Lawyer Business Advantage Alay Yajnik

In this episode, Alay and Bruce discuss: 



Gaining an advantage with your clients by being clear and making decisions easy. 

Remaining the right choice by removing risk.

Positioning yourself to attract your ideal clients. 

Be specific about what you want. 



 

Key Takeaways: 



Billboards and awards do not demonstrate trust. Alignment with the client does form the basis for trust.

It’s not just your current best client that matters, it’s also a question of who is your best future client. 

Look at the one or two things you need to attract the clients you desire, not the laundry list of things that could be done. 

If you’re working with the right clients, your life will improve. Life is too short to work with clients that drain you. 





Tweetable Moments:



“Fit is really important, it’s not just about your skills.” —  Bruce La Fetra

* “When you say ‘I want these specific characteristics in a client.’ Now people have something to latch on to and focus on and engage in their mind and really help you.” —  Alay Yajnik

* “What people find is when they’re specific, all of a sudden there’s a lot more opportunity, they’re actually growing, and they’re growing significantly.” —  Bruce La Fetra

* “Communicate internally. Make sure everyone in your firm knows why your best clients select your firm. Then start to communicate that out to your referral partners, your networking contacts, and your past clients. Then that all matches up between what you think internally and say internally, what your clients and referral partners see and hear, and what your marketing is to the outside world.” —  Bruce La Fetra



  

About Bruce La Fetra:

Bruce La Fetra works with attorneys and law firms to fundamentally change how and who generates business. Focusing on their Best Clients creates a virtuous cycle where it gets easier to grow revenue, improve profitability, and shorten the sales cycle as the firm attracts more of its Best Clients.

Clients call Bruce “The Client Whisperer” because his Think Like Your Best Clients concept for positioning hands his clients a hard-to-match advantage. The Think Like Your Best Clients concept evolved from developing marketing strategies for dozens of firms and interviewing hundreds of their Best Clients over the past 20 years.

Bruce earned his BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College and his MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is also a trained facilitator. Bruce isn’t an attorney, but he is married to one.

 

Connect with Bruce La Fetra: 

Website: https://theclientwhisperer.com/  

Website: https://eastwoodstrategy.com/ 

Email: bruce@eastwoodstrategy.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blafetra/ 

 

Connect with Alay Yajnik: 

Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/ 

One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com

Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik

In this episode, Alay and Bruce discuss: 



Bruce’s 40-40-20 rule. 

Minimizing challenges early in your sales process. 

Attracting your future best clients.  



 

Key Takeaways: 



Your bottom clients are somebody else’s best clients. It’s not about the work, it’s about the fit.  

Your offer is not what you do, it is what your client can do because of what you do.

The right audience is not who you can help, but who is a great fit for you.

When there’s clear alignment, there’s more trust, and clients see more impact value, which leads to faster and bigger sales. 





Tweetable Moments:



* “Fire bad prospects, they should never become clients.” —  Bruce La Fetra

* “40% of your success comes from having the right offer. 40% of your success is talking to the right audience. The last 20% is having the right content.” —  Bruce La Fetra

* “Content needs to reflect the offer and the audience.” —  Bruce La Fetra

* “If you work with clients that you love, and that love you back, and clients that you do great work for, and clients trust you and you enjoy working with them as well, you trust them as well to be great clients. It’s a great relationship. And if you’re good at what you do, that’s going to result in a fantastic outcome.” —  Alay Yajnik

* “My advice to you is don’t settle. If you’re not happy with all of your clients, you can make some changes, and you can have an amazing book of business filled with clients that you enjoy.” —  Alay Yajnik



  

About Bruce La Fetra:

Bruce La Fetra works with attorneys and law firms to fundamentally change how and who generates business. Focusing on their Best Clients creates a virtuous cycle where it gets easier to grow revenue, improve profitability, and shorten the sales cycle as the firm attracts more of its Best Clients.

Clients call Bruce “The Client Whisperer” because his Think Like Your Best Clients concept for positioning hands his clients a hard-to-match advantage. The Think Like Your Best Clients concept evolved from developing marketing strategies for dozens of firms and interviewing hundreds of their Best Clients over the past 20 years.

Bruce earned his BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College and his MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is also a trained facilitator. Bruce isn’t an attorney, but he is married to one.

 

Connect with Bruce La Fetra: 

Website: https://theclientwhisperer.com/  

Website: https://eastwoodstrategy.com/ 

Email: bruce@eastwoodstrategy.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blafetra/ 



Connect with Alay Yajnik: 

Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/ 

One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com

Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik

In this episode, Alay and Bruce discuss: 



Working with clients who are the best fit for you. 

The difference between cogs, experts, and advisors.

The value of different roles.

Why nothing is your biggest competitor. 

Building trust and backing that with knowledge.



 

Key Takeaways: 



Shedding the clients that drain your energy will increase your ability to do work with those who give you energy and your business will improve. 

As an advisor, it is not what you do. It is what your client can do because of you. 

If your client doesn’t know what the criteria is, you’re only competing on price. 

The expert that takes no risk is focusing on themself. They are trying to eliminate the chance that something will go wrong and come back on them. 



 

Tweetable Moments:



* “There’s nothing wrong with being an expert, but there are things that experts do that cause the trap.” —  Bruce La Fetra

* “When people are overwhelmed, they have a tendency to shut down and do nothing.” —  Alay Yajnik

* “Advisors are usually also experts, but instead of answering questions, they’re helping to shape the questions.” —  Bruce La Fetra

* “The ultimate goal should be improving the client’s business. The ultimate goal should not be eliminating risk.” —  Bruce La Fetra

* “Expertise does not make you an advisor. Trust makes you an advisor.” —  Bruce La Fetra



 

About Bruce La Fetra:

Bruce La Fetra works with attorneys and law firms to fundamentally change how and who generates business. Focusing on their Best Clients creates a virtuous cycle where it gets easier to grow revenue, improve profitability, and shorten the sales cycle as the firm attracts more of its Best Clients.

Clients call Bruce “The Client Whisperer” because his Think Like Your Best Clients concept for positioning hands his clients a hard-to-match advantage. The Think Like Your Best Clients concept evolved from developing marketing strategy for dozens of firms and interviewing hundreds of their Best Clients over the past 20 years.

Bruce earned his BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College and his MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is also a trained facilitator. Bruce isn’t an attorney, but he is married to one.

 

Connect with Bruce La Fetra: 

Website: https://theclientwhisperer.com/  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blafetra/ 

 

Connect with Alay Yajnik: 

Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/ 

One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com

Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik

In this episode, Alay and Eric discuss: 



Putting in the time to learn the craft. 

A frictionless approach to the client journey. 

Developing functional workflows. 

Defining roles and responsibilities with a focus on strengths. 





Key Takeaways: 



Use a detailed intake process to weed out the clients that are not right for you. 

Take the time in the beginning to build your intake process and run all the scenarios you can think of. It will save you so much time every week. 

Running a law firm is still a business. You have to focus on the business side, not just the legal side. 

Take the time to put energy and effort into the things that matter most to you – whether that’s learning a new practice area or streamlining your client experience. 



 

Tweetable Moments:



* “I knew it was a passion. I knew that’s what I wanted. So I took the time and dedicated it to that.” —  Eric Proos

* “If you can invest three hours or so to get a savings of 10 hours per week, every week going forward, you have got to take that seriously.” —  Alay Yajnik

* “I want my client experience to be as frictionless as possible. So I’ve put in the time to develop a very detailed intake process.” —  Eric Proos

* “It’s never been easier to run a law firm with the tools, the software, the virtual assistants, the fractional work that you can bring on board.” —  Alay Yajnik



  

About Eric Proos:

Eric Proos was inspired to become a lawyer after his family experienced workplace violence first-hand, which left them and the other victims with minimal legal remedies. After years of working with law firms representing businesses and individuals in transactional and litigation matters, he went on to start the Los Angeles boutique firm, The Law Office of Eric. J. Proos, P.C., where he concentrates on business and real estate transactions, as well as acting as outside general counsel for several companies. From a unique subscription model offering for small businesses to creating personalized approaches for each client, Eric is a modern lawyer rooted in classic principles. For the last three years, Eric has been selected as Super Lawyers Southern California Rising Star, is a contributor for Inman, and shares his daily thoughts on what’s happening in the law on his LinkedIn page. He can provide unique insights on business formation, contracts, and sales operating agreements, as well as what’s happening in commercial and residential real estate laws and landlord/tenant issues. 

 

Connect with Eric Proos: 

Website: https://ejplawoffice.com/ 

Email: eproos@ejplawoffice.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericproos/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ejp_law/ 

 

Connect with Alay Yajnik: 

Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/ 

One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com

Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik

In this episode, Alay and Brad discuss: 



Best practices from the manufacturing sector that apply to law firms. 

Why the billable rate is the wrong metric to focus on when looking at growth. 

Defining success to ensure successful staff. 





Key Takeaways: 



Focus on a happy customer and everything else will take care of itself. Take care of the client first. 

The process does not need to change, even if the scope of the work changes. 

There is a big difference between process and work instructions. Create the process and allow your team to write the work instructions.

Multigenerational industries and workplaces are not going away any time soon. 



 

Tweetable Moments:



* “Billable hours are a lagging indicator of your business. It’s not going to tell you how your business is going to go; it’s telling you how your business has done.” —  Alay Yajnik

* “Focus on the greatness and go forward from that and not worry about ‘I can be everything to everyone.’ Because if you’re everything to everyone, you’re nothing to nobody. ” —  Brad Herda 

* “You may think your practice is unique and different than everybody else’s. And you’re right – it’s unique because it’s you. But what you’re dealing with isn’t unique to the industry.” —  Brad Herda

* “It may involve investing some time upfront to create those processes, but then you reap the benefits forever and forever. It’s compounding interest.” —  Alay Yajnik



  

References: 



Mmhmm: https://www.mmhmm.app/home 

Zoom: https://zoom.us/ 

Loom: https://www.loom.com/ 



 

About Brad Herda:

Brad has been supporting and improving the lives of those around him for over 4 decades.  He has brought perspective and context into every role he has had.  Having been in manufacturing organizations for most of his adult career, he was able to forge relationships by learning what matters to people.  In doing so, Brad was able to master the art of change management and understand the importance of a multigenerational workforce. He finds ways to communicate how the big picture benefits themselves, their teams, their families, and their organizations.  Since starting his business in 2016, Brad has been able to support his clients to achieve continuous record-breaking results.

 

Connect with Brad Herda: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-herda/ 

Website: https://www.vfbsolutions.com/ 

Website: https://bradherda.focalpointcoaching.com/ 

Email: bherda@focalpointcoaching.com 

Blue-Collar BS Podcast: https://blue-collar-bs.captivate.fm/ 

 

Connect with Alay Yajnik: 

Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/ 

One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com

Email: Alay@YajnikGroup.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alayyajnik

In this episode, Alay and Jennifer discuss: 



Environmental law as a practice area.

Creating your perfect law firm and building a successful business. 

Challenges to overcome in building a successful law firm. 

Proactive and educational marketing. 



 

Key Takeaways: 



There are ways to communicate your value without it being only about the money.

Let people know what you do and why it is important. Many people may not realize how you can help them if they don’t understand what you do in your area of law. 

If you work with an industry with environmental concerns, you should also work with an environmental lawyer to protect them as much as possible. 

Think outside the box about issues that might affect your clients, even if they aren’t bringing those issues to you directly. 





Tweetable Moments:



* “The trick really has been to explain to people what environmental law is, why people need to be thinking about it, why it’s good business to have some foresight, and how we can better serve our clients if we understand where the consequences might be of taking action or inaction today.” —  Jennifer Novak

* “For lawyers, we need to get out of our silos. We need to be thinking about the fact that the advice we give our clients really could be of a higher quality and have more service to them if we’re making them aware of issues that they may not be thinking about.” —  Jennifer Novak

* “Stories sell. Whether you’re a litigation or transaction attorney, stories sell.” —  Alay Yajnik



  

About Jennifer Novak:

Jennifer F. Novak is a second-generation female California attorney, who has been practicing law for almost 30 years.  Since 2013, she has been the principal of an all-female, all-environmental law firm, helping good people who find themselves in bad situations given the complexities of California law.  She’s helped a wide variety of people, from international and Fortune 500 companies to developers, to farmers, to small family businesses, and everything in between.  Whether people know it or not, we’re all affected by environmental regulation.  And sometimes those regulations trap the unwary, especially with family businesses that may have problems with contamination and need help with investigations, remediation, government enforcement, or litigation.  

In her spare time, Jennifer has served as the Chair of the California Lawyers Association’s Environmental Law Section, on numerous non-profit boards, including the California YMCA Youth & Government Program, and is an active community volunteer.

 

Connect with Jennifer Novak: 

Website: https://www.jfnovaklaw.com/ 

Videos: https://www.jfnovaklaw.com/video-gallery  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NovakEnvironmentalLaw/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jfnovaklaw/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-novak-133a624b/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jfnovaklaw/ 

 

Connect with Alay Yajnik: 

Podcast: http://lawyerbusinessadvantage.com/ 

One Page Strategic Plan: LawFirmSuccessGroup.com