012: Million Dollar Mindset. Dana C Palmer, Esq.

Dana C. Palmer, Esq.

Dana C Palmer is the founder and CEO of Dana Palmer Law Group P.L.L.C.. He and his firm focus exclusively on helping people get a Soft Divorce® – because divorce doesn’t have to be so hard®.

Dana has built his business on the foundation of focusing on problem resolution and customer satisfaction. His firm does not have billing requirements, but customer satisfaction requirements.

But how can a law firm be profitable if its main focus is on satisfaction? Spoiler alert: Happy and satisfied clients are more than willing to trade their problems for money!

Dana went to law school not with the intent of becoming an attorney, but as the completion of his business training. He wanted to know what the lawyers knew so he can be more successful as a business person.

Being part of business coaching programs and constantly reading business and mindset books no doubt contributed to Dana’s success. His firm already passed the $1,000,000 gross revenue/year milestone with even higher goals in sight.

“Shifting your mindset” is an overused term in the business community, but to build a successful business you really have to act as the CEO of your firm and not just as a practicing attorney.
In practical terms, a CEO makes decisions about the systems and procedures which are the foundation of a business, and to be able to act as a CEO you really need to have a different mindset.

When it comes to marketing, many attorneys will tell you that a law firm is usually built on referrals. But this doesn’t mean that you can sit back and just wait for clients to show up at your doorstep. Dana believes that you can teach and incentivize your clients to refer you more work. Some call this “tuning on the referral machine”. You are not necessarily left at the mercy of clients to send you work, but you can actively improve your referral rate through incentives, and often just by asking.

In addition to encouraging referrals, Dana actively spreads his idea of Soft Divorce® through radio shows and TV appearances.

Even though Dana does not impose billing requirements on his associates, running a successful firm does require closely managing the financial aspect of the business. Dana looks at cash flow reports almost daily, reviews net income and profitability indicators frequently and compares them to his set goals, just as a CEO of a large corporation would.

Book recommendations:
•    Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In – by Roger Fisher, William L Ury and Bruce Patton
•    Think and Grow Rich – by Napoleon Hill
•    With Winning in Mind – by Lanny Bassham