Ashley Owens:

It’s all of the things that you would need to really grow your business. And the one thing that people usually struggle with is having zero plan when they go into a conference.

Chris Dreyer:

Networking is one of the strongest marketing plays you can make.

Ashley Owens:

Networking is a marketing activity, not a sales activity. So networking can absolutely lead to business, but it’s all based off of how are you marketing yourself, how are you showing up, and how are you engaging in a way with intention.

Chris Dreyer:

Welcome to Personal Injury Mastermind. I’m your host, Chris Dreyer, founder and CEO of Rankings.io, the elite legal marketing agency. Each week you get insights and wisdom from some of the best in the industry. On these special toolkit Tuesdays, we dive deep into conversations with the leading vendors in the legal sphere, their masterminds behind the technologies, services, and strategies to help law firms not just survive, but thrive in today’s competitive landscape. Now, this isn’t about selling you the latest software or getting kickbacks from affiliate links. It’s about bringing you the best so you can be the best for your firm, for your staff, for your clients, and for you. This is toolkit Tuesday on PIM, your weekly guide to staying sharp in the legal world. While you’re listening, go ahead and hit that subscribe or follow button so that you never miss an episode. All right, let’s go.

If the thought of walking into a room full of strangers makes you break out in a cold sweat, you are not alone. I see you, introverts. Networking is hard, but it is such an important skill every attorney needs to develop. You never know when a conversation can lead to game-changing referrals, partnerships, or next level growth. I used to dread conferences and network events. I kind of still do. Over the years as I’ve met more and more people, hosted this podcast and expanded my network, it got a little easier, but I knew there was untapped potential. That’s why I’m so excited to have networking expert Ashley Owens on the show today. As president here at PIM, Ashley has mastered the art and science behind forming genuine connections.

After meeting Ashley, the floodgates opened and Rankings has never been the same. If you have ever been to a conference, plan to go to a conference, or haven’t pulled the trigger on going to a conference because you hate the idea of being in a room full of strangers, this episode is for you. Ashley shares her best tips on how to create a hit list of contacts before an event, nail first impressions, and follow up in a way people actually appreciate. Let’s dive into the art and science of networking with Ashley Owens. Ashley, you started Rankings as a networking concierge, and I wanted someone to network for me because I think many of our audience are introverts and struggle with that, but this is a term that not many people are familiar with. So can you explain what a networking concierge is?

Ashley Owens:

Sure. I used to be a personal assistant to a couple celebrities, and so I understood the benefit of having a concierge in your pocket, and so I really took that as a white glove service, and as a luxury item to create something that somebody could use, especially when they’re going out and networking. So the concierge aspect is really to maximize the customization of all the networking components to it. So what is a networking concierge? It’s really whatever you need at a networking event. Normally at conferences it could be I go with you, I go for you, I train your teams how to run a booth, but it really comes down to, how do you network as a person.

So all of my clients are typically introverts, which is my favorite. I did an audit about a couple months ago. Every single one is an introvert. And you’d think I put that together, but I didn’t. It’s really to make sure that everyone feels that they are able to promote themselves well, but also their networking style, because it is not a one size fits all kind of thing. So your networking style is based off of your personality because you’re talking to people all day. So the concierge aspect is really how do you customize that and me helping you along the way.

Chris Dreyer:

Just being transparent, I hired Ashley as a subcontractor first, and then I was so impressed with her skills that we brought her on full-time at Rankings, and now she is the president of a new organization, PIM. How did you get into this position? How did you start doing the networking, the travelling to these events? How did it all get started?

Ashley Owens:

Well, I had 23 jobs after I graduated college. I never got fired. It was mergers, acquisitions, budget cuts, things that were completely out of my control. And when I took a look at everything that I was doing, instead of looking at the negative, I looked at the positive. What could I do that was beneficial? Well, I could talk intelligently to many different industries because I was a part of 95% of them. And so I tried to take that and see how I could support the people that I had the pleasure and the privilege of networking with. So I went to a networking event after I had left my last job. I was working in selling custom software. So I went from being a personal assistant to celebrities in New York City to selling custom software in Philadelphia. So I was like, hmm. I woke up one day and said, “Well, maybe I should change, or how the hell did I get here?” At that time.

So I went to a networking event and I met our wonderful friend, Marty McDonald. And so I walked around and I started talking to people and I said, “All right, I don’t have a job. I don’t feel the pressure to sell anything,” because selling for me is challenging. I’m Irish Catholic, you don’t talk about money, you basically work until you stroke out. And when I walked around that networking event, I thought, “Okay, everybody here, they have something in common.” What do they have in common? They’re on a networking event. Okay, why are they networking? So I walked around to everyone and I said, “All right, what sucks for you about networking?” And I just got an answer from every single person. And from there what I ended up doing was just building on that question. So what sucks for you about going to networking events? I hate finding them.

I hate going by myself. I hate the follow-up. Okay, well I can do those things. Well, what about the follow-up do you hate? And so I just continued to ask those questions and build upon that. And I then came up with some idea of a semblance of service offerings. And our friend Marty McDonald apparently was watching me just do my thing and he came over to me and he said, “Hey, would you ever network for somebody at a book signing?” I said, “Sure.” It’s like, “Okay, no problem.” He’s like, “Give me a call in two weeks and we’ll figure it out.” So in two weeks I had a duct tape version of a business put together, but I had a website, headshots, a master services agreement, liability insurance, business cards, and literally every phone call I could make to call in the favor I did. And so I called Marty back about two days before and I said, “Hey, I’m ready.”

And he goes, “All right, I need you to drive four hours to come to this book signing. I need you to network for me while I’m there and drive four hours back and just let me know who you met.” All he was looking for was strategic partnerships. So I wasn’t selling anything, was getting information and intel and who was there, and that was my job. And so I went there, very easy for me. There was no hard sell. And I came back and I gave him all of the prospects and his team followed up. And from there he gave me my very first testimonial and the world opened up. And since then I’ve had the privilege of going to dozens and dozens of conferences like that. I’ve gone 350 speaking engagements and I’m now getting paid for. I’ve been on two television talk shows. I sold one of those. I was on the Mel Robin show. So it took one person to really believe in me. And so that was Marty, and he’s the reason why we’re here today. So we got to blame him for these things.

Chris Dreyer:

That’s amazing. And what you heard there guys, is if the DISC personality assessment, we would call that a high DISC. So anyways, so Marty, for those of you who don’t know, Marty McDonald owns Bad Rhino. They’re a social media marketing agency and he is in a mastermind with me, an agency mastermind. So I know many of the attorneys listening are in their own masterminds, and have their coaching, but he’s one of my peers. I really respect him. He does an amazing job. Very, very skilled, good friend of mine. For those of you thinking, “I don’t know, do I need to go to these conferences and is this right for me?” Ashley, what is an attorney who doesn’t know how to network actually leaving on the table? And what is the ROI of networking?

Ashley Owens:

Sure, they’re leaving a lot of their own personal brand on the table. So a lot of the times, especially in PI, what they’re looking to do or even any kind of lawyer, but what you’re looking to do is expand your reach of who knows you and the partnerships that you can potentially gain at these conferences. So the biggest thing is, and the one thing that people usually struggle with, is having zero plan when they go into a conference. You and I have created a plan to really maximize our efficiency there, but the ROI comes from not only the social aspect, but you’re there. You’re looking at the latest trends, you’re getting your CLE credits, you are going and talking to other vendors. Maybe you need to support yourself in certain avenues and don’t know necessarily the way to achieve it. So it’s peer conversation, it’s all of the things that you would need to really grow your business.

It’s giving you the resources and the tools to do that. The ROI comes from what you make of it. If you are an introvert, then necessarily going to conferences and being in those big rooms is good for the time being, but you’re setting up one-on-one meetings with other people inside that conference. That would be the goal for that. But the ROI is really what you make of it. If you have a booth, let’s say you’re a vendor or you’re a lawyer, and then your firm has a booth, lots of things you can do to really get those leads. But the follow-up is really where it is. And a lot of the time I see a lot of lawyers, they don’t follow up or they have their team follow up, and it’s not necessarily as robust as you think. Networking is a marketing activity, not a sales activity. So networking can absolutely lead to business. It has, it will, but it’s all based off of how are you marketing yourself, how are you showing up, and how are you engaging, in a way, with intention.

Chris Dreyer:

Let’s really talk about the tactical. So this mastering first impression, so to speak. You know the saying, “You never get a second chance at first impressions.” So let’s start there. What are some of the common first impression mistakes attorneys should avoid when networking?

Ashley Owens:

When you’re dressing like trash, you come in flip-flops. I get it’s Vegas, but please can you at least dress appropriately. But the biggest turnoff for me is somebody who gives no regard to the person that you’re talking to. So a lot of the times, especially with people who have a very high eye personality, sometimes being able to focus on one person is challenging, because it’s the stimulation of everybody around you. So I think the biggest turnoff or the biggest challenge that most people have is that they’ll meet you or they’ll ignore you immediately if they don’t know who you are. So the way that you can really make a good first impression is to meet everybody where they’re at.

Don’t necessarily go in and say, okay, just because you’re a vendor, I’m not going to talk to you. They’re human. You have no idea who they know, you have no idea what perspective that they have. They could potentially turn you on to a different idea or strategy or resource, and they could also provide you with details and tools of something that’s happening in the industry. I think my biggest pet peeve is when I go over to shake someone’s hand and they say hello, and they have no interest in talking to me, and they have no idea who I am, what I do, what makes me awesome until somebody else makes the introduction. I get that you have to be a gatekeeper, but at the same time, you treat everybody with respect. And a first impression is important.

And once your reputation is, you’re a jerk, you’re somebody who’s very hard to connect with and you’re not really necessarily approachable, that’s going to hurt your brand and that’s going to hurt your firm. And so if you meet everybody where they’re at, you’re going to see an extraordinary amount of business come in because they trust you. So you’re building the know the like and the trust factor. They know you by going there, they see you, they like you when you have a conversation with them, and they’ll eventually trust you with their business if you maximize your efficiency at those conferences.

Chris Dreyer:

That’s fantastic. Fantastic. Walking up to a total stranger, it can be very challenging. I get anxiety just thinking about it, right? The podcast has been really effective for me personally because now when I go to a conference, I have people to approach me because they’ve maybe heard an episode. I think of a few individuals like Larry Nussbaum, Paul Faus, these guys are amazing, they’re such naturals at networking and meeting individuals. So what are some tips to make it a little less intimidating to take that first step and just go up to a total stranger?

Ashley Owens:

Sure. I’m super tactical and I still get a little nervous, especially if I know nobody in the room. So I usually have to prep myself. And what I typically do is I’ll take a lap, I’ll take lap around the area, get to know and get my surroundings so I can be more comfortable with my surroundings. Then I’ll start talking to vendors just casually talking to them just so I can get warmed up of how my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet. So I start talking to vendors because they’re naturally going to want to talk to you anyway, so there’s no negative interaction that you’re having because you’re talking to people who are actively looking to chat with you. And then when you’re at the vendor table, there are people that are going to be there. You’ve got something already in common, somebody who’s already interested in what you’re talking about.

Maybe you can say something nice about that vendor, but it also builds up the rapport because you both have something in common by just being there. When it comes down to, let’s say, walking around and you know you want to talk to somebody. I introduced myself to Ben Crump just because I said, “Sir, do you want to be more famous than you are today?” And he looked at me and he goes, and now I know who Ben Crump is. Y’all know who Ben Crump is more than I do, but I also have worked with celebrities and I don’t care. I don’t care how famous you are, I just try to get you to laugh. And so my goal is to get you to laugh and learn more about you, and be very, very, very conscious of being very kind and being very appreciative that you are there, that you have the privilege of being able to talk to this person.

A lot of the time it’s egos. A lot of the time it comes down to just introducing yourself as you’re walking and saying, “Hi, I’m so sorry to interrupt you. I just wanted to introduce myself.” And that’s as easy as it is. When it comes down to speakers, typically they are the easiest to chat with because as soon as they come off-stage, they’re pumping with adrenaline. They’ve got a lot of positive endorphins going through their bodies. And so they are the easiest to get onto PIM because I go over, and after I’ve watched their session and I say, “Hey, that’s a fantastic session. What’s the best way to get you on a podcast?” And they’ve never asked what podcast it is, it could be anything, but they said, “Oh, actually, let me give you my email or let me give you my assistant,” because there’s a value prop there.

There’s a value added there. And so I think when it comes down to reducing the anxiety, you always have something of value to give that person or believe that you have something to give of value to that person without really having to… Without it being a transaction. So the value could be you’re in a to really good mood and you made this person laugh, that’s a value add. You could have a common person that you’re connected with, that’s a value add. You could say, “Hey, I really enjoyed your presentation,” and you’re giving them a genuine compliment, that’s a value add. I think what people think that they have to give is so much more transactional than what you can just be, which is human.

Chris Dreyer:

That’s amazing. In terms of these first impressions, these walking up the strangers, I was setting at our first conferences, it was national trial lawyers, and I was like, “Oh, there’s Alexander Shunnarah. I’d love to have him on the podcast.” And Ashley just V lines over to Alex and Metri and invites him on the podcast. And so Alex, if you’re listening, call me Alabama. I would love to have you on the show. I’m just kidding. So no, great would actually would love to have Mr. Shunnarah, if you’re listening,

Ashley Owens:

I’ll find him.

Chris Dreyer:

So the next is identifying a good contact.

Ashley Owens:

Yeah.

Chris Dreyer:

So we go to these conferences, we need to have a goal. There are certain individuals that have their own networks that maybe could be a good referral partner for [inaudible 00:15:42] jurisdiction leads, or maybe they have an expertise that you don’t have that would be complimentary to your business. So how should attorneys be thinking about a so-called hit list of good contacts?

Ashley Owens:

It really depends on a couple different things. There’s three different areas of strategic partnerships. These are people that you can share clients with. People that you can maybe you can share cases with if there’s an overload or might be too big or too small for you. So those are always good to have other lawyers that you can trust. When it comes down to strategic partnerships, these are going to be vendors or people in the marketing space, in the discovery space, in the legal tech space, and just based off of what you need to grow your business. Partnerships are so personal to what your needs are. So if you were to look at… Let me go back here for a second, but if you were to look at and go into a conference and you’re trying to build partnerships, and you’re trying to meet with specific people, plan that out.

So many times you go into a conference and it’s all willy-nilly. You’re walking around, you’re trying to figure out where the coffee is, and then you’re trying to go into one session. Maybe there’s three different floors, maybe you don’t want to talk to this person because they’re mean. Maybe this person’s just too chatty. Who knows? If you plan out your day of who you want to meet, the amount that you can get done in two days is all you need at a conference. If I can’t get and meet the people that I want in two days, I am not doing my job. The first day you go in, you meet with the vendors that you want to chat with and just get the meeting, just get the meeting. Just chat with them and say, “I’m looking to build up more partnerships. I think I’ve got some people I’d love to introduce you to.”

And what you’re doing is you’re building an A and a B team. The A team are the people that you know like and you trust, and the B team are the people that you know and you like. So when you get asked or when you build up a network and you meet, let’s say, with a partner and they’re looking for a specific clientele or another partner that they are looking to meet, go to your A and your B team, look at that Excel file. That way your trash brain doesn’t forget that you met this person at whatever event, and they made you happy or had a really good vibe to them. Now you’re able to build networking equity by introducing people, and it costs you nothing except an email. When you build up the A and the B team, what you’re doing is you’re outlining all of the industry names that are valuable to you and your business.

And then you’re putting in the people that you think of first. That’s your A team. Then you can go to LinkedIn, if you use LinkedIn a lot, and at the B team, these are the people that you know and you like. So they haven’t built the trust yet, but you’re getting there. And then you introduce them to each other when you jump on a call with them. So this equity allows you to be the person or the guy or the gal that is the person to go to when you need something. And that’s exactly how I built my business before I started working with you guys. So the point of that is, is that if you go in there knowing who you want to meet, jumping on a call and getting to know them better, then you’re more likely to make that introduction, which also builds that equity to make you the person to go to.

Chris Dreyer:

Making connections is just the first step. You got to follow through. Otherwise, you might as well skip the conference. Ashley shares her pro-tips for follow-up that actually leads to real relationships.

Ashley Owens:

Typically when I follow up, especially if it’s somebody that I think could be great on PIM or they would be a really good, we’ll talk about this later, a new PIM member, is the goal is you’re trying to do a couple touches. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an email, it could just be a text message. It could be following up on LinkedIn just to be connected to, so that way you can look at your list and invite them to certain things. The touch points are more creative than just a follow-up email. If I feel like they are somebody that could really benefit from our community or really benefit from being a Rankings client or anything like that, I really try to make sure that they feel as comfortable with me as possible to let their guard down. Because you’re trying to build a trust factor without necessarily feeling like that we’re selling them anything.

Because I go to these conferences and I sell nothing. I sell nothing. I am there to promote the company that I’m with. And also I am selling Chris, meaning I am representing a organization that I believe in, that I’ve worked inside, that I can speak to. And when they like me or when I have the privilege of being able to get to know them better, then it’s a lot easier for them to say, “Hey, you know what? Just jump on a meeting. Let me get you somebody that can help you here.” And that provides them with less of a, “Oh, they’re going to try to sell me something,” to, “Oh, they might be able to help me fix a problem that I have.” So the follow-up really comes from understanding what they actually need and not just following up arbitrarily. When you send an email or when you send a text or whatever, it gets really obnoxious.

The benefit of doing it well is you’re going to go above and beyond with a smaller quality of people rather than a huge quantity of people. So when I’m at these events, I have, I think, I did the math, I have about 80 vendors and influencers and lawyers that I’ve had the privilege of meeting, that I have now on a list that when we’re ready to launch something that is of value to them after I’ve built that relationship, then I can send them that email and they’re more likely to be like, “Oh, I remember Ashley, she did this thing. That’s awesome.” So it becomes a representation of you, but at the same time, the benefit is you are able to follow up in a way that is non-invasive. You really don’t want to be invasive. We are a marketing company. Rankings is a marketing company. We’re the best. And we are not hard sellers. We’re not. And that is the number one reason why I’m here. Not only that, I hate, it’s gross if we’re just in your face.

Chris Dreyer:

Yeah. And you got to be, I think with the confidence in what you promote, it has to be good. It makes it easier to sell and not sell to be an order takers, so to speak. When you hear networking, a lot of people think, “Oh, got to get my business cards.” There’s some, I will say this, there is something to be said of giving your contact information. I don’t know who keeps business cards, do people actually do that?

Ashley Owens:

Why are you giving business cards? Why are you giving business cards? What are you going to do with it?

Chris Dreyer:

What I do, I take a picture of it on my phone-

Ashley Owens:

Yes.

Chris Dreyer:

… and then I trash it.

Ashley Owens:

Yes.

Chris Dreyer:

I don’t care if it’s the fanciest metal business card that you’re proud of. No one’s going to keep that. So I think the QR codes the picture. So let’s talk about that capturing contact information because you’re going to forget. What are some strategies there on the capture side?

Ashley Owens:

So what we’ve been able to do has been fantastic actually. So what I’ll do is I’ll take pictures of the card if they do give it to me or I’ll just get their emails and then I’ll write notes about it in our Slack channel. So the way that we work over here is that we’ve got a Slack channel with a bunch of different channels and we have events. And so every little event has a thread. So in there it’s notes, things that I see, things that I observe, things that are really interesting, and then I go back and I build a full report afterwards. So that way my trash brain in the middle of all the chaos doesn’t necessarily miss any opportunity to connect with somebody. So if I go inside the Slack channel, now I can take a look to see who I met, what the reasoning was, and I can just leave it, so then I can move on to the next person that is of value.

But the follow-up portion of that is really based off of what can we do to offer them something of value, which is usually coming onto PIM. And then now we can obviously provide them with knowledge of the new community that we’re promoting. But yes, that strategy comes from two to fold. I put a report together after every conference based off of things that we call buyer units, and then we also put together a list of all the contacts so that way when we’re ready, we can then support them in a resource or a tool. And then I follow them on LinkedIn as much as possible. So yeah, those are how I capture. You don’t want to make it complicated. If you have a CRM, import it in later, but don’t make it complicated if you don’t need to.

Chris Dreyer:

Yeah, I agree with that a hundred percent. I would say one of the most beneficial things… Guys, I talk about this podcast a lot because it has a lot of leverage for distribution, can be better than the keynote. I get to control the experience and who attends it and what questions I ask, and all these different components combined with helping social, all these things. I’m a huge advocate for podcastings, but if you’re an attorney listening and you have a podcast, it’s one of the best ways to give value and to actually meet and learn and about these individuals and connect on a deeper level so that you can understand where you can provide value. And it’s just been amazing, so highly recommended. I know it’s still not quite as saturated as many other mediums, but that’s one way that I personally give value, that Ashley will invite these amazing speakers. She gets to sit and watch the speakers, and they may be amazing trial attorneys or amazing lawyers, but if they don’t give a good speech on the stage, I don’t know that they’re going to be the best on the podcast.

Ashley Owens:

If I am hard on anything, and I’m usually pretty flexible on most, if I like your personality and I think you can vibe, then we’re good to go. There’s a level of professionalism, excuse me, but there’s a standard of excellence that we have on this podcast. We are not only very good at what… You guys are… Chris and the rest of the team is not only very good at producing, the amount of effort that goes into it, is extraordinary. And we are in the process of really maximizing the quality of podcast guests that we have coming on because we’ve earned it, because of the amount of downloads that we have, because of where we are in the marketplace, because of how popular the podcast is. And we hold ourselves to that kind of excellence. And so when we do get people on the podcast, I am mean, not to them, but just I am judgy, because if you’re coming on and you have the privilege of coming on just like we have the privilege of interviewing you, then it needs to be exceptional. We’ve had them, we’ve had some great people on the podcast.

Chris Dreyer:

And you absolutely killed it to the point where I felt confident to promote you to president of our new organization, which I’m kind of teasing here, guys, of the Personal Injury Mastermind. And just as a teaser, what can personal injury attorneys expect to see in this upcoming year? And I guess let’s start with NTL, the [inaudible 00:25:56]

Ashley Owens:

So I’d add the National Trial Lawyers Association Summit coming up in January, we have a very exclusive event because I have control of it this year. So I love planning parties. So we’ve got two different kinds of entertainers. We’ve got a VIP lounge, we have security now because it’s password protected. So this event is going to be hosted at, I can’t tell you because you have to get invited, but it’ll be hosted in Miami, and you’ll be able to come in and mix and mingle with people that we hold into very high regard, but is an invite only exclusive invitation. This event is going to catapult us into the next year with all of the new things that we have coming down the pipeline.

Chris Dreyer:

Yeah, yeah. So at NTL, we’re going to have Mr. Trombone, we’re going to have a DJ, and it’s just going to be a really neat experience. And so if you’re heading to NTL, drop us an email. You can email Ashley at ashley@pim.org. And then the next big announcement that we’re going to be launching early 2024 is our PIM community. So Ashley, why don’t you share a little bit about that?

Ashley Owens:

Sure. Our PIM community is the next generation of lawyers, meaning we are providing an online community with mentorship, with resources, with events, with just community aspect referrals, preferred vendors. This is going to be your one-stop shop to get you what you need, even if you’re a brand new lawyer or an advanced lawyer. So we’ve got 10 fantastic founding members that are going to lead the charge, and we are providing with the best resources to really expand your networking, your innovation, and your creativity around how you build your own firm, and then also get the guidance that you need to just grow you as a lawyer personally. We are changing the game in the way that PI attorneys communicate.

Chris Dreyer:

Yeah, and guys, I’ve been a part of many masterminds, and this is going to be a Slack community. And the reason I like Slack as opposed to say Facebook or some of these phone apps and things that you see at other masterminds, is because you can segment the channels, segmented conversations, you know where to have specific conversations, who you can go to get help from. It makes the communication line much easier from a referral aspect. And we’re just going to have exclusive access to the guests that come on on this podcast. We’re going to bring in private speakers. We’re going to have tons of collateral. I’m going to be sharing a lot of my SEO secrets, a lot of my tactics that we use for our clients and just anything that I learn and just have these amazing guests. And it’s going to just continue to expand over time, and we’re going to be launching that in early January. The website is pim.org, P-I-M.org.

Ashley Owens:

We’re very exclusive about who we invite into the PIM community, which means you all have to have an onboarding with me. So that means that you don’t leave your egos at the door because I am the one that’s going to be making sure that you come in and you are going to celebrate everybody, like we celebrate you. So can’t wait to see you all, and hopefully we’ll see you soon.

Chris Dreyer:

Yeah, amazing. We got one final announcement, and this is probably one of our biggest announcements too. In August 2024, we are doing a PIM conference, PIMCon. We have some amazing speakers. We got John Barry, we got Jen Gore. I myself am going to be speaking. We got many, many more individuals, James Helm. And we’re going to be sharing more details about that in the future. But maybe Ashley, just share a little bit about the event, the venue, and what’s going on there.

Ashley Owens:

So the venue is going to be at the Ameristar in St. Louis. We have a lot of wonderful access to that spot. So everything is basically going to be us. So that casino has given us a lot of freedom to do a lot of things inside the casino. We’ve got themed parties coming up that we have planned. We’ve got lots of VIP events, we’ve got lots of areas that you can sponsor. But we have hired a event producer that had produces concerts. So that means we’re going to really change the way that conferences for PI attorneys, we’re changing the game on this. Is this not going to be sent the same copy and paste that you typically see at these conferences. I’ve had the privilege of going to 30 of them this year, which means I took an audit of every single one. So I know what people like, I know what people expect, and I know what people don’t like. So we’re taking all of those ideas, putting them into one conference, and this is going to be very different than what you’ve seen before.

Chris Dreyer:

Yeah, and we’ll keep you posted on that, guys. More to come, that’s going to be in August 2024, and we’ll have more details to come. And Ashley, this has been amazing. So what’s next and where can people go to connect with you?

Ashley Owens:

You can connect with me on LinkedIn. You can find me at Ashley Owens on LinkedIn. You can also email me at ashley@pim.org if you want any more information about the conference, about the NTL event, about the PIM community. We’re so excited we’re getting all those ducks in a row to give you the best experience ever. And then you’re also able just to find me on any social media platform. But you can also find us at PIM community on Instagram as well. And obviously subscribe to PIM, Personal Injury Mastermind on any place that you stream podcasts.

Chris Dreyer:

Thanks so much to Ashley for showing us how to connect like a pro. Let’s go over those takeaways. Do your homework. Conferences are about quality, not quantity. Don’t just scramble to collect as many contacts as possible. Figure out who you really want to meet and why. How can they specifically help your business? Having an intentional focus will help calm those networking jitters. It also sets you up for thoughtful and personal follow-ups that lead to real relationships.

Ashley Owens:

But if you were to look at and go into a conference, and you’re trying to build partnerships, and you’re trying to meet with specific people, plan that out. So many times you go into a conference and it’s all willy-nilly. If you plan out your day of who you want to meet, the amount that you can get done in two days is all you need at a conference. If I can’t get and meet the people that I want in two days, I am not doing my job.

Chris Dreyer:

Ditch the flip-flops, guys. I get it. We all want to be comfortable, but you never know who’s in the room or who they’re connected to. No matter how you dress, be kind. Treat every person as a fellow human. Look them in the eye and firmly shake their hand. Smile. Break the ice with vendors first, then take a leap and chat with someone new.

Ashley Owens:

I get that you have to be a gatekeeper, but at the same time, you treat everybody with respect. And a first impression is important. And once your reputation is you’re a jerk, you’re somebody who is very hard to connect with, and you’re not really necessarily approachable, that’s going to hurt your brand and that’s going to hurt your firm.

Chris Dreyer:

Don’t spam. Please just don’t do it. You spend so much time and effort making a genuine connection. Don’t follow up with a generic text or email after meeting them. Show you were really listening. Share a relevant article they’d find interesting. Introduce them to someone who you think could help them with a challenge that they mentioned. Mail a handwritten thank you card. Follow up thoughtfully based on your conversations. This builds trust and rapport for the longterm. Take it to the next level for suggesting a quick phone call to connect more. Personal touches make all the difference in networking.

Ashley Owens:

So the follow-up really comes from understanding what they actually need and not just following up arbitrarily. So it becomes a representation of you, but at the same time, the benefit is you are able to follow up in a way that is non-invasive. You really don’t want to be invasive. We are a marketing company. Rankings is a marketing company. We’re the best. And we are not hard sellers. We’re not.

Chris Dreyer:

All right everybody, I hope we added a few more tools to your kit. For more about Ashley and links to the amazing events we have coming up, check out the show notes. Thanks for listening to Personal Injury Mastermind with me, Chris Dreyer, founder and CEO of Rankings.io. Catch you next time. I’m out.