I’m working through a proposal development process with a young guy who used to be a musician and has now become a podcast marketer. He has a nose ring on one nostril, which I wish he didn’t have, but it doesn’t seem to impact how his brain works. He seems very reasonable and picks up on things quickly even though he is learning about the expert witness business as he goes. You may wonder how it happens that a musician turns marketer, but ask yourself about most career paths and how they start and you’re likely to conclude, as I tend to, that circumstance has more to do with these paths taken than specific formulated plans that follow a step-by-step path leading from interest or talent to education to vocational training to action. There are people who dogmatically pursue an interest and take all the steps necessary to build out their CV to a specific intended purpose or “calling”, but I suspect those are a small minority of the stories in the naked city.
I am no longer a businessperson. I have no interest in being “in business”. I have great respect for professionalism and want to continue to be a professional that operates in the business world. It’s funny, for many years I had a hard time understanding those people around me who only wanted to be professional specialists, while I wanted to be a business leader. I considered business building the highest and best use of my skills and I loved the process. I guess we all tend to do things until they run their course and we tire of them. I know lots of people who were in business decide to go out and buy a small business in retirement and pursue the “fun” of business-building to occupy their days. I remember a Canadian friend who bought a mustard business and had a ball making and selling mustard. I am happy to be associated with a growing business and to let the principals of that business build it as they have been. I benefit by association and believe that I am instrumental, decidedly helpful but neither necessary nor sufficient, to making that business successful. But I am glad to have others worry about the business and all the myriad of things that affect it.
The the outside world, whether based on our website or our LinkedIn profile, feel that I am a guy to reach out to with business proposals for our expert witness business. I am guessing that they are not singling me out as opposed to approaching the three principals of the business or even some of the other experts on the roster. I’m sure its a scatter gun form of marketing and they hope something connects with someone through their outreach. Whenever I forward something that seems mildly interesting or reasonably legitimate, I get told by our partners that they get all sorts of spam like that and that I should simply ignore it. Maybe that’s why I get singled out somewhat. Maybe the book on me in the digital marketing realm is that I am more susceptible and an easier mark. It’s probably true to some extent, but then again, I have always liked to keep an open mind and feel that I gain more and lose very little by this approach. I have never valued my time so highly that I cannot listen to someone’s ideas for at least a moment or two. I have gotten good at politely shutting marketers down if I see no potential in their efforts, but I generally listen to a few moments of their pitch unless they refuse to tell me who they are and why they are calling in fairly direct manner.
Podcasts and social media marketing have intrigued me for some time. I tend not to be a podcast listener and am not entirely sure how that channel gained so much currency, but I know that it has. As for social media marketing, it is hard not to see what is going on given that it seems to be everywhere. I don’t really use Facebook any more, but I do check in on Instagram and Snapchat daily and seem to always be on LinkedIn. My goal on the former two is to keep up with my kids and a few selective friends, and occasionally show my family what we are up to (especially when we travel or do something out of the ordinary). As for LinkedIn, where I have 2,888 connections in my network, I just find it a good way to stay in touch with my extended network of contacts, mostly from the workplace, but not exclusively. I would say that I get some valuable information from the things people I know post on LinkedIn, where both Instagram and Snapchat are only delivering silly and momentary entertainment versus valid information or news.
On the spectrum of extraversion, I think it’s fair to say that I fall at the far end. Extraversion is one of the major personality dimensions in psychology. It describes how much someone draws energy from and orients themselves toward external social interactions and stimulation. Outgoing people like me tend to feel energized by social interactions and meeting new people, readily express our thoughts and feelings to others (welcomed or not), seek out group activities and social gatherings at which we tend to take initiative, and prefer being around others to spending time alone. Extraversion is a trait that clearly exists on a spectrum – people can be more or less outgoing rather than simply outgoing or not. It’s also worth noting that being outgoing isn’t inherently better or worse than being more reserved, it just is what it is. In the formal psychological testing field, the Five Factor Model (also known as the Big Five), being outgoing is one of the key facets of extraversion, alongside traits like assertiveness and excitement-seeking. This manifested itself in my always being the presenter in the group and eventually in me being a teacher for almost thirteen years during retirement. Lately, and without any overt initiation on my part, my expert witness gang has asked me to teach the Master Class for the firm. For all of those reasons and my natural storytelling instinct (that has caused me to be a rather prolific writer), when Mr. Nose Ring reached out and suggested that I should host a podcast for my firm, I thought it was a logical suggestion regardless of the obvious commercial interest by the proposer.
As I have worked through the idea in developing the pitch for the partners of my firm, I find myself reactivating my instincts about building and growing a business. I feel that a well-run podcast ticks all the boxes of what an expert witness firm like ours should want to do to develop its business. The idea activates domain experts to consider joining our stable, it connects with existing experts who are in the case flow and improves the odds of seeing that flow directed to us, and it engages a potentially full range of law firms to help build our franchise and establish and strengthen those relationships to drive sustainable business flow. There is almost nothing that a firm like ours wants to have happen that this approach doesn’t potentially turbo-charge. Too bad it’s not my decision, because clearly I’m sold and believe in the idea. The question Mr. Nose Ring and I now have to answer is, what will it take to get the three principals of the business to see things my way?