What’s holding you back, Mediators?

August 11, 2008

Could it possibly be you? I ask because lately in both my professional and personal lives there’s plenty of evidence that people keep themselves from doing the things they love and having what they want.

Yesterday, I had an interesting chat with Irina Shea, one of the brightest young lawyers I know and founder of BeneficiaryForum.com , an information portal for trust beneficiaries. We were chatting about why more lawyers don’t actively mediate cases. It seems they don’t have time. Their schedules are too full to invest in learning or providing additional services that could benefit their clients. They want to, but they just can’t. Hmmm.

I’ve heard that argument more than a few times before from mediators who say they are too busy servicing the cases they have to actively, consistently market for new ones. They want to but, they just can’t. Personally I don’t get that attitude. If you’ve been reading Mensch for any length of time (I started blogging in 2005) you know that I’m definitely a ‘don’t-take-no’ kind of gal. My life, particularly my mediation career, has been built on the belief that where there’s a will there’s a way.

Sure, there will be obstacles. The late Randy Pausch called them walls. In his book and his speech, The Last Lecture , Randy reminds all of us that the walls are there to keep the other people out. Not you. The other folks who don’t want it as badly, aren’t willing to work as hard, just can’t find the strength, hope, determination to keep at it.

Lack of time is an obstacle we all think we face yet I’m not sure if it’s an actual or imagined. Mediator, ask yourself: how much time have I spent thinking about how to attract more clients? If you said a lot, then I have another question for you. Why are you just thinking? Why aren’t you doing? Let’s start a discussion here about what may be keeping you from building the practice you want.