Lawyering

Ever since the launch of my first podcast, Lawyerpreneur, I’ve been trying to figure out how to use the interviews in a career-related book. In fact, the whole purpose behind starting the podcast was to create a book. I have outlines (now long abandoned) for four different books that never seemed like the right idea. When it never came together, and I moved on to other things — most of which have involved writing novels under my pen name J. W. Judge. The project idea was dead, with no intent to revive it. Then on Sunday, while sitting in church,...

I struggle with comparisonitis, which is something that can steal your joy. I am a person who, for better or worse, places much of my identity in my accomplishments. I am ambitious and internally motivated because (when I’m not keeping myself in check) I derive much of my self-worth from my accomplishments. So when I see others accomplishing more or receiving more recognition, there is a deep-seeded part of me that suggests that they have more value than I do or are more worthy of love or adoration because of what they have done. This in turn leads to internal...

“I didn’t let the fear take over.” That’s what my seven-year-old said to us on Saturday.He had baseball tryouts and experiences a good bit of social anxiety. Over the last few years, he has let that inhibition keep him from doing things that he might otherwise enjoy. But more often, we’ve pushed him into uncomfortable situations knowing he’d enjoy himself once he overcame those initial barriers.On Saturday morning, we braced ourselves for a tough morning, but he never said anything about being nervous or anxious. He had his tryouts, and everything went well. On the way to the car, we...

Let’s talk about (not Bruno — we don’t talk about Bruno) the fear of rejection. I’ll get this out of the way — rejection hurts and there’s no one signing up to get in that line. BUT if you don’t put yourself in a position to be rejected from time to time, you’re probably not pushing yourself forward. We can look at this in the context of my podcast, Lawyerpreneur. One of the things that kept me away from the podcast for a while is the prospect of reaching out to people who would tell me no. Guess what? That...

I enjoyed my conversation with Chris Johnson of the Riverside County Bar Association, and was proud to talk about Level Up Your Law Practice as a part of the Coffee Book Club series they are doing this summer. The questions we got were compelling and showed that the audience was engaged. And I sold some books out of the engagement, so that’s exciting too!

I had a great time with the guys on the Lawsome Podcast, where we talked about misconceptions about law firm marketing and managing a law practice. We also talk about my book Building a Better Law Practice and sources of new ideas and expanding my horizons. You can listen to our conversation on the Lawsome Podcast website, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.