When you speak professionally, prepare thoroughly–not just your content, visuals and delivery—but also your attire. Clients and colleagues will form an impression of you from your speech–and also from how you look. Make it a favorable one.
A few days ago, I attended a large conference, and watched a female professional in her early 50’s address a crowd of several thousand. She happened to be petite, which was a disadvantage because the large podium seemed to swallow her. However, this was the least of her problems.
Unfortunately, she chose to wear a pale pink sweater in lieu of a more traditional jacket. She also clipped the front of her hair up with a barrette, in the way that many young girls do. The result? Although she spoke about leadership, she didn’t look like a leader–at all. And the audience didn’t pay attention–at all.
Had her content and presentation been engaging and powerful, they might have compensated for her appearance. As it was, her attire compounded the problem, “branding” her as a non-leader.
Your appearance matters. Check your attire with a trusted colleague or two before you mount the platform. Think about the color and cut of your outfit, whether there is too much pattern, and whether it is fashionable enough to be visually interesting or too staid and boring.
Then, mount the platform with confidence!
If a reporter called you today, would you respond well?
Earlier this week I observed an engaging and dynamic media training seminar conducted by The Ammerman Experience. Ken Haseley, Senior Counselor with Ammerman, shared invaluable tips on how to make media interviews successful. (Thanks, Ken, for an excellent presentation!)
Ken Haseley stressed the importance of going into an interview with your own agenda in mind–a list of points that you want to get across. Don’t let the reporter completely control the interview. Rather, during the interview, look for opportunities to segue to one of your key messages–and then use tight, crisp and memorable sentences to communicate it.
As mentioned in this blog before, stories can really vitalize mundane messages. Ken similarly recommends using stories, anecdotes, analogies, examples, illustrations and compelling data. These “sparklers” (as Ken aptly called them) will make your points memorable; because they are so interesting, the press very well may quote them.
And, as noted in Tips for Lawyers on Working with the Press, don’t just sit back and wait for a reporter to contact you. Articulate your points, make them memorable with good stories, and pitch them to appropriate media sources.
This Tuesday I am speaking to Georgetown University alumni via a teleclass about using personal branding to improve business relationships. (Click link for handout: Use Personal Branding to Boost Business Relationships.pdf.) Even if you are not participating in the teleclass, refer to the handout’s suggested resources to learn more about personal branding.
When I speak to groups of professionals about cross cultural client development, the issue of ”personal branding” always seems to arise. In other words, professionals want to know how to brand, market and present themselves in a way that communicates their attributes and enhances their rainmaking at home and abroad.
Tom Peters coined the term “personal branding” in his 1997 article for Fast Company called The Brand Called You. As Peters explained, “We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” In other words, how you present yourself will greatly impact your career success.
Competition for clients remains fierce in today’s global economy. One way that you can improve your position is to communicate clearly to everyone–but particularly to clients, prospective clients and co-workers–your uniqueness and value.
Make sure that your brand is consistently and correctly reflected in your website, business cards, demeanor, appearance etc… And perhaps most important, make sure that your brand is authentic. Do not try to portray yourself as something that you are not.
To figure out your brand, start by gathering feedback about yourself. Use diagnostic tests (like 360s, Meyers Briggs, DiSC); feedback from colleagues, clients and peers; and other resources, to define your best attributes. Use this data to figure out your brand–the positive and negative–and then take proactive steps to improve it. Try to correct any unflattering traits (self centeredness, procrastination etc…) that negatively impact your brand and reputation. Similarly, try to build on what is positive and special about your brand and reputation by enhancing your attributes.
So, brand–or perish. After all, as Tom Peters said in his seminal article, “It’s a new brand world.”
As mentioned in my prior post on How Blogging Can Help International Lawyers (Estabished or Aspiring), writing a blog can be an additional tool in a lawyer’s marketing toolkit. For those lawyers who are interested in starting a blog but still want more information, refer to Greg Siskind’s Lawyer Blogging: An Introduction , as it appears in Law Practice Today. As the co-author of the ABA’s Lawyer’s Guide to Marketing on the Internet, Greg is a big fan of blogging–so much so that he actually writes more than one immigration blog!
In her article titled Network Your Way to an International Law Practice–A Roadmap to Global Client Development, Christy Burke shares some good tips for advertising your international practice. For example, she recommends being listed not only in the prosessional networking site LinkedIn, but also in social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook. She recounts how one immigration lawyer has actually attracted new clients through MySpace. Profiling yourself on those sites can’t hurt; after all, it’s free internet advertising…
