Are you ready to scale that peak in 2012?

Originally posted in the National Law Journal on January 12, 2012

Last month, my father-in-law invited me to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with him next spring. The problem is, starting my own business and entering my third decade have left me out of shape and about 20 pounds overweight. I decided I needed to educate myself about how to get in shape and lose weight — two things I never had to worry about when I was younger.

At first I thought I could just go run on a treadmill for an hour each day, but a friend who specializes in helping people train for triathlons said that wouldn’t work.

“Your body gets used to the machines,” she explained.

“So what do I do?”

“You need interval training.”

The idea is simple — you need to keep your body guessing. Once your body knows what to expect, the exercise becomes much easier. Easy is nice, but the problem is that your body stops getting stronger. Interval training — alternating intensive and moderate exercise — is designed to get around this. We build muscles by breaking them down so the body can rebuild them, but the same exercises eventually become less and less productive. The best workout programs require frequent change. Our minds work in a similar way. New challenges help us grow.

So what does this have to do with lawyers? During the past year I have advised hundreds of lawyers on bringing in more business, and the vast majority of them start out stuck. They bring in a certain level of business, but it doesn’t vary much from year to year. They want to break out.

It may seem obvious, but to accomplish things you never have before, you need to do things you have never done before.

Here is how I respond to some of the most frequent complaints I hear from lawyers who are feeling stuck:

“I never get business from bar association events.”

You have two options: Switch to some other type of networking or change the way you behave at bar events. Set goals for engagement. Try to learn about five other attorneys’ practices. You are bound to see opportunities to refer business to them, which will bring return business your way.

“I’ve been on LinkedIn for three years but haven’t gotten a dime of business from it.”

Again, there are two options: Quit LinkedIn or start using the tool more actively. Reach out to old law school friends. Become more active in a couple of groups important to your industry. Pay attention when contacts switch jobs.

“I have a hard time talking to people.”

Stop talking and start asking questions. Before you go to a networking event, choose a few stand-by questions that you can ask of anybody, even a total stranger. “So how was 2011 for you?” “Any big plans for 2012?” These are good for breaking the ice; then, you can get into more specific questions about their practice. “You may have told me before, but what type of law do you focus on?” “Is that still what you spend most of your time on?” Show sincere interest. The person you are talking with will respond by showing interest in what you do.

I’ve never climbed a major mountain before, but I am going to go for it at the end of March. My biggest motivation? I am completely terrified at the thought of putting in months of preparation and not making it to the top. Fear can be a great motivator. New opportunities and new goals make life exciting, but you need to embrace change. You need to find your Mount Kilimanjaro in 2012. Good luck.

Time to update your e-mail signature line

Originally published in The National Law Journal on January 2, 2012

In early 2009, Melanie Green, marketing director of Baker & Daniels (which combined with Faegre & Benson on Jan. 1 to form Faegre Baker Daniels) announced via Twitter that her firm had added social media icons to its website that would allow visitors to share information from their site with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

“Shortly after beginning communicating our information through these tools, it naturally made sense to use our website as a way to tell our visitors how to find us,” Green said. “We added call-out buttons on our news pages, telling visitors to follow us on Twitter, and then added links to professionals’ bios who were becoming active in the space. All of these steps were part of an integrated plan to utilize and leverage social media tools and have continued to develop over the past several years.”

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LinkedIn & Blogs for Lawyers

Tomorrow morning Greentarget and Inside Counsel will release a new survey of social media use by in-house counsel. According to the Greentarget Twitter account, the survey shows that 55% of General Counsel say firm blogs can influence hiring decisions. The same report will show that LinkedIn is now being used by more than 50% of in-house counsel across every age demographic .

It seems only fitting that today my co-author Amy Knapp and I are releasing our new book LinkedIn & Blogs for Lawyers: Building High Value Relationships in a Digital Age. The book is available immediately from West Publishing and subscribers to my blog get an additional 20% off. Click here to purchase.

In the book you will read case studies of a partner who used blogs to bring in multiple six-figure trials, an associate that leveraged LinkedIn to build a substantial book of business as well as all the techniques and strategies that helped them get there.

The foreward to the book is written by Richard Susskind and here is just some of the advance praise the book is receiving:

This book is very user-friendly and is the best resource I have ever seen for lawyers looking to maximize the ever-changing world of social media.

- Aleisha Gravit, CMO at Akin Gump

This book is an absolute ‘must read’ for anyone looking to build a sustainable practice in what is now unquestionably an online world.

- Felice C. Wagner, Chief Client Service Officer at Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan

In every section of the book, I learned something that I did not yet know.  I highly recommend LinkedIn & Blogs for Lawyers.

- Steve Bell, Chief Client Development Officer, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC

What Steve Jobs Can Teach Law Firms About Marketing

Originally published in Thew National Law Journal on December 7, 2011

Most of you will have seen the famous Apple commercial, “Think Different” — if not, you can see it here. The ad featured clips of the “crazy ones” — Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon, Charlie Chaplin, Richard Branson, to name a few.

Originally, Steve Jobs cut a track with his own voice narrating, but in the end he used the voice of Richard Dreyfuss. He explained to biographer Wal­ter Isaacson that he didn’t want the commercial to be about him. He wanted it to be about Apple.

The commercial isn’t really about Apple either, though; it is about a concept. The concept that even though you are mocked, fired, kicked out of your own company or worse, you still can change the world. The commercial was effective because ideas are so much more powerful than advertisements. Most commercials leave us entertained at best; the Apple spot actually is inspiring.

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Will 2012 Be The Year Law Firms Begin To Engage?

Originally published in the The National Law Journal on December 22, 2011

A LexisNexis survey of 110 international law firms discovered that while 77 percent used at least one social network, fewer than 3 percent engaged in conversation.

There are two excuses for such a minuscule degree of engagement. First, firms are so concerned with controlling the message that their social sites — whether LinkedIn pages, Twitter or Facebook sites — are far too impersonal. The second is that allowing individual lawyers to participate will dilute the brand.

I predict that 2012 will be the year this mindset begins to change.

According to the same survey, even though 85 of the 110 of the surveyed law firms had a registered LinkedIn page, many of them didn’t recruit or handle client development through LinkedIn. They have official profiles, but they aren’t using the tools.

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