#182: Lawyers, Are You Willing?

[00:00:51] You’re too old. This isn’t working. You’re a laughing stock. Looking at me now, you might think I’ve always had a successful coaching and consulting business, but that was exactly what was running through my mind just three and a half years ago.

[00:01:06] Too old. Heather, this isn’t working. You’re a laughingstock. What’s going to happen if?

Not because my brain was being extra harsh, but because of the truth. I was not making the money I had expected. Not even close. I didn’t like the type of coaching I was doing back then. It was generic career coaching and work life balance coaching. And I was at the time struggling at online marketing.

[00:01:31] There was a much bigger learning curve to owning my own coaching and consulting practice than I had imagined. And in all honesty, at that moment, I kind of was flailing. Not necessarily failing, but I was on a path towards failure if I didn’t change things. So I was flailing.

[00:01:51] Now, there was one thing that was going for me, and this is the thing I want you to think about.

I was willing.

[00:02:01] What does that mean?

• Willing to try new things.
• Willing to be wrong.
• Willing to make mistakes.
• Willing to fail.
• Willing to look like an absolute idiot if I had to.
• Willing to ask for and get help.

[00:02:18] So during that time period, my husband asked if I was going to consider going back to my old law firm. That was hard, but it was a valid question at the time, given where my current business was.

Despite his obvious worry over the then current state of my business and our finances, I said no. And in all honesty, I never even considered going back.

Instead, I hired an online sales and marketing coach because it was very clear that I needed to learn some new things about the online marketing and sales business. Things that, frankly, did not apply to me as a big law lawyer.

You might be asking, okay, so what happened? Well, since then, I’ve exceeded my goals every single year, and I’ve been able to do that while serving the people I feel most aligned to.

[00:03:15] Part of that journey for me was figuring out and getting more clarity around who is it that I actually want to serve. Part of the problem for me at the time was that I didn’t have that clarity. I had been doing what just felt like the thing to do based on my coaching training.

[00:03:35] And so some of that journey for me was playing around, getting a little bit more out there on the business side and the leadership side of coaching and seeing what can I do there. Am I good at it? Do I enjoy it? How can I help people in that area?

Turns out, yes, I am good at it. Yes, I do enjoy it. In fact, I absolutely love it. And yes, I can help a lot of people in that area.

[00:04:05] I even got pretty good at online marketing, y’all, to the point where I can help lawyers get good at it, too.

[00:04:13] So something I want you to know and then a question for you.

Success is never guaranteed yet anyone can achieve the success they want.

Because success is about fulfilling your fullest potential and not giving up.

[00:04:31] Do that, get out there, try, play around, explore. Adopt that explorer’s mindset I’ve talked about this year already, and you’re going to achieve a whole lot.

Maybe not exactly as first imagined. Perhaps not as quickly as you would like. And no, you might not achieve every single thing you set out to do.

But it won’t matter because you’ll have achieved much and you’ll grow, you’ll learn, you’ll change what you want. You’ll be better for it overall as a person and within your law practice/ your business.

[00:05:13] But here’s the deal, y’all. Only if you’re willing. This is the key.

[00:05:21] And this is the key, I’m telling you, because you’ve got to be willing. And I’m going to say “Willing to do what?” in just a moment.

You must be willing to do the things that are necessary, okay? To get the help. To get out there – put yourself out there. To explore. To flail around a little bit.

Because guess what? Getting the clarity around what will really work for you, around what you really want and what success means to you often means flailing. It doesn’t mean thinking.

Flailing is about doing even though you don’t know the answer. Flailing is about exploring new areas even though you might find, no, that’s not it. Flailing is about getting out there and just kind of trying things out.

[00:06:07] So you must be willing to be vulnerable, to make mistakes, to flail, to learn, to do the hard work and sometimes even fail at something.

[00:06:25] As I said, today is a short and sweet one, but it’s a really important one as we embark into a new year. As you are setting your goals for 2025, as you are setting your business development strategies or your team strategies, or your leadership strategies, or even your personal goals and the strategies around how to achieve those. No matter what it is you’re looking forward to, you need to ask yourself this question.

[00:06:56] Am I willing?

[00:06:59] My hope is that you are, because it is so very worth it.

And if you are and you’re ready for help, reach out. Let’s have a chat.

I will tell you, I don’t work with everybody. I’m not a perfect fit for everybody. But if you’ve been listening to me for a while, you probably have a pretty good idea of whether I would or would not be a fit. And if you are interested in working with a coach, let’s chat. It doesn’t obligate you to anything, but it does show that you’re willing and it does show that maybe you’re ready to get started to do for yourself for a change.

[00:07:36] All right, that is it for today. I hope that you have a fabulous New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and a safe one. We will be back next week with my top life lessons that I learned during the year 2024 that will help you spring forward and supercharge your 2025. Bye for now.