Practical Podcasting for Professionals

• Publication year: 2018
• Author: By David Pisarra

Practical Podcasting For Professionals

By David Pisarra

David Pisarra is a Podcaster and Global Speaker. His Santa Monica based family law practice is focused on men and fathers. He hosts the Men's Family Law podcast which is available for download on iTunes in both audio and video formats. He has additional videos on YouTube.com and he can be reached at www.MensFamilyLaw.com or www. DavidPisarra.com

In my experience, most lawyers hate marketing themselves; they don't know how to do it, and have a hard time finding clients—which is why the "rainmakers" get so much freedom in a firm. For the solo or small-firm lawyers who spend time and money at chamber of commerce mixers, you've done what I call the "Grip and Grin dance"—you introduce yourself to someone, shake hands, smile, and make some small talk about the canapés before asking the question... "So, what do you do?" Most of us politely nod our heads and make a note of our new friend, who is a Reiki Master, or one of the fourteen types of yoga instructors. We will chat for about five minutes, exchange business cards, and then disengage and move on to the next target.

This process of meet, introduce and move on, has deep roots in society and has been a slow but effective way to build a clientele for generations. Today, though, we have a new tool in the entrepreneur's toolbox—the podcast.

When you want to find more clients and spend less time converting them, the answer is a podcast. I reach men who are facing divorce or child custody cases and educate them, empower them, and occasionally even entertain them with my Men's Family Law podcast. As a professional, I use the podcast as a means to answer my future client's questions so that they are ready to hire me, before they even speak to me. For my listeners who have spent a few hours with me in their head, they already know, like, and trust me. They have bought my books, watched my videos, and have a gut feeling about who I am.

If you are a professional who needs to do client development—and what lawyers doesn't need to do that?—podcasting is one of the most productive, time saving, and cost-effective marketing tools you can create. I'm a big advocate (or proponent) of the power of podcasting because not only does it allow you to reach your target audience, it also allows you to network.

In essence, a podcast is 'On-Demand Radio' for the listener. A host records a show, and the uploads it to either their own website, or a media-hosting company. Once a show is...