GUEST BLOGGER: Merrilyn Astin Tarlton, Co-Publisher - Attorney at Work

Child development experts call it “impulse control.” A key measure of a child’s maturity, the traditional test for it involves marshmallows. A 4-year-old is offered two marshmallows if he can wait 15 minutes for them. If he can’t wait, he can have a marshmallow right away—but just one. At four, some choose two and work hard to get through the wait and others just want one and want it now.

Once again it’s the time of year where we assess what marketing and business development efforts we have done over the course of the year so we can prepare our year-end reports for management, and to plan accordingly and strategically for the coming year. One of the marketing efforts that many lawyers as well as marketing professionals undertake each year is to serve on boards and do work with Associations where they may have the opportunity to meet and develop relationships with current and prospective clients.

I recently attended the LMASE Mini Conference in Houston. As a newbie to this mini conference, I was impressed with the attendance and the “players” that I met that day. Like most LMA conferences, I always meet some new legal marketers and I left the day with some solid takeaways.

Apple’s new iPhone 4S’s Virtual Assistant, Siri, can tell me how to find the nearest Indian restaurant, remind me that it’s my brother’s birthday and even manage expense reports. It apparently takes on the role of philosopher as well, answering (or dodging) such questions as, “What is the meaning of life?”  Sure it’s a cool application! I mean, why pay a therapist if you can get free advice from your phone?

In the twenty-five plus years I have worked in the professional services community, I have served and worked on numerous committees. A well-run committee is critical to the management of any organization or firm to get work completed efficiently, effectively and creatively. All too often, I have watched committees fail when they had formed with all of the best of intentions.

“Back to school. Back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool. I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight. Ohhhh, back to school. Back to school. Back to school. Well, here goes nothing.” — Billy Madison

It has been a few weeks since the new school year started. Elementary students receive their teacher’s name and supplies list, while college students receive their syllabus and assignments for the first semester of classes.

I read a number of blogs, and two of my favorites are Jonathan Fitzgarrald’s Bad for the Brand and Heather Milligan’s The Legal Water Cooler. Both blogs are well written and often focus on the subject of “reputation management,” or what we at Moiré like to refer to as “becoming a brand ambassador.”

Dating! Some do it for fun and others do it in search of love. There’s a saying that you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you can find your Prince. Unfortunately, some of us have had to kiss more frogs than others, but regardless, dating is a necessary process when trying to understand what qualities you value in your search for a serious relationship.

I am on a quest to find the perfect pair of black sandals, and when I say perfect, I mean A-MAZING - comfortable, unique, versatile; a pair of shoes that invoke the green-eyed monster in every woman that sees them. This has been an endless process because for every pair of shoes I love, I start to think that maybe there is another pair somewhere I will like better. In many ways, the search for the perfect pair of shoes is very similar to the way professional services firms go about finding agencies who will help them with their brand.

A huge misconception of social media is that if you build it they will come. This is not field of dreams. In addition, joining social media networks is not like advertising. You must be proactive and reach out to fellow group members, network and create those relationships. It is those relationships that assist in leading to new business opportunities. Merely joining a group or building a profile does not lead to new business.