Solo Practice University® » Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

Everyone Has a Story. What’s Yours?

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:00:23 +0000

Everyone Has A Story

As rezoomers we are often reticent to tell ‘our stories’.

Why didn’t we practice law? Why did we practice and leave? Was it that we couldn’t find a job or we found a job in another sector? Did we stay at home to raise a family? Did the road we chose just take us elsewhere? And now we have come full circle?

What ever your story, embrace it! Unless you value your experience outside practicing law no one else will. The story you tell about why you were doing something else is the story that will intrigue and interest your future employers. If you’re going solo, it is the story your clients want to hear. It may very well be the catalyst an employer or client needs to hire you.

I love reading Terri Langhans website, BlahBlahBlah. She is a professional speaker who uses storytelling to elicit emotions to move the listener. Recently, however, she was all about giving Facts and Logic to prove your point.

Terri told this story:

The evening news has begun reporting that a certain airplane, the S347, has been found to be dangerous. Recently, these planes carrying 165,000 passengers each day, have been falling out of the sky. This is happening each and every day. Everyone on board dies.

Would you want to jump on a S347 anytime soon? No. Her example is an analogy for how many people die each day from cancer linked to smoking. It’s a much more powerful way of making her point. If she’d just said 165,000 people die each day from smoking it wouldn’t have been as impactful. We are deaf to this number. Yes, it’s life and death, but we can’t relate.

Terri’s example, however, is powerful. It’s also a tool we can use when we create our story. We must be memorable. We’re more likely to be hired with a comparative story like Terri’s than the same tired story told by the person who went before us.

As I resumed my career I was fortunate enough to have the funding to attend Pace University’s New Direction Program.

While at Pace I not only learned changes in the law, I realized I was more than a stay at home PTA mom. Face it, we tend to ignore or devalue things we do outside the practice of law. Yet, it may be this very experience which provides us with an invaluable skill necessary for rezooming right back into the law. Pen your story like the airplane, not the cigarette.

I realized, while I was home being the PTA mom, I had become a unique part of this multi-directional society. I had established unique contacts (I taught Governor Andrew Cuomo & Kerry Kennedy’s daughter CCD), which I felt was inappropriate to explore further. I haven’t called the governor for a job. I am a solopreneur, after all. However, I will include him in the mailing on my proposal to bring mediation into Animal Care and Control (ACC).

What Is My Story?

As a mediator, my story is about how people address conflict. I tell a story most can relate to.

The story goes something like this:

We all have taken separate entrances to our apartment buildings if we are at odds with a neighbor or doorman. We have avoided restaurants or supermarkets where we have been treated poorly or where we reacted inappropriately in the moment and are still embarrassed.

We can do that. We have that luxury. There are a ton of other restaurants, other entrances to use or stores to shop in. It is a small inconvenience to avoid embarrassment or confrontation.

Here is the Point

For Animal Care Control (ACC), the door cannot be closed, the client ignored or the pet left un-homed. Many good people come through that door, wanting to adopt a pet, who can provide a much needed loving home. Leaving conflict unaddressed in a situation like this has serious consequences.

Like the story?

Anyone can relate to this story. I have personally shopped at a distance, changed my nail salon and fired a hairdresser. These are actions we’ve all taken. Now, take that very same conduct and make it part of your professional life. Can you afford to lose a client? Or have a door shut you need kept open. Or, in this case, cause an animal’s unnecessary death. Now your actions take on a whole new meaning.

What Is Your Story?

Find your story. Tell your story memorably. Don’t engage in self-limiting behavior. Tell your story in a way that is not the same as everyone else. Your path to rezooming will not only be smoother, it will be more enjoyable for you and all who have the pleasure of working with you!

Written by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

Drowning in Paper?

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:56:30 +0000

I keep every scrap of paper I have generated over the past 2.5 years of rezooming my solo practice. Literally! If you are one of those uber-efficient people who read and toss, stop reading this post now. What I have to say does not apply to you. You’re already liberated.

However, I have every article I’ve ever read, intended to read, wrote or intended to write from newspapers, the internet, dog magazines, law review articles, client communications and even People magazine articles (remember Kristen Stewart and her conflict over who gets the dog?). You may be chuckling to yourself, but for a solo practitioner, drowning in paper can kill you, literally and figuratively. You cannot find things. You miss things. You keep adding to the ‘to read’ list which you will never ever get to. Yet you are afraid to throw anything out because you may need it.

If this sounds like something you are facing in your office space, then this post is for you and I’m going to share my PDR handbook with you. I’ve now been a solo practitioner for 2.5 years. I truly love what I do. I help people in conflict over an animal find resolution, without resorting to litigation, in less time, for less cost, while retaining their relationships. These kinds of conflicts pop up in every venue of law including, divorce, contract, civil, criminal, real estate, trust and estates, elder law and medical malpractice. I love it. Anytime an article crosses my desk about an animal conflict that could have been solved more efficiently and respectfully using mediation, I keep it to comment on later. At least 10 articles a day come in from my Google alert. You see why I needed help with my PDR!

I hired a professional organizer to come to my office and help me PDR. One Sunday I emptied my entire office into boxes. Monday morning the Baier Guys came in and separated all the mix and match boxes into ‘like stuff’ boxes. There were 15 boxes of stuff, not office files, I had collected to use in some way. They sat me down for 4 of their 6 hours and had me choose what was still relevant, what was possibly relevant and what wasn’t relevant at all and needed to go. It was tough love for an information junkie. I whittled the 15 boxes to 5.5 empty boxes holding specific items with actions to be taken that weekend.

My office and my ideas have been liberated.

My PDR Handbook is below. It is meant for my Rezooming friends and those already in the thick of rezooming who need a bit of support and help in getting out from under their best intentions of information gathering.

There are Four Major Steps to take:

Hire a Professional Organizer: You cannot do this alone
Recognize your efficiency and creativity are being stifled.
Trust you have what you need or will find it again.
Choose to live in the now, not the past or future

Hire a Professional:

Time is money and this is money well spent
You cannot make these decisions efficiently alone
The prep work is invaluable

Recognize the Stifle:

You have file upon file of:

Things to read and do,
Conferences to check out, attend or have attended
Articles to write or rewrite

Trust you have what you need:

You have read what you need to read
Can now keep track of what you have, are and will be attending
Go with the good, as perfection will stop you in your tracks

Be present:

If the detritus is not for use right now, let it go
You will find it again
Or something better will materialize
Re-write your ‘to do’ list

These are scary concepts, but oh so true. You can only do so much.
Trust what you get done is what gets done. Let go of getting everything done, it is impossible. Live in the now, respect all you do.

Don’t hang onto your ‘to do’ list from day to day. Write a new one. Hanging on to the old will be a constant reminder of what you didn’t get ‘to do’. I now keep my Google article alert in a file. I can easily find them if I need something but they won’t clutter my office. I had 2.5 years worth of articles to read and write about that were now stale. I may never look in this file again. Yet the articles in it will not grow like weeds in my office.

It is difficult. I can be found, even today, printing out information I may want to follow up on next week. Like biting my nails, info-junkie habits are hard to break! However now I’ve made the one-week file. If I haven’t read or used something in that file in a week, it gets purged every Friday, no exception. I can bookmark the article if I think it is important, then it is gone.
I can find it but it is not on my desk mocking me.

Realize, reward and revel in what you do get to read, write about and otherwise get done. Let go of what you don’t. PDR your office now as you rezoom your practice or contemplate rezooming. It will make your creativity and efficiency skyrocket.

A bonus–I no longer have constant reminders of what I have not completed. I am finally relaxing into my brilliance instead of struggling to keep up.

My files are next. To paraphrase Arnold… The Baier Boys will be baacckk (confidentiality protected, of course)

Written by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

We the People

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:55:42 +0000

As rezoomers, putting yourself out there and announcing your re-entry into the legal profession is imperative. It amazes me where my rezooming journey takes me, who I meet along the way and what made me go there. Often I find my most lasting connections come from events with the least likely potential and are simply attended because they ’spoke to me.’ This means my heart told me to go and I heed this intuition. This continued to be true the third Saturday in January, 2013.

In mid November, 2012, I received a general invitation from the NYSBA Law Youth and Citizenship Program to judge the We The People event in Albany, NY on January 12, 2013. The invitation was extended to me because I am a member of the NYSBA Committee on Women in the Law. Our entire group was invited to participate in hopes of adding a few women to the judging panel of this high school competition.

A little history is in order here. My oldest son, Drew, competed in the We the People event in Massachusetts as a junior in high school. My husband and I were two of many parents who traveled up to the Massachusetts State capital to see our children discuss six topics on the US Constitution, both past and present. The fluency with which these students spoke about our US Constitution amazed me. The judges were asked to question the students after their 4-minute presentation; and as a political science major in college my memory was put to the test. However, my son and his classmates easily fielded the questions and related both past and present pertinent constitutional processes and information in response.

When I saw this invitation to judge in my email inbox I did not hesitate to respond YES. It had been such an important educational process in my son’s high school experience; I felt it was the least I could do to give back to this premiere nationwide program. I was accepted, received the 300+ page textbook to familiarize myself with the subject matter studied and assigned one of the six sections on which the students were prepared to be tested on after their 4-minute presentation. My section was the sixth and final section of the textbook. “What Challenges Might Face American Constitutional Democracy in the 21st Century?” My follow up question for the students was, “How would they distinguish between cynicism and healthy skepticism?”

As the weekend approached, I did what I am notorious for doing, second-guessing my choice to attend this event. I had a conference the Thursday and Friday before We The People and I was seriously behind in my writing. They wouldn’t miss me, would they? This clearly is not a ‘high value’ event within my rezooming networking mission. How can judging at a high school constitutional law event help me, a solo practitioner, spread the word about using mediation in conflicts between people about animals? There was not even the remotest of connections. Let me call now and cancel.

Yet, this nagging feeling I needed to be there kept pulling at me. It kept saying the ‘Why’ would show itself once I arrived. So at 6:30 PM Friday night, in the teaming rain, I hopped into my trusty VW and drove from Stamford, CT to Albany, NY arriving at the lovely hotel none the worse for wear at 10:30 PM.

The next morning I was up at 6, on my 8 AM conference call with colleagues at 7 AM so I could make the 8:15 organizational meeting for the judges of We the People. I was in the breakfast meeting by 8:05 and shown to the table with my 2 fellow judges and our timer by 8:10. My judging panel for We the People were incredibly welcoming, friendly and experienced, thank God. A. Thomas Levin an attorney from Long Island NY who was the past president of the NYSBA and instrumental in bring the We the People program under the wing of the NYSBA Law Youth and Citizenship Program, The Honorable Helena Heath Roland, a City Court Judge in Albany and Mary Miller a writer with the New York News Publishers Association. Talk about a networking bonanza. Meeting these people in this relaxed setting forged fast friendships, camaraderie and memorable moments from which to maintain our friendships going forward. I had listened to that little voice in my soul telling me to give back to a program that had given my family so much. I hadn’t worried about the reward; I just participated in a wonderful event for the joy of it and let the unknown rewards flow.

This is an unusual story to share with you, my rezooming colleagues. This kind of serendipity has happened on so many occasions during the rezooming of my career, I now trust my intuition. It will help us remember, it is not always the biggest and brightest events, played to our perfect audience that brings us the highest personal and professional reward. It can be something small you do, because it makes you feel good and places you in a position to reap rewards that transcend any networking events promise of future employment.

I spent an entire morning shuttling from room to room; listening to the brightest kids I know recite our constitutional tenets, which they fully comprehended. We will all be ok if these students reflect our up and coming leaders. They were truly 21st century citizens who will make things better and welcome more active involvement of all citizens in our wonderful democracy. It was a testament to the hard work all these students put in to their studies this year and the commitment of their school, their teachers and their parents to support them both emotionally and financially for this competition. If you would like to become involved in your state check out the program at http://new.civiced.org/wtp-about-us/state-programs.

I always say, listen to you heart it will never lead you astray. In this I am more certain than ever. My heart advised my head to attend the ‘We the People’ event. I gave back to a forum that was instrumental in creating the self-confident speaker and constitutional aficionado my son is today. In participating I forged three lasting friendships with colleagues I can call on to ask questions I may have about the law. I will see them again at the NYSBA Annual meeting. They now have a personal connection with an alternative dispute resolution practitioner who they can call on to speak about conflicts needing mediation.

Next time your heart sings but your head tells you no, listen to your heart. In this 21st century world of email, twitter, Facebook and Linked in — personal community service is still an effective means of connecting with potential clients and colleagues in a more ‘personally’ professional way.

Written by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

Tales of a Tele-Summit

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:00:37 +0000

This month, my fellow rezoomers, I’ve decided to take you on my journey toward hosting my own tele-summit. Yes, you can too! You know you have the content one needs to host it, you are unafraid of the technology required for set up and you have the colleagues who will help you make it a reality. So, in the next few paragraphs I will fill you in on the secrets I learned while planning my first tele-summit.

As an Internet user and tele-summit attendee, I thought tele-summits had to be as user friendly to the host as they were to the listener. Everyone is doing it. Participants, who sign up for tele-summits, gain oodles of knowledge while the host becomes widely known as an expert in their field. It has to be easy, right? Information is given and credibility received, but at what price? I discovered it is not only about being a willing tele-summit creator. You have to have dogged determination to learn a whole new language in order to join the big tele-summit boys.

The beauty of Rezooming our legal careers is that we are not bogged down by years of, ‘this is how it is done.’ Rather, we can ask, “Why not?” and do it with a 21st century flare. As I walk you through my first foray into the tele-summit vortex, realize, you too can do this, have fun doing it and sign up to do another, if you accept your limitations and get the support you need.

Ignorance is bliss.

I stumbled into creating my first tele-summit by accident. I thought I only needed great content and buttons to push on a web page to make it all come to life. In fact, that is exactly what the coach I was working with to build the tele-summit said to me. (I taped our meeting so I know I am not delusional). I created the Free Conference Call account, set up my six interviews and wrote the copy for my ad, my thank you email, my follow-up reminder emails and my offer for purchase of the audio after the initial 36 hours of free listening.

It was up to my Webmaster to create the user pages that brought all this to life. Now, as this process unfolded, I was faced with two dilemmas.

First – My Webmaster is a personal friend.
Second – A tele-summit was way more complicated on the back end.

First:
My Webmaster is not just a personal friend, she is a dear friend, whom I love and want to remain friends with for years to come. She created and has been running my website platform from the onset and on a shoestring. Her work was always timely if not instantaneous. She knows everything about doing websites and tele-summits. She is well aware of the time involved in creating a tele-summit.

I decided to run this tele-summit without really speaking with her. I had no idea it was as complicated a process as it is. My guide on this journey simply said to me, “Do you have a web person?” I said, “Yes.” They said, “She can do all this for you.” I said, “Right.” I never grasped the amount of technical work ‘all this’ required. I blissfully thought it was like posting a blog. I dove into the deep end in ignorance of what it would mean to her and the consumption of her time.

Second:
I didn’t know the difference between a platform, a server or an application. Aren’t they all the same? No. Doesn’t it take as much time to launch a tele-summit as it does to post a blog? No. Well how could that be?

Even for a very fluent Webmaster, the coding necessary to set up a tele-summit is time consuming, way beyond the 5 minutes it may take to post a blog. It is not about the content really….that may be the easiest part. It is about the technical support needed by a provider of the tele-summit to get that content to market. It is akin to picking lettuce at the supermarket. It’s simple right? Yet before that lettuce got to market, it was planted, watered, received sunshine, fertilized, harvested, packed, shipped and put on the grocery shelf.

Think of a tele-summit as a head of lettuce going to market. Easy to pick once the parts are in place. Not so easy to pick if the back end is not in place to make the front end look easy (and we wont even go into the support needed in the back end at each segment of the lettuce’s journey…God’s involved numerous times)!!

Rest assured getting a tele-summit to the Internet is easier than getting a head of lettuce to market, but not by much. Only kidding. It is simple if you surround yourself with people fluent in all areas of the process. Find someone who does this back end work because they love it. It is their magnificence. They would code all day, every day, for free because they love to see their creations fly due to their simple (to them) code set-ups.

Once you find these people, which is easy to do if you belong to some of the groups of entrepreneurs I’ve mentioned in several of my prior blogs (Savor the Success, In Good Company, Entrepreneurial Women’s Network, Client Attraction, Business Networking International to name only a few), reach out to them and their client base and find out how they work and how their experience has been with the tech provider.

Hire your tech support based on your gut feeling. This is the feeling you get from speaking with the provider and their clients. Don’t hire someone because they come highly recommended by others if you can’t communicate with them. Be wary of hiring someone who has no references. If you decide to hire a newbie, who is starting out, just like you, and with whom you feel the kismet, recognize you may be their first client and you will need more face time to assure all of you are on same page. Supervise while you learn ‘on the job’ with the newbie. It will enable you to know what you prefer as a process going forward and nip any issues in the bud.

The tele-summit coder is only one of the keys to a successful summit. However, even the best content, if undeliverable due to coding errors, spells disaster. Flaws that may arise from faulty coding, not faulty content, will fall on the host of the tele-summit. Remember this when you are hiring your right hand person (short hand for coding and application) and writing your content. This is your baby. The successful content and presentation is a reflection on you, not on the tele-summit coder. Supervision of both is your responsibility

Funny, we have come full circle now.

My original premise is correct, it is easy to plan and put on a tele-summit if you have the right content to draw attendees. Now you know you need to keep your current IT staff appraised of what you are planning to do and/or find the right support staff to do the back door Internet coding. As a 21st century Rezoomer, we need to stretch ourselves, hire the best team we can find and/or afford, then help them help us provide the content and process we know will make a difference to our attendees and our practice.

Don’t be afraid. If I can do it anyone can. Initially, I felt it seemed simple to run a tele-summit. Then it was overwhelming! After reading this post I hope you know it can be done if you understand the inner and outer workings of the web system and seek IT partners who will help make it run smoothly.

Create your Rezooming nirvana, via an Internet tele-summit, by sharing content on a subject you are fluent in on a platform you are no longer afraid of!

Written by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

ReZooming in 2013? Remember 3 Words

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:03:54 +0000

Rezooming in the New Year?

First, I wish my current Rezooming colleagues all the best in this New Year. 2013 holds good things for us, we just need to look for them and take action.

To those of you considering Rezooming your legal career in response to the ”fiscal cliff” or a desire to get back into the thick of all things legal, take your time, uncover your passion and take action toward making it a reality.

Walking back into the practice of law after a hiatus can be simple if you follow these words of advice-

Recognize your Power, Confirm your Intent, Seek Support.

Power

Come to Rezooming from a position of power. What unique things have you done during your hiatus? How will they make you stand out upon your return to the legal world? Maybe you were the CEO of your home, ran the PTA or were involved in a charitable/fundraising organization. All these experiences, which you may be inclined to undervalue since they are not specifically related to the law, are skills sets which bring value throughout the Rezooming process.

Intent

Intent will focus your energies and create immense possibilities as you re-enter the law. Having intentions will help you be clear about what you want each day, week, month and quarter. Intent keeps the fear at bay. If you struggle with creating long-term positive intentions, make daily intentions. Then let yourself enjoy your daily successes and let go of the little things that may not have happen exactly how you planned. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t Rezoom your career. It simply means you’ve taken a detour, often for the better, and leaves you open for any new opportunity which may come knocking.

Support

What is that old adage? ‘Man does not live by bread alone’? This is not an easy time for attorneys to get jobs. Firms are folding and associates are not making partner the way they used to. Rezoomers can’t easily navigate the waters of reentry without the help of legal and non-legal friends, associates, mentors and colleagues. They can pave the wave into the new legal world.

Rezooming as a solo may be the best of all worlds. With the support provided by SPU and other associations you’ve uncovered, you will have readily accessible venues for meeting people who will give you guidance and help. You need to enthusiastically seek their support and once you get it, respect their help and provide them or their contacts with value on your end. Who knows? As you seek support you may very well be able to help in kind from contacts you knew in your pre-rezooming days.

I firmly believe in allowing people to help me. I no longer try and go it alone. I have a new found comfort with asking for support as I rezoom my legal career. As a new lawyer in 1983, I believed I didn’t know enough to go solo but I sure wouldn’t ask for help. I didn’t want anyone to think I was stupid. Now as rezoomers we feel better about ourselves and feel more secure asking for help. Rezoomers ask questions and seek support while working on their re-entry into the law. Now, when I don’t know the answer to something, I just ask for the help I need. I no longer avoid things that are new or because I just don’t understand it I’m ok now with riding the never ending learning curve we call the practice of law.

Maybe it is more acceptable now that I am older, maybe not. For those of us in managing positions, remember new attorneys have a learning curve as well. If you supervise them, support them in a way you would like to be supported so they ask questions and avoid making mistakes.

So, as we embark on this wonderful year, 2013, choose to Rezoom your career by implementing these 3 words:

Power * Intent * Support

Written by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

ReZooming Solos Need to ‘Walk the Talk’

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:00:44 +0000

Please accept my apologies for writing a little late this month, a side effect of Sandy and Athena. Needless to say, I was first a wifi vagabond and then knee deep in snow. Those two women were very difficult to deal with here in Northern Westchester!

Before the storms hit, I attended the ABA Law Practice Management – Women Rainmakers Mid-Career Workshop in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. I wanted to write and tell you a little about what I learned there and how I Walked my Talk.

The title of the conference was Reaching the Next Summit – Challenges and Choices for Designing Your Ascent! Isn’t that what Rezoomers do each and every day as they return to the practice of law? I said I attended the Women Rainmaker’s event, but in reality as I Walk my Talk, I should say, I attended, worked and helped create the program that 60+ women attended and thrived within. The title and topics covered were in perfect harmony with the issues confronting Rezoomers. I thought it would be important to explore a few of my takeaways from the meeting. ‘Walking our Talk,’ as Rezooming Attorneys or Women Rainmakers, can be a Challenge and Choice as we Design Our Return To The Law.

As a Rezoomer, decide what track you want to take as you embark on your journey. Do you prefer a large firm, small firm or solo practice? Whichever track you choose it serves your Rezooming purpose to find a ‘hands on’ Personal Board of Directors (PBD) from a pool of likeminded colleagues. Don’t know where to find them? As I have said before in my prior post, Belly Up To The Bar (Association), look for a local business-networking event or Bar association program in your field of interest. If that doesn’t appeal to you then go general, look for a group you gel with, like General Practice, TIPS, Environmental, Women Rainmakers, Women Advocates or Women in the Law, on a National or State level.

As you participate with your PBD, you will share experiences, mentor one another and compare methods of practice expansion that have worked. Ideas and processes will be easily exchanged. If you create a PBD and nurture these connections you will thrive, even in a depressed economy, because you will be hard pressed to remain stagnant with this supportive group helping you think outside the box!

As a solo participant in such groups, I’ve learned how to pitch and brand my practice and then share what I learned. In the market you need to create a buzz and desire for your services. By working in small PBD groups you will find the correct pitch, give/get feedback and road test your 30-second elevator speech. These groups are priceless because of the spot on input you receive from your peers and mentors.

Walking the Talk requires Rezoomers to get out of their comfort zone by setting goals for a month, a quarter, a year and then working toward those goals with single-minded purpose. A speaker at the Women Rainmakers Summit used the terms, “plow horse and show horse.” Each described how we approach work and marketing. One toils all day, never getting out to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The other is out gad flying about, never building a strong foundation from the outset. As Rezoomers, we are more like the plow horse; we have lived a different life and are now returning to the practice of law. We probably need a little kick in our ‘show-horse’ butt to reap the benefits of all we have done while we plowed the row to Rezooming the law.

My fellow Rezoomers, be a show horse for the rest of the year. Find the group that speaks to you and attend their holiday party. If you do what I suggest you will receive pure magic in return. The PBD you create will be comprised of the colleagues you feel you can rely on for input and critique and who will value your input, probably more than you may ever know.

Walking Your Talk is not only about taking full advantage of that which will get you where you want to go, it is about giving back as well. You need to commit to providing value to the others in your PBD in the form of experience-based knowledge. You might feel awkward at first because you think you are not smart enough or because you are just Rezooming your legal career. That is all the more reason to stop being a plow horse and kick up those heels, show them what you bring to the table. I have found when I get out there and stop hiding behind my plow horse security blanket I am rewarded and enlightened.

As I Walk my Talk I’d like to convey a single, consistent message.

Get involved with groups that will enable you to create your own Personal Board of Directors.

By making these valuable contacts you will be assured to receive honest feedback, on everything, from your pitch to your purpose, from similarly situated colleagues.

Written by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

Moving Fearlessly Forward

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:00:08 +0000

This month I’m talking about how to take your re-zooming journey to the next level! It begins with your mindset and the visualization of your ideal life. Taking the time to complete these two activities proved to be a game changer and an invaluable tool to my Rezooming journey last year.

In our rush to rezoom our careers, we hardly ever (translate never) stop to ask ourselves is this really what I want to be doing.

Am I doing this because:

The timing was right. I had no other offers.
The commute is great. I did this before; it is in my comfort zone.
The money is awesome. My friend got me the job.
It is the best I could hope for. What else can I do?

There is always a small voice in our mind and heart that speaks up about what we really can and should be doing. Whether we open our minds and hearts to hear and heed these directions separates successful Re-zoomers from the thwarted Re-zoomers.

My Re-zooming experience included listening to my head and heart; not the noise of the crowd around me, the lemmings as my sister calls them. I started down a pioneering & trailblazing path using mediation to resolve conflicts between people about animals. It includes divorce, civil, criminal and contract matters wherever people are arguing over a pet. How I got here was a bit circuitous. Yet by listening to my heart and head, it became pretty damn clear how I was to proceed.

In January 2010, I attended the NYSBA Annual Meeting. I also attended the Animal Law Committee meeting followed by the Dispute Resolution Committee meeting. The Animal Law meeting had a heated panel discussion about how ‘the courts don’t want to see the cases they were discussing’. The Dispute Resolution meeting talked about how Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) provided the court with a process in which issues, difficult for the court to address fully, could be carefully addressed by ADR. The courts were grateful for the opportunity, via ADR, to enable the parties in conflict to have a venue in which to discuss their positions, emotions and personal requests for relief and possibly come up with a party-driven solution.

Wham, it was as clear as could be to me. My Heart & Head (H&H) screamed, ‘do you get it?’ I certainly did. Conflicts between people over animals almost always are completely emotional. The courts can only address the property value or contract terms of the animal conflict. Yet there is so much more in a conflict of this kind.

How did I stay focused and not let the threat of disaster and mayhem overwhelm me? I surrounded myself with my ideal clients. I hung out with them and asked them how I could best serve them. I learned how to really listen to my own biases on the topic and let them go.

I moved Fearlessly Forward.

How? By doing the following:

I visualized my ideal life.
I believed I was greater than I appear to be.
I set goals and took action to reach them.
I set intentions and affirmations.

By visualizing the place I wanted to be, I set things in motion to get there. Whether it was finding places where I could meet people who would move me forward or having people I already knew help me move forward, it always seemed that when I visualized myself doing something, within a short period of time, I’d be given the opportunity to do it. Then it was up to me to close the deal and take action.

I no longer say, “Oh my God I don’t know enough” or “wait let me take one more class” or “read one more book” or “speak to one more guru.” I believe in me. I believe in my ability to provide the service I am hired to provide.

I set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals, along with 3/5 & 7-year plans. I stick to my plan and do the work or re-evaluate the plan and move forward based on my experience and results from experiences on this journey.

Finally, I set intentions and affirmations. I say things like:

“I look forward to the time when I speak before 300 luminaries in the field of animal law”.

“I look forward to creating a program at law schools that combines ADR & Animal Law. By creating this program I will take the discussion of Animal Welfare to a whole new level by a generation of lawyers who see ADR as a party driven method of resolution rather than a weaker position”.

“I look forward to the time when my book “Nipped in the Bud…. Not in the Butt” is published, on the best sellers list and I’m appearing at large venues to discuss my passion for ADR as it applies to Animal Conflicts”.

As a Re-zooming attorney, I have the benefit of having been there, done that, in the field of law. Flexibility to adjust to situations you find yourself in, taking advantage of the opportunities that come your way, not staying rigidly in the moment, will benefit you in a big way.

An example of being open to possibilities in my own life occurred at Toastmasters. I joined a small friendly Toastmasters group about a year ago. Last week I took the plunge and competed in an extemporaneous speaking contest. In my table topic talk, ‘What Language Would I Speak If I Could Speak Another Language’, I said ‘Dog-Speak’. I would love to know what my dogs are saying about me behind my back. I won the area contest against 4 other wonderful toastmasters and will go on to the next level of competition.

The reason I am telling you this story is because afterward the area governor came over and spoke to me about his neighbor who is an American Kennel Club Judge. I gave him my card and gave him an extra card for his neighbor saying I would love to speak to her about what I do. She called me the next day and now I am being considered as a speaker for the next AKC Delegates Conference.

My path, my intentions and my goals were specifically in line with this opportunity. Yet it came out of the blue at an event unlikely to provide me with clients. So, when opportunity knocks open the door!

My Re-zooming colleagues let me close by saying go fearlessly forward. Follow the passion that speaks in your heart and head. Make authentic connections that may ironically get you that much closer to a goal you’d never even imagined. Being fearless, knowing you can never get it wrong because you grow from each experience, makes the journey so much sweeter and a lot less frightening.

Have a vision, set a goal, make your intentions known, and then march fearlessly forward into your next career.

Written by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

Taking That Giant Step

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 12:00:27 +0000

Recently I was waiting for my youngest son to finish his Math and English placement tests at our local community college. He completed 3/4′s of his first year of college. If you read between those lines you can tell he almost completed the year and in not such a stellar fashion. His dad and I decided to have him take at least one semester at our local community college before we consider revisiting the privilege of rezooming his academic career at a private university in Connecticut.

As I sat there waiting, I realized we rezoomers have this kind of angst too. We are starting a new phase in our lives. Looking back on how we did, so many years ago in our initial legal foray, is scary. Were we stellar, average or, heaven forbid, just skated through like my son in his freshman year in college? Whatever your trajectory is back to the law, your plan and expectations may be on target or they may need a little redefinition or refinement.

If you were stellar, chances are you maintained your connections with your old firm or practice area. Using these connections wisely will enable you to reestablish communication with old networking colleagues while initiating conversations with new colleagues who have come along in your absence.

If you were an average practitioner you may have to step up your game a notch. This may resonate with more than a few rezoomers. My son now understands this concept. The fire in our bellies upon graduation from Law school may have been dimmed or extinguished by the legal situation we found ourselves in post graduation and pre-legal service break. We may have been doing things we weren’t good at or didn’t like doing. We did ok, we were never world-beaters and welcomed the day we stopped practicing ‘that kind of law.’

This is your new grab at the legal brass ring; don’t be afraid to reach for the practice area of your choice. Rezooming means taking this ‘do over’ on your own terms! Don’t go around again without making the commitment to yourself to reach for the seemingly unattainable. If you rekindled that fire and now have a burning desire to jump back on this horse, know exactly what it is you have to do and be willing to move mountains to achieve it. Rezooming your legal career will now be a piece of cake. Making this commitment to yourself and your future will help avoid having all your hard work land in legal-limbo again…unfulfilled by the law you desperately wanted to practice. If you put quality time, directed effort and limitless imagination into re-starting your legal practice, from scratch in some instances, you will be assured of performing at the highest level; i.e. returning with a vengeance.

As you rezoom your legal career, take this opportunity to practice law the way you always wanted to. Like my son’s decision to rezoom his college career, if you are brave enough to make this commitment to yourself stack the deck in your favor and go back to the practice of law you crave. Your skin is thicker now and your advice to self more sage. If you trip a few times along the way and skin your knees those knees will be badges of honor to show off once you’ve made it.

Rezooming your legal career isn’t for everyone. You shouldn’t feel like you are missing something if you decide never to return to the practice law or never practice at all. A law degree singularly prepares you to work in so many venues. Law-school teaches you analytical skills that are highly sought after and valued by corporate America and beyond. This is the beauty of a law degree. It comes with certain perks, including the ability to analyze and research questions, provide spot on observations and valuable information to people, in a way that is easy to understand and makes every profession better. Don’t forget to apply it in self-examination as well!

As I sat there waiting for the outcome of my son’s placement tests, I hope my thoughts have spurred some of you on to rezooming your legal career or, at the very least, looking for an alternative rezooming opportunity. As with my son’s new attendance at community college, because maybe he wasn’t ready for the big college experience right out of High School, your prior experience in the law will set you up for your personal rezooming track. Set your sites high, follow your passion and get back out there. You need it and so do the people whose lives you’ll change once you commit to rezooming your career.

Written by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

Allies and Mentors and Masterminds…Oh My!

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 09:30:31 +0000

As Dorothy once said, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” Over the last year I have written individual posts about each of the above categories. Yet, they bear repeating.

As a solo rezoomer you need to acquire a strong base from which to launch. You need to define a network of Allies, Mentors and Masterminds. The three are not the same and no one person can fill all three roles for you on your journey. They can be acquired and evolve along the way, yet these role models must be available at the onset to give you the advice you need when you are ‘charging at windmills.’

As rezoomers we are uniquely qualified to find the best Allies, Mentors and Masterminds for our brain trust because we have age, experience, and colleagues in other fields.

An Ally is someone on the same or similar journey, who is either in the trenches with us or has already met with success in their own business. They provide an honest sounding board for our thoughts and ideas. They recognize themselves in us and wish to help us reach our goals as they have reached theirs. They will probably emerge from within your practice field but not from your own office. They have knowledge of the forum and give useful feedback on topics oriented and germane to your solo practice.

Rezoomers are not at a loss when looking for allies on our journey, especially in this economic climate; the old adage one for all and all for one comes to mind. We do not hesitate to ask for help, we have been doing it for a long time and realize how important delegation and cooperation is to any endeavor. We have learned, due to our varied backgrounds and experiences, that it is much easier to row the boat with others than try to row it alone.

Maybe, like me, when you exited law school you were sure you could row the boat all by yourself. You set a course, landed the job you wanted and worked your butt off to climb the legal ladder and receive well -deserved compliments and promotions. This surefootedness and bravado is a prized quality in new grads. They are fearless and find meeting people and moving at the speed of light just what the doctor ordered. This is, as we all know, the play station and Nintendo generation! Yet, as rezoomers, we are caught in the world of self-doubt, having been away from the practice of law. We now reenter with what some believe are stale skills. This is where our allies come in. They are the people you know and who have worked with you, both in the legal field and the non-legal field. They are now your staunch supporters, believing in your successful return to the practice of law. They may come from where you began your practice of law, where you have spent your hiatus, or where you are right now in your return to practice. They believe in you because they realize how well you have adapted your legal skills to function in a multidimensional field.

Our Mentor is someone, usually outside our sphere of business, who singlehandedly challenges us to strive for that big idea; the one you have only dreamed of attaining and would never allow yourself to really believe was achievable. This is the person who stops your thoughts of limitation and self-sabotage. They see you for who you are and who you can be. Mentors are invaluable for helping you think bigger. They are not hamstrung by your self-sabotage; they probably have enough of their own. They have, ‘climbed the mountain’ so to speak and feel they can share their map with you so that you can have an easier climb. They glimpse the next generation of an idea in you and are thrilled to help make that idea a reality!

Lastly, our Mastermind colleagues are that group of people, at similar points in their businesses, who help one another see the big picture of what they all want to do. They are our first clients, vetting the concepts we are creating to see if the response we are going for is the response they feel. You are test marketing your wildass ideas on colleagues who have committed to help you design, test and do your best job the first time out of the box. They are your interested audience, to whom you explain what it is you do or want to do. Mastermind colleagues critique your presentations, ideas and processes. They give you feedback, both positive and negative, enabling you to tweak your business model so it speaks to your audience in a way they understand. In turn this builds your business the way you want from the get go.

In a recent New York City Bar Association presentation, Kara Baysinger and Michelle Coleman Mayes, the ladies of General Counsel-dom were interviewed about their book, Couregous Counsel – Conversations with Women General Counsels in the Fortune500. These ladies outlined what they did to get ahead as well as interviewed women who had done the same. Each woman General Counsel interviewed mentioned networking, not as a secret ingredient, but as close to the special sauce as you could get. Without it they felt their entire journey to their positions as General Counsels would never have taken place. In the article they confirm what I said months ago and again here, Allies, Mentors and Masterminds, from inside and outside your comfort zone and zone of influence, are crucial. They can see where you came from and where you are going more clearly and without the baggage we bring along for the ride.

They said the General Counsels they interviewed encourage everyone looking to become a General Counsel to ASK! Wow, I think I wrote about that months ago too. Is this a recurring theme among intelligent people? It you don’t ask how will anyone know what you want? If you ‘hang’ with people who are successful you will become successful? Remember to be strategic in seeking help and feedback, as Kara and Michelle said in this article.

Lastly, if you institute the ‘threesome,’ Allies, Mentors, and Masterminds, it will be a lot less scary. Yes Dorothy, we are not in Kansas any more. We are Solo’s out in the world pulling our clients in by our focus, dedication to our practice, and clarity of mission. Without the input from each of these necessary people we will not get as far as we can as quickly as we can. Don’t choose to miss a step or a piece of the puzzle. Using each party to their fullest is a sure fire way for a solo to meet with success.

Written by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton

Belly Up to the Bar (Association) Part II

Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 12:30:58 +0000

This month begins my second year as SPU’s “ReZooming Columnist”. It has been an awesome opportunity, Thank you Susan!

The title of this article may seem redundant, yet so much has happened since I ran with it the first time I felt I would use it again to let you know what a difference a title makes!

About a month after Solo Practice University ran my Belly Up to the Bar (Association) post I received a call from the Bar Association of New Hampshire. They loved the title and the subject matter. Since the information I gave had universal appeal, they asked if I might allow them to run the article in their next newspaper? With Susan’s blessing and a nod to SPU, it was sent off to the NHSBA. I received several comments and contacts from the re-run of this article.

Last month Pat Wood, Senior Director of Membership Services, NYSBA contacted me regarding my Belly up to the Bar (Association) article. It had just run in the NHSBA Newspaper. Seems the NYSBA Google search got a hit on my article because I used the words and abbreviations for the New York State Bar Association – NYSBA! She was thrilled by the article and my involvement in the Association and wondered if I would talk with the Lawyers in Transition Committee head, Jessica Thaler. Pat asked if they might be able to run the article again in the NYSBA magazine. I connected with Jessica about a week later, had a lovely conversation and may be asked to write a monthly column for them on Lawyers in Transition!

It all started with the opportunity I received from Susan Cartier Liebel of SPU, after a talk she gave at Pace University Law School on Lawyers in Transition Starting Their Own Solo Practice. I Bellied up to the Speaker so to speak! I thanked Susan for her program. She asked what I was up to and so I briefly filled her in. I then spoke with a group of colleagues, and Susan, about the ways in which we all were working toward getting our solo practices up and running. Through this exchange Susan must have felt I could offer something to her members and so invited me to write the Solos ReZooming Column.

And the rest as they say is history! The Belly Post was the first time I decided to use a catchy title. I was getting more comfortable writing and felt it may make someone stop, think and read the article. It worked, multiple times.

As I embark on a second year with Solo Practice University I look forward to continuing to bring my followers information I glean from being on the front lines of ReZooming. It is not easy. It is often thankless. Yet at a time like this I feel, ‘wow what awesome opportunities I have been given and remarkable accomplishments I have achieved’.

I have been published in several high profile papers, my favorites being the April 30th, 2012 Wall Street Journal and my segment on WTNH in Connecticut. In both the article and TV segment I was given the opportunity to speak about what I do and how important my work is. I may never have been contacted about being an Animal Conflict Mediator if I had not been seemingly everywhere, writing and speaking to everyone I met about what I did in a way they found engaging and authentic.

My Rezooming Partners in Law remember, it is totally up to you. If you Belly up to the Bar and put yourself out there, good things will follow. If you talk only about what you do and not what might be helpful to others, your success will be mitigated. It is about giving to receive, not tooting ones own horn! My Belly Up article spoke about helping people on committees, getting involved and meeting people who support ones return to practice. It was about what others could do, just like me, and have a similar outcome.

Remember, as Solos we need to create our own support network of colleagues. You do this by ‘getting in the mud’ with your colleagues and coming up with the goods, day after day, week after week. Sitting alone in your office will never help you find out how good you really can be. You will never create the space to help others first and by virtue of your giving, getting in abundance in return.

Thank you for reading my posts. I look forward to bringing more to you in the coming year. Have a great summer.

Written by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton