In this empowering episode of the NewLaw Podcast for Entrepreneurial Lawyers with Ali Katz, Jessica, a lawyer stepping into the entrepreneurial world, confronts her deep-seated fear of marketing rejection.
Guided by Ali, Jessica embarks on a transformative journey of shifting her mindset from self-promotion to community education. Through this coaching session, Jessica discovers how to harness the power of her personal story and use her legal knowledge as a tool for service rather than self-promotion. The episode delves into the importance of authenticity in marketing and how lawyers can reframe their approach to truly connect with their audience.
Key Takeaways:
Shift from Self-Promotion to Service: Learn how to reframe your marketing efforts to focus on educating and serving your community rather than promoting yourself.
Overcome the Fear of Rejection: Understand the root of marketing fears and discover strategies to push through discomfort for the greater good of your audience.
Authenticity in Marketing: Embrace vulnerability by sharing your personal story in a way that resonates with your audience while maintaining privacy and respect.
Mindset Matters: Transform your mindset to prioritize the needs of your clients, which naturally leads to stronger connections and successful client relationships.
Practical Steps to Begin Marketing: Start with simple, authentic communication through email newsletters or social media posts to gradually build your public presence.
This episode is a must-listen for lawyers who want to turn their law degree into a business asset by leveraging authentic and service-oriented marketing.
Time Stamps
01:44: Ali delves into the fear of rejection in marketing, asking Jessica to describe her feelings about putting out her first presentation and social media posts.
02:22: Jessica grapples with the idea proposed by Ali, who clarifies that the focus should be standing for people's important actions rather than self-centered promotion.
05:05: Ali emphasizes the role of education in marketing, suggesting Jessica present herself as an educator rather than a promoter to make meaningful connections with her audience.
06:51: Jessica acknowledges the need to overcome her hesitancy, fearing she might come across as inauthentic if she forces herself to be more public.
08:09: Ali encourages Jessica to share the personal story that drives her passion for educating the community, even if she maintains some privacy around specific details.
Transcript
Jessica: Fear is being uncomfortable with promoting myself.
Ali Katz: Okay, what happens if you stop thinking of it as promoting yourself altogether?
Jessica: It's hard for me to separate that, because aren't I promoting myself? I mean, isn't that who I'm trying to get people to work with is me? And that's what separates me from everyone else?
Ali Katz: Hello, and welcome to the NewLaw podcast, where we guide entrepreneurial lawyers to build law practices into businesses they love. I'm Ali Katz.
Ali Katz: You are absolutely going to love, love, love this episode. If you have ever had a fear around promoting yourself, or perhaps speaking about your own personal experiences that are very sensitive or private, and yet they're important because your community needs to know about them so that they can be inspired to work with you. This episode is going to give you insight on how to make a very important shift from selling yourself to educating your community and really focusing on the value of your services and really making it more about them than about you. So listen in, and I'll see you on the other side.
Ali Katz: Jessica, you have a fear of rejection around marketing. I also have been very impacted by fear of rejection around marketing. And you're putting out your first ever presentation. You're starting posting on Facebook and launching your house list. So it makes total sense. But do you want to describe it a little bit? Like, are you afraid that you don't know what you're doing, or are you afraid that people won't find it valuable? Like, what is the actual fear?
Jessica: Fear is being uncomfortable with promoting myself.
Ali Katz: Okay. What happens if you stop thinking of it as promoting yourself altogether?
Jessica: It's hard for me to separate that because aren't I promoting myself? I mean, isn't that who I'm trying to get people to work with is me? And that's what separates me from everyone else?
Ali Katz: No, what would separate you from everyone else is that you're not promoting yourself. You are taking a stand for people to take important actions for their family. It really has nothing to do with you. In fact, whether they hire you or someone else is not the important thing. I mean, to you it is, but to them it's not. And what's important is that they actually take action on important things. What are the important things that they need to take action on?
Jessica: Right. I hear you. I know exactly what you're saying. I just have a hard time getting out, you know, being too critical of myself and what I put out and.
Ali Katz: Right, because you're making it about you instead of about them. Yeah. So if you shift the mindset. So every time before you put something out, you get into the mind frame of service of who you're helping and start thinking about them and what happens if they don't take action. Then that changes.
Jessica: Yeah.
Ali Katz: So every time before you put something out, it's not about them hiring you, it's about them taking action on the thing that you want them to take action on. Now, here's the reality, is that when we start to educate people about what they need to do, to take action on these important things, they want help. They want help from somebody who's going to make it easy for them to take action. So all we really have to do is educate people about the actions that they need to take from the place of what happens if they don't. The consequences of not taking action. And then, of course, they're going to look to you to solve that problem because they've got to get the problem solved. If you've got easy ways for them to solve their problem, then they're gonna work with you to do it.
Jessica: Okay.
Ali Katz: Would you love direct support to help you grow your law practice into a business you love? Go to newlawbusinessmodel.com/show and sign up for a call with one of our trusted law business advisors. Each of our advisors has been trained directly by me over the past five years plus to help you chart your path from wherever you are now to where you want to go as efficiently and effectively as possible. You're ready to grow. We are here to help.
Ali Katz: And so I think it is just about really getting into that mindset of educating. I'm an educator and, you know, here she says at the end, if you can't make the meeting but want to know more about protecting your kiddos, let's chat. And so if you can kind of channel this when you know the next time that you're about to do a presentation, and remember, this is not about them hiring you, they will hire you because you're just going to make it so easy for them to get what they need to get done. It's about you educating them about things that they need to do for the people that they love.
Jessica: Yeah, I mean, it's also that I'm really not comfortable yet even posting things on Facebook in general. So trying to get over that fear also.
Ali Katz: What is the fear that comes up with that?
Jessica: I don't know. I guess I'm just not a public person. I'm more of a private person.
Ali Katz: Yeah.
Jessica: So it's a mindset of switching, you know? I know I need to get in front of people on a daily basis, but it's just difficult for me to switch into people knowing all about me, you know, it's just difficult.
Ali Katz: Yeah. Yeah. And is that an edge that you want to expand through?
Jessica: Well, if it's a way to reach more people, then, yeah, I really feel I need to break through that, but I feel like it's almost not me. So it's trying to change that mindset, I guess. But I don't want to come off having it be fake or forced, so I don't.
Ali Katz: Yeah, well, maybe Jessica is even speaking to that. Are you doing regular email newsletters?
Jessica: No, not yet.
Ali Katz: Okay, so maybe your first email newsletter is something that speaks to that very clearly and says, look, I am usually a very private person, but because I think this is so important, I am stretching myself outside of my normal shyness or, you know, whatever it is. Right. It's giving it words, because it is so important to me to educate you, and here's why.
Jessica: Oh, okay. Okay.
Ali Katz: And so you don't have to be fake, and you don't have to glass over the fact that this is really, actually hard for you. What you get to say is, this is really hard for me, and I'm doing it anyway because I care so much about you and the people in our community. And so here I am.
Jessica: Okay, so start with just an email newsletter before I go broadcast on Facebook. Or do both.
Ali Katz: Yeah, or. Or do both. Yeah, you could do it on Facebook, too. Like, hey, Facebook people, this is really uncomfortable. This is really uncomfortable for me. And yet I'm doing it because I think it is so important and people really respect that.
Jessica: Okay.
Ali Katz: You know, I'm doing it because I think it is so important for you to get this information. And here's why. And then tell a little bit about your why. Like, why is it so important to you, Jessica? Why are you educating your community?
Jessica: Okay.
Ali Katz: Do you have a strong why?
Jessica: It depends. My main reason why is because I'm dealing with it right now, where it went south really bad. You know, it was. It's a bad situation where. What's that?
Ali Katz: You get to tell that story.
Jessica: And again, it's hard because it's a private story that I'm now gonna broadcast, but, yeah.
Ali Katz: Yeah. And so can you do that in a way that honors the people who's, you know, who are part of it and say, you know, I can't. I'm not gonna tell you all the details of the story, but I will tell you that it is really hard. It's creating a lot of challenges in the lives of people I love, and I don't want to see this happen to you.
Jessica: Yeah.
Ali Katz: And so I'm stretching outside of my comfort zone to share this with you, and I invite you to come to my presentation and hear more.
Jessica: Okay.
Ali Katz: Yeah. Okay. Let us know how it goes. It gets easier over time.
Jessica: Yeah. Okay.
Ali Katz: Okay.
Jessica: Thank you.
Ali Katz: All right. You're so welcome, Jessica.
Ali Katz: If you love the coaching that I offered to Jessica and you want support like that, to build your own law practice into a business with life and legacy planning, go to newlaw.co/show, s h o w, newlaw.co/show, and book a call with a law business advisor to discuss your path to PFL and how we can get you to $20,000 to $250,000 months. Yes, you heard that right. $20,000 to $250,000 months in a way that really works for you and your clients as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Ali Katz: So that's newlaw.co/show. And you can book a call with a law business advisor there. Please only do that if you are a lawyer or you just took the bar and you're waiting to find out if you passed and you are entrepreneurial and you know that you want to do estate planning, or you are already doing estate planning and you're ready to scale, you're ready to build, you're ready to get to that $50,000 a month. You're ready to get to that $100,000 a month. You're ready to get to that $250,000 a month.Or if you're just starting out and you want to start off with the support that you need so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. And I look forward to seeing you on the inside.
