So, while I’ll still serve my legal clients, I’m going to stop limiting myself to that and now allow the right marketing and coaching opportunities into my world. What will that look like?

I don’t know for sure yet. I’m just now opening up to that question. I’m happy to hear your suggestions.

The only constant is change, and I’m finally ready to allow some major changes to happen-both internally and in this reality we all need to work with.

How does it get better?

This is an “Ignite” style event – all the speaker have 6 minutes with 20 slides on auto-timers.  If you’ve ever been to an Ignite event locally, do it.  You’ll find that these are very high-energy programs and I’m sure this Legal Rebels program will be a crazy good time – at least a crazy good time for lawyers.  :-)

Here’s the list of speakers:

Paul Lippe

Gregory Norman Fernandez

Stephanie Kimbro

Kevin Houchin  (That’s ME!)

Ron Baker

Alexis Martin Neely

Kevin O’Keefe

Michael O’Connor

Francine Ward

Matthew Homann

A video of each talk will be posted at legalrebels.com during the month of September.

—

If you are not yet registered for the ABA 2010 San Francisco Annual Meeting, please take a moment to register now at www.abanet.org/annual/2010 .  For specific registration questions or details about the Annual Meeting in General go to www.abanet.org/annual/2010<http://www.abanet.org/annual/2010 or call 312/988-5871.

This information IS that important.

A lot of people are waking up to “Conscious” Business, instead of just stumbling though business and life in the usual fog.

Conscious Business is a trend in business that’s getting a lot of attention.

Doing well by doing good.

The new discussion on the table is how are we consciously generating  business and what is the process of consciousness in business development?

Business as it has been done is just not working. . . and conscious business is more than  people, planet, profits and passion.

Dawn and Rikka will both be speaking at a single event here in Fort Collins next week.

August 4, 2010

9 am to 1 pm

Rikka will be speaking on the subject of Getting Out of Your Own Way and Dawn will be giving a talk on Conscious Business Development.

Rikka Zimmerman

Rikka’s Background:

Rikka Zimmerman; author of  soon to be released “21 Secrets of the Universe” and Access Consciousness Facilitator is a world class leader in the consciousness movement. She is a gifted speaker and workshop facilitator domestically and internationally. Her work empowers, enlightens, engages, and inspires.

Dawn Todd

Dawn’s Background:

Dawn Todd is a Collaboration Strategist, a Client Attraction Expert, a Certified Coach  and CEO of Wildly Successful, Inc.  She is the creator of The Inside Edge ™ , Founder of Wildly Successful Network and author of Make Money, Change the World – Conscious Business Development for Entrepreneurs and The Power of Positivity. She has been a small business owner for over 25 years.

Access Conscious Business

• Learn the practice and structure of using consciousness in business
• Expand your clients, income and business
• Eliminate beliefs that prevent your success
• Bring conscious business practice to ground for you and your company
• Hands on, practical tools for  more sales,  better systems,  and conscious leadership in your organization

Conscious individuals transform business. Create a new framework for how business works!

RVSP NOW

—

Here’s a little video on the Alchemy of Ideas.  Hopefully this will shed some light on why Intellectual Property law does not care about your idea – only what you’ve DONE with your idea to bring it into the word and share it with the rest of us.

Granted, I still have a lot of improvement to make on the video technical – lighting, sound, visuals, etc.  Stick with me.  I hope to polish up the technical as quickly as I can.

Comments Welcome.

I receive a lot of email with offers for all kinds of different programs. I’m sure you do too. It can be a bit overwhelming for sure – especially when you also have client work, family, and community projects that need your attention.

Yesterday morning there were 3 new urgent client matters to deal with and an urgent matter for one of the community organizations I’m serving – all popping out of the blue. You’ve been there; you know what it’s like to be a solo or small firm attorney.

With all you have going on, why add more to your plate? Because adding the right thing at the right time can actually make your life less complex. I know it’s a paradox, but it’s true. The challenge is knowing when and what to change.

Hopefully, I can help. I’d like to make at least a part of your life easier.

We’ve all faced the fear of not knowing where the money to pay the bills would come from next month, let alone 6 months from now. Most of us don’t even want to think about 6 months from now, and if we do, we know in our hearts that any planning we’re doing is really just a fantasy.

That’s where being a member of The Space Between Center lawyer mastermind programs can help. One of the first things we do is help you free yourself from the trap of hourly billing and implement some flat fee models (customized to your practice, not mine) that will give you some benchmarks for REAL planning.

Does it work?

Here’s an email I received late last week from one of the founding members of The Space Between Center lawyer mastermind.  Remember this is after less than two months in the SBC program:

“I wanted to share with you that I landed one of the prospective membership clients considering my program (the other is just having me do a TM registration on a project basis for now) – his reaction was ‘I think that you have a great formula with the different tiers of service. Frankly, I wish we had met earlier so I could take more advantage of it…’- <- he is a very early stage start-up.

Once I showed the new membership client the math for the services they were looking for over the next year they signed up – at the $1500/month level!

Not only has this one client more than covered the cost of the Space Between Center program for me, but having knowledge of that recurring cash flow over the next year is already freeing me to focus on creatively growing my firm.”

Brian Fletcher, Esq.

The Fletcher Law Firm PLLC

Alexandria, Virginia USA

Founding Member, Space Between Center lawyer mastermind

Does it work?

Yes.

How good would it feel to know you had at least $1,500/month on the books through this time next year? How about $3,000, $5,000, $7,500?  How much better would your life be if you could look at contracted revenue of $10,000/month for the next few months?

That’s just one example and we’re too early in the program to have generally expected performance results to share, but it’s a great indicator of the results you COULD get if you become a member of our program and actually implement the approaches we’re discussing.

It’s about sharing.

It’s about experimenting.

It’s about moving through your fears and into the excitement & success that self-employment can offer.

It’s about being creative and taking control of your life and future rather than trying to fit your future into the model that some lawyer started using in England centuries ago. We’ve all been trapped by that guy. I’d like to throw some rocks at him. His billable hour model has caused unconscionable damage to lawyers and their clients over the centuries.

It’s time to get out of his trap.

• Are you ready to take a few simple steps to get control of your life?

• Are you ready to take a few simple steps to reach the potential you know you have inside?

• Are you ready to share your knowledge and experience with like-minded business, estate planning, and collaborative family lawyers who would like to share with you?

• Would you like some real support and guidance in building a legal services business and go beyond just “practicing?”

If you’re ready to get control of your life, then join us this Wednesday at 2pm for a free informational call about The Space Between Center’s lawyer mastermind programs.

We have openings in our small business mastermind group, and we’re introducing two new tracks:

• A track for estate planning attorneys led by estate planning attorney Candice Aiston; and
• A track for collaborative/family law attorneys co-lead by Michael Sherman and Steve Worrall.

Join us for the call.

The easy steps we’re talking about literally changed my life and took me from the depths of bankruptcy, fear, and anxiety to a place where I could plan, grow, succeed, and enjoy my profession. It can do the same for you.

Again, the call is this Wednesday, May 19^th at 2pm Eastern.

You’ll be able to learn what we’re doing in the programs, meet the leaders of the different tracks, and ask some questions to make sure the program is a fit for you.

Sincerely,

Kevin E. Houchin, Esq.

Founder, The Space Between Center for Creative Spirit in Business.

P.S.  These programs are NOT for everyone.  If you’re satisfied in the billable hour model or if you have no intention of taking action to make the changes that will improve your life, then this program is not for you. If you’re ready engage with a mastermind group, share, implement, and receive, then you owe it to yourself to find out more.

Oh, and feel free to forward this post to other small practice attorneys that you would like to help succeed.

Attracting clients is not just an issue for lawyers, it’s an issue for everyone – especially if you’re a service provider.

He’s doing his homework and asked me to share some ideas about how he should approach his target niche.

While this type of information is at the heart of the discussions we’re having as part of The Space Between Center lawyer mastermind groups (business law, estate planning, & collaborative/family law programs), I thought I’d share what I told this young man over coffee this morning.

Here’s what I suggested:

1.  Consolidate his knowledge of the target niche area of law into a short (say 20 pages) ebook that outlines the core issues his target clients should be thinking about.

2. Distill that ebook into a PPT presentation.

3.  Offer to give that presentation to as many groups in his target market as possible.  Free.  In person and via Webinar when he can.

4.  Constantly blog with short value-providing articles for his potential clients and use social media (twitter, facebook, linkedin, youtube) to build friendships and increase the number of people he’s helping with his blog.

5.  Break out sections of the ebook into blog posts and submit those post to other blogs/sites read by potential clients.

6.  Offer the full ebook as a free gift in exchange for people getting on his mailing list.

7.  Use the ebook and blog to qualify potential clients.

8.  Build a flat-fee engagement model to build relationships.

9.  Have a merchant accounts to take credit card payments.

10.  Tell clients that your initial consultation fee is rolled into the engagement if the potential client wants to engage, otherwise, it’s a fee of $XXX due at the end of the meeting.  He can always waive that if he wants, but it sets the expectation of value in the initial meeting and lets the tire-kickers move on to someone else for free advice.

These 10 elements work in every services business, not just for lawyers.

For the lawyers reading this:

If you’d like to learn more about how to attract more perfect clients to your practice using these approaches, you owe it to yourself, your clients, and your family to be on our informational call next Wednesday, May 19th at 2pm Eastern.  You can sign up for that call here. We’ll be sharing some tips and tricks and also giving you the details about how you can be part of The Space Between Center lawyer mastermind group.

Nor are we talking about helping a bud roll one.

—

We’re talking about when at least two people work together on a creative project.

—

Unfortunately, “inadvertent” joint authorship happens all the time.

Here’s the analysis:

1.  A work is “jointly authored” automatically upon its creation if:

1) two or more authors contributed material to the work; and

2) each of the authors prepared his or her contribution with the intention that it would be combined with the contributions of the other authors as part of a single unitary work.

2. Intent AT THE TIME THE WORK IS CREATED is the controlling factor.

3. The contributions do NOT have to be equal.

4. IN the ABSENCE of a Collaboration Agreement or agreement otherwise:

• Joint authors have undivided interest in the ENTIRE WORK.  (that means even-Stephen for all the authors, even if they didn’t contribute equally.)
• Each joint author has the right to exploit the copyright, without the other’s consent.
• Each joint author has the right to license the joint work, without the other’s consent.
• Each joint author has the right to transfer their share of the ownership without the other’s consent.
• The ownership interest does NOT revert to the joint author upon one author’s death, it goes with the estate.
• Both authors have a duty to account for profits – each joint author has to pay the other the appropriate share of profits.

So, what this means to you is that before entering into any collaborative creative project, you should create a “Collaboration Agreement” that irons out the details of the project and relationship.

A collaboration agreement should include at least:

1. Description of the project
2. What each person will contribute
3. Ownership %
4. Authorship credit
5. Control of use – decision making

There are a bunch of other things your lawyer will help you with, but the things listed above are the key relationship issues to keep in mind and bring to the meeting with your attorney.

Please understand that I’m not saying “don’t collaborate” because collaborations can be incredibly powerful.  I’m saying get the deal in writing before you begin the work, even if you’re sure everything will be swell.

Things happen.

—

The model just got the attention of the American Bar Association – specifically the ABA Journal online edition. They are currently running a short feature on the model and the firm on the front page of the ABA Journal Web site.

ABA Journal Online Home Page

I’m sure it won’t be on the front page forever. So I grabbed a screen capture.

ABA Journal Online Article

The full article will probably be online indefinitely, but I grabbed a screen capture of that too.

Many might question the wisdom of sharing that I’ve been through a personal bankruptcy and the struggles surrounding that time in my life, but it’s part of the story and helps put the who issue in full context. I learned a great deal during that experience and I believe what I learned has value to other people in both that as I survived, so will they and that it’s better to try and fail then to never try at all.  Then get up and keep trying new things until something works.

I think I’ve found a system that works, for me, and for my clients.  Other people are starting to think so too.

—

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Space Between Center for Creative Spirit in Business Appoints Laura Lee Sparks as Chief Operating Officer.

FORT COLLINS, Colorado – April 6, 2010 – The Space Between Center, LLC today announced the appointment of Laura Lee Sparks to the role of chief operating officer. Sparks, 41, will be responsible for the strategic operational leadership of The Space Between Center’s member services, events, and staff development. Sparks most recently served in a similar role for The Family Wealth Planning Institute where she helped build successful membership programs for attorneys and entrepreneurs. Sparks also maintains her own consulting practice.

“I am extremely excited to have Laura Lee join The Space Between Center’s executive leadership team, where our team and our members will benefit immensely from her experience, proven record of success, and passion for building professional membership and mastermind programs,” said Kevin Houchin, Founder of The Space Between Center. “Laura Lee is a master organizer and builder of efficient service models, not to mention her marketing expertise. Her skills will ensure an on-going commitment to members services that will help The Space Between Center implement our growing list of creative business initiatives.”

“I’m very happy to bring my experience in building membership programs and service systems to The Space Between Center,” says Sparks. “The Center’s current initiatives and future plans energize me. Serving entrepreneurs and the professionals who serve those entrepreneurs has been something I’ve loved in the past and The Space Between Center’s innovative approach to those goals is bound to make a difference in the world.”

Newly founded in March, 2010, The Space Between Center for Creative Spirit in Business is dedicated to helping people reach their full potential through entrepreneurism.

Contact Information:
The Space Between Center, LLC
970-493-1070
www.spacebetweencenter.org
support@spacebetweencenter.com

–

Stillness is putting a muzzle on that monkey chattering in your mind long enough to hear the great ideas that come from somewhere else. We can call that somewhere else “God.” We can call it “the Universe.” For the sake of argument, I’ll call it “the Source.” Telling the voice in your head to shut up is one thing. Making it shut up or ignoring it until it shuts up out of frustration requires practice. That practice is the basis of meditation. Another way to think of this is what I call “The Space Between.”

There is an infinity in the space between breaths.

There is an infinity in the space between thoughts.

The wonderful ideas coming from that space are limitless. Picture a ruler or a number line from your days in grade school. On that ruler or number line, “1” is followed next by “2” then “3” and so on in both directions into infinity. Later, you learn about fractions like ¼, 1/3, ½, 2/3, ¾ and so on. Think about that. When you understand that the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and on are simply labels for concepts, and the same is true for each labeled fraction, then you understand that there is an infinity in the space between each number or fraction. More importantly, there is an infinity between each label we choose to put on numbers.

The infinity in the space between doesn’t apply just to numbers; it applies to anything you can label. Logically then, the space between is infinitely more abundant than anything we have or can label. This is why examining two words, phrases, or concepts that generally do not work together is such a great creative tool – examining the space between things that we don’t even associate with one another creates something I like to think of as a “bigger infinity” in the space between. You could also think of it as a “richer” infinity for great ideas, because like a riverbed that has never been explored, a virgin piece of farmland, or an isolated lake in Canada, it’s resources have not been mined by other folks for their own purposes.

When you understand the concept of “The Space Between” then you will never again think there is a scarcity of ideas, time, money or anything our minds can conceive. If there is an infinity around everything, how can there be a limitation of anything?

If you’re stumped, you just haven’t mined enough of the infinite number of spaces between thoughts, words, actions, feelings, senses, or labels.

In the quiet infinities between thoughts we find inspired ideas.

The space between is not empty. In the space between, the first occupants one generally encounters are the archetypes programmed into every human from the beginning of time. Those archetypes are described in different ways. Joseph Campbell talked of them in his famous works including The Hero’s Journey and The Power of Myth. The Hero’s Journey inspired George Lucas’s storyline for Star Wars. The hero’s journey is the outline of the human spiritual journey toward enlightenment and is found in practically every culture in our world, across time and space, in a virtually identical pattern. The hero hears a call to adventure, denies that call, experiences an event that requires him to engage in the journey anyway, finds a mentor, faces the challenge, gains possession of the goal of the journey, then fights his way back home where his knowledge and experience are eventually embraced for the benefit of the group. The trump cards of a tarot deck (called “major arcana”) also depict the hero’s journey through the archetypes of human existence in the space between where we were before we were born and the place to which we are all eventually bound.

Some people find the quiet in the space between to be a wonderful place to “receive” guidance. Many successful songwriters, novelists, journalists, visual artists, and speakers describe this experience as something close to “channeling” the message or other content from a larger collective creative source. To tap in, they just had to get their egos out of the way and listen to receive the creative flow. This type of receiving takes many names, from “inspiration,” which is how the church attributes divine authorship to the books of the Bible, to the “Spirit Guides” of tribal cultures, to the “Holy Guardian Angel” of new age spirituality, and the angelic visitations as described in the Old and New Testament and Islam. Many people all over the world claim these angelic visitations happen every day, and we can’t disprove those claims.

We’ve all had incredibly realistic dreams that seemed to be giving us messages. We’ve all had wonderfully creative ideas “come to us” as we are in the space between waking up and sleeping either at night or in the morning. We’ve all had moments of déjà vu. These are all experiences of finding the stillness in the space between thoughts. It doesn’t matter what label you place on the experience, or to what source you attribute the inspiration. The one thing that matters in the creative process is that you allow yourself to step out of controlling the process and allow yourself to surrender to receiving the inspirations that originate in the spaces between.

This concept is not just a Western thought. Verse 11 of the Tao Te Ching states:

We join spokes together in a wheel,

but it’s the center hole

that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,

but it is the emptiness inside

that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,

but it is the inner space

that makes it livable.

We work with being,

but non-being is what we use.

The space between is not only infinite, it’s useful.

These are the core reasons I founded The Space Between Center for Creative Spirit in Business. We all have ideas. We can reach our potential through creative business. To connect those two potentials, one must pass through The Space Between.

But, for those of you who want an easier and more modern answer, take a listen to The Space Between by The Dave Matthews Band.  Here are some of the lyrics:

The Space Between

The tears we cry

Is the laughter keeps us coming back for more…

The Space Between

Where you’re smiling high

Is where you’ll find me if I get to go…

Take my hand

‘Cause we’re walking out of here

Oh, right out of here

Love is all we need here…

Nice.  Think about it.  Take my hand…