Would it change how you approached a bar association mixer or industry happy hour if you knew 70 to 93 percent of your communication with the other guests would be nonverbal? Body language, the visual language of your body, is your most important communication tool. It creates brand effectiveness.
Your brand is a superpower that can last long enough to become part of your career legacy yet be immediately important enough to bring profitable case referrals to your law practice. Body language is an often-overlooked aspect of personal branding that can unintentionally affect even the best efforts to market a lawyer or law practice.
Curating a personal brand with intention and strategy takes years of committed effort. Yet, with all the individual and financial demands that branding a lawyer and a law practice requires, many attorneys don't realize that they can hack the process and shave off some of the time and effort they would otherwise spend by paying more attention to their body language and how it influences personal interactions. Attorneys who understand the pivotal role of body language in their personal branding success use it to augment the ambition, skill and charisma that it takes to become a top attorney in their practice area.
From head-to-toe, here are a few ideas on adjusting your mindset and body language when you are networking to point them toward personal branding success for your law practice.
From the top, let’s start with a definition of personal brand. This marketing term can feel vague, confusing and generally hard to pin down. Jeff Bezos has a real-life, concise explanation of personal branding: "Your personal brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room." A personal brand can be summarized as what you are known for; it is a blend of your reputation, results, visibility and personality.
For some attorneys, a personal brand has followed them silently throughout their career–– preceding their entrance at events and facilitating professional collaborations of which others can only dream.
This was especially true when legal communities were smaller. It was easier for attorneys to be big fish in the past, especially in their respective markets, because the pond was smaller. From 1990 to 2017, we saw a 72 percent increase in attorneys in the United States and the number of lawyers practicing in our country continues to grow, hitting 1.33 million in 2023.
Years ago, personal branding was less multidimensional than it is now. Today, we are connected to others professionally in different ways than we were in the 20th century. Digital options that help marketing efforts include automating consistency in social media posting and using artificial intelligence (AI) for tone checks.
Yet, even with the challenges of developing a personal brand, it remains a foundational aspect of marketing and business development in both consumer and business practice areas. Bringing in new business is the central component of rainmaking, and efforts in this regard are complemented by a marketing and business development strategy that includes control of personal branding.
Executive business counselor and former managing partner of the Denver office of Polsinelli, Gene Commander, shared, “Rainmaking is a critical part of the job, but it isn’t easy––or more attorneys would be good at it. The successful ones show their commitment to connecting with clients and colleagues by forming good habits that add value to their personal brand.” As part of a bigger business development strategy, a personal brand can help you clearly define who you are, what you do for others and why you are important to other people and their people’s networks.
When sharing your personal brand with the world, presentation, preparation and confidence play critical roles in success. Many attorneys strive to excel in marketing their practice, going above and beyond by attending events where they shake hands and kiss babies. They do everything possible in business development to follow the known path to success and believe they are gaining the visibility and commitment to produce better numbers for their practice. However, when their networking efforts fall short, they are left wondering why they didn’t have better results. The potential for growth and improvement in personal branding and business development is vast, but the key to unlocking it may lie in mindset.
Think about the last time you prepared for a networking event. Even though you were physically ready for networking—after all, you took time from your day, showed up on time and had business cards ready to pass out––were you mentally prepared to mingle and be social? Your mindset or mental attitude can tremendously influence how well you do in social situations like networking events. Being aware of the role your mindset plays in these situations can give you more control over your actions and interactions. Foundational components of a solid personal brand are found in how we think––including how resilient we are, how motivated we stay and how much meaning we see in our legal careers.
A positive mindset helps build momentum for your law practice and can influence how you respond to networking situations and how people react to you. For example, unless you are a great actor, it shows on your face and in your body language when you are saying to yourself repeatedly how much you hate being at networking events or how much you would rather be doing something else, anything else, at that moment. Reframing participation in networking events to include a positive mindset is a powerful tool to empower your brand and change your presence.
What’s great is that you have the control to update your marketing mindset, to be aware of negative self-talk before, during, and after events, and to address and stop the behavior. Approaching networking events with a positive mindset grounded in the obvious is smart. You might remind yourself that being at this event is one part of a long process to develop relationships. You might pat yourself on the back for taking the time to participate in the event. The pressure and obligation of attending networking events exists for everyone, but you can counterbalance this by reframing how you view participation. A successful outcome of attending an event can be meeting one new person or developing a better connection with one existing contact.
What you think shapes who you become. This doesn't stop being true after you become a practicing lawyer. Maintaining a positive mindset about networking will not only change your body language at events, but also significantly enhance your networking success and the memorability of your personal brand.
Body language includes the way we smile and how our facial features move, as well as gestures; arms, legs and feet movements; and proxemics (the space between and around us).
Big and small facial expressions are another vital component of networking body language. Your eyes, for example, should be intentionally softened before the networking event from the stern gaze needed at your deposition earlier that day. An easy eye exercise of soft, unfocused scanning of the environment around you helps to open eyes that otherwise might make you look stressed, narrowed or angry.
Eye contact is very important in interpersonal settings because it regulates conversation. Eye movement conveys attitude, intention and interest in seconds. Human behavior experts agree that one of the ways we connect with others is through how we interpret faces, including eye contact and eye gaze. Fascinating research on infants has concluded that "[t]he perception of faces, and the understanding that faces can reflect internal states of social partners, are vital skills for the typical development of humans. Of particular importance is processing information about eyes and eye-gaze direction."
Additionally, be aware of any tightness in your lips and address it by relaxing your mouth intentionally with a slight smile, which helps to convey warmth. These facial awareness techniques will initially feel odd but can be calming and help boost mood when incorporated into your event preparation playbook.
It follows that in a bustling room filled with adults eager to network, staying focused on the person or conversation in front of you is crucial. This is especially important when you see other people you know walk by or wave in your direction. By maintaining this focus, you can actively listen and use your eye gaze to convey your authentic intention to connect. This supports your personal brand expressed through mutual likeability, trustworthiness, interest and attention.
Personal branding through your body language goes beyond your face. It includes gestures and posture, what your arms and legs are doing and how open and positive your overall body language feels. Taking ownership of your body language before you open the door to a networking event allows you to control proactively the personal brand you want people to see. Without saying a word, your body language shares how interested you are in the person or people in front of you. Your open body language expresses your intention to connect, especially when facing the person with whom you speak.
Body language closed postures are characterized by pulling your body inward with common slouching and hunching. Showing up to a networking event with a closed posture sends a defensive and unfriendly message to others. Indeed, bad posture is as bad for your body long term as it is for your personal branding, with current research showing that "leaning forward just 30 degrees puts 3 to 4 times more strain on your spine."
Opening your body posture can be done with intentional tweaks and is easier than you think. For example, when you are at a social event, stand up or sit up straight by keeping your body more open. Your shoulders can be naturally moved back and pushed away from your ears, showing a lack of tension. When your body language is more open, your arms and legs won't be crossed tightly suggesting negative or fearful responses. You will keep your hands off your hips during face-to-face conversations, as this indicates an intention to control.
Nonverbal communication is also revealed by proxemics, or the amount of physical space between people. The amount of personal space someone wants or needs varies widely across the board as our culture has grown more casual. In the networking world, casualness manifests itself in the growing number of hugs replacing handshakes. When it comes to attorney networking, the physical distance between yourself and others should be monitored to reflect the context of the situation, your relationships with the people you are talking to and any cultural considerations that need to be navigated. There is no one-size-fits-all answer regarding the physical space you or others require in networking, so handle it on a case-by-case basis doing whatever feels comfortable to you.
When you take the time to consider your brand and how it will affect your law practice now and, in the future, also take the time to review your mindset and body language. Because most human communication is nonverbal, body language offers cues about you and your intentions to your professional contacts. Likewise, a positive mindset helps you exude confidence and engage better in group activities while remembering why social interactions matter for your career's long-term success.
Preparation is the key to a lawyer's success, even at networking events. When you meticulously research and calendar events as part of your marketing strategy, invest time and resources and even dress up for the occasion, it's a testament to your commitment to enhancing your personal brand. Taking the next step to focus on your mindset and body language is equally crucial.
