Another From The Mailbag post; Haven’t done one of these in awhile!

This one is from a respected attorney in Minnesota (hey, that’s where my Dad grew up!) looking to move from a successful practice into becoming a professional speaker.

Enjoy!

Rabbi Ginzberg,

I am a lawyer in Minnesota (land of the “Frozen Chosen”). I have been practicing . . . → Read More: From The Mailbag: How To Take Your Ideas on The Road]]>

Another From The Mailbag post; Haven’t done one of these in awhile!

This one is from a respected attorney in Minnesota (hey, that’s where my Dad grew up!) looking to move from a successful practice into becoming a professional speaker.

Enjoy!

Rabbi Ginzberg,

I am a lawyer in Minnesota (land of the “Frozen Chosen”). I have been practicing law for over 25 years and have had my own practice for 18 years.

I am interested in becoming a national speaker for lawyers. I have a breadth and depth of practice that has connected me to many different types of lawyers and the law. I have tried many cases and am in court very frequently. I have been told I am an engaging speaker.

I have researched and written an article about contract lawyers and co-counsel relationships and how they can expand your network and practice. I don’t believe that anyone has written about the issue in the way that I have. The ideas are very useful for solo and small practices.

How do I break into the national speaker scene and take my ideas on the road?

You ask an excellent question… You know where you want to go (many people do not!) and you want help getting there.

In this post I will try to distill many thousands of dollars worth of expensive business courses and advice into a few short sentences. Here is what you should do, in five simple steps:

1. Create a free seminar for attorneys in your local area (or, if you’d rather, a different area in which you have a network of connections or some familiarity.)

One of the ways you can do this quite easily on-the-cheap is to get a media sponsor- in essence, free advertising in exchange for having their name seen as the event sponsor.

This enables you to leverage your media sponsor to get valuable publicity as well as the “shimmer effect” of the sponsors’ prestige in the local marketplace to give credibility to your event.

2. Put on a stunning (meaning good information, not glitzy!) event. Inviting another presenter or two that are not your direct competition (even if you have to pay an expert, well likes personality to attend and speak!) will help your event be superb.

3. Have the event photographed videotaped, so you have something to show future audiences and for use of snippets thereof on social media sites. Photos are very helpful in your media kit, online, and for local media publicity.

4. Get testimonials from happy attendees. Video when possible, otherwise written. These are your magic keys to getting paid engagements.

5. Use LinkedIn or your network to connect with magazines and news media read and appreciated by your target audience (and think about this for a few minutes… it may not be the first lawyer rag that comes to mind.) and get your article published.

These five simple steps are an easy way to move your dream forward…  The best of luck!

Note:  Small Business Marketing Advice is available for a song, for next few days… until the website overhaul… take advantage or be left behind!

1) poll your audience. what do they want more information about specifically?

2) take the three of five most wanted ones and create an outline with each one as a master topic, and having three subtopics; one example, one tip, . . . → Read More: Save $1997 by reading this short blog post]]>

The reason for this is, because while ”talking shop” is important, what keeps the glue between you and your audience is the true getting to know each other… and that includes many details that you would not think of even relating!

Let me . . . → Read More: Your Clients and Readers want to Know about Your Personal Life…]]> You should be talking to your customers and telling them details about your personal life.

The reason for this is, because while ”talking shop” is important, what keeps the glue between you and your audience is the true getting to know each other… and that includes many details that you would not think of even relating!

Let me give you a “f’instance.”

To me, the fact that I am a Rabbi, have a long beard, study and teach Torah, and wear a fur hat on the Sabbath and Jewish Holidays is second nature to me.

I think about it as being something to talk about pretty much only when someone asks me about it.

However, to an outsider, of any religion, of anyplace in the world…. they find this kinda stuff fascinating!

They pepper me with questions like…

 

"Chassidically" Dressed (Image:Wikipedia)

”Why do you wear that fur hat?”

(too long of an answer to explain here.)

“Does it really cost over a thousand dollars!?”

(yes.)

“Have you ever trimmed your beard?”

(no.)

Being a successful business consultant and doing business ”out there” in the real world, dealing with entrepreneurs from all walks of life,  I stand out as being different – and therefore memorable.

I recently spoke to someone whom I had never met before. But just from my uniqueness, I stuck out in their mind from an interaction we had had online… and that made the relationship that much stronger from the get-go.

Let me give you another example.

Kaiser Franz Joseph of Austria. My Grandmother (whom just recently passed away!) remembered him.

When I grew up, up until the age of 27 (!) I had a great grandmother, the eldest daughter of a famous Jewish Rebbe, she remembered Kaiser Franz Josef of Austria, and went from having a cow (she told me once the cow’s name, but alas, it has slipped my mind) all the way to microwaves, Internet, and digital cameras.

Lucid until her final days, the lessons about life and life’s challenges, as well as her perspective on my business issues, were invaluable to me.

To me, this was normal, but to everyone else, being a married father of a child who can clearly remember helping his great-great grandmother get out of bed to the Sabbath table, is something that they can hear about for hours. And the timeless words of wisdom she transmitted to me are priceless – which is why people find it fascinating and listen for hours to stories, historical facts, and priceless pearls of wisdom that I have to share from the time we spent together.

What in your own history is memorable and something you should be sharing in your communications and interactions with clients?

Was your Dad in the Navy? When did you, your parents, or your grandparents immigrate to your current homeland?

Perhaps you are a twin or perhaps you remember a story, a life lesson that happened to you years ago, that you haven’t shared.

It’s hard to remember that details that are insignificant to you, or that you may be bored to death talking about, capture your clients attention and imagination… but it does!

There are lots of nuggets of gold in your own archive of memories.  Just dig in your past and find them… it will help you connect on a personal level to your customers!

The first thing you need to do is… BE MEMORABLE!

If every day you buy lunch at the same restaurant, and a new restaurant opens up across the street, you now have a problem.  You might be considering trying the new restaurant across the street, . . . → Read More: How to make it super easy for people to buy from you]]> Every time two people do business, one of them is taking a risk.  What does it mean?  Think about it this way.

If every day you buy lunch at the same restaurant, and a new restaurant opens up across the street, you now have a problem.  You might be considering trying the new restaurant across the street, but this is the problem.  You already know every time you go to this familiar restaurant, what you’re paying, and what you’re getting.  You feel it’s a worthy exchange.  You gave something, you received something, you made a deal, and you’re happy about what you paid or you wouldn’t have returned again and again.

Now this new restaurant that just opened across the street “calls to you.”  You go in there, pay money, buy lunch–but it doesn’t taste very good.  You just wasted your lunch hour.  The change was not worth the risk so you returned to the place you’ve always gone to, pick up your usual lunch, and go back to work.

But, if the new restaurant is a pizza place that says, “Come try our food.  If you don’t like it after the first bite, we’ll give you your money back.”  What happens?  A lot of people that wouldn’t have tried it say, “The pizza is about the same price.  I think I’ll try it.  What’s the worst that can happen?  I’ll just get my money back, and won’t be any worse for the wear, and I’ll try something new that maybe will be good or better than what I usually eat.”

This is called risk reversal–whenever you do business with somebody, if you can take any risk off them and put it on yourself, many more people will take you up on the offer.

How can you reduce the “risk” that your customer takes when doing business with you- and make them more comfortable doing it?