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!