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If your firm feels one good decision away from a breakthrough, then this is for you. We're hosting our first mastermind of 2026 in Phoenix on February 26th and 27th, and it's two days designed to actually move your firm forward and grow who you are as a leader. Day one is a full day of hot seats where you break into groups and work through the real problems in your business. Day two is our wellness workshop, featuring sessions that help you boost your energy, lower stress, and think more clearly. We have Jocelyn and Erin Freeman, host of a top 10 marriage podcast and masters in psychology, teaching relationship skills that you'll use at work and at home. A lunch and learn on habit formation with Tyson and more. View the full event details and grab your seat@maxflow events.com.

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This is Maximum Lawyer with your host, Tyson Mutrix. Hey, guys, let's bring some energy into this room. Hey. Who is excited to talk about swag and who loves swag? Like, raise your hand. All right, well, guess what? We got some swag. Everybody gets swag. You get some swag. Everybody gets swag. So. And we're passing out some bags.

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So.

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I'm talking about this today because I love different types of marketing. We hear a lot about AI and we hear a lot about digital marketing. But getting back to actual physical things that we put in people's hands and the nerves holy. When we physically put things in our hands, we are. We're actually, like, putting our names out there. So what is swag anyway? Swag stands for stuff we all get. But as Dwight Schrute says here, that is false. You want to make sure that the swag that you're giving out makes you feel special or makes other people feel special. So these are promotional items, branded merchandise, gifts for clients, and referral sources. That's supposed to say apparel, but it could have some appeal, I guess, but it gives. It's about brand recognition. So there are so many times that you get things that you're like, oh, this is fun, or this is not fun. So what we're talking about today is how you use swag in a way that is going to actually be utilized in a way that sets you apart. So when you're. When you're deciding what you're going to buy, what you're going to produce and hand out, you want to identify your audience. So we all have different practice areas, and so you have to kind of figure out exactly what is your target audience. So when you're doing that, we are going to look at different areas of where this, the promotional items that you're giving out are going to have an impact. The first thing we're going to talk about is community visibility. But before go back when you, you got to figure out what your target audience is first. So this, this website here is a website that is done by like the promotional items industry. Like, there's a whole industry for promotional items. So if you can go to this website, you can look up all of the different types of demographics that you can look at in terms of what people like. So you, you've got here we've got demographics based upon generations. They also have demographics on gender and regions and things. So this is a really good resource to be able to kind of figure out based upon your exact audience, who you're targeting, what kind of stuff they actually like. So, you know, the younger generations tend to like tech stuff and drinkware and things like that. And the older generations are gonna take a polo shirt every day of the week. So take a, you know, take a peek here if you're like trying to figure out what exactly you want to buy and what you want to produce with your branded merchandise. One of the questions I get asked a lot when I talk about this is where do you get it? So this map here kind of shows like regions of where like your promotional items distributors are from. And each one of these little organizations there in each of your regions is like a good resource. So if you don't have a promotional items distributor that you actually work with on a regular basis, you can always go to like one of these organizations like from Minnesota. UMAP is the organization that does a lot of the promotional items things in our area. Using a promotional items distributor is actually one of the coolest things that I've done in terms of sourcing these types of items. So I work with a gal, she, all she does is different types of promotional items. So anything from pens all the way to Bluetooth speakers and really nice bags, things like that, she can source all of those things. It is a really great idea if you are going to be producing some of this stuff, to use a promotional items distributor. One of the reasons why you want to do that is because they also can get you good pricing, but they're also experts in your area. So just like our clients come to us because we're experts in the legal field, a promotional items distributor is an expert. So they're going to say, okay, if you want to buy umbrellas, for instance, they'll give you 15 different places that you could source that from different items. Different price ranges. They can tell you the latest and greatest new things. One of the things I learned from her is that Europe got really mad at Apple for changing their charging ports. So they changed, they passed some, I don't know, what do you call it internationally, but they passed something that said you can't change out the plugs on your charging ports. So that was something I learned from her. And it's also just something that was really helpful in determining like, you know, it was just a neat little tip that I learned from her that I wouldn't normally have known. There's also lots of different websites that you can go to that have customization if you are interested in. We'll get to what's in the swag bags that were passed out, but there's some stickers in there and they're. I'll. I'll show you those in a little bit. Little bit. But those stickers came directly from a website. So you can do customization on, on websites but also using your local businesses. So for instance, like if you're gonna get do apparel for your company, sometimes you might wanna buy like a really nice North Face jacket or something like that. If you go through your promotional items distributor, they can get those so that they're easier to print on and then you can just get them in bulk and then take them to like a local business or a local embroiderer or something like that to be able to get your logo put on them. So how do you make sure that your swag doesn't end up in the trash? This picture is, is literally from my home. My husband came back from a conference in Indianapolis. He's in the hearing health industry and he dumped this stuff in the trash because it was cheap sunglasses that broke on the way home from his trip. This weird little squeezy thing that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. So how do you make sure that you, your the promotional items that you spend money on and you want to get your name out there don't end up in the trash. So first is high quality. Make sure that you're the best that you can. Make sure that it's high quality. Now sometimes we're working on a budget and that's a consideration for sure. But if you are giving people things high quality, they're going to keep them. Make sure that they're practical, useful. It's something that people will keep. Right. It's really again going back to working with my distributor. One of the things in the promotional space that is really Important right now is sustainability, because this is all gonna. We don't want it to end up in the trash. And if it does end up in the trash, we want it to be something that's recyclable or something that's more sustainable. Your swag should be impactful. Should be something that is. It's an eye catcher or it's in some way something that people will remember. Okay. And stylish. So this is my favorite part about talking about this subject, is community visibility. So when we think about what we're gonna do in terms of providing promotional items to folks, don't always think about, like, what can I give somebody? Use it as an opportunity for brand recognition. So I've shown you here these on this slide. This is a wine glass that we designed for our firm in 2019, and we do criminal defense and family law. So we've got this clever little saying on here, defending poor decisions. Right? So I. I took a couple of cases of these wine glasses to one of our local restaurants and bars, and I said, hey, would you guys use these? And they said, absolutely. So they took them and they started using them. And then I was like, well, this is kind of fun. So I just went to, like, all the bars and all the restaurants, and I think right now they're in about 12 different bars and restaurants in my local area. We have people all the time call and say, hey, we saw your wine glass at the Mill Creek Inn, or we saw your wine glass here. Or I get friends or family that will send me pictures that they've. They saw the wine glasses in some different restaurant. So thinking outside of the box in terms of what kind of, like, out. Thinking outside of the box of, like, things that you can do to have more community visibility. So, like, for us, we did the wine glasses, but there are. There are quite a few different things that you could do, and I'm going to go through some examples of that. So we're looking at some of the ideas here, but we'll start with the golf towel. Now, I'm sure almost everybody in this room has been approached at some point to sponsor a golf tournament, or you're going to sponsor a whole of the golf tournament, right? Instead of sponsoring that hole for $600 or whatever it is, go buy $600 worth of golf towels that have your logo on them and then hand those out, because those golf towels are going to end up in that golf bag for a long time. And so when you're thinking about community visibility and the things that you can do to provide this to the community. Think about stuff that you wouldn't probably buy for yourself, but you're not going to get rid of. So, for instance, like the golf towel or an umbrella, like, everybody needs an umbrella, but nobody is ever going to want to go buy an umbrella. And if you go back to some of the, the demographic stuff and the sourcing of the promotional items, an umbrella is actually one of the most popular things that people do for branding. Like here we've got the little first aid kit. Those end up in your glove compartment, in your purse. And so those are something that you. They always come in handy. Here is also like this really cool little cooler, that mirror or it doubles as a stadium chair so you can bring it to your kids games and things like that. The one on the bottom here is a little adapter. That one is really cool because I've needed that in trial many times. So that can stay in your briefcase and be used multiple times. Now, the difference between doing things for your community or getting your name out there and brand recognition, there's the second part of this is what do you give to clients and referral sources? When you are giving items to clients or referral sources, do not put your name on it. They don't want your name on stuff. So when you're getting to know your clients and referral sources, start to make some notes, mental notes about what they like, get to know them, ask some questions and make some notes about that. And then you can use that to take like for instance, this one here with the. These are like wine bags. So usually you give wine to people. You go to the liquor store, you buy the little bag and you put the wine in it and it gets thrown away. This one is like a suede leather and it's really nice. And it's something that you can personalize with a monogram or something like that. Turkish towels are amazing. Everybody can use those in tons of different ways. But just make sure that when you're giving things to referral sources or clients, you really want them to feel special. You really want them to think, oh, they put in the extra effort to give me this thing. And so, for instance, I give out swag all the time to my employees. And we did one Christmas party where I made. I had personalized knives made. And it said like Chef Olson or Thorson on it. And that's something that even years down the line you're going to use, but you're not going to say. It's not going to say Olson Law on it. It's going to say their name and then, and they're going to remember you. So then lastly we have the swag bags. So if you guys want to take a minute to take a peruse through that really quick, we've got these cups that I had personalized for this conference. And then inside the cups are these UV transfer stickers. So this is a really, really, really good way for you to do things on a budget. So like, if you don't have a lot of money to put into promotional items, you can buy these stickers. So like 13 cents and you, you put them on, there's like, you put it on the front and then you peel it off and so it actually looks like a vinyl transfer. And they're dishwasher safe. You can put them on cups, you can put them on notebooks, you can do whatever. So like that's another really cool way that you can personalize things for your firm and in a cost effective way. And then lastly, there in your bags there, there's a little temporary tattoo. So if you guys want to dig in there and find that a temporary tattoo says talk to my lawyer and it has a QR code on it that takes you to my website. And I hand those out anywhere where people get drunk and disorderly. So you know, you just think about where your audience is and like those temporary tattoos are so cheap, but they're super impactful and everybody loves them. So with, with that, that's what I got about swag. Thank you.