When it comes to resolutions for personal improvement, it is a toss-up for me whether I’m most ambitious around New Year’s Day or Labor Day. I’ve never really shaken that “back to school” feeling of September being the start of a “new year” – with all of the new & improved routines that entails. With that in mind, the latest episode of the “Mentorship Matters with Dave & Liz” podcast is very well-timed for anyone who is recommitting to “business development” improvements this fall.

In it, Dave and I had a helpful conversation with Stefanie Marrone – who is a Client Development Director at Goodwin and runs The Social Media Butterfly blog – about “building your network & personal brand.” Let me tell you, I have a lot of room for improvement on this topic! But Stefanie breaks it down to be fun and manageable. In this 37-minute episode, we discussed:

1. How mentors have shaped Stefanie’s career, including her views on building a personal brand and the power of social media.

2. Why it is important for attorneys to focus on building a personal brand, and key brand-building steps to take at any stage of their career.

3. How to use LinkedIn and other forms of social media to build a personal brand and develop business as an attorney.

4. Common mistakes that lawyers make on LinkedIn, and how can they fix those mistakes to become “power users.”

5. Steps young lawyers can take to build their professional network in a way that will ultimately be useful to them for business development as a more senior lawyer.

6. How Stefanie’s LinkedIn presence has changed her life and career, and key lessons we can learn from her success with social media.

Thank you to everyone who has been listening to the podcast and sending feedback, and thanks to the terrific guests who have joined us so far! If you have a topic that your think we should cover or guest who you think would be great for the podcast, feel free to contact Dave or me by LinkedIn or email.

Also remember that members can listen to all of the podcasts from TheCorporateCounsel.net team & friends on our archives page! We’ve posted over two dozen episodes this year – and there are a lot of timeless classics to revisit from prior years as well.

– Liz Dunshee