This week I am meeting with lawyers in Dallas and Los Angeles and kicking off coaching programs that will last throughout 2016.

One of the things I will share with them is the importance of being considered a leader in their fields of law. I believe that more than anything else requires that they figure out what will impact their clients before other lawyers and be the first to share the information with those clients.

I strongly recommend that this not be done by sending an email blast to 1000 people.

Seth Godin, the marketing guru, agrees. In Interview: Seth Godin on marketing on the web, he says: “

Marketing is no longer about interrupting the masses with unanticipated spam: ads about average products for average people. Instead, marketing is about leading tribes – groups of people who want to go somewhere.

What is a tribe? In his book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, Godin describes a tribe this way:

A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.

I believe I was able to connect a group of highway and bridge contractors together through my monthly column in Roads and Bridges magazine and my many presentations for state and national contractor associations. But, I am not the only one who was able to make that kind of connection.

A lawyer I coached a couple of years ago did a great job of leading a tribe of her industry based clients. Instead of an email blast, she personalizes her email with the latest developments in her industry. For several weeks she sent me responses she received from clients and contacts. Frequently, she received requests from others in the company asking to be added to her list.

She added value by keeping her clients and potential clients informed on the latest news. Her clients clearly found her emails valuable and they told her so. As important, they forwarded her email to others.

Think about it: What tribe can you lead? How can you best add value?