Phyllis Sisenwine - Master Certified Coach, Motivational Speaker, Author, and "The Lawyers Coach"

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W four CY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and now your host, Kevin Helenair. Thank you everyone for joining in again today. I'm Kevin Hallanan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on W four metery dot com. We're streaming live on talkfour tv dot com in addition to Facebook and that's at Winning Business Radio, and of course we're available in podcasts after this live show on many platforms including YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, pretty much wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

1:18 The mission of Winning business radio and TV, as regular viewers and listeners know, is to offer insights and advice to help people avoid the mistakes of others, right to learn, best practices, the how to's, the what tos, the what not tos, to be challenged, and certainly and hopefully I say, to be inspired by the successes of others. But you know, virtually every successful person I've ever talked to has had some form of failure in their lives and careers. So while we all have to get our knees skinned once in a while, I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it today. My guest is Phyllis Sisenwine, Master's Certified Coach, motivational speaker, author, and the Lawyer's Coach. Here's her bio. Phyllis is a Master's Certified coach, the highest designation bestowed by the International Coaching Federation Certified excuse me. Masters Certified coaches represent the top four percent of all of the fifty thousand credentialed coaches.

2:14 Before turning her talent to business and life coaching. She achieved success as a sales representative working in the office supplies industry. Phyllis sorry works with individuals and organizations on business and personal development. In addition to her coaching work, she's an author of frequent radio and TV guest and is a nationally known motivational speaker. She earned the international reputation as the Lawyer's Coach. For over twenty five years, she's helped lawyers and law firms improve performance and increase profitability. She's committed to helping those lawyers and has become a trusted adviser to attorneys. She's married to Sam. They live in Florida. They have two grown children, Marnie and Joel, a four year old sheep whoof I said that right named Duchess Phyllis. Welcome to Winning business radio and TV. And thank you for being here. Thank you. It's great to be here. Oh, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. By the way, I love the tagline on your Facebook page which says inspiring excellence in you meaning the viewer or the reader. Love that. Absolutely everybody has excellence. We just have to help them to get it all out. Oh. I like that. I like that. All right, let's get a little bit of background. Tell us where you grew up actually, Philadelphia, Philly. What can I tell you?

3:25 Phillis. I'll never forget that. Yes, I'm Phillis from Philly. I lost you, we lost your video. There, there you go. I'm from Philadelphia and moved to Florida about fifteen years ago. But I still have a house in Long Beach childand New Jersey. Some one of the lessons that has a seasonal business. I can, you know, work virtually and I have a house and Long Beachild, New Jersey, and then Florida in the winter. Awesome, Awesome. What were your early interests. I always loved high school college, business, business, business. I mean it's funny how I was always selling something or looking into business, and my friends were all teachers, and I wanted to be in business. Business. I even had a business years ago called Individually Yours, and I took you know, long sleeved T shirts, and I had one of those hot iron presses that you see on the boardwalk. Sometimes we can pick out a transfer and put it on a T shirt. Well, I had all these different letters and you could get your name down your sleeve, and they actually had people doing house parties, kind of like a Tupperware party where they would sell T shirts, come back the next day with all these orders, and I would be in my house with my hot iron machine putting all these letters on their sleeves.

4:46 So I was always an entrepreneur. I love it. I love it. I love sales and business. So to that point, you spent time in the sale in sales in the office supplies industry. As we read in your bio, what are two or three key lessons learned from that experience so you'd like to share with the viewers and the listeners today, Well, it's all about relationships. I sold pens and pencils and paper clips. Everybody needed that, why not buy from me? But I built relationships. I made the person who was in charge of stocking the stock room ordering the supplies, I made them look good. I would come into the stock room in this law firm or hospital or any big company, and I would organize the shelves and label them. It looked like a vending machine. Blue pens, red pens, paper paper clips. It looked so great that when I would come at every week or two to get an order it was so easy to see where the inventory was low, and it made the person in charge of the stock room look good. They never ran out of anything. So that was the one thing. Always get added value, did great customer service. That's what it's like, you know, from sales. It's just being a little better than the competition. That's good. So how and why I'll break this up in a moment. How and why did you transition into coaching? The first I want to know the why? Why did you decide that coaching was the place for you? Well, it worked out that my office supply sales job, Staples bought the company I worked for. Well, okay, everything

6:18 changed. I was on straight commission. I did very well. They wanted call reports, you know, keep a record who are your prospects? Who are you seeing tomorrow? Who did you see yesterday? And it was like I just didn't want to do that. I was kind of a very experienced I had won a lot of contest salesmen in the year and all of that, and it was just very different working for Staples, and I thought, this isn't going to be fun anymore. And when I was in sales, if one of the other salesmen would lose an a camp, phillis, let's go to lunch. I need a little motivation, And I would say, okay, you're lost in a camp. Who's your next prospect? You know, always looking at the positive. So when Staples bought the company and stopped being fun, somebody said, Phillips, you've got to become a coach.

7:00 You know, you're already coaching all the other salespeople. When they're having a bad day, they look to you for motivation. Coaching twenty five years ago. What was a coach? So I checked into it and I found coach a couple of coaching schools. Coach you. I took thirty six courses and got certified. And while I started, while I was in school, I was also networking and I thought I'd be a sales coach. My first business card that somebody made up for me, you know, very very informally, it said sales coach. But my third client was a lawyer, and my fourth client was a lawyer, and I thought, you know what lawyers need. Sales You don't learn in law school business development. So I thought, I have a couple of lawyers as clients. Why not seize that opportunity?

7:48 I got the domain name the lawyers coach dot com. Yeah, I imagined that you have to have to have had that for a long time. I got that a long time ago. And I actually mentor coaches who are also coaching lawyers, and they have great ones as well, but I have the Lawyer's Coach. I wrote a book on marketing for lawyers. It's a little tip book, and just when spoke at bar associations and other places where lawyers hung out. And that's how I became known in the legal field for someone who could help others to reach their billable hour goals and get more into networking. I was just talking to somebody today, a networking buddy of mine, and he said, lawyers don't learn in law school how to get business.

8:31 Fact, and now more than ever they need more billable hours. I coached several intellectual property attorneys. They go their chemists, they're engineers. They definitely don't have a natural sales ability, not that some of them aren't great at it, but in general the engineer is not the networker. So I work with them to gain some confidence, to give them some tips on how to network comfortably. So it's really worked out very well. To become the lawyer's coach outstanding. Was it later that you became master certified and that was that? I actually interesting, Yeah, I got it very quickly. Twenty over twenty years ago, I went for certification. There's associate coach, professional coach, and a Master coach, which is the highest level. I became a Master's certified coach. You had to have certain number of coaching hours, you had to be supervised. Truthfully, it's much harder today and I'm kind of grandfathered in in certain ways. But every three years I have to have it renewed. And what happened with me is this past December, it was expiring, and it's like the lawyers. You know, I asked myself, the lawyers really care if I'm certified, but it's a lot of fifty two hours of continue education and money. And I said, you know what, it's a big deal in the coaching world. It is. It is. I did it. It is, so I went for it. I got renewed

10:01 in December just a few months ago, and that kind of really motivated me to even get out there more and you know, even build my business more than I had because now I got it renewed. Why not? And also COVID. Really, I didn't realize until a couple of months ago how much COVID affected me. I loved to network. Many of us get energy from other people. I loved to speak. I did nothing for four years except keep my existing clients and maybe a few referrals. But everything changed. My lawyers were working remote. They took a bedroom and turned it into an office. They weren't networking, they weren't out there, and it was really a challenge. I didn't realize how much I missed it until in January. Actually, a few months prior to that, I got out there. I'm networking, I'm speaking, and I'm getting the energy that I really during their several years. So I'm really glad that I went for my MCC renewal, and it motivated me to even get out there more and to speak more and network again. And I love it. That's fantastic. The other thing that COVID, I mean, COVID did a lot of things right, they're almost all negative, but you know, it minimized and in some cases eliminated mentoring at a law firm. Right, Younger attorneys weren't learning from the more senior attorneys.

11:26 Right, Absolutely true, Kevin, because when you're in a big firm, the seasoned professional partners do help, and they're very busy, but they do find time to mentor the associates or the newer lawyers. And you're right, you're not in a law firm together, it's very difficult to watch your seniors perform successfully. So you're right that really did hurt the mentoring business, which is really what coaching is a substitute for. It's not the same, but it definitely helps a lot to just have somebody that you can support on your journey. All right, One more question before our first commercial break, believe it or not, is you're really a pioneer in the coaching business and that doesn't I'm not calling you old. I'm simply saying you've been doing this for a long time. I'm proud of it. Nobody knew what the coach was. They asked they was sports? What sports? Was I coaching?

12:18 I am a pioneer in the coaching world. Absolutely, I'm proud of it, and it's changed now there's one hundred and fifteen thousand coaches at least, because anyone can call themselves a coach but I mean, there's a lot of coaches out there today very different from how it was twenty five years ago. And I would venture, I guess I think I'm right. You tell me there were probably of you were probably a minority in terms of being female versus the male coaches as well. Am I right there too? Passively? Possibly? I was a founding member of the Philadelphia International Coaching Federation with another a man and a woman. They did more than I did. It was a Ken Abrams and Nancy Baker. They worked harder at really building the chapter.

13:03 But I was a founding member with them, and I think there was a pretty maybe there were more women at the time, in other words, now now now? Maybe not right? Yeah, you're right right. We're going to take our first one minute commercial break. We'll be back in just a minute with phyllisism one. Thanks. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenet on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Have you ever dreamt of being on the radio, Well, now is your chance. Be a radio show guest on the number one ranked Internet radio station and promote you and your business for free. Yes you heard it, free business advertising right here on W four cy dot com. Call five six one five zero six four zero three to one now to get booked on one of our shows. That's five six one five zero six four zero three to one. Get your free advertising now. And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin helenan presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helena. We

14:33 are back with phyllissists and wine Master, certified coach, motivational speaker, author and the lawyer's coach. Okay, you do a lot of public speaking and presentations to groups and organizations, and I just summarized this for the audiences, the viewers and the listeners. It's an impressive list. I believe financial institutions, bar associations, law firms, business and trade associations, CPA organizations. I noticed the State Department of It to name a few. What are some of the presentations that you give and can you give us some highlights from that or those presentations? Sure? Thank you. When I speak at bar associations, it's building your practice improving client relations. They want to get CL credits, So in order to get CL credits, you need to speak about ethics, and you need to speak about certain things so that they can get their continuing legal education. Sometimes I'll speak so women in the profession and they don't really care about the continuing education credits. They just want a good speaker at once, and they I'll speak about networking skills or how to get clients from speaking. But networking is so important and many lawyers, as many professionals in any field, really don't know how to network, you know, they are uncomfortable. So I do speak about networking, just really business development in general.

15:54 But one thing about speaking, Kevin, when I started building my business, one of my coaches said to me, Phyllis, you've got to start speaking. When you're the speaker, you're the expert, and you meet everyone in the room. If you're just going to a networking event, you might meet five or six people, be the speaker and you meet everyone. So I took his advice and I started speaking at rotary clubs, chambers of commerce, anybody that would have me, and of course, as I said, to bar associations and every time I spoke. I did get clients. I had a strategy. You do need a strategy. You don't just show up and speak and expect the phone to ring. I do have a strategy, and I could certainly share some of that with please do please don't have people. But one thing before I go into the strategy of that, somebody said to me phyllis, what do you charge to speak? Charge you want to pay me for this? Okay? It was a marketing strategy. So I joined the National Speakers Association. I joined NFA and I became a paid speaker with just a bonus, because there is a budget for speakers in most associations and organizations. So I started to do a lot of speaking, and I became an NSA member. And the funny thing was I ended up coaching the speakers because they had helped they needed help in business development, and many of the speakers are trainers, and trainers can go into a big company and you train people and then you leave and nothing happens. They go back to their old ways. So they decided to add coaching to their training offers. So I ended up coaching and helping them become coaches who were trainers in the NSA

17:27 organization, So that was fun. So I did a lot of speaking as a professional. But then now I'm no longer an MSA member and now it is just marketing and just really having fun with the audience. But as far as a strategy, sure, I'm happy to share you go early, but that's networking. Just a couple of real quick networking tips. Always go early because I have lawyers that I've worked with, they're so uncomfortable walking into a room of strangers. For most of us, if you walk into a room with fifty people, you can be a little on the uncomfortable side for sure. People are in clusters talking and who do you talk to and what do you do? If you go early and you're one of the first people there.

18:10 As people enter the room, you introduce yourself to them, it's a lot more comfortable. So I'd always recommend in going early, and then of course wearing a name badge so people can read your name, and not a sticky that you can't read with a black magic marker that falls off your jacket anyway, So have it magnetic or a pinle and name tag on your right shoulder. That's where people look when they shake your hand, and of course always have business cards with you and know what pocket yours are. And people have given me somebody else's cards. When I ask them for theirs, they had them all their stuff in the same pocket. And then of course you follow up. People meet people in a networking event and they say, oh, if you have to get together, let's do lunch sometimes and nobody ever follows through. And then business as you know, not just the networking, but you must follow through. So somebody goes to a networking event and you see a few people, that's me for lunch, that's me for coffee.

19:04 Perhaps we can refer to one another follow up reach out, send them an email, make a coffee date with em oral lunch date. So it's really important. And before I speak at an organization, if I'm the speaker, I ask the meeting planner if I can speak to a few people that are signed up to go to the events, I speak to the people. If you can get the meeting list in advance, the guest list, that's wonderful. Some speakers actually send an email to everyone on the list of attendees, looking forward to meeting you next week when I speak. But if not, I ask a few people for names, and I speak to two or three people that are going to be in my audience and I ask them, who are some of your better speakers? Like what do you want to walk away with next week? So I kind of ask them what they want to hear.

19:56 Now, most of the time I have my speech, but i'll serve modify it if there's something specific that they want to walk away with. So I meet people before I even show up. So when I get to the event and always go early, people will can fill us. I'm the one you spoke to on the phone the other day, So you're building a round poor with the audience before you even show up. Yeah. I love that. So before you give a speech, so if possible, reach out to your audience, and while you're speaking, weave in success stories so people can relate to it. If I'm speaking to lawyers, I'll say, yes, I had a lawyer who wanted to get more business, and we talked about networking and referral sources and this was the success that he had read in success stories. And then of course at the end, follow up with everyone who was in your audience. I always gave a free coaching session or a free book. So I collected all of their business cards. At the end of my program, here's a little basket. Put your business card in. I'm going to pick out a few winners. You'll get a free book, or you'll get a coaching session. Actually, I offered a coaching session to anyone in the room. A free month was my prize. And if they didn't have a business card with them, I took three by five cards and I would cut them in half. So I gave them a card. They had no excuse that they didn't have a business card with the nice yep. I collect their business cards and I let's say to them, right on the back of your card coaching, if you're interested in the coaching session, right speaking,

21:26 if you know of another organization that might want me to come and speak, so to speak. And I have a newsletter, sign up for my email newsletter, and everybody signed up for my newsletter. So it's a marketing strategy. I got coaching clients, I got newsletter subscribers, and sometimes I got another speech if that's what they wrote on the back of their card. So there really has to be a strategy. You can't just show up, speak and lead and expect results. So two follow ups, who were your or what kinds of organizations are your favorites to speak in front of? And I'm asking because I'm hoping the audience will respond, thank you, som truthfully, any motivated group, any organization I'm speaking. It's funny. I am the lawyer's case, but financial planners are very similar to law as far as it's really building relationships. I'm speaking on a Zoom presentation in May for the Advanced Planners conference. It's a Chicago leading and I'm going to be speaking from Florida, but I'm speaking to advance planners. Financial planners and lawyers have very similar goals, business relationships, referrals creating good strategic partnerships. They work together very well. You know, lawyers and financial advisors have similar clients. So I'll really speak at most groups where if they're interested, I'll do some charity speeches as well if it's an organization. And look, I'm giving a speech a week and a half from now on choices. You are what you choose

22:57 to a women's group and it's their closing meeting for the season, and I'm going to speaking on choices and it will be fun to help these women to realize that many of them are retired, but they have choices and they can write a book, they can play the piano. You know. That's kind of life coaching and kind of fun for me to help this group. And it's not a business group, it's a women's group. But I will speak to them and give them some suggestions on how this can be a great year for them and hope to motivate them to do something that they've always wanted to do. Excellent. I love that. The second part of that follow up is what encouragement would you have in terms of provide some successes through your newsletter effort? How much time does it take and what do you see as a result. Obviously you're touching people many times over months and perhaps years. I think a newsletters great and I've had it for like twenty years. I write my newsletter Dear Readers, a power for two like up to the minute, and then I have had the pleasure of having thirty six articles published in one magazine, and then I have Fixy altogether, so I have a lot of content and I can use those articles, I can edit them and modify, and I can share them again and they're relevant. So I do have a newsletter that goes out and I get goods, I get comments often, and I get speeches from it because you're in their inbox every month. But now that I got back on track in January, after I got my certification again,

24:32 I got involved more in social media and I'm not a natural at it, but I delegate. So I have LinkedIn comes, visit my LinkedIn profile, Philo system line, and I have a video that I'm posting every week, and I have an article in my newsletters and tips for my book. But I believe in doing what you love to do and delegating what you're not great at. So if somebody else post on LinkedIn, somebody else, does you know, actually sends my news that are apps. I write it, but they distribute it. So I like to speak, I like to coach, and I like to write, but I do believe in delegating things that are challenged for me and somebody else loves to do. Yeah, Frankly, if you if you're doing the mechanics, you're not making money exactly in front of your client exactly. And that's what I advise my clients too. As a matter of fact, I don't know if we have time there or after the next s break. But I have a couple of tips that I've helped lawyers with for the last twenty five years. That's I've actually got that question on my list. Good, Okay, hang out of that one one more before this break. Sure. I understand you're an author. You mentioned that, and I saw that you co authored with Barbara Nelson Market you Must for Lawyers fifty two proven strategies to get you into action today, right, ab So there's the question right there. I didn't know, is that soon?

25:55 What are some of those tips that you could share with the audience? Absolutely, you want me to share it right now? Great? Yes, go for it for its great. The reason I wrote this book was because when I speak, I give that little signs from part of my speech, and one sign might be nurture your network. And that's what we talked about networking. But you have to nurture your networking. You can't just show up and you know and don't be a secret. Does everybody know what you do? Does your neighbor know what you do? Does everybody know what you do? Don't be a secret. If you're a lawyer, if you're a financial advisor. Whatever your profession is, people are happy to refer to you, but they might not even know what you do. Do you go to your kids baseball game, You're sitting on the bench talking to other parents. Do they know what you do? So my book is a simple book of little tips.

26:41 And I did interview fifty two people, very successful lawyers, and they gave me their tip which I matched up with my tip, and that's my coaching in every page. So it's an easy book and I do use these for my LinkedIn posts. I interviewed the fifty two people and it's really been fun. But it was I was motivated by my clients who said, take all of those little signs you give that and turn it into a book, which I did. Do a couple more. Two more then then we'll take the commercial break. There two more tips. Okay, Well, the biggest tip that I want to share that every one of my lawyers is minimize interruptions.

27:22 It takes eighteen to twenty minutes to get back on track if you're writing something, you're in the middle of a business project, and you get interrupted, do I'll want to check my email, I'll'll get a cup of coffee. It takes eighteen to twenty minutes to get back on track. Three interruptions a day, you've losted an hour. Whether you're a lawyer or whatever you do, an hour a day is a lot of time to lose. We don't realize it got a minute. That minutes turns to eighteen minutes. This has been proven by time management experts. Every interruption takes eighteen to twenty minutes. So I always suggest to my clients minimize interruptions. That's outstanding, perfect, All right, we're going to take our second break here. We'll be back in just another minute with Phyllis System one. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. The yp dot com website is your local search engine.

28:32 If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews. Or if your car breaks down, you can use the YP app to find the closest repair shop. Or maybe you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night. While it has great local coupons, for all sorts of things in your area, no matter what, when or where. If you're looking for something, YP Local Search can help you find it. So go to yp dot com or download the app to search local to find local and save local. And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helen, presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helena. Welcome back. She is Phylissis and Wyan. She is a motivational speaker, an author, she's the lawyer's coach, and she's a Master certified coach. She is among the top four percent of the fifty thousand or so credentialed coaches. Impressive. People hire coaches for many different reasons. Oh, let me ask before I get to that, you coach lawyers and non lawyers.

29:47 Yes, eighty percent of my clients today are lawyers. Eighty percent are lawyers, but I do coach non lawyers as well. Okay, So as I ask this question, think about both ves of those segments. Mostly it's the attorney excuse me, but people do hire coaches for many different reasons, right, what are some of those reasons or problems that you help your clients solve. Well, mostly it's having a strategy. Everybody's so busy. I've gone to law firms and they have spent three days and thousands of dollars having a marketing meeting with their firm. And then I go into their office and they have a binder with all of the things they worked on and guess where it is sitting on the shelf and their bookcase. So coaching gets them to take action. You have all these great ideas. Oh, I've been meaning to this, or I have to follow up with that person, or some of my inactive clients, I should really call them again. I've been wanting to write an article, and you think about it, but you don't often do it. So then you have a coach, you have accountability and support.

30:51 Yes, we come up with a plan. I'll say to somebody, what do you want this year to look like? You know we still have a good part of twenty twenty four by the end of the year, what do you want to say to me? And they might say, well, I want more clients, I want to work less hours, I want to add more staff. Whatever it is. We speak every other week, come up with a plan of action, they take the action and then call me and tell me that they did. And very often if we have a two o'clock appointment, on the phone at eleven o'clock, they're doing what they promised they were going to do because it gets done. That gets done, and they even admit I just did it because I said I was going to do it for our next session. Accountability is important. We will have great ideas, but if you're committing it to someone else, you're much more likely to do it. And a good part of coaching, Kevin is listening. We listen. I have a little sticky note on my computer and I coach other coaches to do this as well. Wai T wait, why am I talking?

31:51 Coaching is eighty percent listening to eighty percent? You know? Where are you now? Where some of your challenges? What do you want to accomplish this year? And we talk about it, and at the end it's mostly I'm listening to them, and then at the end they'll come up with their action steps and I'll strategize and give them some suggestions. But mostly it's listening. And people are so busy they rarely have someone to listen for an hour to them and to really really hear them listening to all the courses I took for four weeks listening with an eight week course. Coaches are trained to be good listeners. And you can have the best friend in the world, you can have wonderful family members, but how often do you just sit and talk for an hour and listen with that interruption. So that's a big part of coaching, listening, giving them accountability and support. I wanted to get to this second tip. Besides, you know time management, which I work on.

32:50 Delegation. I share with you before that I delegate. You know, I don't want to. I write my newsletter, but somebody else, you know, send it out. I'm on link now I do a video, somebody else posted it. Not that I couldn't do it, but I'd rather spend my time coaching or doing something else. So in law firms, the lawyers, I would's easier if I do it myself, But then they start to realize if they have a power legal or if they have an assistant, it takes less time in the long run to have them do a lot of the work for them. I had a lawyer in Philadelphia, and I know it's easier if I do it myself. And I said, let's just think about what your billable hour is compared to the administrative assistant what you're paying her.

33:32 So think about investing some time and training her with little baby steps of things that possibly she could do, and you'll follow up and check on it and make sure it's done correctly. Well, he sent me this rave review because he started to delegate more and he realized that he was using his time much more efficiently. So the two big takeaway tips when I coach lawyers minimize interruptions and delegate outstanding. I noticed that you said you help those firms and those attorneys become more profitable and more productive. And the two are so intertwined. As a person who bills by the hour, right, absolutely absolutely, when they're more productive, of course they're going to be more profitable. And how are you more productive by minimizing your interruptions and by delegame whenever possible.

34:20 And that's just a couple of the things that are really important. One of the things that I think is important that I've been blessed with is well, if you have luck, are you lucky? People say, oh, I have bad luck. They rarely say I'm a lucky person. They more likely say with my luck, I'm not going to get my luck as it's negative. Well, I believe in many ways you make your own luck, agreed. So I just want to share two little stories. One of them is the fact that when I speak well. First of all, the fact that I became the lawyer's coach my second client, my third client was a lawyer. My fourth client was a lawyer, and I seized on that. I say, oh, you know what, the lawyer's coach was I lucky that I became one of the only lawyer's coaches. Twenty five years ago, somebody hired me and I realized lawyers need coaching, So I became the lawyer's coach.

35:09 So I kind of made my own luck. Many years ago, I went to a Chamber of Commerce event and I met a publisher of a magazine. We had a very nice conversation and chatted with him. A month later, I came back and he said, Phillis, HI remember me from last month? He said, were's your red suit? Red suit? I was wearing a blue suit. He said, I remember you from last month. You were wearing a red suit. He said, I published a magazine. Why don't you write an article? And I said, well, I'm more a speaker than a writer. He said, take one of your speeches and turn it into an article. Kevin, he published thirty six articles for me every month for three years. I was in his magazine. And why because he remembered my red suit. So you know I'm wearing red now. I always wear red because that's my brand. I had a red convertible for quite a long time. And when people know I'm coming to speak, we're looking for the lady in red. So am I lucky that I got that brand?

36:10 I believe I made my own luck and it became my brand. I have read, you know, my website different places, not as much as I did, but on every zoom call, I'm wearing red because he remembered me. Some men wear boat tie. You might wear something that's memorable, but whatever it takes, just think about making your own luck. And I think the red since story got me known and now people say they're looking for the lady in red. It kind of gave me that brand because I heard him and I kind of acted on it. They even wrote a song about you. Oh yeah, what are some of the uniquenesses that non attorney clients might have. The uniqueness is as far as how coaching could be helpful.

37:04 Yes, now I can imagine some of those productivity issues you should say, but they don't build by the hour. It's a different A lot of it is organization, right, And I'm in a wonderful networking group and non lawyers there of course, and I'm speaking to several of them giving them a complimentary coaching session, and they want a network, but they don't know exactly where their ideal client is. Now there's there's some wonderful organizations. Of course, there's a chamber of Commerce, there's bn i's where there's one from each profession. So if you're B to B is your ideal market, then you want to go to a B and I or a chamber of commerce. But if your lawyers are your ideal market, you want to go to the bar association meetings. So I think it's really important to know who your ideal client is and where are they, and that's where you want to hang out. So when I with non lawyers, it's you know, what do you want to accomplish this year? You want more business? I spoke to somebody today and he is a B to B guy, and I told him about two networking groups that might be good for him and maybe not. You know, the main organizations that he was thinking about. Rotary clubs are a good place to practice speaking and sometimes it's a good cause as well while you're there. So it's really everybody is different. So what does somebody want to accomplish this year, whether it's more business, more organization, just building relationships. You know, you want a professional partnership. You want to find people that you can refer to each other and when they think of you and they're looking for some

38:35 help in that field. So it's really all about building relationships, no matter what your profession is, building relationships. I want to touch on something. You've mentioned it a couple of times. You're able to say to somebody how or what would it look like to have your best year yet, and you're able to help them, work with them and actually accomplish that. Yes, Yes, even if it's even if it's April, even if it's June, absolutely never too late to have a great year. It isn't because if it's in June, you still have a half a year to make it a good year, right, And it just really the coaching conversation is getting the person to really think about, you know, what do you want to accomplish this year the end of twenty twenty four. Do you want to learn a new skill? Do you want to hire more people? Do you want to increase your ink whenbe you want to raise your fees? Whatever it is you think would be helpful to do this year. It's not too late. Even in December. This is funny. When I sold off of supplies, the owner of the company wants to have a sales contest and he said, we need new business, we need new business. He said, December is always the quietest month because in December people sail to both don't call on companies. Everybody's on vacation, they're having parties, they don't call on them. So I said him, okay, you want to have a contest. Whoever brings in the most new accounts in the month of December gets to go to the restaurant of their choice. And there was a restaurant for you. There was a restaurant called Le Bexton. It was a five star restaurant in Philadelphia, and

40:07 it was like at that time to fifty a person and it was like, oh my gosh, if I could go to le Bexton, wouldn't that be a treat? So I said to the owner, the restaurant of your choice, whoever brings in the most accounts. And of course I did win the concert, which is why I'm sharing it with you. But what did I do Christmas Week? I got more clients new business Christmas week. Why if you're working that week, you're not having it. You're not happy. You can't take the week of vacasion. People are not in the mood to work. It's Christmas time. It's a short week. So I walk in with a box of cookies and I sell off the supplies. I'd like to introduce myself to you. I got more new accounts Christmas week, and of course I went to le bextn for dinner. The other element, there is nobody else is doing it. You're the only sales pros right you know if people say that all the time, Oh, it's the end of the year.

40:57 You can't do business in December. Into business in December. I think you can do business December thirty first, we call it exactly of the biggest deals I closed in Mike, I was. I've done a lot of different way. Thanks always selling, but I was. I was in staffing at the time. Two of the biggest deals I closed on two separate twelve thirty one's. The deal was going to happen. They wanted to happen. I just asked, hey, listen, it would benefit me. If it's okay with you, can we get this closed today? Wow? Sometimes you just have to ask right. Good for you and anybody who is working December thirty first is happy to see you in good luck. That was great, good story of yours. Thanks. You tend to have clients for a long time. What's the secret to that? Twenty years? And he just gave me a testimony on working with twenty years. You just grow with the client and change with the client. I coached him a lawyer, and I was just talking about him today because he gave me a testimonial publicly. And I'm not going to give his name right now. Twenty years ago he had one employee.

41:57 Now he has forty employees, five satellite offices. Wow. He's an estate planning attorney and he growed and I'm his sounding board. Should I hire more people? Let's talk about it, you know, should I open up a satellite office. Let's talk about it. So I'm just a sounding board for him, and I've been a part of this journey for over twenty years. And other people come along in three months, they get what they need and they go off on their own. Yep. Yeah. So most clients do stay a long time, but sometimes it's short term, sometimes it's long term. But with him, I'm like his I'm his strategy partner. Well that's an example to me of you know, my question was financial gain is important, but not everything, and there are personal life things. And I mean in that case, yeah, there's financial gain, but there's also the confidence and the ability to have that sounding board. It results often in financial gain.

42:50 But my guess is you touch on personal areas as well. Absolutely, life coaching has to be a part of it, even though I don't call myself a life coach. Right, In order for a lawyer to be successful, he has to have his life in order. Somebody I suppose to list week or I think we're going to start working together. He said, I haven't exercised in a long time. I really want to exercise. This is a successful lawyer, the ones coaching about some business development strategies, but he also shared that he wants to exit. He has a peloton in his house, but he hasn't used it. I said, would you be willing to commit to twenty minutes on the peloton? My life tells me all the time, he said. I said, but you're going to listen to your coach, not your wife. Twenty minutes on the peloton. It sounds so unimportant, But when he gets off that peloton, he's going to be energized and he's going to be more apt to go out there and call a prospect or make a lunch date, because he keeps saying to himself, I need to exercise. I really want to get on that peloton. So it's life coaching and business coaching. It's a combination. You really can't get away from it.

43:52 Those building relationships, trust, being in integrity, you know, as I said, being a good listener is important, but of course being in integrity. And by the way, I don't work with any clients that I don't feel that I can trust and like and are in integrity. Otherwise I let them. I just let them go it. I'm very grateful that I can get the pick and too, so I want to work with and of course it's a win win. They interview me and I interview them and to see if we're a good fit, outstanding who in the listening and viewing audiences should reach out to you and why? And we have your contact information in the crawl. We've had it up a bit and it'll come across before we're done again too. So thanks so much. I appreciate your promoting my business.

44:35 I'm just happy to share my wisdom and my experience with you. Thank you. Certainly, I do work with warriors, I work with financial advisors, but I'm happy to chat with anybody who really is interested in the possibility of coaching a call. I compliment your coaching session half an hour phone session for anybody will, whatever your business is, just to see if I can be helpful, or I can refer to other coaches who might specialize in your field. So I specialize in the lawyers, by coach, financial advisors or any business person. I'm happy to be helpful at no charge. These can be individuals. They can be an individual at a law firm, an individual at a company. It could be the company or the firm itself. That could be a solo practitioner. I have been hired by firms to coach someone.

45:22 The tricky thing there is I speak to the attorney who they want me to work with and make sure that they're coachable, because I don't want to waste the firm's money. If there's a remedial coaching session, I want to make sure that they're really excited about the perk. The firm is offering them a coach, which is a perk. And if they think, oh, they want they just want to give me coaching and then let me go. So if it's anything negative, I interview them first and make sure that they're excited about it. Otherwise I tell the firm it's not going to happen. But many firms do hire me for some of their associates and partners and if they want. If people want to get on your newsay list, you're easy. They can do that on the website correct Estella, Yes, absolutely, show us at powerful coaching dot com. Show us at the lawyers Coach dot com would be even more updated today. The lawyers Coach dot com sell us Systemline appreciated p H y L L I S system Line SI S E N W I n A. Thanks outstanding. It has been so good for me.

46:22 It's so fun, and it's been awesome having you on the show. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, it's great being with you. Thanks Kevin, You're more than welcome. And thank you all listeners and viewers. Listeners, and excuse me, your listeners and viewers. This is a show about business. I know I can talk. Maybe it's not enough coffee. I'll take a quick sip of coffee. Here we go anyway, Thank you again. It's a show about business and sometimes business challenges. If you've got concerns about the growth of your company, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or LinkedIn at Winning Business Radio. You can drop me a note. One of my many email addresses I often say is Kevin at Winning Business Radio dot com. We're Winning Incorporated, part of Sandler Training. We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into true coaches and mentors. Listen, we're not right for everybody. You heard Phyllis say the same thing, but maybe we should have a conversation. We can figure it out. Thank you. Producer to producer and engineer one for another job, well done. Thank you one. Be sure to join us. Next week, Monday, April twenty second, four pm Eastern we'll do it all again with another interesting guest. Until then, it's Kevin Helenan. Thank you you've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host, Kevin Helena If you missed any part of this episode. The podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio. For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media. Tune in again next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four CY Radio W fourcy dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others

47:57 have failed and win in business with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio