Personal Development

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This is not the year to take a break from social media during the summer. Instead this is the time to focus on your business development and branding efforts.

I don’t know anyone right now especially (or ever) who would say they have enough clients or work. I think everyone is nervous about the economy, the ability to maintain their current volume of work, bring in future clients and support their people.

That being said, it’s incredibly important to ensure your current clients are happy and that you are consistently generating new sources of leads and referrals.

Here are 25 ideas on how to do that, which now involves shifting your strategy from in-person networking and client entertaining to having a strong online presence and thought leadership platform. If you have never used LinkedIn, written an article or blog post or spoken at a webinar, now is the time to pivot to doing all of these. It is never too early or late to start marketing yourself or your firm.

If I’ve learned anything over the past year, it’s that nothing in life is certain. Plans and life can go awry for reasons out of your control, people change and you just have to go with it and make the best of it.

My life was completely different a year ago. I was in an in-house marketer. I had a lot of friends. I thought I had finally found “the one,” and we had recently moved in together. I had the best dog in the world. I was settled and content (or so I thought). I never imagined I would be where I am today.

But things happen, people change, business needs change, people and pets pass away, a pandemic can happen- nothing is certain. Just look at the world in which we live right now. I had to go with the flow. I had to stop knocking on doors that weren’t meant for me. I had to hit the reset button on my life. I had to lean on others for support. And most of all, I had to harness the power of my intuition to lead me to a better life.

My guess is that many of you have more free time now due to the pandemic, which had slowed down deal flow and litigation activity.

Plus working from home eliminates…

Your professional biography is one of the most important pieces of copy you’ll ever write about yourself. It’s your opportunity to showcase your work, capabilities, and areas of expertise, and what makes you stand out from your competitors.

Many in-house counsel cite lawyer bios as one of the most important sources of information regarding researching outside lawyers (yes, everyone is Googling you and your bio is usually the number one search result of your name). In addition, lawyer bios are among the most trafficked pages on law firm web sites.

Your bio can serve as an important business development tool if it is well-crafted. Yet within the legal industry, so many bios are still lackluster, outdated, not client-focused or just poorly written.  

Given the power of bios, it has always baffled me that many lawyers do not update theirs at least several times a year or write them with a client focus. The new year is a great reason to take a fresh look at your bio and make enhancements to it. Now let’s get to work!