Ask for What You Want
How many times a day do you ask judges, clients, or co-workers to do something or to give you something? During any given week, you probably make hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of requests. You ask your co-worker to work on a project, you ask your assistant to handle a client issue, you ask your kids to help with the dishes… The number of requests that you make each week is staggering. But how many of those requests are actually granted? Have you ever had a problem with someone not doing not what...
Read MoreHow to Bring Your Opening Statements to Life
No matter how exciting the next Super Bowl will be, it will lose its impact if you you watch it on a TiVo or DVR re-run. But why? The plays will be the same, the players will be the same, and the coaches will be the same. Why would you care less about the replay than you would about the live event? The difference between the two is suspense. When you watch the replay, you already know that the outcome has been decided. It won’t have the same sense of excitement. When you watch something unfold for...
Read MoreKeeping your opening statement promises
Moving isn’t the easiest thing in the world. When you move from one home to another, you’re basically transferring your entire life (and your family’s life) to a new destination. What we recently moved between homes, we had too much stuff (more specifically, too much HEAVY stuff) to move by ourselves, so we had to hire a moving company. Out of all the movers we contacted, only one of them called us back, but they did a terrific sales job. He told me how all of their movers were bonded, how...
Read MoreTrial Lawyers at the Scene of the Crime
It might be the back alley of a dive bar where a man was bludgeoned to death, the potato chip aisle at a local grocery store where the plaintiff claims he slipped and fell, or a tiled and antiseptic operating room where your client’s husband died during routine surgery. In each instance, regardless of whether the case is civil or criminal, the location is the same: it’s the “scene of the crime.” In your last case, how many times did you visit the “scene of the...
Read MoreDon’t Think About a Purple Elephant!
There’s something strange about how our brains work. For some reason, our brains don’t seem to comprehend the word “Don’t” very well. In fact, our brains have the power to completely ignore that single word while still hearing every other word in the statement. It happens on a subconscious level. When we hear the word “Don’t,” we ignore that word and follow the rest of the command. If you’ve ever coached sports, you probably noticed the difference between telling an...
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