In this episode, Steve Fretzin and Janet Falk discuss:
- The power of LinkedIn and how to utilize it to your greatest advantage.
- Tuning in to WIIFM.
- How not to get burned by a marketing or public relations expert.
- The many reasons (beyond attracting new clients) to be in the news and other media.
Key Takeaways:
- Change your LinkedIn headline to be descriptive of your practice utilizing keywords so people can find you in a search.
- Speak to the issue others face, not about yourself.
- PR and marketing are not an expense, they are an investment.
- When a reporter hears from a new source, they will either latch on immediately or file it for later if you reach out with intention and purpose.
“People who are attorneys are used to speaking about themselves. In this kind of environment, you’re not speaking about yourself, you should be speaking to the issue that the other person faces.” — Janet Falk
Connect with Janet Falk:
Website: https://janetlfalk.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janetlfalk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanetLFalk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/falkcomms/
Find more Resources, including Janet’s Media Profile Tool on her website here: https://janetlfalk.com/library/
Thank you to our Sponsors!
Legalese Marketing: https://legaleasemarketing.com/
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Connect with Steve Fretzin:
LinkedIn: Steve Fretzin
Twitter: @stevefretzin
Facebook: Fretzin, Inc.
Website: Fretzin.com
Email: Steve@Fretzin.com
Book: The Ambitious Attorney: Your Guide to Doubling or Even Tripling Your Book of Business and more!
YouTube: Steve Fretzin
Call Steve directly at 847-602-6911
Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie
Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You’re the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
attorneys, people, reporters, steve, clients, publication, website, person, lawyer, business, linkedin profile, article, public relations, speaking, practice, media, work, janet, write, marketing
SPEAKERS
Stephanie Vaughn Jones, Narrator, Steve Fretzin, Janet Falk, Jordan Ostroff
Janet Falk [00:00]
Though I listened to this radio station, and I’m sure Steve you listen to it, too, is called WIFM. Which means what’s in it for me. So if you’re not addressing the need of that potential client, or that referral source who is looking for someone like you, in the sense that they have a problem and you represent a solution, and you can solve their problem, because you have solved that problem before, and maybe even more important, you can make that person look good for hiring you.
Narrator [00:38]
You’re listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Each episode, your host, author and lawyer coach, Steve Fretzin, will take a deeper dive helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now, here’s your host, Steve Fretzin.
Steve Fretzin [01:00]
Hey, everybody, welcome to be that lawyer. I hope you are well. Listen, it’s a great opportunity to be that lawyer, someone who’s competent, organized and a skilled Rainmaker. Just want to mention before we get into the weeds today, what Fretzin does, you may have forgotten we do only two things and we do them I think pretty well. Number one is we put lawyers, individual lawyers through an NBA style coaching and training program goes on for about eight months. But what comes out the other side is an absolute assassin as it relates to a business developer. So the goal is that you never need me again. So good news, bad news. But the people that go through it if you read any my testimonials on LinkedIn, I think you’ll get a flavor for the kinds of results they’re getting and how it’s impacting their not only their year, but their years to come. And then of course, I do the peer advisory roundtables, the Rainmaker roundtable business developers roundtable, and those are fun because they’re I’m really facilitating high level conversations between attorneys in different practice areas in a confidential environment. I’ve got some for attorneys over a million in origination, that’s the rainmakers roundtable, and then the business developers, if you’re under a million, you’re doing well. But it’s, you’re still in growth mode, and in looking to continue from there, so check those out on my website. fretzin.com. All right, Janet, we’re gonna hit it hard today. We’ve got lots to cover. I’m gonna introduce you in a minute. First of all, welcome to the show. How are you?
[02:23]
I’m doing great. Thank you so much for inviting me, Steve. Yeah, absolutely.
Steve Fretzin [02:27]
And you were so kind to send me a quote. And that quote is every strike brings me closer to the next home. Ron, Who could that be? Babe Ruth, of course, Ruth. Okay, you’re big, you’re big baseball fan.
[02:39]
Not very much. But I do like to keep track of the local teams. And here in New York, you know, we have two of everything.
Steve Fretzin [02:45]
There you go. Same in Chicago and they hate each other madly. Just real quick, before we get into the weeds further, want to thank our sponsors. legalese marketing helps me with all my marketing endeavors and mainly focuses on law firms, small law firms and doing that. And then of course, money. Penny just spoke to a client today who engaged Monday Penny and didn’t realize he thought he was getting about 50% of the calls he was actually getting. So hiring money Penny, he now realizes call volume is double what he what he thought it was. And now those calls are actually being routed by a live receptionist that he never had before. So money, Penny, everybody. Okay, so tell me about that, quote, every strike brings me closer to the next homerun, why did you submit that?
[03:27]
Because I believe that you have to step up and take your swing, and you know, go for it. And it nothing’s gonna happen. If you’re sitting in your desk, right? So you have to be out there in the world networking, you have to be engaging with people in the virtual sphere, whether you’re talking to them via your newsletter, or engaging with them on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, wherever it is that you find your audience, it’s not going to come to you, you have to go out and be active and reach for it.
Steve Fretzin [03:58]
Yeah. And let me throw my two cents in. Because what this quote says to me, is, every time I have you know, get a strike, I’m that much closer to getting that homerun. And most people are just looking for the homeruns, they don’t want to deal with the strikes, they don’t want to deal with failure or mistakes or problems. The reality is that that’s how we get the homeruns. That’s how we get better is we have to have those mistakes, we have to have those strikes, that’s called life. We can’t get better without failing and without making those mistakes. That’s what life is all about. So don’t cut to the chase and miss all the all the mistakes that you make that make you stronger, better, you know, player, whether that’s personally or professionally, that’s kind of my spin on it, which I think is you know, everybody should be thinking about about your comments in mind. But wow,
[04:44]
it’s powerful. Yes, yes, it is. And you know, and I believe you’re right, that there’s a lesson to be learned from every engagement and from every, every client encounter and every conversation that you have, because it’s not always the first person that you meet in a networking encounter, for example, people that are in that person’s circle. Just this afternoon, I was having a conversation with a random contact through lunch club, you may have heard of it. It’s a virtual networking environment. And it turns out, we both know the same attorney who would have thought, yeah,
Steve Fretzin [05:18]
small world. And Janet Falk, you’re the owner of false communications and research. Give us a little Reader’s Digest on your background leading up to not only being an author, PhD, but also running this business that you have created.
[05:31]
By backgrounds, David is quite eclectic. It includes higher education, Wall Street, law and nonprofit. So I have worked in public relations and marketing communications in a variety of settings, starting in Wall Street, and then moving to the agency side, working on the agency side and on the client side. And finally, my last position was with an agency whose principal client was one of the analog 50. So from there, I decided to set up my own shop after a layoff, of course, and focus on law firms. I work with attorneys who have a small firm meaning under 50 attorneys, or who have a solo practice. And I do a variety of things for them, I help them to get in the news. So they can be attracting more business and be top of mind with their referral sources. But before I do that, I like to help them polish their LinkedIn profile, and spiff up their website, because we want to make sure that we are speaking not about ourselves, but to the person who might be engaging our services. Do you mind if I
Steve Fretzin [06:39]
pick on that subject for a second? Because what people are finding out now is that LinkedIn is becoming their online resume. It’s becoming their even more important website, then their website, people are going to LinkedIn almost first, every time at least I am and I know others are. And the headline is so important. I’m a an associate attorney at ABC law firm. That’s the headline is that the headline people should have? Or should they be thinking about a different headlines?
[07:07]
Oh, absolutely. LinkedIn will automatically take the title of your current position, and put that as your headline. And I have to say, Steve, that if you’re looking for an associate attorney on LinkedIn, you’re going to find hundreds of 1000s of associate attorneys know, what you want to have is something that’s going to be descriptive of your practice. So that people will be able to use certain keywords in order to find you, you want to say that you are an m&a attorney focused on the manufacture of you know, plastics, or you are a bankruptcy attorney focused on the automotive industry, or you are a marital attorney, matrimonial attorney focused on same sex marriages, something like that, because those are the key words that people want to find. No one is looking for an attorney, no one is looking for a founder, no one is looking for a partner or an associate. They’re looking for the subject. That is your practice. So Janet, it sounds
Steve Fretzin [08:08]
like, you know, people need to consider LinkedIn and their social media generally as a way of getting people’s attention being found. And it’s not just putting your title of your job. It’s really, you know, the book cover that gets people to open the book and read further, right?
[08:24]
Yes, I believe that’s a good way of putting it. And I want to point out that it’s not only potential clients and other attorneys who are looking at your LinkedIn profile. It’s also reporters, and it’s also conference organizers. So you want to be able to show that you are the reigning authority, with deep expertise in your particular industry, or in your particular niche of practice. So that you will be found according to those words, and you do have 220 characters in your LinkedIn profile. So why leave room on the table? You should maximize that space? Yeah,
Steve Fretzin [09:01]
fill it out. In so this leads into the greater broader subject of our of our conversation today, which which is going to start with why do lawyers generally struggle with marketing public relations, things that involve that that can help them actually build their brand or build their law practice? What’s the problem there?
[09:20]
I think a couple of things. One is you didn’t learn it in law school, so therefore it barely exists. Right? Right. The second thing is that people are who are attorneys are used to speaking about themselves. And in this kind of environment, you’re not speaking about yourself, you should be speaking to the issue that the other person faces. So I listened to this radio station and I’m sure Steve you listen to it, too, is called WIFM. Which means what’s in it for me? So if you’re not addressing the need of that potential client, or that referral source who is looking for someone like you In the sense that they have a problem, and you represent a solution, and you can solve their problem, because you have solved that problem before. And maybe even more important, you can make that person look good for hiring you. Now, they might need to look good to, you know, their supervisor or to their CEO, or they may need to look good just to themselves, they want to prove that they can handle the situation. Yeah. So I think I think the question of why attorneys back away from this is one, they’re not equipped to handle it to they’re not ready to let go of it. And three, they think that it’s an expense. It’s not an expense, it’s an investment. Every company has a budget for r&d, and your marketing and public relations activities are an investment that goes if you don’t invest in your practice, who do you think is going to do that for you? Not your clients, not your employees and not your competitors? There’s no no. And here’s
Steve Fretzin [11:00]
the sad thing, like some attorneys spend, let’s say, hundreds of hours a year networking and putting themselves out there and not getting a good return on that. They’re not counting that as money. They’re not counting that like it’s like, it’s like it’s just it’s just you know, it’s their free time. Those are billable hours, those are hundreds of hours of billable hours, yet, they won’t spend 1000 5000 10,000 on something that could get them in the media, someone to help them a professional, social media expert, a professional public relations person, a professional marketer, right? It just seems offensive that they would pay someone to do this type of thing. But yet, that’s really what the smartest marketers in legal do.
[11:40]
But let’s answer a question in a slightly different way. Right, which is an attorney who has themself as a client has a full right. We’re not asking other people to practice law on our behalf. Right, right. Right. No, we’re not asking ourselves to be electricians, or plumbers, right. If you want something done, you hire someone who has the experience and who is skilled. And I have to say, Steve, and I offer a lot of information on my website. I have a monthly newsletter, I have ebooks, I have given webinars that people can review. And they can learn how to do a lot of the Public Relations and Marketing Communications activity that I do themselves. But ask yourself, is that really the best use of your time? If you’re billing, you know, $800 an hour? Is that the best use of your time? Wouldn’t you rather pay someone else who bills at a lower rate to take that off your plate? And who will do it and get it right the first time. So there won’t be any cleanup afterwards.
Steve Fretzin [12:44]
But let’s go into that. Because I think one of the challenges lawyers have is that they’ve been burnt by someone who sold them a website, someone that sold them public relations, someone that got them to agree, they’ll do your marketing for you had a bad experience, they claim to be an expert. They weren’t. They didn’t follow through, they were late on everything. Everyone’s had that experience. So is there a way to vet better people? Like I always encourage people to vet me before they work with me, I encourage them to vet the people I refer as well. What do you say? Like? What’s a good way for them to know that someone is going to be a good fit for them? Is there are there some things you could suggest there?
[13:24]
Well, I think you want to look at first, do they have experience doing whatever it is that you want them to do? Right? Because I will tell you that I write content for websites, but I don’t design them. I’m not a graphic designer. I’m not a web developer. So do they have experience doing what it is that you want them to do? And second of all, do they actually know your niche? Do they know your market right in your industry? Now I can tell you from my experience, I’m not a round peg, I’m not a square peg. I’m an octagonal Peck. And the logo for my company is the letter f inside the shape of an octagon, because I don’t fit the mold that other people do. And I see myself as being very nimble and able to get my arms around the business and understand what it is that’s going on, and who it is that they need to talk to, and so on. But there are some businesses that, frankly, are not appropriate for me, I won’t get involved in healthcare, for example, because the lack of regulation there, and I’m not familiar with it. So you’re wanting to make sure that the person has experience doing the tasks that you want them to do, and has an understanding of the industry and of the target market. And then of course, you’re going to be concerned about budget. So sometimes you want to work with a larger team. And sometimes you want to put the team together. So it’ll be a boutique and they’ll be focused on you. You know what happens in the large firms, you meet with the big waves, and then they send the lower level to the work on a day to day basis. But on the other hand, you know you You want to make sure that they’re going to be able to, you know, cover for you in every situation. And so maybe a boutique firm from time to time will be too small to handle your demand. So these are some of the questions that you have to raise. And of course, you want to check the references, and, you know, investigate to make sure that the person is who they say they are. And they’re going to be delivering on that promise.
Steve Fretzin [15:26]
Yeah, I mean, I routinely, you know, tell my prospective clients, they need to talk with a few attorneys, they need to because I’m not just looking because you know how it is, it isn’t just what I’m doing. It’s also that the attorney needs to do their site, right. So you can get them placed in, you know, a big publication. But if they’re not going to, you know, follow through on the phone call, if they’re not going to brush up on what they need to prepare for, if they’re going to blow it, then everybody loses. So I like to have them speak with clients. So they understand this is what Steve did for me, this is what he could do for you, are you going to put up the time and the energy and the effort to perform your side of the bargain. And then I get a I get a call from the from my client saying, you know, I don’t know about this guy, or I don’t know about that gal or, or they’re like, this is the best person you’ve ever said my way. And that really helps. I think everybody can win and make it a fit. When you do that validation, that extra step that most people don’t take the time to do.
[16:21]
Yeah, I think you raised some very good points.
Jordan Ostroff [16:24]
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Steve Fretzin [16:47]
Hey Steph, tell everyone what mani pedi does for law firms
Stephanie Vaughn Jones [16:51]
where the call handling and live chat experts and Moneypenny receptionist can ensure that your calls are directed to the right person seamlessly saving you time and money. Steve, did you know that 69% of people don’t like to leave a voicemail.
Steve Fretzin [17:04]
I did not know that. That’s a lot of business going away right there. Let’s cut to the chase. What are you prepared to do for my listeners?
Stephanie Vaughn Jones [17:11]
We’re offering an exclusive two week free trial. If you’re interested in hearing more, you can call me directly on 470-534-8846 and mentioned that you’ve heard this ad on Steve’s podcast.
Steve Fretzin [17:25]
Very cool. Thanks. So let’s get into what I really wanted to interview you about not that everything we haven’t covered up to this point is terrific. But listen, your expertise is around the public relations in helping attorneys get in the media. So why do attorneys want to be in the news besides attracting new clients? Why would they be interested in that? And how do you help them with that?
[17:50]
Okay, there’s more than one reason to be in the news besides attracting new clients, okay, one of them is to be top of mind with your referral sources. If you’re talking about an impending change in the law, or something that’s going to happen, and it’s going to affect their clients, they’ll think, Oh, my goodness, I need to arrange for Steve to talk to this person, because they’re going through this situation. You also want to keep in touch with your lapsed clients, because they may not realize that you offer this additional service, which they didn’t use. But in fact, you are very much aware of what’s happening over in this other corner. Another reason is you want to be able to generate a news story, when you’re filing litigation in court, media strategy should be part of your litigation strategy. At the same time that you file a case in court, you want to get a link to that document and put it in a press release and distributed press release. So that this will generate a new story and put pressure on opposing counsel. And maybe you can get them to steroidal instead of going through a protected trial. Maybe you want to attract more associates, because they want to work for that hot firm that’s always getting in the news. And it will also be an opportunity for you to reconnect with people who are in your circles, people you went to law school with people that you clerked with people that your prior firm, people who are on the other side of the transaction, people who are on the other side of the litigation, you serve on a bar committee with the local bar association, those people will see your name in the news and they will want to be in touch with you. And another reason is conferences. Reporters call the people they know and that they read about and who the conference organizers call, they call the people who are talking about hot topics that they see in the news. So I hope your audience will understand that it’s not only about attracting new clients, it’s keeping in touch with your many contacts with your labs clients with your referral sources and you can even add advocate for the cause when you serve on the board of a nonprofit, whether that’s for social justice, or higher education, and so on. So think about these other reasons for being in the news. And of course, all of these different audiences read specific publications. So you want to be sure that you are reaching to that target publication in order to reach that target audience.
Steve Fretzin [20:27]
And I think people are looking for the big hit, right, I just paid you this money, you’re my you know, you’re my PR person, you know, where’s the money, where’s the return on investment, where’s it in, they’re not looking at the big picture, they’re not looking at, this is a marathon, not a sprint. And while there might be some short term benefit, really, what you’re doing is building something out for your career over a longer period of time, it’s not just about the quick
[20:51]
hit, right. And there are many opportunities in the course of an attorney’s career when they can be engaging with the media. So you know, first is when you launch your practice, or when you join a firm, usually, there’s a press release, and it goes to Local Business Media, and also to the local legal media, and maybe even to the local industry media. If you have a particular, you know, niche that you’re working on, whether it’s, you know, steel, or airlines or entertainment, and so on, then in the course of your career, you’re going to be engaged in litigation, maybe you want to be issuing a press release, because you’ve filed a case in court, or you’re going to be concluding transactions. So if you have advised Company A on its acquisition of Company B, then you want to get in touch with the industry publication and say, This is what this means for the market. Right, this is going to have an impact on the market, it’s going to set a price for the next acquisition, or it’s going to have consequences for other players who are going to have to step up their game in order to compete with company A, maybe you want to write an article. And this is something we can talk about further. But you might want to publish an article in a trade publication, not only an illegal publication, so that potential clients will say, Uh huh, you know, that Steve, that Janet, they understand what’s happening in the industry, and they’re writing this article, and I should be in touch with that person. Maybe you’ve hired someone, or you’re expanding your office. So that in itself would be worthy of a different kind of press release. So you can see that in the course of an attorney’s career, there are some key inflection points when they would be mentioned in the press and how it would be supporting their practice. All right.
Steve Fretzin [22:41]
So attorneys that are listening to this, and they say, alright, so I think I think public relations and getting in the media would be helpful for my, my brand, my firm my future, and they want to get started doing it, whether it’s with you or on their own, how do they get started today to start moving the needle on the on the public relations front? Okay,
[23:03]
there are a few activities that they should be pursuing. And so let’s start with media relations, contacting reporters. So I use a tool called a media profile. And I hope we can include it in the show notes. Yeah, basically, what this says is, you know, I’m an attorney, I have this kind of practice, I focus on these kinds of issues, these kinds of litigation or these kinds of transactions. And these are some trends that I see happening. Now, the issue is reporters know what already happened. We all know what already happened. They want to know what’s going to happen before it happened. So if you can, with your big picture view, illuminate what you see as trends that people should be alert to, then readers will understand that they should be jumping on this idea in order to be saving time saving money or making more money. So that’s what you want to do you want to identify these issues, and introduce yourself to reporters. Now, how do you find out a reporter’s email address? I know you’re going to ask me this question now. So my next question. Okay. So there are several ways. The first way is, in many publications. They have the reporters email address, either in the byline, or at the end of the article. So sometimes it’s in print, and sometimes it’s online. So you might find it right there in the article. In many magazines, they have a directory called a masthead, and it lists all the reporters and the editors and their email address and what puts it specific beat or areas they focus on. So they might focus on health, or on telecommunications, or on entertainment real estate. What happened. So if you don’t find it in the publication itself, either in the article or in the masthead, then the next place to look is on Twitter. Many reporters have their email address in their Twitter bio, Steve Thomas why?
Steve Fretzin [24:59]
Why did they have their email because they want to get communicated with
[25:02]
Exactly. They don’t want you putting your idea out there. So the whole twitterverse can see their potential idea. No, they want you to contact them privately. Yeah. So they put their email address right there in their Twitter bio. Now, some reporters aggregate all their news stories, and they have a dedicated website. And what does it say on their website, contact me. So either they have one of those contact forms, or they have their email address. So it’s in the publication, either in the byline or in the masthead directory, or it’s in their Twitter bio, or it’s in their dedicated website, or you can find them on LinkedIn, which is not very much encouraged, but you can certainly find them there. And if you can’t find them anywhere, then you can ask your friendly public relations consultant, who subscribes to a media directory, which has hundreds of 1000s of publications and hundreds of 1000s of reporters to look up a name or two. Alright. Alright, so
Steve Fretzin [26:00]
the big question then is alright, I’ve got this email, I’ve got this reporter, I’m all excited about it. What’s the email? What is what’s the communication that’s going to maybe get a response?
[26:13]
Okay, you want to latch on to what it is that the reporter does, and what it is that is your interest, and how it’s going to benefit their readers. So I like to start every letter with congratulations, or you or your, because then the reporter feels like you’re talking directly to them. You can say, you know, your article about such and such, was really enlightening and made me think about X, you know, perhaps you overlooked the possibility that Y and Z, you know, I’d love to talk with you further about this idea. You know, here’s my contact information. Here’s my media profile, and I look forward to speaking with you. So you have said that they did a good job, you’re pointing out that probably because of space considerations, like put in address some other issues. And you hope that they will be in touch with you in the future to explore this. Because when a reporter hears from a new source, right, they either they’re gonna latch on to it, or they’re going to file it for future reference. Because they might have to ask their editor, can I talk about this subject, you know, I’ve got this interesting source. Or it might be such a hot topic that they’re just gonna latch on to it right away, and run with it. So you really can’t predict. I mean, I’ve had instances where I spoke to I contacted reporter in the morning, and I had someone on CNBC that afternoon. But I also had an instance where I spoke to a reporter, and I introduced him to two attorneys. And 10 months later, he wrote a news story, front page of the Wall Street Journal. So you know, it is a process and you are developing relationships, and so on. But you want to have in mind, what it is that the reporter covers, and how it is that you can be helpful to them by providing them with an insight into trends that no one else is paying attention to, or, you know, other complexities to an issue that they’ve already addressed.
Steve Fretzin [28:13]
So like, not saying this is my idea only, but like, right now I feel and I’m hearing left and right that we’re going to be diving into a pretty big recession, and people are not really prepared for it. It’s going to impact lawyers, it’s going to impact law firms, it’s going to impact a lot of things AR and et cetera. And I feel like I have the ability to write about it, speak about it be on TV about whatever. So that’s where I would target some writers in the legal space that focus on the industry, the economy and how they kind of intertwine. And then I could email that those reporters with that kind of like, here’s something you may not have thought of, or here’s something that’s coming up the pipe, etc. And that may elicit some response from them.
[28:53]
Right, good. Good idea. The other thing is, is that, you know, there are publications that accept articles written by outside professionals, not only their own reporters, okay, if you have an idea for an article, that’s something else that you could talk about, would you like
Steve Fretzin [29:11]
to make it easier for me just to write an article about it, and then maybe send it off and say, here’s an article,
[29:16]
and it’s actually easier for the reporter to do the writing. And you’re right, okay. If you write the article, then you have a little more control over what’s going on. But I want to point out that you should not write the article. Okay. Right is the proposal. Okay? You write a proposal. So you figure out which reporters are or which editors are going to be open to articles like this. And you can tell just by looking at publication, do they have articles written by outsiders, non reporters, right? Then you get in touch with the editor and you can say, you know, I have an idea for an article, and here’s three to five sentences of what I’d like to discuss. And here’s three to five bullet points of how I’m going to explode this idea. prove my thesis, you know and point out whatever it is that’s going on. So now that you’ve written your three to five sentences about the theme, and you’ve got your three to five bullet points about the way you’re going to explore the theme, you asked for the word count, and you asked for the deadline. The reason you asked for the word count Steve is let’s, let’s say you’ve written 600 words, okay? You get in touch with the editor, and you say, I’ve got this great piece, here it is 600 words, and they say, Steve, I really enjoyed reading your piece, but we have a limit of 500. You say, All right, I’m going to shop it around. You send it to somebody else. And they say, Steve, this is great. But could you also discuss x and y? And I’ll give you 750? All right. So now you’re doing major surgery. 600 is going to 500? Or your 600 is going to 750? Yeah, you would ask for the word count at the top, then you would write it to just five or just 750? Yeah, well, if you if you want to have control of the discussion, then you know, propose an article so that you can talk about what are the issues? And what are the consequences? What are the things that people need to be thinking about? Do you have your three to five sentences, your three to five bullet points? You ask for the word count? And then you only write it one time? Yeah,
Steve Fretzin [31:20]
that’s great. So I think we’re gonna wrap this up with Game Changing books in a moment. But I want to I want to finish up by saying The reality though, for most attorneys, and I think you know, where I’m going with this 99 out of 100 aren’t going to do any of this, the fact that you’re giving such great advice, I love it. And I’m like, my brain is spinning with all the things I’m interested in doing now. But the reality is, most attorneys are going to take this information they’re going to have That’s great advice. This is great information, but they’re not going to get around to it, they’re not going to really make it happen. That it’d be better and easier in for everybody if they out if they outsourced it, right. So if they wanted to check you out and say, Hey, Janet helped me with this, because I love what you’re saying, I just know myself, I’m not going to do it. How do they get in touch with you? And how do they you know, understand what you know that you that you might be a fit.
[32:10]
Okay, so my website is Janet. That’s my name, Janet. L is law. F is France, a l k.com. Jen et al, Fl k.com. And they’re welcome to visit my website, I offer a complimentary 30 minute consultation, we talk about your media outreach, we can talk about your newsletter, we can talk about your LinkedIn profile your website, I have a lot of information available on my website, in the resources and publication section. And I have several ebooks. And and they have also recordings of places where I’ve spoken, I do speak to bar associations and to private networking groups, I can do that virtually. Or you know, in the New York area, I can travel.
Steve Fretzin [32:57]
Awesome, and the game changing book for the show. Now this one, I think it might have been, you know, might have been John Grisham and all the top authors in New York Times best seller, create and monitor your marketing RBI. And that is by an amazing author, Janet Falk. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her.
[33:16]
Exactly. Exactly. So let me explain what your marketing RBI is. Yes. So there are five ways that you can be getting business. And you know, you’ve written on this subject, Steve, so I’m sure you will liberate. So the first way is networking, right, whether you do that in person, or virtually, and I have tips about how to handle that. The second way is speaking, whether you’re giving presentations, webinars or podcasts. The third way is writing. So we’ve already talked about publishing articles. And I mentioned I have a monthly newsletter. The fourth way is being active in the trade association of your target market. So don’t only network with attorneys, right? I network with attorneys, because I’m looking to meet more attorneys. But if you’re interested in a particular industry, like I have a colleague who’s interested in healthcare, and so she goes to meetings where she can meet more doctors, and chiropractors and dentists. And she helps them with their contracts and all kinds of things. So we have networking, speaking, writing, being active in the trade association of your target market. And the fifth way, of course, is promote everything that you do online. So when this podcast appears, you can bet I’m going to put it on my website, I’m going to put in my email signature, which by the way, is free real estate that 100 People are reading every day, and people should be using that to promote themselves? On my LinkedIn profile, I’m going to share it wherever I can. So I encourage people to take a look. And it’s only 999 Yeah, no brainer.
Steve Fretzin [34:51]
Well fantastic. Thanks for you know, sharing your wisdom and helping my audience understand, you know, how to make public relations and and being active. The media can benefit them. I just, I appreciate it. And I will certainly, you know, let you know when this is coming out. And also we will put the media profile in the show notes. So if that was part of your form filling out if you want to send that to me, but I’ll make sure it gets in there. Okay.
[35:14]
Okay. Great. Thank you so much, Dave. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you this afternoon.
Steve Fretzin [35:18]
Awesome. Thanks, Janet. And thank you everybody for spending some time with us today. You know, look, you know, we’re hitting a lot of different subjects on this show and in public relations and media is one of them. And then the other things that Jana mentioned the networking, speaking writing, you know, we’re constantly going over and over these with different experts and different people to hear their opinions and their their ways of doing it. And it’s not a one size fits all. So you got to keep listening and you got to keep taking in the content trying to figure out is there a nugget here a nugget there that’s going to benefit you in your law practice in your career. So keep on listening and be that lawyer someone who’s competent, organized and a skilled Rainmaker. Take care everybody be safe be well, we’ll talk again soon.
Narrator [36:01]
Thanks for listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve’s website fretzin.com. For additional information, and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today’s episode, check out today’s show notes