In just over a week, it will be September 1st. As I mentioned last week, I like to think of September as a brand new start, much like the school year used to be. It’s a chance to begin again and look at your goals and plans with a fresh set of eyes.
While business development is an ongoing effort and doesn’t wrap up simply because the calendar year comes to a close, I’ve found that when I have ongoing projects, giving myself firm deadlines to complete them motivates me far more than having some abstract end date.
Continue Reading 4 Weeks to Plan Your 4th Quarter Business Development Victory
The other day, I saw that someone said that August feels like the Sunday of the year. This feels really true. And bearing that in mind, it can be a good time to use this “Sunday” to prepare for the remaining months of the year – if you’re a preparer-type. With just about two weeks left in the month and a lot of clients and colleagues out on vacation, you may want to take a look around your physical or home office and identify what is working well or where the challenges are, in three different areas, to set yourself up for a successful September. 
Raise your hand if you’re burned out, frustrated, tired, over it.
If you have zoom fatigue, raise your hand.
There’s no quick fix for relationship development. But there ARE some quick things you can do today to advance either the first step in your relationship with someone or the next step. When you think of networking and relationship building as a series of smaller actions that you can take to help weave the fabric of stronger relationships, it stops feeling so overwhelming and starts feeling like something you can build into your everyday schedule. So whether you’ve got five minutes or an hour, you can strengthen your network today: 
One of my favorite running jokes is “How do you know someone has run a marathon?”
As a lawyer, in addition to the network of clients and potential clients that you’ve built, you’ve also built a network of referral sources. This may be formal or informal (or more likely, both). One of the most overlooked opportunities for further developing your relationships with these sources of referrals is content – not only does it help you to get to know these sources better, but it also provides you with collateral that you can use with your primary client/potential client networks. 
I’ll tell you a secret – the pandemic may not be over, but you can still be networking. Even when networking is primarily done in a virtual way, the substance of it has not changed; only the platform.
This afternoon, I had a lovely chat with my friend, 
Two years ago