Law And More

Legal Marketing When You're Over-50

There is the great divide: The over-50 and all the younger generations.

It will increasingly impact the effectiveness of marketing, even in the highly traditional legal sector.

That's to be kept in mind with a recession seemingly on the way. During it, more than 10,250 slots can be lost.

Here is a case study of sorts from another branch of professional services: public relations. 

For many holidays, The Dilenschneider Group (DGI) creates a commentary.

It is relentlessly upbeat.

Usually it contains a laundry list of what the readers should be grateful for.

That message is published on the bible of public of public relations Odwyerpr.com. 

The founder and head of DGI is Bob Dilenschneider. His background in public relations reaches back to a time when the discipline was separate from marketing. There had been a clear line between the Dilenschneider types and the Don Drapers from "Mad Men."

Now, of course, there isn't. How public relations agencies market themselves reflects on how they might be positioning and packaging their clients' marketing - and even hands-on sales.

Those of us over-50 have to become aware of blind spots in our marketing. Otherwise, those can throw shade on our branding. Obviously how we put ourselves out there is how we are perceived.

There are several negatives associated with the holiday tactic.

One goes all the way back to Harvard marketing professor Ted Levitt. In his signature book "The Marketing Imagination," he admitted that America is ambivalent about marketing. He phrases that as "Marketing and Its Discontents." Yes, the blockbuster American economy had been built on marketing. Simultaneously, there is a deep resentment of commercial messaging. Johnny Carson captured that in his staging of bored pitches for sponsors' products.

It's not only Christmas but also all the holidays that we push back on commercialization. When Dilenschneider zeros in on holiday greetings, that can become counterproductive to the marketing mix.

Another beef is the predictability. DGI doesn't miss a holiday. And the posting is always on Odwyerpr.com. In this era of fast time, tradition can be off-putting. 

That opens the template of the holiday greeting to ridicule.

Easter is coming. The smart-aleck in me wonders: Will DGI instruct us on Holy Thursday via Odwyerpr.com to be grateful for the invention of all those marshmallow chicks?

How could I have managed to live my life without that source of extreme pleasure?

Should I reach beyond the narrow confines of my self-absorbed self and distribute the chicks, along with peanut butter stuffed bunnies, to the less fortunate?

The third issue is larger: Have holidays become so commercially exploited that we have ditched the whole concept? The exception might be Halloween. Even my four-legged son enjoys dressing up for all the parties we are invited to. More and more of us ignore President's Day Mattress sales and specials on SUVs at the car dealership. 

A takeaway about marketing for us over-50 is the need to continually assess if it's hurting our branding and revenues or a liability? A sign of our current times, LinkedIn encourages us to continue to modify our all-important profiles. 

Part of my new marketing strategy is to reposition our enterprises as West Coast firms. At the end of the summer I will relocate them to the border of California. Then, one day at a time, I will measure what marketing tactics are panning out and which to ditch. A useful read on that is Henry Cloud's "Necessary Endings."

Reflection: Are legal marketers running their strategies and tactics by associates? That perspective is a terrible thing to waste.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

College Juniors - Low-Status Alternative to Law School

I'm attending law school.

In a number of circles, that carries status. 

I'm a long-haul driver.

That is without status.

But, unlike many career paths in the legal sector, there is no glut of manpower. In fact, as Fortune reports, there is a shortage of truck drivers. That has become a business issue because it is increasing the cost of shipped consumer goods. 

To train to be certified won't result in six-figure debt, as with law school. Trade schools in Eastern Ohio run about $7,000 and loans are available. 

J.B. Hunt Transport Services pays drivers with three-months experience about $65,000 a year, with a $2,500 sign-on bonus.

Drivers who buy their own truck and pay their own expenses can gross $250,000 annually.

Sure, technology can eventually make drivers obsolete, just as in law. Once the programming is perfected to get a rig navigating the on and off ramps of highways, the driverless truck could become a reality. But meanwhile, drivers are making a good living and, if they are wise in spending, not piling up debt. In addition, they are getting hands-on experience with logistics, which is increasingly marketable worldwide.

Also this line of work is trying to make itself more open to female drivers. Most companies restrict the job descripton to driving. If the rig breaks down, the driver is not to fiddle with the mechanics. Instead, the dispatcher is contacted and specialized help will be parachuted into the scene. Therefore, physical and mechanical skills are not required.

How I became so knowledgeable about this career option was because a growing number of professionals in my generation had become unemployed and underemployed. Changes in their industries, cost-cutting at their companies, and age bias had knocked them out of the box. 

They could have returned to academia to pick up another degree or certification. That would have allowed them to retain their professional identity. However, having being burned in the actual job market, they had become pragmatic. They got it that taking on five-figure student loan debt at their age was a risky investment. 

Trade schools got them on the road in about eight weeks. The loan could be paid off the first year. A perk in their new line of work was being able to bring their dog. After a year's experience they had the clout to choose their route. 

In 2016, when my own two businesses were slow, I looked into this option. I ruled it out because my skeletal system wasn't up to the requirement of being stationary for such a long period of time. 

During the 1970s, I had kicked the status habit. My Ph.D. studies in the humanities had become unmarketable. The demand had collapsed for university professors in that category. Employers outside academia perceived all that higher education as a liability. 

In 2003, when my industry tanked, I had no trouble working as a security guard in inner city retail. 

Reflection: The next global economic downturn might kill off the notion of professional identity. In its place could be simply be the ability to get, hold, and move on to better work. 

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

 

Regulatory Hell - How New York Pet Parents (creatively) Cope on Subway

On that massive underground maze - the New York City subway - there is a regulation. It is that dogs brought on the trains must be contained in a carrier. 

Some speculate that particular regulation was intended to discourage riders from bringing along large dogs. Whatever.

Well, dog parents have gotten creative and Instagram has taken notice.

Dogs, of all breeds and sizes, are coming aboard in containers ranging from shopping totes to suitcases.

You can track that imaginative saga on Instagram account @BagDogs. Here is the coverage by global publisher Daily Mail.

Need affordable help strategically planning and putting together content? That ranges from blog posts and e-books to planning/scripting podcasts and creating traditional speeches. Complimentary consultation on how to generate influence and sell without paying high rates, janegenova374@gmail.com. 

San Francisco Fatal Dog-Mauling - Marjorie Knoller, a Lawyer, Denied Parole in Life Setence

Legal careers interrupted.

Marjorie Knoller and her husband Robert Noel, both attorneys, were sentenced to prison in the complex case of a deadly dog mauling in San Francisco. The victim was 33-year-old Diane Whipple. The year was 2001.  Here are more details the LA Times.

Knoller fared the worst.

Originally she was sentenced to 15 years to life for second degree murder. She was found to have done little to prevent or stop the attack. At the time she was on the premises where the attack took place.

Then a court reduced that to involuntary manslaughter and she was given parole. However another court threw that out and she returned to prison. Yesterday, the California commissioners denied her parole. 

The husband Robert Noel, who was not on the premises at the time, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and not exercising the attack dog. His sentence was four years but he did receive parole.

How did the couple wind up with an attack dog? They were providing a form of foster care while the owner was in prison. 

Now, with both landlords and insurance companies so wary of certain breeds, the couple probably wouldn't have been able to keep the attack dog in their apartment.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

YesYesYes - Make Animal Abuse Federal Felony

On planet earth, we primarily overvalue humans and undervalue animals.

That could change. Read here about the legal movement to make animal abuse a federal felony.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

As in Legal Sector, Veterinary Profession Has High Suicide Rate

How many of us animal lovers regret not training to become veterinarians?

That professional path seems to offer both the satisfaction of helping animals and a good living. To lawyers burnt out by extreme detail labor, that might look pretty good.

So wrong.

The Washington Post has a major article on how veterinarians are committing suicide at a rate 2 to 3.5 times the national average. And 1 out of 6 has considered it. So, the wonderful world of veterinary medicine is right up there with the high suicide rate in the legal sector.

Among what's driving veterinarians to suicide are:

• Six-figure student loan debt. Vet school is expensive. Graduates can emerge with $100K to $500K in student loans
• Low salaries. $40k is not unusual for those who work for others after vet school. That is barely enough to keep up with student loan payments. Setting up their own practice is difficult in the era of BigVet. There are fewer stand-along vet practices. The jobs are in corporate.
• Compassion fatigue. It wears on them to witness so much animal suffering. Also, putting animals to sleep can wear them down.
• Push back from the human clients. As in every line of work, there's no pleasing everyone. Those unhappy clients can grouse via social media, causing public shaming.

Even before this article was published, I have been advising iGens and their parents to research the economics of training to become a veterinarian. There is a glut of graduates and, even those lucky enough to land a job, will be stuck for years in low-compensation hell.

Because I cover career issues, folks frequently contact me for insight. I have special expertise in aging. Here is my book, free to download, on how the older professional can keep earning a buck, no matter what Download Outwitting ageism

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

Booze Sales Down - Bad News for SmallLaw, Solos, AA Could Die of Natural Causes

A predicable piece of business for SmallLaw and Solos has been the DUI. 

But that could go poof, like so many other B2C niches in the legal sector.

The Wall Street Journal documents how the sale of booze keeps declining.

During 2018, it went down another 0.08%. Beer got hit the worse, with another 1.5%.

Seeing the handwriting on the wall, those in alcoholic beverages are diversifying. Soon enough they could be opening spas in southwestern Arizona. 

Without the DUI, SmallLaw and solos could be even more in a pickle to land enough work to keep the lights on. 

Another institution to take a hit - maybe even collapse - is 12-step program Alcoholics Anonymous. For several years its effectiveness has been questioned. Membership is down worldwide. And, critics frequently quote from the hatchet job done by the now iconic anti-AA article in The Atlantic.

Without a nation of boozers, AA would lose its reason for being. Of course it could rebrand as Opioids Anonymous but that's not what it is about at its core. The "trusted servants" who oversee AA probably wouldn't allow that. The organization tends to be fundamentalist.

How will America be as post-boozing nation?

Could be we will sip herbal tea while watching the Superbowl. Since there is already an epidemic of loneliness we will likely be experiencing that sporting event alone. Instead of bros and sistas, there will only be our dog next to us, along with our smartphone. 

Overall we seem to have given up on socializing, unless it has a definite professional agenda. Sure, I will meet you for a drink - only one - if there is a possibility of business. 

Several years back I took my last shot at the joys of human companionship. Somehow four former college classmates and I found our way back into each other lives. It should have been predictable that would be a disaster + BigTrauma.

My father bowled alone. I will do the SuperBowl alone.

Tonight we will watch another episode of supposed friends' saga "A Million Little Things." Could be we could pick up some tips about getting back into the human interaction game.

Get amazing results through out of box communications strategies/content. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com. I help, not sell.

FCC, Please Pay Attention - My SECOND AT&T Ernestine Moment (should telecommunications executives face criminal charges as do food industry ones?)

AT&T is no longer a monopoly. 

Yet, within less than a month I have had not one but TWO Ernestine moments.

Those experiences were frequent back then when AT&T was the only telecommunications game in town.

The seeming indifference at that time was symbolized by Lily Tomlin's character Ernestine.

The first Ernestine moment happened on November 29th, both in AT&T retail (6000 Mahoning Avenue, Austintown, Ohio) and its support line (800-331-0500). Here are the soul-wrenching details.

In response, the power that be who oversees OH - Shaun Nork - contacted me. He listened. At the time, just having AT&T listen satisfied me. Emotionally, I filed away the ordeal as over. 

Shame on me. Ernestine returned yesterday. Through email I received this receipt from AT&T for payment of a bill for an account I assumed had been closed on November 29th. Here it is Download Attpaymentreceipt. 

My concerns were:

• The account wasn't closed
• This was a charge I should not have to pay
• The charge will continue to recur and be deducted from my bank checking account via direct deposit
• The billing on the new account (a downsized smart phone replacing the iPhone) would not proceed 
• The new account, because of an unpaid bill, would be shut down.

I called the AT&T help line listed on the old account - 800-331-0500.

Two account representatives later over a time frame of two hours, the problem wasn't resolved. I was in terror that mismanagement would result in shutting off my new account and I would be left without a phone which I needed for my business.

Yet, obviously, this wasn't a complex issue that would have to be handled by the transactional lawyers at Cravath Law Firm. 

Totally unhinged, I called Nork. Then and since then no return call. I left the voice mail that this had turned into a regulatory matter.

Yes, I was having chest pains. And, yes, my age puts me in a protected category.

A recovered alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in decades felt powerless against having that first drink, again.

Sweet jesus, I thought to myself, help me.

Next, I further disrupted my work day by driving to the AT&T retail in Austintown.

There, the manager and a salesperson explained what should have been on the receipt or told to me by the account representatives I had reached at 800-331-0500.

• The account was closed in the midst of the normal billing cycle.
• Therefore, a bill was issued.
• The full amount for a total cycle was charged.
• I would received a return of the over-billing by check, within about four weeks.

So, after almost three hours (including drive time), the problem was addressed. 

Or, so I hope.

I don't know.

Regulators in telecommunications should assign mystery shoppers to both AT&T retail and its phone help lines.

When it comes to negligence in the food industry, criminal charges are made and executives go to prison.

Why not apply that same model to telecommunications. Wireless service is as much a necessity of life in the 21st century as food. My hunch is if some AT&T members of the C-Suite go to prison sales and customer service would improve - significantly.  

The chest pains let up about 90 minutes after I left AT&T retail.

I didn't have a drink of alcohol.

At 7:00 P.M. I attended a 12-step meeting I hadn't planned on going to. After all, I have assignments to complete before the long Christmas holiday.

The dog jumped up on my lap when I cried. 

Reflection: Personal injury lawyers might find they can file class action litigation based on the alleged harm done by the current seeming Ernestine ethos. Judges who have experienced that kind of trauma are likely to certify the class. 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

Heaven: If It Exists, Will Lawyers Be Allowed In? (George H.W. Bush Wasn't a Lawyer)

A Christian, George H.W. Bush had a firm belief in an afterlife.

What seemed to ease his transition from living to the dying process was his conviction that he would join his wife Barbara in heaven. It worked. According to close friends, he had a peaceful death. 

But that was Bush. That's not the majority of us who have veered off from formal religions and are left to sort through old-line myths about the Next.

Also, there is antipathy about the character of lawyers. If heaven exists, they have to be wondering if they will get passed the gatekeepers, on the first try. Or will they have to file motion after motion?

So, there's the book "Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia." The author is Michael Schermer, columnist for Scientific American. Here the book can be ordered from Amazon.

From the get-go, Shermer shows he doesn't buy Christian mythology. For example, he observes that no one has returned from the dead to tip us off about the Next. Obviously, he rules out Jesus Christ's. According to religious ideology, Jesus came back to life post his death on the cross. 

However, Shermer does point out that 74 percent of Americans believe in heaven (Source: Pew Forum). The rub, of course, is that no one will have this confirmed until death. So, both during this best time of the year and more routine days and nights, we have to live on with no proven-out answer - only our little individual mindset.

Oh, there have been scientific studies. But, science has lost our allegiance. Remember what "they" said about taking antidepressants forever if we had had one clinical depression. Smirk smirk. And what about the firm faith in psychoanalysis? Analysts such as David W. Harder were positioned and packaged for the so-called sophisticated as the Secular Shamans. 

Consequently, what's Next remains a mystery. The upside of that is that we can unleash our imaginations to play out the kind of existence we can enjoy after how difficult life has become on earth.

I envision being in a field surrounded by all my pet children who have died.

We have no time commitments. We just are, together.

There is no more clinical depression. No more earnest therapists like David W. Harder. 

No former college classmates who caused us so much pain.

No more disappointments about client assignments we anticipated which didn't come through.

And, no more regrets.

Those, in my realm of make-believe, are days of heaven. I have much to look forward to. That hope will keep me going. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Respect in the Recruitment Process - Time for a Public Policy

Tone-deaf.

That's the best way to describe the recruitment policies of an established organization dealing with economic development.

I had applied for a contract position rewriting content. Quickly I received a response. I had been selected to create sample content. That would be paid. 

And that was the good part. 

Now for the bad part.

I was explicitly informed that several applicants, including myself, had been chosen to downsize a policy-heavy document. I assume that in addition to word reduction it should be made engaging. The one applicant whom, they judged, was the best writer would be contracted to work with them on a long-term basis. The rest would be throw-backs. 

Insulting?

That's what I thought.

The powers that be at that organization could have simply indicated there was a paid trial assignment. That would have made good business sense.

After I thought about all that and wound up not participating I recalled slaving in my pre-teen days in the contests to name Lassie's puppies. That had been a popular Sunday night series on network television.

Back then the contest was a useful exercise for children to understand the concept of competition. The adults in the family agreed with that and gladly provided the 2-cent stamps to mail the entries.

No, I never did win the prize: 1 of Lassie's puppies. But I salute the producers of "Lassie" for socializing children to the realities beyond the farm where Lassie lived. With my relatives who worked in sophisticated Manhattan I analyzed what my entries might have lacked. The reverse engineering came up with the need for me to be more creative in the choice of names but still remain within the box of warm and fuzzy dogville. 

Now, I am simply puzzled why a reputable organization would lack respect for communications talent. The more enlightened approach would be to simply position and package the competitive element as a necessary screening whatever.

Can those who create public policy make this happen? 

Takeaway: Don't continue with a process that treats professionals like children. 

Hope: Public policies will mandate gig workers be treated with respect. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com