As a lawyer, how you position, manipulate, and present words is everything. Both orally and in writing, communicating well is one of the most important skills you can cultivate. You might be the most brilliant lawyer full of wonderful ideas, but if you can’t transmit that to other people, it’s going to waste. That’s why writing well in the professional context matters, and I have the perfect guest on the show this week to dive into this topic.

 

Amanda Haverstick is a lawyer turned writing coach for lawyers. She has spent over 20 years in practice as a litigator in Big Law and in-house at a Fortune 500 company. As a writing coach, Amanda shares tips and strategies to help lawyers become better writers, and her book, Dear 1L: Notes to Nurture a New Legal Writer has been described as the ‘it’ book to read before law school.

 

How often do you find yourself feeling trapped by a decision? Maybe you call it analysis paralysis, sitting on the fence, or one foot in and one foot out. Regardless of how you describe it, the overarching characteristic here is a sense of anxiety around decision-making and the pressure to pick the perfect option.

 

The fear of making “bad” decisions is a topic that comes up often in my coaching conversations with lawyers. If you see decision-making as binary, where there are either good or bad ones you can make, you’re not alone. However, have you ever asked yourself if decisions can be inherently good or bad? And how is your fear of making “bad” decisions keeping you paralyzed? 

 

In celebration of Mother’s Day, this episode is dedicated to all of you lawyer moms out there. Navigating your roles as both lawyer and parent is objectively tough. Not only are you showing up in your professional work for your colleagues and clients, but you’re doing so much behind the scenes in your home life too, and you are doing a fabulous job.

 

If balancing your roles as mother and lawyer feels somewhat precarious, my hope is this episode acknowledges your experience and offers some guidance in finding the peace, harmony, and balance you’re seeking. You love both your children and your work, and there are real challenges that come with finding work-life balance. So the question is, how can you reduce the conflict in your roles and feel more in control of your overall experience?

 

What comes to mind when you think about self-care?

 

Maybe you imagine being in a spa with a towel wrapped around your head, mud mask on, listening to gentle spa music. Perhaps you picture a silent retreat and being on a raw food diet. Whatever you envisage, my guess is you aren’t engaging in those practices every day. And if self-care is something you shy away from or something you think you need to reserve a weekend or special occasion for, you’re in the right place. 

 

Do you feel stuck at work? Maybe your job feels like it no longer fits, but you don’t know how to move forward. Perhaps it’s where you live, your relationships, health goals, or other areas in your life that are making you feel trapped or like you’ve hit a dead end. And maybe this seems like a huge problem.

 

If you find that what was working is no longer working for you, and you catch yourself complaining about the same things over and over again or wishing things were different, this episode is for you. While it’s normal to assume feeling stuck is a problem, I’m inviting you to see how where you are right now could just be Eigenzeit.

 

There are a whole host of factors that can make living with ADHD extremely challenging, and there are most certainly certain practice areas or law firm environments that can negatively impact how someone with ADHD experiences their life. However, my guest believes that with greater awareness and knowledge, not only does managing an ADHD diagnosis become easier, but success is inevitable.

 

Erin Peters is a psychotherapist, registered therapeutic counsellor, and former lawyer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She provides therapy-related services to lawyers and adults with ADHD, and she’s here this week to take a deep dive into ADHD among lawyers and proactive steps you can take to deal with some of the most common challenges that arise.

 

Are you consciously choosing the words you say? How is the language you’re using sending the wrong message or undermining your confidence? What does it take to gain control of your speech patterns? And how can you communicate with greater clarity, confidence, authority, and power?

 

We’re at the very beginning of spring, which means it’s time for spring cleaning for many of us. Your mind might immediately turn to decluttering your physical space, whether that’s your house, office space, or wardrobe, and experiencing the satisfaction that comes from the visual effect of before-and-after. However, while less tangible, I’m inviting you to spring-clean your speech this week.

 

To celebrate the huge milestone of 150 podcast episodes this week, I have a very special guest on the show. Mylène Houle Morency is a professional organizer and a dear friend who was my first-ever podcast guest, and she’s back today to share her insights on the topic of mental load and mental overload. 

 

Mylène has been very busy since she was first on the show two and a half years ago. She’s a multi-passionate entrepreneur who now has her own TV show, has written a book, and continues to offer trainings on work-life balance, mental overload, and corporate organizing. She’s here today to shed light on what mental overload means, and how to identify our triggers so we can prevent tipping into an overload state.

 

If you’re anything like my guest on the show today, you’ve checked all the boxes in your professional life. You’ve learned as much as possible, honed your legal skills, prioritized having a broad experience, and maybe you’ve even made partner at your firm. But now what? What else are you chasing? 

 

Aman Costigan is a multi-faceted lawyer based in Edmonton and a yoga and mindfulness teacher for lawyers. She’s also a life strategist for couples and runs various workshops with her husband Tom. Although her professional life was thriving, she realized she had let go of all of her hobbies and was lacking a sense of excitement, fun, and joy in life. The solution she’s found? Investing in herself.

 

Have you ever wondered how your life might be different if you had a coach by your side? Do coaches experience life the same way as everyone else? What tools do coaches use? What challenges do they still experience? And what can coaching do, specifically as it applies to lawyers?

 

These are questions I used to ask myself before I became a coach, and I continue to hear these questions from the lawyers I work with. If you’re currently thinking about working with a coach and you’re wondering what you can expect, or how that relationship might unfold, listen in this week as I delineate what your coach can and cannot help you with.