Your Personal Brand Should Always Align with Your Firm's Brand

Over the years, I've talked a lot about first impressions. You have only seconds to make a good first impression on someone. And while you want that person to walk way with positive feelings about you, you also want him or her to have a good impression of the firm you work for.

Also read: Develop a Dynamite Personal Branding Message

You are an ambassador of your firm. If you look dated, unkempt, or unprepared, you are doing a huge disservice to yourself and your firm.

In other words, identify your personal brand and align it with your firm's.

Let these five common brand-builders by business development consultant Jonathan R. Fitzgarrald be your guide:

Appearance. Your appearance needs to visually convey what you know intellectually. Some attorneys think that as soon as they are able to engage a prospect in conversation, they can effectively convey their expertise and win them over. But this may be difficult to achieve if the prospect is hung up on your looks.

Message. Distill your knowledge and expertise into a single message. How can you add value to the prospect’s business? Keep it simple and concise.

Be relatable. Infuse your business with your personality. And, listen more and speak less. Be more concerned about helping clients meet their business objectives than how they are going to help you meet yours.

Client service. Just because a client continues to employ you doesn’t mean they are happy. Perhaps they are unhappy but have yet to find your replacement. Put effort into the maintenance of the relationship. Periodically spend non-billable time with them--lunch out, a call to check-in, or forwarding an industry article that could add value to their business.

Brand management. Regularly monitor the strength of your personal brand by soliciting feedback from clients, referral sources, peers, and support staff. It is best done person to person. Avoid only using surveys as they may fail to capture the essence of what you need to know.

Also read: Protect Your Brand Online

It may take years to build a healthy brand, but remember - it can take only seconds to destroy it. Present yourself - and your firm - in the best light possible. Always.

Judgements and Impressions are Based on Visuals

Appearance is everything - especially when it comes to presenting your brand. People's judgements and impressions are all based on visuals - not the words that you speak. And, since looks count, it's up to you to be polished, professional and a stand out.

Also read: Give Your Brand a Powerful Voice

You don't want you and your brand to blend in - you want to be eye-catching in the most tasteful, professional way possible. This is where style comes in. Design of your brand is critical. Buy some new clothes. Take an honest look at how you present yourself - and ask others how they see you. Ask yourself - how do you want to be seen?

The bottom line is you have to create an appearance and image of yourself that will enhance the impression you want to make.  As Machiavelli observed, "Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know who you are."

Are you a lover of bow ties? Buy them - and wear them. Make bow ties your signature look. People will remember you, and ultimately the services your provide.

Also read: Branding - It's Hip to be Hip

If fashion is not your thing, consider building your brand image on a website. Websites are terrific and affordable marketing tools, and great ways to force you to clearly articulate who you are. With a great-looking site, you look polished and professional and, above all, memorable.

This topic is not trivial nor petty. Appearances matter and the little choices you make will ultimately make big impressions on the very people who'll bring you new business.

When you want to expand your practice niche or transition to another specialty, here's how.

No matter where you are in your legal career, it may be time for a change - a PERSONAL BRAND change.

Professionals reinvent themselves all of the time. They want to be known for something better or something different. They want their reputations to be respected - and remembered. They also want their brands to help them win new clients.

The key to brand reinvention is to convince others to embrace it - and take you seriously. Dorie Clark, author of How to Reinvent Your Personal Brand, offers these five steps on how to successfully rebuild a brand for business.

1. Understand your new identity.

You need to develop a detailed understanding of where you want to go, and the knowledge and skills necessary to get there. If you've been a real estate attorney for the past decade, you may understand every new law and matter out there. But can you effectively convey that knowledge to a non-legal audience? Learning the skills you need will help you gain the confidence necessary to start identifying (and publicizing) yourself in your new identity.

2. What's your Unique Selling Proposition?

What makes you different from anyone else? That's what people will remember, and you can use it to your advantage.

3. Develop a narrative.

To protect your brand you need to develop a compelling narrative that explains to people exactly how your past fits into the present.

It's like a job interview — you're turning what could be perceived as a weakness (he doesn't know anything about commercial litigation, because he's been a medical mal lawyer for 20 years) into a compelling strength that people can remember.

4. Reintroduce yourself.

With hundreds (or thousands) of Facebook friends and social connections, you can't expect everyone to remember all the details of your life. So you have to strategically re-educate friends and colleagues — especially if you're launching a new business venture. That means a concerted effort to phone or email everyone on your list — individually — to let them know about your new direction and, where appropriate, ask for their help, advice, or business.

Note: Blast emails are a start, but too often go unread.

5. Prove your skills.

Unless people see proof of your skills, they may hesitate to put their own reputations on the line by sending you referrals.

So, here's where blogs, podcasts, videocasts, and other forms of social media come in. It's critical to let potential customers see what you're about and test drive your approach before they make a large commitment.

A successful brand is the key to having a stellar practice - and good reputation. You want others to notice you, remember you, and more importantly, trust you enough to retain your services.

Related articles:

Give Your Brand a Powerful Voice

Develop a Dynamite Personal Branding Message

Protect Your Brand Online

What's Stopping You from Achieving Your Goals?

3 Ways to Pump Up the Volume When Speaking to Your Target Audience

All of the us know about the value of professional presence. We want to look and dress the part every day in order to keep our brands strong and thriving. But, have you ever sat down and thought about how you SOUND? Does your voice hold a candle to your professional appearance?

Certain attributes, like...

• Mumbling
• Whispering
• Speed talking
• A shrill or nasal-sounding voice
• Unusual speech patterns
• A weird laugh

... can impair the power of your voice! What's more, they can take away from a voice's tone, pitch, and pace - all of which count for up to 20% of speech's effectiveness.

Develop a voice of confidence!

Learn how to modulate your voice to make what you say sound more interesting. Here are three ways to get started.

1. LISTEN to yourself.

Real aloud to a tape recorder and play it back. How did you sound? If you think you weren't great, then consider sharing it with friends and colleagues who will give you thoughtful, honest advice on how to improve.

2. Evaluate yourself as a STORYTELLER.

Record yourself in a short conversation with a friend. Listen for ums, ers, and other hesitations. Also, listen for word tics and words that you overuse. Does enthusiasm come across in your voice?

3. Speak with a SMILE.

Believe it or not, when you smile while answering the phone, your smile will glow right through the lines. If you're smiling, you'll sound as if you couldn't be more delighted to be speaking to the other person. An up-beat, happy voice communicates confidence, personal comfort, and a positive outlook.

You may not be able to carry a tune, but you can learn how to give yourself a POWERFUL VOICE. Even just simple, small adjustments in your usual speech can have a profound effect on your presentation.

More resources from Top Lawyer Coach:

Confidence: The Key to Brand Success

Develop a Dynamite Personal Branding Message

Office Faux Pas that Could Jeopardize Your Career

Good Manners, Good for Business

Your Brand Should Have a Distinct Message

Are you ready to create an identity for your successful legal career?

Start off by developing a dynamite personal branding message.

A brand, as most of us know, is basically everything that comes to mind when people see or hear a company or firm name.  And, the best brands have a DISTINCT MESSAGE.

When developing your own branding message, take a good look at your value proposition and at your firm as a whole. Try to identify what's really in a name - your name.  What makes your firm unique? And how can you make that uniqueness work for your marketing efforts?

Next, visualize what you want people to think when they hear or read your firm's name? What service can you best provide people?

Finally, write down a list of words that you want people to use when referring to you. Ask your close friends for help. Ask them what words they would use to describe you. Ask them what are the most important skills and attributes you bring to the table.

Take all of this information, combine it with your passions, and begin building your brand perception - or personal branding message. Remember, your message will always be an offshoot of your firm's mission.

Crafting your own brand is not easy. But, it's a critical first step in any successful legal marketing campaign. And, as you work hard to package your brand, remember that judgements and impressions are almost always based on VISUALS.

Help your brand stand out with style!

Look polished and professional - always.

More resources from Top Lawyer Coach:

Protect Your Brand Online

How to Forge Your Personal Brand

Branding: It's Hip to be Hip

3 Facts about Marketing You Need to Know

Your brand is sacred. It is also the lifeline that runs your business and keeps your contacts close.

However, managing your online presence poorly can SABOTAGE the very brand you worked so hard for - in seconds!

The Internet is where first impressions occur long before in-person handshakes are made, therefore managing your image online has never been more important.

Social media expert Dan Schwarbel offers five ways to protect personal brands against online attacks.

1. Pay attention to mentions about your brands.

Did you know that 58% of Americans don’t even Google themselves?

As you create your personal brand on a variety of platforms, your name will start popping up in search engines and on social networks. This can be both beneficial to your brand or harmful depending on the context. Unfortunately, negative mentions generally spread like wild fire.

Set up a Google alert for your name, your company's name, key competitors, and partners. Stay current on what's being said about you and your industry. You can also try Social Mention for a more complete solution to brand mentions on social networks.

2. Choose your networks wisely.

Don't spread yourself too thin by participating in every social network on the Internet. This can hurt your brand because you'll find it hard to update all of your social profiles and discussions regularly.

Join only the largest social networks - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn - as well as those networks in your industry. Then update them often!

3. Know your audience.

Be selective about who you invite into your network.  The second you add your manager or colleagues is the time when you have to rethink what you publish or what you syndicate from other social networks.

On Facebook, consider having a profile page for your inner circle of friends and family and then a Facebook Fan Page for your professional image.  This way, you can make your profile private and hide it from search, while having a fan page that you can point your coworkers to.

4. Keep self-promotion to a minimum.

Successful self-promotion only works in moderation, because if you’re constantly only promoting yourself, many people will unfollow, unfriend, or block you from their network.

The best way to build a strong personal brand is to promote other people, which creates goodwill and a connection, as well as distributing value based on what you have to offer: Your expertise.

If you’re helping people 80 or 90% of the time, then people will be much more accepting of your self-promotional messages the other 10%. You will also start to notice that other people will promote you — and their endorsement is even stronger than your own proclamations.

5. Be consistent.

Selecting a unified “picture” and spreading it across all your social media — your website, your blog, your presentations, your press kits, your business cards, etc. — will build image recognition in the mind of your audience. Consistency is significant for pictures, your name, as well as the fonts, the colors and the overall message that you communicate through your online properties.

Building a good personal brand is only half the battle. You also have to manage it.

Get in tune with what's being said about you on the Internet.

Save your image from self-sabotage!

It's no secret that the road to success is bumpy. It's never smooth sailing - for anyone!

Obstacles are out there. Some of them are big. Some are small. But, ALL of them can have a negative impact on your personal and professional well-being.

Experts like to call these obstacles "barriers." They come in a variety of forms, but most stem from internal circumstances.

Here is a checklist of common INTERNAL barriers that stand in the way of success.

• Fear of the unknown
• Easily embarrassed
• Moodiness/depression
• Lack of confidence
• Fear of failing
• Fear of success
• Fear of change
• Perfectionism
• Balancing work and family

Fear has a way of stopping people dead in their tracks.

Don't let it!

Face your fears by identifying which barriers impact you.  All of us experience "head chatter,"  negative talk that drags us down and takes a bite out of our self-confidence.  How do you take the punch out of those self-limiting thoughts?   By having a ready retort to your false self beliefs---a positive statement that directly rebuts your negativity, i.e. "I can handle this!"  "I have always been successful!"

If you consistently and repeatedly replace negativity with positive affirmations about yourself,  you will begin to THINK AND FEEL the truth about yourself....that you CAN achieve your goals....that you CAN be fearless.

Think about it. The one thing you're afraid to do is probably the one thing you need to do to achieve success.

Your fears should NEVER be bigger than your determination - ever!

How One Firm Set itself Apart Using Creativity and Ingenuity

When it comes to building client relationships and business development, DIFFERENTIATION is key.

In fact, experts say that firms that differentiate themselves most effectively often provide superior service and are able to market themselves in a whole different way.

One firm, in particular, that has set itself apart is Oregon- based Marger Johnson & McCollom.

They have one of the coolest Websites around - and with good reason.

Marger Johnson is an intellectual property firm that works with clients to protect components of their inventions and technology.  While the patent process itself is dull, the products the firm protects are anything but.

Marger Johnson hired an agency and invested a lot of money to re-brand the firm.  The result was a Website modeled after a Sharper Image catalogue, featuring sleek images of the products the firm helped bring to the market.

With their brand new Website - Marger Johnson went from being plain to ultra hip in a matter of months.

"Our Website speaks to the fact that we were working engineers and scientists prior to coming to law. Many of our clients were drawn to us because of that experience," says Julie L. Reed, Marger Johnson president.

While Marger Johnson's re-branding effort was expensive, the firm insists it was worth every penny. Firm lawyers have received positive feedback from clients and prospects.  The firm's new brand has also steered their attention away from broader, impersonal marketing campaigns, allowing them to focus on personal business development based on relationship-building.

Marger Johnson's story is a shining example of how a sound brand can yield BIG returns.

Strive to build your own cohesive business identity. Show the world that you can be modern and flexible.

Show 'em what you're really made of!

Good news!

It is all about you when it comes to personal branding.

How you present YOU is more important to success than your legal services. And the most effective way to package YOU is to create a compelling PERSONAL BRAND.

What exactly is a Personal Brand?

A personal brand is the word or phrase we want others to think of when they think of us:

• General Colin Powell: Integrity
• Trial Lawyer Richard Haynes: Racehorse
• Actor Tom Hanks: The Nicest Guy in the World
• First Lady Laura Bush: Classy Lady

Three Components of a Personal Brand:

#1 Your Personal Identity

Your personal brand is based on your character, not what you do for a living.

You may want your brand to relate to your physicality, i.e. Shaq, The Diesel; or maybe you want to highlight your brains and intellect, i.e. Albert Einstein, The Absent-minded Genius; or play up some aspect of your personality, i.e. political pundit Ann Coulter, Antagonist.

Whatever part of your character you decide to promote, there is one golden rule: Never try to be something you are not!

#2 Stimulates Meaningful Emotional Response

The idea is to evoke strong, positive emotions in the hearts of your target audience.

Ask yourself: How do you want to make others feel? Happy? Motivated? Inspired?

• Tiger Woods: Inspires us to be our best.
• John Madden: Makes us laugh and feel good.
• Winston Churchill: Strong leader who stood up to bullies.

#3 Values and Qualities for Which You Stand

Your personal brand is your promise to people about what they can expect from you.

Start thinking about what the promise is you want to deliver to your target audience.

Expertise? Perseverance? Trust? Make your promise SINGULAR.

The best brands are simple, straightforward, and unambiguous, i.e. John Kennedy: Style, or Margaret Thatcher: Iron Lady.

Pick one thing and be known for that one thing better than anyone else. Your objective is to become the epitome of the value or quality you choose.

So ask yourself these questions:

1. If  your picture were to appear in the dictionary as the definition of a quality, what would you want that quality to be? Tenacious... Aggressive... Charismatic?
2. What aspect of your persona is relevant to your target audience?
3. What is the one thing that differentiates you from your competitors?

Adapted from:  Tim O'Brien, The Power of Personal Branding: Creating Celebrity Status with Your Target Audience