the [non]billable hour

NPR = Free Music

Have eclectic tastes in music?  Want some free?  Check out NPR Music.  It is an amazing treasure-trove of cool concerts, studio sessions, musician interviews and profiles.  Awesome! 

Whenever I'm looking for something new (or old) it goes right up there on my "to check out list" with Wolfgang's Vault.

Some Hiring Advice for Clients

If you are hiring (or advising a client who will be), take a look at these 30 Interview Questions You Can't Ask (and the accompanying sneaky legal alternatives you can ask to get the same info).

A "Business Card" for Litigators

Do your clients think you are full of hot air?  Here's a business card that might just prove them right:



Check out several other cool "cards" here.

Ideate for the Holidays

Church Marketing Sucks continues a great series on Lessons in Not Sucking with this post on Building an Ideation Team.  There are some absolutely great tips in the post, including: "Invite People You Don't Like," and "Invite People with Unusual Professions."  Read the post, and then think about ways to do a firm-wide ideation session at your holiday party this year.  That's right, gather up some of your people and your clients and spend a bit of time thinking of ways to get better as a firm -- perhaps by focusing on what your top-ten firm resolutions for 2008 should be.  You might be surprised at the result.

STL Blogger Meetup II

There's another STL blogger meetup set for December 14th at Lewelyn's Pub in Webster Groves, Mo.  It starts at 6:30 pm.  The last one was a blast.  Though I'll arrive late, I hope to see you there.

Some Great Tips for Keeping In Touch

Over at 43 Folders, they share some great tips from the late Leslie Harpold on keeping in in touch.  There are some great client-focused tips in there.  Here's my favorite:

2. Send Thank You notes.  When you receive something from someone else, it’s important to let them know you appreciate the time and effort it took them to think about you, and reward the courtesy with a little token of thanks. A written note is a much nicer compliment than an e-mail, and it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to write one and mail it away.This step also does double-duty by making you keep track of people’s contact information so you don’t have to continually ask them for it. We tend, in this electronic age, not to remember street addresses and phone numbers, relying on our mobiles to remember who called and what number to call them back. Keeping an address book may seem old fashioned, but doing so allows you to easily send out baby gifts, birthday gifts, anniversary gifts and any other kind of token of friendship and appreciation that allows us to continue to like each other in a monetary fashion.Leslie even thoughtfully provided a step-by-step method of composing and sending thanks at one of her stomping grounds. Take a trip over to The Morning News and refresh your manners.