“What the fuck am I doing?”
This was me around 8 am yesterday. I finished reading some law and was scrolling on my phone. It was at this moment that IT kicked in.
What is IT?
For those that no longer have a salary coming in, you know the feeling. IT is you REALIZING you have no income anymore. IT is realizing you do not have clients.
IT is realizing - IT is on YOU.
The good, the bad, the FEEDING YOUR CHILD.
The day mostly consisted of me trying to prioritize what to work on, with BUSINESS GENERATION hopping to the front every time I was like, “where should I put my paperclips”, or “Does this picture look better here, or here?”
Entrepreneurship shines a light on your shitty and procrastinating behaviors. I’m a whore for X, we all know this. However, that sweet, sweet $35 every two weeks will not be keeping my lights on, unless I worked in Zoolander’s school for Ants.
My office mates are fun. My journey breaking free started when an older lawyer approached me in court a few months back and said, “You look done here. Let me buy you dinner.”
His offer was different than what I imagined (It involved real estate, head out of the gutter) and I said no. After some back and forth (he had cases in my courtroom), we came to a fee arrangement on cases he brings in, plus I rent from him.
I now work with him and his Secretary, an older woman who is:
-Super happy at all times
-Hard of hearing
-Listens to pop music (there’s a hilarious Rob Henderson tweet on this, go look if you do not know what I am talking about)
Let’s call her Daisy.
I walked in, and there she was, BRIGHT, WELCOMING SMILE.
We became instant friends.
I already feel sort of bad, because I walk out of my office and start ranting to her and I’m not paying her. Probably should be careful, although admin work can be mind-numbing so maybe I’m doing her a favor.
“How do I get business?”
My strategy is three fold:
Become court appointed to juvenile cases. I already have an in with my county given I was a juvenile prosecutor for two years. Unfortunately, it has been so cold, all of the youths that normally commit crimes don’t want to go outside. Want to live in a crime free environment? Try Antarctica.
Reaching out to everyone I have ever met, specifically defense attorneys and public defenders in my county. Every 50/50 decision yesterday went to pinging defense attorneys to offer my services for the cases they don’t want, cannot do (conflict), and coverage work (aka stand in court and get a new date).
Creating content via YouTube which is informational and entertaining, as well as holding seminars. As BowTiedTetra said, you need to be creating a MEDIA company. The more media I create, the more professional I look, the more eyeballs, etc.
The seminars are an idea I had from my financial planning days. I will be putting on ‘divorce basics’ seminars, although with a sexier title. I will do them primarily on zoom to start - let’s say you wanted a divorce or were thinking about it.
Do you want to show up to a seminar in public about getting a divorce?
No.
Will you attend one anonymously on zoom?
Hmmm….
Will you watch YouTube videos about options?
Hmmm….
Exactly.
I left around 5 pm to get home with some light, just in case I hit black ice in -15 degree temps. I took my “first day!” selfie with my co-office lawyer (Daisy was already gone),then went home to eat my chicken and rice (I’m now poor but it’s delicious and healthy so that’s good) and create my LinkedIn page (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram are my older people need lawyer places).
Did I make the right decision? Fuck and Yes.
Get out of the rat race when you can as soon as you can. I feel ALIVE.
Will it be tough? Yes.
Is ANYTHING IN LIFE worth it when it’s easy?
NO.
Day two is on it’s way, already worked out, wrote about day one…
What the fuck am I doing? Those are not generating business!
G2G!
Love,
KONG