Welcome to Lawyer Business Advantage. This podcast is dedicated to helping attorneys earn more money, get better clients, and spend more time with family. I'm your host, Alej Hajnik, founder of Law Firm Success Group. Smart business guidance for small law firms begins in 3, 2, 1. And it's my pleasure to welcome back to Lawyer Business Advantage, Sajah Raouf, owner of Raouf Law. Sajah, welcome back. Thank you. We
were just chatting about networking for introverts. And today, we're gonna jump into a topic that I'm really, really excited to get your take on, which is social media for introverts. And I know people say introverts can dominate social media and all of that, but as an introvert myself, I don't like social media one bit. I find it exhausting and a little scary. But you have done a fantastic job of
leveraging social media, specifically LinkedIn. First off, just wanna check-in with you and make sure that that is indeed the social platform of choice for you or there others that you're looking into as well? Absolutely. So far, it's primarily LinkedIn. And why did you choose to focus on LinkedIn? Because I feel it gives you a business focused connection with others, other attorneys, coaches, all kinds of advisers. And it's, to be memorable on LinkedIn.
You speak about what you do in a way that resonates with people outside your area of expertise. So it really brings out, creativity and personalized style without being too, personal. Yeah. I love that too about it. And It's the only social media platform I know that does a really good job of doing that, and it's really stood the test of time compared to a lot of others.
So, you know, now when you do a post on LinkedIn, let's talk about where you are now, and then we can talk about how you got there because there's a lot of cool stuff to unpack. When you do a post on LinkedIn now, what are the typical results you see when you put it out there? I tend to get a lot of engagement on my LinkedIn posts. Of course, it's sometimes it's not I mean, a 100% every single
post. But Right. Lot of posts that I that I put up, I don't necessarily expect engagement on, but they get a lot of reactions. And I it's good to see that there is interest in immigration law out there and that people are engaging. And for the most part, there's respectful feedback. So it's fulfilling to be able to talk about people's journeys to be such a big part of their, lives in a way that appeals to a wide leadership.
Yeah. And, can you show with us, some numbers that you look at to give you a sense of how well your post are performing? Some things, pick up thousands of posts within 24 to 48 hours. I was, particularly surprised when I posted, about 12 or 14 months ago about my own journey and how my family and I came to immigrate to the US. And I started the post with the sentence. The one thing that all Iraqis can agree on, no matter their religion or ethnicity is that the last few decades have been hell.
And I question whether I should use that word in the opening sentence, on a professional social media platform, and I decided there is no way to sugarcoat it. That is how my story needs to be told. That does need to be the exact wording of the first sentence. My degrees and my experience are on my the about page on my website.
But in speaking about my why, the gravity of my family's journey and the circumstances that compelled them to make the US their home, given that Iraq has been through war after war after war since I was born, needs an unusually vulnerable and authentic opening line. And it's been a while since I looked, but it gathered thousands of reactions, over in triple digit comments. Wow. That is really something. And this is really interesting because
you have a very powerful personal story. You share that with me. And that personal story ties directly directly into the practice of immigration. And there's a lot of attorneys who might be in your situation who might say, well, I don't really feel comfortable, you know, sharing my personal story or maybe even worse using my personal story to grow my law firm. I mean, I might feel like a sellout or that I'm cheapening myself or something like that.
How did you kind of approach leveraging your personal story to gain that kind of visibility on LinkedIn? I talked about how when I was 13, and it was clear that my family and I were never returning to Iraq. And my dad started to look at immigrating to the US, and I talk about how I helped him put our green card application together. Over the course of, a year.
He qualified for what's called alien of extraordinary ability, and I've interviewed him on the entire process, and I posted on my LinkedIn. And I've had clients reach out, and say they contacted me because of my interview with my dad. So and this is a common theme among immigration attorneys. There are quite a few immigration lawyers who also chose this particular career, having been through that journey themselves.
And it's no different than, say, a family lawyer who arrived at their choice of career because they went through a difficult divorce, and they wanted to they felt it was empowering to choose that career having gone through the process themselves or personal injury or what have you. I think those kind of stories make us, relatable, and, they, I don't think they, the the concerns that we may have about we're undermining ourselves if we share that side of us, I don't think there's validity to that.
Yeah. Quite the contrary as a, you know, as a non attorney bringing looking at attorneys through that lens, man, we have all sorts of wonky stereotypes about attorneys, and most of them are negative. Right? The attorney that just wants nothing but money, the attorney that, you know, just gives advice in bad faith, like, it just goes on and on and on. And, you know, most of that stuff is completely, completely false.
But that's what we get exposed to. And when me as a non attorney get to hear that, oh, my gosh, this attorney actually has a personal reason for practicing law. They're not just in it for the money. They're not just in it to be in a courtroom. Like, they're really genuinely in it to help. And here's the proof. That just makes me have so much more faith in that person. And so I'm, you know, I'm not surprised. And did you have any qualms or concerns about sharing that personal side?
I I was so when I wrote it, I felt so compelling, and it felt so exhausting to put on paper. And I felt so vulnerable that I decided to host it without running it by anyone, yourself included. I told you about it after the fact because I didn't want the possibility of changing my mind. Like, I there is something very strong about it that I decided to just go ahead and hit post. And it wasn't even at an optimal time as far as
the LinkedIn algorithm is concerned. I just put it there before I changed my mind and was stunned at the reaction. And when I went back and read that and watched the videos as you subsequently posted, the reactions are well merited because it's really outstanding stuff. It's from the heart. It's very courageous. It's It's compelling, it's very compelling.
So, Donning the introvert hat here for a moment, how would you say, posting on LinkedIn compares with other business development things that you do for as an introvert, like compared to networking, how easy or difficult is it or different is it for social media? So like networking, it involves being vulnerable, feeling exposed. But also like networking, a giving mentality
is everything. So when you engage other people's posts and when you comment and like and share and come with the mindset of giving before you receive, I found that useful in LinkedIn as in with networking. And then on LinkedIn, it seems like you've been actually getting more personal on LinkedIn than you were maybe you would in a typical networking type of setting. Can you elaborate on that or comment on that? I realized that the things that I thought were hindrances are actually
points of meaningful connection with other people. So talking about introversion, talking about my personal, immigration journey, talking about my type 1 diabetes, talking about things that I used to think were limitations I had thought would undermine the way I come off, actually served to foster deeper connections with other people.
That's really something that I hope, whether you're introverted or not, just all the attorney entrepreneurs that are listening really take note of that because being your authentic self, there's a lot of power in that. There still is despite everything. You know, that term came into vogue, what, 5, 10 years ago, something like that. But it has a lot of power. And the reason it's part of the conversation is because so few people do it even to this day. And you you do, Sasha, and the results
results speak for themselves. And speaking of results, one thing we were talking about the other day about a LinkedIn post, we're trying to figure out, you know, what you should post about. But one of the things you mentioned to me was that your posts that are focused on immigration tend to get a lot more attention than your posts that are focused on, you know, Sajah the networking guru or Sajah the public speaker or, you know, whatever it happens to
be. Can you elaborate a little bit on how that professional thought leadership has really driven your posts? I think immigration being the hot topic that it is, whether we're doing the administration that is welcoming to immigrants or not, It's at the top of a lot of people's minds, regardless of which sub area within immigration, be it business, immigration, family immigration, asylum, or what have you. So it's, top of mind and it's relevant.
So things that I post that may seem mundane to immigration attorneys actually end up generating a lot of interest just because it is people are constantly thinking about it. It's a top issue. This is one of the really cool things about being a lawyer that I absolutely love. I'm not a lawyer, but all my clients are. And we talk about what ideas can we what can we write about, or what can we post on LinkedIn, or what have you. There's so many great stories just by
looking at your desk. I mean, there's a reason why there are TV series and plays and movies made about the law because it's dramatic and it's really interesting, grabs people. So, you know, if you're a corporate attorney or you're a trusted estate's attorney or a family law attorney, personal injury, immigration, you name it, there are really interesting stories that you're involved with that people would
love to hear about. To your point, Sajah, writing about that stuff on LinkedIn There's a great way to do it because that's where you're communicating with other professionals and you can LinkedIn is set up to showcase your expertise as a professional. Mhmm. That's what it's designed for, and and that's what you're doing. What advice would you give to other introverts who are looking to get started with social media? Think about the value that you're delivering. Prioritize that.
Make that your main focus. And that will take care of caution consciousness you may be feeling about broadcasting yourself. It's great advice. And who should they be writing to? What's the target audience? Is it other attorneys, or is it potential clients, or is it somebody else? I address or it feels at least that my posts have got engagement from both referral partners as well as potential clients.
So I don't necessarily have a formula for what percentage I do for each audience, but I just will write a post. Last week, for example, I wrote on what does one slash four mean as far as the date. Is it January 4th? Is it, April 1st? And that could be relevant to both an immigrant or to an adviser who works with them. Right. But the group you're not writing to is you're not writing to other attorneys or other immigration attorneys. Your posts don't have a lot of legal terminology or jargon.
Correct. So far, no. I'm not primarily wiping to other immigration lawyers. That's something for us to take to the bank. And, have you ever thought about doing stuff on, like, TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or one of these other types of social media? It's crossed my mind. I haven't decided to execute just yet. Maybe someday in
the near future. Who knows? Well, this actually strikes, I think, perhaps to what we think about as as introverts because for some reason, I don't know if you have the same thing, Sasha, I don't find LinkedIn all that tiring. Like to me, it's just, a professional forum where I can behave like professional. But Facebook I find exhausting. And I don't even I don't even touch TikTok or Instagram. It's just it's just exhausting for whatever reason. Is that
something that that you experience too? Or is it just me? I haven't really tried Facebook and Instagram that much professionally. So I just use it for the standard Facebook cat pictures and that kind of thing. Not so much for, business development. The people I've spoken to who do use Instagram enjoy it. I I'm not opposed to it. I I just haven't explored it that much yet. So maybe another suggestion we can make to introverts who are looking to do more or to get
involved with social media. Let's start with the platform that makes the most sense. For you and I, it's been LinkedIn. I suspect for a lot of professionals, it'll probably be LinkedIn. You know, a lot of attorneys will wanna do LinkedIn. And that's where you should start and it makes a lot of sense. If for some reason though you absolutely love one of the other platforms, you know, jump in and and start with that one, but start with one and see
how it goes. Right? And remember, whatever you do, make sure you you're authentic when you're doing this social media. One of my top inspirations for being authentic on social media is, James Robillora, who I met through Roman Zelichhenko, and he has really very powerful content on the importance of being authentic and being yourself in any kind of context when you're speaking publicly or when you're engaging on social media.
Awesome. Thank you, Sajid. Thank you for sharing your expertise and your experience with us here on Warrior Business Advantage. It's been a real pleasure having you on the show. Thank you, Ali. I appreciate you. Well, we like it so much. We're gonna have you back for another episode next week where we're gonna be talking about, what are we even talking about? Oh, yeah. Public speaking for introverts. Now there's a there's a real conundrum, and I'm looking forward to
chatting with you about it. Sajah, if people wanna connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that? My website is sar.law. Awesome. Thank you, Sajah. And that's a wrap for this episode of the Lawyer Business Advantage podcast. One thing that would really help both us and other new potential listeners is for you to rate this show and leave a comment in Itunes, Stitcher, or wherever
you tune in to listen. And I want to hear from you, so connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know what you think of this episode. And if you are a solo or an owner of a small law firm, and you're looking to earn more money, attract better clients, or reduce your stress, we would love to talk with you to see how we can help. Request your free law firm assessment by visiting lawfirmsuccessgroup.com. Again, that URL is lawfirmsuccessgroup.com. We look forward to talking with you soon.
Thank you for listening. My name is Alej Yajnik. Until next time, remember, you can seize freedom. You can embrace happiness. You can build your perfect practice.