#192: How To Transition From Associate To Business-Builder

[00:01:35] Well, hey there everybody. Welcome to the Life & Law Podcast. This is your host, Heather Moulder and today we are tackling a topic that was asked of me by a listener.

So I do get to these I promise. And if you have not had a chance to let me know what it is you would like to hear about, I’m actually going to put a link in the show notes that will take you to a brief survey where you can answer a couple of questions and let me know what it is you would like me to cover that either I haven’t covered or maybe I haven’t covered it in a specific way or you’d like me to go a bit deeper.

Whatever it is, I would love to know from you what you would like me to cover because I do listen to these things and it’s been a while since since I have put this in there. So again, go to the show notes and please let me know. One caveat: I am finishing up my recordings over the next couple of weeks for the remainder of the season. New topics will most likely be addressed in the next season.

Okay, so the specific question for today was this:

How do you transition from associate to business builder?

Why This Question Is Important For Almost Everyone

[00:02:56] And honestly it doesn’t really matter whether you’re an associate trying to get started on building a book of business, whether you’re senior counsel, whether you’re of counsel, or whether you’re even a partner, because there is a transition period. Regardless of what level you are, where you decide: “You know what? I know I need to build my own book of business. I know that I need to get started. And how do I do that?”

[00:03:23] So it’s probably not gonna come as a big surprise to you that my number one key that I have for you, my foundational thing, is it’s honestly about your mindset.

You need a mindset shift.

Because at the end of the day, I can give you a lot of things to do. But if you’re not bought in internally on the fact that you can do this, that you are capable of doing this, that you are stepping into it and just going out and speaking up more and letting people know what you think and getting a little bit vulnerable and doing some marketing activities and going networking more and asking people if you can do business with them, making the ask.

If you are not there mentally, you’re not going to do those things.

[00:04:15] So please understand that you need to be there. And I have covered a lot of – I don’t know that I’ve covered it quite this way – but I’ve got a lot of podcasts on mindset and mindset shifts that I’m going to put a couple of them that I think are most important for this topic into the show notes. Go back and listen to them and think through those podcasts in this way – when it comes to this specific question.

So just note that is foundational. And because I talk about mindset so often, that’s actually not what I’m going to be covering for the remainder of today’s episode. Because I think at least the gist of the question, the way it was asked, it really sounded like, okay, what do I do?

What are some practical, tactical things that I can do? Now, the good news is doing these things, even without the full mindset shift, is going to help you start making that shift. But just understand, it happens over time.

The mindset shift, it’s not going to be snap of a finger. It’s not going to be overnight. It’s not even going to be in a couple of weeks or a couple of months. It slowly but surely happens.

It’s kind of like for any of you who, who have been practicing for more than three to five years, when you first start practicing.

[00:05:39] I remember very early on, I think it was probably two or three months into my career, sitting down with one of the partners who’d been doing it for over 20 years and just looking at him going “I am never gonna be that good. I am never gonna be that smart. I am never gonna understand the business side as well as he does. I am never all of these things.”

I think all of us go through this because we get real good at school and then we have to go out and apply it. And we realize that everything we learned isn’t 100% applicable in the real world. And there’s a whole new learning curve. And it’s scary and it makes you feel like you’re all the way back in grade school, right?

[00:06:21] But then a couple of years goes by and you look back and go, wow, I’ve learned something. I know more. And then a couple more years go by and you’ve stepped up into this more senior lawyer capacity. You know what you’re doing. You can give good advice to clients when they call. You don’t have to go double-check everything. You don’t rethink everything, you don’t overthink everything. It just happens.

Before you know it, you’re there. But it’s not before you know it because it’s five, six, seven years later before you make this realization. I’m not saying it’s going to take five, six, seven years. It’s not. But I actually think it takes a good 12 to 18 months to fully make that mindset shift when you’re all-in working on it. So please give yourself some grace. Please give yourself permission to allow things to just happen in a clunky way. Please allow yourself to learn. It’s okay.

That’s all I’m going to do on the mindset piece. Now let’s get into the practical stuff.

Tip number one: Know your niche.

[00:07:25] I have talked about niching down before, so hopefully this won’t surprise you. But it is really impossible to get out there and build a book of business if you don’t know what you’re trying to build, who you’re trying to build it for, how to talk to people.

Knowing your niche is about narrowing things down into something that’s obvious for you. Something that’s like, okay, this gives me ideas. Because if you don’t narrow down, you don’t know who to target, you don’t know where to go, you don’t know what to speak about or write about.

[00:08:03] That’s why you’ve got to narrow it down, okay? Know your niche, narrow it into something.

Whatever makes sense for you in the here and now, based on what you’ve been doing, where your practice has been, where you are now, what your interests are ( that’s incredibly important, y’all). And just pick it and go with it. It does not mean you are stuck there forever. But you’ve got to get started somewhere. So pick a niche, know what it is, get specific, and go all in on that. That is number one.

[00:08:36] Number two, and this is why that is number one. Because again, you can’t do this until you know your niche.

Next, identify where. Where are you going to network, where are you going to market (and how)?

[00:08:50] Marketing can be a lot of things. It can be writing articles, it can be writing on LinkedIn, it can be speaking. Right?

[00:08:59] Where are you going to market? Are you going to market? I would recommend you do one marketing activity initially. It doesn’t have to be a lot. It could be writing on LinkedIn once a week, or maybe you just start with twice a month and get into a good habit and then go to once a week, which is what I ultimately recommend you do. If you are going to write on LinkedIn, you want to do enough of it, but not so much that it gets in your way. And if you want to do it more often than that because you’re good at it and you love it, do it.

Maybe you’d rather speak. Well, you’ve got to figure out where and what about, and you don’t know that until you know your niche. So again, identify the where. This is. Where am I going to market? How am I going to market? What am I going to talk about, right?

[00:09:42] And then pick where to network. There are a million places in which to network. So again, you need to know your niche so that you can pick this. And by the way, even knowing your niche, you’re probably going to have more than one place.

Pick a couple to get started if it’s not clear to you what the best place is. Give yourself three to four months to explore.

[00:10:05] But don’t take longer than that. Okay?

What I find a lot of attorneys do is they like to explore forever. And they never want to pick. They never want to narrow down. They never want to go all in on something because they’re afraid that something is the wrong choice. It’s okay if you make the wrong choice, you’ll discover that you can pivot.

And by the way, it’s probably not a fully wrong choice regardless. Okay, so identify where. Where are you going to market and how. Where will you network?

[00:10:35] Know your niche, identify where.

Number three, leverage your strengths.

Now, what does this mean? Okay, what do you actually enjoy doing? So when you’re thinking about where to network, when you’re thinking about where and how to market, you want to understand, what are my strengths? What am I good at? Am I a good writer? Do people tell me I’m a great speaker? Do I teach really well? This is going to help you craft the how, right?

So understand your strengths. And by the way, it’s not just what you’re good at. So you start there, but you also then step back and go, well, what do I actually enjoy doing? What fits my personality and what fits my current lifestyle based on my current circumstances, based on my current stage of life?

Perhaps you love speaking, but you have two little ones running around at home, and you don’t want to be going and speaking to a bunch of different conferences that you have to travel for. So maybe you find an organization locally that has your perfect people that you could go speak at and then network there, right?

So start with your niche, start to narrow down by identifying where and then narrow down even further. That’s step three, by leveraging your strengths and tailoring it to your own personality.

Number 4: Prioritize networking over all else.

[00:12:05] This is a big one, y’all. You build your book by forming relationships, which means you really do need to get out there and make connections. And remember, networking isn’t about going out and selling yourself and marketing yourself. It’s about just getting to know people, getting to understand them. Now, you do need to go to the right places. That’s why steps one and two are so important.

[00:12:28] But prioritize getting to know people, understanding them, asking good questions.

[00:12:36] This is going to help you learn more about your target market, who is a better fit for you, and why.

[00:12:43] And also it’s going to give you good intelligence, good information for what to write about, what to speak about, you know, how to market them, what they actually need.

[00:12:54] But prioritize networking over the marketing. That is probably the biggest thing.

It’s interesting to me how many lawyers actually do the opposite. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we lawyers, a lot of us, tend to be more introverted people and we want to then kind of gravitate towards the stuff that feels less vulnerable. It doesn’t require us to go somewhere and take a couple hours. It doesn’t require us to be prepared with questions to ask people. But you’re going to get a lot more out of networking (so long as, and this is important, so long as you’re networking in the right places).

And a little bit here around internal networking: don’t knock it. Internal networking is just as important as external networking. It is the fastest way to grow your business. One of the things I work with on my clients immediately for practically every person who comes and works with me from a business coaching perspective who is at a mid-size to big firm is internal networking. Because they’ve always got room to develop that.

So if you are at a firm, find ways to become a go-to for a rainmaker who has business, find ways to get known for that thing. Find ways then to get in front of other partners in other offices.

[00:14:18] Especially if you’re in a really big firm that has offices throughout the country or internationally, become a go-to for people because over time you can actually develop that into originations. If you are their go-to for X – those matters you can ask for origination credit on and start getting it.

[00:14:38] I talked about this recently in my internal networking episode. If you haven’t listened to that, you need to. Networking is key. But don’t just think about it as external networking. There’s external and there’s internal internal. And you want to do both and you want to prioritize both. This is the fastest way to grow a book of business is through networking.

[00:15:02] Finally…

Understand the rules within your firm.

Who gets originations, how much they count, what responsible attorney might mean in your firm, and billable (how much you’re expected to bill versus bring in, how you get paid)

[00:15:21] And at what levels. You need to understand that and you really want to understand that before you make partner or shareholder, to be quite honest with you. So you know what you’re building towards.

Every firm is different, they’re not all the same. Some firms give you a lot more credit based on collections on originations, you get a lot more of that money. Some firms, you don’t get as much of that. It really does vary.

[00:15:45] And there are real reasons, by the way, for having different rules based on the culture that each firm is trying to create. It might make more sense on the one hand to you to be somewhere where they give you a lot more of the money that you bring in as an originator, but not as much as a biller. But understand that does create a different culture than in a place where everybody, including rainmakers, need to service to some extent and build to some extent. It’s a little more collegial. People are more willing to help one another out, right?

There is no good and bad, but there are differences. So you need to understand what the written rules are, where you are, and make sure you’re building towards that. And if you don’t agree with that, it might be a sign that you’re doing it in the wrong place and that there is a better-fit culture for you moving forward.

[00:16:32] Okay, so quick review. Number one, Know your niche. Number two, identify where where will you market and network. Number three, Start with what you enjoy. Leverage your strengths and your marketing. Number four, prioritize networking over marketing. This is especially true when you get busy. Do not fall down on everything just because you’re busy. And if you can’t prioritize everything, at least keep doing the networking. Don’t forget internal networking can be just as effective and important, if not more so than external networking. And then number five, know the rules within your firm. How do things work? What are you building towards and why?

[00:17:19] That is what to start paying attention to if you want to transition from associate to business builder, from senior counsel to business builder, from of counsel or service partner to business builder.

[00:17:35] All right, that’s it for this week. We will be back next week with a guest to talk about lawyer leadership. Talk to you soon. Bye for now.