I have been sacked 4 times recently – Yippeee!
Usually being sacked is seen as a bad thing, I think most people would agree with that statement. So why would someone, why would anyone, shout about being sacked as if it is a good thing? Who would do such a thing and why would they?
Well, you need to know the back story a little more before it will make sense, so let me start with some more information for you so that this makes a little more sense.
I used to help solicitors in a very different way than I do now. I used to give them exactly what they wanted; a good thing you might think.
However, as so often is the case with human beings, giving us what we want is not always the best or the right thing to do.
If you ask my son what he wants, usually the answer is to play cricket or his favourite video home (both at any time of the year). If I gave him that all day every day he would soon become very bored.
Some people like chocolate, a lot. However, medical evidence suggests that if someone just ate chocolate all day every day, they would not be the better for it.
Other people like more addictive substances such as tobacco or alcohol. We all know what happens when they spend all day, every day doing what they want when it comes to substances.
So giving people what they want is not always the smartest thing.
What solicitors wanted when it came to generating more client instructions was for me to do everything for them. So I used to do exactly that. However, I soon realised that there was a major flaw in that model, much more so for my clients than it was for me. I was becoming their cigarette to such an extent that they were addicted or totally reliant on me.
Now as I say, for me that was not necessarily a good thing, except that if you know me, I genuinely always try to do the best by my friends, my clients and by you. I don’t know whether it is a hangover from the many years of attending a catholic church and being told to do the right thing and help others, or just the way my nature works. I can tell you it has cost me a lot of lost revenue over the years, particularly when I first started and thought that everyone else would be like me too. Lesson learned, scars earned. We move on.
So this reliance on my services gnawed away at me. I set up my consultancy to work with solicitors and leave them with a better business after they have finished working with me than when they started. Whilst this was achieved whilst I was working with them, I knew that the minute it stopped everything would return to the way it was before I started working with them and things would start to go backwards. I did everything for them, so if I got run over by the proverbial London bus, they would not know what to do. This had to change, and it did.
I completely changed my business model so that instead of doing everything for them I set out in a marketing action plan exactly what they needed to do, put them in touch with different suppliers who could take care of their marketing for them (not one so as not to create more reliance), and then led them through the first few months of setting in place automated marketing systems. This way, rather than becoming dependant on me, they have created a new automated marketing system that will work with or without me. Once I tell them how to monitor the performance of each campaign so that it keeps improving, they are good to go.
Therefore, when I am now sacked, it is generally for the reason that my client has become as busy as they need to be and they can cut free and carry on doing well whilst flying solo. Just like teaching a toddler to ride a bike and then finally letting them go and watching them ride on their own, my clients can go off and do the same.
So when I am sacked, I am a very happy man. It means my work is done. My business model has changed for the benefit of my clients who I leave in a better place, and for me because I know I am doing the best thing for them.
Now I have been a solicitor long enough, and worked with a lot of solicitors for long enough now to know that some of you will see that as trite (you cynic you), but that’s fine by me. I know that enough of you will recognise that this is just the way I work and who I am, which is why I took the time to explain it, so if this appeals to you, we should talk.
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