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Message: Hi, I thought you might be interested in this article I found. Law Firm Marketing for Leaders: Can You Handle It? It really is lonely at the top. It doesn’t matter if you are the knot tying champ in your Boy Scout Troop or the CEO of a FORTUNE 500 company. Being the best or being in charge means that people will be coming after you. Rest assured, it will happen. One of the inevitable byproducts of success is the big target that will be firmly affixed to your back. Why? Human nature. Each of us is born with the capacity to feel emotion and, in early childhood, we develop and refine our use of these emotions and our response to the emotions displayed by others. Insecurity, jealousy, anger and resentment are often byproducts of our view of the success of a rival. Some people see your success and they feel all of these things. A few of the more narcissistic folks will actually act on these feelings. That’s when the fun really begins. The more successful you are, the more intense the emotional reaction to your success will be. Expect it. And if you think it won’t happen to you because you are a “Nice Person”, just do an Internet Search for Christopher Hitchens thoughts on Mother Teresa. If someone can hate a Saint that much, trust me, someone out there will take aim at you once you have achieved a modicum of success. So what are you supposed to do with these HATERS? When my clients come crying to me about people who are: 1). Complaining about them to the world 2). Sending them hate mail or posting hateful things about them on the Internet 3). Spreading false rumors about them (or even bringing some old but true indiscretions to light) I encourage them to react as follows: Embrace the Fame Let’s face it, if someone is attacking you, no matter how awful the attack is, your message is reaching its audience. Losers do not get targeted by anyone. Somebody feels threatened by you. Somewhere you have struck a nerve. Go with it. Shout louder. Appear in more places. Write more articles. Use even stronger language. Remember that your goal in marketing is not only to attract potential clients but also to REPEL non-clients. You only want to work with people who have a problem you can solve and are willing to pay top dollar for you to solve it. Publicly Identify the Emotional Dysfunction Never attack your adversary directly as this would only serve to elevate him to your status. Instead, attack his emotional dysfunction. Talk about the evil of the emotion and not about the specific individual who personifies that evil. Hillary Clinton did this masterfully during impeachment proceedings against her husband. During a nationally televised interview that was watched by more than half of the population of the United States, she painted the vitriol toward President Clinton as a vast right wing conspiracy. With one statement she polarized the voting public. You were either part of that conspiracy or you were a victim of it. Use the Attacks to Embolden Your Own Mission Now that you have an enemy, use it (remember the enemy is the ideal not the person) to advance your position. Personal Injury Lawyers use Insurance Companies or Big Tobacco or greedy manufacturing companies looking to make money at the cost of worker safety. Criminal Lawyers use the ruthless state-run system that chews up victims of circumstance and makes them hardened criminals. Labor attorneys use the union as a socialist enterprise that wants to drive a wedge between the workers and their benevolent employer. Find a way to fight the emotion without picking a fight with the individual. The last thing you want to do is create a sympathetic victim. You may be wondering why I selected this forum to share this insight with you. I will admit that this is advanced messaging strategy and an unusual law firm marketing strategy and can easily be misinterpreted by the uninitiated. The reason I share this particular strategy with you today is because I want you to think about your future. I want you to mentally prepare for the success that is coming. As your law practice (your business) evolves, and you become more successful, you will also become a target. My goal is for you to expect it. But that begs a critically important question about your future success: Can you handle it? Link: http://www.rainmakerlawyer.com/site/permalink/law_firm_marketing_for_leaders_can_you_handle_it/