I drive a lot.  I drive to meet clients at their home, or at an office near them in the Denver Metro and beyond, and I put about 30,000 miles per year on my car.  I don’t mind doing this at all, as I enjoy working with clients and I want to make things convenient for them, but there is a lot of revving involved as a mobile estate planning attorney.  A few years ago I purchased an electric car, so I don’t spend nearly as much on gas as I previously did, but I now have to worry about the amount of miles I drive in a given day.  Just the other day, I drove to Colorado Springs and back and had other appointments around town.  I built in an extra hour during my day, so that I could charge the batteries on my electric car and not get stranded.  Since it takes more time to charge my electric car than it would to simply fill up a gas tank, I had to plan for the extra time.

That day was not the day I drove the most miles in a single day for work.  That distinction belongs to the day that I worked a full day, then drove to Montrose for a presentation, and drove back that evening / night.  That was a long day of driving, but it was a little bit less interesting than my second longest driving day, but also the second longest driving day that ended up being more productive than I originally thought.  I want to help as many people as quickly as I can, but I also want to do things the right way.  This means that I may not always be the most readily available attorney – I cannot always answer a call immediately, and that may mean I cannot get someone in to meet as quickly as some may like.  But, I do want to help everyone I can, and I do try to schedule my days to help as many people as possible, like on my longest driving day.

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A Long Drive to Pueblo 

On this particular day, I had scheduled a client meeting in Pueblo.  I knew it would be a couple of hours to drive down to Pueblo and a couple of hours to drive back, and that I would probably spend about an hour with the potential client.  All in, it was going to be a 5 hour long proposition to meet with this potential client.  Fortunately for me, the potential client was going to need an asset protection trust, and the legal fees would justify the 5 hours investment of time.  I even stopped at a gas station along the way, logged onto my computer and answered a different client’s questions on their draft estate plan while I was traveling to Pueblo.  I find myself doing a lot of work in between client meetings, and I am pretty good at finding an internet connection when I need one.

I probably would not have made the trip for something like a basic will that I charge $500 to prepare, as 5 hours would have meant I spent a lot of time chasing not a lot of money, and that is just not the best for business!  Of course, now I could do an initial meeting virtually, but this happened before I even knew what Zoom or video conferencing was, or was equipped to do a video conference…that has now changed, and I can do a video conference.

 

In Person Meetings are My Favorite Kind

I still prefer in person meetings.  I like to sit down with the people I am meeting and let them get a sense of who I am and how I can help them.  I think people like to be able to look me in the eye and shake my hand as well.  When approaching something as important as setting up an estate plan, I like to have the personal touch be part of my meetings.  I guess I just like meeting people and learning about them.  As an extra added bonus, when I go to people’s homes, I also get to meet their dogs, and since I am a true dog person / dog lover, this is an extremely cool perk of my job!

I did get to meet the dog in Pueblo.  It was a very friendly dog.  And I was able to get the potential client set up and taken care of with what they needed, so the potential client became a current client.  I also knew that I would be driving back from Pueblo, so when a potential client called me and wanted to meet with me in Monument, I knew I would be able to make that happen without taking another long trip.

 

Along the Way, I Could Still Help Other People

I scheduled a meeting with the client in Monument for about an hour and a half after the client in Pueblo’s meeting would end.  That gave me enough time to meet with the potential client in Pueblo and not be rushed, as well as get to Monument in plenty of time.  I was able to have a good meeting with the person in Monument and help them get their will established.  We even scheduled signing meetings on the same day, so that I did not have to take an extra trip in the future.  I may not have taken the Monument appointment for just a will, but since I was already driving in that direction, and would be passing by, it worked out well for everyone!

That day, I had a final appointment in Littleton, so I did manage to schedule everything I needed to do on that southside of Denver, or further south in this case, so I was having a good scheduling day.  As luck would have it, I received an email as I drove to Pueblo, letting me know I had missed something in a signing the day before.  I just needed to complete one more signature, and the person happened to live in Littleton, so I could stop by the person’s house on the way to my last appointment and get the needed signature.  It only took 2 minutes, but I was happy that fortune had smiled on me that day and that I could get that done the same day as I was driving as much as I was.  And, to be clear, I saw the email, but I did not respond to the email while driving.  Instead, I called the person and arranged a time to meet.  I don’t respond to emails while driving–that is just a bad idea!

I was able to get the signature I needed and also meet with the final scheduled appointment I had that day, and I was able to help that person as well.  This meant I was able to help three clients with scheduled meetings, one to get questions answered, and also stop by another client to fix a missing signature problem, all while driving approximately 350 miles in a day.  I even managed to be on time to all of the meetings I had that day.  Nobody’s service suffered, and I was able to help all 5 people in a single day from the road and in my car.

 

I Want to Help Everyone That I Can

I was pretty happy with how that day went.  I could help as many people as I could as quickly as I could on that day.  (I was definitely ready to be home in time for dinner that day, too.)  I know my schedule can be full and I know that if I just stayed in my office and had people come to me, that would probably mean I could meet with more people.  However, itt wouldn’t be as convenient for them, or as fun for me to meet with different people where they are.  My schedule does include a fair amount of travel, but I do think it is helpful.  I want to help as many people as I can, as quickly as I can, but I also need to do so in a manner that allows me to help people the right way.  If you would like to give me the chance to help you with your estate plan, please click the button below to schedule an appointment.