September 2014

Well, the time is here. It is now. Today is it … well, actually tomorrow. But the switch is being flicked sometime between when I hit send on this post later today, and midnight (CT). As a whole, the mood in the firm and amongst those I’ve spoken with is great. It’s exciting. New things

As a “culinary Jew” (my family shows up for the food), I was out of the office yesterday so I could join my extended family for lunch. They came from synagogue. We came from the Westside. This side of my family are my mom’s paternal relatives. These are my second cousins. Growing up we got

7Wow. Only seven more days until we go live. In seven days I’ll have a new e-mail, new business cards, a new company. I’ll have to update my online professional life, fill out lots of new paperwork, and traverse a new way of doing my day-to-day activities. I’m excited. However, letting go of anything is

imageThe Sports Dude and I are sitting on a plane right now headed to Chicago. I have had the privilege for the past six months of attending and participating in The SmithBucklin Leadership Institute, which is culminating this weekend, and we get to bring our +1. If it wasn’t for the merger, and all the work that took place behind the scenes prior to the merger being announced, I would have written on my experience in the Institute more. In short, I don’t think I could have provided the assistance to my partners without the lessons and skills I have learned. I have specifically employed new techniques, avoided some pitfalls, and smoothed over some ruffled feathers, all because of my new leadership skills. As I finish up my final homework assignments, and prepare my final presentations, I am struck most by how prior to the Institute I did a lot of these things, and I knew a lot of these things, but it was instinctive, or by intuition. I had never been taught, or learned it. I picked it up along the way through good examples and incredible mentors, specifically Frank Moon and Steve Barrett; incredible friends and colleagues, like Catherine Alman MacDonagh; and, to be completely candid, some really shitty situations and interactions with some really crappy human beings. What I am walking away with most from my experience these past six months is a heightened awareness of who I am as a leader, and what that means and looks like within the legal industry, my professional association, my job, with my team, my HOA, Girl Scouts, my family, and the list can go on and on. If I could sum it all up: I have become more intentional, and less dependent on my intuition and instincts. So what’s on tap for today?
Continue Reading M(erger) – Minus 13 Days: Intuitive v. Intentional

I am in complete acceptance that my waking life is one long continuum right now from the moment my alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. until the moment I crawl into bed at night.

Work. Kids. LMA. Family. Leadership Institute. HOA. Spiritual life. Girl Scouts. All of these things make up my waking hours, yet

keep-calm-only-15-days-leftIt’s Tuesday. Tuesdays for me mean one of two things: I get to enjoy my favorite weekday lunchtime yoga class and then go home after work and enjoy my evening, or Girl Scouts. Let’s just say, no peace or rest for this wicked marketer on this Tuesday. So here we are. There are 15 days

16Ack. Two weeks and two days to go. It’s busy, so you better have something important — to me — to say to interrupt my day. On a side note, and to make the Sports Dude happy, I have to say, one nice thing about large office buildings is that I got my oil changed

It’s Friday. Yeah!! I love Fridays. But considering my work/personal life has become just one long continuum, not sure what Fridays get me, other then getting to wear jeans to work. And, yes, I did confirm that the new firm wears jeans on Fridays.

One of the reasons I started this blog, and became very