JDBlogger | Legal Marketing | Blogging | Podcasting | Social Media for Lawyers and Attorney Entrepreneurs - John Skiba

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Bankruptcy Leadership Summit that is put on by Dave Ramsey in Nashville, Tennessee.  The conference is geared towards helping bankruptcy lawyers build and run a better law practice and get a little CLE along the way.  This is the first time I had attended the event and my first time in Nashville and the whole experience was really awesome. In today's episode of the podcast I give an overview of the conference, and discuss some of the cool evening events like dinner at Dave Ramsey's house (his actual house!), a really awesome dinner with some of the top country singer/songwriters in Nashville, and seeing Dave do his daily radio show. All the fun stuff aside one of the best parts (for me) of the entire event was seeing first hand how Dave Ramsey runs his company and the great people who work with him there. In this episode I will discuss three things that I learned from getting a peek into how Dave Ramsey runs his company that can benefit you in building your law practice.  Specifically I will touch on: How creating a unique law firm culture can not only make your work more enjoyable but better quality. How to reduce your stress as a leader to almost zero. Why practicing in area an that you enjoy will pay dividends to you and your clients.

2014 is nearly in the books.  And one thing I really enjoy about this time of year is looking back over the year at what things went well in my law practice, what things didn't, and areas where I can improve in the coming year. In today's episode of the podcast I share with you three things I did over the last year that helped my law practice to not only grow but thrive.  I also go over some of my plans for the upcoming year and why I hope it will be my best yet! Leave the Podcast a Christmas Present!  Review in iTunes Today!

Entrepreneur Magazine predicts that video marketing will be one of the biggest trends in business for 2015.  As I have stated on the podcast before I have been pleasantly surprised at how well video content has done and the impact it has had on my law practice. A lot of lawyers hesitate to start making videos because the perceived hurdles and lack of know-how.  In today's episode of the JDBlogger Podcast I interview Caleb Wojcik.  Caleb is the host of the DIY Video Guy podcast and in the past was a co-host of the Fizzle Show and has been a featured guest on the Smart Passive Income Podcast with Pat Flynn and Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast with Amy Porterfield. Caleb is also the founder of  Caleb Wojcik Films, a video production company that works with clients to create and implement a video strategy. Finally, Caleb has also created an awesome course for do-it-yourself video people like myself.  About a year ago I came across Caleb's DIY Video Course and it helped immensely in getting the foundation I needed to start shooting and editing videos for my law practice. Here are some of the resources mentioned in this episode: DIY Video Guy Website DIY Video Guy Podcast (iTunes) DIY Video Guide Tool of the Trade This week's Tool of the Trade is Avvo Ignite.  Last week on the podcast I interviewed Josh King, General Counsel to Avvo.  After our interview I thought I would head on over and see what this product has to offer.  I am currently in the middle of my 15 free trial to see if it will work my law office.  The product has some pretty cool features that help in tracking where leads are coming from and then how to follow up with them so that they don't slip through the cracks.  For a consumer practice like mine I believe this could be a very helpful tool.  It might be overkill if you tend to have more repeat clients or institutional clients.  I will give an update in a future episode on my overall impression and whether or not I have decided to subscribe going forward.   Click HERE to Leave Me Some Feedback in iTunes!

Things have been a bit hectic this week - couple of trials and my legal assistant out on vacation (I know, good planing on my part!).  And because of that I thought I would bring back one of my favorite interviews from 2013 - my interview with author/speaker Richie Norton.  This interview was initially released in March 2013, right after Richie had just released his new book "The Power of Starting Something Stupid". I thought the book and interview with Richie was perfect for the solo entrepreneurial-minded lawyer.  Too often lawyers fall into the same mold of every other lawyer around them.  Richie's book can give you the motivation to think about taking a different path and examples of how those who do often set the trends in an industry. Richie's book has a lot of great take-aways, but here is one of my favorite quotes from page 11 - "People wait until...until...until...They wait, and they wait, and they wait, until that fateful day when they wake up and realize that while they were sitting around, paying dues, earning their keep, waiting for that elusive "perfect time," their entire life has based them by...Their is no greater time than now to start moving toward achieving your goals.  Don't wait. Start stuff."  

In the last episode of the JDBlogger Podcast I discussed some of the ins and outs of interpreting your metrics through Google Analytics.  Many of you reached out to me via email on some of your frustrations when it comes to building a law firm website and getting decent traffic.  In today's episode I will provide you with the three fundamental principles that I have followed that have helped me to build a large amount of traffic and build a stable client base. Mentioned in the Podcast:  In this episode I mentioned the law firm Jackson White who does a good job with their website with their multiple areas of practice.  You can access their website HERE.

Last week I wrote an article about my writing my 300th blog post on my law firm's website.  Shortly thereafter attorney Kyle Smith approached me about sharing his experiencing in building his law firm's website from 0 visitors to 12,000 monthly visitors in the first year! In today's episode I discuss both of our articles, and drill deeper into the metrics and go over some of the useful tools found in Google Analytics and how they can help you grow your online presence and get more clients. Tool of the Trade This week's Tool of the Trade is an article I came upon on Mashable that provides 30 different explanations of the various tools available through Google Analytics and what metrics you should pay particular attention to.  

Writing great articles for your blog or producing a great video for your law firm website is simply the first step in creating a strong online presence.  Next you have to get your content in front of the right eyeballs if you want to be successful and increase your visibility online. The idea of "build it and they will come" is not a viable approach when it comes to creating your law firm's online presence. Today we will dig deeper and discuss the keys to creating great content and how you can get more people to actually read your work. In this episode of the JDBlogger Podcast I interview Adrian Lurssen, co-founder of JDSupra, a digital media company that helps lawyers increase their visibility online through distribution of the lawyer's content.  Adrian shares with us some of his experiences as one of the early employees of Yahoo and how JDSupra was formed and its purpose in helping lawyers get their articles in front of the right people. We also discuss some of the common traits to producing engaging content for your law firm website or blog.  Adrian is in the unique position of being able to study and evaluate the thousands of articles written by lawyers that are distributed by JDSupra and comment on what he believes makes the best legal writers successful. Leave Your Feedback and Rate the JDBlogger Podcast in iTunes!

Have you ever looked at the law firms at the top of the Google results and wonder what they have that you don't?  In this week's episode of the JDBlogger Podcast I interview Spencer Haws the owner of the popular blog and podcast Niche Pursuits.  Spencer walks us through the process of using long tail keywords to drive more clients to your firm and shoot you to the top of the Google rankings. You can learn more about Spencer by heading over to his website at Niche Pursuits. Spencer created quite a stir in the podcasting world this past week with a blog article on why you shouldn't create a podcast.  The Podcast Answerman Cliff Ravenscraft spent a full two hours responding to Spencer as to why you should start a podcast. Next week I will be back with a live interview of the co-founder of JDSupra Adrian Lurssen and how you can distribute your content.

Today on the JDBlogger Podcast our guest is social media expert Adrian Dayton.  Adrian is an attorney who transitioned into consulting law firms on building their law practice using social media.  Recently the National Law Journal named Adrian as the #1 Social Media Consultant in the legal field. Too often lawyers dismiss the power and benefits that social media offers and ignore the huge potential that social media has in building a reputation and client base.  In this episode we discuss the benefits of the various social media platforms, whether the recent changes by Facebook should impact the way we use that platform, and how a single Tweet changed the direction of Adrian's career. I am honored to have Adrian on the podcast today where he shares his story in moving out of the practice of law and what lawyers can do to effectively use social media to get more clients. Click HERE to Leave a Rating and Feedback in iTunes!

We have all been there.  Waking up in the middle of the night - in a cold sweat that we have missed some sort of deadline.  Or how about the opposing attorney who you can't stand - who insists on making your life pure misery every time you have any interaction with him.  Not to mention the long hours, demanding clients, and then there's the state bar...  These are the joys of being a lawyer.  And if you are not careful you just may wake up one morning and think "I can't do this another day". But then the realities of student loans, bills, and all the other pressures of life weigh in and you just feel trapped...okay, enough about my life :)...in today's episode of the JDBlogger Podcast I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeena Cho.  Ms. Cho is a bankruptcy attorney in San Francisco at the J.C. Law Group, P.C. where she practices with her husband Jeff.  Jeena is also in the process of writing a book for the American Bar Association on Mindfulness - or how to deal with the stresses of law practice and make your work life if not enjoyable, at least tolerable. Tool of the Trade I have mentioned quite a bit lately that I have started posting short videos on my website as an additional way of connecting with potential clients.  The feedback has been great but it still doesn't make it any easier to produce the video.  To help make the process a little easier I have been looking into purchasing a teleprompter.  I found out quickly that these can get real pricey real quick. However I found a teleprompter that works with an iPad or any Android tablet made by InteractMedia that works very well and was a real bargain at $159.00.  In today's episode I discuss how it works and how you can use it to not only reduce your time involved in producing videos but increase the overall quality of the videos.   Leave Some Feedback and a Rating in Itunes!

This past week I had the opportunity to speak on content marketing and social media as a way to help bankruptcy lawyers grow their law practice.  It was a great opportunity to meet some great people and to hear what challenges people were facing in marketing their law practice.  I had a few surprises, including how many attorneys attending the conference didn't even have a website let alone a blog and further how many people were outright hostile to getting involved in social media as a way of building their law firm. While I believe that every law practice will benefit from content marketing and social media interaction clearly not everyone attorney is willing or even interested in getting on board.  And while I think every attorney should do what they are comfortable with I believe that attorneys are ignoring this to their own peril.  The world is operating online and if you choose to ignore that you are choosing to ignore a huge segment of your community that could be paying clients. In today's episode I speak on three takeaways that I learned from the NACBA conference and why they are relevant to your law practice. Tool of the Trade This week's Tool of the Trade is nRelate.  nRelate is a great tool for bloggers that automatically populates the bottom of each of your blog posts with other articles that relevant to the topics that your potential clients are looking for - and not only that but it pulls in a thumbnail of the photo you have on each blog post.  Great tool for reducing your website's bounce rate and keeping visitors handing around your website and reading multiple articles.

I think we have all been there at one time or another in our careers as lawyers - and some of us struggle to drag ourselves into the office every day of the week!  Law is a demanding career.  Long hours. Never ending deadlines.  And lots of stress.  This can often make for an unhappy career - and that is where Marc Luber comes in with his great website J.D. Careers Out There. I mentioned last week that I am speaking on content marketing at the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys national conference in New York City this week.  Because of this I decided not to record a new episode but to share with the audience one of my favorite episodes from the past. Since I interviewed Marc about a year ago (episode #20) Marc was honored by the ABA as having the best career website out there. Marc offers a ton of great information on making your legal career better or if you want out how you can do that without losing it all. I will catch you next week with a new episode of the JDBlogger Podcast! Check out our sponsor Ruby Receptionist!  Entered the name "JDBlogger" in the promo field and receive 14 days of free service and the $95 activation fee will be waived.

Today I am excited to release the fiftieth episode of the JDBlogger Podcast and am proud to announce that Ruby Receptionist is the official sponsor of the Podcast.  I started this podcast about 18 months ago with the goal of sharing things I had learned in building my practice and hopefully being able to meet an interview some of the experts who were really doing things right. I want to thank all 27 people that I have had the chance to interview and thank you the listeners for sticking with me.  I am looking forward to continuing with the weekly podcast and expanding the scope to topics on technology, law firm innovation, and law practice management. Also, in today's episode I follow up on the topic from last week - podcasting.  I neglected to discuss some of the technical aspects of setting up and recording interviews on a podcast.  Today I discuss three ways you can record a podcast using Skype: Mix-Minus I have recorded all of my interviews via Skype using the Mix-Minus method.  This one is a little more complicated and requires a mixer and separate audio recorder but allows you more control in making sure the volume of you and your guest or co-host are the same.  If you are planning on using a set-up similar to mine I would recommend spending the $100 Cliff Ravenscraft charges for his course on setting up a recording system for podcast interviews called "Podcaster's Guide to Recording Co-Hosts, Guests, and Podcast Interviews".  It wills save you days of aggravation and give you the confidence that it is done right. ecamm for Mac Computers If you plan on using Skype on your Mac computer for interviews I would recommend ecamm.  It is a simple download, inexpensive ($29.95) and allows you to record both audio and video in Skype and level out the sound between the participants. Pamela for Skype If you will be using Skype on your PC to record your interviews I would recommend Pamela for Skype.  It will do most of the same things ecamm will do.  I would recommend you down load the professional version ($35.76) because the basic and Call Recorder versions only allow for 15 minutes of recording time. Thanks for listening to the podcast! Leave Me a Review of this 50th Episode in iTunes!

Over the last month or so I have had a number of you reach out to me and share that you are in the process of putting together a podcast.  I always enjoy hearing from listeners and can't wait to hear your podcasts when they launch.  Because it seems the podcasting bug is starting to spread I am dedicating this episode to providing you with real facts and information on what type of investment you should plan on up front, what types of equipment you will need, and what you can expect as far as a true time commitment. Finally, I am going to give you 3 tips to help you make the most of your podcast launch. The picture above is of the  JDBlogger and Consumer Warrior Podcasts studios - aka my desk:). Below are some affiliate links to the gear and services I use.  Feel free to email me at john@jdblogger.com with any equipment questions. Microphone Shock Mount Broadcast Boom Roland Recorder Behringer Xenys 1002 Mixer Other Podcasting Resources Professionally Recorded Intros/Outros and Jingles through Music Radio Creative. Have custom iTunes Artwork and Facebook Page Artwork designed by JennyHdesign Libsyn hosts all of your mp3 files. Podcasting Course with Podcast Answerman Cliff Ravenscraft If you are really ready to take things to the next level in podcasting consider taking Cliff Ravenscraft's A to Z course.  Enter my last name "Skiba" as the discount code and you will get $500 off the price of the course.   Tool of the Trade This week I share a new social media platform that I recently started using called About.me.  You can check out my new profile at About.me/johnskiba.  Kind of a neat simple platform.  I am starting to see some lawyers create pages.  How can you stand out from the firms that are already there? Rate the JDBlogger Podcast in iTunes!   **Please note that many of the above links are affiliate links - meaning I earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking through on the link.  It does not increase the price of the product you are purchasing.

3 Ways to be an Innovative Lawyer I know that as a lawyer I am supposed to hate LegalZoom.  But the entrepreneur side of me really appreciates what they have done.  They saw a need - a large portion of the public that needed legal services but couldn't/wouldn't pay the rates lawyers charge - and created a product that people would be willing to take a chance on. In this episode of the JDBlogger Podcast I discuss ways you can market your practice by doing things differently than everyone else - ways you can innovate and really stand out from the crowd.  In the podcast I focus on three ways in particular: billing, the way you deliver legal services, and the areas of law you practice.  I discuss some of the true innovators out there, including LegalZoom, and what we can learn from those who are unafraid of marching to the beat of a different drummer. Are you an innovative lawyer?  What do you do with your law practice to stand above the crowd? Leave a Review and 5 Star Rating in iTunes!