BusinessLawGuy's Blog

We all take inspiration from different people, actions, inaction, etc. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere and sometimes from surprising places. When it does you need to be ready to notice and process what it means to you. 

For instance, I find inspiration for various blog posts I’ve written from many different sources, many unexpected. The sources include a random comment on a podcast, something one of my children says, and once, from a comment made by an announcer about a snowboarder who had won a gold medal in the Olympics. You never know when it will hit you or where it will come from, but you know it once it does. 

Earlier this year I read about an 8 year old who has unexpectedly inspired other children. Dillon Helbig, who is from Boise, Idaho, is a second grader who wrote a book and then hid it on a library shelf. This action resulted in there being a waiting list to check out his hand written book and other children wanting to write stories and books too. The whole story is great (and easy to find on the Internet).  And now other children want to write. How cool!

Where will your next inspiration come from? There is no way to know. All you have to do is be open to it. Looking for it can work for some, but many times it comes out of left field and is a surprise. Next time you’re inspired will you act, or let the opportunity pass you by?

As has been said by Eric Dewey of eLegal Training, Networking is about knowing more people; connecting is about knowing people more. The distinction is obvious. You know a lot of people professionally and personally, but you actually are connected to only a fraction of those you know.

When you are at a business, social or charitable event, you likely run into many people you know. With many of these people, you will know them “socially” or “professionally”, which is a way of saying you know them, who they are, but are not deeply connected with them and have no investment in their successes or failures.

I think a good example is a small town of say 1,000 people. In a small town, you are likely to know everyone else who lives there. At the same time, you will not be connected with 999 other people. Maybe you are connected with 40-70. This is because connection requires a deeper relationship than simply meeting someone. It involves time, mutual respect, and participation in the relationship by both people to become more than mere acquaintances.

Another good example is LinkedIn. I have approximately 16,000 connections on LinkedIn. But it would be more truthful to say I am networked with approximately 16,000 people on LinkedIn because it is not possible for me to be connected to that many people. If I went through that list, maybe I am actually connected to 100 to 200 of those people, maybe more, but nowhere near 16,000. It’s just not possible.

True connections make up your community. People in communities care about their connections’ success and have a relationship built on mutual respect and trust. Respect and trust have to be earned before someone in your network becomes an actual connection. It takes time and work on the part of both people.

Once you have a connection, you will learn more about each other, be interested in transfer of knowledge and information, and care about each other’s successes (and failures). When you reach this level with another person you add another layer to the community you are building.

Through your networking activities you should have a goal to find people to connect with. By identifying possible connections and forging new relationships you will strengthen the foundation of your community and build the type of community you want to be a part of. These types of mutually beneficial relationships involve real connection and make your life far more interesting.

We all have a pitch to make and the need to do so comes up all of the time. Many times you are making a pitch unconsciously because it can be second nature for some. Think about how good your pitch could be if you actually thought about what you want to say in a given situation.

A pitch is about conveying information to one or more people to obtain a desired result. It can be to a potential client or customer, a potential investor, or a new potential connection.

It is hard work to come up with a pitch. In most situations you will lose the other person’s attention unless you have a short and to the point pitch. This is why people reference the thirty second elevator speech.

So how is your pitch? Is it good? Do you have different pitches for different situations? Spending time thinking about this or outlining pitches is time spent investing in yourself.

You should practice your pitch, including to others you know and trust to provide honest feedback. It isn’t as easy as you may think, but it’s worth it. You want your pitch to come out sounding natural. That’s why you need to practice both alone and in front of other people. Take and listen to constructive criticism and then see where your new pitch can lead you!

So what should you do?  Work on a pitch by thinking of your audience and the message you want to convey.  Don’t make it too long or use words people generally won’t know the meaning of, i.e. dumb it down so whoever you are speaking to will understand what you are saying. By doing so you will avoid your audience thinking about what a word meant and missing the next part of what you are saying.

After practicing, use your new pitch. See what works and feels comfortable. This will allow you to continually revise it to be the best version for the moment and have the best chance for your pitch to be successful.

I recently came across a good quote I hadn’t read in quite a long time and it spoke to something I agree with, which is the importance of being a lifetime learner. I was cleaning out some old emails and the quote was in an email from a friend. The quote brought to mind a truth: continuous learning and training makes for a better and more interesting life and work place.

The quote is “Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.”  It is by Buckminster Fuller, who has been described as an American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, critic of work, and futurist. What an interesting description for a man who, among many other activities and accomplishments, was a prolific writer, invented the geodesic dome, and was a president of Mensa, the organization for people with genius level IQs. I think his quote is correct on many levels. 

We all have potential, but realizing potential takes work, continuous work.  We all know intelligent people who are disinterested in learning or otherwise do not apply themselves, evidencing the truth that intelligence is not a predictor of success. Learning and applying yourself provides a better chance of improvement, let alone success.

The time to step up is today. It already is February, but it’s not too late to come up with a plan. What should you learn? Well that depends on what you do and what will help you do what you do. The first step you should take is to come up with ideas and make a choice on the first step based on what speaks to you. This could be reading a business book, taking a course online or at a local community college, or finding a mentor. The options are endless and depend on you to make the choice.

Do something, because the right choice is to do something and stop the de-genius process!

I’m not asking what about your return on investment. I’m asking what about your ripple of impact. How does who you are and what you do impact others and your community? If you don’t think this matters you are being shortsighted and missing the market.

Your impact on others reflects on you. Do you serve as a formal or informal mentor? Do you treat people kindly? Do you volunteer in your community? These activities matter. They help you, those around you, and your community. Mentoring younger or less experienced people at your company will make your people and company better. Treating people well rubs off and others are more likely to do the same. Volunteering on a non-profit board or at an event does good for those in need and lifts up your community. Of course there are many other examples, but I think you get the point.

What you do matters in both small and large ways. You never know when a simple positive action you take will result in someone else doing something amazing that wouldn’t have happened otherwise . It’s like looking at timing or a missed opportunity or realizing most times you won’t know when an opportunity has been lost. If you regularly behave in a manner that results in return based on your impact you won’t have to wonder because even if you don’t know for sure, good things are likely to happen.

Discipline helps you get done what you plan and need to each day. This is part of doing what you say you’re going to do. This provides stability because it allows others to know how you act or respond in various situations.

This could be my clients knowing I try to return or respond to calls and emails within 24 hours at the outside, or that when they are communicating with me I’m focused on them and whatever they are dealing with. They are not my only clients, but I can make them feel like they are by exercising discipline to focus on them and their issues.

It’s my understanding the single biggest complaint made to the Arizona State Bar by clients is attorneys not timely communicating with them or responding to communications. This is such a simple thing even when you’re busy. When hyperfocused on a project we all need a break. When I am doing this, I often calendar time every hour or so to review emails and voicemails, as well as responding to a few for 10-30 minutes. It allows you to give that strong focus a break and stay up on what is happening in real time. Doing this takes discipline and planning and, for me, has bee a work in progress for years. Done in the right manner your other clients will never think about you spending most of your day focused on other clients’ matters because you timely respond to and interact with them.

These type of actions make you look stable and your business static no matter what you do for a living. Of course there will be times you can’t do this, but, with discipline, you can adjust. It you’re in trial, in a closing, or on vacation you can let clients with pending matters know ahead of time you won’t be able to respond as fast as usual. You can set up an out of office reminder for email and change your voicemail message too. Setting expectations generally and in relation to your current goings on will prevent misunderstandings and frustrations on the part of others.

The point is for you to determine where you can use discipline in your daily routine and work. Even when you think you have discipline, spend time thinking about how you can improve. We all can if we try.

I saw this somewhere in the last few weeks and it rang true to me. The choices we make define us, always. Some may be smaller and some larger, but together they show who you are. Sometimes the choices that seem smaller show more than you think because they are choices you make on a daily basis.

How long do you take to return phone calls or emails? If you’re like me, you receive a large number of calls and emails. It’s easy to tell yourself you will get to them when you get to them. But in my case the calls and emails mainly are from clients, opposing counsel, and potential clients. If I delay responding to clients, how do you think they will feel about it? Maybe they will think they and their issues aren’t a priority compared with other client’s matters. If I delay responding to opposing counsel it delays whatever I’m working on for my client. And clients want matters moving forward toward resolution or completion. If I delay responding to a potential client, I likely will not be retained and they will find another attorney to work with. This is an example of day to day choices you can choose to deal with in a manner that reflects well on you or not.

Of course big decisions are easy to look to because, well, they’re big decisions. I think big decisions rest on the shoulders of the small decisions that lead to the need to make a big decision. By this I mean the daily choices you make define you and will align with the big decisions you make later on because such choices will be seen as being in line with how you consistently act in making any type of decision. In most situations those who really know you would likely guess the decision you would make given the potential choices. This is because your choices define you.

If upon reflection you think you need to make changes to your day to day decisions and how they reflect on you, make a plan. You can change how you do things and the choices you make. It will be hard, but what important choices aren’t.

This sounds so easy, but can be much harder in practice. You know you have said things, likely out loud, when driving and some car cut you off. Maybe you would say it to the person when you end up next to each other at a traffic light or not. People who do are risking their life because they let their emotions get the best of them. Other situations may not have the physical risks of road rage, but they instead have personal and professional risks.

This easily can happen in the workplace, whether with co-workers or, if you deal with them like I do, opposing attorneys. When dealing with a jerk it can be hard to stop yourself from reacting. Before acting on emotion, try to think whether how you really want to respond will (1) benefit you; (2) reflect on you; (3) affect your dealings with the jerk in the future; and, if applicable, help you help your client. If you do this it’s likely you will not be baited to respond in kind. It may even make the jerk realize they’re not getting a rise out of you and they may mellow out then or in future dealings.

Keeping emotions in check can be difficult. If you know it is for you, you should come up with strategies to help you when you find yourself in a situation where being a jerk is an option (which really means in any communication you have with anyone). Examples could include nicely exiting the conversation, taking deep breaths while the other person is speaking (obviously works best if you’re on the phone or dealing with written communications), or come up with a catchphrase or mantra you can tell yourself with the hope to de-escalate the situation or conversation. Maybe you can use “serenity now” like Frank Costanza on Seinfeld:

The point is to not let yourself be drawn into situations that can reflect badly on you, your co-workers, or your client. It may feel good in the moment to yell back or insult someone, but once the moment passes it probably will be something you wish you had handled better.

Monday night I watched the college football National Championship game between Alabama and Georgia. You probably know (or in case you don’t) Georgia won after it looked like their quarterback fumbled away the game with around 11 minutes to go in the game by playing great defense and the quarterback stepping up and seemingly willing his team’s offense to play better. Why am I telling you this? Because after Georgia won, quarterback Stetson Bennett was interviewed and in response to how he lead his team back he said “Just keep fighting. Keep your mouth shut. Work hard. Life is tough, you just have to fight through it.” That’s right, wisdom from the mouth of a 23 year old college quarterback that applies to all of us.

He could have given up after his costly mistake. He let his team down, as well as himself. When the camera showed him you could tell he was upset. But the next time he had the ball in his hands he went 3-3 in passing taking his team 76 yards in 4 plays for a touchdown to retake the lead. Of course football is a team sport and the defense stepped up and did its part too.

Most of us work on teams and know you need all hands on deck to be successful. What if one of your team members isn’t pulling their weight? They could be lazy, still learning, or just out sick. Do you focus on that or do you see the deadline looming and rally the team to stop complaining and get the work done? There are times you just have to fight through the noise and focus with the end in mind.

Maybe your the team member letting others down. Maybe you have something going on in your personal life or are unhappy you were passed over for a promotion given to someone you think didn’t deserve it over you. Whatever is happening, focus and fight your way through. Complaining about anything is noise and distraction, and will never get you your desired result. Passed over for the promotion? Show them why they made a mistake through your actions. It goes further than telling someone they were wrong and will have better results in the future.

We all have moments we can choose to sit down and wait for the next chance or fight, keep our mouth shut, and work hard. It’s obviously better to be recognized as someone who will not give up in the face of adversity. Whoever your work helps will notice, be it co-workers and superiors, clients, or someone else. Doing so may not result in you holding a national championship trophy like Stetson, but odds are you will feel just as good by knowing you gave your all and did the best you can.

I heard someone say this on a podcast and it stuck with me. It is a way to reframe the narrative of change as we enter the new year or at any time. The point is to spend more time looking forward than obsessing on the past.

Did you have a good 2021 professionally? If so, will you keep doing what you did or seek to improve on your success? If not, will you spend time thinking of what could or should have been, or spend more time looking to make 2022 a better year. I’m talking about a mindset, which is in your power and under your control.

This doesn’t mean assessing past success or failure is a waste of time or not helpful. Of course it is. You can learn from either. But once you make assessments, look at how it relates to what you do next instead of dwelling on past achievements or lack thereof. Looking forward keeps your eyes on the path you are taking.

Life is continuing road and narrative. You get to decide whether you’re the narrator or someone else is. If you don’t plan the road ahead of you the future will happen anyway, and it likely will be driven and narrated by others instead of you.

Take control of what is your story. Learn from your successes and failures or observing those of others around you, but know you’re not held hostage by what has happened in the past. You have the choice to make the new year or any time good. It means you have to take action, look forward, and act to make good things happen.