as well.

Most lawyers are focused on the “doing.” On taking action, getting things done. On logic and critical thinking. On achievement. But without feminine energy – the planning, the emotional connection with others, the boundaries and self-care – your law practice will only go so far. And if you are finding that you have hit a wall with your practice or are becoming burnt out or dissatisfied, the issue may be that you are focusing too much on the masculine energy and not enough on the feminine.

TAKEAWAY: to maximize the success of your law practice, you need to incorporate feminine energy into your life and your law practice.

The one thing that most every lawyer out there has in common– at least in the U.S. and Canada, which a few exceptions – is that you went through law school on your way to becoming a lawyer. For at least the past 50 years, that is the path to the practice of law.

But if you ask most lawyers and law school grads, they will tell you that law school did not prepare them to enter the legal profession. That they had no idea how to actually practice law once they left the law school classroom. What is a law student or new law grad to do?

TAKEAWAY: law school doesn’t teach you how to practice law. Learning how is up to you.

For some people, the holidays are the best time of the year. For others, the holidays are the WORST time of year, filled with stress from your practice, family, and friends.

In this episode I want to share some things that I use to deal with stress. Most can be used regardless of the situation. And I’ll talk a bit about how to handle particular situations that can arise during the holidays and at the end of the year.

TAKEAWAY: be kind to yourself.

I saw the results of a survey or some research lately that said that lawyers as a whole tend to be more unhappy or negative than the general population. Being a lawyer myself, I can confirm that that is the case. By and large, lawyers tend to be unhappy. For the longest time, I was unhappy with myself and with my law practice.

But that has changed. I am no longer a pessimist (masquerading as a “realist”). I am now an optimist and have positive thoughts and emotions throughout the day. Because I discovered the secret to being happy. And in this episode, I am going to share with you the secret I discovered that you can immediately implement in your life so that you too can be happier.

TAKEAWAY: the way to be happy, is to be happy.

I was listening to a lawyer I greatly admire speak about how to be a good lawyer. And one statement he made really stuck out to me. He was talking about his background prior to becoming a lawyer and how his experience made him a better lawyer today. Now I thought he would focus on his time as a sports broadcaster, or maybe his time in sales, as the reason he is consistently rated as one of the best lawyers in the area. But he didn’t. Instead, he said that some of the most important skills for a lawyer are those he honed being a teacher.

TAKEAWAY: one of the best ways to become a better lawyer is to improve your teaching skills.

As a lawyer, you’ve probably heard the saying that you should always put your clients first. That your clients are the reason you are a lawyer and have a law practice, and so you do what you have to do to help them – even if that means making some sacrifices in other areas of your life. You may even believe that to be true.

But, is putting the needs (and wants) of your client before your own always best? Is sacrificing your physical, mental, and emotional well-being for your clients going to provide them with the best legal services? Or maybe, is there another way – a better way – to provide great service to your clients that doesn’t require making those sacrifices?

In this episode I am going to talk about what it means to make your law practice more client-centric, rather than client-first, and the steps you can take to improve the experience your clients have working with you.

TAKEAWAY: making small improvements to the client experience can have a huge impact on the quality of services you provide, and are better for both you (and your staff) and your clients than always putting their needs before your own.

One of the biggest mistakes I think that you can make in your law practice is undercharging for your services. In other words, not properly valuing the value you are providing to your clients. And it’s not just an issue of you making less money, although that happens too. When you undercharge, you are actually doing a disservice to yourself and your clients. Yep – to your clients as well.

In this episode I talk about the two main reasons why lawyers undercharge and why you should actually look at increasing your prices rather than reduce them for your clients.

TAKEAWAY: undercharging your clients is bad for both you and them.

This is kind of an off-the-cuff episode that was inspired by the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. For many people, gratitude and giving thanks is something that comes around once a year. But really, gratitude should always be on your mind.

This episode is primarily focused on being thankful for the “good” things in your life and creating a habit of gratitude, but when you truly live in gratitude, you are thankful for everything in your life – even the “bad” things that happen. Because as I talked about in last week’s podcast episode, things don’t happen to you, they happen for you.

TAKEAWAY: gratitude isn’t just something you do once a year as part of a holiday, it should be a daily part of your life.

When is the last time that something bad happened to you? Or that you were triggered by someone? Chances are, you complained about it – maybe even mentioned all the bad things that had happened to you. But that is the wrong way to look at things. Those bad things in your life: they aren’t happening to you, they are happening for your benefit.

In this episode I want to talk about how triggers and problems – like difficult clients – are actually a blessing because of the power they have to help you change your law practice as well as your life.

This episode is an interview with Jordan Ostroff. Jordan runs a small personal injury firm in Orlando, Florida, where he also owns a marketing company. Despite being a lawyer, Jordan doesn’t practice law; instead, he is the CEO of his firm, overseeing the lawyers, paralegals, and other staff members that work for him.

Jordan started his firm as many solo and small firm lawyers do, throwing money at marketing and chasing bad leads in the attempt to grow his firm. The firm was $200,000 in debt when his wife announced she was pregnant – he knew things needed to change. He became very intentional about his law practice and has created a firm where he only works 2-3 days a week, focuses his time on the tasks he enjoys and is best at, and is currently in the middle of an 11-month cross-country trip with his family.

In this episode Jordan talks about his journey from 6-figure debt, staffing his law firm, and why the number one thing for law firm success is knowing your ideal client.

I spend a lot of time thinking about why so many solo and small firm lawyers are unhappy. There is a big push in the legal profession right now – and elsewhere as well – around mental health and happiness in your practice. Because there are a lot of lawyers right now that are NOT happy in their current practices; and you may be one of them.

A lot of the mental health and burnout talk centers around working long hours, some of which is driven by being a high achiever and always looking to achieve. And this is definitely a problem many lawyers face. But another side that isn’t getting much attention is on those lawyers who push themselves yet never feel a sense of accomplishment because they never allow themselves to achieve their goals. That is what I want to talk about in this episode.

TAKEAWAY: to be aware if the unhappiness or other negative feelings you have towards your law practice are the result of you always moving the goal post before you can reach the line

You’ve probably heard a lot of people talk about the importance of your own expectations for yourself. The fact that whether you believe you can do something, or you believe you can’t do it, either way you are right.

In this episode, though, I want to talk about how we are influenced by the expectations of those around you. And why it is important that you set high expectations for your team, and that you surround yourself with people who have high expectations of you.

TAKEAWAY: it is important to be aware of the impact of your expectations on others, and on the expectations of those around you on you

This episode was inspired by my friend and mentor Dr. Katie Deming. Katie is a radiation oncologist, meaning she works with cancer patients. On a recent episode of her new podcast, she talked about the difference between curing vs. healing, and delved into the topic of what is or should the role of doctors be. And it caused me to consider the same thing for lawyers: what should the role of lawyers be for our clients?

In her episode, Katie told the story of the villager and the river. I share that story in this episode to hopefully get you to think about what I believe is a very important topic for lawyers. I would love to hear your thoughts on it, which you can share with me at podcast@newmodernlawyer.com.

The past few days I have been working on getting my laptop up and running after it had been slowing down noticeably lately. As a solo, if something like that needs done, I have to do it. Even if you have staff, for many things the bucks stops with you. Along with the work you do for your clients, all those small little things can add up, leading to stress and burnout for you.

In this informal episode I want to talk about the things in your firm you can delegate to a staff member, and those things that you as the law firm owner need to handle yourself. I hope you find this episode valuable.

TAKEAWAY: law firm owners have a lot to juggle, and it is important to know what tasks you can delegate and which you should be handling yourself.

I think it is safe to say that, if you have a law practice, one of your goals is to be “successful.” What that means to you will be different than what it means to me or what it means to another lawyer, but we all want success in our practices. Sometimes that drive for success can actually have the opposite effect, though. It can lead us to a way of thinking based on fear, distrust, and selfishness.

For many years I was afraid I would never have enough clients, or that the ones I did have would leave me. You may feel the same way, especially after having gone through 2020. And I ran my law practice out of that fear – but it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I realized it. Are you running your practice out of the fear of not enough clients? Could you tell if you were?

TAKEAWAY: we often get caught up in scarcity mindset without realizing it.

There are a lot of ways to market you law firm today: video, social media, podcasts. But what if I told you that there is a huge opportunity for you and your firm that most law firms completely miss out on? Something you already have that, with a few changes, could be the difference between a prospective client calling you or calling the lawyer down the street?

You probably have a website – and if you don’t, then you need to stop get one right now. But are you utilizing it to its greatest potential? Probably a good 70% of law firms aren’t. In this episode I will help you join the 30%.

TAKEAWAY: your About page is one of the most valuable pieces of marketing real estate you have. It is about you, but not FOR you. If done well, can be the difference between a prospective client scrolling away to another site or contacting your firm.

One of the things we often hear from others in the legal profession is that, to be a successful lawyer, you have to fully devote yourself to it. That clients and your work must come before everything else. That if you want a robust personal life, if you want a family, that your law practice won’t be as successful as it could be. You have a choice: law practice, or personal life.

But this is a false choice. Because you don’t have to choose one or the other. You can choose both.

TAKEAWAY: if you want it, you can create a law practice that is successful and also allows you to have a successful personal life.

I know that a lot of lawyers out there struggle with marketing. Maybe you do too. You can be the best lawyer in the world, but marketing is a whole other story. And unfortunately, marketing is a big part of running a successful law practice. After all, you need clients, and marketing is a way to get them.

One of my wife’s favorite movies is the Wizard of Oz. You know who would be a good marketer? The cowardly lion. Why? Because he has courage. And courage is very important when it comes to marketing your law practice.

TAKEAWAY: to be successful at marketing your law practice takes courage.

Links

Mike Morse Law Firm commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JaiDZ6N7uY

Alex Su, TikTok lawyer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-su/

Have you ever stood at the top of the diving board, looking down at the water, with a line of people behind you waiting for their turn…and you just can’t jump? All it takes is a few steps and you’d be off the edge, heading towards the cool water below.

It can be the same thing with your law practice. You know what you need to do, but for some reason you just can’t do it. So instead you wait…and keep waiting…and never take the jump towards a better law practice, one that makes you happy and satisfied.

TAKEAWAY: changing your life – being happy, satisfied, fulfilled – requires action. The longer you keep waiting, the longer you will stay unhappy, depressed, and unsatisfied with your life.

If you do criminal defense, estate planning, represent businesses, or any other practice area where you charge flat fees that the client agrees to up front, you are going to find a lot of value in this episode.

Because I am talking about what to do when you tell your client your fee and they tell you it is too high. Spoiler alert: it is probably something you did or didn’t do. Which means you may be able to salvage things and still get the work – if you hurry.

TAKEAWAY: the key to a successful flat fee or subscription fee is to first understand the potential client and their problem, and then discover the value they place on finding a solution. Once you understand those things, your proposal must directly address the problem and pain it is causing the potential client, and you fee must be aligned with the value they place on solving that problem.

You’ve probably heard the stories: of parents working long nights, missing out on their kid’s sports or piano recitals; of not being there for dinner, or not being there for their kids’ entire childhood. This might even be your story.

As lawyers, many of us think that we have to always put the client first. That we get to go home – and focus other things – only once the work for the client is done. That long hours, nights, and weekends are just part of being a lawyer. But they are not. You don’t have to miss out on family movie night. You have a choice.

TAKEAWAY: life is choice, and your life reflects the choices you make. If you are not happy with your life, then you can make different choices. If you are missing out on time with your family because of work, then that is a choice. And you can make a different choice to get a different outcome.

I know a lot of lawyers who are obsessed with their competition. Who are always worried about what the firm down the street is doing, and how they compare to their own practice. Concerned with what kind of marketing the competition is doing, how much money they are making.

And it is all a huge waste of energy. Because what the competition is doing is irrelevant to your firm. And in fact, there is no need for you to have competition at all. You can completely eliminate your competition, so that you are the only game in town for your clients.

TAKEAWAY: to eliminate your competition you have to niche your practice down so that you are the only one in that space. Because when you are the only lawyer in a particular area, you instantly become known as the expert. This means you can be more selective with the clients you work with, charge more money, and ultimately be in control of your law practice.

This episode is one that may be difficult for some of you. Because so many lawyers are in fear – fear of being judged, of what others will think, if they ask for help. We almost wear our refusal to ask for help as a badge of honor, smiling with pride as our law practice sinks around us.

If you are the kind of person that refuses to ask for help, regardless of how deep you are in, or if you refuse to acknowledge how bad things are around you, then this episode is not for you. But, if you are tired of your law practice struggling, of you not being happy and having the life you want, then this episode will hopefully give you the push you need to right the ship and get on track.

TAKEAWAY: asking for help is not a weakness. In fact, your refusing to ask for help is likely why you are unhappy and your law practice is stuck. The only way you are going to make positive change in your law practice and in your life is by stopping trying to do everything yourself.

Despite what you may have heard, the robots are not coming to take our jobs. Well, maybe some lawyer jobs will go away. But there will be new jobs for people with legal training that are created by the technology and its impact on every facet of our lives.

Now, I am not a fortune teller, and I can’t see into the future, but I can see what is going on around the legal profession with regards to technology. And I think it provides a lot of opportunity for solo and small firm lawyers in how we run our practices.

In this episode we will dispel the myth of a dystopian lawyer-less future and instead talk about the importance of legal skills in the 21st Century.

TAKEAWAY: there is always going to be a need for lawyers, and technology is not going to change that. What will change is the role of lawyers and tasks we do. And it will be important to be able to adapt to those changes and to utilize technology to make yourself more efficient and effective in your law practice.

This is a short but powerful episode. As a lawyer, you may have a vision for the life and the law practice you want. But why don’t you have it? Probably because you are approaching it wrong.

Most people, when they have a goal in mind, go from where they are now, to where they want to be. And in this episode I explain why this way of thinking is broken. To get where you want to go – to move forward with your life and law practice – you have to work backwards.

TAKEAWAY: to get the things in life you want, whether it be wealth, law firm growth, or whatever, you need to start from the goal and work your way backwards. If you try to start from where they you and go forward to where you want to be, you will stay stuck and will never be able to get the things you want.

This episode is inspired by a friend of mine. He has observed that a lot of solos and small firm lawyers don’t know how to spend their money. Some spend on things they think will help their law practices grow, but that never do. Others get caught up in “shiny tech syndrome” and are always getting the latest and greatest gadgets. Both, at the end of the day, have an empty bank account and little to show for their spending – except maybe the most recent iPhone.

In this episode I break down the difference between spending on expenses vs. spending on investments, and help you focus your spending on investments in a couple of key areas that are really going to help your firm grow.

TAKEAWAY: the fastest way to bankrupt your law firm is by spending your money on the wrong things. Pure expenses only drain your bank account. When you invest in your firm, however, the money you spend now pays you back in time, efficiency, and future revenues that far outweigh the initial cost.

So many lawyers can’t find enough time in the workday to get everything done. So they go in early, stay late, work through lunch, or spend time on the weekend. And the consequence is missing out on family time, time with friends, and taking care of themselves.

This may sound familiar to you. If it does, I bet one of the culprits is right in front of your face, and you’ve never realized it. I used to use to-do lists all the time. I still have some around, in fact. But I have come to learn that the seemingly innocent to-do list was actually keeping me from getting important things done. So they have been banished from my desk.

In this episode I talk about the difference between tasks that are urgent and those that are important, and why it is the urgent tasks that keep you from really getting things done. I share a system I teach my coaching clients and that I use myself to ensure I work on the important things each day.

TAKEAWAY: to get done the things that are important, stop prioritizing the priorities of others over your own priorities, and make a priority to do the things that are important for you.

There are hundreds of practice management systems for law firms to choose from today. Back when I started practicing, there were only 2-3 options for solos and small firms. Now there are so many options it can be overwhelming.

Ideally, choosing a practice management system – whether it’s your first one or a replacement for what you are currently using – is not something that happens often. And because it is so vital to your practice, it is important that you take the time to make the right choice.

In this episode I talk about how to make the right choice for your practice. There is no one practice management system that is best for every firm, so it comes down to what features are most important for everyone in your particular firm.

TAKEAWAY: it doesn’t matter which practice management system you use as long as it does what you want and everyone uses it.

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying “A lawyer’s time and advice is his stock in trade.” There is some debate whether or not he actually said it, but many lawyers take it as gospel and use it as their reasoning for trying to sell their time to their clients.

There are two problems with that (beyond the questions of whether he actually said it, and if so why he is to be considered an authority on the topic). You can’t sell time. And even if you could, clients don’t want to buy it.

In this episode I explain why you can’t sell time and what clients actually care about. And I give you an off-the-cuff example of the right way to market your legal services to clients in need.

TAKEAWAY: clients don’t buy your time or what you do, they buy the solution can provide them.

If you’ve been practicing law for any amount of time, you’ve undoubtedly run into a client that made your life miserable. Someone who required a disproportionate amount of your time and attention. Constantly calling and emailing you. Expecting immediate replies and getting upset when they don’t get them. Never satisfied with the work you do for them and always asking for more. You know them as the Demanding Client.

We’ve all had them. But did you know that you can actually train a client to be MORE demanding? That your most recent demanding client might have been your own fault?

In this episode I talk about the dreaded Demanding Client. You can often tell if a potential client is going to be a demanding one during your intake process by listening for red flags that come up in your conversation with them. Someone who controls the direction of the initial consultation with you? Probably going to be a demanding client. Your goal, then, should be to weed these people out before they ever become clients.

But not all clients are predisposed to be demanding. You can actually train your “normal” clients that it is OK to be demanding. If you don’t maintain your boundaries, a client will keep pushing to see just how far you are willing to go. Just like my kindergarten daughter is constantly testing the boundaries of what we will let her do.

Takeaway: a demanding client only has as much as power as you allow them to have.