Whether we appreciate it or not, each of us has a personal brand, and everything we do affects it. It’s more than your reputation, win/loss record, or what you’re most known for. It’s everything we do, say, post, share, write, and present. It’s the cases we handle (and the ones we don’t), it’s how we help others (or don’t), how we develop our expertise, and how we share it with others. It’s about how we pay it forward, how we lead, how we act, how we network, how we listen, how we speak, and how we share our authentic selves (and what comprises our authentic selves).
It’s essential to understand and appreciate that building a reliable, effective brand takes time, energy, and effort. And it’s relatively easy to undermine, especially in our culture, where social media and clickbait drive attention to missteps, mistakes, and personal failures and shortcomings.
So how do you build your brand? First, you must define it. Perhaps you want to be known as the go-to cybersecurity lawyer in South Florida or the premier trial lawyer for asbestos matters in Atlanta. To do so, obviously, you must do great work in those areas in your jurisdiction. Beyond that, you want to write, speak, and lead in that field. You want to be a leader in AI? If so, do you belong to organizations with an AI focus? Do you speak, write, and post about AI? Do journalists quote you in articles about AI? If you want to own a space and have your brand reflect that, then you flood the zone in that space, so anyone interested, involved, and curious about it inevitably learns about you and is exposed to you.
What happens to some of us (including me) is losing focus on our brand and doing too much in too many areas, diluting our voice and message. Some of the best lawyers I know maintain a consistent, focused theme across all social media platforms, in their writing, speaking engagements, and their work. They focus on their primary practice area and own that space through everything they do, which positions them as experts, and that perceived expertise leads to referrals, clients, and cases. And when I say perceived expertise, I’m not suggesting these lawyers are not in fact experts. Still, their ability to get others to see them as experts — create a perception of expertise — is what enables them to develop a brand that supports their professional and career development.
So, not only do you want to define your brand and do what you can to contribute to it, but you also want to focus your efforts like a laser on hitting the bullseye of that brand, rather than coloring outside the lines. Building your brand is something you do every day in small and big ways, in loud and quiet ways, and the saying that everything you do defines you applies to your brand as well.
So that’s how you build your brand. How do you avoid damaging it? Avoid being a troll, picking fights, or being unnecessarily controversial in person or online. I see so many people online confuse popularity with a positive brand. They look at their analytics and reference high click numbers as positive, but they’re little more than a human car accident with everyone rubbernecking to see what happened. I know several lawyers on LinkedIn with a large number of followers, but who are human flame throwers, and though it may work for them, I recommend against that approach. Unless you have your own firm, most firms and employers would not be thrilled with that approach (and I’ve seen lawyers fired over online antics).
My final thought is that your brand is your brand and travels with you from one position to the next and from one job to the next. A strong, powerful brand will provide you with autonomy, clients, cases, and control over your destiny. Every company has a brand. Every firm has a brand. And every lawyer has a brand that will be your support, crutch, and resource for professional growth. And chances are your perfect workplace is a firm or company whose brand fits hand in glove with yours.
Frank Ramos is a partner at Goldberg Segalla in Miami, where he practices commercial litigation, products, and catastrophic personal injury. You can follow him on LinkedIn, where he has about 80,000 followers.
The post Building Your Brand: Everything You Do Builds It Up Or Drags It Down appeared first on Above the Law.
Whether we appreciate it or not, each of us has a personal brand, and everything we do affects it. It’s more than your reputation, win/loss record, or what you’re most known for. It’s everything we do, say, post, share, write, and present. It’s the cases we handle (and the ones we don’t), it’s how we help others (or don’t), how we develop our expertise, and how we share it with others. It’s about how we pay it forward, how we lead, how we act, how we network, how we listen, how we speak, and how we share our authentic selves (and what comprises our authentic selves).
It’s essential to understand and appreciate that building a reliable, effective brand takes time, energy, and effort. And it’s relatively easy to undermine, especially in our culture, where social media and clickbait drive attention to missteps, mistakes, and personal failures and shortcomings.
So how do you build your brand? First, you must define it. Perhaps you want to be known as the go-to cybersecurity lawyer in South Florida or the premier trial lawyer for asbestos matters in Atlanta. To do so, obviously, you must do great work in those areas in your jurisdiction. Beyond that, you want to write, speak, and lead in that field. You want to be a leader in AI? If so, do you belong to organizations with an AI focus? Do you speak, write, and post about AI? Do journalists quote you in articles about AI? If you want to own a space and have your brand reflect that, then you flood the zone in that space, so anyone interested, involved, and curious about it inevitably learns about you and is exposed to you.
What happens to some of us (including me) is losing focus on our brand and doing too much in too many areas, diluting our voice and message. Some of the best lawyers I know maintain a consistent, focused theme across all social media platforms, in their writing, speaking engagements, and their work. They focus on their primary practice area and own that space through everything they do, which positions them as experts, and that perceived expertise leads to referrals, clients, and cases. And when I say perceived expertise, I’m not suggesting these lawyers are not in fact experts. Still, their ability to get others to see them as experts — create a perception of expertise — is what enables them to develop a brand that supports their professional and career development.
So, not only do you want to define your brand and do what you can to contribute to it, but you also want to focus your efforts like a laser on hitting the bullseye of that brand, rather than coloring outside the lines. Building your brand is something you do every day in small and big ways, in loud and quiet ways, and the saying that everything you do defines you applies to your brand as well.
So that’s how you build your brand. How do you avoid damaging it? Avoid being a troll, picking fights, or being unnecessarily controversial in person or online. I see so many people online confuse popularity with a positive brand. They look at their analytics and reference high click numbers as positive, but they’re little more than a human car accident with everyone rubbernecking to see what happened. I know several lawyers on LinkedIn with a large number of followers, but who are human flame throwers, and though it may work for them, I recommend against that approach. Unless you have your own firm, most firms and employers would not be thrilled with that approach (and I’ve seen lawyers fired over online antics).
My final thought is that your brand is your brand and travels with you from one position to the next and from one job to the next. A strong, powerful brand will provide you with autonomy, clients, cases, and control over your destiny. Every company has a brand. Every firm has a brand. And every lawyer has a brand that will be your support, crutch, and resource for professional growth. And chances are your perfect workplace is a firm or company whose brand fits hand in glove with yours.
Frank Ramos is a partner at Goldberg Segalla in Miami, where he practices commercial litigation, products, and catastrophic personal injury. You can follow him on LinkedIn, where he has about 80,000 followers.
