2018 is shaping up to be an exciting year. During the first quarter I will be launching an online course that teaches lawyers how to build powerful personal brands and profitable books of business, and I’ll be releasing my new book, which is geared toward helping young associates get off to a fast start in their careers. My agency is also transforming into one that exclusively helps law firms to simplify and clarify their marketing messages in order to communicate with clients more effectively. I’ll be sharing more about all of these initiatives in the weeks to come.
Needless to say, things are busy around here. Therefore, instead of new blog content this week (which will return next week), I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite and most popular posts from last year, written both here and on Attorney at Work. Enjoy, and I look forward to an exciting year of content, conversation, and personal growth ahead!
HOW TO CAPTURE IDEAS AND CREATE CONTENT THAT ELEVATES YOU ABOVE THE NOISE
One of the most important things a lawyer can do to become a well-branded, well-recognized expert, is to produce high-quality content. In most cases, particularly in the legal industry, the written format is most popular when it comes to producing content. But the format matters far less than the substance. Ideas can be conveyed via podcast, video, live talks – it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the content, itself, is of such high-quality that it raises the profile and reputation of the content producer in the minds of content consumers. Click here to read the post.
LAWYERS WITH STRONG PERSONAL BRANDS OPERATE WITH CLARITY OF PURPOSE AND CONSISTENCY OF EFFORT
The objective of becoming a lawyer with a strong personal brand is to make it clear to the market the precise types of problems that the well-branded lawyer can solve. A strong personal brand allows a lawyer to transform from hunter to hunted. Clients seek her out because her value proposition is clear and has been validated through her experience, reputation, thought leadership and the word of mouth of others she’s worked with and against. She knows – and the market knows – what she does, how she does it, and for whom. Success follows. Click here to read the post.
TO SCALE YOUR BUSINESS, GROW YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
You can’t clone yourself, so your ability to scale yourself is limited. You can’t be everywhere, focused on everything, all at once.
Or can you?
After all, it’s not necessarily your physical presence that matters when it comes to garnering the attention of potential buyers. More important is the power of your ideas, and the word of mouth of other people who a potential buyer knows and trust, who know and trust you. In other words, it is possible to scale yourself. And it can be accomplished by focusing intently on ways to grow your personal brand. Click here to read the post.
REAL, SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS REQUIRES STRATEGY AND STRUCTURE
I used to think that achieving big goals required equally big action. Extreme discipline. Personal sacrifice. Finding big chunks of time to fully immerse myself in tasks.
I came to learn that the opposite is true. I realized that the best way to achieve big goals is to take small actions. Big, ambitious goals aren’t achieved overnight. The key to becoming a productive lawyer isn’t running 100 yard dashes. It’s learning to take slow, methodical walks in the same direction every day. Click here to read the post.
HOW TO GENERATE ROI AS A YOUNG LAWYER
This post on Attorney at Work holds an important message for young lawyers. Your law firm cares about your personal and professional growth. But make no mistake, the law is a business — often a cutthroat one. Your firm has made a big investment in you in terms of salary, benefits, training and overhead. It expects a return on that investment. As a young lawyer, it’s important to understand your firm’s point of view as to your value, and to a great degree it comes down to dollars and cents. Click here to read the post.
3 SIMPLE STEPS TO TRANSFORM YOUR LAW FIRM WEBSITE INTO A LEAD GENERATION MACHINE
Is your law firm website getting “reads” or is it getting leads? Many law firms resign themselves to the idea that a website is only an online brochure – a place for visitors to view practice area descriptions and professional biographies. This is misguided. While lead generation has not traditionally been a priority for most professional services websites, failing to optimize and integrate a site as a part of a firm’s holistic business development initiatives is a big mistake. Click here to read the post.
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR LAWYERS TO BUILD POWERFUL PERSONAL BRANDS ONLINE IN 2018
Almost every new business engagement starts online. Some clients find lawyers by searching for a particular type of expertise through a search engine, check out a lawyer’s background and experience, then initiate a conversation that leads to an engagement. More often, a prospective client learns of a lawyer offline – through referral, word of mouth, or meeting the lawyer while networking – and then proceeds to look up the lawyer’s credentials online. Either way, before moving forward with an engagement, a prospective client is going to spend time researching the lawyer’s website biography, LinkedIn profile, and other publicly available information on the Internet. Therefore, it’s incumbent upon a lawyer who hopes to develop more business to spend more time auditing and enhancing his or her own online presence. Here are 13 ways lawyers can build personal brands online. Click here to read the post.
Ready to dig deeper and position yourself for success? If you’re new to my blog, take a moment and download my free Personal Brand Building Workbook that will help you assess your strengths and begin projecting them to the marketplace. If you are a current subscriber to my blog, shoot me an email at jay@hcommunications.biz and I’ll send you a copy.