Is it possible that music can increase your business? Can you use it to build your revenues?

Quick story –

Two weeks ago I spoke in Asheville, North Carolina to a group of nearly 300 lawyers.

I got to the room early to set up my computer for the presentation. Thankfully, the setup went smoothly. They had a great AV guy on the scene.

Suddenly, I had an extra hour to kill. I was sitting there chatting with my co-presenter.

While we were chatting, I put on some R&B music I had on the Mac. We were tapping our toes while we talked.

Then I had an idea. I decided to plug the audio cable into the Mac. Suddenly the ballroom was filled with Aretha Franklin. Fantastic.

People started to come in. I left the music on. The attendees were chatting with one another and we kept cranking up the volume.

The event organizer came in to the room right before it was time to start. She’d been out at the registration table. She was blown away by what she found.

The music was blaring. People were smiling and chatting. It was a party.

She pointed out how different the atmosphere was compared to the usual pre-CLE program atmosphere. She loved it.

After the program, a bunch of attendees came up to chat and ask questions. As I moved through the lobby everybody was in a great mood, thanking us for the program. This was a stark contrast to the program we had done a week earlier, without the music. Fascinating.

I’ll be using the music going forward. Of course, this isn’t really a radical idea. It’s what happens at most non-lawyer presentations, most of the time. But, for lawyers, it was really different.

This experience got me thinking about the impact of music on my practice.

We have music in our lobby. We get comments all the time about how peaceful it is out there. I suspect the music is a big part of that.

We’ve got music on hold on our phone system. I’ve had people ask me to put them back on hold so they can listen some more.

I’m thinking about how we can use music in other ways.

What about you? What are you doing with music that might make a difference in your practice? Any ideas? Leave your comments below so we can learn from one another.