Need More "Work" to Do?
Hugh MacLeod has a great idea for juicing your creativity:
I've been trying to do this for a while now, and it is starting to pay off. I'm finishing up the e-book and stretching myself to be creative in different ways. Give it a try!
Tags: creativity, gapingvoid, homann
In San Francisco Next Week? Come to VizThink!
I've not written much about my work at XPLANE on this blog - ok, I've not written much of anything, lately -- but I'm really enjoying my work at "The Visual Thinking Company." I've had an amazing time working with some really amazing clients. One of the super cool things I'm going to be doing happens next week at VizThink, a conference for visual thinkers that takes place in next week San Francisco from January 27-29th. I'm going to be facilitating several visual "icebreakers" for the 325+ attendees before each of the plenary sessions. I'll also be hanging out a lot after the sessions, so if you are in the S.F. area, give me a call on my cell 314-541-6412 or email me if you'd like to meet up.
One more thing. Here's a Slideshare presentation about why you should go. Enjoy!
Tags: vizthink, xplane, visualthinking, homann
Remind Your Clients of Their Apointments
Here's an interesting (and free) application called Oh, Don't Forget ... that allows you to send a future text message to any phone at at predetermined date and time. Use it to send yourself reminders, or to remind your clients when they are supposed to show up for court, appointments, etc.
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Spending My Vacation on You
Now that I'm at XPLANE, I've got some real, honest-to-goodness vacation time to use. So, during the next two weeks, instead of catching up on my usual resolution series, I'm going to be putting together an e-book that will capture "The Best Of" this blog. I've been working on it for a while, and I'm really excited about how it is coming along. I'll be sharing it with you right after the New Year. Happy Holidays!
Big News Coming Tomorrow
I've got some big resolution-themed news coming Monday. Until then, make sure you spend an hour or two with the NY Times Magazine's annual Year in Ideas issue.
NPR = Free Music
Have eclectic tastes in music? Want some free? Check out NPR Music. It is an amazing treasure-trove of cool concerts, studio sessions, musician interviews and profiles. Awesome!
Whenever I'm looking for something new (or old) it goes right up there on my "to check out list" with Wolfgang's Vault.
Some Hiring Advice for Clients
If you are hiring (or advising a client who will be), take a look at these 30 Interview Questions You Can't Ask (and the accompanying sneaky legal alternatives you can ask to get the same info).
A "Business Card" for Litigators
Do your clients think you are full of hot air? Here's a business card that might just prove them right:
Check out several other cool "cards" here.
Ideate for the Holidays
Church Marketing Sucks continues a great series on Lessons in Not Sucking with this post on Building an Ideation Team. There are some absolutely great tips in the post, including: "Invite People You Don't Like," and "Invite People with Unusual Professions." Read the post, and then think about ways to do a firm-wide ideation session at your holiday party this year. That's right, gather up some of your people and your clients and spend a bit of time thinking of ways to get better as a firm -- perhaps by focusing on what your top-ten firm resolutions for 2008 should be. You might be surprised at the result.
STL Blogger Meetup II
There's another STL blogger meetup set for December 14th at Lewelyn's Pub in Webster Groves, Mo. It starts at 6:30 pm. The last one was a blast. Though I'll arrive late, I hope to see you there.
Some Great Tips for Keeping In Touch
Over at 43 Folders, they share some great tips from the late Leslie Harpold on keeping in in touch. There are some great client-focused tips in there. Here's my favorite:
2. Send Thank You notes. When you receive something from someone else, it’s important to let them know you appreciate the time and effort it took them to think about you, and reward the courtesy with a little token of thanks. A written note is a much nicer compliment than an e-mail, and it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to write one and mail it away.This step also does double-duty by making you keep track of people’s contact information so you don’t have to continually ask them for it. We tend, in this electronic age, not to remember street addresses and phone numbers, relying on our mobiles to remember who called and what number to call them back. Keeping an address book may seem old fashioned, but doing so allows you to easily send out baby gifts, birthday gifts, anniversary gifts and any other kind of token of friendship and appreciation that allows us to continue to like each other in a monetary fashion.Leslie even thoughtfully provided a step-by-step method of composing and sending thanks at one of her stomping grounds. Take a trip over to The Morning News and refresh your manners.
Boise, Idaho ... Here I Come!
I'm going to be in Boise, Idaho on Monday (November 5) to speak about innovation for lawyers to the Idaho Bar Association. If you are in the neighborhood (and really, who isn't?) come on by.
25 Ways to Find a Client
OK, so this post from Dumb Little Man is about ways to find a date in the real world, but it has some great advice for finding clients. Seriously. I especially liked these success tips (which are in addition to the 25 ways):
1. Have a simple goal of making new friends. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Seek to find a great friend and see where things lead.
2. Commit to saying "Hi" first. Don't be shy. Perhaps set a goal of saying hi to 5 people a day. Start with one a day and then work your way up.
3. Smile and have fun. Everyone looks better with a smile.
4. Be open to meeting new people anywhere and everywhere.
5. Always be dressed and groomed to meet new people even if you're just running out to get milk. You just may meet that someone special in the dairy isle!
6. Conversation success tip: Be interested in others and ask lots of questions.
7. Don't be afraid of rejection. You've got nothing to lose!! What's the worst that could happen? Someone will laugh at you? That's hardly likely. And even if they do, who cares! Just say "Next!" and move on!
8. Go slow for safety and success. Never rush into anything. Go slow.
Read the entire post. Just don't let your significant other catch you doing it.
15 Thoughts for Law Students: A Mini-Manifesto
I've written a few mini-manifestos for clients and lawyers before and remain quite enamored with the format. Here's one for law students with some random (semi-related) thoughts on law school and the legal profession. Let me know what you think, and feel free to add your own in the comments.
1. Law school is a trade school. The only people who don't believe this to be true are the professors and deans.
2. Want to piss off your professors? Ask them if they've ever run a successful law practice.
3. Being good at writing makes you a good law student. Being good atunderstanding makes you a good lawyer. Being good at arguing makes youan ass.
4. You can learn more about client service by working at Starbucks for three weeks than you can by going to law school for three years.
5. Law school doesn't teach you to think like a lawyer. Law schoolteaches you to think like a law professor. Believe me, there's a hugedifference.
6. You can get through law school without understanding anything about what it is like to be a lawyer. That is a terrible shame.
7. The people who will help you the most in your legal career aresitting next to you in class. Get to know them outside of law school.They are pretty cool people. They are even cooler when you stop talking about the Rule Against Perpetuities.
8. Your reputation as a lawyer begins now. Don't screw it up (and quitbragging on your MySpace page about how drunk you got last night).
9. Law is a precedent-based profession. It doesn't have to be a precedent-based business. Be prepared to challenge the prevailing business model. Somebody has to.
10. Experienced lawyers work with clients. Young lawyers work with paper. You like working with paper, right?
11. You are about to enter a world where getting your work done in half the time as your peers doesn't get you rewarded. It gets you more work.
12. Except for prosecutors and public defenders, nobody tries cases anymore. Especially not second year associates.
13. You have a choice: You can help people and make a decent living, or you can help corporations and make a killing. Choose wisely.
14. There are plenty of things you don't know, and even more things you'llnever know. Get used to it. Use your ignorance to your benefit. Themost significant advantage you possess over those who've come beforeyou is that you don't believe what they do.
15. People don't tell lawyer jokes just because they think they are funny. They tell lawyer jokes because they think they are true. Spend your career proving them wrong.
Web 2.0 Replaces Lawyers Again?
Brian Benzinger at Solution Watch writes about a new service called Tractis, which "allows you tonegotiate and execute worldwide legally binding contracts online." Significantly, the service also has sort of a contracts wiki that allows folks to upload contracts and templates that can be edited, commented upon, tagged and shared. Very cool/scary for lawyers. Find out for yourself and take the tour.
Outsource Your (Non)Legal Practice
I'm a big fan of Tim Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Workweek, though some of his suggestions are a bit impractical for an office-dwelling professional. That's why I really liked this post on 43 Folders that gives several realistic examples of ways to outsource your personal and professional life. Well worth a read, if only for this fantastic advice for those to whom "delegation" is a four letter word:
It’s easy to tell yourself that it would take too long to figure outhow to explain a project to someone else than to do it on your own. After all, you’re the only person who has the grand picture,understands the purpose of the work, and is familiar with the details.But with a bit of pluck and a capacity for seeing projects for whatthey truly are (collections of discrete actions,) you’ll be astonishedat how much you can rid yourself of. I have often found that what atfirst seemed daunting to explain to someone else actually just requireda few moments thinking about how the problem needed to beapproached—which is a process I was going to have to go through anyway if I were ever going to complete the task in the first place.
Just GOOG it for Info.
Need to dial directory assistance? Use Google's 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) for all your directory assistance calls. It is FREE and gives you the option of pushing the details of the listing you're seeking directly to your mobile phone via SMS. So far, it isn't ad-supported either. Program it into your cell phone now.
Thanks to Cool Tools for the tip.
Got er Done!
Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba share a great idea in this post about a condo development that posts huge "SOLD" signs on the outside of each unit, arguing that the signs "are the best possible evidence" that the condos are desirable.
I was wondering if this idea could also work for lawyers. Imagine a weekly or monthly full-page newspaper ad that shows all the new business formations, real estate closings, or even "newly single" divorce clients a firm helped (with their permission, of course). Not sure how this works in some jurisdictions, but it is a thought. What do you think?
"Build a team you shall, young Skywalker."
Want a team-building activity for an afternoon that "only" costs $500? Got a few geeks in your office? Have I got an idea for you: the LEGO Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon. Check out this post, and make sure to watch the YouTube video of seven people putting one together in just over two hours.
And if anyone wants to get me something cool for Christmas...