1.  Divorce Discourse by Lee Rosen: Who Should You Meet to Grow Your Business? Being a young lawyer, specifically a divorce and family lawyer this post really made a lot of sense to me and gives me some homework for the next few weeks.  Taking the time to talk to people who have “been there, done that” will give you a lot of inside perspective on what it takes to be great and to grow your business without making all of the same mistakes they did.

2.  NewSpring Church has done some amazing things over the last decade.  This year they are celebrating their 10 year anniversary.  As you may know from some of my writing on this site, I am really into church strategy and using video/digital media/technology in a church setting.  Few churches do that better than NewSpring.  I get a lot of inspiration from following what they do.  Here is a great After Effects video for their 10 Year Anniversary done by Ken Wilson:

The Best is Yet to Come (series opener) from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

3.  On weeks when I have a trial, I always seem to be drawn more closely in on my law practice and what I can do to improve it and make it better.  One of the blogs I follow, Legal Practice Pro written by Jay Fleishman touched on another topic that I am interested in – using video to market your law practice.  To boil the post down, Jay’s point was really that great/good legal marketing videos are great for your practice, but if you aren’t going to go all out or if you are just going to bore your potential clients to death you would be doing more harm than good.  It’s a great post and a great blog in general.  While I agree with the premise of the post in general, I want to make sure that lawyers who are considering using video are not automatically put off by this thought.  I’m a pretty introverted guy.  I don’t necessarily relish the times where I am in front of the camera or am the center of attention.  That may be you, but if you are practicing law that means you have clients.  If you are being retained by clients that means that they like you or they believe that you can resolve their legal problems.  If they are coming into your office and discussing their case with you and hiring you, then you can make video marketing work for you.  You just may have to work at it.

4. Streetwalking Lawyers of Aurura Avenue – Hilarious (hat tip Lawyers Video Studio)

Well, Christmas has come and gone.  I sincerely hope that you and your family were able to celebrate a wonderful Christmas holiday yesterday and remember that the real reason for the celebration is because of God’s gift of love he gave us, his son Jesus who died on the cross to save us from the penalty of sin.  In honor of Christmas and the winter season here in Greenville, SC I have chosen a photograph above of a beautiful Greenville site covered in snow (not at Christmas).

Without further delay, here is the stuff I liked this week:

During the Advent season we have really had some awesome services at Cross Roads Baptist Church.  The music, visuals, dramas, and messages have been outstanding.  Definitely true worship experiences.

One of my favorites services of the year is the candle-light service on Christmas eve where we share in communion as a family and have a peaceful celebration of Christ’s birth.

I hope you have somewhere to worship this Christmas where you can truly celebrate God’s love and Christ’s birth.

You can’t have a discussion of Christmas without Santa.  This video merges Santa and one of my favorite television shows, “24″.  Have you ever thought about what it would look like if Jack Bauer interrogated Santa?  Now you know:

Holiday Party Small Talk

I went to a little holiday gathering of some lawyers here in Greenville yesterday.  Doing those kind of things is essential to running a successful business and building a list of referral sources.  I always feel awkward at those kind of functions.  Never really sure what I’m supposed to say or what others are expecting from me.  Then, this morning I read a great post from fellow divorce lawyer, Lee Rosen, with some conversation tips for referral source meetings that can be used with slight modification at holiday gatherings.  Try it.

Photo Credit: Adam Drewes

Things are getting pretty excited around my house with Christmas coming up.  Our two year old loves Santa and is ready for Christmas to get here.  Even though he loves Santa, we know the real “reason for the season” – Jesus Christ.  And speaking of the Lord of Lord’s here is a video I saw this week of the “Silent Monks do the Hallelujah Chorus” – Enjoy!

One of the greatest – if not the greatest – athletes to don a Clemson University football uniform will be playing his final game as a Tiger on December 27.  Of course – it’s C. J. Spiller.  This week, C. J. was named as an All American by the Associated Press which makes him the first consensus All American from Clemson since 2006 when Gaines Adams won the honor.  Congratulations C. J. and thanks for the memories!  A good article here about C. J.’s AP All America Honors.

Tim Hawkins is hilarious and has an awesome song about one of my favorite restaurants – Chick-fil-a.

Church Online in Real Life Video from LifeChurch.tv – a visual look at what is going on in the Church Online chatroom.  I think online church is an awesome idea and a way to lower barriers to entry to church and reach people for Christ:

The Louder Trap from Tony Morgan – If everything we say is loud then it isn’t loud anymore.  If everything you do now is special, then it isn’t special any more.

Focus on a Niche and Be the Best You Can Be by Grant Griffiths at Blog for Profit.  Hopefully, by now it is clear that online and offline businesses need to focus down (at least their marketing efforts) into a niche to help identify and target prospects and customers.

3 Principles for Creating for Creating E-commerce Video that Sells from the guys are ReelSEO.com.  While this focuses more on using online video for retailers, the principles of (1) Motivation – what is motivating the shopper/prospective client to buy, (2) Simplicity/Ability – how can you simplify the process for someone to move from prospect to client , and (3) Triggers or call to action to let your prospects know what to do next.  These three steps can be applied to anyone wanting to use online video to increase their marketing efforts and offline-business.

One of my favorite professional athletes is NFL quarterback Peyton Manning.  Mainly because he’s helped my fantasy football team dominate over the last 6 or 7 years.  We see him in commercials and all over the place, but I came across a pretty awesome video this week that shows just how much influence he carries.

Our family lives and works in Greenville, South Carolina so we are proud to here that Greenville was selected as the 2nd best place to live for a “simple life.”  Check out the video here.

Read a great post at TonyMorganLive this week about web or print advertising.  Now Tony is a pastor and church consultant, but the message of this post is true for churches and attorneys alike.  He lives in Anderson and met with a real estate agent about selling his house.  The real estate agent basically told him that print advertising doesn’t work in Anderson and only the web advertising caused the buyers to turn out.  As an attorney, I am in an industry that really doesn’t want things to change.  There are still attorneys who don’t check their own e-mail.  Rather, they dictate e-mails to be sent out and have all e-mails sent to them printed and put on their desk like regular mail.  Advertising is the same way.  Most attorneys rely on the Yellow Pages and other forms of print advertising and simply put up a brochure website as their “online presence.”