Speaker 1: So you went to a networking event last week and it sucked and you got nothing out of it. What do you do now? Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of D-Law. So today, what are we talking about today? And it's something they don't teach you in law school. It is networking, establishing your network, extending it, moving it, making things happen, building your base of people and folks that you can depend on. So today I'm going to give you five tips on networking and being an attorney. It is important to network as an attorney so that you can grow, so that you can learn, so that you can build, so that you can establish more than what you currently have. And if you're still just buried in that case, buried in that file, not focusing on what else is going on out there, you're not building your network. And so many lawyers confuse working on cases and that type of activity to building their networks. So there's a distinct difference and this is something they don't teach you about in law school. Networking is hugely, hugely, hugely important. Networking tip number one is business cards, the importance of business cards. When you don't have a whole lot of money, the business card tells you a lot about who you are and what you do. And it's your introduction to folks. So it gives you an idea to at least let them know who you are to establish and get some things going for yourself. And when I was young, in terms of networking, I would put those cards everywhere. If I went out to lunch, I would put them somewhere. On the way home, I would stop at different apartment complexes and I would go to where they go to get their mail and put my cards up there. If I'm going to get my hair cut at the barbershop, I'm leaving different cards out there. Because again, I didn't have much money, but the more I kept leaving cards out there, the more I kept establishing, letting people know, yes, hi, I'm an attorney. Let me know what your issues are. Let me see what I can do to help you. Even if you have a question, I'm your lawyer. I'm your man. And so, and you always want to try and do something, I think, a little bit different. Hey, call me. This is my cell phone number. I'll answer your call anytime and I'm not going to charge you anything. Just do little things. Figure out what your, kind of your gimmick is, right? With regards to what makes you different. I'm the lawyer that's going to pick up your call at three o'clock in the morning. Whatever that is, something to differentiate yourself from the rest of the competition. And one thing is for sure, there's a lot of competition out there. Point number two, always on. Always on? What does that mean? Here's a problem that I see with many lawyers, right? Oh, call my office. Call me from nine to five. I take lunch at two. Don't call me between two and three o'clock. I'm only, no. I want to show people how hungry I am, how I'm ready to work. Hey, you call me when you're ready. Whatever's good for you, I'm ready to do it. I'm 24 years in the game. I've done nine figures in a year. And guess what? I still show that hunger because I want people to know that when they call me, they are important to me. Their case is important to me, which means I'm always on. I'm always working. I'm ready to go. It lets people know that you're engaged, right? Because again, if I'm turned off for a certain time, to me, it kind of sends the message that, oh, well, maybe he's turned off on my case. If you're always on, I'm always ready to go. And I'm always ready to fight. And I think that's an important message that we need to be sending to our clients. Tip number three, join different organizations, specifically bar association organization. The things that they can do for you is they create opportunities there for you to meet other people that are similarly situated. Maybe joint venture different ideas. We've talked about, I mentioned, of course, the mentoring situations, maybe exposing you to different areas of law that you did not consider. So again, it's just about getting the exposure and meeting other people and thinking differently about certain situations. And as a young lawyer, it's always better to keep an open mind with regards to what's possible, what we can do, what other folks are doing to be successful. So you can add that to your own bag of tricks and kind of grow from there. Tip number four, attending different conferences. One of the things I really wanted to do as a younger lawyer, and again, I'm talking about eight years into the practice. I wanted to learn about mass tort. I wanted to be involved in that. And so what I did for probably four years, four years, I went to these different mass tort conferences and learned and sat in there and studied and got knowledge and information. Before I spent any money with regards to the whole mass tort process, I educated myself with regards to other areas, things that I need to know, had to know, people to get introduced to. And I learned it from these different conferences. And here's the thing, you're going to go to some conferences and you're not going to pick up that much, okay? But the more that you get exposed to these different conferences and different ideas and different people, all you need is a few different things, an idea here, something there, a tweak there. Those are the things that you write down, that you study, that you learn, that you reflect back on to grow your practice, right? These people that are up there speaking, they're speaking for a reason. They've made the mistakes. They've made the right choices in many areas. And you can learn different things from almost everyone, okay? So don't judge anyone for any particular reason. Take the information in and then filter out what may or may not apply to you just so that you can continue on your growth process. Number five, and probably the most important thing as a lawyer, where people drop the ball all the time is, and it's the simplest thing, is following up. How many times have you shaken that person's head? Hey, really good meeting you. Thanks for talking to me. I'm going to be in touch with you. And then you don't do anything with that information. Man, you've got to follow up. It's really important. You take down the names of information of people that have said something interesting, that have ideas to share, that maybe offered you different opportunities. Write it down, write it down, and then follow up on those things. Hi, Mr. Smith, I've really appreciated what you said about this. You said for me to maybe touch bases with you. I wanted to follow up on that to see if we could get together next week. Is there some time that's convenient for you? Follow up. It shows that you're interested, that you're really listening, and you really care. Because many times now I have a lot of people interested that say they're interested in me. Hey, there, do that. Very few of them follow up. The people that do follow up, especially when they know different details, and they'll put into something that kind of ropes my ego a little bit, those are the people that get the responses. So keep those things in mind. Because if you were in that position, well, how would you want to be treated? Right? You'd want, hey, thank me, being courteous, being kind. Thank you for the time. Thank you for the learning. I really appreciate it. This is some of the things I learned from what you said, and I'd love the opportunity to be able to follow up. Is there a time for us to speak? The same way you're pursuing that with regards to a client, with regards to a new particular vendor, is the same way you want to approach it with regards to a potential mentor. Following up. But it all starts with you taking the time on your phone, on your computer, whatever the phone calls, just to follow up on different leads that you've established. Most lawyers don't put in the time, energy, and effort to properly network. And so I treated it almost like a part of my job and routine. For example, on Sundays, Sundays was my day to network, right? I would follow up on different things throughout the course of the week. And then I would then go back, okay, on Sunday, let me go back and touch base with this person. Let me send this message. Let me do this. It was networking while I'm sitting there watching football or watching the ball game. I'm going to be networking, right? It's that type of lifestyle kind of marketing slash networking slash making things happen that make a difference. It's got to be a consistent part of your routine. And I can tell you, me being 24 years in, I still do those things to this very day. And that's why the phone does not stop ringing with different opportunities. And let me tell you something. I love new opportunities. And guys, they don't just fall into your lap. Sometimes you got to create and make these things happen for yourself. And so people tell me all the time, oh man, Mr. Miller. Oh man, you are so lucky. You're so lucky, Mr. Miller. You're such a lucky person. How did this happen to you? You know how it happened to me? Do you know how it happened to me? Do you know how it happened to me? Well, I'll tell you how it happened to me. Because I create my own luck. Okay? And so people call it luck all they want to, but luck is work. And me at midnight while I'm watching my favorite movie, on the phone texting person or doing this and preparing, that's luck. Call it luck if you want to, but you're creating your own luck. By again, building that network and that system, by putting in the time, energy and effort to grow that system, whether it's with clients, with vendors, other lawyers, you put in that effort and it will come back in spades down the line. Does it pay off the networking? Absolutely. But it might take you months and months and months of you paying into the time and the system to make it work. So just put it in diligently and you will start to see those results slowly come in. Those are my five tips for networking. And look guys, I'm just telling you, it takes time. It takes energy. It takes work. But putting in to these systems and putting in the effort absolutely pays dividends. You may not see it tomorrow or the next day, but down the line, if you build your system, do these things consistently, make sure every week you're spending time doing that networking and building that little train and that momentum, it's going to start to happen. Stick with it, keep learning, keep trying and don't be afraid to fail. You only fail in networking when you're not doing anything. If you're always doing something, you can figure out, okay, this worked well, this didn't, let me modify this, let me change that. There's no secret sauce. Try everything and then just keep a tab of what's working and what's not. I fail all the time. I fail all the time. I'm not afraid to fail. But when I hit something that's successful, that's why I make a note and start to do more of those things while I continue to fail around those successes. So build yourself around those failures. That's another one of the secret sauces, man, and build your system and go from there. That is my time. I'm attorney Darren Miller. If this has been helpful for you, please give us your comments, give us your thoughts. Did you get something out of this? Let us know. Give us the comments down below. Let us know what you're thinking. Let us know what you want to hear from next time. That's my time and this is the law. I'm attorney Darren Miller and that's the law.