Friday, March 27, 2020

10 Ways to Calm Your Mind to Feel Better Fast


10 ways to learn to live with fear, anxiety, worry and uncertainty, yet still be productive, happy, healthy & thriving:

  1. Give yourself permission to schedule regular, adult time-outs. During your time-outs, do whatever you like, enjoy, prefer or makes you happy.
  2. Either as part of the above or otherwise, schedule regular, 10-30 minute mental breaks. During that time do not watch the news or look at your mobile. Instead practice deep breathing and focus only on your thoughts and what’s running through your mind. Become aware of any scary, fear-filled thoughts. Try to mentally replace them by thinking only of your very favorite memory, in detail. Regularly re-live your favorite memory(ies) in your mind.
  3. Call a trusted and supportive friend, verbalize your feelings & ask for reassurance.
  4. Start a journal to download all your feelings/emotions in writing. Several studies show that regularly “dumping” your thoughts & feelings into written form reduces stress.
  5. Remember that what may feel scary, does not mean it is an actual threat or danger to you. Repeat this known maxim to yourself, “80-90% of the things I worry about will never happen.”
  6. Remember that feelings/emotions are very different from facts/logic. We all have both in our minds at all times, to varying degrees at different times. During highly stressful times, emotion tends to dominate our minds/thinking. Try to avoid making decisions based on emotions/feelings alone, especially when highly stressed.
  7. Get buried in your work or on a project. Being “in the zone” makes time pass with less mental stress.
  8. Embrace stress and worry as a natural part of being human, they never fully disappear. Expect some level of stress/worry at all times, but work to minimize the negative impacts on your mental health, family, work and life, especially during tough times.
  9. Remember: what does not kill you may make you stronger.
  10. Exercise daily or regularly. Strive to work up a sweat daily or at least three times a week.
What other things work for you to reduce & mange your level of mental stress?


Monday, March 16, 2020

9 Things for Every Law Firm To Do to Market, Survive & Thrive


There is no question that we are currently experiencing a global economic downturn. The ONLY question is how long it will last, and how deep and broad the impact will be. A recession (in any individual country) is formally declared after a fall in gross domestic product (GDP) for two consecutive calendar quarters. But, most law firms and other companies don’t have the luxury or time to wait to act until a formal recession is declared.

Here are nine things to consider doing soon:

1. Take note from what’s worked in the past to survive and thrive during and after a recession. Here are the top five lessons CEOs learned on how to survive and thrive during and after the recession of the mid- to late 1990s:

1.       Respond rapidly to economic changes
2.       Recruit and hire top talent
3.       Reposition company/firm for growth
4.       Maintain business plan(s)
5.       Continue to invest in marketing


2. As soon as possible, law firm leaders should formally assess their business model, current strategic plan(s), service and talent matrix, client base, operational efficiencies/technology, budgets, and planned investments in order to make the best possible strategic choices in the face of this unprecedented uncertainty. When conducting the assessment, consider the below and whether an experienced outside strategist/consultant who has been through prior recessions (and helped law firms successfully get through them) can add value and new perspectives. In full disclosure, I am one such strategist and consultant, so if I can be of service, please contact me (julie@busdevinc.com).

3. On the client side, corporations, entities, boards, CEOs, COOs, general counsel and in-house counsel are actively considering how to conserve costs and resources by assessing what is essential and what can be delayed, postponed, done differently or eliminated. For example, increasing numbers of claims and litigation are being settled to conserve company costs, resources and risks.

4. What types of legal work are, and will be increasing and most in demand during and after this economic downturn/recession?

§     Bankruptcy and workouts
§     Corporate transactions – contracts, financing, deals
§     Governance and compliance
§     Health care
§     Insurance and insurance coverage
§     Labor, employment and employee benefits
§     Litigation
§     Privacy and data security
§     Securities 
§     Trusts and estates

5. Related to 4. above, which practice areas should you assess, redeploy, reconfigure or retool? For example, many deals, M&As, transactions, and litigation have been put on hold or tabled for the time being. More info can be found here - https://bit.ly/33mEpYQ

6. Emotions are overcoming logic more than ever, and the level of stress almost every human is feeling as a result of the pandemic is higher than ever. As a result, be especially mindful of the content, tone and delivery of all communications. Strive to make them appropriate, empathic, useful, important and/or valuable. Ask for an experienced, objective and independent third-party review of all or all mass or large-scale communications before distributing them.

7. Online and virtual communications, especially via trusted social media platforms most used by businesses and professionals, such as LinkedIn and Twitter, are and will become increasingly used, relied on and important. Below is a recent LinkedIn post I did on this topic:

Most #lawyers, #lawfirms & other #professionalservices firms are missing out on LinkedIn’s (LI’s) reach & power. Here are 4 reasons why LI is important …
1)      LI has the largest global B2B reach (or one of the largest) of ANY media (whether traditional or online). On LI, there are currently over 10M profiles with the title of CEO or equivalent & over 800K with general/in-house counsel titles. No other single medium comes close to that reach.
2)      Virtual online thought leadership is & will become increasingly important.
3)      Compared with the number of “followers” major #accounting & #consulting firms have on their LI company pages (see image … most have MILLIONS of followers), almost all other firms have less than 0.5%-1% of that. Now is the time to create & implement a strategic plan to increase the number of followers on your firm’s LI company page.
4)      On most firms’ LI company pages, posts are mainly about firm events & firm news. Generating more proactive, useful & compelling content on LinkedIn is an opportunity most #attorneys, professionals & firms are missing.
Contact me, Julie Savarino (julie@busdevinc.com), if you would like additional information or assistance creating & implementing a plan to upgrade content or increase followers.


8. In law firms where most of the marketing, client and business development activities, efforts and communications are implemented in an ad hoc, uncoordinated manner, now is the time to coordinate them (using a person, department and/or CRM system) to maximize the results from the time and investment, conserve firm resources and avoid overlapping, conflicting or redundant communications to clients, prospective clients and referral sources.

9. Even in the up-till-now booming economy, one of the top complaints law firm clients make about outside lawyers is that they fail to initiate proactive communications, unprompted communications or outreach. Outside lawyers are perceived by most clients as way too reactive. So, in this current situation of uncertainty and rapid change, initiating proactive outreach with key clients to ask them about the above could not be more important or effective, especially for clients operating in either the most negatively hard-hit sectors (e.g., health care, transportation, travel, lodging, event planning, suppliers, etc.) or the sectors that may be benefiting from the current crisis (e.g., medical supplies/devices, online entertainment, online communications, computers, etc.).

There are myriad other strategies, tactics and tools that law firms can use to survive and thrive during this challenging time. Please contact me if you would like more information or to set up a time to talk.

Thank you,

Julie Savarino
+1 (734) 276-1900