How to stop your legal talents from going to waste.

Hey Legal friends! This is the end of summer.. and soon the end of this format!

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You've missed out this week!

Let's start with my shameless plug to be nominated for an award. I did it and it felt super cringe. Keep in mind that because I am not a qualified solicitor, I've rarely had a chance to apply for awards nomination.

And quite frankly, I never felt worthy of one. I am un-titled after all.

• I am a foreign lawyer with no practising certificate in the UK.
• I am a law grad from a French law school in the suburb area of Paris (what they call 'ghetto') no one's ever heard of.
• I am a daughter of Algerian immigrants who was raised in the country side of France.

• I am en ex-head of legal who never had that title on her employment contract nor the pay check but who still did the work. Only because I never dared asking for it.

I sat on that post for 2+ hours, fearing of what it would look like or what people would think.

And more recently, as I grow Law But How? into something of its own, I've come to realise that although I am 'un-titled', this is exactly the reason why people buy from me.

Being un-titled gives other people permission to succeed, too.

From 'un-titled' I am becoming a Proud Misfit of the legal industry.

I also reminded myself of what I teach my legal clients for their LinkedIn growth. 'You need to get over yourself, no one cares enough for you not to try.'

So I got over myself and went for the ask. I've been OVERWHELMED by the support. I probably have received over 40+ nominations.

Imagine what I'd have missed out on had I not asked? This would have been an expensive opportunity cost.

And yet this is what you're probably doing every day by not trying things. Which leads nicely to the topic of the day.

Are you procrastinating, missing out or both?

I've had 2 conversations revolving around the concept of 'credibility'

When is 'good enough' enough? When do we start becoming credible, legitimate to aspire to bigger goals?

Now granted you'll probably not trust a kid who is a life coach.

But still, is the right time not a fallacy of its own?

Here is why I think the perfect conditions never arrive.

1. Conversation 1: head of legal in his 40's who's built a legal function from scratch, hired and managed people. He aspires to become a VP one day.. and believed that he needs to be 50 years old for that. I shared with him my experience of applying to a VP EMEA Associate General Counsel Role at 29 years old. I've made it to the final stage. Was I confident? No. I simply looked at the JD and felt (although intimidating) I could do it.
2. Conversation 2: someone in the legal industry who developed a particular set of skills, yet does not believe in being an "expert" due "to not having a certification". Meanwhile, I am not a legal marketing expert, a LinkedIn guru or even a graphic designer. But I

• up-skilled in visual design (studied graphic design for 6-months intensive),
• experimented all sorts of things on LinkedIn for 5 years and made tons of mistakes,
• built an audience and understand how to leverage the platform a non-cringey way (if you want to post selfies and sob stories every day then I am definitely not for you)
• ultimately gave amazing results to my clients (check my success stories and more recently how Sarah Irwin went from 2,000 to 7,600 legal industry followers in just 5 months )

Clients, (good) employers care about results, irrespective of age and certifications.

You do not see the doctor when you're healed. You have to put the baby steps in motion to create your luck.

All the things like 'perfect time', 'age', 'certification' can die to the fear and procrastination graveyard because this is where they belong

How I overcame procrastination

This is how I personally have put the baby steps in place to land my dream job (link to post here )

It took me years.. only because I did not know posting on LinkedIn could help me change the course of my legal career.

Now that I can reverse-engineer the recipe, I know how to deliver speed in achieving these goals.

But do not take my word for it, watch my clients' successes

1. Sarah Irwin has become an in-house powerhouse not just for the Irish market. She built a global reach. This enabled her to get paid speaking engagements, attract stellar sponsors, and ultimately monetise her influence.
2. Or take a more recent client of mine, Angela Freeman who reached 70,000 views, received 2 invitations to speak at tech startups events in Ireland and who's been growing internal visibility at her law firm.. in just 2 months!

I hope this serves as a reminder to go-after what you want and implement the baby steps to get there.

Avoid falling into the "When, Then" Trap. It won't serve you.

Until next week!

Sarah

?? If you're still here, there are 2 ways I can help you.

If you're a legal industry professional prepared to put the work in to start building your profile click here to fill out the form and let's see if we can work together.

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