The Thoughts of a small-town man raising his family, growing a church, and building a law practice

 There are hundreds of things to do.  And prioritizing those things is one of them.  Sort of a metaphysical conundrum if an item on the to-do list can't be placed until one decides whether to do it.  Did you know "priorities" wasn't used until the 1940s?  Why is that?  When did we go from having a "priority" to several "priorities"? And where did all this importance come from?  One of my favorite quotes was from a guy who didn't have email (one of my ultimate goals).  He said that email was for staying on top of things and he was trying to get to the bottom of things.  That's what I'm trying to do as well. Get to the heart of the matter. Find the foundation and start building from there.  Sorta of the Descartes of the Texas Plains.  Though, admittedly, the Texas Hill Country is much more serene.  Hico. Dublin. Meridian.  Hamilton, on down and around.  To-do lists ultimately help me frame what I need to do. But the bi...

 Here's the pattern as far as I see it: 1. Start a law firm 2. Grow the law firm 3. Help others grow their law firm 4. Toggle between Steps 2-3.  Why not jump straight to acquisition? That's the Hormozi model.  He ran gyms.  Then opened his own gym.  Opened more gyms.  Launched other gyms for gymowners.  Then taught gymowners how to open their gyms.  Then provided infrastructure for those gyms.  Now he acquires other companies.  The ultimately leveraged move.  Law firms could do the same.  I keep coming back to this idea.  The issue is I don't know how the idea works, as though that was a necessary condition to working on the idea in the first place.  I see the pattern. I see the problem. I know the solution.  But how do I create the solution into an offer? A darn good offer? Certainly worth more research. 

 Money gravitates to value.  The economist nods his head.  The philosopher wakes up.  What is value?  Pirsig pointed out Quality.  And then went mad.  Well, I suppose Phaedrus went mad.  Value is like the sun, suspended in space, sufficiently huge to ensure the other planets gravitate toward it.  It's the bowling ball in the middle of the trampoline that causes the ping pong balls on the perimeter to roll toward to it.  Money is no different. Money is the same as those ping pong balls.  Value is the bowling ball.  So the question is not how to make money. Money already exists.  The question is how to create value. That's the intriguing aspect of life.  That's the question the creator seeks to answer with his work.  That's the question the philosopher seeks to find with his mind.  How to make money is the same as how to make water, air, sunlight.  Money simply exists.  And the desire to accumulate m...

 It's always the little things. Which binder to use.  The office supplies that have to be ordered.  We get so hung up on those minor details without focusing on the larger picture.  What would the client appreciate?  What would help the client along? Everything about the business should be with the client in mind.  Now at some point in time you can't think about the clients without thinking about your team.  They are just as important as the sturdiness of the office floors, walls, etc.  And you can't think about the team, without thinking about your definite aim.  "Why are we here" is the cliche question.  We already know the answer to that.  To glory God and enjoy him forever.  After that becomes the difficult part.  Figuring out exactly what you what out of life and then implementing a plan to achieve it.  Here's the business model so far: 1. Identify a pain point.  2. Create the solution.  3. Tell everyon...

 What I'd give to have the system already running.  Marketing seems easy now compared to managing the actual workflow.  If it was easy, what would it look like?  Client meets with me.  We design their estate plan.  Client agrees, signs the EA, pays retainer.  Then we send out an intake form for them to complete.  I don't necessarily need all their information.  Names, addresses, phone numbers should suffice.  Then that's pushed into LEAP.  Mainly because we're married to it at this point.  Why do we even need LEAP? Invoicing? Trust reconciliation?  Save their information, emails, documents in one place.  Is their automation any good?  I have no idea. I don't work on that side.  I think part of my issue is that I keep changing my mind about the forms we use. I want one solid template and then work in the difficult scenarios. That's basically what Wealth Counsel does. And we have access to that. So why not use...

 Another day, another dollar.  Or so the cliche goes.  Where do these dollars come from?  Where do they go? Where do these days come from?  Where do they go? One day comes from the previous.  And the dollars? They show up when value is created.  Tangible value of help and service to another human.  The misconception with attorneys is that we're only after dollars.  Most attorneys are after days.  But they conflate dollars for days and so they bill by the hour.  Attorneys that only bill by the hour fail to recognize the value rendered.  Make offers so good that clients would feel stupid saying "no." Or better yet: make offers so good that client know you're looking out for their best interest.  The attorney's job should truly be to understand the client's problem, issue, pain, worry, anxiety and then offer a solution based on knowledge, experience, and expertise. Whether it takes the attorney 1 hour or 1 year is certainly o...

 It simply depends on the size of the tank. Small tank = small goldfish  Why do I think I need to revamp SquareSpace in favor of ClickFunnels?  I'm trying to copy rather than create. I want to see that it's already been done and go from there.  I don't want to put in the hard work of creating value.  What about lead magnets?  What about value ladder?  What about them?  I'm justifying to myself that this is the most important thing.  It's a bell and whistle; shiny and new.  The sign is when I go to fiverr to hire someone else to do the thing.  To create the logo. Design the mailer.  The actual act of creating is up to you.  You can't outsource that.  You can look for inspiration and see what others have done.  But there is no golden bullet. There are a thousand silver BBs.  So the value stack is straight forward for now.  "You have estate planning concerns" They come in many different forms.  My sol...