Using Volunteerism to Boost Worth

This last weekend I volunteered to work at the California Speedway during the four days of NASCAR. I drove a golfcart to help anyone with disabilities get around the racetrack and participate in all that a NASCAR weekend has to offer. It was a wonderful experience.

If you look, there are a lot of articles, columns and words written about how to use volunteerism to boost your network and business development. Not enough is said about how being a volunteer just plain feels good.

Doing anything without an expectation of reciprocation is exactly the sort of thing that helps us feel worthy and at peace with who we are. And from there so much is possible.

Never be afraid to give. You will receive a return on your investment.

Legal Marketing; Be Who You Are

A thought on self-examination: What we want to see when we look in the mirror and what we really are is often two different things. Here is a wonderful little snippet of insight from Fouro:

You can't change organizations. You can only reveal them to themselves. And they like what they see. Or not.

If they follow the "or not" path, you can offer suggestions as to the alternatives that fit for them, and for what they believe. If they haven't evolved to the point of knowing what they believe, you start there and the rest reveals itself.

It is really that simple. The rest consists of removing spackle and years of self-deception.

How many times have you looked at someone wearing the most unflattering clothing and wondered if they looked in a mirror before stepping out their front door? There are so many people trying to look like something they are not... yet in their mind they're pulling it off. Why can't they see what we see?

This same inability to see what others see happens all too often in the marketing of law and professional services partnerships. The firm wishes to appear to be a certain type of firm; Maybe they're chasing a business trend, reacting to a competitor, or trying to just show a little ‘coolness’. The truth is a firm cannot be what it is not no matter how much they insist that they are.

I recently talked with a marketing manager at a large Midwestern firm who was venting frustration about her firms inability to utilize the marketers they’d hired. The very old-school executive committee, in responding to the buzz around marketing and sales at law firms, determined that they needed to “become a marketing organization”. They hired talented marketers, created some brand messages, expanded into new markets and announced that the “firm is changing with the times.”

Unfortunately, it’s not working. Their market does not really see much difference between the “old” firm and the “new” firm. More importantly, there has been no change internally at the firm that would suggest the firm has the ability to be anything except what they have always been.

At this firm they are truly putting on ‘clothing’ that does not fit. Why? Because they think that simply wearing a new outfit will make them different. But they’re not. Their partner compensation still enforces old ways; the executive committee puts the brakes on any initiative that does not conform to the “way we’ve always done things”, and the marketers are expected to “fall in line.”

I used to work at Brobeck, the wonder child law firm of the internet/IPO bubble. They did put on new clothes. For them, at the time, it worked. Why? Because a new generation of partners were handed the controls and they absolutely transformed what the firm was from the inside out. It became ‘something different’, and then behind that change they went to market.

When all of the new generation abandoned ship the remaining traditional and conservative partners no longer fit within the new mold created by those no longer there… and the firm died.

So much of what happens in business can be closely correlated to what happens in personal relationships and personal life. How many times have you heard someone say, “I can only be what I am”, when talking about frustrations in personal relationships? Businesses and partnerships are exactly the same!

It’s easy to get excited about what we want to be. The truth is told in what we are actually capable of being. Don’t be silly and see what you want to see in a mirror. Accept what you are and then be the very best at that.

Speaking of Out-of-Sight

MC (me) will be on a four day, no-tech hiatus returning on Monday, February 28. There is nothing more life-balancing than finding places to go where technology cannot follow.

Rainmaking is a Developed Skill

In his article, 'Rules for Rainmakers', Michael McLaughlin at MarketingProfs.com tells us that rainmaking is a developed skill that any attorney (or professional services partner) with the correct mindset and commitment can learn. Read the story here.

Legal Marketing on a Shoestring

Here is a great article from Raymond Dowd at the New York Law Journal with marketing ideas for the fiscally challenged. In truth his tips are excellent for everyone.

Get Marketing Mileage from Power Point

Send your notes pages, not your slides.... So says Cliff Atkinson over at his 'beyond bullets' blog. It makes so much sense it's almost silly that the notes function of Power Point has been so neglected. Read for yourself.

The Art of Not Talking Like a Lawyer

Over at metacool Diego Rodriguez talks about using PowerPoint as a story telling aid and not as a bullet point machine. Certainly worth the read. His remarks point at something even larger if it’s your wish to connect with other people. That bigger thing is “being understood”.

As a trained professional you’ve been immersed in the language of your colleagues. Dictionary.com defines your language as “legalese”. This is good because that language expresses thoughts, concepts and truth in a way that holds particular meaning for those in your profession. On the other hand, the vast majority of people you talk to in practice development and marketing activities do not have that language skill.

Not surprisingly if you ask most people, including corporate executives, what a “tort” is, they know, but they don’t know. Or the recent law firm favorite, “complex litigation”. To most of us that means a really tough law suit. Go ahead, ask around. Don’t be surprised. There are so many words and terms attorneys use as part of their natural language that are only vaguely familiar to non-attorneys.

If you are a parent then you know exactly what I am talking about. I would never say to a four year old, “it would serve your interests best of you would…” Nope. I would say, “I’d like you to…” To simply state “complex litigation” as a service offering in collateral or discussion will leave most people a little confused. It would be better for you to state that your firm is very good at handling law suits about really difficult issues like patents and liability, that these kinds of law suits usually involve a large number of people and a lot of money is at stake.

Certainly “complex litigation” is a clean and quick way of stating what you do, but in marketing and business development ‘understanding’ produces more results.

Some attorneys have argued that “talking like an attorney” is important as part of the proof that you know what you’re doing (walks like a duck, talks like a duck, must be a duck). I don’t think people draw their conclusions from your ability to speak legalese, but rather from your ability help them understand what their choices are and your concern that they comprehend what lies before them.

It is OK for you to speak slowly and use small words. Your audience will thank you.