The Law Firm Marketing Minute

Best of LFMM: It's Okay Not To Be Okay

• Spotlight Branding • Episode 836

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⚖️ In this reflective throwback episode, John Hinson revisits Mental Health Awareness Month with a stark reminder: lawyers are three times more likely to experience clinical depression than professionals in other industries. Explore the challenges of high-stress environments, the importance of vulnerability, and practical steps for lawyers to prioritize self-care and well-being.

📌 Key Takeaways:

  • Why vulnerability and asking for help can be a lawyer’s superpower.
  • Practical advice for managing burnout and mental exhaustion.
  • John’s personal insights on balancing professional expectations with self-care.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Law Firm Marketing Minute, the go-to podcast for solo and small law firms who want to level up. All right, without further ado, let's dive in. Hello everyone and welcome to the Law Firm Marketing Minute. I'm your host, jon Henson, and today checking back in on Mental Health Awareness Month. Here in the month of May, we had an article go up on our website today, this morning, just talking about just kind of the mental health status in the legal industry.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of stats in there. There's a lot of stats in there. One of the biggest ones that I saw was that Johns Hopkins did a study. It's found that lawyers are three times more likely to suffer from clinical depression than 25 other occupations, and that's a lot. I think it's pretty obvious there, and there's a lot of reasons for that.

Speaker 1:

You're working in a high high pressure environment. You're probably working long hours, especially if you run your own firm. I hear these stories all the time, even of lawyers working in big law firms working a ton of extra hours beyond the standard 40-hour work week. If you're running your own business, you're probably doing even more than that because you have those extra responsibilities. Assuming that you're handling it all yourself, you know you're also working under tight deadlines. A lot of times you know people need their cases done, especially if they've got court dates and all that. Like you're working on a really, really tight schedule, there's the threat of malpractice. You know you've got to make sure that you know whether it's your arguments that you're making or just even the transactional work that you do. It's got to be to the letter of the law, it's got to be accurate, otherwise you know your client gets screwed over and then they come sue you because you know you were trusted, all that kind of stuff. And then also you know, especially depending on your practice area you know family law or criminal defense, maybe even wrongful death, whatever it is. You know a lot of those practice areas are dealing with really high stakes, really heavy, really stressful situations and all of that you know. Even if you are naturally wired to handle all of those things that you know you could get to a point where it does actually get to you and it can bring you down and it's just it's really tough out there.

Speaker 1:

And you know a lot of things that I say around. This is one it's okay to not be okay sometimes, right, but it's okay to be vulnerable and admit that and admit that you need sounds even to me like a little crazy that you know, 10 years ago that would have been unheard of to do that, you know. But if you need a day to reset, like, look, I need them from time to time. I will admit that. You know, honestly, I typically, when we are going to conferences, stuff like that, I will take a mental health day on the first day we get back, because I need a couple of days to recharge. Because, you know, look, I enjoy going out and speaking. I enjoy meeting people and talking to them about their marketing and all that stuff, whether we're doing a booth or whether I'm actually speaking, talking to them about their marketing and all that stuff, whether we're doing a booth or whether I'm actually speaking.

Speaker 1:

But it burns me out very quickly to, just, you know, be quote unquote on all the time and I get burned out, I get very tired, I get exhausted and by the time I get home, I will oftentimes sleep for 12, 14, 16 hours after that. Uh, you know, uh, and I just, I need a couple of days to recharge and so it's okay to be that way, right, it doesn't make you any less of a of a professional or anything like that. It's just what you need, and so being able to be vulnerable and to uh, you know, so being able to be vulnerable and to be able to understand what your needs are is really, really important. And so, look, that could bring about some difficult or uncomfortable conversations. You know, for me, I think one of the biggest things that I struggled with was whether or not my needs kind of lowered my professional ceiling a little bit. Maybe I couldn't do a lot of the things that I may have hoped to do or achieve a lot of the things that I wanted to achieve. And I still don't have the answers to those questions, but I'm aware of it and I know what I need to do to accommodate for that and to work towards it. So that's the one little reminder that I wanted to give you all today is to just be. It's okay, right, like it's okay to feel things.

Speaker 1:

It's just don't stuff it down, don't, you know? Don't try to drink it all away. Like, have a nightcap, sure, but like don't be downing bottles and bottles and bottles every week. It's not going to be a healthy outcome that way, or any other kind of drug. Have a good time every now and then, but don't use it as a crutch is really what I'm saying there but also ask for help.

Speaker 1:

I think I mentioned in the other episode earlier this week where, just you know, just go seek out a therapist. And if you want to know what a lot of that's like, we did a center stage episode earlier this year back in January I think is what it was where I had my therapist on and we talked about what that looks like, what you know, different kinds of therapies. There are Just so many different options for you out there. Just take some time to look into it and see what's available to you. Try some things out. It's going to be okay. So you know, I know that maybe all of you aren't struggling with this, but the numbers don't lie and there's a decent chance that a good chunk of you out there have some have more bad days than good right now, and you know, take care of yourselves. And you know it's okay to take a step back and acknowledge that and just do what you got to do. So that's it for today. That's it for this week. We will see you on Monday.