Legally On The Move: Strategy, Scaling, Sunshine and Success from Ibiza – Jodie Hill – E3

You can hear Rob and Jodie discussing:

– How Burnout in Law Requires Systematic Change

Connect with Jodie here:

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jodie-hill-lawyer

https://www.thrivelaw.co.uk/

Transcript

00:00

What happens when you gather the UK’s boldest legal minds on a sun-drenched retreat in Ibiza and press record?

00:07

Welcome to the Lawyers’ Retreat mini-series, a special edition of the Legally Speaking podcast sponsored by Clio.

00:13

We’ve partnered with the visionaries behind the Lawyers’ Retreat, the wonderful Kate Burr and Kirsty Papin to bring you real, unfiltered conversations from Carla Carbo, where strategy, succession and scaling and sunshine meet.

00:28

This isn’t your average CPD,It’s leadership with a view, innovation with a cocktail, and well-being with purpose.

00:35

You’ll hear from trailblazers rethinking the legal playbook with episodes recorded poolside, mic hike, and even post-yoga.

00:44

2025 is our year of 10Xing the show.

00:47

This mini-series is just the beginning.

00:49

So let’s get into it.

00:55

Welcome to the Legally Speaking podcast, recording live here in Ibiza.

00:59

What an incredible view.

01:00

Name, title and organisation?

01:02

Whitney Williams, founder of PR by Whitney.

01:05

Ah, and I absolutely loved your session earlier today, but for those that weren’t here, tell us all about it.

01:10

So today’s session was in regards to, well, basically how I’ve transitioned from traditional PR to digital PR and learning everyone of why they should be platforming themselves as the leaders and theof digital PR.

01:26

Yeah, absolutely.

01:27

And you’re doing some really good work specifically for the lawyers.

01:30

Obviously we’re recording live here at the Lawyers Retreat.

01:32

Why do you think now is the right time for law firm owners and lawyers to be taking their PR strategy seriously?

01:39

Because the way of communications, especially digital, going back to traditional PR, it used to just be your press release and a lot of law firms, you just submit press releases to get their communications out there.

01:49

You now have the opportunity to, at the click of a button, reach a global scale.

01:55

positioning themselves as the leaders that they are, the go-to experts, not just for the media, new recruits, better careers.

02:04

Yeah, and you were giving loads of practical and tactical tips during your talk, and I saw everyone scribbering down frantically with notes, but I guess if you were to give our audience two or three things they could think about immediately, what would you say to those that are starting from zero when it comes to PR?

02:18

Okay, so if I was a law person and I was going down the LinkedIn route to platformMyself, I’d be talking to the audience in a way that I’m hitting the pain points before they have to come and ask.

02:30

Okay, so answering any frequently asked questions, any outcomes or results-driven that you’ve done for a client recently, problem solved.

02:40

And then, adding value to the platform itself, what key topics or insights can you give within the industry?

02:45

Yeah, I love that, and it’s like you say, it’s so relevant to that particular individual.

02:50

Specific is terrific, and again, you were highlighting that really great earlier on.

02:55

Why do you think…

02:56

retreats like this are particularly important, not just for the legal industry, but for cross industries.

03:02

Why are you deciding to be here?

03:05

Obviously we’ve been the PR agency on the Lawyers Retreat, but I’ve learned so much from this.

03:11

We’ve stepped, well me and my business partner Christian, we’ve stepped away from the office environment, stepped away from the day-to-day activities and just reflected, we’ve learned from the strategic coach, Maya,and the sessions that have been going on with the legals as well.

03:28

Yeah, it has been incredible, isn’t there?

03:30

There’s a real energy attached to it.

03:32

What’s one thing that has surprised you being here?

03:37

Just how much everyone, especially like leaders within a firm, all the business owners themselves, all have the same struggles.

03:45

Like we did a reflection session yesterday and it was about time, relationships and things like that andI could really relate to every single person there.

03:57

And everyone was on about, like this retreat specifically, it’s helped everyone come away, reflect, learn, to come back, go back and grow.

04:06

Yeah, and that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?

04:08

Sort of unplugging to plug back in and to be even, you know, a real power in the pause and coming back even stronger.

04:14

You observe obviously a lot of law firms, lawyers online probably doing things incorrectly.

04:20

What are some of the top two or three things you see that are done regularlythat are not so good best practice when it comes to PR that you would want them to fix immediately.

04:28

I know one thing you were saying is, you know, showing an element of vulnerability because it can’t all be sunshine and rainbows.

04:35

Even if you are meant to be this perfect law firm, projecting that image isn’t always right.

04:39

No, 100%.

04:39

It’s all about being authentic and being transparent.

04:42

As I said in the session with us, I’ve got this company up through platforming everything on LinkedIn, literally from the sales and I sold my eyes to start again.

04:54

Challenges, challenging mums, the minute that you’re authentic on those, the minute that people…

05:00

buy into you and build the trust and you build a community around you, you become relatable, you’re adding personality out there because so many people can go on there and shout about the wins, everything’s going really good and then you don’t speak about the challenges or your career, what have you struggled with in your career or anything like that?

05:18

The minute that you do get vulnerable…

05:20

Which is hard, and not many people do do it, but the minute you get vulnerable, I believe, you build that trust.

05:28

And then you start to form a community because people start to relate to you, people will start to engage with you more.

05:33

Yeah, and you also talked in your talk as well, obviously you’re building on platforms like LinkedIn, but that’s obviously one route as well.

05:41

You’re talking about building audiences, maybe other ways, you know, newsletters or emails.

05:45

Do you want to talk a little bit more about that, again, what law firms might be needing to think about from a PR strategy?

05:50

Lincoln is good to position yourselves as a leader, as an expert and the go-to.

05:55

Not only will that help you pick up the press, but you could be expert commentary for legal news or insights, what’s going on in the current position of the world, anything that you could jump on with like Newsjack and we discussed that.

06:10

e-mail marketing, making sure that you’re regularly being seen, other platforms, making sure that you’re not just visible on the one, checking out where your audience is on a regular basis, anything like that.

06:21

And as Luke said, Google, updating your Google pages.

06:25

Yeah.

06:26

And again, if people are struggling with all of that, how can they get in touch with you and what’s the best way to do that?

06:33

Feel free to share any social media handles and any website links and obviously we’ll share them with us episode 2.

06:38

Thank you.

06:40

Find us on LinkedIn, Whitney Williams or PRbyWhitney or the website is www.prbywhitney.co.uk There we go, it just leaves me to say thank you so much for joining me in Ibiza for this incredible interview with a stunning backdrop.

06:54

Absolutely love everything you’re doing and you’ve been a fantastic obviously partner with Katie and Kirsty over at the Lawyers Retreat and hope to see you many more but for now from all of us on the Leagues Beam podcast, over and out.

07:03

Thank you.

07:04

Thank you for listening to this week’s episode.

07:07

If you like the content here, why not check outour world leading content and collaboration hub, the Legally Speaking Club over on Discord.

07:16

Go to our website www.legallyspeakingpodcast.com for the link to join our community there.

07:24

Over and out.