Pool in St. Maarten overlooking the ocean

I have the privilege of speaking to many lawyers across the country each week. I always ask them this question.

“What EXACTLY Would You Like Your Income To Be?”

99% of them can’t give me a coherent answer. Instead, they give me excuses. The most common is the economy. They give me excuses about why they are not achieving their lofty goals.

When I steer them back to the question about what exactly they want their income to be, they simply have no idea. The majority of attorneys have not given this any thought. It is not sufficient, from a marketing standpoint, to simply say “I want to make a lot of money.” Instead, you have to have a specific exact number in mind that you write down on paper.

Some lawyers feel that this is simply an exercise in fantasy. Others exclaim “This is stupid.” However, I disagree.

Instead, visualizing exactly where you want to be at the end of this year is crucial in order for you to make strides in your businesses that will get you there. If you have a vague and nonspecific goal of “Making a large sum of money,” then your ability to get to that ideal goal will get lost and, most likely, never reached.

To be honest, it makes no difference what you believe or desire your income to be. Whether it’s $10,000 more than you are currently earning or $1 million more. The fact is that you must identify exactly how much you want your income to be. You must then measure where you have come from in order to properly measure your success.

If you don’t know what you would like your income to be, how will you ever know whether you have achieved that level of success that you desire? Without setting a realistic goal you are shortchanging yourself, your law firm and your family from ever realizing that possibility.

Once you have written down exactly what you want your income to be, you must identify exactly how you intend to get there. If you do not formulate a written plan, you again risk the real possibility of never reaching your ideals.

So go grab a pen and paper right now and put down exactly what you would like your income to be.

Fostex AR-4i iPhone 4 Audio adapter

2012 Review of Fostex AR-4i for iPhone 4S

I use professional video equipment to shoot educational video for attorneys. I recently bought an iPhone 4S and intended to use it for quick video interviews and on-the-run educational video.

Overall review: Recommended

The AR-4i is an iPhone audio microphone adapter. It’s a piece of audio equipment that converts the built-in microphone on the iPhone into a true audio capture device to allow improved audio for your video.

If you shoot video using your built in microphone, you will get acceptable audio. Not great audio, just acceptable. The problem using your built in microphone is that you will also pick up all ambient sound. That’s why you never want to use your built-in mic when shooting video.

The Fostex iPhone audio adapter solves that problem by converting your iPhone into a true video camera. Instead of relying on the built-in mic, the adapter, which is powered by two AAA batteries (included) allows you to use two mini omni-directional microphones that provide stereo sound.

The closer you are to the camera the better quality and strength of your audio. The inherent problem with standing too close to the camera is that you begin to get a fish-eye effect with the micro lens on the iPhone. That’s the problem with using micro-optics.

Using these two microphone buds provides improved audio over the built-in microphone. Yet there’s an even better audio solution to get crystal clear audio using this really cool device.

The adapter has three microphone inputs. It only allows you to use two out of the three during video shooting. The adapter allows you to ergonomically hold the phone in a comfortable way and stabilizes the shoot by adding weight to the camera and adapter.
The adapter can be used in horizontal mode or vertical mode.

The best way to use this audio adapter is with a wireless microphone. Plug in the receiver into the microphone output and you will get ideal, crystal-clear audio.

Attach the adapter to a tripod and you’ve got a stable video platform where you can attach two wireless microphones for sit-down interviews.

One drawback to using this audio adapter is that every time I use it, I have to remove my iPhone case. Since I use a holster for my iPhone, it’s like removing a vise grip and very challenging.

Dismantling the device takes seconds.
Two other drawbacks:

You cannot play the video back and listen to the audio while the iPhone is in the adapter cradle. No big deal. Just slide the phone out of the cradle and press play to watch your masterpiece.

Prior to buying this audio device there were reviews online about audio playback issues using the iPhone 4S. In fact, the manufacturer specifically intended this device to be used for the iPhone 4. There is nothing on the manufacturer’s website about it being compatible with the iPhone 4S.

According to a few reviews, the playback issue on the 4S involved significant audio problems that made the video unusable. However, I watched a YouTube video review about this adapter and the reviewer used a 4S without a problem.

During my preliminary tests with my 4S I did not encounter any audio problems. It wasn’t until my 7th video test that I did hear a problem with the audio. I deleted it and started over. I heard the problem again on the 10th video test, but have not heard it since.

The manufacturer has a note on their website stating simply “We are aware of the audio problem associated with using our device with the 4S and are working on solving this problem.”

If you are looking for a different and unique way to create clean and crystal clear audio for your iPhone you will appreciate this audio device.

Cost: $119 at B&H Photo

YouTube Screen Shot

This is the coolest comment I have ever received from one of my videos.

You can see the screen shot to the right here.

The video: TESTICULAR TORSION

Views: 11,897

Comments: 86

In this video I discuss a case I handled involving a young boy. The doctors failed to timely diagnose a twisting of his testicle, also known as testicular torsion.

As a result, the doctors missed the window of opportunity to correct the twist. The blood supply had been cut off for too long causing the testicle to die.

In this video comment, this man actually said “…I had only six hours to live, but I made it through by surgery. Now I know what this was thanks to you…”

That is absolutely awesome. Who knew that an educational video, designed to help teach my ideal client and consumers could actually help someone with that particular condition. That is really, really cool.

I have also received comments in some of my videos where the viewer will start by saying “Thank you doctor for providing…”

I don’t play a doctor on TV or pretend to be one. Every one of my videos starts out by telling the viewer that I’m a NY Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Trial attorney.

When a viewer leaves a comment on your YouTube video, make sure you thank them. It’s a common courtesy that generates good will.

This comment left a smile on my face all day.

Sony NEX VG20

I’ve used this camera for four weeks now. I was using my Canon Vixia HF S10 when I realized that I needed shallow depth of field to shoot my videos. My options were limited. The best way to achieve shallow depth of field is with a dSLR, and I already use a Canon 60D for that purpose.

However, I often shoot video for really smart professionals and entrepreneurs and this camera was the perfect fit, or so I thought.

The first thing I noticed about this camera is it is lens-heavy. It has 18 mm-200 mm silver zoom on the front end of it. It has a handle at the top which is awkward to hold. It is not formfitting. If you hold the camera at waist height, the lens will tip forward and appear unbalanced. It is clearly awkward to hold from the top handle.

I have owned a Sony VX 2100 which was a SD Mini DV tape-drive camera and had excellent ergonomics. Holding that camera from the top handle was beautiful. It had a rocker switch for the telephoto lens as well as an on off record button that you operated with your thumb from the top handle.

This camera has no such luxury. In fact, it does not have any rocker switch for the zoom. Ironically, the remote control includes a telephoto and wide angle button switch that is absolutely useless since there is no automatic or remote control zoom function.

AESTHETICS

Aesthetically, the camera looks awesome. Sitting on top by the handle is a funky looking multidirectional microphone that allows you to achieve 5.1 channel sound. I cannot understand why anyone would use the built-in microphone except to pick up ambient sound. I always use a wireless mic and the built-in mic, though cool-looking, fails to achieve the sound quality I need.

The carry-handle has a convenient cold shoe and a microphone input also attached to the top handle. The camera has an adjustable up/down electronic eyepiece viewfinder that I never use.

Holding the camera through the strap attached to the side of the camera, the power button appears comfortably natural by my right thumb. It has clear and simple controls for on-off and record. It also allows you to switch easily from movie mode to photo mode with the press of one tiny button.

When your palm is resting against the right side of the camera as you slip your hand through the camera strap, there are two buttons near your pinky that are somewhat awkward to reach and unusually positioned. One is a record button, and the other is an extended focus button.

The extended focus button allows you to achieve an immediate zoom for the purposes of achieving proper manual focus. You will find this to be a useful function, but it’s in an awkward position.

The record button by my pinky is also awkward to reach. The only time I find it useful is when shooting on a tripod from waist height at a sporting event. While attempting to zoom in and out manually to watch the action, I found the record button on the right side of the camera easy to use. However, if you’re holding the camera in your right hand in a shooters position, the record button using your pinky is a stretch to reach and not comfortable to depress with your pinky.

VIDEO QUALITY SETTINGS

The camera takes SDHC memory cards and shoots to AVC HD. Wanting to shoot at the highest quality setting, I purchased a class 10 SDHC memory card, popped it into the camera and began adjusting my camera settings. The camera creates video at 60p, 60i and 24p. It also shoots in high-definition and standard definition. You have the option of shooting at different speeds of 24 MPS, 17 MPS and two lower settings.

For some inexplicable reason, the camera does not allow you to shoot at the highest quality 24 MPS setting while using a class 10 SDHC memory card. That defeats the purpose of using the class 10 SDHC card and achieving the highest quality, hi-definition video. Instead, you have to drop down to the  next lower setting of 17 MPS in order to allow it to write to AVC HD using a class 10 card.

The 3” viewfinder is touch screen and quite simple and fun to use. Anyone who has an iPhone will appreciate this viewfinder. The manual controls allow you to set iris, exposure, gain, white balance, auto exposure and more. With so many manual features, you would expect a single button to reset everything to automatic, yet there is no such button. Instead, you must drill down into the manual functions while in live shoot mode and figure out intuitively which one will allow you to revert to auto mode. It’s a challenge.

The controls on the actual camera are again simple and easy-to-use. You have your iris button, aperture button and a button to switch from play mode to live mode.

The really cool thing that I like most about this camera is its ability to obtain a shallow depth of field where the subject is in focus and the background is out of focus. I do shoot typically static head shots with someone sitting or standing in one position.

STAY IN FOCUS PLEASE…

The camera does not have a facial focus feature while in movie mode. It does have it for photo mode. When your subject moves and you are in manual focus mode, you have to refocus manually. It does have an electronic focus feature that is totally silent. That is a really cool function, but it has one major drawback. It is slow. It is also inaccurate.

When shooting video of myself, on my own, despite being the primary subject in the viewfinder, the camera will often track my background as being in focus and I will wind up out of focus. That is such a waste of my time and my shot. Frustrating too.

When shooting video on my own, this becomes a true challenge. The only workaround I have found is to start out 2 feet in front of the camera and allow it to focus immediately on me. After a few seconds when it focuses, I then start walking backwards and stop every few feet so the camera can refocus each time. This is an extremely frustrating feature that I’m still trying to work around. If someone is operating the camera then it is easy to refocus by pushing the focus button until the subject is in focus.

However, since I often shoot my own videos, this is extremely frustrating task that should be a no-brainer for a camera that cost in excess of $2,100. Every camera I have used before this has had an excellent autofocus system. Not this one.

Once in focus though, the image looks great. That brings me to the telephoto lens. As I mentioned at the beginning, there is no rocker switch to advance telephoto or wide-angle. It is totally manual.

ZOOM IN. CLOSER.

While shooting video of my daughter’s volleyball game, it was extremely difficult to achieve smooth zooms by manually twisting the zoom lens. It is not an easy turn. In fact, it is a slow-turning zoom that comes with significant effort, especially when shooting fast-moving play and you want to get all the action.

If you have time to set up a manual shot and you have a close-up static subject with a nice shallow depth of field, then this will be the camera for you. However, when you want the video camera to do double duty at your kids sport event and also use it to shoot static subjects, you’re going to have a real challenge achieving competency for both uses with this camera.

EDITING YOUR VIDEO FOOTAGE

My next challenge with this camera involves taking the footage off of my memory card and uploading it to my Mac computer. I use Final Cut Express for my editing and FCE does not recognize this particular AVC HD format. It gave me many error messages when trying to log and transfer video files.

In fact, I was so frustrated with a lack of intuitive ability to log and transfer the raw footage into my Final Cut Express software, that I was tempted to return the camera to B&H Photo. My Canon Vixia HF S10 video camera never gave me any problem and the raw footage was always immediately recognized, transcoded and error-free.

I wasted hours trying to figure out a workaround to get the raw footage into my editing software without error messages. The bottom line was that the AVC HD files have to be re-wrapped into a different format in order to allow Final Cut Express to recognize them as Quicktime .mov files. There are free workarounds that I tried with varying levels of success. I then learned of a piece of software called ClipWrap that cost $50. It rewraps .mts files (native AVC HD video files) to .mov files and does so really fast.

I only wish Sony had let me know before I bought this camera that the video footage would not be natively applied or accepted into Final Cut Express.

All in all, the camera is small, it is lens-heavy, shoots beautiful outdoors footage, has difficulty shooting in low light and appears grainy, as most video cameras do. The zoom lens is awesome as long as you’re not using it to achieve smooth zooms or wide-angle shots that are moving quickly. If you’re willing to use a wraparound to convert your video files into a format that Final Cut will accept and want a camera that looks different from all the rest, then this camera may be right for you.

Before finally deciding to buy this camera, I strongly considered the Pro Canon HF 105, the new professional camera in Canon’s line-up. However, I did not need all of those features and it did not have an interchangeable lens system to achieve shallow depth of field.

Another camera I strongly considered was the JVC 105, which natively plays directly to Final Cut Pro. However, that also did not have an interchangeable lens system and found that it was too advanced for my needs.

As of right now, for my static video shoots, this camera should be ideal for the time being.

Observations:

This is the upgraded model from the NEX VG10. Some of their ergonomic choices are not easily understood including the placement of the pinky buttons; the fact that there is no rocker switch and the incompatibility to make these video files recognized by Apple software.

Also unusual is that they have eliminated the 30 fps function and instead only allow you to shoot at 60i, 60p and 24p. Although I’m sure there is some engineering principle to explain why the camera will not record at 24 MPS using a class 10 memory card, the promo materials should clearly state this. It doesn’t.

The camera itself without the lens retails for $1,599. With the lens, before tax, it comes to $2,100.

Depending upon how this camera does over the next few months, I may consider switching to the top of the line Canon Vixia Prosumer camera which has gotten stunning reviews but alas has no interchangeable lens system.

I do love using my Canon 60D to shoot video. However, it does have file limitations that cause the camera to shut off after 12 minutes of continuous usage. In addition, with extended usage the camera overheats, gives you a heat warning, then shuts down. You literally have to let it cool off for about 10 minutes in order to use the camera again.

CONCLUSION

If you want a really cool looking camera for static video shots with great interchangeable lens system and shallow depth of field, then this camera’s right to you. Otherwise, you may be better off moving to a level above including the Canon professional line, the JVC professional line compatible with Final Cut, or moving one level below to the top-of-the-line Canon prosumer level.

Till next time, see you on video!

About Gerry

Gerry is a practicing NY Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Trial Lawyer. He is also the Founder of the Lawyers Video Studio, a video marketing company he created to help lawyers, professionals and entrepreneurs create video to market themselves online using video that teaches and educates. He is the Chairman of the Lawyers Video Marketing Alliance and has lectured across the country about video marketing. He has written hundreds of articles on video marketing and is considered one of America’s leading authorities on video marketing for attorneys in the country.

http://lawyersvideostudio.com

Lawyers Video Studio, LLC
25 Great Neck Rd., Ste. 4
Great Neck, NY 11021
1-800-320-4314

Consuming Information From My Webmaster Guru Tom Foster at Foster Web Marketing

Think about it. We as attorneys crave information. Information about our legal niche, about new caselaw, about scuttlebutt in our industry and about things we are genuinely interested in. Do your ideal clients do the same?

Many of them crave information only when they have a problem or find a topic of interest.

Think about it.

• You go online to check your email.
• You go onto Facebook to see what your friends have posted and whether there are any personal messages for you.
• You go onto Twitter and LinkedIn for the same reasons.
• You go onto your YouTube channel to see if there are any comments.

This type of online activity is just to check for updates. You have not yet gone searching for any information yet. You don’t have a problem yet.

Maybe you check the news websites. You want to be informed. Maybe you check the weather. You still don’t have a problem.

Maybe you want to be entertained. You watch a movie online or watch the latest viral cat or dog video on YouTube. You still don’t have a problem.

Someone who has a problem wants information. They crave information. They want to become informed. They want to learn how to solve their problem. They want to know what to do. They want to see and hear about other people who have had the same problem and the solutions they used. That’s known as social proof.

Someone who has a problem is willing to consume information in written form and video form. They want to know more information. That’s your ideal consumer. The one who craves information.

If you can begin providing that consumer information that will help them become more informed, you now will have someone who will consume the content you provide. The more relevant content you provide, the greater (personal) bond you will form with your consumer. If you provide just enough information without giving away the store, your consumer will crave even more.

Who do you think your consumer is going to call for more information? You, who has gladly and cheerfully provided relevant information in the form of articles, blog posts, videos, books and more or your competitors who offer static websites with very little information and interaction?

Understanding why consumers crave information is the key to unlocking what they need  to learn. Want to learn more?

Come join me in a FREE online seminar that helps you understand why video is so powerful and how it can help you market your law firm online today.

Click here to register for FREE.

My computer had only 41 GB of hard drive storage left. I was trying to find out where I was losing so much hard drive space. The answer for me was obvious. Editing video takes up an enormous amount of resources on my hard drive. That is why I have multiple external hard drives.

However, when I upload videos from my memory card to the computer, they typically will go on to the computer hard drive. Once I began editing, that always gets saved to my external hard drive.

If you are editing your own videos, chances are good that your editing software will create backup files every time you make a change to your video. Those backup files will be large and will gobble up enormous amounts of hard drive space. When you process and render each video, you are doing so at the highest quality which generates an enormous file. Some of my rough videos are in excess of 1 GB. This is absolutely enormous and clearly not useful for the purposes of uploading online.

That is why you must use software that compress large video files without losing quality.

This morning I identified almost 60 video files that were sitting as backup files on my computer hard drive. Almost every one of them was 1 to 6 GB in size. That was the culprit.

I immediately checked to make sure I had final versions on my external hard drive. Then I highlighted all those extra video files and dragged it to the trash bin. That took all of 7 seconds. When I went to empty the trash bin, I gained in excess of 100 GB of hard drive space.

I felt like a tremendous burden had just been removed from my backpack.

Check your backup files to see which ones you no longer need. Caveat: make sure you have finalized your file first before you remove your backup files, otherwise your editing software may be searching for that file while you are editing and processing. If you discard it midway, you may have a problem.

If you choose to edit your own videos, you’ll need multiple external hard drives. Make sure the hard drive you purchase is reliable and has in excess of 1TB storage.

What is Ischemia?

It was a great video. It asked an important question. I provided a great answer.

I was so excited since I had just created this video with my new video camera. I was very impressed with the video quality. I shot a series of videos in 45 minutes. I popped out the memory card and headed over to my office where I had a full day of phone conferences scheduled back to back.

In between my phone conferences, I edited my video and added graphics. I added intro music and exit music. It took all afternoon since I was only able to dedicate a few minutes between each call to doing this. Before finally processing the video, I always play back the video make sure everything is correct. Then I got on my next conference call.

Then I went to render the video into a QuickTime movie file. I was distracted by another phone call while doing this. I went ahead and clicked the ‘okay’ button to begin the process and then devoted my full attention to my caller.

Once the video was rendered into a QuickTime file, I always check to see how big it is and then must compress it. Once that is done I always play it back to insure that I have good quality video and audio. The problem is that I was multitasking. I did go ahead and play back the video but was concentrating on the next call without realizing that I had a significant problem.

Later on in the evening I went ahead and uploaded my video. It wasn’t until later that night when I went onto YouTube to check it did I realize my serious mistake.

I thought I lost my hearing. Then I thought it was a problem with the speakers on my computer. I put in headphones and thought my headphones were not working. Then I rebooted my computer to see if that was the problem. Then I played another video on YouTube that worked perfectly.

I had never done this before. I created a video and uploaded online without sound.

Unless you read lips, it would be extremely difficult to get any benefit from this particular video. I immediately deleted it from my account and vowed to find out what I did wrong the next morning.

Playing the video back to my computer I realized I processed the video without any sound at all. What a ridiculous mistake that was. I saw immediately what I did wrong. I forgot to click the ‘sound’ button. I fixed the problem, processed the video and have now uploaded it to YouTube.

You can watch the video below.

Have you ever done something similar? If so, let me know in the comments below.

Lawyers Video Studio

This is a continuing series addressing video marketing myths…

3. Video is not cost-effective for a small firm

It was clear to me that this expert did not understand the production costs involved with creating a video marketing campaign. He did not understand the value associated with creating 50 or 100 videos. He did not recognize that once videos are online, there is virtually zero cost associated with having them online and using it to drive traffic to your website.

It sounded as if this marketing guru was using TV-based production to determine the cost benefit analysis. That type of corporate mentality inhibits big law firms from using effective and proven techniques to generate traffic.

As a solo practitioner, video marketing has created the best return on investment for me. I did allude to some of the cases I have obtained because of my video marketing. In response, he justified the fact that my website was well optimized, that my videos were well optimized and that my particular niche is better suited for business to consumer video than his corporate attorneys.

Once again, I felt like it was talking to a brick wall. Despite pointing out that video marketing works for every niche category in law, this marketer was resolute and firmly believed that the return on investment for a small firm would not justify the expense.

After a while, I stopped participating in the discussion. I recognized instead that this was an opportunity for me. The opportunity is that they are many legal marketers with a corporate mentality who actually believe this stuff. That means that there is plenty of room within the video marketing community to help other lawyers who truly “get it” and use it to their advantage.

4. Viewers to our website do not watch these videos

This marketing guy actually cited statistics showing that people who came to his lawyers’ website were not watching the videos. I am proud that he was tracking his statistics. However, in my opinion he does not understand the purpose of creating video to market a law firm online.

The purpose of creating educational video is not to get viewers to watch the video on your website. Instead, the purpose is to get people to see you, hear you and begin to trust you before they ever pick up the phone to come into your office. By educating them through video, on video sharing sites, your goal is to then drive them into your website so they can become even more familiar with you.

The bottom line goal of creating these educational messages is to build trust and to convert an online viewer into a caller. Using video messages happens to be the best way to do that.

This discussion thread clearly suggested that the majority of people going online already know your name and your law firm and are going onto your website to learn more about you.

I didn’t want to tell him that he was wrong. Nor did I want to remind him that online viewers who are searching for an attorney online simply do not care about you or your law firm. The only thing they care about is themselves and their legal problem.

If you can get rid of the egocentric mindset that is so prevalent among lawyers and legal marketers and instead focus on how you can help potential client, you are much more likely to attract viewers and visitors.

Join me in my next blog post as I conclude this series of video marketing myths.

1.  

   

   Lawyers Video Studio

   Video marketing for lawyers does not work in the business-to-business category

    

2. Our clients don’t go onto YouTube to search for a lawyer

3. Video is not cost-effective for small firm

4. Viewers coming to our attorney websites simply do not watch the videos

5. Video has marginal benefit and does not justify the cost

The content for this series of articles came directly from a conversation I was having online among legal marketers. A question was posed about whether video is useful to market an attorney online. The thread was mostly positive. However, one legal marketer believed each of the following myths listed above. Despite my best efforts to educate him, he still believed that he was right and I was wrong.

It got to the point where I felt like I was arguing with a religious fundamentalist. Although this legal marketer had some good points, his observations made absolutely no sense from a legal marketing standpoint.

Being a marketing student of Dan Kennedy, there is an inside joke among members of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle that goes like this. “This tip, tactic or strategy couldn’t work for me because I’m in the XYZ business.”

The old “My business is different” excuse simply has no place in marketing. In fact, you can adapt pretty much any marketing tip to apply to your business since we are all doing the same exact thing; we are marketing our business or service. It doesn’t matter what your business or service is.

Let’s get right into and demystify the myths above.
MYTH #1

Video marketing for lawyers does not work in B2B

For someone to say that video marketing does not work in a particular category because it is a business-to-business category is 100% incorrect. Video marketing works in every single category, in every single niche.

That comment suggests the same type of closed-minded thinking mentioned above. It also tells me that this marketing guy did not know how to use video effectively for the B2B market.

When somebody claims a particular tactic or strategy does not work, they are often not using it properly. In the discussion, I explained there could be many reasons why a video may not work.

Some common examples include:

• A poorly worded title
• The video may not have been search engine optimized
• The attorney who was in the video may be boring
• The video quality may be poor
• There may be distractions within the video that turn off a viewer
• The content, though important may not be compelling
• There may be no call to action

All of these things can impact whether a video is found, watched and ultimately converts a viewer into a caller.

If you do not understand these basic concepts you will continue to scratch your head and claim that video marketing simply does not work.

MYTH #2

Our clients do not go on to YouTube to search for an attorney

To be fair, this person stated correctly that the best type of clients are ones who come from direct referrals. I agree with that 100%. It appears that most of his attorney clients are corporate and they get many of their clients from general counsel and other attorneys. His point was that those people are not going on to YouTube to search for a lawyer.

In some instances, that statement may be correct. However, YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world directly behind Google. People of all walks of life use YouTube to search for information. They do so because they don’t want to read text. They want to see, hear and listen.

This expert assumed that YouTube would only be used by consumers and a younger demographic and there was no way YouTube could be useful for his attorneys. That type of thinking is closed minded and simply untrue. GC’s looking to investigate a new attorney will definitely explore the law firm’s website. They will do a general search and a specific search.

Videos show up in the general search results and if an attorney targets the content that GC’s are looking for, they stand a better chance of being found than their competitors who have static websites.

Join me for my next blog post, where I debunk even more video marketing myths.

Sea Shells- St. Maarten

That’s exactly what a really smart and savvy marketing guy said to me at a mastermind seminar. I almost took offense, but realized that he had no idea what I do and how I do it.

During our mastermind session, each participant was in the hot seat and they needed to explain to the group what they did and what challenges they were facing in their business. In the span of two minutes, I explained that I am the only trial attorney in the country who helps other lawyers create online video to market their practices.

This business owner did not understand what was different about what I do compared to any other video production company. He made the statement “Guys like you are dime a dozen.” It was a tough love comment given constructively.

My reply:

The first thing I pointed out was that we are not a video production company. We are a video marketing company.

He believed that any video company can hire a video crew, shoot video, edit it and then post it online. That statement is true. However, there are no other trial lawyers who help fellow lawyers create a video marketing program to market their businesses.

He still didn’t understand the benefit of having a trial lawyer as your video producer, video coach and video guide.

I asked him to envision himself as a lawyer who was searching for clients online. I asked him whether a film student or a typical run-of-the-mill video production company would know my ideal client was and how to create compelling content for that viewer. I asked him whether the film student would know what the ethical rules are about what an attorney could and could not say. I also asked him whether a video company that simply sends out a camera crew would be able to help the attorney create content that was compelling, got viewers interested, and made them recognize that this lawyer has information that they want and need.

I explained that most video companies simply ask a set of standardized questions and give very little guidance to the attorney regarding what to talk about. I explained that in my program, our initial mastermind session is the most critical component of the entire video marketing strategy. During that one hour phone call I reveal tips, strategies and tactics that are proven to work and are immediately able to be used with all other forms of online and off-line marketing.

You can hire lots of video production guys. Guys who really know their video equipment. Guys who understand production and lighting. Guys who know audio and editing. That’s the dime-a-dozen catchphrase that you can lump those ‘guys’ into. However, there’s no other attorney colleague who has personally used these tactics and strategies to grow his business dramatically who actually helps other lawyers do the same. There’s a huge difference.

Want to learn more about how video can help you dominate your online marketplace? If so, come join me on this Free webinar I created to teach you why you need to be on video today.

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