It’s good to change your routines sometimes as it forces you to think about the things you do without thinking. It can change your perspective or your general outlook.
Being driven to find a better way requires constant attention and an analytically creative mind to see big changes that will have big effects. It requires searching for changes that seem large at first, but as they continue to develop the benefits become clear and the new way becomes the new standard. During his early morning runs and even while he sleeps at night, Jeff Reekers is always thinking about finding a better way for Lawline to execute its goals – no one cares more passionately and pitches in more urgently than when Jeff sees a need.
Jeff constantly thinks about the things we do on a daily basis with the idea that there’s always a faster, more efficient and better way to accomplish a task. An exemplifying initiative is when Jeff implemented automated email alerts to users whose accounts were expiring. These emails, after set up, have no further cost to the company in time or money and provide an easy and convenient way to let customers know their access is expiring, and urges them to renew.
This kind of idea is common for Jeff, and his ideas continue to make huge impacts in company growth on a daily basis.
To exude optimism means having the mindset that nothing is impossible and no task is too complex. “If it can be solved, then I can solve it!” is the mentality. And this is the mentality of the original Lawline coder, Vasily Federov.
If you have an idea, no matter how big it may seem Vas comes to it with a positive attitude and says “it can be done!”
Vas has built much of the Lawline system from top to bottom. In many ways he is akin to the Architect from the Matrix. He takes the dreams and ideas from those in the company and says “oh yes, that can be done,” and then promptly makes it so.
One of the many examples that illustrate Vas’s passion and optimism is the webcast page. Vas was so excited that everyone was talking about the possibilities of webcast that one weekend, while on vacation in Miami no less, he spent the whole time day and night coding a brand new webcast page.
His constant passion for building and growing Lawline continues to inspire, and whether he is staying up all night to fix a bug or building a whole new page, no challenge is too great and nothing is too complex or difficult for the optimistic passion of Vasily Federov.
Taking time to help others is more than passively asking someone if you can help. It takes actively engaging with someone about a particular issue and pitching in with the work of determining the best solution. If you ever ask Michael Kim for assistance on a project the response is the latter kind of help. Michael is always ready to pitch in and will reply “Sure- what can I do?”
Michael takes it a step further by sinking his teeth into the particular issue and facilitates finding a solution by doing outside research, thinking critically about different possibilities, and experimenting to find the best solution.
From assisting Micah in perfecting the technology on live webcasts to making sure all employees can watch the morning meetings through adobe connect, Michael Kim is always looking out for his fellow team members. His hunger to solve problems and excitement when tackling a new challenge shows the depth of his spirit to help others.
His positive attitude and enthusiasm contributes to the productiveness of his department and the entire company, and is inspirational to all who work with him.
Seeking creative solutions is a core value distinguished from finding a better way. Both require creativity as well as analytic thought, but an analogy shows the difference. Think of the plastic rings that bind together a 6 pack. A creative solution would be to cut the rings to protect ocean life, while finding a better way would be to look for a way to not dump the rings in the ocean altogether. Seeking creative solutions means taking action quickly, identifying the problem, determining the best solution, and then implementing it all at once.
Frank Furbacher Jr. routinely seeks creative solutions, leaping into action when there is a problem, calm and calculated, not stopping until a solution is found. This has been exemplified over the past few weeks as our two Lawline offices are combining into one. Frank has gone above and beyond to coordinate moving desks, finding a new Office Ambassador to greet guests, and pitching in anywhere necessary not just to do what needs to be done, but also making sure to use the best means possible to complete the task.
Frank’s creativity crosses into all aspects of Lawline, and includes brainstorming new sales techniques and using Google docs to effectively organize and utilize shared data between Lawline employees. Also, through his implementation of the culture blog and career center, he has recruited a new crop of Lawline applicants who are attracted to the core values and mission to promote education in a creative environment.
His continued creative initiatives building a strong culture and work environment brings top talent through Lawline’s doors and makes Lawline a better place to work.
Actively learning is different than passively learning. Learning actively takes going out seeking knowledge, and going above and beyond the call of duty to seek solutions and attain knowledge. Patricia Tedesco is always actively learning during the workday and continues long into the evening hours.
At Lawline, her happy attitude and unflappable patience is apparent, and as a result, she is continually learning new ways to communicate our product to customers. She delights our customers on the phone every day, routinely getting complimentary feedback for her kind and patient attention.
In the evenings, she pursues learning by participating in a rigorous paralegal certification program. In fact, she has told us that watching Lawline’s CLE programs has helped her better understand her paralegal course work.
In support of furthering her legal education, Lawline has assisted Patricia in obtaining a paralegal internship with Zalman, Schnurman & Miner. In the fall, she will be working at both companies; of course the best part for us is that both companies are in the same location.
Patricia is an example of the kind of engaged learning that each employee strives for here at Lawline. Congratulations Patricia and thank you for everything you do!
Actively learning is different than passively learning. Learning actively takes going out seeking knowledge, and going above and beyond the call of duty to seek solutions and attain knowledge. Patricia Tedesco is always actively learning during the workday and continues long into the evening hours.
At Lawline, her happy attitude and unflappable patience is apparent, and as a result, she is continually learning new ways to communicate our product to customers. She delights our customers on the phone every day, routinely getting complimentary feedback for her kind and patient attention.
In the evenings, she pursues learning by participating in a rigorous paralegal certification program. In fact, she has told us that watching Lawline’s CLE programs has helped her better understand her paralegal course work.
In support of furthering her legal education, Lawline has assisted Patricia in obtaining a paralegal internship with Zalman, Schnurman & Miner. In the fall, she will be working at both companies; of course the best part for us is that both companies are in the same location.
Patricia is an example of the kind of engaged learning that each employee strives for here at Lawline. Congratulations Patricia and thank you for everything you do!
Some people hate their job, but here at Lawline we are lucky to have people who are intensely passionate about building a strong cohesive culture and making this a great place to work. A great company culture is not something that just “happens,” it is designed. And Lawline CEO David Schnurman has put a lot of thought into designing a strong company culture based on a collaborative fun environment full of people who like to be challenged, and has been recognized for his ideas most recently by the Fox Small Business Center.
In his recent article on the Fox Small Business Center, David writes about the difficult process of creating a collaborative and challenging environment. He gives examples of things he has done to create this kind of environment that we see on a daily basis here at Lawline.
The result? David said and I think we would all echo that “We are fortunate to now have successfully achieved a fun atmosphere where our employees come early, act professional, exude positive energy, and feel committed to the success of the company, while always pushing each other to find a better way to accomplish our goals.”
Read the full article “How to Build a Successful Company Culture” on the Fox Small Business Center Here
Two words, fun and discipline. Lawline CEO David Schnurman details the steps he has taken to create the phenomenal culture here at Lawline in a recent post on the Young Entrepreneurs Council website. The article focuses on the struggle many companies deal with when trying to create a disciplined team. “There are two key aspects to building a successful company culture. The first is creating a fun and relaxed atmosphere where your employees love coming to work each day. The second is creating an environment where your employees collaborate with each other, are challenged to work hard and improve, and are accountable to themselves and the team on a daily basis.” Dave goes on to say that the more difficult of the two is the later, creating daily accountability and discipline within each employee and among the group.
Using a variety of measures, however, David has been able to expand Lawline by making it a great place to work where people come in early excited about new ideas. He identifies 3 keys to success for creating a great company culture, including creating a culture of discipline, maintaining a high proportion on Energy in vs. Energy out, and giving employees a vested interest in the company. See the full article below to get the scoop on how Lawline keeps growing!
Answer: They go hard for the full run and have a blast! Check out the video below for interviews from the superstar athletes who competed with companies from all over New York in the JPMorgan Chase 3.5 Mile Challenge. We came, we saw, we conquered!
Dave takes a minute to dive into the key success principle of breaking through your limiting beliefs. He uses the example of elephant training to illustrate the ingrained blindness of limiting beliefs, and the ease of breaking through these beliefs when we have the drive to do so. See below for more.
Lawline.com employees are participating in the upcoming JPMorgan Chase 5k challenge. We are taking this seriously and training hard, see the clip on how we prepare to train.
In an effort to dig deep into the roots of each Lawline core value, today we discussed Taking Time to Help Others.
In creating an effective team atmosphere, we’re always striving to:
Through actively engaging in helping others and the addition and enhancement of every relationship, we add synergy to our production, overall enjoyment, and, ultimately, bottom line.
Hiring a Chief Tech Officer can be a daunting process. They must be technically savvy, socially competent and comfortable managing others on a daily basis. In this article featured on Mashable, Lawline.com CEO David Schnurman puts in his 2 cents on what it takes to be a CTO.
Dave looks for drive in a CTO, that will to succeed that pushes one on through adversity. The idea of finding a way through a problem without giving in. See below for the full article.
Recently, our own CEO David Schnurman was featured in a number of articles where he is asked to share a little of his business wisdom. He gives advice on creating a successful direct mail campaign, being careful not to be prideful in your business, and using Google to your advantage. These points are all well taken, and Lawline does this extremely well.
As Lawline has continued to grow impressively it is easy to forget the hard work and vision that goes into making sure the company is aimed in the right direction. I highly suggest these articles to anyone who is interested in Lawline’s continued assent as a developing company in a tough economic atmosphere.
31 Ways to Update Your Small Business Online Marketing
Lawline.com CEO David Schnurman goes back to explain an important point about facing challenges from a previous post. The previous post was “Principles of Thought Management” and can be viewed here. See below for the new post.
Micah, Director of Video and Content Production, discusses the importance of Wirecast and how it will affect the future of Lawline.com. See below.
Kyle speaks on how impressed he was with Matt Kaiser’s phenomenal CLE performance when he came into the Lawline.com studio this week. See below.
The idea room is a great place where Lawline.com employees can now congregate to brainstorm and air out new ideas. See below.
Customer service is an important part of every department. Even in Accreditation, a department unique to the world of CLE, customer service is an important part of every day. See below for how customer service influences the Accreditation department.
Michael Kim has been at Lawline for almost a week. He took the time this afternoon to reflect on his first couple of days. Check it out.
Some of the best things I have done in my life were done when I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. When you make yourself do things that are out of the ordinary you break your routines. This is when you will make the decisions that you are really proud of.
As Lawline’s King of Fantasy Sports, I felt it was only fair that I share my wealth of knowledge with the world. To see my first round picks for this years fantasy draft check out the video below.
The atmosphere here at Lawline is unlike any sales job I have ever had, the people here are amazing, and everyone is about doing what’s best for the company…The company really has a great vision and amazing goals set for itself, which makes it an interesting place to work everyday…I thought I was done with sales after my last job and Lawline showed me that there is so much more to sales than just the paycheck at the end of the tunnel…
We believe teamwork is an important aspect of being successful at Lawline.com. We have such a passion for teamwork that we decided to stay for a dual shoot on a Friday evening to discuss our takes on the idea. Watch below to see our take on how teamwork plays a key role every day.
Coming to you late night to speak on having a sense of urgency in the workplace – each and every day. Check it out.
Lawline has been a public access television show spreading legal knowledge to the community of New York for 27 years. Recently, Alan Schnurman, host and creator of Lawline sat down with his son David Schnurman, President of Lawline.com, to discuss his passion for sharing information.
Alan Schnurman started Lawline 27 years ago as a means of spreading legal information to the community. He wanted to include the public in a community of education once available only to an elite group of lawyers. By bringing to the show prominent and experienced attorneys Alan hoped that he could share valuable information to those who might not be able to afford premium legal advice. “It was a labor of love,” Alan says. He gets a tremendous amount of satisfaction from helping people and wakes up happy every day because he has found what he loves to do, and he’s doing it.
But what makes Alan so optimistic and happy when so many see these bleak times as a doomsday scenario come to life? It seems to be the pessimist’s heyday, but Alan remains unflinching in his optimism. Every cycle comes back around, Alan says, and this recession may be longer than we’ve seen in a generation or two but this is the time where people position themselves for success later on.
Alan attributes his success to his attitude, “attitude is altitude.” He reads quotes like these that guide his life every morning, and he believes that attitude is everything. In his eyes, capitalism is the best system the world has ever seen, and eventually this downward cycle will improve. During this upturn, it will be those who avoided the advice of pessimists and were patient who will amass the great fortunes of tomorrow.
When it comes to advertising Alan advises confidence in one medium. All good companies are built on advertising. You may have the best company in the world but if nobody knows about it your business will fail. Building an advertising campaign, too, takes patience. You have to educate your market before you can reap the rewards of your advertising. Instead of moving your advertising around and using a variety of means Alan recommends investing solidly in a small number and focusing your efforts on those. Patience and focus will drive your advertising profits higher and higher as time passes.
But in the end, success in all things comes from having a great attitude. This is the timeless and universal advice of Alan Schnurman, a man who loves what he does. When you love what you do you will have a great attitude, and that will lead to happiness every time. You will surely fail and fail often. But, if you stay enthusiastic and stay positive you will learn from your mistakes, and your eventual success will be worth it.
Last night our president David Schnurman, spoke at the Levin Institute on the tools of leadership. He spoke through examples, sharing 15 tools he has used as leader of Lawline that has spurred impressive growth. Among these tools several key points stand out as important advice to carry whenever interacting with people. The first is attitude; you have to keep your game face on. Problems will come up and you need to be ready to handle them as they come without getting frustrated or stressed, then you can find a solution and move on.
Discipline is closely aligned with attitude because without a good attitude you can’t be disciplined. As a leader, David says you can’t try to control people because people resist control. Instead, people need to be self-motivated. It doesn’t help to over-manage or micromanage someone, to build self-motivation you must build the people around you to be their own leaders. David highlights the 8am meetings and focus on customers as examples here at Lawline that have helped create a culture of discipline. Lawline culture is also full of fun events and blogs and book reports that keep employees engaged with each other. By creating a team atmosphere where information is shared freely employees and leaders alike can impact each other with new exciting ideas.
The free flow of ideas and transparency within Lawline is a rare and important asset. By creating a disciplined culture but allowing transparency and idea sharing at every level of the organization David increases accountability and responsibility for everyone. At Lawline every idea is valued. When an idea works it sticks, when it does not a new idea grows. He is not worried when an idea fails because this is when the learning begins. David says he wants people to come to win, not to work.
In this book, Seth Godin makes the claim that all marketers are liars and all people are marketers. Whether you’re marketing your personal skills at a job interview or your product in a commercial; the essentials of marketing are found in each action. Thus, for Godin to call all marketers liars is to call every person a liar. However, Godin qualifies what he means by lying. He says that there is a transaction taking place between marketer and consumer such that a consumer is not really buying a product. Instead, the consumer buys a story. The story told by the marketer says how this new product will put new hairs on your head or allow you to lose weight while sitting on the couch, but no matter what the product is, people are buying the story and not the product itself. Consumers buy that story and believe it when the product works. Consumers believe the story and buy the product or they do not believe it and do not buy the product.
Godin says that although one might see this as a pessimistic view, he takes an unusually optimistic view when framing his own story. He sees the consumer landscape full of customers who are untrusting but who really want to believe stories that match the way they see the world. Most consumers have had it with bad products, they have been screwed in the past and this has made them distrustful. But, Godin says that these products do not have a sustainable business plan because they are lying to consumers and by telling an inauthentic story. No matter how good a story you tell, if your product doesn’t live up to that story, your business will fail. This is the heart of Godin’s book, he believes that businesses get successful largely through word of mouth (or word of tweet) and this form of communication has the power to make or break a company. If you tell a great story and your product doesn’t fulfill your promise, people will spread information smashing your company, or will spread no information at all.
If, on the other hand, your company tells a great story and fulfills the promise exceptionally, then your company will thrive because people will talk about it. This is why the lies must be truthful, as Godin paradoxically claims. To be successful, the story you tell with every action of your company must be consistent. This consistency impresses people who have grown distrusting of companies. Thus, at Lawline what story are we telling to our customers? How can we make it more authentic and communicate that authenticity in every action we take? And finally, how do we create that unbelievable story people can’t help but share with everyone who will listen?
There are two main themes that run throughout Marshall and Todd’s book, “The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords” and that are paramount in guaranteeing successful use of AdWords. The first is being attentive to your customer and the second is using the force of attrition to never stop competing with yourself to do better. These themes can be extracted and applied to any business or personal venture. By knowing the audience of your actions and tirelessly working to improve their response we can all become more attune to the things that work in our lives and our business.
Being attentive to your customers using AdWords means getting inside the customers mind a little bit and thinking about what it is that motivates and drives them to search using particular keywords. Usually people go online with some problem to which they are looking for a solution. The question is; how can you show them that your product provides the best solution? Marshall and Todd explain that people are looking for the fastest and cheapest way to solve their problem. Having a successful AdWord campaign means showing that your solution is the easiest and fastest, but also that you are trustworthy and will come through on your promise to actually solve their problem.
The authors argue that the surefire way to get to the top of the list and stay there is by constantly split-testing your own ads. This means that you have two ads continuously competing against each other. As soon as one ad becomes the clear winner you get rid of the loser and make a new ad that can beat that winner. By doing this you are in essence continually competing with yourself. Your new ad will either win or lose. If it wins, you have a new and better ad that will sell more of your product. If the new ad loses, then you know that you already have a good ad; now it is time to think of an even better one.
Utilizing this process ensures success because most companies are unwilling or unable to take advantage of it. Many are unwilling because they don’t think that it will be beneficial to them, or they don’t care enough to invest the time that it takes. Instead, they settle on ads that show some success and are satisfied. Other companies are just unable, either because they don’t have the manpower to invest or because they don’t know the enormous potential for growth that is out there for the taking.
Regardless, the authors are sure that the method works. It has been tested and the success can be seen in dollar signs. It allows the small fish to beat the big fish because the sheer force of attrition leads to an ad that makes money rain down from the sky. Real time customer input selects the best ad and by keeping the ad the customers love most you constantly improve your campaign. It also works to bring in money 24 hours a day