Everything You Need to Know About Unique Value Propositions

By Susan Letterman White

What is a value proposition?

A value proposition is what you are offering to provide in exchange for your fee.  Your value proposition is your service, product, and/or the experience of working with you. It’s not about your personal brand – your identity or values. It’s not about how able you are to create trusting relationships, where clients have confidence in your legal acumen and ability. It’s not even about how people feel when working with you, although that is important. 

Rather, it is about the perception held by a prospective client, client, or referral source of the unique value you offer to people – the meaningful difference you can make in their lives and in helping them with their problems and goals. It’s about their point of view, the problems they care about most, and whether you offer a different and better solution to those problems.

The operative word is value, from your client’s point of view. There are three categories of value from your client’s point of view. You can create new value, protect existing value, or restore value lost for clients. If you find ways for your clients to do what they want to do, then you create value.  If you find ways to help your clients preserve what matters to them most, then you maintain value.  If you find ways to make your client whole after being physically, emotionally, or financially limited or harmed, then you restore value. 

A good value proposition quickly tells clients the problems you will solve for them, the leverage you will provide to make attaining their goals easier, and the benefits that will make their lives easier and better.

Why are some value propositions better than others?

Let’s take a look at two service companies to see what works and what could use a little improvement. 

As a ride-sharing company, Uber appeals to drivers and riders with different and persuasive value propositions.  On its website home page, you will find this:

Very quickly, I know how Uber can be of value to me, whether I am a rider or a driver. 

Boston University is a private university. Its campus is the city of Boston. Its competition for undergraduates is stiff. There are many similar universities in similar locations – even within the city of Boston. On its website home page, you will find an old-fashioned landing page and center stage is a picture and story of neuroscientist Rahul Desikan, a “pioneering neuroscientist” who “was attacking ALS. Then, ALS attacked him.” This may be an interesting and moving story, but it doesn’t tell me anything obvious and persuasive about the value of attending Boston University as an undergraduate.

Underneath and in small font are four categories: headlines, research, community, and alumni. Each category offers more information.  Under headlines is news about BU today. There is an article on E-cigarettes, managing information overload, and getting to know Dorchester. BU is not in Dorchester, so I find this very confusing. The information under the other headings is similarly aimed at a narrow audience of people, who might find the specific topics of interest.  Nowhere on the homepage of this website does it tell a prospective student why BU is a better choice than any other university. There are thirteen information links at the top of the page, many with drop-down menus. Each menu has too many additional topics.

Even if I select “ABOUT,” I’m told that “Boston University is no small operation…our three campuses are always humming, always in high gear.” These clichés tell me nothing at all. I could choose to click on any of several additional links, including to “meet the people and places that keep the University running smoothly,” but it’s difficult to find meaningful information at first glance about why Boston University is unique and worth the tuition and estimated expenses of $69,668 per year.

Clarity in a succinct message of the unique value to your target market is what makes a value proposition good. 

Why create a value proposition?

To a client, your value proposition is the value they conclude they are receiving in exchange for what they give you? If they do not conclude that they are receiving more value as a result of hiring you, they will opt to live with a problem or attempt to solve it in other ways. Clients give you their time, money, and emotions. In exchange, they want a problem to disappear and a solution to move into its place. They have needs and interests, none of which are the details of how you will use your legal expertise. When you can convey precisely, which factors or aspects of the service or the experience you offer will solve which of their specific problems, you give your prospect the information they need to decide whether or not your unique value proposition is of sufficient value to them.

Some people say that your value proposition is the most important piece of your overall marketing messaging. It’s a catalyst for transforming prospects into clients when it tells them why they should hire you, rather than another lawyer. It clearly conveys the benefits of working with you. The most important element is that it connects to the conversation about a problem or desire already happening in your prospect’s mind. 

How to create your value proposition

Many value propositions are drenched in trite, meaningless, weak, and ambiguous words. An effective value proposition explains how your services address a specific need experienced by your ideal client. A value proposition is also called a unique selling proposition because by using the language of the prospect, not the lawyer, and talking about the prospect’s problems begging for solutions, you transform a prospect into a client. The way you speak about your services to other lawyers or legal staff or even your family should differ from how your clients describe your services and how you describe your services to them.

Creating your unique value proposition is a five-step process.

Step One: Describe your ideal client or prospect. Is your client an individual or an entity? If an entity, who is the decision-maker? What does that person care about most? What makes this client or prospect ideal?

In a for-profit corporation, your client cares about creating or preserving value – their profit or competitive advantage.  They may also care about restoring value that they feel has been unfairly taken or not paid when due. Individuals may care most about their family member’s health and well-being, what others think about them, or restoring value that they feel has unfairly been taken. Non-profit organizations care about creating value through fundraising and relevant acquisitions and actions, helping their stakeholders, growing their members, and keeping their existing members happy. 

Step Two: Do you create new value, maintain value, or restore value for your client? 

Step Three: Describe the value in detail from the prospect’s point of view. What unique experience and value are you offering?

Step Four: What problems do your prospects have that keep them awake at night? Come up with as many problems as possible. 

Step Five: For each problem you identify, which specific factors, qualities, characteristics, or defining features of your service, product, or the experience of working with you respond to each problem?

Step Six: Put this information together to write a short, easy-to-recall, value proposition in the language of your client. Make it persuasive and distinguishable from competitors. What problems will you solve, or situations will you improve? What specific benefits will you deliver? Why are you better than the lawyer down the hall? 

You may need to analyze your competition to discover where they fall short.  Their weaknesses are your opportunities to distinguish yourself. What do you do better than your competition? There are three ways to differentiate yourself. You might describe the features – the facts or characteristics of your service; the advantages – how a feature can help the prospect; or the benefits – how a feature or advantage meets a prospect’s explicit needs. Research shows that benefits are the most persuasive way to describe solutions.  

Your features are what you offer – notify of new lawsuits soon after they are filed, explain the risks of different strategies, file all documents related to a trademark request, etc.  Your benefits solve your prospect’s problems – early notification of lawsuits, sleep better at night, knowing someone is on the lookout for lawsuits against your company. Your advantage may be your price point or speed.

Start with one short sentence about the end-benefit of your legal services. Then in 2-3 sentences, specifically explain those services and why they are useful. List three key features, advantages, or benefits of your services with bullet points.

Conclusion

Your value proposition should be read and understood quickly in less than 30 seconds. As long as you are not trying to sell something that few people want to buy or trying to sell to someone who doesn’t have purchasing power, your value proposition will transform prospects into clients and clients into brand advocates.

Contact Us Now!

Resilience and your personal brand

By Susan Letterman White

The ability to anticipate and bounce back from setbacks quickly - is among the most valuable competencies. Like the ability to easily learn new skills, it catalyzes a person's ability to respond intentionally, intelligently and with an effective strategy to any surprising and significant change that the person faces. Resilience is what helps a person adapt to adversity, manage stress and even find hidden resources to meet goals that at first glance appear difficult to attain. It is never more important than when you are trying to discern and adjust your personal brand. You have a personal brand. Everyone does. It is the image you project and is a consequence of every single aspect of your identity and behavior. This part of your identity is expressed whenever you are communicating, i.e., whenever you are in the same physical or virtual space as another person. You can't really identify your brand with accuracy without information from other people about how they perceive you. You may have a few ideas, and your ideas may even be correct. However, personal brand is what other people notice about you. It's a particularly difficult challenge to discover that your personal brand isn't what you thought it was and perhaps not aligned with your goals. This twinge to one's self image is what has been called an "identity abrasion."1 It is easy for someone who is accustomed to excelling academically to have a self-image as a high performer, and interpret the information about his or her brand that doesn't match the person's self-images as a fatal mistake or failure. In truth, it is nothing more than data to evaluate and an opportunity to learn something about how other people, who have experienced you in a particular context, perceive you. An identity abrasion to someone with low resilience can cause shock and a sense of loss. When this happens, it takes time to psychologically process the feelings associated with shock and loss. Some people are so fearful of an identity abrasion that they will protect themselves by refusing to collect data about their brand from other people. Unfortunately all this strategy achieves is to keep those vulnerable and low resilient people blind to the most valuable gift - feedback about what others believe is true. People with higher levels of resilience approach challenges with optimism that they will succeed. They have more confidence, are more motivated to tenaciously plow through difficulties, and view themselves as problemsolvers, rather than victims of unfortunate circumstances. Having this attitude, which can be cultivated with training, coaching, and practice, is what directs them to want data on their brand and make sense of it through an analytical lens crafted by curiosity. For this reason alone, developing your brand with the help of a coach is invaluable.

Tips for developing resilience

Identify competencies associated with emotional intelligence and develop them. Learning to manage your strong emotions, such as the anxiety associated with an identity abrasion, is one element of emotional intelligence. Another aspect of emotional intelligence, the ability to affect the emotions of others, will help you develop a brand that will help you expand your network. After all, people like helping people that they like, and people like people who affect their feelings in a positive manner. Learn to reduce your anxiety with controlled breathing, relaxing your tensed muscles, and using positiveimagery. Learn more about your anxiety through close attention to the circumstances surrounding your anxiety and reflecting on the experience afterwards.

PBN: Pause. Take three deep Breaths. Notice what is happening around you according to your five senses, and to you - physiologically, emotionally and what you are thinking and saying to yourself.

Tips for identifying and developing your personal brand

First ask yourself about yourself: What matters most to you? Who are you? What do you do? How do you do it? How are you different from everyone else? What do you want people to remember about you after you leave? Second, ask your colleagues, friends, clients, supervisors and anyone else that knows you, what they notice and remember most about you. Not everyone will perceive you in the same way. Your personal brand may vary from one person and context to the next.  Third, given your vision for success, goals and the people with decision-making power that matter to you, how, if at all, do you want to change your brand? Fourth, what will you do first to change your brand from what it is today to what you want it to be? The overlap between brand and resilience is the last step for developing your personal brand. That step is when you identity the action steps you will take to notice and manage any identity twinge that might arise.

1. Martin Davidson, "The End of Diversity as We Know it: Why Diversity Efforts Fail and Why Leveraging Differences Can Succeed" (2011).

Contact Us Now!

Find the marketing strategy that’s right for you

By Susan Letterman White

Marketing and business development begins with an answer to the question: Who are you trying to attract as future clients? Your answer should infuse every choice you make about your marketing methods and content. Marketing methods include both active and passive means, using the array of technology options available or no technology at all, and traditional modes of advertising like on billboards, the back of a bus, television advertising or print materials. Once you know where, when and how to connect with your target market, you can decide what to do to let them know the solutions you offer, what it is like to work with you and how you deliver those solutions. Your goal? Remain top of mind, so that when they need what you have to offer, they will know the way to get in touch with you.

Here are three examples of different marketing strategies. Which one is closest to what might work best for you?

Marketing without technology

Alex (real person, name changed) doesn't have a website, Twitter account or LinkedIn page. She isn't active on social media and doesn't write blog posts or print articles. She doesn't plan and deliver programs on her substantive area of law to potential clients or referral sources. She doesn't send out Christmas cards or newsletters to her clients. Her clients do not have email access to her. By all accounts, she isn't doing anything that the experts in law firm business development and retention say are necessary to sustain successful revenue generation for today's solo and small firm lawyers. Yet, she has a steady stream of clients asking for her representation. What's her secret?

Alex's law practice is focused on criminal law. Her potential clients and their referral sources are often where she is demonstrating what she can do for them - in court. In fact, her clients, potential clients and referral sources do not select their lawyers from their digital footprint; instead they select them by evaluating their performance f irst-hand. The upside is that Alex has more free time to practice law with a life outside of law. She also manages the client relationships by phone or in-person only. If they want to communicate, they must pick up the phone. If it's a true emergency, they will get an immediate response. If it's important to them, but not an emergency, they will get a return call within 24 hours.

Marketing has been explained as communicating to many people simultaneously in-person or digitally. Alex doesn't intentionally market her law practice. The upside is that she saves time, money and possible anxiety associated with that endeavor. She is, however, delivering content about what she does and how she does it for clients, by being in court regularly. She has no digital intermediary between herself and her potential clients and referral sources. She's always on display when in court and passively marketing without any buffer. Every day she is in court she interacts with the people who have the decision-power to build or stall her practice. For some lawyers, that would be the downside.

Perhaps an explanation for Alex's success is in this response to a discussion about websites and getting noticed on JDUnderground, "I don't think people much care when your source of referrals is word of mouth. Word of mouth is 10 times better than any other kind."

Regardless of your practice area, Maggie Watkins, chief marketing officer of Sedgwick, LLP says, "Nothing replaces a face-to-face meeting when developing new business. It is a relationship business after all, and prospects want to know you understand them and their businesses and that can only be demonstrated by speaking to them and discussing their issues and needs. Articles, speeches and social media are all designed toget that meeting with the prospect, but the selling begins once you are in front of them and have the conversation."

Content marketing through technology

Not all practices offer the opportunity for passive marketing, as do some areas of criminal law. In contrast, the market (potential clients) in family law is composed of different niches according to family finances. The Legal Services Corporation reports, "86 percent of the civil legal problems reported by low-income Americans in the past year received inadequate or no legal help." This represents a significant business opportunity for anyone who figures out a solution. Damian Turco, a Massachusetts divorce lawyer with a personal injury component of his practice based in Boston, explains: "Prospective clients want to understand the general extent of their legal rights, considering the facts and circumstances of their cases. A natural starting point is the internet. Browsing is anonymous and you can provide them the answers they so need. While doing so, some prospective clients will decide they need representation and, because you've already established yourself as a credible solution, some will call you, schedule a consultation, and become paying clients."

Create a digital presence that answers the questions that are on the minds of your prospective clients and the people who are trying to help them. Then, to further attract the right people further into your marketing funnel, provide the answers to their questions about cost. Turco Legal has designed a specific program for them - Justice for All, - that involves resource-based billing for family law clients.

Content is king for Turco Legal because it is the right content at the right time; however, not all digital marketing content meets this bar. Your digital content may not be as valuable as you think it is. Jayne Navarre recently wrote about the problem with content that isn't engaging the right people. She writes, "The "organic" social media produced by law firms - the stuff that was supposed to create conversation and conversion - appeared to be mostly seen and applauded by a handful of their own employees, lawyers and a few real-life friends and relatives." Create content that will serve as a bread-crumb trail from your next best client's concerns and interests to a virtual handshake with you.

Combine low-cost technology with traditional marketing for a cost-effective combination

Even the best content can get lost among similar content online or on tangible venues, like billboards, public transportation and television. You may need to amp up your efforts by focusing on a narrow niche and repeating your message in different venues at different times. Enter the Truck Accident Lawyers in Pennsylvania. Munley Law is a personal injury law practice with niche marketing aimed at clients who have been injured in truck accidents. This enables clear, concise messaging online and on television.

Of course, this costs money and time and you may face stiff competition for tangible space and the right to get noticed by the right people at the right time. If you are going to use tangible venues in your marketing efforts. Bernie Munley, Chief Marketing Officer of personal injury law firm Munley Law in Pennsylvania, says, "Integrate them with your social media and digital marketing efforts. Social media allows marketers to build brand awareness, engage with their audience, and even target potential clients - typically at a lower cost than traditional media. It would be a mistake to overlook this opportunity.

Contact Us Now!

5 Tips for Adaptive Marketing: Reimagining Marketing and Business Development

The COVID pandemic has made this world and how to operate in it very different for everyone. Lawyers and their clients are no different. Some of the changes in how we connect with one another, build relationships, and work together will stay with us for years. The changes brought upon us by this pandemic are on top of the massive changes that followed the technological revolution of the early 21st Century.

Background

Marketing is connecting with prospective clients in meaningful ways. The decisions that prospective clients make whether to connect with a particular lawyer in the first place and whether to hire that particular lawyer are, like all decisions, influenced by emotions.  Without emotions we would not be able to make choices. We would have difficulty making any decisions.

The pandemic, the economic collapse associated with it, and the fight for racial justice have increased all sorts of feelings, from empathy to anger and from fear to stress. It makes sense to adjust marketing efforts to take account of these pervasive feelings and ask what it means for lawyer marketing. That is what follows here.

Connecting the right lawyer, service, and experience through the right message at the right time in the right platform/space with the right possible clients or referral sources is not easy. Marketing may still be about the people, the message, and the platform; however, clients want something different from their lawyers today.

Even before COVID, the role of client began to change. Clients, patients, and university students transformed into consumers, and, as consumers, they began to make known the value they expected in return from upholding their part of the transaction and paying high fees. Historically, in marketing, we evaluated what clients needed. Now, it makes more sense to take a deep dive into what they want.

Many times, clients want a relationship, rather than a pure transaction. As part of that relationship, they want a reduction in stress and certainly not more stress added on to their already stressful existence, part of which is the reason they reached out to a lawyer in the first place. What this means is that the marketing message and platform must change to reduce stress and also respond more acutely to the wants of the prospective client, especially when it comes to a prospective client making an initial selection of possible lawyers to work with.

Personal Brand

None of this changes the need to be clear about your brand – the image you want to project to the world – your strengths, values, and what makes you distinct from your competition.  Strengths are still measured by your specific skills or abilities like your technical legal expertise and your core competencies, which you use when you communicate and work with other people. However, in today’s world, you may want to highlight your approach to working with clients or your values that others may find attractive. There has been a transition in emphasis from client needs to client wants and also from goals to values. This is because values are the glue in a relationship. They represent commonalities that matter most and are the foundation for building trust.

Value Proposition

None of this changes the need for an attractive value proposition.  If anything, this has become even more important. The shift from goals to values is just the beginning. Also, we are moving away from highlighting legal solutions to highlighting how a lawyer can help a client move closer to the client’s vision of a successful outcome. Clients want to know how you will help them continuously move in the direction of a better situation through the experience of working with you.

A value proposition is what you are offering to provide in exchange for your fee, that is also what your prospective client wants.  Prospective clients want their lawyers to help them create new value, protect existing value, or restore value lost. Besides the product or service, you are selling, you are selling a particular experience.

Your value proposition only matters from the client’s perspective.  What value do they conclude they are receiving in exchange for what they give up financially and emotionally? To answer this question, think of your service, outcome, and experience of working with you as the value they are measuring.

What is Adaptive Marketing?

What has definitely changed and what needs to be reimagined is how to adjust effective messages, platform options, and what clients want.  When people are feeling anger, intolerance and marginalization, fear, and stress, these feelings affect what they want and the message they will be receptive to hearing. Lawyers need to adapt their messages and platform to the changing wants and emotions of people, all while maintaining an attitude of ”let’s try this and see what happens.” There are five areas ripe for reimagining: (1) digital connections; (2) relationships in place of transactions; (3) the need for authenticity as a lawyer; (4) mastering empathy; and (5) developing adaptability skills.

1.    Digital Connections

Since we cannot easily meet or connect in person without a lot of physical barriers, initial contact will be digital or traditional advertising. Use your digital options to connect and consider the brand and value proposition to emphasize.

At a minimum, consider that your website and LinkedIn are verifications, as is Google My Business. Make sure they show up when you google your name and your law firm’s name. If they do not, take the time to create or improve these digital assets.  Once you have a website, posting regularly helps improve your digital presence, especially if your blogs are naturally responsive to google prompts and questions of your ideal clients. This is how people will find you when they don’t know you but have a question you can answer or a problem you can solve. You have many options.

•  Website

• Linked In

• Traditional Advertising

• Google My Business

• Blog

• Instagram

• Tic Tok

• Email campaigns

• You Tube

• Videos

• Chatbots on Website

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Yelp

• Avvo

• Lunch Club

• Google Reviews

• SEO 

2.    Relationships before Transactions

The attorney-client relationship is more than a series of transactions. Connecting on a human level could ultimately result in stronger client loyalty and a client, who becomes a brand advocate after the working relationship ends. This is often the end result when clients feel recognized and appreciated for who they are.

Lawyers often focus on the legal problem and legal options.  Instead, shift your focus from task to relationship, during marketing throughout the working relationship, and even after the legal work has ended. The ache for human connection is greater today than it has been in quite some time. The fact that over the past year more people have flocked to online dating, online therapy, and classrooms that emphasize community as much as learning, should tell you something about how the world is changing.

Lawyers often miss easy opportunities to create that sense of connection and community with their clients. In a recent survey I conducted, several opportunities for easy wins stood out. (1) Client intake is an early connection with your brand.  Whether you take on the client or not, they will be a word-of-mouth marketer or detractor for your brand. In a recent survey 75% of lawyers surveyed did not use an intake form. (2) Non-engagement letters are easy to use as a matter of habit. How you respond to a person who does not end up as a client is part of the personal touch you offer or hold back. The same survey showed that 75% of attorneys did not use a non-engagement letter. (3) Client onboarding is a chance to talk to a new client about mutual expectations and preferences about communication and the internal processes you use. It’s an opportunity to introduce clients to your team and brand, and offer a personal touch. Only about 50% of lawyers said they do this. 

Communicating well during the relationship, is also the best way to avoid malpractice claims. “In a world that now offers us seemingly endless ways to communicate with one another, it is surprising that the majority of legal malpractice claims are related to administrative functions, and particularly, client communication.” This is from a 2019 Above the Law post. Less than 75% of lawyers say they check in with their clients at least every 6 weeks, and when it came to asking clients for feedback, which offers the dual function of conveying to the client that the relationship matters and capturing the client’s perspective on the working relationship, 25% of lawyer said they never ask for feedback, 25% said rarely, and 50% sometimes. No one surveyed said they often or always ask for feedback.

Don’t end communication when the working relationship ends. Keep in touch in between or after a working relationship ends.  It’s easier now.  Coffee or cocktails over zoom. An email to check in. Be creative.

3.    The Need for Authenticity

Communication is key and it works when you add in authenticity. When your actions are in alignment with your core values and beliefs, you are showing your true self and how you feel, rather than showing people only a particular side. Of course, this means you need a degree of self-awareness of your values, motives, emotions, preferences, and abilities. Where possible, bring yourself to the relationship.  Do you write and record songs or make pottery coffee cups? Share across common interests or interesting reads. Are you struggling with homeschooling or vaccine worries? Share a favorite recipe or place for a hike. If you are an avid networker, make connections that are mutually beneficial to your client and someone in your network. Where appropriate, share your passion. Whatever it is, share it.

4.    The Need for Empathy

Empathy is how we connect with one another’s emotions by catching somebody else’s feelings, attempting to understand what someone else is feeling and why, and offering compassion - the motivation to improve others’ well-being. Stanford University psychology professor Jamil Zaki explains that “the world is full of daily battles in which we’ve consciously or subconsciously sorted ourselves into “us” and “them” camps.” Superimpose your position as an empowered expert and your client as the person depending on your expertise and it creates even greater distance.

It’s easy for a client to feel that they are the “us” and you, as the lawyer are the “them.” Empathy helps with marketing by seeing a client’s problem from the perspective of the client and understanding the cost-benefit of the solution you are offering as they feel it. Also, empathy encourages a client to be open and honest and if you provide difficult feedback to your client with empathy, they are more likely to use it because they won’t feel attacked.

In business development, it’s easy to forget about the fundamentals of communication, such as we all have our default and preferences in styles.  Differences in styles can set off an unconscious “us” versus “them” thinking and role assumption.

These differences are apparent when you begin to notice. Some people are very expressive, while others are more analytical.  Some are more driving while others are more amenable. Some people show more emotions when they communication and others hold back. Some make more statements and others ask more questions. The best way to connect is to flex to the other person’s style when you want to reduce tension, which right now is running high for most of us.  So, first pay attention to how much emotion they show you and flex to that.

5.    Develop Adaptability Skills

When it comes to marketing and business development, like running your business in contrast from practicing law, you have to be open to new ideas, to experimentation, and learning from mistakes and failures.  You have to be nimble and be able to adapt to a quickly changing world.  So, you have to know a little something about changing, when change is hard.

When change is difficult it feels like a loss and when we try something new, we feel unskilled and like we don’t know what we are doing. That’s natural. If only it were as easy as an animal who can change its colors to blend in with its environment.  But, it’s not.

So be prepared.  Tell yourself it’s okay to feel uncomfortable but instead of pushing back, lean into the discomfort.  Be willing to try and experiment until you find what works best for you to display your authentic self or write blogs that jump to the top of a good search.

People have an innate tendency when faced with change.  What’s yours? Are you the catalyst, who comes up with ideas, the theorist, who looks for a path forward, a stabilizer, who looks for reasons to stop change, or an improviser, who is impulsive and wants to start without a plan? Knowing your default response helps. Is your tendency to find a path to risks and “no” to change? If so, step back for moment, take a pause, and play devils’ advocate.  Find a path to “yes.”

Change that enables the capacity to thrive is hard, but worth the effort. Be able to discern between what you need to preserve about your practice and what you can let go. If you need a new skill, get it. You can learn relationship-building skills, how to be authentic, empathy, and adaptability.  They foundation is a willingness to experiment and be okay with anything less than perfection, which for lawyers feels like an awful mistake, but it’s not. Be okay with feeling incompetent and know that the more you practice the more your feelings of competency will grow.