Turn your Legal Skill Set into an Audience-Building Podcast
With the Canadian Bar Association advocating for lawyers – especially young ones – to listen to podcasts to help advance their careers, it’s a perfect time for your firm to launch its own podcast. The medium has never been more popular, and in addition to up-and-coming legal professionals, there’s a whole host of listening audiences out there hungry for your legal expertise.
Podcasting is a natural fit for lawyers. You’re already orators and storytellers by trade. Your profession is constantly evolving and hence, ripe for commentary. If you’re a firm dealing in criminal cases, you also have the wide swath of podcast listeners that can’t get enough true crime content. But if you’ve never recorded a podcast before – let alone if you’ve never listened to one before – the task can seem daunting. Our four tips below will get your firm’s name and expertise out of the courtroom and into earbuds all over.
Make Time
Beyond equipment and topics, time is probably the most critical factor that decides the success of a law firm’s podcast. We know you’re swamped and billable hours come first, but you need to plan for recording, editing, disseminating, and promoting your podcast on a regular basis. You may want to try a limited-run series, or short, 3–5 minute vignette-style episodes to start, to manage your commitment.
Focus Your Offering
Just like there are too many TV shows to watch, there are too many podcasts to listen to. To make your law podcast stand out from the crowd and help find its audience, make sure the subject is concise enough that an avid listener can easily recommend it to a friend. A great example is Edmonton real estate lawyer Barry McGuire’s long-running podcast (over 100 episodes!) that exclusively shares tips and stories about investing in real estate.
Have a Cross-Examination Moment
Once you’ve got your overarching topic or focus, how do you plan out the structure of each episode? Think of it like a trial: have your subject and key arguments, but allow for a little unscripted riffing, especially if you have co-hosts or guests. Podcast listeners respond especially well to off-the-cuff moments that let your personality shine. Having the plan to fall back to will keep your podcast on track (and reduce the need to spend hours editing).
A Reasonable Person (Has No Idea What You’re Talking About)
Put your knowledge of “the reasonable person” to use when choosing your words. The legal profession is full of specific Bills, code citations, and terms – in English and Latin – that you have to assume your average listener might not understand. If it’s critical to bring up “Section XX” or “sui generis,” make sure you define it in the same breath to help your audience to keep up with you.
If you’re looking for some one-on-one tips, contact us to book a free, 30-minute consultation with our podcast experts (or just let us know what your favourite law podcast is).
Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash.