PKM is a new term, but an important one for all knowledge workers (i.e. lawyers and others who think for a living and solve problems by thinking). Here are some basics of PKM, which will probably seem alien to many lawyers. But it's worth making the effort to grasp the power of PKM. Show Notes Nick Milo's PKM story (article published on Medium) Nick Milo's YouTube channel What is PKM (Nick MIlo's YouTube explanation) Focused podcast episode 122 (where Nick Milo's appeared and discussed PKM) Wikipedia definition of personal knowledge management Information Anxiety 2, by Richard Saul Wurman Continuum of Understanding, by Richard Shedroff (progression from data to information to knowledge to wisdom) The Great Mental Models, by Farnam Street (Shane Parrish runs Farnham Street) How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading, Mortimer Adler Bookworm podcast: episode 42 (How To Read a Book) Trello (kanban board style project management tool) SweetProcess (process documentation tool) Process St. (another process documenting tool) 1Password (best password management tool) Drafts (fast capture tool for iPhone users) Evernote (not so fast capture tool that many people still use) Apple Notes (fast capture tool for iPhone users) Otter.ai (convenient and semi-fast capture via voice transcription) Kill your darlings (writing advice that applies to ideas as well) Obsidian (a new PKM tool that is being rapidly adopted by high-level knowledge workers) Amazon Kindle Notes (your book highlights are accessible online and in various Kindle apps) Michael Hyatt (respected business leader and business coach) Tim Ferriss (well-known author of The Four Hour Workweek, and VC investor.) My Systems Workshop General Resources The 80/20 Principle (my email newsletter) The 5 Pillars of a Tech-Powered Law Practice The Inner Circle (an online community for law firm owners) Thanks to Our Sponsors SweetProcess is a great way to document your important workflows. Doing so will help make your practice run more smoothly, and require less involvement on your part to keep things running smoothly. The best way to understand how SweetProcess will help streamline your firm is to start using it. The company offers a 14-day free trial, but as a loyal listener of this podcast, you can try it for 28-days free of charge. And you don’t even have to enter a credit card to get started. Just navigate to SweetProcess.com/ernie to start your 28-day free trial today. And thanks to the other sponsor of this podcast… Smith.ai is an amazing virtual receptionist service that specializes in working with solo and small law firms. When you hire Smith.ai you’re actually hiring well-trained, friendly receptionists who can respond to callers in English or Spanish. If there’s one great outsourcing opportunity for your practice, this is it. Let Smith.ai have your back while you stay focused on your work, knowing that your clients and prospects are being taken care of. Plans start at just $140 a month for calls or chats. And they have a special offer for podcast listeners where you can get an extra $100 discount with promo code ERNIE100. Sign up for a free trial now (and learn more) at www.smith.ai.  EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at EmeraldCity Pro.  

Unfortunately, most lawyers don't know how to write persuasively, and their marketing copy is boring. And surprisingly, many marketing folks (who supposedly are experts in persuasive ad writing and marketing writing) also do a really poor job. So don't feel bad if you struggle to write persuasively. It's not something you were ever taught to do, certainly not in law school. In this episode, you'll discover the best strategies, tactics, and tools for creating more persuasive briefs and marketing copy that will help you attract better clients (and refer other great clients). Below are some helpful resources to improve your persuasive writing and marketing. Show Notes Conversion.ai (helps you write marketing copy that sounds natural and persuasive) Grammarly (pure grammar/syntax checker) Hemingway app (free editing suggestion tool) Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge - Useful framework for the whole writing process Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Ciadini Thinking Fast & Slow, Daniel Kahneman Never Split the Difference Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It, Chris Voss Digital Marketing for Dummies , Ryan Deiss & Russ Henneberry Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, Don Miller You Are The Brand: The 8-Step Blueprint to Showcase Your Unique Expertise and Build a Highly Profitable, Personally Fulfilling Business, Mike Kim Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It, Steven Pressfield Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business, Kenneth Roman & Joel Raphaelson Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, Roy Peter Clark Ernest Hemingway on Writing, by Larry Phillips   General Resources The 80/20 Principle (my email newsletter) The 5 Pillars of a Tech-Powered Law Practice The Inner Circle (an online community for law firm owners) Thanks to Our Sponsors SweetProcess is a great way to document your important workflows. Doing so will help make your practice run more smoothly, and require less involvement on your part to keep things running smoothly. The best way to understand how SweetProcess will help streamline your firm is to start using it. The company offers a 14-day free trial, but as a loyal listener of this podcast, you can try it for 28-days free of charge. And you don’t even have to enter a credit card to get started. Just navigate to SweetProcess.com/ernie to start your 28-day free trial today. And thanks to the other sponsor of this podcast… Smith.ai is an amazing virtual receptionist service that specializes in working with solo and small law firms. When you hire Smith.ai you’re actually hiring well-trained, friendly receptionists who can respond to callers in English or Spanish. If there’s one great outsourcing opportunity for your practice, this is it. Let Smith.ai have your back while you stay focused on your work, knowing that your clients and prospects are being taken care of. Plans start at just $140 a month for calls or chats. And they have a special offer for podcast listeners where you can get an extra $100 discount with promo code ERNIE100. Sign up for a free trial now (and learn more) at www.smith.ai.  EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at EmeraldCity Pro.    

Discover how he approached the creation of his solo practice, and which tools and resources he has found most useful in the process. Show Notes Episode Transcript (via Otter.ai) Team Desk (database software) ScanSnap iX1600 scanner Paperless Lawyering course (that Bin took to learn to become paperless) Zoho CRM TextExpander (amazing keyboard macro software) SweetProcess(process documentation software) Law Firm Systems Workshop The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande General Resources The 80/20 Principle (my email newsletter) The 5 Pillars of a Tech-Powered Law Practice The Inner Circle (an online community for law firm owners) Thanks to Our Sponsors SweetProcess is a great way to document your important workflows. Doing so will help make your practice run more smoothly, and require less involvement on your part to keep things running smoothly. The best way to understand how SweetProcess will help streamline your firm is to start using it. The company offers a 14-day free trial, but as a loyal listener of this podcast, you can try it for 28-days free of charge. And you don’t even have to enter a credit card to get started. Just navigate to SweetProcess.com/ernie to start your 28-day free trial today. And thanks to the other sponsor of this podcast… Smith.ai is an amazing virtual receptionist service that specializes in working with solo and small law firms. When you hire Smith.ai you’re actually hiring well-trained, friendly receptionists who can respond to callers in English or Spanish. If there’s one great outsourcing opportunity for your practice, this is it. Let Smith.ai have your back while you stay focused on your work, knowing that your clients and prospects are being taken care of. Plans start at just $140 a month for calls or chats. And they have a special offer for podcast listeners where you can get an extra $100 discount with promo code ERNIE100. Sign up for a free trial now (and learn more) at www.smith.ai.  EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at EmeraldCity Pro.  

You need to train yourself to understand how the most common attacks work. That's how you avoid them. So that’s what we’re going to talk about, with a special focus on phishing attacks & ransomware. Show Notes Episode 154: Security for Lawyers Beyond Fear (recommended book by Bruce Schneier) LastPass (free password manager) Password Management Policy (good overview of using passwords effectively) VPN Security - basic information about VPN use 60 Minutes Segment on Ransomware attacks General Resources The 80/20 Principle (my email newsletter) The 5 Pillars of a Tech-Powered Law Practice The Inner Circle (an online community for law firm owners) Thanks to Our Sponsors SweetProcess is a great way to document your important workflows. Doing so will help make your practice run more smoothly, and require less involvement on your part to keep things running smoothly. The best way to understand how SweetProcess will help streamline your firm is to start using it. The company offers a 14-day free trial, but as a loyal listener of this podcast, you can try it for 28-days free of charge. And you don’t even have to enter a credit card to get started. Just navigate to SweetProcess.com/ernie to start your 28-day free trial today. And thanks to the other sponsor of this podcast… Smith.ai is an amazing virtual receptionist service that specializes in working with solo and small law firms. When you hire Smith.ai you’re actually hiring well-trained, friendly receptionists who can respond to callers in English or Spanish. If there’s one great outsourcing opportunity for your practice, this is it. Let Smith.ai have your back while you stay focused on your work, knowing that your clients and prospects are being taken care of. Plans start at just $140 a month for calls or chats. And they have a special offer for podcast listeners where you can get an extra $100 discount with promo code ERNIE100. Sign up for a free trial now (and learn more) at www.smith.ai.  EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at EmeraldCity Pro.  

In this episode, Ernie speaks with an anonymous associate at a large firm about resistance she faces in her attempts to get her firm to adopt technology. Ernie shares some strategies and tactics for getting buy-in. Human nature is a bigger factor than cold logic and well-pled arguments. Show Notes The free preview to my Working Smarter course contains the discussion about using automated calendaring that we discussed. General Resources The 80/20 Principle (my email newsletter) The 5 Pillars of a Tech-Powered Law Practice The Inner Circle (an online community for law firm owners) Thanks to Our Sponsors SweetProcess is a great way to document your important workflows. Doing so will help make your practice run more smoothly, and require less involvement on your part to keep things running smoothly. The best way to understand how SweetProcess will help streamline your firm is to start using it. The company offers a 14-day free trial, but as a loyal listener of this podcast, you can try it for 28-days free of charge. And you don’t even have to enter a credit card to get started. Just navigate to SweetProcess.com/ernie to start your 28-day free trial today. And thanks to the other sponsor of this podcast… Smith.ai is an amazing virtual receptionist service that specializes in working with solo and small law firms. When you hire Smith.ai you’re actually hiring well-trained, friendly receptionists who can respond to callers in English or Spanish. If there’s one great outsourcing opportunity for your practice, this is it. Let Smith.ai have your back while you stay focused on your work, knowing that your clients and prospects are being taken care of. Plans start at just $140 a month for calls or chats. And they have a special offer for podcast listeners where you can get an extra $100 discount with promo code ERNIE100. Sign up for a free trial now (and learn more) at www.smith.ai.  EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at EmeraldCity Pro.  

We must learn to think sensibly about security in order to properly implement it and manage it. According to Bruce Schneier, a renowned security expert, there are 5 elements to consider when making security decisions. Show Notes Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World, by Bruce Schneier General Resources The 80/20 Principle (my email newsletter) The 5 Pillars of a Tech-Powered Law Practice The Inner Circle (an online community for law firm owners) Thanks to Our Sponsors SweetProcess is a great way to document your important workflows. Doing so will help make your practice run more smoothly, and require less involvement on your part to keep things running smoothly. The best way to understand how SweetProcess will help streamline your firm is to start using it. The company offers a 14-day free trial, but as a loyal listener of this podcast, you can try it for 28-days free of charge. And you don’t even have to enter a credit card to get started. Just navigate to SweetProcess.com/ernie to start your 28-day free trial today. And thanks to the other sponsor of this podcast… Smith.ai is an amazing virtual receptionist service that specializes in working with solo and small law firms. When you hire Smith.ai you’re actually hiring well-trained, friendly receptionists who can respond to callers in English or Spanish. If there’s one great outsourcing opportunity for your practice, this is it. Let Smith.ai have your back while you stay focused on your work, knowing that your clients and prospects are being taken care of. Plans start at just $140 a month for calls or chats. And they have a special offer for podcast listeners where you can get an extra $100 discount with promo code ERNIE100. Sign up for a free trial now (and learn more) at www.smith.ai.  EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at EmeraldCity Pro.  

In my Systems Workshop, we begin by delving into the role of creativity in creating systems for improving a law practice. There are some common myths about creativity that need to be debunked, and that's where we start in this episode. Show Notes Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide, by John Cleese The HBR Guide to Better Business Writing: Divide the Writing Process into Four Separate Tasks, by Brian Garner (where he explains his "madman, architect, carpenter, judge" model) General Resources The 80/20 Principle (my email newsletter) The 5 Pillars of a Tech-Powered Law Practice The Inner Circle (an online community for law firm owners) Thanks to Our Sponsors SweetProcess is a great way to document your important workflows. Doing so will help make your practice run more smoothly, and require less involvement on your part to keep things running smoothly. The best way to understand how SweetProcess will help streamline your firm is to start using it. The company offers a 14-day free trial, but as a loyal listener of this podcast, you can try it for 28-days free of charge. And you don’t even have to enter a credit card to get started. Just navigate to SweetProcess.com/ernie to start your 28-day free trial today. And thanks to the other sponsor of this podcast… Smith.ai is an amazing virtual receptionist service that specializes in working with solo and small law firms. When you hire Smith.ai you’re actually hiring well-trained, friendly receptionists who can respond to callers in English or Spanish. If there’s one great outsourcing opportunity for your practice, this is it. Let Smith.ai have your back while you stay focused on your work, knowing that your clients and prospects are being taken care of. Plans start at just $140 a month for calls or chats. And they have a special offer for podcast listeners where you can get an extra $100 discount with promo code ERNIE100. Sign up for a free trial now (and learn more) at www.smith.ai.  EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at EmeraldCity Pro.  

You know your situation better than anyone else. Sometimes you should trust what your gut instincts tell you is best for you, and not what a supposed expert says. We'll talk about some things that experts say that need to be questioned, and we'll also talk about places where your intuition can be wrong. Interestingly, persuasion is one area where both supposed lawyer experts and your intuition are probably wrong —unless you closely study the books I'll recommend and discuss. Show Notes To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, by Dan Pink Exactly What To Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact, by Phil M Jones Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini (New & Expanded) Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life, by Rory Sutherland Readwise (the app/service that makes it easy to revisit and learn from your ebook & article highlights). General Resources The 80/20 Principle (my email newsletter) The 5 Pillars of a Tech-Powered Law Practice The Inner Circle (an online community for law firm owners) Thanks to Our Sponsors SweetProcess is a great way to document your important workflows. Doing so will help make your practice run more smoothly, and require less involvement on your part to keep things running smoothly. The best way to understand how SweetProcess will help streamline your firm is to start using it. The company offers a 14-day free trial, but as a loyal listener of this podcast, you can try it for 28-days free of charge. And you don’t even have to enter a credit card to get started. Just navigate to SweetProcess.com/ernie to start your 28-day free trial today. And thanks to the other sponsor of this podcast… Smith.ai is an amazing virtual receptionist service that specializes in working with solo and small law firms. When you hire Smith.ai you’re actually hiring well-trained, friendly receptionists who can respond to callers in English or Spanish. If there’s one great outsourcing opportunity for your practice, this is it. Let Smith.ai have your back while you stay focused on your work, knowing that your clients and prospects are being taken care of. Plans start at just $140 a month for calls or chats. And they have a special offer for podcast listeners where you can get an extra $100 discount with promo code ERNIE100. Sign up for a free trial now (and learn more) at www.smith.ai.  EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at EmeraldCity Pro.  

Joe Emmerth is a family law practitioner in the Chicago area who left the firm he joined out of law school to start his own firm. After 15 years of practice, he knew a lot about being a lawyer, but suddenly he had to make sure he knew enough about running his own law business.  In this episode, he explains how he planned his move, and what tools he finds most essential in his new firm. Show Notes Emmerth Divorce Law (Joe's firm website) Clio (practice management software) Gravity Legal (payment processor) Core Solutions (legal accounting software) Kofax PDF software Zoom (video conference software) Andy Stickle's YouTube channel (marketing tips) Maximum Lawyer Group Arrow Consultants YouTube Channel (North Carolina paralegal with great tips on using Microsoft 365 and other tech stuff) Microsoft Office 365 Microsoft OneDrive (online file storage) Office 365 Planner DocuSign (e-signature software) Slack (virtual business collaboration software) Dragon Naturally Speaking Dropbox (online file storage) A Second Monitor (essential for modern knowledge workers) Google Chromebook (backup computer) Remarkable tablet (paperless tool)   General Resources The 80/20 Principle (my email newsletter) The 5 Pillars of a Tech-Powered Law Practice The Inner Circle (an online community for law firm owners) Thanks to Our Sponsors SweetProcess is a great way to document your important workflows. Doing so will help make your practice run more smoothly, and require less involvement on your part to keep things running smoothly. The best way to understand how SweetProcess will help streamline your firm is to start using it. The company offers a 14-day free trial, but as a loyal listener of this podcast, you can try it for 28-days free of charge. And you don’t even have to enter a credit card to get started. Just navigate to SweetProcess.com/ernie to start your 28-day free trial today. And thanks to the other sponsor of this podcast… Smith.ai is an amazing virtual receptionist service that specializes in working with solo and small law firms. When you hire Smith.ai you’re actually hiring well-trained, friendly receptionists who can respond to callers in English or Spanish. If there’s one great outsourcing opportunity for your practice, this is it. Let Smith.ai have your back while you stay focused on your work, knowing that your clients and prospects are being taken care of. Plans start at just $140 a month for calls or chats. And they have a special offer for podcast listeners where you can get an extra $100 discount with promo code ERNIE100. Sign up for a free trial now (and learn more) at www.smith.ai.  EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at EmeraldCity Pro.  

Warren Buffet nails it when he observes: "The interesting thing about business is that it's not like the Olympics. You don't get any extra points for the fact that something's very hard to do. So you might as well just step over one-foot bars, instead of trying to jump over seven-foot bars."  In other words, find the easy path and take it. Finding the easy path isn't so easy though. In this episode, we explore how to make it easier using concrete examples. Show Notes What if it were easy? Tim Ferriss' insightful question The Four Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss The 80/20 Principle, by Richard Koch NASA space pen example (complexity is easy to fall into) Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown Tim Ferriss Podcast Interview with Greg McKeown (the first one) Ferriss' Podcast Interview with Greg McKeown (the recent one) Essentialism for Lawyers (YouTube video by Ernie) Recording of Podcast Webinar (Me & Danny Ozment) Danny's Podcast Accelerator (Expert guidance on starting a podcast) General Resources The 80/20 Principle (my email newsletter) The 5 Pillars of a Tech-Powered Law Practice The Inner Circle (an online community for law firm owners) Thanks to Our Sponsors SweetProcess is a great way to document your important workflows. Doing so will help make your practice run more smoothly, and require less involvement on your part to keep things running smoothly. The best way to understand how SweetProcess will help streamline your firm is to start using it. The company offers a 14-day free trial, but as a loyal listener of this podcast, you can try it for 28-days free of charge. And you don’t even have to enter a credit card to get started. Just navigate to SweetProcess.com/ernie to start your 28-day free trial today. And thanks to the other sponsor of this podcast… Smith.ai is an amazing virtual receptionist service that specializes in working with solo and small law firms. When you hire Smith.ai you’re actually hiring well-trained, friendly receptionists who can respond to callers in English or Spanish. If there’s one great outsourcing opportunity for your practice, this is it. Let Smith.ai have your back while you stay focused on your work, knowing that your clients and prospects are being taken care of. Plans start at just $140 a month for calls or chats. And they have a special offer for podcast listeners where you can get an extra $100 discount with promo code ERNIE100. Sign up for a free trial now (and learn more) at www.smith.ai.  EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at EmeraldCity Pro.