Ready to become the sought-after expert your clients will want to work with and be willing to pay a premium to do so? Do you want to know how you are unique to your clients & how you can stand out in the sea of competitors? Are you the "best kept secret in your market?” If you want to know the shortcuts to build your personal brand and become the go-to expert and the authority in your field, DO NOT MISS this series by advocate Itzik Amiel, bestselling author and international speaker and the global authority on personal branding for professionals.
Have you ever experienced this: When you see something for the first time and you start seeing it or hearing it everywhere?
For example when someone mentions something to you, or you read it in a book, and suddenly everywhere you go you see it.
Isn’t it odd when you’re thinking about an old friend from elementary school you haven’t connected with in years, and then you see him suddenly in an event?
It’s weird, right?
I’m sure it has happened to you and if it hasn’t perhaps you just haven’t noticed.
In any case, I found this phenomenon has a name. It’s called “The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon“, also more commonly known as “Frequency illusion”. [source: Zwicky]
We’ve all had these occurrences—most of us have experienced this phenomenon a few times in their lives, while others encounter them with greater regularity.
Is there some hidden cause or meaning behind these events? Would you call it a coincidence, synchronicity, or just a blip in the matrix?
Chances are what you’ve learned is no more ubiquitous than it was before, but because you are now paying more attention, you notice it more often.
Here’s why you’re suddenly seeing this new thing everywhere. According to the Pacific Standard Magazine, this phenomenon is caused by two processes:
Process #1: Selective Attention
Selective attention kicks in when you’re struck by a new word, thing, idea or a person; after that, you unconsciously keep an eye out for it, and as a result find it surprisingly often.
Your brain seems to be excited by the fact that
you’ve learned something new, and selective attention occurs.
Your brain subconsciously thinks, “Hey, that’s awesome! I’m going to look for that thing without actually thinking about it.”
So now that you’re looking for it, you find it.
To make it all the more powerful, the second process occurs:
Process #2: Confirmation Bias
This process reassures you that each sighting is further proof of your impression that the thing has gained overnight omnipresence, after seeing it even once or twice.
In other words, you start agreeing with yourself that, indeed, you’re definitely seeing it more.
So you probably asking – what between the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon and boosting your Authority & standing out?
Let me explain.
Our brains’ prejudice towards patterns.
Our brains are fantastic pattern recognition engines, a characteristic that is highly useful for learning and also connecting to other people.
Frequency illusion obviously has great applications for lawyers building their authority. If their message can break through the noise surrounding in the legal market, even just once, odds are good there will be a nice multiplier effect, thanks to the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
Boost your Authority
For building your Authority and Standing Out as a lawyer, this phenomenon is precisely why nurturing is incredibly important.
Once someone starts noticing your authority, you’ll want to help them start seeing you “everywhere.”
The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon links directly to smart and effective way of building your authority.
Repetition, consistency, and frequency are all critical in supporting a strong authority, and therefore hold extreme value to the success of your brand recognition and attracting more and new clients to you.
There is an automatic imprint of your authority story in the mind of your relations and connections.
What makes you so memorable that you stick in people’s minds long after you’ve left the meeting with them?
What are you known for? OR what do you want to be know for?
What makes you stand out?
What gives you the competitive advantage over your peers?
The Exposure Effect
Repeated exposures to things that we have neutral or positive feelings about increases the likability of those things. This is also true when we are dealing with people.
This is “the exposure effect”, also called “the mere exposure effect”.
Also when we are dealing with people and building relations, we tend to favor the familiar and mistrust the new and different.
Thus, repetition breeds familiarity. We develop preferences for people simply because they are more familiar [not to be mistaken with “famous”].
I am sure you are familiar with this effect when it is concerning products. It is one of the basic concepts behind advertising.
You see an ad in a magazine or a commercial on TV over and over again and after a time become more likely to buy the product being advertised.
Repeated exposure to works better than a single exposure.
But it’s important that the perception of the stimuli being repeated is neutral or positive. Repeated exposure to negative stimuli will more likely amplify the negative perception.
Make people become familiar with your Authority
Let’s think standing out.
Building your authority and standing out of the crowd as a legal professional, makes great use of the exposure effect.
The more exposures to you and your authority (assuming your authority is initially seen in a neutral or positive light) eventually leads to a more positive perception of you.
Familiarity with your personal brand is a hugely important facet in when developing your authority in your field.
This is where standing out consistency comes in and the use of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon to help boost your authority building.
Keeping a consistent message across all mediums – offline and online – will help you more easily build that familiarity.
Seeing the same message over and over again, whether it’s on your website, in printed material, over social media, or in face-to-face interactions, will help reinforce in your connections minds what your authority image is.
Why is Authority consistency important to you?
Consistency with the messages that you send out to the public is a big part of building your authority.
And of course, the opposite is also true.
Sending conflicting messages out can confuse your connections and damage your relations with them and the trust that you have build until that point with them.
Your Connections want to know you Interacting with your connections should be done through a consistent authority voice.
When your connections hear about you from somebody else, and when they read it also in a book, and suddenly everywhere they go they see you…they will be experiencing the
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
Authority consistency is part of building trust.
Part of engaging the right emotions with your connections is making them feel like they know your brand and that your brand can be trusted.
When your connections get to know you, they will identify with you and your purpose.
And when your connections feel like they know you and can trust you, they will be more likely to consume your services or buy products from you and more likely to recommend you to others and send referrals to you.
Your authority consistency takes you to the next level in standing out yourself and with your services.
You’re no longer need to convince your relations and connections to buy your product from you and consume your service.
Your authority is so consistent, so synonymous with your name and level of services that when your connection sees your name again they are already thinking about you again and making their next interaction with (or purchase from) you without you even having to ask.
So now a question to you: what do you want to be known for? What makes you stand out? What gives you the competitive advantage over your peers?
Download my workbook [for free] here and answer all the relevant questions or schedule a strategy call here.
If you have any specific questions with regards to building your authority position and your personal brand or need our help in building your authority position and attract more of the right clients consistently, please send us an e-mail and share it with us. We definitely can help!
Your time to STAND OUT is NOW!
About the Author
Itzik Amiel is considered the global leading authority on Business Development, Business Networking & Personal Branding. He is a sought-after international speaker, trainer, business mentor, & attorney-at-law. He is also the bestselling author of “The Attention Switch” & Founder of THE SWITCH®, the global community for professionals to grow their practice.
Itzik teaches Lawyers and other professionals to attract and win their ideal clients by becoming seen as authorities in their field and to SWITCH their relations to Referrals+Revenue+Results.
If you want to get in touch with Itzik and to learn how can you build your Authority in your field, you can book a free discovery session with Itzik HERE
More information: itzikamiel.com or connect with Itzik via: info@itzikamiel.com